Thanks to Wilfredo Ruiz, Muslem and Lawyer practicing in Florida and Puerto Rico, I have been priviledge to receive valuable information about the Islam , its history and its relationship with Cristianity.
Wilfredo used to be a practicing Catholic until 2002 when his desire to resolve the mistery of the trinity pushed him to study all forms of religion until he found Islam giving him the best answers to questions he had been trying to solve in his religious life. He has honored this country by having served as an Islamic Chaplain in the USA Navy. He is in charge of the Promotions of Islamic-Christian relations and has been in national TV and radio shows such as Maria Elvira Salazar. He has many articles and book written on the subject of the developing islamophobia that has developed in the USA with the proposed Islamic Center near Ground Zero (New York Twin Tower site).
I am going to expose some of the knowledge that I have acquired by reading the material that Wilfredo has been sending me in the hope of a better understanding between Chrisitans and Islamics. Wilfredo's documents clearly show that the Islam religion has great respect of Jesus Christ as a great prophet and that its main prophet Muhammad wrote many time in the defense of the practice of Christian religion with strict orders to defend and protect the practice of that religion at all times and to show due respect to all Christian churches within Islam territory.
The Islam religion is based on the devine inspiration received by Muhammad in close to 632 AD that drove him to write the sacred book that quides all Islamic way of life and is called Quaram (or Coran as we know it). The basic point of this religion believe is the fact that God (Allah) is ONLY ONE and not a trilogy made up of Father, Son and Holy Spirit like the Christians believe. Believing in the trilogy is considered a polyteistic approach to religion and it is strictly prohibited by the Quaram.
This principal of Unitheistic believe gives birth to a big difference between the 2 religious believe and puts Jesus Christ as a prophet and not as the Son of God, the second person of the trilogy like Christians believe.
In some late analysis of Dead Sea Scroll made by Islamic erudites, it is claimed that Jesus never died crucified as stated by the New Testament. It is Judas , the apostle who sells to the Roman guards the information on where to find Jesus, who is captured instead because God makes a magic change on Judas face and makes him look like Jesus and this is how the guards capture Judas and he goes through all of the episodes of the flagelation , judgement and crucifiction instead of Jesus. The resucitation of Christ is also negated and it is the body of Judas that is stolen from the grave. God protects Jesus and takes him to a safe place where 100 angels protect him in heaven. Jesus , later on , shows himself to the apostle and iluminates them and encourage them to follow on their mission of apostolate. A complete and drastic change of the central figure of Christianity !
In my opinion, Wilfredo has a very hard chore ahead of him if he is going to try to convince Christians to live together with Islams because the friction would be constantly unavoidable. This is like Oil and Water, they do not mix !
Christians are told by Jesus to love thy brothers and it is with no exceptions. We need to show consideration and love to the islamics but that does not mean that Christians are going to be silence when their own religion is in jeopardy, their convictions are in question and their faith in the divinity of Jesus and the fact that he is our jenuine savior with his crucifiction is negated in absolute contradiction by the Islamics. This would be too much to ask. Islam seems to be more of a way of life, a government mixed with religion in an inseparable bond that puts the government in a position of forcing the society to practice the religion according to the Quaram with no exceptions and with harsh punishments to the population that does not abide by these rules. There does not seem to be a choice or free will allowed and this is a drastic violation to the american principal of human rights protection by the constitution.
Because Islam can not be considered only a religion and the separation of state and church is not allowed, it violates a principal of the Republican Democracy since the very beginning of the American nation that government and religion must be kept apart ! Islam can not claim to be included in the rights of the practice of religion of the first ammendment of our constitution because the first ammendment does not contemplate a religious practice that violates the principal of separation of state and church and this is crucial to the discussion of the proposed Islamic Center near ground Zero in New York.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
INTRODUCTION
This blog will introduce the reader to the basic concept of eternal life. It is a very important concept to consider at some time in your life. We all come to that sooner or later and the more you know about it , the more satisfaction you will receive of your actual life.
Present man will be confronted with this consideration in a more frequent wave from the religious point of view, from the political point of view, from the family point of view, from the health care and scientific point of view. It will be an unavoidable theme as we find ways of stretching our lifespan based on the advancement of medical and scientific research.
