I was comparing Hindu gods with the Christian God recently. Let’s take the Hindu god Kali, for instance.
Kali:
- A fictional, mythical being, side of the goddess.
- Evolving understanding and concept of her
- Has attributes of destruction, purification, and many more (I am not the expert). These are magnified in the person worshiping her, as s/he desires through discipline and concentration.
- As far as I can tell, Kali doesn’t “reveal” anything, the concepts about her make it so that you can believe whatever you want about her. You don’t have “commandments” you need to keep to revere Kali. Repentance is a personal decision and not influenced by outside, if it exists at all.
Jesus Christ, according to the Bible:
- A real man who lived, died, and was resurrected.
- The literal Son of God and God both, with power to heal the sick, raise the dead, walk on water etc.
- Left behind a very exact account both of his own life as well as commandments for his disciples about life conduct and pattern of living
- Reveals himself to man, both in word and in power, through his spirit
Now, every man “receiveth his wages of whom he listeth to obey”. Therefore, if you follow Kali, you get what Kali promises (this is assuming, Kali is a real being). If you follow Christ, you get what he promises.
What does Christ promise?
John 14:12 – “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father,” for instance. Which, if we read the Bible, is pretty significant.
So, how do I know Jesus really lived and does live? Primarily because of personal experience with Him. As I try to live close to him, I am shown what I am to do.
Imagine someone with the power of Jesus (whatever your definition of power is) 1) whose own family didn’t believe he was anything special 2) whose own disciples didn’t believe most of his key prophecies 3) And whom the politically and religiously powerful persecuted and killed.
Why could that happen? Because he did not use his power to force or manipulate. He taught and let the people decide what to believe.
Now, Jesus’ gospel seems to me to be the only and truest gospel of love. His path of love is the one I follow. What it basically means is that if you love someone, you want them to progress spiritually. To assist them in doing so, you often must suffer for them (both suffer to demonstrate how their path hurts them and encourage them to switch, and at higher stages of development to literally take on their pain and suffer it in their stead, as Jesus did).
That is not to say that there is not immense joy in this path. But it includes all extremes.
What do you think?
If you were with me,
Proof of Jesus
Was there a Jesus?
Modern scholarship says: yes. However, the existence of Christianity is evidence not only of the existence but of profound belief of between 14-5000 people that Jesus not only existed, but was even resurrected.
What other possibilities are there for Christianity?
If this was the case, then the apostles and disciples who sacrificed their lives for the story were all deluded. Collectively. To the present day. Is there a similar story in history? This is an even crazier possibility than the resurrection. No other religion claims that a real person ever did this. Maybe a Buddhist will die for truth, beauty, and light, but not because he believes Buddha was raised from the dead and is the literal son of God.
If this is the case, why would they die proclaiming his resurrection? What would their advantage be?
If this is the case, why didn’t the Romans or Jewish leaders simply display his body in public 5 days after the crucifixion to put the movement to rest?