Buddhism in Light of the Bible

Buddhism in Light of the Bible
Video
April 19, 2015

Last Sunday morning I preached a sermon called Hinduism in light of the bible, and this Sunday morning, I'm going to cover another major false religion of the world, and that is the religion of Buddhism. Now, just a quick review of what I said last Sunday morning about which religions are the most popular in this world, or which religions have the most followers. First of all would be number one, Christianity, with about 2.3 billion followers, and of course that's counting all branches of Christianity, not just truly saved bible believing Christians.

Secondly would be Muslims at 1.6 million, er, billion, I'm sorry, 1.6 billion, and then atheism has about 1 billion followers. That would be number three. Number four would be Hinduism, what we talked about last week, 1 billion followers, and then Buddhism has about 500 million followers, the vast majority of which are, of course, in East Asia, but it's becoming more and more prevalent here in our western world as well.

Now the first thing I want to point out about Buddhism is that number one, it is a non-theistic religion, meaning they do not believe in a creator God. Now that's why we turn to Romans 1 to start with here, because I feel that this passage describes Buddhism very well.

It says in Verse number 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it under them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made. Even his eternal power and [God head 00:01:42] so that they are without excuse, because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."

The bible often uses the word 'fool' or 'foolish' about the person who does not believe that there is a creator, God. Now, one of the most famous verses in the bible, Psalm 14:1, says, "The fool had said in his heart, there is no God," but most people don't usually quote the entire verse there. This is the whole verse.

It says, "The fool had said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that do it good." That's the full verse, and that ties in perfectly with what we see in Romans Chapter 1, how the belief that there is no God, the denial of our creator, leads to corruption and abominable works and all manner of wickedness as we see in Romans Chapter 1, but notice, picking up there in Verse 22 of Romans 1, it says, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptable God into an image made like the corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lust of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen."

What do we see here? A denial of the creator, the fool saying in his heart that there is no God. This is what the 500 million followers of Buddhism represent. Now, not only that, but it talks about the fact that they then would make an image of man as a replacement for God, or even an image of animals and four-footed beasts and creeping things. This is what we would know as idolatry. Go back to Exodus, Chapter Number 20, Exodus Chapter 20. See, idolatry is a major feature of Buddhism. They don’t just deny that God exists and deny the creator, but they also have a lot of idolatry in their religion.

The most famous idolatry associated with Buddhism would be the image of Buddha himself, and you often see those statues that are usually made out of metal, a molten image, where you have Buddha sitting cross-legged lotus style, and he's got a big smile on his face or a very stoic look on his face or all the different styles of Buddhas that you see. Often you'll see Asian people that will wear a jade Buddha around their neck at the end of a necklace as well.

This is a huge feature of Buddhism. You go to restaurants that are owned by those who are Buddhists, you go into the homes of Buddhist people, you'll see all manner of idolatry, molten images, graven images. This is a big part of the religion. How does God feel about idolatry? Look what the bible says in Exodus Chapter 20, Verse 4. This is one of the Ten Commandments. The Second Commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous god, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me."

Now isn't it interesting that those who make graven images and molten images are associated with those who hate God? Why? Because of the fact that people don't want to acknowledge God. They don't want to believe in the true God of the bible, so they form and fashion their own god, and that's why those two things are associated there in Exodus Chapter 20.

You don't have to turn there, but in Isaiah Chapter 30, if you would, you turn to First Corinthians 10. You go to First Corinthians 10. In Isaiah 30, Verse 22, God uses very strong language in his condemnation of idolatry, graven images, molten images. Listen how God speaks about idolatry. He says in Isaiah 30, Verse 20, "Ye shall defile also the coverings of the graven images of silver and the ornament of thy molten images of gold. Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth. Thou shalt say unto it, 'Get thee hence.'" I mean, that's pretty strong language condemning idolatry in the book of Isaiah.

It says in First Corinthians 10, Verse 14, in the New Testament, "Wherefore my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." Jump down to Verse 19. "What say I then? That the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the Lord's table and of the table of devils."

Even though Buddhism denies, the first point is that they deny the existence of the creator. All types of Buddhists, all denominations of Buddhism deny a creator god, non-theistic religion, but although they do deny the creator, they do believe in various deities or basically demons that they will worship and things like that, although they don’t believe that any of them is really God or the creator, and so they worship these devils.

That's what the bible says about idolatry in First Corinthians 10, that idolatry is the worship of devils. It is the worship of demons. Now, secondly, about Buddhism, besides the fact that they deny the existence of the creator … and by the way, that's why Buddhism is becoming so popular in the United States today. That's why amongst a lot of those who live an ungodly and wicked life, Buddhism is appealing to th-. They don’t want anything to do with the God of the bible, and as our country becomes more and more atheistic, and as children are being brought up in school with atheism and agnosticism, well, Buddhism's a perfect fit.

Hey, you can be spiritual, but without God, without believing in God, without acknowledging the God of the bible, or really without believing in any god, no creator. This is why Buddhism is on the rise in the west in the last century, and especially in the last few years, but secondly this about Buddhism.

The goal of Buddhism is to achieve what's called nirvana, which literally means extinguishment. That's what it means in the original language, the word nirvana. Now basically, the goal of Buddhism … you're not going to believe this … the goal of Buddhism is to die and never come back, just to be dead, just to be gone. That's the goal. Now a lot of people misunderstand this thing. Oh, nirvana, that's heaven or that's this wonderful place or a wonderful state that you get to and it's so great.

No, no, no, it's just to die and never come back. That's the goal. Now, I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from last Sunday morning where I covered Hinduism, but I want you to understand that Buddhism comes out of Hinduism. Hinduism goes back a lot further. Hinduism goes back to at least 1,000 or 2,000 B.C., whereas Buddhism came around 500 B.C. Nobody knows the exact date. It started in India, so it takes a lot of the same things from Hinduism and carries them forward into Buddhism.

They also believe in the concepts that we talked about last Sunday morning with karma and with the reincarnation and the constant cycle of being born and dying and coming back and so forth, all that stuff that we talked about, and that's why I preached the Hinduism sermon first, because that's the basis of Buddhism. That's where this comes from.

You have to understand that the goal of nirvana, and if you would turn to Proverbs Chapter 8, Proverbs Chapter Number 8, the goal of nirvana is to basically die and never come back. The goal is to escape the cycle of keep on coming back. Now, I don't know about you, but that's not really aiming very high. The goal is just to die. It's just to be gone. You say, "Why in the world would somebody have that as their goal? Just to die and be gone and cease to exist?" Because Buddhism teaches that all of life is suffering. All of human life is suffering. Everything about our li- … everything that we do, everything that we experience, is all suffering.

The best thing that we could do is just be gone, just to die and never come back, and that's what nirvana is. Now, inevitably, when I preach about this … Let me just stop and say this before I get any further. Inevitably, when I preach about thi-, g-, here's what people will say. "You just don't understand Buddhism. You just don't understand Hinduis-." No, I understand it and I reject it.

Whenever you preach against false teaching and expose lies, people will just try and say, "Oh, you just don’t understand." No, I understand it and I reject it as false and think contrary to the bible, as being contrary to everything that is righteous in this world. I reject it. People will say the same thing when you talk about the big bang and evolution, and you talk about how ridiculous and foolish they are and how contrary to science they are. "Oh, you just don’t understand the big bang." No, I understand it and I reject it.

There's the thing. I don't go around claiming that everybody who rejects Christianity doesn't understand it. I believe that are many people in this world who understand the gospel perfectly well and choose to reject it, but it seems that people who want to prop up these false religions of atheism and the big bang or whether it be Hinduism or Buddhism, just like this, "Oh, you just don't understand." No, I do understand it. This is what Buddhism teaches. They teach that the goal is to never come back, to stop this endless cycle of reincarnation, which, by the way, doesn't even exist.

They believe that Buddha today has ceased to exist, I mean, the person Buddha, who started this religion. He's gone. He died and he said, "I'm never going to be born again." By the way, that's a bad thing to say, when the bible says you have to be born again. That's the first thing according to Buddhism, according to the legend, the first words out of his mouth as a child were that he is the greatest person in the world and that he will never be born again.

Now that's a wonderful thing to say. I'd prefer 'mama' or 'dada' out of my kid's mouth as the first words, but according to legend, that's supposedly the first thing that he ever said.

This is what they teach. Everything is suffering, and so the way to end suffering is to enter this state of nirvana. Now they can enter nirvana in their lifetime, as Buddha supposedly did, where he just didn't suffer anymore, but then he didn't reach the full nirvana until he died and never came back. That was the ultimate goal.

Now what does the bible say about that? You're in Proverbs 8, but let me read to you from Job 3. This verse is the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard this. Job 3:20, "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life under the bitter and soul which long for death." Are you listening? "Which long for death and it cometh not, and dig for it more than for hid treasures, which rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave." I mean, that's Buddhism right there in the bible.

Anyway, look at Proverbs Chapter 8, Verse 32. "Now therefore harken unto me O yea children, for blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me. Watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors, for who so findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favor of the Lord, but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death."

That's the goal. Now what does the bible, on the other hand, teach as the goal? What is our goal? What do we receive when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior? People say, "Oh, you know, heaven, nirvana, whatever." There's even a place called … help me out, Zsuzsa … Teavana? Is that what it's called?

Zsuzsa: Yes.

Steven: There's a tea shop, a place where you to go drink tea, and it's called Teavana. I guess you just go in there and die and you never come back. You go in there and all desire for tea is extinguished. I don't know how they make any money, because you walk in there and you go to buy the tea and then your desire is completely extinguished as you reach that nirvana and then you just die and you never come back.

Anyway, people have a mistaken concept of what this nirvana is. It's death. It's death worship. "You don't understand." I do understand it and I reject it as false and satanic and I'm going to expose more of it as we get into the sermon. We're going to get to the band Nirvana. Just sit tight.

Anyway, what does the bible teach, on the other hand? The bible teaches in Psalm 16:11, "Thou wilt show me the path of life. In my presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore." That's what the bible teaches. Hebrews 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

First Corinthians 29 says, "But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Thank God for heaven. Thank God for all the blessings that we will enjoy as Christians. Thank God that we don't live a life where we just say, "It's just all suffering and the goal is just to never come back, just to be dead." That's what we seek. What a bizarre religion, when you think of it in that way, and that's really what it's teaching.

