May 3, 2009, 6:08 pm by dc-agape.

Here is the question that truly makes one question the existence of YHWH.  Where is the Holy Spirit?  Think about that a minute.  Really, where is the Holy Spirit that was promised by the writers of the New Testament and Jesus himself?

In three places Jesus tells the disciples that the Spirit will be given to his followers, not just the apostles.  After Jesus’ death the Spirit acts three more time.  I will be starting a Biblical Topics on the Holy Spirit after this post, which I plan to write on Sundays.  The Biblical Topics will be extremely numerous, as the Spirit of God is in both the Old and New Testament.

The Gospel of Luke seems the most concerned with the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the Gospel of Luke is the only Gospel that describes the Holy Spirit as something that will be given to all believers!  The other three Gospels only tell of how Jesus and the apostles used/received the Spirit.  So I will start here:

Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This comes from a passage where Jesus teaches all his disciples how to pray, again not just the apostles.  It’s as simple as that; all a Christian has to do is ask for it!  Then the question remains: why do we not see the Holy Spirit in the Church?  Where is it?

Here is an even more straight forward verse:

Luke 12:11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

Well isn’t that wonderful.  But notice, when a defense is needed the Holy Spirit will take over.  I guess responding on Atheist blog sites is not included in “brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities” or “don’t worry about how you will defend yourselves” because some of the worst comments on those blogs are from Christians.  They have horrible spelling, hideous sentence structure, and those comments have very little ability to sway opinion.  But twice now the jury system of the US has struck down the Christians as well.  I am speaking about the Monkey Scopes Trial and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area Schools.  It would seem the Holy Spirit doesn’t care if children are taught evolution.  Or those in defense of Christian values were left speechless by the Holy Spirit.  So again the question is raised:  Where is the Holy Spirit?

The one verse in the Gospel of John that is universal to all Christians is this one:

John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

So where is this Spirit?  If one “Spirit” teaches the disciples what Jesus taught, why are there 46,000 denominations (and growing)?  Shouldn’t one source create one Church?  There is only one Jesus and he taught the same message to everyone, why are there so many different opinions on what is Christian?  Where is the “Counselor”?  Why do so many Christian forget the teachings of Jesus for their own beliefs?  Christian hate crimes are definitely not what Jesus taught!

But maybe the Spirit does not enter everyone who is a Christian?  Wrong!  Here is a verse that proves that all Christians have the Spirit:

Acts 10:44 When Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 

You have to understand Peter was talking to the entire family of Cornelius and his friends.  All of Cornelius’ friends may have had an “open heart”, but his entire family?  No, this is an example where the Holy Spirit entered everyone, not because of Peter, but because that is what the Holy Spirit does.  Where is this Holy Spirit?

Finally, for the Atheist, this is the one that kills any possibility that the Holy Spirit exists:

Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  Be shepherds of the Church of God, which was bought with his own blood.

So the Holy Spirit chooses the leaders of the Church?  How many examples do I need to bring up to show that the Holy Spirit has done a lousy job at this?  Kip McKean, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Bakker, Priestly pedophilia (not just in the US), etc I believe those will be enough.

So where is this “Counselor” that Jesus promised?  It is certainly not in the church leaders, it certainly does not appear when the defense of Christianity is required, and it does not enter those who ask for it.  As a Christian, I struggled over those questions.  I also struggled over my own “sin”, which I never received comfort from the Spirit in dealing with.  The Holy Spirit is missing from today’s Church.  Did it ever really exist?

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May 3, 2009, 4:36 pm by dc-agape.

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Surāh 79 – Al-Nāzi’āt: Those Who Yearn

I will start each post on the Qur’an with a link to M Mohammad Ali’s translation of the Qur’an with his commentaries. 

This surāh is quite complex.  Each of the translations that I have is different in many ways.  The opening six verses have at least three meanings.  This, then means that the next eight can also be translated differently.  The rest of the surāh shows a completely different supreme being than in the Old Testament.  The surāh ends with a concept of how short life is.  But closing this way only reminds the Atheist of two things: “eternal” punishment for such a short life seems cruel, and that death is like a black hole – all the laws of nature do not function at the singularity.

