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It has become culturally fashionable to make the claim that “Jesus never said he was God.”

Lots of folks would like to claim Jesus as their own but his divinity gets in the way. The Muslims claim Jesus was a great prophet to the Jews but far less than even their prophet Muhammad. Some Jewish folks would like to acknowledge him as an ancient Jewish rabbi teacher if they could leave out the God thing and ignore the terrible treatment many Jews have received from some of his misguided followers over the centuries.

Even Hindu and eastern gurus like to make the claim that Jesus traveled to India and learned everything from them. Then there is the strange case of Richard Dawkins who wants to claim that Jesus Would Be An Atheist Today.

The real problem is that the Bible gets in the way and supports the divinity of Jesus. Not only that, but Jesus clearly indicated on a number of different occasions that he was the “I am” God of the Old testament. The response of those who heard him at the time confirms it.

One is left to choose whether Jesus was a liar, just crazy, or whether he was telling the truth. Really there is no middle ground or justification for claiming that he was some kind of ethical teacher or prophet of God if he lied about something as basic as who he really was.

Here’s an excellent article from the Apologetics Guy summarizing what Jesus had to say about himself: “Did Jesus Say He Was God?”

If you happen to be talking to someone who makes the claim that “Jesus never said that he was God,” there are 3 key scriptures that I usually refer to in a pinch as a Biblical response:

1. John 8:58: “ Before Abraham was “I am” “

If you missed it, this is what the God of the Old Testament told Moses when he asked for a name. Those listening didn’t miss what he was claiming by their response in verse 9:

“they picked up stones to stone him”

2. John 10:30: “I and the Father are One”

Again those listening to him understood his claim and picked up stones to kill him (Verse 33):

“…for Blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

If you can’t remember where the first 2 scriptures are, here is the easiest one to find. Turn to the first book of the New Testament- Mark and find the record of his trial before the Sanhedrin toward the back of the book in chapter 14.

Here, the religious leaders respond to the claims of Jesus during his trial.

3.  Mark 14:61-65: The Trial of Jesus

Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

"I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." 

The high priest tore his clothes. "Why do we need any more witnesses?" he asked.

"You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?"  They all condemned him as worthy of death. –NIV

Obviously the religious authorities believed that Jesus was claiming to be divine and deemed him worthy of death for his blasphemy.

These are just 3 key scriptures that prove that Jesus claimed to be God. Again, for more and for greater details and a good short summary of the Biblical evidence, read the Apologetics Guy’s article:

“Did Jesus Say He Was God?”                *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Jesus Would Be An Atheist Today?
2. -Early References to Jesus

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Does Islamic law forbid music and musical instruments?

Apparently so. At least Muhammad did during his lifetime.

However most Muslim cultures and communities today ignore those strictures except for the most radical Islamists.

Currently the Middle East is going through an Islamic revival which is compelling Muslims to adhere more closely to Islamic law. This has resulted in numerous clashes between moderate Muslims and more radical zealots. Music and fine arts is one of the current battlefield of disagreement.

A major Islamic scholar Hazem Shoman recently (Nov. 16) crashed a concert in Egypt and got up on stage and condemned those attending the event:

Hundreds of students attending a Hisham Abbas concert on Tuesday night at the Nile Academy campus in Mansoura, capital of the Daqahliya governorate in Egypt’s Delta region, were surprised when popular Islamic scholar Hazem Shoman entered the stage uninvited to condemn the event, which he described as ‘monkar’, or sinful.

Where radical Islam rules music is nearly always discouraged or forbidden. When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, music instruments were destroyed and traditional folk music was silenced. This is still the case in some communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan where their authority is recognized.

The Muslim teaching against music is not found in the Quran but in the Hadith. These are traditional sayings and teaching of Muhammad that are considered authoritative none-the-less. Here’s a few quotes on the evil of music and instruments from the Muslim prophet (Thanks to Jihad Watch):

Hadith Qudsi 19:5: "The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance."

Also:

(1) "Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance."

(2) "On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress."

(3) "Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage."

(4) "This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones." Someone asked, "When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?" and he said, "When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful."

(5) "There will be peoples of my Community who will hold fornication, silk, wine, and musical instruments to be lawful …." — ‘Umdat al-Salik r40.0

Response: Since music is not forbidden in the Quran many Muslims will protest that their religion is not really against music or instruments. However, it is historically clear that Muhammad taught against music and destroyed musical instruments during his lifetime.

