Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound

Victorious!

Amazing Grace by Len Matthews

Today’s reading is Ephesians 2.

Certainly, I hope you will pursue what God wants you to do for Him today. However, take some time today to remember what God has done for you. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Talk about Victory. Praise the Lord!!!

Tomorrow’s reading is Ephesians 3.

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I Can’t Believe That … (2) God would allow children to suffer

How could a loving God allow an innocent child to suffer? Surely he cares enough to prevent the suffering (if he didn’t care, he wouldn’t be very loving). And surely is able to prevent to suffering (if he couldn’t, he wouldn’t be very powerful). And yet we know that in this imperfect world children suffer. So does that mean there is no God? Or could God have good reasons to allow such suffering?

The Suffering (video game)

The Suffering (video game) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we talk about the reasons for suffering there is a real danger that anything we say will sound glib or even insensitive to those who have been bereaved. The mother who has lost a beloved child doesn’t want reasons, she wants her child back. Trying to intellectualise the problem will be cold comfort for such grief. Trying to explain away the suffering would be heartless. Because what possible reason could you give that would make the death of a child acceptable? What explanation would justify so great a loss? And that is the first thing to recognise. When we seek to understand the existence of suffering we are not seeking to give a reason for individual acts of suffering. Some acts of suffering, when considered in isolation, have no reason. They are not caused by God, they are not for some eventual gain, they are, essentially, meaningless. We do not live in a world where everything has a purpose, where everything happens for a reason. The Bible says God has subjected the world to “futility” (Rom 8:20), that is, God has purposefully made this world imperfect and subject to imperfection. God does not cause suffering, but has made the world where suffering occurs. The question is, why would he do that?

Step back and consider: what is the cause of so much of the evil in the world? Answer: human beings. Whether it is cold-blooded murder or just casual neglect, so much suffering and pain is caused by humans making bad choices. Sometimes people will choose to do something truly wicked, more often people just choose to do what is easy, but it is those choices that produces the suffering. God could have created a world without such suffering because he could have created a world without people or only with people whose minds he controls. That would have prevented a lot of suffering. There would be no murders, if God didn’t allow people the freedom to choose. But God has allowed people the freedom to choose. Because a world in which people have free will is better than a world without it. Imagine a world without free will. Sure, there would be no evil but there would also be no good. Without free will there could be no love and there could be no relationships. There could be no acts of kindness, no moments of generosity, and no real charity. The world would just be filled with choice-less robots, neither good nor bad, just behaving as instructed. A world with free will is better, and world where people freely choose to do good is best, but if people are truly free then that means they have the option to cause evil.

But this isn’t the whole answer. Murderers may choose to murder, but waves don’t choose to drown people, rocks don’t choose to crush people and viruses don’t choose to infect people. A lot of the suffering in the world is caused by natural processes, by the laws of nature operating as they always do, the victims just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Why does God allow such suffering? Well, imagine the alternative. Imagine that rocks would always fall down to the ground EXCEPT when a child was underneath. That might seem like a wonderful idea, but think of all the exceptions and kinks in the laws of nature that would be needed to make children invulnerable. Bullets would turn to jelly when fired at children, fire would become cool when a child was close by, man-eating tigers would become lovable kittens. Suddenly the ordered and regular world that we’re used to has become chaotic and difficult to predict. No longer could humans depend on things behaving like they always have and so could no longer make even reasonable guesses about the outcome of their actions. Without the laws of nature, without the regularity of nature, human free will cannot operate because without that regularity you cannot make informed choices.

Okay, you say, I understand that free will is a good thing and I understand that the laws of nature are necessary, but even so couldn’t have God made the world better? Couldn’t there be less dangers? Or couldn’t we be less vulnerable? Why not make humans impervious to harm so that we can carry on whatever the world throws at us? Of

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Preceding article: I Can’t Believe That (1) … God would send anyone to hell

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Additional reading:

  1. About suffering
  2. Foreword to suffering
  3. Choices to make in suffering
  4. Crucifixion for suffering
  5. God’s instruction about joy and suffering
  6. God’s promises to us in our suffering
  7. Importuning for suffering hearts
  8. Seems no future in suffering
  9. Suffering through the apparent silence of God
  10. Suffering continues
  11. Suffering leading to joy
  12. Surprised by joy
  13. Surprised by time in joys & sufferings
  14. Miracles in our time of suffering
  15. Offer in our suffering
  16. Temptation and its conquest
  17. Words from God about suffering
  18. Mission son of God perceived as failure
  19. Patient waiting
  20. Moving mountains
  21. Why Think There Is a God? (3): Why Is It Wrong?
  22. Attributes to God
  23. Disappointed with God
  24. God’s measure not our measure
  25. Full authority belongs to God
  26. God Helper and Deliverer
  27. God is Positive
  28. God’s design in the creation of the world
  29. God’s hope and our hope
  30. God His reward
  31. God’s promises
  32. God’s salvation
  33. Incomplete without the mind of God
  34. Is God hiding His Face when He is seemingly silent
  35. Jesus his answers about God’s silence
  36. Based confidence
  37. Chrystalised harmonious thinking
  38. Our way of life
  39. Life with God
  40. Nuturing a close relationship with God
  41. Concerning gospelfaith
  42. Epitome of the one faith
  43. My faith
  44. Hope
  45. Working of the hope
  46. Looking for blessed hope
  47. Hope for the future
  48. Expiatory sacrifice
  49. Content with the no answer
  50. Free will and predestination
  51. Meaning of life
  52. Death and after
  53. God’s Comfort
  54. A world in denial
  55. Fear and protection
  56. Because men choose to go their own way
  57. It is a free will choice
  58. Free will and predestination
  59. Let you not be defined by the effect of your wrong choice
  60. The Existence of Evil

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  • Why does God allow evil? (pastormikesays.wordpress.com)
    The Bible describes God as holy (Isaiah 6:3), righteous (Psalm 7:11), just (Deuteronomy 32:4), and sovereign (Daniel 4:17-25). These attributes tell us the following about God: (1) God is capable of preventing evil, and (2) God desires to rid the universe of evil. So, if both of these are true, why does God allow evil? If God has the power to prevent evil and desires to prevent evil, why does He still allow evil? Perhaps a practical way to look at this question would be to consider some alternative ways people might have God run the world:
  • God’s Gift & Our Response: Mercy & Worship (jamespaulgaard.wordpress.com)
    God gives us many good and wonderful gifts that we need. But a gift does not give its intended benefit if the one receiving the gift does not open the gift and use it. You could be given the greatest gift in the world, but if the gift sits in the corner unopened, that gift will have no benefit in your life. So through this series, we want to encourage you to reflect on the many gifts God has given you, and how you respond to those gifts. In today’s sermon we are thinking about God’s gift of mercy and our response of worship and the three points of the sermon
  • Why You Shouldn’t Teach Your Children That Hell is Real (patheos.com)
    If teaching heaven is bad, teaching hell is downright mental child abuse. There is no way around this one. You are telling a child that for bad deeds done, or not worshipping the right (or any god), you are going to burn in a lake of fire for eternity. Pure torture, unimaginable pain and it is forever.The myth of Hell needs to be destroyed faster than the myth of heaven by far. Children and countless adults fear any of their actions will result in them spending eternity in Hell. Why? It is such a childish and illogical idea. For starters, their almighty God created an evil angel, and instead of destroying him, gave him his own kingdom? And let’s not get started on the fact that if Satan is the one punishing the bad guys for their evil, doesn’t that make Satan the good guy? If Hell is for the most evil people in the world who listened to and or worshipped Satan, wouldn’t Satan be glad to have them? It simply doesn’t make sense and even Christians and other religious followers are deciding they don’t believe in Hell anymore. It seems that all the rest of their religion is true, but Hell sounds too mean, so that part is obviously just an allegory. So, just like the endless rape, murder, genocide and other atrocities of the Bible, let’s go ahead and cherry-pick Hell right out of it.
  • The Man or The Devil In The Mirror? [Part 1] (corbenstreet.wordpress.com)
    People must understand and know how to differentiate between the reason and the purpose of doing things. But because humans are always so good at taking things for granted, it is not surprising that whatever the reason and the purpose of using mirrors, it no longer means anything to everyone – anymore!
  • David Haines killing is ‘an act of absolute evil’, says Archbishop of Canterbury (christiantoday.com)
    The Archbishop of Canterbury is among the Christians expressing their sorrow over the killing of hostage David Haines at the hands of Islamic State militants.The 44-year-old aid worker’s beheading was shown in a video released on Saturday night.It has been strongly condemned by British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has vowed that Britain will take “whatever steps are necessary” to keep the country safe and bring the killers to justice.Archbishop Justin Welby used his Twitter account to ask every church in the country to pray for Haines’s family, saying he had been “evilly killed in the place he was serving in love for its suffering people”.

    In comments to the BBC later on Sunday, the Archbishop described the aid worker’s murder as “an act of absolute evil, unqualified, without any light in it at all”.

    He said there was a sense that in places where militants have taken hold “the darkness is deepening”.

    “It’s being done in the name of faith, but we’ve heard already today faith leaders from Islam across the world condemning this,” he continued.

  • William Lane Craig vs Walter Sinnott-Armstrong: evil, suffering and God’s existence (winteryknight.wordpress.com)
    This is one the top 4 best debates that William Lane Craig has done in my opinion. (The other two are Craig-Millican debate and the first and second Craig-Dacey debates) This one doesn’t seem to get a lot of play on the Internet: there’s no video, transcript or anything. But it is a great debate, and on a problem we are all concerned about: the problem of evil and suffering. One other thing – Sinnott-Armstrong is also a very courteous, respectful and intelligent scholar and he is very good at defending his side. This is a very cordial and engaging debate, and because it was held in front of a church audience, it was targeted to laymen and not academics.

Reply to questions concerning The Bride of Christ

What or who is the Bride of Christ?  How is The church the bride, body and temple?

Thank you for your questions,

What we normally expect as questions, in your case, would appear to be statements so you will appreciate I am somewhat at a loss as to knowing what answer might be appropriate.

If they are meant as statements, you are of course correct. I therefore will just supply the scriptures that support your statements.

Detail of The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb

Detail of The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bride

John 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Revelation 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

2Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Ephesians 5: 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Body

1Corinthians12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Romans 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Ephesians 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ephesians 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

Ephesians 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Colossians 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Temple

1Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

1Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ephesians 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

2Thessalonians 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

1Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

1John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Revelation 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

It does occur to me that you might be saying that a particular church is the Bride, Body and Temple of Christ.  The difficulty is that with so many to choose from how do we distinguish the true from the counterfeit?

This is, as you are no doubt aware, the purpose of this website, to point out to people that the Bible is the plumb line, so to speak, against which all church doctrine and teaching is to be measured  so that we might not be deceived as Paul warns the Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

I hope you have found this helpful.

God bless!
Glenn Smith,
www.thisisyourbible.com,

Find in this series:

 Marriage of Jesus 1 Mary, John, Judas, Thomas and Brown

 Marriage of Jesus 2 Standard writings about Jesus

 Marriage of Jesus 3 Listening women

 Marriage of Jesus 4 Place of the woman

 Marriage of Jesus 5 Papyrus fragment  in Egyptian Coptic

 Marriage of Jesus 6 Jesus said to them “My wife”

 Marriage of Jesus 7 Impaled

 Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh

Marriage of Jesus 9 Reason for a new marriage

Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant

The Bride New Jerusalem

A royal wedding due to take place

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Additional reading:

  1. Science, 2013 word of the year, and Scepticism
  2. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
  3. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
  4. Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life
  5. Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual
  6. Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
  7. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
  8. Being Religious and Spiritual 6 Romantici, utopists and transcendentalists
  9. Van Til interacting with Bavinck and Calvin on Natural Theology
  10. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
  11. A new Jerusalem
  12. Members of the ecclesia uniting and seeking God’s help in tribulation
  13. Gaining Christ, trusting Jehovah
  14. United people under Christ
  15. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
  16. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
  17. Something Most False Christians Have In Common

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Also of interest:

  1. A people for his Name
  2. church oh church1
  3. Want to Argue About Creeds? I Don’t
  4. Revelation 19. The Wedding Feast Of The Lamb. The Rider On The White Horse. The Marriage Of The Lamb. God. The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.
  5. Revelation’s Rapture!