I will touch upon many themes related to this subject and I will prod the reader to participate in the development of future discussions that could significantly bring new considerations that could change our life as we know it today. Questions related as to the source of the idea of the concept of ETERNAL LIFE. What is its origin ? From a religious point of view, from a political point of view, from a scientific point of view, from a historical point of view, from a cultural point of view, and from any source that our readers could come up with in the future and that may take us by surprise by its fresh point of view and enlightenment to the rest of us.
I do not claim to be an expert and I am counting on our readers to give us some fuel for this blog to grow into a very interesting source of reading. The subject of eternal life has been with mankind from the beginning of civilization, seems to be part of our genetic makeup and invades our thoughts at times in the most critical moments and specially when we grow older. From the religious point of view, it is the axle upon which religions are built and is the promised prize for a life lived according to commandments set by a divine God that accordingly is the source of our existence and yearns to have us come back to share His loving presence for an eternity ! This is grandiose if you believe in this and should have a serious space of consideration and impact on your way of life, religious practice and political behaviour.
From a political point of view it has a tremendous impact because if this is an obtainable goal we should all have a right to be treated properly and must be given the right to earn our way into this type of life ! We should be able to start a life modality that has to be guaranteed by the government for the benefit of each individual.
It is logical to consider the source from where this concept is born and we may have to agree that the best place to start is in the origin of man. Who made man and why ? What purpose does man plays here on earth and on the universe itself. And since we mentioned universe, where does universe generates from? Why was universe created ? We would have to go to the real source of all of creation and we would have to relay on the information that has been handed down the generations by our ancestors. Be it from religious believes, written history in petroliths or parchments or on the walls of pyramids or on papyrus scrolls , all of that available information has been thoroughly examined, carefully studied, philosophically analyzed, scientifically scrutinized and the general acceptable consensus has various conclusions. These conclusions are the basis or the believes of many religions, personal convictions, philosophical teachings, political drives of the different nations, scientific postulates and principals that keep evolving and keep affecting directly or indirectly our personal life. In many cases, these believes have been used to make the rules that govern entire nations like in the case of the 10 commandments or in the case of rules written in the Koran.
The impact of these believes is so powerful that our world will eventually be divided by these believes and we can already see that Islamic religion and Judeo-Christian based religious believes are head to head in confrontation and it is obviously becoming the reason for the next world war. In the close analysis of this confrontation we notice that the believes of the relationship that human being has with its final destiny is the main reason for this discordant difference. It is a subject matter of great importance to be able to understand the basis of this differences and look for a true purpose of our creator. Who is right ? What is the right interpretation of the will of the Universal Creator? I will call this Universal Creator God from now on for the purpose of this discussion. I believe is a universal concept of our modern times that is more or less acceptable and we will use this name based on the believe that there is one and only one source of the Universal creation. I could not make any sense of the concept of having many Gods. Even in the old Greek Mythology we see how that conceptual consideration brings war among the many proposed gods and demi-gods and the universe would be chaotic to say the least !
In the Judeo Christian believe, there is an account of a big fight in the realm of God and a beautiful angel who was the preference of God rebels against him and the origin of this rebellion seems to be the fact that this angel , called Luzbel (beautiful light), believes that he has so much power that he does not need God for his survival ! It is important to understand this original reason for the great divide between God and Luzbel because it tells us how zealous is God of his position above ALL EXISTING BEINGS in the universe. He demands complete love and subjugation to His will and His power and he calls this power LOVE. God's presence is coming from nowhere because He does not have a beginning nor an end, He has always being present and will have no end. He is the creator of all things existing, including this angel that wants to be on its own ! This angel has lots of power and convinces many other angels to join him and create their own place in the universe. God is very upset because this creates a great unbalance in his creation and he cannot allow this to happen. God sends another powerful angel St. Michael to fight with Luzbel and his followers until they are completely separated from the presence of God . Lots of angels are lost on this separation from God either because they die or because they follow this evil angel which we call "Devil" into a God-less place that we call "Hell". This place would be destined to lack all presence of God and therefore will be forever missing the love that is the single most important property of God toward his creation.
