Category Archives: religion

Sermon on the Mount : Any Relevance Today?

Posted on August 22, 2010 by | 1 comment

There are two versions of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. One is in the gospel of Matthew and the other is I Like’s gospel. Jesus’ sermon encompasses chapters 5-7 in Matthew and Luke 6:20-49. Jesus’ sermon begins with a series of nine wisdom sayings or blessings in Matthew and only four in Luke’s gospel. In this post, I will address the first blessing: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” or “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

It is possible that Jesus’ preached this sermon from the top of Mount Gerizim. What better place to proclaim the blessings of practicing the principles of the Torah than from the place where Moses did the same. In the Deuteronomy 28, Moses pronounced four blessings for practicing daily the law of God. Ironically, Mt. Gerizim is in Samaria, which in Jesus’ day it was regarded by Temple authorities as a land of unclean gentile people. However, that didn’t stop Jews from coming to hear Jesus. They came from Judea, Jerusalem, Galilee, and other surrounding regions, and most likely gentiles came as well even from Syria, Sidon and Tyre. What is relevant about this bit of history is the benefits of practicing God law.

Of particular social significance is the first blessing Jesus proclaimed to the masses of people. The two versions give us a composite picture of the blessing of God that people of all races, cultures, religions, and nations may grasp. Matthew captures the inner working of divine law while Luke shows the heart of God for struggling people.

In Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” To be poor is to lack wealth. To be poor in spirit means to lack fullness of spirit. Jesus said God is Spirit. However, Jesus did not mean to be poor in spirit is to lack God. Jesus was saying you who are needy of God are blessed. Those who depend on God for their moral and material welfare are those who are blessed. According to Jesus’ apostle Paul, God supplies all our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus in the divine welfare program. It is also God who empowers the faithful to keep His law.

Luke’s version was influenced by his own experience of God redemptive grace. Luke was a Roman physician who became a follower of Jesus. He was poor in spirit and in the knowledge of God. In ancient society, poor people were often sick and without adequate care. Although he was not poor himself, he would have provided care for needy people. Therefore, Luke emphasizes God’s blessing for the poor. The poor are those lacking wealth either because of an unjust political economy that was beneficial only to elites and their immediate associates or because of terrible circumstances such as bad health. Throughout both the Torah and the writings of the prophets, God revealed his great concern for their welfare. This concern is demonstrated in Genesis 39-49, in the account of the Jews exodus from Egypt slavery (Ex. 1-17), in the law concerning the poor (Lev. 25; Deut. 15; 24:12-22), in Isaiah’s prophecies (58:6-12). This is also fleshed out in early Church as reported throughout the gospels and letter of the apostle of Christ.

Because of God’s great abiding concern, the needy have access to the greatest of all resources: God. The Creator of nature’s wealth has a welfare program specifically for them. By entering the kingdom of God with Jesus Christ, they can expect their material and spiritual needs will be met. By living under the divine covenant rule, the poor gain the right to God’s provision. The obligation of citizen in God’s kingdom is to live according to God’s law and grace with Lord Jesus.

The King of the Universe invites the poor and needy to enter His kingdom. His welfare program is eternally better than any that wealthy social elites or special interest groups can ever offer. God is genuinely concerned about the welfare of the poor and needy. All the they have to do is say Yes, Lord Jesus, I want in God’s righteous kingdom.

By Daniel Downs

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Jesus & Co¹ : God’s Perfect Natural Reflection

Posted on August 18, 2010 by | Leave a comment

In the post “Show Us God Before You Go,” I presented an overview of the 14th chapter of the gospel of John. Jesus was asked three questions by his disciples about his announced departure. An oversimplified summary of Jesus’ answer was that he was going to the Father. While there, he would prepare for them a place to live, and one day he would return to take them to his Father’s house to live as well.

