Is there even one of these 15 lines which describes any qualities in either of the two want-to-be Messiah’s of the world, either George Bush or Dick Cheney?

Is there even one of these wonderful qualities that does not appropriately describe ALLAH’s still living man from West Bank Bethlehem? And this is the man to whom the Holy Quran refers to no less than eleven (11) times with the very honorable title of Messiah.

Since this fact can be corroborated by reading any Quran, there is a very disturbing question that all Muslims of the Arab Middle East must soon answer. Since it is so obvious that the now living Messiah is portrayed in the pages of the Muslim’s Holy Quran and in the Hebrews Old Testament, (though the majority of Jews will not admit it) and in the Christian’s Old and New Testaments, why is there not a mighty theological out-cry from every living, breathing Muslim in the entire Muslim Middle East? Why are not head lines and editorials aflame with substantial exposure and condemnation of the evil the two pretend Messiahs of Dick Cheney and George Bush? Are not leaders, Imams and journalists realizing that these two unwise men are publicly attempting to usurp the authority the ALMIGHTY has reserved for only His Messiah?

Though the two Washington D.C. clowns are wise enough to not openly refer to themselves as "Messiahs” of ALLAH, by the broad, sweeping ways they are trying to use their great military, economic and political power to restructure the Middle East, for all practical purposes they are operationally attempting to coercively take over the role of ALLAH in at least the Muslim Middle East. Can’t responsible individuals see that this is so wrong and dangerous that it must be aggressively exposed and resisted by every moral and effective means?

Others have told me that in certain of his speeches to military academies, the U.S. President has actually stated that GOD has given to him the U.S. Presidency in order for him to restructure the Middle East so that it will not breed future terrorism. Since there is such a high probability that ALLAH has not trusted this impulsive man with such a mandate, has had publicly usurped the authority of ALLAH and has blasphemously anointed himself as ALLAH’s de facto Messiah. For the Muslims and Christians to passively allow this public blasphemy to occur without even making a tiny bird’s peep of protest is an absolute disgrace. Regretfully, it reveals that there is a lack of urgency missing in Middle Eastern male leaders and followers as we have all been complicit in Bush’s covertly anointing himself and his “shoot first” vice. President as ALLAH’s de facto Messiah’s.

Again we will turn to the rugged, fearless Prophet Dhul Kifl for his vivid description of the very real suffering the authentic Messiah would be willing to endure. (Isaiah 52,53) For being GOD’s anointed Messiah is not just a bed of roses and appearances before T.V. cameras. For there is a cost to be paid in behalf of the people a Messiah serves. But you would never see this side of being a faithful Messiah with George Bush or Dick Cheney as their make-up artists help them prepare for T.V. press conferences. This occurs while their own military men and women and Iraqi civilians bear the suffering which is a result of the overwhelming cavalcade of murderous killing these two want-to-be Messiah’s have brazenly but casually unleashed in Iraq.

When the penetrating pen of ALLAH’s Prophet Isaiah comes to grips with revealing the Messiah man who ALLAH Himself will empower to defeat all of the ugliness of sin, he takes just the opposite approach as a presidential speech writer or a public relations specialist does when these manipulators of minds promote their man. In fact, Isaiah doesn’t even refer to the Messiah as Messiah, but uses the more humble term of “servant.” Sparkle and glitter will not be part of this true Messiah’s resume. But the absolutely necessary quality of being wise rather than shooting from the lip and acting on impulse, will be the quality with which Isaiah has ALLAH introduce His chosen man. (There will be no “F..K Saddam, we’re taking him out! From a true Messiah.) (The following verses are all from Isaiah 52,53)

“See, my servant will act wisely.” But in his struggle to defeat the evil of sin, will his wisdom impress the people of Israel who are much more into appearance rather than substance? No! They will be unimpressed with his wisdom.

In his combat with evil that took place on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem, Isaiah says of GOD’s true Messiah:

“… there were many who were appalled at him – his appearances was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness –

“Why did he look so bad? Because he had been brutally beaten by two different groups of Hebrew armed guards and two different groups of the Roman military.

He was made a spectacle of to be jeered and he appeared to have been totally defeated by death. But Isaiah was quick to make it clear that there is a giant chasm between the appearance of defeat and actual defeat. No! There was absolutely no defeat. Through what appeared to be defeat by his being put to death, he had accomplished a victory that would not only immediately impact his own people – the Jews – but would later impact nations other and their Kings.

“So he will sprinkle many nations and Kings will shut their mouths because of him.”

Even though the word was slow to get out regarding what ALLAH had empowered his servant to accomplish through rising from death, what he has accomplished will now finally become obvious to even kings.

“For what they were not (before) told, they will see, and what they have not (before) heard, they will understand.”

Again the Prophet emphasizes that there were no public relations distortions and Carl Rove type games that would attract people to ALLAH’s wise servant. In fact, it was the opposite. GOD willed that it would be his wisdom and substance and not superficial outward appearance that would draw people to him.

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.”

Despite his deserving recognition for his wisdom and substance, but not receiving it, did he hesitate to meet our urgent needs?

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.”

But for doing this for us, did we think he deserved any credit?

No! Especially the Jews of his time were convinced that every negative thing that happened to him was an affliction from GOD because they were certain GOD considered him deserving of affliction. But Isaiah was fully aware of precisely who it was who truly deserved the affliction. It was the Jews of his day and the Jews of a future day and in a broader sence, all of us who deserved the affliction that the Servant of ALLAH received.

That is why Isaiah emphasized that for us to experience true peace with ALLAH, it was only someone who had the Messiah’s qualities who would be worthy of being crushed on our behalf because it was each of us and each of the rebellious Jews of Isaiah’s day who deserved to be crushed for our individual rebellion.

“He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our inequities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

The Quran is both helpful and insightful when it emphasizes that it was not any man who could take upon himself the punishment for others.

But ALLAH had especially prepared one special man for the task of successfully combating the depth and depravity of sin and the absolute ugliness that is in all of our hearts that could drive us to do something so ugly as what the Jews did to their Messiah and our Messiah, or what Jews do to Palestinians today or what certain twisted men did on 9/11. Or even what certain Palestinians today do to brother Palestinians or what they may do to certain innocent Jews. Or what a supposedly democratically elected President and vice President do to innocent Iraqis and to certain innocent American military personnel. Or, what brother Christians do to brother Christians or what Muslims do to brother Muslims. All of this is such gross evil that it was only ALLAH’s own totally innocent man who could endure all of the wrath that a Holy, Righteous and Just ALLAH must inflict on such transgression. So ALLAH provided His perfect Messiah who was willing to totally engage ugliness and defeat it.

For instance, Bush and Cheney’s wicked policies put certain Marines in the middle of much ugliness, so apparently they did something far uglier than the ugliness deserved by apparently killing totally innocent Iraqis. So the Marines were put in chains in a California prison. But neither the women and children who were killed or the Marines chose to be in that situation. But despite not having any choice about being involved, the Iraqi civilians are dead and the Marines are in chains. But the two men who are pretending to be Messiahs who put these innocent Iraqis and vulnerable Marines in these positions of extreme ugliness and vulnerability, are still strutting around in front of the T.V. cameras like victorious banty roosters. Shockingly, they take no responsibility for the dark ugliness they themselves have needlessly unleashed.

This gross hypocrisy is in total contrast to the honorable conduct of the ALLAH’s true Messiah. Instead of being a Bush or Cheney type Messiah who would gladly send others to combat ugliness, he willingly made himself the victim of the world’s ugliness that occurred in the former city of the humble King Daoud/David. And by our deeply considering the profoundness of wickedness which occurred on that awful night and horrible day in that supposedly holy city, we would ourselves humbly allow ALLAH to deliver each of us from any and all evil that has crept into our own hearts. And ALLAH has most certainly chosen and anointed His own man from Bethlehem to be our sinless deliverer from the wicked tentacles of sin which have in some way at some time have taken hold of each of us.

So Isaiah patiently explains that it was and is each of us who go astray like wandering sheep and need our inequity laid on the one man who ALLAH Himself empowered to totally defeat sin of every size and type.

“We all like sheep, have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

And the LORD has laid on him

The inequity of us all.”

ALLAH’s amazing Prophet continues to use the valuable farm where food is produced in order to describe and predict what our non counterfeit Messiah would endure on our behalf without complaint. He used the metaphor of an innocent, silent lamb willing to be slaughtered so that we the guilty would not receive the punishment we deserve.

“He was oppressed and afflicted,

Yet he did not open his mouth;

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

So he did not open his mouth.”

In total contrast to the Bush, Cheney Messiah pretenders who often arbitrarily arrest, oppress and judge unjustly, ALLAH’s true Messiah allowed himself to be the victim on the receiving end, not on the giving end of unjust and humiliating treatment. Significantly, innocent Palestinians also continue to receive every hour of every day at a multitude of Israeli checkpoints, degrading, unjust treatment entirely intentioned to produce maximum humiliation and maximum desire to avenge that humiliation in order to provide the Israelis with a pretext to show to the world why they continue to occupy and control the rebellious Palestinians.

