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
