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The Bethlehem Explosion ALLAH is One. If there is one main theme in the entire Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, the last book that the Prophet Musa (Moses) wrote, it is that ALLAH is One. In contrast to worshipping ALLAH as One, what did the Prophet Muhammad observe at the city of Mecca both before and after he experienced ALLAH sending the Angel Gibral/Gabriel to call him to proclaim. It deeply disturbed him that he was witnessing the practice of polytheism or the worship of families of gods which was then permeating Mecca . But no less disturbing to him was the Christian practice of implying that the One, Undivided, Eternal ALLAH, actually had a mother.This strange practice of Christians seemed to imply that similar to the people of Mecca , these Christians also worshipped the One ALLAH as sort of a Family arrangement. But this was the very practice that he had labored so hard against at Mecca . This is what these confused Christians seemed to be teaching when they bestowed their man invented title on the virgin mother of Isa/Jesus, “Mother of GOD” or when translated into the Arabic language, the “Mother of ALLAH”. So strong was the Prophets objection to this practice that he was willing to delay the correct understanding of An Nisa 4:157 regarding Isa’s death and resurrection in order to more substantially safeguard the vital, eternal truth of the Oneness of ALLAH. For if Islam at this vulnerable time in its development becomes preoccupied with such a strong central doctrine in Christianity as the death and resurrection of the Messiah, this could place Islam in mortal danger.For if all the new Muslims began rejoicing along with Christians in the double victory of ALLAH’S Messiah over both death and also over the evil plans of Israel’s leaders to keep the Messiah dead forever, Islam’s needed emphasis on ALLAH’S Oneness could be lost. For this loss could indeed occur if Islam became too closely associated with Christianity’s teachings. Because Christianity also had an emphasis on ALLAH supposedly being a complex trinity. This teaching would also appear to make the One indivisible ALLAH a sort of family arrangement.This would occur if the trinity was considered as a Father having a Son who had a Mother named Mary or Maryam who was considered ALLAH’S mother.So this kind of confusion, at all costs, had to be avoided. So Islam has until now objected to the reality that ALLAH most certainly did enable His one and only Messiah to defeat the evil plans of Jewish leaders to make certain the Messiah was forever dead, by manipulating their Roman occupiers to execute ALLAH’s own Messiah. Consequently, this historical choice by Islam to interpret one key and profound verse in the Holy Quran in a literal, simplistic manner, has literally forced ALLAH to temporarily bypass using Islam in proclaiming one of His most important messages that He strongly desires to communicate to man. Therefore, these circumstances have forced Him to use only what has become known as Christianity to communicate to man the amazing twin triumphs that He enabled His Bethlehem man to achieve. He enabled him to overwhelmingly defeat the evil plans of Jewish leaders to forever end the Messiah’s life. But even more remarkably, He enabled him to be totally victorious over the tyranny of death by victoriously raising him up from death. But now, at this time in our nuclear age, a number of significant circumstances have converged so that a new day is bursting on to the scene for Islam. The situation is far too complicated for one Tom Griffith/Abu Toma to understand or begin to reasonably explain. Nevertheless, with hopefully ALLAH’s help I will share the little understanding that I do have of these both historical and contemporary circumstances. What I strongly sense is that right now ALLAH is inaugurating a thrilling new day and a significant new role for Islam. And this new role has become absolutely necessary due to most of Christianity’s seriously straying from the assignment that ALLAH up until now has depended on it to fulfill. But today the Almighty is virtually pleading with Islam and Muslims to finally modify their understanding of one key Quranic verse so that they will now potentially take the lead to be more faithful to communicate to people everywhere His Messiah’s double triumphs on man’s behalf. Therefore, I will now attempt to present my personal view of how we arrived at where we are today and the new vital service for ALLAH that He is now desiring and calling faithful Muslims to fulfill. Background: Two of ALLAH’s Servants in Two Different Wells Many are aware of the execution method of stoning often employed by the Hebrews in Old Testament times and also in New Testament times. But less well known was their method of murder that they did not consider murder because they considered it not to be their fault that a person that they forcefully put in a well which had little or no water, starved to death while imprisoned in the well. Many are familiar with the story of the young teenager, Yousef/Joseph, being placed in a well to die by his nine jealous brothers.But the nine greedy brothers changed their minds about murdering him when they suddenly realized that they could make some money off of him by selling him into slavery. As we observe so many times, what man’s twisted mind intends for evil, the Merciful ALLAH turns the evil circumstances into something that turns out for good. So ALLAH actually sent the persecuted, hated, next to youngest son of the Prophet Jacob, to Egypt so that he could be ALLAH’s servant to save the descendents of Jacob (later named Israel). In Egypt, ALLAH could pave the way for them to develop into a sort of nation. Of course, if there had been no deliverance of the Hebrew people from Egypt, there would have been no way for these people to have survived as a race. This would have meant that there would have been no people for the Virgin Mary/Maryam to live among so that centuries after Yousef, she would give birth to her faultless son in Bethlehem . (Significantly, the Virgin Mother’s son assumes a major role in the Holy Quran. Eleven times the Quran refers to Maryam’s son as Messiah. The Quran also calls the Son of Maryam, Isa, 25 times. Counting the use of other titles in conjunction with Isa or separately, means that he is spoken of by one title or another in the Quran more than 35 times. This figure does not include other times when he is alluded to without a particular title. (In addition to the many very positive verses in the Quran which portray ALLAH enabling His Messiah to perform miracles and a few to heal, there are other verses which appear to be a balance to what were considered extremes in Christianity.) Though Muslims and Christians and multitudes of others are well aware of the strategic role that the Patriarch Yousef/Joseph had in the preservation of the Hebrew race, regretfully very few have any idea of another exceptionally significant circumstance regarding who ALLAH strategically used in order to guarantee the preservation of the Hebrew race. In this regard, it is important to realize that there are numerous circumstances in Scripture where ALLAH reaches outside of the Hebrew race to use people from other nations to sustain the Hebrews or to rescue certain significant Hebrew Prophets. For instance, the important Prophet Jeremiah had been abandoned by every last Hebrew living in Jerusalem so that he was certain to either drown or starve to death while he was also imprisoned in an abandoned well. Therefore, because there was not even one compassionate or courageous Hebrew available, ALLAH was forced to find a non Hebrew to rescue his important but hated, harassed and helpless Hebrew Prophet who was callously placed by his Hebrew brothers in a well so that he would either die of starvation or drown. The Scriptures tell us that it was Abdel Malek, an Ethiopian, whom ALLAH used to rescue the important Prophet Jeremiah when ALLAH could not locate one Hebrew of courage and integrity out of all the Hebrews then living in the large city of Jerusalem . That was certainly a major black historical mark on the history of the Hebrew race. (Incidentally, many very unfavorable stories that expose quite evil defects and character flaws in many Hebrew people would have certainly been removed from the Scriptures if the Jews would have indeed changed their Scriptures, as so many Muslims mistakenly insist that they did. Many Muslims actually insist that the Holy Quran teaches that the Jews changed the written Scriptures but a careful reading of the Quran reveals the Quran confirming the previous Scripture and not claiming that they were changed.) Similarly to ALLAH finding a non Hebrew to rescue Jeremiah from certain death in a well, ALLAH found non Hebrews to virtually rescue Yousef from his prison-well where he had been put by his nine murderous brothers. So that Joseph could later deliver his entire family from famine in Palestine, ALLAH chose to provide Arabs who were the offspring of the rejected Prophet Ishmael who himself along with his Egyptian mother had been callously and inhumanely thrown out of their home by Abraham’s jealous, angry wife, Sarah, to be the deliverers of Yousef. So it was these supposedly inferior Ishmaelites who were not considered inferior by ALLAH, who were ALLAH’s chosen instruments to deliver and preserve the great grand child of the Prophet Abraham and his first wife Sarah. For it was these Arab grand children of the Prophet Ishmael who took the young Hebrew Joseph from his hateful, murderous nine brothers, and safely delivered this future deliverer of Israel to Egypt. So if ALLAH had not found these Arab Ishmaelites to safely transport Joseph to Egypt, probably the Hebrew people would not have been preserved and ALLAH would have needed to have found another way to provide Isa/Jesus as our Messiah. (Some will object that the Ishmaelites can’t be given any credit for saving the young Joseph because they accepted money for transporting Joseph to Egypt and that they also sold him for money in Egypt. However, money or no money, ALLAH explicitly trusted the grand children of the Prophet Ishmael. He not only trusted them as His instruments to get Joseph safely away from his own murderous flesh and blood brothers. But significantly, He also used the grand children of the Prophet Ishmael to ultimately preserve the whole nation of Israel in order to provide a people through whom ALLAH’s baby Messiah could enter our world. ALLAH’s Surprising Choice But now I will address a more surprising choice by ALLAH than either His using an Ethiopian to deliver His potentially drowning and starving Hebrew