Removing Son of God from the Bible?

Yet another thought-provoking article from Carl Medearis--Aaron

By Carl Medearis

There’s an interesting debate going on within Christian missions circles these days. Wycliffe Bible Translators have taken out the term “Son of God” in the New Testament when referring to Jesus in their Arabic Bible translations. They’ve done this because (they say) it does not represent what the words originally meant to a Jewish audience when a modern Muslim is reading them in Arabic. As you might guess, there’s been a huge backlash from the Christian community.

And as is typical, there’s been little room for nuance. If our answers can’t fit on bumper stickers, most aren’t interested. So the simplified version of both sides are: It makes sense….and….Heresy.

(Although I’m not really writing about this point – my opinion would be to leave those words in since they are the words used, and footnote the phrase each time it’s used with an explanation at the bottom of the page).

But here’s the real issue – it’s communication. Language. Semantics. Here’s how the conversation often goes with a Muslim. They ask the Christian this “Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Because, we don’t.”

The Christian, thinking he’s answering honestly and with integrity say, “Of course. Jesus is called that in the Bible.” The Muslim shakes his head and cries out to God to protect him from this awful heresy of the Christians. The Christian is offended and gets even more defensive about Jesus being “the Son of God” and round and round it goes…

Here’s what the Muslim is thinking when he asks the question:

To continue reading this entry, click here

Should the President help capture Kony?

I've had a couple of people ask me what I think about the president using American forces to help capture Joseph Kony, a fair question in light of my well-known (at least for people that actually read my articles) anti-war, non-interventionist views.

The short answer?

Joseph Kony is an evil monster. President Obama has charted a reasonable course of action in sending military advisers to help the Ugandan army capture him. Rush Limbaugh is an idiot for defending Kony and accusing Obama of sending American troops to kill Christians. (In Limbaugh Land, with Obama being a Muslim and all, of course he's out to kill Christians)

If you're unfamiliar with Kony's crimes, watch this video:

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

As for how do I reconcile my (semi) pacifist views with supporting the use of (limited) force to capture a war criminal....

That's a much bigger discussion, but if I could sum it up in a few words I would say that every ideology has its limits. Ideologies are useful only to the extent that they promote actual justice in the real world. When ideological purity gets in the way of justice, that's when ideological purity needs to be set aside.

Does a person have to be a Christian to follow Jesus?

This article got me thinking about how God meets us where we are. Agree or disagree, the author gives us something to think about. Note: The author's title for this article is: Jesus Plus Nothing--Anyone Anywhere can Begin to Follow Jesus

---Aaron

By Tim Timmons

One of the top takeaways from my new book JESUS PLUS NOTHING stirs up so much emotional response. In other words, there is more heat than light at first. It’s tough enough to separate Jesus from Christian ownership. Now, this insight sounds even more foreign and out of bounds from what we’ve been taught. No matter how much evidence is offered or how many people are produced from non-Christian cultures who are followers of Jesus, it’s still stifling to the brain.

A little over a year ago about 60 of us participated in the Montana Awakening. We were spread all over the state, sharing the message of Jesus. I was teamed up with a Muslim friend of mine who loves Jesus and has been faithfully following Jesus for years. My friend is more articulate and genuine in his relationship with Jesus than most Christians I’ve known for years. On our first night in Montana, we were scheduled to speak along with a couple of others from Germany. I began, setting the stage for my Muslim friend’s testimony of how he had come to follow Jesus. Then he would speak and I closed out our session. Well-meaning Christians bombarded us afterward, vehemently and angrily arguing with my friend and me that it is impossible for a Muslim to be a true follower of Jesus. It was just unthinkable!

The same attitude is found among the early disciples in Luke 9, where John says to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” You see how it works? It’s unthinkable that anyone who is not one of us-one of our group-could possibly have a right connection with Jesus. In John 10 Jesus tries to instruct His disciples that He has other disciples who do not belong to His disciples’ same denomination. He says, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.” Whoever Jesus is talking about, these other sheep are not from the same religious and cultural persuasion as His disciples. In the final book of the New Testament-Revelation-there is reference to “A great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne” of Jesus. (Revelation 7) NOTE the common theme of these passages. There is no reference to any certain religious group, but it’s clear that God is calling people from every nation, every tribe and every language group.

