On Iran, Venezuela, and the Gnostic Gospels

Hey everyone!
Unless you have been living in hole this past week, you probably know that Hugo Chavez from Venezuela and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from Iran were in New York to speak at the UN and and various other places. You probably also heard the things that they said regarding President Bush. During His UN speach, Chavez called President Bush as 'the Devil" and remarked that there was still the smell of sulfur at the podium where the president had stood the day before. Later, at a church in Harlem, he repeated his attack adding that Bush is an alcoholic cowboy who became President because his father was President.Ahmadinejad prayed for the destruction of the world through the coming of the twelfth immam which he claims will be within the next two years. He also said in an interview with Brian Roberts of MSNBC that He does not beleive that the Holocaust ever happenend, that the "Zionists" made it up so that they could invade Palestine
My thoughts... Chavez is a buffoonish clown, who is simply repeating what many on the far left in this country have been saying for years "Bush is Hitler, Bush is Satan, Bush is the AntiChrist, Bush is a murderer, Bush is a liar, Bush is drunk, blah blah blah" He does not concern me nearly as much as Ahmadinejad does. Ahmadinejad is a well spoken anti-Semite who does not come across like a raving madman. Also Iran has something that Venezuela does not have--nuclear capabilities. he could very easily threaten Isreal with Nuclear weapons, and that frightens me.

Now for something completely different
One of my assigned texts in my Christian History class this semester was The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels. Ms Pagels is a woman who basically says that the Cannonical Scriptures of the New Testament today are anti women and that the Gnostic Texts should carry as much credence as the New Testament, and that each of the essential doctrines of the New Testament were accepted for political resaons (Think Dan Brown, only Female) I The first doctrine that Pagels discusses in The Gnostic Gospel was the bodily ressurection of Jesus Christ from the grave. The Gnostic taught that these accounts of the disciples seeing Jesus were actually "visions received in dreams or in ecstatic trances" (Pagel,The Gnostic Gospels, p 15) The Gnostics rejected the claim that Jesus rose from the grave as "a faith of fools" (Pagel p 11).Lets take a look at what the Bible says about Christ's ressurection. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-17, The Apsotle Paul States

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some
among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen,
then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found
false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up
Christ:whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if
the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Who will you believe? Elaine Pagels, or the Almighty God? I Beleive God. I Believe His unerring Word. I Believe that Jesus Christ, God in the Flesh, The Son of God and God Himself, died on a Roman cross for My sins and that He defeated Sin and Death and Hell by Rising again on the third day. He is just as risen today as he was when walked out of the tomb!

Low in the Grave He Lay
Jesus, my Jesus
DEATH COULD NOT KEEP HIS PREY
JESUS MY LORD!!!!

UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE!
WITH A MIGHTY TRIUMPH O'ER HIS FOES
HE AROSE A VICTOR O'ER THE DARK DOMAIN
AND HE LIVES FOREVER WITH HIS SAINTS TO REIGN
HE AROSE! HE AROSE! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)
CHRIST AROSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HE IS RISEN !!!!!


God Bless and have a great day!