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Gay,
You never disappoint! Another wonderful letter.

Gay,

I agree that our world is beautiful and the God who made it deserves our constant admiration.

and .... all at the will of Allah.

(... funny how we worship the same Deity)

jdr,
to set the record straight - allah and God are not the same diety....even though muslims will tell you they are one and the same. here is one obvious discrepancy..Jehovah (Yahweh) has a son named Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate (i.e God in the flesh) born thru virgin birth (by the Holy Spirit), paid the price for humanities sin thru the cross and resurrected (defeated death) to be at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us.
their allah had a prophet called mohammed born naturally and was in fact a pedophile, he is not God incarnate, he did not paid the price for sin nor did he resurrect (i.e he's still DEAD). surely one can see the is no similarity between God and allah. this is only one proof, the scriptures declares ample testimony that God is not allah.

The letter is wonderful on so many levels. I would reluctantly ask that we include mankind in your letter. I would like for us to "see each other" the same way that you look at the treasures of the universe, the treasures of creation, the miracles of nature. When you said "notice and revere these sacred moments as there are not too many left". Well, if we could get mankind to stop bombing, polluting, overusing not only the environment but also each other, you wouldn't have the urgency or sadness in the last sentence.

What I "try to do" is to live : "let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me"---alot of tolerance, embracing and respect.

Buz,

The points you make carry some truth, but they do not disprove that Christians and Muslims worship different gods. The point that you do prove is there are obvious fundamental differences in the two religions, thus the reason there are two different religions.

If you read the the Bible, Torah (I say Torah because "Old Testament" is offensive to some Jews)[and rightly so], or the Koran you would know that Allah and God are one in the same. Ishmael, the eldest son of Abraham very directly connects God and Allah as being one in the same. However, as I mentioned earlier it depends on which text you consult and to which religion you subscribe as to what one accepts as the truth.

Just because Muslims don’t believe exactly as you do, it doesn’t give you a right to speak about their religion as though it’s a second-class faith. If you’re Christian, that’s wonderful. However, next time why not act like a Christian and try not to bash other people’s beliefs?

bishop,
i am familiar with the o.t. and i do realize that ishmael is the father of all arabs. it was not my intent to bash any religion. aside from my statement that allah and God are not the same, which part of my discourse do not think is true ? was i incorrect when i stated that mohammed was born naturally or incorrect that he died (and is still dead), was i incorrect when i stated he did not pay the price for man's sin or that he did not resurrect or that he sits atthe right hand of God, was i incorrect to state he was a pedophile (hadith, sahih burhari 7:62:64)? mohammed claims none of those claims and muslims believe none of those claims. as i stated, the scriptures repeatedly points out that God and allah are not one and the same. God is not the author of evil and He does not tempt anyone with evil, not so with allah - S. 4:142 Hilali-Khan .i apologize if i offended you as that was not my intention. btw i was acting like a Christian, by the stating the truth as recorded in scripture. there is only one truth, His name is Jesus Christ...........

most jews in the world, dare i say 99.9%, dont own a Bible and if they do, it has never been opened....why would the words OT offend?....they are scripturally ignorant secular humanists believing (from their rabbis) that they have been called to repair the world, however there is not any Biblical foundation for that claim and their rabbis deceive them...these secular humanist jews believe that because they are called "G-d's Chosen People" that equates an automatic ticket to Heaven...but there is a New Covenant, a New Testament as I understand it...

worship (or as it was stated above, admire) the Creator, not His creation = Humanism

Buz,

you took a letter and a witticism and ran in the wrong direction. There are 7 billion people on this planet and Christians make up less than a billion and they are so divided it is not even funny. Moslems believe that God (Allah) spoke to their prophet. Funny, the Mormons believe Jesus spoke to their prophet. You have faith and hope that your interpretation is the correct one but i have faith that God in his infinite wisdom knows the answers and will be just when it is time for him to meet with me.

"I have faith that God in his infinite wisdom knows the answers and will be just when it is time for him to meet with me".

Don,

I believe you can count on that. Fortunately, for many of us, in my belief, God will be and has been more than just. For if we received what we truly deserved for our actions in this world, we'd all be doomed.

don,
my response(s) were not really directed toward the lte as much as toward the comment jdr initially posted.
if you consider catholics as christians, they alone claim to have 1.1 billion converts alone. so i believe when one would take into account the 'other' Christians worldwide, that number is likely to increase.
the major difference, as you demonstrated in your post is that those other religions claim "their prophets" spoke with God, where we find Jesus claiming to be the Son of God (i.e. God in the flesh)and speaking only that which His Father asked of Him.
this comment "i have faith that God in his infinite wisdom knows the answers and will be just when it is time for him to meet with me ".... i completely agree, assuming you are referencing Jehovah God.

