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.
Home