Woo Hoo!

Yesterday we attended the annual marching festival in which my daughter's high school band participates.

We got to the event just in time to see the Cougar Marching Band perform the numbers they have been working on since school started this Fall.  It was an amazing performance...from the music, to the flag team, to the twirlers, to the drum majors, to the band members themselves.  The band directors should be proud of the final product of all of their hard work. 

After our band finished, we relaxed and enjoyed some of the other performances.  Wow!  The talent on display gave me goosebumps.  One of the bands I was looking forward to seeing performed within a couple hours.  We waited to watch them before taking the younger kids out to dinner.

As they took the field, it became obvious that several of their supporters were sitting directly behind us.  The Woo Hoo-ing started.

I saw this band perform last year so I knew that had a solid program and would put on a entertaining show.  But I simply couldn't get past the constant hollers of Woo Hoo coming from the women behind me.  It was obnoxious.  It was prideful.  It was annoying.

In fact, I found myself actually disliking the band and looking for problems in their performance.  And that's when it hit me.

This was a good band.  These kids had worked very hard to learn their music, learn their choreography, and perform at a high level of skill.  They deserved to have the respect of the audience and their peers.  They had earned the right to be seen as a good example.  Rather than looking for fault with them, I should've been simply enjoying their performance. 

But those darn Woo Hoos!

How many people do not explore the Christian faith simply because they are irritated with all of the Woo Hoo coming from Christians?  Is our display of faith sometimes obnoxious?  Are we prideful rather than humble?  Do others find us annoying?

Do these things lead others to look for things to dislike about Christianity?  Do they delight when there is a problem within our faith?  (Think of the gloating that takes place when a respected leader of a church commits a sin that becomes public.)

Christ was perfect--fully man and fully God. He worked hard while on this earth to teach the Word of God through miracles and preaching.  He deserved the respect of all of us and His contemporaries.  He earned the right to be seen as a perfect example.  He gave it everything He had...including His life.

Maybe it's time we, the followers of Christ, stop with the Woo Hoo. 

I'm not saying that we shouldn't share our faith.  We have a responsibility to share the Good News of Jesus.  But we need to make sure that this doesn't get obnoxious.  Christians should be humble about their salvation--after all we didn't earn it and honestly don't deserve it.  It's also important that we be respectful of others and their beliefs rather than being confrontational, defensive, or downright annoying.

Remember, we can't change someone.  Only the Holy Spirit can do that.  Plant the seed and let God do His work.  The Bible provides us with everything we need to know, but God reveals it to his people in the time and manner He determines.  If He needs you to teach someone, He will provide that opportunity when the time is right.  We cannot shove it down someone's throat.

Provide an introduction to God, watch the Holy Spirit do His work, provide support in helping others walk with Christ, then humbly praise Him for all of it.

And before you screw up someone's opinion of Christ, bite your Woo Hoo-ing tongue and let His performance speak for itself.

Prayer...it's a conversation

When I have to listen through a long prayer that includes quotes from Scripture and sounds like the person is trying to win an Oscar for the best dramatic performance in church, I want to scream.  Especially when I look at them and see that they are actually reading a script!

What are we teaching our children with these kinds of prayers?  I worry that we are teaching them that praying is a complicated task reserved for those who have memorized the Bible and either got an "A" in Speech class or went to state in Forensics...or both.  This is NOT how Jesus taught us to pray.  In fact, the Bible often says that Jesus prayed alone where nobody could hear.  On the occasions when Jesus did pray publicly, he prayed humbly—asking for the ability to accept God’s will, thanking Him for food and blessings, and asking for strength and faith for His followers.

Jesus provided us with an example to show us how repentant believers should pray.

Matthew 6:5-14

First, He gives us some instructions.

• Do not be like the hypocrites who love to pray in churches and on the street so people will see them.
• Go into your room, close the door, and pray to Your Father, who is unseen. 
• Do not keep “babbling like pagans”.  They think they will be heard because of their many words.  God knows what you need before you even ask him. 

