BRAHMANISM - RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF THE HINDUS CHARACTERIZED BY PANTHEISM
Brahmanism like Christianity teaches that there is only one true God. Unlike Christianity it teaches that God IS the universe, the earth, the plants, the animals, and even us. That’s right, they don’t believe God created it all, they believe God is all. Their god is called Brahman, which is the name Americans have given to the cattle from India that is sacred to them, and a belief in Brahman is part of Hinduism (to be covered in the H’s).

The Brahmans hold the belief of animism - that all things have a spirit, and they consider many things sacred as a result. When you couple this with the belief that we come back in another animal form if we have not lived well enough, reincarnation, you have people who can’t help but be vegetarians for fear not only that they are eating God, but also that they might be eating grandma if they eat any animals.

There are a multitude of problems with this idea, but let us focus on just two. If this Brahman is God and we are all part of him, why don’t most of us know it? And, secondly, If we and all the universe are all God, how can there be evil, and more specifically, how can we be or do evil? As far as I know Brahmanism has never answered these two problems. The Brahmans, continue in their pursuit of living well enough that they will become literally part of Brahman and not have to come back to this life again. I guess the old saying, ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’ would certainly be their motto. Unfortunately, we only get one life in which to obey God. It seems that even though they say we are all supposed to be part of God, we must have some sort of amnesia, and can’t remember who we are. I don’t know how part of an all-knowing God could not know something that basic, but that is the logic behind Brahmanism. Secondly, the evil; most of the adherents to Brahmanism or its like have historically denied the existence of evil. Well, that’s easy enough, if you can’t explain it just deny it. As Christians, we understand that God often works so that even the evil is overcome with a good result, i.e. Jesus’ crucifixion, or trials that strengthen us. God and the Bible, however, never deny the existence of evil. How could anyone who has even heard of the planet earth, much less someone who lives here be so suckered in as to believe that there is no evil? It is clear to anyone who will examine the evidence that there is evil here. So, if the entire universe is God, or Brahman, and there is evil in the universe, then, Brahman must be at least partially evil. Ouch! I for one am glad that I am neither part of a god, nor do I serve a god that is evil. Let us praise the Creator, not the created. (Rom 1:22-25) “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, {23} And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. {24} Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: {25} Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

ANIMISM - BELIEF THAT OBJECTS CONTAIN SOULS

At one time or another all of us have probably given inanimate objects  human characteristics. I know I have complained about how my computer  doesn’t like me, or how a chair moved into my way causing me to stub a toe.  Yes, we all do this, in literature it is referred to as personification and  even the greatest of writers use it. Hopefully we realize that those things  are not even alive, much less human and couldn’t possibly do the things of  which we are accusing them.

There are, however, people in the world, in this country, and probably even  some in the church who believe that objects or plants or animals have souls  and will be in heaven (though interestingly enough, never in hell). Many  people who believe in the doctrine of animism will often make statements  about how precious all life is, and we don’t argue that. They will go on to  equate the life of an animal or plant with that of a human, and there we  must draw the line. While it is true that we should never take any life;  plant, animal, or human needlessly as good stewards of God’s creation, we  must also realize that it was God himself who proclaimed man’s value to be  superior to that of any other of his earthly creations.

I heard a news report a few years ago about a boy who was lost in the woods  for quite some time. When the boy was finally located the rescue chopper  couldn’t land because he was in a part of the forest where some endangered  species lived and the landing could have harmed them. Fortunately, the boy  survived after rescuers hiked in to get him, but his life was needlessly  endangered to save an animal’s life. Only a few weeks ago people threw a  tantrum when police had to shoot and kill an elephant which had killed its  trainer and escaped from a circus. The animal was wreaking havoc around the  city and threatening other lives, and after failing to capture the animal  without harming it they had no choice but to protect innocent people.

Jesus compared a human with a soul to all of the material world and asked  the question, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,  and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”  (Mat 16:26). Objects living or otherwise that are not human do not have  souls, and are of less value than one human’s soul. Certainly we need to  respect life and all that God has created, but we have to remember the  eternal difference between humanity and the rest of creation.

ANIMALISM - DRIVEN BY PHYSICAL DESIRES RATHER THAN SPIRITUAL OR INTELLECTUAL

Don’t we all struggle with this from time to time? Paul explains his  struggles with the flesh in Romans 7. While we must continue in our fight  against the ‘animal instincts’ or carnal desires that we have and even  though we can never condone sinful behavior or attempt to excuse it based on  these universal desires, isn’t it comforting to know that even the apostles  had similar struggles? Some of my favorite scriptures are the ones where  Peter says or does something foolish and has to be rebuked by the Lord. I  don’t like them because I want to make fun of Peter or laugh at his  mistakes, but they are my favorites because they give me hope that I too can  be a great servant to God even though I constantly make mistakes. They also  give me hope that I can overcome those tempting desires and foolish human  thoughts.