So Isaiah tells us that this oppression of the Messiah all occurred, though he was behind no violence and “no deceit was found in his mouth.” And if that perceptive, courageous Isaiah/Dhul Kifl who made these accurate predictions about ALLAH’s Messiah were living today, he would be also crying out against the oppressive, humiliation and judgment delivered against so many Palestinians in addition to what they experience every day at humiliating Israeli check-points in their own land. And the vast majority of these Palestinian victims have also done no violence nor have they been involved in deceit. But they are oppressed because of the persistent arrogance of so many of their oppressors who have developed personality styles which exude a desire to ruthlessly humiliate those who are in helpless positions.

“By oppression and judgment he was taken away.”

So Isaiah the Prophet could not stop exposing Kings and other leaders and even oppressive systems which were designed to both exploit and to maximize humiliation. But he also could not contain himself from extolling the hope brought to us all from a genuine Messiah who defeated death, sin and all forms of human ugliness instead of unleashing ugliness like false Messiahs do.

In the midst of the numerous details predicted by Isaiah concerning the intense suffering and humiliation the Messiah would endure, was an amazing detail of where he would be assigned to have his grave due to his being executed with criminals and would ordinarily be buried with them. But another amazing prophetic detail included by Isaiah reveals that ALLAH would over-rule the original assignment of being buried where the criminals were buried. Isaiah’s concise words are enlarged upon in John’s enjeel so that we know that one wealthy Jewish leader courageously persuaded the Roman Governor Pilate to allow him to claim this innocent man’s lifeless body so that he could personally provide a caring burial in his own totally new tomb which was more fitting for ALLAH’s Messiah. Thus, he was indeed crucified with the criminals but was only assigned a grave with them that was not used. So Isaiah’s concise verse captures the involvement with both the criminals and the rich man.

“He was assigned a grave with the wicked and the rich in his death.”

Significantly, if Yusef (Joseph) of Arimathea had not made special arrangements to bury him in his own new tomb which was in the midst of a beautiful garden, one of the most tender and significant moments recorded in the Scriptures would not have occurred. But ALLAH knew that His Messiah who had endured so much torture, excruciating pain, and humiliation, but who had finally triumphed over death by silently walking out of his tomb, now could be greatly encouraged by a precious, very human moment.

Sadly, his last interactions with his disciples had been quite discouraging because they had deserted him when the religious authorities revealed that they were after blood. (John was the one exception who later made a silent agreement with the Messiah while he was still alive on the cross, to take care of his widow mother)

So the Messiah was ready for some wholesome human tenderness and to enjoy some of a gardens beauty and fragrance when nature is nurtured and cultivated rather than corrupted.

So we will not examine all of Isaiah’s concluding words about the victory accomplished through the suffering of the Messiah. But significantly, Isaiah ends his treatise on the victory that was accomplished through suffering by stating that the Messiah:

“… made intercession for the transgressors.”

This wonderful reality that it would be he who would be the one and only Intercessor whom ALLAH would provide is in full agreement with the emphatic teaching of the Holy Quran. For the Quran clearly reveals the qualification and appointment of the only one whom ALLAH Himself would choose to be Intercessor as described in Sura Maryam 19:87.

“None shall have the power of intercession, but such as one as he received permission from the Most Gracious.”

And ALLAH’s only Messiah received that permission to intercede for the transgressors.

Part II

The Living Messiah’s Marvelous Message to Mary Magdalene

But we will now make a transition from Isaiah’s portrayal to us of the kind of man ALLAH chose to be our Messiah by building a bridge from the words:

“with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence” to the writing of the Messiah’s beloved right hand man; John. For it is John who describes for us what happened in the lovely garden just outside that rich man’s tomb on the bright sunny day that our Messiah neatly folded up his grave clothes and quietly walked out into the sunshine; alive.

Of course, we could not know what happened if it were not for the true facts Mary Magdaline portrayed to John about that morning. Significantly, these true facts are in vivid contrast to the invented facts a certain author has written about her in order to make millions of $ (bucks) for himself and his brilliant agents through his book and movie, “The Da Vinci Code.”

The setting is this. Some female followers of the Messiah had taken spices out to the tomb for the body of Jesus and had found it empty. Neither his lifeless body, or as we now realize, the resurrected Jesus, was nowhere to be found. So the confused women told some male disciples about their encounter with two angels at the empty tomb but that they found no Jesus. As a result, Peter and John went out to the tomb to conduct their own investigation. But as for Mary from Magdala, she was not so much of a cerebral person as she was an emotional person. So instead of staying in the city, she returned by herself and stuck around the garden with a compassionate broken heart but with a barrel full of devotion. So what did she spend her time doing? Lots of weeping, waiting and looking around in the midst of a beautiful flower garden that she intuitively knew must have a very busy and talented gardener like rich people hire for their gardens.

But Mary’s unwillingness to suppress her emotions paid off big for her. This devotion of Mary speaks loud words about women’s heart devotion to GOD in contrast to men’s sometimes preoccupation with facts and formulas. But women seem to love to nurture and to be nurtured.

Let’s now pick up with John’s account that he had obviously learned about by talking with Mary Magdalene, beginning with John 20:10.

“Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying.” (Incidentally, the Scriptures have numerous accounts of GOD responding to the prayers of tears.)

“As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been… They asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying.’”

“They have taken my Lord away, she said and I don’t know where they have put him.”

Isn’t Mary’s devotion to her Lord amazing in that she doesn’t seem to be the least impressed at having a private conversation with two angels?

“At that she turned around and saw Jesus standing there but she did not know that it was Jesus.”

It was perfectly understandable that she did not recognize him. After all, this rising from the dead phenomenon was all new to her and to everybody else. Besides her eyes were bleary from crying for so long so she had not turned around expecting to see Jesus.

“Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

It was perfectly logical that she would think he was the gardener because someone had invested much time in that beautiful garden and it was quite common to have hired gardeners constantly attending to well cared for gardens.

“Thinking it was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

At that point the deep, deep devotion of Mary to Jesus, caused Jesus to emphatically speak out her name.

Understandably, until that moment, that because she was so stressed due to Jesus’ body being missing, she had not recognized his voice. But when she heard him say her name, that was a different story.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

There had been no eye contact because they were not actually facing one another. But after she heard her name that quickly changed and the volume of Mary’s voice became a loud cry.

“She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ which means, Teacher.”

Now we will pause and seriously consider a fraction of what occurred in one of the most dramatic and significant, tiny slices of history.

Though the Old Testament Scriptures gave veiled hints that the Messiah would rise from death, it was very easy to miss that rising from death, is what these isolated verses actually meant. But the Messiah’s own explicit, repeated predictions of what would occur to him within three days after he had been executed by the Israeli religious apparatus in Jerusalem, were almost impossible to misinterpret. Nevertheless, there was no precedent for a person predicting he would rise on the third day after his execution. So Mark tells us that the male disciples could not understand what he meant and perhaps were afraid to understand because Mark states:

“But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.” Their fear was that they possibly wanted to remain in denial and not realize he was predicting his own imminent death.

Mark records three times in his book by his name in 8:31, 9:31 and 10:33, 34 that in a period of about two weeks, while in three different locations Jesus used approximately the same words to tell his disciples (probably only the males) precisely the horrible treatment and the execution he would experience in Jerusalem. But he concluded each amazing prediction with the exact same word to proclaim ALLAH’s victory over the unjust and illegal execution, “rise.” First in the town of Bethsaida, then in a house in an unnamed town in Galilee. But, as they were walking on the road to Jerusalem he would include the most details of what would soon occur to ALLAH’s “son of Man.”

“We are going up to Jerusalem, he said and the son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him and hand him over to the Gentiles (Romans), who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. In three days he will rise.”

Though these three clear statements were on the table for the male disciples, they had great psychological need to be in denial about him being executed. So the harsh reality of what the cruel religious apparatus would do to him in Jerusalem had quite likely not been shared with his women supporters. Consequently, the whole concept of his rising from death had not been considered by Mary as a remote possibility. In view of all these circumstances, what happened that sunny day in a lovely garden just outside the entrance to the most significant tomb to ever exist, must not pass us by.

This is the very first moment in the history of man that the one who had existed with GOD in eternity past gave a message to anyone. (The Messiah had mysteriously told the Jews, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” Also, a little known fact confirming his pre-existence was that he had appeared twice in the desert to the mother of the Prophet Ishmael, Hagar.) So here in this garden with Mary Magdaline, he was revealing for the very first time that though he had been knocked out by death for a count of ten in the boxing ring of life, he had fully recovered from that knock out and would now be alive for eternity.

But why oh why would ALLAH have chosen this particular woman for the amazing honor of being absolutely the first human being to see ALLAH’s Messiah alive after he had defeated death? Was it because His Messiah felt closer to her and was actually romantically in love with her? This is what the now wealthy author of “The Da Vinci Code” would have gullible people believe. Then he laughs all the way to the bank as so many swallow his wild fiction.

The most significant sentiments in life quite frequently do not evolve around sex. You cannot convince a new mother who is breast feeding her new born child that sex must be involved for a relationship to be precious.

It is significant that the writer, Dr. Luke, tells us that the Messiah had cleansed Mary of seven evil spirits. So instead of it being a man such as Peter or John who were deemed worthy by ALLAH to be the first to usher in this new Kingdom of Life and Light, it was a woman. But it was not an ordinary woman through whom ALLAH chose to emphasize His great mercy. He chose a woman whose life had been an absolute messy mess before she had received total deliverance from GOD’s Messiah.

