Christianity and Buddhism

[TonyChanYT]

Leviticus 26:

1 You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.

Buddhism requires you to bow down before what a Christian think is an idol. No idol worship in Christianity.

 

[Randy Kluth]

Leviticus 26:


Buddhism requires you to bow down before what a Christian think is an idol. No idol worship in Christianity.

Reading about Buddhism many years ago I actually had a certain amount of respect for that system. It may have been somewhat absent of dogmatic religion to start with, focusing on right behavior--a kind of practical application of Natural Law. However, I think that over the years Buddhism unfortunately became more tied to idolatry. If it was originally a reform movement, and somewhat iconoclastic, in the end it surrendered to the forces of pagan religion.

 

[Jay Ross]

In ancient time the Arian race, Abraham's third wife's family, was sent away by Abraham before he died towards the east and many of them entered into India. The fundamentals of the Arian religion had been taught to them by Abraham and they only worshipped one God. Their temples had no idols within them. Some 1,500 or so years after they had left the Land of Canaan, a Persian King decided that he should be worshipped in every temple within His empire, so he had made statues of himself and sent them to every temple within His empire commanding that His idol be worshiped. It is recorded in the Book of Ester that the King of Persia had dominion over the Indus and Ganges river valleys.

In the Ganges River valley, near where Buddha lived, he objected to the Statue being placed in their temple and having to worship it. Buddha sort to connect with the God of their Temple, with fasting and meditation, but he had no idea as to how he should communicate with the God of their temple and when he had not been able to make contact with God, he concluded that there was no God to worship, and he taught accordingly. Much of Buddhism draws on the writings of the Wisdom literature of Israel. Hinduism also draws on the literature of Israel as well. Within Nepal, the story is often told that Budda's enlightenment was with a young girl servant who had been sent give him food. But that is a dubious storyline that is used by some to put Buddhism down.

With the establishment of the worship of the Persian King, in the initial Hindu Temples, led to the introduction of many Gods within Hinduism. It is common for Hindus to anoint a rock or other feature of the landscape with red ochre and build a shrine around the said item. This was a recorded practice of Abraham and Jacob. This is why Hinduism and Buddhism claim the roots of their religions go back to Abraham at least.

I hope that this helps peoples understanding of the back story of both Hinduism and Buddhism.