Searching Islam

I am an avid reader. There have been few times when I have started a book and in boredom or perplexity put it aside. I did not do it when I first read The Bible even though the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy can sometimes be a bit tortuous being two books of laws, procedures, and a census penned by Moses. I did place The Quran aside, however, after I had gotten a quarter of the way through it. It was a mistake to do so since I began it last year, and if I had been more tenacious and focused in my reading I would have completed it by now. But just reading the first 25% of The Quran revealed something to me. The book is disjointed and disorganized. There is no logic in its' set up mainly because the book was compiled quickly and without thought by Prophet Muhammad followers after his death. His writings had been just strewn around on camel skins or anything he had happened to come across as writing material.

The Bible is a totally different case of centuries of careful work by scribes and scholars. Even though the 66 books of The Bible were written over a 1500 year period, the entire narrative is organized and flows to a logical conclusion. One theme runs throughout The Bible. God is waiting for His people to turn to Him as their protector and provider and He promises that He will ultimately send His Son to save humankind from itself. Throughout The Bible God silently begs, "Just love Me and depend on me and I will rain down blessings and protection." From the beginnng when Adam and Eve were tricked into sin, God gave the promise of salvation to ALL of humankind. Even today on the final day of 2007, He is still pleading and is holding a promise to a world that is lost and dying. I believe there is going to a castastrophic war between Christianity and Islam in the very near future. All the indiciations are there. Even if a Democrat is elected president of the United States next year, the dangers are still here and eventually horrible things are going to happen.

What is so frighting about Islam is that few, even Muslims, do not know where their religion stands. Some are even smooth westerized outright liars with a hidden agenda, but I believe the majority of Muslims are as baffled by the bloodshed as non Muslims are. Some have the moral stamina to not constantly make up conspiracy theories like comments I saw on a blog the other day saying after the murder of Benazir Bhutto that "I also do not believe Al-Qaeda to be responsible, in fact I do not even think Al-Qaeda even exists." The response by the blog writer was this, " As for Al-Qeada, it's the code word for a covert operation of cover up proportions, utilizing some 'bad' Muslims to give Islam a bad name, and further the 'divide and conquer' philosophy of some known and unknown evil forces who are constantly at war with the good and plenty." If this is the mindset of some "GOOD Muslims or those who don't practice any religion at all anymore" I think there is real cause for concern.

As a Christian I am in a sticky situation facing a Muslim or former Muslim who is lost and searching. All I can do is try to live up to the standards which Jesus Christ set and lived by when He was here on earth. His life was exemplary and unblemished. He died a horrifying and painful death, but He rose and again and lives on. The Bible says He will come again to this earth to reign, and all the signs are falling into place to show that perhaps the time is drawing near when He will appear. Jesus said these words to His followers when they asked about the signs of His return. As you read here, notice that not once does Jesus tell His followers to fight back. He only wants them to face the truth of what is going to happen, and not hide their head in the sand or place a nebula of falsehoods over reality.

Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:4-14)

The best people to get Muslims to see the light are apostates from the faith. In my new Links on Islam I have included three sites by apostates who warn the world and other Muslims of the true meaning of their faith which they think can be summed up as a cult of bondage and death. They are Faith Freedom International, Apostates of Islam, and Islam Watch. They can be clicked here or on the links.

Resolutions and holiday slogans can get a little trivial and over used at times, but I wish for a peaceful New Year and that the hearts of many will see a need for peace change on a personal before it moves to a global level.

In The Weeks To Come

Before listening to Wafa Sultan's video above, read what I have written below. Mrs. Sultan was one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2006.

In the weeks to come, whenever I write here I have decided to discuss what I know and what I am learning about Islam. I have lived in the country of Turkey which is about 98% Muslim, a nation which for close to 2000 years had been inhabited by first Christian Armenians and Assyrians and later Byzantine Greeks. Like most places in that part of world, the Islamic sword came and descended on the necks and lives of the people and they converted or were driven out or killed.

