The first time that I was called one of the people of the "Book," I had accepted an invitation from some Muslim neighbors to a feast. As I understood my situation, I was to be their token Christian at the end feast of Ramadan. Since my wife with the other women would be segregated into another room, no one would be pestering me to be "nice." It sounded like my kind of feast. I accepted; and I didn't complain about their lack of beer. I was nice.

My Muslim neighbors gave me an opportunity to delineate my Faith and contrast it with Islam and other religions. From my experience in Vietnam with the Buddhists and Cao Dai, the courtesy that they were extending to me was going to lead to a discussion of Common Ground.

To begin on a Common Ground, I noted that I agreed with them that there is only One God; and that the Messiah, Jesus, is a son of Mary. After this agreement to One God and Mary (a Jewish maiden betrothed to Joseph), our common ground came to an end.

Since I accepted that Christ is the Son of God and a son of Mary, I can only conclude that the Jews are the chosen people. The choice of Mary could not be a random event. Thus, neither could the choice of her people be a random event.

With Moses, the Jews were trained in the particular kind of God who visited them, guided them, freed them, and disciplined them. Although the Jews rightly rejected a pantheistic god (i.e., individuals absorbed into amorphous, poorly defined portions of a World Soul), the Jewish stewards were wrong to expect that the Lord God authority would rest with an angel or someone more impressive than a carpenter.

When the son of Man spoke with the authority of the Lord God, the Father, the status of the human species rose above angels. Thus, we have been commanded (or commended) by angels not to bow down to angels. Only Lucifer insists on bowing and prostration. Gabriel won't tolerate it.

I wasn't invited to another feast.

Best Regards,

Frank Hatch
Initial Mass Displacements
FrankHatchiii.com