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(Edward Asaph), b. 1866. | Jesus Christ compared with non-Christian teachers / Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2022 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library — https://archive.org/details/jesuschristcompa0Omars . . P34. Jpenr PROrEKTY OF POB JENKS Ne & 7 by ‘ \ an , 5 2 \ } ' ih > y i . J i r ' “4 *® “a \ ‘ 1 ’ : 4 i r ‘ 5° : PESO SC ERS Tl COMPARED WITH NON-CHRISTIAN TEACHERS By EDWARD A. MARSHALL, Ph.D., D.D. Author “Christianity Compared with Non-Christian Religions,” “Christ the Master Soul-Winner,” “The Disciples in Christ’s School,” “Christ's Battle with the Pharisees,” “How Christ Lived and Labored in Palestine,” etc. LIBRARY OF PRINCETON: | Tuirp EDITION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRICE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS ZONDERVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE GRAND RAPIDS MICHIGAN COPYRIGHT, MCMXXIV, BY EDWARD A. MARSHALL Printed in the United States of America ZONDERVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE EIGHT-FIFTEEN FRANKLIN STREET GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN INTRODUCTION Modern efforts to exalt the non-Christian religions to a place of equal value and authority with Christianity at once raises the question, Why did not Christ do it? All religions, except Mohammedanism had existed for five hundred years before Christ came! Why did He not give them His seal of endorsement the same as He did the religion of Abraham and Moses in the Old Testament? The discovery of choice ethical and moral epigrams in the religious teachings of Confucius, Buddha and Mohammed have led some persons to declare them divine. Why divine? May they not be simply human, the expressions of human consciences as Paul said of the heathen?—“Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another” (Rom. 2:15). Man needs to be delivered from the guilt, the power and the presence of sin. Religion is the field of knowledge where the truth concerning these things is revealed and learned, Any religion which cannot meet this need automatically fails. The all-absorbing, pressing question is—‘‘to which shall the human race go?” To answer this, in part at least, is the purpose of this study which is the fruitage of visits to many non-Christian lands and which is intended to supplement a previous volume, “Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions Compared.” This booklet is only a quick survey of the subject. It furnishes a simple outline and synopsis to introduce the study, with the hope that the startling contrast will exalt among the readers Him who has already been exalted and given a Name which is above every name. E. A. M. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PROPHECY CREATOR . BIRTH . DEITY . HUMANITY EARTHLY LIFE . SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE . RELATION TO Gop . Aim OF WoRK . View or Man . FOLLOWERS VIEW OF SIN SALVATION LOVE PRAYER TEACHING . MIRACLES . _ INTERCESSION ASSURANCE OVERCOMING . PRIESTHOOD . RECEIVED WoRSHIP DEATH OF FOUNDER RESURRECTION ASCENSION EXALTATION . RETURN ON OT &w PROPHECY Curist. One of the impossible tasks in human life is to prophesy, especially concerning the birth and history of a future child. Not a single fact can be specifically stated. God alone holds the key. When men prophesy, they wait until the child is born, and perhaps lived and died then they let their imagination run wild and tell how worlds and suns crashed and how angels did freak- ish things. It is not safe for man to prophesy unless he knows, and when he knows, then it is not prophecy. When God said, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14), it was not prophecy to Him, but it was to the Jews. He stated a simple historical event in advance which gave Christ a distinct place among men. When men have startling miracles at their birth and after death, but none while they live they are short on credentials. It shows that someone became their “Press Agent” after they died. Conructus gave himself with great fidelity to the study of the “Ancient,” but ignored the study of the future. He made no effort to predict anything con- cerning himself or his teaching. In fact, he was so lacking in foresight that he thought his work would die with him, although it has lasted nearly twenty-five hundred years. The “assurances” of God are better than the “guesses” of men. Buppua taught that man is bound to the “Wheel of Life” (caught in the whirlpool of rebirth) and that all the future is governed by cosmic law. Any prophecy hs) PROPHECY could only be a statement of what the laws of nature would bring about. However, he undertook once to prophesy the future of his religion and said that “be- cause women had been admitted to his order it would last only five hundred years while it should have lasted one thousand years.” However, it has lasted nearly twenty-five hundred years which shows that Buddha was a poor prophet. Buddha endorsed suicide in one of his followers. But Jesus said of Christians, “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.” Which teaching is best? MouamMED’s followers tried to increase his authority by declaring that he was a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies. They insist that the statement in Deut. 18: 15-18—“A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up from among your brethren,” refers to Mohammed be- cause the Ishmaelites are the only “brethren”’ the Jews ever had. They say also that the word “desire” in Hag. 2:7 is the same as Mohammed and that Mount Paran in Hab. 3:3, is Mecca. Mohammed, himself, was a man of strong imagina- tion and his attempts at prophetic forecasts took the nature of the longings of a military adventurer. Men in all ages have realized sin but no one ever found a true salvation until Christ came. Hinows realize that foretelling things belongs to Deity and since the Hindu “holy man” makes positive claims to divine relationship he resorts to forecasting future events to substantiate his assertions. Confucius tried to lift himself by his own boot straps but his constant verdict was, “I have not attained.” 6 CREATOR Curist is given the remarkable position of being the Creator of the creation He came to save. John intro- duces Him in his gospel saying, “All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.” Paul endorses this in Eph. 3:9, “Who created all things by Jesus Christ,” and in Heb. U2 “By whom also he made the worlds.” Jesus therefore had a very personal interest in His own world and its redemption. How different from Confucius, who dis- claimed any interest in the earth or its origin; or Buddha, who taught that it came by chance and would vanish by the same cause; or the Brahmans, who taught that a Mt. Meru on the earth was 756,000 miles high and had a city on its summit 126,000 miles in extent. God’s revelation is better than man’s speculations. Christ is the only Teacher who promised to come back per- sonally for His followers. ConFucius taught that heaven and earth are the par- ents of all things. He refused on several occasions even to talk on the origin of created objects, claiming that it was a waste of time and thought. The man who rejects Christ will soon find the curtain of spiritual darkness is being lowered between him and God. Buppua had “no creator, no creation or original germ of things; no soul of the world; no personal or impersonal; no supermundane or antemundane prin- ciple.” He refused to discuss the origin of things or the eternity of matter. However, he made the startling assertion that it is one of the worst forms of heresy for any person to declare he exists. He also said, “The 7 CREATOR body is man’s prison-house, the abode of evil.” From this it is easy to see that he was not the creator. When men boast about their holiness they have not the kind you need. MoHAMMED based his view of creation on narratives which he borrowed from the Old Testament. His chapter on “Cattle” in the Koran reads: “Praise belongs to God who created the heavens and earth and brought into being the darkness and light” [a protest against dual- ism], “Yet do those who misbelieve, hold him to have peers” [a protest against the Trinity and idolatry]. “He it is who created you from clay.” HinputisM teaches that “spirit and matter are insepar- able and that God is all and all is God.” There is no individual creator. This teaching was introduced by Manu. Previous to that their belief was monotheistic and the Vedas taught that, ‘““Numberless are the revolu- tions of the world—creations and destructions and re- creations.” “‘He, the Almighty, brings them forth, as it were in sport, lets death follow life, and life, death.” The Brahmans, two thousand years B.c., believed that God created the world by the power of His will, which shows that they were still under the influence of the Old Testament revelation that came down to them through the Punjab with their Aryan ancestors. Modern Hindus have set the personality of God aside, saying, “We cannot pronounce the Supreme to be existent or non-existent.” When filthiness is a sign of sanctity beware of the religion it comes from. 8 Belthole Curist. The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). “She brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7). Then the angels sang to the shepherds: “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). ConFuctus was born in the province of Shantung, B.c. 501. His father was a military officer of marked bravery. He died when Confucius was three years old. Having always been a poor man, he left his family in straitened circumstances; which Confucius, in later life, said was a good thing. No event happened to indicate that Confucius had any super-human mission in the world. Buppua’s followers herald his birth as follows: “After seven days fasting and seclusion the pure and holy Maya dreams that she is carried by archangels to heaven and that there the future Buddha enters her right side in the form of a superb white elephant. One thousand worlds were filled with light. During ten months of his life in the womb the child sat cross- legged, distinctly visible, preached to angels,” etc. When born, Buddha took seven steps and exclaimed with a lion’s voice, “I am the chief of the world. This is my last birth.” ‘Dwellers in ten thousand worlds shielded him with umbrellas ten miles high—they sounded his 9 BORG, praises on conchshells one hundred twenty cubits long— the blast reverberated four and one-half months.” Everyone who starts a religion ought to be required to begin by raising someone from the dead as a guarantee. MouamMeEp’s birth has been surrounded by absurd fancies. When his father Abdallah married Amina, it is said that two hundred virgins died of broken hearts. When Mohammed was born he was entrusted to a nurse of a desert tribe, who discovered that he had epileptic fits and brought him back at the end of two years. These spells continued into adult life and he took ad- vantage of them by claiming that they were trances, during which Gabriel taught him the chapters of the Koran. His father died just before, or soon after his birth and his mother died when he was seven years old. He was brought up by relatives and was of a mild disposition in his youth. A teacher who can only guess as to man’s origin is not qualified to guarantee what his end will be. HinpuismM. “‘When the Universal Soul took at the beginning the shape of a man he beheld nothing but himself.” He said, “This I am.” Hence the name “T” was produced. Being alone, he was afraid. He said, “Since nothing but myself exists, of whom should I be afraid?” “He did not feel delight, therefore he divided this Self twofold. Hence were husband and wife produced like a split pea separated. Then these two mortals assumed the forms of all creatures, male and female, in turn. In this manner he created every living pair whatsoever, down to ants.” When a religion is full of fanatical teaching, beware, lest its results be all fiction. 