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Friday, July 17, 2015

The Koran and Conquest A Look at Islamic Theology

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The Koran and Conquest

A Look at Islamic Theology

by Eric Snow 3 comments Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Is Islam really a peaceful religion, as we are often told?
When the 9/11 hijackers flew planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, killing 3,000 Americans and citizens of other countries, did they violate their own faith's teachings?
When Muslim suicide bombers blow themselves up, as hundreds have done in recent years, what motivates them? What reward do they expect now or in the afterlife?
The answers to these questions are crucial if we are to understand what is really going on in the world around us. Otherwise we risk burying our heads in the sand and remaining blind to danger.
Let's begin with a simple question: Could the actions of Muslim terrorist groups have developed logically from their faith's time-honored theology?
Do the traditional interpretations of the Islamic faith's sources of authority—its holy book the Koran (Qur'an), the Hadith (collections of the acts and sayings of Muhammad) and Sharia law—promote violence and war against non-Muslims (infidels)?
The “Arab Spring” has cleared from the world's stage several long-time secular nationalist Arab dictators, with Islamic religious groups lining up to grab a share of power. Further, many Muslims, not least among them Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, believe in the imminent arrival of an Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi, or “Guided One,” who will establish Islam as the world's dominant religion.
So it's a good time to carefully examine the theological underpinnings of Islam that are behind so many of today's conflicts and that could lead to the biblically prophesied end-time clash between the Middle Eastern Arab countries and the West.

Why is Islam so different?

In the last century, political groups seeking independence from the Western colonial powers or wishing to impose communist ideology on their nations were the main sources of terrorism. But with almost all former colonies having gained independence, and with the fall of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc nations discrediting communism, what is today's largest source of terrorism?
What do an overwhelming majority of terror attacks in recent years have in common? The perpetrators are Muslim. Why? Certainly many Muslims are peaceful. Not all advocate violence or terrorism. But there is evidently something about Islamic teachings or the conditions of Muslim lands and communities that provoke far more Muslims, proportionately, to resort to violence than equally poor, mistreated and uneducated people of other faiths.
So is it poverty, lack of education, lack of political freedom or lack of opportunity that explains Islamic terrorism? A desire for national independence or a history of suffering under imperialism hardly explains why Muslim terrorist groups presently kill far more people for political and religious reasons than non-Muslims who've suffered similarly.

Are poverty and lack of education the cause?

According to an article in the British newsmagazine The Economist, a conference in Ireland brought together dozens of former terrorists and political revolutionaries to try to uncover the roots of violent extremism.
Such factors as child abuse, alcoholism, “lonely teenage years,” the desire to belong, and personal identity crises were used to explain why the participants became terrorists. But as the article acknowledged, “For some, most notably those who had been involved in Islamist groups, ideology played an important and complex role” (“Violent Extremists: Of Skinheads and Jihadists,” July 2, 2011, p. 51).
Young people may become alienated for many reasons, but why do disaffected Muslims, including second-generation ones born in Europe in circumstances considerably more privileged than their parents, generally commit its worst recent terrorist attacks?
People's levels of poverty and education correlate poorly with people's choice to become terrorists, explain Alan Kreuger and Jitna Maleckova in their Journal of Economic Perspectives article “Education, Poverty, and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?” (Fall 2003, pp. 119-144).
They found that no significant correlation appears between the amount of terrorism and the average levels of either education or national GDP per capita figures (adjusted for the level of civil liberties). Likewise, Claude Berrebi's 2007 study of 285 Palestinian terrorists discovered that they had better educations and came from less poor families.
For example, Al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups blame America's interventions in the Middle East and/or Israel's treatment of the Palestinians for provoking the 9/11 and other terrorist attacks. However, the United States has intervened in Latin America much more and over a longer time, yet has provoked very little terrorism from there compared to the Middle East.
Likewise, China's Communist rulers worry far less about Buddhist Tibetans attacking Beijing than Russia's leaders fear Muslim Chechens striking Moscow (as has happened repeatedly). A desire for national independence, political oppression and/or a history of imperialism hardly explains why Muslim terrorist groups have killed far more people than non-Muslims in similar circumstances.
Since such non-ideological, sociological factors can't account for grossly disproportionate Muslim terrorism, let's look for other explanations.
To understand the mindset behind such actions, secularly minded people need to overcome a skeptical tendency to believe religion never really influences anybody's actions. The fact is, it has and does. History shows that Islamic theology has and will stir up far more religious wars and terrorist actions proportionately than Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or other religious belief systems.

