Atonement: Muslim vs Christian Understanding

By Jack Smith 

This article will compare the concept of “atonement” in Christianity with that of Islam.

The Bible teaches that sin is universal (Isaiah 53:6); that is, everyone sins, and everyone falls short of God’s standard of righteousness (Romans 3:23). Mankind’s sinfulness acts as a separator between man and God (Isaiah 59:2), a barrier that removes humanity from God, and renders relationship with holy God, impossible.  Hence, humanity is ”out-of-relationship” with God, and in need of being reconciled.  Atonement is the doctrine whereby God and mankind are made ”at-one-ment,” that is, God and mankind are reconciled, and the nature of this new reconciled relationship is eternal and without end.

Since all have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard of righteousness, humanity cannot make amends for acts of sinfulness, nor can humanity’s righteous acts “offset” unrighteous acts.  Isaiah 64:6 puts it this way: “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like filthy garments.”  Man’s best efforts at righteousness are likened to filthy rags.  How then can humanity ever make amends for unrighteous acts if our righteous acts are likened to filthy rags?  Likewise, how then can “filthy rags” offset unrighteous acts?  Quite the opposite occurs.  Mankind is dismally separated from God and can do nothing to make things right.  It is as if humankind has an incurable illness; an illness that will eventually render him eternally separated from a holy God.

Because of man’s condition, God acts to reconcile mankind to Himself.  He does so by providing the means whereby mankind’s unrighteousness is made righteous.  God provides a savior who is held accountable for the sins of humankind. The savior cannot be another sinner because a sinner cannot make atonement for even his own sins (sinners fall short of God’s standard, Romans 3:23), much less those of another sinner. The savior must be perfect, without sin, or the savior, himself, will fall short of God’s standard.

The Christmas message reminds us that

Turkey Warns Against Shi’ite-Sunni Cold War, Encourages Close Contact With All Sides

Sensing a dangerous and deepening division within the Islamic kingdom, Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu is travelling to Iran in an effort to mend the Shia and Sunni lines of demarcation. But even if “al-Mahdi” were to arrive tonight and bring the two branches of Islam together under the banner of one mind, any apparent alliance would still be temporary, for what disunites the kingdom of Islam today will ultimately continue to disunite the kingdom of Islam tomorrow. Those who understand the times in which we live already know that this kingdom will remain fundamentally divided right up until the time when Messiah returns to remove it from the earth forever and establish His own everlasting Kingdom …

Daniel 2:41, “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay…”

Ezekiel 38:21, “‘I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My mountains,’ says the Lord GOD. ‘Every man’s sword will be against his brother.'”

 Daniel 2:45, “… And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”

Reuters – “ANKARA – Middle East powerhouse Turkey on Wednesday warned against a sectarian Cold War in the region and said rising Sunni-Shi’ite tensions would be ‘suicide’ for the whole region.

‘Let me openly say that there are some willing to start a regional Cold War,’ Foreign Minster Ahmet Davutoglu told state-run Anatolian news agency before heading to Shi’ite Iran.

‘We are determined to prevent a regional Cold War. Sectarian regional tensions would be suicide for the whole region,’ Davutoglu said, adding such effects would last for decades.

‘Turkey is against all polarizations, in the political sense of Iran-Arab tension or in the sense of forming an apparent axis. This will be one of the crucial messages that I will take to Tehran.’

Majority Sunni Turkey, which borders Iran, Iraq and Syria, has attempted to play a moderating role as rivals Shi’ite Iran and Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia jockey for influence in a region undergoing sweeping changes brought on by ‘Arab Spring’ popular uprisings.

Davutoglu is expected to hold talks in Tehran later on Wednesday on Iran’s nuclear program and developments in neighboring Iraq and Syria.” Read more.

Flashback: Arab Spring Begins Weeding Out Christians as Sunni and Shia Ideologies Lock Horns Over Control of New Islamic Kingdom – “Islamic factions jockeying for position from out of the ashes of the Arab Spring are posing an increased threat to Middle East Christians, an international human rights group contends… The Ayatollah Khamenei told the listeners the Arab Spring was guided by Islam and said Muslims worldwide should rally to the Islamic cause… Ayatollah Khamenei’s call for an Islamic power bloc fits together with the objectives of other Islamic groups and countries. ‘Iran’s jihadist objectives are exactly the same as al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey. Indeed, the Iranian leadership was among the first, most consistent and most vocal of supporters of the ‘Islamic Awakening … the Iranians want to be the ones seen as the leaders of the jihadi movement,’ Lopez said.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Brotherhood Calls for a ‘United Arab States’ with Jerusalem as its Capital – “In this recent video, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Dr. Safwat Hegazy, a popular preacher, talks about how he yearns to see Arab nations become ‘like the United States’—for them to unify into the ‘United Arab States.’ While that may sound like an admirable (or at least neutral) goal, bear in mind what he is alluding to: the resurrection of a caliphate—which by nature exists to expand, including through jihad.” Read more.

Flashback: Saudi King Calls for the Formation of a Sunni Arab Super State Into One Unified Diplomatic and Military Confederation – “King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia formally called for the formation of a Gulf Union on a backdrop of regional unrest and growing tensions with rival Iran. ‘I ask today that we move from a phase of cooperation to a phase of union within a single entity,’ Abdullah said during his address at the opening session of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council conference in Riyadh.” Read more.

