{"id":12449,"date":"2012-02-13T20:24:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-14T01:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12449"},"modified":"2012-02-18T19:48:53","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T00:48:53","slug":"how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html","title":{"rendered":"How Civilizations Die – How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watchwoman:<\/strong><\/span> My husband started reading a book and he began to share with me the profound ideas in this book and now we are reading it together because what he told me so intrigued and engrossed me. Today, I scanned into my computer an entire chapter of that book so we could keep it for future reference and to be able to word search it.\u00a0 I am going to be sharing with you some of what I’ve scanned and transformed into text for your benefit and in the hopes that you will either buy the book and\/or request it from your library.\u00a0 I have kept the original spaces for the pages so you’ll notice that a page number will appear in the middle of the text (in bold) and even in the middle of a paragraph and a sentence.\u00a0 I scanned this into my computer so I can search the text and find the spot in the book (for my convenience) and not for the showing off of a neat page for the reader.\u00a0 For this, I apologize.\u00a0 The text is relevant to today, all of us in America, to the Jews here and in Israel, to the Muslims in all of the Arab lands, to Europe and foreign lands, to the Christian Church of all the believers in the One Holy and True God of the Holy Bible and most of all, I believe each one reading this will find it intensely relevant to their situation, their family and their faith today, right where each of you sit!\u00a0 May the One, True Triune God of Love, Creator of the Universe and all things in it, open your eyes and hearts to receive His Love for you, through the wooing of the Holy Spirit, in the Name of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 May you be blessed and may this lead you into truth to encounter in a personal and real way all the Love God has for you. Amen and Amen. \u25ac Donna Calvin<\/strong><\/p>\n

[King James Version – Romans 5:8]\u00a0 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.<\/h1>\n
\"\"
Front Cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Back cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HOW CIVILIZATIONS DIE
\n(And Why Islam is Dying Too)<\/strong><\/p>\n

By David P. Goldman
\nOnline Columnist \u201cSpengler\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Chapter 10, Pages 137-155<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve heart about the Death of the West.\u00a0 But the Muslim world is on the brink of an even greater collapse.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Will we go down in the implosion?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ISLAM: THE ARABS AS CHOSEN PEOPLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting on Page 137<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2008 a Muslim theologian at Germany\u2019s University of Munster scandalized his co-religionists by asserting that the Prophet Mohammed was a figment of myth rather than an historical personality. Sven Muhammed Kalisch was a convert to Islam who held one of the most important positions in Islamic studies \u2014 the first German university chair for teaching Muslim religious instructors in German public schools. His paper, \u201cIslamic Theology without the Historical Mohammed;\u201d 1<\/sup> was the first work by a Muslim academic to dispute the Prophet\u2019s existence. Professor Kalisch since has apostatized and repudiated the Muslim faith, but the damage was done.\u00a0 As he told a German newspaper, \u201cIt might be that the Koran was truly inspired by God, a great narration from God, but it was not dictated word for word from Allah to the Prophet.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Kalisch\u2019s account, the invention of the historical Mohammed transformed the Christian message into a declaration that the Arabs were God\u2019s<\/p>\n

138<\/strong><\/p>\n

chosen people. The Koran accomplishes this theological feat, Kalisch argues by casting Mohammed as an Arab prophet who embodies the characteristics of Moses as well as Jesus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe hardly have original Islamic sources from the first two centuries of Islam,\u201d Kalisch observes. And even when a source appears to come from this period, caution is required. The mere assertion that a source stems from the first or second century of the Islamic calendar means nothing. And even when a source actually was written in the first or second century, the question always remains of later manipulation. We do not tread on firm ground in the sources until the third Islamic century [the ninth century C.E.].\u201d This substantial lag between the time Mohammed is supposed to have lived and the first historical evidence of the religion he is purported to have founded \u2018is extremely suspicious, Kalisch observes. How can a world religion have erupted in a virtual literary vacuum? He quotes Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds: \u201cIt is a striking fact that such documentary evidence as survives from the Sufnayid period makes no mention of [Mohammed] the messenger of god at all. The papyri do not refer to him. The Arabic inscriptions of the Arab-Sasanian coins only invoke Allah, not his rasul [messenger]; and the Arab-Byzantine bronze coins on which Muhammad appears as rasul Allah, previously dated to the Sufyanid period, have now been placed in that of the Marwanids. Even the two surviving pre-Marwanid tombstones fail to mention the rasul.\u201d 2<\/sup><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trouble with the Muslim version of the religion\u2019s early history lies not in the absence of evidence, but rather in an abundance, including a large number of coins and inscriptions on monuments during its first two centuries that fail to refer to the Prophet Mohammed. \u201cCoins and inscriptions are incompatible with the Islamic writing of history,\u201d Kalisch concludes, citing the monograph Crossroads to Islam<\/em>, by Yehuda Nevo and Judith Koren. 3<\/sup> \u00a0The oldest inscription with the formulation \u201cMohammed Messenger of Allah\u201d is found in the sixty-sixth year of Islamic reckoning. But there also exist coins found in Palestine, probably minted in Amman, on which the word \u201cMuhammed\u201d is found in Arabic script on one side and a<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

