What Christians Need To Know About Islam!

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Judgment">Righteous Judgment</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id337.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The physical and spiritual blessings of ">The physical and spiritual blessings of submission</A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> REVIEW OF HISTORY.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>What Christians Need To Know About Islam!</B></div> <bR> <div> Islam is the dominating religion of the Arab world and was founded by Mohammed who was born in Mecca in 570 AD. Mohammed traced his lineage through the children of Ishmael back to Abraham. For thousands of years there has been animosity among the children of Ishmael and Esau against the heirs of Isaac and Jacob.</div> <bR> <div> The current situation in the Middle East is rooted in the family squabbles that are thousands of years old. In the middle of all of that trauma is an obscure fact of history that few are aware of-the Catholic Church helped to create the religion of Islam.</div> <bR> <div> Samuel Bacchiocchi, a deceased professor of theology at Andrews University in Berian Springs, Michigan and Alberto Rivera, an ex-Jesuit priest, author of The Prophet, by Chick Publications, have documented the following:</div> <bR> <div> A Catholic widow by the name of Khadijah gave her fortune to the Catholic Church and then retired to a convent. The Vatican decided to use her to create a new religion with a messiah for the children of Ishmael that would unite all of the wandering clans. The purpose was to harness them into an army to destroy the Jews so that the Pope could take Jerusalem.</div> <bR> <div> Khadijah found Mohammed, an illiterate man, in Mecca and married him. Her Catholic cousin, Waraquah, became Mohammed's advisor and the interpreter of his visions. The Pope controlled the spin by having Catholics in the area spread the rumor of a new prophet. It took awhile to get the plan off the ground but eventually the Islamic captured Jerusalem, but then refused to hand the area over to the Pope. The Crusades then followed in an attempt by the Vatican to obtain Jerusalem. The Crusaders were commissioned by the Pope to kill the Moslems. In return for their services the Pope guaranteed the Crusaders a place in Paradise and forgiveness of past sins.</div> <bR> <div> What does Catholicism and Islam have in common? Both religions rely on a human leader for religious customs and beliefs. The Pope is the vicar (in place of) Christ and Mohammed is referred to as Allah's greatest prophet. Both positions push Christ to the background.</div> <bR> <div> Both religions promote salvation by works. The Five Pillars of Islam are very similar to the Catholic faith. Each religion has a creed that must be recited, physical reminders to pray (Rosary and the daily call to prayer), absence routines, almsgiving, and a pilgrimage to Rome or Mecca. They both believe in the immortality of the soul with a purgatory, heaven and hell. Both religions have goddess worship with human intercessors-Mary and Fatima.</div> <bR> <div> In the Koran, Mary the mother of Jesus, is mentioned numerous times as the greatest of all women. Fatima, Mohammed's daughter, is revered as the second greatest of all women. Both are sometimes referred to as the "Queen of Heaven." A village in Portugal was named Fatima after an Islamic convert changed her name to Fatima. In Catholic doctrine, Mary appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917 with three secrets.</div> <bR> <div> "Mary is already bringing Christians and Muslims together," claims a Catholic priest. (See "Mary, Our Hope for Peace with the Muslim World") on the internet.</div> <bR> <div> Goddess worship has infiltrated main-line Christian denominations. In November 1993, a Re Imagining Conference was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Most of the 2,000 participants were women. This ecumenical church conference was sponsored by and attended by members of over a dozen denominations, including Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists. They prayed to Sophia, the goddess of Wisdom, calling her their Creator. They did rituals for this goddess, including a communion service where bread and wine were replaced by milk and honey. They openly rejected the doctrines of the incarnation and the atonement. This conference was repeated in 1996, 1998 and 2000. At the original 1993 conference, about 15% of the participants were Evangelical Lutherans (over 300 of about 2,000)." http://www.ucmpage.org/news/ireimagine2.html</div> <div> During The Moslem occupation of Spain during the 8th century, a statute of a woman and child with a crescent moon was buried for safe keeping near the Wolf River. The Moslems had named the river "Guadeloupe." In the 14th century the statue was restored to the Pope and has been known by the Islamic name-"Our Lady of Guadeloupe." A Mexican statute also has the same Islamic name.</div> <bR> <div> Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed and Khadija, had two sons, Hassan and Husayn. The Shi's Muslims claim Fatima's two sons as the first Imams. Hassan and Husayn are also known as the two Jesuses.</div> <bR> <div> Pope Benedict XVIV, during a speech at the Germany University, took the opportunity to re-affirm the Church's important teaching regarding the religion of the Muslims:</div> <div> "The Church regards with esteem also the Muslims. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, Who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting"</div> <bR> <div> We have to add as well, that despite the accusation of violence so often made against Muslim extremists, they are not guilty of the of terrible slaughter of innocent life in the womb that occurs with such lack of scruples throughout the western world. Likewise in Islamic countries they maintain a high respect for the dignity of true marriage between a man and a women. What is to be feared, however, is that the price of this sad controversy may, in the end, cost the Pope his life, and it seems all the more possible, since the, as yet unfulfilled, prophecy of the seer of Fatima would in fact then, according to the letter, be fulfilled. We must, as Jacinta so often pleaded: "Pray for the Holy Father," and as Our Lady of Fatima requested at each apparition: "Pray the Rosary every day."</div> <bR> <div> It's obvious that the Pope Benedict highlighted each of the five pillars of Islam in the above quote and acknowledged the obvious similarities between the two religions. He is not the only modern day pope to court the Moslems. In May 2001, Damascus, Syria, Pope John Paul II made history by becoming the first pope to participate in a Muslim prayer service inside a mosque. The mosque had both Catholic and Islamic ties. The Catholics believe it was the burial site of John the Baptist and the Moslems believe the Umayyad Mosque to be the oldest mosque in the world.</div> <bR> <div> Will the Catholic Church and Islam unite? Only time will tell. </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Pat Homan</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>