March 23, 2009, 8:14 pm by dc-agape.

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I described in a previous post about the Word of God how Jesus taught about giving up the world to be saved.  My last post was about how Christians were required, by the Word of God, to conduct themselves.  Well these are not the only thing that Christians must sacrifice to follow Jesus.  In fact the numbers of things that a Christian is required to give up are numerous: their comfort level, their entire wealth, any sort of pride, possible freedom, and their life.  The teachings from the Gospel of Mark, the Pauline letters, the Book of James, and even the Book of Revelation cover these topics in great detail.  Yet today the Christians, in the US, take these teaching so lightly that a gay Atheist, such as myself, cannot even see a single sign that the Word of God is even being followed.

The Gospel of Mark is a good place to start.  I want to start with the simplest requirement that Jesus declared.  Jesus puts it quite clearly here in this verse (and yes I have used this verse before – blame it on me for just finishing the Gospel of Mark):

Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him.  “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, follow me.”

Notice the order of what Jesus requires of the Rich Young Man: sell everything he has, give to the poor, then follow Jesus.  This is Jesus’ response to the man’s request to inherit eternal life.  This is not specific to one person!  Jesus also made all of his disciples do the same thing (Matt 4:19-22, Luke 19:1-10, and Acts 2:45).  Yet today, not a single “christian” does this!  How has the message been so watered down that these verses from the Word of God can be ignored?  Is the Word of God inerrant?  Is the Word of God to be cherry picked?  If these are the cases then “Christianity” is a useless religion!  If I can choose which verses from the Bible I want to live by and ignore the rest, how is this any different from moral relativism?

Losing one’s personal comforts is also required of the faith.  In The Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20) Jesus commands that all nations should be made into disciples.  To accomplish that Christians are required to follow these two verses:

1^st Cor 9:16-17 Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach.  Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.  If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me.

In the 1^st Letter to Corinth Paul tells them that anyone who preaches cannot boast.  No “high and mighty” allowed!  But he goes further…it is better to do so voluntarily than not.  In the second case he was only doing what was required (“going through the motions” or even “lip service”).

2^nd Tim 1:8-9 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner.  But join me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.

In the Second Letter to Timothy, Paul wants Timothy to be confident.  But he also wanted Timothy to remember that the call to preach is also a call to be holy.  Not “do as I say”, but “do as I do”.  How many “Christian” leaders have followed this request from the Word of God?

To fulfill the Great Commission, all Christians must be both humble and holy.  Otherwise, your life will tell a different story than your words.  When Atheist, and most certainly gay Atheist, see “Christians” acting in any other way…we know that you are only following your own desires.  By acting prideful or less than holy, it is clear that no supernatural quality has surrounded you.

The Book of James also teaches about being humble:

Jam 4:6 But God gives us more grace.  That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble”.

The quotation is from Proverbs 3:34.  All of Proverbs chapter 3 is excellent reading for Christians, but take out the woo and Atheist’s can glean a humanist message.  James, here, by using the Proverbs quote is reminding the Jewish Christians that pride is something to discard and not allow it to get in the way of being holy.There are two more things that Christians must be prepared to give up to follow Jesus.  One is freedom.  The second is their life itself.  I will cover those in my next post on the Word of God.  They really deserve special attention.

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March 23, 2009, 10:02 am by dc-agape.

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Surāh 112: Al-Ikhlās (The Unity)

This surāh is one that explains how Allah is different from the Christian “God”, but in general is identical to YHWH.  Only 4 verses are in this surāh.  One verse claiming that Allah is singular.  One that points out that only Allah is permanent.  The third verse “explains” the error of the Trinity.  The fourth verse is about how no one can be like Allah.

The first verse may be important to polytheism but it certainly is nothing new to Judaism or Christianity.  Of course, today only one major religion has polytheism at its core.  True some societies do have reverence for the old god: an example of this is Hawai’i.  It is also true that Catholicism does get pretty close to polytheism with prayer to the saints.  This verse does not disagree with Christianity.  They believe that YHWH, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the same.  Some go as far as to say that each is a different “face” to one being.

The second verse is something that shows the similarity between Christianity and the Holy Qur’an.  In the Apocryphon of James (my post on heretical Gnostic Christianity) it is stated that God does not need the Son, and the Son does not need humanity.  Since this came from the heretical side of the first century this concept has been forgotten in modern “god loves you” Christianity. 

The third verse is the major point.  Unfortunately, this does nothing to persuade a Christian.  They will certainly agree with the “nor is He begotten”.  The short “He begets not” is a core belief in the Islamic religion but is crucial to Christianity.  Some of the heretical Gnostic Christians would agree with this concept.  Gnostics, like Valentinus (Gnosis.org), are actually responsible for the Trinity yet at the same time believed only one “Godhead” existed.  As an Atheist, this verse is not substantial enough to give any reason to believe that he was not “begotten”.  Where did he come from?  Why was he not created just like the universe?  What happened before the “creation”?

The final verse is easily agreed with by Christians.  They would easily say that no mere mortal could ever hope to be likened to YHWH.  But of course, they are using this as an excuse to explain why they can continue to sin.  Since most Christians see no difference between “the Christ” and YHWH they would not have a problem with the concept that “none is like Him”. 

In the end, since this surāh is so short and direct, it has no ability to change either a Christian’s nor an Atheist’s point of view.  Of course the difference is that to a Christian it is a point of faith.  To an Atheist it does not answer the underlying question of how YHWH (Allah) came into existence.  Simply put, if YHWH is eternal, then why can’t the universe be eternal as well?  With Superstring Theory (slider.com) and m-/d-branes (aswers.com) the concept of an everlasting expansion and deflation of the universe is acceptable.  In fact, some Christians are using String Theory to prove (Origin of God) the possible existence of YHWH!

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