I came across an apparent poem that questions (and indirectly tries to refute) Christianity. It is titled, O Christ-Worshippers! by Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Here is my response to each verse in the poem: --//If the Lord was murdered by some people’s act, what kind of god is this?//-- There is a difference between murder and selfless sacrifice. The murder is rightly attributed to those who killed Jesus, an innocent man. But Jesus himself wasnt surprised when he faced death at the hands of those who crucified him. It was a willing sacrifice for everyone, including those who were killing him! Jesus says that he... ...did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people. (Matthew 20:28) Also, notice how the Apostle Peter reveals this juxtaposed fact (murder vs. sacrifice) by saying... Jesus from Nazareth was a man authenticated to you by God through miracles, wonders, and signs that God performed through him among you, as you yourselves know. After he was arrested according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified this very man and killed him by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up and put an end to suffering of death, since it was impossible for him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24) Notice how he explains that the death of Jesus was not something unexpected. It was an integral part of the plan of God. So what kind of God is this? A God whom became like us... ...in every way, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest, and could atone for the peoples sins. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:17-18) That is why the God of Israel has a love for us that is beyond comprehension. This love is expressed by John, and that it should be reflected in those who understand this fact... Dear friends, let us continually love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how Gods love was revealed among us: God sent his unique Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:7-10) --//We wonder! Was He pleased by what they did to Him?//-- Yes! Jesus himself gave quite a number of parables on how it is a pleasure to save something that you love... Now all the tax collectors and sinners kept coming to listen to Jesus. But the Pharisees and the scribes kept complaining, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. So he told them this parable: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. He leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness and looks for the one that is lost until he finds it, doesnt he? When he finds it, he puts it on his shoulders and rejoices. Then he goes home, calls his friends and neighbors together, and says to them, Rejoice with me, because Ive found my lost sheep! In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who dont need to repent. Or suppose a woman has ten coins and loses one of them. She lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it, doesnt she? When she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me, because I have found the coin that I lost! In the same way, I tell you that there is joy in the presence of Gods angels over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:1-10) --//If yes, blessed be they, they achieved His pleasure,//-- Yet you forget that... God fulfilled what he had predicted through the voice of all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer. (Acts 3:18) Even though Christ sacrificed himself, by the free-will of men, that doesnt mean his death was unexpected, and therefore that they should be blessed for achieving something that they had no idea about! For example... So the high priests and the Pharisees assembled the Council and said, What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our Temple and our nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, told them, You dont know anything! You dont realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed. Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad. So from that day on they resolved to put him to death. (John 11:47-53) Notice how Caiaphas performs an unconscious and involuntary prophecy about how Jesus would become the sacrifice for Israel. Should he be commended then? Obviously not. Caiaphas didnt realize that he was victim to the predetermined plan of God! --//But if He was discontented, this means their power had subjugated Him!//-- In light of what I said above, this isnt the case. --//Was the whole entity left without a Sustainer, so who answered the prayers?//-- This would only apply if we are dealing with an absolute singular entity. This also is where the Trinitarian doctrine makes most sense, in regards to the death of Christ. The following theological quotes should suffice... Every divine action begins from the Father, proceeds through the Son and is completed in the Holy Spirit. - Basil the Great Without the Spirit it is not possible to hold the Word of God nor without the Son can any draw near to the Father, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son and the knowledge of the Son of God is through the Holy Spirit. - Irenaeus Our salvation is free in the Father, sure in the Son, ours in the Spirit. - Thomas Manton Also, it isnt that God (the Son, incarnated), died. It is the body that was dead and thus resurrected by the Holy Spirit. God didnt die, as it was the body in connection with the divine Godhead, that needed to be resurrected, and thus through this, we can all be saved. Jesus himself explains this... Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will rebuild it. The sanctuary he was speaking about was his own body. After he had been raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. So they believed the Scripture and the statement that Jesus had made. (John 2:19-22) --//Were the heavens vacated, when He laid under the ground somewhere? Were all the worlds left without a God, to manage while His hands were nailed?//-- No. --//Why did not the angels help Him, when they heard him while he wailed?