What had been those “seven demons” as Dr. Luke calls them? Whatever they were, since the Doctor calls them demons, they had to have been making her life miserable and also quite disturbing to the lives of her loved ones and friends. But that does not necessarily mean that she wanted to be free of these “demons.” We all know individuals who are choosing to have negative influences in their lives from which they do not wish to be free.

But when Mary Magdaline encountered GOD’s Messiah, she did not want any barriers preventing her from enjoying free communion with him. Of course she also wanted to enjoy members of her new spiritual family that she would be introduced to through her friendship with him. So the Scriptures speak of several women who became her new friends.

Though we do not know precisely what particular demons she had, we do know that after her encounter with him, demons such as deceit, greed, lust, anger, materialism, jealousy, alcohol and irresponsibility no longer had the evil hold on her that they once had.

Was she quite physically attractive as “The Da Vinci Code” would have us believe? Very possibly not. The years of accumulating one negative, controlling evil influence after another may have taken a negative toll on her physical beauty. But that was now irrelevant because radiance and inner beauty more than compensate for any deficiencies in stereotypical physical beauty.

But did she now truly, truly know GOD? Most certainly! For the Messiah emphatically said to her:

“Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my GOD and your GOD.’”

So the one ALLAH of the entire Universe chose this one lovely woman to carry out a glorious endeavor. This one woman, who, if she was living today, would not be trusted enough to drive in Saudi Arabia, was especially selected by ALLAH to be the one to initially deliver a precious message to all of the rest of the believers through the centuries. That message was that she had seen the Lord alive. Also, though all of the twelve disciples had forsaken him, he especially wanted those men to be reassured that they were still his brothers. He wanted them especially to know that they were all still in the same wonderful, forgiving family of GOD. Because he explicitly stated, “Tell them ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my GOD and your God.’”

This paper began with words about a possibly sliced down the middle Prophet.  But now we will learn healing lessons from a former demon possessed woman. But marvelously, this healed woman became one of ALLAH’s most precious messengers of all time.

Lessons From the Lovely Woman

The Christian Church spends millions if not billions of dollars each year on Seminaries and Bible Schools. Nevertheless, some of the Church’s teachings unintentionally perpetuate keeping the door of the Kingdom of ALLAH’s now Living Messiah, closed to millions of sincere Muslims whom ALLAH dearly loves.

While the Western world screams about terrorists allegedly being trained in Saudi Wahbabi oil industry financed madrasas, tragically it has partially been Christian Seminaries and Bible schools which have inadvertently helped lay the foundation for the ideological warfare that is occurring between many Muslims and many Christians that has sometimes resulted in tragic terrorism.

The original first century faith in the man who rose from the dead was a relatively simple faith presented by bold, former fisherman who channeled their zeal of fishing for fish into fishing for men. In many ways it is regrettable that in the early fourth century this former simple faith received a scholarly Greek overlay. As a regretful result, it soon became much easier to argue about the Messiah and to refer to him as the Second Person of the Trinity or as Deity, both terms not found in the Scriptures, than to enjoy fellowship with him. Of course, if you approach the Scriptures to attempt to impose formulas into it rather than to find a relationship through its pages, then you can soon become preoccupied with such terms as Second Person of the Trinity and Deity.

Tragically, once that has occurred, the sound foundation has been laid to make certain that a firm barrier of division will remain between Muslim believers in ALLAH (The Arabic word for GOD) and Christian believers in the same ALLAH who is called GOD. This reality was really brought home to me five days (July ’06) ago when I was viewing a video of a Christian conference. The speakers were wonderful, scholarly men and perhaps some women who very possibly know more about Christianity in the Middle East than any other group. As I viewed on the video an excerpt from one of the main speakers, that though I had heard this same concept previously, at that particular moment the comment virtually sent me into shock. Though the words were stated in a kind way without the intention of being negative, the exclusiveness and finality of the way I understood the comment about which I no longer have access to the exact words, stunned me. What I remember is that he was essentially saying that Muslims have excluded themselves from Christianity or the Risen Christ’s Kingdom, by their inability to accept the fact that he is the “Second Person of the Trinity.”

When I heard the eternal exclusion being voiced that due to Muslims mind set, cultural, religious teaching and conditioning that sincerely prevents them from being able to give their assent to these two essentially man-made doctrines, subtle shock waves passed throughout my being. Nevertheless, I made no comment to the person who was with me in our kitchen at the time.

For the sake of argument, lets say the man-made Trinity concept is exactly 100% correct as being the precisely best way to describe the Oneness of the One Eternal GOD who has willed that His Messiah and His Spirit reveal Him on this earth. However, I would remind us that the Trinity formula is a man-made attempt to explain the Oneness of GOD and that GOD Himself has left His own Oneness to be more mysterious than man has allowed it to be. Therefore, to use acceptance of the Second Person of the Trinity formula as the gate pass into Christ’s eternal Kingdom is inappropriately exclusive and very possibly, very much against GOD’s Will. One quite obvious problem is that Muslims who would allow themselves to be excluded from Christ’s eternal Kingdom on the basis of this man-created formula, are quite possibly more likely to take seriously their convictions about both ALLAH and the Trinity explanation about GOD, than are the average Christian who has no difficulty in agreeing with the Trinity explanation of GOD’s Oneness. (Muslims take very seriously the Trinity explanation about GOD. They just cannot accept it as being totally honoring to ALLAH and being exclusively accurate.

Therefore, when I heard this eternal exclusion of all Muslims being the outcome of this possibly reasonable objection to the man-made Second Person of the Trinity concept, both terms not used in the Hebrew or Christian Scriptures, it was as though I could hear my own man-made cow valve in my heart begin to “mooo.” Then my own two man-made front teeth seemed about to jump into the delicious pasta that I was eating.

It was like my own two artificial body parts were able to have an immediate recognition of the absurdity that those who consider themselves capable of officially signing off on who can and who cannot be admitted to the eternal Christ’s eternal Kingdom, are totally unable to comprehend the absurdity of their arrogance. So those who have spent years studying theology are unable to see what appears to be an unreasonable and rigid callousness that is exposed by their unyielding position. They see nothing at all inappropriate about assigning such power to this one, Fourth century formula formulated by a group of argumentive Greek theologians! Now, 16 centuries later it is these men’s artificial description of the invisible GOD/ALLAH which has attained a unique ability to discourage rather than welcome, to be inhospitable rather than hospitable, to build barriers rather than bridges. In fact, now sixteen hundred years later, with all that has occurred between man and GOD and the billions of dollars that has been poured into religious institutions so that many, many men and women can “study GOD/ALLAH,” it is often considered to be the unchallengeable GATE PASS. So a formula invented by this one group of argumentive Greek bishops and other ecclesiastical VIP’s (Very Important People) who are the ones still being trusted to have designed the once and for all time litmus test to keep people out of the Kingdom of the most loving, hospitable man who has ever existed in the history of the Universe. I for one find this phenomenon of such an emphasis on exclusion much more strange than the extreme strangeness that those who call themselves Christ’s followers would elect the two inept men, Dick Cheney and George Bush, into a second term of office of the world’s most weaponized nation so that they could use those weapons for another four years to keep generating death in Iraq. It appears to Middle Easterners that these two strange men and their neoconservative friends were re-elected so that they could continue to use their weapons against those Muslims who do not have a form of Mid East government that has met the approval of the Pentagon, the Neoconservatives and the Bush Administration. Yet, that these apparent Christians can justify their votes bringing death to approximately five hundred and fifty-five thousand Iraqi civilians is absolutely incredible.

So the sum of the matter is this. The U.S. government feels it has the right to force regime change in any Middle Eastern nation that isn’t sufficiently cooperating with the geopolitical purposes of the U.S. similarly, much of U.S. Christianity thinks it has the right to bar Muslims from the eternal Kingdom of Christ even if Muslims were to embrace ALLAH’s Messiah as the man whom ALLAH empowered to defeat sin and death on the cross.

The Loving Visitor

For the sake of illustration, let’s say that at the Christian conference for leaders that I was previously mentioning, they had a totally unexpected, but welcome visitor. Just after the respected speaker had made his “second person of the Trinity” comments, all eyes turned to the closed door of the conference room where there was a persistent knocking.

Most of the participants turned to look at the door because they knew that it was unlocked and that anyone could enter. When one person went over to open the door, all eyes could see the stranger who announced that he had knocked because he wanted to make certain that his presence was welcome. When the conference participants saw his clothing and only sandals on his feet, they immediately recognized that he was an outsider from the Mid East and were anxiously waiting for him to tell them who he was.

His introduction of himself caught everyone totally by surprise and literally blew them away. He said:

“I am Jesus. I heard that you folks were having a conference about how things are going for Christians in the Middle East and that you also had a few Sunni and Shiite Muslims as your special guests. So I thought I would find out if I would also be welcome and would see how things were going for your special guests, the Muslims. So please proceed as if I had not dropped in and just go on with your conference.”

At those comments most of the Christians just sort of stood by their chairs – stunned. (They had all stood up in awe and in respect as soon as he had announced who he was and after a few silent seconds began clapping for him. But the eleven or twelve Muslims came rushing to be near him and lovingly grasped his nail pierced hands, and were encouraged by him to closely examine the large wound in his side from the Roman sword. A few got down on their knees to get a closer look at the healed nail holes in his feet. And they each sort of melted at how warmly and lovingly he looked at them. Suddenly there was a combination of dancing, clapping, kneeling in worship among the Arab Muslims as well as the crying out of sentences in Arabic expressing their overwhelming gratitude and excitement about being able to see him, hear him and be with him.

