Religion, good and evil and the end of the world

I was looking at a website about Jerry Falwell the evangelical preacher. It sounds like he is preaching that the Christian bible says Islam are like the anti-christ and countries like Iran, Iraq and Syria are evil. I guess he is saying Jesus will come down and kill all the Islam people. But the Jews are fine because once Jesus comes down they will all convert to Christianity. Do many Christians have this belief or is this just a few extremist?


On the other side of the coin...

Adding further drama to the end-of-the-world scenario is the belief by some Shia Muslims, including Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that Armageddon will trigger the return of their own Messiah, the Hidden Imam. The Hidden Imam then will successfully defend Islam in the final battle between good and evil, before ushering in an era of universal peace.


It started me thinking, I wonder if these teachings help to divide us as people and never achieve any real peace in our world?

 

Suddenly, the religious preachers wake up "There is no messiah!?"

Nah, the human race sucks and is flawed.. peace will never be an outcome. We might as well enjoy the little freedom, or illusion of it, that we still have.

 

Of course. All religion does is divide people and cause conflict (often resulting in murder, persecution and oppression). It hides behind a fake image of love, peace and family but that is all crap.. wipe away the make-up and you see it for what it really is

 

Brum"Nah, the human race sucks and is flawed.. peace will never be an outcome. We might as well enjoy the little freedom, or illusion of it, that we still have."
****That is good advise I should probably take


Yo-Yo
Hi!

 

I did not realize islam was mentioned in the Bible. How could Jesus come down and kill people that did not exist when the Bible was written?

Islam dates to the early 600s, when the prophet Muhammad (c. 570–632)

The Bible was written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years ago. (http://www.carm.org/bible/biblewhen.htm)

Islam, 1437 years ago, technically speaking anyway. (http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=3069&CATE=115)

Could you possibly re-phrase the original question? Your premise is flawed.

 

Thats his interpretation. Sounds like BS.

Thats scarier to me. I think their view of universal peace includes you wearing a burqua and your daughters sexually submitting to any man against their will.

I like the whole 72 virgin thing better. I was always turned on by consensual sex.

BTW Rebecca, you seem like a peaceful person, concerned for others and interested in the "religion" discussion.

I would recommend staying away from falwell and the like. I highly recommend Emmet Fox. He was a Christian/Spiritual philospher extremely popular in the 30 & 40's. He drew huge crowds. He really had a beautiful and Christ like way of interpreting the Bible and had an Eastern (Buddhist) flavor to his philosophy.

His interpretation of "The Sermon On The Mount" is usually life changing for anyone who reads it. I wish every one would read it. I don't think the search for "spiritual truth" for me could be complete without studying Foxs work.

I would post an Emmet Fox essay but thats too much heres a link though.

http://www.mastersinthemaking.com/articles/foxessays1.shtml

 

From what I have read, there are 72 virgins provided, but I never saw any mention of being able to have sex with them. Perhaps that is the falacy. You get there, find 72 virgins and an ice pack for your blue balls

 

Oh. I assumed they are there for a Muslim mans pleasure. My bad.

Maybe they got heaven and hell confused?

If they are there:

Would that mean in heaven there at least 72 times more women than men?

Are women really 72 times better than men? Or are the virgins just created on the fly when someone crashes a jet full of people into a skyscraper?

 

and your thumbs are gone......

 

Perhaps it was saying Islam because according to what he is saying countries that are predominately Muslim/Islam are the evil countries. I saw your message this morning, and I thought oh well that makes sense. But then I cannot find the original website I was on. I went to the official Jerry Fallwell site and he doesn't even give a thought for free..every sermon or thought is at a price I am not a christian and I pulled that up and was thinking wow no wonder they don't get along. I will pull up more and as I do will post the source from now on. Just now, I was scanning for Jerry falwell thoughts and he is being criticized for saying the anti-christ will be a Jew (so that is another twist). Sources here
and here
The more info I pull up about him, the more I realize there could be a whole thread just about him, he seems to be kind of a nut. If anyone has any additional info about him please feel free to post it. In the meantime, I will look up his end of the world thoughts later today

 

Thanks, I will check out Emmet fox. Although, I am not actually searching for the one "spiritual truth" because I really don't think there is one. But for some reason it seems very interesting to me to learn about what other people believe.

 

I didn't say "one spiritual truth" .....

Although now that you said that I do believe there are spiritual truths for each person. People who are religious/spiritual are searching for closeness to a spiritual power.

What is it we are here to learn as individuals? Is religion the answer? Not in my opinion although it can be a means to an end.

This is why I draw a line between Muslims and Islam. I cannot see a religion based on rantings of an evil man (Muhammad) as leading anywhere good. I see Muslims as people on a spiritual path just like everone else. As long as when our paths meet they aren't carrying a weapon with which to kill me for not taking their path I say go ahead.