Some Koranic verses abrogate other verses

Those who claim that Islam is a religion of peace commonly cite verses from the Koran such as Sura 2:256, “There shall be no compulsion in religion,” and Sura 4:90, “Therefore, if they keep away from you and cease their hostility and offer you peace, [Allah] bids you not to harm them” (Dawood translation throughout).
However, few admit that, because many verses in the Koran contradict other verses, Islamist leaders long ago formulated the principle of naskh, or “abrogation,” which teaches that Allah's later revelations override His earlier ones.
This is even spelled out in Sura 2:106, which says, “If We [Allah] abrogate any verse or cause it to be forgotten, We will replace it by a better verse or one similar. Do you not know that [Allah] has power over all things?”
Muslims believe Allah revealed the Koran to Muhammad over a span of 22 years. Interestingly, almost all of the peaceful, tolerant verses appear in the earlier “Meccan” suras (chapters) of the Koran, but the verses promoting violence and holy war emerge in the later “Medinan” suras.
Naskh isn't some esoteric theory with no practical consequences. Two years before killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, the Muslim U.S. Army Major Nidal Malak Hasan cited this principle in relation to jihad in a presentation explaining Islam that he gave at Walter Reed Hospital.
What are the historical origins of naskh? Muhammad began his religious career in Mecca as a preacher against considerable opposition. But after fleeing to Medina, he became a military commander leading his followers in battle against unbelieving Arabs.
Correspondingly, as his circumstances changed, so too did the supposed revelations of Allah. When he was in the distinct minority in Mecca and trying to establish his new religion, his revelations advocated peace and cooperation with others. But in Medina, as he gained a large following and military and political power, a very different message appeared in his revelations.

What the Koran clearly states

According to the notorious “verse of the sword” (Sura 9:5), Muhammad was told, “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them”—unless they convert.
Some argue that this is no different from the biblical command to the Israelites to kill the idolatrous Canaanites when they entered the Promised Land. But there are big differences. Whereas the command to Joshua was limited in time and circumstances, the Koran places no similar boundaries on Muslims to wage war against unbelievers.
According to Sura 9:29, Muslims are to “fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures [i.e., the Bible] were given as they believe in neither [Allah] nor the Last Day… until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued.”
This, in the eyes of Muslim fundamentalists, justifies permanent war against non-Muslims until the entire world is under Islamic rule.
They also cite Sura 8:39, in which, after winning a crucial battle, Muhammad received instruction that permanently authorizes holy wars to spread Islam: “Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and [Allah's] religion [Islam] reigns supreme.”
According to the Koran, Allah gives Muslims a spiritual incentive for joining in jihad, or holy war: too: “Fight for the cause of [Allah]; whether they die or conquer, We shall richly reward them” (Sura 4:74). The reward of those who die in jihad, in Islamic teaching, is to immediately go to Paradise.
Elsewhere the Koran authorizes violent war against unbelievers (see “Does the Koran Promote Peace and Cooperation?”). No clear pacifist verses appear that temper or overrule its warlike teachings. By contrast, in the New Testament, Jesus Christ told His followers to turn the cheek to those who would strike them (Matthew 5:39) and to love and pray for their enemies (verse 44).
After Peter tried to defend Him by attacking someone in a group trying to arrest Him, Jesus responded, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
While on trial for His life before the Roman governor, Jesus explained that His servants would fight only if His Kingdom were part of this present world (John 18:36). Since it wasn't, they didn't.
Even in the Old Testament, Israel's armies sometimes miraculously won battles without any physical violence. For example, in one night, an angel struck down 185,000 Assyrians besieging Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 32:8, 21; Isaiah 37:36) after righteous King Hezekiah prayed for deliverance.

