Unbelief

What is Unbelief?

Dictionary definition,

unbelief: The state or quality of not believing; incredulity or skepticism, 

               especially in matters of faith or religious doctrine. - Dictionary.com

Biblical definition,

unbelief: The choice of not believing: the finding of incredulity or being 

               skeptical concerning God, Jesus or the Doctrines of the Bible.

Simply put, unbelief in God and Jesus is the opposite of belief in God and Jesus.  Therefore, as belief is like and is similar to having or possessing faith, unbelief is like and is similar to possessing doubt. Unbelief receives its strength from doubt, for without doubt, unbelief has no grounds or possibility to survive.  Unbelief then is characterized by the supposed rational position of reasonable doubt about someone or something.  As it relates to Christianity, unbelief is the supposed rational position of reasonable doubt about God, Jesus and the Bible.  It is the doubts of what otherwise could be believed, which constitutes a person unbelief, about God, Jesus and the Bible.

What Unbelief is Not?

It is not fear.  Fear is the perversion of faith.  As faith is the evidence of things hoped for, (Hebrews 11:1) fear is the evidence of things not hoped for.  Fear works like faith but in the opposite direction.  Still Fear is not the opposite of Faith.  Faith and fear are polar opposites flowing in the same current of power. Just like we have positive charges of electricity and negative charges of electricity flowing in a single power line, we have faith and fear in the current of belief. Both flows of electrical power are in the opposite direction, yet they are same current.  Fear is the negative power, and Faith is the positive power, they are both are opposed by no power, they are both opposed by unbelief.

Now, not all faith is good, there is blind faith, whereas a person trusts without any wisdom, without any facts to substantiate its trust in someone or something or in some event to happen. Neither is all fear is bad, there is the fear of God, the fear of fire, these kinds of fears prevent us from foolishly doing the unwise thing and harming ourselves. They booth work, but in different directions, polar opposites if you will, for the purpose they are designed to do when properly used.

What is unbelief then if it is not fear?

Unbelief is an entirely different matter.  Unbelief can’t be caused by faith or fear for unbelief has no faith in anyone or anything.  You either believe or you don't believe.  Unbelief has no fear in anyone or anything. This can be dangerous because having no fear of anything can cause a person to be reckless and be a danger not only to himself but those around him.  A man without a health fear about things is a reckless and uncontrolled man. (Proverb 25:28) Having no fear is not necessarily having courage.  For courage is the position of challenging what fear presents. In short, courage challenges false expectations appearing real. 

The Bible states that God has given to each person is given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), I would also state the opposite is also true that to each person is given a measure of doubt.   This means that every person has a degree or portion of faith. If that is true, then to every person is given a measure of doubt, which is the foundation of their unbelief. The question is what do they have unbelief about and why.  In respect to the Christian testimony about God and Jesus, it is the doubt that God is who he is and Jesus who he said he was. Therefore, without doubt, unbelief has no strength in the minds of many concerning God and Jesus.  What is doubt then? It is the rational thought based upon the evidence or the lack of evidence of an event, person or thing.  

Addressing Doubt

When people doubt, they do it with a reason, or rational   That reason or rational  usually begins with the word "If" followed by  the Christian claim to be challenge, followed by the reason or rational why the Christian claim cannot be true or proven. For example many people have said this doubt of Jesus's divinity, "If Jesus is God, then who was he praying to, Himself?" This question shows the lack of understanding of who God is and what is his constitution and attributional makeup.  

 When people doubt, they do it with a reason, or rational   That reason or rational  usually begins with the word "If" followed by  the Christian claim to be challenge, followed by the reason or rational why the Christian claim cannot be true or proven. For example many people have said this doubt of Jesus's divinity, "If Jesus is God, then who was he praying to, Himself?" This question shows the lack of understanding of who God is and what is his constitution and attributional makeup.  

God in the Christian view is Triune that is he is three expressions of his person contained in one Godhead; Jesus came to reveal the second member of the Godhead, God, the Son.  When God sent Jesus to die for mankind, he had to send his image, in the form of a man. If God can’t do this then he is not God.  The Bible shows us various images of God appearing to aid people of faith:

In Genesis: God is the voice that walked in the Garden, the voice that spoke to

                  Abraham before he sacrificed his son Isaac, the three men that                          appeared to Abraham before he destroyed Sodom and 

                  Gomorrah, and the angel that wrestled with  Jacob.

In Exodus: God is the pillar clouds by day and the pillar of fire by night that 

                   lead Israel from the Egyptians as they pursued them across the 

                   wilderness of the Sinai.  God is the erupting mountain in the 

                  country of Middian, where God wrote on two stone tablets his ten 

                  commandments for the Israelites, to keep as his chosen people.

              In Job: God is the whirlwind, which spoke with his servant job concerning 

                           his dispute.

I could name many other examples on how God became other things to perform his will. So why can’t God become a man? It was possible for him become everything else and he did not think it would make him less of the God of Creation to do so.  

