World Religions

This school session I’m taking a course in world religions that covers Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Indigenous religions, and Buddhism. I am finding it fascinating! The truth is though, it’s too light for me. I wish I were taking a whole semester or more on each religion! Taking them all in just eight weeks is a very brief overview, that’s all.

As part of my course, I had to interview a Hindu priest at a temple not too far from my home. That was so interesting! Many of you told me on Facebook that you’re praying for that young priest and are sure I witnessed effectively to him. Well, the truth is, I didn’t witness at all! I had a list of questions my professor gave us all to ask, and it took all my time just to go through those questions! But my time there really awakened an interest in me to know more about Hinduism and to interact with Hindus. As I’ve thought about this, I’ve realized that in over 40 years of being a Christian and witnessing to so many people, I’ve really only talked to very few Hindus or Buddhists, maybe 2 or 3 of each, can you believe it? There just aren’t that many of them here in the States, or at least, I just haven’t run into many. Now that I’ve studied a bit, maybe I’ll run into more. I hope so! I know where some work near here, so maybe in the future I’ll be able to figure out a way to talk with them.

Actually, there were a few Hindu concepts that I sort of liked and agreed with. For example, the priest said we are all affected by our experiences, our past, our intellectual abilities, our heritage, etc., and that affects how we “see” God and come to Him. I agree with that. I also agreed with Hindu non-violence and respect for all living things.

We’ll study Hinduism next week in more detail, so hopefully, I’ll find out more. But over the last two weeks, we’ve studied Judaism and Buddhism. Again, in all my years as a Christian, I’ve only witnessed to a very few Jews and a very few Buddhists. I’ve dealt more with JWs, Mormons, and garden-variety American heathens, or unsaved Catholics, atheists, etc.

The studies of Judaism were rather sad. We learned there are four main streams of Judaism, the Reformed, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionists. There are some things we could relate with in the first three, but mostly they rely too much on human reason and try to adapt their religion to modern times too much. The Orthodox are very religious and miss the point, in my view, and the Reconstructionists, they don’t even say you have to believe in God or the scriptures! It’s so sad to think that the people who had the greatest privileges and the greatest revelation from God are today as lost as any Hindu, Muslim, or atheist!

I found Buddhism to be the religion I was most attracted to. If I were not a Christian, I might have gone into Buddhism. I found out that Buddha himself, in the earliest days, taught a philosophy more than a religion. There’s no god in Buddhism. There’s only enlightenment, that everyone can seek on their own. What I liked about Buddhism was that it emphasized things like humility, self-denial, non-violence, and developing character. What they pursue is admirable in some ways. Of course, I think Buddha is more a legend than a reality. They have made him out to be more than he probably was, and many mistakenly worship him, though he himself was against that sort of thing.

I liked the fact that Buddhists believe they have three “gems” – Buddha, the dharma or teaching he left, and the sangha or congregation of Buddhists. Well, we have Jesus, the Gospel, and the Church! I think the way Buddhists seek to be better people is a great thing, but it saddens me that they think we have to live maybe millions of lives to achieve nirvana. I believe that because of Christ, and His Word, we know that we only live one life, and then we pass on to the final judgment. If we’re in Christ, we’ll enter nirvana for sure, the eternal bliss of being with our Lord and Savior!

I’ve also been studying Biblical Hebrew this session, and will continue that into the next sessions as well. I studied Greek as an undergraduate. These biblical languages are hard to study. It’s tedious and requires that I do a lot of exercises just like when I used to study math. But I’ve always wanted to study Hebrew, and I’m so pleased to be able to do it now. In only 4 weeks, I’ve gotten to the point where I can sound out the words and translate some short Bible verses. It’s really great!

I’ve been working on a series of teachings on the “facets” of salvation which I hope to start bringing you soon. I want to show how we’ve been saved, and one day, we’re going to be saved, but right now, we’re in the process of being saved every day. I also want to show some insights I got from my study of the Middle Ages and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Different parts of the body of Christ have seen and emphasized different aspects of salvation over the centuries, and the truth is, all of them have some value for us to study and know about. Please stay tuned. I’ll probably bring these studies in video or audio format within a week or so.

One thing coming up for me that you might pray about is a research paper I have to do for World Religions. I need to write a study of one of the religions and how to present the Christian message most effectively to believers of that religion. Pray for me to choose the right one, will you? I would really like to write about all of them, but there won’t be enough time.

Well, I wrote this just to update those of you who pray for us and are interested in where God is taking us. Let me know how I can pray for you, or what you’ve been learning or thinking about recently, will you?

Blessings,

Warren