Basically, you've heard the saying, 'life sucks and then you die'? This is like life sucks and if you're lucky, you die. That's the goal is to die. It's bizarre and wicked, but on to the band Nirvana. Now, like I said, the word nirvana in the original language literally means extinguishment, and what they mean by that is that all desire is extinguished. You don't care about anything because they claim that the reason why you keep getting reincarnated and coming back is because you want to come back. You have all this desire that's unfulfilled, so you got to get to where you just don't care and then you won't come back anymore. Once you realize that nothing matters and yourself doesn't really even quite exist, and blah blah blah, then you won't come back.

It means extinguishment. Isn't it interesting, and who knows who the band Nirvana is? Let me just say this. When I was a teenager at Victory Christian School, every single kid listened to Nirvana. This was one that was just universal. If you asked for the top three bands out of virtually any student when I was a teenager, Nirvana was in the top three. It was usually number one. I mean, this was the most popular band.

Who's about my age? I'm 33 years old. Am I telling the truth about when you were a teenager? I mean, this band was huge in that era, in the '90s. It's amazing how in his suicide note, and we're going to talk about suicide in regard to Buddhism, in his suicide note, he put this quote, "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Now a lot of people would look at that and say, "Oh, he's just talking about as a musician. He wanted to end his life while he's at the pinnacle. He doesn't want to fade away and become this burned out old rock star or whatever."

He said, "Better to burn out than to fade away." No, this is actually the teaching of Buddhism, to burn out, extinguishment. You see, his suicide note, there's an image of it online. You know what it says at the top, who the suicide note's made out to? To Boddah, B-O-D-D-A-H, and this was his imaginary friend, Boddah. Sounds like Buddha. He's talking to this demon named Boddah. He's naming his band Nirvana and he writes a suicide note that says better to burn out, which would be extinguishment, than to fade away.

At his funeral, a Buddhist monk chanted. This was a Buddhist funeral for Kurt Cobain and his daughter, Frances Bean, scattered Cobain's ashes into McLane Creek in Olympia, Washington. He maintained a constant interest in Buddhist philosophy. The band name, Nirvana, was taken from a Buddhist concept which Cobain described as freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, a concept that he aligned with the punk rock ethos and ideology.

Cobain would regard himself as a Buddhist during different points in his life, so when you're going to go out and say, "Oh, I'm going to listen to Nirvana," you're listening to some satanic music by a guy who committed suicide and who followed the wicked teachings of Buddhism.

Now, what is the relationship between Buddhism and suicide? Well, let me give you a quote from a very popular Buddhist. This is a Vietnamese Buddhist; he's very famous. His name, and I'm sure I'm going to pronounce this wrong because I don't know Vietnamese, Thich Nat Han, is the best I can do with it. This guy, Thich Nat Han, he's 88 years old, vegan, buddy of Martin Luther King, Jr., author of 100 books, etc. Turn to Matthew 17 while I read you this quote. Here's the quote from one of the great, most popular Buddhist teachers of our day, this Vietnamese Buddhist, author of 100 books, famous popular well-known Buddhist, and he's referring to all these Vietnamese Buddhists who were committing suicide by throwing themself into the fire.

Let me read for you his quote. "To express will by burning one's self, therefore, is not to commit an act of destruction, but to perform an act of construction." It's very constructive to throw yourself in the fire, according to this wonderful, wise budd- … "You just don't understand Buddhism, Pastor Anderson, you ignorant uneducated fool. That Thich Nat Han is so much smarter than you'll ever be."

See, it's very constructive to throw yourself in the fire. Let's finish his quote here. "To suffer and to die for the sake of one's people." No, somebody already did that. His name's Jesus. You don't need to throw yourself in the fire. That's not going to help your people at all, and why don't you throw yourself in the fire, buddy? You're 88 years old eating a bunch of vegan food. You haven't thrown yourself in the fire yet, but you like it when other people do it.

Here's what he said. "This is not suicide. Suicide is an act of self destruction. This self destruction is considered by Buddhism as one of the most serious crimes. The monk who burns himself has lost neither courage nor hope, nor does he desire non-existence. The monk believes he's practicing the doctrine of highest compassion by sacrificing himself in order to call attention of and to seek help from the people of the world."

This is actually a wonderful … it's not suicide. "You just don't understand Buddhism." Lighting yourself on fire is constructive? It takes great courage? Okay, look what the bible says in Matthew 17:14. "And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying, 'Lord have mercy on my son for he's a lunatic and sore vexed, for oft times he falls within to the fire and oft into the water and I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him.'" Then Jesus answered and said, "O, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me," and Jesus rebuked the what? Audience: Devil. Steven: The devil, and he departed out of him and the child was cured from that very hour. You see, the bible associates throwing yourself in the fire with being demon possessed. That's what we see here and so that ties in perfectly with everything else we've seen.

Now, these Eastern religions of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, they're all technically against suicide, but they make exceptions, like for example, if you're these Vietnamese Buddhists throwing yourself in the fire, that's fine. That's great, actually, but also, they all make an exception for starving yourself to death, like that's okay. I'm going to explain to you a little bit later why it's okay, according to them, to just sit there, not eat, and starve yourself. That's fine. That's not suicide. I mean, that's constructive, once again.

Not only that, the Buddhists today, because right now on this point, because remember, point number one was the fact they deny the creator, they deny God, and as a result, they have abundance of idolatry. Point number two is that nirvana is the goal of basically dying and never coming back. It's a death worship. It's a love and pursuit of dea-, and they can call it whatever they want. That's what I'm calling it.

That is what it really comes down to, but in regard to that, the Buddhists literally worship Buddha's dead corpse, literally. You see, when Buddha died, or as they would say, he reached pare nirvana, complete nirvana, when Buddha died, they actually cremated his body and they made sure to divide it up into as many small pieces because they wanted to put it in all these different shrines where his dead corpse could be worshipped in as many places and by as many people as possible so that they could literally bow down and worship the dead corpse of Buddha.

Thank God for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is living, whatever man may say. (singing) Sing it! (singing)

Okay, or you could worship the dead corpse of Buddha and you know what? Just go to Sedona, because there's a place in Sedona where they have one. Now, I don't know if you can worship literally the dead corpse of Buddha in Sedona, but it will be the dead corpse of some Buddhist saint, some famous Buddhist monk, because they have these things all over the world that are called stupas. You can't make this stuff up. It's called stupa; that's stupid, but anyway, these things called stupas, and the closest one that I could find, and no, I didn't go there, and no, I'm not going to go there, but there is a stupa in Sedona.

It's funny. Here's what somebody wrote online about the stupa. "I believe that it should be a requirement that if you come to Sedona, Arizona, you have to visit the Amitabha stupa before leaving. No matter what your faith, religion or beliefs in a higher power may or may not be, this is a place to reconnect with yourself and others and it is a sight to be seen and felt." This stupa in Sedona. This is what a stupa is. A mound-like or hemispherical structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the ashes of dead Buddhist monks, and it's used by Buddhists as a place of meditation.

If you're lucky, you can go to one of these really cool stupa … the 'supah stupa' over in East Asia. Okay, I made up that term. It's really not called that, but I call the 'supah stupa' the one where it's actually Buddha's dead corpse that you're worshipping. Then there's the lesser stupa in Sedona where you're just worshipping some other dead corpse of some Buddhist monk of bygone era.

That was number one, the denial of the creator God. Number two, this seeking after nirvana, which we saw play out so well in the life of the lead singer of Nirvana, but let me give you some other scripture before I get into the third point. Let me give you some scriptures on Christ's resurrection. The bible says, if you would turn to Romans 8 … this is such a great scripture … in Romans 8, and then we're going to go to Hebrews 7 after this.

This is what sets apart Christianity from Buddhism, from Hinduism, is that we're not worshipping a dead corpse, and when you look at the Catholic church, they parade around a dead corpse. That's what they bow down to and worship, a molten image of a dead corpse. We serve a risen savior, and so we worship the Lord Jesus Christ. He's alive. He hears our prayers. They worship Buddha, but they don't believe Buddha can hear their prayers because they realize that Buddha is dead. That's the goal.

Look at Romans 8:31, "What shall we say then to these things? If God before us, who can be against us? He has spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies it. Who is he to condemn it? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather that he is risen again who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?"

"As it is written for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

This is the truth. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ as opposed to this false religion of Buddhism where you go to Sedona and bow down and worship a literal dead corpse.

Hebrews Chapter 7, Verse 22, the bible says this. "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." I was thinking about, when we were filming Marching to Zion, we talked to these different rabbis and we talked to Rabbi Mann. This is one of those wonderful things that ended up on the cutting room floor just because there's only so much you can pack into a movie, but Rabbi Mann thought he was so clever because he said, "You know, what you Gentiles call the Old Testament, we call the Only Testament." Pfft.

I got one for Rabbi Mann. What you Jews call the New Testament, we call the Better Testament. It's what it says, right? Hebrew 7:22, "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, but this man, because he continueth forever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save them to the ever most that come into God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

Flip back just a few pages to Hebrews Chapter 4, starting in Verse 12. "For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing and sunder of someone's spirit and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

That's the God of the bible. That's our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we believe in as Christians.

Let's talk about the practice of Buddhism. What's Buddhism all about? How do these people think that they're going to get to this state of nirvana? That's the goal, remember, nirvana. Now in order to understand this, one thing that I've heard Buddhists say is that we Christians believe in a god who created something from nothing, and that's the truth.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and we believe that he created it from nothing by his own word, by his own power, that God is the creator. The concept of Buddhism, on the other hand, is to make nothing from something. Isn't that great? Instead of making something from nothing, their goal is to make nothing from something. Oh, so deep, so wonderful.

Now they say, "You Christians, you value great creativity and you value going out and creating things and making something," starting a business or writing a book or just building family, whatever, just going out and making something out of your life and being creative and building something and making something from nothing.

You're not going to believe this stuff. This is what Buddhism teaches … to cease activity is the goal of human life. To cease activity is the goal of human life, according to Buddhism. Okay, so let's get into the three categories of the practice of Buddhism.