“Oh Messiah, this is wonderful to see you!”

“Ibn Maryam, please forgive us for misunderstanding our Holy Quran and not believing you died and rose.”

“Oh Ibn Maryam, thank you for not letting Judas look like you and die in your place on the cross.”

“Wow!” Thank you for enduring that torture at the hands of the manipulated Romans and the wicked Israeli leaders.”

“Oh please, living Bethlehem man, please forgive us when you judge us on the last day, for rejecting for so long your willingness to die for us.”

“Oh thank you so, so much for making sure that it was in our Quran that you were eminent in this world and would also be eminent in the next.”

“Thank you for making certain that we could know from our Quran that you gave sight to many who were born blind.”

“Just think, we are right here in the presence of ALLAH’s servant who he empowered to raise the dead and to heal the rejected lepers.”

As they were making all of these joyous exclamations about what they knew of the Messiah from their own holy book, the Quran, most of the Christians were taken by surprise and did not know about so many positive attitudes being planted in the Muslims minds by their own book. So as the Christians moved in and began to ask the Muslims questions, the Bethlehem man made himself as inconspicuous as possible. While everyone became preoccupied with talking about him, he just slid off to the side of the large conference room and then walked totally out of the room. He wanted the conversation between the Muslims and the Christians to take into natural course without fresh input from him. After all, the Christians had enough in their Scriptures for them to be aware of his attitudes, about new people coming into his Kingdom and his strong shepherdly desire to reach lost sheep and other sheep etc. So he thought that it would be inappropriate for him to continue to be among them in order to say anything else or to be asked any questions.

It is necessary at this point to insert a small bit of background concerning the mind-set from which these Muslims were coming. Due to the prevalent polytheism in and around Mecca at the time of the Prophet and those Arabs wide spread belief in families of gods, for centuries the followers of the religion of Islam have had great difficulty in fully accepting the doctrine of Trinity, Deity and Divinity. This has been due to the Quran’s strong emphasis on the Oneness of ALLAH. So it appropriately urges Muslims to be very wary of any teaching that would leave a window open for Muslims to believe in anything that would resemble families of gods and additional deities. So of course the Messiah’s appearance among these few Muslims and his conclusively proving to them that he had both died and risen from the dead, did not suddenly change their attitude about not accepting additional deities in addition to the one ALLAH. Nor did it give them a sudden willingness to accept the Greek, three in one concept known as Trinity. So their deeply engrained background was not all suddenly erased by ALLAH’s Risen Messiah personally appearing among them.

However, until that dramatic moment of their individually examining his healed wounds and experiencing his personal warmth and overwhelming love for them, they had totally and unequivocally rejected both his death and his amazing resurrection. This was due to their previous complete understanding of the meaning of one profound verse in the Holy Quran. But now they realized that the Quran had never intended for this particular verse to be understood totally literally.

Until seeing his wounds for themselves, they had sincerely thought that the Quran had instructed them to fully reject Ibn Maryam’s death and resurrection. However, now that he was standing in their midst, talking with them and showing his love for them through the tone of his voice and with his eyes, they were immediately overwhelmed with a new insight. Now they fully realized what that one verse was actually intended to teach: That it had appeared to the Jews that they had killed him forever but that was only conjecture on their part. Why was it only conjecture? Because the all Mighty and all Wise ALLAH three days after his death had empowered him to walk out of his tomb alive.

As would be expected, after the initial celebration by the Muslims was over and the Bethlehem man had inconspicuously slipped out of everyone’s sight, the Christians conducted a quick debriefing of the joyous Muslims. They sincerely wanted to find out how their beliefs [hand] changed about ALLAH’s Messiah since they had met him and had obviously become convinced that he had both died and rose from the dead.

Regretfully, the debriefing quickly turned into mostly a suspicious interrogation by the Christians of the previously overjoyed Muslims.

While the suspicious and sometimes hostile interrogation was occurring the Risen Messiah had found an empty conference room. But fortunately he could hear the conversation between the two groups, because the sound system in the main auditorium had been inadvertently left turned on. Even though the Messiah was quietly weeping, he could follow the flow of the discussion.

As a result of the most outspoken Christians having conducted what had to be characterized as a suspicious interrogation of their 5 Sunni and 5 Shiite guests, the majority of the Christians concluded that the Muslims were each totally wrong in four essential areas of their beliefs in the now living Messiah. Consequently, the majority decided that they had a responsibility to inform the once excited men that their new found love for the one who they affectionately referred to as ALLAH’s Living man from Bethlehem and their new loyalty to him were essentially irrelevant. Why was this new dedication irrelevant? Because these sincere men obviously had not yet been born again. This conclusion was reached because the majority had decided that the Muslims could not yet be considered either brothers or believers because of not having enough of the correct beliefs.

When the discussion between the Christians and the previously rejoicing Muslims who refused to be beaten down, was finished, the disappointed men went into the dining hall together to have tea. This was while the supposedly mature Christians would conduct their own debriefing of each other of what they had learned from the Muslims about what they now believed about ALLAH’s living Messiah.

The true Messiah continued to follow with great sadness and tears the discussion by the Christians of what the Christians had wrongly decided about these new believers in him. Though it was fortunate for him that the microphone remained on in his small room, that the sound system was still on where the rejected men were having their tea, proved to be a bitter experience for them. They were crushed in their spirits as they listened to those who they had wrongly expected to be their new brothers, expressing such suspicious and rejecting attitudes. But a courageous few Christians courageously defended them.

The majority of the Christians neatly summarized what they had learned from the interrogation of their guests as follows:

They were quite disappointed to find out that each of the Muslims still considered themselves as Muslims and were not able to realize that GOD wanted them to now publicly label themselves as Christian converts. This would enable them to have a clear testimony to their new correct belief.

They still did not recognize Jesus as Deity or as the Son of GOD in the “correct” way. Nevertheless they did acknowledge beginning to understand that in a way beyond their total comprehension that he had defeated sin and death in man’s behalf and had indeed risen from the dead. They also were firmly convinced that he would most certainly be all men’s Judge at the last day.

Even though they had seen him alive they could not believe in the Term “Trinity” or that ALLAH could be separated into three persons so that the Living Messiah was the Second Person of their fashioned by man, three person Trinity. After all, ALLAH is ALLAH. He is not one person. And he is certainly not three persons.

Quite surprisingly to most of the Christians, the Muslims continued to accept and honor the Prophet Muhammad as a sincere Prophet of ALLAH and each Muslim would not even consider rejecting him as their Prophet, despite their new dedication to their Risen Messiah, Isa/Jesus.

And there was one additional dimension which the Muslims voiced that made the majority of the Christians quite uncomfortable. They felt strongly that most of these Christians were even now missing the essence of what it means to truly worship ALLAH and to honor his now Living Messiah. By these mostly Western Christians requiring from Muslims the supposed correct responses that had come from a predominantly ancient Greek list of details to check off before these Middle Eastern Muslims could be considered believers in a Messiah born in the Middle East’s West Bank Bethlehem and who was both executed and rose from death in the Middle East city of Jerusalem, was not close to being acceptable to the Muslims. They firmly believed that by men making such man formulated foreign cultural demands that did not come from ALLAH, was actually mocking what the Messiah had been anointed by ALLAH to accomplish.

Indeed, the Muslims felt that these Christians were mocking the Risen Messiah much as the American President mocks him when he confuses the Messiah who has been exalted for two thousand years with such recent violent movie stars such as John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Somebody. They were 10% convinced that U.S. Christian leaders should not follow the U.S. precedent set by their U.S. President in his rotten treatment of Muslims by these Christians treating Muslim believers in ALLAH’s now exalted Messiah in almost as arrogant a way as the supposedly Christian President treats Muslims.

Significantly, a few of the Christians stood up for the reasonableness of the Muslim’s criticism of the Christians for being so formula oriented. So this minority of Christians believed that it was their legalistic brothers who were in more danger of allowing their formulas and preoccupation with deity terminology to divert them from ALLAH’s Living Messiah, than the Muslims were with their trinity and deity resistance. So they cautioned the up tight, rigid group of Christians to allow ALLAH to relate to these Muslims new relationship with His Living Messiah as He should wish. And they should certainly not make the Bush/Cheney/Neoconservative error of thinking that Westerners have a GOD given right to dictate to Middle Easterners what they believe about both Middle Eastern politics and about Middle Eastern religion. And with due respect to the enormous contributions that Greek thinking and culture contributed to modern society and to Christianity, there is the overwhelming likelihood that ALLAH and His Holy Spirit will guide sincere Muslim theologians who become dedicated to the now living Messiah. He will undoubtedly help them to figure out a reasonable theology to understand the Risen Messiah’s relationship to ALLAH that will probably be at least as correct for them as what was decided upon sixteen centuries ago by certain now long deceased Greek Theologians.