The disciples’ questions amazed Jesus. He was amazed at how clueless his disciples really were. Therefore, he makes this bold statement: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. If you guys really knew me you would have known my Father also. So look here guys. You now know Him, and have seen Him.” (vv. 6-7)

I am not certain but I expect many disciples may still be clueless. After two millennium, it is possible many Christians still do not know what he meant. Is this possible?

Just in case I’m correct, I will attempt to explain Jesus’ bold claim, and I’ll start by analyzing the last verse (7) first.

Jesus said “If you really knew me you would have known the Father also…. You now know him, and have seen Him.”

Some seem to believe that Jesus is here further revealing his divinity. This is not the case for several reasons:

1)   Jesus neither said I am the Father nor that he is divine just as God is.
2)   He did say by knowing me you know my heavenly Father as well.
3)   He also said having seen my life and work you have seen the Father (in action).
 

One of Jesus’ post-resurrection disciples, Paul, very succinctly captured the meaning of Jesus statement. Paul described Jesus as the new Adam (1 Cor. 15:45-49). The story of Adam’s creation is the story of the original human being without sin or crime in God’s world. This account is recorded in Genesis 1:26-3:14. In it, the writer explains how God made Adam in His image and likeness. The physical appearance of Adam resembles God’s. This is depicted in Genesis 18-19; Number 24:9-11; Isaiah 6:1-3; Ezekiel 1:1,26-28; 8:1-3; 10:1-20; Revelation 4:2-4. The purity of Adam’s way of life was like God’s as well. The fall changed that. Once Adam had violated the law of God, his life began to resemble the evil one–the one who had tempted him to do evil. Through behavior resembling the devil’s, Adam’s God-likeness became corrupted. The moral purity characteristic of God likeness continued to decline with each new generation of Adam’s descendent. So much so that God observed that evil continually filled all of their imaginations, from their youth and thereafter. (Gen. 6:5-6; 8:21)

Thus, Adam’s lifestyle in many ways ceased to resemble his Creator.

Jesus as the new Adam means one who is fully like God, and this is what is referred to in John 14:7. Because Jesus was created by God in the Virgin’s womb, because the presence of God resided in him, because he always did what God’s law commanded or prohibited, and because he did and spoke those things that God directed, Jesus demonstrated what God is truly like.

As all humans, Jesus physically resembled God. Unlike all people, his life and work perfectly displayed the unseen God. As He did through Moses, God fulfilled his word and promises through the life and proclamations of his only begotten son, Jesus.

Jesus assured his disciples that they would show the world what God was like because they truly loved Him and practiced His commandments. Just as a loving child reflects the behavior, values, and words of his or her parent, so would Jesus’ disciples reflect His. The same is true of all God’s children that follow God with Jesus Christ.

1 Co represents cohorts or followers

By Daniel Downs

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Presbyterian Church In-Bed With Spirit of the Age

Posted on July 23, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Presbyterian Church (USA) is the latest protestant denomination to ordain homosexuals. The act of ordaining is supposed to signify a human recognition of the Jesus Christ’s calling of individuals to serve as His special representative. As representatives of God and Christ, ordained church leaders function a visible ambassadors of the divine will and purpose. As Jesus represented God during his earthly work, so too ordained church leaders are expected to fulfill the mission of the Lord Jesus.

Ordination is thus a multi-fold process. The qualifications include becoming a citizen of God’s kingdom through the merits of Jesus Christ. The life transforming event is intellectual but rather relational. People are confronted by the presence of God within an environment of learning about God, his kingdom, laws, justice, mercy, love, and holiness. The divine confrontation is an invitation to a change of life as well as citizenship. In the presence of God’s loving holiness, individuals become aware of unholy aspects of their lives. Adults often misinterpret this to mean they must work harder at being better to alleviate the guilt after God’s visitation. They misconstrue the part God is to play in that change: God is the actual source of achieving mature righteous living. However, God invites individuals to become members of His kingdom through the merits of Jesus alone. Training in citizenship comes after accepting the invitation. The church and its leaders serve as role models. Before God calls individuals to that role, they must first be members of His kingdom and have become citizens of good moral standing.

