Skip to main content

Home/ Following Jesus Better/ Group items tagged birth

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Gary Patton

The Christmas Story - Bible Gateway - 0 views

  • Luke 2:1-20
    • Gary Patton
       
      This passage expands on the story of the birth of Jesus as told in Matthew 2:1-12 at http://diigo.com/0m5rj from that Apostle's perspective. That account features the Wisemen's visit to Yeshua/Jesus from the Far East.
  • And she (E)gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a [d]manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is the Bible's description of the first major event in Yeshua's/Jesus' earthly life ...his "cradle'. This is followed by His: 2. coaching 3. cross, & 4. coronation.
  •  
    Luke 2:1-20 in the NASB describes Yeshua's/Jesus' Birth in Bethlehem and the reason for the season Christians call Christmas.
Gary Patton

The Visit of the Magi - Now after Jesus - Bible Gateway - 0 views

  • Matthew 2:1-12
    • Gary Patton
       
      This passage expands on the story of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1-20 at http://diigo.com/0m5rh.
  •  
    Matthew 2:1-12 in the NASB expands on the story of the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1-20 at http://diigo.com/0m5rh. It adds the event of the visit of the "Magi" or "Wisemen" from the far East to worship Yeshua/Jesus some time after His birth. This was probably in Nazareth before Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to protect the child. This part of the story follows immediately after verse 12 in this passage.
Gary Patton

Luther's 95 Theses - 0 views

  • Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
  • Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
  •  
    Here's what Master Luther nailed up on the Church door at which prompted a splintering of the Roman Catholic Church and the birth of Protestantism during what became known as "The Reformation:.
Gary Patton

"The R-E-A-L Gospel & Jesus...God's Saving Power Source" - Bible Gateway - 0 views

  • Romans 1:16
  • Romans 1:16
  • I am not ashamed of the gospel,(A) because it is the power of God(B) for the salvation of everyone who believes:(C) first for the Jew,(D) then for the Gentile.(E)
  • ...1 more annotation...
    • Gary Patton
       
      The word "Gentile" is the English translation of the Hebrew word that means "non-Jew". It's the equivalent of "Infidel" to a Muslim. Gentile was a negative word for ancient Jews. Gentiles were nearly non-people as Nassara are to Muslims. (This is the Qur'an's derogatory term for Christian.)
  •  
    "The R-E-A-L Gospel & Authentic Jesus...God's Saving Power Source" To Muslims the Gospel is a long lost book. For Christians, it is what is described below. And the Jesus referred to here is NOT the Isa of the Qur'an! The 'Isa' of the Qur'an is the purely human, Jewish Prophet described there that pre-dated the Prophet Mohammad and he was a Muslim. (See Surahs 4:71; 5:116; 6:101; 19:35 & 88-89 & 23:88-92 among others in context ) Therefore, Isa cannot be the 'Yeshua/Jesus' of the Christian Bible's New Covenant ...Whom Christian believe is God Almighty, the YHWH of the Old Covenant. (John 10:28-30 at http://diigo.com/0ti6o and Thomas among others). says? When the Qur'an is properly read by Muslims in Arabic, not another language, the word used is Isa, not Jesus. Indeed, the revered Muslim historian Dr. Tarif Kalif (insert quote used by Tony Costa in debate) In addition: * The heavenly Father of Yeshua/Jesus is YHWH, the written name of the Jewish "One God", according to the Bible Book/Chapter/Verse(s): Mark 5:21-42). Isa is stated in the Qur'an to be a gift of Allah. (Qur'an Surah/Ayah(at): 47:19; 112:I Peter 4:8: "Say: He is Allah, the One and Only.") * Yeshua/Jesus was born to a virgin, Mariam, by means of an immaculate conception by God. (In Matthew I Peter 4:8:16, speaking of Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, the verse says: "… the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ". Matthew does not say, "….and Joseph "the father of" (begat in some translations) Jesus" ...as he had done with the preceding generations. Matthew thus makes clear that Joseph was not the genetic father of Jesus. No man was.) Isa was "begat" by sexual intercourse between Joseph and Mariam. (Qur'an 23:91; 112:3: "He begs not, nor is He begotten" or, "God neither gave birth nor is born"). * Yeshua/Jesus said He was "Emmanuel" (God with us). He was orally proclaimed by His heavenly Father to be His Son. Isa was only a human Prophet (Qur'an 23:84-91 htt
Gary Patton