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  • Becoming the Bride of Christ (treasuresoflove1.wordpress.com)
    The imagery and symbolism of marriage is applied to Christ and the body of believers known as the church. These are those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal savior and have received eternal life. In the New Testament, Christ, the Bridegroom, has sacrificially and lovingly chosen the church to be His bride (Ephesians 5:25-27). Just as there was a betrothal period in biblical times during which the bride and groom were separated until the wedding, so is the bride of Christ separate from her Bridegroom during the church age. Her responsibility during the betrothal period is to be faithful to Him (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:24). At the Second Coming of Christ, the church will be united with the Bridegroom, the official “wedding ceremony” will take place and, with it, the eternal union of Christ and His bride will be actualized (Revelation 19:7-9; 21:1-2).
  • Jesus Christ……His Bride…..and the Hebrew Wedding Traditions (shoutingthemessage.wordpress.com)
    The believers in Jesus Christ (whether Jews or Gentiles) were bought with a great price.  He loved us so very much that He was willing to die for us.  We are His.  In return…….we adore Him with a great abiding love.  Jesus is everything to His bride.  She waits for Him to return to her and take her with Him to dwell forever.  She prepares herself and adorns herself with purity and holiness.  Her eyes see no other but Jesus.  She is faithful to her love!  How beautiful it will be when Jesus Christ returns in the clouds and calls her to come up to Him!  The Lord and His Bride will enjoy the Marriage Supper and celebrate their wedding for seven years.  What joy!
  • Third Jewish Temple: The Temple of God? (endtimesprophecyreport.wordpress.com)
    A popular teaching that has taken hold in the end times church–especially in the English-speaking world–is that the Jews will rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. This Third Temple will to be rebuilt on the Temple Mount.
    +
    Third Jewish Temple: Temple of God, part 2 | End Times Prophecy Report
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    End Times Prophecy Headlines: April 7, 2014 | End Times Prophecy Report
  • 1 Corinthians 1:9 (shilohbaptistchurchportroyal.wordpress.com)
    By baptism Christians are dedicated and devoted to Christ, and are under strict obligations to be holy. But in the true church of God are all who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, and who call upon him as God manifest in the flesh, for all the blessings of salvation; who acknowledge and obey him as their Lord, and as Lord of all; it includes no other persons.
  • A Straight Path Never Leads Anywhere Except To The Objective (sobeautifulmi.com)
    The imagery of marriage is often used in the Holy Scriptures to describe our union with God. In the Book of Esther, the opening chapters describe the path that Esther walked and how she was chosen to be Queen, receiving the full benefits of the Kingdom. Spiritually, this is an experience that we can have, which will move us beyond the commonplace into the fullness of Christ.
  • Must I be baptised in water to be a member of the church? (idfables4unity.wordpress.com)
    “Membership” in the Bible is always associated with a living body which has a head. Thus there are two kinds of scriptural members:
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    This church is Christ’s church, it is not my church,It is not our church, it is His Body

    Where all His saved ones are joined as members.

    This church was made for Christ, the Head.

    (I Corinthians 12; Ephesians 1:22,23)

  • The Church (part 2 of 3) (theresaboudreau.wordpress.com)
    God knows there is too much trash talking the church. This message is not intended to be another conversation about everything that is wrong in the church or to cast judgment on Christians. However, it is intended to be a trumpet sounding an alarm to awaken believers who think the status quo is okay. The status quo is not okay. There is rampant sin in the church; lies and deception in the church; doctrinal error in the church; greed for gain in the church; divisions and discord in the church. But the biggest problem is hypocrisy which is the perpetual disconnect between what believers profess and what they practice. Consequently, people in the world are turned off by the church.

Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh

In the previous postings I talked about the torn, business card-size fragment which found instant fame when Harvard historian Karen King announced its discovery in September 2012, because it bears the startling line: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …'”

The manuscript written in Coptic, the language of early Christians living in Egypt, has the beginning and end of each line of the manuscript missing. It could be interpreted as a record of a conversation between Jesus and his disciples, in which the disciples tell Jesus: “Mary [Magdalene] is not worthy of it,” and Jesus responds that his wife — presumably Mary Magdalene — “will be able to be his disciple.”

Example Jesus

“Christ gave the example
Now you have been called to this, really, because Christ also suffered in our behalf, leaving you17 an example that you should follow in His footsteps:  (22)  who did not commit sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth;  (23)  who being reviled did not revile in return, suffering did not threaten but committed it to Him who judges righteously;  (24)  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, so that we, having died to those sins,18 might live for the19 righteousness; by whose wound20 you were healed.” (1Pe 2:21-24 WPNT)

For many Christians Christ Jesus should give the good example. This means that a male of that age should have been married, so Jesus should have had a wife and normal sexual relationship. Most Christians take Jesus also to be god, forgetting he is the son of God and not god the son, he like the Father in heaven ‘Yahweh” would have a wife.

Essence of life belongs to only One

It is very well know that between the 10th century BCE and the beginning of their exile in 586 BCE, polytheism was normal throughout Israel. According to many scholars it was only after the exile that worship of Yahweh alone became established, and possibly only as late as the time of the Maccabees (2nd century BCE) that monotheism became universal among Jews. As a believer I do believe the Holy Scriptures and accept that there have always through history have been people honouring and worshipping the Only One True God, who later gave His Name to be known all over the world as “The I Am Who Is the Being, the Essence of Life”, the Elohim God of gods Hashem Jehovah.

Threat of false teachings

The false teachings of those who liked the plural gods soon entered the world of the followers of the Nazarene Jeshua (Jesus Christ). The apostles described already in the Acts of the apostles that their community was already under threat for this danger. The acts of Peter show more of those false teachings having been entered in the Christian faith.

Mother goddess

NMMI IMG 8966.JPG

Asherah אֲשֵׁרָה Goddess of motherhood and fertility, Lady of the Sea

One of those teachings was that the god of heaven and earth had a counterpart or Dione, which like ‘Elat means “Goddess”. Before Christ Jesus the prophets, like Jeremiah, also warned people not to fall for such “Queen of Heaven” or a “Mother god”.  In the Book of Jeremiah, written circa 628 BCE, where the people pray to ha asherah or Asherah ( ‘ṯrt; אֲשֵׁרָה‎, ʼAṯirat, Ashratum/Ashratu) the mother goddess or the Queen of Heaven Jehovah is provoked to anger. (Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17–19, 25).

Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah” and “Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah.” are inscription been found. We should know that several polytheist also adhered Yahweh and even Romans kept a shrine for the God, Whose name they were not quite sure He had. (The unknown God of heaven and earth.)

Relation between Yahweh and other gods

Yahweh having had a temple in Samaria raises a question over the relationship between Yahweh and Kaus (Qaush, Kaush, Qaus, Kos, and Qaws), the national god of Edom. {Keel, Othmar; Uehlinger, Christoph (1998). Gods, Goddesses, And Images of God. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 228. ISBN 9780567085917. Retrieved 10 March 2014.}

It has been suggested that the Israelites might consider Asherah as a consort of Baal due to the anti-Asherah ideology which was influenced by the Deuteronomistic History at the later period of Monarchy. {Sung Jin Park, “The Cultic Identity of Asherah in Deuteronomistic Ideology of Israel,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 123/4 (2011): 553–564.}

Male or female god

For certain Christians The Hebrew God Yahweh or Elohim is conceived of biblically as a male deity, which is is of course not surprising in a patriarchal or male-ruled society. Lots of Christians seem to overlook that in the Bible is written that God the Elohim is not comparable to a human being and is an eternal Spirit and as such does not have a male or female site, no bones, no flesh with blood running through.

Susan Ackerman notes also that there are some feminizations of Yahweh in Isaiah (e.g., “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you” [66:13]; see also 42:14 and 49:15). But then Isaiah also refers to kings as “nursing fathers” (49:23) and to daughters who “shalt suck the breasts of kings” (60:16), words that cannot be taken literally. In any case, Yahweh outside of some Isaianic imagery is masculine in the Hebrew Bible. In the New Testament, “God” translates the Greek Theos, with God remaining a male deity. Thus Jesus regularly uses the word Father (Greek Pater, in Jesus’ Aramaic Abba) for God (e.g., Matthew 6:8-9; Mark 14:36; Luke 10:21; John 17:1; see also Paul’s use in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6).

Masculine and feminine terms

File:Suprasl Muzeum Ikon 01.jpg

God-Bearer, Lady of the Sign, temper on board, 19th c., Russia – Supraśl – Museum of Icons

In the previous chapters I spoke about those Gnostic gospels where we can find the thought of the divine in both masculine and feminine terms, with Jesus referring to the Holy Spirit as his Mother in the Gospel of Thomas and in the Gospel to the Hebrews, and with the Apocryphon of John describing the Trinity as Father, Mother, and Son. It is in that trinitarian thinking that most people adhere to the mother of god-idea, taking Miriam/Miryam or Saint Mary or Virgin Mary as “Blessed Virgin Mary” being the mother of Jesus Christ, the mother of God or even the Theotokos, literally “Bearer of God”.

Gerunds no personal figures

Man Satan and Lady Wisdom

Several Christians do like to give nouns, substantives or gerunds a personal figure, and as such make the word ‘satan’ which means the adversary a literal figure with the name Satan. Wisdom they make into God and as such find proof that God is also a Woman. This is than affirmed for them in the Apocrypha where ‘Lady Wisdom‘ is identified with the Torah or biblical law (Sirach 24:23; Baruch 4:1). Many Christians like in the same way to use the Greek word Logos as the person Jesus, where in the New Testament the preexistent Word (Greek: Logos) at the beginning of the Gospel of John is reminiscent of Wisdom and of being God and being Christ Jesus, as such them having to be one and the same person. When the apostle Paul later calls Christ “the wisdom of God” (Greek Theou Sophia) then the cat’s away the mice will play. (1 Corinthians 1:24)

Husband and wife metaphor

The metaphor of Yahweh and the Hebrew people as husband and wife is found first in the book of Hosea, and continues in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. When there is spoken of a troubled marriage, for despite Yahweh’s “love toward the children of Israel,” they “look to other gods”  it is not about a literal marriage.

“And Yahweh said to me, Go again, love a woman loved by a companion, but [is] an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.” (Hosea 3:1 UPD)

Children of Israel

File:Figures The Golden Calf.jpg

The Israelites, god’s chosen people more than once forgot what their Protector and Redeemer had done, and committed ‘adultery’ in the eyes of God.

Yahweh or Jehovah loving the sons is not love like many would like to imagine they having to love some one. The love of Yahweh/Jehovah has nothing to do with a sexual relationship. His love for the sons of Israel which will return (Hosea 3:5) has all to do with the People God made for himself. The wife and/or the bride of which the Bible speaks God has is a figurative ‘wife‘ or ‘spouse‘. The ones that seek Yahweh or Jehovah their God, and David their king, and will come with fear to the Only One True God and to His goodness in the latter days, He is willing to take unto Him like a man would take a wife unto him.

“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:  (5)  Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek YHWH their Elohim, and David their king; and shall fear YHWH and his goodness in the latter days.” (Hosea 3:4-5 RNKJV)

Bride Israel

In several places in the Holy Scriptures we can find “The Wife” or “the bride” as a metaphor for the Israelite people, the “Chosen Ones” or the Jews, and later for the Jews and gentiles or converted heathen who wanted to follow the son of God.

Marriage strict bond between God and Israel

As marriage is a matter of a strict bond, Jehovah wants also to have a strict bond or covenant between the two parties, Him (the Creator) and the ones who want to be connected with Him, God His people, or “Israel“. The bed or couch God wants His people to take is with Him, who is the Maker of all. In the past Jehovah had to see more than ones that His people Israel choose to have their beds down with others. For that reason He also provided a new bond or a new marriage, with His son and those who wanted to recognise him as the son of God and as the Messiah, as presenter of the New Covenant.

“For thy Maker is thine husband; YHWH of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The Elohim of the whole earth shall he be called.” (Isaiah 54:5 RNKJV)

” Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.  (8)  Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.” (Isaiah 57:7-8 RNKJV)

“For as a youth marries a virgin,  thus your sons marry you:  and as the bridegroom joys over the bride,  thus your Elohim rejoices over you. ” (Isaiah 62:5 ECB)

Israel showing no fidelity to marriage vows

The backsliding children (the Israelites) had neglected many times the pleas of the Most High, though He let them know that He  was totally connected to them like man and wife are connected with their marriage vows. he always wanted to offer the honourable and honest the safest place where they could find rest in His bed. The Elohim, God of gods is the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, and His name is Holy, and everybody should come to know His Name: Jehovah; the One Who dwells in the high and holy place, even with the contrite and humble of spirit; to make live the spirit of the humble and to make live the heart of the contrite ones.