Prophet Jeremiah from his Hebrew brothers or His using the grand children of the rejected and despised Ishmael and his rejected and despised mother Hagar to deliver the famine threatened Hebrew people.Therefore, we will make a giant leap across the centuries and witness a dramatic rescue that must take place today. Yet, few realize that a rescue is even necessary. But, the cold reality is that without Christians realizing it, the major seat of Christianity and therefore the major vehicle for conveying the message of the Risen Messiah to the world is desperately struggling for survival especially because of the effective, virtual lethal attack by President George Bush on Christianity’s credibility. I will not in this paper repeat my own personal account of ALLAH’s supernatural revelation to me of how President Bush is publicly mocking ALLAH’s Risen Messiah, a reality that I was quite aware of even before ALLAH reinforced my discouraging personal observation with a miraculous personal vision which I have discussed in detail in previous papers. Nevertheless, whether any one believes I had a personal vision or not, the reality is that President George W. Bush uses one breath to make a great spectacle of his personal belief in the Risen Messiah and in the next breath demands killing and war, to solve problems with Arab Muslims that could much more effectively be solved by other means. This unfortunate propensity of his not to shy away from killing Muslims, was emphatically exposed when he made a loud personal, spontaneous announcement in the doorway of Condoleezza Rice’s office to three U.S. Senators and Ms. Rice. He suddenly stated that he wanted to F..K Saddam, (Time Magazine, March 31, ’03), implying that he would use the great U.S. military to “take him out.”“F..k Saddam.We’re taking him out,” were his exact words.Such behavior was definitely one of his public mockings of the Risen Messiah no matter how you try to excuse such “John Wayne” or “Clint Eastwood” type vulgarity. Of course, his words could have been a lot of harmless hot air, but subsequent needless rivers of bloodshed in Iraq, reveal that his words were far from empty threats toward the innocent people of Iraq. In his December 12, 05 speech to the Foreign Affairs Committee in Philadelphia , he openly acknowledged to a woman questioner that “30,000 “more or less” Iraqis have been killed since the U.S. invasion. (Other investigative groups put that number at well over 100,000 instead of 30,000). However, the glib manner in which the President said, “30,000 more or less” along with his nonchalant body language made it appear as though he could have been talking about weeds or marbles instead of precious, innocent human beings who were once alive but are now dead because of this President’s unilateral, ill conceived decisions. The point I am intending to make is this. The elected President of the one Western nation which has been known to be a leading representative of presenting personal Christianity to the world has by and large led this nation in losing nearly 100% credibility in representing Christianity. Intensifying that sorry reality is a second equally sad reality. The man in the street and the man in the Church Christian who publicly takes his personal faith in the Risen Christ quite seriously, is the very person who was so strategic in re-electing this, at the best, calloused, arrogant, self deceived man, and at the worst, bloodthirsty, power hungry con man, to office for a second term of bloodshed. A horrible third reality that nearly totally discredits the U.S. as a worthy nation for ALLAH to trust to represent the Risen, faultless, Bethlehem man, is this. An integral and defining characteristic of the powerful, influential Republican Neoconservatives is their deep, abiding, overriding hostility toward all of Islam, not just against radical Islam, which bias was often acknowledged by them long before 9/11. Their ugly hostile attitude toward Muslims and Islam most certainly must disqualify them from in any way representing the Risen Messiah. This reality must be obvious since the now Risen Messiah emphatically taught us to love our enemies, to not resort to military solutions, and who taught his followers that they should take his message of love and reconciliation to each and every nation on earth. But it is also exceptionally significant that our Risen Messiah made absolutely no mention to his followers that they had any obligation to use weapons to force any political philosophy on any region of the world in order to make that region more safe for the existence and security of Israel. Yet, it is quite significant that President Bush let that particular strategic reason for forcing Democracy on certain Middle East nations to slip from his lips during the question and answer period in his speech to the Foreign Affairs Committee on December 12. (I would imagine that at least one of the Bush handlers may have come close to a stroke or heart attack when they heard their President spontaneously acknowledging the role that the security of Israel played in the U.S. feeling compelled to force Democracy on certain Middle Eastern Muslim nations.) So these three factors of the Bush obsession with using our military to shed blood to democratize Iraq, a large segment of the U.S. Christian community being seduced to actively support innocent bloodshed in Iraq by voting Bush into office a second time and the powerful Neoconservatives having a hostile agenda toward the Muslims of the Middle East while overwhelmingly supporting Israel; when taken together make an extremely relevant point. They seriously disqualify the U.S. from being an appropriate instrument for ALLAH to use to spread the Messiah’s message of love, peace and reconciliation with GOD and man to nations in need. What about that other contemporary center of Christendom, Rome ? To say the least, the Roman Catholic Church is struggling. Especially in the U.S. does it appear that numerous homosexual priests have used their priestly office as a cover to molest and psychologically damage a number of unsuspecting teenagers.This disturbing reality greatly calls into question the capacity of the Roman Catholic Church to be a trusted bearer of the good news of Christ. Additionally, the positive influence of the Catholic Church in most of the European nations has been rather minimal for decades. But what of the capacity of the Eastern Church to convey the dynamic message of the Risen Messiah to the overwhelming multitudes of the East? There are certainly some shining examples of dynamic, Spirit led priests in many Eastern Churches. However, the overall capacity of the Eastern Church to have a dynamic impact on the Eastern multitudes seems quite minimal. Additionally, the great pomp, formality and ritual that dominates the Eastern church is an anemic contrast to the vitality of the first and second century followers of the Risen man from West Bank Bethlehem. New Proclaimers Needed So ALLAH is observing a broad and deep vacuum of those whom He would like to be faithfully carrying the message of His triumphant Risen Messiah to the spiritually and physically hungry people of the earth. But this vacuum is about to be filled beyond the imagination of man to even dream of how magnificently it will be filled. Yes, an encouraging, repetitive reality that can be observed in the history of man’s response to GOD/ALLAH is that a period of blazing light often follows periods of darkness and despair. And who did ALLAH chose to be the one to prepare the way centuries ago to bring light today which will fill the existing tragic vacuum? The faithful man of the hour lived approximately fourteen centuries ago. Yes, the man who prepared the way for the dynamic revival today of the Risen Messiah’s message is the same honest man who ALLAH called upon so many centuries ago to lead millions of Arabs to leave behind polytheism and to begin the dedicated worship of ALLAH as One. Due to the faithful, courageous work of the Prophet Muhammad so many centuries ago, there are very few countries in this entire world where there are not active mosques dedicated to proclaiming the Oneness of ALLAH and that Muhammad is the Prophet of ALLAH. And no less significant, in order to effectively oppose the counter productive vision of the Bush Administration, and to defend Muslims from the militarized attacks from ideologically misdirected Neoconservatives and to resist calloused Zionists, and even Christian Zionists, there exists a multitude of more or less secret cells throughout the world. They are mostly composed of somewhat radical Muslims, many of whom are wrongly convinced that the overwhelming negative circumstances of today justify their using lethal violence against innocent civilians. But the positive thing about these radical Muslims in these radical cells is this. They are absolutely convinced that they are truly serving ALLAH by being dedicated to a cause that is attempting to stop the march of evil especially directed against Muslims in the world. Unarguably, a truly appropriate struggle against evil has an exceptionally high priority with ALLAH. The fact that many of these particular Muslims use evil for stopping the relentless march of evil, methods which are totally opposed to ALLAH’s Will, even turns out to be a positive opportunity. Because of their present inappropriate, counterproductive, wicked methods of opposing evil, ALLAH will demonstrate His Might and His Wisdom in order to redirect these radical Islamists to finally turn and more closely follow His ways and His purposes rather then continuing to follow their own wicked and destructive ways. Of course it will not be a small thing for ALLAH to change the hearts and minds of many who think they have legitimate historical justification for now hating the cross on which their Messiah was once murdered, seeing it as a wicked symbol of the calloused murder of defenceless, innocent Muslims and even Christians during the barbaric Crusades. For only one isolated example among many of so called Christian activities that can inspire such rage against the cross, we will turn to the respected “History of Christianity” published jointly by Erdmans and Readers Digest. There we read about the devout and respected Bernard of Clairvoux, the famous abbot who was considered by many to be the most influential Christian of his time (1090 to 1153). He even wrote devout devotional hymns telling of his love for His Messiah, such as these two lines which are still sung in both Protestant and Catholic churches today. They state: “Jesus the very thought of thee with sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter far thy face to see and in thy presence rest.” Though the second Crusade he inspired was largely unsuccessful, similar to George W. Bush, this devout 11th century man was able to compartmentalize the bloodshed he inspired, and successfully separate that bloodshed from his devotion to ALLAH’s man of peace. For Bernard preached tirelessly to inspire thousands of so called Christians to join the second crusade in order to travel to Jerusalem and slaughter Muslims and Christians there to attempt to bring Jerusalem under the authority of those who deemed themselves as being more worthy before the Merciful ALLAH than those who were at that time Jerusalem’s peaceful Muslim and Christian occupants. Immorally, quite similar to the Abbot of clairvoux, the U.S. President, his Vice President and key Neo-Conservatives invent supposedly morally acceptable reasons to kill multitudes of Arab Muslims in order to impose their own agendas on predominantly Muslim nations. When
