EDante, 25 December 2015 This year my UN work brought me to two of the most isolated countries in the world, North Korea and Iran. Although I visited these places before, this time I had the opportunity to explore the newly renovated war museum and art gallery in Pyongyang. They impressed in me the suffering and heroism of the North Koreans under the Japanese occupation and the war with their Southern kinsmen; the pain of the "comfort women"; the pride of the nation during the victorious seizure of the American spy ship USS Pueblo in 1968; the hardship of the people in rebuilding their devastated lives, and the struggle of the leaders to develop the country into a modern nuclear nation . Central to the life of the North Korean people lies with their “Great leader” and “Eternal President” Kim Il Sung who had ruled the country since its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. His grandson Kim Jong Un now leads the country with absolute power. People praise Kim and sing hymns about him like he is a divine being, a god. A month later I found myself strolling with friends in a freezing night at Tehran’s Laleh Park, a well-kept and beautiful green area next to our hotel. The presence of a multitude of lush shady trees in the park was a real contrast to this city’s mostly arid landscape. While walking, I had a stimulating conversation with a Muslim colleague. He explained that one major difference between Islam and Christianity is their view of Jesus. To Christians, Jesus is the Son of God. He is both the Son of God and an inextricable part of God. Muslims believe that he was a true prophet but not the Son of God. I added that the Jews believe that Jesus was a false prophet and thus liable to die on the cross. He explained that the revelation that Muhammad received from an angel is the authentic scriptures, while the old and new testaments of the Christians had been modified over the years and no longer resembled the true revelation of God. Muslims believe that Jesus did not suffer on the cross because Allah saved and took him to heaven and therefore do not accept the concept of a redeemer or saviour of the world. After the trip in Iran, I received from him a copy of Quran in English to read and I soon found the following verse revealing how Quran sees Christians and Jews: “O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." (Quran 5:51). During the Christmas week, an intern to the UN who lives near my home came to ride with me to office for several days. She is a Buddhist who was exposed to Christian teachings from her school days at a Christian school in Sri Lanka. She participated in the annual UN Christmas carols that I helped organize with friends. According to her, her religion teaches detachment from consumerism and simple living within one’s meagre means. It was consoling to hear such devotion from a young person. She said that Buddha did not want his followers to worship him although some Buddhists revered him like a god. She believes in the cycle of reincarnation to different life forms, depending on how good or bad one lives his/her life. I expressed my view that human reincarnation to a lower form like plants and animals is difficult to comprehend from a Christian mind-set because we believe that man has a spirit, which gives us the capacity to reason and believe in a divine being, while plants and animal do not have it. Further, I wondered if this belief would make a person hesitant to eat any meat or vegetable as it may belong to an ancestor. So why are there so many beliefs? Isn’t there only one God and one true revelation? Why are there contrasting messages and varying interpretations of religious teachings? Isn’t the one God gives the same divine messages to all His children from ancient times through today? One can perhaps consider human nature that makes different people listening to the same story to come away with very different meanings. It also leads people of different times and cultures to hear divine inspiration differently, according to their own cultural and spiritual conditions. Fundamentally, human mind is made to believe. Such need is more essential than the need to breathe. Even those who says he does not believe, does believe. He believes in something else. If he does not believe in God, he perhaps believes in his own ego. If man is not presented with the full revelation of God, his believing mind has the capacity to generate images and ideas of divine life and God which, if accepted, form part of his faith and belief system. Some people do not want to believe in a God who demands righteousness and morality, so they invent a God who makes no such requirements. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 faith or belief systems in the world. Another important point to consider is the presence of two opposing spiritual forces, as Jesus explained through this parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up? No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30) Man needs to discover by God's grace the authentic divine revelation and strive to live according to the truth. Each one who seeks the truth must face the painful reality of the presence of evil spirit that causes confusions, divisions and conflicts. Each one must always test the spirit of any beliefs and actions and determine if they are influenced by good or evil. Therefore it is written: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” ( 1 John 4:1). "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. (Matthew 7:15-20) Even today, many people have claimed to receive revelations from God or from an angel, yet only a few have proven to be true. False prophets can give 99% truth and inject 1% evil in order to poison their followers. It is important to learn how to discern the authentic revelations against the false ones. Christians believe that Jesus is the true revelation of God because through him God has communicated to us the fullness of divine truth. In the Old Testament, God spoke to humanity by his prophets but in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). The incarnation of Christ was an immense generosity on God’s part to lead us to the true revelation. We believe that Jesus is 100% human and 100% divine. In Jesus, one can see the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Those who do not believe in Jesus still see the invisible and inaccessible God in the Old Testament. Even the mere mention of God’s name brings them to a paralyzing fear. But those who believe in Him and His Words become children of God and experience intimacy with Him as it is written: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7) As we busy ourselves in celebrating Christmas, I wish that we can find time to reflect on the incarnation of God into man through Jesus out of the greatness of His mercy and love for mankind. May the following story a friend shared with me help focus our thoughts on the true meaning of God’s action at Christmas: There was once a man who didn't believe in God. His wife did believe, and she raised their children to have faith in God and Jesus. One snowy Christmas Eve, his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service where they lived. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home. Later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside and saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a breadcrumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn -- and one by one the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier re-played in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese -- blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of Christmas, he realized. Comments are closed.
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