Wherefore come out from among them,
and be ye separate, saith the Lord,
and touch not the unclean thing;
2 Corinthians 6:17
इसलिये प्रभु कहता है, कि उन के बीच में से निकलो और अलग रहो; और अशुद्ध वस्तु को मत छूओ, तो मैं तुम्हें ग्रहण करूंगा।
--This is a SIMPLIFIED Overview/Outline--
--3 Layers of Worship
--Brahma
--Vishnu
--Shiva
--Where the Hindu trinity may have came from [Vague Memories]
--Christian God vs. reincarnation
--Kali vs. Isaiah 5:20
--Gau Mata ("Divine Mother") Cow Worship vs. Romans 1:23
--Path from Babel to the COUNTERFEIT RELIGIONS
--Closing Question
[This is a very, very SIMPLIFIED overview. Hinduism is very much more detailed and diverse on a massive scale. This overview is to make it easy for westerners to grasp the most basic framework]
3 Layers of Worship
To begin there are 3 layers of worship.
1) Since they believe in reincarnation, on an up and down scale, where they are at in this level of their reincarnation journey, they pick one of the 3 of their trinity of gods to worship.
There is Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer) and Shiva (the destroyer).
**IF applied to Christianity, it would be like you accept the Father, Christ and Holy Spirit as all equally God but choose in this life to worship and follow the rituals for one. For example the denomination of God the Father, or of Christ or the Holy Spirit.
Currently Brahma has very few followers.
There a 4 other major forms to worship as an alternative. One is Shaktism where the goddess Shakti, known as the Devi, is worshipped as over the trinity of gods. Another is Smartism where they worship all 3 of their trinity as well as the Devi goddess. And then there is Neo-Hinduism where they borrow from many world religions for elements of truth but centered in Hinduism. They were influenced by the Unitarian Church over a century ago.
Also in southern India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon), there is another form of Hinduism followed who worship a god called Murugan (also known as Skanda) It seems that when the Hindu people conquered the south, Murugan was already worshiped and the conquered simply applied their god onto the Hindu template. This god appears to have
been a god of fertility and hills for the pre-Hindu conquest of the Dravidian people.
2) The 2nd layer of worship is to pick as many as you want of thousands of lesser gods to worship. There are two that seem to be very popular. The monkey god Hanuman and the elephant headed human god Ganesha.
3) Many from rural villages still also follow their village or tribal pagan gods from pre-Hindu times. Some may be deified ancestors from thousands of years ago or hills, trees, or animals.
Brahma
The creator god Brahma is depicted with 4 heads. His 5th head was cut off by the bad boy god Shiva.
Brahma restarts the next universe when this one comes to an end.
He himself sprouted from the cosmic egg.
The Hindu holy books of the Vedas came from him and one of his wives.
He created women who became a source of evil for men "lusting for sensual pleasures, began to stir men up. Then the lord of gods, the lord, created anger as the assistant of desire, and all creatures, falling into the power of desire and anger, began to be attached to women" (Mahabharata in Hindu Myths, 36).
He also created DEATH as a LINE OF DISTINCTION between gods and mortals.
Vishnu
The preserver is Vishnu who is also associated with sexual perversion and the sun.
He came in 10 avatars at different times in history to save mankind. His most famous was as Krishna and Rama. Another was as a fish to save Manu to survive a global flood. Manu was told to gather up seeds and animals on a boat to repopulate the earth with a total of 8
survivors.
Some worship and follow the rituals of Vishnu while others worship him in one of his avatars.
**IF applied to Christianity, one could worship Christ as Christ OR as one of His avatars. It would be like IF Christ came as Noah to save mankind from the flood, then Moses to deliver the Law, then as Solomon to deliver wisdom then as Daniel to deliver prophecies, etc.
So you could worship Christ instead as Solomon for example and study just the Solomon aspect and writings of wisdom, etc.
Shiva
Shiva is the bad boy of the trinity of their gods. He has both a positive side and a dark side. He also has a third eye to destroy people. He is considered by some to be the god of rage.
