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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
Compared with Buddhism, Christianity has several distinguishing features that show that it deserves consideration. First, while both Christianity and Buddhism have an historical central figure, nam...
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Lynn Willis
Quite aside from the informative, thorough, academic answer of Michael, and the succinct historical answer of Alex I'm going to answer in my unique style which is... blunt! How about this as a reason: Follow Jesus gain salvation and eternity in heaven with God and a freedom and wisdom and truth and faith and boundless hope while living here on earth that sets you apart and gives you eyes to see the world in truth, and a heart to be able to love God's creation everywhere and everyone regardless. Don't, and ultimately, you will live here on earth with disconnect from God, in sin, separated from His love and when you die, you will exist forever in a lake of fire with satan and demons and other sinners of all sorts for eternity without any rest, or joy, or peace, ever. Firstly, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the one true God. History supports that, and those who know Him know it is truth. There is no other real God other than Yahweh. He is the divine creator and all other gods are false. ALL OF THEM. Secondly, once you actually meet Jesus, I mean truly know Him and have a love relationship with Him, you find resounding truth there that builds and builds and builds in your life. Amen! I never sought Jesus, until 2 years ago now, but I did seek truth all my life and ultimately came to believe and accept it 'all'... transcendental meditation too, out of body experiences, past life experiences, reincarnation, evolution, big bang, metaphysics, psychic abilities, astrology, aliens, the power of crystals and mother earth 'force'... ALL of 'it'. But what 'it' is, is LIES... of satan, and occultism and mysticism, again, all of satan, which are explained fully in scripture. In reading scripture there is truth outlined about all of 'it'. We live in a spiritual world in physical form. We battle spirits not people. The Bible is the truth about that reality, that true existence, and God's word given to us to be able to live with Him while down here and be delivered from our sins in Him. Fact: We were created by God for God and until we live that truth, life will never make any real, true sense. I do believe each of us knows this innately from birth but satan blinds us with his lies, stealing and destruction bit by bit by bit by bit. There's a lot of 'good' in buddhism, and hinduism, confuscionism and even islam, but that good is veiled with strong untruths and they are false religions created by satan to draw you away from your one true God and Saviour. Man-created religions again... also from satan. There is but one way to the Father God Creator and that is through Jesus. He redeems you, gives you a new heart cleansing you from the inside out, shows you the truth and gives you love and salvation through His own sacrifice for you without demanding a thing. Name me one other 'god' that loves you so much that that god does that for their believers? Of course you can't just continue to live in sin and follow Jesus too, but you don't want to do anything or live anyway BUT do what He asks of you once you truly MEET Him! And THAT's the TRUTH! Here's a blurb I posted sometime ago now... I repost it for You, "Anonymous". May God bless you and show you the Way, the Truth and the Life in Christ Jesus: Elderly World Religion Professor (identity unknown) on professing his Christianity to his academic colleagues, in answer to their question as to why he was a Christian: "It was as if I had fallen into a deep, abandoned well. Muhammad came by and told me it was the will of Allah that I be in this well, then he left. The Buddha came by and told me if I would cease desire I would cease to suffer in the well, then he left. A Hindu teacher came by and told me if I was faithful in the well I would escape through reincarnation, then he left. Confucius came by and told me if I'd not tripped I would not be in the well, then he left. Jesus came by, saw me, and got into the well with me. That is why I am a Christian." Blessings, in HIM, Lynn
Dan Rivers
A Buddhist must save him/herself. A person must constantly be on the alert to seek his own deliverance from Samsara, and his 'salvation' must be brought about by the individual himself. He cannot look to any external force or agency to help him to attain Nibbana. There is NO "Grace" for a Buddhist. A Christian has been justified and made righteous by the kindness of God. By his Grace...Eph 2:8,9, Rom 3:20,28, Gal 3:16 To be a Christian all you have to do is "believe" in Jesus, God's Son, John 6:28,29, Rom 10:9,10. John 3:16 And even my faith/belief is provided by the Lord, Rom 12:3, 2 Pet 1:1, 1 Cor 2:12. Apart from him we can do nothing that is pleasing to the Lord, John 15:5 The difference between Christianity and everything else, is that Jesus has already done ALL the saving work for his, as opposed to other religions where YOU are responsible for doing everything to save yourself. A non christian is NEVER sure if they are saved. There is always the doubt that they have not achieved ALL the requirements called for. Christians KNOW they are saved, 1 John 5:13, Eph 1:13,14, 2 Cor 1:22 God has done it ALL for us. That is why only he deserves ALL the Praise and Glory!
Brian Harris
I will only simply say the words of Jesus: John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth and the life; No one comes to the Father except through me." John wrote also 1:1&2 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. 1:14 also says The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. So God in Christ became flesh and is the only one who died and rose again. If you go to the graves of all that ever lived you will find their remains but if you went to where they lay the Saviour you will nothing but an empty grave. He proved he had risen when he showed the disciples where the nails pierced his hands and his feet.
