| superchunk said:
(1) Jesus never claimed to be a literal "son of god" or an actual god himself. It was common during that time for people to proclaim how good they are at something. As an example, someone who is a great blacksmith would have said they are the "son of a blacksmith". Whether they really were or not was irrelevant. Additionally, hit up one of the many search able online Bible's and you can find that all throughout the OT prophets, random people, animals, trees, etc are all at times referred to as son(s), daughter(s), children of God. It is simply a phrase to get a meaning across that this person is a great worshiper of God. This can be seen in the bible where Jesus actually shows the opposite of him being god by: John 20:17 "Jesus told her, "Don't hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' " Statements like this are all through the Bible. Jesus was clearly always aware of his role and his separation from the God he worshiped. (2) Additionally, a little study of early Christianity also proves that the entire idea of Trinity/Jesus as a god was really just a result of Roman forced acceptance of Christianity and especially the outcome of the vote put forth during the Council of Nicaea in 325CE.... 300 years after Jesus left. At this time there was a major divide among Christians regarding Jesus' divinity and some believed as most do today that Jesus was part of God in a holy trinity, while many others, as they still do today in (3) Egypt,Ethiopia,parts of Lebanon... that Jesus was a Prophet and not God. The Roman leaders wanted to keep it from going into a civil war and began the first of the many religious councils where entire parts of the belief system were put to a vote. The first was whether or not Jesus was divine and the Trinity group was better represented and won. So basically, you can consider most of all modern beliefs in Christianity based on popular votes. Same goes with the specific collection of books/letters that now exist in the Bible. (4) The specific dates for Easter and Christmas, etc. All based on Romans (who only accepted Christianity to keep off from a larger war and division) diplomatic skills to get all the pagans to accept a forced conversion to Christianity.
However, yes a (5) real Muslim would regard ALL the holy books and Prophets as equals as the Qur'an specifies as such. I have multiple TaNahKs, Bibles, and Qur'ans in my house. They are all well respected and have their specific spots. My children know not to mishandle any of them and respect the beliefs of each and their followers. Because in the end.... Chapter 5 - 69 |
(1) "The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God" (John 19:7) He was condemned for blasphemy, you know.
(2) No, it's a concept present since the inception of Christianity: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19)
The Council of Nicaea just stated that it was a dogma, to counter the teachings of Arius.
(3) False. Coptic Orthodox christians are and always were trinitarian. A friend of mine is Ethiopian. There is an ethiopian church in Rome built in the XII century, if they were not trinitarian (i.e. heretic) that would not be possible.
(4) That's common knowledge and it's not a problem. If you don't know the exact date, choose one. Pope Gregorius reformed the calendar, not because Christmas wasn't on Christmas, but because the equinox wasn't on the 21st of March.
(5) Sunni muslims can follow different schools of interpretation of the Qu'ran, none of which is superior to the others. For example the Grand Mufti of Cairo (who was appointed by Mubarak, a secularist authoritarian leader, by the way) said that women can wear trousers, however some sudanese women were lashed for wearing trousers. They're both right, from an islamic perspective. I laugh hard when someone says that Islam condems this or that: perhaps there's a school of thought that condems such actions, but may be other schools, equally authoritative, that think differently.
