HE WROTE:
Also recall that earlier we had cited Acts 2:1-4 where a group of disciples received
the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. What the reader may not be aware of is that this
filling of the Holy Spirit was specifically given in order to equip all the believers to
testify and evangelize the world on behalf of the risen Christ:
"In the first book, O The-oph'ilus, I have dealt with
all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had
given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To
them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during
forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he
charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father,
which, he said, 'you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but before many days
you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' So when they had come together, they
asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' He said to
them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own
authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sama'ria and to the end of the
earth.'" Acts 1:1-8
RESPONSE:
Scholars claim Luke is the
author of Acts, who is Paul’s disciple, yet Acts contradicts the teachings of Paul:
Who
was this Paul who so influenced the development of Christianity? It is not as simple to
write his biography from New Testament sources as it might appear. While the second half
of the Acts of the Apostles apparently traces the career of Saul of Tarsus from his
conversion to his final Roman imprisonment, many scholars believe that the work’s
author, Luke, was more a theologian than a historian. In short, there are serious problems
with uncritical use of Acts as a source for the life of Paul, not the least of which is
that it frequently disagrees with what Paul says
about himself in various places in his letters. This can be seen clearly if one
compares, for example, Acts 9 and 13-15 with Gal. 1:11-2:21. (Bonnie Thurston, Women in
the New Testament, p. 31)
Jesus never specifically
ordered his disciples to “evangelize the world”. After his departure, while he
stayed for 40 days, he never once told his disciples to evangelize the world. Here are the
following reasons for why Muslims believe Jesus was only sent for the Jews, and predicted
the Last Prophet sent for the world (John 16:8)
(1) According to the Gospels, Jesus never preached to
the Gentiles. There was Gentile civilizations that existed during his time.
Jesus lived in Palestine when
it was occupied by the Romans, yet he never preached to the Romans. He is recorded to have
said: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's
and to God what is God's." (Mark 12:17) IF Jesus said this, why didn’t he
preach to the Romans?
Jesus traveled to many cities, yet he never entered Tyre and Sidon,
because it was Gentile:
Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a
woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me,
O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples
came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he
answered and said, I am not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 15:21-24)
Jesus deliberately avoided Samaria:
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.
(Luke 17:11)
It is true that Jesus
traveled to Samaria, but according to the Gospels, he had no choice:
The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining
and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized,
but his disciples. When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to
Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria
called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. (John 4:1-4)
Jesus had no choice to cross Samaria
because Galilee is located northwards:
http://www.bible.ca/maps/maps-palestine-33AD.htm
(Bible map)
(2) The teachings of Jesus are based on Torah, and the
Torah is only meant for the Jews, therefore Jesus deliberately avoided the Gentiles, and
hence the Romans. However, the Roman Empire accepted Christianity by the year 392 CE, yet
Jesus never founded “Christianity”, it was Paul, the self-imposed
“apostle” to the Gentiles.
The Islam of Jesus and the
restoration of the Law (Torah) was intended for the Jews, specifically:
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we
worship: for salvation is of the Jews. (John
4:22)
ANYONE who breaks one of the least of these
commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of
heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your
righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will
certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:19-20)
Jesus makes it clear that his followers will preach the Torah, but Christians have
abandoned the Torah, instead they follow the Gospel of Paul, the story of Jesus
“dying for the sins” and “rising three days later”. These aspects were
not originally part of Jesus’ Gospel, but they were added later by pagan influence of
dying and rising sun-gods.
The original Gospel of Jesus was pure Islam, it never included the “sacrifice and
redemption” and the “resurrection”, the original Gospel of Jesus was a
pristine pure Revelation LIKE the Holy Quran, it was corrupted after his departure but
never existed in physical form. In other words, the Revelation given to Jesus (his Divine
teachings) were subsequently corrupted after his ascension, by the followers of Paul.
Islam preaches the Original Gospel in a fresh Revelation called the Holy Quran, where
the true picture of Jesus can be found, that he was not crucified, not resurrected, not
God or the son of God.
Visit the following links:
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/kersey_graves/16/chap16.html
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/kersey_graves/16/chap19.html
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/kersey_graves/16/chap21.html
Now read this:
The sun is born on
the 25th of December, the birthday of Jesus Christ. The first and greatest of the
labors of Jesus Christ is his victory over the serpent, the evil principle, or the devil.