“(1.5)  For thus said the High and Lofty One that inhabit eternity, whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and Holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  (16)  For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made.  (17)  For the iniquity of his covetousness I was wroth, and smote him: I hid Me, and was wroth, and he went on forwardly in the way of his heart. ” (Isaiah 57:15-17 RHB)

“Jehovah also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree, and has fornicated there.  (7)  And after she had done all these, I said, She will return to Me; but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.  (8)  And I watched. When for all the causes for which the apostate Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and I gave the writ of her divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and fornicated.  (9)  And it happened, from the wantonness of her harlotry she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with pieces of wood.  (10)  And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, says Jehovah.  (11)  And Jehovah said to me, The apostate Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.  (12)  Go and cry these words toward the north, and say, Return, O apostate Israel, says Jehovah. I will not cause My face to fall on you, for I am merciful, says Jehovah; I will not keep anger forever.  (13)  Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have rebelled against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.  (14)  Return, O apostate sons, declares Jehovah; for I am Lord over you. And I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  (15)  And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.  (16)  And it will be, when you multiply and increase in the land in those days, says Jehovah, they will no longer say, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah! Nor shall it come to the heart, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made any more.  (17)  At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah. And all nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. And they shall not walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.” (Jeremiah 3:6-17 LITV)

The Bed of Jehovah

The bed of Jehovah and the throne of Jehovah, are the places where those who love God should come to. We like the children of Israel should remember:

” Turn O backsliding children, declares YHWH; because I am married to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family and I will bring you to Zion:” (Jeremiah 3:14 UTV)

Broken bond

The marriage bond was broken by those people of Israel, because they committed ‘adultery‘. Ezekiel 23 allegorizes Samaria and Jerusalem, the Israelite and Judahite capitals, as two sisters with a host of foreign lovers while both are married to Yahweh and should have known the Will of this Most High Jehovah. It are such passages which deem to be very disturbing to feminist commentators when they look at what they call the brutal punishment of the women by God. Those women symbolize Israel’s unfaithfulness. As noted by Kathleen M. O’Connor, the portrayal of physical abuse by the divine in such passages implicitly condones such behaviour in humans.

Open Invitation to non-Israelites

Kinsmen Redeemer

In the Holy Scriptures we can find the invitation of the Divine Creator God to human beings to become His People and to come and sit down. For the daughter of Babylon (the unbelievers but also the spurious church) may sit on the ground; though they might say to be on the throne of Peter, there is no throne, because they will have lured many people in their base, but would find that at a certain time they would no more be called tender and delicate. We may even see that at such a time those in high position may become  undressed. They shall be bare and many (not all) shall come to see their nakedness uncovered. In such way there might still be hope, because then  her shame (of those institutions or the church) will be seen. But no way out, Jehovah will take vengeance and He says in the Book of Jeremiah that He will not meet them as a man.  As for our kinsmen- redeemer, YHWH יהוה {Jehovah} of Hosts is his Name, the Holy One of Israel or better:  the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

“Come down and sit upon the dust, thou virgin daughter of Babel, sit upon the earth: no throne, thou daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt not be added for them to call thee tender and delicate.  (2)  Take the two mill-stones and grind flour, and uncover thy veil; strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.  (3)  Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, also thy reproach shall be seen: I will take vengeance, I will not make peace with man.  (4)  Jehovah of armies redeemed us, his name the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 47:1-4 Julia)

File:Hure.Babylon.mod.jpg

Whore of Babylon (woman of Babylon) – Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)

Virgin daughter of Babylon

We may find it cruel that Jehovah strips “the virgin daughter of Babylon” in Isaiah 47:1-4, and helps the Babylonians rape Jerusalem in Jeremiah 13:26 and that He trods “the virgin” Jerusalem “as in a winepress” (Lamentations 1:15), and that He raises up their lovers against them as a jealous husband, stripping them out of their clothes.

“For this, O Aholibah, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Behold me raising up those loving thee, against thee, whom thy soul was rent away from them, and I brought them against thee from round about  (23)  The sons of Babel and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the sons of Amur with them: young men of desire, prefects and governors, all of them third men, and celebrated, riding horses all of them.  (24)  And they came against thee firm with chariot and wheel, and with a convocation of peoples, shield and buckler and helmet, they will set against thee round about: and I gave judgment before them, and they judged thee with their judgments.  (25)  And I gave my jealousy against thee, and they did with thee in wrath: thy nose and thine ears they shall take away; and thy posterity shall fall by the sword: they shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy posterity shall be consumed in fire.  (26)  And they stripped thee of thy garments, and they took the instrument of thy glory.  (27)  And I caused thy wickedness to cease from thee, and thy fornication from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt not lift up thine eyes to them, and thou shalt remember Egypt no more.” (Ezekiel 23:22-27 Julia)

Mutilated wife

The Adonay Yah Veh, Jehovah looks at His people like a man looks at his wife. But this does not have to mean that He was really married to a wife and certainly not to Asherah, the consort of El (“god”), the supreme god of Canaan and father of the popular Baal.  Several Catholic theologians have written many books on Asherah as the wife of Yahweh. Some, not all, have overlooked these metaphors of Jehovah. For many of them the husband physically abusing his wife presents a challenge to modern biblical interpreters. Through such imagery “the Bible,” writes Sharon H. Ringe in The Women’s Bible Commentary,

“seems to bless the harm and abuse with which women live and sometimes die.”

The brutality seems hardly ameliorated by Yahweh’s assurances to his mutilated wife of a brighter tomorrow, for they make God sound like the stereotypical wife beater who minimizes what he has done and promises not to do it again:

“In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee… Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel,… and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry” (Isaiah 54:8; Jeremiah 31:4).

The French epigrapher Andre Lemaire looking at some graffiti, inscriptions dating from the eighth century BCE, found on walls and storage jars at two sites, Khirbet el-Kom and Kuntillet Ajrud, in Israel, declaring:

“I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and by his asherah,” and “I bless you by Yahweh of Teiman and by his asherah.”

brings him wrongly to the conclusion that Jehovah should have a wife or woman goddess.

“Whatever an asherah is, Yahweh had one!”

he says.

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Preceding articles:

Marriage of Jesus 1 Mary, John, Judas, Thomas and Brown

Marriage of Jesus 2 Standard writings about Jesus

Marriage of Jesus 3 Listening women

Marriage of Jesus 4 Place of the woman

Marriage of Jesus 5 Papyrus fragment  in Egyptian Coptic

Marriage of Jesus 6 Jesus said to them “My wife”

Marriage of Jesus 7 Impaled

To be followed by:

Marriage of Jesus 9 Reason for a new marriage

Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant

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Further reading of interest:

  1. God or a god
  2. God of gods
  3. I am that I am Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh אהיה אשר אהיה
  4. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
  5. Lord in place of the divine name
  6. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God
  7. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #3 Callers upon God
  8. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #11 Prayer #9 Making the Name Holy
  9. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #12 Prayer #10 Talk to A Friend
  10. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #14 Prayer #12 The other name
  11. Who was Jesus? – Video
  12. Around pre-existence of Christ
  13. Yeshua a man with a special personality
  14. A man with an outstanding personality
  15. Jesus and his God
  16. Jesus begotten Son of God #1 Christmas and Christians
  17. Jesus begotten Son of God #2 Christmas and pagan rites
  18. Jesus begotten Son of God #9 Two millennia ago conceived or begotten
  19. Another way looking at a language #6 Set apart
  20. Challenging claim 1 Whose word
  21. The Word being a quality or aspect of God Himself
  22. Finding and Understanding Words and Meanings
  23. Missional hermeneutics 1/5
  24. Missional hermeneutics 2/5
  25. Nazarene Commentary Luke 3:1, 2 – Factual Data
  26. Archaeology and the Bible researcher 2/4
  27. How do trinitarians equate divine nature
  28. 2 Corinthians 5:19 – God in Christ
  29. Position and power
  30. Hellenistic influences
  31. The Advent of the saviour to Roman oppression
  32. Politics and power first priority #3 Elevation of Mary and the Holy Spirit
  33. Phoenicians sacrificed infants
  34. Catholicism, Anabaptism and Crisis of Christianity
  35. Religion and spirituality
  36. Looking for True Spirituality 6 Spirituality and Prayer
  37. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
  38. Self inflicted misery #7 Good news to our suffering
  39. Signs of the Last Days
  40. Misleading Pictures
  41. A Living Faith #4 Effort
  42. Can we not do what Jesus did?
  43. Reflect on how much idolizing happens
  44. Getting out of the dark corners of this world
  45. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
  46. Isaiah prophet and messenger of God
  47. Did Yahweh have a wife? Excerpt from Chapter 5: Polytheism: The Religion of Ancient Israel
  48. A New Jerusalem
  49. Israel, Fitting the Plan when people allow it
  50. Jerusalem God’s City for ever

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  • Asherah, Part I: The lost bride of Yahweh (farpointe.wordpress.com) >Asherah, Part I: The lost bride of Yahweh + reblog: Asherah, Part I: The lost bride of Yahweh
    The archaelogical record suggests that Asherah was the Mother Goddess of Israel, the Wife of God, according to William Dever, who has unearthed many clues to her identity. She was worshiped, apparently throughout the time Israel stood as a nation.  In many homes, images like the one above decorated household shrines.
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    Asherah’s image was lost to us not by chance, but by deliberate action of fundamentalist monotheists.  First Her images were torn down, then Her stories were rewritten, then Her name was forgotten.  In fact, Her name appears 40 times in modern translations of the Bible, but not at all in the first English translation, the King James Bible.  Since no one knew who Asherah was anymore in the 17th century when the King James Version (KJV) was being created, Her name was translated as groves of trees or trees or images in groves, without understanding that those trees and groves of trees represented a mother goddess.
  • The Way: Yahweh, The amalgamated Enlil and Enki (reverenddrred.wordpress.com)
    In this edition, I show how Yahweh/Jehovah may be Enlil and Enki. Not one, but two gods amalgamated into one. Sections include “Enlil” (breakdown of Enlil’s attributes), “Enki” (breakdown of Enki’s attributes), “Yahweh” (breakdown of Yahweh’s attributes), “Yahweh as Enlil”, and “Yahweh as Enki”.I only quote from one source, though many are used. There are countless verses in the Bible that may be utilized. However, I will only be stating the more well-known to prove the point. After reviewing the below information, the pattern will become evident as you read your Bible (regardless of translation).
  • Asherah, Wife of God (fractalfortress.wordpress.com)
    Do you remember the furor over Dan Brown’s depiction of Jesus in his book “The Da Vinci Code?” Fundamentalists were up in arms over the idea that perhaps God had a wife…but in ancient times, the Judeo-Christian god Yahweh did indeed have a female counterpart — and among some circles she was worshipped exclusively! Her name is Asherah, Lady of the Sea.Asherah is a Semitic “mother goddess” who appears in several ancient sources. She was loved by the Jews, Akkadians, Hittites, Canaanites, Sumerians, and possibly the Ancient Egyptians. Due to syncretism, she absorbed the traits of the Goddess Athirat. Her titles are similarly many and include Queen of Heaven, Creator of the Gods, Lady of the Sea, and Holiness.
  • Never Mind Jesus–Did God Have A Wife? (theatlantic.com)
    The recently revealed “evidence” that Jesus had a wife deserves those quotation marks. As various people have argued, a fragment of text written centuries after the crucifixion doesn’t carry much weight as a biographical source. However, when it comes to the question of whether Jesus’s father had a wife, the evidence is stronger. And I’m not talking about Joseph, but, rather, about Jesus’s heavenly father–God.

    I discussed this a few years ago in my book The Evolution of God. I argued (as had a number of scholars) that Israelite religion was for a long time polytheistic, and that full-fledged monotheism didn’t arrive until the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE. And, of course, in many polytheistic religions, gods have mates. So might Yahweh have had one for a time?

  • Know Your Bible Lesson 13: Warring Kingdoms (Period 5) (924jeremiah.wordpress.com)
    In our last lesson, we learned about how God instigated a massive civil war in Israel after the death of the idolatrous King Solomon. The nation was split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
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    All the nations in this area are serving manmade gods. Every god has a bunch of folklore attached to it. Certain gods are friends with other gods. Certain gods don’t like other gods. Certain gods are stronger and other gods are weaker. It’s all a bunch of make believe rubbish, but this is how stupid people get when they reject the real God.Now you have your male gods and your female gods. Baal is a male god, and he comes up more in the Bible because he’s considered to be one of the higher ranking gods. Baal was associated with weather control, which is of supreme importance to agricultural nations. Baal is outranked by big daddy god El. We don’t hear much about El in the Bible, but El was believed to have a queen named Asherah. So Asherah was the top female goddess, also called “the Queen of Heaven” (the same title we use for Mary in some branches of the Church today—yikes!).Every god has its worshiping paraphernalia. Asherah’s equipment included some physical object which is referred to as Asherah poles (or plural Asherim) in the Bible. People are always setting these dumb things up and then later someone else comes along and takes them down. And of course Yahweh finds all of this quite exasperating.

