Investing 101 - topics for beginners and everybody else
Link
Saturday, June 25, 2016
AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes
AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes:
Everything Is Broken
The dominant and disorienting attribute of America in 2016 is that nothing is what it seems or, more accurately, what it actually is. On the campuses, intolerance is tolerance and censorship is free speech. In our public bathrooms, boys are girls and men are women. In our cities, the forces of protection are the forces of aggression. Stagnation is recovery; poverty is prosperity; war is peace. | City Journal
Everything Is Broken
The dominant and disorienting attribute of America in 2016 is that nothing is what it seems or, more accurately, what it actually is. On the campuses, intolerance is tolerance and censorship is free speech. In our public bathrooms, boys are girls and men are women. In our cities, the forces of protection are the forces of aggression. Stagnation is recovery; poverty is prosperity; war is peace. | City Journal
AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes
AMERICAN DIGEST Essays, News, Notes, and Quotes:
Good point!
The responsibility of the people put in charge, their chief responsibility, is to maintain public order. You cannot have a civilized and prosperous society with civil unrest. Deliberately inviting in these problems, as we see with Merkel in German and the open borders lobbies in America, is a betrayal of the public trust. In another age, the elites would not have to fear these populist parties as the people would have hung the elites before it got to this point.
Good point!
The responsibility of the people put in charge, their chief responsibility, is to maintain public order. You cannot have a civilized and prosperous society with civil unrest. Deliberately inviting in these problems, as we see with Merkel in German and the open borders lobbies in America, is a betrayal of the public trust. In another age, the elites would not have to fear these populist parties as the people would have hung the elites before it got to this point.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Kris Kristofferson Biography
Kris Kristofferson Biography: the poet, William Blake, awoke something in him. Blake valued commitment and personal freedom. In the Pomona College mag interview by Michael Balchunas, Kris is quoted as saying, “I studied his (Blake’s) commitment to being an artist, to not being enslaved to another man’s system.
Kris Kristofferson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kris Kristofferson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Kristofferson has said that he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" on his tombstone:
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Kristofferson has said that he would like the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" on his tombstone:
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to be free
Monday, June 20, 2016
Is Allah of Islam the same as Yahweh of Christianity? | Columbia International University
Is Allah of Islam the same as Yahweh of Christianity? | Columbia International University: Is Allah of Islam the same as Yahweh of Christianity?
As I was passing the State House in Columbia, SC, I noticed
the Confederate flag waving in the breeze behind a large, decorated
Christmas tree. The contrast of symbols caught my attention. To most
people, the tree nominally symbolizes the season of Christmas and the
focus on the first coming of Jesus Christ. For some people any
representation of a spiritual reality on public property is a travesty
against their rights. The flag, however, has become more controversial.
For some, the Confederate flag merely symbolizes a past conflict, for
others it represents a spirit of independence and state’s rights, and
for still others it is an ugly reminder of when one people group
enslaved another. Thus, we have one symbol with several different
meanings.
This is similar to the word “Allah.” For
most Muslims, Allah is the only God and therefore must be the same God
as the one that the Jews and Christians worship. Similarly, for some
Christians, Allah is just another name for the one God of the universe.
For others, however, the Muslim Allah and the biblical Yahweh are
contradictory and cannot refer to the same being, for, they say, “how
can the God of Muhammad be the Father of Jesus Christ?” The question
before us, then, is whether the terms “Allah” and “Yahweh” are just two
names for the same God, or are they referring to different Gods? (And
since there can only be one true God, the ultimate question is, “if they
are different, which one is the true God?”)
Let’s
first look at the origin and meaning for the term “Allah.” Allah
probably comes from the Aramaic compound term “al-ilah,” which means
“the god.” It is a generic term for the highest god of the people, and
in Arabia it was in use for centuries before Muhammad came on the scene.
Apparently it was one of the 360 gods worshipped in the ka’aba in
Mecca, and was the chief god for the Quraysh tribe, which was the tribe
Muhammad belonged to. In the pre-Islamic time, Allah had three
daughters, Al-At, Al-Uzza, and Al-Manat. In Muhammad’s campaign against
polytheism he chose Allah as the one true God and rejected the notion
that Allah could have any daughters or sons. The Allah from the Qur’an,
however, is very different from the Yahweh of the Bible. For one thing,
Allah is a distant, remote being who reveals his will but not himself.