you add to the Bush hypocrisy, this kind of historical Christian hypocrisy in
the name of the cross, and then add the Neoconservatives’ preoccupation of
using American unipolar military supremacy to subjugate Muslims in the In a tape, Osama Bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al Zawahri, urged all Muslims to take up arms and that a refusal to join the fight against “the cross and Zionism was a malignant illness that would lead to the defeat of militant Islam.” In light of the aforementioned kind of abuses of how the cross has consistently symbolized to Muslims the massacres of the Crusades and even today appears to have a significant connection to certain American leader’s preoccupation with waging war against Muslims, one thing should become clear. We should be able to at least understand why men like Dr. Zawahri and Osama Bin Laden continue to justify urging their followers to be waging war against what is being characterized as the negative symbol of the cross. Nevertheless, unless these men have an evil fixation on being negative and violent about the cross and are totally unwilling to have facts change their minds about the cross’ true meaning to ALLAH, the time has come for radical Muslims to find a more effective and humane way to struggle against and to ultimately defeat any activities which ALLAH truly considers to be evil. The reality is that there is nothing that is being done today against those who are either correctly or incorrectly identified as Christians which can begin to correct the horrible injustices and atrocities committed against the people of the Middle East by those who in that day identified themselves with the symbol of the cross. Though this is true, there remains even more forceful reasons to no longer slaughter innocent people and also waste one’s own blood in attacking this symbol of sacrifice today. Yes, it is both understandable and reasonable to forcefully resist and fight against those who attack innocent people in their own lands. But to consistently resort to the bloody tactic of callously killing innocents, obviously provokes heavily weaponized people on the other side and provides them with justification in their minds for additional attacking and invading. So to attack innocent civilian targets is only a wicked guarantee that the mutual cycle of bloodshed continues which stores up certain judgment from ALLAH for both sides. However, there is a much more effective way to defeat those who are attacking the Middle East today. Turn their very own supposed weapon of the cross against them Of course Westerners are not fighting in the name of the true cross on which the Romans were manipulated by the Jews to nail the innocent Messiah. Nevertheless, Westerners’ attacks on the innocent people of Iraq resemble the past Crusades, hence the rhetoric from Dr. Zawahri of attacking the cross. But here is what I mean by turning their own weapon of the cross against them. Since supposed Christians at one time corrupted the true meaning of the cross by murdering Muslims under their distorted banner of the cross, and since destroying other’s bodies today does nothing to remedy that, the answer lies in no longer attempting to destroy their bodies. Instead, their minds must be shamed about what they are doing today. What I suggest is a similar method that the Quran uses against the Jews when it deliberately humiliates them by telling them they were total failures at murder by metaphorically stating that the Jews did not even kill or crucify the Messiah. Please consider how my following proposal may potentially humiliate Westerners who claim to be Christians but who openly support and tolerate a supposedly Christian President who murders Iraqis. Think what would occur if the majority of Islamic cells throughout the world began serving ALLAH and His Risen Messiah by proclaiming the true meaning of the cross as expressed in the Quran when An Nisa 4/157 and 158 are understood correctly. Then ALLAH would begin using these cells and multitudes of mosques throughout the world to proclaim to people far and wide that ALLAH’s Messiah defeated both death and the murderous plans of certain wicked Jewish leaders. Also, this open proclamation of the triumphant Messiah would be a tremendous humiliation for militant Zionism which has cheaply replaced their GOD given hope of a true, living Messiah, with the far inferior goal of stealing the land of Palestinians. So when it is vibrant Muslims who begin proclaiming to Jews and to others throughout the world from their network of mosques and even cells that the Jewish Messiah did indeed come; but that when he did arrive, the Jewish religious establishment refused to recognize him. Instead of honoring him as their expected Messiah, they callously murdered him. Then, when these Muslims add to their finally accepting the historical reality that the Messiah was actually murdered, that ALLAH indeed raised him up alive, the Israeli Zionists and the misled Christian Zionists will be shocked right out of their socks. When it truly sinks into their minds that it is these supposed dedicated terrorist Muslims who are now the ones proclaiming far and wide that ALLAH enabled His amazing man from Bethlehem to totally scandalize the outwitted Jews by rising from the dead, they will be even more shocked. Furthermore, these reformed former potential terrorists will forcefully remind the Jews about how the Risen Messiah then appeared to his frightened followers and inspired them to take the message of his triumph to not only the Jews but also to those people to whom the Jews felt quite superior, the Gentiles. For it to be Muslims who are proclaiming to Jewish Zionists, Christian Zionists, and Neoconservatives these shocking historical realities, it will be so humiliating to them that it will be like punishment from ALLAH on them for their extreme arrogance and cruelty. No, Christianity will not be totally replaced when ALLAH ignites tens of thousands of Mosques and former terrorist cells to begin to proclaim the exciting and societal influencing triumph of the Risen Bethlehem man to both Muslims and non Muslims throughout the world. But there will be an amazing contrast between the vibrance of the new Muslim believers in the Risen Messiah with the ho-hum, business as usual approach of so many traditional Christians regarding ALLAH’s Risen Prophet’s practical influence on their lives. For those who do not have sufficient faith in the Might of ALLAH to believe that former potential radical Muslim terrorists can or will be changed by Him to become radical proclaimers of His triumphant Bethlehem man, there is considerable historical precedent for such a radical change to occur. Look what the Messiah himself was able to accomplish with twelve rough and tumble followers of his. But the most amazing change came in the life of one murderous rabid radical, rampaging rabbi from Tarsus . (He had obtained letters from the Jerusalem High Priest to arrest both men and women Christians in Damascus . Then they would be marched virtually naked and barefoot to Jerusalem , probably either in chains or in ropes with fishhooks, for punishment, imprisonment and potentially death in that "holy" city. Acts 9:2, 22:4-5). He experienced such a blinding light from ALLAH that it compelled him to give the Risen Bethlehem man his full attention and in a few days, his full allegience. Then, though he was later in and out of prison for proclaiming his Risen Messiah, his voice could not be silenced nor did his pen for writing ever run out of ink, as he wrote one chapter of the unchanged Scripture after another. But there will be one more major exciting contrast between the Islamic faith in ALLAH’s Messiah, the foundations of which were laid by ALLAH’s faithful Prophet Muhammad so many centuries ago, with what has occurred in Christianity. Whereas Christianity has looked to various main cities from which to expect leadership such as Jerusalem, Constantinople, Rome or Washington , D.C. Islam’s dynamic relationship with their Risen Prophet will be exceptionally decentralized. So those Muslims who are excited about the practical positive influence of the Risen Man in their lives, will be scattered throughout most all of the countries of the world. There, ALLAH’s Spirit, The Risen Messiah, The Quran and the unchanged previous Scriptures will each contribute to guiding these new embracers of the Messiah to make decisions about their faith and how to now live their lives to honor him so that they can most effectively proclaim the triumph and authority of ALLAH’s Risen Prophet to others. (As previously mentioned, it is exceptionally significant that when the Holy Quran is read carefully, it definitely does not teach that the Scriptures previous to the Quran have been changed. Consequently, those Scriptures will also be a significant, practical help to Muslims in addition to the Quran.) So the bottom line is this. Due to the tremendous amount of credibility that so many who have represented traditional Christianity have now lost, Christianity as a respected institution is in deep trouble. In addition to losing major moral credibility, secularization is forcing much of Christianity into a back seat. But due to the foundation laid by the Prophet Muhammad centuries ago along with a new, enlightened understanding of the true teaching of An Nisa 4/157 and 158, an exceptionally exciting time has arrived for Muslims, and for Islam. Yes, I am convinced that the Risen Bethlehem man is due to explode upon Muslims throughout our world, especially in the Middle East. And this explosion of reality that will occur will bring deep joy and desired meaning to the hearts and minds of literally millions. In my mind, after this occurs it will most likely be those vibrant Muslims who will be the ones