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THE TEST OF TRUE RELIGION
"What God the Father considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering and to keep oneself from being corrupted by the world."
"Well, religion does make us very rich, if we are satisfied with what we have. What did we bring into the world? Nothing! What can we take out of the world? Nothing! So then, if we have food and clothes, that should be enough for us. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows. But you, man of God, avoid all these things. Strive for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness."
ATHEISTS
"Whoever teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the true words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching of our religion is swollen with pride and knows nothing. He has an unhealthy desire to argue and quarrel about words, and this brings on jealousy, disputes, insults, evil suspicions, and constant arguments from people whose minds do not function and who no longer have the truth. They think that religion is a way to become rich."
"Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God; they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people."
If you are talking about Christianity, which you are, then you need to refer to Christian text and Christian teaching. I wouldn't go to an atheist to learn about Christianity. This is what the Bible says about unbelievers.
ATHEISTS
"Whoever teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the true words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the teaching of our religion (not Hitlers religion) is swollen with pride and knows nothing about Christianity.
He has an unhealthy desire to argue and quarrel about words, and this brings on jealousy, disputes, insults, evil suspicions, and constant arguments from people whose minds are far from God and who no longer have the truth."
"Remember that there will be difficult times in the last days. People will be selfish, greedy, boastful, and conceited; they will be insulting, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, and irreligious; they will be unkind, merciless, slanderers, violent, and fierce; they will hate the good; they will be treacherous, reckless, and swollen with pride; they will love pleasure rather than God; they will hold to the outward form of our religion, but reject its real power. Keep away from such people."
(1 Timothy chapter 6 starting at verse 3)
WARNINGS AGAINST FALSE PROPHETS
"Be on your guard against false prophets; they come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on the inside they are really like wild wolves. You will know them by what they do. Thorn bushes do not bear grapes, and briers do not bear figs. A healthy tree bears good fruit, but a poor tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a poor tree cannot bear good fruit. And any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire. So then, you will know the false prophets by what they do."
"Then, if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or 'There he is!'---do not believe it. For false Messiahs and false prophets will appear; they will perform great miracles and wonders in order to deceive even God's chosen people, if possible. Listen! I have told you this ahead of time."
"My dear friends, do not believe all who claim to be true but test them. For many false prophets have gone out everywhere. This is how you will be able to know whether they are true, anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit of God. But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit of truth. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already."
THE END DAYS
"Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be famines and earthquakes everywhere. You will be arrested because of your faith and handed over to be punished and be put to death. Everyone will hate you because of me. Many will give up their faith at that time; they will betray one another and hate one another. Then many false prophets will appear and fool many people. Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold."
THE ANTI-CHRIST
"My children, the end is near! You were told that the Enemy of Christ would come; and now many enemies of Christ have already appeared, and so we know that the end is near."
"Who, then, is the liar? It is those who say that Jesus is not the Messiah. Such people are the Enemy of Christ---they reject both the Father and the Son."
"This is how you will be able to know whether it is God's Spirit: anyone who acknowledges that Jesus Christ came as a human being has the Spirit who comes from God."
"But anyone who denies this about Jesus does not have the Spirit from God. The spirit that he has is from the Enemy of Christ; you heard that it would come, and now it is here in the world already."
"Many deceivers have gone out over the world, people who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ came as a human being. Such a person is a deceiver and the Enemy of Christ."
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Tuesday 29 July 2008
Saturday 19 July 2008
Burned Alive
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As a teenager in the West Bank, Soauad became pregnant by a local boy. He 'shamed' Palestinian family condemned her to death and she was set on fire by her brother-in-law. Every year, thousands of women in the Middle East die in 'honour killings'. Souad survived. This is her harrowing story
He came towards me and said, with a smile: "Hi. How goes it?" He was chewing a blade of grass. "I'm going to take care of you."
I hadn't been expecting that. I smiled a little, to thank him, not daring to speak.
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Suddenly I felt a cold liquid running over my head; I was on fire. I slapped at my hair. I screamed. My dress billowed out behind me. Was it on fire, too? I smelt the petrol and ran, the hem of my dress getting in the way. Did he run after me? Was he waiting for me to fall so he could watch me go up in flames?
I'm going to die, I thought. That's good. Maybe I'm already dead. It's over, finally.
My name is Souad. My story began almost 25 years ago in my native village in the West Bank, a tiny place, in a region then occupied by the Israelis. If I named my village, I could be in danger, even though I am now thousands of miles away. In my village I am officially dead; if I were to go back today they would try to kill me a second time for the honour of my family. It's the law of the land. It's because I am a woman.
A woman must walk fast, head down, as if counting the number of steps she's taking. She may never stray from her path or look up, for if a man catches her eye, the whole village labels her a charmuta, prostitute. A girl must be married before she can raise her eyes and look straight ahead, or go into a shop, or pluck her eyebrows and wear jewellery. My mother was married at 14. If a girl is still unmarried by that age, the village begins to make fun of her. But a girl must wait her turn in the family to be married. The eldest daughter first, then the others.
There were four girls of marrying age in our household. There were also two half-sisters, by our father's second wife, who were still children. The one male child of the family, who was born in glory among all these daughters, was our brother Assad.
Twenty-five years ago, I spoke only Arabic; I'd hardly been further than a few kilometres beyond the last house on the dirt road. I knew there were cities further away but I had never seen them. I did not know if the earth was round or flat. What I did know was that we had to hate the Jews, who had taken our land; my father called them halouf, pigs. We were forbidden to go near them for fear of becoming pigs like them.
My brother went to school, but the girls did not. Where I come from, being born a girl is a curse: a wife must first produce a son - at least one - and if she gives birth only to girls, she is mocked. At most, only two or three girls are needed to help with the housework, to work on the land and tend the animals.
Our stone house was big, and surrounded by a wall with a large door of grey iron. Once we were inside, it closed on us to prevent us going out. You could enter by this door from the outside, but you could not go out again. My father and mother went out, but not us girls. My brother went out and came back through that door; he went to the cinema - he did as he liked.
A day without a beating was unusual. My father would shout, "Why have the sheep come back by themselves?" then pull me by the hair and drag me into the kitchen to hit me. Once he tied up my sister Kainat and me, our hands behind our backs, our legs bound, and a scarf over our mouths to stop us screaming. We stayed like that all night, tied to a gate in the stable.
This was life in our village. The girls and women in the other houses were beaten regularly, too. You could hear the crying. My sister was beaten by her husband and she brought shame on our family when she came home to complain.
My mother had 14 children, but only five survived. One day I learned why. I must have been less than 10; Noura, my elder sister, was with me. We came back from the fields, and found my mother lying on the floor on a sheepskin. She was giving birth, and my aunt Salima was with her. There were cries from my mother and then from the baby. Very quickly my mother took the sheepskin and smothered the baby. I saw the baby move once, and then it was over. She was a girl. I saw my mother do it this first time, then a second time. I'm not sure I was present for the third, but I knew about it. And I heard Noura say to her: "If I have girls, I'll do what you have done."
That was how my mother got rid of the seven daughters she had after Hanan, the last survivor. From then on I hid and cried every time my father killed a sheep or a chicken.
As long as I lived with my parents, I feared I would die suddenly. I was afraid of going up a ladder when my father was below. I was afraid of the hatchet used for chopping the wood, afraid of the well when I went for water. That well was my greatest terror, and my mother's too. I sensed it. Sometimes, coming back from the fields with the animals, my elder sister Kainat and I talked about what might happen: "Supposing everybody's dead when we get home . . . And what if Father has killed Mother? A blow with a stone is all it would take!"
The possibility of our mother dying preoccupied us more than the death of a sister, because there were always other sisters. Our mother was often beaten, just as we were. Sometimes she tried to intervene when my father hit us especially viciously, and then he'd turn on her, knocking her down and pulling out her hair.
I haven't seen my brother Assad for 25 years, but I would like to ask him one question: "Where is our sister Hanan, who disappeared?" Hanan was a beautiful girl, very dark and prettier than me, with thick hair and heavy eyebrows that joined above her eyes. She was not thin like me. She was dreamy and never very attentive to what was said to her. When she came to help us pick olives, she worked and moved slowly. This wasn't usual in my family; you walked fast, you worked fast, you ran out to bring the animals.
I was in the house one day when I heard shouting. My little sisters and I ran to see what was happening. Hanan was sitting on the floor, arms and legs flailing, and Assad was leaning over her, strangling her with the telephone cord. We pressed ourselves against the wall to make ourselves disappear. Assad must have heard us come in because he yelled "Rouhi! Rouhi! Get out! Get out!"
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When my parents came home, my mother spoke to Assad. I saw her crying, but I know now she was just pretending: I've come to understand how things happen to girls in my land. It is decided at a family meeting, and on the fatal day the parents are never present. Only the one who has been chosen to do the killing is with the intended victim.