Writing about what I know and is learning is going to be both a catharsis and highly painful because it is rarely a week that passes when I did not hear from someone in Turkey who is either a friend or former student. The man I will probably never see again and whom I love said recently to me that "I am your husband and want you to come back here," is a nominal Muslim Turk. I may never return to Turkey because the climate there is tense, there is no future there just as some of my students has expressed to me. Christian I should never have forgotten these Scriptures from II Corinthians 6:14-17:

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.

Do how think this scripture means to persecute or kill those who are not Christians. I believe when it seems that unbelievers are trying to get you to come over to their way and there is not genuine respect, it is our duty to wave good-bye to them. Some people cannot accept you as you are, but insist on dragging you over to their bad ways. This happens unless you can find a special person who is not a Christian and who has an open mind. I have over the years, but it has not been often. I have Muslim friends, gay friends, and atheist friends. It has worked between us because I nor they try to tell each other what to do or how to live. I was even told by a person I met online that I was creating the "wrong image" by having a Christian blog. I am? Well, I am not into the image business. I am a Christian, and a Romantic as my other blog shows. I write to not grab or seek attention, I do it because writing is like breathing and eating to me. If there is not out right hostility to what one stands for, there is always subtlety when Christians deal with some unbelievers.

Christians are to follow the example of our Lord who loved people, was a giver, but who told a lot of hard truths. Large amounts of what Jesus expressed was not meek and mild in context and nature. Jesus warned His followers that some things He would have to tell them would be painfully hard to stomach. As Christians we cannot straddle the fence; and it is not showing genuine love to not tell the full truth in order to not upset people in the areas where they like to be comforted. We cannot be over here one day and back over in another place the next day. We have to take a stand, whether it costs us friends, family, or our lives.

Over the past few months I have observed myriad behaviors from a lot of people who are Muslims or are what I call "kinda sorta Muslims." Islam looks less and less like a religion of peace when we look at what is happening sometimes daily, but certainly weekly. In less than a month there has been the issue of the teddy bear named Muhammad, week before last Christians in Egypt were attacked, then just Thursday opposition leader and former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. Still, in the era of political correctness (I once worshipped at this false altar) few want to be seen as bigots. Christians have to ask themselves were the prophets of the Old Testament bigots when they confronted their kings who had gone bad and joined the pagan way? No! They were telling the truth and giving tough love.

I am a pacifist, so imagine how I felt when my country entered two wars. I was sceptical (still is, but not on the same issues) because I saw these wars as once again people of color getting beaten down by arrogant white men. Still as a former Bible college attendee (I quit because the work was too easy) and someone who has read about and observed Islam since 1979 during the Iranian hostage crisis, I knew some things that the average American did not, and I want to and intend to learn more. Knowledge is power and light.

In the last 7 years I have been turned off by the behavior of some Christian evangelicals and a lot of Republicans. I know now that when they did get it right, they were right especially when they said that America has to win these wars now that we are in them. The Christian world was complacent and divided when the Islamic threat began after the 8th century. Latin Christians saw Eastern Christians as strange, effete, heretics. Eastern Christians saw the Latins as uncultured, nasty, stinking, greedy, hypocritical brutes. What I have long known and refused to admit to myself is that the Quran teaches that a Muslim is not required to tell someone who is not a Muslim the truth. There are Muslims who will however, but I have known some whose stories, word, and position will change like the wind. Dealing with them makes one think you have memory loss or is losing your mind, 'But you said?' I would think. Also there are some who say that they practice no religion, but who are like the devout 9/11 hijackers who went to a strip club the night before they took and flew those planes. I have met Muslims who eat pork. It seems to be a chameleon religion which changes like the wind.

