Topic: L) WORLD RELIGONS
No 1
(Mormons)
This
American religion was founded by Joseph Smith who lived from 1805 to 1844 and
is called the Prophet because he claimed that he received revelation from God
in the same way as the Old and New Testament prophets did. He supposedly spoke
to an angel called
Their
doctrines are definitely not Christian:
1) They
do not believe in the Trinity where God is three distinct persons in one; they
believe in three different Gods: a) God the Father b) Jesus Christ, His Son c) The Holy Spirit
2) They
believe that God is in a place called Kolob and that He is having spiritual
children with His wives.
3) They
believe that Lucifer and Jesus were brothers and that they each had a plan of
salvation for man; Jesus' plan was accepted, Lucifer's was rejected; thus he
was banished from heaven and became Satan.
4) They
believe that they must have many children because where God is there are many
spirits waiting for human tabernacles. There any many more examples; the list
is just too long.
When they
come door to door, they don't talk about these doctrines; they're reserved for
long-time members.
However,
when they do come to our doors as missionaries, they are well-dressed, polite
and very understanding. They speak of a
Book of Mormon that contains their writings and say that the Bible is not
complete with out it because of the revelation
that their prophets received. That's
very interesting because at the end of the book of Revelation the Bible says in
chapter 22 verse 18: "For I testify unto every man that
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book".
No 2
(Islam)
Islam is
well-known to all because it is in the news almost every day. The word Islam means submission. Movies have
been made about it such as: Not Without
My Daughter and Delta Force, just to name a couple. Of course, in both these movies and basically
what we read about in all the newspapers is that Islam is bad and it is run by
extremists. Unfortunately, in our
Western culture, we do not see the good side of this religion. I am not condoning it, I'm just saying that
we only see the bad parts on our TV screens when there are several truly good
points.
Islam was
founded by Muhammad around the year 610 AD when the whole of
Islam has
two holy cities
This religion in its purist form in very moral, protective of
their women, and punishes sin very severely.
An example is if someone is caught stealing, their hand is cut off. Guess what, no one gets their hands cut off
in those countries. You know why?
Because they know axiomatically, that if they steal, they lose a
hand. What do we do with robbers? We give them community service to perform or
send them back out on the streets on parole.
You decide which system is better.....
In the
end, however, we all know that we don't get to heaven because of our merits or
because we didn't steal; we get to heaven because some one paid the price for
our sins, once and for all; Jesus Christ who is sitting at the right hand of
God at this very moment and is interceding for us (Romans 8:34).
One last
thing about Islam: They worship the true
God but in a self-styled manner.
No 3
(Buddhism)
This
religion was founded in
KARMA -
The Bible says in Revelation that our destiny is with either Jesus Christ or
with Satan and his angels for eternity.
All of humanity will, one day be drawn to Jesus Christ (John
SAMSARA -
The writer of Hebrews pretty well settled the matter of multiple births
(or deaths) when he wrote: "And as
it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb
NIRVANA - Is there a better place that
heaven? As true believers, we are
assured of one thing for the Bible says in John 14:2 "In
my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you". So I ask, what else does one need
but perfect peace where there is no time and no sin?
No 4
(Astrology)
The word
astrology appears nine times in The Bible, in various forms and each time,
words such as stargazers or magicians accompany it. It is, of course, condemned by God in the
Bible (Deut 18: 9-13). The wise men
from the East who searched the King of the Jews followed a star that God had
supernaturally placed in the heavens as a guide to bring the Wise Men to the young
child Jesus Christ (Matt 2: 1, 2). There
are several other times, in the Bible, when the stars are used as a guide or as
a sign or even to describe the number of one’s descendants. So the stars do have their position in the
overall plan of God but, curiously enough, the Bible takes only 5 words to
describe their creation (Gen
The
unsaved world however, has taken astrology for a myriad of uses all of which, are purely satanic.