It is not clear if God created the universe with all its stars, galaxy, planets, etc.. before or after the devil was thrown out of the place we call "Heaven" but it seems that God allowed the devil to populate this planet earth with his followers and this devil kingdom has a presence in this world according to the Bible and to the Koran. God feels a need to fill this vacuum in his creation and decides to create man. He creates man with properties similar to Him (in the image of God) and places the first couple (Adam and Eve) in a chosen place called "Paradise". Man is created perfect and with a FREE WILL to choose to obey or disobey God ! Some religious sources tell us that there was a complain from the devil that if man was to substitute the vacuum created by him and his followers then it would be the proper thing to do if God was to be a fair God, to give man the free will to love or not love God. Man could be put to the test by the devil himself ! God allowed it in all fairness but God purpose is still to have man substitute and fill that vacuum created by the devil and his followers. That seems to be the reason for the existence of man ! The destiny of man is to fill the will of God and live next to Him and share of His Love and presence for all eternity ! The relationship of man and God is a very tight relationship because the destiny of man is to be next to its creator for ever and ever and form a very beautiful and totally satisfying bond. Man can never feel totally satisfied until he forms that eternal bond with God. Man was made to be next to God forever and this is what all religions tell us.
Adam and Eve failed by listening to the devil, we are told, because they too were convinced that with all the powers they were originally invested with, they could live without God. Man, from the very beginning is yearning for his total satisfaction, and he believes the devil in that he can find that satisfaction outside of the presence of God. Adam and Eve must have known that their happiness and peace was coming from the close communication and direct relationship with God but apparently there was something missing and the devil played on this missing element to convince them that there was something more to be obtained by eating of the prohibited fruit. What is that missing element ? In reality, it has nothing missing and instead it is an extra property that God has given man to complete its perfect creation. It is the same element that allowed the devil to make his choice of going on its own. It is FREE WILL ! The freedom to make a choice and not be a slave to God's power . It is the choice that God has given man to love Him above all else in the universe, including the love that man has for himself. God expects man to deliver his love and trust unconditionally to Him. Man has to be better than the devil in order to deserve God and his love. This is the big challenge ! This should be our greatest goal and concern. This is what makes or brake our share of eternal life .
It is not difficult to see that the devil will use all kinds of tricks to fill our minds with temptations to divert our love to anything that is not our Creator, God ! The devil will try to convince us to join him and his followers by working into our brains . Whether you allow the devil to get into you or not, he will insist and try its best to be present inside of you and he has permission from God to do such thing. In the other hand, God respecting your free will, does not get into you unless you purposely and insistently beg him to live inside of you. You can become a living temple of His presence and you will be communicating with him and consulting with him and that feeling will bring you peace. This is my personal experience and I can attest to it because it works miracles in my life ! Once God lives within you, the devil goes away because he can not live in the same place with God. I do not feel half as much of the temptations that I used to feel before I invited God to live within me. I have to do so insistently and frequently or else God will leave me alone. I think he takes pleasure in hearing me begging Him to live inside of me. If that is His will, that is the way it will have to be constantly. He loves to be begged to ! It is a way of me showing to him that I love him and he wants that test. But I know that I have not reached the point where I truly love him above ALL THINGS. It is very difficult to give up trying to do things on my own and trying to please myself in all kinds of things and then I forget about Him.
He is a very forgiving God and with lots of patience ! I do not deserve to be talking to Him if it were not for the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ of which I have to be eternally grateful. His Holy Spirit fills my heart with peace and heals my body and gives me the strength and will to live on these difficult times.
It is important to me to know the reason why I want to live the promised eternal life and I think a lot about this because I have to be careful that I do not do it for a selfish and self-gratifying reason instead of the love that I must show to God and for God above ALL THINGS. This is hard to do because like it or not, there is always a distraction and self satisfying reason surrounding me and my deeds. It is hard to escape from this and deliver yourself in a humble way into the hands of God.
