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CHAPTER FOUR
 

WHY DO YOU SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD ?

Spirituality and Submission 

The Measure of Islam and the Co-ordinates of Consummation

THAT was the question of the angel to the concussed disciples, heavy with grief, devout in devotion, coming to the tomb for the body which, being removed by its owner, was not there!*1

Despite the miracles from Moses to Elijah, from Elisha to Hezekiah, the messages, the comforts, the helps, the restoration from Babylon, the experience of immediate and dramatic deliverance and of patient slow deliverance with much wisdom given and many foes overcome despite subtlety, all this, as if forgetting the raisings from paralytic beds, the deliverances from leprosy, the power over demons and death alike, the disciples were distressingly human. They had to be jarred into realisation, and this was such a thrust. "WHY do you seek the living among the dead!"

How often do we tend to forget, to ignore, rather like children, what the Lord has done.

Take Britain (one does it with concern, lest it seem pointing the finger, for it is not done so much in scorn as in love and tender-hearted woe at Britain's new afflictions from slithering off course)! In World War II the deliverances were prodigious. The breaking of a major enemy code, with co-operation from King George VI's pocket, the wonder of Dunkirk, the help from the utter follies of Hitler at Stalingrad, which in some ways almost gave them the war, the outflung madness of pride and ideological mania, the development with all the energy of the love of freedom, with help form European scientists as well as its own, of the atomic bomb and its liberation from slaughterous removal of Japanese from numerous Pacific Islands, the entry into the end of the millenium with power and energy, hope and welcome: these things seem all but forgotten IN PRESENT TERMS.

Let us quote, with but slight addition,  from a recent chapter on this, drawn from Malachi Ch. 2 (colour added):

With such nearer to contemporary cases in view, it is not hard to imagine the divine displeasure with the extraneous, the imperious and the unfaithful, strutting in clothes of authority. Small wonder too that we hear the metaphor, that many were married to the daughter of a foreign god. It appeared as heartless disloyalty, pretence and pretension all in one blighted broth. That then was the situation in the Israel of Malachi's day, in no mean measure.

To them, it was too much to see the sacred place in the heart of God, of the sublime, divine covenant, and all its specifications and revelation. It was one, nevertheless,  whose unbounded cost was such that its requirement  was covered only when it was all consummated in Christ. Assuredly, this covenant, this sacred preliminary to the finale in Christ, was a "holy institution which He loves".

This reminds us of the fearful penalties, due and spiritual, which relate in the Bible to tampering, toying and trifling with the objective truth of the word of God, while still maintaining some sort of semblance of relationship to Him. Whether it is radical liberal neologians, in their intoxication, or inter-religious congratulations, as with PM Blair and President Bush of late,  towards what is objectively an anti-Christian body, whether it is WCC amalgams of religions, or social, psychological or other 'interpretations' of religion, which subordinate it to culture and culture to man, so making God not there, and man divine: it all tends in but one direction, and to be one thing. (See  Lord of Life Chs.  8,  9, and Chs. 8 , 13 of Red Alert ..., SMR pp. 422Qff., Beauty of Holiness Ch. 4,  *2.)

That ? It is this: they are a mockery of the God whose revelation has been given as authoritative, actual and final.

·  "May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob

·  The one who does this, watcher and answerer, who yet brings an offering to the LORD of hosts!"

In other words, Israel of old failed, despite the liberality of liberation from Egypt, the munificence of miracle on the way to the glory of the promised land and the tenderness of prophet after prophet, the solicitude and the payments in life and heart as they sought to lead Israel back to the one and only God from whom they strayed, the revealed and operative, the delightful and active God who PERFORMED all things for them (cf. Isaiah 64:5, Psalm 57:2), like a Father, like an eagle that stirs up her young, and teaches them to fly, catching them on her wings as Moses was inspired to put it (Deuteronomy 32:11-12).

HOW DID SHE FAIL ? She married the daughter of a foreign God (Malachi 2:11). She distanced herself from devotion. She became ... erudite in religion, sophisticated in spirituality, giddy in godliness, wandering here and there like some spoilt adolescent in the family car, drunken and dark in the evening's entertainment.

Is this not what PM Blair is close to doing ? and President Bush AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL. We are not looking at the private lives of these people, but at their PUBLIC DECLARATIONS. It is this which is reducing their nations at a spiritually intemperate speed.

It is not that in such actions, they as individuals are so out of line with much and with many in their countries;  but rather this, that their current leads in these things are helping once and for all to dignify, signify and signalise the erratic errors of many in their nations for long in the past.

Thus briefly above we mention some of these influences of the immediate past, subordinating God to gods, religion to culture, worship to wandering, purity to composites: "whether it is WCC amalgams of religions, or social, psychological or other 'interpretations' of religion, which subordinate it to culture and culture to man, so making God not there, and man divine: it all tends in but one direction..."

Such influences and developments have often been studied in the past*2. Currently we merely mention a few of them in seeing the trend and the need to amend, the peril and the pollution.

What then are we seeing ? It is this. Britain and the USA have much in common now with Israel of old at the spiritual level. Inordinately blessed with a sort of exuberance and magnificence of magnitude, they are acting in various ways now, and in particular in leadership at the religious level, with such an abandon that it not only resembles the cited sins of Israel, from the lips of its prophets, whose words rest in the Bible, unmoved, but asks for desolation.

This does not mean that it will of necessity speedily come. It does not mean that because the provocation is extreme, and contradistinct from much of their former national ways, and represents a huge decline, the wave will break with destruction at once. Nor does it mean, for that matter that it will not! It may; it is being invited. That is all. It is far more perilous than would be walking without equipment at high levels in Mount  Everest. You may last. It is possible. It depends. BUT YOU ARE BEING MOST FOOLISH!

Nor does it mean that the World Trade Centre destruction is a direct result of this sort of error, which was mounting for decades before it happened. It is not for man to tell mankind what God is thinking. IT IS HOWEVER to say that the sort of things traced in *2 below, for example, the gender bender crusade (it was nothing less), the irrational religious travesty of making everything relative with absolute knowledge, the sex escapades, the sophisticated spirituality which gets instead of gives, success for a reward, the whole culture of making religion a part of culture, and so subordinate to man, so making an idol of worship: these and many more things were an invitation to disaster.