This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Pray to God the Father.

Hallowed be your name,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Praise God...He is holy.

Your kingdom come,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Acknowledge that the current struggles in our time on earth will be dwarfed by an eternity in which God reigns in His kingdom. 

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What is Jesus telling us?  Understand that things happen according to God’s will.

Give us today our daily bread.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask that our needs be met.

Forgive us our debts,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask that our sins be forgiven.

As we also have forgiven our debtors.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Forgive people who sin against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask for help in avoiding tempting situations.

But deliver us from the evil.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Ask to be given the strength to resist the temptations that we must face.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and glory forever.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Acknowledge that God is in charge…always has been and always will be.

Amen.

            What is Jesus telling us?  Translated as—so be it.  Accept that God’s will is not always in alignment with ours…but He knows best and you should trust Him.
           

God is your Father.  He wants you to have a relationship with Him.  He wants you to talk to Him.  Nothing you say is going to surprise Him.  There is not a trick to it.  No secret strategies exist.  You don’t have to kneel, bow your head, close your eyes, or fold your hands.  And for goodness sake…you don’t need to quote His own words to Him.

Learn.  Believe.  Repent.  Pray.  Repeat.

It’s just a conversation.

Just a small miracle...

According to Wikipedia, a miracle is an unexpected event attributed to divine intervention.

Many would suggest that miracles don't happen.  They would argue that there are coincidences, oddities, and illusions that simple-minded people can't explain so they attribute them to God.  I, however, would argue that there are events that NO man can explain or perform, thus making them divine.

For example, I quit chewing my fingernails.

Don't laugh.  Give me a chance here.  Do any of you chew your fingernails?  If you are a nail-biter and have been since being a toddler you can at least empathize with me on the initial problem.

I do not remember a time that I did not have my fingers in my mouth.  From birth I was always either sucking my thumb or chewing my nails.  Now, I WAS able to break the thumb-sucking habit.  However, even as an adult when I suffer through a particularly traumatic event, I will still sometimes wake up with my thumb in my mouth.

Nail-biting is different.  It isn't comforting, but rather a nervous habit.  I don't know how many times in my life I've tried to stop.  Even when I was able to really focus and pull this off for a month or two, the nails were thin and flimsy.  I couldn't leave them alone!  My constant picking at them took its toll and one would get a tear in it.  And that was all she wrote.  It gave me permission to chew it off...then one nail led to another.

As an adult, I spent a couple of years paying for acrylic nails.  It was the only time in my life they looked decent.  This, however, was not a long-term solution.  And even when they were on, I picked at them and often chewed them until they came off or looked awful.

The worst chewing time came when I would drive.  Honestly, I didn't even realize I was doing it.  Driving time is one of the few times I can just focus on my thoughts with no distractions.  It's almost like meditation.  When I would "come to" on the road, my fingers were almost always in my mouth.  I know, it's gross.  I don't get it.  It was totally unconscious. 

Then...a couple of months ago I realized that I haven't been chewing my nails.  As time has kept going by, they have gotten long enough that I often need to file them down.  They aren't thin and flimsy; on the contrary, they are hard and strong.  Amazingly they are quite pretty...even though I don't polish them and I type all day long just about every day.

So what happened?  Why don't I catch myself chewing on them as I drive for hours from this meeting to that meeting?  How am I able to keep myself from bending them and picking at them?  When, how, and why would an ingrained habitual behavior that I've had for 40 years suddenly change without any effort from me?

The answer is simple...it wouldn't.  It's a miracle.

Over the last couple of years, my life has changed dramatically.  Some of the changes have been external, some have been mild, but many have been internal and huge.  Could I have made these changes by myself?  No.  I've tried.  For years.  Through depression.  With poor results.

