SEPT 19 23, 2016
MONDAY Exodus 3:13-15; Isaiah 43:4, 11-12, 15, 25 Who is God? We commence our 2-week series, The Big Questions as Seen by World Religions, with the biggest question: Who is God? It s commonplace to hear, All religions offer similar truth, leading to the same place. But is that true? Are popular religions like-minded regarding the big questions of life? Different faiths generally fall into one of three theological camps: 1) pantheism and its cousins, naturalism and humanism, maintaining that God is everything and everything (including you and me) is god ; or 2) polytheism, featuring multiple gods ; or 3) the alternate view that God is impersonal and distant from creation. Each of these corrupts biblical teaching: 1) God is omnipresent, but exists outside of His Creation; 2) we worship one God, manifested in the Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and 3) God is holy (perfect, transcendent), but came to earth as a Man, seeking close personal relationship with us. Pantheism shows up in: extreme environmentalism, esteeming Mother Earth ; naturalism, embracing evolution as explaining life and the universe; and in expressions like The universe is telling me that Extreme humanists proclaim that I am a god (and so are you), dripping of pantheism. Relativism, maintaining that there are no absolute truths You have your truth and I have mine flows naturally from this. Even atheism harmonizes with pantheism if everything is God, then nothing truly is God and He doesn t exist. Pantheism greatly influences modern cultures and philosophies.
Ancient Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology were polytheistic, as is Hindu. However, so also is Mormonism, wherein Father God is a self-actualized former human, Jesus is a lesser god and the Holy Spirit is yet another god. Mormonism meets humanism in maintaining that faithful Mormons can become gods of their own solar systems. Muslims claim that they worship the biblical God; however, their Allah is impersonal, distant and unknowable. In Hindu and Buddhism, Nirvana is the ultimate god state complete disconnection from physical life and its concerns. Even Judaism recognizes only God the Father and sees Him as unknowable to all but select prophets. Were I God I d obliterate all who embrace such misrepresentations. Fortunately for all, I am not God (and neither are you)! QUESTION What is pantheism and what does it maintain? What major world religions are rooted in pantheism? Is Islam s Allah the living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? PRAYER Ask God to grant you greater capacity to understand Him and His ways so that you might love Him more fully and be more effective in witnessing to others.
TUESDAY John 1:1-5, 9-14; Hebrews 1:1-3 Who is Jesus? The answer to the question that Jesus asked the apostles in Mark 8:29, Who do you say that I am? divides between Christianity and all else. Christianity alone is where God seeks humankind, coming in human flesh to pay the wages of sin and satisfy His holiness, thereby providing the only means for forgiveness of sins and salvation. (John 14:6) Religions are where people reach for God, however they define god, seeking to earn salvation via merit and works. You might be surprised as to how each major world religion answers Jesus question in Mark 28:9. The Hindu views Jesus as a manifestation of their supreme deity, Vishnu. To them, Christianity is simply one subset of greater Hindu religious reality. Scientology likewise allows for Christianity among its adherents, agnostically subordinating such beliefs to greater truth. Muslims revere Jesus as the second-to-last human prophet, a created being inferior only to Allah and Muhammad; they believe His message is corrupted by Christians. To Jews, Jesus was a rebellious rabbi with some good teaching but misguided theology. Jehovah s Witnesses see Jesus as the son of God but not God the Son; the JW Jesus was the first created being who pre-existed as the Archangel
Michael, restored as Michael post-resurrection. For Mormons, Jesus was spirit-brother to every human, along with the angels and even Satan, not eternal but created Jesus is one of an endless number of gods. Buddhists, like many humanists and modernists, see Jesus as a good man or a great teacher, but not God or Savior. (No one can say) the really foolish thing that people often say about Him (that) Jesus was a great moral teacher, but I don t accept His claim to be God. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic (or) the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this Man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. Let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. (C. S. Lewis) Who do you say Jesus is? Know anybody who disagrees with you? QUESTION What s a key difference between Christianity and religion? Do any of the religions have an accurate, biblical view of Jesus Christ? Why is it offensive to hear, Jesus was a good man, a great moral teacher? PRAYER Pray that God bring to mind friends, coworkers and others who feel that they are Christian, yet hold unbiblical views of who Jesus is. Ask Him for an increased empathy for these people, for a heart and opportunity to lovingly share Christ with them.
WEDNESDAY 2 Timothy 3:16 17; Galatians 1:6-12; Revelation 22:18-19 Holy Book(s) A leading way to try to discredit Christianity is to attack the Bible s validity. I ve heard such things as, It was written by men (who are fallible and have agendas), or It takes stories from other religions, cultures, and mythology, or It s outdated (backed by examples of outdated laws of ancient Israel), or It has been corrupted through the years due to translation errors It s beyond the scope of one devotional to defend the Bible, but we can survey which book(s) the various prominent world religions consider holy. For Buddhists the teachings of Lord Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha (via various sources) are considered key doctrine. True to its polytheism, Hindu counts the Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Vishnu Purana, and also the Bible and the Qur an as holy. Open-minded humanists and nice people may tend to think this way also Truth and useful teaching can come from many religious sources. Scientologists revere the various books of founder L. Ron Hubbard while seeing truth as relative, discovered individually by progressing Scientologists. Islam touts the Qur an as Allah s word and final revelation, dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel. For Muslims, the Bible is corrupted. The religious Jew reveres the Tanakh (including the Torah, the Law and
instruction; the Nevi im, the prophets; and the Ketuvim, the writings) as holy. Judaism also emphasizes devotion to the Talmud (added laws and traditions) and halakhah (additional laws/commandments). Jehovah s Witnesses embrace their New World Translation as the only legitimate Bible, though Charles T. Russell s writings are key and The Watchtower is a source of doctrine. LDS (Mormon) church founder Joseph Smith maintained that he received an exclusive, personal revelation from the angel Moroni in 1820 to correct the corruptions of the church. The Mormon Bible version is the only correct translation among LDS members, though it is superseded by the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. Why all of this variety? Do they indeed share similar truths, harmonizing accordingly? Were I the enemy, I d promote a great variety of beliefs, holy books, etc. too much variety can confuse. Then I d push for, Pick any of these they re all pretty much the same anyway. QUESTION Why are there so many different holy books? Why might this fit with the enemy s strategy? What religions claim to be Christian, yet deny Christ s deity and supplement the Bible with other holy and inspired sources? PRAYER Ask God to strengthen your passion for reading the Bible. Pray for an increased thirst for God s Word, not so that you can impress others, but so that you can draw closer to the LORD.