10 DEITY CurisT was God, by many infallible proofs. Other teachers have been men and nothing more, by equally infallible proofs. Search the world and see if any other teacher besides Christ has had such testimonies as these: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne O God is forever and ever” (Heb. 1:8). “Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:6). “Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh” (I Tim. 3:16). “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus said to Satan concerning Him- self, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God’? (Luke 4:12). The demons said to Christ, “What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God” (Matt. 8:29). John wrote, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ” (I John 2:23). ConFucius laid no claim to Deity. He said, “If heaven had wished to let the cause of truth perish, then I, a future mortal, should not have had such a relation to that cause.” “At fifteen my mind was bent on learn- ing; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had doubts; at fifty I knew the will of God; at sixty I could trust my ears; at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without transgression.” However, about the last date he tried to persuade one ruler to go and kill a rival who had usurped a throne. BuppHa did not claim to be a superior Being in any definite sense, but he did claim to have reached the state of perfection, according to his own definition, which is the “‘extinction of desire.” His doctrine of cause ll DEITY: and effect shut a personal God out of the Universe which of course prevented him from claiming any relationship to Deity. Buddha’s death from eating pork is a strange contrast to his statement to his disciples, “I am the greatest of all beings.” MouAmMMEpD laid no claim to Deity or to superior righteousness. He claimed that his authority and po- sition came to him by appointment. He linked his name with that of the God of the Bible, but he rejected the authority of the Bible over his own life and conduct. His view of Christ was as follows: The Koran says, “Verily Jesus is as Adam in the sight of God. He cre- ated him of dust. He then said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was” (Surah 3:52). “The Christians say that the Messiah is the Son of God. God fight them. How they lie” (Surah 9:30). The Koran denies that Christ was crucified, and says that a criminal was substituted in His place at the last moment. The fact that a man can talk pious does not mean that he is sent of God. HINnpDUIsM is now pantheistic and teaches that, “Every- thing from the lowest estate of a straw to the highest estate of a god, is Brahma. All gods and worlds are sealed in this Divine Spirit which, by cause and effect, produces what comes to pass. The Hindu conception of God takes an account of His personality, His separation from man, His sovereign will and the essence of His character, righteousness, purity or love.” Would you think it consistent to name a cigarette after the Virgin Mary? There is one named after Mohammed’s daugh- ter, Fatima. The difference is in the source of the two re- ligions—God and man. 12 HUMANITY Curist, though Divine, was intensely human. He grew up as a normal child, to manhood. He suffered hunger (Luke 4:2); thirst (John 4:7); weariness (John 4:6); He had compassion (Matt. 9:33); love (Matt. 10:21; John 11:5); grief (John 11:35). His humanity was complete, as Paul says, “Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren.” And again in Heb. 4:15, He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Christ referred to Himself eighty times as the Son of man, some of which refer to Him after His resurrection. ConFucius did not speculate on the origin of man nor did he seek to know about his hereafter. Yik King (Classic No. 2) says, “The heaven and the earth had a beginning and if that can be said of them how much more truly of man.” “After there was a heaven and earth, all material things were formed; male and female appeared, man and woman.” “Man is the representa- tive of heaven and is supreme over all things: woman yields obedience to the instructions of man, and helps to carry out his principles. On this account she can determine nothing of herself and is subject to the rule of three obediences: (1) To father and elder brother. (2) To husband. (3) To son.” The Bible says that God created woman to be a “helpmeet.” Man displaced her. Christ restored her. Buppua’s last teachings were that “The foolish man conceives the idea of self; the wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of self.” “The soul of man does not consist of two things, an atman (self) and of manas (mind or thoughts), but that it 13 HUMANITY is made up of thoughts alone. The thoughts of a man constitute his soul.” MouAMMED’S weak human nature was always in evi- dence. He was treacherous, as in the case of the poet Caab, whom he caused to be murdered. He was war- like, too, for his biographers say, “He personally con- ducted twenty-seven expeditions with nine pitched battles and many deaths.” He practiced deception in defense of his sins by uttering prophetic revelations. He used God’s holy name to support his ambitious schemes and lightly disposed of evil as follows, “When a Moham- medan performeth ablutions he washes his hands from faults they committed, and also his feet, so that he riseth up in purity.” No non-Christian teacher ever yearned over his disciples and told them that he wanted them to be with him in the next world. Christ did. Hinputism had no outstanding person who called to his fellows, “Follow me,” as have other religions. This position was taken however by the whole Brahman priesthood which arrogated to itself the preroga- tives of spiritual authority. It teaches that Brahm created four kinds of men, each of which forms a caste: (1) From the head he made Brahmans whose business it is to instruct mankind. (2) From the arm he made the Kashatryas to defend the race (warriors). (3) From the body he made the Vaisyas to nourish mankind. (4) From the feet he made the Sudras to serve and obey the other castes. If any relicion teaches you to think you are “not very bad” you may be. .e it is man-made. 14 EARTHLY LIFE Curist’s earthly life was so simple, yet profound, that it has excited the wonder of all men. Even Napoleon at St. Helena said of the gospel story, “I never tire with reading it, and I read it daily with equal delight.” Jesus showed how God could live a human life. Peter, who was His daily companion, said of Him, after nearly thirty years of reflection, ““Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth” (I Peter 2:22). John, who was the most intimately acquainted with Christ of all earthly people, wrote after over fifty years to consider His words, “No unrighteousness is in him.” ConFuctus was born 551 B.c. When three years old his father died. At nineteen he married and at twenty- two he began teaching. He was contemporary with Lao Tse, Pythagoras and Cyrus. Confucius occupied various official positions, closing with that of Prime Minister of his province. Then he took up teaching and the work of compiling his books. He had one son who died be- fore Confucius did, leaving a son who became the teacher of Mencius. About 75,000 of his descendants are said to be now living in China. Confucius died over over seventy years of age. BUDDHA was much worried in early manhood especially over the mystery of sickness and death. To solve these problems he forsook his home when twenty- nine years of age and spent six years wandering as an ascetic and studying with Brahman priests. Finding no solution, he started home. (See “followers.”) His life history has been filled with fiction as the following item shows: “The priests teach that Buddha had lived 15 EARTHLY LIFE in four hundred million worlds, and in this world he had had five hundred fifty births, viz., as an ascetic eighty-three times; a monarch fifty-eight times; a tree forty-three times; a religious teacher twenty-six times. He was man, prince, priest, noble, gambler, serpent, fish, rat, jackal, crow, pig, dog,” etc. MoHAMMED was born in Mecca, Arabia, about 571 A.D., and died 632 a.p. He married a wealthy widow when twenty-five and began his prophetic work at about 40. He had six children, the two boys dying in their youth. He was subject to epileptic fits. At times he thought himself possessed of the devil and contemplated suicide. He spent much time in meditation in a cave at Mt. Hara where later he claimed to receive revelations from Gabriel. He bitterly opposed idolatry and was driven from Mecca for a time. After his wife Kadijah died he married nine wives, eight of whom were widows. After his return from Medina to Mecca he adopted the sword to propagate his religion. HinpuisM. The Upanishads teach that, “From the Self sprang ether; from ether, air; from air, fire; from fire, water; from water, earth; from earth, herbs, food, seed; from seed, man. Man thus consists of the essence of food. From food are produced all creatures on earth. They live by, grow on and return to food. Different from this is the inner Self—it is breath. Higher than this is mind—higher yet is understanding—still higher is bliss.” Such teaching betrays the source of some of the new cults which have come to America in the past generation. 