who serve ALLAH by ultimately aiding the Jews in finally accepting their formerly rejected Messiah. This will be similar to how ALLAH used the Arab grand children of the callously rejected first son of Abraham who was Ishmael, in order to rescue the favored by his mother, Hebrew grand children of the second son of Abraham, who was Isaac. But whether this introduction by the Muslims to the Jews of their Messiah occurs or not, multitudes of Muslims will not be disappointed when they have opened their hearts and minds to the one whom ALLAH Himself has designated to be all of humanity’s Messiah and all of humanity’s Judge. But one more thing is certain. Though Christianity may think it has a monopoly on ALLAH’s amazing man from Bethlehem , and though many American Christians believe ALLAH’S Risen Bethlehem man is obligated to carry the American flag and dress in red, white and blue, they are desperately wrong. The Messiah whom ALLAH has sent into His world and who He enabled to defeat death and give sight to those born blind, is just as much the Messiah for Islam as he is The Messiah of Judaism or for Christianity. In fact, it is quite conceivable that he will now be even more so the Messiah for Islam than of Christianity, because so many Christians appear to have become bored with him and begun worshipping multiple idols such as sports and materialism and have minimized his influence on their values. But I truly do not expect Muslims to become bored with their own dynamic man from Bethlehem or to be so involved in worshipping other idols rather than ALLAH. But whether persons are Muslims or Christians, our devotion to ALLAH must not be shared with any idols. For our Messiah reminded all of us to love ALLAH with all of our hearts, all of our minds and all of our strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. ALLAH’s Mosques Will Change The World The U.S. has had a rich heritage of knowing ALLAH’s Living, Risen Messiah has been walking in its midst. Yet, this heritage of acknowledging the Risen Messiah’s presence has now become irrelevant to the vast majority of our population and especially to our leaders. In vivid contrast, Islamic belief until now, because of the misunderstanding regarding one verse out of the entire Quran, has not yet realized that ALLAH’s living Messiah is also invisibly walking in its midst. But, my observation is that a much greater proportion of Muslims have a spiritual orientation and an ALLAH/GOD frame of reference than most Americans and even most American Christians. A case in point regarding this rich GOD orientation of Arab Muslims is observed in the Arabic term which is often translated into English as, “I hope so.” In Arabic this term is literally, “If ALLAH Wills” or “Insha ALLAH.” Yet, it was the half brother of the Messiah, James, who instructed Christians that the dominant attitude of trusting the will of the Lord instead of boasting of one’s own efforts to accomplish a particular task should typify a person’s attitude and conversation. James’ precise instructions were: “For you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” But, it is in a Muslim dominated culture much more than in Christian culture that both Muslims and Christians appear to be both aware of and acknowledge the sovereignty of ALLAH and His continual presence in our midst. Thus, Muslims more than especially Western Christians are the ones who obey the explicit instructions of the Messiah’s brother, though they have never heard or read his words. But the Christians who have repeatedly heard his instructions effectively ignore these emphatic instructions to be preoccupied with ALLAH’S Will. Once again this attitude of being constantly desiring to be aware of the continual presence of GOD/ALLAH in an Islamic culture is practically demonstrated in the words which Muslims say to each other when they are parting company. Whether they are speaking in Arabic or English, they routinely bless each other with ALLAH’s continual presence by requesting that ALLAH be with the departing person. Rather than the traditional English “good bye” they will say in Arabic “ALLAH Ma’ak” which is “GOD be with you.” In contrast, in America’s highly pluralized secular society there exists a strong politically correct movement to even remove the name of ALLAH’s anointed Christ from the national celebration of his own birthday by using the more secularized and considered less offensive term of “Happy Holidays” for the Risen Christ honoring term of “Merry Christmas.” Even the religious President Bush yielded to this politically correct movement in his pre-Christmas “Victory in Iraq” speech to the American people and made no mention of Christmas in his good-bye. But, when it comes to our Bush Administration, and other political leaders, especially after 9/11, when they have made speeches justifying our war against the mostly Muslim people of Iraq, it is not unusual for the final closing comment to be words which imply that ALLAH is both approving of and blessing our efforts to militarily remake the Muslim governments of the Middle East. So they often have terminated patriotic speeches with the relatively insincere, manipulative parting comments such as: “And may GOD continue to bless our great nation.” In my mind, the manipulative leader who has made such a comment is desiring to firmly plant in the minds of his potential voters the obscene idea of: “Isn’t ALLAH wonderful for giving our nation such an abundant stockpile of weapons and so much military superiority. Because of His blessing us in this way we can continue to shed as much blood as is necessary so that we can force our political and economic agendas on resistant Middle Eastern nations even though each of these nations is sovereign.” I believe that I am justified in stating that such an arrogant, presumptuous comment at the conclusion of a speech, in ALLAH’s value system, is beyond repulsive. In fact, it is impossible for me to comprehend how anyone can possibly think that the all wise ALLAH would consider such superficial words as a sincere expression of appreciation for Him allowing our temporarily prosperous nation to achieve military superiority. For a major reason we covet that superiority is so that we can force our political agenda and economic agenda especially on Middle Eastern Muslim nations. An Observation From A Methodist
It is relevant to mention an 18th century observation made by John Wesley regarding the negative relationship that material prosperity has with persons continuing to be able to practice a high quality of Christian commitment to their Risen Messiah. “I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore, I do not see how it is possible in the nature of things, for any renewal of true religion to continue long. For (true) religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger and the love of the world in all it branches.” Consequently, in view of the reality of this negative principle enunciated so concisely by the co-founder of Methodism, that prosperity usually produces spiritual sloppiness, many Christians should acknowledge an uncomfortable reality. If we can succeed in stepping away from our personal biases, many of us will agree on this relatively shocking but significant reality. The persons in our wounded world who presently are the most willing to personally sacrifice for what they are convinced ALLAH would have them do to bring healing to our world are not American Christians. Rather, persons with the most sacrificial dedication to what they are convinced is ALLAH’s Will, appear to be radical Islamists. This is not to say that the violent desires and activities of these committed persons please ALLAH. I am personally convinced that when men or women terrorists carry out their twisted desires, they deeply grieve ALLAH and cruelly inflict undeserved suffering on innocent, precious human beings. Furthermore, their inhumane behavior, I am convinced, purchases these sincere zealots a one way ticket to the reverse of Paradise; Hell. But even though these misguided individuals will spend an eternity in Hell unless they sincerely repent of their extremely grievous err, it still must be admitted that they are extremely dedicated to their concept of ALLAH’s Will. Therefore, their most certain judgment from ALLAH, does not mean that they do not presently possess a single minded sacrificial dedication to what they sincerely but wrongly believe that ALLAH Himself is leading them to do. In contrast to the self sacrifice of these Muslim extremists, the painful reality is that current Christianity in the U.S. has become less a sincere expression of faith in the One ALLAH and in His Risen Messiah but instead has become a multibillion dollar growth industry. Furthermore, U.S. Christianity has become a convenient means for a multitude of slick peddlers of God’s Word to become rich. What is often forgotten is that no matter how great is the present and past wickedness of these committed Jihadists, ALLAH’s Mercy, His Grace and His Power to change their lives is so overwhelmingly great that the extreme wickedness of not one of these terrorists places them beyond the ALMIGHTY’s capacity and ability to both cleanse and change their minds, their hearts, their desires and even their goals. Of course ALLAH is also able to change the hearts and minds of those Christians who are more committed to materialism than they are to ALLAH and to His Messiah. As previously mentioned, the radical, rampaging, rabbi from Tarsus , the Rabbi Saul who became the Christian Apostle Paul, was at one time a committed and consumed Jewish terrorist until that brilliant light from heaven blinded him while he was on his way to Damascus in order to terrorize and arrest both men and women Christians. While he was on that Damascus road, the very Risen Messiah spoke with a loud voice to him from above. Twice he called him by name, “Saul, Saul.” Then he spoke to his heart by asking him a question he could not answer. “Why are you persecuting me?” This question was impossible for him to answer because like so many today who in effect, hate Christ, truly have no idea who He really is. After this rabid, with hate consumed rabbi, had this penetrating, heart searching encounter with ALLAH’s Risen Anointed, his whole reason for living radically changed. His focus on terrorizing those with whom he disagreed and whose imprisonment or murder he fiercely labored for, were totally replaced with an enlightened compassion. Love took the place of hate. A fierce desire to teach others to be submitted to ALLAH, to proclaim His Messiah and to both love and serve, took the place of his consuming desire to hate, imprison and consent to the death of any who disagreed with