Trials Produce Joy? Say what! | NIV YouVersion - 0 views

  • Trials and Temptations
  • When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
  • If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,t whenever you face trials of many kinds,3
  • because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Gary Patton

Andrew Sullivan: Christianity in Crisis - The Daily Beast - 0 views

  • Not the supernatural claims that, fused with politics and power, gave successive generations wars, inquisitions, pogroms, reformations, and counterreformations
    • Gary Patton
       
      I'm not so sure the Bible documantation of Jesus' miracles are responsible for the horrors Mr. Sullivan seems to attribute to them.
  • What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand?
  • And more intensely relevant to our times. Jefferson’s vision of a simpler, purer, apolitical Christianity couldn’t be further from the 21st-century American reality.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Is using Matthew 5:13-16 to justify spending one's time in so-called "social action" really Biblical? Are we wise attempting to get worldly people to obey what they cannot and do what only Jesus Followers are commanded? Does it not seem a waste of time and energy better spent "making disciples" (Matthew 28:18-20) ...one on one (2 Timothy 2:1-2)... God's clearly commanded plan?
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life
    • Gary Patton
       
      Please note my questions in the e-Sticky Note above in this paragraph.
  • The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism.
  • you’ll find a small room containing an 18th-century Bible whose pages are full of holes. They are carefully razor-cut empty spaces, so this was not an act of vandalism. It was, rather, a project begun by Thomas Jefferson when he was 77 years old.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Some would argue that President Jefferson was the R-E-A-L founder of the current "Jesus Movement" of Bible reductionists. Or a kndred spirit of the "Red Letter Christians".
  • Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Ignore them, writes Andrew Sullivan, and embrace Him. 
  • Christianity in Crisis
    • Gary Patton
       
      "What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand? ", the writer asks. That's about as difficult a question as one can ask a so-called Christian. gfp (2012-04-11)
  • the unilateral prohibition of the pill
    • Gary Patton
       
      Given the Catholic "Doctrine of Infalibility", "unilateral" is the right word and one all Catholics are expected to obey.
  • The hierarchy was exposed as enabling, and then covering up, an international conspiracy to abuse and rape countless youths and children.
  • Inequality, poverty, even the torture institutionalized by the government after 9/11: these issues attract far less of their public attention.
  • the mainline Protestant churches, which long promoted religious moderation, have rapidly declined in the past 50 years. Evangelical Protestantism has stepped into the vacuum, but it has serious defects of its own.
  • many suburban evangelicals embrace a gospel of prosperity
  • Others defend a rigid biblical literalism
    • Gary Patton
       
      If an omnipotent, supernatural God cannot keep His own words to humankind accurate over time, is He really a God that should be worshipped by Mr. Sullivan? There is a great deal of documented proof for the accuracy of the Bible with Scripture documents available from a time when the eye witnesses to what Jesus said and did were alive and active. Does Mr. Sullivan really believe that the first Apostles and early Christians agreed to be tortured and killed, horribly, for lies in forged documents as they were for most of the 270 years after Jesus died? And if you feel the documents were forged after the eye witnesses died, please reflect on my opening question.
  • Still others insist that the earth is merely 6,000 years old—something we now know by the light of reason and science is simply untrue.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Is Mr. Sullivan really calling as witnesses the same science and it's so-called experts at proving their theories by replicating them that hasn't been able to produce one single shred of evidence for its sacrosanct "Theory of Evolution". Is he really criticizing estimates of the earth's age on the basis of Biblical dating by calling geologists as testamentarians who use the dating of fossils by archeologists to date their rocks when those same archeologists often date their fossils from the rock layers in which they are found. Some science that, eh?
  • Evangelical Christians
    • Gary Patton
       
      I agree that torture is unBiblical and something a Jesus Follower should NEVER condone to be used under any circumstances ...never mind the proven fact that it is a totsaally unreliable way to get accurate information. However, Jesus isn't yet finished conforming me to His character as well as His likeness any more than He is the people who support this barbarism. But, I have the promise of the loving, living God that He is doing so in His way and His timing documented in Romans 8:28-39! Any so-called Christian who's not seeing him/herself becoming more like Jesus "as time goes by" is probably not one!
  • Jesus never spoke of homosexuality or abortion, and his only remarks on marriage were a condemnation of divorce (now commonplace among American Christians) and forgiveness for adultery.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Jesus doesn't have to speak on every moral issue condemned in the Old Covenant and He did say He had come to fullfill it! Does Mr. Sullivan really see Jesus condoning the homosexual behaviour that is rampant now on TV while He still loves and died for the sin nature and sins of it's practitioners? How can Mr. Sullivan suggest the antiviolent God-man who deplores murder is not appalled by abortion ...let alone the malevolency of "Partial Birth Abortion" that is practised by so-called healers all over Canada and in many U.S. States.
Gary Patton