First of all, they have their moral precepts that they follow, the rules by which they're going to live their life, but they're not really rules. These are just suggestions. With God, it's the Ten Commandments, and then Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments," but with Buddhism, these are not imperatives. They're not really rules or commandments. These are just things that you can do voluntarily that are going to help you live a happier life and things are going to go good for you.

There's the moral precepts. Then there's the mental concentration that they work on, which we would know as meditation, and then of course, there's wisdom, gaining wisdom, which is to finally come to grips with the fact that there is no self. That's their ultimate wisdom. We'll get into that.

Let's start with these moral precepts. They give the actual layman of Buddhism … the layman just pretty much has five moral precepts that he needs to follow, not to be the monk, but just to be the layman. These are the five. Number one is not to kill. Okay. Number two, don't steal. These sound familiar. Number three, refrain from sensual misconduct. Of course, that's not defined, so that's, I guess, open to interpretation, whatever you think that means, unlike God's clear commands to flee fornication, thou shalt not commit adultery, not to look on a woman to lust after her and so on and so forth.

Number four would be not to lie, and number five would be to refrain from intoxicants which would lead to a loss of mindfulness, specifically drugs and alcohol. These are their five moral precepts. Now it's interesting that some of them are similar to the Ten Commandments, but what's missing? Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it 'may be well with thee and thouest may live long on the earth'.

There's no shadow of the first five there. They're just taking the second part about basically doing right by your neighbor. That's pretty much the only part that they seem to retain. Now a major teaching of Buddhism is what's called the middle way. Now go to Revelations Chapter 3. The middle way. This is what Buddha figured out on his path to enlightenment or awakening.

While you're turning there, let me just tell you who Buddha was, okay, just so you can understand this. His real name was Siddhartha Gautama, and supposedly, legend has it that he was the son of a great king in India, so he was a prince, and he had all these prophecies and all these signs and wonders about his birth. I told you about his first words a little bit earlier in the sermon, but he had these wheels imprinted on his hands and on his feet and so forth, and some Hindu prophet had said that he's going to become a great religious leader, or he's going to become a great warrior king, one or the other. Obviously he took the religious path.

This guy, Siddhartha Gautama, he basically decides one day that he's going to go outside the palace; his parents had tried to keep him a really sheltered life. They didn't want him to go the holy man route. They wanted him to be a great warrior conqueror, so he decides to go out of the palace and he goes out and he sees these great four sights of a sick person, an elderly person, a dead corpse, and a wandering holy man ascetic.

When he sees these four examples of human suffering, he decides that he's going to renounce everything and seek after a spiritual goal and become a wandering ascetic holy man himself. He leaves the palace, renounces everything, shaves his head and goes out wandering as a poor, begging mendicant.

He goes out and he does this, and at first he tries this route of just extreme asceticism where he's just going to just suffer, and so he got to the point where he's not even eating anything and he just keeps getting skinnier and skinnier, and he's eating so little and he's starving himself, and he becomes completely emaciated, but he doesn't reach his goal. He's not awakened. He's not enlightened.

A child offers him a bowl of rice pudding and he decides to take it, and survive. He eats the rice pudding and he continues his quest for awakening and enlightenment. Finally, of course, to make a long story short, he sits under the great fig tree and he's not going to get up until he's enlightened. He achieves this great awakening under the fig tree where he realizes that all of life is suffering and that the greatest goal is just to realize we can't hang on to a-, and he just let go, just died, just be done with it. There is no self, whatever.

He's sitting under there and he has this great awakening, and he's tempted to just sit there and never get up because he's there. I mean, he's at nirvana. Might as well just starve to death under that tree, just sit there, totally at peace, no desire, no suffering, and just slip off into pare nirvana, but no, he must teach the people.

He's like 40 years old, approximately or whatever, so he gets up and he goes out and he finds all these wandering messed up Hindus that are already worshipping Satan and mixed up and punishing themselves and living this bizarre ascetic life, and he goes and he starts to teach them and he spends basically the next 40 years until he's about 80 years old gathering disciples and teaching them all this garbage that culminates in, today, 500 million people being deceived by Buddhism.

He goes out and teaches all this and so on and so forth. One of the great things that he understood at his awakening was what Buddhists call the middle way, and it's so amazing how this concept has just really permeated into our society today, where everybody wants to be a moderate. Have you noticed that that is held up now as just the ideal? Everything is just moderate, balanced, and these things, and look, of course there's a place for moderation and balance. Don't get me wrong.

Obviously there's a little bit of truth in every lie, but this idea of just everything that's bad is extremism. Have you heard this? Where it's just like, "Oh, you're an extremist. Oh, you're fanatic," or, "Oh, you got to stay away from this extreme-." "Oh, these extremist Christians, these fanatics, these zealots are," … extreme this, extreme that and, "We need to be moderate." Politically, everybody wants to be a moderate and Christian. They want to be a moderate Christian and a moderate this and that.

What does the bible say? Revelation 3:15, "I know thy works that thou are neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot." Then because they are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, "I will spew thee out of my mouth."

God is not just advocating across the board the middle way, the lukewarm way, the moderate way, across the board, and what they teach with the middle way is they just say, "Well, we don't want to go through a life of extreme self-indulgence or of extreme asceticism," but then beyond that, they say, "Well, even in our doctrine, we don’t want to be too extreme." When we say that there's no self, that we don't really even exist, we don't want to go too extreme with that, but we don't want to go too extreme affirming the self either. The middle way.

Do things exist? Do they not exist? Eh. Half. It's like it's the middle way, and you can see how this doctrine creeps into Christianity as well where people are always looking for the middle way, and the middle way is also known at the Hegelian Dialectic, for those of you who have heard of that. That's the middle way, thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

This middle way is this teaching of alway- … "We don't want to go to these extrem-," but look, God is a god of extremes. Heaven, hell, those are two really extreme places. I mean, think about, and plus, we don’t want to half believe in Jesus. "Well, you know, we don't want to affirm Jesus too much." No. We believe in him with all of our heart, so when it comes to our doctrine, we'll go to an extreme of talking about how we believe in Christ with all of our heart, and that Jesus is the way, the truth and the … not some middle way. No, Jesus is the only way and these other religions are false. They're not kind of false; they're just false.

When we live our lives, we want to live a life that is godly and righteous. We don't want to be half in, half out. We don't want to be like Eutychus in the Book of Acts who fell out the window because he was half in and half out. We want to get all the way in. You've heard a lot of Christians described as having one foot in the world. Have you heard that? Hey, he's living for God but he's got one foot in the world. That's not where God wants us to be.

God wants us to live a life that is hot, that is on fire for God, and not to be lukewarm about our Christianity. Now, of course, are there certain areas of life where moderation is taught by the bible? Yes, but it's taught by the bible. Where the bible teaches, for example, give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me … where the bible talks about things of that nature, but not the Buddhist philosophy of our doctrine being lukewarm, of our beliefs being the middle way, half in, half out.

Or politically, the middle way, or, "Oh, how do you feel about the sodomites?" "I'll take the middle way." "What do you think about freedom and liberty in our country?" "Oh, the middle way." Taxation? The middle way, but this is what our country is like now where the middle way is exalted, and anyone who takes a firm stand and gets firmly on the side of right, of righteousness, of goodness, of godliness, is considered extreme, fanatic, zealot, right?

Audience: Right.

Steven: And condemned for not taking the middle way. This is Buddhism. This is not Christianity that teaches the middle way. When we see their moral precepts, we see a basically halfway moral teaching, because it's not even 'thou shalt not steal'. It's not even 'thou shalt not kill'. It's like, well, these aren't really commands. It's this middle way of, "Well, they're kind of suggestions. They're rules, but you don't have to do them." They'll frequently break these rules and so forth.

For example, the monks are supposed to be celibate in Buddhism, but then they're like, "Well, it's more important to become a Buddha. It's more important to achieve awakening than to follow our vows," so once they get real high up, then they have some illicit you know what going on, and that's just all part of reaching nirvana, folks, and that's more important than our vow to celibacy. This is in Tibet, where that goes on.

This is wickedness. Don't take a middle approach on stealing and murder and adultery. Zsuzsa, I'm just going to take the middle way in regard to my vows to you. I mean, isn't that just ridiculous? "You just don't understand it." Yes, I do. I reject it and the bible condemns it.

That's their moral teaching, is to follow these moral rules, and look, obviously some of these are great. Yeah, don't kill, don't steal, don't lie, refrain from sensual misconduct, don't drink, don't do drugs. I mean, I agree with that. I'm not against that, but just because something has one thing right doesn't mean that the whole thing is not wickedness. Even a broken clock is right twice per day. You could look at that clock and it will tell you the exact right time, twice a day.

Does that make it a functional right clock? No, it needs to be thrown in the trash. It needs to be replaced with a working clock called Christianity, called the Holy Bible, but secondly, besides their moral precepts in regard to their practice, they have this practice of mental concentration, the meditation that they do, and where they just totally empty themself and go through these processes of sitting there and meditat-. You know what the bible teaches about meditation?

Don't get the wrong idea that meditation's a bad word. Meditation is not a bad word. In fact, I preached a sermon a while back called 'Thou shalt meditate', but I wasn’t talking about getting in the lotus position and emptying yourself of everything and focusing on your breathing, okay? What I was actually talking about is what the bible talks about where it says, "This book is the law. You shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein, day and night. Then will God make thy way prosperous. Then shalt thou have good success. This book is the law."

He said, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law, that he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, to bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

That's the meditation that we need. Have you ever heard this term, 'an idle mind is the devil's workshop'?

Audience: Yeah.

Steven: This is true of Buddhism. When you make your mind idle and empty yourself, you know what they're doing. They're opening themself up to demonic influence. That's what they're doing, because the idle mind is the devil's workshop, and that's why some of them in Tibet, when they go into these meditative states, will often receive all these revelations of lost scriptures and things that demons are giving them, because of this meditation.

No, we need to meditate on the word of God, not sit around and meditate on nothing, not sitting around thinking about nothing. We need to think about the Lord and his word and the teachings of the bible. That is the meditation of a Christian.

