ARE WE REALLY ONE?

Monism, the belief that we all are one and part of a god-consciousness, has become increasingly popular on college campuses. Why? Isn’t it apparent that we are all distinct individuals who fall far short of godhood? Well, these students are convinced that the dualists – and those to see distinctions are dualists – are deceived.

This belief is expressed in many ways. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the Lord Krishna consoled the grieving Arjuna, who had been born into the warrior caste. His duty, therefore, was to fight, but he couldn’t accept the idea of fighting against the opposition, many of whom were family. Therefore, the esteemed Lord Krishna explained:

• “You have grieved for those who deserve no grief… Neither for the living nor the dead do the wise grieve.” (2:11)

Why do not the wise grieve? Because the “wise” understand that they are just grieving over a passing illusion, and enlightenment has no place for grieving. This was also the understanding of the Self-Realization Fellowship started in the USA by Paramahansa Yogananda in1920:

·       “Man is thus saved when he sheds his ignorance of his divine identity and attains Christ consciousness. Salvation equals self-realization.” http://www.yogananda-srf.org/

Since our senses deceive us, we fail to recognize our “divine identity.” Consequently, we remain ignorant and equate truth (enlightenment) with what we see. Instead, we are to understand that what we see is no more than a movie:

·       “Then this cosmic movie, with its horrors of disease and poverty and atomic bombs will appear to us only as real as the anomalies we experience at a movie house. When we have finished seeing the motion picture, we will know that nobody was killed; nobody was suffering.”

Both Hindu and Buddhist monism (oneness) preach renunciation of the deceptive influences of this world – work, commitments, enjoyments, and even family and friends – the things that blind us to our shared god-nature or “Christ-consciousness.” Instead, many others have concluded that the deception reigns within this “enlightened” consciousness.

In “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” Robert M. Pirsig’s main character, Phaedrus, studying at Benares Hindu University, asks a question that changes his life:

• But one day in the classroom the professor of philosophy was blithely expounding on the illusory nature of the world for what seemed the fiftieth time and Phaedrus raised his hand and asked coldly if it was believed that the atomic bomb that had dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were illusory. The professor smiled and said yes. That ended the exchange… He left the classroom, left India and gave up.

Phaedrus could not deny the great tragedy. In contrast to this understanding of life as illusion, “Jesus wept” in the midst of human suffering:

• When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him [their dead brother Lazarus]?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. (John 11:33-35; ESV)

Jesus had compassion, even though this tragedy was soon reversed when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But isn’t compassion a part of Hinduism and Buddhism? Perhaps superficially, but monism represents a denial of our individuality and suffering. These too are part of the illusion.

In “The King of Knowledge,” a very literalistic commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, Prabhupada, the late head of the Hare Krishna Vishnavite sect of Hinduism characteristically wrote:

• The hospital making business is being conducted by the government; it is the duty of a disciple to make hospitals whereby people can actually get rid of their material bodies, not patch them up. But for want of knowing what real spiritual activity is, we take up material activities.

Although our students believe that monistic “enlightenment” promotes compassion, it is this very thinking that argues against compassion. To show compassion to an illusory other person is to reinforce the dualistic illusion. Besides, their suffering is no more real than a movie, right?

However, if the self is part of the illusion, what then becomes subject to the wheel of reincarnation? The “logic” of monism denies the existence of a self, which undergoes reincarnation. Besides, there does not exist a monistic mechanism to weigh our karma to determine our appropriate next reincarnation. Such would involve a dualistic distinction. However, these contradictions are of little concern to our future leaders.

LET US NOT BE ASHAMED OF THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL JUDGMENT BUT MOTIVATED BY IT

We have to take to heart the destruction of the Canaanites. This wasn’t about Israel wanting to grab land as other nations have always done. In fact, at first, Israel refused to battle against the Canaanites. Instead, this destruction was ordered by God as His judgment upon the Canaanites, who had embraced highly detestable practices like killing their own children (reminds me of abortion.)