Following Muhammad's example

Serious Muslims aspire to follow the personal example of Muhammad, whom they regard as the perfect example to emulate. According to his early biographer Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad took part in 27 raids and battles. If he literally waged war to promote Islam, wouldn't that encourage his followers to do the same?
The most reliable reports among the Hadith and the early legal rulings that compose the core of Sharia law clearly endorse holy wars as well. For example, in one tradition, when asked what was the best good deed a person could do besides becoming a Muslim, Muhammad replied, “To participate in jihad”—holy war.
In another report Muhammad proclaimed, “Paradise is under the shades of swords.”
According to one particularly important Hadith story, Muhammad told Muslims to ask their enemies before starting hostilities to convert to Islam, to surrender to Islamic rule, or to go to war. Restated in one form or another, this standard three-way offer repeatedly reappears historically in Muslims' conflicts with nonbelievers.

Later Islamic rulings enshrined jihad

The teachings of the Koran and Hadith about jihad aren't ancient dead letters. They remain a live issue because they were codified and frozen into place centuries ago.
Why is it so hard to reform Islamic teachings about jihad? Sunni Muslims, who are in the great majority, uphold the legal theory that open inquiry into the Koran's interpretation ended in the ninth century. Thus, freely interpreting and inquiring into the meaning of the Koran and Hadith to form basic new legal rulings is no longer allowed. As a result, the early medieval jurists' rulings about Allah's will are not to be reconsidered and overturned, including those about jihad.
The four main Muslim legal schools clearly endorse literal jihad. For example, the jurist Al-Qayrawani (who died in A.D. 996) declared: “Jihad is a precept of Divine institution … It is preferable not to begin hostilities with the enemy before inviting the latter to embrace the religion of Allah … They have the alternative of either converting to Islam or paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared against them.”
Because orthodox Islam is very legalistic, what these jurists wrote centuries ago still serves as living legal authority for mainstream Muslims. The teachings about jihad of Ibn Taymiyya, who died in 1328, still resonate today as Osama bin Laden and other jihadists fondly quoted him.

What about modern Koranic interpretations

To illustrate how traditional Muslim teachings are applied in today's world, consider the beliefs of Sayyid Qutb (1906-66). He was the chief ideologist of the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hasan Al-Banna, this Islamist organization is the world's most influential Muslim group.
Its power and political organization far surpasses any other non-governmental group in Egypt. It boasts chapters in more than 100 countries and an estimated 600,000 members. Since the Arab Spring and the revolution in Egypt has greatly increased the Brotherhood's influence, we should be sure we understand the beliefs of one of its most important past leaders.
According to Qutb in his seminal work Milestones, Islam has an affirmative duty to impose Sharia law on the whole world: “Other societies do not give [Islam] any opportunity to organize its followers according to its own method, and hence it is the duty of Islam to annihilate all such systems”(2005, p. 48, emphasis added).
He went on to explain that the Islamic community “has a God-given right to step forward and take control of the political authority so that it may establish the divine system on earth.”
According to Qutb, Muslims who teach that jihad should only be defensive wars mistakenly ignore the progressive revelation of Allah's will in the Koran: “This is because they regard every verse of the Qur'an as if it were the final principle of this religion” (ibid.). Thus for Qutb, the principle of naskh, or abrogation, for Koranic interpretation allows for aggressive jihads.

Could we see a return of the caliphate?

What about the Islamist teaching that Muslims should have a supranational spiritual leader, or caliph, to lead all Muslims worldwide? The father of modern secular Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, formally abolished the caliphate in 1924 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I.
So is the idea obsolete? Dr. Douglas McLeod's political research and polling team found that majorities in Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia and Pakistan favor reestablishing the caliphate!
As the Arab Spring produces a power vacuum, with the old secular nationalist dictators pushed aside, the mosque emerges as the most important source of social organization in Arab Muslim countries.
Most importantly, their people's sense of national identity and patriotism is weak compared to their religious and tribal affiliations. Furthermore, even as a small but intensely committed political minority, radical Islamists could take over governments weakened by recent revolutions.
After all, few Russians were Bolsheviks in 1917, but the October Revolution ultimately gave them full control of their war-ravaged nation. Although the Muslim Brotherhood's 1982 Syrian revolt was ruthlessly suppressed, the group could use violence in the future again, and succeed.
For this reason and because Islamists can publicly intimidate the majority of sincere conservative Muslims as “bad Muslims” when they disagree with their policies, public opinion polls in Muslim countries that show Islamist parties lack popularity should not be reassuring.
Further, in the present unsettled conditions of Middle Eastern politics, Islamist parties could easily win elections, much as Hamas did in the Palestinian territories (2006) and the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) did in Algeria (1991).
Although the brief merger of Egypt and Syria as the United Arab Republic more than 50 years ago (1958-61) proved abortive, a future dynamic leader calling himself the caliph and/or the mahdi could succeed in doing what the Arab nationalist Gamal Abdel Nasser failed to do.