The standard the Church is supposed to use the same criteria to validate people called of God to ordained service. God reveals his chose of individuals to others, especially other ordained leaders, in the Church who in turn are to evaluate the same by God’s law and gospel. In other words, the book on citizenship, which is the Bible.

When consider what that book states about homosexuality and other immoral practices, it soon discovered that God and Jesus Christ are opposed to it. God’s chosen representative, Moses, taught the Israelites God’s laws concerning it. In the book titled Leviticus, Moses is quoted as saying, “You shall not lie with men as with women; it is an abomination…. If a man lie with man, as he lies with a woman, both have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death…. Do not defile yourselves by doing these things: for in [this] the nations are defiled which I cast out before you.” (Leviticus 20:10-20;18:24) In the book of Revelation, Jesus’ word to the Church reaffirmed the divine law against such behaviors. (see Revelation 2:6, 14-15, 20; 9:20-21; 21:7-8)

Some attempt to use the absence of any mention of sodomy in the gospels as positive affirmation that neither God nor Christ was against it. This erroneous argument ignores the fact that the Mosaic law was Jewish law during the Second Temple era. No mention was necessary because the death penalty was a sufficient deterrent.

Like other mainline protestant denominations, the Presbyterian has succumbed to the flirtations of the spirit of the age. The alluring politics of social acceptability propagandized by many different secular schemes, ideological and party agendas, and religious argumentation, the political Church has blindly embraced liberal democracy’s moral relativity. Sleeping with the devil may be too harsh an indictment. In keeping with actual crime against the Lord Jesus, it is more realistic to charge those leaders with sleeping with the devil’s children and with one another. Just as Israel played the harlot with surrounding nations, so her daughter, the Church, is now betraying her lover for others.

A little sensuality, a little drunkenness, a little dancing, and a little flirting add up to a lot of immorality and apostasy.

The gospel of tolerance preached by those ravaging wolves pretending to be children of God in His kingdom apparently dulls the keen senses of spiritual discerners causing many a sheep (over half of Presbyterians) blindness.

Even so, come soon Lord Jesus.

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Church attendance up in 2010

Posted on June 30, 2010 by | 2 comments

Gallup has recorded small upticks in churchgoing over the past two years. The latest poll found that 43.1 percent of Americans reported weekly or almost weekly church attendance, up from 42.1 percent in 2008.

Though a small increase, Gallup noted that it is “statistically significant,” considering the data is based on more than 800,000 interviews collected between February 2008 and May 2010.

Respondents were asked to report on how often they attend church, synagogue, or mosque.

Thirty-five percent said they attend at least once a week and eight percent said they go almost every week. Meanwhile, 11 percent said they only go once a month, 25 percent listed “seldom” church attendance and 20 percent said they never attend.

The most dedicated churchgoers, according to the Gallup organization, are conservatives, non-hispanic blacks, and Republicans. Those least likely to attend church at least once a week or almost every week are liberals, Asians, and those aged 18 to 29 years.

Overall, church attendance is increasing in America and Gallup does not believe it is tied to economic woes.

“The increase comes as Americans’ economic confidence has also risen, suggesting that, instead of church attendance rising when economic times get bad, as some theorize, the opposite pattern may be occurring,” the research organization stated.

A 2009 Gallup poll had discovered no evident change in church attendance during the economic recession, particularly between 2008 and 2009. Though many Americans were negative about the economy, there were also no significant changes in the percentages of Americans who said religion is important to them.

Gallup noted that the rising church attendance could be a result of demographics. Americans who are 65 years old and older are more likely to attend church than those who are younger. Baby boomers, who are now entering their 60s, are beginning to enter the age range that traditionally has been associated with higher religious service participation. And if baby boomers do in fact attend church more frequently as they age, Gallup expects church attendance to increase steadily in the years ahead.

