Islam
Père Zakaria Boutros

Christianity and The wars – Multiplicity of wives
 

The author      : Father Zakaria Boutros
The publisher:  www.fatherzakaria.com

The wars in the Old Testament:

The Old Testament differs from the New Testament in very important fact which should be well realized to understand everything

The Old Testament was the epoch of law and legislation but the New Testament is the epoch of grace and truth

The Bible said:” For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17)

The Old Testament was the epoch of commandments and legislations, why? As man was still in the hostility and he was fallen in the sin, and God was paving for the coming of the Christ to redeem the mankind, so all the commandments were in accordance with the human nature

The Christ said with respect to your hardheartedness he wrote this command to you
 (Mark 10:5)

While in the New Testament, man had attained a new nature

The wars in the Old Testament were not to propagate the religion, as Judaism is closed and not a preaching religion, it was only confined to the people of Israel, and so the wars were defensive wars to defend themselves from the enemies

While the Islamic wars were to propagate Islam by sward and colonization

In the New Testament, God had changed the human nature and gave the peace, and loving the enemies

The Christ said: Do not resist the evil by evil but by love and peace

That’s not a contradiction between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but is fulfillment of the law

The Christ said:” I did not come to annul, but to fulfill. (Matthew 5:17)

The New Testament is the testament of grace, whoever didn’t take the grace couldn’t understand it

The Bible said:” For by grace you are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesus 2:8)

The grace is by the sprit, the Christians are those living in the grace
 
 

Some say the Christ said:” I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And he told his disciples to buy swards
 

The sward here is in the spiritual meaning and not the literal meaning, it is the sward of persecution as those followers of the Christ will be persecuted and the sward will be over them

The Christ said:” an hour is coming that everyone killing you will think to bear a service before God” (John 16:2)

He said also:’ in the world you shall have tribulation “(John 16:33)

It is the sward of persecution and not the sward of war, if he wanted the war he would be a war man and trained his disciples for fighting, but the mission of the Christ was the mission of peace

And the sward is the sward of the word of God

The Bible said:” take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God (Ephesus 6:17)

The ward of God is like the sward separating the truth from the bootless

 
Some say that he asked his disciples to buy swards, and they said here are two swords. And He said to them, it is enough.
 

When they entered the garden, peter drew his sword, and he struck a servant of the high priest, as he was not trained for using the sward, he cut off his ear but the Christ cured it and told him: Put up your sword again into its place; for all who take the sword shall perish with a sword (Matthew 26:52 ) as the sward should be put in its place forever
So the Christ asked them to bring a sward to teach them a practical lesson: never use the sward

The Christianity is the religion of peace; it put the sward in its place and deals with people by peace and love

But the sward of Islam is for killing, the number of incursions and squadrons during the time of Muhammad reached 84 incursions and squadrons in a period of 10 years aiming for expansion inland and domination of the nation power and taking loots and women war captives

The Islamic encyclopedia mentioned that Al-Jihad (fighting in the name of Islam) was for the propagation of the religion by the sward

While the Christianity was propagated by love
 
 

Some say that if Christianity banned war what about the cross crusades

Unfortunately they considered the cross crusades in the name of the Christ, while they are not belonging in any way to the Christ, they used the cross exploiting the religious inclination of people while they have no relation to Christianity

When you judge Christianity, don’t judge it through the behavior of people, but through the Holy Bible as it is the constitution of Christianity

Where it was mentioned in the Holy Bible what pointed to form army in the name of the cross for fighting and incursions?

The crusade wars has no relation at all to the principles of Christianity

The Bible said:” When insulted, we bless” people consider that weakness, but it is the forgiveness while we are capable and sublimation of the human and bodily motives
We handle the whole matter to God as He said:” "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord." not avenging yourselves (Romans 12:19)

What about the American wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

America didn’t go into those wars in the name of religion but for democracy, when George Bush spoke about the war in Afghanistan he said the word” crusade” which is the military campaign and it was interpreted wrongly as cross crusade, but he didn’t say that ,in the east they said that he will launch a cross crusade . But it is a wrong translation
The American wars are pure political wars with no relation to religion at all

What about the wars in Ireland between catholic and protestant:

The same in Ireland there is a political party named the catholic party and another political party called the protestant; those are political parties who used the religion as a pretension

Where in the Holy Bible those verses advocating formation of political parties???

The Holy Bible is for the salvation of souls and it is its aim

But those who are using the religion for achieving political targets has no relation to religion at all

Concerning the multiplicity of wives in the Old Testament, why it was forbidden in the New Testament

The superficial look for that issue gives that wrong impression, so the half educated are worse than the illiterates, while the deep look will deny that

The Old Testament, is the testament of law and not the grace as the human nature was not changed and renewed yet to get the grace and live by the grace

The Christ said:” Because of your hard-heartedness Moses allowed you to divorce your wives (Matthew 19:8)

The grace sublimates with the spirit and satisfies man with the lord

“The full soul despises a honeycomb” (proverbs 27:7),

 Therefore it became only one wife

The Christ said:” He who created them from the beginning "created them male and female”
(Matthew 19:4)

“Every man should have his own wife, and every woman should have her own husband”
 (1Corinthians 7:2)

The Christ said:” any man who divorces his wife, except for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever shall marry her who is put away commits adultery (Matthew 5:32)

- Some ask about the Christ’s saying:” I came to divide a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a bride against her mother-in-law. A person's enemies will be members of his own family.” (Matthew 10:35, 36)

Also the quran says in Mutual fraud chapter (Surat At-Taghabun) 14, 15:” O you who believe! Verily, among your wives and your children there are enemies for you, therefore beware of them! Your wealth and your children are only a temptation”

When man leaves the way in which he is following and follow the Christ, he will face resistance from his own family members, so they will be his enemies trying to get him away from the Christ