    We learn that our good king Asa is boldly defying his mother in his war against idolatry, because mom is a very big fan of Asherah.

  • Know Your Bible Lesson 19: More Kings & the Prophet Amos (Period 5) (924jeremiah.wordpress.com)
    The high priest makes all the people enter into a covenant (a serious promise) that they would honor Yahweh and obey all of His Laws. Then everyone troops over and tears down the temple to Baal that is in Jerusalem. Jehoiada gets the sacrificial system back on track and little Joash is placed on the royal throne.
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    What does God do when He’s mad and no one is listening to Him? He sends prophets to convict people of their sins and show them how to return to obedience. What happens if no one listens to the prophets? Well, then He has to come up with some other form of motivation, doesn’t He? Life in Judah starts feeling very unblessed. After Joash has had enough time to notice how rotten things are going, God raises up yet another prophet to explain the obvious.
  • Who is Yahweh? (gnosticwarrior.com)
    The name of the Hebrew national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah is Yahweh  (Jahveh, Jehovah or Iehoua pronounced “yohweh” or /ˈjɑːw/ or /ˈjɑːhw/; Hebrew: יהוה‎) and In the Hebrew Bible, Yahweh is written as יהוה (YHWH). In the book of Jonah, the name Yahweh (Lord) is mentioned 22 times, , Elohim or El (God) 13 times, and the combination Lord God four times for a total of 39 references. The meaning of El in the Hebrew Scriptures is the singular form of the word God and Elohim is the noun plural version. Rabbinic Judaism teaches that the Tetragrammaton (י-ה-ו-ה), YHWH, is the ineffable and actual name of God, and as such is not read aloud in the Shema but is traditionally replaced with אדני, Adonai (“Lord”).
  • Jesus is the Messiah (darnellbarkman.wordpress.com)
    The terms Messiah and Christ have a very rich history and carry a lot of expectations to Jesus when he took that identity upon himself:
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    In practice ‘Messiah’ is mostly restricted to the notion, which took various forms in ancient Judaism, of the coming King who would be David’s true heir, through whom YAHWEH [The Creator God’s proper name] would rescue Israel from pagan enemies.
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Doubting the reality, genuineness and effectiveness of God’s love

We doubt the reality, genuineness and effectiveness of God’s love.

The basic source of most of the pain humans face is that we lack a sense of being adequately loved. Only God through Jesus can supply this and yet we, Christians included, refuse to fully accept His love and demand something different or extra.

What extras do you demand before you will believe in God’s love?

Is it a happy marriage, a job, good health or perhaps the salvation of a relative?

Will we trust His love for us and enjoy His presence? Don’t put limits on the extent of His love. We decide who is and is not included. We invent conditions and performance criteria that must be met if people are to enjoy His love. Who have we decided is outside His love? Is it ourselves?

God calls all to enjoy His Unconditional Love.

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Dutch version / Nederlandse versie: Twijfelende aan de werkelijkheid, echtheid en de effectiviteit van Gods liefde

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Find also to read:

  1. Experiencing God
  2. No good thing will he withhold
  3. God demonstrates his own love
  4. Relying on the Love of God
  5. God’s Comfort
  6. God is Jehovah Shammah-God is There!
  7. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
  8. Walking in love by faith, not by sight
  9. The Spirit of God brings love, hope and freedom
  10. The Spirit of God imparts love,inspires hope, and gives liberty
  11. We love because he first loved us
  12. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
  13. A fact of History or just a fancy Story
  14. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
  15. No person has greater love than this one who surrendered his soul in behalf of his friends
  16. The redemption of man by Christ Jesus
  17. Christ’s ethical teaching
  18. Do not forget the important sign of belief
  19. If we love one another, God lives in us
  20. Glory of God appearing in our character
  21. Love envieth not
  22. Love is like playing the piano
  23. Love turns one person into two; and two into one
  24. Love will cure more sins than condemnation
  25. Lying in the senses in matters of love
  26. The one who has not had a taste of love
  27. This is true love
  28. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
  29. The Greatest of These is Love
  30. When we love we do not need laws
  31. Love been perfected with us
  32. Love envieth not
  33. A Living Faith #12 The Love for Jesus
  34. To be chained by love for another one
  35. No fear in love
  36. Love and cultivate that which is pure
  37. The first on the list of the concerns of the saint
  38. God let my compassionate affection be tolerant and kind
  39. A man who cannot forgive others
  40. Making time for prayer in Summerholiday
  41. Spread love everywhere you go
  42. Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness
  43. Unarmed truth and unconditional love
  44. Unconditional love
  45. Materialism, would be life, and aspirations

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  • Return To The Solid Place (openlifeup.wordpress.com)
    You must believe in the yes that comes back when you ask “Do you love me?” You must choose  this yes even when you do not experience it. You feel overwhelmed by distractions, fantasies, the disturbing desire to throw yourself into the world of pleasure. But you know already that you will not find there an answer to your deepest questions.
  • God Demonstrates His Love (rizn.ca)
    Imagine living like this. Can you envisage yourself being nice to someone who doesn’t deserve it? Can you imagine loving someone long before they ever return it to you? It’s a pretty epic thought when you start to think on it.But we needed a demonstration of God’s love before we ever came to Him. Often that demonstration was through someone else who’d experienced the life transforming power of it for themselves…and you are (and will be) the demonstration of God’s love for others who still don’t know and don’t understand…yet! The challenge is to live in faith and give with generosity the way God does.
  • The benefit of Loving (rollawaystones.com)
    Everything thing that we do in life, from the moment we are born until the moment we die, will all come down to love.  Everything else will fade away.
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    Why does God ask me to love Him with all of my heart, soul, and mind?”  Often times this question is answered with the explanation that God is a jealous God.  Which is 100% true!  But God doesn’t need our love. He is love.  So if He doesn’t need love, why does He want all of ours?
  • God’s Love – Equal and Unconditional for All Believers (shelleymmorris.wordpress.com)
    Christians being same as “humans” who make mistakes, get off track, at times act unwisely. Thus, describing “all of us” at some point/s in our lives:). My dad has always told me that “everyone” has had down times in their lives when things didn’t always go smoothly.
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    We also see Paul reprimanding Jewish believers for their attitude of “being better than” their Gentile brethren.  In my opinion, the main message of Romans is to remind Christians that everyone, regardless of their background, is guilty before God and in need of a saviour. Jesus is that saviour, and the work of salvation wrought by Him was all of Him, and all of grace. As a result, there is no reason anyone has for considering themselves better than anyone else. All Christians everywhere should, therefore, love God, love their  their Christian brothers/sisters, and live their lives to glorify Him.
  • Walking the Talk (funsizequeblogging.wordpress.com)
    We all know people that say I love God, and profess to be Christian, but when you look at their tweets and how they act outside of church, the two don’t add up. Something isn’t right…right?
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    God is more concerned about how you are living your life, not what you’re telling people just to impress them. People these days will say they love God just to get people off their backs, or to make themselves feel better about there being a possibility of them seeing hell.
  • He First Loved Us (dailywiththelordjesus.wordpress.com)
    Many say that God has created us to glorify Him. To believe that, you might consider that before God made anything, He said to Himself that rather than just be God by Himself, He wanted to create something to worship Himself, as if He Himself were inadequate by Himself; as if He were an insecure God and desired the confirmation from creation that He was everything.
  • Your Enemies Are Worthy of Your Love – Deal With It! (rjowles.wordpress.com)
    Refusing to love your enemies makes you an enemy of Christ and places you on the wrong side of God. Your piety, your church attendance, your prayers, your conduct, even your donations will not save you! They will not know that you are a disciple by your church attendance, but by your love!
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    The worst form of blasphemy there is, is to gather in the name of Christ and claim Christ’s presence, and then use that gathering as a means to deny love to anyone. For we are not gathered in Christ’s name but in Christ — and Christ is what He taught us! What Christ taught us is the will of His Father in heaven.
  • Wonderful Things in Your Law (Part 3) (thevoiceofone.org)
    We have been saying that the law is fulfilled by two aspects of our relationship with God—us in Christ and Christ in us.  Yet these manifest differently, and have different appearances, outwardly speaking.  This contributes to our collective confusion about the place of the law in Christianity.  Broadly speaking, all those laws whose observance seems to have ceased fall under the ceremonial/ritual category.  Because they are fulfilled in Christ, they are fulfilled outside of any observable realm.  Alternatively, the moral laws are fulfilled as Christ lives in us.  The fulfillment of these laws takes place in our bodies and in the visible world.
  • Love Radically (thebelovedblogdotcom.wordpress.com)
    Our purpose as Christians is to live a life that resembles Christs , and if we try to achieve that Christ like life we will also learn to develop that same kind of love. Radical love is loving those who are broken on the inside,loving the dying and destitute , and loving the outcasts and untouchables .
  • Ephesians 3:19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (calvinistview.com)
    The love of Christ shows God true love He didn’t just tell us He loved us, but He demonstrated His love by sending His Son in the likeness of man, to fulfill the laws requirements and be unjustly crucified on our behave. Bearing our sins and giving us His righteousness, making us justified in the eyes of God.

Give Thanks To God

 

Give Thanks To God

When times are lean with nought to share
When love is hard to find
Where cold nights reign with cupboards bare
Then God is on the mind

But who gives praise when life is grand
When God has seen us through
Who’ve learned in truth to understand
That God remembers too

How oft we fail to thank the Lord
For all His kindness done
Through love He’ll turn His vengeful sword
In Christ His faithful Son

Give thanks to God for large and small
Give thanks for life on earth
From deep within or not at all
Give praise for all you’re worth

Worthy is God of all our praise
For all His wondrous deeds
Who serve The Truth in all their ways
May find they have no needs

Yet still the nations live in stress
Where harvest brings defeat
They need to turn so God can bless
With food for all to eat

Yet those who have can ill afford
With belly’s full to sit
We need to pray through Christ our Lord
We need to do our bit

For things can change as times before
When God held back the rain
For who can tell if sin once more
Won’t change our times again

  ~ Michael P. Johnson

+++

  • Thanksgiving and Survivorship (thehopejourney.wordpress.com)
    You aren’t in your old home, you don’t have everything you once had, but God granted you so much more than this. He granted you life and joy, and a new story to tell with your survivor story. Don’t get so worked up in the day that you forget to honor and be thankful for what God has blessed you with. There is such blessing in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
  • I will trust in You alone for You have never failed me before. (forging4th.wordpress.com)
    I lay before God the fears, the disappointments, the anger, the rage, and all the stuff that for over 30 years has been all part of this thing… I literally think (or have thought) in this 1 area of my life God You made some Huge colossal mistake and it has pretty much followed me all my life. Yet, As I learned on Sunday
  • My God (christianmotivations.weebly.com)
    – Just think of it, the Lord is Your God.
    – Just think of it, the Lord is perfectly faithful.
    – As you look back over this year, think of the wonderful things He has done.
    – Now begin to praise and exalt His wonderful name.
  • Praise (fwgf.wordpress.com)Praise is a spontaneous outburst of thanksgiving for a redemptive act of God
    +
    When praise goes up from man to God, there is always a rain of His blessings and presence; expectations, desires and needs are met.
  • God is in control! (redeemedfrancoise.wordpress.com)
    For those of us in Christ we are assured that our lives are truly in Gods hands. We may ask why do the righteous suffer though? And thats a totally understandable question. Why do our problems and sorrows increase when we become children of God? Why do the wicked seem to enjoy there lives and be prosperous while us believers seem hopeless? We have all asked similar questions to these and its caused some of us to lose hope and trust in God. But let me tell you something God is in control!
  • Jonah 1:4-7 – Wherever We Go…There Is God. (pastorgkirby.wordpress.com)
    God can use anything to accomplish His will. He is the creator. He created the earth, the sea, and the wind. Satan may be the prince of the power of the air, but God is King. The outcome of the storm is that the ship gets to the point where it is about to break apart. Don’t know about you…but I’d be terrified.
    +
    Jonah 1:1-3 – God Calls and We Go…But Which Way?
    God has called each one of us to His service.
    +
    We must understand something very important here. When God calls and we say “no” (and we all do from time to time), our defiance, our disobedience is against God alone. Think about that for a moment. You are openly defying the God of the universe to do what you want to do. But that doesn’t stop us does it? Just like Jonah we are fooled into believing that if we go far enough for long enough…God will forget. As if He can’t see (sounds a little like Adam and Eve in the garden).
  • Prepare (watchingforthemorning.wordpress.com)
    The governance of God will bring a restoration of right relationships – even among the wild creatures, as proclaimed in Isaiah.  It restores right relationships within the human community, uniting all peoples in a common bond of peace – as Paul exhorts the Christian community to recognize and live.
    +
    Counting the cost
    There is a choice to be made.  There is a price to be paid.  Following Jesus, being a child of the kingdom, living the way of God, requires something of us.
  • Jars of Clay (samboanderson.wordpress.com)
    Life sometimes gives us more than we think we can handle; pressing and confusing days that lead to feelings of persecution and abandonment. But even in these circumstances we remain uncrushed, without despair, without abandonment, and undestroyed.
  • Conversion (joliow.wordpress.com)
    We must believe that the Word of God has the power to save us. Every promise made will be fulfilled. There is nothing that God cannot do and he does so want us to be able to live fully, joyfully and in the final analysis, we need to be convinced that he loves us unconditionally.
  • God’s Faithfulness
    The Lord is faithful.  What do I mean by that?  I mean that when I talk to Him and read His Word, He always reassures my heart.  Sometimes He changes the environment, sometimes He changes the path I’ve been walking down, but always He changes me.  Every time I invest in God, He pours back into me more than I am capable of giving Him.  There is no path you walk down that He cannot alter, direct or protect you from.

