God Versus Gods

This article is in response to the concept presented to me by a Hindu friend of mine. This is the notion that God is within nature and not the creator of everything. I told him that the carpenter that made the building we lived in was separate from the building, they were not one in the same. Then he went on to ask “how do you remove the heat from the fire or from the sun?” My first answer was that you must have the source for the heat and it is that source that creates the heat in the first place. Heat is a byproduct.

Now, if we approach this same question though the the viewpoint of the almighty one and only GOD, we find that heat can be separated from fire without extinguishing the fire. For when tongues of fire fell on the apostles and all the other believers on the day of Pentecost, that fire did not not burn! Nether did “The Burning Bush” burn up as it should. Even though this miracle was caused by God to get Moses's attention, God was not part of bush its self! His presence caused the bush to burn without being consumed and yet, God was not the bush! The ground around the bush was also sacred ground and was so because of God's presence!

Taking this a step further, let us explore the concept of sacred as it applies to two location that have been considered Holy or Sacred by two separate religious points of view. On one hand we have the mountain known as Mount Sinai, were God appeared to Moses and gave him the ten commandments. Once again, what made the mountain Holy was that God chose the location to communicate to Moses and the Children of Israel.

The Hindu's perspective is that the river Ganges its self is a Goddess. If this is true, then why did this Goddess allow “her” self to get so polluted? Does she have no shame? 1.3 billion liters of raw sewage flows into her by over 29 cities, 70 towns and thousands of villages. Besides this, industrial waste adds a additional 260 million liters every single year! This is the very same river that the Hindu faithful claim to have the power to wash there sins away!

I asked my Hindu friend what was up with that, and he said that somehow on the spirit plane, the worshipers were protected by the fact that they chose to bathe in filth. So how do you explain the high rate of disease spread by this pollution? He went as far to tell me that those believers are being protected by the Hindu gods and the country of India! He clams that people do not die from the pollution of the Ganges! Well then, below is a is video that begs to differ with him!

Now the God I serve is not to happy about the misuse of this Earth that we live on, for He will spill his wrath upon “the destroyers of the Earth” (Revelation 11:18). Even so, he is not a part of this temporary world for this heaven and this earth will pass away, but God is eternal. Our eternal God makes it clear over and over again that we should not worship nature or any likeness! Let us take a peek at Romans 1:25 that clearly states that people “trade the truth about God for a lie.” They “worship and serve the things God created instead of the Creator himself.” Backtracking a little, we see that the Apostle Paul does more rebuking throughout the whole chapter of Romans especially in the first chapter.

There should not be any confusion for the Bible tells us over and over again not to worship idols or false gods in any form. It speaks in the commandments that God is a Jealousy God. This term bothers my Hindu brother for he states that jealous is a human attribute and should not be a emotion found in a God.

I find this interesting for the Hindu's have several gods that have the likeness of man and also the emotions of humans! They even have god that is called “The Destroyer," Lord Siva. In fact the Hindus have three hundred and thirty million representations of god (by the way they believe in one supreme being that just chooses to make things confusing by manifesting its self in all these different forms).

Christianity does have some similarities with Hindu concepts, for Hinduism has a demon called “Ignorance” that is the enemy of the Hindu gods. This bad boy has some of the characteristics of Satan, for he tries to befuddle the believers minds and keep them in darkness. What a clever trick of Satan, to create a counterfeit perception that will be close to the truth, but not close enough! In one of my other “hubs”“The Devil Wears Camouflage” I delve into this much deeper. However, I do want to take a closer look at the original lie, told by “The Serpent” in the Garden of Eden.

For here he sets the stage for the primmest to many religions and philosophies though out time (Genesis 3:4). This all begins with a conversation he has with Eve. He contradicts what God commands when he said that Adam and Eve would not die. Instead he claims that her and Adam will be like gods discerning good from evil.

Is this not what a lot of religions feed to us when they promise reincarnation? For that gives the person the potentiality of eventually becoming “like gods” (or in Buddhism, a Buddha). Satan tries so hard to sell this lie, for this is exactly what his sin was when he rebelled against God. It is like he is saying, “why worship God when you can become one yourself?” He was so obsessed with being like God that he even tried to get Jesus to worship him!

I know that criticizing others belief systems may not make me popular with some people. In fact, some of these people may even be Christians that feel we need to be tolerant of positions that differ from our own. In that case, let me give you an example that my pastor gave me. If a child ran out in the street, would you let the child risk getting hit by a car, or would you reprimand them for it? We are talking about the salvation of souls and for this reason alone, we can not compromise

God himself is not tolerant of people that practice false beliefs. So, why should those who confess to be followers the one and only God, bite their tongues because they are afraid of offending someone? We are told to 'hate the sin and not the sinner” so everything we do should be in love. However, sometimes that love needs to be tough!