I don't know why Hanan was condemned to die. Did she go out alone? Was she seen speaking to a man? Was she denounced by a neighbour? It doesn't take much for everyone to see a girl as a charmuta who has brought shame to the family and must die to restore their honour - as well as that of the entire village.
As I grew up, I waited hopefully for a marriage proposal. I was 18 by then and had grown to hate village weddings because all the girls made fun of me. No one asked for Kainat, my elder sister; she had resigned herself to remaining an old maid. I found this terribly depressing, because I had to wait until Kainat was married before I could take a husband.
Then I discovered that a neighbour, Faiez, had asked for me. "But we can't discuss marriage for the time being," my mother told me, "we have to wait for your sister."
Faiez lived in the house opposite ours. Sometimes I caught sight of him from the terrace where I laid out the laundry to dry. He must have had a good job in the city because he didn't dress like a labourer. He always wore a suit, and he carried a briefcase and he had a car.
I imagined that we were married, that he'd come back from work at sunset and I'd remove his shoes and, on my knees, I'd wash his feet as my mother did for my father. I would be a woman with a husband! Maybe I'd even be able to put on make-up, get into his car with him, and go into town to the shops.
But what to do? I wanted him to know that I was waiting, too. I decided to do everything I could to speak to him, at the risk of being beaten or stoned to death. One morning I heard his footsteps on the gravel outside his house. I shook my wool rug over the edge of the terrace and he looked up. He saw me and I knew he understood, although he made no sign and not a word was spoken.
There were regular, secret meetings. One day he placed his hand on my thigh. I pushed it off. He looked annoyed. "Why don't you want to? Come on!" I was so afraid that he'd go away, that he'd look for somebody else. So I let him do what he wanted - without quite knowing what was going to happen to me. He wasn't violent, but the pain took me by surprise. He told me he was in love with me.
One morning, in the stable, I suddenly felt very strange. The smell of the manure made me dizzy. And later, as I prepared the meal, the mutton made me feel ill. I tried to find a reason that wasn't the worst one. Of course, I couldn't talk to anyone. If I was pregnant, my father would smother me in the sheepskin blanket.
When I told Faiez, his face went blank. He promised to talk to my father. He said I should wait - "Until I give you a sign." The days passed, and he gave me no sign. I was hopeful all the same, every evening, of seeing him appear out of nowhere, as he had before, to the left or right of the ravine where I hid.
Three or four months later, my stomach began to get larger. It was my father who came towards me, on a washing day, his cane striking the ground of the courtyard. He stopped behind me. "You're pregnant," he said. I dropped the laundry into the basin. I couldn't look up at him. "No, father," I insisted. Later, I pleaded with my mother, assuring her that I had had my period.
There was a family meeting, which of course I wasn't allowed to attend: my parents, Noura and my brother-in-law Hussein. I listened behind the wall, terrified.
My mother spoke to Hussein: "We can't ask our son. He won't be able to do it - he's too young."
"I can take care of her."
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Then my father: "If you're going to do it, it must be done right. What do you have in mind?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll find a way."
I heard my sister crying, saying she didn't want to hear this and that she wanted to go home. Hussein told her to wait, then confirmed arrangements with my parents: "You'll go out. Leave the house. When you come back, it will be done."
I couldn't comprehend what I had heard. I wondered if it could have been a dream, a nightmare. Were they really going to kill me? And if they did, when would it be? How? By cutting off my head? Maybe they would let me have the child then kill me afterwards? Would they keep the baby if it was a boy? Would my mother suffocate it if it was a girl?
The next day my mother told me that she was going to the city with my father. I knew what it meant. I looked at the courtyard ; it was a big space, part of it was tiled, the rest covered with sand. It was encircled by a wall, and all around on top of the wall were iron spikes. In one corner, the metallic grey door, smooth on the courtyard side, without a lock or key, and only a handle on the outside. If he came, he could only enter by that door.
Suddenly I heard it clang. My brother-in-law was there, he was coming towards me. He was smiling.
Twenty-five years later I see these images again as if time has stopped. I was sitting on a rock, barefoot in a grey dress. I had lowered my head, unable to look at him; my forehead was on my knees. Then suddenly I was running and on fire and screaming. There were women, I remember, two of them, so I must have climbed over the garden wall and into the street. They beat at me, I suppose with their scarves. They dragged me to the village fountain; I felt the cold water running on me and I cried out with pain because it burnt me too. I heard women wailing over me. "The poor thing . . . The poor thing . . ." I was lying in a car. I felt the jolts of the road. I heard myself moan.
Later, on a hospital bed, I was curled up in a ball under a sheet. A nurse had come to tear off my dress. She pulled roughly on the fabric and the pain jolted me. I slept, my head still stuck to my chest, as it was when I was on fire. My arms were extended out from my body and both were paralysed. My hands were still there, but I couldn't use them. I wanted to scratch myself, to rip off my skin to stop the pain.
When I woke again I saw two bare feet, a long black dress, a small form like mine, thin, almost skinny. It wasn't the nurse. It was my mother. Her two plaits were smoothed with olive oil, her black scarf, that strange forehead, a bulge between her eyebrows over the nose, a profile like a bird of prey. She frightened me. She sat on a stool with her black bag and started to weep, her head rocking back and forth. She wept with shame, for herself and the whole family. And I saw the hatred in her eyes.
Never will I forget that big glass she filled to the top with a transparent liquid, like water. "Drink this. It's me who gives it to you."
I was so thirsty I tried to raise my chin, but I couldn't. Suddenly a young doctor - one of the few members of staff who had treated me kindly - came into the room. My mother jumped. He grabbed the glass from her hand and banged it down on the windowsill. "No!" he shouted. He took my mother by the arm and made her leave the room. "You're lucky I came in when I did," he told me when he returned. "From now on no one from your family will be allowed in here."
Three or four days later, I still hadn't eaten or drunk anything since being admitted to hospital. I knew they were letting me die because it was forbidden to intervene in a case like mine. I was guilty in everyone's eyes. I would endure the fate of all women who sully the honour of men. They had only washed me because I stank. They kept me there because it was a hospital where I was supposed to die without creating more problems for my parents and the village. Hussein had botched the job: he had let me run away in flames.
One night I felt a strange pain, like a knife stuck into my stomach. I could feel something strange between my legs. I didn't realise, at first, that I was giving birth. The doctor heard my cries and came into the room. He leant over and took the baby away, without showing it to me.
Later he told me that I had given birth at six months to a tiny boy, but that he was alive and being cared for. I heard vaguely what he was saying to me, but my ears had been burned and hurt so terribly.
Someone came into the room once, in the middle of this nightmare. A hand passed over my face without touching it. A woman's voice, with a peculiar accent, said to me in Arabic: "I'm going to help you, do you understand?" I said yes, without believing it. I was so uncomfortable in that bed, the object of everyone's scorn; I didn't understand how anyone could help me. But I said yes to that woman. I didn't know who she was.
My second life began in Europe at the end of the 1970s in an international airport. Concealed behind a curtain, my body smelt so much that the passengers on the plane taking me to Europe protested.
But next to me, in a cradle, was my son Marouan. I gazed at his face, long and dark, under the hospital bonnet. He had been found in an orphanage, where the hospital had sent him because I was expected to die.
The woman, Jacqueline, a worker for a humanitarian organisation, had tracked him down. She had also persuaded my parents to sign me over to her, telling them that she was going to take me somewhere else to die. My father, I later learned, had made her promise that they would never see me again: "NEVER AGAIN!" They would tell the village that I had died, and their honour would be intact.
Jacqueline was taking me to the serious burns unit of a Swiss hospital. The day after we arrived I had an emergency operation, to free my chin from my chest and allow me to raise my head. For long months there were skin grafts, 24 operations in all. My legs, which hadn't been burned, provided replacement skin until there was none left to give.
At first, my arms hung stiffly at my sides, like a doll's, but eventually the medical staff straightened them so that I could move them. I began to stand, then walk in the corridors and to use my hands.
I now live in Europe, where I am married to a good man, Antonio. We have two daughters. When Marouan was five, I signed a paper for his foster-parents to adopt him. We had lived together with this foster family for four years after our arrival; his parents were also mine. I still feel guilty for making this choice, but I knew he was happy, and he knew I was alive. I was 24 and I didn't feel I could stay any longer. I had to work, gain my independence and finally become an adult. I would not have been able to raise him alone.
I am still Muslim, but I retain few of the customs of my village. I detest violence. If someone reproaches me for being critical of the Muslim religion I try to help them understand what they haven't understood before. My mother frequently quarrelled with our neighbours. She would throw stones at them or pull their hair. In our country, the women always go for the hair.
