My response to Jim Wallis' response to a Muslim Call for Common Ground

My response to Jim Wallis' response to a Muslim Call for Common Ground http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2007/11/my-response-to-a-muslim-call-f.html

Elaine raises very important questions and points. No where in the teachings of Christ can be found justification for the things of which "Loving God and Neighbor Together" rightfully apologized.
I find no similar apology in "A Common Word Between Us and You" for violence done in the name of Islam for to apologize for such violence would be to deny the Quranic commands to smite the necks of the unbelievers they meet in battle (47:4) and to kill them wherever you find them (2:191), et al.
Nor is there apology for the practice of dhimmitude which is the Islamic version of "mercy" for the survivors among the conquered who agree to submit but not convert.
Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God, for the God of the Christians is "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph 1:3) while Islam denies the deity of Christ.
Let us have dialog on how we can we can live together, but let us not deny the fundamental differences between Christianity and Islam.
I fully expect that this post will be severely edited (as have other of my posts to the point of making them appear to be in agreement) or eliminated.

What would the world look like if everyone lived like you?

This thought provoking question was posed on the Marketplace program which I hear on my local NPR station on my way to work everyday. The question had to do with consumerism and an on-line game in which one's lifestyle choices are rated according to some criteria. The level of our consumerism is certainly something to be considered (whether you agree with their criteria or not). This is particularly true for those of us who consider ourselves to be followers of Christ: do my lifestyle choices reflect the command to love my neighbor as myself?

The question led me to consider other aspects of my life. If everyone prayed like I pray, loved their neighbor like I love my neighbor, worked like I work, practiced stewardship like I practice stewardship - what would the church and the world look like?

I for one am thankful that there are people who live life at a higher level in these and many other areas than I do, for I tremble to think what it would be like if my example was the apex.

Journey back in time

Back in August we took a trip out east to visit family. In preparation for the trip I mapped out all of the places that I knew of where my parents and our family lived. In addition, after having found a cousin I didn't know I had, we had the location of my great-grandparents and grandmother's grave.

So one day we drove to all of these places and also visited with my uncle - the only surviving member of the family from my parent's generation. At 89 he is still mentally sharp and can recall details of the past that are amazing. For example, during the war (the big one of course) he worked in the Pentagon. His commanding officer was none other than Captain Marvel. Not having been a fan of comic books, the significance of the name in popular culture was lost on him, but he recounted details of occurrences from 60+ years ago as if they had occurred last week.

At the cemetery we located the grave of my ancestors which my long lost cousin had located a few months before. At the time it was overgrown and she had requested that it be maintained, so we were able to find it easily. We stood there a few moments and gave thanks for those intrepid souls who had left their homeland in the 1870's to travel to this land and build a new life.

What they went through and what they left behind we know nothing of. Of my great grandmother, we know she came with two sisters. One eventually married and moved to Minnesota and the other was Lutheran deaconness who had come to work with Dr. Lankenau in founding the German Hospital which eventually became Lankenau hospital. They probably never saw their parents again, and perhaps never saw the sister who had moved to Minnesota. They didn't have an easy life. The final resting place of their earthly remains is certainly a nicer location than where they lived their earthly lives.

We drove into Philadelphia to see the place where they lived and where my dad grew up. It is a narrow (one-way) street lined on both sides with row homes. The street was blocked off - evidently for a block party - and though it was pretty mean (to use an old word), it seemed that there was a sense of community and of people trying to make a go of it.

Our next stop was where my mother grew up. Her parents ran a grocery store and lived above it. Oddly enough, it was still a small grocery store but now Hispanic rather than German. It was the lone building on the the block and was in the midst of vacant lots and abandoned buildings, but still a working business. I should have gone in. I don't know what the neighborhood looked like back when my mom lived there in the 30's and 40's -  I should ask my uncle who was a frequent visitor there.

We've had it pretty good, standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us.

Eisagesis

Having received my training at a dispensational school, I am well aware of the thought process that goes into their method of bible interpretation. I tuned in Grant Jeffrey tonight out of curiosity, and I was amazed at the pick and choose method employed in supporting his pre-determined interpretation of prophecy. Pick verses out of context and assert that they apply to the anti-christ.

What was the classic example of eisagesis (reading into the text, as opposed to exegesis, drawing the meaning out of the text) was his interpretation of Revelation 13:11 - "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth..." Jeffrey asserts that the earth refers to the land of Israel, hence the false prophet is a Jew. The same word appears some 67 times in the book of Revelation. To assert that "earth" refers to the land of Israel in Revelation 13:11 refutes virtually all of the dispensational tribulation theories, for it would then limit the judgments that fall on the "earth" to just the land of Israel. That is pretty much what the preterists claim.