Does this play into end-time events?

The biblical prophet Daniel tells us that “at the time of the end” a leader will arise, apparently from the heart of the Muslim world, called “the king of the South.” He will launch an attack of some sort against a new European-centered geopolitical superpower (Daniel 11:40).
Given the historical background described above, it's not much of a stretch of imagination to think that either a new Muslim caliph or a new Muslim messiah would see it as his duty to expand Islam into Europe by force, or jihad. For decades now, much of the Muslim world, both Sunni and Shiite, has heard such preaching about imminent end-time events, including the coming of an Islamic messiah. And they've long desired to expand Islam into Europe—and indeed, this is a major factor in current Muslim immigration into Europe.
In the years to come, the Bible prophesies that this longtime clash of civilizations between a traditionally Christian Europe and the Islamic Arab world will reach an earth-shaking climax. After the king of the South (i.e., quite possibly a mahdi or caliph to come) attacks, the leader of the new European-centered superpower, called “the king of the North” (and in Revelation “the Beast”) will strike back “like a whirlwind … he shall enter the [Arab] countries [of North Africa], overwhelm them, and pass through” (Daniel 11:40).
The future dictator of a united Europe will successfully invade both Israel and Egypt (verses 41-42; compare Revelation 11:1-2; Luke 21:24).
Being now forewarned by this knowledge of how Islamic theology will likely impact the world's future, what should we do?
First, we must stay alert to world news reports as Europe and the Arab worlds both become more politically unified and increasingly authoritarian as well. The high hopes of the Arab Spring for creating Western-style democracy in the Middle East will ultimately be dashed.
Since the only source of spiritual and even physical protection in the times of deep trouble to come is our great God, we need to prepare ourselves spiritually by turning our lives over to Him through repentance and faith in His Son Jesus Christ, remembering His warning to us in Matthew 24:44: “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

A Telling Profile of Media Professional

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A Telling Profile of Media Professional

by Good News Estimated reading time: 1 minute

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The entertainment establishment-writers, producers and stars of the movies, TV programs and music we consume-are overwhelmingly liberal in their political outlook. Not so widely known is that voting patterns of American newspaper reporters and editors show a similar overwhelming lean to the left. Consider these findings:

In the 1992 election, 89 percent of journalists who make up the Washington, D.C., press corps and report on national political news voted for the liberal candidate, Democrat Bill Clinton. Only 7 percent voted for the conservative candidate, Republican George H.W. Bush.
Of these journalists, 61 percent saw themselves as “liberal” or “liberal to moderate,” while only 9 percent regarded themselves as “conservative” or “moderate to conservative.”
A poll of 167 newspaper editors found that, in the 1992 and 1996 elections, 58 and 57 percent, respectively, voted for Democratic candidate Bill Clinton (compared to 43 and 49 percent of all other voters).
A 1996 survey of more than 1,000 reporters at 61 newspapers found that, of those with more than 50,000 circulation (primarily large-city papers), 65 percent of the staff members were liberal or leaned to the left.
A 2001 poll of more than 300 media professionals found that those who identified themselves as liberal outnumbered conservatives four to one.
A 1980 study of 240 New York and Washington journalists found that 86 percent never or seldom attended religious services, and half had no religious affiliation at all.
Some 90 percent of these journalists were pro-abortion.
About 75 percent did not regard homosexuality as wrong, and 54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong. Only 15 percent of these journalists “strongly agreed” that adultery, abortion and homosexual practices were immoral.

(Sources: William Proctor, The Gospel According to The New York Times , 2000, pp. 44-46; Media Research Center.) GN

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

What Easter Doesn't Tell You

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What Easter Doesn't Tell You

1 comments

article by Darris McNeely

Could it be that Easter traditions leave something missing in the story of Jesus Christ?

Source: Martin Poole/Photodisc/Thinkstock

What do brightly colored eggs, rabbits, decorated cakes and sunrise services have to do with the Jesus Christ of the Bible?
There are Christians who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior who do not observe any Easter traditions. I happen to be one of them. Let me explain why.
I’ve learned that Easter doesn’t tell you the whole story about Christ’s life, death and resurrection. If something is missing—and there is—then it changes the entire story. What’s missing and why is crucial for you to understand!