When Isaac was meditating in the field, when he first met Rebecca, what was he meditating on? The word of God. That's what we're supposed to meditate … not just meditating, "Ohm." By the way, that is the most magical word of Hinduism. "Ohm." They go, "What does it mean?" "I don't know." They don't know. Nobody knows, but it's magical. It has power. I mean, this is a fairy tale. This is lies that have been concocted. Cunningly devised fables is what they are, but then beyond the mental concentration, thirdly, there's the pursuit of wisdom.

We have the moral precepts, which again are more like suggestions, half in, half out, the middle way. They're not really condemning drugs and alcohol totally. I mean, take a middle way. Take a middle way on murders, stealing, adultery, whatever.

Secondly, the mental concentration or meditation which I believe is demonic. I'm not saying it's demonic in and of itself to just sit there and breathe, but what are they opening themself up to when they're emptying themself and doing all this? Especially when they're sitting in front of an idol and doing it, especially when they're sitting in front of a dead body and doing it, and worshipping these demons.

But thirdly, wisdom … Now, I'm going to close the sermon with this point because I have way too much here to … I might finish this tonight, because there's just a lot of notes here, but go back to Romans 1 and let's end where we began. Let's go back to Romans Chapter 1 where we started.

In Romans Chapter 1, the bible talked about people who reject the God of the bible and it said in Verse 21, "Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened."

Now isn’t it interesting that it says they became vain? Another word that's often associated with vanity is emptiness. Isn't it? When we think about Solomon saying, "Vanity, vanity, saeth the preacher. All is vanity. Nothing matters," that's the teaching of Buddhism, but what does Solomon realize at the end of his philosophical undertaking in Ecclesiastes? He said, "Fear God and keep his commandments. This is the whole duty of man and God's going to bring every work into judgment."

He said childhood and youth are vanity. He taught that seeking after money and pleasure and wealth were all vanity and emptiness, but wait a minute. He said following the word of God is not vain, is not emptiness. The bible says be therefore steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, not ceasing from human activity. No, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. It's not empty. It's not worthless and of no value. It's not vain. It's not empty. It is of great price to the Lord our God.

It says here that they became vain in their imaginations, and think about what's your imagination? It's what you think about. Sitting there just vainly … 'boh'. You say, "Well, I still think it's okay for Christians to take part in this." No, I don’t want anything to do with it, any of this stuff. Yeah, I would just stay away from it. "Well, but you know, there's a lot of good stuff with the yoga and the meditation. You know, it doesn't have to be Buddhist and whatever." Just stay away from it. You don't need this stuff. You want to just relax and focus on your breathing or something, why don't you pray to the Lord or read your bible?

If you're looking for peace and calm and tranquility, you could always read your bible. You can go out and get some exercise, go running, whatever you do to calm down and unwind and relax, but you don't need to go to these practitioners of yoga and transcendental meditation. There are plenty of other ways to get a good stretch, and by the way, stretching's overrated.

This is a story unrelated to the sermon. Many coaches and scientists and athletes are starting to realize that stretching before exercise is actually harmful. It's actually not preventing injury, and so you're like, "Well, I'm going to do the yoga even though it has roots in this weird religion and even though sometimes my yoga teacher's saying some creepy things and so forth," but here's the bottom line though.

It's not even as good for you as people have been trying to make it out. Maybe you just weren't intended to sit in that lotus position. Maybe that's just a weird position for a man to jam his legs into and maybe it's just not worth working toward. I stopped stretching years ago, okay, and I run all the time. I never stretch before I run and I don't have any problems just not stretching. This is not a sermon against stretching, but I'm just throwing that in. You don't need to do this meditation. You can meditate on the word of God. You can pray. You can read your bible. You can quote scripture, and if you want to get a good stretch, read the literature. It's not what it's cracked up to be.

They said, "Their foolish heart was darkened," and then it says in Verse 22, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." First Corinthians Chapter 1 says it this way. It says, "For the preaching of the cross is, to them that perish, foolishness, but then to us that are saved, it's the power of God," but then it says in Verse 25, "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

The bible says in Verse 20, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, so when the Buddhists talk about wisdom as their third path here … I'm just categorizing it into three sections just to make it easier to understand how on one hand, they're following their false morality which leaves out a lot of God's commandments and is a halfway type morality, and they've got their mental concentration of training the mind and so forth, but then on the third one they have wisdom.

But listen, this wisdom is a joke to those of us that are saved because the wisdom of the world's foolishness with God. You know what? A lot of people translate the word 'Buddha' as the enlightened one. You know what the bible calls us as born again Christians? Enlightened. We're the enlightened ones. Now they've changed it … "Well, it's actually the awakened one." No, we're the awakened ones because what did the bible say? He says, "Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober." Watch means to be awake.

He says, "They that sleep sleep in the night. They that be drunken are drunk in the night, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope of salvation, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, let us not sleep as do others." What is sleeping? Being ignorant of the word of God.

What is it to be enlightened? It's when you understand the word of God. When you get saved and the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, the bible calls it also being illuminated. He says in Hebrews, "After you are illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions," talking about salvation. See, the light bulb coming on, the enlightenment, the illumination comes when you receive Jesus Christ as savior and the Holy Spirit opens your understanding of the scriptures. That is enlightenment, my friend. That is awakening.

When you want to talk about a wisdom, the bible says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, meaning that Buddhism has no wisdom. They don't have the beginning. They don’t have the foundation. They don't even have the basis, because the basis is faith in the Lord.

Okay, so when they have their wisdom, it's the stupidest thing that you've ever heard in your life. For example, I was listening to this guy talk and he was Ivy League professor. He was explaining Buddhism, and he talked about his wonderful experience when he was at Harvard, how his holiness himself, the Dalai Lama came and spoke to them at Harvard when he was there, and he had the privilege of introducing the Dalai Lama to the student body as he spoke.

He got up and spoke and he spoke on the great truth that Buddha understood, sitting under the fig tree, when he understood that there is no self, because the main teaching of Buddhist wisdom is that there is no self. He got up and expounded a great long speech of the seven reasons why there's no self and just how much happier you'll be when you just realize that you don't even matter. You don’t even have a self. You are no one. This is so great.

He expounds this for like seven long drawn out points as the students hung on every word from his holiness, and soaked in his wisdom, and then he got done with these seven great points and he said, "But if there is no self, then who is it that has just explained this to you?" Wawwwww!

Then he gave this most profound answer. "Just me." Aarrrhh! It's amazing. I mean, just because he's taking the middle way, the middle way. My friend, the bible is true when it says the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. We have an anchor. We have a firm foundation. Blessed is he that heareth these sayings of Jesus Christ and does them. He's going to be like a man that built his house on the rock, and this word of God is unlike anything else in this world.

People say, "Well, how do you know that your religion's the right religion? I mean, what about Buddhism? What about Hinduism? What about Islam?" Look, they're foolish and they even compare the bible to Buddhist scripture. They even compare the bible to the Koran. They even compare the bible to Hindu scriptures or to the Book of Mormon or to the Tao Te Ching? It's ridiculous, because the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and listen, their rock is not as our rock. Not even close.

The wisdom of this world is truly foolishness with God. "Well, but if 500 million people believe in it," … no. There are 500 million people watching the stupidest things on TV today. There are 500 million people who are watching American Idol and all this other stupidity, and rotting their brains on all kinds of ridiculous nonsense. Just because 500 million people believe in something does not mean a thing. Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there out because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads them to life and few there be that find it.

Yeah, there's 2.3 billion Christians, yeah, but half of them are Catholic, and tonight in my sermon, I'm going to go into the multitude of things that the Catholic church has taken directly from Buddhism, and once you understand that Buddhism is from around 500 B.C. and then you see just the crazy amount of similarities, and how whenever we look at stuff in Catholicism and we're saying, "Where did this come from? This isn't in the bible." We're thinking to ourselves, where, what is the basis here?

You know where it's coming from? Eastern religion, and let me tell you something, the reason why all these things are in Catholicism that are also found in eastern religion is because it's the same devil that's behind both. You look at the teachings of Catholicism that kind of boggle your mind, they are straight out of Buddhism and Hinduism, but we'll go into that tonight.

Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the death [bear 01:00:49] and resurrection of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the wonderful teachings of the bible that we can meditate upon day and night. We thank you for heaven and for the things that you've prepared for us that are beyond our comprehension. How marvelous they are, all the joys and pleasures that await us, Lord. Thank you that we were born in a country where we heard the gospel clearly presented and that we got saved, Lord.

Help people to bring the gospel to those that are steeped in this false religion, Buddhism, Lord, and that they would get a clear presentation of the gospel so that they can stop worshipping death and worshipping a dead body and serve a risen savior and have eternal life in heaven and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

Hinduism in Light of the Bible

”Hinduism in Light of the Bible”
Video

May 19, 2015

Flip over to Exodus 23. The second book of the bible is Exodus. Chapter number 23. This morning I want to preach against the false religion of Hinduism. "Hinduism in light of the bible." Now as we get into this, let me just point out to you that Hinduism is one of the largest religions in the world, even though we might not think of it as such. In fact, according to a demographic study, there are 2.2 billion Christians in the world, basically one third of the worlds population, and obviously they are using the word christian very loosely, to include Catholicism and all these other false branches of Christianity. That’s one third of the worlds population, then there are 1.6 billion Muslims, which would be 23 percent of the worlds population, and then there are 1 billion Hindus in this world or 15 percent of the world's population approximately, I mean thats a huge number. I billion Hindus. Now in this day that we live, a lot of forces are at work to unite all religions together, in kind of a one world religion, one world government, "new world order" type of a movement in preparation for the Antichrist. Even some christian teachers are starting to say, “Hey, the Hindus are actually like unto us." 

In fact, I went hiking up in Sedona not too long ago, and a Hare Krishna met me there, and they were trying to recruit me to Hinduism. They were doing the Hindu version of soul-winning. And they were trying to tell me, "Oh, we believe in Jesus," and trying to act like there was some great connection between Hinduism and Christianity and so forth. But I am here to tell you that Hinduism is a false religion, and let me start out by giving you a quote from Joel Osteen, who is one of the most popular "Christian" teachers on the tv, radio...he has a massive following. And here is what he said, “I’ve spent a lot of time in India. I’ve been with a lot of Hindu people. They are nice, kind people who love God as well.” Now here’s the thing: I am sure they are nice, kind people but to say that the Hindus love God is false because they do not have the God of the Bible, and the Bible teaches that there is only one true God, and that all other gods are false gods. He also said, when he was asked if they would go to hell for not believing in Jesus, that he would not say that they would go to Hell. He said, "I don’t know. They just love God so much. I don’t know." But lets see what the bible says. Now according to Hinduism...let me just start out by making this first point. According to Hinduism,  God can be called by any name. The thing about Hinduism is that they are often known for having a multitude of gods. People will say that there are millions of gods, but really, most Hindus that you talk to only worship one God, and they think that their God is the one true God, but they're okay with all the other Hindus worshiping other gods because they are all just different manifestations of the same religion, the same god. They believe in their god, but they think it is okay to believe in him by a different name. It doesn’t matter what God's name is - that is one of the different things about Hinduism. The name of God is just not that important to them.

