I was recently with my husband and another couple seeking to understand the real difference between communism and socialism. This basics were stated:
"Everyone owns everything in communism." How absurd. We can't all own the same stuff - someone has to be in charge of making it, maintaining it and rationing it out. Who really ends up owning everything and deciding what to do with it? The government. The government is comprised of people who are special because they are in charge. So now you have special people owning everything.
"In socialism we take money from the rich and give it to the poor." Ok, but if you take too much, the rich will lose incentive to work to get rich and we'll all be poor. Again, who decides how much the rich will give to the poor? The government. The government is comprised of people in charge, so again you have special people owning most of the stuff.
I met a man who grew up in communist China. He explained how in China everyone received the same wage. I asked him, "Ok, so they solved the poverty problem by doing that?"
I should not have been surprised by his answer. "Oh, no," he exclaimed, "many were still poor because they didn't spend their money rightly. They wasted their money and hence still lived in poverty!"
Jesus does say in John 12:8, "You will always have the poor with you."
Looking at those two explanations, it appears communism and socialism are very much alike, but I've discovered so much more to consider in the comparison:
Socialism seeks to make everyone own the same amount of stuff, but Communism goes further than that and abolishes freedom in order to make everyone look the same, thus eliminating class antagonisms.
The idea of communism originated with Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. They wrote and published The Communist Manifesto in order to let the world know exactly what the ideas of communism entailed. Their manifesto repeats several times they desire to make communist ideas known and not keep them secret. They are very blunt about those ideas. Below are some excerpts from the authorized English translation published by International Publishers, New York in 1948.
"...the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: "Abolition of private property." (p. 23)
"In a word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend." (p. 25) Marx calls for a violent revolution to get this done.
"But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience." (p. 29)
Marx seeks to abolish "class antagonisms" by abolishing "classes generally." (p31) Great, no religion. No freedom. We all look the same and think the same. Well, that's not going to happen unless you force us. So now, you've got a government (which is a few people in charge) who decide what we will all think and do. Nice idea Marx & Engels.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Monday, November 30, 2015
A Comparison of the Gabriel in Christianity and the Gabriel in Islam
Shortly before the birth of Jesus in 1 AD, the angel Gabriel is recorded as having visited Mary, the mother of Jesus in Luke Chapter 1:
Approximately 610 years later, Gabriel is recorded as having visited Muhammad, in Ibn Ishaq's biogrpahy of Muhammad's life:
"'He came to me', said the apostle of God, 'while I was asleep, with a coverlet of brocade whereon was some writing, and said, 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read?' He pressed me with it again so that I thought it was death; then he let me go and said 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read?' He pressed me with it the third time so that I thought it was death and said, 'Read!' I said, 'What then shall I read?' - and this I said only to deliver myself from him, lest he should do the same to me again. He said:
'Read in the name of thy Lord who created,
Who created many of blood coagulated.
Read! They Lord is the most beneficient,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught that which they knew not unto men.'
So I read it, and he departed from me.
I find Gabriel's behavior inconsistent. In Luke's account, Mary is greatly troubled, but the angel quickly shares God's familiar encouragement all through the O.T. "Do not be afraid." The angel answers respectfully and kindly to Mary's question.
In Ibn's account, I find Gabriel forceful and rude. I find this uncharacteristic of the God I know. God gave us a choice in the beginning and he does not take it from us by coercion to do His will. Here the angel exclaims three times, "Read!" and presses Muhammad so hard that he thinks it is death himself pressing upon him. The God I know does give the feeling of death. Death is separation from God, God is Life.
After the angel leaves, we find Mary's and Muhammad's responses to their encounters. Mary's response is described in Luke 1:
Mary's response is filled with excitement and praise and immediately affirmed by her Aunt.
Muhammad's response is also described by Ibn's account:
... "And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were written on my heart (Now none of God's creatures was more hateful to me than an (ecstatic) poet or a man possessed: I could not even look at them. I thought, Woe is me poet or possess - Never shall Quraysh (an Arab tribe) say this of me! I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest. So I went forth to do so and then) when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Oh Muhammad! thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel." ...
