We do not worship the same God

Dear Bro Rashid,

Thanks for your response although you got mixed up a bit.I responded to all your posting one by one. I never left any issue you raised unanswered. Please let me make myself clear here. Rashid when I read your posts, I read everything critically and with an open mind. First our bone of contention ( not a quarrel or a disagreement but a debate) was whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God and Whether the Jesus of Islam is the same Jesus of the Bible. My posit on these two issues was that Muslims worship the God of the Quran who does not appear anywhere in the Bible and the Jesus of Islam, is a Jesus who escaped death and instead an individual was crucified in his place. Rashid these issues must be looked at from these two points of view or else we shall circumlocute and our efforts will be futile. 

I never ignored any issue you raised if I did so please remind me. I also gave you a link to my blog so please any issue that I may have left out is in my blog. I do not like talking about my academic background. I do no know why you could not tell from writing that I am not just a joy rider. I am a Christian by conviction first, a theologian, and an educator. Surely Rashid you can not refer me to any scholar because what I talk about, I quote directly from the bible, you have not responded to a single of those quotes neither have you refuted their claim. In my responses to your postings I have never quoted from any Bible commentary.

Why do you tell me to check with an A level graduate? Sincerely, do you feel that I come out as one who is so ignorant of what I am talking about just because I do want agree with what you are saying? I have not doubted your understanding of the Quran and the Islamic religion, why do you doubt mine? For the sake of may be making you know me I will give you my educational background. I went to school in Eldoret, From standard one in 1971 -1978 when I did my C.P.E Joined High School and sat for A-levels in 1989 scored three principles. CRE was one of the Subjects I studied. I am a candidate of a PhD in Educational Leadership Curriculum and Instruction, a holder of an earned Master of Education degree (M.ED) Assumption University, a Master of Philosophy (MPhil.) Moi University, Post Graduate Diploma in Education (P.G.D.E) Maseno University, and Bachelor of Theology(Bth) from Scott Theological College. So when we debate please know that I am an a scholar in my own right.

 

Now matters concerning the Roman Catholic Church, it is me to tell you what the term catholic means and not you. You said in your posting that it is Paul who founded the Roman Catholic Church or the Catholic Church is based on the theology and teachings of Paul. I told that this was not so because the Origin of the Christian Church in Rome as the Capital of the Roman Empire, was not founded by any Apostle of the twelve. I have a whole paper on this topic. When you say that Pauline theology is the basis of the Catholic Church I told you that that was a fallacy because you speaking from what you were 'mistaught' by whoever. You never had any tangible evidence from the Bible to claim this assertion. You never gave any reference from any Catholic Author supporting your allegation.

Now I will delve in the issues you raised but pointing out at the onset that all you sadi here below is hearsay because it is not scholarly. No evidence and everything is cut and paste from Christian haters. 

Is there any connection between the Jesus and the Church today, if you remove St. Paul from the equation?

If you remove St. Paul and his teachings on the “risen Christ”, then the Christian Church will have no legs to stand on. Why?:

Rashid this is not a rhetorical Question as you called it, a rhetorical question is a question that is asked in order to make a statement and which does not expect an answer. Your question demands an answer. And the answer is, yes there is a great connection between Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and the Christian Church because Jesus Christ Himself said John 17

¹³ “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by^[d] the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

    ²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

   ²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

   ²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you^[e] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

The above quote from the Gospel of John who was the youngest disciple of Jesus, is Jesus' prayer for the believers the world over. And in Mathew 28 Jesus Sends them to the entire world starting from Jerusalem to Judea and to the end of the world.This is a connection between Jesus Of the Bible and the Christians.

You said,

     Jesus himself claimed he was sent unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (and not to the Gentiles);

When Jesus said this He was referring to his role as the Mesiah. His duty was to prepare Apostles to reach the lost sheep of Israel. After the Israelites, the next phase of His mission was to the Gentiles and this He did through Peter first who preached to Cornelius and later through Paul. Paul is the Apostle to the Gentile I gave a whole passage From Acts 13 detailing to you that the Gentile Church which is not required to follow the Jewish religion was launched. The person given this mandate was Paul. The reason you Muslims do not find peace with Paul's writings is because He is the only apostle who has written much of what we call the New Testament. I have never tried to detach myself from Paul because he says Romans 15

 ⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. ⁸For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews^[b] on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed ⁹ and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

   “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
   I will sing the praises of your name.”^[c]

 ¹⁰ Again, it says,

   “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”^[d]

 ¹¹ And again,

   “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
   let all the peoples extol him.”^[e]

 ¹² And again, Isaiah says,

   “The Root of Jesse will spring up,
   one who will arise to rule over the nations;
   in him the Gentiles will hope.”^[f]

 ¹³ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

 ¹⁴ I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. ¹⁵ Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me ¹⁶ to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

All that Paul is saying here is as He quotes from the First Testament as he knew it. There is no single Christian who can deny that Paul. We believe in all he said and wrote. What he wrote he received from God and if you do not believe that Paul was an Apostle God then please just keep to your faith and let us Christian hold on to what we know and believe. In the first place, you claim that the Four gopels were written by eye witnesses and the bible being full of mistakes yet you stick to the verses that say Jesus came only for the Jews. Why can you let us interpret for you what we understand by what Paul says? 

Lastly on this issue of Connection between Jesus and The Church now, I would like to draw  your attention to the fact that the bible says what it says and it never contradicts itself. This I say because you do not know why Jesus chose 12 disciples, 72 apostles and send them to the lost sheep of Israel. There were 12 tribes and gentiles are not part of these 12 so the need of having Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles.

I will repond to the remaining part later.

Paul