his hate for ALLAH’s Risen Messiah. So he, himself, through the power of ALLAH’s Holy Spirit now learned to love others with an intensity and a purity that were entirely new to him. But the zeal and focus that he had only shortly before, poured into the destruction of innocent people’s lives were not toned down at all. Rather, all of his energy and zeal were positively refocused on being submitted to ALLAH and on serving His living anointed Messiah whom he had formerly passionately hated. Quite relevant to today’s situation regarding so many potential terrorists in our world, through this one Jewish terrorist, the rabid rabbi Saul, The MERCIFUL has given to us all a powerful reassurance. He has openly demonstrated to our entire world that His love, His forgiveness, His grace and His transforming power can work a mighty miracle in any persons life. (This miracle can even occur in a President or Vice President’s life if they can admit their need.) The Rabbi Saul’s encounter with ALLAH’s Risen Messiah transformed him from an enraged, self-righteous, vengeful terrorist into a loving man, who wrote a tender love poem which has been publicly read at millions of weddings. Honestly, I truly expect a similar dramatic change to soon take place in the hearts and minds of a multitude of former Muslim radicals as once occurred in the former rabid, radicalized Jewish Rabbi. Yes, I am convinced that ALLAH’s power to transform is so awesome that we will soon observe many, many personal miracles of human transformation. We will hear about multiple young Muslim terrorists who have formerly been full of zeal and focus toward being wicked and destructive in the name of what they sincerely believed to be ALLAH’s Will, to do a total reversal, quite similar to what ALLAH did in the life of the former Jewish terrorist, Saul of Tarsus. By reversal, I am not suggesting that these formerly enraged young men at the U.S., suddenly support Zionism.Nor am I suggesting that their anger at America’s unwelcome interference in the Middle East, suddenly disappear and that they begin supporting distorted and twisted U.S. policies? Absolutely not! Rather, I am definitely suggesting that after these young men fully realize that they have been fed a steady diet of a wrong interpretation of one deeply profound verse in the Holy Quran, many of them will become totally changed in the focus of their zeal and dedication. When they realize that their Quran does actually teach that the Messiah did defeat both wicked Israeli attempts to end his life forever and does emphatically teach that by ALLAH’s Wisdom and by His Almighty Power, He enabled His Messiah to be victorious over death itself, many of the zealots will now use their zeal to do ALLAH’s True Will. So they will assist multitudes to know that their Risen Messiah is indeed on the side of truth and on the side of true justice. Thus, when this major paradigm shift occurs in both thousands of mosques scattered throughout the world and in multitudes of former terrorist cells, there will be a radical shift in how ALLAH spreads His message of the radical triumph of His ever Living Messiah as the dynamic force to take ALLAH’s message of His Risen Messiah and his values to the nations. To put it quite bluntly, it appears that Christianity recently has done such an effective job of proving to ALLAH that much of Christianity is no longer effective, that it has forced upon ALLAH an earth shaking paradigm shift. That is, now Islam will in effect replace some of Christianity's former responsibility for taking the Risen Messiah's message to the unreached nations. Significantly, this refocused zeal of these committed Muslims will at the very least, overshadow the relatively shallow present commitment by Western fragmented and defused Christians in bringing justice, healing and hope to the wounded, suffering people of our needy, broken world. Because when millions of Muslims have fully encountered and warmly embraced the penetrating love and fiery, focused zeal of ALLAH’s own Risen Bethlehem man, the blessing will not be limited to only the Muslim Middle East. Most certainly, by ALLAH’s Wisdom and Might which He openly displayed when He raised His Messiah up alive unto Himself, (An Nisa/Women 4:158), overwhelming love and bright light will emanate from these submitted Muslims and their wide spread network of mosques. So they will positively impact many areas of the world. And of course this vibrant display of ALLAH’s power and love will drive the rejectionist Jews to be envious and jealous, which their own former terrorist predicted in his New Testament letter he wrote to the Romans written almost two thousand years ago. (Especially Chapter 11) Why can we be certain that all this blessing and human transformation will occur? Because even the evil power of the Bush man as he leads the mightiest, most militarized nation in the history of the world, is no match for ALLAH’s own submitted and now risen man from the small West Bank town of Bethlehem. For who will be able to limit the magnificent triumph of the one whom the Holy Quran tells us was the faultless son of the pure Virgin Mary/Maryam? The Wonderful Madrasah Factor In discussing how the Bethlehem explosion begins with ALLAH bringing His Messiah into our world through one young virgin from a modest family, we must examine one principle ALLAH often uses to carry out His Will. Since He is so aware of man’s pride and arrogance, He often uses what man counts as nothing and even despises, in order to do His work. Thus, we will not neglect the magnificent new role which ALLAH has for tens of thousands of sincerely led, but often maligned Islamic madrasahs/schools which He has strategically planted in dozens of nations. But many of the nations are not primarily Muslim. Therefore, I am convinced that a major contribution that will lead to Islam relatively soon overshadowing U.S. Christianity in spreading the good news of ALLAH’s Risen Messiah to our world will be His exciting use of these many, many madrasahs, located in so many different nations. Though U.S. centered Christianity has suffered debilitating blows by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with the willing assistance of the Supreme Court, so that freedom from religion has replaced freedom of religion in U.S. educational systems, a similar destructive hostility does not exist against Islamic madrasahs in either Islamic nations or other nations. But in the U.S. school systems, at the ages where the children are forming their basic attitudes and beliefs, there is allowed to exist a hostile environment toward any sort of emphasis on beliefs and values relating to ALLAH’s own Risen man from Bethlehem . In vivid contrast to this U.S. suppression of positive religious values, even when certain Muslims have a more secular orientation, these Muslim persons have sufficient respect for those who hold different views than themselves that they do not wage virtual war against madrasahs for teaching religious values. Nevertheless, though there is no major internal hostility against madrasahs within Islamic society and culture, there does exist a tremendous hostility toward Islamic madrasahs from an external force; the Western media and the hostile, crusading, Muslim despising Neoconservatives. It is a recognizable and verifiable reality that both of these groups have been remarkably effective in portraying almost all Islamic madrasahs as being breeding grounds for Islamic radicals and as strategic places for future terrorists to develop. Refreshingly, an unexpected source has stepped forward to emphatically expose this over generalization of the supposed negative aspects of the Islamic madrasah system as a gross distortion of reality. It is in the prestigious U.S. Foreign Affairs Journal (January/February 06) where Alexander Evans counters the erroneous conclusion that most all Islamic madrasahs breed fanatics. In his revealing paper entitled: “Understanding Madrasahs,” He states: “But they are wrong. The majority of madrasahs actually present an opportunity, not a threat. For young village kids it may be their only path to literacy. For many orphans and the rural poor, madrasahs provide essential social services: education and lodging for children who otherwise could find themselves the victims of forced labor, sex trafficking or other abuse. And for U.S. and European policy makers, madrasahs offer an important arena for public diplomacy - a chance to ensure that the Muslim leaders of tomorrow do not see the West as an enemy inherently hostile to all Muslims. “Beards and bombast may make for good newspaper copy but the reality of the madrasah system is far different: it is characterized by both orthodoxy and diversity and is host to a quiet debate about reform.” In contrast to the positives which generally occur in madrasahs, Mr. Evans refers to Marc Sageman’s recent study, “Understanding Terror Networks,” where Sageman states: “Two thirds of contemporary Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists went to state or Western style colleges.” The bottom line reality is that the majority of madrasah leaders are sincerely desirous of pleasing ALLAH, and are not interested in suppressing His truth so that ALLAH’s principles are not presented and discussed in schools in the negative and sometimes hostile way that the anti-religious West so effectively and eagerly does. So the madrasah system appears to have a sincere desire to present to its impressionable students what is truly historical truth from ALLAH. Therefore, I do not doubt that in a dramatic contrast to the suppression of such truth by Western schools, an exciting breakthrough is about to take place in the context of multitudes of Islamic madrasahs. Though the doors of these multitudes of madrasahs are presently closed and locked to ALLAH’s own Risen Bethlehem man, that is about to change. As soon as one profound verse from the Holy Quran becomes understood in the way that it is ALLAH’s Will that it be understood, His Risen, triumphant Messiah will walk through many newly opened madrasah doors and into the lives of millions of ALLAH’s precious children. Of course ALLAH has already enabled His Risen Messiah to miraculously walk right through the closed and locked, unwelcoming doors and into the madrasahs because the ALMIGHTY has enabled His spiritual Messiah to be present everywhere with everyone in our world simultaneously. But only those young students who possess ears and eyes of faith are now enabled by ALLAH to sometimes hear and see the unheard and the unseen. So their own ears of faith will occasionally hear the Risen Messiah quietly weeping as he invisibly stands near them in their classroom still bearing the scars