I want to emphasize here again, I am not writing this to inspire hate or fear. My situation has been very unique because each time I went to work in Turkey, there were plenty of people who were afraid for me and saw all Muslims as blood thirsty killers, but I went anyway to teach English only, never to convert because that was not my mission. To have experienced what I have has been a great gift because God has put me in a position to educate people and share what I know. Americans are new kids on the block in dealing with this religion. Europe is not, having for centuries dealt with the Ottoman Turks who were, until the advent of the Turkish republic, the defenders of the Islamic faith. When I first visited Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, we were shown a room where one of the prophet Muhammad's swords were kept on display.

I feel such sadness for my friends who are Muslims and may not know the truth or cannot reveal it about their religion. I doubt that many have ever read the Quran like I have read all of the Bible. I have read a great deal of the Quran, and over the next year I hope to find time to continue examining it. Most Muslims have never read the Hadith which are stories by followers of the prophet Muhammad concerning him. Many Muslims are sweet, decent people who would give you the shirt off their back, but do not know. They just do not know. But there is a monsterous and a smooth deceptive element in Islam too. The smooth deceptive ones are more dangerous than the openly violent ones, because it becomes impossible to understand where they really stand.

I want to say that the first thing is to compare and contrast the lives of Jesus and Muhammad. There is very much contrast, but very little to compare. Jesus was the Prince of Peace and was always on the move during his ministry to aide the sick, poor, and the physically and spiritually dying. He never lifted a sword. He is not a dead prophet, but continues to live. To be a Christian you must believe He lives, and not try and use scientific and intellectual arguments to figure out if He does. Do so, and you set yourself up for failure. Also if Islam is a peaceful religion, why is it that every week there is some outrage? The inhabitants of Islamic countries know not to make too many waves, they know prison, the bullet, or the bomb quickly awaits them if they speak out. It is so sad and tragic.

I am not encouraging hate and fear here, just knowledge and vigilance. Americans are far from perfect and like so many including myself, the government and others wanted to trust some of these people. But a bad element has long terrorized Islamic nations. There are probably millions of Muslims who want to speak out and breathe, but they are in a a position like those Germans under the thumb of the Nazis or whites who lived in the US south during segregation. They know like these people what happens to traitors.

We have short memories in this age, but just recall Salman Rushdie. His plight should be a clue to what is lurking for those who break ranks in Islam.

During These Times Remember This

Jesus Is the Reason For the Season

A movie that really should be shown for the Christmas season but has always been overlooked at that time is Ben Hur.

While I was growing up every Easter The Ten Commandments, another one of my favorite Biblical epics from the latter part of Hollywood's Golden Age, was shown very year. I would eagerly watch the four movie on TV. It wasn't until I was an adult that I saw the 1959 version of Ben Hur for the first time. The is also a 1925 silent version of the film which is also a masterpiece of filmmaking; I have also seen it.

Ben Hur was adapted from the novel Ben Hur: The Tale of The Christ by General Lew Wallace, which I have also read. As a new Christian I watched the 1959 version of the film over and over, and the message of the film became engrained in my thoughts on how a person can overcome impossible odds through the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. Even though Jesus was rarely physically near in the lives of Judah Ben Hur and his family during their darkiest and most tragic times, he was actually working to save them physically and spiritually.

The movie Ben Hur, which stars Charlton Heston, received many Academy Awards and is one of the greatest films of all time begins with the born of Jesus Christ. This is the scene.




At the same time that Jesus Christ, the Peace of Peace, is being born somewhere in Judea another baby is born named Judah Ben Hur. Judah is also a prince, but unlike Jesus who is born in a cave used as a stable, Judah is born into a family of wealth and priviledge. Years later when Judah and his family is betrayed by his childhood best friend the leader of the Roman garrison, Masala, Judah learns fast that his position will not save him from being condemned to be a galley slave and keeping his mother and sister from being confined to the dungeon of the Fortess of Antonia. On his forced trek to the galleys, Judah encounters Jesus for the first time in this powerful scene.



Throughout the four years that Judah survives the galleys, a feat that few could, he vows to get revenge for the destruction of his family. All the time Jesus that is God is working in his life and is keeping him alive, not fate.

