Recently the US news held the story of a woman named Ann Holmes Redding.
Ms. Redding was an ordained Episcopal minister for 30 years. But after an experience she had at an "interfaith" conference, she "also" became Muslim.
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What amazes me is that Ms. Redding argues that she sees no conflict between Christianity and Islam.
This rather makes me wonder if she's read the Bible, let alone the Koran.
She says that her "shadaha" (a statement of faith a Muslim convert speaks) does not conflict with Christian teachings.
In English, that statement is "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammad is His prophet."
However, if you speak any Arabic, you *know* that the wording is more accurately translated to carry the meaning in English as:
"There is no god but Allah (excluding the Holy Spirit and the Christ), and Mohammad is His (only) prophet (who can pass on the book, such that all teachings by Mohammad supersede any contradictory teachings anywhere else in the book (including the Torah and Bible)."
Here is a summery of most Muslim beliefs about Jesus:
1) He was born to the Virgin (yes Virgin) Mary as a miracle of God.
2) He did not have a "father" Joseph (Mary had no companion and was not married or betrothed in Muslim belief, making her virginity more believable apparently.)
3) He was a respected prophet of God throughout his life.
4) He was (therefore) never tried, convicted, tortured, or crucified.
5) He was not destined to do anything but be a human prophet.
6) He was "taken up" by God upon His death and (some traditions) is not so much resurrected as awaiting resurrection like the rest of the dead world (living in paradise with the honored prophets and such).
7) His death accomplished nothing except to remove him from this world and as there was no sacrifice (he didn't die on the cross), there is no salvation to be obtained via it.
Almost every time Isa/Eisa (Jesus in Arabic) is mentioned in the Koran, the author goes out of his way to add text in that very verse reminding the reader that Jesus is NOT the Christ/Messiah/any possible form of Deity as part of the Trinity or not.
The usual wording is something like this:
"Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how God makes His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!" (5:75) [emphasis mine].
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Ms. Redding says she does not understand why she cannot be a Christian Minister and a Muslim laywoman at the same time. She says it's clear that the Koran and the Bible are talking about the same "one God."
But that's just the problem. Yes...the Koran is absolutely talking about the "same God" as the Bible...but that doesn't make anything it has to say TRUE. If I say "President Barak Obama is a woman," I am clearly talking about the same American president as the rest of the world. But that doesn't make anything I have said valid, true, or correct.
How many today are snared the way this poor woman is? It took me less than fifteen minutes to Google what Islam has to say about Jesus from Islamic websites in order for me to have a nice clear picture of how very Anti-Christ the religion is. They deny Him utterly. He's just ... a guy.
Yet this woman who theoretically *taught* and *oversaw* an entire congregation for some 30 years says she sees no conflict.
And she did it all by choice. This woman is in the USA. No one *here* is holding a sword to her throat and commanding her to convert to Islam or be imprisoned, tortured, and killed (the average fate of overt Christians in Islamic countries). Believing somehow that love of the Father equates to receiving the Son (it does NOT) she has lost her anointing (if she ever had it, which I rather doubt) and been defrocked by her diocese. She's yoked herself to a "second" religion that will slowly pull her further and further from Jesus until she is lost entirely.
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Her example is extreme but it mirrors a pattern in "Christian" lives all over the world today.
How many other "believing Christians" who haven't heard anything about Jesus that didn't fall from the lips of the "preachers" demanding money from them are yoking themselves to drugs, sex, pagan meditations and chants and new age stuff, endless rituals and traditions with little to no basis in Scripture, and unclean sinful lifestyles?
And they don't see any conflict either.
Do you?
Ms. Redding was an ordained Episcopal minister for 30 years. But after an experience she had at an "interfaith" conference, she "also" became Muslim.
---
What amazes me is that Ms. Redding argues that she sees no conflict between Christianity and Islam.
This rather makes me wonder if she's read the Bible, let alone the Koran.
She says that her "shadaha" (a statement of faith a Muslim convert speaks) does not conflict with Christian teachings.
In English, that statement is "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammad is His prophet."
However, if you speak any Arabic, you *know* that the wording is more accurately translated to carry the meaning in English as:
"There is no god but Allah (excluding the Holy Spirit and the Christ), and Mohammad is His (only) prophet (who can pass on the book, such that all teachings by Mohammad supersede any contradictory teachings anywhere else in the book (including the Torah and Bible)."
Here is a summery of most Muslim beliefs about Jesus:
1) He was born to the Virgin (yes Virgin) Mary as a miracle of God.
2) He did not have a "father" Joseph (Mary had no companion and was not married or betrothed in Muslim belief, making her virginity more believable apparently.)
3) He was a respected prophet of God throughout his life.
4) He was (therefore) never tried, convicted, tortured, or crucified.
5) He was not destined to do anything but be a human prophet.
6) He was "taken up" by God upon His death and (some traditions) is not so much resurrected as awaiting resurrection like the rest of the dead world (living in paradise with the honored prophets and such).
7) His death accomplished nothing except to remove him from this world and as there was no sacrifice (he didn't die on the cross), there is no salvation to be obtained via it.
Almost every time Isa/Eisa (Jesus in Arabic) is mentioned in the Koran, the author goes out of his way to add text in that very verse reminding the reader that Jesus is NOT the Christ/Messiah/any possible form of Deity as part of the Trinity or not.
The usual wording is something like this:
"Christ, the son of Mary, was no more than a messenger; many were the messengers that passed away before him. His mother was a woman of truth. They had both to eat their (daily) food. See how God makes His signs clear to them; yet see in what ways they are deluded away from the truth!" (5:75) [emphasis mine].
---
Ms. Redding says she does not understand why she cannot be a Christian Minister and a Muslim laywoman at the same time. She says it's clear that the Koran and the Bible are talking about the same "one God."
But that's just the problem. Yes...the Koran is absolutely talking about the "same God" as the Bible...but that doesn't make anything it has to say TRUE. If I say "President Barak Obama is a woman," I am clearly talking about the same American president as the rest of the world. But that doesn't make anything I have said valid, true, or correct.
How many today are snared the way this poor woman is? It took me less than fifteen minutes to Google what Islam has to say about Jesus from Islamic websites in order for me to have a nice clear picture of how very Anti-Christ the religion is. They deny Him utterly. He's just ... a guy.
Yet this woman who theoretically *taught* and *oversaw* an entire congregation for some 30 years says she sees no conflict.
And she did it all by choice. This woman is in the USA. No one *here* is holding a sword to her throat and commanding her to convert to Islam or be imprisoned, tortured, and killed (the average fate of overt Christians in Islamic countries). Believing somehow that love of the Father equates to receiving the Son (it does NOT) she has lost her anointing (if she ever had it, which I rather doubt) and been defrocked by her diocese. She's yoked herself to a "second" religion that will slowly pull her further and further from Jesus until she is lost entirely.
------
Her example is extreme but it mirrors a pattern in "Christian" lives all over the world today.
How many other "believing Christians" who haven't heard anything about Jesus that didn't fall from the lips of the "preachers" demanding money from them are yoking themselves to drugs, sex, pagan meditations and chants and new age stuff, endless rituals and traditions with little to no basis in Scripture, and unclean sinful lifestyles?
And they don't see any conflict either.
Do you?