The angel confronts Muhammad again and speaks identity to Muhammad, "Oh Muhammad! thou art teh apostle of God and I am Gabriel." Muhammad just stood still while his wife sent messengers looking for him. The angel departed again and Muhammed returned home, and drew close to his wife and shared the story. She set forth with Muhammad to a Christian cousin who heard the story and concluded that Muhammad was a great prophet, like Moses and "added to Muhammad's confidence and lightened his anxiety"
Ibn continues on to share what Muhammad's wife, Khadija had to say about it:
"she (Khadija) said to the apostle of God, 'O son of my uncle, are you able to tell me about your visitant, when he comes to you? He replied that he could, and she asked him to tell her when he came. So when Gabriel came to him, as he was wont, the apostle said to Khadija, "This is Gabriel who has just come to me,' 'Get up, O son of my uncle,' she said, 'and sit by my left thigh.' The apostle did so, and she said, 'Can you see him?' 'Yes,' he said. She said, 'Then turn round and sit on my right thigh.' He did so, and she said, 'Can you see him?' When he said that he could she asked him to move and sit in her lap. When he had done this she again asked if eh could see him, and swhen he said yes, she disclosed her form and cast aside her veil while the apostle was sitting in her lap. Then she said, 'Can you see him?' And he replied, 'No.' She said, 'O son of my uncle, rejoice and be of good heart, by God he is an angel and not a satan.'"
Muhammad's response is fearful and the angel showed no effort to calm his anxiety. Muhammad's response is suicidal. A Christian cousin in the account compares this to Moses' calling. I wonder if this Christian cousin knew Moses' story intimately as described in Exodus 3-4. God's instructions were clear and specific to Moses and although God did get angry with Moses for not believing Him, God continued to encourage and work with Moses' weakness. God did not say "Go! Go! Go!" Then, we end the entire Part 1 of Muhammad's biography with Kadijah's strange test regarding the exposure of her form to determine if this was an angel or a satan. The last sentence of that part of the biography is her statement that the visitor was not a satan. Is there some authority that angels flee when a woman is exposed and "satans" hang around? Where did she gain this knowledge?
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be calledfn the Son of God.36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
Approximately 610 years later, Gabriel is recorded as having visited Muhammad, in Ibn Ishaq's biogrpahy of Muhammad's life:
"'He came to me', said the apostle of God, 'while I was asleep, with a coverlet of brocade whereon was some writing, and said, 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read?' He pressed me with it again so that I thought it was death; then he let me go and said 'Read!' I said, 'What shall I read?' He pressed me with it the third time so that I thought it was death and said, 'Read!' I said, 'What then shall I read?' - and this I said only to deliver myself from him, lest he should do the same to me again. He said:
'Read in the name of thy Lord who created,
Who created many of blood coagulated.
Read! They Lord is the most beneficient,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught that which they knew not unto men.'
So I read it, and he departed from me.
I find Gabriel's behavior inconsistent. In Luke's account, Mary is greatly troubled, but the angel quickly shares God's familiar encouragement all through the O.T. "Do not be afraid." The angel answers respectfully and kindly to Mary's question.
In Ibn's account, I find Gabriel forceful and rude. I find this uncharacteristic of the God I know. God gave us a choice in the beginning and he does not take it from us by coercion to do His will. Here the angel exclaims three times, "Read!" and presses Muhammad so hard that he thinks it is death himself pressing upon him. The God I know does give the feeling of death. Death is separation from God, God is Life.
After the angel leaves, we find Mary's and Muhammad's responses to their encounters. Mary's response is described in Luke 1:
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
46 And Mary said:
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Mary's response is filled with excitement and praise and immediately affirmed by her Aunt.
Muhammad's response is also described by Ibn's account:
... "And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were written on my heart (Now none of God's creatures was more hateful to me than an (ecstatic) poet or a man possessed: I could not even look at them. I thought, Woe is me poet or possess - Never shall Quraysh (an Arab tribe) say this of me! I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest. So I went forth to do so and then) when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Oh Muhammad! thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel." ...