Source: Christian Post, June 29, 2010

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The Two Faces of the Ground Zero Mosque

Posted on June 25, 2010 by | Leave a comment

by Raymond Ibrahim, Associate Director of the Middle East Forum

Depending on whether Islamists address Americans or fellow Muslims, the same exact words they use often relay diametrically opposed meanings. One example: when Americans hear Muslims evoke “justice,” the former envision Western-style justice, whereas Muslims naturally have Sharia law justice in mind.

Islamists obviously use this to their advantage: when addressing the West, Osama bin Laden bemoans the “justice of our causes, particularly Palestine”; yet, when addressing Muslims, his notion of justice far transcends territorial disputes and becomes unintelligible from a Western perspective: “Battle, animosity, and hatred—directed from the Muslim to the infidel—is the foundation of our religion. And we consider this a justice and kindness to them. The West perceives fighting, enmity, and hatred all for the sake of the religion [i.e., Islam] as unjust, hostile, and evil. But who’s understanding is right—our notions of justice and righteousness, or theirs?” (Al Qaeda Reader, p. 43).

Of course, that Osama bin Laden—slayer of 3,000 Americans and avowed enemy to the rest—exhibits two faces, one to Americans another to Muslims, is not surprising. Yet the reader may well be surprised to discover that the controversial Cordoba Initiative, which plans on manifesting itself as the largest American mosque, situated atop Ground Zero—that is, atop the carnage caused by none other than bin Laden—also has two faces, conveying one thing to Americans, quite another to Muslims.

The very name of the initiative itself, “Cordoba,” offers different connotations to different people: In the West, the Andalusian city of Cordoba is regularly touted as the model of medieval Muslim progressiveness and tolerance for Christians and Jews. To many Americans, then, the choice to name the mosque “Cordoba” is suggestive of rapprochement and interfaith dialogue; atop the rubble of 9/11, it implies “healing”—a new beginning between Muslims and Americans. The Cordoba Initiative’s mission statement certainly suggests as much:

Cordoba Initiative aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.

Oddly enough, the so-called “tolerant” era of Cordoba supposedly occurred during the caliphate of ‘Abd al-Rahman III (912-961)—well over a thousand years ago. “Eight hundred years ago,” i.e., around 1200, the fanatical Almohids—ideological predecessors of al-Qaeda—were ravaging Cordoba, where “Christians and Jews were given the choice of conversion, exile, or death.” A Freudian slip on the part of the Cordoba Initiative?

At any rate, the true history of Cordoba, not to mention the whole of Andalusia, is far less inspiring than what Western academics portray: the Christian city was conquered by Muslims around 711, its inhabitants slaughtered or enslaved. The original mosque of Cordoba—the namesake of the Ground Zero mosque—was built atop, and partly from the materials of, a Christian church. Modern day Muslims are well aware of all this. Such is the true—and ominous—legacy of Cordoba.

More pointedly, throughout Islam’s history, whenever a region was conquered, one of the first signs of consolidation was/is the erection of a mosque atop the sacred sites of the vanquished: the pagan Ka’ba temple in Arabia was converted into Islam’s holiest site, the mosque of Mecca; the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, was built atop Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem; the Umayyad mosque was built atop the Church of St. John the Baptist; and the Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque upon the conquest of Constantinople.

(Speaking of, in 2006, when the Pope visited the Hagia Sophia in Turkey, there was a risk that the “Islamic world [would go] into paroxysms of fury” if there was “any perception that the pope is trying to re-appropriate a Christian center that fell to Muslims,” for example, if he had dared pray there—this even as Muslims today seek to build a mosque on the rubble of the Twin Towers.)

Such double-standards lead us back to the issue of double-meanings: As for the literal wording of the mosque project, “Cordoba House,” it too offers opposing paradigms of thought: to Westerners, the English word “house” suggests shelter, intimacy—coziness, even; in classical Arabic, however, the word for house, dar, can also mean “region,” and is regularly used in a divisive sense, as in Dar al-Harb, i.e., “infidel region of war.” Thus, to Muslim ears, while “Cordoba” offers allusions of conquest and domination, dar is further suggestive of division and separation (from infidels, a la the doctrine of al-Wala’ wa al-Bara’, for instance).