Once Judah gets his revenge, he realizes that it is not sweet. He learns that his mother and sister have become lepers and live in a cave with many other lepers in the Valley of the Lepers. One day Judah follows his former slave and the woman he loves Esther to the Valley of the Lepers where she secretly goes to give Judah's mother and sister food. Esther who has often talked to Judah about "the young rabbi" (Jesus) who teaches love and forgiveness has sworn to Judah's mother Miriam and his sister Tirzah that she would never tell Judah that they have survived imprisonment and are now lepers. But Judah finds out and together they all go to find Jesus in the hope that He can save Tirzah who is dying. As it turns out on the day they seek Him out, Jesus is on trial and has been condemned to be crucified. All hope seems to be lost. However, as Jesus is being forced pass them carrying the Cross, Judah's compassionate gesture to the Man who gave him a gourd of water on his march to the galleries and Miriam's, Tirzah's, and Esther's sorrow and shock for the injustice of Jesus' treatment brings about a miracle that can be seen in this clip from the final scene of the movie.



The best version to see Ben Hur in is letter box, so you will not miss anything.

In his death on the Cross, Jesus has the power to change lives. Even though He is not physically with us today, He still has the power to change lives. His life was about loving, giving, and commpassion. His death came about because of jealousy, envy, and the inability of a group of people to face the truth about who He was and what He stood for. But in the end He triumphed because His death was a sacrifice for all humankind to be rescued from the darkness and horror of sin. He is not a prophet as some think, He is the Son of God and He unlike any other prophet still lives.



Jesus IS the reason for the season.

Steve's Story Continues

Last Saturday I did a second post about Steven Eberhart who stabbed an off duty police officer in a grocery store here in my city and who also attended grade school with me and came to my church briefly. On Monday, Steve's mother told his story in an interview, expressed her sorrow, and apologized for what her son did. Here is the continuation of Steve's story at this link.

The Babylonian and Assyrian Christians

Anyone who has gone to church, read The Bible, or watched some TV ministers who preach the Bible and not pseudopsychology, have heard about the Babylonians especially and also of the Assyrians.

The ancient Babylonian and Assyrian empires were two superpowers of the Near East in the areas that are today parts of Turkey and Iraq. The Babylonians were situated mainly in what is now Iraq, while the Assyrian Empire was located in both areas. The Assyrians conquered the Israelite kingdom of Samaria in 721 BC. Nearly a century later the Assyrians were conquered by the Babylonians. The Babylonians went on to destroy what was left of the Israelite kingdom founded by David and Solomon. The kingdom of Judah was destroyed in 587 BC by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar who had the entire population along with its' rulers deported and enslaved in Babylon.

The Babylonian and Assyrian empires were the two most feared empires of their day. Both were noted for their brutality. Both kingdoms were also notorious for their paganism. The prophet Jonah had such distaste for the Assyrians that when God sent him in a last ditched effort to get them to relinquish their idolatry and other gross practices, he flat refused to at first. The Assyrians of the time repented from their evil ways which held off their destruction for awhile from the Babylonians.

King Nebuchadnezzar was not only a great military leader of the Babylonians, he also had the vision of an architect. He was the builder of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. He intensely desired that the city of Babylon be made into the greatest city in the world. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the glory that was Babylon with its canals, waterways, magnificent buildings, and parks. The late President of Iraq Saddam Hussein admired the Babylonians so much that he had Babylon reconstructed and rebuilt the city's ruins.

Hundreds of years later, the Babylonians and Assyrians were some of first gentiles in the region to convert to Christianity. Today the Chaldean (or Babylonian), Assyrian, and Syriac Christians of Iraq are the descendants of the people who populated those ancient empires that are written about in the Old Testament. I also want to mention here that the Assyrians and the Syriacs are not related to the Syrian people. Neither group are Arabs. As I wrote about in my post on Friday, the communities of these Christians in Iraq are in danger of going extinct. The war has changed their situation for the worse. Riverbend who writes the blog Baghdad Burning and is exile with her family in Syria mentions briefly in this post a Christian family that lives in their apartment building. Many Christians have fled Iraq in the last few years.