Astrology encompasses many occult practises; some of which are:
horoscope, crystal ball gazing, tarot cards, palmistry, numerology etc,
etc
The worst
thing about all this is that some people can actually predict the future. You say what??? I’ll explain.
Lets say someone goes and consults a tarot-card reader and the person
gets told that a “very good thing”
will happen in that person’s life; it could be anything! The person goes away and either knowingly or
not trusts Satan and he (Satan) will influence this person’s life so much that
the “good thing” sometimes happens. This seemingly future prediction is not due
to the tarot-card reader but to Satan and his fallen angels. I know of a person who actually studied
astrology for three long years and when he became a Christian and started to
read the Bible, he realised that astrology and true Christianity were
absolutely incompatible. From that
point on, he strongly suggested to people who used the various occultic
paraphernalia that they destroy them; preferably with fire as they did in Acts
19:18, 19. Christians have no business
playing with astrology; it is deadly and satanic.
No 5
(Raelism)
Just like
all the other cults and “isms”,
Raelism was founded by one man. He is a French journalist named Rael and in
1973, extra-terrestrials supposedly gave
him messages about themselves and how life began here on earth. The elohim, as they call themselves, told
Rael that they were the scientists who created all life on earth using D.N.A.
and want to establish contact with us. They
gave him plans to build an “embassy”
so that they may come and have meetings with us. The embassy is to cost approximately $20
million US of which they have $7 million already saved and it is to be built in
a country that is in the proximity of
My
experience with them has been at the closing of an evangelistic crusade called “Oui pour Christ” that was held in a
school in Longueuil. Some of them showed up and tried to confuse people as they
came out of the auditorium. We debated
them concerning the Divinity of Jesus but to no avail. They are brainwashed into believing these
foolish, unfounded tales of extra-terrestrials and have hardened their hearts
to anything that opposes them. Only the
Spirit of God can do something with them and my advice to anyone who encounters
them is : make sure you stay on the subject of Jesus Christ and what He
came to do here on earth; anything else is a loss of time.
No 6
(Baha’i Faith)
Like every other false religion,
this one was started by someone; this someone’s name is Baha ‘u’ llah. He was born in
No 7
(The Roman Catholic Church)
Is the Roman Catholic church a
Christian church? Are Roman Catholics
born-again Christians? They have the
same God as we do; they believe in the Trinity as we do; they know about the
cross of Jesus Christ; they have a Bible that is similar to ours, except for a
few books called the Apocrypha in the Old Testament. They are very similar,
aren’t they? They are so similar that only the Holy Spirit can truly see the
difference. The Roman Catholic Church
is an institution, not a Christian church because the true Christian Church has
as its Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, whereas the head of the Catholic Church is
a man (the pope). Oh, I’m not saying
that all Catholics are going to hell; I am convinced that there are some
Catholics who have continued to attend their churches and are saved. However, they should not be called Roman
Catholics, they are born-again Christians.
I’m saying that as an organisation, the Roman Catholic Church, because
it does not preach salvation by grace, is not a true Christian church. They believe that a person can Hail-Mary him
or herself to heaven through a system of works.
In other words, they believe that they can earn their salvation. This
is, of course, totally against what the
Bible teaches. So I ask you : if
they are not doing God’s work by preaching salvation by grace (the Gospel),
whose work are they really doing? There
are not very many answers to that question, I’m afraid. They are doing the devil’s work. The Bible says in Galatians 1 : 8 - “If any man preach any other gospel unto you
than that ye have received, let him be accursed”
No 8
(Hare Krishna)
This religion is just the same as
all other religions, so I won’t bore you with too many details. Hare Krishna is an Eastern mysticism cult in
which lord Krishna is the supreme personality of the godhead. They claim that he lives on a planet called
Krishnaloka outside of the universe in the spiritual sky. There are many universes just as there are
many mustard seeds in a 100 pound sack of mustard seeds and they were all
created by someone else called Maha-Vishnu.
