HINDUISM
All the people in ancient times worshipped many gods and they had their temples of worship and also shrines set up in their homes where they placed their own set of family gods; idols made of wood, metal and stone. The worship of many gods we refer to as paganism and the followers we call pagans. Then Jehovah God spoke to Abram in Ur of the Chaldees and told him to stop his idol worship and come worship the one true God and be the father of God’s chosen people. For several thousands years the Jewish people were the only people in the world who worshipped one God. All the rest were pagan peoples worshipping many gods. In modern times that script has flipped. All the current world religions, save one, worship one god and in each religion their one god is exclusive; meaning salvation and heaven is their sole domain and all the people of other religions are going to hell. It’s that way with Christianity and with Islam, the two largest religions in the world.
You’ve heard the saying, “a rose by any other name is still a rose.” Hinduism is just the politically correct term we use today for what is essentially “paganism.” Hindus are really nothing more than pagans. Pagans of the ancient world worshipped a whole pantheon of gods, as do the Hindus of today. Hindus worship a thousand different gods. Each Hindu chooses their own set of major and minor deities they worship in their temples as well as personal shrines they set up in their homes. Hindus will be the first to tell you that Hinduism is not a religion but a, “way of life.” Just as the word paganism doesn’t refer to any particular religion but to a collection of peoples who worship many gods, the word Hinduism is not really a religion but refers to a collection of peoples who also worship many gods. You can call yourself a Hindu and worship one god, many gods or no god at all.
Hinduism is the name we give to a vast and diverse family of religions that started some time between 600-300 BC and then evolved into what we have today. Hinduism is a collection of diverse systems of thought with a range of philosophies, practices, rituals and shared concepts. Hinduism is a religious smorgasbord, a buffet, where you can pick out what you want to believe, what gods you want to worship and in what manner. Hinduism is a hodgepodge of religious beliefs built up over several thousand years, primarily because there is no one founder of Hinduism. Hinduism doesn’t have a religious hierarchy, no governing body and no holy book to follow. Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion with over one and a quarter billion followers scattered over the whole world.
India has 1.3 billion people, 79% of which are Hindus. Hinduism is the state religion of India. In Indian law Hinduism is defines as, “acceptance of the Vedas with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse and the realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large.” Vedas are the Hindu sacred scriptures of universal truths developed over the centuries by the followers of Hinduism and accepted by the faithful. Hinduism is also the most widely professed faith in Nepal and Mauritius. Hinduism is the second fastest growing religion in the world (17% yearly) behind only Islam. Hinduism is attractive to the secular, humanist world because it is all things to all people. Hindus are free to believe anything they want to, worship any god they choose and in any manner they desire and they have a thousand gods to choose from. When you have a thousand gods you have no God.
I can kind of understand the pagans in ancient times worshipping multiple gods because people back then were superstitious, there was no reading or writing of any kind and knowledge of the world was very limited. They just didn’t know any better. The Hindus, on the other hand, have no excuse for not knowing God. With the knowledge explosion we have today the Hindus have no excuse for their pagan worship practices. Jehovah, the one true God, has made himself known by the universe he created and he has provided us with his written Word, our Holy Bible. Does anyone in this day and age really believe there are thousands of gods out there? Give me a break! A child could figure that out without help.
The Hindu concept of god is complex and depends on each individual and the particular tradition and philosophy followed. Hinduism is sometimes referred to as henotheistic, which means devotion to a single god while accepting the existence of other gods. Hinduism has no central doctrinal authority and many practicing Hindus do not claim to belong to any particular denomination or tradition. Hinduism has four main denominations, each with a main god or gods they worship and there are at least eight other major deities. Hindus have at least six major philosophies and are free to mix and match whatever philosophy they want to apply to whichever god they choose to worship. The religious tent of Hinduism is very large and it covers a wide spectrum of religious beliefs. You could even be an atheist if you wanted to and still claim to be Hindu, with your own set of traditions you establish and follow. Hindus in general believe the soul is indestructible so they see death as insignificant with respect to the cosmic self. Life is cheap. Within Hinduism, some schools expect eternity in heaven. Others expect their souls to become one with Brahman and the universal soul. Still others see all humans evolving into a perfect state of being.
Four main denominations of Hinduism:
1. Vaishnavism – Hindu believers who mainly worship the god Vishnu (67.6%).
2. Shaivism – Hindu believers who mainly worship the god Shiva (26.6%).
3. Shaktism – Hindu worshippers who worship the goddess Shakti (3.2%). Hindus have the strongest presence of the divine feminine in world religion from ancient times to the present.
4. Smartism – Hindus who equally worship all three of the god listed above along with at least three other main deities (Ganesha, Surya and Skanda).
