Saturday, May 30, 2009, 08:19 PM

May 22, 2009

My youngest son had a medical procedure this morning, so we were with a young medical student for 3 hours during all of the various x-rays and examinations. Since my son's name is David, and the Med student's name was Jonathan, we spent much of the time talking about the lives of those two famous good men, and their friendship. For awhile, I imagined that I could see in him some of the physical and mental characteristics of the Biblical Jonathan. He turned out to have a strong Christian childhood, his father is a minister. The novelty of the situation did not last. He had become very interested in the similarities of the worlds historical religions, and especially the extra-Biblical stories which had Christ-like elements. That was not a problem because I had just read C. S. Lewis' "Reflections on the Psalms" last week. Jonathan was enthusiastic at the mention of Lewis' name, and that particular book has a strong Christian perspective on the exact subject, mentioning and even going beyond what Jonathan brought up. But he went as far as starting to present his understanding of the Koran in a favorable light, and then in defense of it, began to quote the usual slander against the Bible's historical record, and the genocide of the Canaanites in particular. It turned out, that he had no direct experience with the Koran. When I had quoted several parts of it that made the Bible and the Koran mutually exclusive, he became distracted, and we changed the subject. He was quite surprised to learn that the Koran specifically denies that Jesus is God's Son. Perhaps he knew enough to realize that his fundamental assumptions were not ready for this. I remember taking Humanities and comparative religion courses that presented religious universality as the only true way to approach any religion. Then I discovered that this only applies to those who do not Jesus' unique testimony. If a person actually reads the Bible, and then reads the Koran, at some point, the covenant of Abraham becomes the battle ground. In the Bible, the covenant passes to Isaac, and Jesus, a descendent of Isaac renews the promise of salvation by faith, and those who believe in Jesus are considered to be children of Abraham by faith. In the Koran, the covenant passes to Ishmael, and there is no salvation apart from Mohammed. The Jesus of the Koran did not die for anyone's sin, and was not resurrected, and is not the Son of God. The conflict over the "promised land" today is due to this debate over the covenant, since the land of Canaan comes with it. As long as a one Jew still lives in the land promised to Abraham, the Koran is false. On his deathbed, Mohammed said that the day of Salvation would not come until the last Jew had been put to death. The only peace the Koran knows is Islam, and all the earth under sharia law. Do not be deceived. Pray for Jonathan, but also for anyone you know who is confused or ignorant of this.

Taking up the cross of Christ daily is nonsense if Jesus never was on a cross. Some Moslems are saying that it was Judas on the cross. Now, what is that supposed to mean? Anyone who has begun to experience the faith-life of Jesus which grows from the soil of a humble cross-bearing believer will never really be deceived by Islam or any other form of idolatry.

Richard


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