Words aside, even the mosque’s scheduled opening date—9/11/2011—has two aspects: to Americans, opening the mosque on 9/11 is to proclaim a new beginning with the Muslim world on the ten-year anniversary of the worst terror strikes on American soil; however, it just so happens that Koranic verse 9:111 is one of the loftiest calls for suicidal jihad—believers are exhorted to “kill and be killed”—and is probably the reason al-Qaeda originally chose that date to strike. So while Americans may think the mosque’s planned 9/11 opening is meant to commemorate that date, cryptically speaking, it is an evocation for all out war. A “new beginning,” indeed, but of a very different sort, namely, the propagation of more Islamists and jihadists—mosques are, after all, epicenters of radicalization—on, of all places, soil sacred to America.

Some final thoughts on the history of Cordoba and the ominous parallels it bodes for America: though many Christian regions were conquered by Islam prior to Cordoba, its conquest signified the first time a truly “Western” region was conquered by the sword of Islam. It was also used as a base to launch further attacks into the heart of Europe (until decisively beaten at the Battle of Tours), just as, perhaps, the largest mosque in America will be used as a base to subvert the rest of the United States. And, the sacking of the original Cordoba was facilitated by an insider traitor—a warning to the U.S., which seems to have no end of traitors and willing lackeys.

Such, then, is the dual significance of the Cordoba Initiative: What appears to many Americans as a gesture of peace and interfaith dialogue, is to Muslims allusive of Islamist conquest and consolidation; mosques, which Americans assume are Muslim counterparts to Christian churches—that is, places where altruistic Muslims congregate and pray for world peace and harmony—are symbols of domination and centers of radicalization; the numbers of the opening date, 9/11/11, appear to Americans as commemorative of a new beginning, whereas the Koranic significance of those numbers is suicidal jihad. Of course, the two faces of the Cordoba House should not be surprising considering that the man behind the initiative, Feisal Abdul Rauf, also has two faces.

Going along with the historic analogy, there is one bit of good news: As opposed to the vast majority of onetime Western/Christian nations annexed by Islam, Cordoba, Spain did ultimately manage to overthrow the Islamic yoke. Though only after some 700 years of occupation.

Source: Pajamas Media, June 22, 2010.

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Islam, AIG Bailouts, Federal Reserve Banks, Tim Geithner, and Barak Obama : Connections

Posted on June 24, 2010 by | Leave a comment

I just came across a pending federal court case against U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the Federal Reserve for their involvement in the federal governments bailout of AIG bank. The case alleges the federal government’s bailout and majority ownership is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. By bailout and acquiring a controlling interest in AIG, the federal government participates in funding Islamic Sharia law and religious activities. The White House leaders and Federal Reserve leaders not only knew they were funding Islamic religious activities but the openly publish it on official website and similar means of communication.

It becomes clearer why a Muslim President was needed to work his PR magic throughout a stupefied America as well as predominately Muslim Middle East. Acquiring AIG is good for Islam. It is good for federal revenues, and it is good some types of investors. However, it is not good for predominately non-Muslim taxpayers to fund Islamic religious activities no matter how profitable it may be.

Some prophecy writers see Islam as dominating the globe during what the Bible describes as the last days. The same believe the anti-Christ will be a Muslim. They also see this anti-Christ figure as having worldwide control over commerce and banking. Could it be we are witnessing the means by which the anti-Messiah will rise to this level of power?

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Lesbian Bus Driver Berates Girl Over Her Christian Views

Posted on June 7, 2010 by | Leave a comment

In 2008, a lesbian bus driver was caught on video bullying a Christian girl. The video shows the repeated verbal attacks were elicited by the girl’s expressed views about abortion same-sex marriage. The girl’s father complained to the Indiana’s Carmel School District officials, but the school board officials defended the abusive actions of the lesbian driver. Attorneys representing the middle school girl and her parents have filed a lawsuit against the driver and the school system.