Then, with both tenderness and patience, the more accepting Christians began to do something that now seemed to them to be natural and appropriate. They began to bring to the attention of these more rigid Christians certain warnings in the New Testament Scriptures that could apply to their predominantly negative attitude to the new Muslim believers. So they attempted to show them that in their attempt to be extra orthodox in their obedience to man made teaching regarding the Trinity and to use that man-made tradition in order to exclude new believers from the Kingdom of Christ, they most certainly have created a serious problem for themselves. They may themselves be rejecting the teaching of the now Risen Christ as contained in the New Testament.

Then they politely waited for a few minutes while the other Christians blasted the absurdity and presumption of such ridiculous and defensive reasoning. But then they continued. “Be careful,” they said, for Matthew tells us (Mat. 7:21) that not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

So you are dogmatically deciding that the will of the Father in heaven is to reject these loving human beings who want to embrace his Messiah but who do not wish to offend the One GOD for whom they use the Arabic word for ALLAH. His Messiah himself has emphatically stated that he came to seek and to save those who are lost, and you are unwisely ready to deny these ten men and millions of others like them, the privilege of being found. And you unwisely use as your excuse for denying them that privilege, what Greek Theologians decided sixteen hundred years ago. So you are treading on very dangerous ground for taking such a rejecting position.”

Then the other side replied. “Listen, it is you liberal Christians who had better look out for wanting to accept a bunch of Muslims into the exclusive Kingdom of Christ, a bunch of Muslims who reject Jesus as “Son of God.” Don’t you realize that you are committing the ancient enemy of Christ’s Church, “syncretism?” Can’t you understand that our Lord said that “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it?” And if you would have us open this gate to a significant percentage of the one billion five hundred million Muslims, just because they came to love him and embrace him and to believe that he died and rose again and that he will be their judge without accepting him as the second person of the Trinity or as deity, that would create a big problem. It would make the gate far too wide and the road too broad and would allow for too many Muslims to enter into the Kingdom of GOD’s eternally living Christ. After all, his Kingdom is for Christians and not for the last minute Muslims who do not even call themselves “Christians.”

We liberal Christians as you derogatorily intend to refer to us, wish to point out two important things. Since it is not the name that gains entrance for a person into the Kingdom of Christ, the name Muslim like the name Ishmael, has an absolutely wonderful meaning. It means a person who is submitted to God whereas the word Christian was originally invented by unbelievers and was used against the followers of Christ in a negative sence.

The second important point is this. If you will go back and review Mat. 7 where our Lord cautions us to enter by narrow gate rather than by the wide gate, that warning comes in connection to warnings about judgmental attitudes and right after an appeal to all of us to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. So it is those of us who are excessively judgmental and who are not kind, who are the ones that the Messiah was speaking of as being on the broad road to destruction. So we must always remember that our Lord had compassion on the multitudes. He neither ignored them nor rejected them. Instead he emphatically told his disciples to pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send additional laborers among those whom he compassionately called GOD’s “Harvest Field.” And he made this statement immediately after he saw the crowds. Do your eyes not see the crowds and do your hearts not have compassion on them as the Messiah’s heart had compassion?

How do you dare ignore the three consecutive parables that Dr. Luke told (Chapter 15) about the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son? Don’t you realize that he told each of these stories as living examples of ALLAH’s own compassion as a contrast to the wicked hardness of heart of that day’s Pharisees and teacher’s of the law? Do you really want to be seen by GOD and his now Living Messiah as Christianity’s Pharisees and teachers of law who are ready to risk an eternity of lostness yourselves in order to make sure a wandering sheep or a wandering son stays lost?

So do you not recall our Lord’s parable of what happened to the unmerciful servant who wanted forgiveness for himself but who was unwilling to see others receive the forgiveness that he himself had received? Do you not remember that the thief on the cross was granted a place in Paradise simply because he showed mercy to the Messiah? The thief did not recognize him as the Son of God or as the second person of the Trinity. But if you, with your hardness of heart are allowed to go to Paradise, he will be there before you. And if you go to Paradise will you try to use the authority you have awarded yourselves, to have him thrown out of Paradise because he is unable to sign off on your orthodox doctrinal statement?

Do you treat as irrelevant Jesus’ teaching that it would be better for a large millstone to be hung around a person’s neck than to be drowned in the depths of the sea if they cause a new believer in the Messiah to stumble?

Do you not remember that Jesus sternly warned his disciples to not get caught up in thinking like religious Pharisees think and incorrectly assume that the traditions invented by men can cancel the teachings of Scripture?

Do you not comprehend the lesson of the parable of the workers in the vineyard who were hired last but who received the same pay as those who were hired first? The lesson being that it is ALLAH himself who decides what any laborer receives for his labors in GOD’s vineyard and it is not man who can dictate to GOD what GOD can and cannot do or to be envious when GOD is generous. Another lesson the Messiah taught that when it is GOD’s Will, “the last will be first and the first will be last.”

Thus, the discussion ended between those two groups of Christians about the potential destiny of those Muslims who had now come to love ALLAH’s risen Messiah who had died for them. Significantly, whether the two groups had truly heard the thoughts of each other or not, both the Messiah and the Muslims had listened with interest and with sadness to their dialogue.

The First Century Mary Magdaline Connection With a Twenty-first Century Conference

You may now legitimately ask this question. How did you possibly get this relatively long story from the quite brief encounter the Messiah had with the first person he talked with after he vanquished death by quietly walking out of his borrowed tomb? How does this made up story possibly relate to the former mightily mixed up women who was said to have been possessed by seven demons? She may have been the very first important envoy sent by the amazing man from West Bank Bethlehem, but what connection can she possibly have with a bunch of strangely dressed 4^th century Church Patriarchs who were exceptionally cerebral, abstract and argumentive? Or, how can this woman’s small role two thousand years ago in the Messiah’s first post resurrection message to his own disciples have any connection with a hypothetical visit by the Living Bethlehem man to a Christian conference also visited by 5 Sunni and 5 Shiite Muslims? How can two different perspective by Christians revealed in a spirited debate supposedly precipitated by an unexpected personal visit by the Risen Messiah to a large group of Christians and a small group of Muslims have contemporary theological implications and connections with who ALLAH can consider as a sincere believer in His Messiah?

To my simple mind the connection is obvious. Why? Because of the vivid contrast between the woman who it was ALLAH Himself who chose to be His first post resurrection messenger, contrasted with a group of relatively self important 4^th century predominantly Greek men whose opinions and formulas were inadvertently allowed to replace and cause to be treated as irrelevant this responsible woman’s first simple but profound message, a message which had been given her by her Risen Lord himself. Think of it. It was ALLAH’s Risen Messiah who personally gave this message to this especially chosen woman. So, to allow this concentrated message to be virtually cancelled and over shadowed by a bunch of 4^th Century Greek men dressed up in religious clothing, is just not right. It was this one precious woman who the Living Messiah talked with before he talked with anyone else. So he gave this particular woman this first post-resurrection message to be expressed to the men with whom he had spent so much time and then relayed to the entire world which of course includes the world of Islam.

Notice how the very first second that this full of heart woman discovered that Jesus was alive, she virtually screamed from her heart, not from her mind,

“R A B B O N I!” Oh my Teacher!”, because he had taught her how to be delivered from seven evil spirits which had held her in miserable bondage.

She did not cry out, “Oh my Messiah!” because she may have never heard that term or possibly she could not relate to it.

She did not make a theological statement of “My Lord and my GOD!” the way the skeptic Thomas had done when he first saw him alive and touched his wounds.

She certainly did not cry out, “Oh my Second Person of the Trinity!” that the Greek ecclesiastics and bishops perhaps would have preferred that she had cried out. Or, she could have pleased them if she had expressed from her mind, “Oh my precious Deity.” But it took about 400 years of Greek intellectual sophistication before belief in the humble teacher from Bethlehem reached that level of abstraction and became common. But such intellectualism came too late for the simple first Century Mary from the small town of Magdala who became affectionately known as “Mary Magdaline.”

So the first person to see him alive was herself. And she herself was alive with wholesome affection. So the Messiah encounters a refreshing contrast with his former tomb of death, in that fragrant garden that sunny morning. She cried out from her heart, Rabboni-Teacher, which was her way of saying, “You have taught me all about you and about life. And oh Rabboni, how much more I have to learn from you.”

She was not interested in a formula about him. So she exploded with joy from her heart rather than with intellectual recognition from her head. Due to her whole being exuding pure joy rather than any skepticism, was likely a major part of why ALLAH chose her to be his first messenger about who he was.
This now liberated women who had lived much of her life in cruel bondage to evil spirits, was to be His first messenger of joyful new life. It was not Peter or John who ALLAH chose. Nor was it a person with any similarity to the amazing former radical Rabbi Saul who was chosen to be the very first messenger.

Christianity as it is known today may never fully recover from its predominantly cerebral approach to ALLAH and His new Risen Messiah. This is the contribution that the intellectual Greeks stamped on Christianity three centuries after Mary of Magdala carried the Anointed’s first refreshing message of simplicity about ALLAH’s Oneness. So Christianity’s long proclivity for giving priority to formula over the personal may continue to partially bar the door of the Risen Christ’s Kingdom to Muslims. Because the perceptive founder of Islam had considerable justification to warn Muslims to be wary of the traditional Trinitarian approach to ALLAH and wary of a theology that emphasized the virgin Mary/Maryam as being the Mother of ALLAH. Consequently, a continued emphasis on a technical approach and on the false teaching that the eternal ALLAH has a mother, were not understandings of GOD that Muslims could come close to accepting nor can they accept this kind of emphasis now.