In his first labor Hercules strangled the serpent, as did Krishna, Bacchus, etc. his is
the sun triumphing over the powers of hell and darkness; and, as he increases, he
prevails, till he is crucified in the heavens, or is decussated in the form of a cross
(according to Justin Martyr) when he passes the equator at the vernal equinox. (John G.
Jackson, Christianity Before Christ, p. 200)
The ancient Druids celebrated, in the British Isles, in
heathen times, the rites of the resurrected Bacchus, and other ceremonies,
similar to the Greeks and Romans.' Quetzalcoatle,
the Mexican crucified Saviour, after
being put to death,
rose from the dead. His resurrection was
represented in Mexican hieroglyphics, and may be seen
in the Codex Borgianus. The Jews in Palestine celebrated
their Passover on the same day
that the Pagans celebrated
the resurrection of their gods. (T.W.
Doane, Bible Myths and their Parallels in other
Religion, p. 225)
Many gods besides Christ have been supposed to die, be resurrected
and ascend to heaven. This idea has now been traced back to its origin among primitive
people in the annual death and resurrection of crops and plant life generally. This
explains the world-wide
prevalence of the notion. (John G. Jackson. Christianity Before Christ, p. 125)
Adonis was a typical Savior-God, and again citing Williamson:
His death was commemorated annually with
mournful chants as his image ... three
days was he bewailed as one dead, but then followed
the rejoicing over his resurrection.
During the ceremony of the resurrection feast, which
took place on the 25th of March,
the priest, after having touched the mouths of the mourners with holy oil, murmured:
"Trust ye in your
Lord, for the pains which he endured have
procured your salvation… Then the people answered:
Hail to the Dove, the restorer of light." Williamson,
Great Law, pp. 53-54. (ibid, p. 65)
We can list hundreds of scholars to prove our point, Jesus was never crucified, he
never rose from the dead, these features were added to embellish the Gospel story, and
corrupt the Gospel.
Furthermore, all Prophets were Muslim and their Religion was Islam:
Tradition has it that the total number of Prophets sent to
different peoples at different times is 124,000. If you consider the life of the world
since it was first inhabited and the number of different peoples and nations that have
been on it, this number will not appear too great. We have to positively believe in those
of the Prophets whose names have been mentioned in the Quran. Regarding the rest, we are
instructed to believe that all the Prophets sent by God for the guidance of mankind were
true.
All the Prophets of God have been deputed by Him to teach the
same straight path of ‘Islam’.
But the teachings of those Prophets have either disappeared
altogether from the world, or whatever of them remains is intermingled with many erroneous
and fictitious statements. For this reason,
even if anyone wishes to follow their teachings, he cannot do so. In contrast to this, the
teachings of Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him), his biography, his
discourses, his way of life, his morals, habits and virtues, in short, all the details of
his life and work, are preserved. Muhammad (blessings of Allah and peace be upon him), therefore, is the only one of the whole line of
Prophets who is a living personality, and in whose footsteps it is possible to follow
correctly and confidently.
(Abul Ala Mawdudi,
Towards Understanding Islam, p. 78)
(3) Jesus said he would only die for the
sheep (Jews), not the goats (Gentiles)
(4) It was impossible for Jesus to take the
“sins of the WORLD” because he needed infinite atonement, yet Jesus was not
God-incarnate, therefore he didn’t take the “sins of the world”. Gradually,
the word “many” (Matt. 20:28, 26:28, Mk. 10:45, 14:24) became the
“world” (John 1:29, 1 John 2:2) Jesus dying for “the sins of the
world” did not exist in Matthew, Mark, and Luke!
(5) God states in the Quran that the Torah was revealed
for the Children of Israel, and other nations received scriptures as well.
Yet the Quran is meant for
the whole of mankind!