Now someone would say to me: Ok, if that be so, then Jesus was speaking to himself when he prayed? The answer to that question is both yes and no.  Yes, in that Jesus even though was a man was also God manifested in the flesh while on the earth. No, because in his humanity he did not regard himself alone, he always felt that he was in the company of and in communion with God, his heavenly father.  In his human state, Jesus was humble and obedient to the will of his heavenly Father until death.  As God manifested in the flesh, Jesus was also well aware of his power and authority, for he said to his disciples in regard to those who mocked him, after his disciples requested that he call fire from heaven to consume them, "You do not know what spirit you are of.." (Luke 9:55).  In another place he said to them who heard him, "Do you not know I can call 12 legions of angels..." (Matthew 26:53)  The only one that can call angels to do anything is God and nobody else.   Christians view God as omnipresent, that is, he is always present at all times.  They have cause to believe this for the Bible states that "The eyes of the Lord is upon every place, beholding the evil and the good." (Proverbs 15:3) In order for God’s eyes to be in every place at the same time he has to be present everywhere at the same time. Being omnipresent allows God to be in more than one place at the same time. The question illustrates the doubt that God can be everywhere at once, even in the form of the Spirit and in the form and image of a man. The Bible clearly opposes this belief.

Jesus dealings with Doubt

Jesus throughout his ministry upon the earth had to deal with the level of unbelief of the people he spoke to.  Sometimes he had to tell his own disciples to not doubt.  There is a story in the Bible about a Father who had a son that was possessed with a devil.  The evil spirit vexed the boy so much that it would toss the boy about causing him harm.  The father after exhausting every means to cure his son even went to the disciples of Jesus and they could not cast it out of the boy.  The Father turned to Jesus and cried out, “I believe, help thou my unbelief.”  Jesus responded and cast the devil out of the boy and restored him to his father.  Later, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him why they could not cast out that devil out of the boy.  Jesus responded that, “This kind does not come out except by fasting and prayer,” (Mark 9:20-29)

This story illustrates to us the power a measure of unbelief can have.  The disciples of Jesus did not have enough belief to cast out the devil out of the boy and the father was having an inner struggle believing that whether or not his son could be delivered of the evil spirit that vexed him.  After the disciples failure to cast the evil spirit out of the boy, the father’s doubts and fears grew. The father of the boy was losing his measure of faith and increasing his measure of doubt, so he cried out “…help thou my unbelief…” meaning in my opinion that he wanted Jesus to put his unbelief back in check in regards to Jesus and his exorcist power.  When Jesus delivered the boy from the evil spirit, the fathers faith was back in the correct measure.    Now the disciples inquired on why they were not able to do what Jesus did.  Jesus said this kind, meaning the ones that have aggressive evil spirits causing the sickness or disease requires a fervent prayer life and regular practice of fasting of the exorcist, so that the evil spirit would remove itself from the person affected. This also indicates that all the other sicknesses are not the result of demoniac possession. We’ll save that for another Bible study.  The point is that Jesus deals with doubt by encouraging faith and responding to it.

Jesus Experiences Powerlessness

So what does the previous information has to do with unbelief?  Unbelief is the one thing Jesus or God can’t work with (Hebrews 11:6).  As long as someone has faith in him, he works in that person's life according to that person’s level of faith.  An example of how unbelief does not allow Jesus, the Son of God, to perform any miracles is when he is in his home town of Nazareth. (Matthew 13:53-58, Mark 6:1-6, Luke 4:16-32)   Jesus could not do many miracles there because the people regarded him as only the carpenter's son that they knew as a lad. The people did not believe that he was God or even the son of God. This illustrates that if you have no faith in Christ, you will have no power, but if you have much faith in Christ, as small as a mustard seed you will have much power. The people of Jesus's home town had little faith that Jesus had power to heal and do the other miracles they heard about, their reason: He was only the son of a carpenter. His brothers and sisters are living with us.  This is Mary’s son.  These facts made them doubt who Jesus really was. They had doubt of who Jesus was reported, and was testifying himself to be, the result was that not many miracles were done there.

You see, unbelief is very powerful in slowing the overwhelming power of faith, so it is imperative that believers build up their faith in Jesus and reduce their doubts about Jesus, the Christ and the Christian walk they aspire to live.  However, this is what the problem is with many "Christians" today; many have no or little faith in who Jesus is and what he can do for them.  They are Christians in name only, because they want their sins to be accepted as though it does not offend to God and still miss hell.  

Here is the sad news:  If they don't get know who Jesus is, they may hear these words at the judgment seat of Christ: "I never knew you" and still be cast into the lake of fire. (John 3:36, 17:3; Mathew 25:1-13; Revelations 20:15) All because they did not accept the free gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Here is the Good News: They still have a chance to lay ahold of the salvation in Christ reserved for them.  How?  All they have to do is repent of their sins and sinfulness to God and start living holy according to what God expects them to live.  Many believers say that this is impossible to do because no man is perfect.  I used to believe that until I read this verse.

“He that smith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”                      -1 John 2:6

Which in my opinion means: if anyone says he is a Christian, that is a follower of Christ, should also live as Jesus as Jesus lived.  Jesus even said, “ I am the way, the truth,  and the life, no man cometh unto the father , except by me” –John 14:6  meaning in my opinion that :  Jesus is the way we Christians we travel, the truth we rely upon and the life we lead.  Jesus didn’t just come here to die for our sins and be raised from the dead. Jesus came here to show us how to live this new life as a Godly Spirit Filled man.  He came to show us how to live, in faith, in power and in obedience to God, the Father.  So if he came to do that, it is not impossible to repent of my sins and sinfulness and embrace a holy life designed by God, in Christ.  The question for me as it is for many others is are you ready to commit to living it?

