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PLAIN TRUTH FROM THE KORAN

Here's a thought-for-the-day you might want to jot down and carry around with you, because it's really very insightful.

"A man should first direct HIMSELF in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others."

Isn't that good? It reminds us of "Physician, heal thyself." "A man should first direct HIMSELF in the way he should go." Now, maybe you're wondering, "Where's that found? What chapter in the Bible does it come from?" Well, actually that philosophy was expressed, not by Peter, James, or John, or Moses or Jesus . . . but by a man named Buddha. What I just shared is from the heart of the Buddhist faith.

Here's another good one.

"Haste is of the devil."

Now, especially on a busy Monday, that's one to keep posted on the dashboard of your car as you simultaneously change lanes and speed-dial cell-phone business acquaintances. "Haste is of the devil." And that one doesn't come from the book of Proverbs either; it's word for word out of the Koran.

And you say: "What in the world is going on here? Has the Voice of Prophecy lost its Protestant Christian moorings?" No, friend, we certainly haven't. But in the next few programs we want to ask what is turning out to be a very important question. Here it is: IS BUDDHISM ALL BAD? Is the religion of Islam nothing but heresy and sword-waving holy wars? Is there anything worthwhile in the Baha'i belief system?

Back in the March 16, 1998 issue of Newsweek Magazine, Carla Power describes the faith practices of a young Islamic devotee living in the mysterious, faraway world of . . . Southern California. Here's what she writes:

"In El Cerrito, California, Shahed Amanullah knows it's time to pray, not by a muezzin's call from a mosque minaret, but because his PowerMac [computer] has chimed. A verse from the Koran hangs by his futon. Near the bookcases — lined with copies of Wired magazine and Jack Kerouac novels — lies a red Arabian prayer rug. There's a plastic compass sewn into the carpet, its needle pointing toward Mecca."

And all across the western world, in Detroit and Los Angeles and Toronto, company CEOs and NBA basketball coaches and Hollywood movie stars are embracing the teachings of Buddhism. If you can't sink free throws, or if your agent doesn't return your phone calls, you simply chant over and over: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. In fact, there was a news story not too long ago suggesting that some Christians are endeavoring to embrace PARTS of Buddhism . . . while hanging onto their Baptist or their Episcopalian roots at the same time. They like the peace that comes through meditation, or the tranquility of sitting on the sundeck in the lotus position. Or they find actual truth — proven reality — in the Buddhist teachings regarding the "four sufferings" that come to all of us: at birth, during sickness, old age, and death. The Buddhist faith teaches great respect for life, for the sanctity of all life, and maybe that seems to be missing in the Protestant church they attend on Saturday or Sunday morning.

So that's really our question. How do we relate to the truths that seem to be present in these other faiths? Is there something here to look into? Doesn't Christianity have a monopoly on all truth?

Another question. What does it imply if our Hindu neighbor or a friend at work who practices at least aspects of Buddhism seems to suddenly "have it all together"? They're more peaceful than before. They roll with the punches better. In fact, though we hate to admit it, there seems to be more inner quietude in THEIR lives than we saw manifested in the local church board meeting last Wednesday evening over at our CHRISTIAN church. Is this something to think about?

Well, let's begin our consideration of this subject with a formal confession. And I find this very well expressed in a book we use often here on the broadcast, entitled Mere Christianity. But the author, C. S. Lewis, addresses religions OTHER than Christianity, when he writes this:

"I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe," he writes, "and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians do not need to believe. If you are Christian you do not need to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth."

It would be hard to imagine any religion, either the tiniest of cults or a major global faith movement, that could attract people with nothing but pure error and false teaching. No one would go for it, except maybe the founder — for financial reasons. And Lewis is right to point out that other religions besides Christianity contain truth, and sometimes a lot of it.

We have a book here in our office that starts off in a very promising way. It's entitled Mary T. Reflects on the Other Side, and begins with this excellent statement:

"We must prepare for this journey by living on the earth with dignity, integrity, service, love, and a sense of humor."

Now, who could argue with that? I wouldn't. How a believer lives on this planet, touching other lives with service and love — and that sense of humor — is vital. Jesus lived that way, and instructed His followers to do the same. So here's a writer's "(quote) religion" — and it seems to be truth. As far as it goes, it IS truth.

But notice again what she says: "We must prepare for this journey." What journey is that? Well, she's writing about the journey where a person "crosses over" from the existence of this life to the life she says is on the other side of death. And here's the next thing she claims:

"I am aided in this process by my spirit guide, White Feather."

And the rest of this 211-page book is filled, page after page, with writing that is explicitly anti-biblical. There's false doctrine through and through contained here. False compared to the Bible, that is. This New Age volume, containing some truth as it admittedly does, then goes into dark chasms of error that are directly opposed to what is taught in the Word of God.

And you might have this response: "So? How do I know that SHE'S not right, and that the Bible's the book with mistakes in it?" Well, friend, maybe you DON'T know that. But there's one thing that is for sure true. This Mary T. and the Word of God cannot both be correct.

Let me share with you the rest of C. S. Lewis' observation about other faiths, where he concedes that these different faith systems do have some truth in them. They're not "(quote) simply one huge mistake." But then he adds this:

"But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic — there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others."

It's interesting that he brings up arithmetic, because he's right that if you are solving what we call a first-degree algebra equation, then there can only be one right answer. If "2x + 1 = 7," then x being three is the only thing that can be true. All other suggestions are false. There's an entire branch of mathematics called Boolean algebra, which deals with the logic of true versus false. We say that if A is true, then NOT-A cannot also be true. It can't be eighty degrees outside and twenty degrees in the very same place at the very same moment. And this Boolean algebra assigns ones and zeroes to certain "logic outcomes," as in true or false. Computers use this yes/no technology of ones and zeroes a lot, I'm told.

But in the world of faith, it's a plain fact that some opposing teachings cannot both be true at the same time. And a good Christian, while he or she respects the sincerity of other people's faith experiences, and acknowledges the many good truths to be found there, also stands up to embrace this simple doctrine of life: where Christianity differs from any other religion, the Christian believes that Christianity has the truth. The Christian teaching is the right one.

Now, on what basis do you make that decision? Well, maybe you simply inherited that choice; you were christened into Christianity and you never looked around at the other options. The Christian faith is a default thing for you. But sooner or later, there comes to every man and every woman — God puts before you — a time of true decision, where you have to stake everything you have — your LIFE — on one faith system, whether it's Buddhism, Islam, the Heaven's Gate cult, or this thing we call the Christian faith. You have to make a determination that, despite the good-sounding Hallmark rhymes offered by this group or that, just one faith — at the points where they diverge and split off — one faith is right where the others are wrong.

That's a serious matter, isn't it? It's a matter of study and prayer and thoughtful consideration. And sometimes a matter of faith.

We're just getting started, so stay tuned.