Such approaches were pressed, hammed up with the politically unrebuked Clinton affair with Lewinsky, and in the reported appointment of a homosexual ambassador in a way and time preventing government intervention. It became wrong to declare right. It was guilty to seek innocence. Nothing mattered too much, it seemed. You could fellowship with Romanism, dignify anti-Christian sects with orthodoxy, move in a total milieu of highly spiritual adultery of spirit, pronounce blessing on perversity and congratulate yourself on your own tolerance and sophistication. Why worry ? Money was there. Employment was  there. Knowledge was there.

God ? So very private, and then so very public in such very notable ways, as convenience arrested truth and degeneration got new and highly religious names.

It is not that Britain and the USA are being prejudicially  segregated to be pilloried in such things. They are, after all, important in this respect for three reasons. First, they were once in great height in the right (far from perfect, but with enormous potential and much relationship to the word of God, comparatively speaking, among the nations). They are conspicuous in their pasts in this way.

Again, they have become more than tolerant: there is an increase towards INTOLERANCE OF TRUTH, and libelling with labels of those who do not vary from what was once deeply ingrained in the national morals.

The most important reason in this coverage, however, for singling out these two nations is this. it is contemporary history. They are at war. Not they alone, but they in the forefront. They are using words in this war, as are their opponents. Some of these words are in the field of religion. That is the third reason. Let us remind ourselves of the thrust of these words in this regard!
 
 

THE MOSLEM LURE:
its cost and its condemnation

The Moslem 'faith' is being stated to be 'good' , its teachings of this kind. People are said to be friends of Moslems. One is not against this religion. This is the thrust. This is the error. This is the sort of governmental thing now being said. This is the folly which in particular, is now our focus, since it is central in the current war.

We have traced these words of leading political figures before (cf. Red Alert, in a Grey Day with the Bright Light Coming Chs.  6 and  10): now we are to look at them as such, not for their news impact, but for their relationship to fact. In doing so, we shall freely consult earlier works, seeking to make a convenient meeting place for many matters.

There been enough attention to the violence to faith aspect of the Moslem religion (cf. Red Alert ... Chs.  6,  7,  16 and associated references therein; and to this add Divine Agenda Ch. 6). This now is merely one of several areas to be conjoined conveniently as we see that the teaching of the Koran is neither rational, nor sound nor to be desired in any way. Like most religions, it has various nice features; yet that is true of a house with a radioactive basement, but an excellent kitchen. Our task is truth, not preference.

Let us look at these in the light of the exhaustive capability of the Bible to stand higher than the head, in any criticism or assault, to see that God has indeed left just one EVIDENTIALLY clear word to man. We have seen this often before; but today the task is more restricted. It is just a compilation of some areas of fatal weakness in the Koran, and majestic strength by contrast in the Bible; of utter destruction for the Koran, but of something far beyond mere satisfaction in the Bible, a capacity to meet need, and then proceed past it, as one finds in a great teacher, well within his/her capabilities. That, it is what is to be expected with God!

Pick what is NOT GOD, whether in the submission to false prophecy as in Islam or in any other venue (cf. Lord of Life Chs.  6,  8, Red Alert ... Ch. 15), and you are at war with a person whose power is that of the ONLY SUPER POWER. The USA and Russia had a status; now the USA has this attributed. Recently, one of the more discerning officials pointed out that yes, they had sophisticated methods of gathering intelligence about plots and pernicious assaults planned by unbalanced people and inveterate enemies and the like, but 'super power' or not, the USA had like other nations, LIMITS.

In other words, it is time for glamour to give way to God. This may not have been entirely the point in the mind of the speaker on that occasion, but it may well have been its basis. GOD IS THE SOLE SUPERPOWER. It is ONLY GOD who has the power to be invincible, the heart to be incorruptible, the grace to be unimpugnable, and the love to be desirably irresistible. At that, He does not force, for that would merely make personality an excrescence, not a feature, a fraud and not a focus. Anyone who merely manipulates has failed to make persons; he has made mere robotics with complexities. As soon as God is irresistible with VIOLENCE relative to faith, at that moment man is not in existence, persons have fled, and creation is a mere malady. (Cf. esp. Divine Agenda Ch. 6 on various cases including the Moslem and European, SMR pp. 50ff., 65ff.)

In that case, at once God is responsible for all evil, and thus becomes evil. This collides with the necessary goodness of God*3.

That makes men who are not so evil better than their maker, which is impossible, since He exclusively is their source. Without His having the power to be good, He could not create it. What He lacked, is not within His grasp. He lacks nothing, however, for if He did, He would be IN a system which had features obstructive to and limiting for Him. That would mean that God + system were a combination, or that He was an immersion within it, a mere anthropomorphic fantasy of the self-elevating mind of man, making gods of his own size!

If that were so, of course, then the maker of 'god' plus system, would be God, as we have seen in our numerous excursions in causation (cf. SMR Chs. 1-3, 10 and see indexes). Since we are talking of God, there is no point in having terminological confusion. That 'god' is just a name without logical relevance to our argumentation, to the giving of a reason for the faith. When however we revert to the one to whom the term is reasonably applicable, such violence would evaporate man. It would be from a being who did not succeed in making persons, persons who could think, damn Him (with damnable consequences in very different direction, thereby invoked, unless mercy brought repentance), lampoon Him, seek to kill Him, to overcome Him, to laugh at truth while affirming truth in the laughter that shies and capers, and such intellectual suicides. God has most manifestly succeeded with intrepidity and glorious success. The abasement in all such and other matters so conspicuous in our race is attestation of that.

One of these abasements is the Moslem false prophet syndrome, which has come exactly as Christ predicted (Matthew 24: 24). Indeed, it is one of a multitude of false prophecies and its leader one of a mass of false prophets, as also predicted in the same place and elsewhere, as we have often seen before this. In fact, in this case, there is a double predictive hit. Not only do we find a false prophet, but a false christ. Not that Muhammad masqueraded as christ, or a christ in one more obvious sense at least, but that he manufactured a christ without the slightest historical evidence or logical ground, contrary to all evidence and attestation (cf. SMR Appendix C), to all reason (SMR Chs. 1-3, 6), and simply installed him in the pantheon or the prophets to which he was partial (concerning which see Surahs 32, 41, 57, for example). He even appears to dither in the process, not surprising, since making God is not a nice occupation, and far beyond the human mind, on the one hand, and possibility on the other. It is mere play, in the maximal derogation of deity vein.

