The other day my son was telling me something quite interesting. As he was talking I began to realize that something about it didn’t quite stack up. So I asked where he had heard about that. It was on “talk back radio”, he told me. And who was the person who had shared that gem? Oh, just someone who had called in. So did he believe it was true? Well, yes, why not? Perhaps it is because I’ve been around just a bit longer than him, but I asked instead “well, why?” Why believe something without checking out what is behind it, where is the source, does it comply with the facts, and a few important little things like that?

I have been noticing the same thing on forums and message boards as my son’s experience on talk back radio. People, often keeping anonymous, will say things with a sense of authority and yet it is only their opinion which is just as likely to be quite ill-informed and misguided. I am very aware of this when I write these entries to Judah’s Journal. Who am I to state the things that I do? What authority do I have to claim this or that to be the truth, or not the truth? It is characteristic of the blogosphere that all kinds of stuff gets published, much of it quite dubious in both worth and truth.

These are very good questions, and ones that every reader should be asking… and ask regarding whatever they read or hear.

I hope that readers of Judah’s Journal will notice that I make good use of references and note my sources diligently. Often I link to papers and websites where further information is found and credibility can be checked out. My own logic can be examined here-and-now in the case I present, and I do not point to myself as the expert, but in the direction of credible scholarship and authority. I find it annoying that unqualified or anonymous people will give an unsubstantiated opinion that they expect to have accepted as a sufficient case against the well researched and logically presented work of those with recognized expertise in the subject, even more so when there is no evidence of how they have dealt with the facts to come to their own conclusions, or appeal to such generalizations as “everyone knows…” and other common fallacies of thought that are equally meaningless.

And after that rather long sentence, I will hop off my soapbox for now. But think about it, folks. Do you care about the truth, and if so, how do you determine what is from what’s not?

The Crescent and the Cross… the unitarian Islamic deity (Allah) and our trinitarian Christian deity (Yahweh). In my previous entry I mentioned that there are profound theological differences, and differences historically and in outworking, between the Islamic Allah and the God whom Christians worship. Yet Christianity and Islam are both called Abrahamic faiths. So what is it that they have in common if there is supposedly common ground that they share?

As the late Dr Francis Schaeffer pointed out (and other notable theologians too, of course) our knowledge of God is incomplete, but what we do know of Him can be true. We know Him truly, but not exhaustibly. We can know Him only inasmuch as He has chosen to reveal Himself to us. Christians believe His fullest revelation is in His Son, our lord Jesus Christ. However, all mankind has a certain knowledge of Him - internal knowledge (an instinctive awareness of divinity that we are born with, and a conscience) and external knowledge (evidence from His creation, and from history) - and this knowledge is of the only one God, the One who IS. This applies to all mankind, which includes Muslims.

So it would appear that Muslims, along with all others who acknowledge a Creator God and make claims to worship this God, do inasmuch as they have knowledge of Him. I have listened to a number of Muslims speak of God in certain ways that I know to be true of His character. We appear to be referring to the same God as we each know Him, and where there is agreement, there is a degree of commonality.

However, the Muslim knowledge of God is seriously altered from the Christian knowledge of Him by the information that Muhammad provided for them. Their knowledge of God took a turning and headed off down another path. Their knowledge, as provided by much of Muhammad’s elaborations in the Qu’ran, has taken them away from the Christian knowledge of God. In this departure they increasingly lose sight of the Christian triune God, and the one whom they worship (whom they call Allah) takes on more and more the appearance and essence of what is called in Biblical language, an idol.

But isn’t it just that we have different perceptions of the same Supreme Being? Well, here is an analogy for you to consider. Take the situation in which you and I believe that we might know someone in common. I describe this person according to my knowledge and experience of him, and you look somewhat surprised. Yes, many of those characteristic do fit, you say, but didn’t I know that he has a son as well? Nope, I didn’t know that. In fact I am quite sure that he doesn’t because he never married nor had any such relationship with anyone. Oh, and did I know that he also has written a book? Yes, I knew he had written a book and that it was about the warring tribes of the sixth century. You look at me strangely. No it wasn’t anything to do with warring tribes of the sixth century, but to do with his son and many other things as well. Then we begin to realize there are a great many other significant things that don’t quite stack up. You tell me that this person is very keen to befriend and help others, and I think that is most odd because I found him to be totally impersonal and very severe. We are both absolutely certain of our facts and so may start to wonder if we are actually talking about the same person… perhaps we had made a mistake about that, and it is two different people we are talking about. In fact, given two laws of logic, the Law of Non Contradiction and the Law of the Excluded Middle, the most logical and rational conclusion we can come to is that we are speaking of two entirely different persons.

There are so many major differences between the Islamic Allah and the Christian knowledge and experience of God, Yahweh.
~ Allah says he has no son, even in the figurative sense; Yahweh claims that He does.
~ Allah says that Jesus didn’t die, yet Jesus died;
~ Allah says that one of Noah’s sons died in the flood; Yahweh says that Noah’s three sons were saved in the flood;
~ Allah says that Jesus made clay birds that could fly when He was a child; this is not in the New Testament, but in later myth books;
~ Allah says that Jesus spoke as an infant; this is not in the New Testament, but in later myth books;
~ Allah does not seem to know what mainstream Christianity believed as far as the Trinity is concerned. The closest that the Qur’an comes to a Trinity is God, Jesus and Mary. Nowhere can you find the true concept of the Trinity in the Qur’an - Father, Son (Word) and Holy Spirit.
~ The Qur’an has no concept of the incarnation of the Word of God in Jesus’ human body; the Qur’an says in essence that Jesus could not have been God because He ate and slept. Well, Christians have always believed that Jesus was 100% human and needed sleep and food. Why didn’t Allah understand what Christians believed? Yahweh would have understood.
~ How do we reconcile the fact that Allah allowed Muhammad to have many, many wives when in the Old Testament, Yahweh said not to multiply wives?
~ How do we reconcile the fact that Allah allows divorce after Yahweh said He hates divorce, taking into consideration what Jesus said about divorce in the New Testament?

I could go on and on with this one.

However, many Muslims believe that they are worshipping God, that being the Only God, the Supreme Being, the Creator of all, whose name is Allah - and that it is the Christians who have the distorted view of Him. But would this be good enough for God? We could all probably make up a religion and make it similar to the teachings of the Bible and say that the revelations of this new religion came from God. Would that make it so? How similar to the Bible would I have to be in order to get some believers? How different in the teachings from the Bible would it take for me to be accused of being a fraud? It is very important to note that in the days of Muhammad the Jews accused him of being a fraud - and they knew their Scriptures.

