At All Saints church we thought we could use our entrance hall to show what each month offers us. October brings the beautiful rich colours of trees in our gardens, parks and countryside. We offer our ripe produce at harvest to our community, to local people, whether those in need using food banks or just to show someone cares. The children dress up and enjoy Halloween, the pumpkins outside houses giving a clue to where they will be welcome for trick or treat. November turns misty and this year so much rain, and people worry about floods after the dry summer. We have the excitement of bonfires and fireworks, both for Guy Fawkes and Divali. For some people the noise can be too much, the fireworks are much louder these days, and they worry about their pets. It seems that every time some group enjoys themselves another set are annoyed. Compromise in a community can be difficult. Remembrance Sunday is commemorated in November. Poppies are produced and on show everywhere. We can’t just think about the two world wars. In every news bulletin we are reminded that there is civil war in all parts of the world at this very moment. December brings Christmas. Again I find controversy; Is it too early to put gifts and decorations in the shops and garden centres? Is it just money-making or does it help to keep businesses alive? Does it help families spread the cost? Have we forgotten why we have Christmas? Food and drink are part of all religious festivals and Jesus attended a wedding feast with an excess of wine which the guests drank dry. We can enjoy our family time, presents and food, and still remember why we are celebrating.
A while back All Saints ran a questionnaire to understand better how we relate to the community and as a feed into our ‘Mission Action Planning’, where we should be concentration over the next two years. We kept the questionnaire short – just 10 questions (many of us will have been asked to complete questionnaires on a variety of subjects with an interminable number of questions – we were determined to avoid that!)
Here are the results:
Q1. What is your connection with All Saints?
Options
%
None
16.8
I’ve been to weddings/funerals/baptisms
28
I come to special service (e.g.. Carol service)
9.6
I join in Sunday Services around once per month
0.8
I join in Sunday services most weeks
8.0
I know someone who has a connection
13.6
I’ve noticed displays outside church
13.6
I see it on social media
4.0
I rarely/ever come to services but I join in other activities
5.6
Q2.Whch if any of these groups that meet at All Saints have you: heard of, attended, would be interested in?
Percentages for each answer would not be very helpful so are not included but around 20% of responders had not even heard of any of the groups.
Q3. What do you think the church is?
Options
%
A community facility
33.1
A Christian community
24.5
A place for services
17.9
Somewhere for people to pray
22.5
Other
2.0
Q4. What might encourage you to be more involved with All Saints Church?
Options
%
More convenient service times
1.6
Someone inviting me/coming with me
15.6
More interesting services/activities
15.6
Services/activities which are more relevant to me
18.8
None of the above
48.4
Q5. How could we help you to be more involved?
Options
%
Have more social events
38.7
Hold discussion groups where I can ask questions and tell you what I think
13.3
Communicate better what’s happening
22.7
Have someone I can talk to in confidence
5.3
Make the building more available to the community
20.0
Q6. How well do you think All Saints represents Christianity?
Options
%
Very well
25.7
Fairly well
33.8
Badly
1.4
Not at all
0.0
Don’t know
39.2
Q6. How well do you think All Saints serves the community of Marlpool?
Options
%
Very well
25.0
Fairly well
37.5
Badly
4.2
Not at all
1,4
Don’t know
31.9
Q7. How well do you think All Saints serves the community of Marlpool?
Options
%
Noticeboards
27.3
Flyers
14,1
Social Media
20.2
Word of mouth
35.4
Other
3.0
Q8. How do you find out what’s happening at All Saints?
Options
%
Noticeboards
27.3
Flyers
14,1
Social Media
20.2
Word of mouth
35.4
Other
3.0
Q9. Which of the following best describes what you think about church
Options
%
It is not a welcoming environment
6.8
Church is boring
1.4
It’s a place to ask questions
6.8
I don’t understand what church is about
1.4
I feel I belong
14.9
Christianity is not relevant to me
23.0
I’m afraid I won’t fit in
6.8
I can meet God there
16.2
It’s somewhere I can find help
12.2
I’d like to know more
10.8
Q10. To which age group do you belong?
Options
%
Under 18
5.3
18-25
4.0
26-40
14.7
41-65
38.7
66+
37.3
Do you live:
Options
%
Alone
29.7
With a partner
29.7
As part of a family
31.1
A single parent
8.1
Other
1.4
That’s the easy bit! Now we begin the process of interpreting the responses and using them as a start point for moving forward. Our thanks to all those who responded to questionnaire. We’ll be posing updates in marlpudlian.net and elsewhere as we plan the way ahead and, more importantly, act on those plans.
Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with saying: ‘In this world nothing is certain except death and taxes’. While it might be just about possible to avoid paying taxes it is absolutely certain that sooner or later every one of us will die.
So then what?
Well whether our bodies are cremated, interred or buried at sea it is beyond doubt that our physical bodies do end up as ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes’ as the words used in most funeral service declare. But is that it, is that the end of us?
Well the vast majority of faiths would affirm that that is not the case, that there are two elements to all human life. These are usually referred to as the body, the physical element, and the soul, the spiritual and invisible element. During life these two elements are inextricably bound together but when we die they separate. We know what happens to the body but what about the soul?
The most reliable source of information regarding this is The Bible, although the Qur’an (the Muslim scriptures) does refer to life after death and has some similarities.
The Old Testament has very few references to life after death. The prevailing concept is of eternal rest (in a place called Sheol) but there is little expansion on this. So we need to turn to the New Testament.
In the time of Jesus there were varying traditions and beliefs within Judaism. One group, called Sadducees, did not believe in any form of life beyond death but that one’s situation in life was dependent on how well the individual followed the laws set down by Moses. So the good prospered and the bad suffered.
Jesus did not subscribe to this view, so some Sadducees challenged him with a hypothetical situation; A man married a woman but he died without his wife having any children so his brother married her (in the Jewish tradition of the time, if a married man died without children his brother was obligated to marry his widow and have children to preserve the family name). In this story the brother also died without children and so the next brother married the widow and so on several times. Finally the woman died. The question they posed Jesus was:’ So whose wife was the woman when they all got the heaven? ‘
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
So here we have an unambiguous statement from Jesus that there is most certainly life after death.
When Jesus was crucified he was not on his own, there were two criminals crucified with him. One of them asked Jesus to remember him when he entered his Kingdom. To this Jesus replied: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” It seems inconceivable that Jesus, so close the death himself. would have promised something that he couldn’t deliver.
At the Last Supper Jesus told his disciples that he was going to ‘prepare a place for them’. In the context of his imminent crucifixion, this could only mean a spiritual place.
So if there is indeed life after death what is it like and does everyone end up in the same place?
What heaven is like is a difficult one. We live in a finite world where time passes, so it is virtually impossible to comprehend any environment where time doesn’t exist – eternity. What would we do in eternity? These are unanswerable questions. There are lots of analogies in the Bible but these can only give an inkling. What we are assured is that in Heaven we are close to God and all the pains, cares and concern of this life will no longer exist, we will be in a place of perfection and harmony.
Does everyone end up in Heaven? – The short answer is, no.
Probably the most famous verse in the Bible makes this clear: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
So what happens to all the rest?
Before we get to that let’s look at ‘whoever believes in him’
This doesn’t mean an abstract belief in Jesus as an historical figure, a good man, or even that he was someone sent by God. It means a belief in Jesus as the Son of God, an acceptance of his teachings and a commitment to do our best to follow them.
As James says in his letter; ‘faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead’.
As to what happens to everyone else.
Much as this is probably the answer that we don’t want to hear, the inescapable truth is that after our physical death each of us will be judged. The good news is that God alone is our judge – we do not get to judge one another. As a graphic example of how this works Jesus told this parable.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
The first thing to note from this parable is that it is about how we treat our fellow human beings. The second thing is that how we treat one another is the equivalent to treating God himself that way.
But what about this ‘eternal fire’? Are those that don’t make the grade literally going to spend eternity in a fiery pit?
It is difficult to square this picture with the one of a loving God who allowed himself to be murdered to give us a way back to Him. There are any number of views on this but most likely these glimpses of hell are intended to be taken figuratively to describe an environment in which God is absent, which is the opposite of eternal life in heaven. Somewhere where no one could possibly choose to go.
But what about those who know nothing of Jesus or Christianity?
The apostle Paul covered this in his letter to the church in Rome
For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)
What Paul was saying is that those who have not had any opportunity to hear or respond to Gospel message will still be judged but based on a different criteria to those who have.
So in a nutshell;
There is most certainly life after death
After death each one of us will be judged by God
No one makes the grade on their own
BUT through the death and resurrection of Jesus everyone has the opportunity to inherit eternal life with God
All that is required of us is that we believe in Jesus as God and do our best to live according to his teachings.
Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday nearest to 11th November. It was orignally inaugurated to remember those who died in World War I, which formally ended on 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Despite this war being proclaimed as: ‘the war to end all wars’, unfortunaltey it wasn’t. Today we also remember those who have also died in more recent coflicts from World War II onwards.
From the beginning poppies have been the symbol of remembrance taken from the poppies growing in Flanders where several WWI battles were fought. Traditionally poppies are red, the normal natural colour of poppies and a symbol of the blood thet was shed. More recently, other colours are someties worn: Black commemorates the contributions of black, African and Caribbean communities to the war effort – as servicemen and servicewomen, and as civilians, Purple is often worn to remember animals that have been the victims of war, White poppies are sometimes worn by people who feel that the red poppy glorifies war. The white poppy is stll intended to commemorate those who have died in conflict but challenges us all to focus on avoiding was and achieving peace.
At all Saints, each year we create a display outside the church building, as you can see in the picture below and invtte anyone and everyone to add a poppy of any colour and of any constructon. Some are bought, some are knitted, some are made of paper and others of out of plastic bottles.
The Ukrainian war and the atrocities it has shown us prays on our mind. We ask difficult questions of ourselves, the world and God to which there are no easy answers.
As a church we have contact with a church in Kyiv. They worship to the sounds of air raids and bombs. They serve their neighbours and are living lives in the storm of war. They sleep in their bomb shelters and blog daily about their faith and their lives. This is some of what Maia, one of the leaders, has written about God’s care in the midst of war following the birth of her granddaughter.
‘Nights even after 26 days of war still signify danger and bring fears – most bombings happen at night. This is a special time of the day for us to keep reminding ourselves of God’s goodness, His protection, and provision.
Days before the war I saw it in my nightmares how we would be evacuating from Kyiv, under bombings, possibly on foot through snowy fields with our pregnant Sasha, trying to get to a village 60 km from Kyiv. Of course, it turned out that with Russian invaders coming close to Kyiv and occupying suburbs and villages those places turned into battlefields. We are grateful that when the war started God gave us the wisdom to stay in the city.
During the first days of the war, we heard a lot of reports of women giving birth to babies in bomb shelters and women not having milk to nurse because of stress. Those stories fuelled my next portion of nightmares. We had never thought of buying any baby formula ahead of time! Our granddaughter was going to nurse. Just as I was getting worked up about finding where we could get formula. I got a call from a volunteer with who we had worked in Eastern Ukraine when we took humanitarian aid there in 2014-18. She said she was focused on helping our military but she had some baby diapers and formula that needed to be distributed and she asked if our church could help with distribution. God didn’t only assure me that He will take care of our grandbaby but He also tasked us with helping others!
My big fear was that Sasha would have to go to the hospital at night, during curfew and air raid. Then the baby action came. And it was night, a curfew and air raid. While Sasha waited for contractions to become more frequent we started hearing loud explosions. Before it got worse Nikita called the ambulance, it arrived very quickly and we watched how it took Sasha and Nikita on an absolutely empty road to the hospital towards the sounds of explosions.
Later that morning hospital insisted that Nikita leaves till a more active phase of labor. Meanwhile situation around Kyiv was getting worse and it was announced that a curfew would start that evening for 48 hours. If Nikita didn’t get in the hospital before curfew Sasha would be alone through the birth and after. The explosions were much more audible near the hospital. I can’t imagine how scary it was for Sasha to be alone. Around lunch time I asked Nikita how Sasha was doing, he said she was crying, I could see Nikita was on verge of tears too. I went to the bedroom and cried.
Some days a while ago we had started sharing our lunches and dinners with our concierge – she is still serving as our “security guard” 24/7. So I took lunch to her that day and on the way back I was coming in the elevator with a neighbour who asked how we were doing. I started telling about Sasha and Nikita and broke into tears. He didn’t go to his floor, came out of the elevator on ours. He started making phone calls and didn’t give up for 2 or 3 hours until he found the head doctor who allowed Nikita to get into the hospital and be with Sasha before, during, and after Briana’s birth.
You know, how in my nightmares I was imagining that Sasha would give birth in a snowy field under bombings, or in a bomb shelter, or even at home. But God took care of everything! She was in a good hospital, had an excellent doctor, and Sasha, Nikita, and Bria were given the best room. They also had very good food – now because relatives are not allowed to bring food, restaurants are donating a variety of wonderful meals to hospitals. The nights Sasha and Nikita spent at the hospital were more comfortable than at home – they got to sleep in the bed, rather than on the floor in our bomb shelter.