of the nail holes in his hands. And their own eyes of faith will sometimes catch glimpses of the spots on the floor where his many, many tears of sadness have fallen and left small stains. Why does ALLAH’s once murdered but now Risen Messiah silently weep as he stands among the young students in their classrooms? He weeps because truth about what he has endured due to man’s rebellion against ALLAH’s anointed messenger, has until now been locked out of their madrasahs. Consequently, the wounded and scarred man that he truly is, has been consistently locked out of Islamic madrasahs throughout the entire world. Therefore a very strange phenomenon has occurred. Though he is truly ALLAH’s once crucified but now Risen Messiah, Muslim Madrasah officials insist on enforcing an anti-ALLAH policy.His Risen Messiah will only be allowed to be admitted into their madrasahs if he is willing to deny the historical evidence of who he truly is and also deny all of his vivid memories of what he once endured. So he can only come into their madrasahs where truth is usually taught and valued, if he comes in as a man who is not truly himself. Madrasah officials will only allow him to openly enter their schools if comes in as a man who was once so fearful of suffering on a cruel Roman cross that he desperately needed ALLAH’s assistance to help him escape the unimaginable pain that he would have endured if he had been truly crucified. So the students are virtually taught that ALLAH did something shamefully similar to what the U.S. CIA would do or what the Israeli Mossad would do. That is, that ALLAH Himself deceitfully arranged for another man to cruelly suffer on the cross instead of the apparently soft and weak Messiah. Is it possible that many Muslims actually believe that this former carpenter actually needed a substitute to be crucified instead of him because he was not strong enough to endure the intense suffering? Think about it. He worked as a carpenter before there were power saws and he had to cut down trees with an ax and make them into useable lumber. Also, do you really think ALLAH would have deliberately humiliated his faithful Messiah by deviously arranging for a Hollywood type stunt man to substitute for him at his own crucifixion. Such devious CIA type action by ALLAH would leave a stain on His Majesty. But no matter what millions or even billions may believe, it does not change one certain historical reality. It was indeed ALLAH’s Messiah who did endure the crucifixion and after he rose from his tomb, he showed his followers the nail wounds in his hands. So it deeply saddens him that these precious students are being falsely taught that he did not endure the cruel crucifixion that he has so many vivid memories of enduring, that it is as if his cruel crucifixion took place yesterday. Nevertheless, since truth cannot continue to be suppressed and will ultimately triumph, many influential men and women believers in ALLAH will be influenced from Him, from the Quran, (Yunis/Jonah 10:94) and from the Scriptures preceding the Quran, of a new, true understanding of one profound verse in the Quran. (Women/An Nisa 4:157) When this new understanding occurs, the now locked doors of the Madrasahs will be swung wide open to welcome ALLAH’s Risen man from West Bank Bethlehem. Then his silent weeping will joyfully be replaced by the student’s joy and their deep appreciation of what he endured for them as a result of the wicked manipulation of the Roman occupiers by skillfully deceptive Israeli leaders. Yes, this new, correct understanding will have far reaching implications. It will result in tens of thousands of madrasahs teaching their sincere and eager students two wonderful new realities while multitudes of mosques will be doing the same for millions of adult Muslim believers. After so many centuries of having these realities temporarily hidden because of the higher priority of the emphasis being on the absolute Oneness of ALLAH, these new realities will burst out into the open. The amazing victories that ALLAH enabled his Bethlehem man to accomplish will be given their deserved recognition far and wide. First, the amazing reality that ALLAH enabled His Messiah to defeat death, the harsh enemy of all humanity, will now be understood. But also Muslims will then understand the very relevant reality that ALLAH also enabled him to totally defeat the clever but unsuccessful plans of Israeli leaders to forever lock their Messiah’s murdered, lifeless body in a sealed tomb and keep it there forever, which was their focused intent. This way his embarrassing exposure of the rampant hypocrisy, inhumanity and corruption in their Jewish religious system of that day, would be forever squelched. But soon these precious young minds will also learn right in their schools, in contrast to what Western young people are allowed to learn in their repressive U.S. schools, an additional society transforming reality. That is: “The LIGHT of ALLAH’s Risen Messiah still shines in the darkness, and the evil power of certain religious leaders in Jerusalem (Al Quds) two thousand years ago, did not and will not overcome ALLAH’s inextinguishable LIGHT.” Yes, in arrogance and ignorance U.S. officials may despise and demonize what is being taught in tens of thousands of madrasahs. But this negative attitude reveals a profound underestimation of what ALLAH can and will accomplish through His own Might and His own Wisdom which he openly displayed when he raised His murdered Messiah up to Himself, alive. (Quran, An Nisa 4/158 and Yunis/Jonah 10/94) Therefore, it will be one more repudiation of Western man’s exceptional arrogance when ALLAH, Himself, will make these madrasahs important instruments of His Grace and will enable the young students in these madrasahs to be His own chosen vessels. They will carry the joyful news of His triumphant, Risen Bethlehem man to both Messiah rejecters and to Messiah minimizers throughout the world. In fact, these students may well be the ones to tell many who have virtually no knowledge of ALLAH’S Risen man, about his great love for them and about his great triumph over spiritual darkness on their behalf. ALLAH is Great! Therefore, no one should dare deny His unique power and ability. He will use madrasahs, mosques and even former terror cells to spread the news of His own Messiah’s triumph over both death and spiritual wickedness. And no nation or empire or any power on earth can stop these chosen vessels of ALLAH. Yes, it appeared to the Jews (shubbihalahum) that they had killed and crucified ALLAH’SMessiah. But a truly crucified man is dead forever. Thus, because. ALLAH raised His Messiah up alive, the Quran correctly states that it only appeared to them (Shubbihalahum) that he was successfully crucified. No Virgins/Athar’at, But Joy and Eternal Security It is often emphasized in the Western media that a main reason for a radical Islamist or Jihadist to be willing to give his life in a suicide attack or in defence of his homeland is so that he will be immediately guaranteed a one way ticket to Paradise. But in addition to the ticket he is also counting on many beautiful young virgins being there to welcome him. I personally am convinced that though the virgin angle makes interesting newspaper reading, the virgins are not the main motivation for the majority of these men to so willingly give their lives. Rather, I think that most believe that they are obeying ALLAH by being willing to give their lives in the legitimate cause of justice. The recognized Prophet who is given
considerable recognition in the Holy Quran, has in the Injeel/Gospel presented
his less discussed promise of what a sincere believer can look forward to in Yes, by ALLAH raising His Messiah from death, the virgin born man whom the Holy Quran eleven times confers upon him the respected title of “Messiah,” had it absolutely confirmed by ALLAH that his Paradise Promise could be trusted. But there is still more
overwhelming evidence of confirmation of the trustworthiness of the Therefore, these exciting and relevant ALLAH enabled triumphs by His Risen Messiah provide indisputable proof that this man’s solemn promise made only hours before his unjust and extra judicial execution can be fully trusted. Furthermore, the very temporary victory by the Israeli officials that appeared (shubbihalahum) to have occurred when the Messiah was temporarily murdered, was revealed to be totally cancelled. So that it became only conjecture that they had totally killed him. It only appeared to them that that was the case. ALLAH raising him up alive completely cancelled his unjust execution and made it to be as if that execution had never occurred. This is precisely what An-Nisa/Women 4/157 and 158 so profoundly and emphatically reveal. Furthermore, the empty tomb reveals another decisive lesson which the Israelis, the U.S., the U.N. and the whole Muslim world have apparently ignored. It appeared to the Israelis, (shubbihalahum) that their corrupt justice system had ALLAH’s Messiah at its mercy. But it did not. It still appears to them (Shubbihalahum) and to others that the Israelis are the ones who determine what is just and what is not just about what occurs to Palestinians. But they do not. The empty tomb from which ALLAH miraculously enabled His Messiah to walk out of two thousand years ago continues to shout a loud, loud message for all of humanity including the U.N., to hear. But tragically, everyone is refusing to listen. And what is this ignored message that has for twenty centuries been echoing outward from the empty tomb? The crucial message from ALLAH is that: “It is never the Israelis or any ordinary human or any human institution who truly determines what is just or what not just for the Messiah or for the Palestinians or for anyone else. Instead, it is only ALLAH who truly sets the criteria to determine what is truly just and what is truly not just. Each person or nation which brazenly and blatantly violates ALLAH’s standards of justice, even if it is the U.S. or Israel, even if it is a President or a Prime Minister, will later and perhaps sooner be forced by ALLAH to pay a severe price. Any supposedly compelling rationalization which they may have for why they are excused from following ALLAH’s standards of Justice will be blown away like a tiny leaf in a hurricane. In addition to the Jerusalem empty tomb being ALLAH’s eternal seal revealing that He is the final arbiter of justice, the Jewish ex-terrorist made another important empty tomb point in his Athens ’ lecture to Greek philosophers. The former rampaging, radicalized Rabbi whose letters became a major part of the New Testament, explained that ALLAH has actually delegated the final judgment