Reza Aslan on Jesus of Nazareth

Good Lord, Americans are so stupid. I can say this. I am one.

Evidence: the recent fad regarding this man's book.

From First Things: Reza Aslan Misrepresents His Scholarly Credentials

For instance:

None of these degrees is in history, so Aslan’s repeated claims that he has “a Ph.D. in the history of religions” and that he is “a historian” are false.  Nor is “professor of religions” what he does “for a living.” He is an associate professor in the Creative Writing program at the University of California, Riverside, where his terminal MFA in fiction from Iowa is his relevant academic credential. It appears he has taught some courses on Islam in the past, and he may do so now, moonlighting from his creative writing duties at Riverside. Aslan has been a busy popular writer, and he is certainly a tireless self-promoter, but he is nowhere known in the academic world as a scholar of the history of religion. And a scholarly historian of early Christianity? Nope.

Ah, yes. But Americans prefer fads (a Muslim writing about Jesus!) over truth (the Gospel).

Child brides in Yemen: ندى الاحدال

Watch this and pray for the young girls of Yemen.

This practice will not die out. Rather, it will spread form Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan to those places where Yemenis, Afghans and Pakistanis spread--the UK and the USA. Just a guess, but time will tell.

It should be noted that Muhammad (he was about 50) had sex with his nine-year old bride, A'isha. Because of this, the Islamic shari'a simply cannot, and never will be able to, say that this is immoral. Muhammad was the ideal man, after all.

(By the way, if anyone knows for sure the correct Arabic spelling of Nada Al-Ahdal's surname let me know. That spelling is just my guess.)

A Church of Afghan Converts

Wow, what a wonderful story. Praise be to God for bringing these people to the light and hope that is found in Jesus, who is the very image and icon of God:

Between 200 and 250 Afghan converts from Islam to Christianity who feared persecution from the Afghan authorities and the Taliban have found refuge in Delhi.


“The number of coverts to Christianity increased as the U.S. presence increased after the fall of the Taliban,” said Obaid Jan, 33, the pastor, who led the Bible service. “Most of the Christian converts lived in urban areas, so the threat from the Taliban was minimal,” he added.

But the Christian converts started fleeing Afghanistan around 2005, fearing their identities might become public. Most came to India after video footage of their secret churches found its way to Noorin TV, a Kabul-based television network, in May 2009. Their lives were further endangered in 2010, when an influential member of the lower house of the Afghan parliament, Abdul Sattar Khawasi, called for the converts’ execution.

Execution indeed. And that is the punishment which Muhammad explicitly prescribed for people who leave Islam: "Who so changes his religion, slay him!" (Google it, it's from Sahih al Bukhari). And so, in the religion of peace, the four schools of Sunni shari'a are in unanimous agreement that the apostate must be killed.

How can someone look at a man who would say such a thing and think he is the final prophet from God? I just don't understand it.

May God bless and guide Muslims, and bring them into his wonderful light.

Read more HERE.

'Violence' by Yemeni poet Adil Hossenally

I enjoyed this poem by Yemeni poet Adil Hossenally. I would assume that the author is Muslim, as Yemen has only a few hundred indigenous Christians. Nonetheless, as a Christian I appreciate his sense of wrestling against his own inadequate desires--desires that are so strong, but that don't tend, in the end, to life and hope and peace.

Read the poem, and say a prayer for Yemen, and say a prayer Adil as well:

Violence

Every inch of me is screaming for violence
Fists clenched and fire flowing bitter anxiety
I want to punch, kick and wrestle
Blistered bloody knuckle
Beat my knuckles
Pound some flesh

But I don’t want to hurt anybody
Least not myself
I want to fight this world and put it in its place
Yet I can’t even seem to fight myself
And its myself that beats me down
My own rusty halo is what cuts me
I can’t be good
Even though it’s who I am
I still hold on to the evil that makes me weak
I’m not who I used to be
Nor am I strong enough to be whom I want to be
I’m stuck somewhere in between
A place where there is no light
The darkest place I could ever be
And I’m about to lose this fight

Why do I cause myself to suffer in this life
Only to burn in hell?

HT Yemen Times.

See how far gone the UK is...

Tehmina Tariq: (Free) Christian music from Pakistan

Ok, so Pakistan is quite a ways from the Middle East, but I was just made aware of this fine Christian album from Pakistan which is available (for free) online. I thought you might be interested in knowing about it:

Tehmina Tariq

I don't understand the lyrics, but it sure sounds pretty :-)

--AD

Intelligent Comments on Egypt

Some smart commentary on what is going on Egypt right now:

Rick Wood is at it again....

Oh boy, the new issue of Mission Frontiers is out, which is great, and I look forward to reading it. But Rick Wood, the editor of MF and a main booster of Insider Movement methodology, has seriously goofed up right off the bat. Do you see it?

As Dr. Garrison reports on page 7, Sadrach “then gathered
converts into contextualized, indigenous mesjids of Javanese
Christian communities called Kristen Jawa, rather than
extracting them into the local Dutch Christian churches.”
Sadrach allowed these Muslims to have their own contextual
centers of worship and did not force them to join a culturally
foreign body in order to follow Jesus.

Thank you Rick Wood, but that is the whole point--they were no longer Muslims. They had been Muslims. They became Christians. Why do IM people always try to take movements like this one from Indonesia and try to make them back up their IM ideas? Lame.