QUAKERS The SOCIETY OF FRIENDSwas founded by George FOX (1624-91 who stressed the work of the Holy Spirit in every person rather than the rituals of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND. His followers were called Quakers because of their body movements when the Spirit moved them. They have no priests or ministers since they believe in the priesthood of all believers (see ROYAL PRIESTHOOD). They gather in silence in very simple meeting houses, and when the Spirit moves them anyone (regardless of race, sex, or creed) is free to speak, pray, or offer a reading. This often means they have a fluid doctrine of the Bible as the Word of God. Except for the Ohio grouping of Friends, who are Evangelical in doctrine, Quakers have no ministers for the conduct of their services. All Quakers are totally opposed to war (see PACIFISM) but they serve with great courage with the ambulance services in the front lines.

QUANTA Physicists tell us that tables and chairs, other people, and we ourselves are nothing but unpredictably dancing quanta (bundles of energy). But that does not explain why each species of spider still makes exactly the same web pattern after millions of years. If quanta are so chaotic, why don't whales disintegrate into plankton? There must be some principle other than chaos and chance that is at work. Paul explained that the Son of God was responsible for ordering our world. "All things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17). It is always hazardous to put theology into scientific language. But I picture my Lord and Friend writing the specifications for each of the four billion genes which are needed for life. Those genes (recently mapped in the genome project) are a constant in our world. Quantum theory also includes the fact that quanta, however far apart, can interact and influence one another. This may explain how my prayer energy quanta can influence others at a distance And obviously the immense energies of the Son of God will be intervening again and again in our lives.

QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT It is now proved that particles of energy/matter can interact with one another regardless of how far apart they are. The communication (say of two photons) can be instantaneous, without being limited to the speed of light, and it can happen through several thick sheets of metal without any distortion. The phenomenon was predicted by Einstein (1935) but he rejected it as impossible. By 1982 scientists knew it was a fact, but over the past 20 years it seems no one can explain it. One wrote "What is going on here remains a topic of heated debate; so much so that it seems that for any conclusion on the matter reached by one scholar, one can find another to vehemently contradict it. However, there is one thing that almost all commentators agree on: There has to be something pretty strange going on here." But without understanding the physics of why the entanglement happens, Google offers thousands of web entries on how quantum entanglement could be used in cryptography, long distance communications, and the design of super-computers.

QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT and Prayer In June 2003 I found that Google listed 38,800 web entries on the inexplicably strange phenomenon of Quantum Entanglement. But I found it even stranger that when I checked the first 300 of these articles and reports not one of them even hinted that this phenomenon might be of theological interest. At least QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT proves that the idea of prayer influencing situations at a distance can no longer be called unscientific. See DEMYTHOLOGIZING.

QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT and Resurrection Atheists have always denied life after death as a scientific impossibility. But the phenomenon of QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT suggests that the quantum states of our body in this world could be "entangled" elsewhere. That does not prove our Christian view of the RESURRECTION. But if we believe in God as CREATOR the reconstitution of our body is not a logical impossibility. For a parabolic account of how this can pictured see "My Android Helen."

QUEEN OF SHEBA (modern Sab'a) The Sabeans were SHEMITES (Genesis 10:7) from the area which is now called Yemen. Their caravans traded up and down the west coast of Arabia and up into Syria (Psalm 72:15, Isaiah 45:14, 60:6, Jeremiah 6:20, Ezekiel 27:22, 38:13, Joel 3:8). Job was told that they had carried off his oxen and donkeys (Job 1:15). For the Queen of Sheba to come to Jerusalem would have been a 1500 mile (2400 km) journey requiring at least two months of hard travel by camel each way. But Solomon had a fleet of ships built in the port of Ezion Geber (present day Elath) to sail down the Gulf of Aquaba and the Red Sea to ports in Yemen and on to India (1 Kings 9:26-28, see 10:11). The next verse tells us that "the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon" and she came to see him.. It is possible she came by ship to Ezion Geber, and she would only have needed a week's journey by camel to Jerusalem. The purpose of her visit was to "test him with hard questions" and having heard his wisdom and seen the splendor of his palace "there was no more spirit in her." Jesus suggests she was a woman of faith (Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31), and she is recorded as saying "Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel (1 Kings 10:1-9). Queen Candace whose kingdom was across the Red Sea from Yemen allowed her treasurer to come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he came to faith on the road to Gaza (Acts 8:27).

QUILT Making A woman reported to her quilting group "I was just going to start a new quilt when my husband said 'let's go on a trip.' We had never been on a holiday before, so I threw the quilting materials, the needles and threads and scissors, into my drier, and we left before he could change his mind. A month later we got back and I opened up the drier and found this quilt. It is exactly the design I had planned. My husband said a rat must have shorted the wires and the quilt was made, like our world, by chance evolution. In a month you get 45,000 revolutions of a drier, and if you have enough chance anything can happen. First the scissors cut the right pieces, then the needles were threaded and kept going through to join up the pieces, and they made exactly the pattern of quilt you had planned. I think my husband's got a lot faith to believe that could have happened by chance" (see EVOLUTION, and "The Cake")

QUMRAN see DEAD SEA SCROLLS

QUR'AN (Koran) MUSLIMSbelieve that the Qur'an is the faithful revelation by the angel GABRIEL through the prophet MUHAMMAD of a tablet of God's Word in heaven. It was written in Arabic, and only the original Arabic text is viewed as the very Word of God (ACTS 2:8-11 would be unthinkable). There is a first chapter followed by 114 suras arranged according to length with the shortest at the end. Every sura (except the ninth concerning  jihad) begins with "In the name of God, the merciful, the Compassionate." Many other sayings of the prophet were collected in the hadith (traditions) which are also viewed as authoritative for faith and practice. We can contrast the fact that the Bible was brought into being by the providence of God through dozens of different writers over a period of fourteen centuries. The QUR'ANclaims to have been dictated by God to one man over a period of 22 years, and it is only viewed as effective in the original classical Arabic of 600 AD. The equivalent would be a translation of the Bible into Anglo-Saxon, whereas our Scriptures are continually being translated and updated into over 600 languages and many new versions.
 

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