HINDUISM
********************
It
shouldn’t surprise us that Rome can incorporate Hinduism into the fold,
for she
too has many saints.
Golf
not going well? Pray to St Nicklaus.
Television
on the blink? St Ophthalmia is the one.
Got
the sniffles? St Whoever will hear your prayer!
There
is an interceding saint on hand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It
is calculated that there are well over
330 million gods that Hindus can pray
to. Rome has a bit of catching up to do, but she’s not far behind. This
is why
Rome feels that she can only be enriched by the incorporation of
Hinduism into
the One World Religious Ecumenical Movement.
We’ll
look at the aspects of Hinduism through five headings:
1.
Who is God?
2. Who is man?
3. Salvation
4. Behaviour
5.Worship
and see
how they
stand against what God says in His word - the King James Version.
“And the wheel
goes round
and round and round like an ox treading the corn in circles with no
hope for
their sins. Death must seem a release...”
BACKGROUND
*About four
hundred years
before Christ, India was conquered by people (Ayrans) which had
developed the
Greek culture.
* Hinduism
developed with
lots of gods (Ayran imported and homegrown) mixed in with the various
indigenous Indian traditions of meditation.
* Hindus can be:
1.
Self negating ascetics
2.
Pious worshippers of a god
3.
Men of the world.
* Traditionally,
Hinduism isn’t missionary minded.
*
There
are three
main branches:
1.
The Sikh religion attempts to
unite Islam and Hinduism.
2.
Jainism is the most ancient,
pre-Ayran type of Hinduism.
3.
In the West, Hinduism is represented
by Advaita Vedanta which has the inmost self joining an
impersonal,
ultimate god.
WHO IS GOD?
There
are millions.
1.
The chief of all gods is Shiva,
a fierce figure who represents both the creative and destructive sides
of
divinity.
2.
Vishnu appears as a man many times
throughout history in order to bring a message of salvation to men. Two
of
these appearances have been in the form of Rama (a benevolent king) and
Krishna
(impetuous, violent and erotic).
3.
They are all seen as manifestations
of the one supreme being - Brahman. He desires the salvation of all
men, but
being completely above all creation, he is impersonal and uninvolved
with life
on earth.
4.
Because Hindu gods are not
accountable to man, they have shed restraints and are often depicted
with
sexual imagery.
What’s
God got to say about all this?
“...I am the
first, and I
am the last, and beside me there is no God” Isaiah 44:6
Comment: Someone’s
right. It’s
either or! Can’t have a foot in both camps. “...choose you this day
whom you
will serve...”
WHO IS MAN?
Hinduism
believes the
material universe is not the creation of a personal loving God but an
impersonal, unconscious emanation from a removed and impersonal
Brahman.
It has no beginning, no end, it’s an unreal and an illusion.
Brahman is
the only reality.
The universe
goes in
mega-cycles - being created and destroyed every 4 billion years.
Mankind is
also seen as having no beginning or no end but goes through and endless
series
of re-incarnations. All present suffering is the result of being paid
back for
ones karma - which is the accumulation of deeds of past lives. Any
present evil
will be repaid back in future lives. Hinduism does very little in the
way of
social welfare to alleviate the sufferings of its citizens. They play
out the
horror of their lives, being prisoners on a never ending “Ferris wheel”
of
trying to save oneself. Life is basically painful and full of distress
being
controlled by the supreme impersonal Brahman who is removed from people.
What’s
God got to say about all this?
“So God
created man in his
own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created
he
them.” Genesis 1:27
“What is
man... thou hast
made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and
honour...” Psalm 8:4-5
Comment:
Brahman is impersonal and uncaring but the Christian God made and cares
for his
creation and gives man the only way out - Jesus Christ.
SALVATION
The only hope
for the Hindu
is to somehow escape this endless torture of birth, death and re-birth
by
dissolving somehow into the unimaginable depths of Brahman. Hindus are
given 4
yogas to help them:
1.
Jnana yoga (the way of knowledge) -
salvation through philosophy and the mind to grapple with the unreality
of the
universe.
2.
Bhakti yoga (the way of devotion or
love) - salvation through the ecstatic worship of a divine being
3.
Karma yoga (the way of action) -
salvation by performing personal works without thought of gain.
4.
Raja yoga (the way of the royal
road) - salvation provided through meditation.
What’s
God got to say about all this?
“All we like
sheep have
gone astray; and turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on him
the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6
“... that God
was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses to
them...” 2 Corinthians 5:19
“For God so
loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in
him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
“For by grace
are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not
of works,
lest any man should boast ”
Comment:
Simple
isn’t it? You can pay for your own sins or turn to Jesus and trust that
he paid
for them. Satan is a hard taskmaster!
BEHAVIOUR
It is
desirable under
Hinduism that as one gets older, the wants and urges of life will fade
and
hopefully you can renounce all worldly possessions. The pinnacle of
Hinduism
resides in “renouncing the fruits of your labors”. The horrors and
inequalities
of the Indian caste system lies in the notion of karma, which relegates
the
majority of people to poverty and subservience. Ingrained in the minds
of all
is that all human suffering is deserved.
What’s God got
to say about
all this?
“ I am
crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ...”
Galatians 2:20
“ Neither
yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield
yourselves unto
God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of
righteousness unto God ” Roman 6:13
“ But the
fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance...” Galatians 5:22-23
Comment: I guess we
can do it the
hard way and in our own strength - the Hindu way, or we can get with
God’s
program - stop fighting Him and do it His way!
Hindus have
the notion that
they can acquire the necessary "spiritual brownie points" to escape
their grinding wheels of re-incarnations. This is obtained by contact
with all
manner of holy objects and persons. Houses and villages are well
stocked with
holy animals of cows, monkeys and snakes and their idol
representations. Rivers
are thought to be holy (e.g. the Ganges) and one can improve one’s
karma by
bathing in them. Holy men are highly revered and serving and
worshipping them
will have some of their holiness ‘rub off’ and be an aid to salvation.
What’s God got
to say about
all this?
“Wherefore
God hath
also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name: That
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ...and that every tongue
should confess
that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians
2:9-11
Comment:
Man!
Ain’t
Hinduism just plain hard work? Of course it has to be, as it’s man’s
way and
not God’s.
No wonder they
feel right
at home with the Roman Catholics and vice versa - they both have a
system of
good works for salvation, not knowing at the end of their life if
they’ve been
good enough. The Catholics, although not advocating re-incarnation as
such,
have their own "treading water" scenario with purgatory, whereby fire
will purge out remaining sins.
The One World
Ecumenical
Church Movement being headed up by the Catholics have only one criteria
for
entry - "Be obsessed with your own internal purity!" Hinduism and
Roman Catholicism (indeed Moslems, Christadelphians, Mormons, SDA’s,
JW’s, and
any other religion that won’t profess the blood atonement of Christ as
full and
sufficient to be received by faith alone) are what you can call DIY’s =
"Do It Yourselfer’s".
It started
back with Cain
and Abel. Cain was the "Roman Catholic"- the original DIY’er getting
rejected for his righteousness before God but Abel was the equivalent
of the
blood washed Christian and it’s been the same ever since.
Dear Friend,
do you know
God or should I say “Does God know you?” If you died right now where
would you
go? The Bible says that there are only two places when you die.
“...it
is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” Hebrews
9:27.
You have to admire the Hindus - so dedicated and so sincere, but sincerely wrong! I call them “Satan’s martyrs” - hell here on earth and then hell for all eternity. Little do they know that earth will be the closest thing to heaven they’ll ever know, and after this, they’ll scream forever in the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
By Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
