Christianity
Jesus and Muhammad.
The difference between Christianity and Islam.
The difference between Christianity and Islam.
Jesus said, in Luke10:25 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's'. This recognises the legitimacy of the state as separate from the church. So I can love God with all the love that is due to God, and love my country with all the love that is due to my country. There is no clash.
Understanding the Bible and the Quran
The key issue is context. You have to read the Quran in it's context as you read the Bible in it's context.
Some key differences:
The Bible was written over a period of several thousand years and covers about 4-5000 years of history. It was written by a large number of authors, and yet remains consistent in it's message.
The Quran covers about 23 years of history, largely written by Muhammad's followers from either dictation or memorisation, though the claim is also made that it has no author, or that Allah is it's author.
Progression in the Bible and the Quran
This was my response to a post about there being more warlike verses in the Bible than in the Quran.
Yeah, and the Bible covers several millennia of history. The Quran covers 23 years of history.
The Bible moves from a time of the nation state of Israel, from more violent times, to the New Testament where there is no more conquest by the sword. In fact, none of the major and minor prophets in the Old Testament fought by the sword. So there is a progression away from the warlike towards the peaceful.
How should Christians should respond to terrorist attacks?
A response to a sermon by Dave Groenenboom on how Christians should respond to terrorist attacks. Dave's sermon can be found here
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The other Egypt
From the blog of Vinoth Ramachandra comes this enlightening article. Note the response of Egypt's Christians. It is in keeping with Jesus' words to love your enemies.
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Christmas and refugees
A post from Matt Walsh on Facebook deals with a serious issue. His style is pretty blunt, but his point is very valid. Not just for this meme, but for many others. We need to be careful of what we like in Facebook!
Asylum seekers
Well, what are we to do? As individuals. As families. As a nation. As local communities.
Asylum seekers. Some come by boat, some come by plane. With Australia being an island continent, they are the only options.
It's the boat people that get the attention. They are on the front pages regularly, and have been so on and off for years. At present it is a growing problem. During the Howard years the numbers of boat people arriving dwindled, but there were voices being raised that our treatment of them was inhumane.
Mass migrations - seeking a better way
One of the correspondents to John Dickson's article quoted (NSW Premier) Mike Baird '" Sometimes you can know all the facts and statistics surrounding an unfolding tragedy, but it somehow remains an intangible or external problem. A problem that is almost too hard to get your head around.'
Christianity and freedom
God's sovereignty and human responsibility
There are two streams of thought which are very evident all the way through the Bible:
1. God is sovereign. He created all, sustains all and rules over all. This is both assumed and explicitly stated at all times in Scripture. It also seems to be self evident - if God is God then he is supreme in everything ... or he isn't God, something else is.
Tulip under attack!
Rebuking sin and having compassion
In response to a post on Facebook with this picture featuring these words,
True Christians rebuke sin and expose it.
False Christians practice sin and defend it.
A friend of the world is the enemy of God
James 4:4
I commented:
Not sure that's a valid dichotomy, Jason. There's more to this than meets the eye. The Bible also says that love covers over a multitude of sins. Jesus himself said that people would know us by our love, not how well we rebuke sin.
'Christians believe that only God demands “total allegiance''
in response to a claim in this article that 'Christians believe that only God demands “total allegiance''.
An interesting article. I don't know enough about Trump to know what he actually believes, but there is one statement in the article which needs further thought:
'Christians believe that only God demands “total allegiance''
Christmas trees
The church and homosexuality.
This article is a response to an article in the Huffington Post by John Pavlovitz. Links to this article have also appeared on Facebook.
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Thrive
My comments on John Robbins' review of the movie 'Thrive'