More than 6,000 "honour" crimes are committed every year - in the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, India and Pakistan. In Pakistan the custom is an accepted part of national culture. In Jordan, a man who has killed his wife in a state of rage is entitled to the judge's clemency; the same law applies to a man who kills his wife simply because he suspects her of adultery. It is increasingly common for "disgraced" families to hire bounty hunters, so women who manage to escape to other countries are forced into hiding.
I have since met many of these women. One young girl has no legs: she was attacked by two men who tied her up and put her in the path of a train. Another girl's father and brother tried to murder her by stabbing her and throwing her into a dustbin. There is another whose mother and brothers threw her out of a window: she is paralysed.
I have never met any other burned women. As far as I know, none of them have survived.
# Edited from Burned Alive by Souad (Bantam), published on May 1. To order for £11.99 + £2.25 p&p, call Telegraph Books Direct on 0870 155 7222.
# Souad was rescued by the Swiss charity SURGIR (Arise). You can send donations to Banque cantonale vaudoise, 1001 Lausanne, account number U 5060.57.74 or to the address on the www.surgir.ch website.
# Email: office@surgir.ch
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As a teenager in the West Bank, Soauad became pregnant by a local boy. He 'shamed' Palestinian family condemned her to death and she was set on fire by her brother-in-law. Every year, thousands of women in the Middle East die in 'honour killings'. Souad survived. This is her harrowing story
He came towards me and said, with a smile: "Hi. How goes it?" He was chewing a blade of grass. "I'm going to take care of you."
I hadn't been expecting that. I smiled a little, to thank him, not daring to speak.
advertisement
Suddenly I felt a cold liquid running over my head; I was on fire. I slapped at my hair. I screamed. My dress billowed out behind me. Was it on fire, too? I smelt the petrol and ran, the hem of my dress getting in the way. Did he run after me? Was he waiting for me to fall so he could watch me go up in flames?
I'm going to die, I thought. That's good. Maybe I'm already dead. It's over, finally.
My name is Souad. My story began almost 25 years ago in my native village in the West Bank, a tiny place, in a region then occupied by the Israelis. If I named my village, I could be in danger, even though I am now thousands of miles away. In my village I am officially dead; if I were to go back today they would try to kill me a second time for the honour of my family. It's the law of the land. It's because I am a woman.
A woman must walk fast, head down, as if counting the number of steps she's taking. She may never stray from her path or look up, for if a man catches her eye, the whole village labels her a charmuta, prostitute. A girl must be married before she can raise her eyes and look straight ahead, or go into a shop, or pluck her eyebrows and wear jewellery. My mother was married at 14. If a girl is still unmarried by that age, the village begins to make fun of her. But a girl must wait her turn in the family to be married. The eldest daughter first, then the others.
There were four girls of marrying age in our household. There were also two half-sisters, by our father's second wife, who were still children. The one male child of the family, who was born in glory among all these daughters, was our brother Assad.
Twenty-five years ago, I spoke only Arabic; I'd hardly been further than a few kilometres beyond the last house on the dirt road. I knew there were cities further away but I had never seen them. I did not know if the earth was round or flat. What I did know was that we had to hate the Jews, who had taken our land; my father called them halouf, pigs. We were forbidden to go near them for fear of becoming pigs like them.
My brother went to school, but the girls did not. Where I come from, being born a girl is a curse: a wife must first produce a son - at least one - and if she gives birth only to girls, she is mocked. At most, only two or three girls are needed to help with the housework, to work on the land and tend the animals.
Our stone house was big, and surrounded by a wall with a large door of grey iron. Once we were inside, it closed on us to prevent us going out. You could enter by this door from the outside, but you could not go out again. My father and mother went out, but not us girls. My brother went out and came back through that door; he went to the cinema - he did as he liked.
A day without a beating was unusual. My father would shout, "Why have the sheep come back by themselves?" then pull me by the hair and drag me into the kitchen to hit me. Once he tied up my sister Kainat and me, our hands behind our backs, our legs bound, and a scarf over our mouths to stop us screaming. We stayed like that all night, tied to a gate in the stable.
This was life in our village. The girls and women in the other houses were beaten regularly, too. You could hear the crying. My sister was beaten by her husband and she brought shame on our family when she came home to complain.
My mother had 14 children, but only five survived. One day I learned why. I must have been less than 10; Noura, my elder sister, was with me. We came back from the fields, and found my mother lying on the floor on a sheepskin. She was giving birth, and my aunt Salima was with her. There were cries from my mother and then from the baby. Very quickly my mother took the sheepskin and smothered the baby. I saw the baby move once, and then it was over. She was a girl. I saw my mother do it this first time, then a second time. I'm not sure I was present for the third, but I knew about it. And I heard Noura say to her: "If I have girls, I'll do what you have done."
That was how my mother got rid of the seven daughters she had after Hanan, the last survivor. From then on I hid and cried every time my father killed a sheep or a chicken.
As long as I lived with my parents, I feared I would die suddenly. I was afraid of going up a ladder when my father was below. I was afraid of the hatchet used for chopping the wood, afraid of the well when I went for water. That well was my greatest terror, and my mother's too. I sensed it. Sometimes, coming back from the fields with the animals, my elder sister Kainat and I talked about what might happen: "Supposing everybody's dead when we get home . . . And what if Father has killed Mother? A blow with a stone is all it would take!"
The possibility of our mother dying preoccupied us more than the death of a sister, because there were always other sisters. Our mother was often beaten, just as we were. Sometimes she tried to intervene when my father hit us especially viciously, and then he'd turn on her, knocking her down and pulling out her hair.
I haven't seen my brother Assad for 25 years, but I would like to ask him one question: "Where is our sister Hanan, who disappeared?" Hanan was a beautiful girl, very dark and prettier than me, with thick hair and heavy eyebrows that joined above her eyes. She was not thin like me. She was dreamy and never very attentive to what was said to her. When she came to help us pick olives, she worked and moved slowly. This wasn't usual in my family; you walked fast, you worked fast, you ran out to bring the animals.
I was in the house one day when I heard shouting. My little sisters and I ran to see what was happening. Hanan was sitting on the floor, arms and legs flailing, and Assad was leaning over her, strangling her with the telephone cord. We pressed ourselves against the wall to make ourselves disappear. Assad must have heard us come in because he yelled "Rouhi! Rouhi! Get out! Get out!"
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When my parents came home, my mother spoke to Assad. I saw her crying, but I know now she was just pretending: I've come to understand how things happen to girls in my land. It is decided at a family meeting, and on the fatal day the parents are never present. Only the one who has been chosen to do the killing is with the intended victim.
I don't know why Hanan was condemned to die. Did she go out alone? Was she seen speaking to a man? Was she denounced by a neighbour? It doesn't take much for everyone to see a girl as a charmuta who has brought shame to the family and must die to restore their honour - as well as that of the entire village.
As I grew up, I waited hopefully for a marriage proposal. I was 18 by then and had grown to hate village weddings because all the girls made fun of me. No one asked for Kainat, my elder sister; she had resigned herself to remaining an old maid. I found this terribly depressing, because I had to wait until Kainat was married before I could take a husband.
Then I discovered that a neighbour, Faiez, had asked for me. "But we can't discuss marriage for the time being," my mother told me, "we have to wait for your sister."
Faiez lived in the house opposite ours. Sometimes I caught sight of him from the terrace where I laid out the laundry to dry. He must have had a good job in the city because he didn't dress like a labourer. He always wore a suit, and he carried a briefcase and he had a car.
I imagined that we were married, that he'd come back from work at sunset and I'd remove his shoes and, on my knees, I'd wash his feet as my mother did for my father. I would be a woman with a husband! Maybe I'd even be able to put on make-up, get into his car with him, and go into town to the shops.
But what to do? I wanted him to know that I was waiting, too. I decided to do everything I could to speak to him, at the risk of being beaten or stoned to death. One morning I heard his footsteps on the gravel outside his house. I shook my wool rug over the edge of the terrace and he looked up. He saw me and I knew he understood, although he made no sign and not a word was spoken.
There were regular, secret meetings. One day he placed his hand on my thigh. I pushed it off. He looked annoyed. "Why don't you want to? Come on!" I was so afraid that he'd go away, that he'd look for somebody else. So I let him do what he wanted - without quite knowing what was going to happen to me. He wasn't violent, but the pain took me by surprise. He told me he was in love with me.
One morning, in the stable, I suddenly felt very strange. The smell of the manure made me dizzy. And later, as I prepared the meal, the mutton made me feel ill. I tried to find a reason that wasn't the worst one. Of course, I couldn't talk to anyone. If I was pregnant, my father would smother me in the sheepskin blanket.
When I told Faiez, his face went blank. He promised to talk to my father. He said I should wait - "Until I give you a sign." The days passed, and he gave me no sign. I was hopeful all the same, every evening, of seeing him appear out of nowhere, as he had before, to the left or right of the ravine where I hid.
