Greetings Muslim Cousins And Christian Brothers/Sisters,
Reading a lot of you guys comments, I really can't see where you are going with this. I'm not sensing a spirit of peace in these discussions.
Christianity had a 500+ year head start on Islam, and yet, its success in the Eastern part of the world has been, overall, abysmal. Could it be that Islam is a part of God's will for this world?
Before I continue, let's admit to some things (on both sides). When I first came to this forum, I was full of complaints about the lack of Christians who seemed to be acting like "true" Christians.
Basically, what all the Christians said to me is that I couldn't blame Christianity itself for the failure of so many of its followers. How did I suggest it was failing? Basically, in arguably the most important area, the family. Divorce rates and worldliness among Christians in the west is pretty shocking, so guess what? We can make the statement that for many Christians, Jesus' message of love and mercy is failing where it counts.
I mean, really, our consumerists society loves what we have become. We work real hard, make a lot of money, spend it on a lot of junk food, junk toys, junk entertainment, and give some of it to our churches so they can pay the church leaders to bring us healing for our miserable lives again and again. So much of western Christianity seems to be stuck in a rut.
Now to be honest, I have a new peace about Christianity since I have come to the realization that Jesus' message of love DOES work for some Christians AND that many Christians find great joy praising God with singing and dancing while at the same time, leading very "righteous lives".
But what of that part of the world that has rejected Christianity or where Christianity is fading (like Europe)? As a follower of Christ's way of love and mercy, I actually FIND GREAT PEACE knowing that Islam is out there as God's way of bringing submission and justice to the world when they reject Christ's message of God's love.
Yet, many of the Christians on this site, forgetting all of Christianity's failures in the past and present, have page after page of hate for Islam ready to go.
Does Islam have some issues? Sure it does, and maybe that is an understatement. But do you remember what Jesus said about picking the speck out of your neighbor's eye while there is a plank in your own. What about "with what measure you judge others, you yourself will be judged?"
What are you really hoping to accomplish with these denunciations of each other? What have I said before? While Christianity has had a few successes in the east, by and large much of the East has very little interest in our religion.
But guess what? A knowledge of the same God we love is spreading throughout the eastern part of the world and, at the same time, modernization, which is inevitable, is bringing out and helping to address many of the flaws of Islam. I sincerely believe that through everything that is going on right now, that there is a large undercurrent of Muslims who want to Islam move beyond such extremism.
JUST THE SAME WAY I WOULD LOVE TO SEE CHRISTIANITY MOVE BEYOND ITS AFOREMENTIONED FAILURES (again in the area of the family and general morality).
The truth is that we have so much to learn from each other.
Christians need to learn from Islam's pragmatism.
Muslims need to learn from Christianity's message of love and compassion.
I'm sorry folks but we NEED each other..
(A word to Muslim's, I am not suggesting anything like some of the ideas espoused by the likes of Irshad Manji (mentioned by Origen))
As Christians we can continue to blast away at Islam and create enmity between us and millions upon millions of believers around the world, or we can start to appreciate the fact that God is being brought to a part of the world where we have failed.
Yet the problem with most Christians is that they can't see past their faith being the only way. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke are the most accurate works we have attesting to who Jesus was, most Christians spend their time in the Gospel of John, and the writings of Paul trying to make Jesus out to be something he wasn't.
Yet, more and more Christians are starting to realize that the magic canonization of the Bible was nothing more mere mortals helping the Roman emperors unify their crumbling empire by creating an official definition of Christianityl.
Those who opposed this doctrine making Jesus equal with God, like Arius who became bishop then was quickly poisoned, were silenced and/or ignored.
The way I see it, Jesus represented God's nature of love. I am so thankful for what he has done in bringing to this world the message of unselfish love. In some ways, I kind of do see Jesus as divine, yet I don't see him as an equal of God (and this notion has not a few scriptures to support it).
But Mohammed had a divine mission as well. Less civil? Perhaps. A little barbaric in places? Again perhaps. But yet, with so many around the world rejecting God's message of love, it was time for the message of judgment to come. But Islam came to bring a much more insistent message to the world. God was telling us that, one way or another, he WOULD BE PRAISED throughout all the earth and that EVERY KNEE WILL BOW DOWN before him.
How funny that Christians think they are the only way to God. As important as this act of submission is to God, many Christians churches do not expect their members to bow down during their services. In many churches it is a matter of choice and in accordance with the move of God's spirit, but again, it is often not required.
So what a coincidence that God sends Islam where a key aspect of it is the regular bowing down of its followers to God throughout the day.
If, as Christians, we want to appreciate the heart of God, we must see that God may desire that we freely bow down to him. YET, if that does not happen it is clearly God's will that it happen throughout all mankind.
But again, most Christians want to believe that all this is for some later date. If God is willing to force all to submit to him at some later date, is it so terrible that Muslims believe that maybe it should be happening now? Are we so sure in our theology that God is suspending this desire of his for some time in the future? Could he not have it in place in the earth right now?
If Christians are so much in favor of progressive revelation then, there, I've brought you some. You are supposed to be at peace with all people, your love and joy is supposed to be a light to the world. Your hatred of Islam and its followers is misplaced. Abandon it. There is a future in the reconciliation of all the people who follow me. Become part of it.
I am out of time for now.
Peace to all,
Peace to God's People
Anyway, you guys may feel that I am "in the way" in this discussion, but a little enlightenment on what might bring better relations between these two faiths I hope will start to make a difference somehow, someway.