The angel confronts Muhammad again and speaks identity to Muhammad, "Oh Muhammad! thou art teh apostle of God and I am Gabriel." Muhammad just stood still while his wife sent messengers looking for him. The angel departed again and Muhammed returned home, and drew close to his wife and shared the story. She set forth with Muhammad to a Christian cousin who heard the story and concluded that Muhammad was a great prophet, like Moses and "added to Muhammad's confidence and lightened his anxiety"
Ibn continues on to share what Muhammad's wife, Khadija had to say about it:
"she (Khadija) said to the apostle of God, 'O son of my uncle, are you able to tell me about your visitant, when he comes to you? He replied that he could, and she asked him to tell her when he came. So when Gabriel came to him, as he was wont, the apostle said to Khadija, "This is Gabriel who has just come to me,' 'Get up, O son of my uncle,' she said, 'and sit by my left thigh.' The apostle did so, and she said, 'Can you see him?' 'Yes,' he said. She said, 'Then turn round and sit on my right thigh.' He did so, and she said, 'Can you see him?' When he said that he could she asked him to move and sit in her lap. When he had done this she again asked if eh could see him, and swhen he said yes, she disclosed her form and cast aside her veil while the apostle was sitting in her lap. Then she said, 'Can you see him?' And he replied, 'No.' She said, 'O son of my uncle, rejoice and be of good heart, by God he is an angel and not a satan.'"
Sunday, November 29, 2015
How & Why Do Catholic and Protestant Bibles Differ?
Protestants and Catholics are both Christians, but their Holy Bibles differ. Both Protestant and Catholic Bibles are divided into two Testaments: The Old Testament (O.T.) and The New Testament (N.T.). The Catholic N.T. is identical to the Protestant N.T. It is the Old Testament that differs. The Catholic O.T. includes several books that are not included in the O.T. of the Protestant Bible as indicated in the figure below. Why do the Old Testaments differ?
 |
| Figure |
The Hebrew Scriptures were translated into the Greek language and this Greek translation is called the Septuagint. According to legend, the translation was ordered by Ptolemy II, Pharoah of Egypt, in 300 B.C. It's titled Septuagint, because it was supposedly translated by seventy Jewish monks (or perhaps seventy-two: six from each of the twelve tribes of Israel). The Septuagint took approximately two hundred years to reach completion. It grew to include not only the Hebrew Scriptures, but also some other books written in Hebrew. Further, it included two brand-new books that were not translated from Hebrew, but originally written in Greek. The books of the Septuagint were immediately adopted as the books of the Catholic O.T. A Christian leader, Jerome, born in approximately 340 AD, translated the original Hebrew Scriptures and the extra books included in the Septuagint to Latin and this became known as the Vulgate. The Vulgate continues to exercise an important role in the Roman Catholic Church today.
As time progressed, less and less people were able to read the Bible, because it was written in the Latin language. Only Catholic priests or those studying to be priests could read the Bible for themselves. It's these men who were studying the Bible themselves who started the Reformation of the 1500s. As they learned Latin and poured over the scriptures, they began to discover the teaching of the priests were not in agreement with the words of the Bible. Further, reformation leaders realized the Catholic O.T. contained 7 extra books (listed in the figure above) and extra verses in Daniel and Esther that the Jews did not consider canonical. The Protestant Bible was born and the books not included in the Jewish Bible were not included in the Protestant O.T.
Fear, Accusations & Dehumanization
We studied three villains of WW2: Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. There are several common threads between the three, but a few common threads spoke to me personally.
Each man
1. spread fear,
2. spread accusations (blamed others), and
3. dehumanized people.
Each of these three behaviors contradict the teaching of my God.
1. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. (Joshua 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:7)
2. Satan, our enemy, is the great accuser (Rev 12;10). He accuses us before God. He accuses God before us. He accuses us before each other. His very name means accuser.
3. We are made in His image (Genesis 1:26). Even the ones who don't "look" like me are made to like Him. Christ died for all (John 3:16).
What do I learn from the study of these three villains? I may not know exactly what to do in every situation, and I may not have the answer to every problem, but I do know that thoughts of fear, accusations and dehumanization have no place in my heart. When those thoughts begin to creep up inside of me, I will run the other direction, toward the ways of my Savior as fast as I can. Further, I will not follow a man who is doing any of those things. Is a leader spreading fear? I won't follow. Is a leader laying blame or spreading accusations? I won't follow him. Is a leader dehumanizing a people group? I will have nothing to do with him. He won't be my leader.