It is impossible to know him in a personal way. In his absolute oneness
there is unity but not trinity, and because of this lack of
relationship, love is not emphasized. Indeed, for the Muslim, Allah
cannot have any associates. In fact, to claim that Jesus is God’s son is
the greatest of all sins in Islam and is known as “shirk.” Allah is
also an arbitrary God and is said to deceive people, especially
unbelievers. In the end, even for the devout Muslim there is no
guarantee of salvation because in his arbitrariness Allah may reject the
believer’s good works and send him to hell. Thus, even if one’s good
works outweighed his bad works salvation is ultimately up to the Will of
Allah, which is arbitrary at best.
When we look at
Yahweh, however, who is the God of the Bible, we see a different kind of
deity. First of all, the name “Yahweh” comes from the time that God
appeared to Moses in the burning bush. At that time God told Moses to
call him “I am that I am,” or in Hebrew, “Yahweh.” It is significant
that Jesus referred to himself as the “I am” in John 8:58. The Jews
realized that Jesus was referring to himself as God and took up stones
to stone him for what they believed was blasphemy. This link between
Jesus in the New Testament and the burning bush in the Old Testament
demonstrates the unity of the one God manifested to both the Jews and
the Christians. This cannot be said of the Muslim God because Muslims
reject the deity of Jesus and therefore reject much of what the New
Testament says about Jesus. We also find that the Bible portrays Yahweh
in contrast to Allah. For example, Allah is considered to be too holy to
have personal relationships with man, but Yahweh is often described as a
loving God interested in our personal struggles. Yahweh is also
depicted as unchanging and One who assures the salvation of the
faithful. Finally, because there is unity in the Trinity with the one
God also being three persons, God can be described as the Father of
Jesus.
Some scholars want to emphasize the
similarities between Yahweh and Allah, and point to a common belief in a
monotheistic God who is Creator of all things, omnipotent and merciful.
Both religions also claim that God has sent prophets to reveal His will
and produce scriptures to guide our lives. However, Allah and Yahweh
cannot refer to the same person for the following reasons. First of all,
their attributes are different. In Allah’s monadic oneness his
attributes stem from his powerful Will which, because it provides no
basis for relationship, often promotes capriciousness. Also, since his
power is more important than his other attributes, there is an unequal
emphasis on power over his other attributes. In the end, a follower
cannot know God or even be sure of the consistency of his attributes. On
the other hand, because Yahweh is by nature a triune unity his
attributes stem from his nature. The eternal relationship within the
Trinity promotes love within the Godhead and extends to his creation.
Also, since his attributes are based on his unchanging nature rather
than his powerful will, all his attributes are equal and promote
trustworthiness rather than capriciousness. This means that believers
can know God and be sure of his attributes. Second, Christians
understand the nature of God to be triune (Father, Son and Holy Spirit),
which is the only way that Jesus Christ, as the second person of the
Trinity, could die on the cross to pay for our sins. If Jesus were not
God himself, then his death on the cross would be meaningless. However,
Muslims deny that Jesus died on the cross and they reject the belief in
his resurrection from the dead. Only a triune God, defined as one
essence and three persons, could become incarnate and still remain God
of the universe, and yet this is the God that Muslims reject. For them,
Jesus cannot be God nor can God be a Father, for he cannot have a son.
Therefore, if Muslims reject God as the Father of Jesus, then Allah
cannot be the same as the God of the Bible.