Three or four months later, my stomach began to get larger. It was my father who came towards me, on a washing day, his cane striking the ground of the courtyard. He stopped behind me. "You're pregnant," he said. I dropped the laundry into the basin. I couldn't look up at him. "No, father," I insisted. Later, I pleaded with my mother, assuring her that I had had my period.
There was a family meeting, which of course I wasn't allowed to attend: my parents, Noura and my brother-in-law Hussein. I listened behind the wall, terrified.
My mother spoke to Hussein: "We can't ask our son. He won't be able to do it - he's too young."
"I can take care of her."
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Then my father: "If you're going to do it, it must be done right. What do you have in mind?"
"Don't worry about it. I'll find a way."
I heard my sister crying, saying she didn't want to hear this and that she wanted to go home. Hussein told her to wait, then confirmed arrangements with my parents: "You'll go out. Leave the house. When you come back, it will be done."
I couldn't comprehend what I had heard. I wondered if it could have been a dream, a nightmare. Were they really going to kill me? And if they did, when would it be? How? By cutting off my head? Maybe they would let me have the child then kill me afterwards? Would they keep the baby if it was a boy? Would my mother suffocate it if it was a girl?
The next day my mother told me that she was going to the city with my father. I knew what it meant. I looked at the courtyard ; it was a big space, part of it was tiled, the rest covered with sand. It was encircled by a wall, and all around on top of the wall were iron spikes. In one corner, the metallic grey door, smooth on the courtyard side, without a lock or key, and only a handle on the outside. If he came, he could only enter by that door.
Suddenly I heard it clang. My brother-in-law was there, he was coming towards me. He was smiling.
Twenty-five years later I see these images again as if time has stopped. I was sitting on a rock, barefoot in a grey dress. I had lowered my head, unable to look at him; my forehead was on my knees. Then suddenly I was running and on fire and screaming. There were women, I remember, two of them, so I must have climbed over the garden wall and into the street. They beat at me, I suppose with their scarves. They dragged me to the village fountain; I felt the cold water running on me and I cried out with pain because it burnt me too. I heard women wailing over me. "The poor thing . . . The poor thing . . ." I was lying in a car. I felt the jolts of the road. I heard myself moan.
Later, on a hospital bed, I was curled up in a ball under a sheet. A nurse had come to tear off my dress. She pulled roughly on the fabric and the pain jolted me. I slept, my head still stuck to my chest, as it was when I was on fire. My arms were extended out from my body and both were paralysed. My hands were still there, but I couldn't use them. I wanted to scratch myself, to rip off my skin to stop the pain.
When I woke again I saw two bare feet, a long black dress, a small form like mine, thin, almost skinny. It wasn't the nurse. It was my mother. Her two plaits were smoothed with olive oil, her black scarf, that strange forehead, a bulge between her eyebrows over the nose, a profile like a bird of prey. She frightened me. She sat on a stool with her black bag and started to weep, her head rocking back and forth. She wept with shame, for herself and the whole family. And I saw the hatred in her eyes.
Never will I forget that big glass she filled to the top with a transparent liquid, like water. "Drink this. It's me who gives it to you."
I was so thirsty I tried to raise my chin, but I couldn't. Suddenly a young doctor - one of the few members of staff who had treated me kindly - came into the room. My mother jumped. He grabbed the glass from her hand and banged it down on the windowsill. "No!" he shouted. He took my mother by the arm and made her leave the room. "You're lucky I came in when I did," he told me when he returned. "From now on no one from your family will be allowed in here."
Three or four days later, I still hadn't eaten or drunk anything since being admitted to hospital. I knew they were letting me die because it was forbidden to intervene in a case like mine. I was guilty in everyone's eyes. I would endure the fate of all women who sully the honour of men. They had only washed me because I stank. They kept me there because it was a hospital where I was supposed to die without creating more problems for my parents and the village. Hussein had botched the job: he had let me run away in flames.
One night I felt a strange pain, like a knife stuck into my stomach. I could feel something strange between my legs. I didn't realise, at first, that I was giving birth. The doctor heard my cries and came into the room. He leant over and took the baby away, without showing it to me.
Later he told me that I had given birth at six months to a tiny boy, but that he was alive and being cared for. I heard vaguely what he was saying to me, but my ears had been burned and hurt so terribly.
Someone came into the room once, in the middle of this nightmare. A hand passed over my face without touching it. A woman's voice, with a peculiar accent, said to me in Arabic: "I'm going to help you, do you understand?" I said yes, without believing it. I was so uncomfortable in that bed, the object of everyone's scorn; I didn't understand how anyone could help me. But I said yes to that woman. I didn't know who she was.
My second life began in Europe at the end of the 1970s in an international airport. Concealed behind a curtain, my body smelt so much that the passengers on the plane taking me to Europe protested.
But next to me, in a cradle, was my son Marouan. I gazed at his face, long and dark, under the hospital bonnet. He had been found in an orphanage, where the hospital had sent him because I was expected to die.
The woman, Jacqueline, a worker for a humanitarian organisation, had tracked him down. She had also persuaded my parents to sign me over to her, telling them that she was going to take me somewhere else to die. My father, I later learned, had made her promise that they would never see me again: "NEVER AGAIN!" They would tell the village that I had died, and their honour would be intact.
Jacqueline was taking me to the serious burns unit of a Swiss hospital. The day after we arrived I had an emergency operation, to free my chin from my chest and allow me to raise my head. For long months there were skin grafts, 24 operations in all. My legs, which hadn't been burned, provided replacement skin until there was none left to give.
At first, my arms hung stiffly at my sides, like a doll's, but eventually the medical staff straightened them so that I could move them. I began to stand, then walk in the corridors and to use my hands.
I now live in Europe, where I am married to a good man, Antonio. We have two daughters. When Marouan was five, I signed a paper for his foster-parents to adopt him. We had lived together with this foster family for four years after our arrival; his parents were also mine. I still feel guilty for making this choice, but I knew he was happy, and he knew I was alive. I was 24 and I didn't feel I could stay any longer. I had to work, gain my independence and finally become an adult. I would not have been able to raise him alone.
I am still Muslim, but I retain few of the customs of my village. I detest violence. If someone reproaches me for being critical of the Muslim religion I try to help them understand what they haven't understood before. My mother frequently quarrelled with our neighbours. She would throw stones at them or pull their hair. In our country, the women always go for the hair.
More than 6,000 "honour" crimes are committed every year - in the West Bank, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, India and Pakistan. In Pakistan the custom is an accepted part of national culture. In Jordan, a man who has killed his wife in a state of rage is entitled to the judge's clemency; the same law applies to a man who kills his wife simply because he suspects her of adultery. It is increasingly common for "disgraced" families to hire bounty hunters, so women who manage to escape to other countries are forced into hiding.
I have since met many of these women. One young girl has no legs: she was attacked by two men who tied her up and put her in the path of a train. Another girl's father and brother tried to murder her by stabbing her and throwing her into a dustbin. There is another whose mother and brothers threw her out of a window: she is paralysed.
I have never met any other burned women. As far as I know, none of them have survived.
# Edited from Burned Alive by Souad (Bantam), published on May 1. To order for £11.99 + £2.25 p&p, call Telegraph Books Direct on 0870 155 7222.
# Souad was rescued by the Swiss charity SURGIR (Arise). You can send donations to Banque cantonale vaudoise, 1001 Lausanne, account number U 5060.57.74 or to the address on the www.surgir.ch website.
# Email: office@surgir.ch
.
Islamic Wars
.