It is noteworthy that Mohammed, when preaching to the Meccans, was not seen as introducing a new god to them, but merely proclaiming that one of their many gods, the one who was already called Allah, was the greatest and only god. The Meccans did not accuse Mohammed of preaching a different god from the one that they knew and so embraced “Allah” without difficulty. Muhammad was very cleverly backing for a win and a place. While reigning in the beliefs of his own pagan polytheistic Arab brothers who already worshipped the god called Allah (who incidentally had three daughters in pre-Islamic times), he was linking the name of Allah (Arabic for “God”, as we know) to the religious histories of Judaism and Christianity as a way to claim them also for Islam and seek the conversion of Jew and Christian as well. Thus he gave his Arab brothers their history by identifying them as the descendents of Ishmael whose father was Abraham, generating Islam as a religion based on corrupted, often Gnostic, versions of Scripture while claiming to have issued from Abraham. Interestingly, the Qur’an does not actually say that Ishmael was offered for sacrifice instead of Isaac, but this is taught to Muslims all the same. The Jews and Christians at the time saw through this deception and would have none of it, spurning Islam as false doctrine. Thus they mocked him, which angered him greatly. This appropriation is a cunning strategy of Islamic apologetics and one to which the naive and unsuspecting will fall victim in their thinking. For this reason there is a very real need not to allow any confusion of the Islamic unitarian Allah with the Christian trinitarian God.

My ultimate concern is that in agreeing that Muslims and Christians worship the same God (in the fullness of their respective and differing knowledge of God) and making allowances for Allah being just the Islamic view of the same God, we then subsequently deny our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. Islam denies the deity of Jesus. There is no getting away from that single fact. On this point Allah and Yahweh irrevocably part company in terms of everything we know and subsequently experience of them. You may worship one or the other, but not both together as these two understandings of God are an eternity apart.

We all are blessed by His common grace, no matter what we believe, and show forth something of His image in which we are made. Muslims will also show good fruit, the outworking of His common grace which is there in all of us. They know Him in some measure, but not in the fullness of the revelation and relationship that we have of Him in Christ and through the grace of the Holy Spirit. I can see Muslims worshipping something of God, but in their deception (for Muhammad certainly deceived them with the teachings of the Qur’an) they have taken a false path, one that leads to a parody of God, that which is their Islamic Allah. I have talked with some very spiritual Muslimahs, ones who worship Allah as portrayed in the early Mecca surahs, and their knowledge is more like our God, Yahweh. But without Christ they have no experience of an intimate relationship, and their knowledge and worship is stifled as a result. Their worship is not of the One who can give them that relationship, who has revealed Himself in that fullness. They strenuously deny that as it would be utterly blasphemous and apostate to do otherwise. They cannot worship Christ, and yet Jesus said that He and the Father are one (John 10.30) The Apostle John had a very important warning for the followers of Christ. We must not ignore this Scripture.

Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
(2 John 1: 9-11)

Check out this paper for more theology: Does Islam really serve the same God as Christians?

The Crescent and the Cross… the unitarian Islamic deity (Allah) and our trinitarian Christian deity (Yahweh). Some will have you believe that these deities are one-and-the-same, while others see the danger in referring to them both as though they are one. Are Muslims and Christians talking about the same Being, or do they each have someone different in mind?

I have already chatted about this subject here and here, but have tripped over more discussion on the subject elsewhere and this seems a good as time as any to highlight a concern that is coming to light.

Back in October 2007 a letter was written, signed by 138 representative Muslim leaders, calling on two “Abrahamic faiths” (Islam and Christianity) to love God and neighbours together. A similarly large number of Christian theologians, ministry leaders, and prominent pastors signed the response letter issued by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.

The Christian signatories said that they “share the sentiments” of the Muslim leaders who pointed out that Muslims and Christians make up over half of the world’s population and therefore true peace cannot occur as long as conflict persists between the two religious communities. And the Christian signatories asked:
1. that Muslims forgive Christians for their past sins – such as the Crusades and excesses of the “war on terrors” – as taught by Jesus Christ who said to “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).
2. that an interfaith dialogue takes place that moves beyond “polite” ecumenical talks between selected leaders, and wrote that leaders of both faiths should hold dialogues to build relations that will “reshape” the two communities to “genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another.”

However, some very important fundamental issues are being ignored. They were picked up by Dr R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one Christian theologian who did not sign the response letter. Source. He was disturbed by the Christians’ request for forgiveness of sins committed against Muslims, including the Crusades and excesses in the war on terror.

“I am sure that all kinds of sin went on with the Crusades on both sides,” he said. “But I am not going to apologize for the Crusades because I am very thankful that the Muslim effort to reach a conquest of Europe was unsuccessful. Otherwise, we would be speaking Arabic on this program right now and we would be talking about the Muslim continent of Europe and potentially even of North America.”

The war on terror, he also noted, is the responsibility of the United States so he was “not sure” why Christians are apologizing for that as a sin against Muslims.
“I don’t think that is the right way to put it,” Mohler said. “I don’t think we associate the United States of America with the Christian church. For whom are we apologizing and for what are we apologizing?”

Dr Mohler explained that Muslims also believe in Jesus but only as a prophet, not as the son of God. Christians must distinguish what kind of God they believe in when responding to the Muslim letter, which emphasized love for a common God.

“We don’t believe that Jesus Christ is our hero. We don’t believe that Jesus Christ is merely our prophet. He is Prophet and Priest and King. He is the incarnate Son of God. He is the second person of the Trinity. He is the Lord over all. Any minimization of that is a huge problem.”

“This is the God who very clearly identifies Himself and says, ‘I am this and I am not anything else.’ If you disagree about the identity of Jesus Christ, then you disagree about the identity of God. The most important issues about the dialogue with Muslims is that Christians are very clear about the Gospel. It is not enough just to say, ‘we renounce violence.’ It is important, but it is not enough.”

“Now, I want to be very clear: we should have nothing against a conversation. But I don’t think this is the way to get into the conversation,” Mohler clarified. “My concern is that when Christians enter the conversation with Muslims we must enter the conversation as Christians,” he said. “I think when you address a letter to Muslims and refer to God in their terminology then there is a big problem…when Christians enter a conversation, we have to show up as Christians.”