But the MERCIFUL will not allow relatively closed, uncreative minds to keep the door of fellowship with His Living Christ so closed to so many Muslims much longer. But it appears that it will not be the gate of a vibrant Kingdom to Christianity that swings open. Rather, it will be the gate that ALLAH Himself throws opens to invite sincere Muslims to have precious fellowship with His compassionate Living Messiah. (And emphatically, the multibillion dollar industry of Christianity should not be confused with the pure Kingdom of the Risen Christ.) This is why the exact content of the first instructions from the first Eternally Alive man to anyone, is still overflowing with significance. It was and is a simple message that a child can understand.  Yet, it is a profound message. It emphasizes the Oneness of ALLAH. But it also includes the important reality that the Messiah was returning to the One ALLAH where he had been before entering into this world as a baby in Bethlehem.

Is it not a unique twist of history that it was this once in bondage woman of Magdala, to whom the newly risen Messiah gave the first very uncomplicated message that would virtually explode with meaningful resonance? So we may be safe in saying that it was this totally cleansed woman who ALLAH has especially chosen to swing open the gates of the Kingdom of ALLAH’s Risen Bethlehem man to the hearts of multitudes of Muslims. So now they may also freely love the same Risen teacher who Mary loved and who loved Mary, her Rabboni – who liberated her from no less than seven bondages. Since she was the first person called to inform others about the newly Risen man from Bethlehem, the content of her message had to be exceptionally special. So what was the simple content of her message that she was lovingly chosen to deliver?

Since she had been totally freed from all bondages and since seven (7) in the Scriptures is symbolic of perfection, she was a relatively pure vessel to deliver a very uncomplicated message. Of course, the first part of her message had to contain from whom the message came. So the first thing she must tell his brothers was that the man whom they knew as Lord, who was once dead, was now alive. She was absolutely certain this was true because he had talked with her outside the tomb in a garden that vibrated with life instead of the coldness of death that a tomb communicates.

The second part of her message was that instead of her holding on to him, he had instructed her to deliver this message to them. That he was returning to (not going to, but returning to where he had been before) “to his Father and their Father, to his GOD and their GOD.” I have no intention to be humorous when I say this but I believe that this point is important to take note of. He did not say that “I, the Second person of the Trinity” am returning to the First person of the Trinity. No, he spoke of returning to the GOD whom they believed in and who was the same GOD whom he believed in. And he implied that his relationship to their One GOD was as a son would relate to a loving Father. And also, that their relationship to the same GOD was as a son would relate to a loving Father – no more, no less. Thus, the precious Mary Magdaline and her Risen Messiah would desire that true Christians even today, would relay this simple message of ALLAH’s Oneness and ALLAH’s Fatherly care for each of us to our Muslim brothers and sisters.

A Brief Review

The now free woman called Mary Magdaline from whom Jesus had driven seven demonic spirits was the very first person whom his Father had chosen for him to talk with after he had walked into a sunny garden from his dark tomb. And the concise, important message was by extension intended for all brothers including Muslim brothers, that he was returning to his Father and to their Father and to the Muslim’s Father and to his GOD and to their GOD (and to the Muslims GOD/ALLAH.)

Stated directly from John’s pen it was as follows in John 20:16, 17

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher.)

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and to your Father, to my GOD and your GOD.’”

There you have it Mr., Mrs. and Miss Muslim, the Risen Messiah’s direct message to you from a lovely Muslim (Submitted to ALLAH) woman who had for many years been heavily burdened. But she had become totally liberated and cleansed after she met the man who later became ALLAH’s eternally living man from West Bank Bethlehem.

There may be exclusivist Christians who would dare to suggest that I am being too generous to write that when the newly risen Messiah stated that he was returning to “My GOD and your GOD,” he was not including the ALLAH of the Muslims in his statement. They may have the audacity to think that he was referring to sort of an exclusive GOD of the Jews and Christians and was not thinking that ALLAH would be the GOD of future Muslims. Consequently, I will only make nine quick points which I hope are sufficient to counter such exclusivist, wicked thinking and demonstrate that Muslims have always had a special relationship to ALLAH, who is GOD.

Nine Relevant Realities

The word, “ALLAH,” was before Islam the Arabic word for GOD and continues to be the Arabic word for GOD in most Arabic versions of the Old and New Testaments.

Hagar, the second wife of the Prophet Abraham, had the unique privilege of having the “Angel of the Lord,” who many theologians agree was an actual manifestation of Jesus before he was born in Bethlehem to become a man on earth, appear to her or personally speak to her, not once but twice. Apparently Sarah had a somewhat similar but much less personal experience only once.

Hagar was specifically instructed by the “Angel of the Lord” to give the son whom she would bear for the Patriarch Abraham, one of the most spiritual names given to any person in the entire Bible. She was to name him “Ishmael” which literally means, “GOD hears.”

When GOD informed Abraham that he was to have another son in addition to Ishmael, this time through the aging Sarah, the Prophet cried out a prayer of desperation, “Oh that Ishmael might live in your sight.” Then Abraham was given by ALLAH significant promises regarding the prominence of Ishmael’s descendents.

Genesis records that when Abraham was instructed by GOD to bring his family under the covenant of circumcision years before Isaac was even born, Ishmael, who is considered by many to be the Patriarch of Islam, was possibly the very first of Abraham’s family to come under the quite significant Covenant of Circumcision.”

The Scripture specifically records that “GOD was with the lad (Ishmael) as he grew up.”

Much is made about Islam being against Israel existing as a nation, although the reality is that Islam is much more concerned about the injustice that Israel has inflicted upon the rights of the innocent Palestinians when they originally displaced Palestinians from their land and while they have illegally expanded as a nation. But few Arabs, Jews, or anybody else recognizes that if it was not for the GOD arranged intervention by the nephews and grandchildren of the Patriarch Ishmael, there would be no nation of Israel today. (And perhaps when the Iranian Prime Minister, Ahmadinejad comes to realize this, he will be much less hostile toward Israel. But now he is exceptionally upset that Israel took over Palestinian land since it was in Europe where the several million Jews were cruelly murdered. So his legitimate frustration is that it would have seemed more just to have given the Jews land in Europe rather than giving them a gift of land belonging to Palestinians.

Historically, the Scriptures indicate that there was sufficient famine in the land of Palestine that the twelve sons of Jacob, who became known as Israel, would not have survived if there had not been the Providential circumstance of the one brother Yusef/Joseph arranging for the whole large extended family of Jacob/Israel to move to Egypt to survive the famine. Significantly, the next to youngest son, Yusef, was so hated by his older brothers that they would have actually murdered him, thus canceling any possibility of plentiful food in Egypt saving their lives. But GOD amazingly provided the sons of Jacob’s own relatives, the nephews and grandchildren of Ishmael, to buy Yusef from his murderous brothers and to safely transport him to Egypt. While in Egypt for 400 years those descendents of Jacob grew into the Israeli people who under Moses and Joshuah’s leadership came back to the land they had left, and eventually formed a Kingdom in Palestine that according to Leviticus, they were later vomited out of by GOD. But I seriously doubt if any Hebrew or Christian Zionist Bible scholars have ever thanked any of Ishmael’s descendents for their part in Israel’s survival as a nation, by safely transporting Joseph to Egypt.

It is not insignificant that Ishmael was the first son of the founder of Monotheism, the Prophet Abraham?

If it is seriously suggested by anyone that the GOD or ALLAH who the Risen Messiah spoke of returning to, is not the same GOD who was worshipped by Ishmael who Muslims recognize as a key Prophet, then this creates a dreadfully serious problem for GOD. It is to ignorantly and presumptuously suggest that Muslims have no GOD or ALLAH because there is only one GOD/ALLAH and He indeed is the GOD whom Muslims sincerely worship.

Another Lesson from Mary Magdaline

Mary has taught us how valuable precious and powerful tears often are. With GOD, there are times when there is no difference between prayers and tears and between tears and prayers. So we must be very careful when we tell a person not to cry because we may actually be telling them not to pray.

Two angels asked Mary from the empty tomb, “Woman, why are you crying?” But they did not even suggest that she stop crying.

Then the new living Jesus himself asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”  But he also did not imply that she stop crying. But before she had an opportunity to answer his question about the reason for her tears, he asked another question about which he himself obviously knew the answer. But he wanted her be able to say a few more words about her deep, deep feelings. So he asked the additional question: “Who is it you are looking for? But he knew that the circumstances were such that she would not give a one word answer but would reveal more about the desire of her heart.

Her reply to Jesus’ second question revealed clearly that she desperately wanted to know where his body now was so she could more fully express to his lifeless, wrapped in grave clothes body, her grief about missing his vital role in her life

Since she assumed that the person speaking to her was the gardener, her answer was:

“Sir, if you have carried him away, tell him where you have laid him and I will get him”

With that answer Jesus knew that he must speak her name, “Mary.” Then, when she would hear his familiar voice say the one word she especially loved to hear, “Mary,” she would not only know that he was now alive but also would be assured that he was there for her like he had been before, for the two of them to enjoy fellowship together.

In an encouraging contrast to the two male disciples, Peter and John, who had seen the empty tomb and had quickly gone home to wonder why it was empty, the persistent and caring Mary Magdaline stayed all alone near the tomb and prayed with her tears that she would find him. But he answered her tears of prayer by him finding her.