Thus in the Koran, Christ is both told by the being called 'God' that He must die, and in that same collection we are told that He did not do so, really, it all being a trick, someone else having been killed instead by a mistake, or by a device of the 'great plotter', a title which Muhammad reserves most interestingly for God. It is however not God who plots (Psalm 2 c f. Joyful Jottings 21), but those who act vainly but with panache, as if to unseat Him. He often refers to this state of heart and mind that so aspires (Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, II Thessalonians 2). It does not work of course. That is only one of the reasons why it is false! (See Surahs 4:157ff., and 3:51ff..)

Thus we have already found errors in this religion.

Surahs with these features, direct or implied, basic to the procedure or active in its pursuit, include 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 47, 48, and merely SOME of these were considered in some detail in Red Alert, in  Grey Day with the Bright Light Coming Ch. 16. Surah 9 throbs with the whole unwholesome menace of force in this area.

This was the means of establishing the religion: flight and force, so that what was adverse being occupied, it was enslaved. Penalties rich and ripe for breach of contract after force had been used then became a mode of debasement and deployment of religious force.

This is a means of propagating it, in many instances such as Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran and in different measures, elsewhere. It is natural that it should be, since so much of this kind is to be found in the Koran.

Often issues here are confused. The point here is nothing whatever to do with the intentions or practice of this or that person, human, who wants to be called a Moslem, for this or that private reason, but does not want to intimidate or violate anyone else at all, in any circumstances at all. Naturally there may be many such people. This is their privilege. They would not be the only people on this poor and depleted, impoverished and polluted planet who are confused. One would of course wish to take them at their word, if there is no contrary evidence, and hope for the best. The same may be said of Romanism. The mere fact that the inquisitions were what they were, and that the World War II case of Cardinal Stepinac was what it was (condemned war criminal cf. SMR pp. 920, 951ff.), does NOT imply that all who choose for various private reasons to called themselves 'Roman Catholics' (the term is unfortunate, a contradiction in terms, for if Roman, then not catholic, if catholic the not Roman - Christ is the universal, not Rome or Venice or London or Paris), are violent.

Some of these could conceivably be neither violent in their private lives, nor hopeful of violence in their public lives, but wholly averse to violence in religion. The world is confused and the mere facts of history and papal pronouncements (see index Inquisition and SMR pp. 1032ff.) do NOT imply that these people mean what their literature asserts. They may HOPE for change; contrary to reason, but nevertheless, they may believe it has come; they may think nothing is better, and try to reform it and so on. The cast is innumerable; for the human heart without the mandate of the Bible OVER IT, without addition or control, thinks up innumerable schemes, scenarios, however improbable, improper or confused.

No, we do not at all proceed from the propositional basis of a given religion to any assumption about the morals, ethics or proclivities of its adherents, in any rigorous way. On the other hand, we DO rightly hold and must do so, that if they DO choose to adhere to a given religion, Romanist, Moslem, Seventh Day Adventist, Mormon or whatever (and the possibilities are now almost limitless in full accord with Christ's prediction cf. Heart and Soul, Mind and Strength, Tender Times for Timely Truths Chs.  7 and  8), then there are SPIRITUAL consequences. If Christ ALONE is not your ONLY Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11, Acts 4:11-12), then it is a FACT that you have violated fundamental statement from God. Your reasons are your own; the result is attributable. If you are ashamed of Him and of His words, HE Himself STATES the case against you (Luke 9:23-27).

NO MAN, He states, can serve two masters, and of masters you are allowed just two things. ONE is the number, and CHRIST is the name. That surely is clear! (Matthew 23:8-10, 6:24). Again, 'the word that I have spoken,' says Christ of any man, 'will judge him in the last day.' As to that word: "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has one who judges him - the word that I have spoken will judge him..."


Again, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" ( Matthew 24:35).

At once we find that utter division between Islam, submission, and Christ.

The former used force, grew by force, overcame opposition by force on the re-entry to Mecca for instance, and often since, even in whole continents, used force to differentiate between first and second class citizens by treaties providing utter humiliation, with intense and immense penalties if any then sought to escape from this spiritual invasion forced onto their souls (cf. Red Alert ...Chs. 16 and  6).

The latter also has force in its ambit. It however had this contrast. FORCE was used AGAINST CHRIST, and proceeded to His planned murder.

It was planned in two sources. First, it was planned by God so that He could be the redeemer, Christ the penalty bearer as in Isaiah 53, Galatians 3, Hosea 13:14, Psalm 49:7,15. Secondly, it was planned by man as in Psalm 2 and the Gospel (esp. John 11), so that His power could be blotted out, His popularity overcome and mere rule by men could continue. In this way, that scheming of man is immensely similar in Romanism, Islam and the Judaistic error of killing Christ. In each case, another authority (Sanhedrin, pope, Muhammad with or without Immans) is DIRECTING and ENFORCING. In each case, the word of God is abused and trifled with. In each case the soul of man is subjectible, and often in fact subjected, to spiritual tyranny by other men, without the slightest logical or spiritual ground. It becomes mere spiritual oppression, something which, with many others, constitutes the PRISON for the prisoners for whom Christ came to provide deliverance.

Has Christ then failed since billions of mortals at least SAY they belong to such false prophets and christs or both ? Not at all. He died. His disciples - as shown in dear Archbishop Cranmer, in Ridley and Latimer, joys to the heart in their courage and dedication, sensitivity and devotion to Christ - must be willing to do so. If you are willing, where is the prison ? You are either free on earth or in heaven. You do not accept such impositions of the flesh. You, being Christ's, live by, in and for Him; so that if they destroy the body or seek to sacrifice the life, as they often do and have done jointly for millions, then that is their affair. You do not fall into their spiritual direction. You have One who is with you, and with whom you have the choicest of relationships as friend and worshipper, Jesus the Christ. Thus Christ Himself put it (in Matthew 10:22ff.):

"And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.