The Sin Nature ...Do Jesus Followers Have One? by Dr. Bill Gillham - 0 views

  • We are known as “humans.” Jesus was a human without a sin nature in that He was never descended from Adam. The Holy Spirit furnished the 23 male chromosomes which united with Mary’s 23 to enable Jesus Christ to leave heaven and take on the form of human male.
    • Gary Patton
       
      One cou;d argue that this implies that our first parent's sinful, human nature is transmitted ONLY through males. Does mr. Gillam really mean that? gfp
  • It is the sin nature that condemns a man to hell, not his sinful performance.
  • The whole ballgame for all of eternity is spiritual, not physical… the bottom line is spirit!
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is why Jesus said we can woship God ONLY in spirit and in truth" (John 4:22-24)!
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • The Bible speaks of only two types of spirit-natures referring to them as “men.” They are the “old man” and the “new man.”
    • Gary Patton
       
      Modern Bible translated have changed the literal translation of the King James Version of "man" to "self" and noted the original word in a footnote.
  • the Bible speaks of the old man being able, by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, to be born in a new way in order to change his identity (Jn. 3). Through turning from his self-centered rebellion, submitting himself to Christ’s authority as the God He is, appropriating His provision for getting shed of his dead spirit and beginning all over again with a new, good, alive, godly spirit, man can become something he has never been…alive to God through Christ (Rom.6:13). This new man is now a son of God via faith in Christ (Jn. 1:12).
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is why the Bible says only Jesus Followers are "children of God" and not all people. The latter are His "creation". But, non-Followers are not his children until they are put to death, spiritually, with Jesus and, then, resurrected or "re-born", as Jesus told the Pharisee in John 3:3-5, by Holy Spirit. gfp
  • We are cut from the same spirit-genetic cloth as our Lovely Lord Jesus! God reveals no provision in His word for adding His Spirit to a spirit-son of the devil You cannot mix Light with darkness.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Don't misunderstand what Mr. Gillham is saying in the second sentence here. All human beings are "sons of the Devil" until re-born in and by Jesus (John 8:42-45) as Mr. Gillham shares above in this article. gfp
  • A great problem exists today in that many well-meaning Christians teach that the death of the old man is simply a “positional truth”; it’s the “position in which God sees us.” They speak of it as if it were something we have to “reckon on” (count it as true) to keep it true.
  • we do not have to reckon on it to derive any benefit from it
    • Gary Patton
       
      This sentence contains a typo that confuses its sence. I believe that Dr. Gillam intended to write: "...we DO have to reckon on it..." because that is what Romans 6:11 says!
  • In God’s ecology, in order for a man to cease to be the son of Satan and become a son of God, the man must first die (spiritually) and then be reborn (spiritually), this time to a NEW FATHER! This is portrayed clearly in Romans 7:1-4.
  • The only kind of sons either God or Satan have are spirit-sons,
  • the flesh (body, brain, memory traces (flesh) in the brain
  • The reason a Christian doesn’t have a sin nature is because he is no longer the spirit-genes of God, his (New) Father! Hallelujah! Shout for joy! Whoooooeeeee!
    • Gary Patton
       