If the driver had been religious and had lectured a gay student for her views, the school board would have fired the driver as soon as the gay students parents had complained, and rightfully so. No school employee has a right to berate, belittle, or verbally attack any student for his or her views.

Based on other incidents over the past few years, it appears so-called gay rights trump the rights of all other Americans. This is nothing new. The end result of gay rights is as ancient as Semites like Abraham and his nephew Lott. The lesson taught by the story about Sodom and Gomorrah in chapters 18-19 of Genesis is that tolerance of immoral behaviors eventually results in zero rights except those approved by gays and their supporters. Gay rights is therefore just another subtle form of tyranny.

One bright spot in the history of tyranny is George Washington’s victory over gay British generals, womanizing British commanders, and partying officers. If it wasn’t for them, American liberty would have been a misty dream of past revolutions buried in a dusty grave with many hopes for thecommon goods of true justice. (Read God In The Trenches by Larkin Spivey for this part of American history.)

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Gas and Oil Rush to Israel–Will Russia and Her Muslim Allies Too?

Posted on April 21, 2010 by | 2 comments

If memory serves, Dallas Seminary Professor John Walvoord writing about middle east oil and end time prophecy, predicted Russia would lead a confederacy of Arab nations against Israel enticed to gain control of Israel’s oil supplies. Like other prophecy teachers, Walvoord believed this was the hook God would use to draw Israel’s enemies to the final showdown at Armageddon.

A recent article in the on-line magazine, Israel Today, announced expectation of Israel becoming the center of a new ‘oil and gas rush’ of western oil producers. According to the Israeli financial newspaper Globes, the largest natural gas reserve (122 trillion cubic feet) was discovered as well as a 1.7 billion barrel crude oil reserve in the Levant Basin.

God has given the people of his covenanted land another weapon potentially of equal power her enemies in the international politics of oil. Just as the Islamic nations use oil against Israel and Russia uses them for their geopolitical agendas, Israel’s new resource may tip the perceive scale of power inciting the response previewed by the prophets like Ezekiel, John, the writer of the book Revelation, and Prof. Walvoord’s Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis.

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Resurrection of Jesus : Any proof?

Posted on April 3, 2010 by | Leave a comment

By Daniel Downs

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is to Christianity as bedrock is to a stable building. A building capable of withstanding violent storms must be anchored to a solid foundation. Earth’s bedrock is the best of all foundation. The one type of natural disaster that bedrock may be unable to withstand is an earthquake. Probably, the best type of foundation is one capable of flexing while retaining its structural integrity. The resurrection of Jesus is bedrock of the Christian faith. Its 2,000 years of growth throughout the world provides solid evidence of its stable reality. Moreover, the quakes of earthly life such as persecution, natural disasters, devastating illnesses, economics disasters, and other forms of suffering more often than not result in greater assurance that Jesus overcame the worst of all disasters, death. That is due to Jesus’ present help during disasters faced by individuals and families that enable them to not only overcome the terrible affects but to even deepen their faith.

We have witnessed a recent example of the triumph over tragedy in Haiti. Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief mission has been sharing the experiences of Haitians tragedy and triumph. Motivated by the love of God for people, Christians like those Samaritan’s Purse volunteers go to places like Haiti to help in a multitude of ways. Without having experienced the love of God through the risen Christ, neither Franklin Graham nor his volunteers would have considered enduring the hassle or hardships of going to any devastated place and helping any devastated people. Yet, they do because of their own experiences of the risen Jesus’ overcoming help.

In other words, God works through people and nature to accomplish his good will toward people made in His likeness and image.

Even before Franklin Graham’s missionaries arrived in Haiti, news reports of people who were rescued after being buried in rubble for weeks gave God credit for their survival. Why? Because God and Christ was a present help in their time of trouble.