Lord Krishna visits these universes from time to time and the last time
he came to visit our universe was 5000 years ago. He does not come alone, some devotees appear
first as his father and mother. In his
writings he states that “I come to protect my devotees and to destroy the
nondevotees” in the material world. The
purpose of the material world is to give the rebellious conditioned souls
(that’s us) an opportunity to rectify themselves and go back home to the
godhead. It goes on and on…. Jesus Christ is considered one of a long line
of “masters” and is referred to as divinity.
Sin is rarely mentioned in their belief system and is defined as wrongdoing
or wrong thinking due to discomfort.
Suffering is the result of some wrongdoing in the past; therefore, they
believe in reincarnation. Patrick
Swayse, the actor claims that he was a monkey in the jungles of
Honduras…whatever. This is a false
religion that God has condemned along with all the others; the Bible is our sole
source of truth and in the gospel of John, Jesus said : “Thy word is truth” and
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free”(17 : 17 and 8
: 32)
No 9
(Hinduism)
Hinduism is the main religion of
India and is one of the oldest living religions of the world. Although most Hindus live in India, Hindu
literature and philosophy have influenced people all around the world. Hindus worship many gods and have six schools
of philosophy ranging from studies in logic to self-realization or
God-realization. “Be still and know
that you are God and when you know that you are God, you will begin to live
Godhood” (Meditations of Maharishi page 178.). Transcendental meditation, yoga, karma,
reincarnation and Vedas (sacred writings) are all buzz words of Hinduism. Hinduism gives little attention to sin and
forgiveness of sin is unrealistic; sin means wrongdoing or wrong thinking due
to discontentment. Suffering is the
result of some wrongdoing in the past.
Topics such as redemption and salvation are treated in a way that there
is no supernatural intervention; Hindus bear the whole responsibility for their
actions. Salvation comes through the
realization that there is no duality; God is all in all and at the moment of
awakening (self-realization) a Hindu can say : “I am the way” (Quotation
from Upanishads). Heaven and hell are
not accepted concepts. As you can see,
Hinduism is a far cry from a loving heavenly Father who cares so much for His
creation, “ that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3 : 16).
No 10
(Jehovah’s Witness)
Has anyone not had a Jehovah’s
Witness come to their door asking for a opportunity to witness?. They are zealous and sincere but are totally
out in left field when it comes to proper Bible exegesis (interpretation). The movement was founded in Pennsylvania in
the 1870’s by Charles Taze Russell who was also the president of the Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society. The
present-day headquarters are located on Columbia Street in Brooklyn, NY. Here are some ideas that you can use when
they come to your door; most Christians just say that they are not interested
but they must be seen as potential sons of God – “But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become sons of God; even to them that believe on
His name”(John 2:12). When they go
canvassing door to door, they are always a team of two – a novice in front and
an elder in back. Have some Christian
tracts near the door so that when the novice in front asks you to purchase one
of their publications (0.25), tell them who you are and tell them that you will
take one of theirs if they will take one of yours. Right away, the person in back will probably
say that they don’t want it. The truth
is that they are not allowed to take it.
Now you have their attention; they know that you know the Bible. You can argue back and forth about various
points of doctrine but you will see that they try to distract you by saying
that they don’t salute the flag or they don’t eat blood or that they don’t
celebrate birthdays. My advice? Keep two questions in mind – Who is
Jesus? What did He come to do? By doing this, you will affirm what
Scripture really was meant to be – “But these are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might
have life through His name” (John 20:31)
No 11
(Transcendental
Meditiation)
Although
Transendental Meditation is not in itself a religion, it is based on pagan
religious influence out of Hinduism. The
leader is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and initiatory rites in Sanskrit address the
lord Narayana, Brahma the creator. Daily
meditation focuses on the source of
creative intelligence within the individual person. In the seventies, TM was very popular with
the hippie culture and filled the void of some hapless people searching for
truth. Even government education boards
approved the practice of Creative Intelligence Science (CIS) in classrooms in
the USA. Here is a recent quotation from
one of TM’s websites: “Transcendental Meditation opens the awareness
to the infinite reservoir of energy, creativity, and intelligence that lies
deep within everyone” (MMY). The
website goes on to say that “Practice of TM is simplicity itself. Anyone can
easily learn from an instructor trained to teach the Maharishi Transcendental
Meditation program. It cannot be learned by reading a book or surfing a
website”. It is nothing less than humanism
and, as born-again Christians, we should all be quite aware of this
non-Biblical practice that is, by the way, still very strong today. Maybe we know someone who is into this or we
may meet a stranger who practices TM.
