Every day, before I take a group out on a tour I need to consider whether we'll be visiting any holy places, so that I can advise them to wear long trousers for men, skirts below the knees for women and shoulders covered for everyone because these things are considered unholy and the wearer will be forbidden to enter the holy place, a church, mosque or synagogue.
One could even visit several holy places in one day and not enter any of them because he or she isn't dressed properly..
But is it really correct to declare many places holy? Isn't there after all, only one holy place, namely the holy place is the place that God has chosen to reveal Himself to human beings and He only chose one place.
It's preposterous to think that every time we build a church, synagogue or mosque we have a new holy place. Because we and not God decide that the church, synagogue or mosque we've built is where He should reveal Himself.
How dare we mortals decide where God should or should not appear. What kind of a God can He be if He doesn't choose His own holy place?
Of course there can be only one holy place. That is the one He chose and he hasn't even told us where that place is. All we know is that somewhere on this planet there is a place that God has chosen for His holy place and we don't know where it is.
The churches, mosques and synagogues we have built aren't His holy places because firstly there can be only one holy place and secondly the fact that humans have built it disqualifies it.
Take the Dome of the Rock for example; According to the Moslems that is God's holy place. The Jews aren't sure, they also think it mighit be God's holy place but Jews consider that it might be somewhere else. Moslems are dogmatic about it and even consider it blasephemous to suggest that it's not His holy place.
We have a way of speaking about holy places that makes one think that each religion has its own holy place. But this is absured, because if there is only one God and only He can choose His holly place, He's only chosen one holy place.
So we should change our way of speaking; instead of saying "The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Christian holy place" we should say "According to the Christians the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is God's holy place." According to the Moslems the Dome of the Rock is God's holy place."
Saying these things like this we sharpen the subject of the conflict between Jews, Christians and Moslems. Instead of using semantics to hide conflict among the religions we should use semantics to clarify the conflict, that way we might reach a concerted opinion acceptable to all, namely that nobody knows where is God's holy place. All are wrong in claiming this or that place as holy. God Himself doesn't want man to know His holy place because as you can see we end up with never ending conflict where there shouldn't be any confluct at all.
One could even visit several holy places in one day and not enter any of them because he or she isn't dressed properly..
But is it really correct to declare many places holy? Isn't there after all, only one holy place, namely the holy place is the place that God has chosen to reveal Himself to human beings and He only chose one place.
It's preposterous to think that every time we build a church, synagogue or mosque we have a new holy place. Because we and not God decide that the church, synagogue or mosque we've built is where He should reveal Himself.
How dare we mortals decide where God should or should not appear. What kind of a God can He be if He doesn't choose His own holy place?
Of course there can be only one holy place. That is the one He chose and he hasn't even told us where that place is. All we know is that somewhere on this planet there is a place that God has chosen for His holy place and we don't know where it is.
The churches, mosques and synagogues we have built aren't His holy places because firstly there can be only one holy place and secondly the fact that humans have built it disqualifies it.
Take the Dome of the Rock for example; According to the Moslems that is God's holy place. The Jews aren't sure, they also think it mighit be God's holy place but Jews consider that it might be somewhere else. Moslems are dogmatic about it and even consider it blasephemous to suggest that it's not His holy place.
We have a way of speaking about holy places that makes one think that each religion has its own holy place. But this is absured, because if there is only one God and only He can choose His holly place, He's only chosen one holy place.
So we should change our way of speaking; instead of saying "The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the Christian holy place" we should say "According to the Christians the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is God's holy place." According to the Moslems the Dome of the Rock is God's holy place."
Saying these things like this we sharpen the subject of the conflict between Jews, Christians and Moslems. Instead of using semantics to hide conflict among the religions we should use semantics to clarify the conflict, that way we might reach a concerted opinion acceptable to all, namely that nobody knows where is God's holy place. All are wrong in claiming this or that place as holy. God Himself doesn't want man to know His holy place because as you can see we end up with never ending conflict where there shouldn't be any confluct at all.
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