Those who have been by my site often enough know I like to take the easy way out and borrow stuff from my friends and neighbors.
Well tonight I found a soulmate in this type of blogging because Gawfer has borrowed a post from Bushwack who got the stuff he posted from Mrs. Bushwack.
Since it is on the internet I figure it is free posting material as long as you give credit where credit is due. I'm only copying part of it here and I suggest you click the following link for the full posting. Thanks Mrs. Bushwack!
Long before Christ, God spoke to Abraham and established a covenant with Him. Basically, "I will be your God and you will be my people." God promised to bless Abraham with much "seed" or descendants. However, at the time he did not have a son. Even though Abraham and Sarah were very old, God promised a nation would arise from "the promised seed." Now just like most people, Abraham and Sarah thought God was taking too long; so Sarah stepped in to hurry up the process. She let Abraham sleep with her handmaid, Hagar. Hagar became pregnant and Sarah was now angered. She sent Hagar away, to roam in the desert. The unborn child was Ishmael. While in the desert the Lord sent a messenger to Hagar, telling her to return to Abraham and also saying some things about her unborn child. God promised to make him a nation and told a little about his character, "He will be a wild donkey of a man, He will be against everyone and everyone will be against him. He will attack all his brothers." GENESIS 16:12 Hagar returned and gave birth to Ishmael.
When Abraham was 86 years old, Ishmael WAS the first born of Abraham, but he was not the promised one of God. However, God did say to Hagar, Ishmael's mother, that her son would become a nation and have many descendants. The lines of Ishmael, his 12 sons, were the leaders of the ARAB nations.
Ok, so what about God'’s promise to Abraham? When Abraham was 96 years old God gave instructions for keeping the agreement between them. A sign of the covenant, the promise of numerous seed, would be circumcision. Then when Abraham was 100 years old, Isaac was born. And he circumcised him just as the Lord had instructed. Isaac was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Ishmael was not part of the covenant with God, he was uncircumcised, and he was destined to lead a life of strife, as proclaimed at his birth, and be at war with his brothers, the covenant people, the circumcised, and the promised nation of Israel. Since Ishmael was the first born of Abraham, Islamic people consider him the promised one, a prophet of God. In Islamic tradition it was Ishmael that was laid on the altar for sacrifice, not Isaac. Mecca is the place in the desert where Hagar fled when she was pregnant with Ishmael. Therefore, it is holy. The Islamic religion is a flipped or opposite of the Hebrew tradition. Ishmael takes the "hero" role and Isaac is the outcast. Islam is a perversion of the covenant with God.
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Concerning this post Gawfer sez: The bible has been around for quite a while now, and has told us several times and in several different ways what this world is all about, past, present, and future. And there are some of us that sit back and say 'yeah, I believe it'. Well, In my humble opinion, this is clear evidence right before our eyes that what the bible says is true, and I've gone from 'believing' to 'knowing'.
How 'bout you?
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To which prying1 sez: (commented on Gawfer's site) When I was 10 or 11 yrs. old I said to my Mom, "What is a Jew?"
She replied, "The Jews are God's chosen people."
A few moments of thought and I asked, "Why are we bothering to be Catholic?"
I could see right away that it was no sense being Catholic when Catholics were not God's 'Chosen People'.
She explained to me that Jews were born being Jews because they were related to Abraham. We were not so we were out of the loop.
Talk about unfair!
I always felt a bit... Well, maybe a lot of jealousy towards Jews after that.
UNTIL!!!
After I found out Jesus did rise again and He is still alive. I asked Him into my heart. Talk about a reality check. HE TOUCHED ME!!!
Well, reading the New Testament I found out I was grafted into the family of God and in effect had become a Jew through the 'born again' experience. Same as they take a branch from one tree and splice it into another.
I'm not jealous anymore. - John 1: 12-13 -
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