Present man will be confronted with this consideration in a more frequent wave from the religious point of view, from the political point of view, from the family point of view, from the health care and scientific point of view. It will be an unavoidable theme as we find ways of stretching our lifespan based on the advancement of medical and scientific research.
I will touch upon many themes related to this subject and I will prod the reader to participate in the development of future discussions that could significantly bring new considerations that could change our life as we know it today. Questions related as to the source of the idea of the concept of ETERNAL LIFE. What is its origin ? From a religious point of view, from a political point of view, from a scientific point of view, from a historical point of view, from a cultural point of view, and from any source that our readers could come up with in the future and that may take us by surprise by its fresh point of view and enlightenment to the rest of us.
I do not claim to be an expert and I am counting on our readers to give us some fuel for this blog to grow into a very interesting source of reading. The subject of eternal life has been with mankind from the beginning of civilization, seems to be part of our genetic makeup and invades our thoughts at times in the most critical moments and specially when we grow older. From the religious point of view, it is the axle upon which religions are built and is the promised prize for a life lived according to commandments set by a divine God that accordingly is the source of our existence and yearns to have us come back to share His loving presence for an eternity ! This is grandiose if you believe in this and should have a serious space of consideration and impact on your way of life, religious practice and political behaviour.
From a political point of view it has a tremendous impact because if this is an obtainable goal we should all have a right to be treated properly and must be given the right to earn our way into this type of life ! We should be able to start a life modality that has to be guaranteed by the government for the benefit of each individual.
It is logical to consider the source from where this concept is born and we may have to agree that the best place to start is in the origin of man. Who made man and why ? What purpose does man plays here on earth and on the universe itself. And since we mentioned universe, where does universe generates from? Why was universe created ? We would have to go to the real source of all of creation and we would have to relay on the information that has been handed down the generations by our ancestors. Be it from religious believes, written history in petroliths or parchments or on the walls of pyramids or on papyrus scrolls , all of that available information has been thoroughly examined, carefully studied, philosophically analyzed, scientifically scrutinized and the general acceptable consensus has various conclusions. These conclusions are the basis or the believes of many religions, personal convictions, philosophical teachings, political drives of the different nations, scientific postulates and principals that keep evolving and keep affecting directly or indirectly our personal life. In many cases, these believes have been used to make the rules that govern entire nations like in the case of the 10 commandments or in the case of rules written in the Koran.
The impact of these believes is so powerful that our world will eventually be divided by these believes and we can already see that Islamic religion and Judeo-Christian based religious believes are head to head in confrontation and it is obviously becoming the reason for the next world war. In the close analysis of this confrontation we notice that the believes of the relationship that human being has with its final destiny is the main reason for this discordant difference. It is a subject matter of great importance to be able to understand the basis of this differences and look for a true purpose of our creator. Who is right ? What is the right interpretation of the will of the Universal Creator? I will call this Universal Creator God from now on for the purpose of this discussion. I believe is a universal concept of our modern times that is more or less acceptable and we will use this name based on the believe that there is one and only one source of the Universal creation. I could not make any sense of the concept of having many Gods. Even in the old Greek Mythology we see how that conceptual consideration brings war among the many proposed gods and demi-gods and the universe would be chaotic to say the least !
In the Judeo Christian believe, there is an account of a big fight in the realm of God and a beautiful angel who was the preference of God rebels against him and the origin of this rebellion seems to be the fact that this angel , called Luzbel (beautiful light), believes that he has so much power that he does not need God for his survival ! It is important to understand this original reason for the great divide between God and Luzbel because it tells us how zealous is God of his position above ALL EXISTING BEINGS in the universe. He demands complete love and subjugation to His will and His power and he calls this power LOVE. God's presence is coming from nowhere because He does not have a beginning nor an end, He has always being present and will have no end. He is the creator of all things existing, including this angel that wants to be on its own ! This angel has lots of power and convinces many other angels to join him and create their own place in the universe. God is very upset because this creates a great unbalance in his creation and he cannot allow this to happen. God sends another powerful angel St. Michael to fight with Luzbel and his followers until they are completely separated from the presence of God . Lots of angels are lost on this separation from God either because they die or because they follow this evil angel which we call "Devil" into a God-less place that we call "Hell". This place would be destined to lack all presence of God and therefore will be forever missing the love that is the single most important property of God toward his creation.