More and more, Christians are giving in to the humanistic mind-set that we  are just animals and we can’t control some of our behaviors. “Teenagers are  going to have sex it is just a natural fact” or “I can’t help it, I am just  made that way”. Sound familiar? All too often, we Christians fall for this  palaver. We excuse or at least rationalize all sorts of sins based on these  faulty premises. Instead of giving up and giving in, we need to remember  that Paul, who struggled with this as much as we do, said there was one way  to overcome this and any other sin. (Phil 4:13) I can do all things through  Christ which strengtheneth me.

Well, there you have it you have the choice to try in vain to conquer these  temptations on your own, or you can successfully do it through Christ. I will be praying that you  make the right choice.

In Matthew 27:3-4 we read the following: "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, {4} Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that." If we look we can see the attitude that many have toward those they have seduced into sin. The chief priests and elders mentioned in verse 3 are the ones who had given Judas the 30 pieces of silver in the first place. They were only interested in getting Jesus and killing Him. They didn’t care how or at what cost, and certainly didn’t care about His innocence. They didn’t care who else got hurt in the process as long as Jesus was dead at the end of it.

Judas was different, and didn’t really want Jesus dead. He was greedy and a thief who had stolen money out of the money bag that he kept for Jesus and the apostles (John 12:5-6). This greed possibly combined with some other motive that we are not told of drove Judas to betray Jesus to the Pharisees. But it is apparent from Matthew 27:1-4 that Judas did not realize that Jesus was going to be killed. When he “saw that he(Jesus) was condemned, repented himself” and he tried to take the money back. We don’t know what Judas thought they were going to do to Jesus, but he should have realized their intentions were to kill Jesus because the disciples had talked with Jesus about that very thing on earlier occasions (John 11:8,16; Matthew 16:21-22; Matthew 17:22-23).

Many people get caught up in something not realizing what the final outcome will be. Most of the criminals on death row never imagined that they would end up dying over the choices that seemed so insignificant at the time they were made. We need to learn from Judas Iscariot the importance of looking before we leap. It is true that we can’t always know what consequences may follow, but we should examine the possibilities as much as possible.

The biggest lesson we need to learn here is that those who help entangle us in sin usually couldn’t care less what happens to us. A boy gets a girl pregnant and then disappears from her life after he had enticed her by telling her how much he loved her. A group of troublemakers convinces a newcomer to do something illegal to become part of the group, but when the sirens sound it is everyone for himself. There are a dozen other scenarios of this kind that we could mention, and some probably happened to you or someone you care about. These people don’t really care about anyone but self. They are vampires who use people and suck them dry and then leave them for dead and move on to someone new. The chief priests and elders that Judas dealt with were just like that. When he came to his senses and realized that innocent Jesus was going to die because of him and tried to go back and make things right, did they care? Of course not they had gotten what they needed from him. There response says it all, “What is that to us?” What do we care? So what? That’s not our problem. You deal with it. Don’t bother us. Sound familiar?

When will we learn to quit following this kind of person and follow Jesus instead. Judas made a fatal mistake when he switched his allegiance. Don’t make the same mistake he did. It cost him his life and his soul. If only he had come back to Jesus for forgiveness instead of to those who were involved with him in the sin.

Last time we determined that man is in fact of greater value than a sheep or any other animal for that matter. We looked at some of the reasoning for that conclusion beginning with the way Jesus asked the question. We also discussed briefly the impact that the teaching of evolution has had on this type of value comparison. But just saying man is better doesn’t really answer the question. Jesus asks them ‘How much’ better a man is. When someone is using logic to reason there are certain things that are taken as assumptions. In other words, there is a common understanding that must exist before the argument can be made. In this case there are several assumptions that Jesus has made before asking the question. He assumes that the group knows what a man is and knows what a sheep is, and more importantly he assumes that the people all accept as fact that a man is better than a sheep. His question wouldn’t make sense otherwise. So, if we get to the point where we can agree that man is better than a sheep (or another animal), then we can begin to deal with the actual question.

If you had to put it into dollars what would you say? How much is a sheep worth? How much is a man worth? Different people will give different answers to the question, and, of course, if he could a sheep would probably disagree with the assumption that man is better. How can we even begin to determine which is better or of greater value and by how much? There is only one standard that Jesus was considering at the time in question. It wasn’t how many good things they were each capable of or how many evil things either. A sheep can do wonderful things like providing wool for clothing or meat to save someone from starving. That is no less than many men do, and some men never do that much good. Jesus was not basing his question on this. If we base it on how much evil one had done compared to the other, then we would probably agree with the sheep that he is better than man. No sheep ever stole or murdered or abused little ones. This is certainly not the basis Jesus used.

Jesus is not comparing their actions or their thoughts or anything of that sort, because if that were the case we could all point to people, like Hussein, who are so awful that many don’t believe they deserve to live. In fact, Jesus himself spoke of some of these in Matthew 18:6, and said that it would have been better for Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him, if he had never been born in Mark 14:21. Jesus is instead referring to something about the fact that a man is a man. There must be something about being a human being that gives us greater value. There must be something of intrinsic value in the human race. But what?