 

Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God

Lazy Christians

English: Faithful praying towards Makkah; Umay...

Faithful praying towards Makkah; Umayyad Mosque, Damascus.  (Foto Antonio Milena/ABr – hor – 08) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having to reply to some blogs on the saying that “Christians are to lazy to study and have no zeal for the deep things of God. I fear that they will not stand against the wiles of the devil as we enter into the tribulation. People will rush to Islam because it makes more sense the trinity is nonsense created 350 years after Christ from Greek and Roman Pagon tradition…” on a.o Shining light blog defies scripture! Where has the Lord God gone? and some other blogs pointing at the “stupidity of Christians” who consider Jesus to be a son of God, we would like to publish some of answer here too.

To consider Christadelphians and other Bible Students lazy to study and having no zeal for the deep things of God we would call unbecoming, because it are people who have no paid ministers, do their own searching and Bible study, organise themselves their own meetings and ecclesiae (‘churches’).

According to us it is inappropriate language to insult those who try after their working hours, to earn their living, to daily read in the Holy Scriptures and to regularly come together to discuss the Daily Bible Readings. Uncalled-for reproach we would like to defend all those who sincerely take a lot of their time, daily, to study the Bible and to look into the spiritual things of life.

Preaching Christians against not witnessing Muslims

The last hundred years in the so called civilised countries the citizens could find all sorts of Christians preaching at their doors or in public places. How many people are you able to encounter who never had a Jehovah Witness, a Mormon, a Pentecostal or Evangelical Christian at their doorstep? Those so called lazy Christians dared to go out and speak in the language of the people and present the words of God in the language of the people. How many Muslims offer the Word of God in the language of the people? How many people translated the Quran/Quoran/kor-Ahn/Koran in the many world languages? Would you describe all those scribes who tried to get the Word of God made clear in the tongue of the many nations as lazy Christians?

English: Muslims and Christians united for Egy...

Muslims and Christians united for Egypt by Carlos Latuff. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many Christians do go out in the world and are active on many platforms, internet sites to proclaim the Word of God. Can this also be said about the Muslims? Most what people hear form Muslims is the hate bearing words against Christians and non-believers. But where is their call to the love of God and the love for the neighbour? How many Muslims actively show that brotherly love God wants his creation to show? How many People did you already got on your doorstep or visit you at home to share their Islamic faith with you?

On the streets, on the internet, in special places open to every one, we can find more Christians, proclaiming the Word of God and trying to get people becoming a God loving person, than we can find Muslims doing that.

Thinking all Christians and all Muslims are of the same lot

Looking at certain reactions on Islamic websites we can not fail to see that many Muslims do have a wrong idea about ‘all’ Christians, thinking that all Christians are the same and do think the same. Many of the Muslims put every Christian in the same box, like we can find many Christians who put all Muslims also in the same category.

Like many Christians do not know that there are many other non-trinitarian Christians than the Jehovah Witnesses, the majority of the Muslims consider all Christians as Trinitarians and blasphemous Islam haters.
Both would better go over those different people with a fine-tooth comb.

An earth-father or patriarch

Many Muslims also do not seem to understand the sonship of Christ, though themselves consider Avram/Abraham as their patriarch or “aartsvader” = “earthy father” or “stamvader” = “tribe father” or “father of their tribe” the imam of their nation.

“And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain commands, which he fulfilled: He said: “I will make thee an Imam to the Nations.” He pleaded: “And also [Imams] from my offspring!” He answered: “But My Promise is not within the reach of evil-doers.”” (Koran 2:124 Yusufali)

Meaning of Islam

Harper's Muslims and Christians

Harper’s Muslims and Christians (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Several Muslims, Christians and irreligious people forget what “Islam” really means. The Jews and Christians have and speak about the “Shalom” or the “Peace be with you”.

That peace, purity, submission and obedience brings “Islam” from the Arabic root of “Salema”. As such “Islam” means “submission to the Will of God and obedience to His Law“. It is considering oneself part of the Peace of the Creator God. Calling yourself as part of the ‘Islam’ would  mean you are willing to give yourself to the Creator God, Allah, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

Everything and every phenomenon in the world other than man is administered totally by God-made laws, ie. they should be obedient to God and submissive to his laws. Those that are in a ‘State of Islam’ are persons who have given their inner being to the Most High, willing to give their ‘body and soul’ in submission to that God. We all may Man posses qualities of intelligence and choice, but they all are their  and we only can exist because God allows us to exist. We as creations of the One God are all invited by the Creator to submit to the good Will of Him, Allah/God and to obey His law, ie, become a God fearing and God loving being. For the Jews this is becoming a good Jew, for Christians this would mean to accept also the one send by God and to follow the teachings of that Nazarene Jew Jeshua/Jesus Christ. For the followers of the teacher Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim it would mean to become a Muslim or Bahá’í.

According to the Bahá’í, Jewish and Christian teachings the human purpose is to learn to know and love God through such methods as prayer, reflection, and being of service to humanity.

The word Allah in the Arabic language means God, or more accurately, The One and Only Eternal God, Creator of the Universe, Lord of all lords, King of all kings, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. The word Allah to mean God is also used by Arabic speaking Jews and Christians.

Already from the early ages there were people who considered that there was /is a Most High Supreme Being that created everything around us. Through the ages there have always been faithful people who wanted only to honour that Almighty God of gods. There where also people who wanted to love that God or Allah so deeply they also wanted to know who He was and what His Name was. For that reason Allah let his beloved people know Who He was and how he could be named.

 (1)  And יהוה {Jehovah} said to Mosheh, “Now see what I do to Pharaoh, for with a strong hand he is going to let them go, and with a strong hand he is going to drive them out of his land.”  (2)  And Elohim spoke to Mosheh and said to him, “I am יהוה {Jehovah}.  (3)  “And I appeared to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ, as Ěl Shaddai. And by My Name, יהוה {Jehovah}, was I not known to them?  (4)  “And I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Kenaʽan, the land of their sojournings, in which they have sojourned.  (5)  “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Yisra’ĕl whom the Mitsrites are enslaving, and I have remembered My covenant.  (6)  “Say, therefore, to the children of Yisra’ĕl, ‘I am יהוה {Jehovah}, and I shall bring you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites, and shall deliver you from their enslaving, and shall redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments,  (7)  and shall take you as My people, and I shall be your Elohim. And you shall know that I am יהוה {Jehovah} your Elohim who is bringing you out from under the burdens of the Mitsrites.  (8)  ‘And I shall bring you into the land which I swore to give to Aḇraham, to Yitsḥaq, and to Yaʽaqoḇ?, to give it to you as an inheritance. I am יהוה {Jehovah}.’ ” (Exodus 6:1-8 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (5)  Thus said the Ěl, יהוה {Jehovah}, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:  (6)  “I, יהוה {Jehovah}, have called You in righteousness, and I take hold of Your hand and guard You, and give You for a covenant to a people, for a light to the gentiles,  (7)  to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.  (8)  “I am יהוה {Jehovah}, that is My Name, and My esteem I do not give to another, nor My praise to idols.  (9)  “See, the former predictions have come, and new ones I am declaring; before they spring forth I let you hear them.”” (Isaiah 42:5-9 The Scriptures 1998+)

Those who love and recognise יהוה {Jehovah} should all be united in the same love as their Creator. Submission to the good Will of God, together with obedience to His beneficial Law, ie, would be becoming a child of God or belong to the People of God, either by what the world would call becoming a Jew or becoming a Christian or like the followers of ‘their prophet Muhhamad’ would call themselves to be a Muslim, as the best safeguard for man’s peace and harmony.

Worshipping prophet not followed

Quran, Mus'haf_Al_Tajweed.

Quran, Mus’haf_Al_Tajweed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many Muslims do not want to believe that Christians would worship the One and only one God, Creator of heaven and earth and everything around יהוה. But lots of Christians consider Abraham also as their patriarch who witnessed the Wisdom of God and who received the promise for all God loving people, first given to the Judean People of God, afterwards also to gentiles, Christians and Muslims.

“Were ye witnesses when death appeared before Jacob? Behold, he said to his sons: “What will ye worship after me?” They said: “We shall worship Thy god and the god of thy fathers, of Abraham, Isma’il and Isaac,- the one [True] Allah: To Him we bow [in Islam].”” (Koran 2:133 Yusufali)

“Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah’s [Which is Islam], and he joined not gods with Allah.” (Koran 3:67 Yusufali)

Chosen people and their faith

Christians do believe in God (in several languages a title also said like in Arabic: Allah) and in the ones He had chosen, like Abraham, Ishmael, the other patriarch Jacob and many other prophets whose books we now have assembled in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible.

“Say: “We believe in Allah, and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in [the Books] given to Moses, Jesus, and the prophets, from their Lord: We make no distinction between one and another among them, and to Allah do we bow our will [in Islam].”” (Koran 3:84 Yusufali)

Son of a mother

First of all there is the sonship, like we can find Jeshua, the prophet Jesus to be the son of Miriam (Miryam, Mary/Maria)

Koran 2:87 We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of Apostles; We gave Jesus the son of Mary Clear Signs and strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. Is it that whenever there comes to you an Apostle with what ye yourselves desire not, ye are puffed up with pride? — ome ye call impostors, and others ye slay!

Koran 2:87 And most certainly We gave Musa the Book and We sent messengers after him one after another; and We gave Isa (Issou/Jeshua/Jesus/Jezus/Chesu), the son of Marium (Miriam/Mary/Maria), clear arguments and strengthened him with the holy spirit, What! whenever then a messenger came to you with that which your souls did not desire, you were insolent so you called some liars and some you slew.

Koran 2:253 Those apostles we endowed with gifts, some above others: To one of them Allah spoke; others He raised to degrees of honor; to Jesus the son of Mary we gave Clear Signs, and strengthened him with the holy spirit. If Allah had so willed, succeeding generations would not have fought among each other, after Clear Signs had come to them, but they chose to wrangle, some believing and others rejecting. If Allah had so willed, they would not have fought each other; but Allah fulfilleth His plan.

Son of a father

Many people in the world do receive sons and call themselves children of that father, but we also find other children who consider the previous prophets their father. Like for us Christians the prophet Abraham is our patriarch and father.

About the Nazarene Jewish man Jeshua, who fitted the Plan of God, it is also know that many say he is the son of Allah, the Only One God:

Koran 2:116 They say: “Allah hath begotten a son”: Glory be to Him. — ay, to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and on earth: Everything renders worship to Him.

Koran 3:47 She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?” He said: “Even so: Allah createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a Plan, He but saith to it, ’Be,’ and it is!”