Yesterday they also found a very good private paediatric clinic close by. The doctors in this clinic didn’t leave Kyiv! They are currently not charging anything – people can pay what they are able to or have services for free.
God has been so good and so faithful every step of our way through this valley of shadow!’
In the midst of war they are very aware of God. God is at work here too, in the immense relief effort, in collections, in fundraising efforts, in the offering of homes for refugees and in prayer as we join with the church across the world in praying for peace.
Join with us as we pray for the situation. You may like to use this prayer or follow Maia on this link (1) Maia Mikhaluk | Facebook
God of peace and justice, we pray for the people of Ukraine today. We pray for peace and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your Spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war or peace, for wisdom, discernment and compassion to guide their decisions. Above all, we pray for all your precious children, at risk and in fear, that you would hold and protect them. We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
At the heart of Easter is a commemoration and celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To make any real sense of this we need to put the resurrection into context.
Three days before, Jesus had been crucified. This was the preferred method of execution by the Roman Empire and so was nothing unusual – many thousands of other people had been and would be executed in the same manner. So what made this any different?
For a start, this was a political stitch up. The Jewish authorities were alarmed by the popularity of Jesus and his claim to be the long expected Messiah, the ‘Saviour of Israel’ because he didn’t fit the mould of what they were expecting, a warrior king who would defeat the Romans. They made trumped up charges, incited the population of Jerusalem to a demonstration of social unrest and then persuaded the Roman Governor that this would turn into a riot if he didn’t execute the ‘troublemaker’ Jesus. The Governor, named Pontus Pilate gave in to their demands. So one may conclude that this was just another sorry story of the ‘little guy’ being stomped on by the great and the powerful?
That most certainly wasn’t the case. However it may have seemed, Jesus was in control of the situation.
When a mob had gone out at ded of night to arrest him Jesus gave no resistance. In fact he pointed out that he could call on an army of angels to defend him if he so wished.
When a mob had gone out at dead of night to arrest him Jesus gave no resistance. In fact he pointed out that he could call on an army of angels to defend him if he so wished.
In actual fact it was the destiny of Jesus to be crucified!
Confused? You’re in good company – so were his disciples, who ran off in confusion and fear.
To understand this we have to delve way back into the Old Testament, to the time of Moses. Via Moses, God had given a set of laws by which his ‘chosen people’ (the Jews) were instructed to live. Embedded in these laws was the requirement to make sacrifices for forgiveness. The people could only approach God through sacrifice. This entailed the slaughter of an animal, usually a lamb. This might seem a bit distasteful to us today but the slaughter of animals for food and clothing was part of the normal way of life. (It is today but the difference is that it happens out of sight). This ritual was also a sacrifice in the sense of loss. The person making the sacrifice was sacrificing a valuable asset. The problem was that these sacrifices by their very nature were imperfect and so had to be repeated over and over again.
Enter Jesus. Over millennia, humanity had strayed so far away from the path that God had mapped out for them that they had created such a gulf that He was simply out of reach. To close this gap there needed to be a one-off perfect sacrifice. That sacrifice was Jesus. Jesus lived a perfect life –i.e. he never strayed from what God the Father had called him to do; that is he never sinned. His sacrifice on the cross was a one-off, sufficient to atone for all past, present and future sins of the entire human race.
At the moment of his death the gulf that humanity had created between themselves and God was bridged. That was the game changer of game changers!!
Quite rightly Christian celebrate Easter, the day when the crucified Jesus rose from the dead. This was not a resuscitation – no one ever in the long and bloody history a crucifixions had ever survived. The dead Jesus was resurrected, he was recognisable as the Jesus that his disciples had known but he was also changed. He was no longer constrained by human limitations, he could appear in multiple places at once, doors couldn’t keep him out, he could appear and disappear at will.
Isn’t his all a myth though? A story with perhaps a grain of truth but enhanced and exaggerated with the passage of time?
Most certainly not – Look at the evidence; around 500+ people were witnesses to the risen Jesus (see 1 Cor 15:6). The same disciples who ran away at the time of his arrest and cowered in in a locked room were, a few weeks later, out on the streets fearlessly attesting to the risen Christ to crowds of thousands ( Acts 2), within a few decades Christianity had spread throughout the known world.