      This sentence also includes a typo that confuses its sense. I believe it should be read, and Dr. Gillham intended to write: "The reason a Christian doesn't have a sin nature is because he has no longer the spirit-genes of Satan but has those of God, his (New) Father!"
  • you are NOW a holy (Eph. 1:4), righteous (2 Cor. 5:21), saint of God (Rom. 1:7), blameless (Eph. 1:4), with Christ as your very Life (Col. 3:4), a son of God (Jn. 1:12), housed in an earthsuit (2 Cor. 5:1-8), a citizen of heaven (Eph. 2:19), on foreign assignment as an ambassador representing the “Fatherland” (2 Cor. 5:20), a righteous son of the King (2 Cor. 5:21), a spirit-son of the Second Adam (1 Cor. 11:45), spawned from His Spirit gene pool (Rom. 8:9), filled up with Christ Himself (Eph. 3:19), will all your needs (not greeds) supplied (Phil. 4:19), blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven (Eph. 1:3), impervious to the obstacles of this planet (Phil.4:13), taking all things in stride as a part of the Loving Father’s “obstacle course” designed to prepare us for eternal rulership (Rom. 8:28-29)!
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is an incredible list of Biblical truths that flow from our being born-again in Messiah!
  • It’s not my old self that I am fighting against inside! It’s the power of sin working on my (new) mind (Rom. 7:23) through the flesh (the old memory traces) that I battle, and we are dead to having to submit, brother! (Rom. 6:11)
  • Accept this by faith as your true identity! Set your mind on it! Dwell on it! Meditate on the truth of it! Then, moment by moment act like it is true!
  • Can a man possibly possess dual spiritual sonship? No?
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is an incredible freedom-granting truth and a major benefit of being born-again children of God!
  • Stop acting like who you are not! That’s hypocritical! Act like the new man you are by faith! That’s obedience!
    • Gary Patton
       
      Our "New Man/Creation" is truly astounding. In life or death situations, human beings can lift cars. Just think for a moment of the limitless capabilities we have as New Creations in Jesus. We are flowing and operating in the power our Inner Warrior when we "abide/rest in" Jesus (John 15:5) and "live His Spirit" (Galatians 5:15).
  • But after the one’s “birth” as the new king, the old king could never again resurrect himself because he had no capability for self-resurrection! The very existence of the one precludes the existence of the other and vice versa!
  • was thoroughly confused
  • he was talking about two different people
  • “The King is Dead! Long Live the King!”
  • The old man has indeed died (Romans 6:6, etc.) and the new man has indeed been generated by the Holy Spirit (Colossians 3:10, etc.). But, unfortunately, the pervasive position taken by most Christian leader is that the old man is till “alive and well’ within the believer…that sinful performance gives daily testimony to this as “fact.”
  • The two can’t coexist any more that the two kings can! It was the death of the old man, which enabled the new man to be born! It is impossible for the new man to exist until the old man has died and the old man cannot resurrect himself. There is but One Life Who has such resurrection power…the Life of Christ!
  • Can you see what a difference this makes in motivating a Christian as opposed to berating him by constantly telling him what a sorry, no-good sinner he is and how he is going to face an angry God some day? Folk, it’s our works which will be judged in the future, not our personhood (2 Cor. 5:10) and God is not mad at the saved. He took our all the anger He had against us on Jesus (Isa. 53). We’ll either be rewarded or we’ll lose what we potentially could have won, but “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ” (Rom. 8:1).
  • Those cannot exist simultaneously.
  • peaks of the POWER OF INDWELLING IN (not the sin nature) working in man to produce undesirable (sinful) behavior. The power of sin simply deceives the Christian by masquerading as the old man, suggesting (deceiving) to the will that a choice be made to perform according to the old self-serving patterns programmed in previously. This is referred to as “walking after the flesh.”
  • masquerade in the thought life of the Christian posing as his unique version of the old man! The naïve Christian will believe he, himself, is generating the unchristian suggestion and thus direct his defensive efforts against the wrong foe…what he perceives to be a darker side of himself! He fires all his bullets at a shadow! This is the explanation for the frustration depicted in Romans 7:15 “…why do I do the very thing I hate? Why can I get no victory?”
  • Though it would appear that the “two-natures” view places the greater responsibility for poor performance squarely on the Christian and that the “one-nature” view is a cop out, the opposite is actually true!
  • So long as one embraces the former he is constantly deceived into believe his failure is just standard Christian experience. As Scofield said (paraphrased), “This is not standard Christian experience, it’s the standard experience of most Christians,” the tragic result of faulty discipling.
  • Once the Christian enters into identification with Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension, claiming he no longer has two natures, but is now “the righteousness of God in Christ” and “holy and blameless in His sight” he is without excuse when he sins, because he knows what it is to possess the Life (“Christ in me”) which overcomes on a moment-by-moment basis.
  • In reality, it is accepted as fact that Christians no longer have a sin nature that places one squarely on the hook and totally responsible to choose, moment-by-moment, against the wooings, deceptions and accusations of indwelling sin working through the flesh. “Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus (moment-by-moment) in our body.” (2 Cor. 4:10—NAS)
  • Indwelling sin deceives the “two-natures” believer into rationalizing, “I’m just human. I just fail a lot and God understands it’s just my old sin nature that got the better of me.” This is the true cop out position!
  • Awake sleeper! The king is dead! Long live the King!
  • The power of sin is what its name implies, a power to entice you into sin. It dwells in you (Rom.7:21) yet it is not you any more than a gold tooth that dwells in your mouth is you. Sin’s goal is to deceive the saints into living to get their needs (though good and godly) met by sinning rather than by using the Matt. 6:33 method; that is, “seeking Christ first.”
  • The power of sin is not your sin nature. Your sin nature is a synonym for old man or old self. That “old you” was crucified in Christ (Rom. 6:6). Before you were saved, it was as normal for you old nature to rebel against God’s authority as it is for a fish to swim.
  • Yet the power of sin is alive and well in you, saint. It indwells your body (Rom. 7:23). On page 1055 of W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Vine states that sin is, “a governing principle or power” that is “personified” in the following passages. He then lists sixteen verses in which this holds true. The term personified means “represented as a person.” The power of sin can represent itself as a personage.
  • Since sin is personified, let’s call it “Mr. Sin” so we won’t confuse it with the verb. Mr. Sin tries to control you, to make you live to satisfy your bodily needs.
  • “For sin shall not be master over you…(Rom. 6:14). Mr. Sin (the personification) cannot master you. Remember how sin is “represented as a person?” It tries to master you through presenting thoughts to your mind by masquerading as the old man who has risen from the tomb. But no one except Jesus can do that, right? That’s not the old man; it’s the power of sin personified.
  • “But, if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but Mr. Sin which indwells me (is somehow doing it)” (Rom. 7:20). This verse can really be a puzzler if you interpret the word “sin” as a verb. But it’s a noun, and Vine says it is personified (represented as a person).
  • Mr. Sin the “personage,” wars, fights and seeks to control your mind. But your mind does not want to be controlled by this power, so it fights back.
  • Galatians 5:17 says that the “flesh lusts against the spirit” and vice versa and there is obviously a war going on inside of every Christian, but it’s not the old man versus the new man doing battle.
  • The Law is the source of Mr. Sin’s strength. To couple law with Mr. Sin is like pouring gas on a fire. This personage called sin needs a law to aid it if it is to optimally control you. It “eats, breathes and sleeps” via the Law.
  • “The Law is not made for a righteous man” (1 Tim. 1:9).
  • Why? Because you, the righteous man (2 Cor. 5:21), don’t need it. The lost man does (in order to show him his condition), but you don’t. You now “have the laws of God written on (your) heart and mind” (Heb. 10:16).
  • In this verse, sin is represented as a personage which can harden you through deception.
  • it was exciting to discover that a man of Vine’s stature as a scholar testifies that the power of sin is often personified in the Word. What liberty there is in knowing that the rebellious, evil, hateful thoughts I experience are being presented to my mind, not generated by it.
  • Is Our Sin Nature dead or NOT?
    • Gary Patton
       