I am in absolute agreement with Dr Mohler. This is certainly not being picky. The Muslim perception of God is that which is described in their Qur’an. The Islamic Allah does not love Christians. He loves only Muslims, and he instructs them to slaughter those who will not submit to him and become Muslims (Surah 9). There is no love there for any neighbour who is not Muslim. When Islamic clerics speak of God, it becomes very confusing when Christians suppose they are speaking of God of Judeo-Christian scriptures, Yahweh. We know that the word Allah is the Arabic word for God, meaning the Supreme being and Creator of all. When Arabic Christians speak of Yahweh, they use their word Allah. But when Muslims speak of Allah, they are referring to the one who is portrayed in the Qur’an… and he is nothing like Yahweh, the God whom Christians worship.

At the heart of the Muslim letter was the “common ground” that believers of both faiths share – love for God and love for neighbours. My concern are the unanswered questions… What common ground? How much common ground do we actually have? When speaking of God, who exactly do we actually mean - the unitarian Islamic Allah, or the trinitarian Christian Yahweh? They are most definitely not the same, there being profound differences theologically, historically, and in their outworking. Until this issue is made crystal clear, then both parties are talking past each other and no real dialogue, that to which each side is truly accountable, can ever properly take place.

We have not forgotten you, those of you to whom Colonel Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) were referring when he said these very moving words in 1934…

Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives: You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehemets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours: you, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.

We will not forget you, not any of you, and what you did for the rest of us.

~ requiescat in pace ~

Judah’s Journal is three years old today! I had not given a thought three years ago to that I would still be writing stuff for an online diary in three year’s time, but neither did it occur to me that I might have stopped by then too. There were no great plans or ambitions. It was just a fun thing to do. Time passes, and here we are… still going strong.

A year ago there had been 157 entries, 382 comments, and visits from over 70 different countries representing over 40 different languages. A new statistics program was installed but has not been working properly. However, I can claim there to be an additional 44 entries and 100 comments. My output has slowed a little, and it does come in waves, like little energy surges. Determined by appearances alone, Wikipedia calls these episodes of “blogstipation”, assuming a state of inability to think of any topic to blog about, and leading to irregular, strained blog entries. Such a condition may be followed by a sudden unblockage caused by a “blenema”, or interesting event, and occasionally a rush of subsequent entries known as “blogorrhea”.

But to say that of Judah’s Journal is perhaps being a little hypochondriacal and rather extravagent. I have never really been stuck for things to write about, but more often than not, overwhelmed by the amount of what there is to be said instead. As a primarily Christian blog, there is much to report in this post-Christian era which is fast becoming what was predicted by the late Dr Francis Schaeffer, an anti-Christian era. Thus there is much to say, and none of it likely to be popular at that. But popularity is not that important to me. What is far more important is Truth, and understanding that it is indeed objectively knowable inspite of what fashionable postmodern thought would have us believe. The truth is that which corresponds to reality, and although we may all have a perspective on reality, perspectives do not change the facts and substance of reality itself. In the end it is how we respond to reality that will determine what becomes of us, now and way beyond now. Most of us live in states of varying degrees of denial. Reality is not changed by any degree of denial. It takes courage to face the truth, and this Age is largely a cowardly one. I don’t expect to be popular for saying such a thing, but neither do I consider myself answerable to anyone other than He who claimed to be the Truth Himself.

Nope, no hypochondiasis here. No blogstipation with rebounding blogorrhea. Just whatever bubbles up and froths forth, digital tappings upon my keyboard, on whichever of those days that distractions don’t detain me. So launching into a fourth year of cruising cyberspace, off goes I in Judah’s Journal.

“…to create an awareness on a global level of this world-class orchestra” is what he said. The words of our new, and oh so young, Finnish music director (Pietari Inkinen) who has been described as exciting, so talented, and particularly brilliant. With such glorious aclaim, I wonder what precautions are required to keep a sense of balance so necessary for one who must stand on a podium with both his back and feet so close to a sheer drop off the edge of the stage. But I do have to admit that he is certainly good - indeed quite exceptionally good. Our national orchestra has never played better, and world-class is indeed what it is.

Being way too early the other night we diverted two blocks to our favourite secondhand bookstore for a pre-concert browse. One has to be careful not to lose track of the time in there, and that was certainly true when I unearthed a pristine copy (printed in China - what a surprise!) of the complete short stories of one Katherine Mansfield. Wellington’s child, famous daughter of our beautiful harbour capital, she spent a full first five years on this soil before being swept back to Mother England and further abroad, thereafter disparaging of her native beginnings other than what of the culture could contribute to her literary works. With the pristine printed-in-China copy underarm anyway, we set off in time to be wowed by the wizardry of the wand, that curious little stick that draws out of the strings, brass and woodwind, all the magic there is to be heard in the music.

From our usual place three rows from the front, a little below eye-level with the ankles of the first violins, we can watch with awe the deft fingerplay, closeup facial expressions and other such fascinating detail. Humans are a funny lot. Who would have thought to compose music where first and second violins play in unison but one semitone distant from each other? It did little for me, and neither for most according to the scant enthusiasm in the applause to follow. It would have been interesting to hear an honest opinion from various players as to what they really thought of Rautavaara’s “A Tapestry of Life” and whether they would even be bothered with doing it again. The British cellist, Natalie Clein, is certainly clever on her strings and the sounds, set in order by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, were exquisitely wonderful. But the facial expressions were agonizing. So much pained emotion! One hardly knew where to look, as though watching was a kind of voyeurism and such intimacy with the music should surely be kept just a little more private than given a full frontal display. Then our young conductor himself, so energetic and enthusiastic that my heart was left in my mouth, praying he would not poke himself in the eye - or up the nose - with his own baton. But it was as he said “…to create an awareness on a global level of this world-class orchestra” and surely, with each new performance, this certainly deserves to be done. On this occasion Mahler’s “Titan” was spectacular!

How does one keep humble when so much praise is heaped on one’s head? I can suggest one certain technique that sure works for me, and that is to brave the questions of the morning newspaper’s Five Minute Quiz. It would seem that unless one has a headful of Hollywood nonsense, the who’s-sleeping-with-who-this-time-around logs, then one is fated to swallow a dose of the humbles. An average score of three out of ten is hardly star quality, and I must admit to being a failure in all this Real Life. So much is going on out there, and I know so little. Fortunately my cat comes to the rescue. Her insistence that breakfast is the most important meal of the day eventually overrides my resolve to stay bedridden until my brain catches up with these important world events. Thank goodness for small mercies - a quiz score that indicates such a hopeless case, and the incessant mewing of a hungry cat. I can recommend both for a good sense of proportion. However, those who read what else I write here will know that is far from my first recommendation. As the broadcasters say… we can expect normal transmission to be resumed shortly.

