The Koran, Jesus Christ and Common Sense

By Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer

Since we are engaged in a world-wide conflict with religious terrorists who draw their inspiration and guidance from a book virtually known by title only in the non-Islamic world, isnt it time we got to know that book? If we are ever to understand those who will kill themselves in order to kill unbelievers and thereby gain Paradise for themselves, the time is now! But let us look at this book that is holy for so many people, objectively, compassionately, and with common sense, that we might better understand those who choose to be our enemies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450031660

Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer

Dr. Zillmer has spent more than eight decades studying God’s blessed revelations in the Bible. Part of his PhD research introduced him to the great truths of cultural myths, none more powerful than the ten which begin the Bible. Modern mankind has lost the ability to understand the purpose and relevance of myths. As we recover our understandings of this art form, the great truths that begin the Bible will open up. We will understand more fully why God chose this art form to begin to answer the ten great human questions, which are ultimately the message of the messenger from heaven—Jesus.

Book preview

The

        Koran,

              Jesus Christ

And

             Common Sense

DR. H. LAWRENCE ZILLMER

Copyright © 2010 by Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2010900878

ISBN:

                     Hardcover                             978-1-4500-3165-3

                     Softcover                               978-1-4500-3164-6

                     E-book                                   978-1-4500-3166-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

Prelude

Chapter One

The Koran

A summary of the teachings of the Koran

Chapter Two

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Summary of the Gospel Message of Jesus

Chapter Three

Common Sense

Postlude

For further reading of books

by the same author:

Prelude

With a large portion of the Middle East and northern Africa under Muslim control, together with the fact that we are at war with Muslin extremists who destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and committed other atrocities. We find ourselves precipitated into a world wide war with these religious extremists. It is time we came to know something of the mind set with which we are dealing. Our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are engaged in a war with an enemy neither they nor the civilians back home understand very well. The west has not seen such an enemy since they fought each other over religious doctrines in the Thirty Years War in the sixteen hundreds.

Why the suicide bombs, the suicidal attacks and the ground swell of resistance that refuses to die when defeated on the battle field? Why do American citizens take up the Islamic cause, traveling half way around the world to train in guerrilla tactics against their own home land? Why do Muslim workers flock into Europe for jobs but usually refuse to be assimilated into the prevailing culture? What attracts black youths coming from a supposedly Christian environment to take on Muslim names and identities?

It is time for us to examine the Koran, the teachings of Islam by way of the visions of Mohammed in the Seventh century, teachings which every Muslim must believe if they are to go to Paradise after they die. That is precisely the goal of this work. I will list quotations from the Koran in terms of its teachings under various key topics.

Similarly, I shall quote directly from the words of Jesus as related in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Some will say that one needs to read Arabic in order to understand the Koran. Not being able to read the original languages has never hindered people from quoting the Bible! Mohammed, himself, quotes whole sections of the Old Testament regarding what Moses, Abraham, Lot, Solomon and David supposedly said, but he could not read Greek or Hebrew!

Fortunately for those who wish to grasp a basic understanding of what the Muslim religion is all about, the Koran is amazingly repetitive. All the major surahs, visions, say very much the same thing, as we shall see. To gain a basic understanding of the teachings of the Koran is not difficult, for they are repeated over and over again. And they are not complicated. Once the basic premise is established, the remaining ideas fit very well into a simple system of thinking.

What is needed is an open and critical mind. Mohammed lived some six hundred years after the birth of Jesus and the founding of the Christian church. Mohammed is from the central western part of the Arabian peninsula. He speaks of his time and in the manner of his time and place. He was unhappy with the pagan religions. He sought to instill a monotheistic faith. Islam is very monotheistic! It has very specific rules and rituals for every day living which were undoubtedly an improvement over existing conditions. But we are not there now. What is the attraction of the Islamic religion today? What are its goals? What will believers do to obtain those goals?

The same pertains to the teachings of Jesus. After nearly two thousand years of existence we must ask ourselves the same questions—what did Jesus really teach? What was the message Jesus brought into our world? Today, due to scholarly research, we know what the early church taught. Those teachings, labeled Shepherd Theology, will be the focus of the 2nd section of this work which deals with what Jesus actually taught as compared to the teachings of Mohammed in the Koran.

This work is therefore, in three portions, the first consists of quotations from the Koran on various topics with a summary. The second section will deal with the teachings of Jesus, also with a summary. The third section will deal with a comparison of the two theologies as they are expressed in patterns for living with an appeal to simple common sense as to