With all three of the major religions so interrelated, all three claiming superiority over the other, how to decide the truth of any one of them will be the question that will haunt the faithful now and through all time. The eldest of the three, Judaism, although lending Prophets, and witnessing the takeover of the Son of Man made God, nevertheless it is the one religion most demonized by the other two.
Would that all three, though distinct and uniquely Divine, might come together in praise of each other, could mean the difference between hate and love, war and peace, friend and enemy, and in so doing, perhaps a new chapter in human history might put to rest the chaos so prevalent in the world today. Dream on though, never gonna happen.
If all three were polytheistic religions, the friction would be far less—maybe even nonexistent. The real source of intolerance is the absolute insistence that one's own God is the only true one, and all other gods are false.
True, and what makes it even more crazy is that the 3 major religions claim it’s all one and the same God, so maybe God is a victim of multiple personality disorder with all those different characteristics assigned to him by the 3 religions.
Sometimes I wonder how humanity can possibly believe it all anyway.
The part anti-Muslim polemicists never seem to know what to do with is that the first person to tell Muhammad, “No, you’re not crazy, this sounds prophetic,” was a Christian. Apparently the interfaith dialogue started before Islam even had a name. History is always messier than the people selling us neat little enemy categories would like.
The God Waraqa reached for was not Jesus because Waraqa was a Christian outside the Nicaean tradition, a Christian who saw Jesus as a great prophet, but not God. So, of course, the God who came to Moses was the God of the Jews, not the second member of a Trinity he did not believe in.
I think Islam is the religion of Christians condemned in Nicaea.
That’s a fascinating angle and very well put. Waraqa standing in that non-Nicaean, non-Trinitarian tradition bridges the gap in a way that makes the theological vocabulary he used make so much more sense. Appreciate you bringing that nuance into the discussion!
Aisha enters the picture as a primary narrator after her husband's death. The Islamic sources themselves transmit the report through her account of what Muhammad shared about those earliest days, even though she wasn't in the cave herself. After he died, she became a key scholar and source of authority, and even led an army during the first civil war.
Given that Trinitarian dogma was a product of Church councils, it stands to reason that earlier beliefs that saw Jesus strictly as a human messenger of God persisted in isolated regions of Arabia outside the Church's control.
With all three of the major religions so interrelated, all three claiming superiority over the other, how to decide the truth of any one of them will be the question that will haunt the faithful now and through all time. The eldest of the three, Judaism, although lending Prophets, and witnessing the takeover of the Son of Man made God, nevertheless it is the one religion most demonized by the other two.
Would that all three, though distinct and uniquely Divine, might come together in praise of each other, could mean the difference between hate and love, war and peace, friend and enemy, and in so doing, perhaps a new chapter in human history might put to rest the chaos so prevalent in the world today. Dream on though, never gonna happen.
If all three were polytheistic religions, the friction would be far less—maybe even nonexistent. The real source of intolerance is the absolute insistence that one's own God is the only true one, and all other gods are false.
True, and what makes it even more crazy is that the 3 major religions claim it’s all one and the same God, so maybe God is a victim of multiple personality disorder with all those different characteristics assigned to him by the 3 religions.
Sometimes I wonder how humanity can possibly believe it all anyway.
The part anti-Muslim polemicists never seem to know what to do with is that the first person to tell Muhammad, “No, you’re not crazy, this sounds prophetic,” was a Christian. Apparently the interfaith dialogue started before Islam even had a name. History is always messier than the people selling us neat little enemy categories would like.
If you let yourself get emotionally invested in what you want the answer to be, it’s impossible to see things realistically.
The God Waraqa reached for was not Jesus because Waraqa was a Christian outside the Nicaean tradition, a Christian who saw Jesus as a great prophet, but not God. So, of course, the God who came to Moses was the God of the Jews, not the second member of a Trinity he did not believe in.
I think Islam is the religion of Christians condemned in Nicaea.
That’s a fascinating angle and very well put. Waraqa standing in that non-Nicaean, non-Trinitarian tradition bridges the gap in a way that makes the theological vocabulary he used make so much more sense. Appreciate you bringing that nuance into the discussion!
Sorry, where does "Aisha, Muhammad’s widow" come into it?
Aisha enters the picture as a primary narrator after her husband's death. The Islamic sources themselves transmit the report through her account of what Muhammad shared about those earliest days, even though she wasn't in the cave herself. After he died, she became a key scholar and source of authority, and even led an army during the first civil war.
Thanks for asking!
There were new Christians, His wife Khadijah among them, Who did not believe Jesus was God, It was these who recognized him, first ,,,
Given that Trinitarian dogma was a product of Church councils, it stands to reason that earlier beliefs that saw Jesus strictly as a human messenger of God persisted in isolated regions of Arabia outside the Church's control.