I do believe the new testament, the teachings within it, were for all people. How else could Byzantines and Arabs become Christian? I’ll get back to this point.
Have you wondered why God permitted a thing that was already set right? Ie divorce. Why was it allowed?
I mean it’s not just God allowing it for people with hard hearts.
*Jeremiah 3:8
And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
*
Now if you look back at what I wrote earlier, I explained how there is a state of Unity and a state of multiplicity.
Jesus was abiding in a state of Oneness. ‘Let your eye be single’. It’s the same as the concept of Wahdat as-Shuhood. Oneness of Perception. What Jesus preached, it was all about keeping with this Oneness so much so that to even call another person ‘fool’ was equal to Hell. Good and evil are relative.
Let me make it clear, TRUE Christianity, practiced as it should be, is very pure. I recall one example where an early Christian and his wife were killed instantly by the Holy Spirit just for concealing some of their wealth.
Some would all this intolerance, but to me it’s because there’s a much higher standard. A greater reward but a heavier penalty.
I’ll give you another comparison
The circumcision is a symbol of the ‘cutting of the flesh’ (that is, a struggle against our carnal nature)
The crucifixion is a symbol of the DEATH of the flesh.
The crucifixion is far more powerful than the circumcision isn’t it? i know this and i’m a muslim. There are sufi muslims who also teach this…but very few can live it.
Now the obvious question is, if Jesus raised people to a higher state of consciousness. Why would Mohammed ‘reduce’ people back to the previous state?
You know my view to this?
The law and circumcision was for us who aren’t in Unity.
Jesus brings the law to completition by raising them to Unity. The previous law (Torah) was only for the Israelites. Gentiles had no real laws…yet they received this spiritual gift from Christianity to receive the holy spirit and attain the higher state of consciousness.
For a long time this was good enough, if they had the Grace of God, abiding in Unity already, then what need for the law?
Why didn’t it just remain like this?
It’s clear to me that by the time Mohammed entered this world, the Christians were divided into sects (the unity was finished). Even the symbol of the crucifix lost it’s original meaning by becoming a symbol of roman imperialism.
Please do not take this personally, I love Christianity, I love Jesus…but just read what it says in Jude. Christianity was slowly being hijacked by lesser people who cared not about the teachings or the symbols and certainly were not in a state of Unity.
You look at the strength of even the 3rd entury Christians
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sleepers
This story is mentioned in the Quran. These people were Saints/Awliya.
But by the time Mohammed came it was a different type of scenaio.
Furthermore, Mohammed came to a people who didn’t even have a ‘bad’ form of Christianity, these people were practicing the most materialistic form of polythiesm. They didn’t believe in life after death either. The Christians had no interest in converting these people, if they did they’d have conquered Arabia long ago.
Should Mohammed have made these people Christians? knowing Christianity by that time was on a downward spiral? (again do not take this personally, it happened with christianity and with islam).
Quite simply, if Jesus preached the unity he did and CHristians had the grace of God, how could there be ‘sects’ amongst the Christians? don’t you take that a sign something was wrong? Again, the Book of Jude makes it clear from the offset what was happening(or going to happen).
Someone certainly had to do something. It couldn’t have been a jewish Prophet since Jesus brought Judaism to completion already.
Furthermore at the very least the Jews still had Torah. If the gentiles didn’t have the Holy Spirit…didn’t have the Grace of God, were on a downward spiral, as it says in Jude…what else do they have? in effect the Gentiles were without law and without grace (sure they were exceptions and always will be but the overwhelming majority were in trouble).
I believe Mohammed had to bring Shariah, a more universal form of Torah…for a people already abiding in multiplicity.
It also adds an element of beauty for me, knowing that even the idea of Jesus ‘completing the law’ is all the more powerful given he will return and muslims believe in him.
I don’t believe it’s an accident the only man who created a successful religion after Jesus was an Ismaelite prophet as this adds so much more emphasis to the original promise God gave to Hagar.
Even the concept of the ‘12 princes’ is fulfilled by the ‘12 Caliphs of Quraysh’.
Let me tell you something. The jews believed the messiah would make the ‘Torah great’ and little did they know that Jesus would ‘fulfill the law’ in a way theydidn’t perceive. Ie he took it’s purpose, requirement and superseded it with something greater.
The hadith tell us Jesus would judge us according to Shariah…and i picture something similar where the law is superceded and people attain a higher state of consciousness, Unity.
There’s an element of Taoism here aswell. Thes are quotes from the Tao te ching. I always see a similarity in the ways of Jesus, with the Tao.
If powerful men and women
could remain centered in the Tao,
all things would be in harmony.
The world would become a paradise.
All people would be at peace,
and the law would be written in their hearts.
^^ a messianic concept.