Also, the more radical Islamic scholars of this generation, like Hazem Shoman, are calling on all Muslims to forsake their Western ways including Music and adhere more closely to the original teachings of their founder.             *Top

Related Posts?:

1. -Did 9/11 Change Attitudes About Religion?

Way back on September 20th Dr. Albert Mohler wrote an article on his blog about Yoga and Christianity. It touched off a firestorm of controversy among Christians who regularly practice yoga.

Here’s a quote from the article:

When Christians practice yoga, they must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga. The contradictions are not few, nor are they peripheral. The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine. Christians are called to look to Christ for all that we need and to obey Christ through obeying his Word. We are not called to escape the consciousness of this world by achieving an elevated state of consciousness, but to follow Christ in the way of faithfulness.

There is nothing wrong with physical exercise, and yoga positions in themselves are not the main issue. But these positions are teaching postures with a spiritual purpose. Consider this — if you have to meditate intensely in order to achieve or to maintain a physical posture, it is no longer merely a physical posture.

Dr. Mohler is still getting correspondence and angry emails responding to the original article and subsequent responses to it. Here’s a link to his latest update on the issue and an article in the Baptist Press.

What do you think? Should Christians practice yoga? Also, is it possible to practice a ‘Christian’ form of yoga that centers around meditating on Jesus Christ? If so, is the Biblical Jesus Christ God the Son at the center of it all or is it ‘another Jesus’ entirely?            *Top

Related articles

• Baptist leader: Yoga and Christianity don’t mix (seattlepi.com)
• Southern Baptist Seminary Albert Mohler: Yoga Not Christian (nowpublic.com)
• “Is Yoga ‘Replacing’ Christianity?” and related posts (yogadork.com)
• Albert Mohler: Southern Baptist Leader Says Christians Should Avoid Yoga (blippitt.com)
• Southern Baptist leader nixes yoga for Christians (msnbc.msn.com)

Today (May 20,2010) was the day set aside by the famous Facebook page to be the official “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”.

Should Christians participate in this activity?

No.

Why? Because Jesus taught his followers the Golden Rule.

Many times lately Christians have been on the receiving end of offensive assaults on our religion and faith. Crosses in urine, Bibles desecrated, cartoon shows making fun of our Lord, and etc. None of it really feels all that great. Do we really want to be party to needlessly offending and hurting others? I don’t think so.

Remember also that the response to the Danish cartoons a couple of years ago ended rather poorly with riots in several cities in the Middle East and a number of deaths. Do we really want to be part of an activity that could end up harming others even indirectly?

However, I do support free speech and freedom for everyone who chooses to participate. Also, I really do oppose the threats coming from radical Muslims towards cartoonists and anyone else who opposes or unwittingly insults Islam. Muslims should not be allowed to impose their culture and sensibilities on the rest of us in Western countries.

When I read stories about Muslim immigrants that refuse to check out pork products while working at Wal-Mart, or Muslim cabbies that refuse to pick up folks that have been drinking or carrying alcohol, or Muslim workers in bookstores who refuse to handle Bibles or Christian books, or Muslims who complain in libraries because the Quran is not on the top shelf above the Bible –it really does bother me. The rest of us should not have to change our entire culture in order not to offend immigrant Muslims.

Toleration should go both ways.

Unfortunately, there is no toleration in Islam and in Muslim countries. That is a fact.            *Top

Related articles by Zemanta

• Draw “Mohammed” Day (beliefnet.com)
• Everybody Draw Mohammed Day (minx.cc)
• Hani Almadhoun: Why Did the Cartoonist Cross the Road? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Terry Kelhawk: Comedy Central’s Prophet Experiments (huffingtonpost.com)

Whenever Muslims have political control in a country or area, the minority religions are consistently persecuted and the customs and heritage including religious sites are assailed and some even blotted out.

We saw this demonstrated a few years back in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed the 1500 year old Buddha sculptures in Afghanistan.  We see this happening right now in Iraq as the government is planning to build a new gigantic mosque over the traditional Jewish memorial to the prophet Ezekiel.

We have also heard continual reports that the Islamic authorities over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem have purposely destroyed any artifacts found on the site that might be linked historically to the Jewish Temple and faith.

