Christianity & Religions
Religion is difficult.
There are thousand of books explaining concepts, creeds, and theories of Buddhism, for example. It is true that that the Buddha did not tell everything written in those books. Yet it is believed that he told many profound and essential things to his followers. (In this context the Buddha must have delivered 100 times more words while living than Christ Jesus did.) Nonetheless, the Buddha did not deliver lengthy words on each occasion that he guided an ordinary person. One teaching is simple, though he issued thousands of such teachings. After his death his followers edited and extended the contents of what the Buddha taught them. As time went by, the following generations of Buddhists built and formulated a great system of the philosophical religion of Buddhism. Accordingly the religion became so difficult. You have to be a dedicated expert to comprehend it, always learning it as there are so many books all of which you could not read in your life time.
But the story of Moses is simple: only the Ten Commandments. The story of Christ Jesus is more simple: just healing the sick, performing some miracles, and addressing teachings so as to promote faith in God. But after His death and resurrection, hundreds, thousands, and millions of books, documents, and sheets of paper were written by so many followers in various eras to expand the concept of His teaching, spirit, and dignity.
The story of the founder of Islam was also simple: he just relayed what he heard from Allah of His angels. Yet, those words have stood so much study and application by so many Muslims for almost 1400 years.
Of course, great thinkers of ancient Greece developed various and profound concepts which were partially reflected in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And mostly Europeans in these 2000 years extended these concepts in various ways around the Vatican. To comprehend them all, you need lifelong professional reading and thinking.
Yet ordinary people, namely an overwhelming majority of people, live and die without learning difficult religions or difficult theories of a religion. However, we should think that the great teaching of the Buddha, Moses, Christ Jesus, and Allah must reach them through various channels. If an ordinary person has never read a sutra, the Bible and other holy books, or the Koran, the essence of those great teachings must reach him or her through various channels of the whole society of mankind.
So, religion can be easy as much as you like it to be for yourself. Of course it can be as difficult as you liker it to be for yourself.
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There is a very difficult point in Christianity.
Moses was not God, which everybody knows. The Buddha was not God, which everybody knows. The founder of Islam was not Allah, which everybody knows. But Christ Jesus was and is God.
It is extremely difficult to understand why so many clever men and wise people in various fields of Europe, Americas, and so on have accepted the assertion that Christ Jesus was and is God.
In Japanese shintoism, a hero, a soldier, or even an ordinary person can be a god after his or her death. But, it was a very exceptional situation that an emperor was said to be a living god in an extreme era, such as during the war against the U.S. in the 20th century. Or conversely, a god can take a form of a man or a woman in shinto. And is the assertion of Christianity on the extent of this Japanese religious paradigm: God became a man, Christ Jesus?
To understand and explain it is very very difficult. You may say it is not a matter of commonsense or science but of faith. Yet, I think it not only is a matter of faith but also should be a matter of commonsense and science, since human commonsense and science are products of work of human mind being supported by human spirit and a human soul.
And, I think the most important and greatest secret in the human history over these 2000 years lies in this issue: To understand and explain how Christ Jesus was and is God.
The key to solving this question might be, of course, love, since Christ Jesus simply told to love God with all of your heart and might.
Put simply, we might have to say, first, that that Christ Jesus is God can be understood and explained based on and through love, that is, love to God. The answer should be in love is always true and real for human beings.
[to be continued...]
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Mar 3:31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
Mar 3:32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.
Mar 3:33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?
Mar 3:34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Mar 3:35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.