Each
one of the existing sacred Books found among different nations of the world has been
addressed to a particular people. Each one contains a number of commands which seem to
have been meant for a particular period of history and which meet the needs of that age
only. They are neither needed today, nor can they now be smoothly and properly put into
practice. It is evident from this that these Books were particularly meant for that
particular people and not for the world. Furthermore, they were not sent to be followed
permanently by even the people they were intended for; they were meant to be acted upon
only for a certain period. In contrast to this the
Quran is addressed to all mankind; not a single injunction of it can be suspected as
having been addressed to a particular people. In the same manner, all the commands and
injunctions in the Quran can be acted upon at any place and in any age. This proves that
the Quran is meant for the whole world, and is an eternal code for human life. (Abul
Ala Mawdudi, Towards Understanding Islam, p. 76)
HE WROTE:
As we also saw, this group of evangelists included women:
"Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called
Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away; and when they had entered,
they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and
Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon
the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord devoted themselves to
prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his
brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in
all about a hundred and twenty) ..." Acts 1:12-15a
RESPONSE:
NOTE: The Christian apologist
Justin Martyr (d. 150 CE) never mentions the book of Acts.
Again, we can cite examples
of great Muslim women of early Islam, but we shall refute the passage first. The author of
Acts recognizes the apostles before the women, and Mary is mentioned at the very
end! Mary is the prominent character at Jesus’ birth, she gave him birth, and the 12
apostles were not selected by Jesus until he was about thirty years old, he chose them
late (Matthew 10:1-5, Luke 6:13) The brothers of Jesus rejected him, they are neglected,
yet the passage Acts 1:12-15 only strengthens our argument that the Bible degrades
woman.
Mary is worshipped by the
Roman Catholics (!) she has gospels attributed to her, and she has a chapter named after her in the Quran, so how can Luke DARE
give such inferiority to Mary by placing her at the end?
HE WROTE:
In fact, Paul praised many women as fellow co-workers and evangelists, going out of his
way both to mention and honor them by name:
"Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in
Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all
the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house.
Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. Greet Mary,
who has worked hard among you." Romans 16:3-6
RESPONSE:
According to legend, Prisca
was the first woman “martyr” of the Church at Rome, her date is unknown, the Catholic
Encyclopedia testifies:
She was a martyr of the Roman Church, whose dates are unknown.
Shockingly, the bishop
Clement of Rome (d. 97 CE) wrote a letter to the Church in Corinth, but after mentioning
several characters by name, he fails to mention Prisca!
Clement fails to mention any
details of her life, he records the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, but never records
Prisca’s martyrdom, simply because it never happened, she was never martyred.
Historical evidence is scanty; the life of Prisca mostly rests on legend.
Read the
epistle yourself.
Many early Church fathers
never mention Prisca!
This includes Papias (d. 140
CE) Ignatius (d. 110) Polycarp. (d. 159) Justin Martyr (d. 150) and Gnostic leaders
(Marcion, Basildes, Valentinus) fail to mention Prisca.
Notice how Shamoun says: “going out of his way both to mention
and honor them”, we can apply this standard to the Holy Quran.
The Quran equalizes man and woman:
Do not marry unbelieving women (idolaters),
until they believe: A slave woman who believes is
better than an unbelieving woman, even though
she allures you. Nor marry (your girls) to unbelievers until they believe: A man slave who believes is better than an
unbeliever, even though he allures you. Unbelievers do (but) beckon you to the Fire.
But Allah beckons by His Grace to the Garden (of bliss) and forgiveness, and makes His
Signs clear to mankind: That they may celebrate His praise. (Al-Quran 2:221)
Say
to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that
will make for greater purity for them: And Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.
And say to the believing women that they should
lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty
and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their
veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, (24:30-31)
They are the ones who denied Revelation and
hindered you from the Sacred Mosque and the sacrificial animals, detained from reaching
their place of sacrifice. Had there not been believing
men and believing women whom ye did not know that ye were trampling down and on
whose account a crime would have accrued to you without (your) knowledge, ((Allah) would
have allowed you to force your way, but He held back your hands) that He may admit to His
Mercy whom He will. If they had been apart, We should certainly have punished the
Unbelievers among them with a grievous Punishment. (Al-Quran 48:25)
One Day shalt thou see the believing men and the believing women- how
their Light runs forward before them and by their right hands: (their greeting will be):
"Good News for you this Day! Gardens beneath which flow rivers! to dwell therein for
aye! This is indeed the highest Achievement!" (Al-Quran 57:12)
For those who give in Charity, men and women, and loan to Allah a
Beautiful Loan, it shall be increased manifold (to their credit), and they shall have
(besides) a liberal reward. (Al-Quran 57:18)
And Noah, said: "O my Lord! Leave not
of the Unbelievers, a single one on earth! "For, if Thou dost leave (any of) them,
they will but mislead Thy devotees, and they will breed none but wicked ungrateful ones.