Over time the ways and fortunes of people can change. In the centuries when the Babylonians and Assyrians did not or refused to know the one true God, who but God would have known that generations later, their children would be followers of Christ.

Today I found the video above which gives a brief history of the people and the culture of both groups.

Steve's Story

In my Thursday post, I wrote about Steven Eberhart, who went to grade school and rode the same bus with me when I was a girl. He stabbed an off duty female police officer who did security at a local grocery store. A few years ago, Steve started attending my church briefly. He did not go very long, but while he did he told me that he suffered from depression. On reading his story, I am wondering if he suffered from more than just depression. Did he have a more serious form of mental illness such as schizophrenia which may have caused him to become violent?

I firmly believe that mental illness is not only a psychological disease but also a spiritual ailment. Mental illness is so common in today's world because most people, even some who think they are close to God lack the tools to face life's challenges. Why do some people cruise through life's storms and others crumble? In time I will explain through my writings here why.

For myself, accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour, understanding and applying His teachings, reading my Bible and prayer has helped me in a way it is difficult to put into words. I suffered from depression throughout my teen years and was eventually crippled by it beginning in my late 20s throughout much of my 30s. When I realized just how alone and desperate I was for something bigger, permanent, and more meaningful than anything the world has to offer in the long run, I learned what it meant to be born again into a life guided and devoted to God. I was literally cured.

Steve attended the same church where I accepted Jesus Christ. On Thursday I phoned my pastor and we talked awhile about his situation and mental illness. My pastor says that I am her biggest success story. She also has a daughter who is very mentally disturbed and has also had several confrontations with the law. Over the years Pastor Patricia has seen many people go through her church who were ravaged by mental illness and intense spiritual emptiness. Most never applied the precepts that she taught in the pulpit. I did because first I accepted that I had a problem and second I wanted to become what God intended me to be. I learned that I could never be fully cured or rescued from depression by my own efforts, medication, and by going to see counselors. I have had some every good counselors in my day, some who said some good and wise things. One of my counselors confessed to me that she was a Christian. But it was only when I became a Christian too, studied and prayed, did something click inside me. I still battle with self doubt, and I even feel loneliness sometimes, but in the end I always remember that Jesus died for me and everyone else and that God will never abandon me. People come and go out of our lives, but He is eternal and will always be there. We can hold on to Him. In fact, He wants us to hold on to Him.

Yesterday Steve's story was in the newspaper. It can be read here. My mother and I were saying yesterday "If only Steve had kept coming to our church and had alllowed Pastor Patricia to pray for him..."

What has happened to Steve could happen to any of us. There is a war for our minds and souls going on. I will be talking about this too eventually.

After years of debilitating depression, I have been cured by surrender to Jesus Christ. I feel like Job who lost everything that mattered to him, but God, and was granted again even more than he lost because he never lost his faith and love for God. My life is beginning again. Sadly for Steve, it looks like it has ended not in the bodily sense, but spiritually he is dead because of his illness and the possibility that he will not be a free man for a long time. Still for him, because Jesus said,

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7, New International Version)


Please pray for the officer who at the last I heard is still alive and pray also for Steve.

God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5, New International Version)

The Christians of Iraq

The above video is about the Christians of Iraq. Since the war in Iraq, which has in essense been ongoing since 1991 through sanctions and systematic bombings even during the Clinton administration, the American public has not been exposed to much about the existence of the Christian community in Iraq, a community which is close to 2000 years old. American Christian media and ministries have shown little concern or talked about the plight of these people. I have known about them early on beginning when the war became its' most destructive in 2003. I knew that under Saddam Hussein, who was a secularist, that Iraqi Christians did not face persecution the way they now do in Iraq. The Christians of Iraq never tried to undermine Saddam's government. They lived quietly in their communities, even on rare occasions intermarrying with Muslims. As long as people swore allegiance to Saddam and his dictates, religion was a private matter and not seen as a threat.

