"in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit" - Nations and Religions

Around Tokyo

Nations and Religions

Society needs order and rules so that citizens can live peacefully.

The order and rules must be deeply rooted in tradition and customs so that they can be respected and observed by citizens, since they respect tradition and customs.  And in any society people love and respect their ancestors with some exceptions.  Therefore society can be stable when it is governed and managed based on common religion in it.

But it will be a little difficult if a nation includes members of different religions with larger shares.  Even in an Islamic nation, difference in schools of the religion causes grave internal conflicts covertly or overtly.

Conversely, strong nations inevitably have one strong religion prevailing among their peoples.  Or, when people of a nation shares one common strong religion, the nation can grow strong and develop rich.

In this context, the Great British Empire was possible mostly because of its religion separated from the Vatican.  Germany became strong when Germans believed ideology of Hitler, though they mistook it.  The Soviet Union was strong when Russians and their close neighbors believed in communism, though they misunderstood it.  China today is trying to be strong based on belief of its people in dominance of the Chinese Communist Party, though it has long introduced capitalistic economic policies.

In this context, the key to success and prosperity of the US is its people's belief in the American Dream based on belief in Christianity separated from the Vatican and even the Church of England while absorbing part of Judaism.  Therefore the President of the US should be a person who the best symbolizes the American Dream of each era.  But whoever is elected as president, his personality is expected to be deeply concerned with the underlying religious paradigm of the US.

From this point of view, JFK was a difficult president as Kennedy was Catholic.  In fact, his administration ended with the tragic assassination of him.  And, Nixon looked not so religious too much, and accordingly he was strongly despised by his opponents.  In fact, Nixon was forced to step down in the middle of his second term.

No matter American voters are Democratic or Republican, they believe in the American value system that supports the American Dream.  And the root of the American value system is a notion that to keep the American society in peace and safety, they need faith in God of Christianity or Judaism.  So, American voters are secretly but intently checking how faithful in God or religion Presidential candidates are.  Their judgment on how much they can trust candidates mostly depends on this point.  Put simply, they want a President who is faithful as much as they are in God or religion so as to trust him or her in the White House.

As for Japan, the unity of its people is still largely ascribed to existence of the Imperial Family.  The Emperor of Japan is a symbol at least of Japan's 2000 year long history and tradition, including shintoism.  All the Japanese would think that their ancestors respected emperors for almost 2000 years or 1500 years as written history tells.

However this function of the emperor and the imperial family of Japan does not exclude people's acceptance of the concept of God as the sole creator of the universe.

Anyway, a nation without religion or ideology is impossible in the human world.  In this context, the more study in religions and ideologies should be needed for people today living in the era of the global politics.          

    




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Mar 1:23 And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
Mar 1:24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.

"be ye doers of the word" - The Greatest Things from Mankind

Mt. Fuji observed from around Tokyo

The Greatest Things from Mankind

It is said that the founder of Islam sometimes fell on the floor from fear or with awe when he received revelation of God.  In addition, he had no intention to launch a new religion to compete with Judaists and Christians.

Then, how could such a man establish the great religion Islam?  It is because God wished so.  Indeed, great is the God but not the founder of Islam.

But why did God wish Islam, though He had already chosen Judaists as a special tribe of religion and sent His Son, Christ Jesus, to the world?

It must be because Judaists did not satisfy God and Christians, neither.  So, God must have decided to create the third religion through one Arab in the seventh century.  Therefore the unique feature of Islam is in that Judaists and Christians disappointed God.  If Judaists had not disappointed God, there should have been no Christianity.  If Christians had not disappointed God, there should have been no Islam.

But what would God do if He finds that Muslims have disappointed Him?  Of course, it is apparent from observation of the world that Muslims have betrayed God, since no Islamic countries can cope with Islamic terrorists but only Christian European and American countries can do,

Will the God allow any man to establish the fourth global religion?  Or did God always set a fate of mankind so that they will face the end of the world when they have disappointed God three times?

In that case, the history of mankind will be written by some intellectual species living somewhere in a galaxy and having a chance to visit the earth after extinction of mankind: "They met God three times.  They established Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but as their faith was not true, they could not avoid the wrath of God, so that they went extinct.  Nothing is worthy that mankind invented and created except these religions, though."

So, a million years later, the earth might be called the "planet of the three religions" by some intellectual species living somewhere in the galaxy.

But what intellectual species in galaxies can satisfy God?  And how can they?

Anyway the greatest things mankind has ever produced are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam but not i-phones.





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Jam 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Jam 1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

"the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" - The Sun, Water, and Hydrogen

Mt. Fuji

The Sun, Water, and Hydrogen

The sun and water are the two similar entities.  They are made of hydrogen.

The sun is essentially made of hydrogen.  Hydrogen atoms form the sun, though two hydrogen atoms constitute a hydrogen molecule that is a gas on the earth.  But hydrogen nuclei are fused in the sun due to super-high pressure of their weight, as their number is enormous, generating heat and light and other forms of energy.

Water consists of many water molecules each of which consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  Two oxygen atoms form one oxygen molecule, and human species and other animals inhale air to take in oxygen gas (oxygen molecules) to live.

But till the modern science was established about two centuries ago and later, no one saw this relationships between our life, water and the sun.  Especially no one realized that the sun and water are a kind of products of hydrogen.

For men to live, they need oxygen to breathe and water to drink, but more than them, they need the sun that provides light and heat.  And the key elements of them are only the two types of atomic elements: hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen in the sun is burning through nuclear fusion.  But hydrogen on the earth constitutes water by forming a chemical compound with oxygen.  The sun and water are essentially two relative substances.  But no one could realize the fact.