Many verses in the Bible can refute its pagan origin and one verse that
is quite direct is found in Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of man, after the
rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. Paul’s words to the Colossians echo many warnings
that God gave to Israel in the Old Testament and that Jesus gave to us in the
New Testament. Do not be afraid to tell
someone who practices TM that they are on the wrong track because “greater is He that is in you, than he
that is in the world” ( 1 John 4:4)
No 12
(Judaism
)
Judaism
is one of the oldest religions of the world; actually, it is the oldest, not
counting idol worship or satanic activity.
It is the first religion that taught mono-theism (one God). It began with Abraham who was called out of
Ur of the Chaldees and told by God to go from there to a place He would tell
him – “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew
thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make
thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:” (Gen 12:1, 2). God lived up to His part of the promise;
however, the Jews didn’t. Judaism is a
very moral religion with customs and rituals dating back to early Biblical
times. The Jews we see today are a far
cry from the ones we read about in the Bible; mind you, they’re both
stiff-necked and rebellious but in a different manner – in Biblical times they
were idolatrous; today they are self-righteous.
The Torah or the Pentateuch and the writings of rabbis over the
centuries compiled in book called the Talmud are the main sources of their
law. There are different branches of
Judaism – the Orthodox, the Reformed, the Conservative; just to name a few. There is no one person as head of Judaism;
each local congregation chooses its own rabbi.
Worship takes place in the individual homes and in the synagogues. The closest religion to Judaism is ours –
the born-again Evangelical Christians who believe in the same God.
No 13
(New Age)
The religion called the “New
Age” is anything but new because it actually originated in the Garden of
Eden, but we can all agree as Christians there is a renewed interest in
this. We are now living in the
post-modernism society where everything is described in terms of acceptance,
tolerance and that there are no true absolutes.
You often hear people say to us when we speak to them about Jesus “I
respect you Bible beliefs but that won’t work for me; if it works for you, that’s
great.” There are all kinds of
satanic activity in the New Age and people are attracted by all this stuff;
unfortunately it hardens people’s hearts to the Gospel because most of it is
from the pit of hell. There are so many
different kinds of practices that are categorized “New Age”, that I
don’t want to list them all here but here are a few of them that sometimes even
attract true Christians. Certain medical
practices such as homeopathic or energy medicine; gem therapy (crystals);
aromatherapy; kinesiology; polarity therapy and the list goes on ad infinitem,
ad nauseam. There is a book called “The
Dark Secrets of the New Age” written by a Christian who was a former colonel in
the US Air Force and who specialized in robotics and bio technology. He interviewed hundreds of “New Agers” and
his conclusion was that the underlying goal of the New Age is to destroy
Christianity. The New Age practices are
nothing to fool around with; especially for Christians because they remove our
dependency on the Lord and they also keep from reading our Bible. The Lord warned His people numerous times in
the Bible to stay away from such practices.
Instead of quoting the verses that forbid the use of them, I will
instead give one verse that sums up all of what a Christian should do when
confronted with New Age philosophy – the verse is found in Colossians 2:10 “And ye are complete in Him, who is the head
of all principality and power.”
Amen??