If you are, a good starting point is making sure that you have accepted God’s salvation offer. You do that by saying the following prayer with all your heart:

Dear heavenly Father,

In Jesus’ name, I come to you now as a repentant sinner.  I confess all of my sinfulness to you and ask you to forgive all of my sins for Jesus’ sake. Wash away all of my sins by the blood of your Son Jesus.  For I now believe that Jesus died for my sins according to your Holy Word, the Bible and that he was raised from the death according to the Bible.  I now invite your Holy Spirit to come and live inside of me and make me your child. I promise to strive to live holy everyday with the Help of your Holy Spirit and by studying the Bible every day. I thank you Lord for saving me.

If you have recited the above prayer with all sincerity, I welcome you the Family of God! Right now the Angels of heaven are rejoicing because you have repented and believed in the hope of all men’s salvation.  Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.

The next thing you need to do is find a bible believing church, so that you can grow up in Christ and in God. To become what God designed you to be.  Isn’t that exciting!?!

Things That Can Not Save You From Your Sins

Attention all Unbelievers, Disbelievers and Semi-Believers! What follows is not a comprehensive list of things that will keep you from the danger of losing your own soul and ending up in the Lake of Fire, the eternal condemnation that awaits all do not believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, but it a listing of the most common misconceptions about the Salvation that God offers through the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son, Jesus.  Some of the things listed may even shock you.  If you find yourself participating in any of the things listed, go to the end of this article and apply the one and only solution that will fix your misconception.

The things that can not save you from your sins:

1. Membership in a religious organization

2. Attempting to be perfect [Holy] before getting saved

3. Just being a good moral person

4. Regularly attending a religious organization's services

5. Judging other people's sin

6. Living in Sin

7. Being a member of a religious household.

8 How much funds you donate to a religious organization or a good cause.

9. How many things or how much wealth you acquire

10. That you speak in tongues, prophesy, etc.

11. That you were Water Baptized.

12. That you can sing, shout, and dance

13.  That you are married to a Christian

14.  That you are dating a Christian.

15. That you are friends or friendly with a Christian.

16. That you attempt to destroy, discredit, and  kill Christians

17. That you were offended by a Christian

As I stated before, this is not a comprehensive listing of the things that can not save you from your sins. I am sure you can think of more things.  The point is that  none of these things will save you from your sins. There is but only one way to be saved from your sins.  REPENT and BE SAVED!

Repenting is the turning away from and not repeating sinful activity and moving toward a Godly life in God, in Christ. Repenting in not a one time event,  it  is a life long activity, it does not perfect a person in itself, rather it is the tool by which believers use to change and improve their lives in God, for the glory of God.  Once you repent you have the forgiveness of God through Christ.

Now Being Saved is more than just repenting all your life. It is the acceptance of God's offer of Salvation through Jesus, the Christ, his only begotten Son as your personal Lord and Savior.  Once you have accepted Jesus's finished work on the Cross as payment for your sins (past, present and future) and submit yourself to the guidance of Jesus for all things in your life.  It is a relationship with God, through Jesus, the Christ, His Son.

Now here is a question that comes up often:  If get "saved" why do I need to continue to repent, if all my sins (Past, Present and Future) are forgiven?  The answer is even though your soul gets saved, your more natural side hasn't caught up with the fact that you have gotten saved.  Some things that a soul does is a matter of natural habit, some of the things that a soul does is not pleasing to God, even after making a decision to get saved. God understood this and in His Grace and Mercy allows Christians to clean themselves up through repentance.  Salvation is a process as well as a free gift, in Christ.  Once you have received the free gift of salvation from God, through Christ, you start the process of living a life of a believer.

How do you repent and be saved?  Say this little prayer that follows with all your heart:

Dear Heavenly Father

In Jesus' name I come to you now as a repentant sinner.  I confess all of my sinfulness to you and ask you to forgive me for Jesus's sake. I ask you to wash away all of my sins with his shed blood and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I now believe that Jesus is you only begotten Son, that died for me on the Cross of Calvary, whom you raised from the dead according to your promises and prophecies in the Bible, your Holy Word.  I therefore, invite your Holy Spirit into my heart and make me your child. As your child, I promise to read the Bible daily and strive to live holy everyday with your help from now on and I thank you Lord for saving me.


If you have said the above prayer with all sincerity, I welcome you to the family of God! Yes it is that simple. For the Bible states, " If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart a man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." -Romans 10:9+10

40 Words that Separate....Spanned

There are 40 words that separate Islam and Christianity.  Only 40 words that divide two of the most popular religions in the world.  What exactly are those words?  They are words that are found in the Quran. Words that allegedly Muhammad spoke and people remembered him saying it. The people of the Quran so well thought of the sayings of Muhammad, that they cataloged it a book.  This book is they compiled is full of his many other recitations and was prized so highly that they committed  them to memory.  The 40 words that separate Christianity and Islam is found in this one Ayat:

Sura 4, Ayat 157

“That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-“

Upon first glance by any reader of this Ayat, that has any factual knowledge of the death of Jesus, the Christ, on face value would understand that this Ayat  is a blatant contradiction of the Biblical record.  The key phrase that keeps getting stressed upon is “….but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them,…” All sorts of interpretations by Muslims attempting to assert or explain this contradiction of the Biblical record of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ has been offered. 