The Christian community is disappearing in Iraq through killings but mainly through thousands who have gone into exile because of fear that eventually they will be swept away by the tide of Islamic extremism that is boiling in the region. These articles which were written not long after 2003 explains the plight and the history of the Iraqi Christians and are still very relevant:

Life After Saddam

Christians in Iraq

Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians get more more press in America than any other Christian group. Their narrow worldview often borders on the nationalistic and materialistic. The only big issues on the radar with these Christians are basically gay marriage and abortion. They do not have a global sense of Christianity the way the Catholic Church does. They do not see many of the Christians of the world as their brothers and sisters due to variations on doctrine and church practices. I do not see the church in this limited way. I believe I have written in an earlier post that I would describe myself as a "primitive" Christian. I want to see the church, especially in America get back to its' basic roots. I want to see the church start showing more concern for the brethren worldwide. One aspect of God is that He is love, and today there is not enough love and understanding in the American branch of Christianity

Christians in America live an easy life with very little real persecution. When life is easy, one can easily forget about those who suffer and live in fear unless one is a very special and unique individual. I have been very concerned about the Christians of Iraq for some time now. I have waited to no avail to hear preachers and televangelists really tell their listeners about these Christians. There is a general ignorance of the subject, which is a shame considering that Christianity originated in the Middle East, a fact which some Christians in America seem to forget. The ancestors of many Middle and Near Eastern Christians actually came into contact with and were converted by some of the Apostles.

I know one dirty secret of why these Christians are ignored. It is because often their brand of Christianity is very similar to Catholicism. With the majority of Americans being Protestants, there is an uneasiness about anything that looks too Catholic. I am Protestant, but I do not feel that way.

In the end, I think the American church is going to be judged harshly for its' indifference, igorance, and silent bigotry against the eastern Christians oppressed under Muslim rule whether in Iraq or elsewhere.

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you... (Hosea 4:6)

He Was Harmless, But...

Last night when my brother came home from work, I overheard him telling our father about a police officer being brutally stabbed here in town. I thought little about it because violence is so much a way of life in this society, therefore since I felt very drained and tired I went to bed really not touched strongly or interested in what I briefly heard.

When I awoke this morning, my mother and father were talking at the breakfast table about the need for a large mental health facility here. For years one of the only two hospitals in this city had the notorious "6th floor" where mental health patients were admitted. The 6th floor was eliminated.

Prior to the 6th floor's demise, my town also had a rather upscale facility called Charter Winds Hospital. Charter Winds went bankrupt because of mismanagement of the hospital's funds costing a lot of jobs and leaving locals who needed somewhere to retreat for psychological problems with the option of being sent either 40 miles north to a facility in the town of Gainesville or 65 miles west to a hospital similar to Charter Winds in Atlanta.

My parents own a business which is on one of this city's main thoroughfares. They talk a lot about the people who walk up and down the street, many who seem very strange or out of their heads. Last year the large glass display windows on the front of their business was broken out twice late at night. Whoever did it was not seeking money since there was no sign that the building was entered. We just supposed that the person responsible was probably one of the many poor souls who stumble up and down the street everyday past the shop.

My dad who is so incredibly naive about what is going on in the world and society today had found himself being preyed on by a guy who often came by the shop asking to clean up trash out in front of the building. The guy started out cleaning; then he switched over to begging my dad to just give him some money even if there was no trash outside to be gathered. My mom was wise enough to see a pattern starting, so he told dad to not give the guy anything else, and to warn him that if he kept coming by, that they would call the police. I am concerned by my father's naivete especially now after what has happened so close to home. It is important as Christians that we help the poor as Jesus clearly demonstrated in His life, but the possible dangers of the situation which my dad has allowed to progress has come clearer to me after what has happened.