      In the short articles below, Dr. Gillham demolishes the common teaching, often implies by preachers, that a Jesus Follower can have two natures ... a Satanic, sinful nature plus the righteous nature of God in Christ? This hypothesis" or opinion (http://is.gd/2tUCAb) is taught or implied by many in the church usually as truth. It also is implied by the New International Version (NIV) Bible's translating Biblical 'flesh' as "sin nature" ...wrongly as Dr. Gillham illustrates. Can a wo(man) really possess a dual spiritual sonship? You'll find freeing meditating on the clear Biblical answer presented here because Rev. Gillham says the answer is "NO! We don't have two natures!!" "Stop trying and start trusting God! It's not what you have to do that counts. But what Jesus has already fully done for you and the power He gives you because He lives in you!" ~ gfp '42™ gfp (2011-09)
  •  
    In these 3 short articles, Dr. Gillham addresses teaching that a Jesus Follower can have two natures ... a Satanic, sinful nature plus the righteous nature of God in Christ? This hypothesis" or opinion is taught or implied by many in the church usually as truth. It also is implied by the New International Version (NIV) Bible's translating Biblical "flesh" as "sin nature". But, can a wo(man) really possess a dual spiritual sonship? The clear Biblical answer according to Bill Gillham is "NO!" "Stop trying ...and start trusting God, It's not what you do. But what Jesus has already fully done for you!" ~ gfp '42™ gfp (2011-09)
  •  
    "Mr. Sin" is a more dangerous moment-to-moment foe for you than Satan. Pastor Gillham tells why! gfp
Gary Patton