A son to Allah

Allah has taken to himself a son which we consider to be the son of man in the line of Adam and many prophets:

Matthew 1:1 this is the genealogy of Jeshua/Yeshua the Messiah, son of David, son of Avraham/Abraham:

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1 KJ21)

English: The Bible

The Bible with the Gospels telling the world about the son of David and son of God (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Matthew’s first gospel tells us about an angel of Adonai who appeared to Yosef (Joseph), son of David, not to be afraid to take Miryam as his wife; for what has been conceived in her is from the Ruach haKodesh, the Power of God or Holy Spirit. That what she bears does come directly from the Most High Elohim and the angels tell Joseph and Mary that she will give birth to a son, which they have to name Jeshua/Yeshua/Yashua/Yahushua, (which means ‘Jehovah saves’). It is because this son fostered by this two common people will save his people from their sins.

The virgin conceived and brought a son on this earth, and they called him ‘immanu el” or “God with us”

“20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take unto you Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Yashua: for he shall save his people from their sins. 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord [Yahweh] by the prophet, saying, 23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had invited him, and took unto him his wife: 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Yashua.” (Matthew 1:20-25 KJBPNV)

When the son of those God fearing people grew up, he learned everything from them. (In case he would have been God he could not learn anything from them because he would have known everything already.) Becoming an adult he went into the river Jordan to become baptised by his nephew John and when he came out of the water people were astonished to suddenly hear a voice from the air. All the onlookers could hear the voice of Allah, the God of heaven and earth, who let everybody present hear that they could see His only begotten beloved son.

“16 And having been baptized, Jesus immediately went up out of the water: and, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And a voice from heaven, said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17 KJV_2011)

Son of David who received from his Father in heaven

Jeshua went to many places where people could see him (remember that nobody can see God or they would die) and found also witnesses who shouted for example “son of David! take pity on us!”

“And when Yahshua departed therefrom, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, You Son of David, have mercy on us.” (Matthew 9:27 KJBPNV)

The son of man promised for many years had come into being and received the power from his Father, without Him Jesus could do nothing.

“But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another: for truly I say to you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man has come.” (Matthew 10:23 KJBPNV)

“Then answered Yahshua and said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for whatever things he does, these also does the Son likewise.” (John 5:19 KJBPNV)

“You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I” (John 14:28 KJBPNV)

Jesus himself clearly speaks about his Father in heaven who has handed over everything to him for a while. Because Jesus comes directly from the Father he, like any child, knows his father better than anybody else.

“25  In regard to that, Jesus then said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto babes. 26 Yes, Father: for that was your gracious will. 27 All things have been given to me by my Father: and no one really knows the Son, except the Father; nor does anyone really know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all you who labor and are carrying a heavy load, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:25-30 KJV_2011)

A son of glad tidings

We have Jesus who is … “the son of man … lord of shabbat!” (Matthew 12:8) but also “Mashiach, the son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

“And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”” (Matthew 16:16 KJ21)

Allah is the One who gives the world everything we can see. He is the One who gave the glad tidings of a Word from Him that this man from Nazareth would be the Christ or Christos, the Messiah.

“Behold! the angels said: “O Mary! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of [the company of] those nearest to Allah;” (Koran 3:45 Yusufali)

But it would be wrong to consider that son of man, son of David, son of Abraham, son of Adam (see the genealogy of Christ in the different Bible books or gospels) as being Allah or the One Elohim Hashem Jehovah, God Himself.

“In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every-one that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things.”” (Koran 5:19 Yusufali)

“And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the Law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the Law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah.” (Koran 5:49 Yusufali)

“They do blaspheme who say: “Allah is Christ the son of Mary.” But said Christ: “O Children of Israel! worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord.” Whoever joins other gods with Allah,- Allah will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help.” (Koran 5:75 Yusufali)

Son of the One Greatest Elohim

Jesus (Jeshua/Ishi), who never claimed to be God, told not to worship him but to honour the one greater than him, the Only One God to whom Jesus prayed himself and told us also to pray to.

“Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14 KJ21)

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law,” (Galatians 4:4 KJ21)

“30 And the angel said unto her, “Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. 31 And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. 32 He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David, 33 and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His Kingdom there shall be no end.” 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:30-35 KJ21)

” (21)  And it came to be, when all the people were immersed, יהושע {Jeshua} also being immersed, and praying, the heaven was opened,  (22)  and the Set-apart Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are My Son, the Beloved, in You I did delight.”  (23)  And when יהושע {Jeshua} Himself began, He was about thirty years of age, being, as reckoned by law, son of Yosĕph, of Ěli, (24)  of Mattithyahu, of Lĕwi, of Meleḵi, of Yanah, of Yosĕph, (25)  of Mattithyahu, of Amots, of Naḥum, of Ḥesli, of Noḡah, (26)  of Maʽath, of Mattithyahu, of Shimʽi, of Yosĕph, of Yehuḏah, (27)  of Yoḥanan, of Rephayah, of Zerubbaḇel, of She’alti’ĕl, of Neri, (28)  of Meleḵi, of Addi, of Qosam, of Elmoḏam, of Ěr, (29)  of Yehoshua, of Eliʽezer, of Yorim, of Mattithyahu, of Lĕwi, (30)  of Shimʽon, of Yehuḏah, of Yosĕph, of Yonam, of Elyaqim, (31)  of Melea, of Menna, of Mattattah, of Nathan, of Dawiḏ, (32)  of Yishai, of Oḇĕḏ, of Boʽaz, of Salmon, of Naḥshon, (33)  of Amminaḏaḇ, of Ram, of Ḥetsron, of Perets, of Yehuḏah, (34)  of Yaʽaqoḇ, of Yitsḥaq, of Aḇraham, of Teraḥ, of Naḥor, (35)  of Seruḡ, of Reʽu, of Peleḡ, of Ěḇer, of Shĕlaḥ, (36)  of Qĕynan, of Arpaḵshaḏ, of Shĕm, of Noaḥ, of Lemeḵ, (37)  of Methushelaḥ, of Ḥanoḵ, of Yereḏ, of Mahalalĕl, of Qĕynan, (38)  of Enosh, of Shĕth, of Aḏam, of Elohim.” (Luke 3:21-38 The Scriptures 1998+)

“40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said unto him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is, being interpreted, “the Christ”).” (John 1:40-41 KJ21)

“Then answered Jesus and said unto them, “Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do; for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5:19 KJ21)

“Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”” (John 20:17 KJ21)

Anointed and given tasks by his Father

“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38 KJ21)

“22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, 23 that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father who hath sent Him.” (John 5:22-23 KJ21)

Prayed to his Father

Jesus did never asked for himself something to himself, but asked that not his will but the will of his Father would be done. It was to this Father he prayed and wanted all people to pray to.

“9  In this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. 10 Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.” (Matthew 6:9-13 KJ21)

“Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.” (John 15:16 KJ21)

“And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23 KJ21)

” (40)  And coming to the place, He said to them, “Pray that you do not enter into trial.”  (41)  And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and falling on His knees He was praying,  (42)  saying, “Father, if it be Your counsel, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My desire, but let Yours be done.”  (43)  And there appeared a messenger from heaven to Him, strengthening Him.  (44)  And being in agony, He was praying more earnestly. And His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:40-44 The Scriptures 1998+)

An intercessor or mediator

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5 KJ21)

From the texts above we do hope you can see that not only Adam was the son of God and Eva His daughter who created them directly, but that also Jesus was created directly by Allah, and therefore he certainly could call himself son of God. But he offered himself also to be one of God His people, one of the most beloved ones of the Most High, Allah, the One God.

The 2° Adam was like the 1° Adam chosen by Allah:

“Allah did choose Adam and Noah, the family of Abraham, and the family of ’Imran above all people,-” (Koran 3:33 Yusufali)

We as children of Abraham and of Adam should look at the man who made it possible to have the relation between God and man restored.

“O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters.” (Koran 7:31 Yusufali)

Son lower than Father

Today we can enjoy the many things and look forward to a better future because we did receive that son of man, who is also the son of God and now sit at the right hand of his Father, Allah, the only One God Jehovah, who is the greatest and without Him we can do nothing, even Jesus not, who is the faithful witness of God. In this world a son or daughter may become higher or better than his father or mother, but they shall never be able to come in a higher position the the Most High.

”  (5)  and from יהושע {Jeshua} Messiah, the trustworthy witness, the first-born from the dead, and the ruler of the sovereigns of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,  (6)  and has made us sovereigns and priests to His Elohim and Father, to Him be esteem and rule forever and ever. Amĕn.” (Revelation 1:5-6 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (18)  And let them know that You, Whose Name is יהוה {Jehovah}, You alone are the Most High over all the earth.” (Psalms 83:18 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (3)  For not knowing the righteousness of Elohim, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not subject themselves to1 the righteousness of Elohim. Footnote: 1Or did not obey.  (4)  For Messiah is the goal1 of the ‘Torah unto righteousness’to everyone who believes. Footnote: 1Or end purpose; not termination.  (5)  For Mosheh writes about the righteousness which is of the Torah, “The man who does these shall live by them.”  (6)  But the righteousness of belief speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who shall ascend into the heavens?’ ” – that is, to bring Messiah down; or,  (7)  “ ‘Who shall descend into the abyss?’ ” – that is, to bring Messiah up from the dead.  (8)  But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” – that is, the word of belief which we are proclaiming:  (9)  That if you confess with your mouth the Master יהושע {Jeshua} and believe in your heart that Elohim has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.  (10)  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, and so is saved.  (11)  Because the Scripture says, “Whoever puts his trust in Him shall not be put to shame.”  (12)  Because there is no distinction between Yehud?ite and Greek, for the same Master of all is rich to all those calling upon Him.  (13)  For “everyone who calls on the Name of יהוה {Jehovah} shall be saved.”” (Romans 10:3-13 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (21)  “And I shall call for a sword against Gog? on all My mountains,” declares the Master יהוה {Jehovah}, “the sword of each one being against his brother.  (22)  “And I shall judge him with pestilence and blood, and rain down flooding rain and hailstones, fire and sulphur, on him and on his bands and on the many peoples who are with him.  (23)  “And I shall exalt Myself and set Myself apart, and I shall be known in the eyes of many nations. And they shall know that I am יהוה {Jehovah}.” ’ “(Ezekiel 38:21-23 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (28)  “You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you did love Me, you would have rejoiced that I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (3)  And I wish you to know that the head of every man is the Messiah, and the head of woman is the man, and the head of Messiah is Elohim.” (1Corinthians 11:3 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (15)  The man went away, and told the Yehud?im that it was יהושע {Jeshua} who made him well.  (16)  And because of this the Yehuḏim persecuted יהושע {Jeshua}, and were seeking to kill Him, because He was doing these healings on the Sabbath.  (17)  But יהושע {Jeshua} answered them, “My Father works until now, and I work.”  (18)  Because of this, then, the Yehuḏim were seeking all the more to kill Him, ‘because not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He also called Elohim His own Father, making Himself equal with Elohim.’  (19)  Therefore יהושע {Jeshua} responded and said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son is able to do none at all by Himself, but only that which He sees the Father doing, because whatever He does, the Son also likewise does.  (20)  “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all that He Himself does. And greater works than these He is going to show Him, in order that you marvel.  (21)  “For as the Father raises the dead and makes alive, even so the Son makes alive whom He wishes.  (22)  “For the Father judges no one, but has given all the judgment to the Son,  (23)  that all should value the Son even as they value the Father. He who does not value the Son does not value the Father who sent Him.  (24)  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me possesses everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.  (25)  “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Elohim. And those having heard shall live.  (26)  “For as the Father possesses life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to possess life in Himself,  (27)  and He has given Him authority also to do judgment, because He is the Son of Ad?am.  (28)  “Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the tombs shall hear His voice,  (29)  and shall come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have practised evil matters, to a resurrection of judgment.  (30)  “Of Myself I am unable to do any matter. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own desire, but the desire of the Father who sent Me.  (31)  “If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.  (32)  “There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesses of Me is true.” (John 5:15-32 The Scriptures 1998+)

Men of God

English: Abraham, Sarah and Hagar Русский: Авр...

Abraham, man of God, Sarah and (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Already in the Beréshith, the first book of the Holy Scriptures, we can find The Supreme Being making all things. As the Great Designer He is the Originator of everything, including man. Adam and Eve (Ḥawwah, the mannin) were His direct makings, His children, who could call him Father. Afterwards still many men of God, or men coming from God could call the Almighty Elohim their Father.