Sin is serious to God. This divinely commanded destruction should serve as a necessary warning for all of us about the eternal consequences of sin and of rejecting the one hope offered by God. In fact, the prospect of eternal punishment is far more disturbing than just the destruction of the body, as Jesus had claimed:

·       And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

Consequently, if we are playing with a full-deck, we should be far more concerned about eternal punishment, the destruction of both body and soul, than the merely physical destruction of the Canaanites. This is why the NT writers do not tire about warning us of this prospect:

·       For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly…then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. (2 Peter 2:4-6, 9)

Had such consequences not been recorded, we would even more likely sneer at God’s warnings of eternal punishment to our great detriment.

In addition to these warnings, we also intuitively know that we deserve such punishment:

·       Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:32; 2:14-16)

Consequently, the unrepentant sinner deserves what he will receive. Because the stakes are so high, we must evangelize:

·       Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:11, 20-21)

FAITH IN JESUS ALONE

As Christians, we have a lot of freedom. We can eat what we want, dress as we choose, go where we desire, and even worship as we please, but within certain bounds. Our worship has to be according to the truth of God. A Samaritan woman told Jesus that she thought that worship was just a matter of location. However, He retorted that location wasn’t important but rather truth:

·       “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:23-24)

Truth was always a matter of obedience to God’s every Word. This is the way it had been under the Mosaic Covenant. It required Israel to obey God’s Word alone (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32). Any borrowing from the Canaanite religions was strictly forbidden:

·       “You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” (Deuteronomy 13:4-5)

Israel’s trust and obedience had to be exclusively in their Redeemer (Psalm 62; Proverbs 3:5-6). This same principle also pertains to the rest of the Bible. Preaching a different or modified Jesus or Gospel was also strictly forbidden:

·       But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:8-9)

As a new Christian, I had become quite confused by the teachings of the Bible. Some verses seem to teach that we are saved by faith apart from any obedience, while other verses seemed to teach that obedience was necessary for salvation.

I decided that I would play-it-safe. I would trust in the free gift of God but I would also trust in my “worthiness” before the Lord by doing good deeds. However, by placing trust in myself, I had become morbidly self-preoccupied. How? We are always going to be preoccupied with the source of our hope, and I was proving to be a very poor source of hope. God had been showing me that my righteous deeds were no more than filthy rags. Meanwhile, I struggled to suppress this growing awareness.

Even worse than this, I was betraying my faith and my Savior by committing the Galatian heresy:

·       Foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:1-5)

The Galatian church had initially come to Jesus by trusting in Him. However, they foolishly began to invest their faith in good deeds, their “merit,” instead of in Christ’s free gift of forgiveness and salvation. However, they couldn’t have it both ways. They had to either trust in Christ or in themselves. The two couldn’t coexist. Likewise, the Canaanites beliefs could not be combined with God’s Word. It had to be one or the other. Nor could the Galatians be lukewarm – somewhere in the middle. God would not allow that; nor would He allow such a mixture in me.

Paul insisted that they could not even earn God’s miracles through their good deeds. Instead, the entire Christian life is animated by grace working through faith (Colossians 2:6), but by a faith that produces the fruit of obedience.

Therefore, He humbled me to show me the futility of any form of self-trust (2 Corinthians 1:8-9; 3:5; John 15:4-5). Even the most righteous man, Job, had to be humbled away from his self-righteousness, which his trials had brought to the surface. The prophetic Elihu therefore charged Job, “You say, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, and there is no iniquity in me’” (Job 33:9). Job’s good deeds had produced self-righteousness, a disease that had to be exposed:

·       Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” (Job 40:6-8)

Self-righteousness is a deadly cancer. For those who are trusting in their works, radical surgery is necessary. Even Paul had to be further humbled by a thorn in his flesh lest he too become proud (2 Corinthians 12:7).