For example, one such explanation states that Jesus was switched with someone else that was worthy to die on the cross.  This was surmised by Muslim evangelists from the phrase, “…it was made to appear to them…”.  By reason of this summarizing, many candidates were proposed by Muslims as to who died in Christ stead on the cross, such as the Roman prisoner Barabbas or Judas Iscariot or one of the Guards that came to arrest Jesus.  
Instead of getting involved with the impossibilities and improbabilities why it could not have been any of those men, which countless knowledgeable Christians have refuted.   I rather look to what the Ayat actually says in the context of who Muhammad allegedly said it to, when he said it and where he said it and who was he talking about, instead of what Muslims and Christians have over the centuries surmised it to what they think Muhammad said.  The only way to do this intelligently is to research when it was allegedly spoken. From there we can see whether the intent of Muhammad’s Ayat was to denounce the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ.

The first question to ask is who was allegedly Muhammad speaking to when he said the Ayat? We already know that Muhammad  allegedly said this Ayat when he was alive in the earlier part his ministry in Medina, in 7^th century Arabia.  The next logical question to ask is who were the “They” in the Ayat?  He was obviously allegedly speaking about someone’s claim of killing and crucifying Christ. Was it the people of Medina?  Upon investigation the city of Medina was made up of 3 religious communities; The Jewish community, the Nestorian Christian community and the newly developing Muslim community.  Muhammad became an arbiter between the contending Jewish and Christian communities which were debating about Jesus, the Christ.  Jews, that have not embraced Christianity, have since the inception of  Christianity have denied Jesus ever being the promised Christ. One of their arguments against Jesus being the promised Christ, revealed in this Ayat, was that they claimed to have killed Jesus, the Christ.  This is indicated in the first two words of the Ayat under discussion.  Evidently, the Christ that the Jewish community of Medina believed in was a character, a personality, that could not be killed or would allow himself to be killed at the least by them. On the other hand, the Christian community of Medina claimed that Jesus did die on the cross, but did so of his own free will.  Think about this for a second, the Jewish community in Medina admitted to being responsible of killing Christ on the cross, a position  that the Jewish community in Jerusalem did not deny nor did openly confessed, conversely, the Christians were stating that Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross, that Jesus laid his life down of his own free will, that nobody killed him.  The Jews were using this argument to refute the idea that Jesus was their Messiah and King. The Messiah that they were looking forward to, they unwittingly had put to death. In this hotly contended debate between Nestorian Christian community and the Jewish Community, Muhammad was brought in to resolve the matter since he was neither Jew or Christian.  Muhammad by this time had built a reputation of being fair and honest when negotiating between disagreeable parties. This was well known to the people of the city of Medina and was the reason they wanted him to be the arbiter.

After reviewing their respective arguments Muhammad allegedly said the 40 word ayat that was presented earlier in this article and was preserved in the Quran.  Muhammad allegedly and simply stated the fact that the Jews did not literally and physically kill Christ. They only requested that Jesus be killed.  The actual physical killing of Jesus was performed by the pagan Roman military, not the Jews. Even though Pilate, the Roman authority at the time, wanted not to be associated with the crucifixion of Jesus,  he granted the Jews request to crucify Jesus on the cross for the crime of blasphemy and claiming to be a king anyway, placing the Roman military captain under their direction.  Israel was under the dominion of pagan Rome and as citizens of the Roman empire, they were not allow to carry out capital punishment against their own people who they had accused according to their own laws worthy of death.  Jesus was accused by the Jewish religious authority of committing blasphemy and sedition against the Emperor of Rome by claiming to be a king. However, somehow Jesus survived the crucifixion and was still alive.   The part on how Jesus survived the crucifixion is what all three communities in Medina at the time were not certain about.  They did not have what we have today in the terms of technology and preservation of archaic writings.  They did not have access artifacts to substantiate their arguments.  Today we do and have the evidence that substantiate what was reported in the Biblical record is factual. The one thing that was clear at the time Muhammad allegedly spoke Sura 4, Ayat 157 is that the Jews did not kill the Christ, nor did that crucify him. It only appeared  to the Jews that Jesus was crucified because somehow he survived the ordeal. No body was certain at that time, in the city of Medina,  how Jesus survived it and this is where the conjectures were made from both the Jewish community side and the Nestorian Christian side. The reason  is clear why Muhammad said what he allegedly said in Sura 4, Ayat 157 in the 7^th century in the city of Medina.  He stated the ayat to bring to rest the confrontation between the Jews and the Nestorian Christians in Medina.   He  was not successful in accomplishing that peace between the two communities. What happened afterward was that the Jews began to oppose both Christian and Muslim communities in Medina.  Muhammad offered the Christian community protection from their Jewish detractors and both Muslim and Christian communities agreed to a compact.  Eventually the Muslims converted everyone to Islam in Medina who stayed in Medina.  The same thing happened in the smaller communities surrounding Medina.  The community of Najran is a prime example of this. See this word press article: Covenants of the Prophet at  http://covenantsoftheprophet.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/the-covenant-of-the-prophet-muhammad-with-the-christians-of-najran/. 

It is clear that Muhammad used the schism between the Jews and Christians to increase his Muslim community wherever he went and found Jews and Christians arguing about the death of Jesus. The problem with the Muslim community growth today is that in the United States of America many Jews have re-embraced Christianity and with the Christian community in America have opposed Islam.