The early years---
Ridda wars
* Battle of Yamama 632
* Battle of Zafar 632
* Battle of Buzakha 632
* Battle of Ghamra 632
* Battle of Naqra 632
* Battle of Daumat-ul-jandal 633
Byzantine-Arab Wars
* Battle of Dathin - 634, 12 AH
* Battle of Qarteen 634
* Battle of Bosra 634
* Battle of Ajnadayn 634
* Battle of Marj-al-Rahit 634
* Battle of Fahl 634
* Siege of Damascus 634
* Battle of Yarmouk 636
* Siege of Jerusalem (637) 637
* Battle of Hazir 637
* Battle of Aleppo 637
* Battle of Iron bridge 637
* Battle of Heliopolis - 641, 20 AH
* Battle of Nikiou - 646, 25 AH
* Battle of That Al-Sawari - 655, 34 AH
Islamic Conquest of Persia
* Battle of Chains April 633
* Battle of River April 633
* Battle of Walaja May 633
* Battle of Ullais May 633
* Battle of Hira May 633
* Battle of Al-Anbar June-July 633
* Battle of ein-ul-tamr July 633
* Battle of Daumat-ul-jandal August 633
* Battle of Muzayyah November 633
* Battle of Saniyy November 633
* Battle of Zumail November 633
* Battle of Firaz January 634
* Battle of the Bridge - 634, 12 AH
* Battle of al-Q?disiyyah - 636, 14 AH
* Battle of Nihaw?nd - 642, 21 AH
First Islamic civil war
* Battle of Bassorah (Battle of the Camel) - 655, 34 AH
* Battle of Siffin - 657, 36 AH
* Battle of Nahrawan - 659, 37 AH
* Battle of Karbala - 680, 61 AH
Battles of the Umayyad Caliphate
* Ibn al-Zubair's revolt - 692
* Battle of the Zab Second Fitna- 750
Byzantine-Arab Wars
* Battle of Syllaeum - 677
* Battle of Carthage - 698
* Siege of Constantinople Second - 718
Khazar-Arab Wars
* 1st Balanjar - 640s
* 2nd Balanjar - 723
* Battle of Marj Ardabil - 730
* Battle of Mosul - 731
* 3rd Balanjar - 732
Moorish Invasion of the Iberian peninsula
* Battle of Guadalete - 711 CE (Tariq ibn-Ziyad)
* Battle of Toulouse - 721
* Battle of Covadonga - 722
Charles Martel
* Battle of Tours - 732
* Battle of Narbonne - 737
* Battle of Avignon - 737
* Battle of the River Berre - 737
* Battle of Nîmes - 737
The Dalai Lama calls Islam a religion of peace, but seems to be unfamiliar with almost 1,400 years of warfare being waged against those who don't want to live under Islam, the destruction of whole civilizations like the Byzantine Empire over a period of 825 years culminating with the taking of Constantinople and the three days of murder and looting which followed its capture on 29th May 1453, the conquest of Spain and Portugal from 711 - 718 and the start of the 773 years long Reconquista which resulted in the freeing of Spain on 2nd January 1492 - a date that rankles with Osama bin Laden, and the fact that the whole of Europe was one battle away from falling to the Jihad at Tours in 732.
Meanwhile, while this was happening, Persia, Afghanistan and Pakistan were overrun in the late 600s, likewise the Middle East and North Africa, and from 1000 to 1525, more than 70 million Hindus were massacred by the invading Muslims, and the massacres continued up to 1761.
And following the fall of Constantinople, Greece was conquered by the Ottomans by 1460, Hungary in 1526, Vienna was besieged in 1529 and unlike Constantinople it survived. And only 154 years after the first Siege of Vienna, the Turkenglocke was sounded again with Vienna under siege again, and on the date which according to Hilaire Belloc, ought to be amongst the most famous in history - 11th September 1683, Jan Sobieskis Winged Hussars triumphed and the Turks were defeated and driven back. And Islamic warfare against the infidel continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, encompassing the Greek Revolution in the 1820s through to wars against the new Jewish state of Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, and thanks to political correctness in the West, hostile Muslims have been given a blank cheque to wage war, knowing that if they come off worst, they'll be rescued by public opinion in countries that have forgotten the past and choose to ignore the future. And this after 3,000 innocents murdered by the sort of cold blooded killing automatons inculcated in the immutable texts of the Koran, Sira and hadith in the 911 atrocity, followed by almost 11,500 Islamic terror atrocities over the following seven years - atrocities that include London, Madrid, Mumbai, Beslan, Bali to name but a few. We saw Hizbollah terrorists kidnap and murder Israeli soldiers on Israeli soil in 2006, then when the Israelis took action, Western news media outlets were only too willing to accept Hizbollah forgeries and lies as facts, academia and politicians and all manner of stupid Leftists undermined the Israelis and showed their solidarity with the barbarous murdering heathens of Hizbollah. Evil really does side with evil.
On top of this, almost 1.5 million white Europeans were kidnapped on the seas and even from their own homes and churches, (Cornwall in 1625 and Baltimore, Ireland in 1631 spring to mind) by Muslim Barbary Pirates and sold into slavery between 1550 and around 1816, when only naval action finally stopped this white slave trade that few hear about through political correctness, where over 250 years of negotiations and paying tribute had previously failed. Let that experience be a lesson for future negotiations with the mad ayatollahs of Iran who today threaten the existence of Israel and promise to bring about a second nuclear Holocaust.
All in all, this 'peaceful religion' has presided over the slaughter of over 270 million infidels whose 'crime' was to refuse to accept the Koranic way of life - a death toll which mounts with every passing year, and we didn't keep our freedoms by negotiation in the past, but by sword, bow, musket and cannon and the brave men who used them.
We forget all of this at our peril.
(firecracker)
.
The early years---
Ridda wars
* Battle of Yamama 632
* Battle of Zafar 632
* Battle of Buzakha 632
* Battle of Ghamra 632
* Battle of Naqra 632
* Battle of Daumat-ul-jandal 633
Byzantine-Arab Wars
* Battle of Dathin - 634, 12 AH
* Battle of Qarteen 634
* Battle of Bosra 634
* Battle of Ajnadayn 634
* Battle of Marj-al-Rahit 634
* Battle of Fahl 634
* Siege of Damascus 634
* Battle of Yarmouk 636
* Siege of Jerusalem (637) 637
* Battle of Hazir 637
* Battle of Aleppo 637
* Battle of Iron bridge 637
* Battle of Heliopolis - 641, 20 AH
* Battle of Nikiou - 646, 25 AH
* Battle of That Al-Sawari - 655, 34 AH
Islamic Conquest of Persia
* Battle of Chains April 633
* Battle of River April 633
* Battle of Walaja May 633
* Battle of Ullais May 633
* Battle of Hira May 633
* Battle of Al-Anbar June-July 633
* Battle of ein-ul-tamr July 633
* Battle of Daumat-ul-jandal August 633
* Battle of Muzayyah November 633
* Battle of Saniyy November 633
* Battle of Zumail November 633
* Battle of Firaz January 634
* Battle of the Bridge - 634, 12 AH
* Battle of al-Q?disiyyah - 636, 14 AH
* Battle of Nihaw?nd - 642, 21 AH
First Islamic civil war
* Battle of Bassorah (Battle of the Camel) - 655, 34 AH
* Battle of Siffin - 657, 36 AH
* Battle of Nahrawan - 659, 37 AH
* Battle of Karbala - 680, 61 AH
Battles of the Umayyad Caliphate
* Ibn al-Zubair's revolt - 692
* Battle of the Zab Second Fitna- 750
Byzantine-Arab Wars
* Battle of Syllaeum - 677
* Battle of Carthage - 698
* Siege of Constantinople Second - 718
Khazar-Arab Wars
* 1st Balanjar - 640s
* 2nd Balanjar - 723
* Battle of Marj Ardabil - 730
* Battle of Mosul - 731
* 3rd Balanjar - 732
Moorish Invasion of the Iberian peninsula
* Battle of Guadalete - 711 CE (Tariq ibn-Ziyad)
* Battle of Toulouse - 721
* Battle of Covadonga - 722
Charles Martel
* Battle of Tours - 732
* Battle of Narbonne - 737
* Battle of Avignon - 737
* Battle of the River Berre - 737
* Battle of Nîmes - 737
The Dalai Lama calls Islam a religion of peace, but seems to be unfamiliar with almost 1,400 years of warfare being waged against those who don't want to live under Islam, the destruction of whole civilizations like the Byzantine Empire over a period of 825 years culminating with the taking of Constantinople and the three days of murder and looting which followed its capture on 29th May 1453, the conquest of Spain and Portugal from 711 - 718 and the start of the 773 years long Reconquista which resulted in the freeing of Spain on 2nd January 1492 - a date that rankles with Osama bin Laden, and the fact that the whole of Europe was one battle away from falling to the Jihad at Tours in 732.
Meanwhile, while this was happening, Persia, Afghanistan and Pakistan were overrun in the late 600s, likewise the Middle East and North Africa, and from 1000 to 1525, more than 70 million Hindus were massacred by the invading Muslims, and the massacres continued up to 1761.
And following the fall of Constantinople, Greece was conquered by the Ottomans by 1460, Hungary in 1526, Vienna was besieged in 1529 and unlike Constantinople it survived. And only 154 years after the first Siege of Vienna, the Turkenglocke was sounded again with Vienna under siege again, and on the date which according to Hilaire Belloc, ought to be amongst the most famous in history - 11th September 1683, Jan Sobieskis Winged Hussars triumphed and the Turks were defeated and driven back. And Islamic warfare against the infidel continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, encompassing the Greek Revolution in the 1820s through to wars against the new Jewish state of Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, and thanks to political correctness in the West, hostile Muslims have been given a blank cheque to wage war, knowing that if they come off worst, they'll be rescued by public opinion in countries that have forgotten the past and choose to ignore the future. And this after 3,000 innocents murdered by the sort of cold blooded killing automatons inculcated in the immutable texts of the Koran, Sira and hadith in the 911 atrocity, followed by almost 11,500 Islamic terror atrocities over the following seven years - atrocities that include London, Madrid, Mumbai, Beslan, Bali to name but a few. We saw Hizbollah terrorists kidnap and murder Israeli soldiers on Israeli soil in 2006, then when the Israelis took action, Western news media outlets were only too willing to accept Hizbollah forgeries and lies as facts, academia and politicians and all manner of stupid Leftists undermined the Israelis and showed their solidarity with the barbarous murdering heathens of Hizbollah. Evil really does side with evil.
