Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion, Boston University, has weighed the world's religions in the balance and has pronounced Islam as the greatest. In his book, "God Is Not One", he makes this statement: "Islam is the greatest of the great religions. In terms of adherents, this tradition of justice and mercy and forgiveness and submission is growing far faster than Christianity."(1)
He goes on to assert: "To presume that the conversation about a great religion starts with Christianity is to show your parochialism and your age. The 19th and 20th centuries may have belonged to Christianity. The 21st century belongs to Islam." That's his opinion.
Parochial? If that means adhering to Christ as "the Way, the Truth and the Life," then I am parochial and will go on rejoicing. Mr. Prothero has made his choice and I have made mine.
To Muslims, the will of Allah is revealed in the Shariah, the Islamic law, which takes precedence over all other laws.(2) The avowed purpose of Islam is to bring all nations under Shariah. That includes the United States. Wishful thinking, political correctness and negotiation will not change that.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt made some decisions based on whim. One day the Treasury Secretary consulted with FDR to set the price of gold. FDR gave him a figure that mystified the Secretary.
"Why that price?" he asked. "Because it's a combination of 3's and 7's and those are lucky numbers," the President replied.
Numbers in the Bible do have significance. For example:
Three: Spiritual completeness, e.g.: Father, Son, Holy Spirit; Jesus rose on the third day.
Six: Man's number. Man was made on the sixth day.
Seven: Spiritual Perfection. e.g.: God created the world in seven days.
Eight: Regeneration. e.g.: Noah and his family, a total of eight persons, were saved on the ark and regenerated the earth.
Twelve: Governmental perfection: e.g.: 12 tribes, 12 Apostles
Forty: Time of testing: e.g.: It rained 40 days and 4o nights to cause the Flood; the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years, Jesus was tested in the desert for 40 days
There are no magic or mystic or secret messages attached to Bible numbers or text no matter what Dan Brown says.
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(1) Prothero book review in Lufkin Daily News 4/24/10
(2) From "The Facts On Islam" by John Ankerberg, John Weldon and Dillon Burroughss
available from amazon.com $6.00. I highly recommend it.