Well, let's contrast that with what the bible teaches, look at Exodus 23:13. The bible reads, “And in all things that I have said unto you be circumspect: and make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth.” So the Bible is telling us here, that we should not name the names of false gods. So is this saying, "Hey, call God by whatever name you want?" No, he is saying not to use the name of other gods - don’t even name those names. Look at Deuteronomy chapter number 12, and while you are turning to Deuteronomy 12, I’ll read for you from Deuteronomy 18:20 “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die." Listen to this: Joshua 23:7 “That ye come not among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods,” Did you hear that? Don’t make mention the name of their gods. He said, “nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow yourselves unto them: But cleave unto the LORD your God, as ye have done unto this day.” Look down at you bible there in Deuteronomy 12:1. It says, “These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods,” Watch this! “and destroy the names of them out of that place. Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.” So right there he is saying to destroy the names of the false gods. Don’t even make mention of the names of false gods. Don’t even let those names come out of your lips. So to sit there and say, "Oh, it doesn’t matter what name they worship God by, as long as they are worshiping one God, then it's the same God." Wrong. It’s not the same God unless you have the right name, and that name is Jesus. Jesus is the name above all names.

Now if you would, go to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter number 2. You see, just because someone believes in one God or worships one God or acknowledges that there is one God, does not mean that they are worshiping the God of the bible. Just because somebody says, "God bless you," does not mean that they are blessing you in the name of the Lord God of the bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just because you say "God" doesn’t mean you are referring to the true God because the other nations have false gods, the bible tells us. In Philippians 2 the Bible is clear in verse nine what that name is. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Flip over to Romans 10, and while you are turning to Romans 10, I’ll read you the famous verse from Acts 4:12: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” 1 John 5:13: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” Notice the emphasis over and over again on the name: believe on the name, it must be the name of Jesus...and what's funny: I’ve even heard people say...listen there’s a reason why I am preaching this this morning because now you will even hear independent Baptists say these bizarre things. There is a great falling away taking place and you will even hear independent Baptists saying things like, "Oh, these people on this island or in this other country, they just kind of look up at the sky, and just kind of call upon God, and they don’t even know the name of Jesus, but they are saved because they just called upon God, whatever that means. No, the Bible says, "For whosoever call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." 

What is that name? Well, look at Romans 10:9. It says in Romans 10:9: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” I want to point out the word "for" at the beginning of verses 10, 11, 12 and 13. Do you see that? That is a conjunction that in our modern vernacular would be "because." We would use the word "because." In verse 9, he makes a statement. He says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Okay, ask the question, "Why?" Why does that save you to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and to believe in your heart God raised him from the dead? Why does that save you? Well verse 10 tells us because "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. “ Verse 11 tells us because "the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Because (verse 12) “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." And then in verse 13, it is because "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Therefore, the name of the Lord in verse 13 is "Jesus." When he says, "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” that’s referring back to verse 9 when it says “Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus." That name that is associated with salvation in the New Testament is "Jesus."

Now when Abraham called upon the name of the Lord, he called upon the name "God Almighty." That was the name by which he was primarily known unto the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They called upon God Almighty. When David talks about calling upon the name of the Lord, he’s calling upon the name "Jehovah," and in the New Testament, the name which God has given among men, whereby we must be saved is the name of "Jesus." Not just "God," not a "supreme being," but Jesus himself.

Now Joel Osteen says that the Hindus worship and Love God, which is why he can’t believe they’d be going to hell, or he doesn’t really know because they just love God so much, and his dad went there and says they love God so much, and he said they love God so much. Let me just state to you right now and prove to you that the God of Hinduism is actually Satan himself. I mean that literally, and I’ll prove it to you. Go to 1 Corinthians 10. I’ll prove this to you in many ways, but go to 1 Corinthians 10. And you say, "You just hate Indian people," or o"You hate Hindus." No! I love them. That’s why I am giving them the gospel. They need to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. They need to confess the name of Jesus Christ. They need to turn from their vanities and idols and false gods, and they need to turn to the living and true God, and if we love them we are going to tell them the truth that Hinduism is a path to destruction and a path to hell, and that they need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour. That is a message of love unto the Hindus today.

The bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:19, “What say I then? that the idol is anything, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” So what he is saying is that it is easy to look at the idol and to think of it as just a hunk of wood, a hunk of stone. It really isn’t anything. It’s an inanimate object. But Paul is saying here that it goes deeper than that because when they are bowing down to an idol, it’s not that they are just worshipping an inanimate object, but that literally they are worshipping devils. That’s what it says in verse 20: “I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice,” and the indians are Gentiles. "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.” In fact, if you look up the word "gods" in the bible, the plural, lower case "gods" - that plural. Do you know what that represents in the hundreds of times that it is used throughout the bible? It represents devils. It represents demons. It represents false gods. False gods are actually demons or devils that impersonate God and that blind this world through false religion.

I am not going to name for you the main gods of Hinduism because the bible says not to even name their names. The bible says not to even let the names come out of your mouth, but there are three main gods that Hindus worship. What I want you to understand is that they are not worshiping a multitude of gods in a sense. Certain Hindus - one of them is their main god: the one that starts with a "V." Then other Hindus, the one that starts with a "Sh" sound is their main god. Then over here, another one that starts with a "D" is their main god. And yes, they do all have different subsets and millions of different names and manifestations, or avatars or what they call as gods, but the bottom line is that this is like different denominations within Hinduism. They kind of say, "Well, our god is the best one, or the main supreme god. Then others say, "Well, no, it’s actually the one we worship because he’s better," or whatever.

But at the end of the day, they're okay with the other gods, too, because they are all part of "Hinduism," so as long as you are...the way Hindus look at it from my study and understanding is kind of like, "You're either Hindu, or you're not." And if you’re worshiping another god, as long as you are following the basic teachings of the Dharma and the Veda and the stuff they believe in, then you're good. You're Hindu. We’ll accept you even if you're calling God by a different name because the name is just not that important. Well, we saw from the Bible that the name is really important.

But let me just tell you a little about their main gods. The one that starts with a "V" - just look at a picture of him. He is standing on a snake, and he always has these 5 cobras above his head. This is the serpent religion! What is the devil always signified by in the Bible? He is the serpent. He is the old serpent, the devil, Satan, the dragon. And if you look at their god - the main one, the most popular one, the big one that starts with a "V" - he has these 5 cobras above his head, and he is standing on a snake. Then you look at the second most popular god and see the same thing: snakes all around. Skulls, fire, snakes. You can just look at it, and you can see that it is demonic.

Not only that, but the one that starts with a "Sh" sound is like the false god of Judaism: both male and female. That’s not the God of the Bible. The God of the bible is always "He." He is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He is referred to as making man in his own image, etc. They have this god that is both male and female. Another thing about one of the most popular false gods is of Hinduism is that he is very quick to anger. He’s quick to anger, but he’s quickly appeased and quick to pardon. Well, God is the exact opposite because the bible says in Nahum 1:3, “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”

Also, you’ll notice that these Hindu gods, when you look at images of them, they'll often be holding a pitchfork or a trident, which is the quintessential symbol we would think of with the devil - holding a pitchfork. Here you have a guy with snakes and flames and skulls and a pitchfork. This is their god. It’s a wicked religion. And then the third most popular - those were the two most popular - then the third most popular is a female goddess which involves the worship of literal human sacrifice. Now modern day obviously they don’t allow them to do this, but in the olden days they would. They would perform human sacrifices in many parts of India, even on a weekly basis, unto this false goddess, and there is the eating of blood...let’s see...eating blood and worshiping a female goddess, hmmm, sounds like a another religion I know, maybe like three miles from here. Maybe down in Guadalupe...but anyway: Catholicism. Isn’t it amazing how the devil has just the same false teachings that just manifest in different parts of the world, where he teaches this false worship of a female deity. This eating of blood and all these things that are the same, and there are more similarities with Hinduism that we will get to.

But look at John chapter 8. We started in Isaiah 43. I want you to put one finger in Isaiah 43 and another finger in John chapter 8because these two scriptures go together, and they’re very important. Now some people have considered Isaiah, the book of Isaiah...they call it the little bible because it’s interesting how Isaiah has 66 chapters, and the Bible has 66 books, and it really is amazing if you compare the 66 chapters of Isaiah with the 66 books of the Bible, there are amazing parallels that are kind of hard to write off as a coincidence. Like, for example, at the end of chapter 39, there is a major gear change in Isaiah. Chapters 40-66 are completely different then chapters 1-39. This is sort of like the Old Testament 39 books and the New Testament 27 books. You’ll find parallels in chapter 1. There are lots of parallels with Genesis if you compare chapter 5 of Isaiah with Deuteronomy. All kinds of parallels. The book of John with chapter 43, the book of Romans is quoting chapter 45, and you have parallels between Revelation and chapter 66. The list goes on and on. It’s very interesting, but one thing that’s interesting is when you compare this quote from the book of John with Isaiah 43, which would be the corresponding chapter. Look what the bible says in John 8:24. It says, “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” Now what did Jesus mean by that, when he says “If you believe not that I am he, you’ll die in your sins“? Believe that you are who? because he says, "If you believe not that I am he, you’ll die in your sins." We look at Isaiah 43:10, and the Bible says this: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.” So what did Jesus mean when he said, "If you do not believe that I am he, then you’ll die in your sins?" He said if you don’t believe that I am the only saviour, if you don’t believe that I am he and that there’s none else. See, you can't believe in Jesus and believe in other ways of salvation and believe in other "saving graces." No, you have to believe that he is, and that he is him alone, or you’ll die in your sins the bible says.