What do Easter customs have to do with Jesus Christ?

Did you know that Easter as a celebration has nothing to do with Jesus Christ?
The name itself doesn’t mean Jesus’ resurrection, as some might assume. The word Easter actually comes from the name of an ancient Babylonian fertility goddess worshipped long before Jesus was born!
A quick Internet search will reveal the origins of Easter bunnies, colored eggs, hot cross buns and the sunrise service. You’ll find that these traditions associated with Easter for the most part come from ancient, idolatrous, pre-Christian fertility celebrations. They were part of religious rites a long time before the time of Christ, and they have nothing to do with what the Bible instructs or the practice of the early Church.
Perhaps none of this matters to you. Maybe you believe Easter customs are fun as part of your worship of Christ or family traditions. If that’s the case, let me show you from God’s Word why it should matter.

Exchanging truth for lies

The Church Jesus founded had a very clear understanding of who He was and how to worship Him. But over many decades things changed. Early Christians became confused and then lost the plain biblical teaching about God the Father and Jesus Christ.
How could people who believed in God possibly let that happen? One reason is that we all have a natural tendency to forget the things we learn. The early Church learned the true faith by the teachings of Christ and the apostles. But we can tell from the very early writings of the New Testament that heresy was beginning to spread in the Church. False teachings were beginning to gain ground.
The apostle Paul warned that some were already flirting with a false gospel (Galatians:1:6). The apostle Peter warned that “there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them” (2 Peter:2:1).
In the years after the death of the original apostles, other false teachings began creeping into the Church. Among them was a distortion of the truth about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
As we just read, Peter warned that there was a danger of “denying the Lord who bought them”—that is, replacing the clear truth about Jesus Christ and His teachings on salvation and eternal life with pagan myths and falsehood. Yet despite Peter’s clear warning, many bought into the denial.

Pagan myths at the heart of Easter

Easter evolved from a story about an ancient god named Tammuz. The story of Tammuz is at the heart of the pagan world—and at the heart of Easter. It’s a story of a never-ending annual cycle without meaning, direction or purpose. In this myth, Tammuz died every year at the beginning of winter and was “resurrected” in the spring by a goddess named Ishtar.
Did you notice that name— Ishtar? Does it sound familiar?
That’s because the word Easter ultimately comes from the name of this ancient false goddess, Ishtar. So much of what people do today to celebrate Easter is nothing more than customs that come directly from the way ancient people worshipped their goddess Ishtar. Why and how did this happen? People had embraced the Ishtar and Tammuz myths and related stories for centuries. In the decades following Jesus and the apostles, as Christianity spread across the world, people started blending these myths into the true story of Christ.
Eventually the fake stories replaced the true one. For the corrupted church leadership taking control at the time, it was convenient to blend pagan myths into biblical truth to attract more people to the church—the more to hold power over. It’s a recurring story told often in the Bible.
But the life of Tammuz and other pagan gods is meaningless when it comes to salvation and what God is really doing with human life. Only God coming to live in the flesh could open the door of salvation for the human creation. Borrowing from false pagan myths to create a “Christian” story doesn’t work. It’s nothing more than empty, meaningless tradition.
But is it ever popular! Every year there are parades and Easter sunrise services. In America, Easter egg rolling takes place annually on the White House lawn.
People dress in their finest, and for many this is the one of perhaps two or three times a year they actually attend a church service. Easter services, even for casual believers, ease their conscience. Coupled with Good Friday, Easter observance becomes a long weekend of leisure and worship tradition.