This is a story that inspired me as a teenager, and challenged me to make something worthwhile of that which was not ideal. As a quilter, I have since heard the saying “when life throws you scraps, make a quilt from them”, and there is a similar one that goes “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” But the story of the oyster and the pearl especially captured my imagination.

The beautifully lustrous pearl is the response of the little oyster to an irritation, that caused by a foreign object such as a fragment of shell, or an unwelcome parasite, being accidentally trapped inside the oyster’s shell. Most of the time the oyster cannot expel the foreign particle, so to reduce the pain caused by the foreign body it surrounds it with nacre, a silvery calcium carbonate substance that the oyster normally discharges to line its shell. After several years, layers of nacre form around the irritant, making the irritant less painful. This way the oyster creates a rainbow-like iridescent pearl.

There is a wealth of symbolism that has become attached to the oyster’s little pearl. I remember being told that pearls represent tears, or pain and suffering. One hears of the “gates of heaven” being called the “pearly gates”, probably from the description in the Bible where it is written that “The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made from a single pearl.” (Revelations 21:21). Jesus is quoted as saying “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13:45,46). The parable is typically taken to mean that heavenly riches are far greater than the full total of all worldly riches. And some have come to regard Jesus as this pearl of great price, being our Saviour, saying as He does of Himself “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9).

I have always loved pearls. They show me how something that represents tears, that was caused by pain and suffering, can be the eventual transformation of that hurt into something beautiful and truly precious. I am not surprised then, that the gates of heaven are said to be made from a single pearl. And so I am also inspired to do what is necessary to make goodness and righteousness come from those things that have caused me to hurt as well.

In medieval theology, it was held that love literally set the universe in motion. Love was seen as the principal force behind human life. This idea is reflected in the title of the popular song “Love Makes the World Go ‘Round” (Perry Como, 1958). When it comes to the giving of gifts, “passing it forward” is a practice based on this same idea. Although I enjoy receiving a gift as much as anyone, rather than have someone give me something in return for what I have given them, my preference by far is that they “pass it forward” by being generous to another instead. I don’t have everything, and not all I might want, but I do have most that I need. In fact, I really have far more than I need.

Digging into my box of UFOs and WIPs is an attempt to deal with my “stuff”. I love making quilts, but I question my need to keep all I make. I don’t need them all. OK, I see all you folks jumping up and down, hands in the air, calling out “Me! Me! Send them to me!” I’m laughing at you. Do you really need them too? Oh sure! Of course you do! Hahaha! There are also some who don’t ask, and they really do need.

Every so often I find myself beginning to feel oppressed by the accumulation of material things. Then I know it is time to go through my possessions and seriously question whether it is good for me to keep it or not, or if it might be better to give it away, pass it forward, especially to where a better home could be found for it, where there is much more of a need - a genuine need.

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

(1 Timothy 6:7-10; 17-19)

Who wants to pierce themselves with many griefs?

How much better it is to free oneself of the burden of too much stuff, be generous towards others, and lay up treasure of a very different kind. I’m off to clear out another closet. How about you?

The Christian worldview prescribes a horizon that is further afield than that of a secular or naturalist one. If I were to stand on the beach and look out to sea, on a clear day I may be able to catch sight of the fishing boats in the distance out there. But if I stand on the cliffs behind me, I can see not only the fishing boats but more of the ocean beyond them as well. Someone who subscribes to a secular view may deny the existence of what goes beyond their own perceived horizon, but the Christian knows that the end of this temporal life is not the true horizon at all. The naturalist worldview is confined to what is known by nature, denying the supernatural. The Christian worldview accepts that we have a spiritual life that continues far into eternity beyond. Read more on this here and here too.

I have often referred to myself as a passionate quilter. When suggested that I could make this hobby and interest into a business, I found myself thinking that I am already in business - but not in the way that one normally thinks. I make my quilts for leisure, pleasure, treasure and good measure. It is a relaxing pastime and hobby, one that gives expression to creativity and artistry, and certainly provides pleasure. The treasure is the finished quilt. But there is more to it than that.

One day I costed one of my quilts and found that the materials alone came to considerably more than what one might pay for a pure wool blanket. Add in the number of hours to make it, at even the minimum wage, then unless one especially wanted a quilt with the artistry involved, it would not be a cost effective way of procuring warmth. The choice could be one quilt or at least five wool blankets, probably more. There is a price below which a sale demeans the item, the workmanship that went into it, and the labour of the one who laboured. I decided not to offer my quilts for sale.

There is a wellknown saying that goes “It is more blessed to give than receive.” Value cannot always be measured in monetary terms alone. A gift that has special meaning is often treasured beyond the monetary value of the item as appraised by some objective criterion. There is treasure in the gift, plus more accrued to it by the one receiving the gift, and even more again by the blessing received by the giver. The accumulation is treasure indeed.

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:19-21)

The Christian worldview accepts that every action and every outcome must sooner or later be measured against an ultimate norm for its ultimate value. This kind of treasure is not stored in this temporal world but is weighed for good measure in the eternal one that continues beyond. Good deeds in themselves will not secure anyone’s salvation, and so it needs to be said that salvation is itself a gift ~ from God through our faith in Christ. Check it out. But wherever you invest your treasure, there indeed will your heart be too.

An Opportunity to Create Treasure

A friend posted the following to her blog today, and I would also like to pass the message on:

As you know, I always encourage readers of this blog to share their talents and skills with others, and today’s post is about sewing for others, and in this case, almost literally sewing a sunset by volunteering to sew for people who are experiencing those final sunset days of life. A couple of days ago, I received a request from someone who manages volunteers for a hospice in Mississippi. She was looking for volunteers to sew for her hospice patients and was asking me for resources. I will be sewing for this hospice, Odyssey Healthcare (www.odsyhealth.com) as well as continuing to sew for Mission of Hope (www.missionofhope.org). I would like to encourage you to sew simple projects for this hospice, or perhaps one like it in your area. Although my dad was never put on hospice care before he died, I had the opportunity to watch the hospice staff as they visited other patients in the nursing home, and I was always impressed with their unique ability to bring smiles to people who were in situations where all they wanted to do was cry. I think that people who are directly involved in hospice work must be very special people indeed.

Anyone who sews, knits, crochets, or quilts can volunteer to donate simple projects. Blankets, pillows, pillowcases, adult bibs, crafts, and quilts are all acceptable. Apparently, there are no restrictions and any donations will be used, with nothing going to waste.