The blinding power and seductiveness of a works-righteousness is overwhelming. It convinces us of our own merit at the expense of trusting in God alone. Therefore, we need to be shown that we are all sinners in need of the Savior, as Jesus illustrated:

·       “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” (Matthew 7:22-23)

Despite their “good deeds,” they were still “workers of lawlessness.” As with the rest of us, they too needed to humble themselves before the Savior and trust in His mercy alone. To not trust in His mercy alone is to continue in self-delusion regarding our “worthiness” and to become alienated from the Savior. To become circumcised in hope of earning righteousness through the Law was also a vain hope:

·       Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

I had thought that playing-it-safe by also trusting in my good deeds, along with the grace of God, was the way to go. However, such a faith would sever me from my Savior. I was falling from grace, but the Lord was painfully exposing my filthy rags.

To adulterate faith in Christ with any other faith is to reject Christ.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE LOSE INTEREST IN TRUTH AND THE CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW?

What happens when Christians embrace Christ without believing that Christianity as the Truth? In his essay, “Why Christianity Lost America,” Indian scholar turned Christian, Vishal Mangalwadi, asks:

• Why did Christianity lose the power that gave it influence over education and economy, government and law, press and entertainment? How can the Church recover the power to prevail over the forces of evil?

He explains that today’s Christianity is not the vibrant Christianity of the recent past. Today’s version has separated truth from faith, leaving Christianity unbalanced – a plane with one wing, trying to fly with only feelings, mystical experiences, and a private and personalized faith, separated from its Biblical and defensible truth-claims:

• Christianity lost America because 20th-century evangelicalism branded itself as the party of faith. By default, Secularism (science, university, media) became the party of truth. This is one reason why 70% of Christian youth give up meaningful involvement with the church when they grow up. http://www.revelationmovement.com/instructors/blog_post/38

Mangalwadi observes that many of today’s Christians believe in a Christianity that has little to do with truth and facts. This imbalance has proved disastrous for Christianity. Mangalwadi cites several examples:

• In November 2011, I met an American missionary who has served in Guatemala for 36 years. He described a recent (unpublished) doctoral study examining Protestantism in one part of Guatemala. The Hispanic scholar had hoped to substantiate Max Weber’s thesis on the connection between Protestantism and economic development. The data, however, drove him to conclude that the gospel taught by present-day American missions makes no perceptible difference to the economic life of the believing communities.

What a contrast with what Christianity had been historically! One example of the vibrancy of the Christian faith is found in its establishment of universities. Sociologist Alvin Schmidt writes:

• Given the powerful influence that secularism now has on most Americans, they are probably not aware that “every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War – except the University of Pennsylvania – was established by some branch of the Christian church.” Nor are most Americans aware that in 1932, when Donald Tewksbury published The Founding of American Colleges and Universities before the Civil War, 92 percent of the 182 colleges and universities were founded by Christian denominations. (How Christianity Changed the Word, 190)

This should not surprise us. The Bible’s teachings unequivocally testify that the faith rests upon the undeniable truths of God (Deut. 4:34-37) – what He revealed and accomplished historically. God never asked Israel to just believe, but rather to believe by virtue of the evidences. For example, when Moses asked God for evidences that He could take to the Israelites to prove that God had appeared to him, God didn’t say, “Well, just tell those Israelites to believe!” Instead, He consistently provided the necessary proofs:

• Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.' "So the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod." And He said, "Cast it on the ground." So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail" (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), "that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you." (Exodus 4:1-5)

Likewise, Jesus never instructed His followers to believe without reasons to believe. Instead, He provided evidences through his miracles and prophecies:

• He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

• "You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. (John 14:28-29)

The Biblical faith embodies verifiable truths (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Tim 2:25; Titus 1:1). Mangalwadi contrasts this with other religions:

• Hinduism, like Greco-Roman religions, is based (self-consciously) on myths.

• The Buddha rejected Hinduism’s mythical gods and goddesses in favor of mystical (non-rational) Silence.

• Islam has words that are believed to be true. These words were uttered in a state of non-rational trance, called “prophecy.” Islam, therefore, rests on private, non-verifiable communications of an individual. Sometimes Mohammed went into “prophetic” trance in public, but no one saw or heard angel Gabriel talking to him. The power of his utterances rested on the sword, not on evidence. When his words about the past (e.g., stories from Old and New Testament times) contradicted documented history, his followers had to assume that contradictions mean that texts have been corrupted. Non-verifiable trance communications overrode documented history.