On top of this, almost 1.5 million white Europeans were kidnapped on the seas and even from their own homes and churches, (Cornwall in 1625 and Baltimore, Ireland in 1631 spring to mind) by Muslim Barbary Pirates and sold into slavery between 1550 and around 1816, when only naval action finally stopped this white slave trade that few hear about through political correctness, where over 250 years of negotiations and paying tribute had previously failed. Let that experience be a lesson for future negotiations with the mad ayatollahs of Iran who today threaten the existence of Israel and promise to bring about a second nuclear Holocaust.
All in all, this 'peaceful religion' has presided over the slaughter of over 270 million infidels whose 'crime' was to refuse to accept the Koranic way of life - a death toll which mounts with every passing year, and we didn't keep our freedoms by negotiation in the past, but by sword, bow, musket and cannon and the brave men who used them.
We forget all of this at our peril.
(firecracker)
.
Monday 14 July 2008
Mithraism
.
Mithraism, cult of Mithra, or Mithras, an anct. Aryan god of light, whom the Zoroastrians conceived of as a champion of Ahura-Mazda in his eternal conflict with Ahriman, the prince of evil. M. was therefore a spurious development of Mazdaism (see ZOROASTBIANISM) which latter spread over most of Asia Minor, but through Gk. influences, the only part of the creed which was embraced by the people was the worship of Mithra, really a subordinate, if attractive, Zoroastrian spirit, yet chosen as an absolutely supreme god.
Mithra was early identified with the sun-god, and as such was the centre of a cult which, according to Plutarch, was introduced to Rome by Pompey's pirate-captives from Cilicia in 68 B.C. The monuments of this worship have been found wherever the Rom. legions went in Britain, thus showing how readily one religion supplants another which has not adapted itself to the developing needs of any race. On the monuments of his cult Mithra is represented as a beautiful youth driving a sword into the neck of a prostrate bull which latter at the same time is being devoured by a scorpion, a crab, and a dog; but no convincing solution has been offered to explain this symbolic representation, which was no doubt part of an elaborate dogmatic system.
M. was also an ethical system and what is extant of its ritual suggests the existence of an organized hierarchy and a worship assimilated to the Gk. mysteries. M. finally ceased to exist in the fourth century, when it was superseded by Christianity.
In the struggle of Paganism with Christianity, however, M. exercised a powerful attraction, being a pure and elevated religion, and though at first a form of sun-worship, it became modified by syncretism. Its most striking ceremony was the blood-baptism called Taurobolium.
Also see
See F. Oumont, Textes et monuments figures relatives aux mysteres de Mithre, 1896-99; and A. Schutze, Mithramysterien und Ur- christentum, 1937.
From Everyman Encylopeidia.
Mithraism, cult of Mithra, or Mithras, an anct. Aryan god of light, whom the Zoroastrians conceived of as a champion of Ahura-Mazda in his eternal conflict with Ahriman, the prince of evil. M. was therefore a spurious development of Mazdaism (see ZOROASTBIANISM) which latter spread over most of Asia Minor, but through Gk. influences, the only part of the creed which was embraced by the people was the worship of Mithra, really a subordinate, if attractive, Zoroastrian spirit, yet chosen as an absolutely supreme god.
Mithra was early identified with the sun-god, and as such was the centre of a cult which, according to Plutarch, was introduced to Rome by Pompey's pirate-captives from Cilicia in 68 B.C. The monuments of this worship have been found wherever the Rom. legions went in Britain, thus showing how readily one religion supplants another which has not adapted itself to the developing needs of any race. On the monuments of his cult Mithra is represented as a beautiful youth driving a sword into the neck of a prostrate bull which latter at the same time is being devoured by a scorpion, a crab, and a dog; but no convincing solution has been offered to explain this symbolic representation, which was no doubt part of an elaborate dogmatic system.
M. was also an ethical system and what is extant of its ritual suggests the existence of an organized hierarchy and a worship assimilated to the Gk. mysteries. M. finally ceased to exist in the fourth century, when it was superseded by Christianity.
In the struggle of Paganism with Christianity, however, M. exercised a powerful attraction, being a pure and elevated religion, and though at first a form of sun-worship, it became modified by syncretism. Its most striking ceremony was the blood-baptism called Taurobolium.
Also see
See F. Oumont, Textes et monuments figures relatives aux mysteres de Mithre, 1896-99; and A. Schutze, Mithramysterien und Ur- christentum, 1937.
From Everyman Encylopeidia.
Mithra also spelled Mithras, Sanskrit Mitra, in ancient Indo-Iranian mythology, the god of light, whose cult spread from
According to myth, Mithra was born, bearing a torch and armed with a knife, beside a sacred stream and under a sacred tree, a child of the earth itself. He soon rode, and later killed, the life-giving cosmic bull, whose blood fertilizes all vegetation. Mithra's slaying of the bull was a popular subject of Hellenic art and became the prototype for a bull-slaying ritual of fertility in the Mithraic cult.
As god of light, Mithra was associated with the Greek sun god, Helios, and the Roman Sol Invictus. He is often paired with Anahita, goddess of the fertilizing waters.
the worship of Mithra, the Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war in pre-Zoroastrian
Britannica
Zoroastrianism
.
Zoroastrianism the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism. Zoroastrianism the religion of the Persians was introduced by Zoroaster or Zarathushtra, who probably lived about 800 B.C. He was either a Mede or a Bactrian, and was evidently a man of extraordinary personality. He commenced teaching at the age of thirty, after many years spent in contemplation, and died at the age of seventy-seven. The religion he founded was the national religion of the Persians from about 550 B.C. to the middle of the seventh century A.D. At this time Persia was invaded by the Mohammedans, and the faithful followers of Zoroaster fled to India, and are now represented by the Parsis (q.v.).
In the anct. Gothic period Zoroastrianism was a monotheistic religion based on a philosophy of Dualism of good and evil spirits. The supreme Lord of the whole Universe was called by Zoroaster Ahuramazda, and the two spirits—spento-mainyush (good) and angro-mainyush (evil)—were merely tools in the hands of the Highest to work out His grand plan of the universe. Zoroastrianism was a practical, ethical doctrine inculcating active charity, kindness to animals, and moral conduct generally. The central feature of Zoroastrian ritual was fire worship, as with the Parsis, together with elaborate methods of preventing defilement. Each man, according to Zoroastrianism had a free will, conscience, and a soul, and a guardian spirit or prototype of himself who dwelt above, and was called a fravashi—being really his own character put into a spiritual body. Having the choice of good and evil, man naturally has to suffer the punishment of sin.
See M. N. Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilisation, 1922; J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, 1927; -A. V. W. Jackson, Zoroastrian Studies, 1928; J. D. C. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of Future Life, 1929; A. S. Wadia. The Message of Zoroaster, 1938.
************************************************** *******************
Zoroastrianism, as has been said was the religion of the Persians. One of the rulers over the Medes and Persions was King Darius about whom we read in the book of Danial in the Old Testament. He was the one who threw threw Daniel into the lions den. Daniel, who worshiped the same God as Jews and Christians came out of the ordeal unscathed causing King Darius to acknowledge the God of Daniel was the living and eternal God over and above all other gods including his own.
Danial chapter 6.
Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of the lions. And the king said to Daniel: Thy God, whom thou always servest, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den: which the king sealed with his own ring, and with the ring of his nobles, that nothing should be done against Daniel. And the king went away to his house, and laid himself down without taking supper, and meat was not set before him, and even sleep departed from him. Then the king rising very early in the morning went in haste to the lions' den: and coming near to the den, cried with a lamentable voice to Daniel, and said to him: Daniel, servant of the living God, hath thy God, whom thou servest always, been able, thinkest thou, to deliver thee from the lions? And Daniel answering the king, said: O king, live for ever: My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut up the mouths of the lions, and they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him justice hath been found in me: yea, and before thee, O king, I have done no offence.
Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and he commanded that Daniel should be taken out of the den: and Daniel was taken out of the den, and no hurt was found in him, because he believed in his God.
And by the king's commandment, those men were brought that had accused Daniel: and they were cast into the lions' den, they and their children, and their wives: and they did not reach the bottom of the den, before the lions caught them, and broke all their bones in pieces. Then king Darius wrote to all people, tribes, and languages, dwelling in the whole earth: “PEACE be multiplied unto you. It is decreed by me, that in all my empire and my kingdom, all men dread and fear the God of Daniel. For he is the living and eternal God for ever: and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his power shall be for ever. He is the deliverer, and saviour, doing signs and wonders in heaven, and in earth: who hath delivered Daniel out of the lions' den.”