"O my Lord! Forgive me, my parents, all who enter my house in Faith, and (all) believing men and believing women: and to
the wrong-doers grant Thou no increase but in perdition!" (Al-Quran 71:26-28)
The Quran “goes out of its way” to mention BOTH male and
female, signifying that they are equal. The following verses also clarify that woman is
equal to man:
Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him
will We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure and We will bestow on such their
reward according to the best of their actions. (Al-Quran 16:97)
It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been
decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one
disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path. (Al-Quran 33:36)
That He may admit the men and women who believe, to Gardens
beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for aye, and remove their ills from them;- and
that is, in the sight of Allah, the highest achievement (for man),- (Al-Quran 48:5)
The
Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another: they enjoin
what is just, and forbid what is evil: they observe regular prayers, practise regular
charity, and obey Allah and His Messenger. On them will Allah pour His mercy: for Allah is
Exalted in power, Wise. (9:71)
"Our
Lord! Grant us what Thou didst promise unto us through Thine apostles, and save us from
shame on the Day of Judgment: For Thou never breakest Thy promise." And their Lord
hath accepted of them, and answered them: "Never will I suffer to be lost the work of
any of you, be he male or female: Ye are members, one of another
(3:194-195)
One Day
shalt thou see the believing men and the believing women- how their Light
runs forward before them and by their right hands: (their greeting will be): "Good
News for you this Day! Gardens beneath which flow rivers! to dwell therein for aye! This
is indeed the highest Achievement!" (57:12)
For Muslim
men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and
women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble
themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast (and deny
themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage
much in Allah's praise,- for them has Allah
prepared forgiveness and great reward. (Al-Quran
33:35)
O ye who
believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against
their will. Nor should ye treat them with
harshness, that ye may Take away part of the dower ye have given them,-except where
they have been guilty of open lewdness; on the contrary live with them on a footing of
kindness and equity. If ye take a dislike to them it may be that ye dislike a
thing, and Allah brings about through it a great deal of good. (Al-Quran 4:19)
Allah hath
promised to Believers, men and women,
gardens under which rivers flow, to dwell therein, and beautiful mansions in gardens of
everlasting bliss. But the greatest bliss is the good pleasure of Allah. that is the
supreme felicity. (Al-Quran 9:72)
And among
His Signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may
dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your
(hearts): verily in that are Signs for those who reflect. (30:21)
HE WROTE:
Prisca, or Priscilla, and Aquila were a husband and wife team who were renowned among
the believers. These were the very persons who took a young fiery believer named Apollos
under their wing:
"Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came
to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in
the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the
things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly
in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and
explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to
Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he
arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted
the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus." Acts
18:24-28
RESPONSE:
Prisca and Aquila became teachers of Apollos, but the wife of Prophet
Muhammad, Aisha, became a teacher for thousands of men. Prisca never became a teacher to
this amount, as testified by the New Testament itself.
The Bible mentions Apollos several times, but hardly mentions Prisca.
In fact, Apollos is mentioned twelve times,
while Prisca is only mentioned ONCE.
Apollos was a follower of Paul, not Jesus:
It is difficult to get a correct idea of
his religious standpoint; but it probably was that of the so-called disciples of John the Baptist (Acts 19:1-7). Taken all in all, it may be said that
Apollos was a zealous missionary, who, while confessing Jesus, did not
have the full New Testament revelation, and stood in danger of becoming antagonistic to
the apostolic message to all the world; he became, however, an adherent of the Pauline doctrine, and the
author of the Acts of the Apostles thought this fact of sufficient importance to be
included in his history. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollos)
Now read these quotations about Paul:
“If
Christianity needed an Anti-Christ, they need look no further than Paul” (Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
"Paul
was the great Coryphaeus, and first corrupter of
the doctrines of Jesus." (Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826)
Paul, the founder of Christianity,
the writer of half the NT, almost never quotes Jesus in his letters and
writings." (Professor Smith in his “The World Religions”, p 330)
HE WROTE:
What is interesting about this is that both texts happen to mention the name of the
wife before the husband!
"Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphae'na and
Trypho'sa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet
Rufus, eminent in the Lord, also his mother and mine. Greet Asyn'critus, Phlegon,
Hermes, Pat'robas, Hermas, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philol'ogus, Julia,
Nereus and his sister, and Olym'pas, and all the saints who are with them."
Romans 16:12-15
"I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the
Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side
by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow
workers, whose names are in the book of life." Philippians 4:2-3
RESPONSE:
He badly wants us to use repetition; we’re not going to
“reinvent the wheel” because these characters are unknown to history.
Concerning the words “these women, who have labored side by wide
with me” is applicable to the early followers of Islam, the female believers who were
persecuted day and night by the Quraysh, and endured the most painful treatment. Hundreds
of Muslim women were tortured by Quraysh, they are recorded in Hadith, yet Paul mentions
only a few women who suffered his cause.
All of these women are the followers of Paul, not Jesus.
"The
Christianity which the nations claim to follow is the religion of Paul, who is admittedly the chief and almost the
only theologian that the Church recognizes. Because of his
betrayal of the Master's teachings, the vision of true Christianity has been so
dimmed that men have been able to defend war and a host of other evils, such as flesh
eating and slavery, on the authority of the Bible." (Christ or Paul? Rev. V.A. Holmes-Gore)
Paul abolished the Law, which was followed
and preached by Jesus (pbuh), and corrupted the whole religion, giving it a new form. The
main ambition behind all this was, in his own words, “to win a larger number” of
followers; the followers of a new religion
“the Pauline Christianity”. (Roshen Enam, Follow Jesus or Follow Paul? p. 60)
“…In reality he is the founder of
that church Christianity’ which is totally different from the Christianity drought by
Jesus. They say that ‘follow Jesus or follow Paul, but both cannot be followed simultaneously”. (Encyclopedia Britannica, ibid, p. 69)
Please visit the following links:
PAUL EXPOSED
http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/anti_christ_paul_1.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/paul_the_corrupter.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/paul_contradicted_himself.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/abdullah_smith/the_embarrassing_2.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/sami_zaatri/problem_of_paul.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/sami_zaatri/pauls_strange_law.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/bassam_zawadi/paul_versus_the_disciples.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/bassam_zawadi/paul_jesus.htm
http://www.answering-christianity.com/a_t/jesus_paul.htm
HE WROTE:
The Quran, unlike the Holy Bible, mentions only one woman by name,
that of Mary the blessed mother of the Lord Jesus.
RESPONSE:
Apparently, Mary is the only woman truly recognized in the Gospels,
the rest are virtually ignored:
The opening chapters of Luke focus on the
traditional women’s role of bearing children. The women we meet here are the only women given speeches, and the only ones not
subsequently corrected by men. Elizabeth is “filled with the Holy Spirit”
(1:41); she blesses Mary and the fruit of her womb (1:42), and she utters the only
christological confession by a woman in the Gospel when she speaks of the “mother of
my Lord” (1:43). Mary is the only woman in the
Gospel to be given a speech of proclamation (1:46-55). She is Luke’s ideal female
believer, totally submissive to God and, from chapter 2 on, a model listener. The widow
Anna (2:36-38) is called a “prophet”, but
she never utters a word. (Bonnie Thurston, Women
in the New Testament, pp. 103-104)
Let us answer from a different angle. It is alleged that Muhammad
(pbuh) wrote the Quran with his own hands, yet the question we must ask is where did he
get the Biblical stories? Christians will assert that he borrowed from the Jews and
Christians, yet this conjecture fails to work because the vast majority of the Surahs were
revealed at Mecca, and the Prophet could not have borrowed because the populace of Mecca
was pagan and not Judeo-Christian! Logically, it follows up and makes sense; Muhammad did
not forge the Quran because the Meccans did not know of these Biblical stories.
In 622 CE, the Prophet Muhammad migrated to Medina where several
Jewish and Christian tribes lived. A vast majority of the Quran was revealed by this time,
and the logical answer to their question was: “God revealed these stories to
me!” about Moses, David, Solomon, Abraham, and Jesus. Also, the Quranic stories of
the Prophets make more sense than the Biblical ones. The Prophet Muhammad was illiterate
and did not write the Quran (7:53, 62:3)
Now, the name Muhammad appears only four times in the Quran, Jesus
and Mary are mentioned several times, he would have glorified himself, yet quite the
contrary, the Prophet never glorified himself because false prophets glorify themselves.