The reason I brought up Emmet Fox is he has no rantings on fear, hell, satan, damnation or religion. His teachings are strictly positive, open and roomy for all, regardless of religion or spiritual beliefs

The religion board could use a little positive instead of debate on which religion sucks the most.

 

LMAO!
Not thats comedy!
I love it...

 

Here is something I found about biblical teachings:

"And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days" (Rev. 12:1-6).

Is it fair to say the following is the Christian interpretation of end of times or armageddon? Or is this just some Christians that believe this?

Revelation, chapter 12, tells about a “woman,” which refers to Israel, the Jewish people out of whom the Deliverer, Jesus Christ, will come. The great red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and seven crowns, whose tail draws one-third of the stars, refers to Satan. The stars are the angels who rebelled and followed Lucifer, who was cast out of Heaven.

Satan hates Israel because it is the nation chosen by God to bring the Savior into the world. The Devil, as he is also called, is prophesied to do all within his considerable power to destroy that people. Antichrist will be the Devil’s world dictator who will try to carry out Israel’s destruction, as outlined in Daniel, chapters 7, 8, 9, and 11, and in Revelation chapter 13.

So again we ask the question: Are the dramatic events we have witnessed in Iraq since “Iraqi Freedom” brought about dramatic changes there the ignition of Armageddon? Saddam Hussein and most all other dictators in the Middle East have long been blood-vowed to completely destroy Israel. They have stated they want every Jew drowned in the Mediterranean or to meet an even more terrible fate.

In that sense, Iraq and the other enemy nations of God’s chosen people bring history tick after tick of the prophetic clock ever closer to that final battle in the valley God’s Word calls Armageddon.

You can go to website and read whole article...

My source of this info is here

So would it be safe to assume someone that believes this stuff would therefore believe anyone that opposes Israel is pro-satan? i.e. Islam countries

 

If someone actually believes this way, I can't see how peace would be there goal. Because you believe you have a duty to fight "satan". It is my thought that religion sometimes breeds hatred. To be fair, I will also check on the Islam views of armageddon...will be back

 

OK, here is a view about armegeddon from Islam perspective. I don't know if most of them believe it or only a few, but this is what I found...

Armageddon, known in Islam as Al-Malhamah Al-Kubrah (the Great War), is prophesised in the religious books and writings of all the Peoples of the Book - Islam, Christianity and Judaism, but with certain differences.

Moslems believe that the devastating battle will take place in Syria as the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) said: “The place of assembly of the Moslems at the time of Al-Malhamah will be in Al-Ghutah near a city called Damascus one of the best cities in Sham”. (Abu-Daoud).

The Prophet (pbuh) further foretold events that would occur before Armageddon, including the return to earth of the Messiah (the prophet Isa, known to Christians as Jesus), who would pray behind the Mahdi or “the Guided One”. The prophet Isa would then destroy the unbelieving armies of Gog and Magog (thought to represent two different European races), before restoring peace and brotherhood to the planet.

The signs
But before this defining battle can take place, Moslems are told to watch for certain signs and to ready themselves.

Minor signs include the disappearance of knowledge and the appearance of ignorance; the consumption of intoxicants will be widespread; women will outnumber men; the nations of the earth will gather against the Moslems like hungry people going to sit down to a table full of food; rain will be acidic or burning; great distances will be traversed in short spans of time; leaders of people will be oppressors; men will begin to look like women and women will look like men; the Jews will return to live in Bilad Canaan (Palestine); people will compete with each other to build taller buildings; earthquakes will increase and smog will hang over cities.

One sign, which will, no doubt, resonate during these times is this: The people of Sham will receive no food and no money due to oppression by the Romans (Europeans/Westerners).

I found that here

So, I guess they think they are right just as passionately as the Christians think they are right. It seems like Brums original suggestion, "Nah, the human race sucks and is flawed.. peace will never be an outcome. We might as well enjoy the little freedom, or illusion of it, that we still have." is probably all I can do. Maybe peace will never exist.

 

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Islam were the church of the devil. Not saying it is, just wouldn't be a real shocker if it were.

If the 12th Imam (the hidden Imam) shows his face then we'll know. The church of the devil is the one who's messiah comes to be worshipped as God in the temple of God. Soon after that happens, it's all over.

That false messiah could come from the Jews, the Mormons, or Islam.

My prediction is that it will come from Islam. The world has never seen such wickedness as comes from that religion.

 

You might have to take off those glasses first. You need an updated prescription

 

Why not ice cream eaters, park service attendants, or monkfish? Is there something about Jews, Mormons, or Muslims that makes them prime real estate for the Antichrist?

 

They have temples and they expect an earthly messiah to reign as God in their temple.