Christianity And Eastern Religions
Religions from the East are moving West at
an alarming rate. So today, like never before, all of us need to know
exactly what sets Christianity apart from Eastern philosophy and thought.
There are a lot of eastern religions around
today. Religions like: Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Taoism, etc. And
while they all have their own distinctions they also have a number of
specific beliefs which are mutually exclusive from Christianity. Let's
look at them.
The first distinction has to do with the concept
of God. In eastern thought, God is understood to be an impersonal force
or principle. Now the God of the Bible in sharp distinction is a personal
God, who communicates attributes like love, reason, emotion, and a host
of others.
Another distinction is that in eastern thought,
man is seen as being a part of nature. In fact, man's goal is to become
one with nature because nature is God. So most eastern religions are
pantheistic, believing that "God is all and all is God." Christianity,
on the other hand, teaches that man is a special creation and is very
distinct from nature. The fact is, man is created in the image and likeness
of God Almighty (Gen. 1:26-27).
One last difference involves the method for
apprehending truth. In the east, truth comes through intuition. It's
apprehended apart from the cognitive thinking process. In contrast,
Christianity teaches that truth comes through revelation. God's most
complete revelation is found in the person and through the work of Jesus
Christ who was none other than God Himself in human flesh. The truth,
according to Christianity, is understood with the mind and is then embraced
with the heart. I've long said that the heart cannot fully rejoice in
what the mind does not comprehend. These points, and many others, make
Christianity fundamentally different and incompatible with the religions
of the East - you just can't synthesize them.
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