Say thou: "I am but a man like you: It is revealed to me by Inspiration, that your
Allah is one Allah. so stand true to Him, and ask for His Forgiveness." And woe to
those who join gods with Allah,- (Al-Quran 41:6)
But when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed unto
them, those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, Say: "Bring us a
reading other than this, or change this," Say: "It is not for me, of my own
accord, to change it: I follow naught but what is
revealed unto me: if I were to disobey my Lord, I should myself fear the penalty of a
Great Day (to come)." (Al-Quran 6:50)
HE WROTE:
History even testifies that it was primarily the work and evangelistic efforts of
Christian women which led to so many conversions:
"As already noted, neither Christ nor his apostles
promoted or organized a woman’s movement. Yet Christ’s message of repentance and
salvation proclaimed by his apostles had revolutionary effects on the lives of women. The
early Christians not only included women in the life of the church, but they also gave
them freedom and dignity unknown to women at that time.
The acceptance women received in Christian circles was not an
end in itself. It moved them to active evangelists and missionaries, as we saw with
Phoebe, Euodia, Syntyche, and others. The work and zeal of faithful Christian women was a
powerful force in the early church’s spiritual and numerical growth and expansion. As
every church historian knows, women commonly were more active in the early church than
men. St. Chrysostom (late fourth century) said: ‘The women of those days [early
church] were more spirited than men.’ W.E.H. Lecky credits women "in the great
conversion of the Roman empire,’ and he adds, ‘In the ages of persecution female
figures occupy many of the foremost places and ranks of martyrdom." Leopold
Zscharnack says: ‘Christendom dare not forget that it was primarily the female sex
that for the greater part brought about its rapid growth. It was the evangelistic zeal of
women in the early years of the church, and later, which won the weak and the
mighty.’ They exercised the sword of the spirit to promote the growth of the
church." (Alvin J. Schmidt, The Great Divide, pp. 74- 75)
RESPONSE:
We are forced to repeat ourselves; the early Christians were pagan
converts, both male and female. Jesus deliberately ignored pagan women, and he healed
Jewish women, unless the Gentile woman said eloquent words:
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out,
"Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from
demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and
urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before
him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the
children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she said,
"but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then
Jesus answered, "Woman, you have great faith!
Your request is granted." And her daughter
was healed from that very hour. (Matthew 15:22-28, Mark 7:26-28)
Jesus would have ignored the Gentile woman, unless she spoke
eloquently.
The story is recorded in Mark:
The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged
Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. "First let the children eat all they
want," he told her, "for it is not
right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes,
Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's
crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has
left your daughter." She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the
demon gone. (Mark 7:26-30)
Bonnie Thurston comments:
Jesus’ response to her in v.27 is one
of the most troubling Christological verses in the Synoptic Gospels. It reflects the
contempt for the Jews for “heathens” and
depicts Jesus as a thoroughly racist and uncaring figure. It is particularly troubling
since Jesus has already healed an “outsider”, the demoniac from the Decapolis
(5:1-20). Some scholars have tried to soften the picture by arguing that the verse is of
doubtful authenticity or by pointing out that the term for “dogs” is diminutive.
(Women in the New Testament, p. 72)
She further says:
Certainly Mark wants to contrast the way
the religious authorities have come to Jesus (7:1-23) with the way the woman has. They
come with a closed, legalistic attitude; she comes empty-handed and without merit, but
open to Jesus. And she is rewarded, as he shatters the wall between Jew and Gentile in
granting her request for her daughter. But it is,
of course, she who has pointed out the absolute necessity of doing so. (ibid, p. 73)]
How do women appear in the discourses or
teachings of Jesus? First, women as such were not of particular concern to Jesus.
He says nothing theologically about women. (p. 76)
Strangely, Jesus healed a Jewish woman, but refused to heal a Gentile
woman.
On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of
the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen
years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called
her forward and said to her, "Woman, you are
set free from your infirmity." Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she
straightened up and praised God. (Luke 13:10-13)
The Jewish woman did not have to plea; Jesus immediately healed her
without any desperation on the woman’s part.
The Pauline Christian women
who “died for the Church” (filled with pedophilia today), will not be accepted
by Jesus, even though they sacrificed so much, they died for the cause of Paul (Rom.
