Muslims appalled at 'perfect man' billboard on Indiana highway

AOL ^ | Jun 6, 2017 | Alec Laskar

[Cronos]

They do believe that. But the facts show that Mohammad did not exist and that the Arab Empire at the start was NOT Islamic

This is the map of the area in 600 AD

And THIS is the area that the Sassanid Empire conquered in 614 AD and it lasted until 625 AD allegedly

It is clearly in history that the Sassanid Empire:

1. Conquered Israel and Egypt in 614 AD
2. The Shahenshah (Emperor) Khusrao II married a Christian princess and has as his favorite concubine a non-Trinitarian Christian bride
3. They had a large expansion of Christians under them -- the Assyrian Christian Church in fact spread as far as Mongolia and India under the Sassanid protection
4. Zoroastrianism had become more ossified, with a strict caste system

It seems really likely that the Romans lost this land to the Sassanids and the Arabs became caretakers of the land, just as Osrohoenes of Palmyra became the caretaker of the same area in the 200s AD when SAssanid Shah Shapur II captured the Roman Emperor

But after O was bumped off by his wife, his wife inaugurated the brief Palmyrene Empire.

The same thing probably happened here -- the first "Caliphs" were Arab "caretakers" -- de facto rulers but paying a lip service to the Roman Emperor in Constantinople. Eventually they turned against him and tried to conquer the entire empire, but were beaten back.

They were then content with the Semitic lands and the Persian lands, until they, the Ummayads, were overthrown by the Abbasids in 750 AD who started to vilify the Ummayads as not religious enough -- what really happened was that they had manufactured their Arab prophet and the mythology of Ishmael being the one about to be sacrificed by Abraham as a justification for their Empire.

The Hadiths ("sayings of Mohammad") start in the late 750 as justification for various activities and are only collected and verified in the late 900s

Similarly the Sirah (the biography of Mo) is written in the early 800s

Mohammad did not exist -- it's a distortion of the title "Praiseworthy one" of non-Trinitarian Christian combined with Gnostic teachings (the Qur'an has two conflicting stories of what happened at the Crucifixion:

1. the non-Trinitarian Christian one is that he was close to death but didn't die
2. The Gnostic one is that he was either replaced (by Simeon of Cyrene) or "laughed at them from the cross" - as he was a savior from a "higher god" and the world is maya (illusion) - an idea borrowed from Hinduism-Buddhism-Jainism

[metmom]

That’s very interesting.

But they still stand condemned in my book for following what they believe to be a real person who did those things.

islam HAS TO GO!

[Dead Corpse]

*ding ding*

Islam has never undergone a Reformation as Christianity did. Without it, they are stuck in 7th Century barbarism and will continue to be a blight on the World deserving only extreme eradication.

[dfwgator]

[Cronos]

Islam has to go yes and the ways to do it are:

1. Show that the prophet didn't exist and the religion is founded on lies
2. Destroy Mecca -- the entire triumphalism ends and the religion disintegrates

[Cronos]

Dead Corpse, Islam HAS undergone a reformation - the Wahabbis of the 18th century and the Salafis of the 19th century ARE the reformation i.e. the Islamic state are re-forming and have reformed Islam

Copying in two non-Catholic freepers Ive been at loggerheads in the past about Christianity before

What is "re-formation"? As the name suggests, the aim is to start anew a religion or movement -- assuming that some point in time the main movement "diverged" from the original

CHRISTIAN REFORMERS could only go back to peace and love because THAT is the basic tenets of Christianity

All of us Christians can agree with Jesus' teachings in the Gospels and the Apostles living it -- we diverge on points after that, but no Christian group can go back and find that Christ preached jihad

But Muslims CAN and do -- read about the life of this alleged prophet in the Sirah -- he was a vile human being

The Wahabbis believe that Islam under the Turks deviated from this militant group as it didn't kill enough or destroy enough.

Any Muslims reformation group will copy the "ideal man - Mo" -- and the Islamic state does that

Any Christian group will imitate the "ideal man - Jesus" - and you have an altogether different viewpoint, more Amish than Islamic state

Islam has reformed and you see this in the Islamic state..

[Tax-chick]

I agree. Without the Reformation, we would certainly have a different array of Christian expression in the world today. However, Christianity is founded on Jesus Christ, many of whose words and actions are known from the Gospels. A strictly “What Would Jesus Do?” approach would tend to lead to martyrdom.

[Gamecock]

**A strictly “What Would Jesus Do?” approach would tend to lead to martyrdom.**

Indeed.

The better question is to ask What Did Jesus Do?

[Tax-chick]

The better question is to ask What Did Jesus Do?

Uh, died. He made himself obnoxious to the ruling powers until they executed Him. For this reason, in addition to many passages of Scripture, I don't believe that Christianity lends itself to state authoritarianism. That's not to say it hasn't been tried, but the fact that it fell apart every time "is not a bug, it's a feature!" as it were.

[Gamecock]

*He made himself obnoxious to the ruling powers until they executed Him.*

Well, in a sense. If you call telling the truth about himself, that he is God, being obnoxious.

But let’s not forget that through His death He took on our sin. Pretty sure none of us can do that for others.

[metmom]

I agree. Without the Reformation, we would certainly have a different array of Christian expression in the world today. However, Christianity is founded on Jesus Christ, many of whose words and actions are known from the Gospels. A strictly “What Would Jesus Do?” approach would tend to lead to martyrdom.

I would disagree with that.

Jesus didn't die to be come a martyr.

My take is that a strictly WWJD approach would lead to a life of service to others. Peter said this about Jesus.

Acts 10:34-43 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

But in reading that, it hit me that it's more than just copying Jesus. He left us with the command to preach the gospel, so our Christianity is more than copying Jesus life; it's following His directive.

And that isn't jihad. It's telling people the good news of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ.

[Tax-chick]

Jesus didn't die to be come a martyr.

That is true. However, a Christian martyr, by definition, has suffered and/or died because of faith in Christ.

[Tax-chick]

Well, in a sense. If you call telling the truth about himself, that he is God, being obnoxious.

Do you find that a lot of people like being told the truth about themselves and God? While your next-door neighbor is not likely to kill you, or turn you in to the government to be killed, it's not at all unlikely that he would if you lived in Yemen, among other difficult places.

But let’s not forget that through His death He took on our sin. Pretty sure none of us can do that for others.

Yes, that's certainly true.