Christian Bible collages and Theological Seminaries love to explore the Commandment that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
The big deal is to indentify “our neighbors.” Even if and when neighbors can be identified, the theory or economics can throw monkey wrenches from left and right, and from above to below.
Now Jonah appeared on the scene about 700 years before Jesus, the Christ i.e. the annointed one, but he really stretched the notion of “neighborhood” to its limit. Nineveh was a very large metropolis about 200 miles North of Jerusalem. The Northern boundaries of Judea approached Nineveh, and were subject to raids of the terrorists and warring people from the big city. The terrorists would raid the farmlands of the Hebrews for cattle and food and even take the youth, both male and female, into captivity and make slaves of them.
Jonah was a country boy outside the city of Jerusalem and heard the voice of God telling him to go preach to the people of Nineveh. Now it was a common belief at that time that God resided in the Holy of Holies within the Temple inside Jerusalem. Jonah thought he could run away from God. He wanted nothing to do with his neighbors to the North, however he got eaten by a very large fish, etc and etc.
Actually the people of Nineveh repented and Jonah was not to happy with his success. His good teachings lasted for a couple of hundred years.
So here comes the theological argument for the year, 2012. Are the people residing in the Middle East our neighbors? Do we have a command to spread The Word on their turf? Let’s take two steps backwards. Maybe God has already converted them not to Christianity, but to a religion He accepts as valid. Maybe Mohammed is a prophet just as much as Jonah was. This postulation, then, puts the Nation of Islam in a new light. Indeed they may very much be our “neighbors.”
Most Americans are unaware of the teachings of Mohammed, however politicians who want to satisfy their own egos will jump on a defensive war tactic every time they have chance. The Nation of Iran, having been hijacked by extremists will be throwing atomic weapons all over the earth if they have a chance. (They don’t have a chance to throw the first blow and survive but that is not the purpose of our economic study.) Let’s leave this subject alone.
Now, Americans, who are ignorant of the teachings in the Koran should and shut off their TV, and start reading. For instance, Mohammed mentions the Name of Jesus hundreds of times. He has great respect for teachings of the Prophet Jesus. The people of the Middle East who hold true to Islamic Religion are not our enemies. Both Hebrews and Christians need not get into any kind of a holy war with these people. If anything at all, we need diplomats who can approach the Middle East with the above kind of common ground to build a lasting neighborhood-relationship.
So our question is, are the people of the Middle East our neighbors when they keep raising the cost of fuel the Great American Nation needs?
Tags: Ancient terrorists, Jonah, Mohammed, Nineveh