"For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

"Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."
 

It is not playing, this thing. It is not a matter of force, but NEITHER is it a matter of sham. You are what you are and where you are for good reason. The reason may not however be ethically good! That is an entirely separate question. If you are not in Christ, get there in repentance and faith. If you are, no problem!

These things, in the end, are intensely simple. They are made that way, at the Gospel level, because we men and women and children can be intensely foolish. There is NO lack of clarity; nor in saying so, is there lack of charity. GOD is the criterion of charity, and in all charity, we must implore you, cut the cords and come to Christ as the only avenue which reason or revelation alike, will tolerate.
 

It is NOT so that it MUST be, nor is it so that it is. There is and must be in redemption, but one intermediary between man and God, and this, it is and must be deity Himself, alone adequate for the heart of man (Jeremiah 17:9), immune to its evils, not misled by its pretensions, apart  from its sin (I Timothy 2:1-6, Hebrews 7:25-26). Others may transfer messages, but the Redeemer must have and know the heart. It is He who must bear the sin in the justice of God (Romans 4:25ff., 3:23ff.). The availability of other options is zero, equal to the

Paul puts this as follows in I Timothy 2:

"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,
Who would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time..."


First, then it is necessary to have a redeemer. We have seen this before in various aspects*4.

One of these is as follows.

There has to be an utter cleansing with a just and absolute cover to allow an eternal and just differentiation among men, without compromise on the one hand, or prejudice to any, on the other. When heaven and hell are in view, as in Christianity and Islam, and Romanism for that matter, then this is the position.

Where God does not judge man, this results in the impossibility that He is inept, for the results accrue, and HE is responsible for the very fact of there being a world at all.

Where He does judge, however, His standards must apply, or likewise, He is inept, creating a world where He is systematically aborted, thwarted or impacted contrary to His standards, principles and eternal preferences (cf. cf. SMR pp. 25ff.). Since He will assuredly judge, and one is to be with or without Him, these being options, and man is suffering without Him only because He is made for Him and hence knows and feels the issues: then the absolute difference is needed. Justice must be met. Truth must be met. Where mercy is shown, it is not infatuation or fad: or else justice goes!

The absolute difference for the absolute eternity, for the absolute reality of being with or without God, is made in one way only. It is made by One who IS absolutely different, and hence can MAKE the absolute difference. IN the field of all religions, there is found only ONE such: Jesus the Christ. NO ONE has ever been able to demonstrate ONE sin in Him, not even when His enemies were sophisticated, articulate, vehement, poised, powerful, numerous and in power (cf. Luke 11:46-54, John 11:47ff.).

If they had been able to do so, His career would instantly have ended. When you claim to be God on earth in human form (John 8:58), then sin, in the setting in view, the Old Testament revelation of God, is so utterly contrary to God that it would be comedy and tragedy combined, for anyone both to be shown a sinner and to make ANY sort of claim to be God!

Christ's claim was so irresistible, however, that in all things His works attested it, none could compare at all, and in nothing did He fail (cf. John 8:46-47 and see *6).

Hence death was prescribed (John 11), and executed.

THIS ONE can if He wishes, since God is free, confer absolute gifts on mankind. For thousands of years the Bible (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17) has shown in increasing detail over  the centuries, the nature of the gift, the method and the events concerning it, including the date of the death of the Messiah, instrumental and indeed necessary for this gift (cf. SMR pp. 886ff.).

Only in Christ, in all religion for ever, has there been or is there such a provision. It has to be entirely by grace, for otherwise, the mere fact of education or better environment, or not being tempted by this or that, or someone's friendly aid could make an enormous difference. There is no differentiation between men that is absolute, but that of knowing and loving God, and being accepted by Him on His OWN terms, which meet HIS OWN standards, and are wholly adept for heaven, allowing JUST perfection to be both achieved and donated past all imperfection.

The gift accordingly is by GRACE only (Romans 5:15, 3:23ff., Galatians 3, 5). It is NOT a matter of injustice, giving eternal and absolute differentiation of the most intensive and intense kind, on account of accidents, incidents or for that matter, plans which make more or less tests, conditions and results likely. It is not handing out results for relative and tilted things, on a final and utter basis. It is a gift in which NO differentiation is relevant for man; but one. That one ? Receiving the gift. In addition, the gift  is personal, vital and dynamic, being Christ by His Spirit. It is legal, to cover the cost of pardon, it is loving, to account for the provision, it is effectual, because Christ the shepherd is alive from the dead. It is so wrought that it depends on God only that it is received, and as to Him He would have all men to be saved.

In utter sovereign majesty, in utter penetrating love, He acts with total mercy and total justice; to this add one further aspect, He does it effectually  (John 6:29,37 cf. Predestination and Freewill, The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 4).

Indeed, it is only because there is totally adequate PROVISION for all, and utterly sovereign yearning for all, with wholly effectual remedy for any, that man can escape the clamour of irresponsibility;  and so, in fact being without limit responsible, come or otherwise. Moreover, only when purity is a gift and divine knowledge is the criterion, in terms of a divine love which is not partial but towards all (Colossians 2:19ff., I John 4:7ff., I Timothy 2 cf. The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 4, SMR Appendix B),  is freedom possible: instead of mere manipulation of man, with evil a very essence in a deliberately instituted scenario, not a derivative of the holy wonder of liberty, resident however marred,  itself integral to being a person at all*5.

ONLY Christianity has this to offer; only it has Christ. Colossians 1 in particular thunders out this reality that:

(the plhrwma of Godhead cf. Col. 2:9, 1:15-17, Isaiah 45:18)

He violates nothing; He offers to all: He takes those who are His own (Romans 8:29ff.).

The selection is IN CHRIST (Ephesians 1:4), and NOTHING in man provides a meritorious basis of any kind, or a severance beyond the divine understanding. Christ has all and alone, the necessary purity of merit. Delusions of irresponsibility because of 'fate', events, circumstances are thus in one sweep removed; and conclusions of responsibility freely recognised in our own lives and judgments, are settled on a foundation of fact, not contradiction.