Zoroastrianism worships Ahura Mazda and his Holy Forces, the Ameshaspands and Yazatas (concept), and these include the elements created by God such as the Holy Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and so on. This is not the God of the Jews or Christians.
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Zoroastrianism the ancient pre-Islamic religion of Iran that survives there in isolated areas and, more prosperously, in India, where the descendants of Zoroastrian Iranian (Persian) immigrants are known as Parsis, or Parsees. In India the religion is called Parsiism. Zoroastrianism the religion of the Persians was introduced by Zoroaster or Zarathushtra, who probably lived about 800 B.C. He was either a Mede or a Bactrian, and was evidently a man of extraordinary personality. He commenced teaching at the age of thirty, after many years spent in contemplation, and died at the age of seventy-seven. The religion he founded was the national religion of the Persians from about 550 B.C. to the middle of the seventh century A.D. At this time Persia was invaded by the Mohammedans, and the faithful followers of Zoroaster fled to India, and are now represented by the Parsis (q.v.).
In the anct. Gothic period Zoroastrianism was a monotheistic religion based on a philosophy of Dualism of good and evil spirits. The supreme Lord of the whole Universe was called by Zoroaster Ahuramazda, and the two spirits—spento-mainyush (good) and angro-mainyush (evil)—were merely tools in the hands of the Highest to work out His grand plan of the universe. Zoroastrianism was a practical, ethical doctrine inculcating active charity, kindness to animals, and moral conduct generally. The central feature of Zoroastrian ritual was fire worship, as with the Parsis, together with elaborate methods of preventing defilement. Each man, according to Zoroastrianism had a free will, conscience, and a soul, and a guardian spirit or prototype of himself who dwelt above, and was called a fravashi—being really his own character put into a spiritual body. Having the choice of good and evil, man naturally has to suffer the punishment of sin.
See M. N. Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilisation, 1922; J. H. Moulton, Early Zoroastrianism, 1927; -A. V. W. Jackson, Zoroastrian Studies, 1928; J. D. C. Pavry, Zoroastrian Doctrine of Future Life, 1929; A. S. Wadia. The Message of Zoroaster, 1938.
************************************************** *******************
Zoroastrianism, as has been said was the religion of the Persians. One of the rulers over the Medes and Persions was King Darius about whom we read in the book of Danial in the Old Testament. He was the one who threw threw Daniel into the lions den. Daniel, who worshiped the same God as Jews and Christians came out of the ordeal unscathed causing King Darius to acknowledge the God of Daniel was the living and eternal God over and above all other gods including his own.
Danial chapter 6.
Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of the lions. And the king said to Daniel: Thy God, whom thou always servest, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den: which the king sealed with his own ring, and with the ring of his nobles, that nothing should be done against Daniel. And the king went away to his house, and laid himself down without taking supper, and meat was not set before him, and even sleep departed from him. Then the king rising very early in the morning went in haste to the lions' den: and coming near to the den, cried with a lamentable voice to Daniel, and said to him: Daniel, servant of the living God, hath thy God, whom thou servest always, been able, thinkest thou, to deliver thee from the lions? And Daniel answering the king, said: O king, live for ever: My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut up the mouths of the lions, and they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him justice hath been found in me: yea, and before thee, O king, I have done no offence.
Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and he commanded that Daniel should be taken out of the den: and Daniel was taken out of the den, and no hurt was found in him, because he believed in his God.
And by the king's commandment, those men were brought that had accused Daniel: and they were cast into the lions' den, they and their children, and their wives: and they did not reach the bottom of the den, before the lions caught them, and broke all their bones in pieces. Then king Darius wrote to all people, tribes, and languages, dwelling in the whole earth: “PEACE be multiplied unto you. It is decreed by me, that in all my empire and my kingdom, all men dread and fear the God of Daniel. For he is the living and eternal God for ever: and his kingdom shall not be destroyed, and his power shall be for ever. He is the deliverer, and saviour, doing signs and wonders in heaven, and in earth: who hath delivered Daniel out of the lions' den.”
Zoroastrianism worships Ahura Mazda and his Holy Forces, the Ameshaspands and Yazatas (concept), and these include the elements created by God such as the Holy Fire, Wind, Water, Earth, and so on. This is not the God of the Jews or Christians.
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Creationism
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DaveScot
Uncommon Descent member AussieID brought up the point in my previous article that belief in God tends to fall off with increasing IQ. I countered with the point that the very highest IQs tend to come back around, not full circle to a belief in a personal God (such as the God of Abraham), but to a belief in a designed universe which is more or less categorized as “deism”. I offered examples of famous high IQ deists such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, and even Antony Flew.
Curious, and uncertain how strong the correlation is between high genius and deism, I googled around a bit and stumbled upon Christopher Michael Langan who has been billed by the media, including 20/20, as the smartest man in America with a measured IQ of 195. His life is both surprising and fascinating in many ways.
However, the biggest surprise of all was that Mr. Langan is an IDist!
Langan is a fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (ISCID), a professional society which promotes intelligent design, and has published a paper on his CTMU in the society’s online journal Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design in 2002. Later that year, he presented a lecture on his CTMU at ISCID’s Research and Progress in Intelligent Design (RAPID) conference. In 2004, Langan contributed a chapter to Uncommon Dissent, a collection of essays that question evolution and promote intelligent design, edited by ISCID cofounder and leading intelligent design proponent William Dembski.
Asked about creationism, Langan has said:
“I believe in the theory of evolution, but I believe as well in the allegorical truth of creation theory. In other words, I believe that evolution, including the principle of natural selection, is one of the tools used by God to create mankind. Mankind is then a participant in the creation of the universe itself, so that we have a closed loop. I believe that there is a level on which science and religious metaphor are mutually compatible.”
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DaveScot
Uncommon Descent member AussieID brought up the point in my previous article that belief in God tends to fall off with increasing IQ. I countered with the point that the very highest IQs tend to come back around, not full circle to a belief in a personal God (such as the God of Abraham), but to a belief in a designed universe which is more or less categorized as “deism”. I offered examples of famous high IQ deists such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, and even Antony Flew.
Curious, and uncertain how strong the correlation is between high genius and deism, I googled around a bit and stumbled upon Christopher Michael Langan who has been billed by the media, including 20/20, as the smartest man in America with a measured IQ of 195. His life is both surprising and fascinating in many ways.
However, the biggest surprise of all was that Mr. Langan is an IDist!
Langan is a fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design (ISCID), a professional society which promotes intelligent design, and has published a paper on his CTMU in the society’s online journal Progress in Complexity, Information, and Design in 2002. Later that year, he presented a lecture on his CTMU at ISCID’s Research and Progress in Intelligent Design (RAPID) conference. In 2004, Langan contributed a chapter to Uncommon Dissent, a collection of essays that question evolution and promote intelligent design, edited by ISCID cofounder and leading intelligent design proponent William Dembski.
Asked about creationism, Langan has said:
“I believe in the theory of evolution, but I believe as well in the allegorical truth of creation theory. In other words, I believe that evolution, including the principle of natural selection, is one of the tools used by God to create mankind. Mankind is then a participant in the creation of the universe itself, so that we have a closed loop. I believe that there is a level on which science and religious metaphor are mutually compatible.”
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Animals in Islam
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The bee is a Muslim precisely because it lives and dies obeying the "shariah."
Dogs are unclean and black dogs are evil.
Hyenas, bats, geckos, snakes, and other reptiles as well as insects are considered to represent ugliness, danger, viciousness, and power.
Bats are praised as a miracle of nature.
Geckos according to Sunni tradition were ordered to be killed. Muhammad called them 'little noxious creatures'.
In both Sunni and Shi'a accounts, Muhammad is said to have conversed nonchalantly with camels, birds and other species. In one account, a camel is said to have come to Muhammad and complained that despite service to his owner, the animal was about to be killed. Muhammad summoned the owner and ordered the man to spare the camel.
There are also accounts in Surah an-Naml in the Qur'an of Sulaiman talking to ants [Qur'an 27:18] and birds [Qur'an 27:20], and the Twelver and Ismaili Shi'a Imams declared that they could communicate with anything that had a soul.
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The bee is a Muslim precisely because it lives and dies obeying the "shariah."
Dogs are unclean and black dogs are evil.
Hyenas, bats, geckos, snakes, and other reptiles as well as insects are considered to represent ugliness, danger, viciousness, and power.
Bats are praised as a miracle of nature.
Geckos according to Sunni tradition were ordered to be killed. Muhammad called them 'little noxious creatures'.
