Thanks Git Real. Believe it or not we finally agree.

I'm Your Huckleberry

I just love that line.

You are not Doc Holliday.

No kidding. Wow!

As you know, this is a large topic that can go into extensive Hebrew and Greek word definition, Biblical harmonization, literal reading and more.

I never said I would not discuss it. I said a Blog script is totally unable to deal with any kind of extensive discussion. There is no continuity, no organization, no ability to look back at posts over time order, no ability to reasonable find any materials posted after a certain date.

Many of the more serious posters have tired of posting links, extensive data, and so forth, only to have it gone, often on the same day, from any reasonable expectation of finding.

I pointed her to a theological FORUM and a Fayette discussion FORUM, not a blog script.

To boil it down to two foundational points, one of which you have well covered:
1. God chose Abraham for his character, not his race. In fact there was no such thing as Jew or Gentile at the time of Abraham. His descendent's were set apart because of Abraham. Set apart to give continuity, testability and authority to the Revelation he was going to be giving. Abraham was not a Jew.

2. One must decide if they are going to seek what God is telling them, or if they are going to tell God what they want him to tell them.

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Keeping it real, and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

Wanted to say thank you for your last blog. That is the kind of thing I was looking for from the start not this back and forth thing we have been doing. Not to say I haven't enjoyed our debocle of a debate here latly.
Still I do wonder if it would matter to you what race God is. To me and my opinion only is that no it doesn't matter. What is your position? In regards to the Muslim issue. You have your opinion and I have mine and I'll leave it at that now. Time to move on to other things. What will the next topic be?

Again, though, on the race thing, God is not of any race.

He is a spirit being. No flesh. He can look like anything he wants to.

What matters is finding the real God. Not a man made one. Not one where people take what he reveals and twist it to suit them.

That is where so many fail. The want to humanize God. Make him in their own image.

Last statement on Muslim's is they have 1400 year history that tells us what they are. And they a religion that believes in oppressing all who disagree with them.

And they will, in any country they gain sufficient numbers in.

If the majority are peaceful, then why haven't they stopped their own bad eggs within their own borders?

I will close with Islam means people of peace. What they do not tell you is that they only see peace attained when all are Muslim.

As with Christianity, there are Christians and those pretending to be Christians.
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Keeping it real, and to the core of the issue, not the peripherals.

I don't like to discuss religion with those who know all the answers but you have presented a typical reason why arguments go on forever. You say God has no race, is a spirit. The book you refer to al the time, the Bible, says man was created in God's image. One can't pick and choose. Face it, you don't know these things, but choose to try to have the faith anyway.

Three Similarities of Christianity, Judaism and Islam

Three of the interesting commonalities of Christianity, Judaism and Islam are (1) Each is monotheistic (2) Each claims Abraham as the central ancestor and (3) each has its own sacred text [Bible; Torah; Koran].

I, too, am interested in the suggestion that the Koran is interpreted/misinterpreted to incite violence against the world ("the infidels"). I spoke with a well intentioned Christian scholar/missionary who serves in the Mediterranean. It pained her to admit that perhaps there is some substance to this criticism, although perhaps it is a subversion of Mohammed's real intent. She explained that the historical context of the Koran is that it was authored 500 years after Christ at a time when Muslims were victimized. She also suggested that Islam's insistence that believers utilize an Imam as an intercesssory poses an opportunity for abuse and that indeed the Al-Qaeda acts are proof. I suggested that why, then is there no such record of abuse in the Catholic Church (which favors Priests as our intercessors with God)?

I want to believe that Islam is a peaceful loving religion and so I will continue to study. Although this is not a "local" issue, I will certainly continue to appreciate these posts and links to other sources.

For those of you that are Jews or Muslims, peace and love to you.

If you really read enough history, the WTC destruction could have even been caused by christian radicals. Most of the world atrocities seem to stem from two sides: Christian and Islam. I can't recall anything from Jewish history other than what Jews did to christ. Both sides though in an effort to create a power base for the clergy has distorted the truth from the people it is supposed to inspire and protect.

Its a matter of belief. Do you believe in God because the bible says so or by your own free will?

-- This should be a reply further down, sorry --

In my comments about the 3 major religions and violence I didn't mean that any one started anything...we could debate forever about which religions are 'right' and which are 'wrong' in their pasts and now in the present. In the past, Christians had their crusades, and it seems that Jews are always getting dumped on by someone...but they do retaliate, so they don't get a pass for non-violence. My point was that these people hate and/or kill others (or in shite/sunni world...they kill their own) because they believe something different. That's why I'm not big on religion. Doctine created by man can be missused and twisted to fit the agenda of the spiritial leaders...not my cup o' tea. In my opinion, 'religion' has done more harm to the world than good. That's not to say our creator had anything to do with it...we've done it to ourselves.

cogitoergofay sites the "Three Similarities of Christianity, Judaism and Islam"...I say, number 4 should be that all believe their's is the 'one true religion' and because of these beliefs have killed and been killed. Maybe it's been said here before, but religious belief is the catalyst of so much of the world's violence. It's such a paradox that belief in 'god' (insert which deity works for you) is meant as a way to peace and enlightenment, but so many times in our human history has become a path to hatred, fear and death.

I don't have any answers, I guess all the 9/11 stuff this weekend has caused me to think about why America was attacked on such a beautiful September day 5 years ago. Since that day I've wondered how this event will impact the lives of my 3 sons. Will school "lockdown" ever go away? Will they feel the same innocent freedom we felt as kids? Or will the threats of terror change who they are? We started watching the "Pathway to 9/11" after dinner tonight and my 3 yr old said "that's the fire building"...he was looking at the WTC. My older son told him that bad guys made the building burn and fall. (I don't want him afraid of planes, so we skipped that part). He then asked "why are they bad"? I didn't really know what to tell him other than some people are just bad, but not to worry, most people are good. I wish I believed that myself.