Sadly, Christianity has been going the way of the other religions. In the face of secular attacks upon the truth-claims of Christianity, Christianity has retreated into a cocoon of private faith experiences. We have defensively responded, “Well, I just know what I’ve experienced, and no one can tell me any differently.”

This response hasn’t proved adequate. Against the weight of the claims of the modern university, Christianity has retreated and compromised. It has surrendered the life of the mind for the life of internal experiences. Mangalwadi explains:

• The church created the university to train godly leaders who will look at all of reality through the light of the Truth (revealed by God’s works and words). Fundamentalism insulated Bible Institutes from other departments to study the Bible alone. It gave up the mission to seek public truth in favor of cultivating private spiritual lives. Once the Bible was put into the silo of Bible Institutes, the Bible teachers were isolated from the public life of the mind.  Preachers memorized the Bible but by and large they did not learn how to meditate upon God’s word in a way to shine its light on all of life.

We have compromised in many ways. We have put the claims of the Bible on the bench in favor of charismatic pastors who have promised experiences if we would only turn off our minds and our insistence to check everything out according to Scripture.

We have embraced a neo-orthodox “Christianity” that tried to salvage the Christian basics by insisting that the Bible really isn’t about what it clearly teaches. Instead, it is a tool to bring us magically into a saving relationship with Christ apart from its verifiable truth claims – claims that the university rejects.

We have embraced theistic evolution (TE) in a vain attempt to make friends with the university. This worldview attempts to make peace by claiming that the Bible isn’t about the physical world – science, history, geography – but only about the spiritual. Hence, no conflict between science and Christianity! However, in making this compromise, TE has separated Christianity from all of its supporting evidences – objective evidences that cannot be found outside of this physical world. This is because proof starts with what we know and can agree about – the physical world. Once this is established, it proceeds to the areas of disagreement – the spiritual claims. However, once the Church abandons the physical world, it no longer has an objective and shared basis to prove its case. Consequently, some Christian leaders now describe themselves as “Christian Agnostics.”

We have embraced “Christian” mysticism and Postmodern “Christianity.” These have, in various ways, demeaned doctrine and apologetics in favor of experience, dogmatically claiming that we can’t really know with any degree of certainty, that “doctrine divides,” and that what really matters is a direct experience of God, apart from what we Biblically understand about Him.

Consequently, “the church reads the Bible mainly for private “edification.” Corporately, the Kingdom of Christ has ceased being the city on a hill.” Indeed, we can’t be the light if we believe that biblical truth-claims aren’t verifiable.

In contrast to this, it was formerly widely accepted that the light of the Bible illuminated our relationship to God’s creation and so allowed us to master it. Schmidt concludes:

• Modern science is an outgrowth of Christian theology of the Middle Ages. It proceeded to show that it was Christianity’s values that provided the necessary Weltanschauung [worldview] and motivation to encourage many of its educated adherents to study the world of nature…The public are unaware that virtually all scientists from the Middle Ages to the mid-eighteenth century – many of which were seminal thinkers – not only were sincere Christians but were often inspired by biblical postulates and premises in their theories… [they] knew and believed the words of the biblical writer: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). (How Christianity Changed the World, 243-44).

What then is the answer for us today? To return with courage to the basics! Jesus instructed us to:

• " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

When we leave out truth and neglect the cultivation of the mind, we fail to live faithfully to the teachings of Scripture. Instead, we distance ourselves and the world around us from the Scriptures and live defensively, fearful that we will be confronted with questions and challenges that we cannot answer. We therefore practice avoidance. Instead of being a light on a hill, we gaze at and perhaps reflect some of the light from beneath the shadow cast over us by the prevailing culture.

Once we lose confidence in the Light/Truth of Christ, we become indistinguishable from the world. We no longer have the conviction (or the faith) to live according to the teachings of the Bible. Somehow, the Bible begins to feel judgmental and legalistic. It is then inevitable that our affections will become set on the things of this world (1 John 2:15-16; James 4:4).

Real assurance is only possible when the mind is engaged and assured. Let us therefore feast upon the many reasons to believe in God and in His Word!