No 14
(Secretive cults)
Secretive cults have been around
for centuries and most find their origins in the Roman Catholic system of
beliefs and the occult. Here are a few
of these cults: 1) The Illuminatti
which means, in Italian, the “enlightened”
or in Spanish “alumbrado”; it began
in the 16th or 17th century. The followers of this mystic cult believe
that they can communicate directly with the Holy Spirit of God; the majority of
the members were either Jesuits or Franciscans; but today, laypersons are
members also. 2) Freemasonry is another; it began in the Middle Ages amongst
stone masons and cathedral builders. The
first “Grand Lodge” was founded in 1717 in England; it is the largest secretive
society in the world. There are many
sub-groups such as: Ancient Arabic Order
of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (the “Shriners”), Order of the Eastern Star,
Order of DeMolay, Order of Builders,
Order of Job's Daughters and the Order of Rainbow. 3) The
Rosicrucians is the last one we will look at. Its origin is rather obscure but it allegedly
began in 1378 by Christian Rosenkreuz who lived for 106 years; he was more a
legend than a founder. The name comes from their symbol that depicts a rose and
a cross. The true founder of the
Rosicrucians is Paracelsus, a Swiss who died in 1541. They claim to have wisdom derived from
ancient occult beliefs and practices.
Just another group of people desperately looking for the meaning of
life.
We, as born-again Christians,
have the answer to the meaning of life – Jesus Christ!! Is there anyone else who really
matters?? Now, is it wrong for
Christians to pursue these matters of secretive societies? I would answer yes
and no. Yes, because it leads
nowhere and if we pin our hopes on any of it, we sin. No, if it is just to find out about
these counterfeit groups so we can warn others.
The banks have a good method of training their tellers regarding
counterfeit money – they constantly show them the real thing so that when a
false one comes along, they are able to identify it with no problem. “
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.
No 15
(Scientology)
As with all other religions,
Scientology was founded by a man; his name is Ron L Hubbard. He wrote a book called Dianetics in which he explains that we must rid ourselves of our
reactive mind where, according to Hubbard, we store all our negativities such
as self-doubt, unhappiness and stress.
Scientology focuses mainly on man’s inner-self. It is a religion that began in the 20th
century and draws upon the supposed wisdom of 50,000 years of life
experience. “Scientology is a new religion, one which has isolated fundamental laws
of life and, for the first time, developed a workable technology that can be
applied to help one achieve a happier and more spiritual existence”
(Definition found on one of their websites).
The concept of sin does not even exist in Scientology because: “Scientology believes man to be basically
good, not evil. It is man’s experiences that have led him to commit evil deeds,
not his nature.” As one can see, it is contrary to the Bible and offers no
hope to its followers who, by the way, include John Travolta and Tom
Cruise. These two famous actors and all
the other Scientologists are no different than we were we were looking for a
reason for life. In Scientology, we read : “It
addresses the spiritual being in man. It directly raises his or her awareness
and ability, and by so doing, he or she also becomes increasingly able to
overcome the negative factors that impair their lives”. Now the Bible
offers a wonderful reason for life; it is found in John 4:23 “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship
him.” Quite a contrast, n’est
pas?
No 16
(Sikhism)
Sikhism is considered by its followers to be a progressive religion well ahead
of its time when it was founded over 500 years ago in India; the Sikh religion today
has a following of over 20 million people worldwide and is ranked as the
world’s 5th largest religion. The founder of the Sikh religion was Guru Nanak
who was born in 1469. He preached a message of love and understanding and
criticized the blind rituals of the Hindus and Muslims. Guru Nanak passed on
the leadership of this new religion to nine successive Gurus. The final living
Guru, Guru Gobind Singh died in 1708. They are the ones who wear turbans and
carry a ceremonial dagger at all times.
Sikhism
preaches a message of devotion and remembrance of God at all times, truthful
living, equality of mankind and denounces superstitions and blind rituals.
Sikhism is open to all through the teachings of its 10 Gurus enshrined in the
Sikh Holy Book called Guru Granth Sahib.