Alex Harris
Buddhism arose sometime after the 6th c BC when Israel who were ordained the messengers of God to the whole world went into captivity. Since God reveled Himself thru the nation of Israel, the whole world staggered at this darkness and man sought alternative spiritual paths. After the 6th c BC, two religions evolved – Jainism & Buddhism. Scholarly evidence indicates that Jainism was formed first and then Buddhism. Jainism developed the concept of Reincarnation, which was then absorbed into the later developing Buddhism. Jainism and Buddhism were agnostic religions, and apart from these the land of India had a variety of worships. Buddhism became the dominant religion of the land of India. However, since it was an agnostic religion the people hungered for God. Then in the 1st c AD when the Gospel of Jesus Christ entered the land of India through the apostle Thomas and other apostles, early Indian Christianity developed as Saivism and Vaishnavism. Under the influence of early Indian Christianity, Buddhism then split in to Hinayana, the original form and Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism did absorb Christian concepts from Christianity - belief in a Bodhisattva or divine savior, Buddha statues with nail piercings, etc. Hence to answer the question, Buddhism originated as an agnostic religion and then evolved with syncretism from early Indian Christianity; hence, any Buddhist desiring completeness needs to come to Jesus Christ. Many do not realize that the land of India was the most affluent in the 1st c AD – Angus Madison’s research. Also, the Sanskrit scriptures in Hinduism were all written under the influence of early Indian Christianity since the first evidence of Sanskrit is 150 AD. Details of this can be found at http://appiusforum.net/sanskrit.pdf.
Tamara Estes
Christianity is the only faith where our God reaches down to us because He LOVES us and wants fellowship, that is a relationship, with us, His created people for eternity. There is no other belief system where the god figure comes to them, instead, one must work their way, or earn the right to be with that god. The Creator of the entire universe and all that it entails, loves ME, a simple little country girl. He wants to be my friend for eternity. Now THAT'S a good reason!
Grant Abbott
Buddhism is a religion whereas Christianity is a relationship. The bible defines religion as "taking care of orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself from being polluted by the world." Christianity is a relationship with "God the Father", God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. One God who chose to reveal himself to humankind as Three Persons. The bible is the Word of God. From cover to cover this book contains exactly the words that God wanted to say. The bible is God's revelation to humankind and answers all of our primary first order questions about life: 1) How did this world begin, 2) Why do I exist, 3) What is the purpose of my life? 4) How will I find an abundantly fulfilling and deeply satisfying life, 5) What will happen when I die, 6) Is this life all there is or is there life after death, 7) Does God love me, 8) Does God have a plan for my life, 9) Why is there so much suffering in the world? 10) Why is there evil and wickedness in the world, 11) Why am I unable to become a better person, etc The bible gives us the following vital information about life as human beings. In Genesis; 1) God created everything that exists in the universe including humankind. God said everything he created was "good" and that human beings were "very good" - being created with a body, soul and spirit in the very image of God and to live forever. 2) God created a perfect world for human beings to live in, a paradise. 3) God gave humankind dominion over the entire earth with only 1 prohibition - "Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die!" God did not want us to experience the presence of evil in His world. 4) Our first humans disobeyed God, experienced evil and wickedness, and were captivated by it. That day sin entered the world and our sinful human nature has enslaved us to rebellion against God. That day humans died spiritually and have been separated from fellowship with God ever since. That day God began to limit the length of human life (from 1,000 years to 120 years to 80 years now) because he cannot tolerate our evil and wickedness. That day Satan and his demons took over the earth as their kingdom wreaking havoc through evil, wickedness, sin and death. 5) God even destroyed the world in a flood to purge the evil and started over again with 8 people. In Exodus: 1) God gave us his laws (principles for a perfect life) to guide us into a God pleasing life. But our sinful human nature always rebelled against these laws and they became the standard by which God would judge us for eternity. In Deuteronomy: 1) God gave humans a sacrificial system to deal with our sin. If people offered the prescribed sacrifices in "faith - believing God's word and promises" then God would forgive our sins and give them his blessings. But only a few people remained faithful to God. But God had a plan to restore his world. In the New Testament gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke, John) we see the life of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became a human being. His mission was; 1) to reveal the nature, character and plan of God for humankind by the example of his life, 2) to make a sacrifice of his own life, once for all time and for all people, so that our sins could be forgiven and our fellowship with God restored. 3) Each person who accepts Jesus as their personal saviour and follows him as the Lord of their life becomes God's agent to bring mercy, purity, peace and righteousness back to the earth. In the book of Revelation we see the future. Jesus will come again as king to rule upon the earth. All believers will be resurrected or transformed to receive new bodies like Jesus body. Satan and all his demons will be defeated, annihilated and destroyed in hell. All unbelievers will be judged by God and sentenced to eternal punishment in hell. God will create a new heaven and earth without sin, where He will dwell and rule with all believers for eternity. Compelling reasons?
Akinrelere Sunday
Why you, a Buddhist, should consider becoming a Christian: Buddhism is a religion and religion has done more harm than good in our society. Christianity is NOT a religion, it is the lifestyle of Christ. Religion is man's attempt to connect with God (sometimes through gods) while Christianity is God's attempt to connect with man through Christ. Religion teaches me to fear God with timidity, Christianity teaches me to fear God in love and obedience to His commands. Religion tells me to worship the Lord so that I can ward off evil, but Christianity tells me to worship the Lord because that's why I am created. Religion says I should put God's laws and commands in my head, Christianity says I should have God's Word engrafted in my heart and live by it. Religion tells me that salvation is the work of man, but Christianity makes me to realise that salvation is the work of God in man, given by grace.
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