16 SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE Curist’s confidence regarding His teaching is full of inspiration. He linked what He said to the Father’s authority. “As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things” (John 8:28), and He was so certain of their truthfulness that He used such expressions as “Verily, verily,” or “We know.” Men felt that He told the truth and was genuine, as Nicodemus said, “We know that thou art a teacher come from God.” Christ meant that His words should be believed and He put His personal guarantee back of them, saying, “If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.” Who can turn away from such a Savior? Conrucius’ source of knowledge was the ancient Odes. He studied the earlier writings called “Dia- grams, with commentaries called “Ten Wings,” so much that the leather straps were worn out three times. Regarding his learning he said, “I was not born en- dowed with knowledge. I am merely a man who loves the ancients and do all I can to arrive at truth. There may be those who act without knowing why. I do not do so. Hearing much and selecting what is good and following it, this is the style of knowledge.” He did not find anyone who measured up to this, however, as he said, ““A sage is not mine to see... . could I see a man of real talent and virtue, that would satisfy me.” Buppua declared that he “arrived at his convictions, not by a study of the Vedas, nor from the teachings of others, but by the light of reason and intuition alone.” es SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE MoHAMMED claimed that his teaching came from God through the angel Gabriel, but so much of the Koran bears resemblance to the Bible that we must examine his history. When but a youth he visited the annual Fair at Bosra, where he is said to have met a Nestorian monk named Felix who is accused by Christian writers of assisting Mohammed in the contrivance and compo- sition of the Koran. Mohammed also recalled having met Bishop Coss and having heard from him what he called, “The preaching of the catholic faith of Abraham.” Another contact with Christianity was through Zeid, a youth captured from a Christian tribe, and adopted by Mohammed. Also, he could have learned from a concubine slave named Mary, whom he married, who had been a Coptic Christian in Egypt. Lastly, Waraca, a cousin of Mohammed’s wife, embraced Chris- tianity and translated portions of the Bible into Arabic. Surely Mohammed was “without excuse.” HinputsM declares that “the four books of the Vedas were given at creation, revealed by Brahm himself.” “Additional instruction has since been received by the early Rishis and the later Brahman priests, who by their self-mortification, have gained the sympathy of the gods and secured the teaching.” “The poets say that the wise men discovered ‘in their hearts’ that the germ of Being existed in the Not Being. But who could tell how Being first originated? The gods came later and are unable to reveal how creation began. He who guards the Universe knows; or mayhap he does not know.” 18 RELATION TO GOD Curist bore the most intimate and tender re- lationship to God the Father, as the following verses declare. “He that sent me is with me.” “I and my Father are one.” “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me” (John 4:34). “I do always the things which please him.” “I know that thou hearest me al- ways” (John 11:42). Put any one of these utterances into the mouth of Confucius, Buddha, or Mohammed and see how they sound. They seem wholly out of place because none but He who is God could say them. ConFuclus said, ““To give one’s self to the duties due to men, and, while respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be called wisdom.” He believed in the power of heaven to decree, to reward and punish; he worshiped heaven and earth, the spirits and ances- tors; he prayed, and placed much emphasis on the duties and ceremonies of mourning for parents.’ Once he said, ““We cannot as yet perform our duties to men; how can we perform our duty to spirits?” BuppHua declared that he saw no “one in the universe whom he ought to worship.” He said, “And I say to mankind, Be not curious about God, for I who am curious about each am not curious about God.” His conception of man also foregoes any relation to God. He said, “There is no separate ego-soul outside or be- hind the thoughts of man. He who believes that the ego is a distinct being has no correct conception of things.” If a religion does not guarantee a bodily resurrection it will not be worth anything to you in life or death. i, RELATION TO GOD MouAMMED claimed to be the most exalted of all the prophets; that he had been chosen of God to give his last revelation to mankind, and also that he would be the only intercessor for Mohammedans at the Judg- ment, to whom God would yield. He took the position that he was the mouthpiece of God and that what he spoke could not be wrong. His messages were craftily worded so as to make them appear as if God had sent them directly to the people. However, he knew his own weaknesses so well that he never assumed to claim any divine attributes, as others had done. His followers have claimed that he was the “another Comforter” whom Christ promised to send. Not one non-Christian teacher ever testified on his death- bed, or at any other time, that his sins had been forgiven by God. Take warning. HinpvisM teaches that since God is all, it follows that each human being is a part of Him and that this must be believed to secure relief. “He who knows God, be- comes God. He who knows what soul is gets beyond grief.” “God is the sole reality. All else is only appear- ance; it seems, but is not. Its seeming existence is owing to ignorance, otherwise called illusion. God and Ignor- ance are two external existences.” The Yogis try to become divine by overcoming the human. They sit in painful postures, hold the breath, refrain from cleanli- ness, etc., in their strivings to become possessed of divine life and power. You can tell the source of a religion by the way it deals with sin. God wants sin crucified—man wants it reformed. 20 AIM OF WORK CuRIST came into the world to present Himself a vica- rious sacrifice for human sin and to finish a complete eternal salvation. He kept every relationship clearly in mind. To the Jewish guardians of the Law, He said, “I am not come to destroy (the Law) but to fulfill” (Matt. 8:17). Again He said, “I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” “I am come that they might have life.” “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” Jesus never faltered, complained, side-stepped, retracted, apologized, showed weakness or self-will. He was God’s perfect man doing His perfect work. ConFucius’ work was the revision of the sacred books, and teaching disciples. These books had long been re- garded in China as the source of wisdom and knowledge. His compilations consist of the Five Classics and Four Books. His disappointment over his life work was expressed to a follower seven days before his death. “There is not one in the empire that will make me his master. My time has come to die. The superior man dislikes the thought of his name not being mentioned after his death.” Buppua’s self-confessed hoax was to lead people to freedom from all evil by the extinction of all desire. Prof. Max Muller in his “Chips from a German Work- house,” says, “The religion of Buddha was made for a madhouse.” The following summary bears this out. “Buddhism passes from apparent atheism and material- ism to theism, polytheism and spiritualism. Under one 218 AIM OF WORK aspect it is mere pessimism; under another, pure phil- anthropy; under another, monastic communism—high morality — materialistic philosophy — demonology — a farrago of superstitions, necromancy, witchcraft, idol- atry and fetishism.” MouAMMED hoped to restore the religion of Ishmael. At one time he tried to win the Jews by harmonizing his teaching with theirs and by telling his followers to pray toward Jerusalem. Again he tried to win Chris- tians by various concessions. In both of these he failed. He also tried to win the idolatrous Koreish tribe by ac- knowledging the divine power of their goddess. How- ever, after they accepted his overture, he saw his mistake and recanted. His early method of approach was teaching, but after his truce with Mecca he was so exalted that he changed his method to violence and coercion. He took to the sword and demanded surrender or tribute. His divine revelations became warlike. He once declared to his soldiers, ““War is ordained for you even though it be burdensome.” Hinputsm exhibits, as its highest product, a filthy, half-clad, unwashed fakir, covered with dust or ashes and talking a jibberish to deceive people into thinking he is holy. The Brahmans put the yoke of Caste on the Hindus the same as the Pharisees put the yoke of traditions and ceremonials on the Jews. They heap up burdens grievous to be borne and will not remove them with one of their fingers, lest they be defiled. If you wish to know the origin of the non-Christian re- ligions read Romans 1: 18-25. 22 VIEW OF MAN Curist knew men. During His entire life He was in closest contact with people and was never once mis- taken in His judgment of any person. “He knew all men.” “He knew what was in man” (John 2: 24-25). “Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him” (John 6:64). After living with Christ for three years Peter said to Him, “Thou knowest all things.” Jesus is therefore the absolute authority on man and his needs. When He said, “Ye must be born again,” His judgment was final. Again He said, “If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins.” Conrucius said, “All men are naturally good but the desire for pleasure changes them.” “Heaven and earth are the parents of all things and of all things men are the most intelligent.”” He did not trouble to account for the origin of man nor did he seek to know his hereafter. Tsze-loo asked Confucius what constituted the superior man, to which Confucius replied, “The cultivation of the mind in reverent carefulness.” Once he said, “I will not be afflicted at men’s not knowing me. I will be afflicted that I do not know men.” Buppua taught that, “All things come into existence, change and vanish in obedience to an absolutely rigid law of cause and effect.” The Buddhist doctrine of Karma is, “that every man’s condition in life is the consequence and exact equivalent of his act in a pre- vious state.”” “When a man takes a bath and steps on a wet rope and thinks it a snake he is frightened, but is relieved when he sees it is no snake. That is the state 23 VIEW OF MAN of mind of one who thought he possessed ‘self’ and then found that there is no self—that the cause of all his troubles and vanities is a mirage, a shadow, a dream.” MoHAMMED taught that God made man from clay. Again he quoted Gabriel’s saying that God had made man out of “congealed blood.” He never took time to settle which was right. Mohammed stood for the general equality of men. He left women in bondage and re- quired them to wear veils. When he died, he forbade any of his widows to remarry. Concerning the character of men he said, “Among men many have been found perfect, but among women, only four: Asia, daughter of Pharaoh; Mary, daughter of Amram; Kadijah, wife of Mohammed, and Fatima, his daughter.” Mohammed offered his followers happiness in two worlds, but he gave no evidence of having it himself in either place. HinputsM teaches that the souls of men are portions of the spirit of Brahm. They proceed from him as sparks from a flame and afterwards return to him again. The operations of the soul are directed by him in conformity with his own predetermined decrees. “The soul is enclosed in the body as a shell, or a series of shells, such as the five senses.” The Hindu Shastras represent man as “a mere illusion, the poor plaything of the Absolute One.” For a man to assume to de- clare his own real existence is but the ravings of his ignorance.” When Confucius told his disciples to let God alone he signed his own death warrant as a religious leader. 