If you should decide to volunteer to sew, knit, quilt, or crochet for this worthy cause, here is the contact information

TClark@odsyhealth.com or 228-297-5976 (NB. This is a USA phone number)

(I would suggest that initial contact be made via e-mail or phone because there are a few guidelines that must be followed.)

The mailing address is : Tiffany Clark, Manager of Volunteer Services, Odyssey Healthcare, 9414 Three Rivers Road, Suite 3, Gulfport, MS 39503

I hope that some of the readers of this blog will consider sharing sewing, quilting, crocheting, or knitting skills, even if it’s just one time. You might play a small part in making someone’s final sunset just a little bit easier, and after they have passed through that final sunset, the blanket or pillow that you made might bring some comfort to the family left behind. At first, they might see through tears, but eventually, they will be able to look at a project that someone sewed or quilted, and remember happier times with their loved ones. The tears may still come, but with each passing day, it may become just a little bit easier to smile through those tears. Wouldn’t it be a great feeling to know that perhaps by creating just one simple project, you might play a part in bringing a small measure of comfort to someone?

Source: Sewing Sunsets of Life

If you listen to quilters chatting among themselves you will often hear them talking about their UFOs and sometimes also calling them WIPs. No, these are not those weird sightings in the sky that have the scoffers irritating the convinced observers, and vice versa. These are those projects that were started and then stopped, put away, sometimes forgotten, but often causing little twinges of conscience when their numbers begin to mount up - as they invariably tend to do. They are the Un Finished Objects, the Works In Progress.

Like most quilters, I also have some UFOs and WIPs. Just lately I have got up the courage to face them again, and to work through each one to completion. I managed three last month, all full-size bed quilts. Today I hauled out another one - the one in the photo here - and discovered why it was I had put it down in the first place. The top and bottom borders were cut just a little too short, one whole inch short either end. It is an appliqué quilt, which means those flowerpots of flowers, those vines and leaves, are all cut from different fabrics and sewn to the fabric underneath. The vines are sewn with the very finest of silk thread such that the tiny stitches can barely be seen, and the leaves, flowers and the pot are sewn more boldly with a buttonhole stitch and thick variegated coloured cottons to make them more obvious. A lot of work has gone into it already, and I can remember now how dismayed I was to find I had cut those end borders too short. But these things happen occasionally, and there is usually a way to recover if one doesn’t give up. I had put it away because “out of sight, out of mind” and I didn’t want to be reminded of my heartbreaking mistake. How much easier it is to walk away from things, rather than to face them and work through them. Making quilts can be pretty much like “real life” in that way.

Seeing it again today, a remedy jumped out at me! It will involve going back and unpicking just a few inches of the vine on either end, shortening the piece further, and stitching a new square of background fabric into each corner such that it will look as though it was really meant to be that way all along. Now why hadn’t I seen that “fix” in the first place? I was too disappointed, I guess. But now it seems all so obvious.

There is a little more appliqué work to do to the top border, then the “fix”, then something more to each corner - the vine carried around to join full circle, more leaves and flowers. I know how I will finish it off - with a wool batting, straight machine “in the ditch” quilting, hand quilting around the appliqué parts, and tied by tiny contrasting coloured buttons sewn through all layers in the centre of each flower. It promises to look really good when all done. And now I am off with new energy and purpose. This WIP is soon to be a UFO no longer.

A Quilt Gallery has recently been added to Judah’s Site on this page here. As my number of UFOs reduce, you may expect this gallery to grow. There is not a great pile of them, but I am not saying anything about those other secret things every quilter knows about… the fabric stash. That has to be for another day.

Meanwhile, the quilter’s motto: If life gives you scraps, make a quilt from them.

The catchy pithy title of this post is the same as that of a book I am currently reading by Dr Douglas Groothuis, associate professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary. That I am doing so coincides rather remarkably with several recent events that have all served to remind me that we are living in an Age where “truth” is being allowed to have quite different meanings to different people.

It was brought home to me in my own family when my son told me that one is only guilty of having done something if one is found out. He went ahead and tried the same argument on a Judge and discovered His Honour was not particularly impressed, overruling the particular objection being thus defended. But where had he learnt such a thing? It was not from me, someone who sees truth as that which corresponds to objective reality, not a matter of subjective persuasion or angle of perception. Feelings of guilt may be present or not, but if one did something… then one did something, discovered or not. But my son has grown up in a postmodern culture pervaded by moral relativity, and thus his point of view is probably not too suprising. It is certainly the view espoused by an important American philosopher, Dr Richard Rorty, who takes the position of the pragmatist, asserting that truth is what one’s peers lets one get away with. Now I can get myself in a right tangle with the truth, asking the question of whether or not the Judge, peering over his spectacles, was a peer… and if that should matter at all.

Postmodernism raises challenges to those who argue that truth is absolute, objective and universal. Truth decay, Dr Groothuis explains, is a cultural condition in which such a view of truth is considered implausible, held in open contempt or not seriously considered. However, he does go on to reassure us that the truth itself does not decay, but just our human grasp of it has slipped.

One intellectual mentor of Dr Groothuis is the late Dr Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) who pointed out that we need to distinguish the content of truth (what statements are true) from the concept of truth (what truth is) because our view of the latter shapes everything about us - or about our beliefs. And the problem with postmodernism, argues Dr Groothuis (and I wholeheartedly agree with him!) is that it accepts a “poisonous” and untrue view of the truth. It is one thing to believe something is true when it isn’t, but quite another to believe that whether or not it is depends entirely on personal choice. For example… whether or not I believe that gravity is true (that it exists and will have a predictable effect on me) is hardly a matter of choice such that I can jump off a cliff and choose whether or not to crash in a broken heap at the bottom.

But objective truth has little to do with spiritual reality if you listen to Ophra. Check out what she is saying here and prepare to be amazed. The truth is anything that you want to believe it to be. Postmodernism, broadly understood, has dispensed with Truth and has replaced it with truths… as many truths that everyone and anyone likes to manufacture and believe in order to suit themselves.

Another concerning thing about truth is that these days it may not be politically correct and thus should be strictly censored. For example… the Canadian government has ordered a Christian ministry that teaches doctrine and the differences between Christianity and pseudo-Christian cults be shut down because its reference materials were “critical” of the beliefs of those who are not Christian.