” (7)  And יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim formed the man out of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils breath of life. And the man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (18)  And יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim said, “It is not good for the man to be alone, I am going to make a helper for him, as his counterpart.”” (Genesis 2:18 The Scriptures 1998+)

” (21)  So יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  (22)  And the rib which יהוה {Jehovah} Elohim had taken from the man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.  (23)  And the man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one is called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.”  (24)  For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:21-24 The Scriptures 1998+)

We have received men of God (i.e. children of God having become adult) who brought us the Words of their Father in heaven. The chosen one from God, Abraham was allowed by his Father in heaven to become the witness for God and the father of many.

“And strive in His cause as ye ought to strive, [with sincerity and under discipline]. He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on you in religion; it is the cult of your father Abraham. It is He Who has named you Muslims, both before and in this [Revelation]; that the Messenger may be a witness for you, and ye be witnesses for mankind! So establish regular Prayer, give regular Charity, and hold fast to Allah! He is your Protector-the Best to protect and the Best to help!” (Koran 22:78 Yusufali)

” (17)  And יהוה {Jehovah} said, “Shall I hide from Aḇraham what I am doing,  (18)  since Aḇraham is certainly going to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?  (19)  “For I have known him, so that he commands his children and his household after him, to guard the way of יהוה {Jehovah}, to do righteousness and right-ruling, so that יהוה {Jehovah} brings to Aḇraham what He has spoken to him.”” (Genesis 18:17-19 The Scriptures 1998+)

On those men brought into the world by a man and a woman, allowed by God to have children, God brought His blessings and let them also announce the marvellous action which would take place in the future. (The one of Jesus been born and being risen from death has already come true).

“Those were some of the prophets on whom Allah did bestow His Grace,- of the posterity of Adam, and of those who We carried [in the Ark] with Noah, and of the posterity of Abraham and Israel of those whom We guided and chose. Whenever the Signs of [Allah] Most Gracious were rehearsed to them, they would fall down in prostrate adoration and in tears.” (Koran 19:58 Yusufali)

We, having found a restored relation with Allah, the Most High Almighty God, can now also come to Him (Jehovah) and call Him our heavenly Father.

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Please do read also:

  1. God is One
  2. Only one God
  3. God of gods
  4. Creator of heaven and earth and everything around יהוה
  5. What are the attributes of God?
  6. “Who is The Most High” ? Who is thee Eternal? Who is Yehovah? Who is God?
  7. The Father (Jehovah) is God Alone
  8. How did the Trinity Doctrine Develop
  9. History of the acceptance of a three-in-one God
  10. The History of the Development of the Trinity Doctrine
  11. For those who have not the rudiments of an historical sense
  12. Is God comprised of three persons, or is He just one person?
  13. Altered to fit a Trinity
  14. The Trinity: paganism or Christianity?
  15. The Trinity – the Truth
  16. Trinity in the Bible
  17. Trinity: A False Doctrine of a False Church
  18. Trinity And Pagan Influence
  19. Questions for those who believe in the Trinity
  20. How do trinitarians equate divine nature
  21. The Word being a quality or aspect of God Himself
  22. The Great Trinity debate
  23. Newton not believing in the Holy Trinity
  24. Only-begotten god (OBGOD
  25. 2 Corinthians 5:19 – God in Christ
  26. Preexistence in the Divine purpose and Trinity
  27. On the Nature of Christ
  28. The Christ, the anointed of God
  29. Christ begotten through the power of the Holy Spirit
  30. Jesus begotten Son of God #1 Christmas and Christians
  31. Jesus begotten Son of God #4 Promised Prophet and Saviour
  32. Jesus begotten Son of God #5 Apostle, High Priest and King
  33. Jesus begotten Son of God #6 Anointed Son of God, Adam and Abraham
  34. Jesus begotten Son of God #7 A matter of the Future
  35. Jesus begotten Son of God #8 Found Divinely Created not Incarnated: The Anointed begotten Son of God
  36. Jesus begotten Son of God #9 Two millennia ago conceived or begotten
  37. Jesus begotten Son of God #11 Existence and Genesis Raising up
  38. Jesus begotten Son of God #13 Pre-existence excluding virginal birth of the Only One Transposed
  39. Jesus begotten Son of God #14 Beloved Preminent Son and Mediator originating in Mary
  40. Jesus begotten Son of God #15 Son of God Originating in Mary
  41. Jesus begotten Son of God #17 Adam, Eve, Mary and Christianity’s central figure
  42. Jesus begotten Son of God #18 Believing in inhuman or human person
  43. About a man who changed history of humankind
  44. Servant of his Father
  45. For the Will of Him who is greater than Jesus
  46. Christ having glory
  47. Russell and his beliefs
  48. One God the Father, a compendium of essays
  49. God loving people justified
  50. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
  51. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #2 Purity
  52. Fearing the right person
  53. Christianity is a love affair

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  • A good example how certain Christians misunderstand the word Allah and what Islam should really mean is seen in Allah has the Same Behavior as Satan (justiceshallovercome.wordpress.com)
    In his text the writer does not seem to recognise that in the Bible you shall also be able to find many instances where God call unto destroying of killing other people.
    The writer seems to focus on militant fundamentalist Muslims where perhaps “The Altoyah muslims says that Allah is Satan” (Never heard such a thing) “The Terrorists of Bin laden says that Allah is Born out of Lucifer” (where can we see this written or hear him say that?), “this means the same as that Allah is Born out of Devil, this means also the same as that Allah is Born out of Satan.” Where he seems to forget what Satan means. Satan is any adversary, so it would not be abnormal to call Jehovah God the adversary or satan against the evil world. The writer of the article clearly considers the wrong viewpoint of certain Christians where Satan has become a devilish being which has two horns on its face and lives in a underground where people after they die will be tortured.
  • Conversations at the Mosque – Islam v Christianity (sianarulanantham.wordpress.com)
    During my visit to Bahrain I took the tour of Al Fateh Grand Mosque. I was asked to dress in a Hijab and was shown around the building.
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    My guide was a young lady called Faiza who had such a sweet humble nature, it was a pleasure to talk to her. She had a profound love of God and a desire to serve him and dedicate her life to him.  She was keen to share her faith and I mine.
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    So what did I learn? That Muslims believe that:

    • There is only one God and our first commandment is to serve Him (although Islam does not attribute a gender to God) and then to serve others
    • Abraham had direct communication with God and Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist are among the prophets
    • Jesus was born of a virgin and was God’s messenger, the messiah who was foretold in Jewish scriptures
    • Mary was a very special women, chosen by God
    • Jesus healed the sick, raised people from the dead and was without sin
    • There will be a second coming of Christ, which will be a time of judgement.
    • We can communicate directly with God through prayer, we don’t need priests or rabbi as intercessors
    • There are angels who God uses as messengers
  •  In Secular Sunday: Losing My Religion, Part 1: Christianity (rebekkaksteg.com) can be seen how difficult it is for people to understand why God allows certain things to happen. THey donot seem to understand what happened in the Garden of Eden and  do not see that when people thought they could do it better than God, when He gave them the right to rule the world, they should not blame Him for the things they did wrong.
    She also writes:
    I left Islam, and in the end, I couldn’t see any convincing evidence as to why I should believe in god at all. All I see is fairy tales, make-believe and wishful thinking. And I’m sorry, I’d rather be hurt by the truth than comforted by a lie.
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    God orders genocides, murder and torture of other people, but that’s okay, because those were heathens who were damned anyway. God is okay with babies being born with horrible birth defects or cancer, but it is our fault for being sinful in the first place.
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    At the age of 15, I really began to see the hypocrisy of many of my fellow Christians. The girls who were leading the worship sessions, and spoke about “saving yourself for marriage” were the ones who went all the way with their boyfriends.
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    But if God is truly good, why would He allow so much evil in the world? If He is truly all-powerful and all-knowing? If She exists and we are given free will, this world seemed like a test designed to make us fail.
  • Christian-Jews-Muslims and Concept of God (makashfa.wordpress.com)There are two fundamental points between Islam and Christianity which,for the sake of the truth and the peace of the world, deserved a very serious and deep investigation. As these two religions claim their origin from one and the same source, it would follow that no important point of controversy between them should be allowed to exist. Both these great religions believe in the existence of the Deity and in the covenant made between God and the Prophet Abraham.
  • Damnable idol of “Catholic Jesus” erected in Syria (ivarfjeld.com)
    In the midst of a conflict rife with sectarianism, a giant bronze statue of Jesus has gone up on a the Syrian Cherubim mountain, apparently under cover of a truce among three factions in the country’s civil war.
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    There are no limits to lawlessness, when people mock God in the name of “Jesus”. The law is crystal clear.  Man shall not make any image, in the likeness of anything in Heaven above or on the Earth below.
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    A false lawless copy-cat Messiah has guided the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, lead astray to follow demonic powers.  No doubt the Islamic forces agreed on a cease fire, to let the god-mockers set up their gross idol.
  • Pakistani Police Hunting Down Christian Who Dared To Correct Islamic Misconceptions About Christianity (midnightwatcher.wordpress.com)
    “Police and a banned Islamic extremist group in Lahore, Pakistan are searching for a young Christian accused of blasphemy – with the extremist group calling for his death – after he sought to correct misconceptions about Christianity in a Muslim book, sources said. Sources close to Adnan Masih, 26, said he believes that if he turns himself in, he will be killed by either the Islamic extremist Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) or the Pakistani judicial system, which makes blasphemy against Islam’s prophet punishable by death.
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    A Few Simple Questions for Muslim Visitors – “The Qur’an teaches that, according to Christianity, God acquired a son through procreation with Mary. In the eyes of Muslims, the term ‘son of God’ is believed to be, and is therefore understood, in a literal sense.  But this misrepresentation is so far from the basic tenets of Christianity that any serious student of the Qur’an should begin questioning the veracity of some of the teachings of Islam on this error alone… Because of Mohammed’s misunderstanding of what Christians believed and practiced, Islam teaches that the Christian belief of the Trinity is a polytheistic teaching of  ’three gods’, characterized as the ‘Father’, and the ‘Son’ and the ‘Virgin Mary’ …” Read more.
  • In A Few Simple Questions for Muslim Visitors the writer misleading says that the teachings of the historic Christian faith that was delivered to the saints would be different to what the apostles believed and the many followers of Christ who kept truthful to the Only One God. The so called midnightwatcher also does not leave an opportunity to react, which shows how much reactions are avoided in the fear to having it answered properly or to let others disagree or show where the person goes wrong in his thinking.
  • U.S. imam: Muslims can take the property of Christians and Jews (cofda.wordpress.com)
    Yasir Qadhi (aka Abu Ammaar Yasir Kazi) is an American imam and college professor who is described by a 2011 New York Times Magazine essay as “one of the most influential conservative clerics in American Islam.”
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    In his sermon/lecture in the YouTube audio below, Qadhi begins by calling Christians “shirk” for being “polythesists” who believe in the Triune God (three persons in one God), instead of Islam’s “monotheist” god Allah.Then Qadhi really steps up his verbal abuse. He says, since “there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah wuzza wuzza,” Christians are “by necessity and by definition … the most evil of all evils.” Like all “unbelievers” and “polytheists,” Christians are “filthy.” They are ”najusa” (feces, urine) — “a filthy impure dirty substance.”
  • Test the Spirit (evangelize4life.org)
    My recent (predetermined) encounters, with a Jehovah Witness and two Islamic Saudi Arabian students, supports John’s admonition. Both religions deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh (not God), and insist that He was but a mere man or prophet of Allah. The Bible describes Satan as the father of lies and is responsible for promoting error regarding the true identity of Jesus Christ our Lord. According to scripture Lucifer uses false prophets, religions, doctrines, and more to propagate satanic lies in order to blind the eyes of unbelievers from the truth of God’s Word. In this same chapter, John describes the work of the Holy Spirit as “spirit of truth” and the activities of Satan as “spirit of error.”
  • What is a religion? (jesuschristzfreedom.wordpress.com)
    There are several, or dozens, or hundreds of religions in the world. I’m not sure how many, because measuring where a religion stops and where the next one starts is like measuring where Alaskan Inuit becomes a different language than Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit. Because of this, there is really no way to know how many languages there are in the world, either. If these people can understand these people, and they can understand them, but they can’t understand them…
  • Once again an article on a site which does not give any possibility to react is What is the Bible: A Summary, and Some Important Highlights (servehiminthewaiting.com) were the writer also considers the New Testament to be the story of God-man which than would be Jesus. She understands that Christ is a title, rather than a name, and agrees that the prophesied Christ had come, and accomplished the redemptive work which he came to do, that is; “having never sinned, he died for (our) Human Sin, and rose from the dead, thereby buying our pardon, and commissioned.” Acknowledging that Christ Jesus died she also should recognise a sign that this was an element of humanness which God does not have as an eternal Spirit. God, who does not tell lies, can not be tempted, can not sin and can not die, said about that Nazarene Jew: “This is my beloved son”.  when Jesus would be God all the promises made in the Old Testament would be false conceptions and would have people to believe that god must have been a terrible tyrant and unjust God, because why did He wait so long before He made an end to the effect of the first sin. And why do we still have to wait so long before we can see and enter that Kingdom of God about spoken in the Old Testament all the time?