The Bible says you must believe on Jesus with all your heart, not believe in Jesus plus something else, and so he says here, "I am he, and there is none else. Before me was no God formed, neither shall there be after me." “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.” So when the Hare Krishnas or the Hindus or whoever try to tell you, Oh, well we also believe in Jesus," that’s not enough because they don't believe exclusively in Jesus because they believe in other gods and other ways of salvation, other scriptures. It has to be the Jesus of the Bible. See, many, many Hindus will even say, Oh, yeah, we believe that Jesus was a great teacher," and many Hindus even teach that Jesus during his teenage years (because you don’t really read about his teenage years in the Bible) they say, "Oh, well he went to India and learned Hinduism, and then he came back and was a great yogi in Israel." That’s what they say. That’s what they teach, and they try to claim that Jesus went there and learned their religion and brought it back, and whatever, and so they’ll often tell you, "Oh, yeah, Jesus, we believe in Jesus." But hold on. Is it the Jesus of the Bible that they believe in? The answer is no. Now they’ll even believe in a guy called Krishna, as in "Hare Krishna." They believe in a guy name Krishna who was like God in the flesh and born of a virgin. Imagine that. And people will say Krishna = Christ, but it’s the name of "Jesus," not just Christ. It has to be Jesus, and it has to be the Jesus of the Bible because Jesus was the word made flesh.

The Bible says, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth." So you can’t separate the person Jesus from his word because he is the word made flesh. So if you have a totally different word, if you have a totally different scripture, then you have a different Jesus. You must have the Jesus of the bible, and you have to put all of your faith and trust in him, not in anything else. Not only that, but we have to realize that the devil is a great counterfeiter, so he’ll often mix in a little truth with the lies to make it believable. And so there are going to be similarities, of course, with Hinduism and Christianity because the devil is a counterfeiter.

Now one of the most interesting things is that if you go back to the oldest, most important Hindu scripture - they have all these different scriptures, Vedic literature and puranas and whatever else - but if you go back to their oldest, most important scripture, it’s called the Laws of Manu, and here is what is interesting: Manu is a guy who...basically,the whole world was destroyed with a great flood, and he was warned to build a giant boat and to get on that boat, and so he survived the flood and then every person on this earth is descended from this guy. Now does that sound familiar? It’s just like Noah, and its funny because even between "Manu" and "Noah" you can see the similarities in the names there, and this book goes back to like 1000-2000 BC. This is some time literally 3,000-4,000 years ago that this book was written, and isn’t it interesting that it tells the story about God destroying the whole world with a flood. One guy is the ancestor of all of mankind.

Now it’s interesting because the atheists of this world and the scoffers will look at that and say, "Oh, see, Christianity is just copying these other religions," but it’s only because they have been blinded by Satan that they cannot see what is so obvious. It's as plain as the nose on your face, that the reason all these different religions in the world all tell the same story about the flood, is that it really happened! It is so silly to say, "Oh, they just borrowed that story." No. Different cultures all over the world, totally separate from one another, all have the same story about the flood taking place. So obviously it’s because there really was a flood, so they’re all talking about it. and it’s interesting the time frame of when the book was written because if you think about when the flood took place, it was about 2,500-2,700 years before Christ. Different people will argue about the date, but again, it makes sense that a book that is about 4,000 years old in India, which is their most important scripture, would talk about the fact that there was a flood, and everybody descends from this one guy because everyone else was wiped out in a flood. Obviously when the Tower of Babel incident took place, people were scattered everywhere, and some of them went to India. They obviously took that important story with them. That's a pretty big story that you are going to tell, and you’re going to write it down.

So the devil is a great counterfeiter, though. He takes the true story about the flood and Noah - true story, really happened - but then he just twists it and puts in all these false teachings in their book, whereas the Bible has the true account and all the true words of God. Here is another big thing about Hinduism. Go to Hebrews chapter 9. Another big thing about Hinduism is that they believe in reincarnation. This is the huge teaching in Hinduism. This is one of their most important beliefs. They believe people are on a cycle of death and birth and just constantly being reborn. There is rebirth and basically what you do is going to determine how good of a place you’re born into the second and the third time and the fourth time. There’s this cycle of reincarnation. But does the bible teach reincarnation? Well, look at Hebrews 9:27. It says, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” So the bible says that it is appointed unto men ONCE to die, and after this is the judgment. No reincarnation here. Not only that, but even if the Hindus claim to believe in Jesus, they don’t believe in his death, burial, and bodily resurrection. That’s the gospel. They believe that Jesus died and was reincarnated, and keeps on being reincarnated, when the Antichrist comes, they’ll say, "Here he is again! Reincarnated once again!" Now everybody...go to Galatians 6...everybody also has heard the term "karma." That’s probably one of the most famous words from Hinduism: Karma. Let me say this: that is not a word that bible believing Christians should be using, and in our American culture today, everyone is talking about karma and bad karma and good karma. Why would we use the terms of a false religion like Hinduism? The bible says we should use the words that the Holy Ghost teaches, not the words which man’s wisdom teaches. Here’s what the Holy Ghost teaches: Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Oh, sort of like karma...NO, it’s not like karma! It’s like Galatians 6:7. It’s like sowing and reaping. It’s like reaping what you sow. It’s not like karma.

Now what’s interesting though is that the word "karma," literally in the original language, Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, the word "karma," actually means "works." Works. It means "deeds" or "works" or "actions" that you preform. So isn’t it interesting that according to Hinduism, salvation is by works. Because having good karma is what is going to get you reincarnated in a better way, and then eventually they reach a state, not like heaven, but they end the cycle of endless rebirth. They reach that pinnacle point or whatever, and how do they get there? Works. That’s literally what they are saying when they say "karma." They're saying "works." And the bible says salvation is "not of works, lest any man should boast." The bible says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast," and the bible clearly teaches that grace and works are not compatible. Because "if it be of grace, then it is no more works." Basically he is saying that if it’s grace, it’s not karma that is going to get you there. He says, "If it be of grace, then it is no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. Otherwise work is no more work. It can’t be both. And they say, "Oh, but if we do these good works, then we'll receive grace." That's what the Hindus teach. No. Wrong. You don’t receive grace by doing works. That's a contradiction in terms. Grace is unmerited favor. Grace is receiving that which you do not deserve, and it's not of works lest any man should boast. So this word "karma" is not a word we as Christians should be using.We need to use Christian terminology and should not use this Hindu terminology and let it creep into our mentality and our vernacular.

Go to 1 Thessalonians 4. Another false teaching of Hinduism is that they say "People go to Heaven or go to Hell, but it's just temporary. They get punished, or they get rewarded, but then they get reborn, and they get reincarnated, so it’s temporary." But the bible teaches that both being saved and going to Heaven, and going to Hell, are both permanent conditions according to the Bible. Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:17. It says, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air:” watch this, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Once we are caught up to be with the Lord in Heaven, the Bible says that we shall ever be with the Lord. It’s not a temporary "Be with the Lord, then not be with the Lord". Now you say, "Well, but in the new Heaven and the new Earth, aren't we going to live on this earth?" Yes, but we’re going to rule and reign with Christ on this earth, we’re going to be with the Lord.  Let me break this down for you doctrinally. It’s important that we as Christians know what we believe from the bible and what the doctrines of Heaven are. This is what the bible teaches: if you as a saved person were to die today, and you have Jesus Christ in you, and you are saved, then the moment that you breathe your last breath, your soul will be in Heaven. There is no soul sleep or waiting in the grave. Your BODY waits in the grave, but your soul instantly goes to Heaven because the Bible says, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." Paul said, "I have a desire to depart and to be with the Christ which is far better. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." This is what happens at Christ’s coming in the clouds in 1Thessalonians 4 - what's often referred to as the rapture. It says they which are asleep in Jesus will God bring with him. When Christ returns to this earth, he’s going to bring them with him in the clouds, and then when they're in Heaven with him. Then when he sets up his kingdom on this earth, they come and rule with him on this earth. Then in the end, when there’s a new heaven and a new earth, the lamb is going to dwell among them. So once were saved, we aren't reborn on this earth, or lose our salvation, or go to heaven, and then get kicked out, or whatever. No. Once you're saved, you shall ever be with the Lord. Whether it's in heaven, or the millennial reign on this earth, or in a new heaven and a new earth. Either way you are going to be with the Lord for eternity. You’re going to be with Jesus, and that’s it. Now Hell is the same way. I’ll just give you one quick verse on this: Revelation 20:10 “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”Just in case you didn’t get the first forever, he said, they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever," just to drive that in, that Hell is eternal. That’s a whole sermon in and of itself.

So flip to Deuteronomy chapter number 4. I want to give the conclusion. But before I do, let me just do a quick review of the false teachings of Hinduism. What are the false teachings? Well, number one, they teach God can be called by any name - it’s not that important. The Bible says it’s critically important what name God is called by. He also stated that the names of false gods should be held in contempt, they should not be uttered, they should not be mentioned, they should be forgotten and destroyed. That’s what he said about the names of other gods. So that's a major false teaching. Number two, they do not confess the name of Jesus as being the Saviour, the almighty, the one true God. Number three, we showed that the god of Hinduism is actually Satan because he is represented by idolatry. The bible says those that sacrifice unto idols are sacrificing unto devils. We also know that their god does not have the same attributes of the God of the Bible. For example, he is very quick to anger and he is both male and female. These are not the attributes of the God of the bible. Also the god of Hinduism is clearly Satan because his images are serpents and skulls and all these demonic type of representation that we would associate with the biblical version of who the devil is (and Satan). They are literally worshiping Satan - or they're worshiping a female goddess which is completely foreign to the scriptural view of who God is, being masculine. And not only that, even if they claim to believe in a Krishna or whatever, it’s not the Jesus of the Bible. They believe in reincarnation, we believe in a bodily resurrection once - it's appointed unto man once to die, once to be resurrected. They believe in salvation by karma, which means salvation by works in their language. We believe in salvation by grace through faith, not of works. We don’t have to do any rituals, we don’t have to chant things or offer sacrifices or go to a temple and perform rites and rituals, we don’t have to chant mantras and do yoga to be saved. Those are works and deeds that they think are going to bring them salvation, whereas we believe salvation is by grace through faith. They believe heaven and hell are temporary states, we believe that heaven and hell are eternal. And that once you're saved, you're always saved, and that once you die without Jesus Christ and enter the flames of hell, you are forever doomed and shall perish.