Once I got far enough in my journey of faith to truly accept God's Truth of the Bible and the grace that is given through the gift of Jesus, I began to realize the power of the Holy Spirit.  Wow.  The gifts that I've experienced growing within me are truly GIFTS.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

When changes take place within you without your effort, you are experiencing a miracle.

There is no greater proof of God than his miracles.  They aren't always public spectacles like the raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-43), the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:15-18), the conversion of water into wine (John 2:1-11), or the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son (Luke 24).  But when your complete outlook on the world changes so that you find yourself physically mourning your family, friends, and even strangers who have not allowed God into their lives...that is a miracle.  I think I understand now why Jesus was described by Isaiah as a "Man of sorrows" 800 years before He was even born.  (Isaiah 53:3-4)

The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  Oh, the Spirit has lots of work left to do within me.  The death of the nail-biting habit is just one little outcome under the self-control objective on a huge laundry list of goals in God's project called "Gina Tyler". 

Yes, miracles happen.  Daily.  I pray that they are happening in you.

Infinite Regress and God

In my continued reading of The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, the next chapter dealt with the proof that God does not exist.

Honestly, none of his arguments against the existence of God provided proof.  I’m not going to address each one of these in this blog.  However, I will say that his “proofs” are as weak or weaker than the “proofs” for God that he criticizes in the previous chapter.  In fact, Dawkins doesn’t even appear to realize that he uses his biases (just as he accuses Christians of using their own biases) to make his claims.  I found it amusing that this intelligent man is apparently unable to see his own logic flaws…especially when considering that he uses Christian biases to jocularly antagonize and belittle believers in the previous chapter. 

There is one point that he made, however, that made me stop cold and face an issue that I have avoided.  He introduces this as the problem of “infinite regress”.  One can find the definition by simply Googling (or Binging or Yahooing, etc.) it, but I’m going to put it in terms that anyone can understand.  If the universe is full of perfection, intelligence and complexity (from solar systems to ecosystems to internal body systems to molecular systems) that leads me to believe that they must’ve been designed by a Creator, THEN the Creator must be even more perfect, intelligent, and complex.  So who created the Creator?

I’m not going to lie.  I’ve thought about this before…often.  Dawkins didn’t amaze me with his brilliance by asking this question, but he did make me face a hard one. 

I think the standard answer has been, “Well, I don’t know.  But I have faith…and faith means that you don’t always have the answers yet you still believe.”  It seems like a cop-out.  However, there is logic behind it.  Simply put, we as humans don’t have all the facts.  As Christians we believe that when we do have all the facts, things will make sense.  Dawkins can’t accept this.  I’m sure he sees this argument as simple-minded and weak.  So, I’m going to expand on it with my own thoughts.  Am I offering “proof”?  No.  But I’m using the tools of Dawkins and his atheist cohorts…reasoning.

The universe and everything in it (that I can think of in my limited knowledge) was developed with a cyclical nature.  Think about it.  Planets make orbits.  Seasons come and go yearly.  There is a complex life cycle.  We have an intricate water cycle.  Women deal with a menstrual cycle.  Every process in our knowledge (or at least in mine) is based on a cycle.  It is my firm belief that “global climate change” is just another cycle but a longer one of which humans have very little data to realize that it is all part of the system.  (Can I have MY Nobel Prize now?)

I realized this even as a child.  In fact, when I first understood that through Jesus Christ we would have eternal life, it terrified me.  Have you ever really thought about it?  I simply cannot fathom anything eternal.  This is my challenge to you.  Go into a room by yourself (maybe tonight when you go to bed), close your eyes, and consider living forever.  It’s not something that you can do as you read this.  It’s not something that you can do in a minute.  Really think about what that means…what that looks like.  I did this as a child…I still do this occasionally.  Honestly, it scares the crap out of me. 

Because everything I know is cyclical, when I consider eternity I see it as a spiral.  This never-ending spiral continues to spin and spin and spin (like a barber pole) with no end.  Really, it is terrifying.  I remember being very young and thinking, “I don’t want to live forever!”  And I will not hesitate to tell you today that the concept still makes me nauseated.  I just cannot conceive of it.