The American Islamic response to this has been to discredit the Bible, discredit the idea that Jesus is the Christ (which is the opposite of what the Quran calls Jesus: Messiah), teach erroneously that Jesus did not die on the cross  and God and claim the un-provable argument of scriptural tampering is a legit probability.  If you have noticed I have used the word “allegedly” in respect to the quotations of Muhammad in the Quran frequently in this article.  The reason for this is that I discovered, in my personal research, that the written version of the Quran came 100 years after Muhammad’s death and was based upon what people remembered him saying about various issues. Here is the problem I have with that: No one who submitted an Ayat to be included into the Quran was alive 100 years earlier to hear Muhammad actually speak those words. They all got it from someone else who claimed to remember what was said allegedly by Muhammad and they got heard it from someone else. They all never heard Muhammad say those words.  This means that the Quran is entirely a second or even a third hand witness report that is not verified by any other witnesses. In other words, it is completely hearsay from beginning to end. The worst thing was that the 4 appointed teachers and reciters of the Quran died or was killed because they would not surrender their written copies of what they directly heard Muhammad speak from his very lips.  When the rulers of the Islamic world in the 8^th,   century, Abdul Bakr  and Uthman were able to get a hold of those written copies, Uthman in particular had them all destroyed!   Think about it, the words of the original and authentic Quran destroyed and in its place a book claiming to be the words of Muhammad.  This is why I used the word allegedly in this article in respect of the quotations of  the recitations of  Muhammad written in the Quran because there is no proof that he actually said it. 
So my question is this: Even with the fact that Jesus' crucifixion was not refuted by the Quran in Sura 1 and Ayat 157, coupled with today when we have even more proof that Jesus did in fact die on the cross and rose from the dead.  Is Sura 4, Ayat 157 subject to abrogation?  Yes it is. Because something better and more accurate has arisen to take its place: The accurate replication of the Biblical record;  A Biblical record that accurately records the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ in detail by verifiable first hand and second hand eyewitnesses.  So what? The veracity of first hand and second hand eyewitnesses is the fact that they either heard Jesus speak the words they reported themselves or received the report from someone else who was alive at the time that Jesus said those words.   This oral transmission of the Gospel accounts were written down within the first 100 years after Jesus's  passion. That quality of reporting you can’t get any better than being there yourself. This quality of reporting is lacking in the Quran and therefore subject to being abrogated by the Bible. For Muhammad allegedly said in Sura 2, Ayat 106:

“None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that Allah Hath power over all things?

It very clear, that the Biblical record concerning Jesus’s death is better than the revelation in Sura 4 ayat 157, because it is based upon a better quality of witnesses and upon the accuracy of its replication. So according the Quran the Biblical record abrogates the Ayat and is to be believed over and above the Ayat under discussion. The Bible is the revelation that preceded the Quran and to which Muhammad said it was preserved by pious and honest men. (Sura 80, Ayats 13-16) It is the revelation that Allah protects and watches over (Sura 5, Ayat 48).    With that understanding the  Ayat  under discussion is abrogated  by the Bible because the Bible does not cause God’s revelations to be forgotten and it is better than what the Quran presents.  This also refutes the argument that the Bible has been tampered with. How? Because if the Torah and the Gospel were revelations sent down by Allah and Allah  watches over and protects them, then how can they be tampered with?  They can not be tampered with.  Furthermore, this argument puts on display the ineptitude of Allah to defend his revelations, if any Muslim dares to embrace it as a logical argument. Most intelligent Muslims don't bother with the illogical defense, in fact they avoid it at all costs.

Also in my research, I found that Muhammad was pointing to Christianity in the earlier days of his ministry. Not away from it as some Muslims in the United States have asserted.   What cause him to change?  I ask this because when Muhammad and his followers had swept  over the  Arabian peninsula  and  turned Arabia from a pagan idol worshiping country, into to Monolithic worshiping  country,  establishing the belief of only one God. He was pro-Christian in his early days but what caused the change? For there are writings in the Quran that instruct Muslims to war against anyone from other religions to the point of death or to the point of making those non-Muslims which they were in conflict with convert to Islam.  This was not so in the beginning, up to the time that  Muhammad and his teachings  reached  Western Christianity.  Muhammad supported Nestorian Christians and opposed Jews and Pagans holding the belief that he was preaching the same message Jesus and all the other prophets before him had preached. In fact, a Nestorian Christian Elder told Muhammad that he was called to be a preacher of God, after he received the alleged call to preach from the voice in the Cave. When the Western Christian world  heard his message, they deemed him as a heretic and a false prophet.  It was this rejection of his theology and his position as a prophet of God by the western Christian theological community is when he changed.   What proof I have of this?  Just ask any Muslim theologian this question. Did Muslims always prayed toward Mecca?  You may be surprised at the direction Muslims originally prayed in.  They prayed in the direction of Jerusalem. This was discovered when they found the foundation of an old Mosque in the vicinity of  Jerusalem with its head pointed toward Jerusalem. Why was the original Mosques  pointed in the direction of Jerusalem?  Because Muhammad did not see himself as the founder of a new religion, he saw himself as the continuation of the existing Christian faith.  The apostolic revelation he had, he believed was the natural progression from the other two monolithic faiths: Judaism and Christianity.  The change of direction when he was only two years in Medina, was Muhammad’s way of saying to western Christianity, Since you don’t believe I am who I say I am nor my message, therefore, I will take away the Arabian believing world from you forever until you recognize me as a prophet.  It has been that way ever since.

Did Jesus say that he was the Son of God?