It is not clear if God created the universe with all its stars, galaxy, planets, etc.. before or after the devil was thrown out of the place we call "Heaven" but it seems that God allowed the devil to populate this planet earth with his followers and this devil kingdom has a presence in this world according to the Bible and to the Koran. God feels a need to fill this vacuum in his creation and decides to create man. He creates man with properties similar to Him (in the image of God) and places the first couple (Adam and Eve) in a chosen place called "Paradise". Man is created perfect and with a FREE WILL to choose to obey or disobey God ! Some religious sources tell us that there was a complain from the devil that if man was to substitute the vacuum created by him and his followers then it would be the proper thing to do if God was to be a fair God, to give man the free will to love or not love God. Man could be put to the test by the devil himself ! God allowed it in all fairness but God purpose is still to have man substitute and fill that vacuum created by the devil and his followers. That seems to be the reason for the existence of man ! The destiny of man is to fill the will of God and live next to Him and share of His Love and presence for all eternity ! The relationship of man and God is a very tight relationship because the destiny of man is to be next to its creator for ever and ever and form a very beautiful and totally satisfying bond. Man can never feel totally satisfied until he forms that eternal bond with God. Man was made to be next to God forever and this is what all religions tell us.
Adam and Eve failed by listening to the devil, we are told, because they too were convinced that with all the powers they were originally invested with, they could live without God. Man, from the very beginning is yearning for his total satisfaction, and he believes the devil in that he can find that satisfaction outside of the presence of God. Adam and Eve must have known that their happiness and peace was coming from the close communication and direct relationship with God but apparently there was something missing and the devil played on this missing element to convince them that there was something more to be obtained by eating of the prohibited fruit. What is that missing element ? In reality, it has nothing missing and instead it is an extra property that God has given man to complete its perfect creation. It is the same element that allowed the devil to make his choice of going on its own. It is FREE WILL ! The freedom to make a choice and not be a slave to God's power . It is the choice that God has given man to love Him above all else in the universe, including the love that man has for himself. God expects man to deliver his love and trust unconditionally to Him. Man has to be better than the devil in order to deserve God and his love. This is the big challenge ! This should be our greatest goal and concern. This is what makes or brake our share of eternal life .
It is not difficult to see that the devil will use all kinds of tricks to fill our minds with temptations to divert our love to anything that is not our Creator, God ! The devil will try to convince us to join him and his followers by working into our brains . Whether you allow the devil to get into you or not, he will insist and try its best to be present inside of you and he has permission from God to do such thing. In the other hand, God respecting your free will, does not get into you unless you purposely and insistently beg him to live inside of you. You can become a living temple of His presence and you will be communicating with him and consulting with him and that feeling will bring you peace. This is my personal experience and I can attest to it because it works miracles in my life ! Once God lives within you, the devil goes away because he can not live in the same place with God. I do not feel half as much of the temptations that I used to feel before I invited God to live within me. I have to do so insistently and frequently or else God will leave me alone. I think he takes pleasure in hearing me begging Him to live inside of me. If that is His will, that is the way it will have to be constantly. He loves to be begged to ! It is a way of me showing to him that I love him and he wants that test. But I know that I have not reached the point where I truly love him above ALL THINGS. It is very difficult to give up trying to do things on my own and trying to please myself in all kinds of things and then I forget about Him.
He is a very forgiving God and with lots of patience ! I do not deserve to be talking to Him if it were not for the sacrifice of his son Jesus Christ of which I have to be eternally grateful. His Holy Spirit fills my heart with peace and heals my body and gives me the strength and will to live on these difficult times.
It is important to me to know the reason why I want to live the promised eternal life and I think a lot about this because I have to be careful that I do not do it for a selfish and self-gratifying reason instead of the love that I must show to God and for God above ALL THINGS. This is hard to do because like it or not, there is always a distraction and self satisfying reason surrounding me and my deeds. It is hard to escape from this and deliver yourself in a humble way into the hands of God.
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