Now maybe you’ve never thought about this to the depth that I have…until now.  But many people have.  In fact, I believe that this is why many believe in reincarnation.  Reincarnation is cyclical.  We can understand it.  In fact, in my limited human thinking, reincarnation is more appealing to me than eternal life.  Why?  Because it fits with my understanding of the universe.  Things come and go.  If I’m going to live forever, it must be in cycles.  But the Bible makes it clear that this is not the case.  (Hebrews 9:27-28)  Hmmm….so apparently there is something more that I don’t understand.

Can I prove that there is something beyond our universe that is NOT cyclical.  No.  But even people who lived back in Moses, David, and Jesus’ times must’ve had the same thoughts.  After all, I am nothing special.  So, if Judeo-Christian beliefs were all invented, why wasn’t reincarnation simply built into the plot?  It would’ve fit in better with our human understanding.  In fact, many other religions (Hindu, Buddhist, Kaballah, New Age, and many of the Greek philosophers) have done just that.

Our God is eternal.  Can I fathom it?  No…it is completely out of my realm of understanding.  In God’s wisdom and perfection, He created our universe with laws of nature that would make it perpetual and self-sustaining.  They are cyclical.  God, however, is not.  He wasn’t created, He hasn’t evolved, He doesn’t age…He is eternal.  God’s reality is totally separate from our reality.  He doesn’t live by our “rules”.  The “rules” were made for us!  God did, however, choose to enter our world through Jesus Christ and live by our rules for a short period of time.  However, while here He also demonstrated His ability to not follow the rules.  Hence the miracles…seen by thousands, recorded in history, and preserved in the Bible.

The only afterlife that makes sense, then, is an eternal afterlife with an eternal God.  The cyclical rules of this world will no longer be necessary.  Darwin, Dawkins, and Hawkings’ human logic models are meaningless in God’s kingdom.

Does it STILL scare me?  Absolutely.  It is beyond my comprehension.  But I’ve been assured that it will be heavenly.

Proof of God

I’m currently reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.  My decision to read this is not because I question whether God exists, it is to see what logic is used by atheists to try to “disprove” the existence of God.

There is an entire chapter where Dawkins lists the “evidence” that has been presented by past theologians for a Creator and personal God.  One by one he addresses these and attempts to prove them illogical.  And, to be quite honest, he makes good arguments. 

The problem with these types of arguments is that both sides have biases.  He makes underlying assumptions that I do not.  Just as a theologian makes underlying assumptions that Dawkins does not.  There is no reconciliation of this fact.  It really boils down to the fact that Dawkins does not want to believe in God.  On the other hand, theologians and true Christians know that God exists.  They do not have to prove it.

You see, the amazing thing about God is that when one accepts Him, He lives within them.  Can I prove this to you, oh skeptical one?  No.  Ha!  I won’t even try.  But it should be obvious by the changes in my life.  Of course, there are those who will choose not to accept that as “proof” either.  But…they would if it happened to them.

God gives His grace as a gift to those whom He chooses.  (Romans 8:29-30)  You see, there are some that will never believe because they were not elected by God to receive His grace...His gift.  This concept is beautiful and terrifying.  It’s beautiful because I know that I am not worthy of this gift, yet He has given it to me.  It’s terrifying in that I realize that some people will never receive or accept this gift and will suffer the consequences of their sins that I should have to suffer with them. 

I did not earn this gift of God.  I need to make that very clear.  I have not lived in such a way that God would look at me and think, “Well, that Gina sure is righteous.  I’m going to give her My grace.”  No, no no!  It is a gift…a totally undeserved gift!  I am humbled by the amazing grace of God.  Do I completely understand how or why God chooses His elect?  Absolutely not.  But God is sovereign.  He doesn’t need my input.  And…I trust him.

