I accept the meaning of the term Muslim to be one who has submitted to the guidance of God, whatever it be. I claim that title for myself, for I have come to submit to what I sincerely take for the guidance of God. And so in that sense I am a Muslim. Abraham was most certainly a Muslim, for he did exactly what God suggested and, except for a falter which did not involve sin, unless it be that of loss of faith in the guidance at the Gate to Egypt, and so yes, of course, he is a Muslim.

Now both of us (the Islamic Muslim reader and I the Christian Muslim writer) are given hand-me-down revelations which are always and forever necessarily mere hearsay, for for all we know we could be beings in the presence of millions of angels who are acting out some play for God, or we could be the mental masturbation the Hindus suggest that God has been driven to by the madness arising from the realization of limitless time. I think we will agree that so far we are taking things on the evidence of others.

And so the real important question is the search for some verifiable evidence of the validity of some particular guidance, e.g., tell the truth. Now I take it that your verifiable evidence will be the smooth concurrence of the assertions of the Quoran and the findings of science. Earlier I think it was the great victories of the Muslim armies that was to impress us. Now it is science and it is even becoming numerology. And you of course presume to appeal to a moral validation, perhaps in the intra-Muslim peace which pervades some climes (but certainly not counting Iraq). I mean these in no disrespect, and simply seek to find the validation.

Now the verification of the Pauline stories will be the changed lives of people who have come to follow the living Jesus (as I think you also understand, i.e., that Jesus is still alive). Francis was a legal thief with his father in merchandising, just like Mohammed also (I mean only the merchandising), and was a stranger to Jesus (except in the self-serving piety in a religious society) and experienced a vision just like Paul did of the living Jesus, and became his disciple and lover and followed him (and even went for him to the Islamic Muslims in the Holy Land), just as Paul reported of himself, and this man is historic and attested to by countless witnesses and written about in the history books.

Now what has happened is this: Francis has taken the guidance revealed through Paul as any Muslim does, in utter sincerity, just as Paul reported of himself, and reports a like and wonderable consequence, namely that while before he had always counted things (as a good merchant), he had learn to stop counting and simply to give without expecting anything in return. In other words, by applying the experience of Paul to his own life, Francis became a new person, which can only be termed, even if not understood, a new spirit, a new birth, a second birth, a real birth, a new thing. And it is an historical fact.

This validation can then be experience in any new birth, and this is available to all people who wish to have the spirit of Christ, as it is called, i.e., giving without counting. I have seen the change in my own life where, just today, I struggled to find a reason to offer my unused RV to a person, where my total being was naturally against (why run the risk of damage? what's in it for me? etc.), and so my spirit is new and it is taking charged, for my wife and I found a reason to do this, namely in the hands of this person it is in fact in good hands and he could really use it and enjoy it, and so it would be a great help for him. I mention this in such detail since it is just so fresh in my mind and is ample proof to those who know me (most especially myself) that I am a changed person (and that this change is being revealed to me in ways like this), and furthermore that it is a delight, for it means that Paul was right and indeed I shall see and personally adore the living Jesus.

Now I expect also another validation of sorts, namely that this Christian faith, as described by Paul, could provide a medium for the true religion of pure reason itself, which is a moral religion. This religion, for reasons that are to involved to introduce here, requires that the sole objective of the active strivings of man is to develop a love for the moral law, and of doing good. The source of this moral law is not what has been enunciated by God, according to Kant, for that would make it hear-say and contingent like any and all revelations, but rather it is a product of our own rationality which is directed toward the practical interaction of any two or more free beings.

Now this is given iconic representation in the gentile Christian as liberated by the Council of Jerusalem and as described in Paul as part and parcel of his revelation of the guidance of God. This man is free from all law and all restraint, and has dedicated his being to the three loves of Christ: God, neighbor and fellow Christian, and thereby reflects very nicely the vision of Kant with regard to religion. While Kant is uncomfortable with the notion of actually attesting to this perfection of love within one’s self as an accomplishment, many of the gentile Christians confess to a development in ease of countless giving and thus of a progression which points toward the accomplishment of the goal, to love as Jesus did, without counting. E.g., the Wesleyan declares: while I am far from perfect, I am not as far as once I was and I am on the way.

And so there you have the source of my sincerity. I have myself witnessed a change in my nature of thinking which is directed toward a giving without counting, and this validates what is reported of Francis and of Paul, and so I don’t really accept these as hear-say anymore, for I have seen the possibility within myself, even as far as I yet am from moral perfection. Furthermore I find that the aim of this religion I call my own, this Christian faith, is perfectly aligned with that which any two rational men, without bias, would agree to if we had to decide ahead of time what sort of revelation we might expect, so as to be able to tell ahead of time whether it could really be the guidance of God, or of perhaps a well-meaning and even delusional person. It seems to me that we would bet on the Christian faith, for at least it is directed, in its core and in its foundation (and, sadly, perhaps last seen in a visible form before the time of Constantine), to a love of the moral law so that no person may be considered merely and solely as a means for someone's end.