of all people to his trusted Messiah. Yes, this was the same Messiah who the Israeli leadership unjustly executed. So this ex turbulent terrorist was chosen by ALLAH to inform self assured Greek Philosophers that ALLAH raising His Messiah up alive from what presumptuous Israeli leaders intended to be his eternal Jerusalem tomb, became a universal sign for all people of every coming generation. This empty tomb was ALLAH’s amazing megaphone announcing to each person in the world that the man whom ALLAH enabled to walk out of that tomb alive, had also been appointed by Him to be our eternal Judge. (Acts 17.) But that empty Al Quds tomb had one more lesson to teach to especially Israeli leadership. It emphatically teaches them that the same arrogant Israeli leaders who knowingly condemned a totally innocent man to die a brutally agonizing death, will with certainty be judged by that very same innocent man whom they had callously chosen to blaspheme and to unjustly condemn, and to callously cause to horribly suffer. The Father’s Paradise House A personal term used by the Messiah in his Paradise Promise which may be helpful to clarify is his use of the term “father.” When the Messiah used the respectful and honorable title of “father” in his promise to those who would choose to live in his father’s metaphoric Paradise House, in no way was he hinting at a family of gods kind of situation. Rather, the Messiah speaks of his “father’s house” in order to portray the intimacy and security of what it would be like for all of ALLAH’s permanent guests in Paradise to live under the loving care of a truly loving father in a joyful family atmosphere. Ideally, his use of this warm term should stir pleasant memories in every Middle Easterner of the joy and security that is experienced in so many Middle Eastern homes today. In these happy homes, the kind father is loved and respected for warmly and wisely caring not only for his wife and children but often for other relatives and even friends. Think about it, especially if you are a Jihadist who is being hunted down by Sheriff Bush and are wanted by him in his own memorable words, “Dead or Alive!” So if captured by the Bush man, the very best that you can hope for is a dark, cramped prison cell with personalized physical and psychological torture designed especially for you. You are often cruelly and illegally tortured and kept in solitary confinement until you tell your torturers secrets that you probably do not know. In vivid contrast to the prison cell, torture and death promised you by the often lying Bush man, the now Risen Bethlehem man has promised you a future entirely different. In fact, the future home he promises you is as far different from the cruel Bush man’s promises, as the East is from the West. ALLAH’s Messiah promises you the security and warmth of living in your own personal room in his “father’s house.” And your own personal room will definitely not be dark, cold and cramped. (In the old King James version of the Injeel/Bible, your own promised room is emphatically referred to as a “mansion.”) So please give your own future and the future of your extended family and friends serious thought. Sincerely consider what kind of eternal future you desire for your mother, your father, your wife, your children, your grand parents, your uncles, your aunts, your cousins, your friends, and yourself. Do you actually want them to desperately worry about you day and night and to be thinking about the cruel torture you are experiencing or whether you have been killed in a suicide attack? Or is it preferable for them to also be looking forward with you to the joy of living in their own friendly room in your Risen Messiah’s Father’s house? Is your final choice what the arrogant cowboy Bush man has promised? Or, does it make much more sense to choose what the gentle but courageous Risen man from Bethlehem has graciously offered you with the total blessing of ALLAH. Please realize that even after two thousand years his gracious Paradise Promise to those who will choose to follow him, has never been taken off the table. The Paradise Promise Here is how the Messiah’s good friend John/Yahya remembers the words of the gracious Paradise Promise his Messiah made that dark night of his cruel interrogation and torture and his illegal, hideous execution the next day. “In my father’s house are many rooms. If this were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, you will be also.” Please consider carefully the triple emphasis of his Paradise Promise. 1. His sincere desire is for you to be there in his presence in his father’s house. (He was emphasizing this strong desire even though he was well aware that intense hours of severe agony were only hours away.) 2. He has told you that he personally is making the preparations for you, your family and your friends to have a secure, joyful eternal future with him. 3. Though he was temporarily leaving, he would be returning for you to be with him (Whether you would be, in Bush’s words, dead or alive-but with the gracious Messiah, if you were dead when he returned for you, ALLAH would enable him to give you new life.) Though many men make promises that they cannot or will not keep, you can totally trust the promise of ALLAH’s Messiah. He did not lie. He only made promises which he knew that ALLAH would enable him to keep. You have now read carefully his personal promise spoken just hours before his own horrible murder which he knew would happen. Yet his sincere Paradise Promise is still there for each person who will embrace him, his words, and his promises. It is significant that this important promise was first made to a small group of men who were then occupied by unwelcome foreign military forces. In fact, the promise was made the very night before their Messiah endured his own excruciatingly painful crucifixion at the hands of these resented foreign occupiers. Regretfully, within a few hours after those eleven close friends had received his gracious promise, they unanimously deserted their courageous leader in order to preserve themselves from potential arrest. But three days later, after ALLAH had brought their Messiah back to life, each of these men had an opportunity to personally examine the nail holes in his hands and the spear wound in his side. So it was then that they each realized that they had made a grave err in deserting him. So each of these eleven men returned to his senses and once again chose to fully identify with ALLAH’s now risen Messiah. In fact, several of these once cowardly men later even chose to willingly sacrifice their lives for him. What will be your response? Please don’t be too quick to answer. Your response deserves some very serious consideration. He is waiting to hear your reply. Just whisper to tell him what you have decided as ALLAH has enabled the Bethlehem man to invisibly stand beside you right where you are. So your response will only be between you and him until you decide to tell someone else. It is your decision and only your decision. For as a sincere Muslim, you realize that there is no compulsion in religion. Another Paradise Promise To A Thief While the Messiah may not have been referring to a twenty-four hour day, in his dying moments he made another solemn promise; this time to a convicted thief. Though this man was also dying in painful agony on another cross at the side of the Messiah’s cross, he courageously did one small but kind act. He defended his Messiah to the other thief who had spoken quite harshly to him. Then he made one humble request for himself. He asked Jesus/Isa to remember him when he would come in his Kingdom. The Messiah’s immediate response to this humble thief was profound and reassuring to each of us. “Truly I say to you: Today you shall be with me in Paradise!” So now, when many in Islam choose to live out the meaning of the word “Islam” and submit to ALLAH’s Will as far as accepting the death and resurrection of His Messiah, ALLAH will lead Islam in a direction that Christianity has never dreamed that this would occur. Neither could Christian or Muslim thinkers have imagined this new service for ALLAH that He is now calling faithful Muslims to perform. It now appears to be ALLAH’s Will that a significant proportion of Christianity be replaced as His main chosen vessel to glorify Him in especially two ways. First, Islam will soon be used by Him to lift up to much of the world the relevance to them of ALLAH’s Messiah’s double victory; his victory over death and his victory over cruel injustice. But while millions of submitted Muslims are lifting up ALLAH’s own risen man from Bethlehem , they are also exalting his values: 1. His value of humility rather than glorifying militarization to produce death. 2. His value of service to one’s neighbor and neighbor nation rather than arrogance, unilateralism and exploitation; and both a person and a nation’s need to know how it was necessary for the healing of both persons and nations that the Messiah willingly allowed personified evil to shed his own innocent blood. For when the Roman occupying force allowed themselves to become complicit with the Israelis to jointly condemn and murder ALLAH’s man of goodness personified and then be raised from death by ALLAH, all persons and nations were to receive a message. This is the message that ALLAH is now depending on Muslims to tell. “The selfish evil that resides in the hearts of men and nations has been symbolically defeated both on a Roman/Israeli cross and in a righteous Israeli man’s Jerusalem tomb that was guarded by the soldiers of imperial Rome . But the roman imperial guard was no match for ALLAH’s Wisdom and Might, so even Rome ’s might could not keep him in that guarded tomb. So ALLAH’s chosen Muslim servants will communicate to hundreds of millions about the choice they must make. They can either unite with the healing focus of ALLAH’s Risen Messiah in His Kingdom of love and service to others or remain in their Kingdom of unbelief and exploitation of ALLAH’s creation and their present focus on service to self. Significantly, Christianity’s famous Apostle Paul who had been the former Jewish terrorist, Rabbi Saul, made an important point in his theological letter to the Roman Christians, which deserves comment. He definitely appeared to be implying that Muslims in these last days will be a major force of ALLAH’s community of people who are aligned with the Risen Messiah. This implication comes out of his obvious concern in his eleventh chapter of Romans, that there will be certain believers who will appear to look down on Jews because most Jews have chosen to reject the Messiah which they themselves have now come to believe in. But the reality is