These are the sorts of things that should be takeaways from History - not the mundane memorization of facts and dates.
Each man
1. spread fear,
2. spread accusations (blamed others), and
3. dehumanized people.
Each of these three behaviors contradict the teaching of my God.
1. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. (Joshua 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:7)
2. Satan, our enemy, is the great accuser (Rev 12;10). He accuses us before God. He accuses God before us. He accuses us before each other. His very name means accuser.
3. We are made in His image (Genesis 1:26). Even the ones who don't "look" like me are made to like Him. Christ died for all (John 3:16).
What do I learn from the study of these three villains? I may not know exactly what to do in every situation, and I may not have the answer to every problem, but I do know that thoughts of fear, accusations and dehumanization have no place in my heart. When those thoughts begin to creep up inside of me, I will run the other direction, toward the ways of my Savior as fast as I can. Further, I will not follow a man who is doing any of those things. Is a leader spreading fear? I won't follow. Is a leader laying blame or spreading accusations? I won't follow him. Is a leader dehumanizing a people group? I will have nothing to do with him. He won't be my leader.
These are the sorts of things that should be takeaways from History - not the mundane memorization of facts and dates.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Language: Affect Vs. Effect
I've known a difference between affect and effect as far back as I can remember using the words. The difference I understood was simple enough: affect is a verb; effect is a noun. However, I've recently learned that effect can also act as a verb and affect can act as a noun in the application of psychiatry.
Examples:
Her singing affected me deeply.
The weather affects my arthritis.
This dirty house is affecting my mood.
Effect can also act as a verb meaning "to bring about; accomplish; make happen."
Examples:
"Commentators say the very theology of Islam is being reinterpreted in order to effect a radical renewal of the religion." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm
Bringing hurts and confessions out in the open eventually effected a renewed intimacy.
Examples:
Dr. Quack observed her affect. When he mentioned the Big Gulp, her affect was mournful.
Effect typically acts as a noun and has an assortment of meanings:
Meanings and Examples:
1. something that is produced by an agency or cause; result;consequence:
Exposure to the sun had the effect of toughening his skin.
2. power to produce results; efficacy; force; validity; influence:
His protest had no effect.
3. the state of being operative or functional; operation or execution;accomplishment or fulfillment:
She hopes to bring a plan into effect.
4. a mental or emotional impression produced, as by a painting or a speech.
5. meaning or sense; purpose or intention:
She disapproved of the proposal and wrote to that effect.
6. the making of a desired impression:
We had the feeling that the big, expensive car was only for effect.
7. an illusory phenomenon:
This type of animation produces a three-dimensional effect.
Definitions taken from www.dictionary.com
The verbs:
Affect is commonly used as a verb and means "to act on; produce an effect or change in."Examples:
Her singing affected me deeply.
The weather affects my arthritis.
This dirty house is affecting my mood.
Effect can also act as a verb meaning "to bring about; accomplish; make happen."
Examples:
"Commentators say the very theology of Islam is being reinterpreted in order to effect a radical renewal of the religion." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7264903.stm
Bringing hurts and confessions out in the open eventually effected a renewed intimacy.
The Nouns:
Affect can act as a noun in the application of psychiatry meaning "feeling or emotion." or "expressed or observed emotional response."Examples:
Dr. Quack observed her affect. When he mentioned the Big Gulp, her affect was mournful.
Effect typically acts as a noun and has an assortment of meanings:
Meanings and Examples:
1. something that is produced by an agency or cause; result;consequence:
Exposure to the sun had the effect of toughening his skin.
2. power to produce results; efficacy; force; validity; influence:
His protest had no effect.
3. the state of being operative or functional; operation or execution;accomplishment or fulfillment:
She hopes to bring a plan into effect.
4. a mental or emotional impression produced, as by a painting or a speech.
The painting brought about an angry effect.
5. meaning or sense; purpose or intention:
She disapproved of the proposal and wrote to that effect.
6. the making of a desired impression:
We had the feeling that the big, expensive car was only for effect.
7. an illusory phenomenon:
This type of animation produces a three-dimensional effect.
Definitions taken from www.dictionary.com
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