Some one or something to fear #3 Cases, folks and outing

Fear to use a name of a ghost, person or group

5. Fear from knowing previous cases

Ghost fear

Ghost fear (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

It is not always from personal history that a person learns to fear. Regardless of whether they themselves have experienced trauma, or if they have observed the fear in others, people are aware in what happens in others and anticipate in what could happen to them when they know what happened to others in a similar situation. History has brought forth that people know how many people were teased, pestered, tormented and even killed for their love of God. Often they become worried to be put in an embarrassing situation if they would mention God or His Name. Their conscience pricks them, not having pangs of conscience, but more of the fear to become confronted with something others do not like, or would not find it ‘cool.’

6. Coming out

They should better have an uneasy conscience why they do not like to come out for those things they do believe. Because as a follower of Christ we should have a beautiful example in what Jesus did for his faith and for those people who even did not like him.

Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-centur...

Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), a 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai. NB – slightly cut down – for full size see here (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nobody wants to be a figure of fun or made a fool of, and often it is not easy to be able to take a bit of teasing surely when we know that it easily can take on the form of bullying and going to worse.

Also to fear to be associated with loonies, conservatives, fools or lunatics or with associations or groups which are not so much liked in society.

For this reason several priests and preachers do not dare to use the Name of God. In the fifties we still could find Roman Catholic Bibles with the name Yehowah printed in it. But when a group of lay street-preachers started to put the attention more on God then on his son Jesus and the Church institutions, the Institutions themselves felt taken under fire, and wanted to bring it forth that those people using the name Jehovah were the children of the devil. But then they themselves could not use the same name as those ‘dangerous’ objectors. The growing Jehovah Witnesses became a formidable or fearsome adversary. The church institutions wanted to get rid of this opponent which tried to open the eyes of the unknowing parishioners. According to the Catholic Churches people should not read the Bible because they are not able to understand it. But now those common folk tried to get others to understand that anybody could find the Truth in the Word of God, the Bible.

7. Dangerous folks

Many institutions tried to bring a hate feeling for those ‘dangerous’ people of Jehovah, who had to be avoided at all costs. The fact that those Witnesses also dared to call at the door at the most awkward moments of the day did not make them very popular. That they also showed up at the worst moments was not in their favour. Therefore it was not difficult to have them become a subject of laughter and of hate mails.

According to several studies, when individuals are presented with fearful vs. neutral faces or being confronted with figures clothed in a certain way this triggersthe occipital cerebellar regions including the fusiform gyrus and the inferior parietal / superiortemporal gyri.[1]A fear is created by the looks of the persons. Everybody can see the Jehovah Witnesses from far away. (We probably do not have to have a picture here.)

The cognitive, and behavioural components make that several people come in to a psychological and physiological state whereby they produce worry going into anxiety, angst or in the worst case terror. The Jehovah Witnesses were considered a hazard. Nobody wanted to risk the loss of their members to such an association were everybody seemed so close to each other.They even considered the others in the group as brothers and sisters. That would make such a close relation that they would do a lot to help and protect each other.  It would be more difficult to get them away from the group than when they would stay just some individuals in a community. To make the fear greater for those people the churches found it best to say that those Witnesses of Jehovah were not only the adversaries of faith but also a dangerous sect or cult which would make that families would be broken up.


[1] Radua,Joaquim; Phillips, Mary L.; Russell, Tamara; Lawrence, Natalia; Marshall,Nicolette; Kalidindi, Sridevi; El-Hage, Wissam; McDonald, Colm et al. (2010).”Neural response to specific components of fearful faces in healthy andschizophrenic adults”. NeuroImage 49 (1): 939–946. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.08.030. PMID 19699306.

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Additional reading:

  1. 7000 to 20000 words spoken each day
  2. Darkness, light, burning fire, Truth and people in it
  3. Greatest single cause of atheism
  4. Breathing and growing with no heir
  5. Facing disaster fatigue
  6. Fear knocked at the door
  7. 8 fears caused by the fear of Man
  8. Walking alone?
  9. Fearing the right person
  10. Fear and protection
  11. Anxiety is the gap between the now and the later
  12. Vile language and behaviour plus little secrets
  13. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
  14. Condemnation of the World and Illustration of Justification
  15. Fear not tomorrow. God is already there
  16. Do not be afraid. Good news because a Saviour has been born
  17. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #2 Calling upon the Name of God
  18. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #1 Prosperity
  19. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #3 Rejoicing in the insistence
  20. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #8 Prayer #6 Communication and manifestation
  21. I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late !
  22. Look for your Refuge by God
  23. Praying For What We Want or Don’t Want
  24. Prophets making excuses
  25. Would You Run?
  26. Control and change
  27. When discouraged facing opposition
  28. Only the contrite self, sick of its pretensions, can find salvation
  29. Try driving forward instead of backwards
  30. Be strong and take courage
  31. A small trouble is like a pebble
  32. Look for today
  33. Rejoicing in the day
  34. Give your worries to God
  35. God is Positive
  36. God Feeds The Birds
  37. God become master of our passions
  38. No fear in love
  39. Joy: Foundation for a Positive Life
  40. Wondering
  41. Eternal Word that tells everything
  42. Power in the life of certain
  43. Being sure of their deliverance
  44. Jehovah’s Witnesses not only group that preach the good news
  45. Focus on Jehovah’s Witnesses
  46. Focus on Charles Taze Russell
  47. Charles Taze Russell never claimed to have found a new religion, or a new church.
  48. Bringing Good News into the world
  49. A small company of Jesus’ footstep follower
  50. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
  51. Those who call the Christadelphians a cult
  52. Breaking up with a cult
  53. Being religious has benefits even in this life

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  • God’s Name is Jehovah, not ‘Yahweh’ (dontbefooled666.wordpress.com)
    When one does more research, they find that there are a multitude of Biblical names of places and people–even names of kings–that have meanings that center around God. These names begin with Jeho in English (Yeho in Hebrew) and some even include God’s whole name: Jehovah.
  • “Do not be Anxious.” An unrealistic expectation? (God’s Law and the Christian Pt. 3) (newjerusalem.net.au)
    If the standard of legalistic righteousness of the Pharisees was above most people’s heads, Jesus comes and shows that the standards of the law are much higher even than that – they are beyond the ceiling!
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    Jesus’ teaching on the Law shows me up. He tells me that lustful thoughts are adultery, so that I will see that I am an adulterer, filled with lust and ungodly desires; he tells me that anger is murder, so that I will see that I am a murderous, selfish person who lives for myself instead of others; He tells me my ‘spiritual life’ must be simple and private, so that I will see that I am craving the attention and approval of others in order to affirm my own sense of self righteousness.
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    Paul’s statement in Philippians 4:6 ‘…do not be anxious about anything…’ does not stand on it’s own; it is sandwiched between ‘The Lord is at hand’ and ‘the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’ Again, the character and faithfulness of God gives us reason to obey His call to trust and not be anxious.
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    Instead of listing the nature of our circumstances and concluding that all will be disastrous, we need to list the nature of our Father and His faithful and righteous acts so that we will conclude that He is good and can be trusted to world for good in whatever may be around the corner, be it gladness or grief.
  • Preaching the Gospel as Gospel: When Law Becomes Torah (afkimel.wordpress.com)
    There is an old story about a Lutheran pastor who, after a long ministry of rightly distinguishing law and gospel, announced on his death bed: “I shall most certainly go to heaven, as I cannot remember ever having done a good work.” The story touches on the great fear we all have about the preaching of the gospel in the performative mode of unconditional promise—it seems to make good works and personal holiness irrelevant. During his lifetime Catholic apologists violently hurled the antinomian accusation against Martin Luther, and he struggled to express why it did not apply to the reforming doctrine.
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    if the preacher is never accused of antinomianism, this probably means he is not preaching the authentic gospel at all.
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    Most preachers therefore prefer the carrot-stick approach, which is simply the way the world works. First tell the congregation that following Jesus is the good and right thing to do, with outstanding rewards in heaven and maybe some perks in the present; and then threaten them with punishment if they fail to comply (fire and brimstone works pretty well). In other words, preachers and congregations prefer the preaching of the law. It’s what comes natural because it is natural: law structures our fallen existence.
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    Proclaiming gospel in the performative mode of unconditional promise can be frightening, both for the preacher and the congregation. Exhortation is so much safer. It maintains the status quo.
  • A Satisfied Spirit Fears Not (asatisfiedspirit.com)
    Throughout scripture we are told not to be afraid.  Why is that?  God knew, when He put Adam and Eve out of the garden, that fear would be a part of everyday life.  So then what do we fear?  For me,  it’s something will happen to someone I love when they are not near me.  Or, there won’t be enough money for everything we need.  Or, not enough time for what I need to get done.  Or, someone will not like how I look.
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    I’m told the only way to conquer my fear is to face it.  Perhaps so but the Word says I don’t have to face it alone.  God is always with me and with Him all the the Angel Armies of Heaven.  Why would I fear with that at my Protector’s disposal?
  • The Right To Be Wrong About Everything (isylumn.wordpress.com)
    everything we know about the universe may be wrong. And Science will correct itself even if men must admit there truly is a Higher Power.Until then and the perspective never, men must question everything they know. So, what if everything we know about the universe is wrong? What then? Wild possibilities feed verdant imaginations. One would have to dream as a child to even contemplate answers. Indeed, the question itself sounds as if asked by a kid in grade school.
  • Man fires 19 rounds at Jehovah’s Witnesses (huffingtonpost.com)
    After telling a group of three Jehovah’s Witnesses to get lost, Centeron, Ark., resident John Baldwin, 35, fired about 19 shots at the group as they were leaving, police said.
  • “Ye Are My Witnesses, Saith Jehovah Baldwin: Arkansas Man Arrested For Firing Shots At Jehovah’s Witnesses Who Approached Him On His Lawn (jonathanturley.org)
    Jehovah’s Witnesses in Arkansas will soon be called to be witnesses of a different kind for John Baldwin, 35. Baldwin is charged with aggravated assault after firing 13 times at the Jehovah’s Witnesses who approached him in his front yard.
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    I guess Baldwin is another one of those “responsible guns owners” we have all been hearing about. The thought that this man could even think that firing shots at these women was appropriate and acceptable conduct makes my blood run cold. He should be put away for attempted murder and they should file a law suit and take his house. While justice in the next world may be the Lord’s Baldwin deserves a little earthly justice as soon as possible!
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses and Pedophilia (alexjamesisnotmyrealname.wordpress.com)
    JWs insist on what they call the “two witness” rule, meaning that there must be two witnesses to any crime for them to move forward with any type of action.
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    Child sex assault rarely if ever has a second witness to the crime.  However, there is no reason that Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot consider it as having happened “in a field.”  I would like an explanation as to why they ignore this scriptural principle and continue to insist that nothing be done to investigate allegations of child sexual assaults in their midst if there is not this second witness to the crime.
  • Rosary No More!! Why I Stopped Praying The Rosary!! (Testimony of a Former Roman Catholic) (soulrefuge.org)
    I write this post as a former Roman Catholic, and as one who has forever stopped praying the Roman Catholic Rosary. For those of you who are not familiar with the Rosary, the Rosary is a set of beads, each bead representing a prayer. The majority of those beads represent a prayer well known as the “Hail Mary” and there are 53 “Hail Mary’s” on each bead set of 5 decades. There are also larger beads which would represent the Lord’s prayer (Our Father) but there are only 6 of them on the rosary. There is a crucifix on the end, and the “Apostles Creed” would be said on that, and there are also “Glory Be” prayers that are said on that Rosary.
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    The Lord Jesus Christ set me free from the darkness of Roman Catholicism, and it’s false Gospel over 20 years ago, and people are being seduced in our day, like never before! There is very little resistance to Rome, in the pulpits in our time, even though many know Rome preaches a false gospel. Many are afraid of offending other “big name Christians” whose ministries are known around the world. Could it be that they are receiving funding from the compromisers, and do not want to lose that funding, should they speak out?