And so I want to know whether I count as a Muslim, as one who sincerely believes in a particular guidance, through study and personal validation and rational validation and with good roots (speaking of the letters of Paul) and validation by others? Would you call me a Muslim? I have the stories of the Islamic Muslim and I am simply and seriously not impressed with them over the work of Joseph Smith. If you take a hard look and with an open mind, you will surely come to the same conclusion. Also the stories of Paul are really no different in this way, and so also the evidence then in the witness of others who report the new birth. I have good reason not to believe in Islam for it could be a fraud just as easily as the Mormon story, and one of them most certainly is false and it could be both. Paul’s would be in the same boat except his story has to do with a new birth and which has been confirmed in the lives of many, many people, including myself.

[6:21 PM Every person with clean hands will be welcomed at the table of Jesus and can go to it and be free of any fear of rejection (“not Lord, Lord . . .”). But the most joyful at the table will be those who did not have clean hands before, but who have come to have them by the effort of Jesus to clean them for them. They will be the saints, the ones made clean by faith in Jesus Christ, just as described. All the people there will be the righteous, and perhaps that will include Mohammed--I cannot judge. But those whose hands are not clean will be afraid to go to the door and ask to join the party, and so they will forever remain outside, their fear having overwhelmed them, for they know their hands are unclean. Paul himself speaks of people who are naturally good and naturally do what the law commands. They are like children who are without guile.]

6:28 PM I am a Muslim. I claim that title in the following understanding. I have examined the claims of several religions and sincerely believe that I have found the truth, and for several reasons:

1. Islam, Christianity and Mormonism cannot be distinguished in terms of pedigree, and if any were truth the others would be false, and so at least 2 are false (and conceivable all three). All three could be frauds.

2. Christianity corresponds in its vital core (which may have died out, except conceptually, by the time of Constantine) to what Kant’s has convincingly presented as the religion of pure reason (when pure reason is being practical) i.e., it fits the bill, although it is conceivable that another religion could arise that would match it in this regard. That is not excluded. But neither Islam nor Mormonism matches this ideal religion of pure reason (when practical).

3. What the gospel (as presented by Paul) promises has been accomplished in my soul and so I am convinced also of the stories of countless people, like Saint Francis and John Wesley and hence then also of Paul.

4. No like validation is possible of either Mormonism or Islam, for there all we can do is to experience our own conformity to doing as we sincerely believe that we have been told, like a child who is mindful of minding and doing as he has been told, i.e., which is no experience at all except of being sincere in one belief, but that is true of all faiths. With all due respect: Don Quixote was sincere, as was John Locke’s “glass man”.*

[* The nature of the Islamic Muslim is to find the reward and this nature never changes. In contrast the nature of the Christian muslim is to have given up any concern for any reward, thinking to have already gained the reward, and to act per the call of the three loves of Christ. It is this relinguishing of the concern for reward that constitutes the experience and validation of the Christian muslim. Added 2/24/04]

I am a Muslim. I have made a diligent search and I am sincerely convinced of the truth of Paul’s revelation and I seek to live out that sincerity in all of my life.

I am fortunate by having been raised a Christian, for I was able to witness the change in my own life, my own new birth into eternal life, and was thereby able to more easily validate Paul’s gospel and come to realize that I was indeed a Muslim and that I was following the guidance of God. A person who was raised as an Islamic Muslim would lack that perspective of personal validation of this message of Paul and so would have to rely of the reports of others, which ultimately also is hear-say with varying degrees of conformity unless you are lucky enough to know and trust a Paulian and can witness his spirit yourself.

6:56 PM An added attraction of the Christian faith over the Islamic is the simplicity of the guidance of God for the Christian, lying entirely and totally in the (at first very difficult) commitment to the three loves of Christ in accordance with one’s sincere understanding and belief as to what is medicine and what is poison. This, in my opinion also adds to the glory of God who can demonstrate his ability in showing how all of my own stumblings in these three loves are utilized and made to accomplish their purpose of good, even though we can not imagine how and will have to await the disclosures in heaven.

7:05 PM Kant makes short shrift of the atonement objection in Religion. He appeals to the spirit of a person and distinguishes that from the practices of the person (which will be limited by perceived opportunity). He is naturally evil (self serving) and infinitely so (in his spirit) and thus deserves infinite punishment. Then he experiences the new birth and now he is naturally good (giving without the math), at least in presumption and will actually become so in time. Now his goodness is infinite (limited only by perceived opportunity) and desires infinite happiness. The infinite evil of the “old man” is wiped out by the willingness of the man in the new birth to do good regardless of costs and thus who is expected to suffer infinitely in the evil world as a result of his commitment to good and what is decent and loving, and who dedicates himself to doing so without objection to the sufferings which will come to him in the person of the “new man” and without claiming any credit for the good that he now does. I.e., he does good now as a duty (and expect to eventually do good as a love). The anticipated sufferings of the new man for the deserved sufferings of the old man. Without complaint. Without boast.