But wait a
minute, some will say. What about the Arabic Christians who call the
God of the Bible “Allah”? Doesn’t this illustrate the fact that Allah
and Yahweh are referring to the same God? Actually, when the Arabic
Christians refer to “Allah” in their translation of the Bible, they
believe that “Allah” is the father of Jesus and they believe that
“Allah” is triune. Therefore, the Allah of the Arabic Christians cannot
be the same Allah of the Muslims! This semantic [shibboleth]
strangulation can be cleared up if we remember that words have both a
denotative and a connotative meaning. Denotation refers to a dictionary
definition, so it would be correct to say that Yahweh and Allah both
refer to the concept of God, especially for their respective language
groups. However, the connotation is determined by what a person
conceives about the object of that word. For example, an Arab Christian
may still use the word “Allah” to denote God, but his understanding of
that term would be starkly different from a Muslim, for the Christian
would recognize that Jesus Christ is God (Allah) whereas the Muslim
would never consider that connotation. Thus, denotatively the word
“allah” merely refers to “god, deity, etc.” However, we understand the
denotative use by our connotative presuppositions. Therefore, “Allah”
for the Muslim cannot be reconciled with the “Jesus is Allah” of the
Arabic Christians. There is still a world of difference between the
content of the word (connotation), even if the denotation is the same.
Without this very important distinction made when we refer to “Allah”
and “God” (Yahweh), a lot of Christians will be confused.
After
comparing the Allah of the Qur’an and the Yahweh of the Bible, it
should be apparent that they could not be referring to the same God.
Either the Muslim Allah is the true God or the Christian Yahweh is the
true God, or neither is true. As the Law of non-Contradiction teaches,
they both cannot be true. One thing should be sure, though, the God of
Muhammad cannot be the Father of Jesus.
Is Allah of Islam the same as Yahweh of Christianity?
As I was passing the State House in Columbia, SC, I noticed
the Confederate flag waving in the breeze behind a large, decorated
Christmas tree. The contrast of symbols caught my attention. To most
people, the tree nominally symbolizes the season of Christmas and the
focus on the first coming of Jesus Christ. For some people any
representation of a spiritual reality on public property is a travesty
against their rights. The flag, however, has become more controversial.
For some, the Confederate flag merely symbolizes a past conflict, for
others it represents a spirit of independence and state’s rights, and
for still others it is an ugly reminder of when one people group
enslaved another. Thus, we have one symbol with several different
meanings.
This is similar to the word “Allah.” For
most Muslims, Allah is the only God and therefore must be the same God
as the one that the Jews and Christians worship. Similarly, for some
Christians, Allah is just another name for the one God of the universe.
For others, however, the Muslim Allah and the biblical Yahweh are
contradictory and cannot refer to the same being, for, they say, “how
can the God of Muhammad be the Father of Jesus Christ?” The question
before us, then, is whether the terms “Allah” and “Yahweh” are just two
names for the same God, or are they referring to different Gods? (And
since there can only be one true God, the ultimate question is, “if they
are different, which one is the true God?”)
Let’s
first look at the origin and meaning for the term “Allah.” Allah
probably comes from the Aramaic compound term “al-ilah,” which means
“the god.” It is a generic term for the highest god of the people, and
in Arabia it was in use for centuries before Muhammad came on the scene.
Apparently it was one of the 360 gods worshipped in the ka’aba in
Mecca, and was the chief god for the Quraysh tribe, which was the tribe
Muhammad belonged to. In the pre-Islamic time, Allah had three
daughters, Al-At, Al-Uzza, and Al-Manat. In Muhammad’s campaign against
polytheism he chose Allah as the one true God and rejected the notion
that Allah could have any daughters or sons. The Allah from the Qur’an,
however, is very different from the Yahweh of the Bible. For one thing,
Allah is a distant, remote being who reveals his will but not himself.
It is impossible to know him in a personal way. In his absolute oneness
there is unity but not trinity, and because of this lack of
relationship, love is not emphasized. Indeed, for the Muslim, Allah
cannot have any associates. In fact, to claim that Jesus is God’s son is
the greatest of all sins in Islam and is known as “shirk.” Allah is
also an arbitrary God and is said to deceive people, especially
unbelievers. In the end, even for the devout Muslim there is no
guarantee of salvation because in his arbitrariness Allah may reject the
believer’s good works and send him to hell. Thus, even if one’s good
works outweighed his bad works salvation is ultimately up to the Will of
Allah, which is arbitrary at best.
