Christians around the world, regardless of their respective level of devotion tend to agree that the Christmas holidays are a rather joyful, and peaceful time of the year ( in spite of the encroaching materialism, and the hectic shopping rituals that are acted out each year). After all, we worship the birth of God' own Son, Jesus, who is the incarnation of His Father's Spirit come to reside in the living body of a man, who was destined to save all mankind. Muslims, who reject Jesus' divinity and refer to Him as simply one of many Jewish prophets, from a nation that they say descended from "apes, and pigs", seem to prefer to mark the end of one of their "Holiest" months of the year (Ramadan), by trying to kill each other off; their way of doing "Allah" ( their concept of God) a favor.
Ramadan ended two days ago and the killing has begun again in earnest. Al Quaida's apparent successor to Osama Bin Ladin was overheard by our intelligence ( N.S.A.) telling his apparent Bin Ladin "wannabe" lieutenant to, "do something big, and do it now". This resulted in the worldwide closing of 19 American Embassies this week, as a security precaution; a string of simultaneous bombings across Iraq; an increase in the Pro-Morsi demonstrations in Cairo, Egypt which are apparently intended to instigate the Egyptian army to open fire on them so they can become Jihadist "Martyrs" and arouse more opposition to the new interim government by their deaths; and the kidnapping in Lebanon of two Turkish Airline pilots who are being held as ransom for the release of some Hezbollah fighters supporting the Syrian government. All this comes shortly after the "escaping" of hundreds of captured Al Quaida, and Taliban fighters from various prisons in Iraq, Afganistan, and Pakistan, which are controlled by Muslim soldiers who are famous for becoming temporarily blind, for the right price. And the prophecied Egyptian civil war we can read about in Isaiah 19 hasn't really begun yet. What we've seen so far can't be called anything more than agitation which is preliminary to the real fighting which I expect is soon to come.
I cannot conceive of any more clear cut distinction between the values taught by these two religions than that just expressed. I am told that the teachings of Islam do not offer any assurance of an after-life in their concept of "Paradise", no matter how hard one tries to be obedient to it's teachings, except by becoming a Jihadist martyr, no matter if one kills many innocent people in the process of martyring oneself. This is apparently why there are so many pro-Morsi demonstrators in Cairo who are quite willing to die in order to instigate violence from the army.
Christians believe, in contrast, that you can not earn your way into heaven by any good works( and certainly not by murdering innocent people just because they disagree with you), but that by the simplicity of believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and by prayerfully asking Him to come into your heart, and forgive you of your sins ( no matter how terrible they may seem to be), you will be saved! The guarantee of an eternity in Heaven is a by-product of such an incredibly easy action on our part; it merely requires the humility of asking for it. The choice seems abundantly clear to me! I've made mine. What do you say???
ADDENDUM:
If you found my June 12th posts called, "European Financial Markets' Last Gasp" to be interesting, you might like to re-read them now, as I have just completed some updating of them both, and the original message is just as viable today as it was then.
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