Re: religion on the Sinclair list and web pages

["J. R. Carpenter" <gra_jrc@SHSU.EDU>]

>There are also links to various Muslim pages.  Muslims believe that
>Jesus was just a prophet.

I won't get into this too deeply, but Muslims believe Jesus was a prophet.
The Koran basically states that to consider him the Son of God is blashemy.
It states, I think, that Jesus excaped death on the cross and that therefore
there was no Resurrection.

>There are also links to various Jewish pages.  Jews don't even believe
>that Jesus was a prophet.

In reading a ca 1946 book by Sholem Asch, and other readings, Jews do
believe that Jesus was a prophet, but not a Prophet. Their treatment of him
reflects the level of current persecution. In the early days of the Church,
they fought back. In the early Middle Ages before the Inquisition,
expulsions, etc, their treatment of him was far kinder. Asch reaches out to
Christian as fellow heirs of Abraham, as I believe. But, Asch positively
gushes over the Soviet Union's kind treatment of Jews also. Just coming out
of WWII, I can understand his slant though. 

Asch does say something about converting Jews to Christianity that I agree
with. He said that how do you expect someone to convert to a religion that
says that everything you once believed in is no good. He makes a distinction
between pure Christianity and the Christian Church. I am no Jewish studies
scholar, but in my opinion Judaism is a hard religion to practice. The
covenant given to Jews is still good, God would not give out a plan of
salvation that wasn't good, though in my opinion it is very difficult. That
is why Christ had to appear, to make it easy for non-Jews. I believe that
John 3:16 has as much heartbreak on God's part in it as it does his love. He
tried letting people live in Paradise and then he tried the Flood, and that
all failed, so he had to give himself. When all Gentiles are saved, then the
distinctions between Judaism and Christianity will disappear, and the Larger
Faith will triumph. The antagonism between Judaism annd Christianity must
hurt God.

This is something I have been thinking about lately, nad maybe its fortunate
that this whole thing has come about. This is the first time I've expressed
these thoughts on "paper."

Rick
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