God’s Time Isn’t Our Time

A friend gave me a subscription to a Scripture study site for Christmas. I’m doing the introductory course on the Old Testament. A dozen lessons in, one thing particularly strikes me. God’s time is not our time. God makes a promise and then He waits and watches. 

All the Blather That is Islamic Theology

This is not the Flight into Egypt.
This is Abraham Dismissing Hagar and Ishmael 

Discrepancies in Mohammedan theology are numerous, one being that originally Islam was not called Islam at all but rather what it actually was - Mohammedanism, meaning the religion of Muhammad, not God.

That being said, one major error in all the blather that is Islamic "theology" is this: If Muhammad was a prophet sent from God, why would God choose an Arab descended from a Hebrew?

Muslims believe that Islam is the PURE word of God, so why would God not have chosen a PURE Arab to dispense the PURE Quran to the world? Muhammad was not a pure Arab because he was descended from Ishmael, or so the story goes. Ishmael's father of course was Abraham, Abraham was a Hebrew, and while in his father's household, Ishmael would have practiced his father's Hebrew religion.

Sunday Meditation: Embracing the Will of God

The Sacrifice of Isaac by Rembrandt

Accepting God's will in our lives can be a real challenge -- more than a challenge -- it can be like walking on broken glass in bare feet. I remember watching The Bible, a movie that has some good scenes and some not so good scenes. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were just plain creepy. But I remember one powerful scene vividly.

George C. Scott played Abraham. We saw him welcome Isaac with joy and, as he grows, explain the genealogy of the family which was carved on a wooden stick.

And then God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham interprets that in light of the practice of the pagan societies of his day who offered their children to their gods. He believes God wants him to slay the boy on the altar of sacrifice where animals were offered. Biblical scholar, Fr. Lawrence Boadt, in his book Reading the Old Testament, describes the scene this way:

Jerusalem Explained

Dr Mordechai Kedar - Why Islam's claim to Jerusalem is false

Is Islam an Abrahamic Faith?

Abraham and the Angels
Arent de Gelder,  1680-1685

The Story of Abraham, the First Muslim

Islam is strictly and spiritually a Muhammadan faith, and as such, has no claim to Abraham as its spiritual founder, therefore is not an Abrahamic Faith. In addition, it is Islamic tradition that Muhammad descended from Abraham's son Ishmael, however, this also does not mean that the religion Muhammad founded is an Abrahamic Faith, for religion and faith are of the soul, spiritual and transcendent, and not transmittable by bloodline.