But I do not accept this gift without responsibility.  After all, faith is meaningless if it is not accompanied by action.  (James 2:14-17)  Just ask anyone who has been “turned off” to Christianity by hypocrites in the pew beside him.  My life has changed—my outlook, priorities, mission, pastimes, and attitude.  It is truly a miracle.  And God performs this beautiful miracle every day. 

The Bible tells us that the proof of God is all around us.  (Romans 1:18-21)

I don’t need to prove to you that God exists.  You already know it.  Whether or not you admit it is another question.

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

Twice in the past week I've heard Christians that I respect discuss their concern of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD).  Let’s break it down. 

Moralistic—concerned with morality

Therapeutic—assisting in a cure

Deism--a movement or system of thought advocating natural religion, emphasizing morality, and in the 18th century denying the interference of the Creator with the laws of the universe

This term was coined by Christian Smith of the University of Notre Dame.  According to the National Study of Youth and Religion, people who are MTD believe the following:

1. God exists. He created and watches over the world.

2. God wants us to be good, nice and fair to each other.

3. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4. God is not involved except when I need God to solve a problem.

5. Good people go to heaven when they die.

In my observances, I would stretch this a little further.  It is not just a youth problem, it’s a world-wide, every age problem.   In fact, I would guess that many of you reading this don’t even see anything wrong with the 5 beliefs listed above.  Let’s look at each one of these and see exactly what IS the problem?

God exists.  He created and watches over the world.

Yes.  Yes.  And, well…yes.  I hesitate a little on the last one because “watching over” seems to indicate that God makes sure that everything is A-Okay.  And, to be quite frank, everything here is not. 

Don’t think for one minute that God is not aware of everything going on in the world, but he does allow us to use our free will—which means that we often hurt others and ourselves.  Could he intercede?  Yes.  Does he intercede?  I’m quite sure that he does.  But God is sovereign and he makes those calls without needing (or heeding) the advice of us.

God wants us to be good, nice, and fair to each other.

Yes.  Yes.  Yes.  But there is more to this one.  Being “nice” to one another seems to indicate that we never should disagree.  But there are often times that we need to contradict or even confront (privately and with respect and love) when another person (particularly a fellow Christian) is out of line—in their faith, in their actions, in their beliefs, or in their words.  (Matthew 18:15-17)  When on the receiving end of this, it doesn’t feel very nice. 

Being “fair” is even more complicated.  It’s easy to see the importance of “fairness” when talking about paying your entire tax bill, awarding appropriate penalties to crimes, or honestly correcting mistakes even when they resulted in something favorable for you.  However, being “fair” gets fuzzy when we, or someone we love, is treated in a manner that we see as being unfair.  What is fair in this circumstance?  Is it to treat them unfairly back?

Being “fair” gets even more fuzzy when we become aware that someone has committed an act that we see as being not good, or not nice, or not fair.  We do NOT have the right to condemn others.  (Matthew 7:1-5)  As mentioned earlier, we do have a responsibility to contradict or confront (as described above) but this does not include the right to gossip about them to others or publicly criticize them.  God is our judge.  God will make sure that everyone is one day treated fairly.  Our best course of action is to simply pray for them. 

The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. 

No.  The central goal of life is to glorify God.  (1 Peter 4:11, 1 Corinthians 10:31, 1 Chronicles 16:29, 1 Corinthians 6:20)  Often when we make ourselves happy or feel good about ourselves, it is because we are glorifying ourselves. 

I was watching Andrew Witt sing live a while back.  (http://www.andrewwittmusic.com) Wow.  The thought that kept coming to me as I watched this talented and good-looking group of young men glorify God with their words, actions, music, and prayers was that fact that they could be using their talents to glorify themselves.  It amazes me that at their young ages they already know that their purpose in life is to glorify God. 

Now I’ll bet that if you asked Andrew, he would tell you that he IS happy and feels good about himself because he glorifies God.  You see, I think that he understands that these things are the effects of striving toward our goal…but are not goals themselves.