Easter non-existent in the record of the early Church

About now you may be thinking, “All of this really doesn’t matter because I do it to honor God.” But it does matter. Something is missing in this story. What’s missing is truth!
What’s missing is understanding of the way to eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus came in the flesh and showed us, through His death and resurrection, the way into the Kingdom of God. He made possible the most awesome reality—the potential for you and me to become the very children of God in the family of God, entering eternity crowned with infinite glory and honor.
You may be surprised to learn that Easter is nowhere found in the story of Jesus and His followers. The book of Acts, which tells the story of the apostles and the Church in its first decades, has no account at all of Easter. The apostles constantly preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But they put this in the context of the true biblical festivals they already knew and observed.
These festivals were central to the life of the Church of God in the first century. As recorded in Acts:2:1, the Church was gathered and given the Holy Spirit on the biblical feast of Pentecost. Later, in Acts:20:6, Luke referred to key events taking place during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Another festival, the Day of Atonement, is also mentioned in Acts:27:9. The weekly Sabbath, another Holy Day of the Bible, is featured several times as the apostle Paul taught both Jews and gentiles (non-Israelites) alike on that day (Acts:13:14, Acts:13:27, Acts:13:42, Acts:13:44; Acts:16:13; Acts:17:2; Acts:18:4).
On another occasion, Paul told the gentile Christians in the city of Corinth to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (1 Corinthians:5:8). He told them to keep these days “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”—that is, bearing in mind the underlying spiritual reality these days represent.

Resurrection taught, but no Easter

Easter celebrations were nowhere in the picture during the early days of the Church. But Jesus Christ’s resurrection as found in the Bible was.
Notice the first sermon that Peter gave on the feast of Pentecost. Speaking of the prophecies about the Messiah that King David gave, Peter said: “He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades [the grave], nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up of which we are all witnesses”(Acts:2:31-32, emphasis added throughout).
When he was called to task for healing a lame man, Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and said, “Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole” (Acts:4:8-10).
Paul preached to a city in Greece for three straight Sabbaths “that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ’” (Acts:17:2-3). Again, throughout the New Testament, it’s the resurrection of Jesus Christ that was taught. But it is never found in connection with an Easter service.
Christ’s death and resurrection are clearly connected with the Passover and the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Jesus was killed as “our Passover” (1 Corinthians:5:7). He was buried just as the Days of Unleavened Bread began in that year. Three days and three nights later He was resurrected during this seven-day festival. And He appeared to the disciples the morning after His resurrection on the same day that He was accepted by the Father.
All this was clearly understood by the Church. It was part of the apostles’ doctrine or teaching in the early days. Celebrating Easter was not part of the story. When it did come, it introduced doctrinal error!
Easter enters the picture long after the apostles. The story of how it became inserted into the teachings about the resurrection is preserved for us in history.
Decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, as the apostles began to pass from the scene, the Christian faith began changing. Before long it was transformed into something they wouldn’t have recognized. The false teachers that Peter warned about introduced false teaching about Christ’s death and resurrection, with some elements taken from pagan myths, and a great uproar resulted.
This is known in history as the Quartodecimen Controversy. That’s a big word, but the name really means the 14th day of the month, referring to the day the Passover was observed. Some were beginning to keep an Easter tradition borrowed from pagan myths instead of the biblical feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread.
The controversy became so intense that some church leaders excommunicated others who wouldn’t go along with them and the newer teaching about Easter. History records what happened next.

A powerful defense of God’s truth

A bishop of Rome named Victor, who was advocating for Easter, got so bold as to put out of the church another minister named Polycrates, who was standing up for the biblical teaching regarding Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Polycrates gave one of the most spirited and inspiring defenses of truth ever recorded. He was not about to abandon his conscience or faith for a pagan myth. At great cost, he rose in defense of the faith. His words are recorded for us:

“We, therefore, observe the genuine day [of Passover]; neither adding thereto nor taking therefrom. For in Asia great lights have fallen asleep, which shall rise again in the day of the Lord’s appearing, in which he will come with glory from heaven, and will raise up all the saints . . .”

The great lights in Asia that he was talking about were members and leaders of the first-century Church who first received the truth and kept it. They died in the faith and they await the resurrection. Among those Polycrates mentioned were the apostle John and other early men and women.
Polycrates went on to say this:

“All these observed the fourteenth day of the Passover according to the gospel, deviating in no respect, but following the rule of faith. Moreover, I, Polycrates, who am the least of all of you, according to the tradition of my relatives, some of whom I have followed. For there were seven, my relatives [who were] bishops, and I am the eighth; and my relatives always observed the day when the people threw away the leaven.”

Here Polycrates mentions the Feast of Unleavened Bread. He was the eighth generation of his family to keep these biblical feasts, and he wasn’t about to abandon what he knew to be biblical truth. Notice how he concludes:

“I, therefore, brethren, am now sixty-five years in the Lord, who having conferred with the brethren throughout the world, and having studied the whole of the sacred Scriptures, am not at all alarmed at those things with which I am threatened, to intimidate me. For they who are greater than I, have said, ‘we ought to obey God rather than men.’”