Hindus tend to break society down into classes, which is why the caste system still exists in India today to some degree. Classical Hindu thought accepts four proper goals in life:
1.Dhama – (religiousness, ethics) – The foremost goal of Hinduism. The “right way of living” by pursuing all that is good, virtuous and right in the world.
2. Artha – (livelihood, wealth) – The virtuous pursuit of wealth for livelihood, obligation and economic prosperity. This is one reason Indian nationals are such good businessmen.
3. Moksa – (liberation, freedom from samsara) – Liberation from sorrow, suffering, and the birth-rebirth cycle. Most Hindus believe in reincarnation and you return based on what you did in your previous life. So if you’re a bad person you could die and come back as a cow? Since cows are dumb as a rock how on earth can you be a good cow and go back up the ladder to become a person again? Reincarnation is just a crock of BS! Don’t even waste time considering it. The Bible is clear that everyone is appointed once to die and then the judgment.
4. Karma and samsara – (action, work or deed) – This is the Vedic theory of, “moral law of cause and effect.” A person’s present circumstances as it relates to actions in the past life. This cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth is called samsara. We refer to it as reincarnation.
Hinduism is an anything goes religion. There is no eternal punishment for sins committed in the flesh so adherents feel free to do anything to anyone and it’s okay. While Hinduism talks a good game about virtuous living, in reality that is just talk with no action. Hinduism is so diverse there is no central moral thread of decency to pull society together. We see that in India today where there is no sense of individual or national moral outrage when twenty men who don’t know each other can get together and rape a helpless woman in the back of a city bus and then go about their business afterwards without any feelings of shame or fear of legal reprisal. We also see that Hindu mindset in India when every year over a thousand young women are set on fire and killed by their husbands or their husband’s family because they want to either divorce them or get rid of them so they can remarry to get another dowry price. There’s no shame by any of these Hindu perpetrators and Hinduism doesn’t prescribe any societal repercussions for such actions. Nobody in India gets prosecuted for burning someone to death and that’s morally repugnant.
Only in India could you have something as evil as the Hindu caste system exist and flourish where people are permanently born into a certain class of society and never allowed to better themselves. And then we have the spectacle of over 300 women in India getting sulphuric acid thrown in their faces every year which permanently disfigures them and sometimes even kills them. All done by Hindu men, usually angry husbands or spurned suitors or lovers. Nobody is prosecuted for these heinous crimes of passion so people keep on doing it every year because they can get away with it. There’s no shame and no accountability. Where is the moral outrage of the nation? Where is the punishment?
In summary, Hinduism is not a religion. Hinduism is just a politically correct name we use today for what we once referred to as “paganism”. Hindus are pagans who worship a number of different gods (upwards of 1000) with idols made of wood, stone and metal. Hinduism has no established spiritual truths, no doctrinal authority, no holy book and no one founder. Hinduism lets believers believe in one god, numerous gods or no god at all. Hinduism lets believers set up their own religious rituals and practices as they see fit. Hinduism is a no-fault religion because there is no penalty for sinful living. Everyone does what’s right in their own eyes, which is what God said would happen.
Whenever you hear the word Hindu from now on just say to yourself “pagan” and you’ll have the right perspective. Jehovah God is the one true God and creator of all. God’s first commandment to man was, “You shall have no other Gods before Me.” The Hindus have thousands of false gods before God’s face. God’s second commandment to man was, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image – any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” Hindus have idols of wood, metal and stone set up in their home shrines.
Let me translate that for you. If you’re a Hindu worshipping false gods then the true God, Jehovah, will take that to mean you hate him. If you hate God you’re an abomination in the Lord’s sight, which means God hates you back. Those who hate God, and those whom God hates, will be resurrected bodily to stand in judgment before the Great White Throne of Jesus Christ on the last Day. That means these haters of God ( all nonbelievers) will be grabbed by an angel of God and physically thrown into the lake of fire forever. A thousand billion years is just the blink of an eye in eternity. There’s still time to change your eternal destination as long as you have a breath in you but you need to hurry and act right now before it’s too late. You’re only a heartbeat away from finding out what I’ve been telling you is true. You’ve been warned, which is all I can do. I’m a watcher on the wall and I consider it my duty to speak the truth of God to all who will listen. The rest I leave up to you. For those who have ears, let them hear! For those who have eyes, let them see! Amen.
Isaiah 45:5 – I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me.
Isaiah 46:9 – Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
Joshua 24:23 – Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel.
Isaiah 45:22 – Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Hosea 13:4 – Yet I am the Lord your God…there is no Savior besides Me.
Isaiah 32:11 – I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior.
Psalm 95:6 – Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.