why

[mpaper345]

Religion is not a bad word it is just that people who have bad beliefs say they are a religion and there are so many of them that a lot of people view religion as bad.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world(James 1:27).

God said that pure religion which would be true religion is to care about people in the sufferings and helping people with their needs and allowing the Spirit to lead you so you can be sinless acting like Christ.

Religion is not a bad word if it is God's interpretation of religion and not man's interpretation of religion which will fall short of love for people.All religions fall short of God's religion of love for people and hypocrites are not part of the Christian religion so their misconduct cannot reflect badly on Christianity because they are not a Christian.

Matt

 

[wattie]

Some gnostics, in which I include pre-Christian, prototypical gnostics, believed that it was only by grace that they were given the secret, saving gnosis. Either you were chosen or you weren't - there wasn't a whole lot you could do about it. Other gnostics were ascetics and mortified their own flesh, but others simply relied on grace.

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We can also consider certain sects of Hinduism. It's a common idea that, when the world devolves into sin and the Dharma has been forgotten, God will put on a physical form and restore order. In the Bhagavad Gita 18.66 Krishna, who is an avatar of Vishnu, says:



The idea of surrendering to God, rather than relying on your works, is ishvara pranidhana and taught about, for instance, in Patanjali's yoga. There's a story about a yogi who wanted to know how long it would take him to attain liberation. A messenger from God came down and observed him for a while, finally telling him it would take 1,000 lifetimes. The guy considered himself very holy, so he was miffed. He said he'd try even harder. "Oh," the messenger said, "then it'll take 10,000."

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We can also talk about Bhakti yoga, in which the sole practice is love for God. Some yogis argued that it would be impossible to work to God by yourself, so all you had to do was express gratefulness to God and remember the love that God had for the practitioner. God, whichever one you worshiped, would let down his golden hook and take up the practitioner when he or she was ready.

But what if you didn't worship? You'd go to hell, right? The texts are full of stories of people accidentally showing reverence to the gods. For instance, maybe they'd spill a bit of milk while walking by a statue. Or, if they'd been reborn as a fly, they'd land on an altar. In any case, the gods would take any excuse to elevate someone. Of course, plenty went to hell, but this doesn't mean the gods didn't care.

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I wanted to include nondualists in Hinduism, since Advaita Vedanta is the best example of nondualism in world religion, but nondualism has become more popular in the West without Hindu underpinnings, so this probably wouldn't have been fair. For instance, A Course in Miracles is usually considered to be a nondualist teaching. In any case, in nondualist thought, there have been a lot of avatars of the divine who seek to wake up the ignorant.

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Buddhism does not have any deities per se, and they usually don't have any saviors, but Pure Land Buddhists sort of do. Amida (or Amitabha), created a Pure Land, a place to which your average person could go after death and achieve enlightenment very easily. The practice of monasticism was seen as being too difficult, so he swore that he'd make it much easier by using his own merit on behalf of others. In Jodo Shu, all people have to do is chant "Namu Amida Butsu" which roughly means "I show reverence to Amida Buddha," and they're assured of a rebirth there.

The Japanese have two phrases, joriki, which means "self-power," and tariki, which means "other-power." Joriki is what we're talking about here as bad religion: "I'm going to get to liberation on my own." Tariki means reliance on someone else's strength. Christians aren't the only ones who have noticed this dichotomy.

So do these religions have God or deity actually forgiving sin? Does their deity actually die for their people? Is that forgiveness not dependent on any act of the person except asking for it?

Buddha.. died for no one.. didn't claim to be God
Mohammed.. ditto
Egyptian Gods.. were more like people with great powers than deities and didn't do much for the sin nature of people
Hinduism-- idea of karma and reincarnation is based on behaviour.. trying to 'reach' enlightenment or nirvana

it goes on and on


I don't have to earn my place in heaven.. it is guaranteed by Jesus beause of what He has done for me. Forgiven of all sins past, present and future, by His amazing grace.

Jesus IS God. He is THE way.. THE truth

 

[karuna]

I answered the question as asked. One is free to become exasperated and incoherent if one pleases.

 

[aspen]

Wow - thanks for the information Karuna

Interesting posts.

 

[karuna]

For what it's worth, insisting that somebody die is like asking if somebody died to fix your car. In other religions, there may be other ways of dealing with sin than killing something. It's ok if other religions are similar to Christianity. Jesus can still be correct if another deity sacrificed himself.