This is an inspiring but little-known story about how one man stood up against the Easter traditions that crept into the Church of God and overturned the true faith.

Does it matter to God?

But what does this matter? So many times on these issues we encounter the reasoning, “But if we have turned a pagan idea into a Christian idea, isn’t that acceptable to God?” And sometimes we hear: “Christ conquers paganism.” People reason around the issue, and as ideas are repeated again and again, they eventually become accepted.
But this doesn’t square with God’s instructions, which are actually crystal-clear: “Do not be trapped into following their [the pagan nations’] example in worshiping their gods. Do not say, ‘How do these nations worship their gods? I want to follow their example.’ You must not do this to the Lord your God. These nations have committed many detestable acts that the Lord hates, all in the name of their gods. Carefully obey all the commands I give you. Do not add to them or subtract from them” (Deuteronomy:12:30-32, New Living Translation, 1996).
It’s hard to get plainer than that. God says He hates the mixing in of pagan practices to worship Him!

Easter obscures important truths

What Easter doesn’t tell you is that you are missing out on the wonderful meaning of Passover and reconciliation through the death of Jesus—as Easter focuses only on part of the story and then mixes it with error.
What do you need to know? You need to know that Christ died according to the Scripture as our Passover Lamb, in fulfillment of the many prophecies that foretold His coming, His suffering, His death and His resurrection.
You need to know that the Passover observance, as instituted by Christ the night before He died, fills this need.
You need to know that the Feast of Unleavened Bread shows the life of the resurrected Christ, the true Bread of Life of which we are to partake, and His power today. Because He was resurrected, we have the power to live a life of hope and meaning with the power of God in you. It is that spiritual power, God’s Holy Spirit, that can fill the emptiness in your life, giving you meaning and understanding in the midst of a confusing world.
It is this festival that Paul taught the gentile world to observe. This Festival of Unleavened Bread is what you can observe today to realize the full meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Christ.
You need to know that Easter misses all of these vitally important truths about Jesus Christ!

No room for error

Paul said in 1 Corinthians:15:19 that without Christ’s resurrection, we are of all people most pitiable. The truth of the resurrection must be told, sticking to what the Bible actually reveals. There is no room for error and myth in this most important event.
Look at what you know, or what you think you know about the resurrection. The truth about the resurrection is a key to opening a relationship with Christ and the Father based on fact and truth. (Be sure to read “ Saved by His Life ,” “ Christ’s Resurrection: Key to Our Salvation ” ).
Paul said, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians:15:20).
Because Christ was resurrected from the dead and lives today, you have assurance that you, too, can enter eternal life. No humanly devised holiday can teach you what God reveals through His Holy Days. You need to educate yourself with the full story!

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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Anti-Semitism At Liberal American Colleges

From http://el-paso.ucg.org/ or call 1-888-886-8632. Please follow this site here.

Anti-Semitism At Liberal American Colleges

Time for another update on this virulent pathogen.

