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*“Why I Am a Christian”*
*#3: “…and Not a Hindu”*
Pastor Greg Henneman
January 21, 2007
 
Text:          Topical
Theme:      The cross makes all the difference.
Goal:          To better understand our own faith by learning about Hinduism.
Also: To reflect on how to treat people of other faiths.
*Introduction*
 
·       Promote Christian Unity Service tonight at 7:00PM at the First Congregational Church.
So far we’ve talked about atheism and Islam.
Today we’re talking about Hinduism.
We live in a very pluralistic world with tremendous diversity.
And it’s easy to become confused and overwhelmed with all the disagreement and differences.
And it’s easy to be intimidated when someone asks, “Why are you a Christian?
Why aren’t you an atheist?
Why aren’t you a Muslim or a Hindu or something else?”
It has been tempting for Christians to simply pull away from society and form our own little churches and our comfortable little worlds and just cocoon ourselves.
Yet Jesus taught us to “go make disciples of all nations.”
He told us to “be his witnesses throughout the earth.” 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
Peter goes on to say, “But do this with gentleness and respect,” and live such good lives that no anyone who slanders you might be put to shame.
So this series is entitled, “Why I am a Christian.”
I have been giving reasons why I personally am a Christian; but I’ve also been giving reasons why we should all be Christians.
I believe that as we honestly look at atheism and Islam and Hinduism and all the other “isms” – the Christian faith makes the most sense!
You don’t have to be stupid to be a Christian.
You don’t have to turn a blind eye to the facts of life to follow Jesus!
So the goal of this series is to be better informed about what others believe so that we can relate to them; and to see how our own faith makes sense.
I encourage you to follow along on your outlines.
There’s a lot of information there.
I want to start off by talking about the…
 
*Major Worldviews*
 
We’ve said that everybody has some kind of worldview.
A worldview is how you view the world.
It’s your basic assumptions and beliefs about what life is about.
Whether you’re a kid running around in the ghetto or a professor at some university, everybody has some kind of worldview.
For example…
 
*Theism – belief in a god or gods*
*Polytheism – belief in many gods*
*Pantheism – everything is god*
 
Pantheism is the basic worldview of Hinduism and Buddhism.
In actual practice many Hindus are polytheistic and some Buddhists are actually atheistic.
So there is a wide variety and even contradictory beliefs within Hinduism and Buddhism.
According to pantheism, everything is God and God is everything.
You and I and this podium appear to be three separate things, but we’re not.
It’s an illusion!
Nothing exists but God!
 
Now God in most cases God is not viewed as a personal God but as an “it”.
God is a force.
God is energy.
Now of course this is very different from our biblical idea of God.
The Bible says that God is a person not an “it.”
God is other!
God created this world and God created you and me.
But you’re not God.
This podium isn’t God.
And I’m certainly not God!
Now God loves you and me and God relates to you and me and God interacts with the world, but they are two different things.
God is God and the world is the world!
Now you may be aware that the entertainment industry has played around with pantheism for some time now.
The Beatles were greatly influenced by the Transcendental Meditation of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and later by the Hare Krishna movement.
Former Beatle George Harrison had a top-selling record entitled “My Sweet Lord,” on which the background singers sang praises to Krishna and other Hindu gods, such as Vishnu.
Entertainers Shirley MacLaine and Tina Turner, along with former California governor Jerry Brown, have also become vocal advocates of pantheism.
Movies such as the Star Wars series have stimulated a growing acceptance of pantheism.
In The Empire Strikes Back, for example, Yoda says concerning the Force: “Its energy surrounds us and binds us.
Luminous beings we are, not this crude matter.…
Feel it you must.
Feel the flow.
Feel the Force around you.
Here,… between you and me and that tree and that rock.”
Tom Cruise is into Scientology which is pantheistic.
Most of the New Age stuff in America is simply Hindu-pantheistic thought dressed up to appeal to American interests.
Then of course there is…
 
*Monotheism – belief in one God*
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are the main three monotheistic religions in the world.
*Animism – tribal religions*
 
Animism is the belief that everything has a spirit in it; and you can manipulate the spirits through rituals and chanting and curses.
Many of the tribal religions around the world are animistic.
We learned a few weeks ago that…
*Agnosticism – cannot be sure there is a god*
*Atheism – there cannot be a god*
 
*[SHOW GRAPH OF WORLD RELIGIONS RANKED BY SIZE]*
 
 
*Statistics of Major World Religions*
*Christianity       2.1 billion*
*Islam                   1.3 billion*
*Secular               1 billion*
*Hinduism           900 million*
*Buddhism          376 million*
                (Source: www.adherents.com)
*A.
Brief Historical Background on Hinduism*
 
“Hinduism” is a word that we Westerners created.
Hindus call their religion dharma, which means “the right way of living” or “proper conduct.”
(wikipedia)
 
You’ll see on your outline…
 
*          Major Groups and Scriptures*
*          1.
Hinduism: Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad-Gita*
The Hindu religion started about 1500 BC, although its roots go back further than that.
And what happened was that the Brahmin priests who controlled the Hindu religion developed too many rituals and rules and so some rebelled and formed Buddhism and Jainism.
So although Buddhism and Jainism have a lot in common with Hinduism, they started out as protest movements against Hinduism, sort of like the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Christianity.
The primary scripture of…
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