Norway: 20 Tons of Dead Fish Suddenly Disappear from Norwegian Beach

Here’s an odd update on this story. I’d say that the whole thing smells fishy, but that’s kind of hard to do now with the fish all gone. They’re swimming with the fishes, as it were. It turns out that Tide isn’t only great for cleaning dirty clothes.  It works on beaches, too …

By Brad Lendon (CNN) – “Tons of dead herring that washed up on a Norwegian beach on New Year’s Eve are now gone, and no one is sure how they got there or where they went.

Local resident Jan-Petter Jorgensen told Norway’s TV2 he went to look at the thousands and thousands of fish after seeing a Facebook posting about them, according to a report on The Foreigner.

Joregensen said it was fortunate the icy cold prevented the mass of dead fish from raising a stink.

‘It is 15 degrees below zero today, so the cold means they don’t smell. Nevertheless, the smell will be pretty intense in the long run,’ he said, according to The Foreigner report.

Turns out that wasn’t a problem. Views and News from Norway reports that as of Tuesday, most of the dead fish were gone, perhaps pushed out to sea by tides and winds. The local mayor said they’ll likely sink in the ocean, according to the report.

Why they came to be on the shore remains a mystery.

Jens Christian Holst of the Institute of Marine Research in Norway told Norwegian Broadcasting the herring may have been chased ashore by predators, the Views and News report said.

‘In this area, we know there is a lot of (pollock) that graze on (herring),’ he said.

Seems like a reasonable explanation.” Read more.

Judge to Obama: If You Want To Be On Georgia’s Ballot, Prove Your Eligibility

By BOB UNRUH – “For the first time in dozens of court cases challenging Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president, a judge has ruled that Obama must, in order to be a candidate on the Georgia ballot for president in 2012, meet the constitutional demands for candidates for the office.

A hearing has been scheduled later this month for evidence on the issue that has plagued Obama and his presidency since long before he took office. At issue is the constitutional requirement that a president be a ‘natural-born citizen.’ Some allege he was not born in the U.S. as he has claimed and, therefore, is not eligible.

Others, including top constitutional expert Herb Titus, contend that the term ‘natural-born citizen,’ which is not defined in the Constitution, would have been understood when the document was written to mean the offspring of two U.S. citizens. That argument is supported by a 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court decision

Under that standard, Obama could not qualify, because his father, as identified on the ‘Certificate of Live Birth’ image released by the White House, was a foreign national who came from Kenya to study in the U.S. and never was a citizen.

The ruling came today from Judge Michael W. Malihi of the Georgia state Office of State Administrative Hearings.

In Georgia, a state law requires ‘every candidate for federal’ office who is certified by the state executive committees of a political party or who files a notice of candidacy ‘shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.’

State law also grants the secretary of state and any ‘elector who is eligible to vote for a candidate’ in the state the authority to raise a challenge to a candidate’s qualifications, the judge determined.

While Obama’s attorney, Michael Jablonski, had argued that the requirements didn’t apply to candidates for a presidential primary, the judge said that isn’t how he reads state law.

‘Statutory provisions must be read as they are written, and this court finds that the cases cited by [Obama] are not controlling. When the court construes a constitutional or statutory provision, the ‘first step … is to examine the plain statutory language,’ the judge wrote. ‘Section 21-2-1(a) states that ‘every candidate for federal and state office’ must meet the qualifications for holding that particular office, and this court has seen no case law limiting this provision, nor found any language that contains an exception for the office of president or stating that the provision does not apply to the presidential preference primary.'” Read more.

Flashback: The Citizenship Status of Obama’s Father Invalidates Obama’s Eligibility to be President (Video): 

Israel’s National Security Council: President Obama Naive on Muslim Brotherhood

Not only is Obama naive in his attitude and engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood, he is also naive when it comes to anything that has to do with Islam and America’s own national security.  Frankly speaking, addle-brained incompetence married to political correctness has weakened the effectiveness of federal agencies tasked with the responsibility of protecting the American people at home, and relying on the hope that an attack will be unsuccessful because a bomb fails to detonate isn’t good enough.  If, God forbid, a major terror attack were to happen again on American soil, one of the very first things that a responsible mainstream media should examine under a microscope is not the mind of a disturbed “peanut-butter-and-jelly” jihadist wannabe who “misunderstands” Islam, but rather the policies of the Oval Office’s current occupant …

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu – “Israel’s National Security Council thinks that President Barack Obama is naïve in his attitude towards the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which stated Sunday it can’t fathom the idea of recognizing Israel.

Dr. Rashad Bayumi, the Brotherhood’s number two leader, said on Sunday, ‘No Muslim Brotherhood members will engage in any contact or normalization with Israel.’

President Obama has asked the Muslim Brotherhood’s leading jurist, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, to mediate secret talks between the United States and the Taliban, according to The Hindu newspaper. The jurist previously has called for killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq and has vowed that Islam ‘will conquer Europe [and] will conquer America,’ whether by force or by the spread of radical Islam.

In early 2010, when American foreign policy experts could not imagine that the radical Muslim Brotherhood would emerge as the most powerful political force in Egypt, President Obama dismissed the party as a ‘faction,’ adding that ‘they don’t have majority support in Egypt. But they’re well organized. There are strains of their ideology that are anti-U.S.’

Less than a year afterwards, the Brotherhood has emerged as the winner of the first three rounds of legislative elections in the post-Mubarak period. Its closest contender represents the even more radical Salafist Muslim sect.

Last summer, the official Obama administration policy changed from shunning the Muslim Brotherhood to ‘engaging’ it. Last month, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry met in Cairo with top members of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.” Read more.