Buz,

the point is, you have faith in words written 2000 years ago and moslem's have faith in words written 1400 years ago and mormons have faith in words written 150 years ago. and these words have been interpreted and mangled in many ways. i just trust that God who over sees all of us, will be merciful.

don,
correct, i do have faith in those word penned 2000 yrs. ago - for without them i would have no clue who God is, what He has done and what He expects. it is those very words which have allowed me to enter into the presence of God and have a personal relationship and that relationship has caused me to know His word is true. maybe we aren't as far apart theologically as you might think.
" i just trust that God who over sees all of us, will be merciful."....again i agree - but His mercy is granted based out obedience to His word.
also i believe research would confirm that the scriptures we have today are not as 'mangled' as you might suspect.grace & peace.........

should read 'based upon' not based out

I agree, Don. I think God loves us all and the way we reach God is through a personal relationship which can include the teachings of many different religions or no organized religion. I don't think we should compete and try to decide which religion is the winner. Hopefully, all who follow a path of love and peace will find God.

Fannie Flagg has a wonderful book CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO HEAVEN which portrays an interesting concept of God...worth the read.

buz,

i meant "mangled" by human interpretations. this is an old argument but those words from God have been translated dozens of times in dozens of languages. that leaves alot of room for interpretation. do you think God stopped talking to us after AD 62? Could the Mormons be right with their newer scripture? By the way, why would Catholics not be considered Christians?

What is this "G-D" crap? I don't understand it. Someone please explaine to me, why that name is typed as people generally type curse words. Like a*&hole or SH%#head? It is not a curse word. And even if you are a non believer or if you worship another deaty I don't think you would be struck down for typing the full name.
GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GDO GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD GOD somehow I bet I will not be in any trouble for typing that so called highly offensive word.

don,
you ask "By the way, why would Catholics not be considered Christians?"......
i stated that b/c in my experience when you ask catholics (generaizing here, sorry yvonne)what is their religion they invariably say they are catholic but when you ask a protestant the same question you usually get 'i'm a Christian'. so i was not sure which camp you fell into, i thought perhaps by your lowball estimate of global Christians, you might have been excluding catholics (a website i just looked at says their are 2.1 billion Christian globally). in my mind when i am asked what religion i am , i equate that with 'who's' teachings do i adhere to and that for me would be Christ, thus i am a Christian...and conversely i could easily understand a catholic to mean they are following the teachings of the catholic church, that all i meant.

carol,
hello, you've been quiet lately. but you stated
" a personal relationship which can include the teachings of many different religions "........to me that make of no effect what Jesus said about Himself...."Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.(jhn14:6)"......if no other religion teaches that Christ is the only way, then what value is it to study and how does it honor God?

here is some interesting info from wikepedia:

Judaism
Most observant Jews forbid any method of discarding the written name of God. Once written, the name must be preserved indefinitely. This leads to several noteworthy practices:

Commonplace materials, such as calendars which include quotations from Torah, are written with an intentionally abbreviated form of the name. For instance, quotations written in English may substitute "G-d" for the name of God. Thus, a calendar or children's Hebrew school workbook may be discarded along with ordinary trash.
Copies of the Torah are, like most scriptures, heavily used during worship services, and will eventually become worn out. Since they may not be disposed of in any way, including by burning, they are removed, traditionally to the synagogue attic. See genizah. There they remain until the building itself is destroyed by the hand of God or gentiles (non-Jews).
All religious texts that include the name of God are buried.

this might explain the g-d thing.

and to add to don's posting,

Judaism does not prohibit writing the Name of God per se; it prohibits only erasing or defacing a Name of God. However, observant Jews avoid writing any Name of God casually because of the risk that the written Name might later be defaced, obliterated or destroyed accidentally or by one who does not know better.

The commandment not to erase or deface the name of God comes from Deut. 12:3. In that passage, the people are commanded that when they take over the promised land, they should destroy all things related to the idolatrous religions of that region, and should utterly destroy the names of the local deities. Immediately afterwards, we are commanded not to do the same to our God. From this, the rabbis inferred that we are commanded not to destroy any holy thing, and not to erase or deface a Name of God.