Please believe these words, o Muslims of the world. Please believe me o Communists of China. Please believe o Hindus of India. Please believe, o Buddhists and people of other religious, wherever you may be. Please believe o Europeans and all of the former Soviet Union. Please believe o people of every nationality who have trouble comprehending the technical formula oriented explanations invented by sincere 4^th Century Greek Bishops and Theologians who were supposed to make clear to all of us for all time the relationship between ALLAH and the former Nazareth carpenter who rose from the dead. Today, Mary Magdaline and her battered but not beaten teacher have a triumphant message for you.

One dark day in Jerusalem a mysterious phenomenon occurred that none of us will fully comprehend. On one cross this one gentle man who was empowered by ALLAH, defeated three formidable foes of humanity all at one time. He defeated the injustice of his own tiny occupied nation who formed a temporary coalition with the injustice of the mighty Roman Empire occupying his nation. Secondly, he defeated personal and corporate sin. Thirdly, this one lovely woman known as Mary Magdaline, was the very first human being to know of his final amazing victory which he had just accomplished. He defeated death. But as far as Mary or anyone else realized for sometime, except for the risen man himself, his victory over sin in man’s behalf, though an integral part of the prophetic message in the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures, was not yet a part of anyone’s understanding. So all that Mary was aware of was that the man who she knew as Rabboni, her teacher who had healed both her and many others and who taught them a message of love and peace, had been dead but was now alive.

Despite the unknown implications of his being alive, he sent one short, concise world impacting message by way of a former demon possessed woman whom he had personally cleansed. This amazing message was actually addressed to all of humanity. But at that point in time, all of humanity did not appear to have much chance of receiving his message because all of humanity at that time was being represented by eleven fearful male disciples who the Risen man lovingly referred to as his brothers. Without exception, his eleven brothers were all hiding behind locked doors. They were each terrified of being arrested by the same resentful Jewish authorities who had executed their innocent leader and who could now possibly execute them.

Yes, the content of that concise message given to Mary was ultimately intended for all of humanity. But it was to be delivered first by Mary to his brothers who shared the same Father with him, and since there is only One GOD, they had exactly the same GOD that he knew to be his GOD.

It is obvious that his concise message about the true identity of the One GOD and Father of us all was intended to be forwarded to all of humanity because we all have only one Father and only One GOD, just as he and his disciples have only one Father and only one GOD. Thus, despite how confused any person’s thinking might be about the One GOD/ALLAH, He is the only One GOD and One ALLAH of us all no matter what any of us may believe. So the first brief message from the first risen man to defeat death in the comprehensive way that he defeated death, was essentially this:

“I am your brother. My Father is Your Father. My GOD/ALLAH is Your GOD/ALLAH. I am now returning to my Father and Your Father, to My GOD and Your GOD who I was with before I came to earth.” John 20:17

So this is the message of Mary Magdaline’s still alive teacher to all Muslims. It is also her message to Muslims. Finally, it is the message of the Risen Man’s disciples to Muslims. But it appears not to be the message that 4^th century Greek theologians would be revealing to Muslims. And it probably is not the same message of many of us today who incorrectly assume that we ourselves have been given the right by ALLAH to deny admittance to the Kingdom of ALLAH’s Christ to persons who do sincerely desire to be a part of the true Risen Messiah’s community because of their love for him. These self appointed gate guards will possibly ask more questions of a person desiring to enter Christ’s Kingdom and be more suspicious than an Israel Defence Force (IDF) soldier with a weapon at an Israeli check point near Bethlehem. But please trust ALLAH and know that this kind of exclusivist attitude does not reflect the heart of the man that the Holy Quran eleven times calls “Messiah.” And ALLAH’s Messiah, still has his arms spread wide to welcome those of us who will recognize and sincerely appreciate his defeat of death on our behalf. So we can be certain that today both He and Mary Magdaline and all his true brothers and sisters are ready to welcome us.

Praise GOD! Ilhamdililah!

5 Sunni - 5 Shi’a – 1 Risen Messiah

You may legitimately challenge my assertion that much of our nation’s great financial investment in Christian educational institutions has not been effectively spent due to my insufficient support of my assertion. Mainly, I have suggested that our Christian educational institutions regrettable emphasis on formulas and doctrine rather than an emphasis on understanding why so many hundreds of millions of precious persons in other nations including Islamic nations, oppose the authority of GOD’s Risen Messiah. Thus, I see a huge contradiction occurring in our Christian educational institutions.

Our Christian seminaries and other Christian institutions are correct in their instruction that hundreds of millions of persons in other nations are separated from fully enjoying the fruits of GOD’s great love because they have not chosen to embrace his Risen Messiah. However, though these institutions know this to be true, these same Christian schools and churches go on with their strategies of instruction as if this regretful situation did not exist. Of course, there are exceptions. However, the vast majority of these institutions that are supposed to be similar to a well lit city on a hill where all can see its light, are doing next to nothing to create new effective ways to communicate to these hundreds of millions in other nations about the Living Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of love and light.

I submit that since this serious vacuum has been created because this significant issue of massive international separation of precious people from ALLAH’s Risen Messiah has not been meaningfully addressed, this makes U.S. institutional Christianity partially responsible for causing international terrorism. Due to how this vacuum has been a major contributing factor that has helped create the climate that has nourished the spread of international terrorism, this uncomfortable reality definitely leaves the U.S. Christian Church partially responsible for the current proliferation of international terrorism. So I sincerely submit that this moral failure by U.S. Christianity to not take more seriously the opportunity and GOD given responsibility to provide appealing alternatives to certain Muslims who have developed a commitment to terrorism is a least partially responsible for terrorism’s existence.

So by our not more effectively drawing on our Loving GOD’s vast resources to give these disillusioned, disenfranchised men and women more realistic opportunities to find new hope and meaning through the Living Christ and the eternal Kingdom ALLAH has anointed him to lead, we have made ourselves a significant dimension of the problem. Thus, by our not providing these persons constructive alternatives, we have made ourselves complicit in their terrorism. This is the other side of the coin of Middle Eastern Muslim madrasas being complicit in terrorism when they overtly distort Islam in order to teach hate. In the sight of ALLAH, the sin of omission by Christians of not providing spiritual alternative can be as serious as the sin of commission by those minority of Islamic madrasas which teach hate.

Another major deficiency that falls into the camel swallowing category that exists in the multibillion dollar industry of U.S. Christianity is this.

The Messiah emphatically taught that using weapons to solve problems is neither righteous nor effective as is supported by his statement of “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.” Nevertheless, the majority of our Christian Educational institutions have stood silently by and have allowed and even encouraged our nation to develop a militaristic culture which poses a definite threat to civilization. Not only are the Bush Administration’s military hawks the main guest speakers at the various military academies. But, also the tremendous financial demands of the gigantic U.S. military – industrial complex drives our economy. So the massive military, industrial combination has enormous financial needs which virtually dictate that the U.S. must find wars to fight. But we view our military might as justified and necessary in order to guarantee a smooth flow of oil to our entire consumer driven economy. Thus, our resulting dependence on our militarism heavily influences the political doctrine of the neo-conservatives that the U.S. must establish military dominance and political and economic hegemony over the entire world. But how long our GOD who loves Justice will continue to allow our often immoral and unjust dominance of the entire world to continue should concern every American.

It is the supreme irony that the former head of the U.S. military who later became our two term President, gave a severe formal warning to our entire nation to take every conceivable precaution to avoid the horrible danger of allowing our military industrial complex to grow so that its needs would finally dominate our nation. But despite his grave public warning, this evil complex has both grown and dominated the U.S. well beyond what General Dwight D. (Ike) Eisenhower even warned against. Tragically today, feeding the complex’s voracious appetite has brought horrible and largely needless suffering to the innocent people of Iraq. But another supreme irony of this immoral lunacy is that a significant percentage of this aggressive foreign policy approach that supports a Bush/Cheney policy of “Kill em” before they “kill you,” are those who identify themselves as the community of the living, Risen man of reconciliation, Jesus/Isa. At the very time this particular branch of Christians are some of the main supporters of this government’s massive military immorality, this Christian community ignores our own acts of immorality and furiously battles against what many have decided is a potential threat to civilization; “evil” stem cell research. Thus, these particular Christians fulfill the Messiah’s characterization of the hypocritical Pharisees of his day. “You are those who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” Tragically, this kind of blatant, crazy hypocrisy produces enormous amounts of inflammatory fuel. So who becomes the major consumer of the damage caused by this type of blatant hypocrisy? Unfortunately, the terrorist recruiting machines of Osama Bin Laden types. Initially, the already disillusioned become enraged at the hypocrisy they observe in especially the U.S. Then they become enamored with terrorist organizations who recruit them to possibly carry out future terrorist attacks against the U.S., which is perceived as being excessively self interest oriented, especially in Iraq.

Muslims For Military Target Practice

To partially support my point of how militarism has come to dominate the American mentality, today I read an article in the “U.S. News and World Report” in the section “Washington Whispers” that virtually left me in shock. (Oct. 30, 06) I would never have used the word sadistic to describe our militarism until I read about a gruesome contest sponsored by the American Army that involves thirty (30) teams from Canada, the U.K. and other nations. This vile contest begins today at the Army Sniper School in Fort Benning, Georgia.

