Buddhism is an
offspring of Hinduism, and it is similar in many ways to Hinduism. It began in India in about the 6th century B.C., and from
there it spread throughout Asia. Its
founder, Siddhartha Gautama was born about 563 B.C., and raised in a very
wealthy family. Later he was exposed to suffering and became concerned with the
cause of it. At age 29 he left his wife and son to seek a solution. He tried and rejected both Hinduism and
extreme self-deprival (asceticism). After 6 years of seeking, he arrived at the
system that became Buddhism. He established an order of monks and one of nuns
devoted to his plan of overcoming suffering, then he spent the rest of his life
as a wandering religious teacher.
Please consider now
the Buddhist teaching as compared to the Bible’s teaching regarding the
following subjects:
Buddhist Teaching about God
Gautama taught nothing about God. He
refused even to deny or affirm God's existence. He definitely denied that he himself was divine. Instead, his teachings were designed to
obtain relief from suffering by
means of human effort
alone. Original Buddhism involves neither faith nor worship, neither prayer nor
praise nor forgiveness of sins. In that
sense, Buddhism is not really a religion but a moral philosophy designed to
overcome suffering. Today, the liberal
and more common view of Buddhists is to accept the existence of deitys, or absolute
supreme beings of power. In fact they
deify Gautama Buddha as divine, even though he himself denied it. They teach that many other men achieve
enlightenment, as Gautama did. These are also deified as Buddhas or Bodhisattvas.
They believe all men have the power or potential to become Buddhas and be
deified. Various groups emphasize different deities, some of which are
equivalent to Hindu deities.
The Bible’s Teaching about God
In contrast to core
Buddhist belief, which teaches nothing about God's existence, the Bible says
that the very existence of the universe demonstrates God's existence. (Ps 19:1;
Romans 1:20). Buddhism fails to answer
questions about the origins and existence of the universe, yet the Bible’s fundamental
statement of, “In the beginning, God…,” is the only adequate explanation for
the universe; that it was formed by a Supreme Being, more wise and powerful
than we are. Furthermore, miracles,
fulfilled prophecy, and the resurrection of Jesus all prove God exists. Such
supernatural events can only happen by the power of One far greater than man.
Buddhism originally
had nothing to do with God. Yet serving God and having a proper relationship
with Him is the whole point of true religion. (Eccl 12:13; Eph 1:7-9) The whole
basis and origin of Buddhism was religion without God, but religion without God
violates the whole meaning and purpose of religion as a concept.
In contrast to
today’s more liberal view of Buddhism, which teaches there are many gods, the
Bible teaches there is one true God. (Deut 6:4; Mt 4:10) Buddhism lifts up men to the stature of gods
where prayer and worship are offerered to Buddhas, including the idolatrous use
of images. Yet the Bible teaches that we
are not to worship many gods,
or any god other than the one true and living God. In particular, the Bible teaches
that idols and images are forbidden, (Isa 42:8) and that no man can be divine
or become God. (Eze 28:2, 6-10) Conservative
Buddhism contradicts the Bible evidence that God exists and that the purpose of
religion is to please God. Liberal Buddhism contradicts the Bible teaching that
there is one God,
that graven images are forbidden, and that man is not divine.
The Buddhist Teaching on the Destiny of Man
Buddhists believe
that, when a man dies, he will return to live as another human or creature on
earth. The cycle of birth and rebirth continues indefinitely until one is
"released." Regarding the
spirit of man, conservatives believe man has no spirit or inner part that lives
after death. Only the consequences of past deeds (karma) lives from life to life. Liberals believe
man has a spirit that continues from life to life. The belief in karma states that everything, good
or bad, that happens to a man is the result of his conduct in previous lives.
What happens in future lives is determined by his actions now. Nothing is really a result of a person's
environment, the acts of others, or the work of God. All is payment for what
the person himself did in the past. Buddhists
believe that the ultimate goal of man is to be released from the cycle of
rebirth and suffering. This is a state of rest without continuation of earthly
desires. Whether or not this state is conscious is not defined. They deny
annihilation, but they also deny existence as individuals distinct from others.
The Bible’s Teaching on the Destiny of Man
Man lives and dies
(physically) only once. (Heb 9:27) After
Jesus died, His spirit was reunited with His body. Likewise after death, the
spirit of each man will be reunited with his body when Jesus comes again. It
will then be changed to a spirit body to receive an eternal reward. (John 5:28,
29; 1 Cor. 15:22, 23) We will come back
as ourselves, not as an animal, a god, or some other person. We will be
reunited with our own body, not that of someone else. In contradiction to the doctrine of karma,
the Bible teaches that, on earth, men often do not receive fair or just rewards
for their lives. (Luke 16:19-25) Instead,
when Jesus returns, He will judge all men and declare our eternal rewards on
the basis of our lives, good or bad. As
a result, both the rewards and the punishments taught in the Bible are to be
received after we leave the earth, not while on the earth.
The Buddhist Doctrine of Suffering
The Buddhist
teaching regarding suffering is based on the “Four Noble Truths”:
1. Suffering is an
essential part of life. Troubles are
basic and inherent to life.
2. The cause of
suffering is human desire.
3. The solution to suffering is to eliminate
earthly desires, especially the desire to exist as an individual.
4. The steps to
defeat these desires are the “Eightfold Path” (more on this to follow).