One can worship him from either perspective, Although most worship him from the positive side some worship from the dark side.
An example are the Aghori. They live near cemeteries where they interact with supposed ghosts. They also cover themselves in ashes, eat and drink from human skulls and eat dung---literally.
**IF applied to Christianity there would be a trinity of God, Christ and Lucifer. One could worship Lucifer from his positive perspective, lets say as before his fall as a good angel, OR one could worship him from his current dark side (this is a very SIMPLIFIED explanation).
Yoga also started with the Shiva followers and some also engaged in human sacrifice until British colonization.
Where the Hindu trinity may have came from [Vague Memories]
[This is just my opinion] Hinduism seems to have began in the Indus River Valley civilization based on their pictographs with images similar to the their gods poses, sacred cows and the swastika of Hinduism.
We know many people venerated ancestors.
Could it be a vague memory of the trinity of brothers who populated the world post-flood? (Vishnu was elevated years later in this pantheon).
*Remember they have a story where Vishnu comes in an avatar of a fish to save Manu during a global flood by guiding his boat.
 |
| Manu Flood Story |
Q: So could it be that the eldest, Japheth, became the creator god Brahma?
Q: And Vishnu the preserver god modelled after Shem of whom the Messianic line was to come?
Q: And finally Shiva modelled after a vague memory of Ham, the bad boy of the brothers? Remember that Ham would obviously have a good side at times but made some sort of terrible mistake that resulted in Noah (Hindu Manu) cursing him.
*Another possibility is that Brahma could be a vague memory of Noah who was the progenitor of the post-flood race and Shiva representing Ham (because if you remember, Ham did something to Noah) and Shiva cut off one of Bahama's heads.....later to make a trinity Vishnu was elevated to make 3.
----Just an idea.....
Christian God vs. reincarnation
Hinduism teaches reincarnation---that after death one keeps coming
back and dying again.
 |
| Hindu Wheel of Reincarnation: of death and Rebirth |
back and dying again.
The Christian God teaches otherwise.....And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: Hebrews 9:27
और जैसे मनुष्यों के लिये एक बार मरना और उसके बाद न्याय का होना नियुक्त है।Kali vs. Isaiah 5:20
"Kaki--Derived from the Sanskrit root ka.
This designation encompasses the fundamental forces that govern existence.
The word Kali operates on multiple semantic levels simultaneously meaning time, death, and the color black, creating a linguistic trinity that perfectly encapsulates the goddess's multifaceted nature.
-*-She represents not merely the passage of moments but the very mechanism through which the universe experiences its cyclical death and rebirth.
-*-Kali's association with death encompasses the dissolution of illusion, the termination of cosmic cycles, and the necessary destruction that precedes all renewal.
-*-Black represents the primordial darkness that existed before creation, the infinite potential from which all forms emerge.
The word Kali operates on multiple semantic levels simultaneously meaning time, death, and the color black, creating a linguistic trinity that perfectly encapsulates the goddess's multifaceted nature.
-*-She represents not merely the passage of moments but the very mechanism through which the universe experiences its cyclical death and rebirth.
-*-Kali's association with death encompasses the dissolution of illusion, the termination of cosmic cycles, and the necessary destruction that precedes all renewal.
-*-Black represents the primordial darkness that existed before creation, the infinite potential from which all forms emerge.
Unlike western associations of darkness with evil, Kali's blackness signifies the fertile void of pure consciousness, pregnant with infinite possibilities. Her dark skin absorbs all colors, all experiences, all phenomena, making her the ultimate repository of cosmic knowledge and power.
Her skin dark as storm clouds, her hair unbound and wild, her eyes red with divine fury.
She wears a necklace of severed heads and a skirt of dismembered arms, while her forehands grasp a sword, a severed head, and display the mudras of fearlessness and boon granting.