THURSDAY Genesis 1; Colossians 1:16-20 Creation I can sometimes become so familiar with certain Scripture that I overlook God s wisdom, power and wonder. The creation account in Genesis 1 is one such passage; thus I value this commentary: None of the (creations) of the first three days can move (and) the mobile creatures (of days 4-6) are arranged in order of progressively greater freedom of movement: the heavenly bodies move in fixed orbits and cannot change their path; all living things fish, fowl, beasts can move their paths, though they move in set and prescribed ways, governed by largely fixed instincts; man alone moves in paths and ways that he can set for himself. The fundamental principle through which the world is created is separation. Creation is the bringing of order out of chaos largely through acts of separation, division, distinction. (Leon Kass) There is a compelling rationale to the Bible s creation account though not aiming to be a science brief, it rings true and makes sense. So how do prominent world religions answer the How did it all begin? question? Judaism shares Genesis 1 with Christianity, as does the JW New World Translation Bible; however, both deny Christ s deity and thus His creation role. Islam also denies Jesus as God and Creator, besides supplanting the LORD God with Allah. Mormon doctrine is a bit murkier: though seeing
Jesus as a created being, they believe He is a lesser god who created our world and all other worlds. Mormonism maintains as well that we had a pre-earth life in which we existed as God s spirit children, spawned by God coupling with one of His heavenly wives. Buddhism embraces no creation account, nor any particular god. Hindu teaches that the universe undergoes endless cycles of creation, preservation, and dissolution; however, Hindu places emphasis upon reincarnation rather than creation. In Scientology, creation is a subjective, mental projection of our immortal spirits [ thetans ], a byproduct of thetans imagination. Humanism and naturalism typically theorize evolutionary causes to all things. Only God could untangle such a mess and He has: Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Revelation 22:13)! QUESTION Is the Bible a science book? Which religions share the Christian, biblical creation account? Does this make them essentially the same as Christianity? PRAYER Pray for our church and our country during these times that can be so confusing and polarizing. Ask Him to enable you to be a peacemaker, to be one who does not prejudge nor overreact to challenges. Pray for wisdom and godliness among leaders.
FRIDAY Genesis 6:5-6; Psalm 53:1-3; Jeremiah 17:9 Are we good or evil by nature? I must say I grit my teeth when I hear the almost rhetorical, Why do bad things happen to good people? question. I want to ask, What s the standard you re using for goodness? But I try to keep quiet. In Christian context there are no good people, as God s perfection is our standard and He alone is good. Having been made in God s image (Genesis 1:27), we have some capacity for goodness; however, as sons and daughters of Adam in our natural state, we are born sinners. Is this politically incorrect view unique to Christianity? Though Hindu faith values life highly, its bent toward relativism holds a neutral view toward humankind s inherent goodness. Hindu emphasizes that all eventually reach an ultimate state of Nirvana, goodness borne out of total disconnection with physical concerns, via reincarnations. Buddhism teaches similarly, seeing humans as neutral and progressing toward goodness. The humanist sees humankind as inherently good, whereas naturalists can hold a neutral view that tends to deem good and bad both as relative and essentially irrelevant. Contrary to Old Testament teaching, Judaism rejects original sin, maintaining that humans have great capacity for goodness and that we must choose accordingly. Islam also opposes original sin, seeing babies as pure ; our
sinfulness results from upbringing and good deeds can outweigh sins in seeking Paradise. Mormonism s views parallel Islam s. Jehovah s Witnesses emphasize the temporal/physical consequences of Adam s sin on humanity (death, etc.), but not the spiritual; they strive through works to seek Jehovah s favor. Scientology views man s fundamental nature as good and divine, not morally fallen we are simply ignorant of our own perfection and need to discover and reestablish this through Scientology s methods. I find it easy to witness my fallenness. An hour or so in my car battling LA traffic can reveal how far I am from God s standard. So can losing a card game, a tough day at work, or a favorite sports team s misfortune. I love my young grandchildren, but it takes little time with them before their original sin s in full view. Do you wrestle with the Christian observation of humankind s fallenness? If so, are you religious feeling that salvation is earnable and merit-based? QUESTION Why do bad things happen to good people from time to time? Why is the reality of original sin so fundamental to Christian faith? PRAYER Ask God to bring to mind the areas in your life where you need to repent and seek His forgiveness. Pray Psalm 139: 23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the Way everlasting!
Sources C. S. Lewis quote comes from his book, Mere Christianity, published in 1952 by Geoffrey Bles (UK) and Macmillan Publishers, HarperCollins Publishers (US). Leon Kass quote is from his book, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis, published by Free Press, 2003. 1700 Palopinto Ave. Glendora, CA 91741 626.914.4833 info@gkinfo.org www.glenkirkchurch.org