MacGregor Ministries has had to relocate its corporate structure into the United States because it points out that:
~ “Mormons won’t tell you that all their so-called scriptures such as the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants, and even their official ‘Mormon Doctrine’ statements contradict each other…”
~ “Mormons won’t tell you that the reason the Book of Mormon has no maps is because there is not one scrap of archaeological evidence to support it!”
~ “Mormons won’t tell you that their prophet Joseph Smith was heavily involved in the occult when he founded Mormonism.”
~ “Mormons won’t tell you that that they encourage visitations from dead relatives from the ’spirit world,’ a practice forbidden in the Bible. (Deuteronomy 18:10- 12.)”
~ “Neale Donald Walsch who wrote the bestseller Conversations with God says, ‘Hitler went to heaven’ (Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 2, Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1997; p. 35) And the reason according to Walsh ‘There is no hell, so there is no place else for him to go.’”
~ “The Bible states that the ONLY WAY to heaven is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Universalism teaches that there is not just one way of salvation but many different ways. The Christian inclusivists state salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone, but they change the meaning to be that His grace extends out to those who do not believe (not needing faith) because he died for them too.”

Now these teachings are objectively verifiable facts. But MacGregor Ministries were given an ultimatum that required them to say that all religions are equal, that Lorri MacGregor was to stop writing their magazine on the cults, that they were to remove their websites and stop selling any products to help teach about the cults, and any future DVDs that they do on the Bible must not be persuasive in favour of Christian truth.

This situation brings to mind the persecution of the Apostles in the first century of the Christian church. They were ordered to stop their preaching. However, as we are told in Acts 5: 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!

Another example of truth being censored where it is not politically acceptable is that which is portrayed in Geert Wilder’s recently released film “Fitna”.

The film really does little more than highlight certain surah written in the Qur’an and show news clips to demonstrate how those surah have been played out in recent time. It does not provide “context” that would suit an Islamic apologist who might prefer to intellectualize away the bald facts, but there is an objectivity to it that simply cannot be denied. If you wish to view the film, it is available in many places on the internet, and one such place is Mark Alexander’s blog, “A New Dark Age is Dawning“, right here.

I rather like the comments on Cranmer’s blog where he writes the following:

There is one religio-political agenda which has no compatibility with British democracy; indeed, it is in the process of destroying it. It may be observed that one may attack Christianity and offend Christians by blaspheming the name of Christ with impunity; there is no sensitivity to the level of this offence, and therefore no censorship. But any such attack on Islam and its prophet not only meets with the full force of the law, there are draconian levels of pre-emptive censorship just in case the Queen’s Peace is disturbed.

The default ‘blasphemy law’ in the UK is now Shari’a, and it is under its absolutes that all religio-political discourse must now be conducted. The Qur’an is now treated with greater respect than the Bible; the name of Allah is more fearful than that of Jehovah; and the life and teachings of Mohammed are more sacred than those of Jesus.

Cranmer presumes the Archbishop of Canterbury is content with the incorporation of this aspect of Shari’a into UK law, albeit by the back door.

Note that reports do not mention ‘the Islamic Prophet’; just ‘the Prophet’. The ‘Son of God’ would undoubtedly be pre-fixed with ‘whom Christians believe to be’ in almost every media narrative.

and concerning Network Solutions’ withdrawal of the film from the internet…

This is an unacceptable pre-emptive censorship, and must be an infringement of constitutional right. Network Solutions has caved in to radical Islam and spat in the face of free speech. It should not be for Network Solutions to determine what is and is not acceptable any more than it should be for Google. If causing offence is deemed to be unacceptable, who knows who might get offended next and which sites will be pulled?

And it is noteworthy that Network Solutions is perfectly content to host radical Islamic websites, some of which belong to (or are closely affiliated with) terrorist groups like Hizbollah.

The postmodern philosophy of today is waging war on the view that truth is absolute, objective and universal by nature, that it is one and undivided, the same for all people everywhere at all times. And where it does appear in its objective and rational form, it must be put away as far too abhorrent and repugnant to consider.

Over the Easter weekend I spent some time doing what I have needed to do for quite a while… that is, refresh the pages of Judah’s Site, the five pages of this website outside of Judah’s Journal. You can get to those pages by either clicking on the little buttons found at the very bottom of this page, or on the words Judah’s Site on the left-hand navigational side-bar under the heading “Some Favourite Links”.

I have brought up to date all of the content on those five pages, added some more text and more photos too. On the Crafts page there is now a Quilt Gallery with a few of the quilts I have made. I may add more as I finish and photograph them. The Faith page has been edited, and there are now links to free mp3 lectures by Christian theologians and apologists Dr William Lane Craig, Dr Ravi Zacharias, and Dr R. C. Sproul. All are solidly orthodox Biblical Christians who are very good teachers, well known and well respected. The Poetry page has a few more original poems and pictures. And the Judah page… well, there was not much of note to change there.

I hope everyone had as much fun over the weekend with the Easter Bunny as these babies below. They certainly knew what was the right and proper thing to do with the cultural mythology of the season!

Easter Sunday… the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. Many sceptics have become Christians while attempting to refute the Resurrection. To present all the evidences here would take too many words, but a summary list of salient points to address include:

~ this event occurred exactly as predicted
~ the Roman seal was broken and the Roman Guard (4 -16 man security force) gone missing
~ the huge heavy stone (1½ - 2 tons) was moved away, having to be pushed up an incline
~ Jesus was not in the tomb, but his burial bandages were left behind
~ over 500 eyewitnesses saw him alive, including disbelieving and hostile witnesses who were subsequently convinced it was He
~ the lives of His followers changed dramatically and despite torture and death they did not recant

The significance and explanations surrounding each of these points have been debated strenuously, and the proof evidence presented continues to point to the only reasonable conclusion, namely, that Christ rose bodily from death.

To follow these evidences and the arguments every way concerning them, click on the following links. Go on, I dare you! Sceptics and scoffers beware. If you are prepared to give honest consideration to what you read here, prepare for (at very least) a seed of doubt to enter your disbelief.

Evidence for the Resurrection by Josh McDowell
Evidence for the resurrection of Christ by Peter Kreeft
Evidences for the Resurrection by J. Hampton Keathley III, M.Th.
Evidence for the Resurrection from “Contend for the Faith“, an Apologetics and Theology Resource.

A comment from Peter Kreeft, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Boston College:

The historical evidence is massive enough to convince the open-minded inquirer. By analogy with any other historical event, the resurrection has eminently credible evidence behind it. To disbelieve it, you must deliberately make an exception to the rules you use everywhere else in history. Now why would someone want to do that?

Ask yourself that question if you dare, and take an honest look into your heart before you answer.