that it really does not seem to bother the traditional Christian community that Jews have rejected the Messiah because most contemporary Christians appear not to take the whole acceptance-rejection issue that seriously. However, when a large community of Middle East Muslims identify with the Messiah, they have an extremely strong reason to resent Jews for rejecting the Messiah because they already have reason to resent Jews for displacing the Palestinians from the land where they had been living. So it would be very natural for Muslim believers to feel superior to Jews in a similar way that the Arab Hagar, the second wife of the Patriarch Abraham, temporarily felt superior to Abraham’s Hebrew wife, because Hagar was carrying Abraham’s son and Sarah was not. So Paul’s counsel to not feel superior was necessary to help any believers in the Messiah to replace feelings of superiority, with rejoicing in the blessing that they had now received and which the Jews had not yet received. Because his point was that the temporarily spiritually blind Jews were also going to finally turn to the Messiah and then everyone will be blessed. And also the Apostle suggested that the Jews should be recognized for their foundational contributions despite their present rejectionist stance. But the wonderful reality is this. As ALLAH previously used the grand children of Ishmael to deliver the Jews so that the Messiah could eventually be born, he will again use Ishmael’s descendents to do something very special for ALLAH. They will apparently cause Jews to become so envious and jealous of their new relationship with the Risen Messiah which the Jews have rejected, that the Jews will finally submit to ALLAH’s Will regarding His Messiah (Romans 11) because of the faithful obedience of now faithful Muslims. So whether it will take five years or fifty years, Muslims will keep showing their deep submission to ALLAH and eventually help Jewish people to receive blessing from ALLAH by receiving His Messiah. This will occur even though the Jews did the Palestinians no favor in taking their land from them. But ALLAH will certainly take notice of these Muslim believer’s generosity and undoubtedly they will be eternally rewarded for returning good for evil. The Forgiving Mother of Ahmed Katib This cultural characteristic of Arab people to return good for evil was powerfully demonstrated in the true story of a Palestinian mother written up in an article in the November 18 issue of “The Week” Magazine. This mother experienced the tragedy of having her 12 year old son shot to death (reportedly) accidentally by Israeli soldiers. But instead of seeking revenge, this Muslim mother made her son’s still living body organs a blessing of love and life for Israelis even though it was Israelis who were the ones responsible for her son’s tragic death. I can’t help but believe that this one amazing Muslim Palestinian mother is emblematic of the way ALLAH will use especially Arab Muslims in the future to bring the life of his Risen Messiah to so many, including Israelis. Think of it! Because of this one mother’s great loving and forgiving heart, her son Ahmed has now given new life to six Israelis’ between the ages of seven months and 58 years. Amazingly, one Israeli girl of Ahmed’s exact age is now walking around with new life because Ahmed’s heart now beats in her chest. This is all a true, living example of ALLAH’s Love, ALLAH’s Forgiveness and ALLAH’s Life for others in action by one Palestinian Muslim mother. The amazing grieving Muslim mother of this accidentally killed Palestinian boy, due to her willingness to exchange potential hate for enduring love and to replace a desire for retribution with forgiveness, gave new life to six near death Israelis. Though her son technically was dead, six of his still living organs gave new life to six persons who could have been considered his family’s enemies but were not. So his physical heart which Ahmed gave to an Israeli girl to give her new life can be considered symbolic of the new life and the new heart ALLAH spiritually gives to each of us through His Risen Messiah. This submitted to ALLAH, Palestinian mother, through her giving new life to others, symbolically demonstrated what ALLAH has spiritually enabled his Messiah to fulfill through his resurrection from death. Similar to how Ahmed’s living heart was given to a girl who was near death, which gave her new life, all who embrace the Risen Messiah receive from him a new spiritual heart and new spiritual life. Since after his resurrection ALLAH’s Messiah is now more of a spiritual man than a physical man, he has been enabled by ALLAH to impart new spiritual life to each person who sincerely embraces him. So Ahmed Khatib, the shot to death Palestinian boy, brought new life to six Israelis, including a new heart to one of them. This gift of great compassion by Ahmed’s loving and forgiving mother helps us understand the gift that ALLAH has given to each of us. He has given us His one Risen Palestinian Jewish man from West Bank Bethlehem to offer us a new spiritual heart and a new spiritual life when we sincerely choose to spiritually receive him, and to spiritually walk and talk with him. ALLAH'S Own Mighty Sacrifice Thus, two different Palestinians by place of birth, had their physical lives violently stolen by official agents of the government of Israel. One died in relationship to the government’s certainty that ALLAH’S Will is for Israel to forcefully occupy disputed land.The other was callously excuted twenty centuries before, for a theological crime. His supposed crime was that he confessed to his interrogators that he himself, was the Christ, the very Messiah for whom the whole nation of Israel was looking (and for whom it continues to look.) Due to national pride and great arrogance, the leaders and theologians of Israel had been unable to comprehend a vitally important truth which had been repeatedly revealed by their own Old Testament Prophets.Their own arrogant certainty that they were so favored by ALLAH and so superior to other nations, blinded them from accepting this one crucial reality. Their own Scriptures actually foretold two distinctly different comings of GOD’s Messiah. In his first coming, he would reveal humility, teach through parables, enter Jerusalem on a donkey, be despised, rejected, arrested, tortured, and be totally denied justice. Though he would experience, a violent execution at their cruel hands, the ancient Scriptures emphasized that his body would be kept from corruption and decay. Similar to the deliverance that the prophet Yunas/Jonah experienced on the third day after being swallowed by a great fish, the Messiah predicted he would be raised alive the third day after his execution. There is a major irony that Israel’s national pride would not allow the Israelis to conceive of ALLAH sending a humble Messiah to such a supposed, favored and superior nation as Israel. The type of glorious Messiah whom Israel had conditioned themselves to be willing to welcome, is quite similar to the Messiah that the Scriptures indicate that ALLAH’s own Bethlehem man will be when he comes to this earth a second time. Then he will return in great power and majesty and ALLAH through him will demonstrate His Own Authority over the nations as well as over Israel. Regretfully, the leaders of Israel could not sufficiently free themselves from their great pride in their Abrahamic heritage to realize that ALLAH does not think similarly to the way that they think. Therefore, He is not willing to re-inforce their arrogance by giving them whatever they decide they deserve. So, he sent them the kind of Messiah that the ancient Prophets had predicted, who had neither a desire nor a need to impress anyone.Sadly, Israeli leaders had only contempt for the Messiah sent by ALLAH who was filled with compassion and integrity but who possessed no outward glory and majesty. The bottom line is this.Since Israel’s leaders rejected, terrorized, and viciously unjustly executed ALLAH’s Own Messiah who lived, taught and healed among them in humility, ALLAH will not allow Israel any share in His Messiah’s glory, majesty and power which will be revealed at his second coming. Public repentance and a sincere public repudiation of what their ancestors did in an open acknowledgement of the absolute wrongness of Israel’s treatment of ALLAH’s gracious gift of love to man, will be required before trust and true fellowship can be restored. Of course, recent history reveals that to admit any wrong about any thing is exceptionally difficult for the arrogant nation of Israel. Only one of the many evidences of their hypocrisy mixed with stubbornness is their unwillingness to admit any wrong in the way they have treated Palestinians while they blatantly dispossess them of their land.Another evidence is their perverse pride in the leadership of their now desperately ill, democratically elected Prime Minister. Though his hands still drip with blood from the two massacres under his supervision of innocent, defenseless women and children at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, a majority of Israelis remain convinced that his type of conscienceless bloody, unjust leadership is what their perpetually innocent nation needs. Despite the overwhelming injustice of the death of both Ahmed Khatib and ALLAH’s Messiah, the ALMIGHTY used both their deaths to bring new life. Due to the precious sacrifice of the life of Ahmed Khatib, coupled with his mother’s generous forgiveness, six Israelis were given new life. Even more amazing, by ALLAH’S Own Mighty Sacrifice of His Own symbolic sacrificial lamb, the whole world is offered forgiveness and new life. For the Holy Quran speaks of this special Mighty Sacrifice at the time the Prophet Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his own son. And the true Mighty Sacrifice of whom the Quran was truly referring was not a ram caught in a bush. Rather, the true Mighty Sacrifice of ALLAH, was His own precious Messiah whom He allowed the descendents of the Prophet Abraham and his wife Sarah, to callously execute centuries later. But ALLAH raised that Great Sacrifice up alive.And his arms which had been forcefully spread wide on a cross for his vicious, illegal execution, are now willingly spread wide to welcome and embrace each of us. But will you respond to his compassionate desire to embrace us?Or, will you find excuses to turn away from ALLAH’S Own Great/Aziim Sacrifice who is also our future Judge? Al Saffat 107, Al Fajr 22) back to "Pre-2005 Middle East Observations" page __________________________________________________________ _________________________________________ __________________________ _____________ |