.......... .. .. ........... "Once In A While You Get Shown The Light In The Strangest Of Places If You Look At It Right" :Robert Hunter

All of the music recordings on this site are recordings of independent origin (ROIOs) Music that has not been officially released. If you are an artist or a legal representative of an artist and you do not want your ROIO shared on my site for free among your fans (and creating new fans), just tell me in the comment area and I will remove them. By the way these recordings exist. They won't go away. All of them can be found at various places on line. Sharing just keeps the fans that support the artists from having to get ripped off by purchasing them on auction sites, and it also introduces music to people who would never have known the artist, creating a stronger fan base.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

All Religions 0r Beliefs Are Not The Same

Some one wrote in response to something I wrote. "It's EXACTLY the same crap the 911 terrorist were talking about, but with a SLIGHTLY different accent." I have heard people say that "All religions are basically the same and teach the same things and point to the same place". I have to disagree completely with this point of view. And I'll show you the major differences.
For starters Hindu faith teaches that the material world is an illusion, and sin is nothing more than the ignorance about the fact of this illusion. This is in conflict with the beliefs of most other faiths. In many Eastern beliefs God or the creator is thought to be impersonal (you can't get to know Him personally)and in some cases they believe that God is everything and everything is God. The belief of the Bible is that the world has objective reality and is not an illusion, and that sin is rebellion against a very real God that is separate and independent from His creation, and that He wants to redeem our broken relationship with Him. Many Eastern faiths believe in the idea of the transmigration of souls or continuous rebirth (reincarnations)until one reaches nirvana or eternal bliss. The Bible and Quran of Islam teach that each person has one physical life and one eternal soul or spirit and when we physically die we are then held accountable to God or the creator.
In most religions the view is you must do good so that you can go to heaven or do good to reach a higher place like nirvana. As an example Islam states you will have your life examined on a day of judgement and all men will be judged based on their good deeds. Sura 13:103-140 of the Quran states "they who balances shall be heavy shall be blest But they whose balances shall be light, they shall lose their soul, abiding in hell forever." This is like there is a scale that will tip in your favor or not depending on the weight of your good or bad works. In many Eastern religions there is the law or idea of karma which is like a measurement of good and bad energy that comes from you and you will be delivered to a higher place in the cycle of rebirth based on again your good works. In fact even some of the religions that have developed with time out of the Christian faith have gotten to a place of doing good deeds as a means to obtaining salvation.
In truth the Bible expressly states that our relationship to God is not based on anything that we do. The bible teaches that all men are imperfect and that imperfection causes separation from a holy or perfect and just God and that the righteous perfect and just God must have payment or restitution for the transgressions (justice). "The wages of sin is death" And the only way to not have to die for our transgression is to have someone else pay the price. And Jesus came to earth and lived a sinless life so He could pay the price for us. We do not deserve this we did not earn it because we are good (because no man is good enough). Jesus chose to die in our place and gives us this gift by grace alone. Now it is up to us to respond to His action by accepting this gift. In the other religions you take action by doing "good works" and expect God to respond to you. Most religion is mans way of drawing God to us. Christian faith is Gods way of drawing us to Him. Christian faith is about what God did not about what I did. Jesus died so I can live. Jesus body was broken so I may be healed. All I can do is respond to the undeserved gift of grace. This makes my relationship toward Him one with motivations of love and thanksgiving. Not one of me trying to control Gods response with an unrealistic expectation that I somehow deserve something form God. I don't want what I deserve (death).
Now one of the people who responded compared my faith to 911 terrorists in that the violence of the witch burning, and religious crusades, was akin to the Islamic terrorist violence. Let me say there is no comparison between these two faiths on issues of violence in the name of the ones we follow. Jesus taught love your neighbor as you love yourself and the cornerstone of faith in Jesus is that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that who ever believes in Him shall be saved. And we as believers in Jesus are asked to love others in this same sacrificial way. Jesus did not defend Himself and went to His death willingly. Anyone who kills another outside of self defence is no longer following what Jesus modeled. Mohammad by his actions of a violet and forceful invasion and takeover of Mecca it appears to me models something different for those who follow him even though the Quran apparently teaches that to take life is wrong.

2 comments:

  1. Well said. And thanks for the tunes.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you were lost in the woods and you came upon two men one dead and one alive. Who would you ask for directions the live one or the dead one? Only one of these people is still alive. Buddah, Mohamaed, Confusious, Jesus. Just a thought

    ReplyDelete