God is not involved except when I need God to solve a problem.
No.  This belief seems to refer to the concept of answered prayers so that is how I will address it. 

As a creation of God, man does not have all of the facts.  Yes, science has taught us much about our world but we don’t even begin to understand the complexity of God’s designs.  In fact, we use the rules of the laws of nature to explain our universe yet refuse to acknowledge that He made those laws!  It is truly laughable that we think we have things so figured out!

God has all the facts.  God sees the big picture.  He is not restricted by the laws of nature that he created for us.  He is involved when He sees fit.  In fact, I believe that he is involved with us personally and on a daily basis when we except Him into our lives and invite the Holy Spirit to live within us. (Romans 8:9-11)  We, on the other hand, are limited in our knowledge of God’s creation.  There are simply some things that we are not able (or meant) to understand.  We want Him to get involved when WE see fit.  Instead, we must trust him and not rely on the limited information that we have when it comes to the decisions that God makes in our lives.  (Proverbs 3:5)

Good people go to heaven when they die.
Yes and no.  People who go to heaven are good, but this is not why they got there.  The fact of the matter is that there are people that most humans would consider “good” that will not make it.

You see, one cannot earn his way into heaven.  It is simply impossible.  We are all sinners.  No matter how “good” you are, you are still a sinner.  Sorry.

We, however, can be saved by God’s grace.  It is a gift.  It is a gift to those who believe in Him; accept His son, Jesus Christ, as their Savior through baptism; (Mark 16:16) and repent of their sins (genuinely feel remorseful and try hard to discontinue sinning) (Acts 2:38).  God in his sovereignty chooses who He will save. (Romans 8:29-30)

We can fool people into believing that we are Christians.  In fact, we can live our public lives in a way that we even fool other Christians.  Even more scary, I think we can wrongfully convince ourselves that we are Christians when we really haven’t even taken the time to understand what that means.  I’m afraid that many people who call themselves Christian simply don’t get it.

One good test for yourself is to consider the fruits that you have received from the Holy Spirit.  (Galations 5:22-23)  The blessings that God bestows on his followers are amazing.

The bottom line is that if we want people to understand what Christianity means, we need to be honest in our teaching of it.  Sometimes that means that we have to tell people things that they don’t want to hear. 

The Qur'an: A Christian Perspective

I’ve been sitting on this blog for a while.  Reflecting.  Editing.  Considering…

Most importantly, I want to be respectful. 

Our beliefs shape our lives.  From the time we are born our parents, our culture, our communities, and our religion instill a belief system within us.  However, this is just a starting point.  At some time in our lives, we are expected to search for the truth.  After all, can something truly be considered MY belief, if I’ve never cared about it enough to really explore it?

In Muslim countries, this belief system is politicized.  There is no choice.  The government tells citizens what their beliefs are.  Either they practice Islam and raise their families this way or they are punished.  Their exposure to Christianity is limited and the spiritual knowledge they have is the spiritual knowledge that has been given them. 

In my search for the truth and understanding, I decided to get a copy of the Islamic holy book, The Qur’an, and read it for myself.

The prophet, Mohammed, who made the proclamations that are recorded in the Qur’an lived in the 6^th and 7^th centuries.  This book is a collection of his statements that he believes were given to him by the angel, Gabrielle, as the word of his god, Allah.  They are in no particular order but always start with “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.” 

By the year 570 A.D., the year that Mohammed was born, the Old Testament of the Bible had been around for over 1,000 years.  It is believed that these books were written and had been circulating since 1,400 B.C. (according to my Bible).  Of course we know that Christ lived in the first century, so the books of the New Testament had also been written and had already been widely circulated and canonized by the 4^th century…a good 200 years before the birth of Mohammed.

When Mohammed speaks for Allah throughout this text, Allah refers to himself usually in the plural (we, our, us), however he occasionally refers to himself in the singular.  This made me consider the possibility of an Islamic belief in the Trinity (God, Son, Holy Spirit) however I quickly realized that this is not the case.  I am, frankly, unable to reconcile this plurality of Allah with the firm Muslim belief in only one god.

