Thesis 36/36: Other Religions

DOCTRINES OF CULTS
Doctrine 36 / 36: Other Religions

Religions can be categorized into one of four categories: Atheism, Monotheism, Polytheism, Pantheism. The belief that there is no God is atheism. There are three major monotheistic religions in the world: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The rest of the religions in the world are some sort of polytheism or pantheism.

Atheism is something that must be taught to a person, as only a fool would say that there is no God (Psalm 53:1). Atheism usually is accepted when a person wants to get out from under the authority of a higher being. If a man can consider himself to be the most important being in the universe, then all of his actions are justified and he will not have to give account for them.

As for the monotheistic religions, Judaism is the basis for Christianity, with the major fault that they failed to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Islam is a religion that began with Muhammad in 7th century Arabia. Muhammad was exposed to Judaism and Christianity, and also to the polytheistic gods of the neighboring tribes. He claims to have been visited by the angel Michael, and was given visions from which he recorded the book of Koran. The god Allah was taken from one of the deities of the neighboring tribes, the "moon god." Islam is a religion that promotes proselytizing by all means necessary, including the sword. While some have strayed from the fundamentals of Islam, and created their own version of it, that method of spreading the religion is what was practiced by Mohammad himself. Islam teaches that heaven is gained by works, by following the teaching of the Koran. Those that die in war for the cause of Islam are promised immediate rewards in a heavenly paradise.

Buddhism is an offshoot or sect of a greater religion of Hinduism. Both of these religions can be considered polytheistic. However, they are essentially humanistic in their teaching. They emphasize the real light being found inside of man. Meditation is emphasized so that man can discover himself and find out his own meaning for life. There can be no right or wrong, as there is no authority. Hinduism teaches that the law of Karma, all deeds in past and present life will be rewarded or punished. Because they believe in reincarnation, their current estate in life may have been caused due to good or bad done in a previous life, and if they do harm to others in the present life, they will have a lower estate in a future life. Some sects believe that the perfect state, Nirvana, can be achieved during the present life by an "Enlightenment," while others believe that Nirvana is a future state at which a person will arrive once all of the bad has been punished. Though some of these teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism are attempted to be meshed with Christianity (such as the moment of Enlightenment and the Conversion of a Christian), the fact is that they do not hold to a Sovereign God, and Jesus Christ is at best a mere prophet.

The New Age Movement in America, which in recent times has been popularized by Oprah Winfrey's web class teaching Echart Tolle's book, "A New Earth." This teaching specifically, and most New Age teaching in America, is simply the American version of Eastern Hinduism. It teaches the idea that there are many ways to get to God. It teaches that Jesus is not the only way. Man again is taught to look to himself to determine what is right to his own spirit and conscience.

All non-Christian religions have a few things in common. They do not have the same negative perception of man and his depravity. They fail to recognize a loving God that would sacrifice His only Son as a substitution for man. They do not accept that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. The end result is that, while some of these religions make the world a nicer place in which to live, they are simply making a nicer world from which they will go to hell.

"I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me."