Here’s an article by Alexander Maistrovoy, an Israeli journalist, cataloging how Jewish and Christian sites in Jerusalem and the Holy Land have systematically been converted to Muslim sites instead:

“Jews in Holy Land? What Jews?”

by Alexander Maistrovoy

Welcome to the Holy Land: Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi in Hebron, Bilal Ibn Ribah mosque in Bethlehem and Al-Burak Wall…

The Israeli government announced that it would include the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me’arat HaMachpelah) in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem as part of a comprehensive plan to preserve Israel’s national heritage and religious sites (”Moreshet”). The reaction of the Arab (and all Islamic) world to the decision has once again showed the real essence of the “Arab-Israeli conflict”, which actually is the holy war that Arabs had proclaimed against the Jews.

Any conflict can be resolved if the conflicting parties recognize each other’s right of existence. It becomes basically irresolvable if one of parties refuses to recognize the other. The key questions of borders, the status of Jerusalem and refugees are difficult but could be resolved in case Arabs recognized the right of the Jews to live in their land.

Arabs do not recognize it. All their policy, strategy, ideology is directed to depriving the Jews of any connection with the land of Israel: virtually, and then physically to uproot the Jews from the history of the Holy Land. Jews have neither antiquities nor holy sites, they have no past. In other words, they do not belong to this land and have no right to exist at all.
It is the genocidal approach that is characteristic of Islam. Power and possession are inherent parts of religious attitude in Islam. This approach extends to all other religions, not only to Judaism. The idea consists in depriving other cultures of their spiritual base to achieve total physical domination over them.

<<Read the whole excellent article>>               *Top

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• Riots over Israeli heritage sites (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Muslims, Jews Clash In Jerusalem (huffingtonpost.com)
• Clashes erupt at sacred compound in Jerusalem (msnbc.msn.com)
• More riots in Hebron over shrine dispute (cbc.ca)

According to the article, similar movements are spreading to other countries, including a well organized move against Catholicism in Argentina.

Response: This is a rather sad development. This movement illustrates that the UK is in the middle of a major transition along with all of Europe that some have called ‘post-Christian’.

A generation ago all were baptized into the state churches as infants. Now as the secular and the atheist movements gain numbers and cultural credibility many adults are seeking to ‘divorce’ themselves from their former ‘Christian’ identity.

Now the UK is far more secular than it is ‘Christian’. Many are beginning to question the government support given to the Church of England. To justify the current expenditures, some churches in the UK are beginning to be used as public buildings like post offices along with worship.

The ‘Debaptism’ is said to be spreading to other countries. It is doubtful that it will gain much if any momentum in the USA since there’s no dominant State church that the majority was baptized into as infants. That is not to say that secularism is not making significant inroads into American culture.

*Top

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Usually the Western media cites poverty and a life of desperation with no hope for the future as the major contributing factors behind the suicide bombing phenomenon. For so many in the MSM the religious connection makes no sense at all. I have heard some jokingly refer to the 72 virgins that the Muslim martyrs believed they would be receiving in the after-life and comment that they would personally prefer to have 72 woman with lots of experience.

But what about the Muslim women that are now increasingly involved also in martyrdom, what is their motivation? 72 virgins do not await the faithful Muslim woman who chooses martyrdom.

Raymond Ibrahim documents that a major motivation for Martyrdom is the Muslim teaching about the ‘torments of the grave’. Through Martyrdom, the Jihadi is expected to go directly into Paradise and escape the ‘torments of the grave’ and the possibility of missing out entirely and ending up facing torture for all eternity.

While Christian believers generally feel rather secure in their eternal salvation, that is not the case with Muslims. Allah is known to be rather arbitrary at times in his judgment and no Muslim is secure facing death unless they are involved in Jihad and martyrdom–then their ticket is punched for a blessed after-life.

Read the article, it is quite illuminating.            *Top 

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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair recently spoke out about his faith and his concerns that Christianity is being marginalized in the increasingly secular UK. He is proposing that it is time for Christians to speak out in support of their faith.

He admits that as Prime Minister he was in a somewhat unique position where he felt like he was representing the whole country and really didn’t speak out about his faith as much as he probably should have.  <<Read the rest posted on the Main Page>>          *Top