One of the many arguments that many people insist on promoting is that Jesus never said he was the Son of God.  So what is the big deal if  he did or he didn’t say that he was the Son of God?  The significance of whether Jesus said he was the Son of God or not is that if he did say he was, then by his own testimony he admitted to be divine and thereby made himself equal to God. If he did not say that he was the Son of God, then many people’s faith has been misplaced in something that is not simply true. 

Many believers in Christ, can tell of a number of places in the Gospels that Jesus inferred directly or indirectly that he was the Son of God. Also that Jesus testified to being the Son of God deliberately so that there was no mistaking what he meant. To find this to be so, all anyone has to do is to read the reaction to whoever he declared that he was the Son of God to. When he said it to those who were willing to believe or did believed that he was the Son of God, they acknowledged Jesus as such and worshiped him. To which Jesus did nothing to prevent people from worshiping him and believing that he was the Son of God, in fact he took it to mean that people honored him and God, his father when they chose to believe. When he said that he was the Son of God, directly or indirectly to those who were not willing to believe his testimony, they thought it was their legal right to have him killed for committing blasphemy.  

Here are a few examples from both sides of Jesus’ declaration that he was the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God:

A.   Examples of when Jesus told those willing to believe or did believe that was the Son of God.

1. John 9:35-38: Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” He answered and said, “Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?”  And Jesus said unto him, “Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshipped him.

2. Matthew 14:22-33: And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.  And when he sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when evening was come, he was alone.  But the ship was not in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves; for the wind  was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.  But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, “Be of good cheer; It is I; Be not afraid.” And Peter answered him and said, “Lord, if it be thou, bid me to come unto thee on the water. And he said, “Come.” And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying,”Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”  And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.  Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, “Of a truth, thou are the Son of God.”

3.John 4:20-26: “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Jesus saith unto her, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him  must worship him in spirit and in truth.” The woman saith unto him, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” Jesus saith unto her,”I that speak unto thee am he.

4. John 1:44-49: Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  Philip findeth  Nathanael and saith unto him, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the Law , and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And Nathanael said unto him, “Can anything good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip saith unto him, ”Come and see.”  Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, “Behold and Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”  Nathanael saith unto him, “Whence knowest thou me?” Jesus answered and said unto him, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.” Nathanael answered  and  saith unto him, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.”

  

5.  Mark 8:27-29: And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto to them, “Whom do men say that I am?” And they answered, ”John, the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.”  And he saith unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?”  And Peter answereth and saith unton him, “Thou art the Christ.”

6. Mathew 16:14-18: When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”  And they said, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.”  He saith unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?”  And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”  And Jesus answered  and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, that thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

The point is, whether he told them directly or indirectly, in private or in front of others, Jesus told those who were willing to believe him that he was the Son of God.  Furthermore Jesus did not refuse the worship of his adherents for he also said,

John 5:23: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.  He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

B. Here now are some examples of when Jesus testified that he was the Son of God to those who were not willing to believe him.

1 John 8:47-59: “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, say we not well that art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” Jesus answered,  “I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and you dishonour me.  And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you,  If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” Then said the Jews unto him, “Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest,  If a may keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?” Jesus answered, “If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced  to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.”  Then said the Jews unto him, “Thou are not yet fifty years old,  and hast thou see Abraham?” Jesus said unto them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” Then took up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

2. John 10:27-36: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them to me, is greater thatn all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.  I and my Father are one.” Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?” The Jews answered him, saying, “For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”  Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, Ye are gods’? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, ‘Thou blasphemest’; because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’”

3. Matthew 26:62-65: And the high priest arose, and said unto him, “Answereth thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee?” But Jesus held his peace.  And the high priest answered and said unto him, “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.”  Jesus saith unto him, “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you,  hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”  Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, “He hat spoken blasphemy; what futher need have we for witnesses? Behold,  now ye have heard his blasphemy.”

4. John 19:4-7: Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, “Behold, I bring him forth to you, that you may know that I find no fault in him.” Then Jesus came forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe.  And Pilate saith unto them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him.” Pilate saith unto them, “Take him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

5. Matthew 27:37-40: And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, “Thou that destroyeth the temple, and buldest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

6. Matthew 27:41-43: Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let  him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

            The point is, that whether or not he told them directly or indirectly, they all heard Jesus declare that he was the Son of God and by his own testimony accused him of the crime of blasphemy, which is according to the Law of Moses punishable by death. For it is written:

Leviticus 24:16: And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well as the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death.

            By Jesus proclaiming and testifying  to be the Son of God, the people who heard him that were not willing to believe him, believed that he was committing the crime of blasphemy. Yet other people who also heard him believed his testimony because they also believed that God send the Christ, the Messiah and he would be God’s son.  When Jesus gave them the evidence to be believe that he was the Christ, the long awaited Messiah, the Son of the living God, some believed and some refused to believe the evidence.   They regarded Jesus as a man born out of wedlock, whose real father was a Samaritan and that he was possessed by a devil.  So when Jesus declared that their God was in fact his father, they believed he was committing blasphemy and they had a legal responsibility and recourse to kill him.  They just could not do so according to the prescription of  the Law of Moses.  The problem was they could not exact capital punishment upon Jesus for the crime of blasphemy because their Roman rulers  would not allow it without first hearing the offender’s plea. When the Governor of Judea, Pontcus Pilate,  heard that the  charge against Jesus was that he testified that he was the Son of God,  he knew he had a real  problem.  The Romans had only one man who they deemed divine, that man was Caesar their Emperor.  Therefore, anyone that proclaimed himself a God, or a son of God or divine and a king was considered a threat to Caesar and had to be executed under Roman Law.  