God is no arbitrary tyrant who has made man for fate and fate for man. Evil is the consequence of liberty, liberty of love, and redemption is the unique provision to overcome evil, even at its source. God Himself, in the form of Christ,  took the fatal flaw in man (Hosea 13:14, Philippians 2), for as many as receive Him (John 1:12), "who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,  but of God."

His love is such that He SO loved the WORLD that He GAVE ... WHAT He gave satisfies justice, negates any place in God for evil, gives ground to responsibility, and implements love. Man in NO sense does or can improve upon God, and here is found the God who is superb in all things, majestic without limit, author of liberty and giver both of responsibility and remedy. For all things there is purpose, and nothing is mere throw-away.
 

If God had descended to that level, the mind He created would be superfluous. To discard what you use in all other cases of disposition of life, however, in this case, would merely be foolish. It would mean that you treated it as LESS important than everything else, when by the very doctrines of the creed concerned, it is FAR MORE important.

Christianity not only has the answer in terms of a demonstrable revelation from God (SMR et al.), but Islam lacks any sort of evidence that would count in any other sphere, even remotely. We all know that being willing to fight for something gives you, in some cases at least, some ostensible chance; that being enthusiastic may increase this, but like the case of the young fighter pilot, this does not at all give you life. It may be gone in your first 5 minutes aloft.

You need to be sure, assured. If God is God, then NOTHING lacks in communication capacity, evidential provision, logical precision. In all these things, we have shown over some 41 volumes that there is not merely validity, and complete and utter differentiation of Biblical Christianity from ALL opposition, none other being capable in all facets of logic, evidence and scientific method, but that the further you probe it, the more it responds. It goes far beyond all question of comparison. It has the power to provide more and more in any given field, being multiple in method, marvellous in evidence and continual in making itself available for refutation.

Not only so. It has done this in two main ways. It has done it PERSONALLY in Christ by having Him become man and then LIVE UP to the claim of being God Almighty; and PROPOSITIONALLY in the Bible, by the claim and assertion that this alone is from God in the whole realm of literature, to mankind as such. Its claims, predictions and coverage, back and forwards, is so deep and enormous that the fact that no science, no knowledge, no understanding, no method, no wit, no wisdom can disturb it at all, in these millenia of its presentation to man, is not only what you would expect of the perfect communicator, for quality. It is also what you would expect of God for inimitability. In Isaiah 41, 43, 48 He repeatedly challenges: WHAT ELSE ON EARTH can compare with His precision of prediction, knowledge and understanding. TEST and see! He charges His listeners. The challenge has continued for about 3.5 millenia. It stands.

Such evidential testimony that leaves no possible room for doubt in any comparison is what is needed for the communication of an invisible communicator, with a vital message, to an enormous race. It is given in one case only, Biblical Christianity, founded on the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who Himself insisted on the Bible which in turn had predicted Himself (John 5:39-40). But it is not the case that it is quite so simple. It is more severely testing as well, both personally and practically. God made man and tests him at all points. Unwise is he who does not face the test, use the equipment GOD GAVE HIM and find the result! THAT is precisely the fatal aspect of this error in the Islamic creed, submit. You need to KNOW as well as to submit, so that if you submit, it is to God and not to illusion, preference, cultural force or military might.

This is so, if you are wise, and care for truth and justice, not life on the terms of oppressors with scimitars or aeroplanes aimed at your industrial power... or whatever.

Certainly, this power is not always deployed in the same way; but historically it has been deployed with IMMENSE and international results over continents, in JUST THAT WAY. There is also plenty of justification from its book, for just what has in fact happened, in terms of wallowing in blood, seeking submission on all sides. That is scarcely a confirmation both in its nature and in its failures.

It also provides of course for what has NOT happened, the victories supposedly assured: for Islam has been utterly denuded of power in the Middle East, despite enormous wealth from oil. It has been roundly defeated by the tiniest of nations with the tiniest of forces, not once but repeatedly; and in 1948, on any rational terms, miraculously (cf. SMR Ch. 9). It has languished these 50 years in this, as in Europe where it was smitten not only by the Franks in Tours and Poitiers, in the 8th century, but at the borders, in Constantinople, by Leo the Isaurian in the case of Constantinople in crucial victories, 717 and 718 A.D.. For centuries, it settled after some flourishes of victories as assignable, in defeats and in a mediocrity of power and rule which, while flashing with cruelties called purity at many times, and maimings and the like, was far from 'success'. In the last half century it has been thrashed by Israel, the midget, just as God indicated would occur to its assailants, upon its return (Zech. 12 cf. SMR Ch. 9, Appendix A).

Indeed, so vast is the power and wisdom of the Father who sent His Son into the world, that it is like playing with the forces of assault. Not only was Israel to be mocked and scattered about the world for its sins, following the death of Christ, but it was to be restored after much time. Not only that, it was to be vastly assaulted when restored, and vastly triumphant over those who sought its ruin, being massive in their numbers against the fledgling nation. Not merely that, but the effort would prove a consumption on a grand scale to the aggressors, such as the UN in its decisions since 1947, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria. Not only so, but Jerusalem would be divided, as in 1948. Not only that, but the outcome in due course would be an Israel in which very many would return to the Lord whom they crucified, as a nation, so much before. Prediction contains the Muslim and allied menaces, like a child. The Koran makes noises, but the results in power do not happen. One is in control; one is not.

Such is the way of God amidst sinners, multiplied, multiple and of great diversity.

The point is this: that all men are sinners. None is perfect but Christ, and that only because He is God incarnate. Man has fallen. He is so often deluded by this and by that, psychologically, morally, ethically and in justice and in truth. It is ONLY from the mercy of God that he can come back to justice, truth and mercy, love and understanding. Hence various follies had various results, as in the Crusades, where force for religion was used (contrary to the Bible, in fact ) on BOTH sides, imeprialist Romanist and imperialist Muslim! Islam however was far from making the world submit, and as in any force religion, whatever else it may prescribe, this is not very satisfactory.

As far as indomitable force is concerned: To be beaten against all odds, repeatedly, by the Jews, fresh from Hitler's species of gallows in the millions, is scarcely reassuring. It is the end of the myth of the almightiness of Allah, even if the blind had not realised it beforehand.

