Believe
Active member
I thought I'd throw this out there for discussion. My thoughts on the matter are Intimacy with God is what the Christian faith is all about. That cannot be claimed for any of the others.
First, there are occult religions, such as animism, witchcraft, magic and some elements of the New Age. These are concerned with spirits, often evil spirits, that need to be placated or manipulated. They may dwell in trees, sacred sites or people. They may belong to the ancestors or to nature. These spirits are as varied as the African witch doctor, the Mongolian shaman and the local sorcerer who seek to manipulate them. Occult religions are about spirits, not about God, let alone intimacy with Him.
Second, there are what you might call imperial religions. They are not about God either. They are about the highest political authority, which demands total allegiance – from the divine kings in Egypt and Mesopotamia, through the Caesars of the Roman empire, to the Shinto emperors of Japan–together with Hitler, Mao and Stalin in our own day. It is interesting to notice the “divine” notes struck both by Hitler and Stalin. Stalin used to have gigantic pictures of himself projected against low-lying clouds above mass rallies, while Hitler used messianic language about himself and predicted a Reich of a Thousand Years.
Third, there are ascetic religions, such as Jainism, Buddhism, some strands in Hinduism and all the “do it yourself” versions of Christianity. They are not about God either, but about self-renunciation. The self is renounced and mortified in order to diminish its grip and to rid the person of being tied to this world. Sometimes, as in Buddhism, it is supposed to lead, after many lives, to the final elimination of the self, which is absorbed into the impersonal One or Monad. It has nothing whatever to do with intimacy with God. Indeed, in most branches of these ascetic religions there is no God to be intimate with!
Fourth, there are what one can only call genital religions or fertility cults. They worship sex. This type of religion is very old, and very modern. It ranges from the fertility cults of the Canaanites, through the lascivious statues in many Hindu temples, through places like London’s Soho and Amsterdam, to today’s XXX films and videos and the astronomical sales of pornography. They too have nothing to do with God, let alone fellowship with Him.
Fifth, there are the bourgeois religions, which feed the religious instincts of the leisured classes and cost their adherents nothing apart from massive financial contributions. They are bodies like Christian Science, Spiritualism, Scientology, Theosophy and many of the self-improvement cults. They are all about man, not God and intimacy with Him.
Sixth, there are prophetic religions, which arise from the dynamic leadership and moral challenge of a great leader and tend to sweep across the world within a century of their origin. Islam, which made enormous inroads into the Middle East and North Africa within a few decades of the death of Muhammad, is one excellent example.
Marxism is another. It profoundly influenced a third of the world within a few decades of Marx’s death. Although it was militantly atheistic, Marxism had a passionately held creed, high ideals, self-sacrifice and clear convictions about the future in common with many religions. Its adherents would gladly die for it, as they would for Islam. But even Islam, despite its high view of God, does not offer the worshiper intimacy with God: “Allah reveals his message. He never reveals himself.” The worshiper prays to him but cannot be said in any way to know Allah or have intimacy with him. Such a claim is deemed blasphemous. You can be killed for making it.
Finally, there are the revelatory religions. There have only been two (closely connected) religions in world history that teach that God can be personally known by the believer. Only Judaism and its “child” Christianity maintain that God has given a reliable and personal disclosure of Himself to humankind. Judaism tells of God’s revelation of Himself through His mighty deeds of deliverance for Israel and through the words of the prophets. The Jewish people believed that God’s only residence on earth was the space between the wings of the cherubim figures above the “mercy seat” of the ark: this was located first in the moveable tabernacle and then in the temple at Jerusalem. Of course, Judaism is very differently placed today. There is no ark, no priesthood, no sacrifices, no tabernacle, no temple. Modern Judaism tends to focus on religious law, morality and synagogue worship.
Michael Green, But Don’t All Religions Lead to God? Navigating the Multi-Faith Maze
First, there are occult religions, such as animism, witchcraft, magic and some elements of the New Age. These are concerned with spirits, often evil spirits, that need to be placated or manipulated. They may dwell in trees, sacred sites or people. They may belong to the ancestors or to nature. These spirits are as varied as the African witch doctor, the Mongolian shaman and the local sorcerer who seek to manipulate them. Occult religions are about spirits, not about God, let alone intimacy with Him.
Second, there are what you might call imperial religions. They are not about God either. They are about the highest political authority, which demands total allegiance – from the divine kings in Egypt and Mesopotamia, through the Caesars of the Roman empire, to the Shinto emperors of Japan–together with Hitler, Mao and Stalin in our own day. It is interesting to notice the “divine” notes struck both by Hitler and Stalin. Stalin used to have gigantic pictures of himself projected against low-lying clouds above mass rallies, while Hitler used messianic language about himself and predicted a Reich of a Thousand Years.
Third, there are ascetic religions, such as Jainism, Buddhism, some strands in Hinduism and all the “do it yourself” versions of Christianity. They are not about God either, but about self-renunciation. The self is renounced and mortified in order to diminish its grip and to rid the person of being tied to this world. Sometimes, as in Buddhism, it is supposed to lead, after many lives, to the final elimination of the self, which is absorbed into the impersonal One or Monad. It has nothing whatever to do with intimacy with God. Indeed, in most branches of these ascetic religions there is no God to be intimate with!
Fourth, there are what one can only call genital religions or fertility cults. They worship sex. This type of religion is very old, and very modern. It ranges from the fertility cults of the Canaanites, through the lascivious statues in many Hindu temples, through places like London’s Soho and Amsterdam, to today’s XXX films and videos and the astronomical sales of pornography. They too have nothing to do with God, let alone fellowship with Him.
Fifth, there are the bourgeois religions, which feed the religious instincts of the leisured classes and cost their adherents nothing apart from massive financial contributions. They are bodies like Christian Science, Spiritualism, Scientology, Theosophy and many of the self-improvement cults. They are all about man, not God and intimacy with Him.
Sixth, there are prophetic religions, which arise from the dynamic leadership and moral challenge of a great leader and tend to sweep across the world within a century of their origin. Islam, which made enormous inroads into the Middle East and North Africa within a few decades of the death of Muhammad, is one excellent example.
Marxism is another. It profoundly influenced a third of the world within a few decades of Marx’s death. Although it was militantly atheistic, Marxism had a passionately held creed, high ideals, self-sacrifice and clear convictions about the future in common with many religions. Its adherents would gladly die for it, as they would for Islam. But even Islam, despite its high view of God, does not offer the worshiper intimacy with God: “Allah reveals his message. He never reveals himself.” The worshiper prays to him but cannot be said in any way to know Allah or have intimacy with him. Such a claim is deemed blasphemous. You can be killed for making it.
Finally, there are the revelatory religions. There have only been two (closely connected) religions in world history that teach that God can be personally known by the believer. Only Judaism and its “child” Christianity maintain that God has given a reliable and personal disclosure of Himself to humankind. Judaism tells of God’s revelation of Himself through His mighty deeds of deliverance for Israel and through the words of the prophets. The Jewish people believed that God’s only residence on earth was the space between the wings of the cherubim figures above the “mercy seat” of the ark: this was located first in the moveable tabernacle and then in the temple at Jerusalem. Of course, Judaism is very differently placed today. There is no ark, no priesthood, no sacrifices, no tabernacle, no temple. Modern Judaism tends to focus on religious law, morality and synagogue worship.
Michael Green, But Don’t All Religions Lead to God? Navigating the Multi-Faith Maze