"Islam, How it works" - 0 views

  • It is a comprehensive system regulating all areas of life. There is no separation between religion here, politics there, law there — therefore none between Islam and Islamism, either. Islamism is not an abuse of Islam, because Islam is different from our worldview.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Many Muslims don't like the terms 'Islamism' and 'Islamist'. They say the former confuses a political ideology with a religion and, the latter confuses a moderate Muslim with a violent Jihadist. This expert argues there is NO need to make a distinction because there is none needed because they all mean the same the same! Oh my! Are Westerners being 'conned' by liberal, politically-correct media terminology when they use Islam/Islamism distinction? Is it really Muslim taqiyya (dissimulation)? gfp (2011-10-27)
  • the Islamic norms and values system regulates the living together in Muslim societies far beyond the religious realm in the narrow sense of the word: without Islam they could not work at all.
  • you needn’t be an Islamic scientist to analyze the sociology of Islam.
    • Gary Patton
       
      One may not need to be an Islamic scientist. But, given the danger of western cultural biases that the author mentions below (highligted in red), westerners may NOT understand Islam and the Islamic mind. A further danger is that violent Jihadists use taqiyya (dissimulation) to launch and perpetuate proganda lies. gfp (2011-10-27)
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • the role of religion in the social fabric of Islamic societies is quite different from that of Christianity in ours. Islam does not only relate humans to the hereafter, like all religions do, and determine what is good and evil, but it also defines what is legal or illegal in a juridical sense, legitimate and illegitimate in a political sense, true and untrue in an empirical sense. Islam is, so to speak, the DNA of its societies: not only a religion but a social system.
  • We use a certain terminology fit for describing our own culture, but not fit for that of Islam.
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is very wise observation. Given this crucial point, the imporatnt question that arises is how do non-Muslims guard against the trap of cultural misalignment mistakes. I believe only Jesus Followers are eqipped to do this consistently and well because the power of Holy Spirit is available to us when we choose to walk in it and Him! (Galatians 5:16 &25) gfp
  • these assumptions are not just shared in Islam
  • Religions shapes the system of culturally valid and (by socialization) internalized pre-assumptions about issues such as truth, justice, morality, ethics, society, or violence; i.e. all the assumptions that precede actual political thinking.
    • Gary Patton
       
      This a dangerous key to Westerners' failure to understand Islam & what we, not Muslims, have labeled Islamism. Islamism is distinguished in the West from Islam as a political ideology. Islam, itself, is a political ideology. gfp (2011-10-27)
  • the widespread assumption in this country under which we perceive Islam — that all religions are equal or “want the same thing” — is misleading.
  • Islam does not generally outlaw violence, not even in a strictly moral sense.
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is a demonic opposite of Jesus' commands to His Followers to be non-violent and wage peace ...not war. e.g. Matthew 5:38-45 However, when dealing with criminality, violent Muslim jihadism or other activities by which people can be harmed, Jesus did not tell us to hold our peace and be passive D.O.O.R.M.A.T.S. (Dependent Order Of Really Miserable And Timid Souls). e.g. Matthew 23:23-33
  • Blaise Pascal once said. “Jesus let himself be killed, Muhammad himself killed”.
    • Gary Patton
       