When I use these terms, I am not referring to the original meaning that Anthropologist use to describe the activities of our early Ancestors. This is a whole different track all together. What I mean about “hunters and gathers” is two types of spiritual seekers. Those who are hunters of truth and gathers of “collective spirituality.” The hunters stick to one path to find there wisdom, why gathers will take a little from Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other path that they come across. These are people who want to add there own ideas to Scripture and make it something else all together. This is much different than the concept that Jesus presents to us when he says “Seek and Ye shall find, knock and it shell be given to you.”

I use this metaphor to help describe the nature of some peoples obsession in “making stuff up.” This is why the Bible warns against “adding or distracting” from the word of God! The argument that some people cling to is that when the Bible was translated from Aramaic and Greek (the Old was Aramaic and New Testament was Greek) that the “powers to be” controlled the content of the Scripture that was being translated. This may be true to a point and yet, I believe strongly that God protected the truth of the Scriptures and keep the truth that he wanted to convey intact! No matter how hard men or Satan tries to alter or destroy the truth, God will protect the message he wants to convey!

I believe God does this so there will be no confusion about what the truth is, for he knows how hard men try to mess things up. While on this subject, I am going once again make a comparison between the scripture and other teachings. I will do this for this Hindu friend of mine keeps bringing me material to read. Some fellow Christians tell me I should not even read it and yet, if the Holy Spirit gives us the power of discernment, this should mean we should be able to judge the difference between what is the truth and what is a lie.

My friend told me that this book he loaned me, actually explained the bible even though it is written by a none Christian Yogi. This seem real odd to me for, why would a Hindu be concerned with the teaching of the Bible in the first place? I will not do a book revue of this writing at this time, for I want to be fare and actually read the book before I jump to conclusions about what it is saying.

However, the Bible makes it real clear about about false teaching and to line every thing up with scripture for if it does not promote Christ or God the Father, then it is not of God in the first place.

To clarify this point, let us see what God has to say about all this. In Isaiah 44: 9-20 with the last verse being the most potent. These are harsh words but they make God's view clear. " The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trust something that can't help him at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask , is this idol that I'm holding in my hands a lie?" It gets even dicier in Isaiah 45: 1 God is using his anointed one, Cyrus. The whole chapter deals with God's message he wants to give to Israel His chosen one. The important statement I want to bring your attention to is Isaiah 45:12-3 “I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it. With my hands I stretched out the heavens. All the stars are at my command.” There is no other God as the first part of the chapter makes clear and revokes those who argue with their creature.

Us humans love to complicate things in our endless quest to understand that which is beyond our understanding. I have spent years studding this concept or that concept like the view that consciousness is the only thing that is real. Now my friend has given me yet another paper that promotes this conclusion. How do you debate a subject like that? For I feel I am entering the movie The Matrix were Neo is being told “there is no spoon.” What a great excuse for not dealing with real life by saying that only conscious exist. I am sorry, I can no no longer by into it.

Instead of being caught up in endless debates I am going to stick to what I know. In this, case what I know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that God loved me enough to send his one and only begotten Son to die that I may live! If you want something mystical to wrap your mind around WRAP YOUR MIND AROUND THAT!

Just like it states in Ecclesiastes 1:1 “Everything is vanity all is vanity!” Or if you take it directly from the Hebrew word hebel that literally means “vapor.” Another way of putting it would be one of my favorite sayings by an unknown writer- “If you can not dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bull-snot.

Back when I wrote my series The Feathered Christ I talk about a so called god that came to Mexico about a thousand years ago that some claim was "Christ like in nature." The only problem is that he was depicted as a feathered serpent! Now if you take a close look at Hinduism you will find that they have a god that uses a many headed cobra as his symbol.

Why is it that though out the world the serpent is used to represent the creator god? My opinion is that Satan, who chose the serpent as his instrument to temp man in the Garden of Eden, still uses it to deceive people and trick them into worshiping him!

I realize that all I am doing in this "hub" is shaving off the very tip of a huge iceberg. For this debate could go on for ever. My reason for writing this is to plant some seed. For when I came back to Christianity, I felt that God wanted me to reach out to those in other religions that I either explored or even practiced and maybe help lead them to Christ. I have never have studied Hinduism that much but I did practiced Buddhism for seven years. I came to the conclusion that there was something lacking, so that is why I left.

I could chant until I was blue in the face but I never felt that connection to God I do now. Some present the argument that they do the sitting meditations and mantras for "self-realization." Well I am self realized, I realize that I a child of God and that God sent his only Son to suffer and die for my sins so that I could have a eternal relationship with him starting right now! This is something that anyone can share in if they only ask!

That is why I do what I do! I feel it my responsibility to offer others the opportunity to experience this personal relationship with the one and only true God! This is why I write this, this why I live! God alone has the ability to save, I just try and share what he has done for me. I use my writing to plant some seed and I pray it will fall on fertile ground!

I was going use some video I found on YouTube on the subject of Christianity vs. Hinduism. However, there are fourteen of them all together and I thought it was best not to use any of them for it would lead to more confusion to just use a few. You can find that series of hubs under the heading "Christianity Vs. Hinduism" for they are worth watching to gain more insight. I will also do a hub shortly on God Verse No God, so until then keep me in your prayers as I do you!