When we look at
Yahweh, however, who is the God of the Bible, we see a different kind of
deity. First of all, the name “Yahweh” comes from the time that God
appeared to Moses in the burning bush. At that time God told Moses to
call him “I am that I am,” or in Hebrew, “Yahweh.” It is significant
that Jesus referred to himself as the “I am” in John 8:58. The Jews
realized that Jesus was referring to himself as God and took up stones
to stone him for what they believed was blasphemy. This link between
Jesus in the New Testament and the burning bush in the Old Testament
demonstrates the unity of the one God manifested to both the Jews and
the Christians. This cannot be said of the Muslim God because Muslims
reject the deity of Jesus and therefore reject much of what the New
Testament says about Jesus. We also find that the Bible portrays Yahweh
in contrast to Allah. For example, Allah is considered to be too holy to
have personal relationships with man, but Yahweh is often described as a
loving God interested in our personal struggles. Yahweh is also
depicted as unchanging and One who assures the salvation of the
faithful. Finally, because there is unity in the Trinity with the one
God also being three persons, God can be described as the Father of
Jesus.
Some scholars want to emphasize the
similarities between Yahweh and Allah, and point to a common belief in a
monotheistic God who is Creator of all things, omnipotent and merciful.
Both religions also claim that God has sent prophets to reveal His will
and produce scriptures to guide our lives. However, Allah and Yahweh
cannot refer to the same person for the following reasons. First of all,
their attributes are different. In Allah’s monadic oneness his
attributes stem from his powerful Will which, because it provides no
basis for relationship, often promotes capriciousness. Also, since his
power is more important than his other attributes, there is an unequal
emphasis on power over his other attributes. In the end, a follower
cannot know God or even be sure of the consistency of his attributes. On
the other hand, because Yahweh is by nature a triune unity his
attributes stem from his nature. The eternal relationship within the
Trinity promotes love within the Godhead and extends to his creation.
Also, since his attributes are based on his unchanging nature rather
than his powerful will, all his attributes are equal and promote
trustworthiness rather than capriciousness. This means that believers
can know God and be sure of his attributes. Second, Christians
understand the nature of God to be triune (Father, Son and Holy Spirit),
which is the only way that Jesus Christ, as the second person of the
Trinity, could die on the cross to pay for our sins. If Jesus were not
God himself, then his death on the cross would be meaningless. However,
Muslims deny that Jesus died on the cross and they reject the belief in
his resurrection from the dead. Only a triune God, defined as one
essence and three persons, could become incarnate and still remain God
of the universe, and yet this is the God that Muslims reject. For them,
Jesus cannot be God nor can God be a Father, for he cannot have a son.
Therefore, if Muslims reject God as the Father of Jesus, then Allah
cannot be the same as the God of the Bible.
But wait a
minute, some will say. What about the Arabic Christians who call the
God of the Bible “Allah”? Doesn’t this illustrate the fact that Allah
and Yahweh are referring to the same God? Actually, when the Arabic
Christians refer to “Allah” in their translation of the Bible, they
believe that “Allah” is the father of Jesus and they believe that
“Allah” is triune. Therefore, the Allah of the Arabic Christians cannot
be the same Allah of the Muslims! This semantic [shibboleth]
strangulation can be cleared up if we remember that words have both a
denotative and a connotative meaning. Denotation refers to a dictionary
definition, so it would be correct to say that Yahweh and Allah both
refer to the concept of God, especially for their respective language
groups. However, the connotation is determined by what a person
conceives about the object of that word. For example, an Arab Christian
may still use the word “Allah” to denote God, but his understanding of
that term would be starkly different from a Muslim, for the Christian
would recognize that Jesus Christ is God (Allah) whereas the Muslim
would never consider that connotation. Thus, denotatively the word
“allah” merely refers to “god, deity, etc.” However, we understand the
denotative use by our connotative presuppositions. Therefore, “Allah”
for the Muslim cannot be reconciled with the “Jesus is Allah” of the
Arabic Christians. There is still a world of difference between the
content of the word (connotation), even if the denotation is the same.
Without this very important distinction made when we refer to “Allah”
and “God” (Yahweh), a lot of Christians will be confused.
After
comparing the Allah of the Qur’an and the Yahweh of the Bible, it
should be apparent that they could not be referring to the same God.
Either the Muslim Allah is the true God or the Christian Yahweh is the
true God, or neither is true. As the Law of non-Contradiction teaches,
they both cannot be true. One thing should be sure, though, the God of
Muhammad cannot be the Father of Jesus.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
