The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5
=> Re: what rights....exactly?
| Re: what rights....exactly? |
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Posted by
pancho
(Moderator)
- Saturday, December 1 2012, 12:48:30 (UTC) from *** - ***  Mexico -  Windows NT -   MozillaWebsite: Website title: |
...he's right except those assyrians weren't forced to convert...at least no one has given us any evidence for that yet. This is the church's way of explaining away the embarrassing fact that people converted for other reasons than force...(as if the Church didn't force people to convert all around the world!). While there is plenty of evidence for this, there has been none presented that Islam did the same....people converted because Islam made more sense to them and because they wanted to fully participate in their new ruling governments which as "protected" Christians they could not (though they got out of military service by remaining Christian). You know, I re-read that book you recommended to me, "When Jesus Became God"...I have to admit that my eyes get crossed and my head aches whenever I'm exposed to the petty distinctions about the divinity of Jesus, his one, or two, natures and the rest of it. But this time, in the last few pages, I realized something new...the author explains that Eastern Christianity found Islam appealling because there were no tortured explanations about Muhammad's divinity; was he all god, half god, no god...he was just a man, no god...and there was only one Allah...no holy ghost, no pigeons, no saints, no sons and fathers...no mind-numbing disputes about his nature being human/divine at birth and then becoming divine/human, later or vice versa....Eastern Christians believed Jesus was human with a divine flame, or something...Western Christians believed he was God, co-equal with God, his father, who was also himself. Eastern Christians therefore believed humans could also work themselves up to perfected behavior, where the West believed Jesus was God, far removed from us and there only to be worshipped....Islam was more congenial to Eastern Christians because there was no confusion about the nature of the Prophet, Jesus or Muhammad...it was clear; God was way up there and Muhammad, or Jesus, was his messenger, his Prophet calling on us to perfect ourselves...and that, he says, is why it was easy for Eastern Christians to adopt Islam, because its teachings were even closer to their beliefs about the divine/human relationship than the confusion in Christian doctrine....made sense this time around. --------------------- |
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