The Other Sacred Books
The Other Sacred Books Are there not other sacred books in the world? How do we know that our Bible is the truth and these books are false? Could it not be that we are wrong and they are right? Are not all sacred books on the same level anyway?" These and similar questions are asked sometimes by honest inquirers and many times by those who desire with this quibble to evade the force of what is known to be the truth. There are no sacred books which may be compared with the Bible. There are many, however, which may be contrasted with it. The Hindu Writings.
Hinduism arose in Northern India about 2,000 years before Christ and has produced a steady stream of literature from then until now. Its principal writings are: The Veda (or Rig-Veda) consisting of 1,028 hymns, teaching a simple and nearly monotheistic worship of nature; the Brahmas, which is a ritualistic enlargement of the Veda, formed to support the caste system and its arrogant exaltation of the priesthood; the Upanishads, a philosophic unfolding of the Veda; the Laws of Manti, a complete setting forth of the Hindu system; the Darsanas, or writings of the six philosophic sects of Hinduism--one being the worship of the very words of the Veda, another pantheism, etc. The epic poems, Ramayana and Mahabharta, are now included in Hindu sacred scripture and the hero of each poem is deified. The real authors of these Hindu writings are unknown but they were arranged in their present form about 1,000 B.C. They contain absurdities of the worst sort as for example the idea that Brahma, the "universal spirit", hatched out of a golden egg and from it formed heaven and earth, or that, Mahabharta, one of their gods, has sixteen thousand wives and one hundred and eighty thousand children. Of the teaching of the Veda this is the sum: "Your diseased condition proceeds from ignorance--ignorance that your real nature is one with God’s nature; that your soul is part of the one self-existent soul of the universe--is a portion of the one infinite Essence (Brahman) which delights in infinite manifestations of itself, yet imposes a kind of self-ignorance on every separate soul proceeding out of itself. Your only cure is to get self-knowledge; but, to gain it, you will go through countless penances, fastings, pilgrimages, purifications, in this life; and, after this life, to expiate your evil deeds in eight million, four hundred thousand forms of subsequent existences--in men, animals, and even plants. Then, at the end of long ages of discipline, you will become fit for reunion with the one self-existent Being whence you proceeded, and with whom you are really identified!" (Sir M. Monier-Williams.)
Snakes, antelopes, cows, monkeys and other animals are worshipped in India. Indeed, they are the reincarnations of human beings. Snakes may bite and kill and monkeys may strip bare the fields without fear of molestation. The deadly cobra is especially venerated. All travellers report the sacred cows to be a nuisance. This is but the growth of that background of darkness and superstition which Hinduism has brought. The foulest forms of obscenity are practiced in imitation of like deeds ascribed to their deities. There is no brotherhood of man in India. The goal of each individual is annihilation. Womanhood is degraded and child widows are the pity of the world. Until outside influence stayed its hand, Hinduism murdered female infants and burned widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands. There is scarcely anything barbarous which cannot truthfully be said about Hinduism. About the only good which can be found is the recognition that a Supreme Power exists and that He can reveal Himself to man. There is no evidence that the writings of Hinduism are inspired nor do they in any way compare with our Holy Bible. The Zend-Avesta of the Zoroastrians.
Zoroaster, celebrated sage of ancient Persia, was the supposed founder of the religion embodied in the Zend-Avesta. This religion is practically gone from its Persian home but lives with the Parsees of India who say that Zoroaster lived about 500 B.C. If he lived at all he probably lived much earlier. His very existence is a matter of doubt. Some of the oldest writings of the Zend-Avesta are said to date from 700 or 800 B.C. Originally there were about twenty-one books which flourished in Persia, India, Media and nearby regions. From the time of Alexander the Great these declined until now only about thirty or forty hymns remain. There are, perhaps, not more than 100,000 adherents of this religion remaining today. The Zoroastrians worship fire, water, the sun, the moon, and the trees. They teach that there is a perpetual conflict between good and evil, life and death, and a countless number of demons and angels contending for the mastery of the world. The faithful are said to pass over the "narrowed bridge" and "encouraged by their consciences" to enjoy unending bliss while the unfaithful fall off the bridge and are lost. Countless superstitions are encouraged. The whole religion is simply a "heap of rubbish" which indicates that once the founders of the religion may have had an idea of the truth but which shows that the depravity and superstition of man has corrupted it. The Confucian Texts.
Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, was born in 551 B.C. and lived until he was 72 years of age. He began to teach ancient literature, history and the principles of human duty when he was twenty-one years old. He compiled--not originated--the confucian texts in his old age and commentaries have been added by Mencius and other sages,
Confucius claimed to be only a man. His writings give a system of morality but can hardly be called a religion. He stated the golden rule in a negative form, viz., "What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others," but said he was unable to obey that rule. Confucius was never actually deified until the twentieth century but sacrifices and offerings have been made to him for many centuries. There is a Confucian temple in every district of China and most Chinese are Confucians. (In fact, most Chinese are adherents of two or three religions.) The idea of God is absent from the writings of Confucius, worship of emperor takes the place of God, women are placed in an inferior sphere, seven grounds for divorce are listed and polygamy is countenanced. A father is permitted to become a tyrant over his child. One of the tenets of Confucius--though seldom referred to--permits one to tell lies on certain occasions. This idea has left its mark on the 400,000,000 people of China, many of whom put it into practice. The system of Confucius, while it contains some good moral teaching, offers no hope beyond the grave and prevents no superstition or idolatry in this life. The Buddhist Writings.