24, FOLLOWERS CHRIST opened His ministry with two expressions, “Repent,” and “whosoever will,” and His service was given to anyone from a leper to the ruler of the syna- gogue. Confucius said he taught one corner of a truth but declined to teach the other corners to those who could not think them out themselves. He respected only men of strong intellects. Mohammed took disciples who promised to murder his enemies, but Jesus said to His disciples, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:9). Jesus was faithful to His followers. Read John 17: 6, 9, 11, 12, 15, 18, 24, 26. The security of the believer in Jesus is greater than that of bolts and bars. Mild Mohammed’s sudden friendship for the murderous Ali shows he was willing to throw off the sheep’s clothing when the chance came—and he did. ConFucius first undertook the work of reform from his official position as a government employee. Not fully realizing his hopes in this, he left, devoting his full time to compiling his Classics and teaching disciples; being very particular as to who should receive his instruction. “Historians estimate that he had three thousand followers; of whom five hundred had attained official station, seventy-two had penetrated deeply into his system, and ten of the highest class of mind and character were continually near his person.” Mohammed despised Christ but he wanted heaven. He for- got that Christ made the only heaven there will ever be. BuppHA, after searching several years as an ascetic for knowledge, decided it a fruitless search and started to return home. His few disciples forsook him. Then came his experience of enlightenment under the Bo tree 25 FOLLOWERS after which he went to Benaires, where he found his five disciples and won them back by testifying of his discovery that “‘to cease to exist is the solution of all human trouble,” a discovery which he said entitled him to the name of Buddha or “enlightened.” His disciples soon became so numerous that he had to restrain them by insisting that the Bikkhus must study ten years before ordination. He once said to his disciples, “Ye are my lawful sons, born of my mouth, born of my religion.” It is better to have a religion that tells you just what you are and then saves you, than to have one that flatters you and then loses your soul. MouHAMMED first appealed for followers in these words, “I know no man in the land of Arabia who can lay before his kinfolks a more excellent offer than that which I now make to you. I offer you the happiness both of this world and that which is to come. God Almighty hath commanded me to call mankind unto Him. Who therefore among you will second me?” Impetuous Ali sprang up and said, “I, O Apostle of God, will be thy minister, I will knock out the teeth, tear out the eyes, rip up the bellies and cut off the legs of all who oppose thee.” Then Mohammed embraced him before the as- sembled guests and said, “This is my brother, my deputy, hear then and obey him.” How would Ali’s testimony sound in a Christian church prayer meeting? Mohammed thought it fine. What would Christ have said? Hinputism gets its followers through heredity. Its iron-clad caste system prevents its doing missionary work. Each individual is born into the caste to which he afterward belongs for life. When Buddha said that man is an “illusion” he forfeited his right to instruct those whom God made “after his own image.” 26 VIEW OF SIN Curist knows sin as no other being can. He saw it in heaven with Satan, on earth in men and in Hades with lost souls. His diagnosis was perfect and final. Jesus never joked about evil nor called sin an “illusion,” for it cost Him His life. He said, “Whosoever com- mitteth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). His profound utterance in John 3:16 is the basis upon which men are judged. He said that the first work of the Holy Spirit among men is to “reprove the world of sin,” “of sin, because they believe not on me” (John 16: 8,9). God must settle the sin question with each indi- vidual first before He can talk about anything else. All of the gods of the heathen are sinners. How can a god-sinner save a human sinner to holiness? ConFucius taught that sin is the excess of human desire and endeavor. Said he, “I have not seen one who could perceive his own faults and inwardly accuse himself.” “Of the three thousand crimes included under the five kinds of punishment, there is none greater than disobedience to parents.” He left God out entirely. Mencius taught that, ““The tendency of man’s heart to be good is like the tendency of water to flow down- wards.” “If men do what is not good, the blame cannot be imputed to their natural powers.” When a religion bases its salvation on “reform” you may know it is worthless. Buppua had nothing to say about the guilt of sin. It was simply the misery of it that he desired to be delivered from. He had no way of overcoming its evil except by ceasing to exist. He taught that as desire weakened, sin became less. He illustrated it thus: “As ME VIEW OF SIN the oil supplies the wick with fuel for light, so desire supplies us with power to exist. As the oil runs out the light gets lower and when the oil is gone the light goes out—so with life.” Why is it that some men think the Atonement is ignoble? Christ didn’t. Neither did the Father nor the Holy Spirit, nor the angels. MouamMep had self-invented doctrines about sin. Although he used much from the Bible along historical lines he never quoted anything regarding sin or God’s provision for its forgiveness. In this he was without excuse, for he knew enough to reject Christ’s Deity which means he must have known what it meant to accept it. On his deathbed, when his wives spoke of the Christian churches they had seen in Abyssinia, he exclaimed, “The Lord destroy the Jews and Christians. Let there be but one faith throughout Arabia.” Don’t accept a religion until you find whether God has or not. HinpuIsM teaches that, “since all is God, then sin and evil are a part of Him and there is nothing in Him to judge and condemn Himself. Sin is intellectual ig- norance and the remedy is to learn the true knowledge that self is an illusion.” At the Parliament of Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, Swami Vivikanada spoke as follows: “You are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. . . . The worst lie you ever told yourself was that you were a sinner and a wicked man.” When a religious teacher invents his way of salvation, beware, for his heaven must be an invention too. 28 SALVATION CurisT knows full well the cost of man’s salvation for He alone paid the price. Contrast the statement, “Christ died for our sins,” with the worthless Confucian teaching—“‘Sincerity is the way to heaven”’; or the false doctrine of Buddha—“By one’s self one is purified”; or the cruel fatalism of Mohammed. God says that the forgiveness of sin is based on Christ’s death. “The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.” ‘Neither is there salvation in any other.” ” ConFucius said, “Sincerity is the way to heaven. He who possesses sincerity is he who, without an effort, hits what is right.” “Think righteousness, prepare to give up life, and keep agreements—such is a complete man.” “Truth is that which God is and man attains to.” But Confucius’ salvation was confined to this life. Rewards for good were simply “good fortunes’ ex- perienced here, of which there are five. They may be seen represented today in China by the red and gilt papers which flutter over the doors of Chinese homes and mean—Long life, Riches, Health, Virtue and a Natural Death. Buppua taught that Sacrifices, Redeemers and Medi- ators counted for nothing. Said he, “Therefore, O Ananda! be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge— look not for refuge to anyone but yourselves.” For- giveness was entirely foreign to his philosophy. He said, “By one’s self the evil is done—by one’s self the evil is purified. Self is the Lord of self, who else could 29 SALVATION be the Lord?” “He who has tasted the sweetness of solitude and tranquility is free from fear and free from sin.” MoHAMMED was a fatalist. While he declared that nothing could save a man from his fixed fate yet he advocated good works as a means of bettering his future condition. When dying, he said to his daughter, “O Fatima, work ye out that which will win you acceptance with the Lord for I verily have not power to save you in any wise.” Later he spoke concerning himself and said, “O Lord, I beseech thee, assist me in the great agonies of death.”” Then he exclaimed three times, “Gabriel, come close to me.” He found no comfort in Christ because he had declared Christ was not God. The five pillars of Mohammedanism are, The Creed, Prayers, Fastings, Alms-giving and Pilgrimages. When a man fakes revelations from God to hide his sins he bears the sure marks of an impostor. Hinpuism. In Vedic times, salvation was gained by sacrifices and ritual. Later the Upanishads taught that it came by meditation and self-mortification. Today Hinduism teaches that it is secured by ceremonials, works of charity, self-renunciation, etc. The Divine Song—Bhagavad Gita says, “Repose faith in the idols, in ceremonial observances, in ascetic performances, in all that you religiously do, and blessing will rest upon you.” Transmigration