I did not expect the conversation my brother had with my father last night about a police officer being stabbed to come so close to home, but it has. This morning while my parent's were talking, I got up from the breakfast table to get this morning's newspaper out in our den. I am never really interested in the local news, but when I looked at the headlines "Officer Stabbed" and looked down the page, I was shocked and astonished when I saw the perpetrator's photo! Last night the female officer who was working off duty security at a local grocery store in town was stabbed by someone who had gone to middle and high school with me. He had been kind and very friendly. "Little Steve" as I used to call him used to sit beside me sometimes on the school bus. Steve was a grade below me, and on me he had the biggest crush. I am African American, and unlike most of the black guys I went to school with, Steve was not intimidated by my level of smarts nor by where I lived which is a quiet middle class enclave of blacks. Just a few years ago, Steve showed up at my church. Life had not been kind to him. Like most black men he was unmarried and had a kid out of wedlock, but he did not say anything about the usual run in with the law which is all too common. He lived in one of the city's government housing areas downtown which was built during the 1930s and which has been renovated in the last 10 years. After all those years, Steve was still attracted to me and asked if we could go out sometime. I did not give him an answer, but I did give him a ride home since he did not have a car. My pastor took a liking to Steve too because of his still outgoing spirit. Both I and Pastor Patricia sympathized with Steve since he had been battling depression for many years. Today, I am stunned like I am sure Pastor Patricia will be when she reads this. The assistant pastor at church at the time, Tommy York, has been the chaplain at the jail where Steve now is. I am sure he is astonished too.

As human beings we are all capable of incredible evil and incredible good. In the last week the country has been faced with yet again with mass shootings in a mall and in a church. So many people are alone and hurting in this society. I think about them, even though I don't know them. Post modern civilization is so devoid of any real concrete connection to God. We have been taught that as humans we should be able to change our lives on our own and go alone through our own mental strength. We really don't want to get too close to God because depending on Him demands surrender of many of our selfish desires; it means letting go of our independence.

I feel so sorry Steve and the female police officer he stabbed. Like Steve I experienced depression for many years and was incapacitated to such a degree that my doctors said I would never be able to handle the stress of a real job. This year I was re-evaluated as no longer ill with bipolar depression. Even when I was disabled I had worked off and on not wanting to accept that my years of education was going to be for naught. When I became a born again Christian in January 2000, I wanted to be cured from my spiritual emptiness as I had come to realize my depression was. I learned to depend on Jesus Christ and remembered His selfless sacrifice. I listened to my pastor's advise and learned Christian precepts that literally saved my life and re-opened possibilities for me. I was blessed to escape my dark night of the soul. Poor Steve and millions of others worldwide have not, but it is to be hoped they will escape.

The news article about the stabbing can be read here. The online version of the article does not include the photo of Steve.

Canonicity of The Bible

When I wrote last week about the origins of the Bible, my friend Metin asked these important questions which I will try to answer:

1. How and when and where was the Bible changed (or adjusted)?

Since I am a Protestant Christian I can only speak of what the Protestant branch of Christianity sees as authoritative or as the Biblical canon. Canon is a Greek word meaning "measuring rule" or "standard," and the test of canonicity for Protestants is whether the books in the Bible were inspired by God. Protestants believe that the Bible is the complete, infallible word of God to humanity.

The Old Testament books were seen as inspired by God if they were written the prophets, were referred to in the Talmud, were mentioned by Jesus and in His apostles' writings, and were referred to as inspired by God by early church figures like Origen and others and by historians like Josephus.

What was accepted as the New Testament canon were books that were known early on to have been written by Jesus' apostles and were read regularly in the early church. Early church leaders quoted liberally in their writings from both the Old and New Testaments. This is also proof. There have been disputes over the centuries by various fringe Christian groups, but generally the majority of the books that make up the Protestant Bible has been accepted from the beginning of the church.

