VERITAS: Eastern Religions - By Craig Branch

How often have you heard the expression, “as far as the East is from the West…” to note the tremendous gap existing between two objects? But that is no longer an appropriate usage. The East has now come to the West, and the West has slowly been mutating into the East.

This issue of Areopagus provides a working knowledge of four of the largest and historical religions of the East and the world—Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

There are several reasons why the Body of Christ needs to become acquainted with these religions. One reason is our missional calling and responsibility both at home and abroad. Another reason is there are many contemporary off-shoots of these parent religions that are impacting Western culture and gaining followers. A third reason is out of concern for not only the spiritual death of its followers, but also the growing physical harm, persecution, and murder being conducted by certain militant subgroups of Hinduism in the Far East.

Let’s look at the missional component. Hinduism is the third largest religious group in the world, making up about 14% of the population. Researchers, place the number between 900 million and 1.5 billion. The discrepancy is due to the difficulty in counting the numbers in hard shell communist countries like China.

As stated earlier, the East has also come to the West. Prior to 1965 and the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Services (INS) Act, Hindu immigration to the U.S. was isolated. But following the INS Act, the U.S. began to see a flood of Hindu professionals, workers, and even spiritual leaders (Swanis).

According to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2008 the adherents of “Eastern Religion” (not Buddhists) grew from 687,000 in 1990 to 1,104,000 in 2001, to 1,349,000 in 2008. The United States Department of States’ International Religious Freedom Report of 2004 put the number at 1,478,670.

Figures listed on Buddhist adherents also reflect a wide gap in estimation. They range from 376 million to 1.5 billion worldwide, contingent on the likely high numbers in China and other communist countries.

In addition to this huge mission field in the East, Buddhism in its numerous forms has come to America. According to the ARIS surveys the number of Buddhists in the U.S. rose 170% between 1990 to 2001, from 404,000 to 1,082,000. Their 2004 estimate was 1.5 million while other scholars in the field have estimated twice that. For example, Dr. Richard Seager, author of Buddhism in America, says, “1.5 million is a low reasonable number.” [1] The Pew Forum’s U.S. Religious Landscape Survey put the number at 2 million, showing “surprising shifts in American religion,” and ranking Buddhism as the 4th largest religious group in America. The survey also showed that three out of four Buddhists in America are converts to Buddhism.

So here again, like the cults, there is a huge and growing mission field, abroad and at our doorstep that needs a lot of intentional engagement with the gospel.

A cause and result of this neglect is the growing post-Christian culture of postmodern relativism, pluralism, and universalism in the U.S. The 2007 Pew Forum poll indicated that of the 83% of Americans who identified themselves as having a religious affiliation, only 24% said that their religion “is the one true faith leading to eternal life,” and 65% said that “many religions can lead to eternal life.” The very disturbing statistic is that 57% of “evangelical Protestant church members” believe that.

As we have repeatedly noted in our Areopagus Journals and Worldviews newsletter, the lack of worldview discipleship and a missional mindset and lifestyle in the Church has resulted in our light being hidden under a basket, and the darkness is spreading. Another example of that in the 2008 Pew Forum Research showed that 60% of Americans 70 and older are Protestant, yet only 43% of those 18-29 are. Barna research [2] has consistently reported that only 34% of American adults believe that moral truth is absolute and only 9% of Americans have a Biblical worldview.

The impact of the decline in assimilating a biblical worldview is dramatically revealed in the growing gap between the generations in believing in absolute truth. While 64% of adults over 35 reject the existence of absolute truth, 75% of those 18-35, and 83% of teens reject it!

This loss of any true reference point begins to feed and develop man’s natural rebellion against God and His rule. But man inescapably made in God’s image naturally gravitates toward spirituality, although a false one. As you will see this spiritual postmodern relativistic and pluralistic mindset opens the door to Eastern religions and its new age mutations.

America used to be (and still is by some) referred to as a “melting pot,” because as foreign immigrants settled here, most adopted our values, formed by a Judeo-Christian worldview. But now it can be better described as a “tossed salad” with the mixture, strong allegiance and independent established practices of many religions.