139<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

picture of a man holding a cross on the other. Kalisch cites this and a dozen other examples of evidence that contradicts official Muslim history. Citing Nevo and Koren among other sources, Kalisch also argues that the Islamic conquest as reported in much later Islamic sources never happened \u2014instead, there was a gradual migration into depopulated Byzantine lands by the Arab auxiliaries of the Eastern Empire.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be sure,\u201d Kalisch continues, \u201cvarious explanations are possible for the lack of mention of the Prophet in the early period, and it is. no proof for the non-existence of an historical Mohammed. But it is most astonishing, and begs the question [sic] of the significance of Mohammed for the original Muslim congregation in the case that he did exist.\u201d The numismatic and archeological evidence against the received version of Islamic history confirms the source-critical case that the Koran is based on earlier Christian sources and was originally written at least partly in Syriac-Aramaic, not Arabic. This compelling case has been assembled by scholars who swam against the current of Islamic studies \u2014 for example Patricia Crone, Martin Hinds, Karl-Heinz Ohlig, and John Wansbrough. Kalisch, though, was the first Muslim scholar to argue against the authenticity of the Koran.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the Mohammed story was invented, then by whom was it invented, and to what end? The answer, Kalisch explains, is that the new Arab empire wanted to conflate the figures of Moses and Jesus into an Arab prophet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neither the Jews nor the Christians as people of God, but the Arabs, instead, would become the Chosen People under Islam. \u201cNo prophet is mentioned in the Koran as often as Moses, and Muslim tradition always emphasized the great similarly between Moses and Mohammed,\u201d Kalisch writes. \u201cThe central event in the life of Moses, though, is the Exodus of the oppressed Children of Israel out of Egypt, and the central event in the life of Mohammed is the Exodus of his oppressed congregation out of Mecca to Medina…. The suspicion is great that the Hegira appears only for this reason in the story of the Prophet, because his image should emulate the image of Moses:\u2019 Furthermore,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

140<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the image of Jesus is also seen as a new Moses. The connection of Mohammed to the figure of Jesus is presented in Islamic tradition through his daughter Fatima, who is identified with Maria…. The Line Fatima-Maria- Isis is well known to research.\u00a0 With the takeover of Mecca, Mohammed at least returns to his point of origin. Thus we have a circular structure typical of myth, in which beginning and end are identical. This Gnostic circular structure represents the concept that the soul returns to its origin. It is separated from its origin, and must return to it for the sake of its salvation…. In the Islamic Gnosis, Mohammed appears along with [his family members] Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Hussein as cosmic forces… the Gnostic Abu Mansur al Igli claimed that God first created Jesus, and then Ali. Here apparently we still have the Cosmic Christ. If a Christian Gnosis gave birth to Islam, then the Cosmic Christ underwent a name change to Mohammed in the Arab world, and this Cosmic Mohammed was presented as a new edition of the Myth of Moses and Joshua (= Jesus) as an Arab prophet. 4<\/sup><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Theology of Submission versus the Theology of Love<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We cannot understand societies driven by a religious impulse without considering their religion as such. In this regard theology is the elder sister of political philosophy. But theology is helpless if it offers nothing better than a catalogue of ritual and belief. Theology must instead look at ritual and belief through the eyes of the committed believer. Our knowledge of the Transcendent is existential, not objective. There is never a \u201creasonable\u201d ground for martyrdom, let alone suicide (except perhaps at the point of capture by the Gestapo). Yet Christians and Jews have offered their lives rather than apostatize. To make sense of what a religion teaches and what<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Page 141 – Continued tomorrow: February 14, 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 1 \u2013 How Civilizations Die \u2013 Posted February 13, 2012 \u2013 pps 137-140<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12449<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2 \u2013 How Civilizations Die \u2013 Posted February 14, 2012 \u2013 pps 141-143<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12471<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3 \u2013 <\/strong>How Civilizations Die \u2013 Posted February 15, 2012 \u2013 pps 143-146<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12494<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 4 \u2013 <\/strong>How Civilizations Die \u2013 Posted February 16, 2012 \u2013 pps 147-150
\n<\/strong>http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12507<\/a><\/p>\n