The competition “is taking a page out of the real-life, situations troops face in Iraq every day. It will include a few urban stress scenarios like blaring Muslim prayer music, exploding smoke grenades and bloodied mannequins. In some cases we’ve broken the head of the mannequin says sniper school boss Cap. Kenny Crowley. You’ve got some pieces of skull laying on the ground and fake blood.”

Blatantly, this competition makes a sadistic game out of simulating the shooting human being Iraqi Muslims in the head in order to score points. Shamefully, it also severely mocks the respected monotheistic religion of Islam by doing all of the killing to the accompaniment of “Muslim prayer music.”

In order to further make this gruesome competition even more evil, the U.S. convinced numerous other nations to compete with American skill in killing Muslims. This inhumane spectacle should cause an enraged outcry throughout the entire civilized world and especially in the supposedly Christian U.S.

One last major deficiency of the seminaries teaching is this. Christian institutions in the U.S., while being preoccupied with the sacredness of the 4^th century Greek trinity formula, largely ignore what the two 1^st century leaders, Peter and Paul taught as being foundational to ALLAH’s Risen Man’s message.

Especially was it to be taught to representatives of other nations what Peter emphasized to the Roman Military leader Cornelius. He emphasized that Christ had commanded his followers to teach others that he had been ordained by GOD/ALLAH to be all men’s final Judge. (Acts 10:42)

The former radical Rabbi, Saul, emphasized that it is so important that all people of every nation know to whom they are ultimately and eternally accountable for as their eternal Judge by providing absolute proof that Jesus/Isa would be that Judge. How did ALLAH provide that absolute proof? By raising the Messiah alive after he had died. (Acts 17:31)

Peter knew that it was absolutely foundational that people from every nation could be certain that Jesus provided a spiritual remedy for man’s alienation from GOD, for man’s alienation from man and for man’s alienation from himself. So to prove that he was also ordained by the eternal GOD to be man’s eternal Judge, he taught the Romans that GOD raised Jesus from the dead. Thus, that is what he emphasized when he was the very first messenger from the Risen Messiah to present a comprehensive message to another nation that was not Jewish, but was from today’s perspective, Italian. But he also explained that all of the ancient prophets had proclaimed the same, consistent message; that it would be Jesus who would provide forgiveness for man’s sin against man and our and sin against GOD. (Acts 10:42,43)

Likewise, the more intellectual Apostle Paul had a similar compulsion when GOD specifically selected him to be the first representative of His Messiah’s Kingdom to present a comprehensive message to a community of intellectual Greek citizens. He felt compelled to explain to them that the most amazing event to occur in the history of man had one particularly important reason behind it. It was to let people of every nation know that there is not the shadow of a doubt as to whom all persons, leaders and followers alike, are ultimately accountable. They are accountable to the wisest, kindest, and most perceptive man who ever lived. That certainty of accountability combined with the meaning and forgiveness he offers is a message that is bursting with dynamism, purpose and certainty.

Now contrast that clear message with the main message that the majority of Muslims perceive today’s Christians are presenting them that they must accept before they can be a part of the Kingdom of ALLAH’s Christ.

They Appear To Insist That:

They must recognize Jesus as the Son of GOD although the first believers did not necessarily recognize him as the Son of GOD but rather as GOD’s risen Christ

They perceive themselves as required to recognize a Trinity that they don’t accept. Muslims are unyielding that GOD is One GOD and most certainly GOD cannot be divided into three persons because GOD is a GOD and He is neither one person nor is He three persons because He is not a person but is GOD. (And theologically it must be recognized that there is significant validity to their resistance of the traditional Christian position and explanation of Trinity, especially when it supposedly describes GOD as three persons.)

Muslims have one verse in their Holy Quran, that the way that they now literally and unitedly interpret that verse, eliminates the atoning death of Jesus and thus also eliminates his glorious resurrection. However, since that interpretation happens to block as many as one billion five hundred million Muslims from the death, atonement and resurrection of Christ, the following possibility should be seriously considered by a multitude of the best minds in the Christian Church.

That is, if Christians really cared about these approximately one billion five hundred million Muslims the way that the Holy Scriptures teach that they should care about all persons who have not embraced His Risen Messiah, then it seems appropriate that many dedicated spiritual minds would be researching the entire Quran and especially this one strategic verse to determine whether there is a reasonable alternative way of interpreting this profound verse. This is especially a necessary endeavor since it is already questionable whether it is actually appropriate to interpret this verse entirely literally since other verses in the Quran definitely appear to confirm the death and resurrection of Ibn Maryam (the Son of Mary.) Nevertheless, even if not one person besides myself is interested in what is ALLAH’s Will about how this one profound verse should be understood, at the very least, the following should occur. Every truly Christian institution that believes that GOD’s Living Messiah is so important that the whole world should know him, has a responsibility to pray and petition ALLAH that multitudes of Muslims will soon understand that the Quran is correct when it teaches that it confirms the teaching of the previous Scriptures. So this means that the Quran does indeed teach that Jesus/Isa did die and rise from death. But the bottom line is this. Although a multitude of U.S. seminaries, Bible schools and churches supposedly are concerned that this huge multitude of Muslims is without a committed belief in the Risen Christ, there are almost no Christians who are interested in modifying what this huge group, for whom their Messiah both died and rose, actually considers to be true and not true.  Especially is this the case about what their Holy Quran teaches about the Messiah’s vital death and resurrection.

Why is this the case? I submit that there is an emphasis in Christianity, that since Muslims are so different from Christians, that they should be forced to jump through certain fairly rigid technicality hoops of what is vital to believe. Thus the horrible, unjust death and the glorious resurrection become much less important than the precise terminology of Son of GOD and Second person of the Trinity. Regretfully, this is partially in order to protect Christianity from Islam. But the comforting reality is that ALLAH Himself looks on hearts rather than on technicalities. But it is certainly more than a technicality to deny that Jesus died and rose. His death and resurrections are historical realities that are supported both by the New Testament Scriptures, the Old Testament Scriptures as well as by the Quran. (It must be that the Quran supports the death and resurrection because it states in many verses that the Quran confirms the previous Scriptures and they emphasize the death and resurrection of the Messiah.)

Therefore, the dynamism connected with the glorious resurrection of ALLAH’s Messiah and the fact ALLAH has presented that Resurrection to man as eternal valid proof that he is all men’s judge, gets treated by Christians as virtually irrelevant. In fact, even most Christian leaders do not realize that it is an exceptionally significant teaching of the Book of Acts, that GOD presented Jesus resurrection as the overwhelming proof that it is he who will be all men’s Judge. Thus, men of every nation will know to whom they are ultimately accountable including men who start and sustain wars in the Middle East due to their twisted ideology. Consequently, GOD offered irrefutable proof to the entire world of that Judges specific identity by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17:31) Thus, we know that arrogant, powerful world leaders, no matter what their nationality, will answer to him for their wonton bloodshed.

So the apostle Peter felt compelled to emphasize to his new Roman audience the importance of people from every nation knowing to whom they will be accountable; that GOD has ordained that they must be accountable to this specific Judge; Jesus. Likewise, the Apostle Paul, to his Greek intellectual listeners, felt compelled to explain to them that the most amazing event to ever occur in the history of man took place, for especially one main reason. The resurrection occurred in order to show them that beyond the shadow of a doubt, the identity of the one wise man to whom all men and women would finally be specifically accountable; the risen man from Bethlehem.

In contrast to the dynamism and practicality of this message, today’s modern Christian representatives leave a strange impression in the minds of those population groups in other nations who do not take ALLAH’s Risen Christ seriously. They leave the wrong impression that they are each expected to find their main dynamism, not in the fact that Christ defeated death and that he has been appointed as man’s eternal Judge making all people more accountable. Rather, the emphasis that they think is being preclaimed to them to perceive as being of main importance is that Jesus’ familial relationship to GOD is as a father to a son. And the next most important fact that they think they must believe in is a Trinity arrangement with Jesus being the second person of a three person trinity. So these supposedly door opening beliefs come across as door closing beliefs and as somewhat irrelevant with the three person aspect appearing to reduce the magnificence of the One Monotheistic GOD. So the dynamism is not only not found in a difficult to be understood Trinity formula that is not even mentioned in the ancient Scriptures but it is also continually warned against in the Holy Quran.

So all Muslim nations and many other nations do not find dynamism or resonance in the idea of being taught their most significant relationship must be with a Greek formula that has insisted that the Messiah be the second person of a trinity formula. Also, possibly at a sub-conscious level it must not be particularly impressive to Muslim intellects that Christian thinkers are sufficiently disinterested in the Muslims belief that Jesus did not die because these thinkers do not try to understand the reasons behind that belief at a deeper level. Thus, this must bring up questions in their minds as to whether those Christian thinkers themselves are truly serious about the death and resurrection of the Messiah as the firm foundation of their own Christian faith.

But the bottom line is this o wonderful precious people of the world. ALLAH is calling millions of you to not become statistical additions to Christianity. No! For you as a Muslim, to join the institutionalized religion of Christianity is not GOD’s desire or His purpose. But he does want you from the deepest part of your heart to become a devoted and committed fan of His Risen man from West Bank Bethlehem. He desires for you to fully love him and to be ready to discover that it is he who is truly worth dying for.