10:9), not the cause of Jesus (Matt. 5:17-20)
We have mentioned the Bible allows rape, it also teaches exactly how
to rape a woman. Consider the following story where Lot offers his two daughters to be
raped:
Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of
the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot,
"Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have
sex with them." Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said,
"No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look,
I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and
you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have
come under the protection of my roof." (Genesis 19:4-8)
God allows the rape of woman:
Therefore will I give their wives unto
others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from
the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the
priest every one dealeth falsely. (Jeremiah 8:10)
God wants to rape woman!
Moreover the LORD saith,
Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton
eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the
LORD will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the
LORD will discover their secret parts. (Isaiah 3:16-17)
The Church has persecuted woman throughout history, regardless of
whether they were Christian or pagan.
In the early 5th century, a Christian mob murdered
Hypatia, a woman philosopher:
Hypatia was a Greek philosopher and the
daughter of another philosopher, Theon of Alexandria, who taught her mathematics. About
400 ce she became head of
the Platonist school at Alexandria, where she lectured on the philosophy known as
Neoplatonism. This combined Plato's ideas with a mix of Christian, Jewish, and East Asian
influences and emphasized striving for an unreachable ultimate reality. Her edition of Euclid's
Elements, prepared with her father, became the basis for all later versions.
Christians deemed her philosophical views pagan and killed her during antipagan riots. She
is considered to be the first woman of any importance in the history of mathematics.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/hypatia-of-alexandria)
The scholar Tom Harper describes the murder of Hypatia:
She was taken by the mob to a church called
Caesareum, where she was stripped, stoned with roofing tiles, and torn apart; her flesh
was scraped from the bones with oyster shells, and she was then burned at a spot called
Cinaron. Socrates Scholasticus (380-450) records, in his Ecclesiastical History, that this
happened during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril’s episcopate. Some authorities
question whether Cyril was directly involved in Hypatia’s death, but he was known to
be jealous of her popularity and was a hot foe of anything other than the new, orthodox
Christianity, or Christianism. Cyril ruthlessly hunted down heretics, Pagans, Jews,
looting their homes and possessions. (The Pagan
Christ, p. 62)
HE WROTE:
Women can also be eyewitnesses according to the Holy Bible. After all, the first
eyewitnesses to the greatest event in history, the bodily resurrection and the empty tomb
of the Lord Jesus, were women! Women, not men, were the first to see the resurrect Lord:
"When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the
mother of James and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very
early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And
they were saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the
entrance of the tomb?’ And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled
back--it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right
side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, ‘Do not be
alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See
the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going
before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ And they
went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they
said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." Mark 16:1-8
"But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be
afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has
risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his
disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him. See, I have told you.’ So they departed quickly from
the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met
them and said, ‘Greetings!’ And they came up and took hold of his feet and
worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my
brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.’" Matthew 28:5-10
"Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to
the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from
the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus
loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not
know where they have laid him.’ So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they
were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple
outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths
lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the
tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on
Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then
the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then
the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as
she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where
the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her,
‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my
Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ Having said this, she turned
around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her,
‘Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing him to be the
gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have
laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.’ She turned
and said to him in Aramaic, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her,
‘Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my
brothers and say to them, "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God
and your God."’ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples,
‘I have seen the Lord’--and that he had said these things to her." John
20:1-18
RESPONSE:
Let us quote the passages again, they clearly contradict each other.
"When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome
bought spices, (Mark 16:1)
Contradicted by:
It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary the
mother of James, and other women that were with them, (Luke 24:10)
Salome is substituted with Joanna.
IF Salome was amongst the “other
women”, then where is Joanna recorded in Mark?
Let us proceed with the contradiction
between Matthew and John:
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to
dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. (Matthew 28:1)
Contradicted by:
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto
the sepulchre, (John 20:1)
Matthew records Mary Magdalene and the
“other Mary”, which is probably the mother of James. Yet John drops off the
“other Mary” for no apparent reason.
The Gospels are basically full of
contradictions:
"Actually,
the fact that we have four gospels lies at the very heart of our problem. Because we read
particular parables or sayings or stories in several different versions, we can't miss the
disagreements between them". (John
Dominic Crossan, Who is Jesus? pp. 3-4)
The truth
of these matters must lie in that which is seen by the mind. If the discrepancy between
the Gospels is not solved, we must give up our
trust in the Gospels, as being true and written by a divine spirit, or as records worthy of credence, for both
these characters are held to belong to these works.
