Download Other Religions

Other Religions
Sunday 2nd November 2014
What does God look like ?
• This is the question
1 Corinthians 8 - The NT Context
• For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on
earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
• yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all
things came and for whom we live;
• and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all
things came and through whom we live.
• But not everyone possesses this knowledge……..
Zeus
Father of Gods and men,
the King of the Gods,
who oversees the universe
and assigns the other gods their roles
The Hellenic goddess of wild
animals, childbirth, virginity
and protector of young girls,
and women
Artemis or Diana
Nemesis –
Divine vengeance
The spirit of divine retribution
against those who succumb
to hubris (arrogance before
the gods).
Christian attitudes ?
• ‘Other religions are demonically inspired’
• ‘We must show toleration to those of other faiths – dialogue
not denial’
Size of Major Religious Groups, 2012
Christianity
Muslim
Atheist/agnostic
Hindu
Buddhist
Ethnic/tribal
Chinese folk
Jewish
Pew Research Center, 2012[2]
2.1 billion
1.6 billion
1.0 billion
1.0 billion
400 million
400 million
400 million
14 million
31.5%
23.2% N Africa/ W Asia
16.3%
15.0%
India
7.0%
East Asia
7.0%
Africa
7.0%
China
0.2%
Israel
Hinduism
India
Idols and temples
300 million+ gods
Caste discrimination
Holy cows
Colourful
Nationalistic politics
Buddhism
China
Idols of Buddha
Demons
Temples
Prayer flags
Iconography
Monks &
Monasteries
Islam
Uzbekistan/Turkey
Mosques
Minarets
Madrassas
Covered women
No images in mosques
Political dimension
Hinduism
Many texts
No one founder
3 main gods but
millions of others
Escape reincarnation
Salvation from rebirth
(nirvana) not sin
Saved by good works
Various sects/beliefs
Buddhism
Thousands of
Scriptures
The Buddha
No supreme being
Islam
The Koran (and use of
part of the Bible)
Prophet Mohammed
No god but Allah
Enlightenment
Salvation from
suffering (our desires)
Saved by self denial
and keeping precepts
Theravada, Mahayana
Resurrection
Salvation from
judgment
Saved by obedience
(the 5 pillars)
Sunnis, Shias, Sufis
Hinduism
Buddhism
Brahman is indescribable No absolute being
Brahman is the source
All is change
Brahman is wisdom
Non violence
Brahman is beauty
Islam
God is Great
God is One
God is the creator
God is merciful (to
the just)
Brahman is incarnated in
various animal forms
Brahman is not personal,
more an ocean in which
humans may be drops
But a Judge not a
Father
Not in relationship
with human beings
Buddha is
worshipped
Some worship
many gods/idols
How can there be only one true faith?
• ‘It’s arrogant to say your religion is the only true one and try to convert
everyone else to it. Surely all the religions are equally good and valid for
meeting the needs of their particular followers’
• ‘Religious exclusivity or fundamentalism is not just narrow – it’s dangerous.
Religion has led to untold strife, divisions and conflict. It is the greatest
enemy of peace in the world’
• Therefore, religious people are seen as:
• intolerant
• arrogant
• potentially violent
Can they all be ‘true’?
• I take it that a religion which claims to be following the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth must….think that
the other religions are, for all their holiness and worship,
mistaken
Bernard Levin (agnostic)
• The great religions differ in their beliefs and none of them believe
that their different beliefs don’t matter – that is only believed by nonbelievers in any ‘religion’ who think they have the ‘higher truth’!
Relativism can’t be the absolute truth !
• ‘You only a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Hindu because of the way you
were brought up’
• Thus, all religious claims to have the absolute truth are arrogant and
wrong
• But to claim that all religions have only a relative truth is to make the
claim that you have the one absolute truth ! Is that not arrogant, and
just as likely wrong !
True Christianity
• Real Christians are called to:
• Love their enemies
• Practice forgiveness
• Treat all people equally
• Serve others
• Be peacemakers
• This is not a violent or arrogant religion as defined by its
founder – whereas Islam was spread by military conquest
Is atheism any better ?
• Atheism and the suppression of religion led to the greatest
intolerance, violence and murder in the 20th Century
• Nazism
• Soviet communism
• Maoism in China
• Far more people were killed by these beliefs in the last
century than by the church in all its history
God can be known outside Christianity – in
the heavens
• For since the creation of the world God’s invisible
qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have
been clearly seen, being understood from what has
been made…. Romans 1 : 20
God can be known outside Christianity – in
our hearts
• Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things
required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they
do not have the law.
• They show that the requirements of the law are written on their
hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts
sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them,
on the day when, according to my gospel, God, through Jesus Christ,
will judge the secret thoughts of all.
• Romans 2 : 14-16
The Questions
• The difference between religions is not one of morality
• Is there One High God?
• Is this God holy?
• Are we made in his image?
• Is he gracious and merciful towards our wrong doing?
• If you wished one religion to be true would it be the Christian good news?
Christ Alone ?
Know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the
dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
Peter speaking in Acts 4
What about those who have not heard the
gospel?
• We should not speculate about individuals
• Will not the Judge of all the earth be just ? Gen 18 : 25 (Abraham asking
God about Sodom and Gomorrah)
• People are not saved by their creed but by faith in a merciful God even if
they have not heard of Jesus e.g. Abraham
• There will be a great multitude of every tribe, tongue and nation in heaven
Our attitude to those of other faiths
• Humble – we are all sinners
• Respectful – we are all made in the image of God
• Positive about our faith (not negative about theirs)
• Courageous – willing and able to show our faith – ‘let your light shine
before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your
Father in heaven’ Matthew 5 : 16