      With even more contarst, I'd suggest: "Jesus teaches His Followers to wage peace and allowed Himself to be murdered; Muhammad teaches his followers to wage war and himself murdered others!" ~ gfp '42™
  • Violence in Islam has a structuring function: it makes a difference between above and below, i.e. master and slave, men and women, believers and unbelievers. Islam doesn’t define peace as a universal principle.
  • The Islamic concept of society is based on the division of humanity into “believers” and “infidels” — and Islam leaves no doubt that the “infidels” sooner or later have to disappear in history. “Good” in the ethical sense, is what is good for the spread of Islam; “evil” is any opposition to it
  • Islam rejects the notion of a universal ethics by which all people have equal rights, no matter what religion they belong to, or peace as a matter of principle. Such views contradict not only the teachings of Islam, but its basic structure.
  • it creates a tacit social acceptance of violence, provided it is directed against the “infidels”, even among those Muslims who are not individually violent.
  • Jihad is not just war. It includes anything Muslims do to bring the world under the law of Allah.
  • Therefore, I conceive Islam as a Jihad System.
  • the Koran refers in the latest, the Medinan suras — which are in any doubt, the decisive — relatively little to the “greater” jihad, the struggle for one’s own faith, compared with the struggle against the “infidels”, the so-called “lesser” jihad which is crucial in these suras.
  • No, “Islam” means, in friendly translation, “devotion” and less friendly, “submission”. The word is derived from the same word-root as “Salam” (peace), but it is not a synonym.
  • Islamism is only the political side of Islam, that is, in fact, no degeneration, but a part of this religion. The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has said quite rightly that there is no radical and no moderate Islam, but only Islam.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Succintly put!
  • The idea of an Islam without Sharia law is absurd, that would be — not like soup without salt, but like soup without water. Therefore, Islamists are quite correct when claiming to be in harmony with the Prophet and the Koran. And consequently these Islamists are not socially isolated, but very respected for their strong faith and respected members of the Islamic community.
  • Couldn’t there be an Islamic Enlightenment
    • Gary Patton
       
      Dr. Tawfik Hamid, among others including some Islamic scholars, would agree this is possible and fight at risk to their lives for its arrival. Tawfik argues that there is a big difference between fundamentalist, Qur'anic Islam, correctly interpreted, and what is promoted by all Islamic judicial jurisdictions. So Muslims who feel like Dr. Hamid are very much alone among the approximately 3.5 billion Muslims world-wide. His Website is www.tawfikhamid.com where he operates as a Muslim "voice calling in the wilderness".
  • Firstly, I repeat: That would undermine the basis of Islamic societies. Therefore, there is enormous social pressure which prevents this. Secondly, Islam itself is already in some ways a kind of “enlightenment” as Islam has questioned anything in Christianity that is paradoxical and dialectical, sometimes incomprehensible, and to bring it to a simple formula:
  • was our Reformation something moderate?
    • Gary Patton
       
      Some prominet & well-known Christian writers argue that the Christian "Reformation" actually reformed very little of what was and still is variants of what is really paganism. They document from a variety of historical sources, including the Christian Bible, that pagan practises are what are practised on Sunday morning by most traditional Protestant denominations in addition to both the Roman & Orthodox Catholic Churches. Pastor Frank Viola's book, where you can learn more about this thesis, is called "Pagan Christianity". Reverend Viola argues that Christians are NOT pagans, but their traditional Western churches and church practises are. gfp (2011-10-27)
  • in Islam, as a “back to the roots”, means just the opposite, emphasizing the validity of the political model of the original community of the Prophet, whose political profile I’ve already described.
  • there are already first indications of an Islamist turn of these revolutions,
    • Gary Patton
       
      Some of my Muslim Friends who live in Canada make an even scarier case than this author. My Friends are well-tuned to accurate sources of Muslim and other information other than the politically-correct and often-leftist, western media. These Friends argue that all the current talk about Arab Spring democracy rising from the ashes of Afghanistan, Egypt, Tunisia, and as I write, Libya is absolute and utter nonsense. One well-informed Friend says that the prior leader of Al-Qaeda in Libya has returned to the devastated country and is firmly in control of most anti-Qaddafi forces. Al-Qaeda people will win any election held in Libya in the coming months, according to him. No commentator or group that I've heard or read at this writing, including the internationally-respected and knowledgeable Stratfor, the geo-politcal analyst group, has yet to even hint at this reality. That the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood will engineer the same coup in Egypt is being suggested in some quarters, already. I sense the same radical Jihadish coup will take place in Arab countries, possibly even Saudi Arabia, all across the Middle East and North Africa. And I bet it will be accomplished under the noses of Western political leaders who will pay for and host the forthcoming elections at great expense to western taxpayers to extend democracy. Duh! I also sense a modern Muslim Caliphate is in the birth canal of the 21st century with Satan as both the father and mid-wife. I'm awaiting with interest to see what the living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will allow and whom will be the wet-nurse, anti-Christ whom emerges to lead it. (Turkey's Ardogan is already in the running according to some experts.) gfp (2011-10-27)
Gary Patton