Easter? What’s all the fuss about? – The moment when the world changed for ever, where the gulf between God and humanity was bridged.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
Note: the reference in ( ) can all be found in the Bible
A recently published survey covering England Wales and Northern Ireland found that 51% of the populations claimed to be Christians.
How does that square with the statistic that only 9% attend church or chapel of any Christian denomination regularly?
One must suppose that the discrepancy is due to different definitions of ‘being a Christian’.
So what is the definition of ‘A Christian’?
Many people may well call themselves Christians because they have been Baptised (Christened). Whereas baptism is a very important element of Christianity it is not some sort of heavenly insurance policy. Baptism is a public symbol of an individual having made some pretty heavy duty declarations and promises. In some traditions children below the age when they are able to make these themselves, adults (usually parents and Godparents) make these promises on their behalf in the expectation that the child will confirm these when they are old enough to do so. But promises need to be kept or at least we must do our best to keep them.
So what are these declarations and promises?
The declarations:
I believe in God who created the universe and everything in it [this doesn’t mean that Christians can’t accept evolution or other scientific theories but we do accept that creation happened as an act of will by God whatever the mechanism]
I believe that God came to earth in person and was born a baby to the virgin Mary. [One of his titles is the son of God another is Emmanuel, which means ‘God with us’]
I believe in the Holy Spirit [that is God invisible to us but alongside us]
I believe that there is only one church [there any many different traditions and denominations but they are all part of one ‘Church’.], the communion of saints [this simply means all Christians both living and dead, past present and future],
I believe in the forgiveness of sins. [That all sins are forgivable by God however bad they may be – we just need to be sincerely sorry and ask forgiveness from God.]
I believe in the resurrection of ‘the body’ [that doesn’t mean that our physical bodies will continue after we die but that the essential ‘us’ will – we will be recognisable as ‘us’]
I believe in eternal life [a life beyond our physical existence and beyond our imagination which lasts for ever. For those who truly believe in Jesus Christ, that life is in heaven with God]
And the promises?:
To reject the devil and all rebellion against God [That mean, to recognise that Satan exists and is a malignant force for evil. To positively have nothing to do with him or what he stands for]
To renounce the deceit and corruption of evil [This means, to stand up against everything that goes against God’s commands: To love God above everything and everyone and to treat all other people as we would wish to be treated if we were in their situation]
To repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour [This means, to recognise that we have done things contrary to God’s will and/or which harm other people and to try our best not to repeat them]
To turn to Christ as Saviour [This means, to accept that Jesus Christ died in your place and took your sins on his back]
To submit to Christ as Lord [This means, to accept that Jesus Christ is your ultimate boss above all others]
To come to Christ the way the, truth and the life [This means, to accept that Jesus Christ is the only way that we can access God’s promise of eternal life with him]
So do all Christians live according to these declarations and keep these promises? – Absolutely not! In fact none of us do. As Paul wrote in his letter to the church in Rome: ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. (You can find this letter in the New Testament).
What a Christian must do is try to live by these declarations and promises, recognise when we’ve failed and pray for forgiveness. The good news is that there is no limit to God’s forgiveness – there is no point when He will say: ’enough is enough. I’m not going to forgive you any more’. How do we know that? It’s recorded in the Gospel that Peter once asked Jesus: ‘How many times should forgive my brother if he keeps dong the same thing against me? – 7 times? (That sound like more than fair don’t you think?) Jesus answered: ‘Not 7 times but 70 x 7 times’ (He didn’t literally mean 490 times but, without limit). ). Why? Because that is exactly what God does.
Can someone be a Christion without being baptised? – Baptism is a public sign of a commitment already made. A belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and one’s personal saviour is the point at which an individual becomes a Christian. (Have a look at John’s Gospel chapter 3 verse 16)
So who gets to decide who is and who isn’t a Christian?
The Pope? –NO!
The Archbishop of Canterbury? – NO!
The vicar or local church minister? – NO!
The Church elders – NO!
No one gets to judge another person’s faith – that’s a role reserved by God for himself. But, to quote James, another New Testaments letter writer,: ‘Faith without actions is dead’. None of us can be a ‘Christian in principle’ any more than we can become a tennis player by joining a tennis club but never picking up a racket.
Are all these 51% of the population really Christians? That’s between them and God. But….
