Government is like fire: too useful to do without, too dangerous ever to trust. - unknown
"Our today has a reality of meaning beyond our present. The refining and the preparation have a day of fulfillment ahead." ~ Edith Schaeffer, Affliction ~ Edith Schaeffer, Affliction http://dlvr.it/QBPfLT
“The worlds of Christianity and Islam, however, have developed differently in one fundamental respect. The Christian faith won over an existing empire in an extremely slow and painful process and its universalism was originally conceived in spiritual terms that made a clear distinction between God and Caesar. By the time it was embraced by the Byzantine emperors as a tool for buttressing their imperial claims, three centuries after its foundation, Christianity had in place a countervailing ecclesiastical institution with an abiding authority over the wills and actions of all believers. The birth of Islam, by contrast, was inextricably linked with the creation of a world empire and its universalism was inherently imperialist. It did not distinguish between temporal and religious powers, which were combined in the person of Muhammad, who derived his authority directly from Allah and acted at one and the same time as head of the state and head of the church. This allowed the prophet to cloak his political ambitions with a religious aura and to channel Islam’s energies into ‘its instruments of aggressive expansion, there [being] no internal organism of equal force to counterbalance it.’”- Ephraim Karsh, “Islamic Imperialism: A History.”[v] Introduction (P. 5)
Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn
in no other.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
_Poor Richard's Almanac_ [December 1743]
God works in us by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the very imperatives he demands of us.- Derek Thomas@DerekWHThomas
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