THE SIN QUESTION (1st Part)
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That which has cast man into his present existence of social putrefaction, and characterized by a perfidious proclivity towards the Creator, and which has always been fanned by the mendacity of the philosophy of the cosmos (championed by Godless philosophers) is the innocuous looking and sounding three-lettered ‘sin’.
Our erstwhile rectitude before God (when He used to perform a daily, “walking {towards us} in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8) has suffered such an unbelievable disintegration that has warped the very reasoning faculty of man. The gerund, ‘walking’, in the Hebrew, halak (haw-lak’): means figuratively, ‘life style’. Our sinless nature, at creationism, enabled fellowship with the LORD God. The Hebrew has ‘leruach haiyom’, i.e. ‘in the evening breeze’. God saw it fit to be with them everyday, probably at 6 p.m. (6 being the number of man).
It is the bane of the corruption constantly bedeviling man: sin. The Bible does not just unravel its genesis (and its constant gnawing effect) by way of information both to the repentant one and the stiff-necked, but it proffers an eternal relief from this bane.
The earliest allusion to it, by God (the Judge of it), is found in Genesis 2:17, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. In the twenty-fifth verse, “And they were both naked {the Hebrew word is: ‛arom (aw-rome’) BDB Definition: (naked, bare}, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed {bush (boosh) BDB Definition: ‘to put to shame, be ashamed, be disconcerted, be disappointed’}”; is an evidence of man’s inculpability seen. Verse seventeen is a warning of what will befall them ‘if’ they should enter into a spiritual aberrational act. A thousand earthly years is as of a heavenly day (2Peter 3:8), and because the pristine couple did taste of a spiritual evil before their thousandth earthly year, none, from Adam to the present age, has ever clocked 1,000 years. Sin, the harbinger of death, Romans 5:12. Sin, unresolved, leads to hell! What, therefore, do religious beliefs teach as the solution to the sin question?
Egypt, just like several African people, believes in life afterlife and makes preparations especially for her Pharaohs’ journey beyond. My own mother had a disturbing dream concerning her dead mother. The deceased was lacking so many things like clothing and food. A consultation with Ifa oracle revealed that those things were making her after life journey impossible. Solution? My mother had to perform sacrifices, using those needs of her dead mother as the sacrificial elements so that she would be able to make it to the paradise of heaven. The father of Ifa oracle is Orunmila, which means ‘heaven knows who will succeed’: adherents are in total darkness as far as the glory of heavenly bliss is concerned.
Adherents of Pure Land Buddhism, for example, rely upon the vow of Amitabha Buddha to bring to Sukhavati (the Pure Land, or Western Paradise) all who sincerely call upon his name. What rituals and elementals are involved in this religion of Buddha: for we know how diabolic in nature some sacrifices are? While belief in a heavenly afterlife became widespread in the Hellenistic Age (323–30 BCE), no single model predominated, but rather a profusion of images and schemes, including resurrection of the dead, immortality of the soul, and transformation into an angel or star. An incoherent form of belief breeds confusion (1Corinthians 14:33) and, moreover, becoming a star turns a soulish person into an inanimate being.
On the Day of Judgment, according to Islam heaven will be split asunder, the mountains will crumble to dust, the earth will give up its dead, and each person will undergo a final test. The righteous, with faces beaming, will pass the test easily, passing through hell with ease. . I have three verses from the Qur’an. Chapter 9:86, “And when a surah is revealed (which saith): Believe in Allah and strive along with His messenger, the men of wealth among them still ask leave of thee and say: Suffer us to be with those who sit (at home)”. What Mohammad taught here is that no matter how huge your financial contribution towards a military campaign is, if you decide not to take the sword, and partake, physically in a jihad (religious war) you will have yourself to blame in aljana (paradise of heaven). From Al–Anbiya i.e. 21:108, “Say: It is only inspired in me that your Allah is One Allah. Will ye then surrender (unto Him)?” Verse 109, “But if they are averse, then say: I have warned you all alike, although I know not whether nigh or far is that which ye are promised”. The second statement or rather, question, of the 108th verse is what jihadists ask any who does not believe in Islam while the 109th is the warning of an impending death.
Islam does not, from these sound like a peaceful spiritual venture. Al-Fath is chapter 48, and verses 16-17 read, “Say unto those of the wandering Arabs who were left behind: Ye will be called against a folk of mighty prowess, to fight them until they surrender; and if ye obey, Allah will give you a fair reward; but if ye turn away as ye did turn away before, He will punish you with a painful doom.” The 17th, “There is no blame for the blind, nor is there blame for the lame, nor is there blame for the sick (that they go not forth to war). And whoso obeyeth Allah and His messenger, He will make him enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow; and whoso turneth back, him will He punish with a painful doom”.
The Qur’an is said to be the Last Testament, meaning that what it says is binding on all beings; it is God’s last religious commandment. Mohammad calls himself the last Prophet/Messenger of God in Qur’an 33:40. In the 37th verse God told him to prophesy the amorous feeling that HE, God, had put into his (Mohammed) heart towards Zainab, his own daughter-in-law, she being Zaid’s (his adopted son) wife, hence, a speedy divorce was arranged to add Zainab to the harem of Allah’s prophet. This prophet of Islam must be something big to be consulted in God’s decisions (Qur’an 33:36). If it teaches so much Islamic jihad killings and the Bible (75% of which makes the Qur’an) teaches reconciliation, where is the truth? We should not be shocked to read of dastard massacres of Al-Qaida, ISIS and Boko Haram (for they are the true, God fearing, Muslims). (to be continued)
click here to read the 2nd Part
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