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[Darris McNeely] It’s time once again to talk about something that few people like to talk about, though we need to cover it from time to time here on Beyond Today : it’s anti-Semitism. Hatred of Jews and anything Jewish, and “Death to Israel” and all these other matters that are continuing, it seems now, to be in our news, rearing its ugly head. We, a few weeks ago, did one on the massacres of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris, where they were attacked, and some of the subsequent fallout from there in Europe, dealing with attacks upon Jews, synagogues, and all things Jewish. Israel has been in the news because of the Prime Minister Netanyahu coming and speaking here in his recent reelection to another term as prime minister. And so, the role of Israel in this world, the world of Jews, and these things, anti-Semitic, are really being talked about a great deal.
This particular article is talking about anti-Semitism raising its head in recent days on some of America’s most liberal college campuses, and asking the question whether or not they are breeding anti-Semitism. Schools like UCLA in Los Angeles, or Berkeley, or Vanderbilt down in Nashville, Tennessee – another college that has had some cases of this.
Anti-Semitism is something people don’t like to talk about, but at times when it comes out in some of the most polite society and circles, people will perhaps have to admit or even express to their closest friends that they do have a problem with Jews or things Jewish, or the State of Israel, which has become kind of the Jew of the world today because of the policies there and the Palestinian situation and their perception of Israel in the League of Nations and in the world of nations today.
Look, anti-Semitism has not left us. It is alive and well, and it is something that we do need to talk about, and you and I need to understand whether or not it resides in our hearts or minds at all and how virulent a pathogen it really is, and even anti-Biblical for all the obvious reasons.
You know, a few years ago I was on a lecture in Canada, and I was talking about something in regard to prophecy but someone came up afterwards during a break and he, because I had talked about the Jews and the State of Israel in my presentation, he tried to engage me in this story that people have that the Holocaust of World War II – the genocide of the Nazis against the Jews – didn’t really happen, that six million Jews were not really killed. And I’m standing there, just aghast that someone supposedly of sane mind can believe such an idea, and would even bring that to me in that type of setting. I had just come back from Germany, from Berlin, and I had actually been at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, that the German people have erected to the Holocaust of World War II, and I told the gentleman, “Do you think, do you really think, that modern Germany would have put their Holocaust memorial in the near proximity – almost directly over – the spot where Hitler’s bunker was at the end of World War II, in the heart of Berlin, its national capital, if they didn’t believe the Holocaust was a reality that they had to live with?” As I thought to the man, echoing the words of a line from a movie, “Go sell crazy someplace else. We’ve got enough of it here.” It’s too crazy and ridiculous of an idea. And it’s too evil of an idea for anyone to hold, but unfortunately, too many people do today. Something that if we’re not educated about, we need to be. And so that’s why we tend to talk about it here on Beyond Today , for the reasons that are important to the world scene, but also for some very, very deep spiritual reasons, as well. Think about that.
That’s BT Daily . Join us next time.

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Thursday, October 17, 2013

"Potential Just Means You Haven't Done Anything"... Yet

From http://el-paso.ucg.org/ or call 1-888-886-8632.

"Potential Just Means You Haven't Done Anything"... Yet

by Jacob Mammen

Recently I stumbled on a quote said by Dowell Loggains, offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, in response to a question about the potential of their troubled star wide-receiver, Kenny Britt. When asked he replied, “Potential just means you haven’t done anything.” Now that quote struck me, not just because I agreed with coach Loggains assessment of Britt’s underachievement, but because I believe there is a spiritual question to be asked here.

Have you and I done anything with the incredible potential of good that God has blessed us with? That’s a tough question to ask yourself, but a question we all should ask nonetheless. Honesty with your own self-assessment is key here! If you feel like you have, awesome. But if you feel like you haven’t, it’s time to!

First things first: recognize, believe and own the fact that God has given you great potential with your whole heart and pray that He gives you the desire and opportunity to unlock it! One way to start unlocking that great potential inside of you is to start using your talents for the glory of God and for the betterment of those you come in contact with. Everyone has talents and the best part is that by using those talents it can lead you to discover talents you never knew you had! If you can fix, fix. If you can sing, sing. If you can translate, translate. If you can encourage, encourage. If you can listen, listen. If you can impart sound words, impart sound words. If you can be so extremely zealous, be so extremely zealous! If you feel like you have the talent to inspire, then go inspire! God didn’t give you talents so that you could keep it for yourself, but so that you could share it with others!

There’s a passage of scripture that exhorts us to do just that, it’s found in 1 Peter 4:10-11 [10] As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

[11] If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

See All... (ESV):

As each has received a gift [talent], use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies- in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Now let’s get out there and start unlocking that incredible potential given by God, with the talents we all have!

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Friday, July 17, 2015

The Koran and Conquest

A Look at Islamic Theology

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Why is Islam so different?

Are poverty and lack of education the cause?

Some Koranic verses abrogate other verses

What the Koran clearly states

Following Muhammad's example

Later Islamic rulings enshrined jihad

What about modern Koranic interpretations

Could we see a return of the caliphate?

Does this play into end-time events?

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

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Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Could it be that Easter traditions leave something missing in the story of Jesus Christ?

What do Easter customs have to do with Jesus Christ?

Exchanging truth for lies

Pagan myths at the heart of Easter

Easter non-existent in the record of the early Church

Resurrection taught, but no Easter

A powerful defense of God’s truth

Does it matter to God?

Easter obscures important truths

No room for error

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Time for another update on this virulent pathogen.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

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