The Prophet, the Son of God and Jerusalem

by Paul Trog

In 1988, as I took a stand in front of Manhattan's Ziegfeld Theatre among those who were picketing the first New York screening of the blasphemous Martin Scorsese film "The Last Temptation Of Christ", I stodd shoulder to shoulder with the principal Islamic Imam of the City of New York. This gentleman was excoriating forcefully, in very blunt expression, the author Nikos Kazantzakis who wrote the book on which the film was based. He repeatedly condemned Scorsese for filming this abomination, using his megaphone. And as we stood together, we conversed at length that afternoon. He told me that his religion, Islam, honored Jesus as an important Prophet and that insults hurled at Him were besmirching the Islamic faith. Scorsese's blasphemy was abhorent to him and to all the Muslims present.

The Imam was accompanied by a sizable crowd of believers. Later, as the demonstration dispersed, I gave expression to my admiration for the Muslims who took a stand for Jesus in such impressive numbers, our Christian crowd being rather sparse. At that moment I was asked point blank if I would not consider embracing Islam. My answer was quite simple. "No thank you, I cannot, because I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God". And after friendly salutations, our conversation ended and we parted.

Either Jesus of Nazareth, a Prophet, or Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was nailed to a cross in Jerusalem on the hill of Golgotha 2000 years ago and who's blood cleanses homo sapiens from all sin.

Two concepts, two worlds.

A prophet's genetic imperfections color his message to humanity. He projects the personal experience of being in the presence of his God (god) and becomes the burning focus of a will not his own. He conveys his encounters poignatly, in words of a power all their own, but mostly "through a glass darkly".

A prophet admonishes and conveys a sense of sin to his listeners by the genuine power and radiation of his encounters with a divine dimension. He urges his followers to live a life of morality and obedience to the promptings that inspired him and are reflected in his deeds, his utterings and writings.

Great civilizations were generated by men such as these.

The ethnologist and anthropologist Prof. Dr. André Gingrich of the University of Vienna stated recently in an interview "...there never was a people discovered in the entire history of anthropology that had no religion. A tribal culture without religion does not exist; it is one of the oldest and fundamental needs of humanity." And of course a lot of false prophets have made disastrous use of this fundamental need.

Today, Jerusalem lies on the seam of that very divide, separating the prophetic monotheistic faiths that accept the CONDITIO HUMANA {human condition} as a given, declaring humans innocent by birth {i.e. Sura 17, Al Isra, Verse 15}, from the Christian faith that believes in the atoning power of Christ, who by His death and resurection does transform the core of human nature, soiled and in the grip of evil by the sin of Adam. If the final conflict that is looming in Jerusalem and Israel is to be avoided, more than good will and diplomacy is needed. A famous orientalist recently described Jerusalem as being vastly more than just another intractable political problem, because the world is facing there an irrevocable Judgement Day decision.

We have to rethink our religions and our policies in this light, if humanity is to survive.

Was original sin an offense so great that it required the death of one part of the Divine Being, one person of the Holy Trinity, to atone for that epochal trespass, or were Adam and Eve forgiven for their sin and life proceeded as before.