is another phase of salvation. Manu said, “The soul may pass through ten thousand million births.” When men plan Salvation, they always leave out the critical point—criminal guilt before God. 30 LOVE Curist’s love was not a passing sentimental emotion. It was a divine devotion, as steady as time and as en- during as eternity. ““As the Father hath loved me even so have I loved you” (John 15:9). “Having loved his own... he loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). “I have compassion on the multitude” (Matt. 15:32). “Be- hold, how he loved him” (Lazarus, John 11:36). It requires a perfect Being to be a perfect lover. The selfishness which underlies human love permeates the teaching and the lives of the gods of all non-Christian religions. John was right when he wrote, “Love is of God” (I John 4:7). ConFucius’ love was purely human, usually faithful, sometimes fickle. His statement, “Do not unto others what you would not have others do unto you,” is not the utterance of a lover, but the policy of a peaceable man trying to avoid trouble. However, he did not always carry out this teaching himself. “Once Joo Pei wished to see him but Confucius declined on the ground of being sick. When the bearer of the message went out the door Confucius took up his harpsichord and sang to it so Pei might hear him.” This has been laid up against Confucius as an effort to insult Pei. BuppuHa’s fanatical teaching went so far as to dis- courage the exercise of human love, as his teaching shows. “From love cometh sorrow; from love cometh fear; whosoever is free from love, for him there is no sorrow, whence should come fear to him.” This crushing of love was tragically demonstrated in his own conduct when, on the night in which he abandoned his home, he looked at his sleeping wife and child, but 31 LOVE would not kiss them good-by, lest it awaken them and their pleadings should cause him to give up his ascetic plans. MoHAMMED’S love was intensely carnal. He became enamored with Zainab, the wife of his adopted son Zaid. When Zaid discovered this he divorced Zainab in order that Mohammed might marry her because Mohammed had reported a revelation saying, “It is not for a be- lieving man, or for a believing woman, when God and His apostle have decided an affair, to have choice in that affair, and he who rebels against God and His apostle has erred with an obvious error” (Koran, Chap. 33, vs. 36). Once after capturing a town he spoke bit- terly as the bodies of his old opponents were thrown into the pit. Later one of his victims, who was brought out for execution, exclaimed, ““Who will take care of my little girl?” “Hell fire,” replied Mohammed and ordered him to be cut down. The Hindus had a “god of love,” but it was only a Cupid with a bow, making love matches. Hinpu love is very fickle. It centers in self. When it reaches beyond the realm of self-interest it suddenly vanishes. The command of Christ, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,’ is impossible to a caste-bound Hindu, be- cause the bounds of his caste are the limits of his friendship. Beyond that is the realm where religious fanaticism turns the emotions of love into hatred. If you paged the Universe and called for the Hindu gods by name not one of them could be found. They exist only in men’s minds. 32 PRAYER CHRIST was a man of true prayer. It was signally marked by constant access to the Father. “I know that thou hearest me always” (John 11:42). By prayer for His own (John 17; Luke 22:32). By secret prayer (Luke 6:12; Mark 1:35). Prayer for children (Matt. 19:31). Prayer before eating (Mark 6:41). When in soul agony (Matt. 26:42; Heb. 5:7). For His enemies (Luke 23:34). Christ’s comprehensive knowledge of prayer and His faithful perseverance in its daily prac- tice is a startling contrast to the vain repetitions of the Hindus and Mohammedans and the prayerless life of Confucius. Paul said, “Pray without ceasing.” Buddha said, “Pray not.” ConFucius admitted that he prayed. However, it was all ceremonial. To him, prayer for human needs and spiritual aid was idle declamation for the reason that “everything in the universe is ruled and governed by unerring, unchangeable, inexorable law which can in no whit be altered.” His method of prayer was the living of a virtuous life. He said, “He who has offended against heaven has none to whom he can pray.” BupDHA said, “Pray not: the darkness will not brighten. Ask naught from the silence, for it cannot speak. . . . Seek not from the helpless gods by gift or hymn. Within yourselves deliverance must be sought.” The one expression used by Buddhists which comes nearest to prayer is the one which is used over and over by lips, prayer-wheels and flags, “Om mani padmi hom’’—“‘Oh the jewel in the lotus, Amen.” If you can 33 PRAYER tell what its particular value is as a prayer you can do better than the Buddhists can who use it. If a person offered to show you an ingenious way to com- mit suicide would you think him a friend? That is all that Buddha offered his followers. MoHAMMED strongly advocated prayer. For some time he sought a means of calling people to prayer as the Jew did with the trumpet, and the Christians with the church bell. Then a disciple had a vision of an angel desiring that someone would call aloud, “Allah Akbar.” “Great is the Lord. There is no other God but He and Mohammed is His prophet. Come to prayer.” So Mohammed bade his negro servant, Bilal, to carry out the divine request, which he did from the summit of the mosque, adding, “Prayer is better than sleep.””, Mohammed made prayer exacting. “The very act of coughing, spitting, sneezing or rubbing the skin in consequence of a fly bite in the midst of prayer renders all the past null and void and obliges the worshiper to recite his prayer all over.” Jesus said, “He that exalteth himself shall be abased.” HINDUISM is a religion composed of reciting prayers, but they are to an impersonal god for things which “fate” will not allow changed. The Hindu has little idea of deliverance except from demons and the evils which they may inflict. While the Hindu prays to an impersonal god he cannot offer the prayer without some object to personify that nonentity, so he sets up an idol to help his mind try to realize the existence of an entity which he says does not exist. 34 TEACHING Curist’s teaching bore the authority of God—“This is my beloved Son, hear him” (Mark 9:7). Jesus said to the Father, “I have given them the words which thou hast given me” (John 17:8). “He taught as one having authority and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22). His teaching was endorsed by spiritual hearers—“He taught in their synagogue, being glorified of all” (Luke 4:15). “The common people heard him gladly” (Mark 12:37). His declaration to the Samaritan woman, “We know what we worship,” is a striking contrast to the uncer- tainty of Confucius, the vagaries of Buddha and the presumption of Mohammed. ConFucius called himself a “transmitter” and not a “maker” of knowledge. He also said, “I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out anyone who is not anxious to explain him- self.” “My studies are low but they reach high; and there is Heaven—that knows me. If my doctrines are to prevail, it is so ordered of God; if they are to fail it is so ordered of God.” He taught four things. “Letters, ethics, devotion of soul and truthfulness. Also the Odes, History and the maintenance of the rules of propriety.” He said, “I neither meddle with Physics or Meta- physics; extraordinary things and spirtiual beings I do not talk about. The toiling of thought among uncer- tainties is worse than useless.” He thus acknowledged the need of divine revelation. BuppHA was neither a social nor a political reformer. He said, “As the vast ocean, O disciples, is impreg- nated with one taste, the taste of salt, so also this Law and Doctrine is impregnated with one taste—the taste 35 TEACHING of deliverance.”’ This “taste” was his longing for an- nihilation. He bitterly opposed the thought of Atone- ment—‘“‘Can the slaughter of an innocent victim take away the sins of mankind? What love can a man possess who believes that the destruction of life will atone for evil deeds?” Concerning his teaching he said, “Whatsoever has not been revealed by me, let that remain unrevealed and what has been revealed, let it be revealed.” MouAMMED began teaching when about forty years old. It is doubtful if he could read or write unless he learned late in life. He called himself the “unlettered prophet.” He claimed to receive his teaching from Gabriel and backed his utterances with strong declara- tions. “Verily if men and genii were purposely assem- bled, that they might produce a book like the Koran they could not produce one like it, although one of them assist the other.”” Again he said, “By the star when it setteth,— Mohammed erreth not, nor is he led astray; neither doth he speak of his own will.”? Whenever he changed any statement for his own benefit, he defended himself thus: “Whatever verse we shall abrogate, or cause thee to forget, we will bring thee a better one, or one like it.” HiNnpuUIsM is a combination of the kitten and the monkey theory of escape from evil. The cat seizes its kitten which remains passive while the little monkey escapes by clinging to its parent. The Brahmans, like the Pharisees, are the self-constituted teachers of their sacred books. No one else has a right to expound them. 36 MiLIREAGGCL ESS CuRist’s miracles set forth His Deity. He said, “If I, with the finger of God, cast out devils” (Luke 11:20). “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). He healed the man with the palsy, saying, ‘““That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” (Matt. 9:6). Nicodemus recognized their testimony to Christ. ““No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him” (John 3:2). False teachers evade miracles like the hireling evades fidelity in time of danger. Confucius called them magic, Buddha denounced them, Mo- hammed evaded them and the Hindus faked them. CoNnFUCIUS ignored everything miraculous. He taught that “Heaven and earth are the parent powers of the universe on which depend the generation and nourish- ment of all things.” He refused to talk about super- natural things and classed all the performances around him under the title of magic. He did not consider himself obligated to investigate any subject farther than his mind could reason it out. BuppHa. Whatever miracles may have been at- tributed to Buddha, after his death, it is certain that he did not welcome opportunities while he lived. When Kisagotami brought her dead baby to him, asking for medicine to restore it, he said, ““Yes, I know