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IS BUDDHISM ALL BAD? #2
NINE GREAT TEACHERS
Do you like to read through these compilation books
that contain good prayers? Some of them are really excellent, and here's
one to think about today. It has the title: "O Son of Man!",
and has a rather King James sound to it.
"If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself;
and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest
die in Me and I may eternally live in thee."
Here's another one that's good, with a similar heading:
"O My Servant!" And the meditation reads this way:
"Purge thy heart from malice and, innocent
of envy, enter the divine court of holiness."
You could maybe picture the Psalmist David writing
something like this. But no, when we check the front cover of this prayer
book, we find this title: THE HIDDEN WORDS OF BAHÁ'U'LLÁH.
And these are prayers written by the prophet Bahá'u'lláh,
the founder of the Bahá'í faith, around the year 1858 A.D.
as he walked along the Tigris River as a spiritual exile.
The woman who gave us this book, Susan, is a media specialist living down
in Hollywood, who works as a dialect consultant with movie stars. She's
a devout believer in the Bahá'í religion, a kind, friendly,
winsome person. She and our writer/producer, David Smith, are good friends,
working together for more than ten years on cooperative religious PR projects.
And this book, which is a lovely gift, is filled with many things that
appear to be useful truth. Yet it comes from a faith that is admittedly
NOT Christian; it is a non-Christian religion.
And so in this radio series we wrestle with the question of truth found
outside the gates, so to speak. I mentioned last time how faiths like
the religion of Islam are experiencing an explosion of growth here in
the United States. People's laptop computers beep five times a day, reminding
them to kneel toward Mecca. Yuppies driving their BMWs to work have coffee
mugs at their work stations which read: "I Love Allah," with
a heart-shape symbol there for the word "love." There are something
like 1,500 mosques dotting the countryside now, from Florida clear up
to Alaska. And many people who might have been raised in the Catholic
religion or Bible-Belt Baptists are suddenly breaking out of the mold
and chanting a new hymn in a nearby Buddhist temple . . . because they
feel that they have found TRUTH there. So is there TRUTH to be found in
the Bahá'í religion?
Well, the answer is yes. We've already read some of it. And this unique
religion, coming as it does, out of the Islam faith, shares many of the
good teachings of its heritage. Including, interestingly enough, a great
respect for the teachings and the prophetic mission of a young Teacher
from Nazareth named Jesus Christ.
That's right. Jesus, they teach, was sent by God as a "(quote) manifestation
of the divine mind." He came, just as our Christian Bible says, to
"show us the Father."
However, now we get into an interesting conundrum. Because in the Bahá'í
theology, there isn't ONE person like Jesus; there are NINE of them. Nine
times where God reaches down to this planet by sending an emissary. And
the nine are: Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius, Christ, Mohammed, Krishna,
Lao, and finally, their own prophet, Bahá'u'lláh.
Well, friend, we established a principle previously that I want to hasten
to right now. While there's truth and beauty found in most religions,
and golden rules to live by, there comes a time when the Christian faith
and some OTHER faith contradict each other. And we have to ask at that
point if two plus two can equal four . . . and five . . . at the same
time. Because one of the hallmark texts in the Christian religion is this
one, found in John 14:6:
"I am the way and the truth and the life,"
Jesus says. "No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Notice these plain words. Christ makes a bold claim
here: "I am THE way." Not one way out of nine. Not one path
to heaven out of many paths. But THE path; the only path. It is a foundation
teaching of the Christian faith that a person is saved only through Jesus
Christ, and that Jesus Christ is THE revelation of the Father. The NIV
text notes add: "Jesus is not one way among many, but THE way."
And it gets a bit more serious than that. If you read the literature or
query an official spokesperson of the Bahá'í religion about
these nine "manifestations" of God, they will admit that to
them, their own prophet Bahá'u'lláh, is THE authoritative
one, especially since he's the most recent. Is there conflict between
the nine? Disagreement? Yes, they admit that there is. And in their own
words: "The writings of Bahá'u'lláh, since they are
the last manifestation, are to be considered the final authority in matters
of religion so far as the Bahá'í faith is concerned."
And you know, this is the bottom line. The Christian faith presents for
the world's consideration ONE Person. ONE Man. His name is Jesus Christ.
And the Christian faith doesn't suggest that He's A messenger sent from
God, or that He's one of God's nine Sons, or that He's one of the world's
great spiritual minds. No, the Christian religion is far more radical
than that. It is bold enough to claim — because its Founder did — that
Jesus Christ IS IT! He is THE Son of God! He is the ONLY BEGOTTEN Son
of God! He is THE path to salvation, the ONLY way to the kingdom. And
where other religions propose that there are many, and the Christian faith
claims that there is only one, each of us has to choose which of those
philosophies is correct.
Which leads us to another foundation concept. You know, these different
religions contain good things, great truths said by wise men. I'll be
the first to say that Confucius was much wiser than I am. Plato and Buddha
wrote down keen insights that have done the world good. Millions have
been persuaded by the platitudes expressed by Mohammed. And some of these
religions suggest that we have had among us, down through the ages, simply
a collection of good teachers. And these other religions cheerfully admit
Jesus Christ to an honored place at the head table. "He is one of
the greatest," they concede. "The teachings of Christ are eternal
and good." And then they add these chilling words: "But now
there is another." And that new teacher might be the prophet Bahá'u'lláh,
or it might be Mohammed, or it might be Marshall Herff Applewhite and
Bonnie Lu Trusdale Nettles, the Bo and the Peep of the Heaven's Gate cult,
who explicitly made the claim: "Jesus was great, but now there's
us." "I am the new Jesus," Applewhite told his cult followers,
"sent here to Earth to lead my flock back to heaven."
Well, friend, there's tragic evidence that Mr. Applewhite was basically
a nut. And herein lies a powerful, convincing argument that every Christian
should commit to memory anytime he or she encounters the suggestion that
our planet has simply been blessed with many great spiritual teachers,
one of whom was named Jesus.
In the classic book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis forever demolishes
that argument. Here's what he writes:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying
the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I'm ready to
accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,'" they say, "‘but I don't
accept His claim to be God.'" Then Lewis writes: "That is the
ONE thing we must NOT say."
And really, this is the core teaching of many world
religions: that Christ was one of many prophets or good teachers, that
he was simply a wise and good man who transformed the world by his love
and the pure wisdom of his teachings. But that possibility simply doesn't
exist, Lewis writes. Here's a bit more:
"A man who was merely a man and said the
sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would
either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached
egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.
Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something
worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him
as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But
let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great
human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
Did you follow all that? Jesus Christ walked
on this earth for three years doing a lot of good things and saying a
lot of wonderful things. The Sermon on the Mount. The Lord's Prayer. The
Golden Rule. But He ALSO said, over and over and over again: "I am
the Son of God." "My Father and I are one." "The Father
sent Me." "I am the way — the ONLY way — to salvation."
"I'm going to lay down My life for you, and then in three days, take
it up again." Listen, friend, a person who talks that way incessantly
for three years is either what he says he is, or he's a blithering idiot.
A nut case. In Lewis' words, like a man who goes on TV and claims to be
a poached egg.
And so we do glance around appreciatively at these world religions. And
maybe we borrow a quote here and there, and recognize the contributions
made. But when it comes to the Person of Jesus Christ, and the bold, unmatched
CLAIMS of Jesus Christ — then every person alive has to make a choice.
You choose the Christian faith, with this Jesus as the divine and ONLY
Son of God . . . or you choose from Column B. Because you can't have both.
Both cannot be true.
Which is it to be . . . for you?
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