While Pilate was conducting a private inquiry about the charges against Jesus with Jesus, he testified to Pilate that he was indeed a king, but he was not a king of this world.  That he was a King of truth.  After Pilate heard that testimony, he reasoned that this testimony of Jesus is not worthy of the capital punishment of execution that the Jews desired, so he sought to let Jesus go free.  When the high priests and other religious leaders heard that Pilate was going to set him free, the Jews told Pilate that he was not a friend of Caesar, if he let Jesus live as a Messiah, and as their king.  This made Pilate more afraid and so the Jews were given authority to kill Jesus by Pilate.

 The method of punishment of a man for the crime of calling himself a king of the Jews was crucifixion.  The Jews did not care how Jesus died, they just wanted Jesus to die, in accordance with what they perceived was the directive in the Law.   They had no reason to suspect that Jesus was actually who he said he was. The Jewish religious leadership where given authority, again by Pilate, to command the Roman guards to guard the sealed tomb so that Jesus’s disciples  could not secretly steal the body of Jesus and proclaim that Jesus rose from the dead. 

After Jesus rose from the dead, the Jewish religious leadership paid  the Roman guards  to spread the story that the disciples were successful in stealing the body of Jesus.  The only problem with this lie was that Jesus, for being someone that was so openly and brutally crucified and buried in a sealed tomb, kept appearing everywhere after his death and burial to those who was willing to believe in him as the Christ, the Messiah and the Son of God, just as he is doing in various parts of the world today.

            So did Jesus say that he was the Son of God?  Yes he did. He said it to those who were willing to believe him and to those who were not willing to believe him.  The question remains are you willing to now believe in him now that you have the evidence that Jesus did say that he was the Son of God?

John 1:12+13: But as many as received him, who believed in his name, to  them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on his name: which  were born, not of blood, not after the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

How did Africans and Afro-Americans became involved with Christianity?

 1 Why do we believe in the same God that our oppressors believed in?

First of all this type of question comes from a person who still believes that Afro-Americans or Black people are oppressed.  Why do some people still feel this way?  Perhaps it is the way some members of the Black community have been treated and are still treated concerning things that should be a basic right of human existence in areas like housing, employment and education.  When it comes to religion the reasons vary to the cause why Black people assimilated and embraced Christianity, but let us look at this more logically.  For centuries in Africa and in other parts of the world when one group or tribe of people conquered another group or tribe of people the conquered would be subject to worship the God(s) of their conquerors. People back then worshipped and prayed to all sorts of things, they prayed to Gods of wood and stone. They participated in animal sacrifice to pay homage to their Gods of wood and stone. When the Europeans arrived on the western coasts and southern tip of Africa, they contracted with African Tribal leaders to capture enemy tribes and in exchange for the African people captured  the African Man-hunting Tribes were given guns and munitions as well as whiskey. So the African Man-hunting Tribes that did business with the Europeans eventually turned on each other and the strongest militarily supported tribe wiped out the weaker ones. Before the all the tribes understood what was going one Europeans were laying claims to the lands that once belong to their ancestors and were moving in.  They could not fight back because they were weakened in numbers and in military might.  Weakened in numbers because the demand for slaves in the Americas (Central and North America) was so high it put a lot of pressure for slave traders to keep up with it.  When Black people came to the United States, they came as cargo and was sold as property, and was treated as such.  In contrast, this was very different from the indentured servitude that poor Europeans endured under richer house masters.  Under indentured servitude a man may serve his master for 7 years and at the end of those years he may choose to obtain his freedom.  This was not the case with the Black slaves, they were not indentured servants. They were property period. The only way for Black people to gain their freedom back then was to run away or rebel against their Slave Masters.  However, some Blacks were treated fairly and kindly by their slave owners and those Slave owners taught their slaves about Christianity.  Christianity was never forced upon an individual, but people living under a tribal mindset could not believe in a tribal God of wood or Stone that did not protect them from becoming slaves.  For this reason many slaves wanted to learn of the God of their Masters.  After learning about Jesus Christ and his sacrifice upon the cross for their sins many slaves became Christians.  But becoming Christians did not make them become free of the chattel slavery they were subjected to.  There were only certain things they were allowed to learn from the bible that was interpreted and was believed  it pertained to being a good slave.  They were not allowed to understand anything else until the coming of the civil war.  What people don’t understand that the civil war was not just about slavery, it was about what style of life all Americans wanted to survive and represent their Christian culture.  You see, the rest of the world was outlawing the slave industry, because black people were proving to be more than property or savages.  Take Crispus Attucks, He was the first man to die for the independence of the United States from Britian.  He was Black. He was not an indentured servant and he was not a slave. He was an intelligent Black man schooled in England who came to the United States seeking to own land and create a business enterprise for himself. It is documented sparsely throughout early American History were blacks were instrumental in the United States becoming a nation. Benjamin Banneker, designed the pocket watch and drew the city plans for Washington D. C.  Blacks were proving to be more than property, many entered the civil war to earn their freedom from slavery and free their own people from the same. The movie “Glory” is the true story of a regiment of United States Negro soldiers who broke through the lines of the United Confederate States forces at Fort Sumpter  during the close of the Civil war is a good example of this fact. After when the civil war came to a close and slavery became an extinct and illegal business practice in the United States .  Many slaves in America gathered themselves together and formed churches, and educated themselves through reading the bible. Like the Church of God in Christ or COGIC for short and the National Original Free Will Baptist Church, was started way back then.  Many of the Negro Universities in the South was founded by these black churches, like Grambling, Hillman and Lane College, These institutions are still here with us today.  As Black Americans better understood the scriptures, the more they advanced in the United States.  The more they fought for their civil and human rights and won them. The very rights that we take for granted today, like having the freedom to live wherever you desire to live, decent housing, being able to work a job to earn a living like anyone else and the power and the freedom to vote.   Today the average Afro-American  knows only a little about Christianity and how it became positively apart of their heritage and culture  It is this ignorance that being and has been preyed upon some  to assert that somehow Christianity was forced upon an enslaved populace.  No the truth is that the enslaved populace sought out and embraced Christianity because they saw that their tribal Gods were not powerful enough to protect them from becoming slaves.