Christ however loved and lived and died, to plan and date and for a purpose as pre-announced. It is like a surgical operation, pre-planned, pre-announced and here, triumphant in the most insidious, invidious circumstances, millenia after the announcement.

As for Christ, HIS disciples are not only NOT to behead and oppress, and make everyone submit in any contest, and slay this and that group, and take cities by force as was the case when Islam became established, but to be the butt of force. Force is merely and literally a spiritual irrelevance in the battle for the spirits of men. The use of it and failure in that use is the end for the force religions.

In Christ, the way includes

·  the acceptance of oppression,

·  the grace and love in the face of it,

·  the continued patience and joy despite it,

·  the willingness to die NOT in order to make others religious, but in order to be faithful to God, and continue in the love of God even towards enemies, in case any might be touched and changed, and leave the wild and irrelevant vanities of force and put trust in and love for God where it belongs, and must do, in any sincere religious relationship.

This way is not voided by being killed. It is merely illustrated when its people are ready to die in love, and not to force people to submit. The citizens of this kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, are those who submit to God and seek others to do so, knowing that God is a Spirit, and violent control of this earth or any part of it is nothing to do with the change of heart which is essential for people who are base sinners, as has been shown only too clearly by much of Romanism and Islam alike, in their various wars.

Thus testimonially, evidentially, in terms of the fruit and exhibition of what is written, Christianity is perfectly plain and wholly verified, in national dimensions, in private dimensions, in prescriptions and predictions; and Islam is not all verified.

Alas, for it, it is not even verifiable, except where it has failed; for it is not susceptible to it. There is no provision for test. There is no attestation of the source of the alleged revelation. It is contrary to logic, evidence, validity to accept it at all.

Indeed, it is not merely that one must know God to know anything as truth, but this, that one must have grounds for believing which concur with truth, and hence meet every test, and make available a multitude of tests, at every level, so that man as created by God, might find what is false and seek what is true, not as a leaf in a storm, but as one sought by an  effective communicator, who indeed GAVE HIM his sense of validity, logic, scientific method (merely a coded procedure of common sense), evidence and perception.
 

Certainly, when you come to God, you are coming to Him who invented HUMAN reason, which is limited by knowledge, but not in method. His meaning and wishes, power and understanding are obviously far beyond ours; but His ability, for the very same reason, that He IS so knowledgeable and understanding, make short work of any 'difficulty' of communication.

This leads to the simple result that we have to be prepared for the unexpected, but to use the reason He gave us in doing so. Thus, if there is found to be a trinity, so that God operates as three persons, one Being, that is not in the least rationally difficult - THREE in one respect, ONE in another, three as to persons, one as to being; but it may be unexpected.

THAT is precisely where reason requires flexibility. You CANNOT logically expect the creator of your thought to be subject to it, merely indicated by it. You CANNOT rationally realise all that He is by simple method, either, but yet, being careful to be prudent with what HE has provided, you cannot reasonably reject what He makes clear on evidence is His word, His revelation, His nature. This is turn is wholly reasonable but it is, like the coast of America to explorers, what it is found to be. It is wholly credible, but it is discovery which shows what that credibility is, not guesswork or preconceived ideas. In fact, God was not without company and communication before creation, being in Himself a fellowship that is


In fact, as we have seen in SMR and repeatedly on this site, God is in all things revealed to be what reason minimally would expect. It does not violate it. Upon its discovery of His word, it is sated with delight, regaled with evidence, confirmed with consistency, meets with majesty.

But HOW, you may ask, just how is it right for God to use force on Christ, since force is not the way for faith or life or man or religion ?

It was a PLAN for the use of force, not in divine compulsion, but in divine bearing in human form, freely willed by Him who bore it, which applied with Christ. As Psalm 40 expressly states (cf. Joyful Jottings Ch. 22), Christ HIMSELF wanted, yes longed to come and delighted in it, to give Himself as a sacrifice for many, and indeed in scope for any, though in foreknowledge and actuality, for many (Matthew 26:28, Romans 8:32). He is delivered up for His own, offered for all. All are in the embrace of the love which seeks, and many are in the embrace of the love which has found. If YOU are not, then that is entirely, 100%, without any diminution whatever, YOUR responsibility.

If this concerns you, that is simple, come to Christ as HE is, not as He is polluted to be made to appear, in the ecumenical revision programs which, as in Jerusalem of old, are not satisfied with Him as He is. THEY killed Him. The new spiritual authors, they just remake Him, though this will not alter Him, OR His words at the judgment! Romanism and Islam alike remake Him, as do numerous sects and philosophies, as noted by references elsewhere in this Chapter.

Nevertheless, as with anything greater than ourselves, the reality initially for us is new, and it is to be learned and understood from the source Himself. Since the MAKER of man is the source, the capacity to understand lies not merely in the power of God, but in His preceding actions, in making man as He did. This is what even makes possible our thinking about it. That again, is WHY we do so. It is inherent.

However, when we so think, we come to a threshold that is personal to God. It is only when He reveals that we learn what His heart desires, His purposes are. We have seen from His works the minimal matters of the divine; but we learn from His witness, the things, inviolable even between man and man, of the heart. If it is so as between men, far more is it so between man and God. Revelation of this is as essential to man as is wisdom is seeking truth where it is attested.

These things which we learn from the divine revelation include His mode of consisting, as a trinity. We ourselves, in a small way, of course, are a trilogy: mind, matter and spirit. Further, we can address ourselves, as our spirits can survey the scene of our growing character, this way or that developing, amid changing world and so on. There is thus the active power of the human spirit and the actual state of the human nature, and the former can survey and even interrogate the latter. God is expresser, expressed and conveyer: that is simplistic, but not inaccurate. God expresses as the Father, is expressed as the Word or the Son (biologically so expressed when incarnate), and can communicate with many through the Spirit, simultaneously.

This is all entirely in accord with reason, though the revelation naturally transcends, since reason can reach only the threshold of His greatness, and know He is; while HIS declaration by the nature of the case, expresses the realities to which we then come, as before some vast waterfall.

We find that He DOES give liberty to man, though sin enslaves; and that man IS entirely responsible for his errors, so that there is no problem to reason whatever.

