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Hinduism is drawn from two correct understandings.
1. to dwell with God,
one must be perfect. 2. man is sinful.
They believe
that Brahma is the creator god who created Manu.
From him,
came the 4 types of people making the divine caste system: the Brahmins,
Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras.
The world and everything in it is “God” or
Brahman. So every living
thing has a soul. Every animal, tree and blade of grass is holy and should
not be harmed.
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The Heavenly Father (Creator God ) created Adam and
Eve as His children to obey Him. They
had great fellowship until they disobeyed God and sinned.
Then they were separated from God. Our sin separates us
from God….
If “Brahman” is true, then God, the Creator, is dwelling together with
every living thing in their sinful states!
Just like salt in water. This
cannot be because one cannot dwell with God until their sins have been
forgiven & thus are “right with God” or perfect.
The truth is God created man in His image as a tri-part being: as a
spirit, that has a soul, and lives in a body.
Animals do not have a spirit.
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To receive “salvation,” you must go through a
series of reincarnations, in which each soul, through virtuous living, can
rise to a higher caste/state. They strive to enter the state of Nirvana to
escape from the cycle of rebirths.
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Many people die young and have no time to achieve
their karma nor nirvana and so that does not seem fair to me.
I believe in reincarnation, but only one time. When
you receive Jesus as your Savior, your spirit is “born-again” into the
Kingdom of God. It is like
our Nirvana in just one prayer. Heb. 9:27 says that you only die once and
then face judgment. I see no
proof for reincarnation.
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To get to a higher state of being, they heavily
believe in “good works” or “karma”
(a purpose, a mission or
vocation). If they have good
karma, they can return to life in a higher form.
Their idea of hell is coming back as a lower state of being,
such as an animal or a bug. Nirvana
is their idea or concept of reaching heaven.
Buddha
could not reconcile the existence of suffering with an all-powerful,
loving God and so he rejected the teachings of Hinduism and started his
own religion called Buddhism. See: Truth
to Say to Buddhists
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Your belief in reincarnation basically means you are
paying, you are paying and in each new life you are paying for your past
guilt and your sins from your previous life. You know that your sins
separate you from God, but what you do not understand is that when you
pray to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then He pays, He
pays, yes, Jesus Christ pays the penalty for all of your sins. Isn't
that wonderful? You see, God is love and God is a giver. John 3:16
says: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, and whomsoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have
everlasting life." So you see, Jesus Christ shed His blood on
the cross to pay the penalty for your sins to satisfy the wrath of God. He
paid it all. All you have to do is receive this wonderful gift of eternal
life through acknowledging that you are a sinner and that Jesus Christ
died on the cross to pay for your sins. Then you ask Jesus Christ to
come into your heart to be your Savior and your Lord. Then you will
have eternal life in heaven, which you think of as
Nirvana.
This salvation being "a free gift" sounds
too good to to be true. Remember that God is love and God is a giver and
He is a God of justice. Look at this from God's viewpoint of
justice. Because of age, income level & varying intellectual and
physical abilities,
everyone has different abilities to do good karma or good works. So
salvation by works is really not fair. But what is fair is that everyone has the ability to believe.
Salvation based “on believing” is fair.
So it is by grace through faith or believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ that we are saved from the fires of hell or in your case,
reincarnation. Salvation is a free
gift and yet, after
you are saved, God wants you to help people in need and do good works to
show forth His love to others.
When witnessing to a Hindu or
Muslim: From Ravi Zacharias - www.rzim.com
1. Go slowly
2. Show respect for their beliefs
3. Don't assume that you cannot reach them because
you are not identical in their culture - it just takes more time.
4. Always listen to their concerns and problems
5. Young people are the most open to listen to
you
6. Focus on Christ and having a personal
relationship with Him
7. Allow for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to move or
the supernatural to work when witnessing to them.
8. After they commit to Christ, don't deluge
them with too much too soon. Take it slow.
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