April 5, 2009, 9:11 am by dc-agape.

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The Word of God calls for many personal sacrifices.  I have gone through many of them in my recent posts on the Word of God.  But two sacrifices I have not posted on yet, I have mentioned them numerous times: freedom and life itself.  This post will be about losing freedom: being put in chains and in prison.

There is something wrong with the Christian faith today.  The world no longer hates you!  Only in small pockets of the world do Christians get thrown in jail or killed.  In most of Europe and the Americas you live a comfortable life.  Is this how it should be?  Of course not!  You are supposed to bring a message that is despised by the world, yet you “Christians” now control the world.  Even worse is that minorities, like Atheist, scientists, and homosexuals are persecuted by “Christians”.  My how the roles have been reversed! 

How many of you are thrown in jail, not for being bigoted (like killing homosexuals) but thrown in jail because your message is the antithesis of how the world is run?  There is evil corruption in your “Christian” government, yet not a single one of you does anything about it.  What hypocrites!  You are told to turn the other check when someone strikes you, but instead you turn a blind eye from the corruption in your “Christian” nation’s government.  You turn a blind eye from such vile people as Jimmy Swaggart, Fred Phelps, and the child abuse in the Catholic Church.  But you live in such comfort that the thought of doing something about strikes fear in your heart, or you are so fat and lazy from comfort that you will not stand on your morals.  Instead, you attempt to force others to live your sickeningly hypocritical lives.  You are bigots:  women do not have the reproductive rights to control their own bodies, gay people do not have the rights that you enjoy, people suffering from horrible genetic disease do not have the freedom to use cutting edge medical treatment, and you force brain-dead people to stay on machines even when no brain activity is present.

Why are you not like your role models?  Why are you so watered down that you cause nothing but simple disgust?  Atheist don’t hate you, we pity you.  You waste your lives pretending to be good “Christians” when you do nothing.  Take some advice from your own Bible, act like these people: Peter, Paul, Andronicus, Junias, the Church in Smyrna, and all the disciples that Saul through in jail.

We know that Peter and Paul were thrown in jail for their actions.

Acts 12:5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

Acts 22:29 Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately.  The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

But many more disciples lost their freedom.  Paul knows Andronicus and Junias from prison:

Rom 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my relatives who have been in prison with me.  They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was. 

But of course the rational is that “this was the 1^st century” or “these were the apostles”.  But line of crap is just that crap. 

John 15:19 If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you.

These sentences were from Jesus and were directed to all his disciples not just the apostles.  Why is this verse ignored by modern Christians?

Before Paul’s conversion:

Acts 8:3 But Saul began to destroy the church.  Going from house to house, he dragged off men and woman and put them in prison.

Paul did not discriminate between “leaders” and general disciples.  He threw all believers in jail.  No persecution like this faces Christians today.  Simply put you do not teach anything new.  Your beliefs do not offend.  Your actions do, but only because it is so hypocritical. 

But maybe you are still have some excuse that these were done only by Paul.  Not so:

Rev 2:10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer, I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days.  Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Using John of Patmos, Jesus warns the entire Church of Smyrna about the coming suffering.  Since the Book of Revelations was most likely written in 95 CE, this warning was for the future and directed to all the members of the Church.  Jesus warns about being put in jail, to all believers.  Why does the world love you now?  Why does a corrupt government support you?  Does this not completely nullify John 15:19 and Rev 2:10?  The answer is simple: your religion is so watered down that it is not effective.  And it is you (the TrueChristian™) that is at fault for this failure.

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Posted in Word of God, Disciples | Print | 6 Comments »

April 5, 2009, 7:27 am by dc-agape.

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Surah 99 – Al-Zilzāl:  The Shaking

When the earth is shaken with her shaking,

And the earth brings forth her burdens,

And man says: What has befallen her?

On that day she will tell her news,

As if thy Lord had revealed to her.

On that day men will come forth in sundry bodies that they may be shown their works.

So he who does an atom’s weight of good will see it.

And he who does an atom’s weight of evil will see it. 

I have included the translation of the Holy Qur’an by M Muhammad Ali to the beginning of these posts. 

The foremost meaning of this surāh is about the Day of Judgment.  Both Yusuf Ali and Muhammed Esed agree about this.  The translation by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall indicates that it is the final earthquake, recognizing that the earth shakes everyday and volcanoes explode numerous times a year. Muhammad Ali agrees that it is the signs of the coming Judgment day, but, also, includes how this verse occurs in our daily lives.

Muhammad Ali understands that that the earth itself does not have to shake.  Human events can “shake the world”.  His obvious choice of examples is how the revelations of the Prophet shook the Arabian Peninsula.  He goes on to say that the continued spread of Islam will shake the world.  And he could not be further from the truth!  September 11, 2001 (History Commons – pages 26-36) certainly shook the world, but I don’t think that was what the Prophet had in mind.

Muhammad Ali goes further to indicate that it can be a personal experience.  The personal “world shaking events” could be called an epiphany.  Even though many feel that epiphanies only come from the divine, Atheists will tell you that the day you realize there is no divine feels like an epiphany.  Scientist will attest to the concept of having an epiphany when all the data “falls into place” and leads to one conclusion.  The epiphany here in this surāh occur when individuals realize the weight of their good deeds verse their evil deeds.  This without a doubt does occur, not as frequently as we would hope, but it does occur.

In all the translations the word “atom” is used.  That is of great interest to a chemist like me.  The initial theory of atoms was “developed” al little after 500 BCE (Tufts University) by Leucippus of Miletus and then Democritus of Abdera (both links are from the University of St Andrews).  Unlike the Catholic Church, the Prophet at least accepted (even if poetically) a much more physical explanation of the world.  That is very encouraging to a gay Atheist…does the Muslim faith do that as well?

Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 9 Comments »