 

[loveschild]

We are to have a relationship with God. Not religion.

 

[Lauren]

by wattie:
Christianity is the only belief about the supernatural that has God doing something about our sin.

by Browncoat:
That's not true at all

by Lauren:
Can you give some examples?

I answered the question as asked. One is free to become exasperated and incoherent if one pleases.

I am confused. Was the first part of your answer (re gnostics) to me and the rest to something else? Forgive me, I'm not following.

 

[karuna]

I am confused. Was the first part of your answer (re gnostics) to me and the rest to something else? Forgive me, I'm not following.

I intended to demonstrate that there are a number of religions in which the deity (or some higher power) deals with sin (or some equivalent concept) in his (or her) own way, which isn't necessarily through self-sacrifice. Roughly, there are other religions in which "God does something about our sin."

 

[aspen]

We are to have a relationship with God. Not religion.

Sounds the same as "we should have a relationship with our spouse. Not a marriage."

Religion is the expression of our relationship with God; just like, marriage is the expression of our relationship with our spouse.

Taking the religion out of our relationship with God is like taking language out of writing.

 

[Wootie]

I am one of those lucky (?) ones that God gives the find the hidden words in stuff gift. lol lol
R E L I G I O N -LEGION /S A N T A-SATAN /D E A T H-HATED

You get the point...........

 

[karuna]

RELigION and RELatIONship. Coincidence? I don't think so.

 

[aspen]

RELigION and RELatIONship. Coincidence? I don't think so.

.......Ha!

I see you have the gift....hmmmm

 

[karuna]

"I am one of those" = It's a hoof omen = Satan is at work here.

"lucky ones that God gives" = God, thy evil knots cage us = Someone's religion keeps them in bondage.

"hidden words in stuff gift" = whiff of distending turds = Something stinks here.

"You get the point" = Hot tongue piety = Speaks a mighty fiery doctrine.

"religion" = Ergo I Nil = Behold, I am nothing.

This is fun. o_0

 

[aspen]

"I am one of those" = It's a hoof omen = Satan is at work here.

"lucky ones that God gives" = God, thy evil knots cage us = Someone's religion keeps them in bondage.

"hidden words in stuff gift" = whiff of distending turds = Something stinks here.

"You get the point" = Hot tongue piety = Speaks a mighty fiery doctrine.

"religion" = Ergo I Nil = Behold, I am nothing.

This is fun. o_0

HAHA....I can't stop...oh man

 

[Browncoat]

So do these religions have God or deity actually forgiving sin?

Judaism does. Has the same G-d Christianity does, and that G-d operates completely out of grace and saved people by His grace.

Salvation by grace through faith and NOT of works is not a Christian concept. Judaism has always held to it, long before Christianity.

Does their deity actually die for their people?

This is actually one of the very few concepts that are unique only to Christianity...in most religions, the deity can't die, because, well, a deity that can die is not eternal and is impotent.

Is that forgiveness not dependent on any act of the person except asking for it?

Nope. Again, Judaism teaches the same form of salvation Christians do, minus Yeshua.

 

[aspen]

Judaism does. Has the same G-d Christianity does, and that G-d operates completely out of grace and saved people by His grace.

Salvation by grace through faith and NOT of works is not a Christian concept. Judaism has always held to it, long before Christianity.



This is actually one of the very few concepts that are unique only to Christianity...in most religions, the deity can't die, because, well, a deity that can die is not eternal and is impotent.



Nope. Again, Judaism teaches the same form of salvation Christians do, minus Yeshua.

Actually most ancient religions had forms of human sacrifice. Osiris an Egyptian god died - but not for sins

 

[Browncoat]

Actually most ancient religions had forms of human sacrifice. Osiris an Egyptian god died - but not for sins

Human sacrifice is the death of a deity how?

But you're right, most of the pagan religions did have the death of gods. My mistake.

 

[aspen]

Human sacrifice is the death of a deity how?

But you're right, most of the pagan religions did have the death of gods. My mistake.

They worshiped the sacri.....nevermind

 

[wattie]

On a side note.. there was nothing before christianity. It includes the Old Testament.. and that starts from year zero. Other religions.. like that pagan ones.. many scholars have shown came after the start of the old testament

 

[aspen]

On a side note.. there was nothing before christianity. It includes the Old Testament.. and that starts from year zero. Other religions.. like that pagan ones.. many scholars have shown came after the start of the old testament

The OT is a Jewish text.