An example of this transition was a recent article in our local paper The Birmingham News titled, “Face of Faith Changing in Once Monolithic Alabama.” The article stated, “The city now has multiple Islamic mosques, Hindu temples, and Buddhist centers…we can look forward to increasing diversity. We will have to learn more about various faiths instead of taking a negative approach.”

The article concluded, “Christians need to realize their mission field has arrived at their doorstep." [3]

For example an excellent opportunity is for individual Christians and churches to develop an outreach for foreign college students in the area. Many are looking for American families to connect with and often these students will return to their countries in leadership roles.

Another reason to become conversant with the early historical religions of the East is that they are foundational and the parents of many of the New Age cult practices popular in the West today. Transcendental Meditation, yoga, Hare Krishna, Tai Chi, Christian Science, Scientology, Unity School of Christianity, many alternative “medicine” approaches, and celebrities like Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup series), Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, the Dali Lama, Marianne Williamson, Richard Gere, and Brad Pitt, all are part of these Eastern spiritualities.

We have covered some of these off-shoots and popular cults and practices in earlier issues of the Areopagus Journal (“They Became Fools”, “Yoga: Stretching the Truth”, “Engaging the New Age,” and “Uncovering the Secrets of Scientology.”)

The other reason to take the time to study and understand these religions is to encourage policy and missionary activity to help diminish or eradicate the militant abuse carried out by some factions of Eastern Religions. For example, you may have heard or read about groups of Hindus in India fighting against Muslims in Pakistan. Plus there are Hindu groups in India attacking Christians.

Christianity Today reported on “fresh attacks” by Hindu militants on Indian Christians”. Their reason? Because they say Christians are “forcing Hindus to convert.” The story continues “Last Christmas, militants killed four Christians and burned 730 homes and 95 churches in Orissa.” [4]

This Journal issue begins with “Hinduism: Empty Diversity” by Dr. Winfried Corduan. Corduan begins by helping us understand that Hinduism is far from monolithic. He explains the beliefs, scriptures, and practices which the many subgroups hold in common, but he also explains the areas where differentiation is found.

It is something like Christianity and all of her varied denominations and pseudo-Christian cults. But unlike Christianity that has the foundational authority of sola Scriptura—the Scripture alone, Hinduism has no unified source of authority and tradition.

Corduan identifies the historical developments of Hinduism along with its various school of philosophy, the three main schools of devotion, and the three ways of “salvation.” He focuses in on the two most popular expressions—Vendantic and Temple Hinduism. He exposes the internal contradictions of Hinduism as well as offering numerous Christian counter responses to Hinduism.

Our second article is “On Buddhism” by Dr. Keith Yandall. Buddhism, like Hinduism is not monolithic. Buddhism is a religion of many nations and independent traditions which include dominant ethnic and national beliefs, and traditions accumulated from ancient folk beliefs.

But there are some common basics which include a reverence of its founder Gautama Buddha, goals of attaining nirvana through “enlightenment,” and denial of individual personhood, and reincarnation.

The two most prominent expressions of Buddhism are Theraveda (or Hinayana) Buddhism, and Mahayana Buddhism. Therevada means “teaching of the elders” and Hinayama means “lesser vehicle” and is also called “Southern Buddhism.” Mahayana means “greater vehicle” and is referred to as Northern Buddhism. Dr. Yandall provides an overview of the common beliefs plus a summary of some of the different understandings of belief within Buddhism, as well as a Christian response.

The third article, “Confucianism and Taoism: A Brief Summary and Biblical Appraisal” is written by Dr. Patrick Zukeran of Probe Ministries. He writes, “Confucius is considered the greatest of Eastern philosophers,” and his writings on civic duty, responsibility, morality and character became very influential in China. Confucianism is not a religion per se but is somewhat of an idol in Chinese communist culture because it promotes cultural achievement through science and equalized social classes.

The last group covered is Taoism which means the road or way to eternal truth. The movement has had a significant influence in the East, especially as blended into folk religions. Its influence in the West is most noticeably seen in the symbol and theology of the yin and yang.

For a more thorough understanding of intricacies of these religions and apologetic response may I recommend the following books (available through the Apologetics Resource Center):

Craig Branch is director of the Apologetics Resource Center, Birmingham, Alabama.