Like so many other things, it looks like the substance may have got lost in the form.

nItP,
i confess i've been off topic.

JDR---This is all your fault--You jokingly mentioned allah---you put out the bait-and we totally lost the writer's letter. We have been down this road so many times. If anyone wants to talk about God and or religion all they have to do is just mention their name and then sign out. I think that we can all fill in the pieces.

Nice letter though.

dang Buz/DON, i was going to write to budda baby that he/she had but just a few more hours until meeting his/her maker...

j4j,
you're a funny guy - one of the reason i love you :-)

Buz, Am I understanding you are back on the belief that Catholics are not Christians? If so, why have I spent 43 years believing in Jesus?

dan,
i hope you took the time to read all my posts here. i thought i had explained well what i said. please go back and read again.
as far as why you have been a catholic for 43 years is anybodies guess but i take a stab at a guess....you were born into a catholic family and were raised a catholic, thus you are a catholic - am i close ?
let me ask you this question "dan, what religion are you" please answer the way you would normally.
i had hoped you and i had clear this issue up about a year ago. if you believe Christ is the only Savior and you have accept Him thus, then you are a Christian regardless of what church name you attend. have a pleasant evening......

Buz, yes you are right, I'm what you call a "cradle Catholic", born to a Catholic family. When someone asks what faith I belong to I do say Catholic, just as anyone would say Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and on. I would believe that it is understood that all of these faiths are Christian. As for your last question the answer is yes. Perhaps I am mistaken but I believe you expressed an opinion a year or so ago that Catholics are not Christian. Maybe I'm mistaken.

You had me worried :)

dan,
my wife's side of the family are also what you describe as cradle catholics. as a teen, my wife left the catholic church after she went to a bible college in fla. and heard the story of salvation and she was saved.
maybe you are right about people saying that they are baptist, methodist etc. but as i stated earlier, when i'm asked what religion i am i always say Christian, could be i am in the minority.
not to rehash the incident a year ago, but i made a statement which was misunderdtood and i tried to clairfy what i said by saying something similar to this " catholics do not represent Christianity as i practice it " or something close to that. i know baptists, methodists, quakers, catholics etc. who are not Christians, but those are the churches they attend. our lives are the real testament to our salvation imo. dan if you are secure in your salvation then it really doesn't matter what i think...grace & peace.

Buz,

I wasn't saying you were off-topic. Although, of course, you are. If anyone is to blame, I guess I am for saying we should admire God for his wonderful creation. That's what I think everytime I sit and look at the beauty of nature in the world. I wasn't even thinking about the fall-out that one comment would create.

I was really saying how that one comment from the old testament causes people to not write the name of God and going through all these rules and regulations that seem to put 'form over substance'. I personally don't see that God would care if his name was written. If he does, he must really be upset at all the bibles printed each day.

In my own opinion, that was the very type of legalistic mumbo jumbo that Jesus seemed to despise during his physical life on earth.

niTp,
jewish 'tradition' has been so intigrated into their everyday day lives, that i feel they are honoring tradition over God's commandments in many cases. and yes you are so right, Jesus rebuked the pharisee's for this very thing.(mrk7:8,9,13 - mat.15:3 - mat.15:6). now don't get me wrong, tradition more than certainly has it's place in service to God but NOT to the exclusion of His commandments, which are paramount. also we need to always keep in mind that many things God told Israel was intended for them exclusively. if for gentiles it is abhorrent to God for me to write His name (God) and then discard it, i am in very serious trouble.

let me also state that for anyone who wishes to write G-d, in no way do i fault them, if it keeps your conscience clear by all means do it.

Dan,
As to your "43 years believing in Jesus", does that include the time you were a developing first trimester fetus? Just want to keep you honest here. Did you accept Jesus as your personal lord and savior BEFORE or AFTER birth?

Couldn't resist the low hanging fruit, Dan.

DD (deputy dawg),
those who pick low hanging fruit...are generally satisfied with the fruit of their labor, never reaching any higher than what is convenient.
you also must assume that dan is only 43 yrs.old, perhaps he's 58 and accepted Christ as Savior at age 15. at any rate even if he is 43, i understood his implication. but i also realize many catholics believe if they are born into a catholic family, this automaticaaly equates with salvation ( of course i disagree with that ). so at any rate you're only looking for a confrontation with dan....you can do better !