Buddhists believe
that man suffers because of his desire for personal enjoyment and possessions,
but especially because of the desire to continue to exist as an individual,
separate and distinct from others. The
highest destiny of man, according to Buddhism, is to cease existence as a
separate and distinct individual, and enter the state of Nirvana. The earthly
life is an illusion, but due to ignorance, man continues to desire to exist. This
desire causes rebirth to other lives and since life involves suffering, we
continue to suffer. They believe that when
desires are renounced and destroyed, rebirth will cease.
The Bible’s Teaching about Suffering
The Bible agrees that suffering is
a part of life. (Job 14:1) However, it
teaches that suffering exists as consequences of man’s sin or as a temptation
to sin. Genesis 3:16-19 teaches us that suffering,
the pain of childbirth, the difficulty of work, and death (which is caused by
sickness, accidents, etc.) all came into the world because man sinned. This
happened as a result of uncontrolled desire, so unlike Buddhism, suffering is
only indirectly the consequences of
man's desires. Also Peter wrote, in 1
Peter 4:14-16, “If ye be reproached for
the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth
upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or
as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. Some suffering is the result of our evil
doing, but instead we may suffer because others do some evil to us. So not all suffering is the result
of our own sins.
Sometimes we suffer because others sin.
The Bible teaches that physical
desires, of themselves, are neither good nor bad. It depends on how we seek to
fulfill the desire. Buddhism
teaches us to eliminate all natural desires, but the Bible says that every
natural desire has a good and proper way to be fulfilled. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Let marriage be held in honor by all.” The natural desire for
sexual fulfillment may be satisfied by proper means as ordained by God.
Buddhism, on the other hand, teaches that to be saved one must overcome this
desire and learn to live without marriage. (Outlined in the Eightfold Path) The Bible, however, warns that human desires
can be perverted and lead to sin. (Heb 13:4) The proper goal of man is, not to eliminate all desires from his life,
but to know God's will and control the desires accordingly.
The Bible teaches that the
desire to exist as an individual is not bad. It is an act of God's creation. God Himself possesses distinct
characteristics of personality - God loves, speaks, knows, wills, etc. Also, man is an individual created in God's
image. (Gen 1:26-28; 2:7) In fact, man
will always
exist in a state of conscious existence as a
separate individual. In the resurrection we will have spirit bodies, and in
eternity, we will be conscious and distinct individuals. (1 Corinthians 15;
Luke 16:19-31) The claim that it is bad
to desire to be an individual blasphemes the work of God.
Finally, the Bible teaches that the
way to overcome suffering is not to strive to defeat it yourself, but to trust
in God and serve Him. By serving God properly we can endure suffering in this
life. (Ps 46:1; Phil 4:13) If we remain
faithful to God, we will receive an eternal reward in a place where there is no
suffering of any kind. Buddhism does not have a solution
to suffering. Only the Bible provides a true solution
The Buddhist Teaching on Salvation
Conservative Buddhists follow the Eightfold Path. This is a way of life consisting of 8 steps
in which one disciplines himself till all earthly desires are eliminated. The
idea is to avoid two extremes: avoid indulging in luxury and pleasures, but
also avoid self-torture or depriving oneself of necessities. The eight steps are: right views,
aspirations, speech, conduct, mode of livelihood, effort, awareness, and
concentration. Great self-control is needed to develop these to necessary
perfection. Many lifetimes are required to reach perfection. One must pass through
4 stages in which 10 hindrances are overcome. Each stage may take many lives. It
is said that Gautama took at least 550 lives to achieve perfection. Later stages require one to be a monk,
abandoning family life. Buddhists who are not monks have not yet advanced to
later stages, but must do so in some future lifetime to obtain salvation. This process depends entirely on human effort without
divine aid (remember, conservative Buddhism has nothing to do with God).
Liberal Buddhists teach that there are many
different methods of salvation. The
leading concept of salvation among liberal Buddhists involves Bodhisattvas.
These are people who earn perfection (as above), but postpone Nirvana in order
to provide salvation for others. Other Buddhists, at lower stages of
perfection, can obtain Nirvana by appealing to their favorite Bodhisattva -
honoring, praying, repeating his name. As a result, his merit is transferred to
them. This is much easier than the
conservative view, for not all must earn perfection.
The Bible’s Teaching on Salvation
Man can not save himself without God. Buddhism says all or some men must earn salvation. The
Bible says God must provide the means of deliverance. No man can earn salvation. In fact, the product of, or what we earn in our lives is death, which is the
wage of sin. Once we earn that wage,
there is nothing we can do to save ourselves without God’s forgiveness. (Rom 6:23; 11:6; Titus 3:4,
5) Liberal Buddhism says some men can
save other men. The Bible says no man can save himself, nor can anyone else
save him except Jesus. In 1 Corinthians 1:11-13,
some men were honoring preachers. Paul asked if the preachers died for
anyone. Jesus
is the one who died to save us from sin. God
is no respecter of persons. Each individual is responsible to meet the
conditions for forgiveness, and those conditions are the same for all people. It
is not true that some must be perfect to be saved but others can be saved on
lesser conditions. All must be saved by accepting the
same conditions.
Portions of this argument have been taken from
“Buddhism and Christianity,” by David E. Pratte;
http://www.biblestudylessons.com/cgi-bin/gospel_way/buddhism.php