(Origen, Commentary on John,
Book X)
The dying and rising god concept was
very common before Jesus. The Egyptian savior Dionysus died and resurrected after three
days, the witnesses to his empty tomb were also women!
It was a very early
tradition in Christianity that Jesus' women followers, rather
than the male disciples, were the first witnesses of the empty tomb and the resurrected
Christ. In the original ending of Mark's gospel it is only Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother
of James, and Salome who see the risen Jesus - a tradition that the Pagan critic Celsus
acknowledges. According to another early Christian tradition
all three women are called Mary - Mary Magdalene, Jesus' companion; Mary his mother; and Mary her sister. In the Gospel of John the same
three Marys are pictured at the foot of the cross.
The fact that we are given three Marys is a clear indication that we are in
ancient mythological territory - the triple goddess
was a familiar figure in the Pagan world. At Eleusis she appears as Demeter,
Persephone, and Hecate. We find her appearing as the three fates, three charities, and
three graces.
Like Jesus, Dionysus
is often associated with three women
followers. When a new sanctuary of Dionysus
was founded three priestesses called
maenads would go there to establish the cult. Each one of them would assemble one of the three women choirs that helped celebrate the
Mysteries. The Oinotropio were three women disciples of Dionysus said to have the
ability to miraculously turn water into wine at the festivals of the god- man. Among the
most common of ancient sacred sculptures are representations of the cave of Pan, in which three women are being led into an empty cave
by Hermes the messenger of the gods, like the three
Marys being led by the angel into the empty
cave, which was Jesus' tomb.
(Timothy Freke, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the “Original Jesus”
a Pagan God? pp. 58-59)
HE WROTE:
The Holy Bible also teaches that God specifically designed it from the very beginning
of creation that man would hold a position of authority, that he would be the head of a
woman:
"Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’" Genesis 2:23
"The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all
living." Genesis 3:20
The man’s naming of his wife implies his authority over her, and the fact that he
named her both before and after the Fall shows that God had designed this to be so from
the very start. Another indication that God created the man to be the head of the family
is the fact that he was created first, even before the woman (cf. Genesis 2:24-25). As a
result of this chronological priority women are to be in loving submission to their head.
RESPONSE:
There are two creation stories in
Genesis, one is Genesis 1:20-27 and the second is Genesis 2:4-7. The former records the
creation of Adam of Eve, but the latter only
mentions the creation of Adam, excluding the woman. Let us quote the passages:
So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him; male
and female created he them. (1:27)
But in the second creation story, God
formed only a man:
These are the
generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the
LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the
earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to
rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist
from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of
the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul (2:7)
The Bible excluded Eve; she was not
created until after God realized that Adam needed a helper.
The LORD God said,
"It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a helper suitable for him."
(Genesis 2:18)
God gave the authority to Adam to RULE
over the woman:
Unto the woman he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children; and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over
thee. (Genesis 3:16)
The word “rule” is derived
from the Hebrew definition for political power,
superiority.
Take you wise men,
and understanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you. (Deuteronomy 1:13)
Then will I stablish
the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying,
There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel. (2 Chronicles 7:18)
And next unto him
repaired Shallum the son of Halohesh, the ruler of the half part of Jerusalem, he and
his daughters. (Nehemiah 3:12)
The scholar Bonnie Thurston says
The household code
begins by addressing wives and husbands as the basic unit of the household (Eph. 3:18-19).
As the subordinate party, wives are addressed first and told to “be subject” to
their husbands “as is fitting in the Lord”. Submission (hypotassesthe) is argued on the basis of Christian
order as “in the Lord”. Whereas in 1 Cor. 7:3-6 Paul thought of martial
submission as mutual; here the wife is to be subject to the husband. “As is
fitting” suggests that the author accepts the subordination of wives to husband as
the appropriate norm. Husbands are to love their wives and are to avoid harshness, pikrainesthe, a term implying authoritarian RULE. (Women
in the New Testament, p. 136)
The Quran does not record this nonsense; Adam and Eve were forgiven and sent to earth as a
test.