1962 VIRGIN BIRTH

I wanted to close up the last couple of posts on the common misunderstandings of Christianity and Islam.

But also mention a few things about the halfway house.

Okay- the last misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians is the term Son of God.

This term is found in the New Testament- and around this time of year we celebrate the Virgin Birth as well.

Strict Muslims are not supposed to see- or ever read this term.

Why?

Islam teaches that to say Jesus is the Son of God- that it denotes a sort of sexual relationship between God and man [woman].

Of course the church does not teach this- when Christians say – Son of God- they are speaking about Jesus in a unique way.

He ‘came out’ from God- was ‘Generated’ from God- in a way that no other creature can lay claim to.

Now- when the church uses this statement ‘first begotten of God’ or ‘the first born among many brothers’ [both found in the bible].

The church is not saying that Jesus was the actual ‘first created being’ from God.

Okay- I know this gets a little tough- but it’s hard to clear up the misunderstanding without a little theology.

So- historically- the church interprets these terms as meaning Jesus has the first place- the Preeminence over all creation.

Grant it- those who reject the Christian teaching about the Deity of Christ- they think the church is denying the bible- in these areas- when she says these terms do not mean Jesus was created.

To be fair- I think the New Testament does tech that Jesus is not a created being [John 1:1- The Word was God- speaks about Christ].

But I also see how others can view these verses differently.

The main point today is the church does not believe that Jesus was the product of a sexual physical relationship between God and Mary.

No- Son of God means- to the contrary- that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary in a non physical way- and she became pregnant- thus ‘The VIRGIN Birth’.

But- because devout Muslims are forbidden to read this term- Son of God- some have made New Testament translations that leaves the term out.

Instead of ‘Son of God’ these bibles say ‘he that was generated from God’.

Okay- it kind of means the same thing- I’m not against making the change [though some are- because it is not an actual translation form the Greek].

But if it’s done so Muslims can read the New Testament without violating their faith- then I’m for it in that limited use way.

Okay- obviously Christians and Muslims have many other things they see differently- but in the last 3 posts I wanted to hit on some of the main things.

Often times when studying different religions- we [as humans] have a tendency to read what others have to say about a group.

But it helps- a lot- if you read what the group itself actually says.

Now- you still might find some shocking stuff- stuff that is downright in opposition to your faith- but if you read it straight from the ‘horses mouth’ at least you know you’re not opposing something that the other group might not even believe!

Okay- I guess we’ll skip the skip the few things about the halfway house.

I wrote a couple of posts the last week or so about my friend Huey who fell off of a pier and hurt himself pretty bad.

He spent the weekend at my house- he probably broke a few ribs- but does not want to go to the doctor so I put him up for a couple of days.

All is going real well with the halfway house- we already had a judge release an inmate to the house.

It’s kind of funny- the guy we sent down to represent the house- Andy- was a drunk on the streets about a month ago.

Yeah- it worked out well.

That’s it for now- figured I would not post on the terrible tragedy of the killing of the little kids.

That story has already consumed the news cycle- no need for more.

Talk to you later- John.

www.corpuschristioutreachministries.blogspot.com

Note- Do me a favor, those who read/like the posts- re-post them on other sites as well as the site you read them on. Thanks- John. Don’t forget to scroll down on the timeline [Facebook] - I have posted lots.