[Vision2020] True Muslims and True Americans

[Taro Tanaka]

Before replying to Nick Gier's distortions, I should point out that my 
original purpose in writing was to provide Nick with an opportunity to 
expose his own hypocrisy regarding "respecting all religious beliefs" -- as 
he clearly has no respect whatsoever for Bible-believing Christianity -- and 
I would like to thank Nick for graciously helping to establish my point by 
providing more evidence of his hypocrisy with every additional posting. 
Nick's assertions are in brackets ([[ ]]).

[[ By saying the blood is not the issue in Christian atonement, the Princess 
is conceding my point about "actual blood sacrifice" being a very primitive 
notion of atonement, and one that should be rejected.  And that was the 
point of the comment that my Indian Christian friend made after singing 
hymns talking about being "cleansed by the blood of the Lamb." ]]

I have conceded nothing. A single drop of the Messiah's infinitely precious 
blood would more be adequate to redeem the entire world, but zero shedding 
of his blood would have been out of the question. Nick is exceedingly 
confused if he thinks he can make the logical leap from "It is theoretically 
possible that Jesus could have been crucified with very little shedding of 
blood if the Romans had wanted to minimize loss of blood" to concluding that 
"Jesus' death upon the cross was not an actual blood sacrifice."

One Bible verse alone is adequate to disprove Nick's assertion: ". . . one 
of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out 
blood and water." (John 19:34)

However there are not one but fully 30 distinct passages in 13 separate 
books of the Greek scriptures, including all four gospels, that mention the 
shedding of the Messiah's blood on the cross, each passage using the word 
blood to clearly mean blood. The number would be much higher if we included 
other verses that clearly imply the shedding of blood, such as "Worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain" in Rev. 5:12.

Probably the most important of these for the present refutation is the 
extended discussion of the Messsiah's shedding of His own blood in Hebrews 
chapters 9 and 10. If anyone wants a complete list of all the pertinent 
verses I would be happy to provide it.

[[ I elevate both Christ and Buddha as spiritual leaders because of their 
total inclusiveness, their admonitions about "judge not lest ye be judged," 
and their emphasis on conduct rather than doctrine. ]]

I'll let "inclusive" Jesus Himself answer Nick on this one:

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of 
hell?"

". . . whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my 
Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: 
I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at 
variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the 
daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of 
his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not 
worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy 
of me."

"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: 
but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. And 
cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping 
and gnashing of teeth."

"Then shall the Son of man say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from 
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels"

"But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I 
also hate."

"So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which 
thing I hate." (SO MUCH FOR NICK'S ASSERTION OF DE-EMPHASIS OF DOCTRINE)

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he 
shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and 
murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, 
shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: 
which is the second death."

Those are just a few of the utterances by Jesus in this vein. They will pop 
right out at you in any red-letter edition of the Bible.

I'd like point out something of which Nick is probably aware: the word 
"Christ" is a reference to Jesus' status as king. It cannot be denied that 
Jesus of Nazareth is either what He claimed to be -- divine, alive even now, 
and our king, or else He was a lunatic and is dead. If the latter, then He 
is not a great spiritual leader but a fraud. And if the former, then He is 
not something to which Buddha can be compared because it means that Buddha 
must be a fraud. You can't have it both ways, Nick.

-- Princess Sushitushi

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE! 
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/