Honestly this book is not at all what I expected. In fact, I believe that the Qur’an is based on three contributing factors:  1) the Old Testament; 2) a rejection of Jesus as God’s son; and 3) pagan Arabic beliefs, customs, and practices.  Allah is substituted in for Yahweh (the Judeo-Christian God) as the stories of Moses, Abraham, Noah, Solomon, David, and other Old Testament characters are referenced and retold. 

Jesus is discounted as “a mortal whom We (Allah in the plural) favored and made an example to the Israelites.”  (Chapter 43:  Ornaments of Gold)  It goes on to state that “when Jesus worked his miracles, he said: ‘I have come to give you wisdom and to make plain to you some of the things about which you differ.  Fear Allah and follow me.  Allah is my Lord and your Lord:  therefore serve Him.  That is the right path.’”  Interspersed with these references to Jewish and Christian beliefs are references to pagan rituals and entities, such as genies (jinn).

However, the most common topic throughout the text is the admonition of Allah (through Gabrielle and then through Mohammed) that “wrongdoers” and unbelievers will be punished in hell while worshippers and followers of Allah will be rewarded in “paradise”.  The threat of never-ending punishment overshadows and accompanies nearly every chapter.

I wish that every practicing Muslim would (or could) read the Holy Bible—the Old and New Testaments.  I think they would be amazed at how much of the Qur’an refers back to the true Word of God.  (I know I was.)  I think they would be shocked by the details that are given in the Holy Bible that are missing in the short and scattered references that are haphazardly arranged in the Qur’an.  In fact, their own book would actually make more sense.  However, they should note that nobody named Allah was ever mentioned in these ancient texts that were written long before Mohammed came on the scene.  And, of course, the Qur’an does not share with Muslims the sacrifice that God’s son, Jesus Christ, made to atone for our sins.  


The above are my observations...not my conclusions.  However, I feel that this is not complete without the discussion of "Why" Mohammed made the claims that he did.  

There are three possible conclusions in my mind to reach about Mohammed and Allah. 

In my first scenario, it is possible that Mohammed had been raised with a specific belief system including cultural and pagan rituals along with the knowledge of the Old Testament (including the Torah) and New Testament.  In trying to reconcile the truth through his own knowledge and experiences, he developed his own “god” (Allah).  He then deemed himself Allah’s prophet because he was the only one that knew of Allah…not recognizing that this was true only because Allah was a figment of his own imagination.  The thoughts that entered his own mind were seen by him as revelations from his god.

The second scenario is that Mohammed maliciously made up the whole thing.  He was totally sane and smart enough to use his knowledge of the popular beliefs of the time (Jewish, Christian, and paganism) to (1) create his own version of a god; (2) base his claims on historical and widely known (and accepted) occurrences of divine intervention (the great flood, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, etc.); (3) use his charisma and scare tactics to recruit followers; and (4) seek the fame and riches that would come if people believed him. 

Oh, don’t act shocked at number 4.  Religion is a multi-million dollar industry.  Just ask L. Ron Hubbard (a science fiction writer and good friend of Aleister Crowley) who developed Scientology after making it clear over a number of years that inventing a religion was a great way to get rich.

My third scenario may seem a bit “out there.”  Is it possible that Allah is a demon (or an Anti-Christ or even Satan himself) who (1) claimed falsely to be the one true God; (2) revealed himself to Mohammed through another fallen angel who falsely claimed to be Gabrielle; (3) and convinced this trusting man that he was doing God’s work when in fact he was leading people away from the one, true God?

Whatever the truth may be, it is obvious to me that Mohammed either intentionally, through self-deception, or through the trickery of Satan, used a combination of Biblical truths and cultural beliefs to hijack the souls of millions of people throughout the last 1,400 years.