Starting with the opening six verses M Esed, M Yusuf, and M Ali differ on the meaning of these verses.  M Esed uses them to indicate how humans are completely subjected to Allāh.  Almost to the point of claiming that we do not have freewill.  M Yusuf sees the opening verses as examples of how different those who love Allāh will be prepared for death.  Oddly, it is the Atheist who is most accepting of personal death, compared to the religious!  But M Ali has a completely different take on theses opening verses.  He interjects that the five steps described in this section are actually what it take to succeed, specifically in the spread of Islam.  As a result, the following verses up to the 14^th verse are about how people will accept the word of the Prophet, not how people will respond to the Day of Judgment.  The five steps in success are: ardent desire to succeed, cheerful attitude to the process, working swiftly to succeed, pushing ahead of any competition/obstacles, and making every effort to control the outcome.  The result of this outlook is that instead of having awe in Allāh (verse 7-14); humans will have awe in Islam, which is the subjugation to Allāh.  Even thought this may not seem that different, it is.  Awe in the power of a supernatural being is one thing; awe in the power of the followers of a supernatural being is completely different.  In the second case, no supernatural being is required, only the belief in that being is required.

Some of the verses that are different than the Old Testament YHWH are quite revealing.  In the translation of M Esed, the concept of Allāh punishing those who are not aware of their misdeeds does not occur.  Yet in the Old Testament YHWH does exactly that.  Nowhere in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah does YHWH give the people a warning.  He comes down sees their “sin” and destroys them.  No warning, no prophet to guide them, only Abraham begging YHWH to have mercy.  And YHWH has no mercy.  The story of the Pharaoh is also different.  In the Old Testament it clearly states that YHWH hardened the Pharaoh’s heart.  This is a clear indication of YHWH removing freewill from those he plans to destroy. Both these stories and many more, show how different Allāh is from YHWH.

I must admit I appreciate the Prophet’s continual reminder to humanity that we are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  Verse 27 and its commentaries from all three translators indicate this fact.  But one major question arises from this concept.  Why create additional galaxies that do not shine their light on earth, if we are the only species in the universe that Allāh is interested in?  Not a single start, from another galaxy, can be seen by the naked eye in our night skies.  Wouldn’t just the Milky Way be enough?  Why waste the extra energy creating more starts than needed?

I do find verse 32 to be quiet interesting:

79:32 And the mountains, He made the firm,

How firm did he make them?  He did not very firm at all.  Remember Mount Saint Helen’s?  Or do you remember Krakatau?  Worst, of course, is Mount Vesuvius and La Palma (Canaries archipelago).  One of which destroyed an entire city by lava the other having destroyed Native North American civilizations possibly numerous times.  Those mountains he created certainly are “firm”!

The surāh returns to the ever present concept of Judgment day.  Nothing is truly new in this particular passage.  So I will leave my many other posts on the topic to cover my feelings and observations to cover this topic.

The only similarity in this surāh with the Judea-Christian YHWH is the guarantee that the time of Judgment day will not be known.  Instead the Prophet instructs others to continue to warn the unbeliever.  Still some differences do occur.  Christianity requires that each believer life as if that day is Tomorrow, where as in Islam, the believer is required to continue to warn others of the coming upheaval. 

The image I get while reading the last verse is quite intriguing.  M Esed brings it to my mind best.  Death is very similar to a Black Hole.  They both have an “event horizon” which cannot be escaped from (for long).  The problem for both singularities is that the natural laws of physics and hence the laws of this universe no longer apply “within” these event horizons.  With that being the case, no memories can pass through the event horizon as well.  They are created by biological and chemical events within each of our brains.  The concept that something on the other side of the event horizon can interact with this universe is impossible (and been proven many times).  On a different note, it is quite enjoyable to see that the Prophet understood that life was short, even illusionary (M Esed).  Unlike Christianity, Islam does believe that the Judgment Day will seem to occur immediately after death.

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Posted in Holy Qur'an, Readings | Print | 16 Comments »