some. It is mustard seed and you must get it at a house where no one has died,” and so sent her away. She wandered long in search of it but failed and finally left her dead baby in a forest. Contrast Christ raising Jairus’ daugh- ter. The type of miracles attributed to Buddha are fables. “‘Linhalese books make him do wonders with a ov MIRACLES bow which one thousand men could not bend, and the twang of whose string was heard seven thousand miles.” “Buddha is said once to have caused rain that he might take a bath.” He seems, however, to have opposed mira- cles for he said, “Ye are not, O monks, to display physical power or miracle of superhuman kind before the laity. Whosoever does so is guilty of misdemeanor.” MouAMMED disclaimed the power to work miracles, giving various excuses to his tormentors, viz., ““Those whom God hath ordained to believe should believe with- out miracles.” ‘“‘Predecessors have despised the mira- cles of former prophets, therefore God would work no more among them.” At Medina he said to his army that “God had formerly sent Moses and Jesus with the power of working miracles and yet men would not be- lieve; therefore He had now sent them a prophet of another order, commissioned to force belief by the power of the sword.” When Mohammed adopted the slogan, “Accept religion or pay tribute,” it looked like a money making scheme. Hinputism. It is the ambition of Brahman priests and fakirs to acquire miraculous power. Many are the frauds they practice. One deceiver filled a pit partly full of chaff, set an idol on the chaff and covered it with dirt. He announced that a god would rise out of the ground. He secretly wet the chaff—it swelled and the idol burst through the earth to the astonishment of the worshipers. 38 INTERCESSION CuristT looked out on a world full of prayers without answers; a world crowded with human needs with no intercessor. What non-Christian teacher ever used this expression, “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:32), or expressed such sublime assurance in prayer as this, “I know that thou hearest me always,” or prayed with a confidence in the future such as Christ manifested in John 17? Paul said of Christ, ‘““Where- fore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). ConFucius had no conception of intercession. Once he was ill and a disciple asked permission to pray. “Is that usual?”’ asked Confucius. “It is,” replied the dis- ciple. “The Book of Prayer says, ‘Pray to the spirits in heaven above and the earth below.’ ” “In that case,” replied Confucius, “I have been praying for a long time.” Thus he refused intercession and implied that his manner of living was his method of praying. BuppHa did not believe in intercession, mediation, substitution or priestly assistance. He recognized no Supreme Being, therefore there was no one to whom he could appeal. His claim to have reached Buddha- hood (perfection) obviated any need of intercession for himself. His doctrine that deliverance can come only through self-culture made intercession useless. How- ever his followers teach this formula, “Let him utter the name of Buddha serenely. On the strength of his ut- tering Buddha’s name he will, during every repetition 39 INTERCESSION expliate the sins which involves in births and deaths during eighty million kalpas.” Buddha’s resistance against his death shows he was not anxious to follow his own teaching and suffer the “dissolution of the ego.” MOHAMMED gave prayer an important place in his religion but he overlooked intercession. He linked his followers together in a strong bond but never taught them to pray for each other. Said he, “Know that every Moslem is brother of every other Moslem. All of you are on the same equality. Ye are one brotherhood.” However, his followers have ascribed to him great power of intercession as is found in the Creed, Section VIII—‘“‘We are bound to believe and hold as certain that our venerable prophet Mohammed shall with suc- cess intercede for his people at the great day of ex- amination. This will be the first intercession; but at the second God will be entirely relented and all the faithful Mussulmans shall be transported into a state of glory.” HinputsM isolates the individual as though he were spiritually quarantined and makes him solve his own problems and fight his own moral and spiritual battles single-handed. Intercession is unknown as a working power. However, individual prayer has a prominent place and great value. “‘An offering consisting of mut- tered prayers is ten times more efficacious than a sacri- fice at which animals are killed. A prayer which is inaudible (to others) surpasses it a hundred times and the mental (recitation of sacred texts) one thousand times.” 40 ASSURANCE CurisT has been the outstanding religious teacher of the world in presenting guarantees with His work. Those guarantees were like certified checks. They showed that there was a deposit equal to the full amount promised. The words, “That ye may know,” was one of His favorite expressions. The proof He offered the world was, “That the world may know that I love the Father,” a proof which He passed on through His disciples when He left. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). “We know what we worship” (John 4:22). “Ye shall know the truth” (John 8:32). “In that day ye shall know” (John 14:20). There were no “doubts” in Christ’s mind and He passed His certainties on to His followers. When Hindus link sin with God they cancel all possibility of having a Savior, for God could not save Himself or anyone else if He kept on being a sinner. CoNnFucIUS aimed to teach only those things which carried sufficient assurance with them to be self-evident and beyond doubt. All that his followers could ever get from him was what he had learned by the study of the Odes or could think out by his own reasoning. He left them always in the dark regarding spiritual truths, although they often asked him to explain them. BuDDHA gave assurance upon only one_ subject, namely, “‘extinction,” as he said, “I am your surety for non-return.” He taught that “the happiness of the Al ASSURANCE gods themselves—men, animals or plants, perhaps in some form of birth, is temporary and marred by the consciousness that it soon must end.” Buddha was very sarcastic about the ignorance of people who thought that they existed. He has doubtless since been surprised at his ignorance in thinking he did not exist. MowaMMEn’s chief line of assurance for his fol- lowers was that of fatalism and rewards. He used them much with his soldiers. He taught that the destiny of each was fixed before he was born; that no soul could die except by the permission of God and that those who died in battle went straight to Paradise while any who refused to die in battle would probably die at the same time elsewhere without gaining the reward. These teachings had tremendous power over his followers. When Mohammed lived, he claimed that he had been to heaven and seen God, Jesus and Moses, but when he came to die he could not even get the attention of Gabriel, although he called him often. Something must have been wrong. Hinputsm’s ground of assurance was as follows: “Brahma, all-working, all-loving, all-smelling, all- tasting, grasping this All, speaking naught, heeding naught, this is myself within my heart, this is Brahma. To him shall I win on going hence. He that hath this thought hath indeed no doubt.” Mohammed’s conduct during his last days of suffering indi- cate that he was not drawing any peace from his past life or teaching. 42 OVERCOMING Curist did not “overcome” by culture, but by the surrender of His whole life to the Holy Spirit. Con- fucius’ plan was to try to cleanse the stream of human evil by cultivating the good, while he let the source remain polluted; Buddha taught that the only way to cleanse it was by drying it up altogether; Mohammed tried it by putting in false purifiers and the Hindus by trying to make themselves believe that the stream was naturally clean. Christ gave the only successful remedy, saying, “Ye must be born again.” This is to be ac- companied with a life of surrender to the indwelling Holy Spirit. ConFucius’ plan for overcoming evil was by indi- vidual self-culture. He taught that “Perfect virtue con- sists in the practice of five things: Gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.” But he confessed his own failure saying, “In the way of the superior man there are four things, to not one of which have I yet attained: (1) To serve my father as I would require my son to serve me. (2) To serve my prince, etc. (3) To serve my elder brother, etc. (4) To set the ex- ample in behaving to a friend,” etc. But he said nothing about his behavior before God. Why did Confucius refuse to recognize God in his life? For just the same reason that others do—pride of heart. Buppua’s theories for overcoming were, “Let a wise man blow off the impurities of his self as a smith blows off the impurities of silver, one by one, little by little, from time to time.” He endorsed the act of Channo, who committed suicide during illness. “Anyone who lays down this body and takes another one, I call blame- 43 OVERCOMING worthy. Brother Channo committed suicide without blame.” He taught that even love must be suppressed to overcome. “Let, therefore, no man love anything; those who love nothing and hate nothing have no fet- ters.” However, in the next chapter he says, “Let a man overcome anger by love.” MoHAMMED was the most lax of all teachers in over- coming sin and in-practicing what he preached. He taught, “Perform your covenant with God... . Violate not your oaths since ye have made God a witness over you.” “Therefore take not your oaths between you de- ceitfully, lest your foot slip after it hath been steadfastly fixed and ye taste evil in this life and suffer a grievous punishment in the life to come.’ However, he broke his own covenant when he married Mary, his Egyptian concubine, and then used his prophet office to cover his sin. His revelation said, ““God hath allowed you the dissolution of your oaths and God is your master.” Hinpuism has various theories about overcoming evil, all of which are based on self-mortification and end in a final extinction. The Yoga is a religious state which consists in “fixing the thoughts on the tip of the nose, tip of the tongue, on the point of the palate and the roof of the mouth. In this way different heavenly sen- sations and ecstatic states are produced . . . by means of which perceptions the mind is supposed to be steadied because it is no longer attracted by outward objects. The sixfold Yoga for obtaining ecstasy — Sublime Morals—is, Restraint of breath and the senses; Medita- tion; Fixed Attention; Investigation and Absorption.” Hinduism has no regeneration. 