Her tongue extends from her mouth and her feet are bare as she dances upon the battlefield. She extends her enormous tongue across the battlefield, catching every drop of blood before it can touch the earth.
The textual description emphasizes her intoxication with the blood of battle, suggesting that Kaye represents divine consciousness in its most primal and unrestricted state. Her consumption of blood symbolizes the absorption of life force itself." Gods&Mortals
**Kali is considered a good goddess--but God would disagree:
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
**Kali is considered a good goddess--but God would disagree:
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil;
that put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Isaiah 5:20
Gau Mata ("Divine Mother") Cow Worship vs. Romans 1:23
Hinduism teaches that 33,000,000 demi gods reside in the "Mother Cow".
One of them named Lackshimi arrived late.
Hinduism teaches that 33,000,000 demi gods reside in the "Mother Cow".
The Gau Mata told her she was filled.
Lackshimi persiseted so the Gau Mata told her she could reside in her dung which she happily did.
As a result some adherents of Hinduism spread cow dung in their house.
OR as Paul would put it:
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Romans 1:23
Path from Babel to the COUNTERFEIT RELIGIONS:
ROOT of Their REBELLION
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,
whose top may reach unto heaven;
and let us make us a name,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11:4
--The tower they tried to build up to heaven by their own might.
So too does the sins of Babylon in the end reach unto heaven - For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Revelation 18:5
ROOT of Their REBELLION
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower,
whose top may reach unto heaven;
and let us make us a name,
lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Genesis 11:4
3 Goals:
-1- A City
-2- A Tower
-3- A Name
--The city was in direct rebellion against the word of God - Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. Genesis 9:1--The tower they tried to build up to heaven by their own might.
We don't need a man-made tower...we already have a strong tower -The name of the LORD is a strong tower: Proverbs 18:10
--The name they tried to make for themselves was rooted in pride...pride is how this war all began - How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!,..For thou hast said in thine heart, ...I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Isaiah 14:12-14
"I" is the Root of this REBELLION----- Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. Psalm 10:4 NIV
Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only
Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
--The name they tried to make for themselves was rooted in pride...pride is how this war all began - How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!,..For thou hast said in thine heart, ...I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Isaiah 14:12-14
"I" is the Root of this REBELLION----- Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. Psalm 10:4 NIV
"They lost God, because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21.
They attributed everything to themselves,
--and as self was advanced,
--faith in God decreased,
till they were in the darkness of idolatry." -- And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
E.J. Waggoner/Romans 1:23
--and as self was advanced,
--faith in God decreased,
till they were in the darkness of idolatry." -- And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
E.J. Waggoner/Romans 1:23
"The principle that man can save himself by his own works lay at the foundation of every heathen religion."
E.G.W.
REINCARNATION (where you never really die) -- The Quest for Immortality:Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only
1 Timothy 6:15,16
"Fifteenth chapter of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, paragraph 17; he says of the heathen in the inquiry after the immortality of the soul:
"In the sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and their imagination had been prompted by their vanity."
*When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers,
-a-when they exercised the various faculties of
memory, of fancy, and of judgment, in the most profound speculations, or the most important labors,
-b- and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported them into future ages, far beyond the bonds of death and of the grave;
-c- they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the field or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they entertained the most sincere admiration,
-d- could be limited to a spot of earth and to a few years of duration.
*What is that but the description of Satan's career when he started.
-a- His reason prompted by his imagination; his imagination guided by his vanity,
-b- and viewing with complacency the extent of his own mental powers; the desire for fame beyond that of God,
-c- and unwilling to allow that a person for whose dignity he entertained the most sincere admiration
-d- could be properly confined to a subordinate place in the universe of God.
Q: Is not this an exact description of mankind in a heathen condition, written by a philosopher, looking only at the question from man's side of it?
Q: Could there be a clearer description of the working of Satan in his original career?"
A.T. Jones 1893 Sermon
"Fifteenth chapter of Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, paragraph 17; he says of the heathen in the inquiry after the immortality of the soul:
"In the sublime inquiry, their reason had been often guided by their imagination, and their imagination had been prompted by their vanity."
