Basic
Worldview:
104
Why Christianity?
Conceptual
Comparison of
Mystical Religions to Judeo-Christianity
Judaism
and Christianity Introduction and History
History
of Judaism Continued
Scholarly
Objections and Historicity of Daniel (P. 1)
Historicity
of Daniel (P. 2) & Judeo-Christian Syncretism
A
Few Words on Gnosticism
Christianity
- A Sect of Judaism (P. 1)
Christianity
- A Sect of Judaism (P. 2) & Prophecy in Judaism
Is
Jesus the Jewish Messiah? (P. 1)
Is
Jesus the Jewish Messiah? (P. 2)
List
of Messianic Qualifications & the Resurrection of Jesus
(P. 1)
The
Resurrection of Jesus (Part 2)
Study
Conclusions and Overall Comparisons
Additional
Material
The
Sufferings of Eyewitnesses
Comparison
of Mystical Religions to Judeo-Christianity
Rabbinical
Judaism Accepts Christian Interpretations (P. 1)
Rabbinical
Judaism Accepts Christian Interpretations (P. 2)
Rabbinical
Judaism Accepts Christian Interpretations (P. 3)
Rabbinical
Judaism Accepts Christian Interpretations (P. 4)
Rabbinical
Judaism Accepts Christian Interpretations (P. 5)
Rabbinical
Judaism Accepts Christian Interpretations (P. 6)
Introduction | Section 1
| Section 2 | Section
3
NOTE: The following overview was designed to start with the
basic common elements of mysticism, show how Christianity
gives the opposite answer on all those eight points, and how
all other religions blend the answers given by the two, which
necessarily creates a self-contradiction since each answer
is logically connected to the preceding answers.
All Mystic Religions
(including Platonism, Gnosticism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,
etc.)
1. The "One," supreme, beyond, unknowable, inexpressible
2. Dynamic of being-nonbeing, going forth and return, individual
distinctness vs. the whole
3. Emanations from the "One" spanning an infinite distance
4. Cycle of rebirth (involving the acquisition of knowledge)
5. Definition of "salvation" (escape from the material world
below, from the cycle of rebirth, dissolution into the "One")
6. Means of acquiring salvation (through attaining knowledge
of these truths)
7. Means of acquiring knowledge (subjective)
8. Necessary vagueness of truth
NOTES:
A. Not only do the views of the world's mystical religions
all share these same essential traits, but because they all
shun specificity and adherence to or even the possibility
of fixed particular descriptions of the finer points, they
can be viewed as a single religious view.
B. These eight tenets can be seen as a series of eight questions
to which mysticism chooses a particular answer and then is
locked into a series of logically necessary tenets that follow
successively starting from the answer to the initial question.
C. Consequently, there is an internal linkage between each
former point and each successive point so that the earlier
points logically necessitate the later ones. To deviate in
one point is either to contradict the earlier tenets that
lead to it or to contradict the later tenets that flow from
it, resulting in the break down of the entire system.
D. The view expressed in the Judeo-Christian view can accurately
be described as the result of answering those same questions
in the opposite or alternate way. Therefore, the Judeo-Christian
view can be accurately described as the opposite or antithesis
to the tenets of mystical religion.
Judeo-Christianity
1. God is knowable and has made Himself known.
2. God is "being," having the power of being in himself as
the self-sustaining, eternal being. He is not nonbeing. He
is eternally distinct from all existence and all spirits (angels
and men) will remain eternally distinct from God and will
continue to exist eternally.
3. God is the immediate creator of all things with no intervening
series of emanations and no infinite distance between God
and the material universe.
4. Humans are born once and die once, not participating in
any cycle of emanation and return, but after death to face
God for judgment based upon how they responded to the clear
truth of God during their single life
5. Definition of "salvation" (escape from death through being
made physically immortal and allowed to participate in the
physical universe eternally with God who will later visibly
inhabit it).
6. Means of acquiring salvation (believing in the specific
things that God has said about himself and what he will do).
7. Means of acquiring knowledge (although revelation came
to individuals, objective proofs were always appealed to including
from the structure and form of the visible creation, from
prophecy, and from other supernatural phenomena and thus God
set objective evidence, preservation of his revelations, historical
records, and reason as the expected means for man to know
truth).
8. Truth is not vague but specific because it is what was
said by God in all his specificity and therefore it must be
preserved and adhered to with all diligence.
NOTES:
A. All other religions result from blending some of the
answers given of Judeo-Christianity with some of the
answers given by mysticism to one degree or another.
B. Due to the logical necessity inherent in how the first
answer dictates the rest of the answers in successive fashion
resulting in either one or the other of these two systems,
any religious system (including any form of Judeo-Christianity)
attempting to blend the two is logically self-contradicting.
Eight Questions
1. Is God knowable?
Mysticism: NO
Judeo-Christianity: YES
2. Is God ultimately distinct from us?
Mysticism: NO, all things participate in a dynamic
of going forth and return so that human beings and all things
will eventually lose their distinction be reassumed into the
"One"
Judeo-Christianity: YES, God is eternally distinct
from all other things and human beings and angels will eternally
remain distinct from God.
3. How does God connected to everything else and ultimately
this material universe?
Mysticism: A series of emanations (through the
dynamic of going forth and return) spans the infinite distance
from the "One" to us and the material universe.
Judeo-Christianity: God is the immediate creator
of all things, including this material universe.
4. What happens when humans die?
Mysticism: Through the dynamic of going forth and return,
humans participate in an eternal or nearly eternal cycle of
rebirth, during which they experience and increase in knowledge
of the nature of the universe and how the "One" relates to
everything else.
Judeo-Christianity: Humans remain dead and go to a
place of waiting as they wait the judgment of God to determine
what will happen to them for the rest of eternity.
5. What is the highest end that humans by nature must move
toward or attain?
Mysticism: Humans, being part of the emanations from
the "One" are by nature subject to the dynamic of going forth
and return. As such, their ultimate end is to escape the
material universe, escape the cycle of rebirth in which
they are bound to reemerge as individuals distinct from the
"One" and to ascend back to and be dissolved into the "One."
Judeo-Christianity: Human judged to have heard and
obeyed God's revelations are set free from death by God who
rewards them with physical immortal. As such they are allowed
to participate in the physical universe eternally with
God who will later visibly inhabit it.
6. How is that highest end attained?
Mysticism: By realizing the nature of the "One" and
the rest of these tenets of mysticism.
Judeo-Christianity: By believing and adhering to what
God has revealed about himself and what he's said he will
do.
7. How is knowledge, particularly of these things, attained?
Mysticism: By internal realization that is subjective
and not subject to outward or objective verification or
examination.
Judeo-Christianity: By the revelations given by
God himself (preserved in scripture) who gave them in
a form that involved verification through reason and objective
evidence that not only can all men verify but must acquiesce
to.
8. How much can we know with certainty?
Mysticism: Given the unknowable, inexpressible nature
of the "One" and his infinite "fullness" and "beyond-ness"
from us, it is not possible to describe truth with specifics
because all specifics remove or negate certain other statements
that could be made about the "One," which is both everything
and nothing, fit for and containing all descriptions and no
descriptions at the same time.
Judeo-Christianity: We can know many things with
absolute certainty and a great deal of specificity because
God has revealed much to mankind and inasmuch as he intended
to make it known, he also preserved it so that mankind could
know it.
