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Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

This blog will be written from an orthodox Christian point of view. There may be some topic that is out of bounds, but at present I don't know what it will be. Politics is a part of life. Theology and philosophy are disciplines that we all participate in even if we don't think so. The Bible has a lot to say about economics. How about self defense? Is war ethical? Think of all the things that someone tells you we should not touch and let's give it a try. Everything that is a part of life should be an expression of worship.

Keep it courteous and be kind to those less blessed than you, but by all means don't worry about agreeing. We learn more when we get backed into a corner.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Opus 2016-130: Headlines: Deja Vu

I don’t know if you have been following the persecution of Christians going on in the Middle East.  It runs from harassment on the streets to torture and murder.  If you remember the men kneeling in orange on the beach with brave warriors of Allah standing behind them in black with their faces hidden you may have missed that this was Muslims murdering Christians.  Christians are fleeing Iraq under threat of death. 

What you may not understand is that this is just a repeat of earlier history.  It was this type of activity that generated the Crusades one thousand years ago.  The Christians were a majority in the middle east before 700.  They were still a large minority in A.D. 1,000.  The Arab Muslims were getting along fine with the local Christians and encouraging pilgrims from Europe.  There were bandits and it was dangerous to travel but that was the times.  Then the Turkish Muslims took over.  They began to persecute Christians and cut off the holy places from pilgrims. 

The Christians of Europe were willing to live with the fact that Islam had conquered the area and taken it away from the Christians as long as they were able to visit Jerusalem and other spots they considered sacred.  Remember that Christianity started in Jerusalem and Islam was an import from Saudi Arabia.  For medieval Christians visiting the Holy Land wasn’t just a holiday to visit the roots of Christianity.  There was spiritual power and healing to those who made the journey.  It would be a parallel idea to Muslims making the trip to Mecca once during their life.  When the Turks cut them off from access it had a deep spiritual message.  It was limiting the Christians’ access to means of grace.  It was making it harder to get into heaven.

So the Crusade began.  Now it seems to be deja vu all over again.  Will this be enough to wake up the West today?  We keep hearing that we should be open minded and encourage the moderates in Islam to lead to a renaissance and reformation within the religion.  This displays an ignorance of the Koran.  Again I encourage you to get a copy and read the entire book.  Don’t rely on what the Communists called “useful idiots” to cherry pick quotations for you.  What is labeled as “Radical Islam” IS the reformation.  It is the people who are taking the teachings of Mohammad seriously and applying them with devotion.  I can’t find the quote but I remember reading that there were moderate Muslim leaders that allowed Christians to live and prosper.  The problem is that those were not the devout Muslims.  Whenever you got leaders who were devout, the persecutions returned. 

So will Islam win this time?  Will the Crusaders return?  If they don’t you will see a return of the Holocaust with the added feature that Christians will join the Jews in the camps.

Will I see you there?

homo unius libri

2 comments:

  1. I've always said that there is no such thing as a "moderate" muslim. There are only loud, violent muslims and quiet, sneaky muslims.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think those are WV synonyms for "radical" and "moderate".

    Grace and peace

    ReplyDelete

Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.