Easter Saturday… the day in between. The shops are legally allowed to open today, so all those eager consumers may race to the malls to empty their wallets. But just in case you caught a note of something-or-rather in that, I’m on my way too. I have some Easter Eggs to get, and a quilt top to take in to be quilted.

Yep, that is it here, sitting folded on my cutting board, with the backing fabric to go with it. And please note the fluffy yellow chick that sneaked into the picture. How could I leave it out, this weekend of all weekends?

Now what happened that the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ has become a celebration of chickens, bunnies and decorated eggs? What on earth is going on here? Just how “PC” have we been scared into being now? When folk wish me “Easter Greetings” with pictures of the Easter Bunny, and tales of him trotting along with baskets of coloured eggs, and baby chicks in tow… what is that all about? Do they really know and don’t like to speak of it, or don’t they know, only kind of know, don’t want to know… but just go for the sweet treats instead?

Has anybody out there heard of “the wrath of God” ? One thing that our Creator absolutely is not, is a hot-head. But did you know that, in this post-Christian era where God has been sanitized to represent LOVE which supposedly cancels out everything else about Him, the word for God’s anger or wrath actually occurs more frequently in the New Testament than does any statement concerning His love or mercy? True!

His wrath is His response to all unrighteousness. It is vehement furious anger. It is fury. And it is directed to all unrighteousness and sinfulness of men. And who has not sinned? All of us have sinned! What, you think that your own little sins don’t really matter, that they can be brushed aside? Well, just think again!

Imagine the searing heat of the inside of our planet, and think how a volcanic eruption spews it forth high into the atmosphere, then down in rivers of molten lava. Imagine being caught up in that. Would you not burn instantly to a crisp? Your little sins put you right in the firing line of God’s fury, to be nuked by it as easily as though caught in a lava flow. And thinking of that, you are now in position to think of what the Crucifixion was all about. Think of that scourging Jesus took. Ribbons of flesh hanging from his bleeding back as the whip cracked through the air to cut him further to shreds without mercy, the huge coarse iron nails hammered through his wrists and his feet, hoisted up there in the searing heat, parched from thirst, each breath causing more excruciating pain, and the shame, shame, shame… the humiliation of this treatment for the innocent Son, King of King, Lord of Lords, very God of very God!

The Crucifixion was not about bunnies and cute fluffy chicks and decorated eggs. Get real, everybody! It was about the Son of God bearing the wrath of a righteous God, taking what is due to us for our sin - yes, even those tiny little seemingly harmless sins that only go to make us human. This is about propitiation, about atonement, about taking it all on Himself for us so that, if we make Him our Lord, seeking His forgiveness, we do not need to suffer this payment for our sin.

So how did bunnies, chicks and eggs get in there? You have probably been told the same thing I was… that the eggs represent “new life” which has something to do with resurrection, the victory of life over death. Yes, but don’t just stop there. Our culture has generalized the specifics, sanitized the message, nullified it, removed it from our minds. Sit down to a breakfast of treats tomorrow, but don’t forget what this is really all about. If you have not made Him your Lord, turned yourself over to Him in every which way, then get your head out of the sand and note these words of Psalm 7… for (sorry to be so blunt) they surely apply directly to you.

11 God is a righteous judge,
a God who expresses his wrath every day.

12 If he does not relent,
he will sharpen his sword;
he will bend and string his bow.

13 He has prepared his deadly weapons;
he makes ready his flaming arrows.

Yep, serious stuff. His arrow is aimed at your heart, and all it takes is for Him to move His finger. That is the real message of Good Friday… the bad news part. God’s fury is couched in His justice, but only if you have made your peace with Him, have taken part in His offer of salvation - salvation from the furious wrath of our holy God - can you truly take part in the good news that dawns tomorrow on Easter Sunday.

So, on this day in between, reflect on the real story of this Easter weekend. The Easter Bunny tells a tall tale, delivering decorated eggs with those cute little chicks in tow - but don’t be duped by fantasy at the expense of reality! And meantime, I’m off to the quilt shop. I have a quilt to be quilted. Happy Easter to you too!

Today is Good Friday. Why is it good? As a child I used to think it was good because we had hot cross buns for breakfast - lovely and spicey, warmed in the oven, butter melting and dripping down our chins. And it was a day off school. Perfect! But apart from that, I thought it was pretty bad that Jesus was crucified - that anyone could be crucified. How was that good? It should really be Bad Friday instead.

On the radio news this morning I heard that the Muslims in Auckland were complaining that all the shops had to stay closed today. It wasn’t fair on them since they were being penalized by having to observe a holy day from a religion which wasn’t their own. Well, tough! They knew before they came here that New Zealand is a country whose traditions are founded on Christianity, not Islam. If they don’t like it, they are free to leave and live in an Islamic country where Easter means nothing. I have no sympathy with such a complaint. Also, I am not asking them to attend Church. But if they can’t go shopping, they might like to pick up a Bible and spend that time reading the true story about the historical Jesus. As I have written about in a previous post, they are thinking He is someone else instead. Not so. The Biblical account of the historical Jesus predates their own version by a good 600 years, and is the actual eye-witness accounts of those who knew Him, lived with Him, listened to Him, and in many cases died for their belief in Him. To read about Him, it is to the Bible that one really must turn.

So on Good Friday our shops remain closed. I know that is an imposition on those who are not believers. They have to give up one day of shopping, a day of consumerism, a day of letting the moths fly their wallets. But to a child’s eyes, that is a small price to pay for those wonderful hot cross buns for breakfast!

It is Easter Sunday, the day we celebrate the real goodness of Easter, that makes sense of the Friday beforehand. Do you believe it was possible, that it could really have happened, that Jesus rose alive from His death? There is some incredibly strong evidence to support that it happened. If you don’t believe that it did, on what basis don’t you believe it? Have you actually investigated the evidence before making a judgement? Or are you simply prejudiced by your own uninformed scepticism? If you have not looked into the evidence, then do be honest about it. And think about this… that if Jesus did indeed rise alive from such a hideous and certain death, then that is something that needs to be taken pretty seriously indeed. There is far more to the story than just a plain simple response. If you have not already done so, then start checking out some of the evidence which can be found from here on. You could be in for surprises!

It has been some time since my last entry although I may go back and add a few retrospectively to February - ones that were started back then but not finished. Now it is Easter weekend, already March, and Autumn as well. What happened? I simply ran out of steam. Family “stuff” has siphoned off much of my energy, and catching up with “the chores” taken much of my time. Friends have been hinting, encouraging, and some wondering where I have got to. Nope, I’ve not fallen off the face of the earth… or let go from clinging by my little bat-feet to the underbelly of the planet, as one Northern Hemisphere friend likes to think of me doing!

