Reza Aslan, author of the new book, “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth” has been interviewed on a host of media outlets in the last week. Riding a publicity wave, the book has surged to #2 on Amazon's list.
Media reports have introduced Aslan as a “religion scholar” but have failed to mention that he is a devout Muslim.
His book is not a historian’s report on Jesus. It is an educated Muslim’s opinion about Jesus -- yet the book is being peddled as objective history on national TV and radio.
Aslan is not a trained historian. Like tens of thousands of us he has been formally educated in theology and New Testament Greek.
[...]
“Zealot” is a fast-paced demolition of the core beliefs that Christianity has taught about Jesus for 2,000 years. Its conclusions are long-held Islamic claims—namely, that Jesus was a zealous prophet type who didn’t claim to be God, that Christians have misunderstood him, and that the Christian Gospels are not the actual words or life of Jesus but “myth.”
These claims are not new or unique. They are hundreds of years old among Muslims. Sadly, readers who have listened to interviews on NPR, "The Daily Show," Huffington Post or MSNBC may pick up the book expecting an unbiased and historic report on Jesus and first century Jewish culture. (I will let my Jewish friends address Aslan’s statement on MSNBC that, “there were certainly a lot of Jewish terrorists in first century Palestine.”)Read the full story HERE.
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7 comments:
The Liberal media loves this book because it portrays Christ as something he wasn't and how we Christians got it all wrong. Another slap in the face of Christians. If a non-Muslim wrote something about Mohammad in a bad light, the liberal media would be all over it. So would the Muslims.
Enemedia seek an excuse for sin, including pretending the Bible is not of God or there is no God. They love Muslim hatred of the Bible, because they also hate it. They like to imagine themselves sophisticated rather than decadent. They latch on to excuses like, 'the Bible is stupid.' Some how that trivial glance at the Bible is "proof" they are the more clever?
Wait until they find out Shari'a Law is human slavery and a class system where non-muslims get heavily taxed. Ignorance is only bliss in the short term. Human trafficking is reality, and so is Muslim pedophilia.
Most people agree than Jesus's gospel of love is a better idea than jihadi any day.
The Jews knew God as "the good Shepherd." They KNEW Him.
John 10: 7-18 Jesus said, "I am the the gate of the sheepfold ... Anyone who enters through me will be safe ...I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full. I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD: and the good shepherd lay down his life for the sheep...The hired man abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming...he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.
The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as I have power to lay it down, so I have power to take it up again; and this is the command I have received from my Father."
John 10: 36 "I am the Son of God." The Jews then wanted to arrest him.
Jewish footnotes state: "God himself the shepherd of his people, was to choose a shepherd for them in the messianic age."
Jeremiah 23: 5, 6 "I shall raise an upright Branch for David; he will reign as King . . . And this is the name he will be called, 'Yahweh-is-our-Saving-Justice."
Ezekiel 34: 15, 16, 31 Declares the Lord Yahweh. "I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the injured and make the sick strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be the true shepherd to {my flock}. And you, my sheep, are the flock of my human pasture, and I am your God - declares the Lord Yahweh."
Jesus' assertion that he is the good shepherd is a claim to MESSIAHSHIP.
Footnote from the New Jerusalem Bible: "In biblical language, see *Hosea 2: 22, 'knowledge' is not merely the conclusion of an intellectual process, but the fruit of an 'experience,' a personal contact: when it matures, it is love." (*see Hosea 6:6)
1 John 1: 2-3, 2: 22, 23 "The Word of life is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life ... We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard ... Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. This is the Anti-christ, who denies both the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father too."
1 John 3: 1, 2 "You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children - which is what we are! ... We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is."
What all this means to me, is that we can have 'experience' and learn to love God. We know Jesus had the power over life and death, he raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus is not a mortal. He is the Son of God. There is only one King, but his son is "king" in title as well.
If we treat the Son of God poorly, the Father is naturally annoyed and displeased with us. If we honor the Son, his Father feels honored. All people can see this is true. How we receive Jesus Christ is how we receive God the Father.
If we respect and publicly honor the Son, we will be honored by God. If we deny the Son, on Judgment Day he will deny us.
Jesus is the "Branch" of David. All faithful are adopted children of Abraham, and by good deeds and through faith we inherit all the Father has with Jesus. We are his people, He is our Shepherd.
We know someone is not of God if they deny Jesus Christ. We are of God's fold through accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He was the first fruits of the resurrection, and the gift of immortality is for all, and the gift of God's presence hereafter is won through Christ's merits and our righteous path returned, penitent, from disorders of sin: through Christ's stripes we are healed if we have faith, repent, are baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit and love God with all our hearts, might, mind, and strength, and His children.
Former Muslims state that Allah is a gangster. Jesus DID make claims that the "new" book, NOT on Jesus, lies about. Definitely Muhammad made no such claim that he was non-human or that he had power over life and death. Jesus said he is the messiah.
Jesus said he is the Light of the human family. John 1:9 says, "Which was the true Light that enlightens every man who comes into the world"; which light was given to men so that they might believe. John 1:7 Believe what?—the truth.
The truth is that God's ways are not man's ways, they are very different; we should believe the promises of God and make it our life's effort to attain salvation: STRIVE.
Luke 13:24
The Voice Jesus: "Strive to enter through the narrow door now, because many people—hear Me on this—will try to enter later on and will not be able to."
verse 25 "You may find yourself standing outside knocking on the door."
verse 30 "Look, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last."
This last part reminds me that Jews were not spared by God when they were wicked, and the Christian "Gentile Nations" now will not be spared if we are wicked. Righteousness is not something that can be imputed or achieved by affiliation. We must FEEL faith, and express it through our deeds, good works are the fruits of faith.
The gospel was first to the Jew, then the Gentile. And today it goes from the Gentile to the Jew. The first now last, and the last now first to have the gospel preached to them.
Israel is God's people, who must return to Him with penitence. Jews wrote the Bible. Christianity is a sect of the Jewish religion of Israel, the outcasts of Israel. Jesus, Peter, James, and John were all Jews. First Christian apostles were all Jews.
Jews are those from the land of Jerusalem, clearly not only the tribe of Judah; Israel had 12 sons. The House of Israel are all those of Jacob/Israel, and those who choose to be adopted into the House of Israel, the seed of Abraham.
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