--The Formula--
Vanity the root of the inquiry,
and self the root of the vanity.
I read on:*When they viewed with complacency the extent of their own mental powers,
-a-when they exercised the various faculties of
-b- and when they reflected on the desire of fame, which transported them into future ages, far beyond the bonds of death and of the grave;
-c- they were unwilling to confound themselves with the beasts of the field or to suppose that a being, for whose dignity they entertained the most sincere admiration,
-d- could be limited to a spot of earth and to a few years of duration.
*What is that but the description of Satan's career when he started.
-a- His reason prompted by his imagination; his imagination guided by his vanity,
-c- and unwilling to allow that a person for whose dignity he entertained the most sincere admiration
-d- could be properly confined to a subordinate place in the universe of God.
Q: Is not this an exact description of mankind in a heathen condition, written by a philosopher, looking only at the question from man's side of it?
Q: Could there be a clearer description of the working of Satan in his original career?"
A.T. Jones 1893 Sermon
Closing Question:
Q: Will Non-believers be in the 1st Resurrection?A: --Look at the Sanctuary (plan of redemption laid out)
1) Paul tells us -
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood;
and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Hebrews 9:22
a) What was this "blood" for?
For this is my blood of the new testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Matthew 26:28
b) Almost? (How without the "blood"?)
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts,
for their own conscience and
thoughts either accuse them
or tell them they are doing right.
Romans 2:14,15
----- In the Sanctuary the blood sacrifice was required for the forgiveness of sins. But there was a small opening, through mercy, for those too poor to afford a lamb or turtle dove for the blood offering..jpg)
In other words, there is an opening for a few, who never believing on the blood sacrifice of Christ (because they hadn't the chance to hear) could be judged based upon the law God implants in our conscience. But this would be very rare, as was the flour sacrifice.
2) Paul also informs us -
Neither is there salvation in any other:
for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
So in other words, no one (via the "flour" route in the Sanctuary) will be saved because they followed their pagan religion faithfully.
Another way to say it--God does NOT believe in pluralism for salvation. A person who might be in the 1st resurrection, but never heard the name of Christ, won't be there because they were a good Hindu, Buddhist, etc. Their pagan religion has NOTHING to do with their salvation.
3) What does this show?
This shows the atheists, who like to mock Christians with the taunt of "What kind of God would destroy people who never got a chance to hear of Him"? ...that God left open one last avenue for the lost, though a small one, albeit an opening none the less. One last drop of MERCY.
...for God is love.
1 John 4:8
"Satan had blinded them.----Among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, He sees men and women who are praying for light and knowledge. Their souls are unsatisfied; long have they fed on ashes. The enemy of all righteousness has turned them aside, and they grope as blind men. But they are honest in heart and desire to learn a better way. Although in the depths of heathenism, with no knowledge of the written law of God nor of His Son Jesus, they have revealed in manifold ways the working of a divine power on mind2) Paul also informs us -
Neither is there salvation in any other:
for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
Acts 4:12
So in other words, no one (via the "flour" route in the Sanctuary) will be saved because they followed their pagan religion faithfully.
3) What does this show?
This shows the atheists, who like to mock Christians with the taunt of "What kind of God would destroy people who never got a chance to hear of Him"? ...that God left open one last avenue for the lost, though a small one, albeit an opening none the less. One last drop of MERCY.
...for God is love.
1 John 4:8
Heaven's plan of salvation is broad enough to embrace the whole world. God longs to breathe into prostrate humanity the breath of life. And He will not permit any soul to be disappointed who is sincere in his longing for something higher and nobler than anything the world can offer.
God’s test of heathen, who have not the light, and of those living where the knowledge of truth and light has been abundant, is altogether different. He accepts from those in heathen lands a phase of righteousness which does not satisfy Him when offered by those of Christian lands. He does not require much where much has not been bestowed."
Ellen G. White
John Wesley