Links:

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/church-southern/history8.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Will_Baptist

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/19/lomax.uncf.black.churches/

http://www.cogic.org/our-foundation/the-founder-church-history/

2. What was our original religion before Christianity prior to African colonization?

There was no one set religion prior to European Colonization.  There were many different pagan tribal religions in Africa before the introduction of Christianity.  Many of the African Tribes that were taken from Africa to the US were taken from the part of the African Continent which practiced prayer and worship through animal sacrifices.  This type of prayer and worship dates back to their forefather, Ham, the son of Noah. Who probably learned the worship of the divine through animal sacrifice from his father Noah and passed the practice to his sons who spread all over the African continent. That is the original religion of Africa.  Christianity then came and dominated the Northern part of the African  continent. Christianity spread over the Northern side of Africa not by bloody conquests, but by the preaching of the saint John Mark, the evangelist and the Apostle Thomas.   Islam came 600 years after the peaceful expansion of Christianity into Africa by bloody conquest and swept through  northern Africa and Spain.  There is no record except in Alex Haley’s “Roots” of Islam reaching the Central African region, but by that time the slave trade was in full production and most of the tribes of Western and Central African were gone.

I must say here that in my personal studies of this issue, I have found out that when the Muslim Arabs swept through northern Africa by force, they also acquired Africans as slaves for their great empire.

3. If Black folk (aka Afro-Americans) were meant to be Christians, why is Christianity

separated and segregated?.

What? Everyone is meant to be Christians through the preaching of the Gospel.  This is because the Gospel is available for everyone to receive including Black people.  This question shows the ignorance of what the black slaves found out about Christianity when they sought it out and embraced it.  They found out that Jesus died for all mankind, regardless of ethnicity or race for the salvation of all.  Many of these people do not know that one of Jesus’ disciples was a Canaanite, a descendant of Ham, the Father of all who are native to Africa. Jesus picked him to be a disciple and allowed him to partake in his ministry. The reason many Black people do not know this fact is because they don’t know that they are direct descendants of Ham, the son of Noah.   I ask you this: If African people were not meant to be Christian then why did John, the Evangelist and later the Apostle Thomas preach the Gospel throughout Northern Africa?   Why did Northern Africans convert to Christianity through the preaching of the Gospel if it was not for them to receive it?  It is because Jesus instructed his Apostles to preach the Gospel starting from Jerusalem unto the ends of the earth.  This is known as the great commission which is still being carried out today.  Christianity is now all over the world through the preaching of the Gospel.  Those who believe that black people were never meant to hear or receive the Gospel message have their history lacking verifiable information.   Why is Christianity separated and segregated then?  It could be from a number of things from a disagreement over doctrine or some people’s ethnic fear of other ethnic groups, ignorance of other ethnic groups that claim to be Christian, ethnic preferences or a preference of different worship styles. I remember visiting a Church long ago with my wife. We were trying to find a place of worship that we felt that was suitable for us.  This church did not have any minority members in it.  No one was friendly toward my wife and I, we really felt uncomfortable there.  Suffice it to say that we did not join that church.  The church we did eventually choose to join was a church where there was a mixture of races represented and were very friendly toward us.   My wife and I are an Afro-Hispanic-American couple. So I could say that we felt comfortable in a church where we were not representing the minority race. In saying that, people must understand that Christianity is not a white man’s religion; it is a black man’s religion. I say this because Christianity is not an American religion. .It did not take its form or start in the United States.  It is an African religion.  How can that be?  This is how that can be and is. Many map makers in Medieval times considered what is now known as Asia Minor or the Middle Eastern part of the world as a part of Africa.  They did this because they regarded the natural boundaries between continents such as Seas, Rivers and Mountains.  Now according to this, Asia is separated from Europe by a Mountain range that runs from North to South and the Black Sea. Asia is also separated from Africa by the Mountains that extend out of Eastern Turkey South of the Black Sea and to the west of the Caspian Sea and is on the Northern side of the River Euphrates and the Sea of Acquba.  Israel is therefore in Africa, therefore making Christianity originally an African religion. Since Christianity developed from the Land of Israel. This proves that Christianity is not a just an European religion. The Maps today do not necessarily follow natural boundaries and more modern Europeans segregated the north east of Medieval Africa from the rest of Africa and gave it to Asia and called it Asia Minor. In these modern times it is referred to as the Middle East. Meaning it is the in the Middle of the Eastern Hemisphere of the planet.  No regard is given to its natural boundaries. What you see today is black people reclaiming their religion, but some black people have been so alienated by what Europeans have done to them that they reject the very religion designed for them.