Lord Jacob now spoke up to support his wife. "All evening long you have been listening to my wife and I speak as if we were one person. From that you might be thinking that we are very similar people, but you couldn't be more wrong. My wife grew up in Northern Minnesota, and I was raised until I was ten in Iraq when my family immigrated to Brooklyn. We could not possibly have more diverse backgrounds. About the only thing we have in common is our type A personalities, and that is something that the prevailing wisdom says couples should not have in common.
"The only way two dissimilar persons can end up with a common purpose, like we have, is through trust. And there is no way that browbeating, nagging or any other form of intimidation can help you. All forms of threats only destroy trust. They can never help build it.
"And there is a great deal of benefit from forging a relationship between dissimilar people, but before we can get into that, we need to look at one other question that we felt needed answering, and that is 'What is the true nature of our relationship with God?' The relationship between husband and wife, and ourselves and God may appear unrelated, but they are not.
"This question actually got answered by looking at the growing popularity of Islam. First of all, you need to see that we are not just jumping on some bandwagon about recognizing the growing threat of Islam. We recognized it almost thirty years ago. We were fascinated by how this very strict and demanding faith was attracting followers, just as other faiths were getting more lenient and less demanding.
"We were even more puzzled by the number women that were converting to it. We could understand why a woman raised in it might stay in it, but convert to it? No way. This made no sense at all.
"After a couple of years of careful thought, we realized that it was right in front of us all along. Can any of you tell me what that might be? Why exactly does Islam attract so many followers?" Sandra Nelson's hand quickly shot up, and Lord Jacob continued, "Go ahead Sandra."
"That's easy, Master Jacob," said Sandra in her southern drawl. "Satan. They are all swayed by Satan."
"Satan. Really?" replied Lord Jacob rather incredulously. "You do realize they believe the same thing about you.
"It looks like we need to back up a bit before continuing.
"I am endlessly fascinated by individuals who take complex issues and render them as 'this or that' decisions. Take for instance Ally over here. She has two critical decisions to make in becoming one with God that have to be addressed at the same time. She needs to believe in God, and she needs to decide what faith to follow in understanding God.
"What you have revealed, Sandra, is that you see this a decision between what you believe and Satan. Yet there are thousands of recognized denominations of dozens of major religious teachings, and each one of them filled with people who believe theirs is the right one.
"I ask you Sandra, why should Ally believe in yours over any of the others?"
Sandra appeared very distraught by the question Lord Jacob asked of her. Her mouth opened a couple of times as if she was trying to answer, yet she was clearly unsure of herself, and so rendered speechless.
"I'm sorry, Sandra. I should not have put you on the spot like that. In fact, you are very much not alone in why you believe your religion is the right religion.
"You see, it's perfectly natural to assume that when the wave of grace and glory washes over you when you accept Christ into your life that the religion that introduced this to you must be the right religion. After all, why would God grace your life if that religion were wrong?
"We believe that this is rooted in a misunderstanding about love, or rather a belief that we cannot love someone unless we approve of them. So when we feel God's love we naturally believe He must approve of us, and He must also approve of the religion that introduced Him to us.
"If you think carefully about the relationships you have known in life, you know this to be false. I'm sure you have seen plenty of cases where people have loved the wrong person; who have loved people they should not have because that relationship was bad for them. Approval is clearly not a requirement for love.
"If you are someone like me who has traveled the world, and sat in the homes of people of many different faiths, you will see that God doesn't play favorites. You will see that God loves all of his children. You will then begin to see that maybe God's love doesn't come with any strings attached; that all it takes is to open your heart to Him and He'll be there.
"Consider this; if you choose not to love someone because you do not approve of their behavior, exactly whom have you harmed?" and after a moments pause, he continued, "Yourself. Only yourself. And we believe God is not that stupid. God never withholds His love.
"We, in this kingdom, do not classify religions as right or wrong. That sort of thinking is rather childish. We prefer to classify them as either life enriching or life reducing.
"This gets me back to Islam, which we consider it to be a very life reducing religion. Does anyone have an idea why Islam would have such an attraction?"
Again it was Sandra that raised her hand. "Yes Sandra?"
"Master Jacob, I don't understand what you just said. Don't you consider your religion to be the right religion?" asked Sandra.
After a moments delay, Lord Jacob answered, "It's the right one for me."
Then continuing on, "Sandra, you have much to learn about religion, even about what a religion is. You don't just flip a switch, and now you belong to a particular religion. Religion is something that you come into an understanding of, it is not a decision you make."
Lord Jacob appeared to consider for a moment what to say before continuing. "You don't decide what religion you are going to have is if you are making a right or wrong decision. Your religion guides you to what you to believe to be right or wrong, so in a way, to change your religion, your religion has to be one that is willing to accept a change to a new religion.
"I mean, how do you decide on something that guides you on how you decide on something?" Lord Jacob paused for a moment "I know what I'm saying is confusing, and sounds rather circular, but like I said, you've got a lot to learn."
"Now, back to Islam. What is the attraction it has for so many people?"
Sandra was not raising her arm now, but neither were any of the other girls. Lord Jacob waited for a few moments longer then continued. "I don't blame you. Even we were stumped for many years, until, like I said earlier, we realized that it was staring at us all along.
"Does anyone know what the name Islam means?"
Marcia raised her hand this time, and Lord Jacob nodded towards her. "Master Jacob, Islam translates into submission."
"Very good, Marcia." Lord Jacob replied. "As the name implies, Islam is more focused around the need to submit to God than any other religion. By trying to understand why this is so, it allowed us to finally understand that submission is the true relationship we are to have with Him.
"When you begin to open your heart to God, consciously or unconsciously, you understand that what happens to you is not something you are supposed to dominate, but something you are suppose to submit to. We all must be submissive to God. There is no other way.
"As such, Islam is far more geared to demand that you assume your proper role before God than any other religion. Because of this, it attracts quite a following. People who enter the Muslim faith feel this natural role we are supposed to play, and so it really latches on to them.
"Now just because it emphasizes our proper role with God, that doesn't make it a good choice for people to make. It's like the women you may have known who have loved a physically abusive man. They really do need to get out of their relationship, but they are not emotionally equipped to do so. Islam presents the same sort of problem for its followers.
"From this understanding of Islam, several points can be made from it. The most fascinating I think has to do with Atheists.
"When you look at any group of people, it's hard to make a statement about them that really applies to every single one of them, but there is something you can say for certain about Atheists, and that is they all have a real trouble with submission.
"I'm not talking about Agnostics here. I am talking about the people who proudly state there is no God. These people are not submissive types in anyway. We believe their inability to be submissive is the real hanging point for them to believing in God. Of course, they would never consciously consider this. You would have to believe there is a God before you can believe that an inability to be submissive blocks you from believing in Him.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/2pyg7q/next_generation_christian_kingdom_ch03_marcia