//-- Satan asked Jesus this very question, not specifically when he was nailed, but the context applies... Then the devil took him to the Holy City and had him stand on the highest point of the Temple. He told Jesus, Since you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, because it is written, God will put his angels in charge of you, and With their hands they will hold you up, so that you will never hit your foot against a rock. Jesus responded to him, It is also written, You must not tempt the Lord your God. (Matthew 4:5-7) Notice, Satan quotes from Psalm 91. But the context of the Psalm is about Gods protecting care for the faithful in Israel (verses 11-12). This is a blatant misuse of scripture to try to manipulate Jesus. Why should angels thwart the plan of God? --//How could the rods stand to bear the True Lord when He was fastened, How could the irons reached Him and [had] His body pinned? How could His enemies’ hands reach Him and slap His rear,//-- It wasnt the nails that held him to that cross. It was his love for you and me that held him to that cross. Then again, Christ was fully man (as well as fully divine). If he was 100% human, then naturally he would be subjected to the dimensionality of our universe, and thus would experience what the laws of physics would dictate. Christ was crucified on a wooden cross, and yet he made the hill on which it stood! He died in his own creation. That was the only way in which he could redeem his own creation. --//And was Christ revived by himself, or was the Reviver another god?//-- One God, three persons. But if we are going to deal with semantics, then sure, there was another God. --//What a sight it was, a grave that enclosed a god,//-- I agree! O how deep are Gods riches, and wisdom, and knowledge! How unfathomable are his decisions and unexplainable are his ways! (Romans 11:33) --//Stranger still is the belly that confined Him! He stayed there for nine months in utter darkness, fed by blood! Then he got out of the womb as a small baby, Weak and gasping to be breast-fed! He ate and drank, and did what that naturally resulted, Is this [what you call] a god?//-- How else would God tabernacle in human flesh (John 1:14)? He had to be born through human blood in order to redeem human blood... But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children. (Galatians 4:4-5) --//High Exalted be Allah above the lies of Christians, All of them will be held accountable for their libels!//-- Allah isnt powerful enough or exalted enough, because he didnt offer humanity the type of awesome salvation that the God of Israel offers. What Christ did on everyones behalf, was and always will be far beyond what your Allah could achieve... He is Jesus, who is crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might experience death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9) --//O Cross-worshippers! For what reason is this exalted and blame [is cast upon those] who reject it? Is it not logical to break and burn it, along with the one who innovated it?//-- If you are referring to Paul as the originator of Christianity, youre wrong. Jesus is the originator of Christianity. All Paul did was offer theological arguments from using the Old Testament (they didnt have a New Testament to preach from for over 30 years, after the ascension of Christ). Imagine preaching an Easter Sunday service (about the resurrection of the Messiah), only with the Old Testament? But thats what they did. Thus, Paul himself says... Having been circumcised on the eighth day, I am of the nation of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As far as the Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee. (Philippians 3:5) So, he was very much an ultra orthodox Jew. Not a Christian. He became a Christian when he realized that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah according to the Old Testament... The Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures—and is still alive! (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) --//Since the Lord was crucified on it, and his hands were fastened to it? That is really a cursed cross to carry, So discard it, do not kiss it!//-- It would be a cursed cross if Jesus didnt defeat death, and was dead for eternity. --//The Lord was abused on it, and you adore it?//-- We adore his resurrection! --//So [it is clear that] you are one of His enemies!//-- Every human being that has ever lived were enemies of God, through sin... All have sinned and continue to fall short of Gods glory. (Romans 3:23) Yet through his gracious love, he became like one of us in order to adopt us as his children... By his grace they are justified freely through the redemption that is in the Messiah Jesus, whom God offered as a place where atonement by the Messiahs blood would occur through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because he had waited patiently to deal with sins committed in the past. He wanted to demonstrate at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies anyone who has the faithfulness of Jesus. (Romans 3:24-26) --//If you extol it because it carried the Lord of this World//-- Satan is... ...the god of this world... (2 Corinthians 4:4) So no, Satan wasnt crucified. --//Why don’t you prostrate yourself and worship graves//-- Because, as it was prophecised that God would destroy the grave... From the power of Sheol I will rescue them, from death I will redeem them. Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? (Hosea 13:14) Sheol is a Hebrew word that basically means the grave. Notice, Paul quotes this Old Testament verse and applies it to the work of Christ... For what is decaying must be clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying must be clothed with what cannot die. Now, when what is decaying is clothed with what cannot decay, and what is dying is clothed with what cannot die, then the written word will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up by victory! Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Now deaths stinger is sin, and sins power is the Law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah! (1 Corinthians 15:53-57) The grave was too weak for Christ. Thus why should we worship the grave? --//Since the grave contained your god in it?//-- And still does? Obviously not. So your argument is invalid. Why should we worship Muhammad? His body is still in his tomb! --//So Christ-worshipper, open your eyes, This is what the matter is all about.//-- I have opened my eyes and have realized... ...the confidence that is produced by God having called you, the rich glory that is his inheritance among the saints, and the unlimited greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his mighty strength, which he brought about in the Messiah when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realm. (Ephesians 1:18-20)
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 05:21:30 +0000
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