So, how is it possible for a non-Christian-a Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or agnostic-to come to the point of being a follower of Jesus and have a genuine saving relationship with Jesus? I’ve observed it in three stages. First-a person is drawn to Jesus because of His miracles, His teachings. At this stage a person is fascinated with the most amazing man, Jesus. He’s a great teacher and a great example. Second-after following Jesus for a period of time, a person begins to embrace Jesus’ principles and teachings. The principles begin to make more and more sense, so the person who has merely been fascinated with Jesus now begins to take Jesus seriously. Third-after continuing to follow Jesus and embrace His teachings and principles, this is when Jesus begins to transform a person’s life. If an internal change or conversion is going to take place, then it will happen at this level of progression.

This progression is perfectly illustrated in Jesus’ encounter with Peter at Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers by saying, “You are God’s Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus strokes Peter for giving such a good answer, but says, “Flesh and blood didn’t reveal that to you.” Only the Father could reveal this kind of thing to Peter. Only God can change a person’s heart. No amount of teachings or belief systems can do this. Here’s the way I see it. You don’t have to believe Jesus is the Son of God to begin to follow Jesus. The disciples didn’t! In fact, they weren’t even genuine “believers”, until later. It took them over three years of following Jesus daily for God, the Father, to change their hearts and minds of faith. When a person begins to follow Jesus, he is set up perfectly to have his heart totally converted-transformed by God Himself. We’ve seen this happen in every major culture of the world. They first are attracted to Jesus as a great teacher or example and later Jesus apprehends their hearts. One more thing. You don’t have to be a Christian to be a follower of Jesus either. Here’s the point! Anyone anywhere can begin to follow Jesus.

Source: http://www.carlmedearis.com/blog/2012/01/jesus-plus-nothing/

A Christmas greeting from a Saudi Arabian Muslim

I received this in my inbox today.

Thought my might enjoy reading about what Jesus means to a Saudi Arabian/American Muslim.

Enjoy!

Friends,
Yesterday December 24, 2011 a friend and a brother sent me his wish for a Merry Christmas and said: “I hope today you have been able in some way to celebrate the life we have in Christ!”. This led me to think about what celebrating the birth of Jesus truly means to me. This early morning, I woke up as usual at 5.30 A.M. to perform my morning prayer and was sitting after prayers thinking and suddenly, I felt a surge of bless flowing through me and the meaning of celebrating Jesus birth became clear in my heart and in my mind. The urge to write to all of you sharing these wonderful feelings I have is out of love to all of you. In fact this whole thing is about love.

When I was sixteen of age, I observed that all we human beings do including love and friendship is originated in a basic instinct to preserve the species. Later, I observed that from there we moved into self glorification of our particular race. This certainly was not very flattering to our human race. But that is truly how I felt. Later, I learned that there must be a creator. My observation to His universe taught me that He deeply cares about me and I found myself surrendering myself to His care. This put me on one side of the fence and put those that did not surrender on the other side. Islam that I learned at that time had something missing. My teachers were mostly Islamocentrics. They taught me that Muslims are the only saved people. All others are doomed. They were self glorifying themselves and those like them. While this was not racial per say, still it added another dimension to my understanding i.e. people self glorify themselves based on many elements of race, tribe, party or even religion.

When I met Jesus I observed that for the first time someone is not motivated in his behavior by ego or egotistical motives. He is teaching that we are all children of God and He loves us all equally. He is teaching not only to love those that you call your people or those that belong to your religion but to love even your enemies. He teaches that if you want to lead you have to serve, if you want to be the first you have to be the last and if you want life you have to give up life. His own life completed what was missing in my own understanding. He is the bridge that connected me to the purpose God created me for. To love Him and to serve others. Jesus is a man that had an exceptional miraculous birth, an exceptional miraculous life and exceptional miraculous death and resurrection by the will of God.

I was sharing this with my daughter minutes after I felt it and she said but dad today might not be his real birthday. I said, If you follow his teachings, you will be celebrating his birth every day.
Blessings,
Safi