There’s a very famous saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” True enough, but nobody can fool God any of the time! Another quote from a New Testament letter from Paul, this time to the church in Galatia: ‘ Do not be deceived God cannot be mocked’
The majority of Christians, certainly in the west, have very little understanding of Islam and the population in general probably have less understanding of Christianity that we may think. Below is a comparison of the two faiths albeit from a Christian perspective (a Muslim might take issue with some of this)
ISLAM
CHRISTIANITY
THE QURAN has 114 chapters and is of similar size to the New Testament. Muslims believe that the Quran is uncreated and eternally preserved on a tablet in Heaven called the ‘Mother of the Book’. This was communicated word for word to Mohammed in Arabic over a period of 23 years by the angel Gabriel sent by Allah. It is considered to be the ultimate error-free authority on Islam. Muslims believe that the Quran is the final revelation of Allah to mankind after the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament, attributed to Moses), the Psalms of David and the Gospels. Muslims regard these scriptures, other than the Quran to have been corrupted by Jews and Christians over time. Muslims believe that the Bible has been superseded by the Quran.
THE BIBLE Consists of 66 books written over a period of 1,400 years by over 40 authors. They wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – they are ‘God breathed’. The Bible is considered to be the Word of God and is the ultimate authority for Christians. However, the Bible has been translated from the original Hebrew and Greek texts into many different languages. This is not a simple task and some degree of interpretation is required.
ALLAH God is known an Allah. He is ‘Allah, the one and only’. Allah stands alone he has no equal partner
GOD Christians take the generic ‘god’ and by capitalising the ‘G’ make ‘God’ a specific and unique term for the creator and ruler of the universe. God is so indescribable that Christians refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirt but it is absolutely fundament to Christianity that there is only One God
ALLAH Is not a God of love He does not love sinners
GOD IS LOVE. He loves everyone with an unimaginable love and throughout history He has strived to save every individual, ultimately becoming human in the form of Jesus
ALLAH is not Father He is unknowable and would never be referred to as father
GOD IS FATHER. God has adopted all who believe in Jesus as His children. He is not only knowable but each one of us has direct access to Him through prayer
ALLAH is the creator of the world (universe)
GOD is the creator and sustainer of the world (universe) NOTE: Many Christian do not see the scientific theories of creation as contradictory to Christianity. God created the world as an act of will. Science is about the mechanism by which this came about.
ALLAH has not revealed himself to mankind Allah predetermines everything, the destiny of creation is fixed. He determines all according to his mercy, both good and evil
GOD has revealed himself to mankind in person (Jesus). God has an ultimate plan for creation but individuals have freewill and can choose good or bad.
JESUS does feature in the Quran – he is called Isa and is sometimes referred to as Isa son of Mary. He is recognised as a prophet but a servant of Allah not co-equal to him.
JESUS is referred to by many different titles in the Bible but in all of them He is recognised as Emmanuel, God with us. God come to earth in person
VIRGIN BIRTH Jesus was born to the virgin Mary and was fully human
VIRGIN BIRTH Jesus was born to the virgin Mary and was fully human.
JESUS IS NOT THE SON OF GOD
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD. He was fully human and fully divine
JESUS IS A PROPHET He was a great prophet sent by Allah. He announces Muhammed as the next and last prophet
JESUS IS THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROPHETS He fulfils both the law (as given to Moses) and the prophesies from the Old Testament
JESUS PERFORMED MIRACLES Muslims believe that Jesus was a miracle worker
JESUS PERFORMED MIRACLES. Jesus performed many miracles, including raising the dead. These are recorded in the Gospels
JESUS DID NOT DIE ON THE CROSS OR RISE FROM THE DEAD Muslims believe that another man died in his place
JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS AND ROSE AGAIN. This is fundamental to Christianity; that Jesus died on the cross as atonement for the sins of mankind and on the third day He rose from the dead
JESUS ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN. Muslims believe that Jesus ascended and will one day return
JESUS ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN. Christians believe that Jesus ascended to God the Father and will one day return
JESU WILL RETURN BUT AS A MUSLIM. He will return to earth at the second coming, get married and have children and will convert all Christians to Islam.
JESUS WILL COME AGAIN at the end of time as king and judge
THE HOLY SPIRIT The Quran refers only vaguely to the Holy Spirit and identifies him with the angel Gabriel
THE HOLY SPIRIT. To Christians is God, as part of the Trinity; three persons in one God
There are other similarities and differences, some fundamental and irreconcilable, but hopefully the above gives some insight into how, despite having some similarities, Christianity and Islam are very different religions.