So we can see that Hinduism is clearly a false religion, clearly different than the bible, clearly a satanic religion, very wicked - so what is the conclusion? Well first of all, the purpose of preaching this sermon is to avoid the false teachings of people like Joel Osteen and other ecumenical teachers that want to say, "Hey, we have a lot in common and we actually are worshiping the same God because we’re all praying to God, whatever name we use." You know, we want to combat that false teachings in these last days and point out the difference between biblical Christianity and these false religions and not seek to unite with false religion. It’s called ecumenicalism. Ecumenicalism means "Bring all religions together and let’s put aside our differences." That is not what the bible teaches - that is the spirit of the antichrist that teaches that. I’m hoping that as you hear this sermon, you will be stirred up in your heart to want to reach Hindus with the gospel because these people are blinded. They’re born into this. It’s not that they all just choose to go worship Satan. No, they're born into this false religion, they're taught this from the time they grow up. They are blinded, they are deceived. Joel Osteen said, "Hey, they’re really nice, kind people." I’m sure they are, I am sure they are very peaceful, nice, kind people - but the road to hell is paved with good intentions and someone needs to bring them the gospel and shine the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ so that they might be saved. But if our gospel be hid, it’s hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. And you say "Well, do I need to take a trip to India? I don’t know if I feel comfortable with that." But here’s the thing: you don’t need to take a trip to India, you need to take a trip to ASU, you need to take a trip to South Tempe. Listen to me. I have never gone soul winning in South Tempe in the nice well to do neighborhoods without knocking the door of at least one Hindu. Never. And people want to talk so much about missions and all the trips. Look I’m not against missions - but you know what? It’s right here! Save the plane ticket and save your money. It’s great to go and be a missionary in a foreign country, but you don’t have to go to a foreign country to be a missionary. Because you know what? If you want to reach Indians with the gospel, if you want to reach Hindus with the gospel of Jesus Christ, all you have to do is go to South Tempe and knock doors in that neighborhood. Or, if you would like to talk to other Hindus that are probably going to speak better English and be more receptive, you can go to the campus of ASU. I have never gone soul winning on the campus of ASU without knocking the door of at least one person from India. Yes, they’re up there. They’re students, and they’re all studying engineering. Every single one. You always ask them, "Oh, what are you studying?" Engineering. But I’m telling you, you can reach the Chinese, and you can reach the Indians. There are a ton of foreign students up at ASU, and if you’ll just knock doors, if you’ll just go soul winning, you can give them the Gospel. And the great thing about the ones that are here is that most of them speak English. And by the way, even a lot of people in India itself speak English now.

English is a major language in India itself, and so there is not even a language barrier with these people. These people can be reached with the gospel, and often they’ll listen to the gospel and be receptive to the gospel. But who will go and knock those doors and preach the gospel to every creature? You see, the way to reach them with the gospel is to just open our mouth boldly and speak the word of God. You say,"Well, I just don’t know a special presentation for Hindus." Look, you don’t need a special presentation of the Gospel for each religion. The same Gospel saves everybody. You can just go through and show them that they are a sinner, and show them Hell, and show them the life of Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection. Show them it is a free gift, show them that it's by faith. Maybe some of the things that you heard in this sermon might show you a few things you might want to point out to them at the end of your gospel presentation. I always start out by giving everybody the gospel the same way. Instead of getting all complicated, why don’t you just give them the gospel because it’s the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also the Greek - and also to the Hindu. The Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the power of God no matter who you are telling it to.

So you don’t have to show up with some customized Hindu plan of salvation. No, you just show up, and you give the plan of salvation. But at the end of the plan of salvation, once you have gone through the whole Gospel and made it plain, then at the end, maybe you can just emphasize that all their faith has to be on Jesus. You have to renounce other gods that you are worshiping and acknowledge that the true God is Jesus. That might be something that you would want to emphasize more with the Hindu than with somebody else who’s coming from some other denomination or background. You’re going to need to emphasize that more at the end. But you can give the gospel to white people, you can give the gospel to black people, you can give the gospel to Hispanics, you can give the gospel to any nationality. If you can give it to one, you can give it to the other because it’s the same God over all, that is rich unto all them that call upon him. There’s one fold, there’s one shepherd, there’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and so we need to get the Gospel to the Hindus. You don’t have to take a trip to India. If you want to go there, great, but honestly, it’s right here. I’m not even telling you to go to Phoenix, or Scottsdale, or Mesa - it’s here, it’s in Tempe, it’s in our town. Right here. Thousands and thousands and thousands of Hindus that are ripe unto harvest for the Gospel. That’s why I love going door-to-door. Because honestly, it allows you to reach all people, it allows you to be a domestic and foreign missionary all in one, just by going out and knocking some doors. But let me just close on this thought. I think a great stumbling block to Hindus being saved (and this is for all nationalities as well as Hindus) is that we as Americans have ruined our testimony by being godless and wicked and worldly in the way we live our lives. We've ruined our testimony. That is a big stumbling block, and it is why people like Hindus or Muslims or other people could be unreceptive to the gospel. It's because we as American Christians are ruining our testimony.

Look what the bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 4. This has to do with evangelizing foreigners. Look at Deuteronomy 4:5 it says, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them;" WATCH THIS “for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations." What’s he saying? When the nations see you keeping the word of God and following the commandments of the word of God, you’re going to be wise in their sight. They’re going to look at that, and it’s going to make an impression on them. It’s going to be wise unto them. It’s going to be something that they respect. He says that halfway through verse 6 “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” Now here’s my question: do you think that somebody in India looks at a Hollywood movie and says, "Wow, what nation is so righteous like America? Wow, what nation is there that has God so nigh unto them? What nation is there that has such wise and righteous judgments and statutes?" No, they look at it and see it as trash, and then do you know what they think about our culture? It’s trash. Do you know what they think about our religion? That it's trash. Now look: this doesn’t just go for America because obviously we can not control the stupidity of our government, or the stupidity of Hollywood, or the stupidity of Madison Avenue. We have no control over that, but we can at least control ourselves and control our families and control our church. We can at least be a shining light of the gospel, that not only preaches the truth of the grace of God and salvation, but that also lives a life that people can respect. Then they would have an interest in hearing something we have to say about God. Why would anybody want to listen to what you have to say about God when you live your life in a wicked, worldly way? And they’re probably thinking to themselves, "We are probable more moral than you are. Why should we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, so we can live like you? Why would we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, so our women can dress like hoochie mommas and hookers and whores? Why would they accept it? They look at it and say it's immoral. They look at our culture and say it’s ungodly. "You have no morals, you have no standards, you have no statutes and judgments to live your life by." And it is a stumbling block to them being saved today because Americans go over there and are wicked.

You know I read some story about the actor Richard Gere going to India and being arrested for publicly kissing a woman other than his wife. He was just kissing on the mouth publicly some woman that is not his wife. We should look at that as being immoral. How would you feel right now if some other woman came up here, and I kissed some woman other than my wife right now? You would be horrified. You ought to be horrified, but we watch it on tv, we watch it on movies, and we don’t think anything of it. It’s just fine and dandy. He did it, and he was arrested over there. Why? Because their culture is actually in that sense more traditional and actually showing more morality in certain things. God help us as American Christians when we drag the name of Jesus Christ in the mud by living a life of no morals and no standards - just living a life that’s godless and impure and unclean. The world looks at that, and they’re not impressed. Why would they be? How are we going to reach the Muslims and Hindus with the gospel if we don’t live a clean life? They’re gonna look at us and say, "Why would I want to follow this religion? My wife has more clothes on than your wife. Your wife is half naked. Your wife is in short shorts and a halter top." Okay, so the Muslim women are wearing a little too much clothing. Okay. Well, we're wearing too little! We need to find a something in between, folks! We need to follow the Bible's standards for clothing.

The bible is clear in Deuteronomy 4 how we are going to reach other nations with the Gospel: by putting forth an image of following God’s law and following God’s righteousness. You and I both know that the bible is better than anything that Hinduism has to offer in the way of scriptures. We know that the bible is greater than the Quran ever thought of being. We know that, but the question is, do they see this when they look at our lives, or do they see a reflection of Hollywood in us? Think about it. If we go through our lives and live a certain way, are they looking at us and seeing a reflection of Hollywood, Madison Avenue, etc, or are they seeing a reflection of this book because the Bible says that if they see us living by this book, we will be wise in their sight. They’ll say, "You know what, even if we believe in a different religion, these people are living their life in a wise way that makes sense and that is moral and righteous and clean." But that's not enough. I am not preaching lifestyle evangelism, folks. That’s not enough. You then have to open the bible and open your mouth boldly and preach the gospel. What you need to do is both, and not just sit there and say, "Oh, my testimony doesn’t matter at all." When you're living a godless wicked life, people of other cultures are going to look down on you because they aren’t as godless and wicked as America. It's pretty sad that I even have to say that. Other nations are looking down on us right now. It’s true. They are. Think about it: they look at America and think that we’re the capital of sodomy (homosexuality). Why would I want to listen to a missionary that’s coming from Sodom land. "I am from the country of Sodom and Gomorrah, and I am here to give you the Gospel of Jesus." They'll say, "Forget Jesus! We don’t want to hear about it!" Because they don’t want the sodomy (homosexuality) and the filth. We as Christians should stand up and condemn this stuff and fight against it and distance ourselves from it. But what are all the Christians saying, "Oh, let's just bring in all the homos." No! We ought to be distancing ourselves from that! "Oh, but how are we going to reach the homos? We have to reach the poor little faggot with the gospel." Hey, what about the billion Hindus that are going to Hell?! They are going to think you are a stinking faggot if you have all these weird queers coming in to your church. Why don’t you care about them? (the Hindus) Instead, we are trying to reach homosexual reprobates for whom it’s too late. But, oh, we’re just so worried about how we’re going to reach this little fairy. What about all the billion people in this world that are worshiping these false gods of Hinduism? Why don’t you want to get them saved? They’re not impressed with you being a faggot or hanging around a bunch of faggots, and I’m telling you, we need to distance ourselves from the fifth of Hollywood.