Further, man MUST use it, in helping to test the spirits (we find, in I John 4), and mankind is wholly accountable if he does NOT use reason and see the entire certainty of the divine nature and eternal power of God (Romans 1:17ff.). 'Submitting' to something merely claiming, while using force as well in matters of faith, to be from God, borders on  intellectual squalor, and spiritual suicide and the results are accountable as such.

It is most poignant that so many submit where such pressures are undoubtedly applied - and female circumcision is one of these in many practical Islamic instances - to something not only not required, but contrary to God, to reason and to justice. It is of interest that the new Immigration Law being drafted in Germany now in November 2001, is taking account of this very thing!

There are specialisations of many kinds in the creation; but the mutilation of mind or body is not one of them. All things must be used and utilised as creation enables, and truth impels, not in words flung from space resting on no attestation but failure in their import, their identification and their power.
 

Not only the exclusion in both word and deed, of the use of force in faith, but the background basis for its non-use appear. The nature of sacrifice, central in the Old Testament, is totally different from Moslem practice. The outcome of sacrifice is likewise wholly alien. The religions are wholly contrary. The testimony available of prophets, reinforced in the Dead Sea Scrolls, could scarcely be more divergent in freely offered salvation, relative to divine heart in solicitude for salvation, to force and faith and gospel declarations. Contradiction is the order of the day between these two religions; as one is true, the other is truly false. As one is evidentially attested, the other is evidentially divested!

Our emphasis here has; been this: that you must use your mind and examine the evidence which God has put before your eyes. If you ignore this on 'faith', then you despise the faculties God has given you, and how then do you escape the contempt for the Creator which this implies ? Faith is not the same as reason, but reason is a test of faith. When God made man and gives expression, the complete and royal reliability of reason and evidence, relative to that testimony, is only one more of those consummate co-ordinations of facts, which is the way of truth. The way of error is to 'accept' or 'submit' to what is pushed under one's nose, or into one's culture, or what is reinforced with so very many penalties if one 'strays', that one might be tempted to fear man and not God, follow man and not what He has given one as the Creator.

This double error is decisive,
dire and
far worse
than merely perilous.

For convenience, now, relative to the special content of this section, we shall cite here from pp. 1081-2 in SMR, which covers this with allied considerations. For ease of recognition, the difference in type will  be kept.
 

*3 THE WEAVING OF THE WAYS FOR THE ANTICHRIST. See Extension 4, pp. 1072-1074 infra. What however of Muhammad's early - but continuing - input into this antichrist pattern ? a matter of assertion plus force to overcome ... unbelief in some mock-up, dysfunctional substitute for Christ. In the Koran, Surah 48:29, we find (it. added): ''Muhammad is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers'' - and how far? ''Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them. Know that God is with the righteous'' (Surah 9:123, cf. 2:191); and indeed, (Surah 9:27-31): ''Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe neither in God nor the Last Day ... until they pay tribute out of the hand and are utterly subdued.'' Yes, he decries (in 8:36-41): ''Tell unbelievers ... [to] reflect upon the fate of their forefathers. Make war on them until idolatry cease ...'' Reflect ? Fate ? ... city assault, tribute money, and then servitude - with the provision for death upon its removal. The 'fate' is the alternative to 'faith' is the alternative to force. (Cf. *17 infra.)

And all this force ? with due provision for occasional defeat, yet it is found written (Surah 8:59): ''Let not the unbelievers think that they will ever get away. They have not the power to do so'' ... Indeed, the prayer was to be: ''Lord forgive us ... our excesses; make us firm of foot and give us victory over the unbelievers" ... and the theme, ''If God helps you, none can overcome you'' (Surah 3:148 and 3:160; cf. Surah 48:22 - "If the unbelievers join battle with you, they shall be put to flight"). In fact, since Moslems almost took Europe, they lost at Tours in 732 A.D.; and again when the sprawling Ottoman Empire fell, with World War I; while in the Middle East from 1917 and from 1948 in particular and repeatedly, Moslem military losses have been sustained, spectacular and even proverbial (*18). This is despite enormous numerical advantage (the EXACT opposite of Surah 8:65 - ''If there are twenty steadfast men among you, they shall vanquish two hundred''). There have not been vicissitudes but repetitive overthrows, dominating almost comically the whole period of the Jew's return (as God predicted, Zechariah 12:6 ff. - cf. pp. 779-822, 851-857 supra.)

The force of evidence overthrows indeed the force of mere utterance. Proclaiming himself ''no more than an apostle'' (Surah 3:140-147), such that ''other apostles have come before me'' (Surah 3:183), Muhammad refers to Abraham and others, to the Jewish Torah (law) - Surah 2:135), and the ''earlier scriptures'' of ''Abraham and Moses'' (Surah 87:179), bowing to history by acknowledging, ''the prophets who surrendered themselves judged the Jews ... according to God's Book which had been committed to their keeping and to which they themselves were witnesses'' (Surah 5:44).

Witness! Dismiss evidence and what does 'history' become but the unholy butt of romance? While Muhammad says his book ''confirms the Scriptures which came before it'' (Surah 5:48), in fact the Messiah is as we have shown with dense-packed scriptures (cf. pp. 768-777 et al. supra), the eternal King irreplaceable, unsucceedable, whose word is final and, if rejected, fatal; and one need only cite words such as Isaiah 9:6-7, 42:1-4, 49:6, 53:11-12, 54:5,10, 55:3-11, Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Daniel 7:13-14, Psalm 72. Not merely is there no successor, this is so because the Son (Psalm 2:5-7) is God (Psalm 45, Isaiah 48:16, Micah 5:1-3), as shown earlier in great detail from many scriptures of which only the Jews were in fact - to use Muhammad's term - 'witnesses'. Successors, declares Christ, are false Christs (Matthew 24:24).

To fortify the contradiction: Muhammad wrote material wholly alien to that of the 'apostles' - such on his own admission - who 'went before' him, on the method of salvation, on redemption, on the place of grace and on the work of the Messiah (not really killed, says he - Surah 4:157, despite Daniel 9:25-26, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Leviticus 16). To aggravate the impossible, Muhammad has the prior 'apostles' sent by ONE GOD! (Surah 3:40 and 3:21). Should one God send prophets opposed to the very core of Muhammad's words ? Why He gave His 'servants the prophets' among the Jews, such wholly, consistently and persistently clangorous contradiction of Muhammad, the prophet does not manage to attest!