25th December started life as a pagan festival, the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, Instead of working the Romans spent their time gambling, singing, playing music, feasting, socializing and giving each other gifts. Wax taper candles called cerei were common gifts during Saturnalia, to signify light returning after the solstice. On his conversion to Christianity, the emperor Constantine declared that this festival would henceforth would be a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The first recorded use of 25th December to celebrate Christ’s birth was in 336 AD. Since then most of the Western World has retained this date. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the 25th December is actually Jesus’ birthday.
So where did all our Christmas traditions come from? Actually many of these come from pre-Christian pagan practices;
Holly – this was sacred to Druids as a plant which withstood winter and had magical powers. Christians adopted holly with the berries symbolising the blood of Christ and the sharp leaves the crown of thorns worn at his crucifixion
Yule log – The custom of burning the Yule Log goes back to, and before, medieval times. It was originally a Nordic tradition. Yule is the name of the old Winter Solstice festivals in Scandinavia and other parts of northern Europe, such as Germany. The Yule Log was originally an entire tree, that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony. The largest end of the log would be placed into the fire hearth while the rest of the tree stuck out into the room! The log would be lit from the remains of the previous year’s log which had been carefully stored away and slowly fed into the fire through the Twelve Days of Christmas. It was considered important that the re-lighting process was carried out by someone with clean hands. Nowadays, of course, most people have central heating so it is very difficult to burn a tree!
Mistletoe – Mistletoe is a plant that grows on range of trees including willow, apple and oak trees. The tradition of hanging it in the house supposedly goes back to the times of the ancient Druids; however, there’s little evidence that this happened. It is also meant to possess mystical powers which bring good luck to the household and wards off evil spirits. It was also used as a sign of love and friendship in Norse mythology. When the first Christians came to Western Europe, some tried to ban the use of Mistletoe as a decoration in churches, because of some of the old stories about it, but many still continued to use it! York Minster used to hold a special Mistletoe Service in the winter, where wrong doers in the city of York could come and be pardoned. The custom of kissing under Mistletoe comes from England. The earliest recorded date mentioning kissing under the mistletoe is in 1784 in a musical. There was kissing under the mistletoe in the illustrations in the first book version of ‘A Christmas Carol’ published in 1843, and this might have helped to popularise kissing under the mistletoe.
Christmas Tree – Each year at the time of the winter solstice, ancient Egyptians celebrated by decorating their temples and homes with evergreen trees and wreaths. The prosperous plant represented everlasting life, peace, and opulence, which was important because winter was a time when their sun god, Ra, was ill and weak, reports History.com. After the solstice, Ra would slowly start glowing brighter and stronger, and an evergreen’s immortality symbolized the triumph of life over death. The Egyptians weren’t the only ones bringing the plant indoors, though. In Scandinavia, the Vikings believed evergreens were special gifts from Balder, their god of light and peace. And the Druids, an ancient Celtic priesthood said to walk the line between the gods and mankind, started bringing evergreens into the home around the 8th century, AD. Before then, the Druids worshipped oak trees as their idol. But English Benedictine monk St. Boniface, a man who devoted his life to converting pagans, offered the Druids a triangular-shaped balsam fir tree as a symbol of the Trinity, and it went on to replace their beloved oaks. They then used evergreens to adorn their temples as a celebration of life without death, hanging mistletoe sprigs over their doorways and windows to ward off evil spirits of diseases. Though 16th-century German theologian and priest Martin Luther is famed for sparking the Protestant Reformation, he’s also credited with bringing the Christmas tree to Germany and introducing it to Christianity in the way that it’s known today.
It might seem that today’s Christmas celebrations are not much different from pagan festivals. But there is a difference! Entwined with all the party-going, excesses and shadows of long dead pagan religions is the reality that a little over 2000 years ago God, the creator of the universe came among us as a baby – Jesus. Emmanuel, God with us. A perpetual light in a darkened world
Northumbria Community is a dispersed network of people from different backgrounds, streams and edges of the Christian faith. As Companions in Community, we are united in our desire to embrace and express an ongoing exploration into a new way for living, through a new monasticism, as Christians that offers hope in our changed and changing culture. We are A Way to express The Way and acknowledge there are many other valid expressions of the desire to follow Jesus Christ in today’s world.
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