Part 5 \u2013 <\/strong>How Civilizations Die \u2013 Posted February 17, 2012 \u2013 pps 151-154
\n<\/strong>http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12525<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part 6 \u2013 How Civilizations Die \u2013 Posted February 18, 2012 \u2013 pps 154-155<\/strong><\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/?p=12536<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watchwoman: My husband started reading a book and he began to share with me the profound ideas in this book and now we are reading it together because what he told me so intrigued and engrossed me. Today, I scanned into my computer an entire chapter of that book so we could keep it for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":403,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4382],"tags":[4379,4383,4377,4378,4384],"class_list":["post-12449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-part-of-a-series","tag-and-why-islam-is-dying-too","tag-author-david-p-goldman","tag-book-review","tag-how-civilizations-die","tag-online-columnist-spengler"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Civilizations Die - How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1) - Watchwoman on the Wall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Civilizations Die - How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1) - Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Watchwoman: My husband started reading a book and he began to share with me the profound ideas in this book and now we are reading it together because what he told me so intrigued and engrossed me. Today, I scanned into my computer an entire chapter of that book so we could keep it for…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Watchwoman on the Wall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-14T01:24:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-02-19T00:48:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/files\/2012\/02\/scan1-728x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna Calvin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Civilizations Die - How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1) - Watchwoman on the Wall","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Civilizations Die - How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1) - Watchwoman on the Wall","og_description":"Watchwoman: My husband started reading a book and he began to share with me the profound ideas in this book and now we are reading it together because what he told me so intrigued and engrossed me. Today, I scanned into my computer an entire chapter of that book so we could keep it for…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html","og_site_name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","article_published_time":"2012-02-14T01:24:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-02-19T00:48:53+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/files\/2012\/02\/scan1-728x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Donna Calvin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html","name":"How Civilizations Die - How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1) - Watchwoman on the Wall","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/files\/2012\/02\/scan1-728x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2012-02-14T01:24:57+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-19T00:48:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/files\/2012\/02\/scan1-728x1024.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/watchwomanonthewall\/files\/2012\/02\/scan1-728x1024.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/2012\/02\/how-civilizations-die-how-this-all-relates-to-christianity-the-west-islam-judism-israel-america-europe-and-you-today.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Civilizations Die – How this all relates to Christianity, the West, Islam, Judaism, Israel, America, Europe and YOU today! (Part 1)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/","name":"Watchwoman on the Wall","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Donna Calvin","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/#\/schema\/person\/1470e1ef6765f8a27f970307b0835df1","name":"Donna Calvin","description":"In sixth grade my teacher told us that we were going to be the first generation to see the year 2000 and all things would be different. He continued that God wasn't important, wasn't real, and our parents just used God to impose restrictions on us because they were inadequate to parent effectively. I knew then I was going to be involved in a war and that I would have to be in Jesus Christ's Army. Even then, I knew the United States of America would cease to exist without the vast majority of its citizens voluntarily submitting to the Perfect and Good Laws of the Holy Bible. I am a woman who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. I am tired of seeing our LORD denigrated from the school house to the White House. I search the Internet for items that ought to serve as a warning to Americans and Christians all through America, but the nation seems to be sleeping. Wake up America! You are losing your freedoms, your children and your country. Wake up and help stop it!","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/author\/dcalvin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/403"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12449"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12465,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12449\/revisions\/12465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/watchwomanonthewall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}