The goal of human life, according to Sikhism is to break the cycle of births
and deaths and merge with God. This can be accomplished by following the
teachings of the Gurus, meditating on the Holy Name and performing acts of
service and charity. Sikhism recognizes
sin and the five cardinal vices are; Kam (lust), Krodh (anger), Lobh (greed),
Moh (worldly attachment) and Ahankar (pride). If one can overcome these, they
will achieve salvation. There is
rejection of all forms of blind rituals such as fasting, religious
vegetarianism, pilgrimages, superstitions, yoga, as well as any form of idol
worship. The Sikh Holy Book (Guru Granth
Sahib) is the perpetual Guru; there is no place in Sikhism for a living Guru
today.
Sikhism is a religion of works with no forgiveness
of sin and therefore no hope of eternal life; there is no resemblance
whatsoever with Christianity and the God of the Bible. Jesus himself said “I am
the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
No 17
(Rastafarianism)
This
religion began by the preaching of Marcus Garvey in the 1920’s on black
self-powerment and initiated the “Back to Africa” movement; principally back to
Ethiopia. He wanted blacks to feel
proud of their heritage and he said that the day a black king shall be crowned,
that will be the day of our deliverance.
Many thought that this prophesy was fulfilled by Haile Selassie 1 when
he was crowned king of Ethiopia in 1930.
Haile Selassie 1 claimed to be the direct descendant of King David in an
unbroken line of Ethiopian kings from the time of Solomon and Sheba. Rastafarians or Rastas believe that Haile
Selassie 1 is the living god for the blacks and they also believe that he was
the Jesus that Christianity speaks of; they say that the white man tricked the
world into believing that He was white.
Many believe that Haile Selassie is not dead and say that his atoms
spread throughout the world and became part of new babies.
They let
their hair grow naturally into dreadlocks in the image of the Lion of
Judah. Six out of 10 Jamaicans are said
to be Rastas and the total worldwide stands at approximately 1 million
followers. Rasta forms the base for
reggae music; Bob Marley and the Wailers spread Rasta all through the world
with their reggae music. Rastas are
vegetarians and they use ganja (marijuana) for spiritual purposes and base its
usage on the following verses of Scripture:
-
“…Thou shalt eat the herb of the
field” (Gen 3:18)
-
“…eat every herb of the
land” (Exod 10:12)
-
“Better is a dinner of herb where
love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith”
(Prov 15:17)
They use
this herb extensively but not only for spiritual purposes but for medicinal
purposes also. Rastafarians live a
peaceful life, needing little material possessions and devote much time to
contemplating the Holy Scriptures. I
pray that the Spirit of God enlightens them to the real Savior of the world –
Jesus Christ.
No 18
(Taoism)
Tao (pronounced "Dow") can be roughly translated
into English as path, or the way. Its followers say that it is
indefinable; it has to be experienced. It "refers to a power which envelops, surrounds
and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural
processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of
opposites” (Examples: there would be no love without hate, no light
without dark, no male without female.)
The founder of Taoism is believed by many to be Lao-Tse (604-531
BC??). He was searching for a way that
would avoid the constant feudal warfare and other conflicts that disrupted
society during his lifetime. The result was his book: Tao-te-Ching (a.k.a. Daodejing). Others
believe that he is a mythical character.
Taoism started as a combination of psychology and philosophy but evolved
into a religious faith when it was adopted as a state religion.
The
Yin Yang symbol, they say,
represents the balance of opposites in the universe. An example of this is to say that: “there is a little good in all bad and a
little bad in all good”.
This Chinese religion is totally humanistic and atheistic; it is
to be avoided because God is completely out of the picture. I’ve seen
Christians with with this symbol aound their necks. If you see a Christian with the Yin Yang
symbol around his or her neck, I strongly advise that you ask them to remove it
not because it has mystical powers but because it does not glorify God.
No 19
(Islam, part 2)
In our previous study, we focused our attention on the fact that
Islam was founded by Mohammed, an Arab in 610 AD but who are the Arabs? They descend from Abraham, just like the
Jews do, but through Ishmael. Sarah,
Abraham’s wife was barren and in her impatience she gave her handmaid Hagar to
Abraham and she conceived a son (Genesis 16:11); Hagar named him Ishmael, which
means “God hears”. At this point in
time, Abraham had not yet been circumcised and it was only on Ishmael’s
thirteenth birthday that they were both circumcised “And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in
the flesh of his foreskin. In the
selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.” (Genesis 17).