To help skeptics reading this, the above can be put in another way. Science teaches us that the composition of all matter is reducible to atoms. Yet, no nuclear physicist has ever observed an atom. According to nuclear physicist Russell Stannard, they only witness the residue of energy of where an atom once was. All elements, molecules, cell, organism, super organisms, like we humans, are made up of various types of atoms. Therefore, what we see–stars, sun, moon, earth, animals, people, and even microbes–are made of things that are not seen. Is it not then reasonable to believe that the unseen God created the things humans have never seen? It certainly is when personal experience verifies that God is a genuinely present and real.

Christian apologists often defend the faith based on the argument that none of the ancient disciples of Jesus would have died because of their faith and testimony to the resurrection of Jesus had they known it was a lie. As taught by sociologists and anthropologists, honor and prestige may have been of great importance to ancient peoples, but the disciples of Jesus and the early church had very limited honor or prestige. That only changed after Emperor Constantine made Christianity the imperial religion.

I still doubt the above has convinced the skeptical.

However, other evidence available to us includes the report by Paul that the 11 disciples were not the only ones who saw Jesus after his resurrection. Paul’s conversion to the messianic faith was the result of seeing and hearing Jesus after his resurrection and ascension to the throne of God. Paul also wrote that over 500 saw Jesus after his resurrection most of whom were still alive, and a similar account is mentioned in the gospel of Matthew. (1 Corinthians 15-52-53; Matthew 27:52-53).

There also exist documented cases of people in various parts of the world having been resurrected from the dead. David Servant has published his detailed investigation into the death and resurrection story of Nigerian Pastor Daniel Ekechukwu, which happened in 2001.

Contrary to denials of skeptics and atheists, the so-called contradictions are likely to have occurred from cursory reading of the lengthy report by David Servant. My postings on the blog, The State of America, reflect the same. I first said that the pastor had been embalmed and then raised from the dead. But, after carefully reading Servant’s report, I discovered that the mortician had attempted to embalm the pastor but was not able to do so. What caused the same mortician to demand the pastor’s family to remove the corpse from his mortuary was song coming from the place of the dead pastor without any live human present. This so-called rumor originated from the mortician as reported by Servant.

A healthy skepticism of supposedly strange or supernatural events is good. However, rejecting accounts of experienced events because of one’s belief (in this disbelief) does mean the events didn’t occur. The fact is skeptics and atheists will one day die too. They also will discover if life extends beyond the grave. Unfortunately, for them, they will get the justice they deserve rather than the grace that was extended to them by God during their mortal life.

In 2005, Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu, a Myanmar Buddhist monk, was also raised from the dead after a number of days. He was on the funeral pyre being readied for public cremation when he was resurrected. The Monk said he went to the gates of hell first where he saw the Buddha and another renowned Buddhist saint. However, gatekeeper (read, prison door) turned him way telling him that he was not supposed to be there. So he walked away down a path where a man named Peter confronted him. He instructed to tell what he had witness and that the faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. This he did and was arrested for it. After he was released, he recorded his death experience on tape, which was first transcribed and published by Asian Minorities Outreach.

One of the most recent resurrection events came after an American pastor’s head on collision with a semi-truck. Pastor Don Piper was driving home after a conference. While he was passing over a single lane bridge, a semi-truck also entered the bridge but the driver didn’t see the pastor’s car. The impact crushed the pastor instantly killing him. Pastor Piper describes in great detail what he saw and heard in heaven where he went. In the meantime, another Baptist pastor came upon the scene. He would not have stayed to pray because the pastor was already dead. However, God told to pray for him. After a while, he stopped praying and began singing hymns. When the dead pastor was about to pass through the gate into the heavenly city, he suddenly heard singing coming from behind. Instantly, he was back into his body. That is he was resurrected. According to his surgeons and physicians, regaining the use of his severed arm and leg that they stitched back together was highly improbable. Yet, God healed him so that he has full use of all his limbs and organs. A number of his interviews (by Bill O’Reilly, NBC, CBN) are published on the internet and his book about his death and resurrection in titled 90 Minutes In Heaven.