This morning an email “from a Judah’s Journal visitor” popped into my Inbox. It was sent by Tom and was short and sweet, but great encouragement. He wrote “Your site is wonderful, keep it going.” Thank you Tom. I will keep it going, and it is messages like yours that certainly helps when going through one of those times that are tough.

Judah’s Journal is part of my greater website, Judah’s Site. In case you have not already done so, check out where those clickable little buttons right at the very bottom of this page will take you. As well as adding more entries to my Journal, my intention over the next few weeks is to update and refresh all those other pages as well. There is much to be added to all of them.

I have a number of friends who share my interests in crafts, and just recently a few of them have taken up blogging as well. There is a new group of links added over to the left of here - “Crafty Blogs and Websites”. Do check them out if you have an interest in craft things as well. These are very talented people who have been online friends of mine for several years now.

Right, that is my “what’s up in here” update for now. With Tom’s encouragement, and that of other friends as well, I will be back soon with more entries to Judah’s Journal… and more on those other pages as well.

Crossing one’s fingers behind one’s back means that what one is saying is not the truth.

The recent death has been reported of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This organization is a cult that preaches an aberrant non-orthodox Christian theology while claiming (falsely) to be Christian - see here. What really caught my eye about the report of their president’s death was a comment as follows… Over the years, Hinckley laboured long to burnish the faith’s image as a world religion far removed from its peculiar and polygamous roots. Still, during his tenure the Roman Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention and United Methodist Church - the three largest U.S. denominations - each declared Mormon doctrines depart from mainstream Christianity. “We are not a weird people,” Hinckley told Mike Wallace on “60 Minutes” in 1996. “The more people come to know us, the better they will understand us,” Hinckley said in an interview with The Associated Press in late 2005. “We’re a little different. We don’t smoke. We don’t drink. We do things in a little different way. That’s not dishonourable. I believe that’s to our credit.”

Yes, it may be considered to their credit… that they don’t smoke nor drink (although a little red wine has proven advantages to health, thus credit worthiness may be disputed) …and it is not dishonourable; not as a rule.

But that is NOT what was meant by the churches mentioned in the comment - the Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists and United Methodists. The now late Mr Hinckley sneakily shifted the topic of conversation sideways to avoid the issue of doctrine. Nobody was saying those things were dishonourable. It is their non-orthodox theology that is a departure from mainstream Christianity, and that was the issue which Mr Hinckley seemed to have preferred to avoid.

Sneaky, eh?

It needs to be said…

Jesus is not honoured by being called a great prophet.
He was and is the Messiah, the Christ. He is the Son of God.

To think that one honours Him by regarding Him as a great prophet, but not as the Christ, is to belittle and denigrate Him instead.

This is what Islam does to our Saviour.
Not just Islam, but any religion - and any individual - who does not recognize Him for who He is.

And yet I know they are not.

Actors in the Islamic movie, “Jesus, the Spirit of God”.

A director has produced what he says is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the “common ground” between Muslims and Christians. Nader Talebzadeh sees his movie, “Jesus, the Spirit of God,” as an Islamic answer to Western productions like Mel Gibson’s 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ,” which he praised as admirable but quite simply “wrong”. “Gibson’s film is a very good film. I mean that it is a well-crafted movie but the story is wrong — it was not like that,” he said, referring to two key differences: Islam sees Jesus as a prophet, not the son of God, and does not believe he was crucified.

These folk are convinced they are right. But wait, the Jesus of the Bible lived seven centuries before the Qur’an was written, and the New Testament gospels were already in existence. Did the Qur’an come up with new evidence about Jesus? No. There isn’t any that was not already known in Christendom. Nothing has been discovered since that favours the Islamic stories over and above the Biblical stories. Where did their version come from then? Islam tells us that the Qur’an was handed down to Mohammad, from Allah, via the Angel Gabriel. The Islamic stories of Jesus - or rather, of the Prophet ‘Isa, as they believe they know of him - come from their god, Allah. When I compare these stories with those of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of the New Testament, I seriously wonder if we are meaning the same person. In fact, I think this has to be a case of mistaken identity. The purported facts are so different in each case. Even Islam is saying exactly that, and that the purpose of this film is supposedly to give the truth. If that is the truth, then it has to be about somebody else - not Jesus of the Bible.

Talebzadeh says it aims to bridge differences between Christianity and Islam, despite the stark divergence from Christian doctrine about Christ’s final hours on earth.

“It is fascinating for Christians to know that Islam gives such devotion to and has so much knowledge about Jesus,” Talebzadeh said.

“By making this film I wanted to make a bridge between Christianity and Islam, to open the door for dialogue since there is much common ground between Islam and Christianity,” he said.

Source

But how does such a film “bridge the differences between Christianity and Islam” ?

I would say it points out the differences between Christianity and Islam, and just makes them so much more obvious. There is no bridge there at all.

There are two main sources for the stories of the Islamic prohet ‘Isa - the Qur’an, and the aHadith. The Qur'an gives a history of his life, whilst the Hadith collections, which are recollections of Muhammad's words and deeds, establish his place in the Muslim understanding of the future. The Qur’an declares that the true name of Jesus is ‘Isa, and his message was pure Islam - submission to Allah. ‘Isa was born to Mariam, daughter of ‘Imran, under a date palm tree and spoke while still a baby in the cradle. He breathed life into clay birds and foretold the coming of Muhammad. Apparently ‘Isa was given a book, namely the gospel, and the message revealed in that book is Islam. The book in its original form has since been lost, but his teachings are now incorporated in the Qur’an. ‘Isa was “supported” by the Holy Spirit and his disciples were all Muslims. ‘Isa was not crucified but he did ascend to Allah, and on the Day of Judgement he will be a witness against Jews and Christians for believing in his death. The prophet ‘Isa will have an important role in the end times, establishing Islam and making war until he destroys all religions save Islam.

However… The Qur'an, written in the 7th century AD, cannot be regarded as having any authority whatsoever to inform us about Jesus of Nazareth. It offers no evidence for its claims about biblical history. The Qur’an’s numerous historical errors reflect a garbled understanding of the Bible. ‘Isa is not an historical figure. His identity and role as a prophet of Islam is based solely on supposed revelations to Muhammad over half a millennium after the Jesus of history lived and died.

Jesus' mother tongue was Aramaic. In his own lifetime he was called Yeshua in Aramaic, and Jesu in Greek. It is interesting that Jesus’ name Yehoshua' contains within