44 PRIESTHOOD CuRIST was a priest after the order of Aaron in His Atonement work and after the order of Melchizedek in His resurrection work. No non-Christian teacher has assumed this position. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (I Tim. 2:5). “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). He “sat down on the right hand of God’ (Heb. 10:12). “To appear in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 10: 24). Christ was the only priest who had an offering that met the human need, therefore He is the only Savior that sinners can ever find. ConFucius used the word Heaven instead of God. He eliminated God and offered sacrifices to the dead as though they still lived around him. He never played the roll of a priest nor did he teach others to do so except perhaps in connection with the worship of ances- tors, and more especially with the Emperor’s annual sacrifice. The celebrated translator Legge said of Con- fucius, “I am unable to recognize him as a great man. He was not before his age though he was above the mass of scholars of his time. He threw no new light on any of the questions which have a world-wide in- terest. He gave no impulse to religion. He had no sympathy with progress.” If Christ had been like Confucius He would not have taught us to pray, “Our Father which art in heaven.” He would have said, “Let the gods alone.” Buppua saw the evils of idolatry and opposed it and also the idol priests because they offered sacrifices which took away life. He endorsed asceticism, saying, “A wise man should leave the ordinary life and follow the 45 PUI DES Oe state of a monk for he must pass through monkhood and suppression to Nirvana. Buddha said concerning himself, “I have first broken the egg shell of ignorance and alone in the universe obtained the most exalted Buddhahood. Thus, O disciples, I am the eldest, the noblest of Beings.” If a religion promises salvation but cannot deliver you from sin it is trying to work the “confidence game,” and rob you. MouAMMED bitterly opposed idolatry and never en- dorsed any priestly service. He saw that if he tolerated priests they would rival him in spiritual authority. He determined to stand alone in religious leadership and so chose to have his authority vested in the office of the prophet. He was given the title of Priest and King after he conquered Mecca, but he evidently felt that the title of prophet suited his purpose better for he did not change. If Christ at the last supper had commissioned Peter to kill Pilate or Herod it would have sounded like Mohammed’s last command to his disciple Osama. HinpuismM. In Vedic times, the priests taught that, “He who sacrificed one hundred horses would gain a larger power than the god Indra himself possessed— so that he could even dethrone the god of the heavens. The priest’s duties were as follows: “He must rise early, purify himself by bath and prayers, open the sanctuary doors and gently awaken the god (who is supposed to be sleeping) by chanting its praises. He worships guardian deities, bathes the feet of the chief deity, clothes it, decorates it with jewelry, sandal and flowers, waves incense and finally sets cooked food before it and later betel nut and leaf.” RECEIVED WORSHIP CurisT always was and always will be worshiped. At His birth God said, “Let all the angels of God wor- ship him” (Heb. 1 6). The wise men worshiped Him (Matt. 2:11). Zebedee’s sons and their mother (Matt. 20:20). At the Ascension the disciples worshiped Him (Luke 24:52). ‘‘All that dwell on the earth shall wor- ship him” (Rev. 13:8). “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow” (Phil. 2:10). Grasp, if you can, the contrast between the angelic hosts saying to Christ, “Holy! Holy! Holy, Lord God Almighty,” and that of Mohammed’s followers preserving his wash water as sacred, or of the Hindus falling in adoration before a filthy, disgusting, long-haired fakir. ConFucIus never sought human worship, although he said that he hoped to be remembered after death and to be honored for his teaching. Someone has said, “Confucius gave his followers no God to worship so they have come to worship him.” Chinese children on entering the schoolroom bow before his picture as their patron saint of education, if not more. There are said to be over sixteen hundred Confucian temples in China, while his teaching dominates the Empire. Confucius said, “I know not life.” Then why did he set God aside and take all the responsibility of teaching how man should live? Buppua’s extravagant claim of having reached the end of all human desire and of having attained Buddha- hood (perfect enlightenment) caused his followers to look upon him as a super-human being. This attitude naturally carried with it profuse homage and many 47 RECEIVED WORSHIP supreme titles. His terse, epigrammatic proverbs are an illustration of Paul’s description of the teachings of the heathen. “These, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts” (Rom. 2:14, 15). MouAmMMED did not claim human worship but he required respect as the “prophet of God,” and demanded unquestioned faith in his teaching. After he made the ten years’ truce with the Meccans he was greatly exalted and given the place of priest and king by his followers. So intense was their devotion that a hair dropping from his head and the water in which he washed were care- fully preserved as having super-human value. He claimed to have made a journey to the seven heavens and that over each gate he saw the words, “There is no God, but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God.” He claimed that he saw the Most High, covered with seventy thousand veils, who put His hand on Mohammed’s head and told him a secret, that “he should be the most perfect of all beings.” HinputsM has priests and gurus who accept worship to an extent known in no other religion. The guru claims that by certain ascetic performances he has be- come a divinity. He requires absolute devotion from all those who accept his protection. At the moment of death they must call upon him for salvation. His de- votees drink the water in which he has washed his feet and the saliva which drops from his mouth as he chews betel nut. He initiates them to pay homage to his favorite deity by a mystic formula or invocation which each must keep secret. DEATH OF FOUNDER Curist’s death stands alone in history as to its character and purpose. No non-Christian teacher died a victorious death. Each succumbed to physical weak- ness. Jesus said regarding His own death, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” Confucius died pathetically alone; Buddha died from eating too much pork at his advanced age and Mohammed died in mental distress in the arms of his favorite wife. In neither case was there any hint of personal salvation for them- selves or anyone else. The purpose of Christ’s voluntary death was plainly stated. He said, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Paul said, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (I Cor. 15:3). ConFucius died in the spring of 478 B.c. in his seventy-third year. When seventy years old he expressed a longing to see his native Lu in Shantung and started thither. One morning near the time of his death he walked from the house with his hands behind him, crooning: “The great mountains must crumble, The strong beam must break, And the wise man wither away like a plant.” In about a week he was dead. His end was melancholy. No wife or child was near to comfort him. He uttered no prayer and expressed no thought regarding the life to come. BuppHa had always expressed a desire for his “dis- solution,’ but when death approached he resisted it. Once after a severe illness he said, “I had pains even 49 DEATH OF FOUNDER unto death but overcame by force of will.” Later, at Pava, he incautiously dined with a blacksmith’s son named Chunda and ate some tidbits of a young wild boar, which, at his advanced age of eighty, he could not digest. Dysentery set in and in a short time his career closed. His last hours were full of teaching, but never did he mention God, sin or forgiveness. He was occupied with his self-invented scheme for self-culture and his hobby of the extinction of all desire. MoHAMMED took fever in the house of Zainab, one of his wives. The fever greatly increased and he asked to be taken to the house of his favorite wife, Ayesha, “whose tenderness might soothe him.” To her he said that his condition was brought on by eating poisoned mutton at Khaibar. That was three years before. The poisoned mutton had been served him in the home of one of his captives with the hope of killing him. During his last days his thoughts often dwelt on war and re- venge. He directed Osama to lead an expedition into Palestine and avenge the death of Zaid, one of his favorite followers. These last days were full of intense suffering, and the battle of his strong will against death presents a touching picture. HinputsM looks upon death as a relief from the curse of existence. The human soul is an emanation from Brahm. While the soul lives here it is separated from its original Being and hence it must use every endeavor to break through the impediments caused by human existence in order to return to extinction in Brahm. 30 RESURRECTION CuRisT stands alone here. Non-Christian teachers are still in their graves. None of them could conquer death. Christ said concerning His own life: “I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.”” What Paul says about the relation between Christ’s resur- rection and the Christian faith is equally true concerning the other teachers and their faiths. “If Christ be not raised, then your faith is vain; and ye are yet in your sins’ (I Cor. 15:17). No other teachers ever arose from the dead. Therefore their faiths have been power- less. Their followers are yet in their sins. CoNnFUCIUS taught concerning this life only. He once said to his disciples, “When I know not the nature of life, how shall I inform you what death is?” Tsze king asked Confucius, “Do the dead have knowledge (that is of our services) or are they without knowl- edge?”’ Confucius evaded talking about the future by saying, “If I were to say that the dead have such knowl- edge, I am afraid that the filial sons and dutiful grand- sons would injure their substance in paying the last offices to the departed, and if I were to say that the dead have not such knowledge, I am afraid lest unfilial sons should leave their parents unburied. You need not wish, Tsze, to know whether the dead have knowledge or not. There is no present urgency about the point. Hereafter you will know it for yourself.” BuppDHA once said to a sick monk, “After this ex- istence there is no beyond.” Again he said concerning Esquire Godhiko (who committed suicide), “He has passed into Nirvana with no consciousness established.” ol RESURRECTION “‘When we turn from material forms we become free from desire and obtain deliverance from existence so that there is no more return to this world.” After arising from the Bo tree he said, “‘I have obtained deliverance by the extinction of self, my body is chastened, my mind is free from desire. I have obtained Nirvana.” MouamMep believed in the resurrection. After Ibra- him, the infant of his Coptic slave concubine, died, he addressed it thus, “Ibrahim, if it were not that the hope of the resurrection is sure, | would have grieved for thee with a sorrow sorer than this.” He had many sharp conflicts with the Coreish tribe which did not believe in the resurrection and who drove him from Mecca. Later he returned, conquered the Coreish people, who accepted his teaching and permitted him to destroy their three hundred sixty idols. It is distressing to a person to be told “there is no sin’ when he has to fight against it every hour he is awake. bd Hinpuism, like Buddhism, does not expect the resur- rection of the body, because as soon as a person dies they believe that the spirit passes into the body of some other creature and keeps up a continuous round of births to the end of its existence. The spirit never returns to any previous body. By some unexplainable means a new animal body is supposed to be on hand just at the right moment to receive the disembodied spirit. When a person offers prayer just for the “reflective mental effect,” he ought to class himself with the heathen. o2 ASCENSION CurisT solved a critical problem in human thought when He ascended to heaven from Olivet more easily than He had ever climbed to its summit. Confucius never mentioned such a thing as an ascension; Buddha, too, evaded the subject; Mohammed invented a story about his having gone to heaven on an elongated mule, but utterly failed to realize it when he died. The trouble was that none of them knew the way. Christ knew, because He was ascending up where He was before (John 17:5; John 7:33). “I go to him that sent me.” “He was parted from them and carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51). If Christ had not come there would not be a single human being on earth who could tell what would become of us after death. What a desperate groping in the dark! Buddha said the earth has a rock 2,600,000 miles high. How does that compare with his declaration that he had become “perfectly enlightened.” ConFucius refused to consider the future life, there- fore he had nothing to interest him in the hour of death and no hope to which his spirit could rise. Though he practiced ancestral worship, he taught that it should be confined to one’s immediate relatives. Said he, “For a man to sacrifice to a spirit which does not belong to him is mere flattery.” Who ever heard of a good-looking idol-god? They are hideous. Why? Buppua, so legend says, “in the sixth year of his ministry went to heaven to teach his mother, who had died seven days after his birth.” This is pure fiction because he resented such thoughts in all his teaching. D3 ASCENSION When he was asked by Malukya if the earth was everlasting, Buddha evaded the answer by saying that “such teaching did not contribute to peace and enlightenment.” Buddha’s religious views were as exaggerated as his fish story. He said there were fish in the sea sixteen thousand miles long. MoHAMMED manifested no consciousness of the Divine Presence in the hour of death nor did he give any assurance of his being received into a place of rest. The vague fancies of his journey to heaven were not recalled nor did they furnish a foretaste of the future state. He claimed to have been received in each of the seven heavens with great respect, to have seen his name on all the gates and to have met God, who pronounced him the most perfect of all beings; yet at his death in Mecca there was not a ray of spiritual illumination—nothing but intense human weakness and despair. Since all religious teachers have evaded working miracles there must have been something in miracles as an evidence of Christ’s Deity. HinpuIsM. One must look in vain to non-Christian teachers for any certain assurance of a way to get to heaven after death. None of them ever gave a concrete example, or a program for the soul in after life. Con- trast this with Christianity. When Jesus said that Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom He lifted the curtain of death and showed the tri- umphant entrance of God’s children into the next life. When a person tells you there is no such thing as sin, just reply that you cannot believe it until you can believe that two plus four equals five. 54 EXALTATION CuRIST in His exaltation far outdistanced all rivals. Mohammed tried to exalt himself but signally failed to even be moral; Buddha imagined he was exalted but it proved to be only in his mind; Confucius evaded the subject as one would evade wading into unknown quicksands. Christ’s exaltation was an attestation to His genuineness. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). Christ set aside non-Christian teachers when He said, “‘All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). He placed John the Baptist above them all by saying, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.” ConFucius adopted the Chinese custom of speaking humbly. He said, “The sage and the man of perfect virtue — how dare I rank myself with them? It may be said of me that I strive to become such without satiety, and teach others without weariness. In letters I am perhaps equal to other men, but the character of the superior man, carrying out in his conduct what he professes, is what I have not attained to.” BuppuHA explained himself as follows: “As a lotus is born in the water, grows up in the water and stands lifted above the water undefiled, even so am I born in the world, grown up in the world, and I abide over- coming the world and by the world undefiled. You must call me Buddha. Of what deed is this the result, whereby I am thus magical and mighty? This is the 59 EX ALTATEON fruit of three deeds—alms, control and abstinence.” See also “Priesthood.” When the Buddhists accept “suicide” for “salvation” they fulfil Paul’s words, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22). MouHAMMED’S extravagant exaltation of himself is seen in his account of his journey to heaven as re- corded by his biographers. “In the fifth heaven he said he met Moses, who began to cry because Moham- med, the Arabian boy, would bring more Ishmaelites into heaven than he himself had brought Jews.” He said he met “‘an angel with a body half fire and half snow yet the fire didn’t melt the snow nor the snow put out the fire.” In the seventh heaven he said he met a “‘tutelary angel having seventy thousand heads— each head had seventy thousand faces—each face had seventy thousand mouths — each mouth had seventy thousand tongues and each tongue spoke seventy thous- and languages.” Figure up the number of languages he spoke. Hinputsm teaches that there is in some men the capacity for beholding the Unseen Being. This ability is attained as follows: “The twice-born man must, by the study of Vedas, by duly observing rites and sacri- fices, and by mortifying the affections and lusts of the flesh, learn to practice abstraction of spirit and main- tain his relation.to the unseen Brahma. Thus he may hope to arrive at the perception of the Perfect One and obtain deliverance from personal existence.” ““These ‘holy men’ then become the representatives of the gods. Service to them brings a great reward. Even the gods become indebted to them for their sacrifices.” The man who forsakes Christ may some day find that he can embrace devil-worship as a religion. RETORN Curist alone had knowledge enough of the future to promise His return. The other teachers acknowledged that their work was finished at death. At the last supper Christ promised His disciples, “I will. come again and receive you unto myself” (John 14:3). In Luke 21:37, He said, ““Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” At the ascension the angels announced to the disciples, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Paul wrote concerning the return of Christ: “Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (I Thess. 4:18). No such words occur about any non-Christian teacher. CoNFUCIUS seems never to have given a hint as to what he thought would become of him after death. How- ever, his participation in the ancestral sacrifices showed that he believed the spirits of departed relatives were present. He evidently believed that the spirits remained after the death of the body or else that they returned for the sacrificial feast held in their honor. BuppuA declared that through self-culture he had reached the last one of his numerous births and deaths and would never return to earth. He promised no further help to his followers after his death than that which might be secured from the teaching he had given. He had no thought of going away to be a mediator, to prepare an abode, or to welcome his followers into the next existence. His work was over forever and he left his trusting disciples to their own individual re- Oo” RETURN sources for he said, “You must work out your own deliverance.” MoHAMMED’s next meeting with his followers, ac- cording to the Koran, is to be at the Judgment, after which “the faithful” are to enjoy a heaven which he describes with great fulness. One writer says, “The delights of the Mohammedan Paradise just suit the sensual Arab. Peace and rest under shady trees with ever-flowing crystal streams, abundance of all manner of dainty food and costly dress, wine that should cheer the heart but not cloud the brain, and above all, dark- eyed virgin brides of a rare creation.”’ To reach this Paradise each person must walk over the abyss on a thread like a spider web. Mohammedans will shoot across faster than lightning; others will fall into hell. When Mohammed allowed his followers to preserve his bath water as sacred, he developed a fanatical pride which soon drove him to take up the sword to promote his religion. HINDUISM teaches that, “‘at death the soul leaves the body, ascends on high, clothes itself in a watery veil, falls as rain on the earth, is imbibed by some plant, passes through it as nourishment and forms a new body. When it has finished its transmigrations it ob- tains its freedom.”’ Hindu incarnations occur as a re- sult of previous deeds which the man (or god) has committed. 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