We need to distance ourselves from the smut of this world. When you go out and live your life in a permissive, impure, filthy way, and hang around a bunch of filthy people, and fill your mind with a bunch of junk, and then you expect to be a good, shining light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s not working. We need to repair our testimony as Christians so that the nations of the world will look at us, and they’ll say, "You know what, this is a wise people. These people have God nigh unto them. I want to hear what they have to say. God prophesied in the old testament that if they followed God’s laws and his statutes, people would come from all over. People would flock to the nation of Israel just to want to learn about God. For example, the queen of Sheba - she showed up and was so impressed. "Wow, this is great. These laws and these statutes and judgments are so wise." She was impressed, and she went home and brought a good report unto her people. That’s what America should be, and obviously we can’t control what the people that are running our country are doing, but at least we as independent baptists - at least we at this church or at least you and your family can present an image to the people that you come into contact with of "Hey, we’re different. We’re not wicked people. We actually believe in following the Bible." That testimony is going to help you be a better witness of the gospel of Jesus Christ when you do verbally open your mouth. You need both. You don’t want to just sit there and say, "Oh, yeah, I’ll just live my life, and they’ll see it." No. Live your life, and then preach the word. But you don’t want to just preach the word as you disregard the commandments of God because then you are a bad testimony. Then they’re not going to be impressed. They’re not going to be. The Bible says, "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Do you know what "reproach" means? It means that people look at it, and they’re just shaking their head. We are a laughing stock of the world right now. Go ahead and defend it. Some of you right now...I bet you that there is somebody in this room thinking, "Oh, I can’t believe he said the word "faggot! Oh, oh!" Get out of here, and don’t ever come back! Get out! Get out because you are the problem in America today if you're going to sit there and defend the sickest, vilest, filthy, perverts. Just get out! Get out of here! I don’t want you around! You say, "Oh, I’m afraid when you preach hard against the homos, you’re going to lose people." I hope I lose people preaching hard against the homos! I hope you’ll get out if you approve of that filth and that smut. I don’t want you around my kids because I’m suspicious of you if you’re going to defend it. It’s sick, it's vile, it’s disgusting. Get out! The world doesn’t accept this crap! It’s America that accepts this filth. The rest of the world is looking at you and thinking that you’re disgusting. How are we going to reach them with the Gospel if we don’t distance ourselves from wickedness and lift up this book as the standard. Show me your version of the homos in this book, and I'll show you mine.

Let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, it’s the good news. We need to get it to the world. Lord, we need to get it to a billion Hindus. Lord, they are not saved. I don’t care what Joel Osteen says, Lord, they’re not saved, and we both know that. I pray that you would help us to be a burning and shining light of the gospel. Help us to live a life that can be respected by other nations of the world. Help us to go out and knock the doors of South Tempe and knock the doors of North Tempe and reach these dear people and give them the saving gospel of Jesus. We ask these things in your name. Amen.

After the Tribulation - Film Exposing the Pre-tribulation Rapture Fraud

Trailer:



Film Credits:

Executive Producer: Paul Wittenberger

Directed by Paul Wittenberger

Produced by Paul Wittenberger, Steven L Anderson, and Chris Maple

Featuring Pastor Steven L Anderson, Pastor Roger Jimenez, and Dr. Kent Hovind

Voice Over by Dr. Roland Rasmussen, Sr.

Voice Over written by Pastor Steven L Anderson

Edited by Paul Wittenberger

Director of Photography: Paul Wittenberger

Re-recording Mixer: Jennifer Ricciardi

Graphic Designer: Janee Meadows 

Camera: Paul Wittenberger and Chris Maple

Lighting by Paul Wittenberger

Funding Partners:

Paul Berg
Faithful Word Baptist Church
Adam Loncar
Alan Nolte
Jeff Utzler
Andrew Wayne

Donors:

Nick Sweet
Lisa Anderson
David Berzins
Scott Brooke
Mark Bielsky
Joseph Freeman
Robert Maldonado

Wall Murals by Kris Steele

Custom Fonts by Richard Miller

Production Sound by Paul Wittenberger

Special Appearance:

Chris Maple
Paul Wittenberger
Ron Edwards
Vincent O. Moralez
Darrell Venable

Music:

"After the Tribulation" by Jennifer Ricciardi
"History" by Steve Yeaman
"Fiction" by Steve Yeaman
"Comfort" by Pastor Anderson
"Rapture" by Steve Yeaman
"Surround Me" by Rudy V. Campa
"Elect" by Pastor Anderson
"Chosen" by Steve Yeaman
"Wrath" by Steve Yeaman
"Prison" by Steve Yeaman
"Order" by Steve Yeaman
"After the Tribulation" by Jennifer Ricciardi
"Outcast" by Pastor Anderson
"War in Heaven" by Pastor Anderson
"Antichrist" by Steve Yeaman
"Imam Mahdi" by Pastor Anderson
"Royal" by Rudy V. Campa
"Conspiracy" by Pastor Anderson
"Mark of the Beast" by Jennifer Ricciardi
"Blasphemy" by Jennifer Ricciardi
"False Prophet" by Pastor Anderson
"World" by Jennifer Ricciardi
"Guitar" by Pastor Anderson
"Prison" by Steve Yeaman
"Same Day" by Pastor Anderson
"Redemption" by Jennifer Ricciardi
"It is Well" by Verity Baptist Church
"It is Well" by Jennifer Ricciardi

Donated Footage: Steven L Anderson

Radio Shows:

The End Within with Michael Nunnally
The Truth Denied with Roxy Lopez
The Vinny Eastwood Show

College Students Classroom 1:

Nathaniel Chaisson
Steve Cooke
Jacqui Farnworth
Caraline Jackson
Cheyenne Kellis
David Knauer
Rebecca Little
Claudia Lopez
Richard Lopez
Travis Marshall
James Logan Oplinger
Marlyn Radford-Brown
Elizabeth Reidhead

College Students Classrooms 2 & 3

Flora P. Murillo Acosta
Brittany Allen
Irvin Baca
Shauna Barringer
Glen Bautista
Harlie Blosser
Derrick Brininger
Adrianna Carochi
Marisa Castro
Shaniese Childers
Ashley Connell
Vanessa Contreras
Cynthia Cruz
Jose & Michal Cruz
Jose Cuellar
Mathew Fernandez
Brandy Grant
Angelita Hackett
Radka Hamackoia
Johnny Hernandez
Jaylen Holloway
Anthony Johnson
Daniel Kelly
Kaleena Lamb
Briana Lerma
Melissa Marquez
Alicia Martinez
Elizabeth Martinez
Ricardo A. Morales
Justisse Mulligan
Cesar Ochoa
Mario Ortiz
Martin Ortiz
Rageena Ortiz
Ethan Palke
Briana Paskins
Julian Pope
Dania Puebla
Paula Ramirez
Anastasia Rhyne
Michael S. Ross
Yesulen Sandoval
Jacquelyn L. Schultz
Justin Shepherd 
Amanda Spradling
Alyssa Sutton
Jose Tamayo
Danitza Toires
Mariaelena Torres
Katherine Tromba
Yalonda Turner
Alberto Valenzuela
Jose Velasquez
Sahra Ibrahim Yusuf

Disclaimer: The views expressed by Pastor Steven L Anderson in this film do not
reflect the views of Arizona State University.

Special Thanks to:

Aaron Adams
Matthew & Shinae Adams
Clint & Spring Anderson
Helen Anderson
Raymond Anderson
Zsuzsanna Anderson
Solomon Anderson
Isaac Anderson
John Anderson
Miriam Anderson
Rebecca Anderson
Anna Anderson
Stephen Anderson
Danny & Shawna Antonucci
Chad & Jessica Argon
Brian Arreola
Daniel Arreola
Kevin Arreola
Shawn Barnish
David & Leslie Berzins
Scott Brooke
Christopher Broughten
David Carls
John Mike & Kristin Castro
John & Gina Chambers
Alessandro Chiappetta
Norman Colby
Ryan Colby
Matt & Tati Cooper
Aaron Crawford
Chad Dalberg
Matthew Daniel
Gregory Davis
John C. & Sarah Davis
Rob Dew
Tony & Brittany Drinkard
Joshua & Karen Elderkin
Hayley Ferrell
James Forrest
Trenton Gilpin
Amy Griffin
Buzz Griffin
James Griffin
Michael & Avonne Griffin
Andrew Guenin
Susie Hagler
Amanda Hardwick
Jason & Anne Hemsted
Gordon Henry
Danny Herb
Daniel & Debra Herron
Renee Houlihan
Abraham Jimenez
Felix & Grenis Jimenez
Joann Jimenez
Alex Jones
Ben Jordan
Chris Jordan
Larry & Fran Jordan
Ryan & Angela Kezo
Garrett Kirchway
Joe Leuliette
Sjona Lindquist
Carey Lollis
Megan Lufkin
Alexander Major
Michael Malutich
Kristen Maple
Monique Matthews
Kevin & Brianne McCauley
Robert McCoy
Matt & Lisa McCool
Gabriel & Ruth Mesaros
AJ & Rachel Metcalf
Richard & Veronica Miller
Lynn Mitcham
David Navarro
Jody Nunez
Jerry & Karin O'Connor
Jim Powell & family
Jeanette Ramos
Michael & Ulzana Ramsey
Bill & Mary Ray
Herb Rice
Brett Riley
Jason Robinson
Justin Robinson
Jubral & Hayley Robinson
Jason & Marlisse Rodriguez
Jerry & Samantha Rodriguez
Benjamin & Leslye Romero
Lee Roupas
Evelyn Royero
Doug & Lisa Saunders
Chris & Joan Segura
Jason Sheltons
Adam & Lori Shutler
Jeremy & Annette Skaggs
Jonathan Starnes
Robert & Raani Starnes
Bret & Sarah Stiles
Matthew Stucky
Richie Symes
Kelly & Charlene Tackaberry
Victor & Elizabeth Tey
Laszlo Toth
Chris & Eva Tsosie
Eric Tsosie
Greg & Jamie Vanderpool
Reggie Waye
Jason & Nina Williamson
David & Stephanie Wilson
James & Beth Wittenberger
Jimmy Wright
Alvin Zheng