Gautama (the Buddha) lived about 500 B.C. He was a member of a small military tribe in India but was of Persian origin. Early in life he claimed to have discovered that life offers nothing but vexation and separated himself from his family and began a life of lonely contemplation. While sitting under a tree in Bengal he claims to have attained perfect wisdom by extinction of all desires and passions both good and bad. Buddhists think the spot where this tree stood is the center of the earth.
Buddha "the enlightened one" himself wrote nothing but his teaching spread among the Mongolian races in much of India, China, Asia and Japan. His followers committed his teaching to writing and these writings are known as the "Tripitka" or triple collection because there are three divisions--Vimaya, containing rules of discipline; Sutra, containing precepts and rules of moral conduct; and Abbidharma, containing largely explanations of the precepts.
Buddha taught that all existence is hopeless misery. That this misery can be extinguished by going out of existence. This going out of existence is "Nirvana" and may be attained by right belief, right speech, right means of livelihood, right memory, right aspiration, right conduct, right endeavor and right meditation. A translation of Buddha’s first sermon is this: "Birth is suffering. Decay is suffering. Illness is suffering. Death is suffering. Presence of objects we hate is suffering. Separation from objects we love is suffering. Not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Clinging to existence is suffering. Complete cessation of thirst or of craving for existence is cessation of suffering." No one can write a more pessimistic speech!
Death is no escape from suffering according to Buddha as the spirit simply passes into a higher or lower form of existence as a clod of dirt, a toad, a plant, an animal, a slave, a woman, or a god, depending on the merit or demerit of the previous existence. The Buddha is said to have gone through every conceivable form of existence in water, in the air, in hell, on earth and in heaven. Buddha taught that finally one might be annihilated but that only three or four persons had ever attained this
Buddhism teaches that a soul set on attaining Nirvana should not converse with a female and "if his mother have fallen into a river, and be drowning, he shall not give her his hand to help her out, but if there be a pole at hand he may reach that to her; but if not, she must drown." Women are dishonored, marriage is scorned. Some passages in the Buddhist scriptures are so vile that they cannot be translated and printed in English.
While Buddhism has been enslaving the minds of millions with superstition and impressing them with the futility of existence, Christianity has been spreading hope and cheer and lifting people up to a higher plane of life in this present world and offering eternal late in the world to come. The Buddhists have seen the rapidity with which Christianity has spread throughout the earth and have attributed this to the miracles which Jesus performed and to his miraculous birth. Consequently, since the sixth century they have been busy inventing miracles which they claim Buddha performed and they have now begun to claim that Buddha was born of a virgin! The Koran, Code of Islam or Mohammedanism.
Mohammed, the celebrated false prophet of Arabia, was born in A.D. 570. He claimed to teach his followers the resignation to the will of God and that he was a successor to Abraham, Moses and Christ and, of course, greater than any of them. When a child he suffered from epileptic fits and all through his life was subject to hysteria. His mind contained a strange mixture of truth and error and he sought to unite Christianity, Judaism and heathenism into one religion.
Mohammed claimed to have received the "revelations in the Koran" from God. He said, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is His prophet." The Koran is a little smaller than our New Testament, contains 114 chapters and was originally written in musical Arabic. It relates many stories from the Old Testament and some from the New Testament, opposes idolatry, teaches the resurrection and judgment of all peoples; it teaches that Christ was born of a virgin, credits His miracles and holds Him as a forerunner of Mohammed. It pictures heaven as a gigantic harem where the "black-eyed daughters of paradise are held out as a reward to the commonest inhabitants." This religion has spread with the sword and its devotees robbed, plundered and spoiled all countries within reach. They made religion an exterior matter and exalted sensualism. Moslems are fanatical, self-satisfied, proud, intolerant and lacking in any degree of humility. They believe in a degree of fatalism unheard of in the Western world and this has made it possible for them to fight their wars. They believe the Koran should be read only in the original Arabic and do not like to see it translated into any other language. What good there is in this religion is far outweighed by its bad. The Bible Contrasted With These Books.
None of these books offers relief from suffering, while the Bible tells man of "a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God" and that it is possible to attain this reward; the Bible accounts are based on historical fact while the other books deal with imagined occurrences; the Bible teaches an inward change, the other sacred books teach only exterior religion; the Bible blesses little children, makes men strong, makes women pure and chaste, honors the aged and offers eternal life to all.
Conclusion. The Bible is so far superior to these other books that there is no comparison. Its purity, consistency, lofty ethics, and profound philosophy; its quickening of conscience, presentation of a divine Savior and offer of comfort, hope and inspiration in every time of trouble eyen death itself--leads us to conclude that it is the Word of God and that all other "sacred books" are uninspired and whatever good they may have is borrowed from the religion which the Creator revealed to His servants.