The whole superabundantly attested, textually ancient, intense, immense, detailed racial systematics and salvation dynamics of the interlocking Old and New Testaments (cf. pp. 735-836 supra) are airily dismissed for the infinitely divergent dogmas (cf. Surahs 4,5,9,24 and 48) of the anti-verified Koran. To thunder the point home, God, having disciplined the Jews as Chapter 9 has shown His word predicted He would do, has given them the power He also predicted, abolishing the pretences of the Koran to its very face (cf. pp. 814, 830-834, 989 supra). Of a certainty, the Jews had less than no reason to add the scriptures on the Messiah, whom they murdered, but rather honestly retained them in fear. (See also *4 infra.)

The Koran is not merely unverified, but anti-verified and this with a divine mirth as God's predictive word ploughs through the field of history with the majestic insouciance of a tank in an agricultural field (cf. Psalm 2:8-12, Jeremiah 23:29; and Psalm 111:7-8, Isaiah 59:21 and p. 564 supra). See also pp. 1176-1186C infra for treatment of Joshua as an instrument of theocratic MORAL judgment, not contrary to the love or liberty God gives. Christ categorically did not subject physically, do violence at all to remedy unbelief. Truly He upbraided morally, cleansed, lamented (Matthew 23:37, Luke 19:42) and was subjected. Faith and force have divorce.
 

 In the midst of the war season of 1991, how precious the word: PEACE! How precious also it seemed during 1917, 1940 and the Battle of Britain! How desirable to the Jews in 1948, 1967, 1973 and 1991, it seemed: to them after all their sufferings; as to the British in the rigours of two WORLD wars, in which near to one million men died in one battle-place, VERDUN!

Christ is the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6), and has shown the ONLY way to peace: God not surprisingly, so far from being limited by men's ideas, limits their thoughts by His own; and He knows what are His chosen thoughts. Hear Psalm 2:1-7:

Why do the nations rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord,
and against His Anointed, saying, 'Let us break their bonds in pieces, and cast away their cords from us.'
Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and vex them in His displeasure:

'Yet have I set My King on My Holy Hill of Zion.'

I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son ... You shall break them with a rod of iron...'

Let us be candid; there is no point in avoiding the issues. Truth cannot stand by, if peace is to triumph. The Jews as a people crucified Christ (using Roman power, a reluctant agent in Pilate). The Moslems invented a new Christ, some 600 years later, and made someone up who did not die for sin, as the predicted Messiah had to do and did, giving Jesus' name to this mask. The Roman Catholic doctrine, using the name of Christ, killed masses of victims2 who did not agree with its worldly pretensions (such as Pope Boniface's claim that popes rule this world's princes), or its masterful direction of a religion of which Jesus Christ said: "Call no man on earth Master, for one is your master3 even Christ" (Matthew 23:8, cf. 1 John 2:27, Luke 6:46).

There you have three of the world's major religions, all relating closely to Christ (whom Muhammad, though changing Him, revered as a prophet): ONE killed Him (at Jerusalem); ONE killed BY 'Him' and still sacrifices (*16) 'Him' (from Rome), and one 'kills' Him by changing Him, and has arrangements including a direction to KILL, in certain circumstances till all opposition to "Allah" ceases, and often met in the unholy call for 'holy wars' (*17).

Now this is killing in the INTERESTS of religion (*18), not for moral rebuke or justice. Disbelief in these transmutations or mock-up's of Jesus Christ, made by managerial man, usurping the place of Christ, plagiarising, stealing His name, and killing in it, false masters, frauds! disbelief in THEIR product ?
THIS ? IT can mean to DIE at the hand of sinful man, frequently confused man! to do so in appointed seasons, by this method and that, as seems good to such religionists. Let us examine only one aspect of all this.

What does the world deserve for this! Christ, the Prince of peace, is USED for killing... What hope is there while men use God's provisions so often to change them, while keeping the name, or 'honouring' it; use them to kill, in a perverse misapplication of the very 'weapons' of peace! And this, it is done by those 'leading', mastering and 'explaining' - CHRIST'S divine prerogatives - by those therefore by definition, usurpers... (Matthew 7:26-29). Christ misused to make war... it is worse then grisly! it is historical.
 

Indeed, Biblically, not merely is war assured because sin defiles truth without which love does not freely work and hatred and hostility, with due misunderstanding in wrathful rage and selfish follies abound, but God in His judgments indicated millenia ago, that He would bring to such passions a mood of its own, and a slaughter of enlarged dimensions, a mockery in multiplied murder and ravagement of man; for when you refuse healing, disease roars the more freely. This is the disease of imparting death in folly, wrath, spite, hatred and vanity. Revelation 6 shows it in various stages of assembly, as the end nears. Now we see it as indicated, in its full black lustre, and red adventurism.

Islam is not alone in its 'contribution' to such things, nor does the Bible fail to indicate multiplied sources of this KIND of malady (Matthew 24:24, John 16:22-4). In the latter verse, Christ TELLS what is to come so that this knowledge will prove to be strength to the righteous, when the events duly happen. It is NOT unexpected. It is NOT a lapse. It is PART of the PREDICTED and PREDICATED PLAN, that is seen reaching ever more horrendous heights in such sites as Revelation 12:11, 13, 17:6. The journey is nearing, then, its end. Like a death, it can have special characteristics. We see them. The banners have been multiple.

Once Rome was the paragon, in its Roman Catholic abuses of power and privilege, honour and glory, arrogating the prerogatives of God for 'God Almighty on Earth', the pope as seen in the New York catechism.  With it has come the Islamic menace of murder as method, sanctified by names such as 'jihad', just as the former used 'inquisition': both smelling of blood and torture, both relying on a god who does not have the grace to exist. The vileness of autonomous violence, however, this does not fail to persist. It moves base, or emphasis, from covert predestination in Communism, to using Christ's name in Romanism, to creating a new 'christ', a false christ,  altogether in Islam, as in many sects, few of which however, are so passionate for wars as Islam has, as a simple matter of fact, been throughout very much of its history.

The results and methods are similar, testable, verified! (Cf. Biblical Blessings