The Lord said to Abraham “And as
for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him
fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and
I will make him a great nation.” (Gen 17:20) The Lord protected Hagar and her son Ishmael
from the start; the Bible says in Genesis 21: 18 “Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make
him a great nation.” This how the
Arab people came into existance.
Arabs were always present in Biblical times. Joseph was taken to
Egypt and sold into slavery by Midianites (Genesis 37); Moses’ father in law,
Jethro was an Arab Midianite and gave Moses council on how to delegate
authority (Exodus 18) to the Jews and we also see Arabs in Jerusalem on the Day
of Pentecost “Cretes and Arabians, we do
hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” Acts 2:11. So Arabs have been around as long as the Jews
have and up until Mohammed and Islam, they were an idolatrous people, although
as the verse in Acts indicate, some Arabs also became Christians; there are
Arab Christians today. The Arabs are a
people , not a religion.
Over the centuries, two factions of Islam have arisen and today
we see Sunni Muslims who regard themselves as the mainstream and traditionalist
branch of Islam and the Shiite Muslims who are considered the minority
sect. They both find their beliefs in
the Qur’an or Koran, the writings of Mohammed and his companions. The difference between each one is that the
Shiites believe that Muslim leadership belongs to Mohammed’s son in law, Ali;
whereas the Sunnis believe that Mohammed’s descendants were the rightful
successors.
Either way, Islam is based on a man whose tomb is occupied
whereas Christianity is based on Jesus Christ whose tomb is empty and who is
sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us.
No 20
(Judaism, part 2)
As in last week’s supplemental study of Islam, this one is
similar but to Judaism and the definition of the various groups that adhere to
Jewish culture. Judaism is a religion
with many traditions and sects. As we know,
the Jewish people began with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as outlined in Genesis 12
to 50. Through the centuries however,
the clear-cut definition of the Jew has changed and maybe the proper word now
is that is has diversified.
Here are some of the main groups of Judaism: 1)
Conservative - Its philosophy combines commitment to Jewish
tradition and the law with an open and positive approach to the modern world,
to democratic culture and to Zionism. 2) Hasidic - The Hebrew word Hasid means "pious"
and represents the East European Orthodox Jewish religious movement 3)
Humanistic - offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish
life. 4) Messianic – This orthodox group believes that the Messiah will
open the land of Israel once again to the Jewish people when he comes and they
are opposed to the presence of Jews in modern-day Israel. 5)
Reconstructionist – Defines Judaism as the evolving religious civilization
of the Jewish people indicating that Judaism has changed over the
centuries. 6) Reformist – Began in North America in the mid-1800’s and is in recognition that reform is part of
their way of life, as it has been for Jews throughout the centuries 7)
Sephardic/Ashkenazi – Both groups originate in Europe, Sephardic Jews were
located in countries on the Mediterranean Sea and Ashkenazi were located
primarily in Poland and Lithuania.
Then there are Jews who have converted to Christianity and by
doing so, became outcasts in their families; they are called Hebrew
Christians. There is a verse in Isaiah
and is repeated in the book of Romans in chapter 10 verse 15 and it says “…how beautiful are the feet of them that
preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.” Although this verse can apply to any
evangelism effort, it is in the middle of a Jewish context of Scripture –
Romans 9 to 11 where Paul begins by saying “For
I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen
according to the flesh.” (Rom 9:3)
May we pray for the Jewish people.
No 21
(Voodoo)
The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word
“voodoo” is a doll with pins sticking into it as a form of spell on
someone. Well, in all fairness, that is not
what voodoo is all about; it’s part of it but there is
a milder and more “religious” side to
it. Voodoo was officially sanctioned as
the national religion of
The Protestant movement in