Although not as well documented as the three previous events, other reported bodily resurrections include an Iranian named Sami by a Muslim name Mohammed, six-year-old Jyothi Pothabathula with her parents, and 45-year-old shop owner Mesheck Manepally, both of Andhra Pradesh, India.

The common denominator of all of the reported resurrection experiences is the risen Jesus.

Some scholars like Raymond Brown regard Jesus’ resurrection as substantially different from other biblical and modern experiences. In his book titled Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, Brown says that like those raised from the dead by Jesus, the above pastors, Buddhist, Muslim, and Indians will again die. Brown thinks resuscitation is a better word from this type of resurrection. Jesus, on the other hand, did not die again. As Elijah, he went to God’s heavenly kingdom alive.

Yet, Paul the apostle described Jesus’ resurrection this way:

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the imperishable inherit the imperishable. This perishable [body] must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (1 Cor. 15: 50, 53, 44)

Paul teaching points to the impossibility of Jesus physical ascension to heaven not his physical resurrection. Jesus could not have departed earth’s atmosphere without his physical body disintegrating unless he had some sort of transport or a surrounding field of energy or something similar to capable of protecting his body from the various elementary changes that would have destroyed him. Paul’s writings claim Jesus put off his natural terrestrial body and put on a new form of celestial body to continue life in the place of the resurrected dead, the new heaven and earth. Paul’s teaching reflects his seeing after he had ascended to the throne of God (Acts 9:1-19). All people can look forward to this type of resurrection. There is a catch however. Jesus said, “Those who in this life did the good to a resurrection of life and those who did evil to a resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:28-29)

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Model Arab League at Miami U February 26…Education or Proselytizing?

Posted on February 17, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Like the mock session of the Supreme Court, Congress, United Nations in which high school and college participate and compete, Model Arab League (MAL) gives youth a way to develop greater understanding of Middle East cultural, political, social, economic, and religious issues and processes of governance.

Some criticize the program as being a Saudi Arabian tool used to indoctrinate Americans into a one-sided view of Middle East conflicts, especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One of those critics is the Campus Watch, which has reported anti-Semitism among promoters of MAL.

If this program were under some other rubric for in-depth learning about Middle East culture and politics, this blogger would have little reason for skepticism about its underlying purpose. Along with the reported anti-Semitic bias, Saudi Arabian and other Middle Eastern leaders have discredited the Arab League of Nations as an organization of little influence and importance to the Middle East problems. If that were true, why then are they funding MAL? Why are they funding Middle Eastern academics at American Universities? Why are they funds mosques, businesses, and parochial schools as well?

One of the goals of Islam is the religious conversion of the world. The Arab League was and has always been an Islamic mirror of the United Nations (originally, League of Nations). Whereas the U.N. is secular and humanistic, the Arab League is Islamic with regard to both its legal and its ideological views. Consequently, the MAL should be view as more than a merely a unique educational learning method. As with the Model UN programs, it is also a means of indoctrinating people into a peaceful acceptance of the views, policies, and practices of the actual MAL, which is acceptance of the views of Islam and Shari’a governance.

One of the underlying tenets of both Islam and the Arab League is the elimination of infidels in general and the one national entity that represents a division to a united Arab Middle East; that entity is called Zion or the Jewish nation of Israel.

The issue is not the hypocrisy of western powers because the UK and US have broken promises to both the Arabs and the Israelis. The Israeli-Palestinian issue is one of ultimate control of all territories of the Middle East. Arabs do not necessarily intend to annihilate the Jews in the Middle East; they do however intend to rule over them if only as a subordinate state of the Arab League.

As in many European states, Ohio is among those being prepared for the universal glory of Islam: making all peoples submissive to Islam. One must admit that MAL is an ingenious way of evangelizing and proselytizing.

Welcome to the intended new world order.

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