What separates us from the animal kingdom? It is not a physical feature like our hands: raccoons and other animals have similar structures. It is not our ability to use tools: monkeys can learn to do that. It is not our ability to communicate: many animals communicate with each other and some like parrots have even been taught to talk, count, and distinguish colors and shapes. It is not our intelligence: some people are born mentally handicapped or become so through disease or accident, but we still consider them human. It is not our emotions: animals get angry, sad, happy, etc. just like we do. We have covered any argument the evolutionist could use and rejected them all. No wonder they don’t understand that man is better than the animals. There is only one thing that truly separates man from animal and it can’t be seen or tested or examined by science or the five senses. Every human being no matter how high or low the intelligence, no matter how physically capable or incapable, no matter how good or evil; every single one of us has a soul.

Even though someone recently tried to auction off his soul on the internet, the fact is that just one soul is of greater value than all of the sheep that ever have and ever will live on the earth. Jesus asked another question in Matthew 16:26, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” The answer is simply ‘nothing’. Did you know you were that valuable? Do you really believe you are that valuable? If we would spend our time trying to understand what Jesus wanted us to see in the question he asked in Matthew 12:12 maybe we would not take so many risks with our lives and especially our souls. If we come to grips with our value as humans created in the image of God with a soul that will continue for eternity, then, maybe we will stop selling ourselves for drugs, alcohol, money, cars, houses, etc. Next time we ask “what will you give in exchange for your soul?”

That might seem like a silly title to you, in fact, you may think it is a stupid question. Before you judge it too harshly you might want to know that it is a question that Jesus asked in Matthew 12:12. Surprised? Of course we should realize that Jesus knows the answer to the question. He is not asking out of his need for knowledge, but as with most (possibly all) of the questions he asked in the Bible he is making those around him think about the answer to the question. If Christ thought it was something worthy of their time and attention then it would seem that the question is worthy of our consideration as well.

First let’s see why Jesus was dealing with this subject. (Matthew 12:9-14 KJV)  "And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: {10} And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. {11} And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? {12} How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. {13} Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other. {14} Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him." The Pharisees of Jesus’ time believed, practiced, and taught the wrong thing about the value of things. The law of Moses under which the Jews lived at the time of Christ was clear that no work was to be done on the sabbath. Some had gone so far as to say that you couldn’t even get out of bed or open your eyelids all day. You want to talk about hard work -- just try laying in bed with your eyes closed all day long. Those Jesus is with at this time didn’t go that far in fact Jesus claims that it was common for them to go get a sheep out of a pit on the sabbath. It is strange then that these same people wanted to destroy him for doing something similar but of a greater value when he healed a man on the sabbath. This was certainly not the only time the Pharisees fought with Jesus over doing good on the sabbath. Jesus is trying to show there hypocrisy and convince them to reevaluate there doctrine about this topic.

See, the Pharisees had foolishly placed the good of a sheep above the good of a man. Does that sound like anything people today would do? Since Jesus asks ‘how much’ better the man is, then we must believe that Jesus believed that man was better than a sheep. We live in a confused world today. You could probably find thousands, maybe even millions or billions, who believe that man is no better than an animal. Evolution, the belief that man is nothing more than an animal that has developed special skills and abilities over millions of years, is being taught as a fact to our children as young as 5 or 6 years old. Is it any surprise then that people are starting to act like animals? Some believe that is all we are. How sad. The Bible tells us that mankind was created by God in the image of God. How differently people who believe they are supposed to be like God act when compared with people who believe they are supposed to be like the animals.

It is disturbing how truly mixed up some people are. There are places where fat cows walk around in complete safety while people are starving to death refusing to eat the food available because the cows are sacred to them. I wonder if it would even change them if God Himself spoke to them and told them to rise, kill, and eat like he told Peter (Acts 10:13-16). I remember a case a few years back where a child was lost in the forest. The rescuers in a helicopter found him, but weren’t allowed to land and save him because of a fear that the wind and noise from the helicopter would harm the ecosystem in the area. Meanwhile a lost child was facing the possibility of death. We have people who will risk their lives to try to save a whale or manatee or some other animal. We are definitely supposed to care for the world God has given us and not be wasteful of life of any kind, but we must remember that only humans have an eternal soul and are, therefore, more valuable than any other creature on earth even if it is the last of its kind.

I remember the wisdom of a judge in Arkansas who was dealing with a wreck where a man claimed it was caused because he had dodged a dog. He had in the process damaged property, endangered his life, and endangered others. The judge said, “I don’t mean to be cruel, but next time hit the dog.” Hopefully, none of us would ever go out and intentionally run over dogs, but if there was a choice to be made between the safety and health of ourselves and our families and the life of a dog wouldn’t we make the right choice? To be Continued.