2. Wasn't there a commission years after Jesus' death to keep certain things and to delete yet others??

There were a number of so-called lost books of the Bible that were never fully accepted by the church. If one reads the Bible and some of these books, which I have done, there is a vast difference in tone and plausibility between these false books and the Bible. There were various councils (commissions) over the centuries especially in the eastern church, but not in the Protestant.

3. And how do we know it's the word of God?? Is it because no man is capable of writing such a book?

As Christians the only way we know the Bible is God's word is through faith. With faith one has to decide to believe even though all concrete evidence may not be available. People have believed in the Bible over the centuries, however, not just through faith but also by miracles and blessings that happen in their lives and others. I personally know the good feelings I have whenever I read the Bible. I can be hurt and discouraged, and an actual reading gives me courage and strength to go on. This has happened many times to me.

Executable Outlines summarizes better what I have attempted to explain here.

The Bible's Origin(s), Part II

What became The Old Testament of the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic on a type of writing paper called papyrus which is a reed and also on parchment which was made from animal skins. Both papyrus and parchment were joined together to make a long roll called a scroll. None of the original copies of the Bible on these types of materials have survived. In about 280 B.C. The Old Testament was translated into Greek by seventy men and became known as the Septuagint referring to the seventy who did the task of translating.

The second half of The Bible, The New Testament was written completely in Greek. In the 4th century one of the early church leaders, Jerome translated The Bible into Latin which became known as the Vulgate. The Vulgate became the official version of The Bible for western Europe for over a millenium.

As time passed and fewer and fewer people had knowledge of Latin except church clergy, an Englishman John Wycliffe decided that the common people should be given the opportunity to read The Bible in their own tongue, so he and his followers set about the task of translating the entire Bible into English. Wycliffe's project was limited, however, due to the fact that during his time, the 1300s, the printing press had not been invented. Therefore, all of his volumes had to be done by hand. By the time of William Tyndale in the 1500s, the printing press had become available, so Tyndale did his own translation of The New Testament from the Greek to English, and his version was the first to be mass produced.

King James of both England and Scotland had a committee translate the Bible in 1611 creating the most authoritative and best loved versions of the Bible, the King James or Authorized Version.

A Quote By the Famous Concerning The Bible

"The greatest source of material for motion pictures is the Bible, and almost any chapter in the Bible would serve as a basic idea for a motion picture."

----Cecil B. DeMille, one of the greatest American film producers and directors of the first half of the 20th century whose films' subject matter were often Biblically based.

The Bible's Origin(s), Part I

This is part one of an explanation of the origin(s) of the Bible.

The Bible is the holy book of Christians. It is an amazing work and one of the masterpieces of world literature. It is also inspired, but not by human thought, but by the Holy Spirit which is the third person of the Godhead (Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost/Spirit).

The Bible which means 'book' is one book which is made up of 66 books which were written over a 1500 year period by various authors from different walks of life who lived in various places in portions of what we call today the Middle East and the Mediterranean. The authors came from a broad range of social strata: kings, prophets, fishermen, tax collectors.

The 66 books of the Bible are divided into two parts, The Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament is made up of 39 books. Both Christians and Jews accept The Old Testament as God's word and their religious canon. The Old Testament begins with the story of how the world and humanity were created. It covers the history of God's chosen people beginning with the patriarch Abraham and his descendants the Hebrew people, and their rise and fall through sin. Throughout the Old Testament there are allusions to and direct promises by various prophets of God that eventually He would send the Messiah to rescue humanity from the devastation of sin.

The second half of the Bible is the New Testament which is made up of 27 books. This portion of the Bible is accepted only by Christians. The New Testament tells the story of the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, His birth, life, death, and resurrection. It continues with the story of the early church and ends in a final complex, sometimes frightening, mysterious prophesy of the future of all humanity with a promise of a second return of Jesus Christ to the earth.