The future belongs to Islam- Culture - Books - 0 views

  • Likewise, the salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia is that they're running out of babies
  • the salient feature of Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia is that they're running out of babies.
  • Sept. 11, 2001, was not "the day everything changed," but the day that revealed how much had already changed.
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • start with demography, because everything does:
  • Greece has a fertility rate hovering just below 1.3 births per couple, which is what demographers call the point of "lowest-low" fertility from which no human society has ever recovered. And Greece's fertility is the healthiest in Mediterranean Europe: Italy has a fertility rate of 1.2, Spain 1.1. Insofar as any citizens of the developed world have "big" families these days, it's the anglo democracies: America's fertility rate is 2.1, New Zealand a little below. Hollywood should be making My Big Fat Uptight Protestant Wedding in which some sad Greek only child marries into a big heartwarming New Zealand family where the spouse actually has a sibling.
  • this isn't a projection: it's happening now
  • Experts talk about root causes. But demography is the most basic root of all.
  • Demographic decline and the unsustainability of the social democratic state are closely related.
  • Age + Welfare = Disaster for you;Youth + Will = Disaster for whoever gets in your way.
  • By "will," I mean the metaphorical spine of a culture.
  • Islam has youth and will, Europe has age and welfare.
  • We are witnessing the end of the late 20th- century progressive welfare democracy.
  • For states in demographic decline with ever more lavish social programs, the question is a simple one: can they get real? Can they grow up before they grow old?
  • Which brings us to the third factor -- the enervated state of the Western world, the sense of civilizational ennui, of nations too mired in cultural relativism to understand what's at stake.
  • But there is a correlation between the structural weaknesses of the social democratic state and the rise of a globalized Islam. The state has gradually annexed all the responsibilities of adulthood -- health care, child care, care of the elderly -- to the point where it's effectively severed its citizens from humanity's primal instincts, not least the survival instinct.
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is an insightful and interesting thesis!
  • They corrode the citizen's sense of self-reliance to a potentially fatal degree
  • may talk about "winning" the Cold War but the French and the Belgians and Germans and Canadians don't. Very few British do. These are all formal NATO allies -- they were, technically, on the winning side against a horrible tyranny few would wish to live under themselves.
    • Gary Patton
       
      WOW!
  • it's hard to credit the citizens of France or Italy as having made any serious contribution to the defeat of Communism. Au contraire, millions of them voted for it, year in, year out. And, with the end of the Soviet existential threat, the enervation of the West only accelerated.
    • Gary Patton
       
      Harsh, like Mr. Steyn often is to grab one's attention! But also true!! gfp
    • Gary Patton
       
      An interesting observation about which I hadn't reflected before. gfp
  • in the old days, the white man settled the Indian territory. Now the followers of the badland's radical imams settle the metropolis.
  • Thomas P. M. Barnett's book Blueprint For Action, Robert D. Kaplan, a very shrewd observer of global affairs, is quoted referring to the lawless fringes of the map as "Indian territory."
  • In the old days, the Injuns had bows and arrows and the cavalry had rifles. In today's Indian territory, countries that can't feed their own people have nuclear weapons.
  • Though Eastern Europe and Latin America and parts of Asia are freer now than they were in the seventies, other swaths of the map have spiralled backwards.
  • The enemies we face in the future will look a lot like al-Qaeda: transnational, globalized, locally franchised, extensively outsourced -- but tied together through a powerful identity that leaps frontiers and continents. They won't be nation-states and they'll have no interest in becoming nation-states, though they might use the husks thereof, as they did in Afghanistan and then Somalia. The jihad may be the first, but other transnational deformities will embrace similar techniques. Sept. 10 institutions like the UN and the EU will be unlikely to provide effective responses.
    • Gary Patton
       
      This is the thesis of what one portion of the U.S. military calls Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) i.e. what unfolded in Iraqafter the Liviatan defeat of Sadam Hussein when the U.S. did not pursue an effective nor efficient strategy of "waging peace" as strategy as argued in Chapter one of Dr Barnett's "Action Plan".
  • Four years into the "war on terror," the Bush administration began promoting a new formulation: "the long war."
    • Gary Patton
       
      Thomas Barnett's thesis in "Blueprint for Action" by the US is that the long war is waged as a "war for peace" fought by a powerful and numerous SysAdmin force of multinationals after the "hot war' is won by the US military 'Liviathan'. Iagrree that makes more sence than a 4GW approach which kees the West always in a "hot war". gfp
  •  
    Article on the dangers of spreading Islam | Macleans.ca 2011-06.
1 - 9 of 9
Showing 20 items per page