In both Sunni and Shi'a accounts, Muhammad is said to have conversed nonchalantly with camels, birds and other species. In one account, a camel is said to have come to Muhammad and complained that despite service to his owner, the animal was about to be killed. Muhammad summoned the owner and ordered the man to spare the camel.
There are also accounts in Surah an-Naml in the Qur'an of Sulaiman talking to ants [Qur'an 27:18] and birds [Qur'an 27:20], and the Twelver and Ismaili Shi'a Imams declared that they could communicate with anything that had a soul.
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Sunday 13 July 2008
Judging People
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Here are some verses about judging people, or perhaps more correctly NOT judging them as it is not our place to act in judgement over others, rather we should try to live a holy, righteous, and honourable life ourselves and to have a care for other people, love them, help them, and be kind to them, imo.
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
Matthew 7:1
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"But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
Luke 6:35
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"Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way."
Romans 14:13
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"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."
Hebrewa 13:4
*************************************************
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law,"
James 4:10
*************************************************
"Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door."
James 5:9
.
Here are some verses about judging people, or perhaps more correctly NOT judging them as it is not our place to act in judgement over others, rather we should try to live a holy, righteous, and honourable life ourselves and to have a care for other people, love them, help them, and be kind to them, imo.
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."
Matthew 7:1
*************************************************
"But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
Luke 6:35
*************************************************
"Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way."
Romans 14:13
*************************************************
"Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."
Hebrewa 13:4
*************************************************
"Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law,"
James 4:10
*************************************************
"Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door."
James 5:9
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Fornication
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Christians make a lot of mistakes and I have made a fair few in my time. I am guessing here but their concern may be with regard to fornication which is a sin in the Bible. Now if you look at this Wikepiedia page it says that fornication is a euphemism for prostitution so your mum is safe there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornication
Then I looked up the Greek and I found that fornication means to be a harlot (prostitute) and includes adultery, incest and idolatry. Seeing none of those things are happening I can't see where your mum is doing anything wrong.
G4202
πορνεία
porneia
por-ni'-ah
From G4203; harlotry meaning prostitution, adultery, incest and idolatry. Isia.1.
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Christians make a lot of mistakes and I have made a fair few in my time. I am guessing here but their concern may be with regard to fornication which is a sin in the Bible. Now if you look at this Wikepiedia page it says that fornication is a euphemism for prostitution so your mum is safe there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornication
Then I looked up the Greek and I found that fornication means to be a harlot (prostitute) and includes adultery, incest and idolatry. Seeing none of those things are happening I can't see where your mum is doing anything wrong.
G4202
πορνεία
porneia
por-ni'-ah
From G4203; harlotry meaning prostitution, adultery, incest and idolatry. Isia.1.
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Made in the Image of God
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Being made in the image of God makes us unique and our relationship with Him is obviously a special one. Humankind appears to have taken a singular place in the order of things and in some important way being in God’s image has given us an inborn sacred dignity.
Like the creator God, being in His image means we also are in control of His environment. Being in His image means we are often outraged when we see violations of God’s will in the treatment of living things, whether they be plant (tropical rain-forests) animal, or human and as His representatives here on earth we are duty bound to care for and to rule over his creation in a manner that is pleasing to him.
Being in God’s image means we should reflect the good graces that are included in God’s character like love, goodness and kindness. However man has fallen and has turned everyone to their own way and in the process have become less God like. However Christ was also made in the image of God and he is the way, the truth and the life. Following Him will bring us back again to God so that we can be more like Him and once again be in His image.
(Read Ephesians chapter 4.)
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Being made in the image of God makes us unique and our relationship with Him is obviously a special one. Humankind appears to have taken a singular place in the order of things and in some important way being in God’s image has given us an inborn sacred dignity.
Like the creator God, being in His image means we also are in control of His environment. Being in His image means we are often outraged when we see violations of God’s will in the treatment of living things, whether they be plant (tropical rain-forests) animal, or human and as His representatives here on earth we are duty bound to care for and to rule over his creation in a manner that is pleasing to him.
Being in God’s image means we should reflect the good graces that are included in God’s character like love, goodness and kindness. However man has fallen and has turned everyone to their own way and in the process have become less God like. However Christ was also made in the image of God and he is the way, the truth and the life. Following Him will bring us back again to God so that we can be more like Him and once again be in His image.
(Read Ephesians chapter 4.)
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Why Teach Christianity?
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The first point to remember is that until the advent of science which is only recent nothing could be explained scientifically, but it was all there none-the-less and it wasn't until the microscope that the marvels of nature were revealed and that was only the first layer. Recently we have learned about "multiverse" and I feel there is much more still to be learned?
I think the important thing with children and everyone is to keep an open mind and you will find that Christianity 'hangs together' and provides answers about human nature that science cannot and philosophy can only attempt.
Genesis and modern science are answering different questions. Genesis explains who God is and how he relates to the created world. Science elucidates the God-given laws that explain natural phenomena; and from these laws scientists can work backwards to trace the course of the universe's development. Science makes us aware of the infinite power and wisdom of the Creator, but it cannot explain God's purpose in creating the universe, or his character. Genesis is not dealing with the issues raised by twentieth-century science but with ideas current in the ancient orient over 3000 years ago.
Over against the polytheistic world-view that held there were many gods and goddesses of varying wisdom and power, Genesis declares there is but one God of absolute power and holiness. Rejecting the ancient view that mankind was simply created as an afterthought which the gods later regretted; Genesis affirms that man was the goal of creation and that his welfare is God's supreme concern. These principles are reaffirmed repeatedly throughout Scripture, but they are set out with exemplary clarity in Genesis 1 and are central to what the author was trying to say. Modern readers should concentrate on these original intentions of Genesis and not bring to the text scientific issues which are foreign to its purpose.
As I see it we have various subjects like science and the arts, maths, literature etc that are all complimentary and Christianity sits alongside these and I feel it needs to be taught if only so that some of the errors can be got rid of, but more importantly it adds another dimension to our lives and helps us become more rounded people imo, and more understanding as well.
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The first point to remember is that until the advent of science which is only recent nothing could be explained scientifically, but it was all there none-the-less and it wasn't until the microscope that the marvels of nature were revealed and that was only the first layer. Recently we have learned about "multiverse" and I feel there is much more still to be learned?
I think the important thing with children and everyone is to keep an open mind and you will find that Christianity 'hangs together' and provides answers about human nature that science cannot and philosophy can only attempt.
Genesis and modern science are answering different questions. Genesis explains who God is and how he relates to the created world. Science elucidates the God-given laws that explain natural phenomena; and from these laws scientists can work backwards to trace the course of the universe's development. Science makes us aware of the infinite power and wisdom of the Creator, but it cannot explain God's purpose in creating the universe, or his character. Genesis is not dealing with the issues raised by twentieth-century science but with ideas current in the ancient orient over 3000 years ago.
Over against the polytheistic world-view that held there were many gods and goddesses of varying wisdom and power, Genesis declares there is but one God of absolute power and holiness. Rejecting the ancient view that mankind was simply created as an afterthought which the gods later regretted; Genesis affirms that man was the goal of creation and that his welfare is God's supreme concern. These principles are reaffirmed repeatedly throughout Scripture, but they are set out with exemplary clarity in Genesis 1 and are central to what the author was trying to say. Modern readers should concentrate on these original intentions of Genesis and not bring to the text scientific issues which are foreign to its purpose.
As I see it we have various subjects like science and the arts, maths, literature etc that are all complimentary and Christianity sits alongside these and I feel it needs to be taught if only so that some of the errors can be got rid of, but more importantly it adds another dimension to our lives and helps us become more rounded people imo, and more understanding as well.
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Sunday 6 July 2008
Capitol Punishment
Question - Is there anything in Deuteronomy that says you should stone your child if he strays from the faith? Someone said it’s in there, but I think I would remember something like that! I can’t find it. Thanks in advance
Yes, the scriptures is as follows…
Deu 21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Capitol punishment was by stoning to death in Biblical times. We have no recorded incidents of this ever happening. But it was the Law of the Lord and its effect was to bring the fear of the Lord into the heart of young men with a rebellious heart, stubborn, a glutton and a drunkard – it has nothing to do with ‘straying from the faith’.
It’s interesting to me that those who believe that the Law of Moses is still in force today forget passages like this. The Law of Moses was done away by the death of Christ.
Steve
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Yes, the scriptures is as follows…
Deu 21:18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Capitol punishment was by stoning to death in Biblical times. We have no recorded incidents of this ever happening. But it was the Law of the Lord and its effect was to bring the fear of the Lord into the heart of young men with a rebellious heart, stubborn, a glutton and a drunkard – it has nothing to do with ‘straying from the faith’.
It’s interesting to me that those who believe that the Law of Moses is still in force today forget passages like this. The Law of Moses was done away by the death of Christ.
Steve
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