If it wasn't for TV preachers I wouldn't believe in hell, but if you think about it, where else is God going to stick them?
When Pat Robertson isn't busy milking money from grandmas, or diverting funds from "Operation Blessing" to support his diamond mining interests, he's busies himself spewing Bolshevik.
Robertson asserts in a recent Jerusalem speech that the world is in the throngs of a "holy war." He suggests the people of Jehovah (Christians and Jews) are defending themselves against the followers of an evil moon god (Muslims): "[T]he struggle is whether Hubal, the Moon god of Mecca, known as Allah, is supreme, or whether the Judeo-Christian Jehovah, God of the Bible, is Supreme."
It'd be nice to think there isn't a target audience for such insidious comments, but, sadly, this isn't the case. So if you're one of those good-hearted people who've been duped into thinking Robertson is more a man of God rather than a right-wing tool, please read along before you fund this lovable loon's "holy war."
Muslims, Jews, and Christians believe in the same God, and I don't mean in some squishy, hippie, new age way. These three religions all believe in the GOD OF ABRAHAM.
A brief narrative that is contained in the Torah; a holy text for Islam, Muslim, and Christianity: God said Abraham, I'm going to give you a son, and the descendants of this first-born shall be known as "MY CHOSEN PEOPLE". And then I imagine God elbowed himself and said hey, want to see something funny, watch this. Then he said "Okay." God often talks to himself, and you would too if you'd spent an eternity living alone in an empty universe with nothing but three personalities.
Abraham, who believed in God's omnipotence, went and told his wife, Sarah, what God had said. Sarah laughed and laughed, knowing that her womb as used up as an old piece of chewing gum. She must have thought he just wanted a piece, but nonetheless, she allowed Abraham to plow her shares. Finally, Sarah, told her husband that if God was going to give him a son, he'd better go ahead and knock up the servant.
Lo and behold, the servant became pregnant and Abraham began raising, Ishmael to be "THE FATHER OF GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE."
Well, here's the funny part, shortly thereafter Sarah finally became pregnant. She had a baby and named it Jacob.
Sarah had always been jealous of the young handmaiden's ability to easily give to Abraham what she could not. As soon as she had a son (Abraham only needed one) she wanted rid of Ishmael.
God told Abraham to take Ishmael and his mother to the desert, and leave them there to die. Abraham obeyed. Here's another funny part, instead of allowing the two to die beneath the desert sun, God made a spring arise from the desert floor, from which the two thrived. Ishmael had lots of babies who formed a people nation known as Islam.
Jacob grew up, and changed his name to Israel and birthed a nation of his own (his twelve sons formed the twelve tribes of Israel).
Jews and Muslims are half-brothers
Here's the rub, which baby is the first-born? Tradition dictates that only the first-born son receives the father's birthright, in the case the Promised Land. Remember Esau? He ripped off his older, hairy brother by covering his arms with goat hair so that he could trick his blind, dying father to pass the family inheritance to the wrong son. This was serious business, these birthrights.
So who is the first born? I'll answer that in a minute, but before I make people mad I want to get back to the original point, Robertson.
He is right about one thing: There is a holy war going on, and it has been for some time. However, the real war isn't between Islam and Judeo-Christianity.
The real "holy war" is against the fundamentalists and progressives. Both Muslim Fundamentalists and Christian Fundamentalists are a shameful public face to a couple of beautiful religions. While these religions have sacred histories that create beautiful narratives in sincere attempts to define humanity in light of divinity, they have allowed their voices to be overrun with the loud, ignorant noise that typifies extremes. Those sincere people whose beliefs are tempered by their tolerances allow their faith to remain mute, as the fundamentalists clamor before the cameras.
That is the "holy war": free-thinking, open-minded, loving Jews, Muslims, and Christians against our fundamentalist "brethren" who believe upheaval fulfills their particular, narrow interests.
So please, if you want to be a on the good side of a holy war, start with recognizing Christian TV for the oxymoron that it is and turn off that money-making, propaganda machine. We are the sons of Abraham, for Christ's sake, show some respect.
In conclusion, my two bit theology: there is no first born.
The point of God's little exercise wasn't to see how we answered the question but how we resolved the issue. I read this essay by a Christian Palestinian who put it something like this: It doesn't matter whose land it is. If God gave the land to Muslims, he would want them to live peacefully with the Jews. Likewise, if God gave the land to Jews he'd want them to live peacefully with Muslims.
What did Jesus say before the cross? If you forget everything else I ever said to you remember this: Love God with all your being, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. (EIV)