It might tell how foolish human beings were.  To see existence of hydrogen in the sun and water, human beings had to develop science.　　It is in 1776 that a scientist discovered hydrogen.  And it is in 1811 that a scientist found that a water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.  And, it is in 1939 that a scientist found the physical phenomenon of the nuclear fusion reaction.

According to Christ Jesus, what constitutes a man is spirit; what makes a man live is love; and what a man must believe is God, since spirit and love comes from God.

It is about 2000 years ago that Christ Jesus declared this truth.  But most of people do not understand the significance of this truth, like they cannot understand significance of hydrogen in the sun and water.  
    



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Jam 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
Jam 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

"with the word of truth" - Right View on Gap between the Poor and the Rich

Snow around Tokyo

Right View on Gap between the Poor and the Rich

If all the people in the world get rich, will the complete peace be realized?

The answer is no.  On the contrary, those rich men will attack one another.  It is because for a man to be rich he cannot be good, humane, kind, benevolent, and humble.  Without sacrificing others, they cannot be rich.  Therefore, the situation that all the people are rich means that there are no good, humane, kind, benevolent, and humble persons.  In such a situation, endless strife will continue to the very end.

The fact that any human society has a gap between the rich and the poor poses a grave concern about what human beings are.

Animals don't mind poor members of their species or groups.  They act and live mostly in a selfish manner.  They seldom show compassion to poor members.  But animals are not given higher spirit like that observed in human beings.

God gave a very high level of spirit and intellectual ability to mankind.  He must have thought that mankind would use the spirit and ability to help one another and build the very peaceful world.  But, betraying the expectation of God, most of human beings use the power of their spirit and intellect to achieve selfish satisfaction of their desire.

To think that human beings are also a kind of animal and thus it is natural for rich men to neglect poor men is not balanced with the high level of spirit and intellect God gave to mankind.  The gap between the rich and the poor is a measure to judge how badly human beings have betrayed God.

In other word, human beings must clearly realize that God is angry at human beings, because God expected human beings to establish the world with mutual prosperity while, in reality, rich men are abusing poor men.  To break the gap between the rich and the poor is not simply a matter of humanity, morals, and ethics, but it is the expectation of God, the Creator of the universe and the mankind.

God expects human beings to do away with the gap between the rich and the poor.  This is the core of the teaching of Christ Jesus.  The gap between the poor and the rich is one of the largest matters of religion.

This is the right view on the longtime issue of the gap between the poor and the rich.



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Jam 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

"from the Father of lights" - Revolution by Christianity

Tokyo

Revolution by Christianity

Judaism is vague in its recognition of the nature of God and Heaven.

However, Christianity clearly states that there are God and Heaven in the spiritual world.   And Christ Jesus made the distinction clear between the spirit and the mind of a living man.  If a man dies, his spirit survives, though it is not known whether it is destined to Heaven or the hell.

In the ancient world, people were living without clear distinction between the spiritual world and the nature or environments surrounding them.  To some people, Heaven and the hell were mere extension of this world as ancient Egyptians thought.  Even Judaists thought that a man should resurrect in a manner as he was in this world.  But Christ Jesus made it clear that only the spirit of a man enters Heaven.

This teaching of Christ Jesus was so revolutionary.  Ancient Romans living with a paradigm of vague gods, the heaven, and the hell must have been shocked to hear the teaching of Christ Jesus: God is spirit and men have also spirits that could enter Heaven after their death.

Christianity was so revolutionary when it emerged in the ancient world.  Even Greek myths turned to fairy stories.  Through Christianity people learnt that the spiritual world and Heaven are different from this world.  And, God put the nature under the spiritual world.  God gives birth of every man in the nature with his or her spirit; therefore God is Father of all.

The core of Christianity is this paradigm shift in the ancient world.  Accordingly, Islam created centuries after Christianity was from the beginning based on this notion that God and Heaven are in the spiritual world above the natural world where human being are living.  There is no vague view on the spiritual world in Islam.  In this context, Islam is based on teaching of Christ Jesus.  Islam was not an extension of any other ancient religion in which gods and spirits belong to this world or the world like this world.

Today everybody thinks that this world is essentially different from the spiritual world.  God, if they believe Him, exists in the sphere above this material world,  This universe follows laws of science.  Essentially spiritual entities have nothing to do with this material world.  This modern notion is originated in Christianity.

As for Buddhism, the boundary between the world of living men and that of the dead is ambiguous, though it has its own image of the spiritual world.  And, Buddhism does not admit that there is only one creator of the material world and the spiritual world.  Buddhists believe existence of the paradise and the hell.  And they know their souls go and live there after their death.  The world after death is not a foreign idea to Buddhists.  But they do not think that their souls were given by God, the Creator of the universe.

The Bible contains various episodes and scenes where Christ Jesus is depicted, in addition various moral teachings.  But if these parts are taken away, the Bible only presents a view on the human world and the spiritual world where God lives.  The reason why Christianity was accepted by Romans must lie in this view.

There is a clear boundary and distinction between this world and the spiritual world, though there are some paths linking them.  This common view of today was first clearly presented by Christ Jesus and ancient people learnt it though His words or the Bible.

This is one of secrets of diffusion and deployment of Christianity in the Roaman Empire and later Europe and world.

So, we should realize that Christianity was revolutionary from the beginning.






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Jam 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.