Posted on 02/22/2010 2:10:33 PM PST by truthandlife
The saddest part of the Tiger Woods statement last Friday was his public announcement of his Buddhist faith. Woods mother is from Thailand and a Buddhist. Woods claimed that he has been a practicing Buddhist all of his life, though strayed from its' teachings years ago, helping to lead him to make the choices that caused his downfall. Sadly for Tiger, even if his marriage is restored, he goes on to win a hundred more golf tournaments, ends up winning more majors than Jack Nicklaus, and earns 5 billion dollars over his lifetime, when he takes his last breath he will end up losing the most important thing of all, HIS SOUL!
You see my friend, contrary to the popular universalistic lie that there are many roads leading to God, there is only one. That is faith in Jesus Christ. Why Jesus? Because Buddha didn't die for the sins of mankind, Jesus did! Following Buddha may help Tiger Woods stay faithful to his wife, but it will lead his eternal soul to the flames of hell with no escape. He won't be able to hold a press conference and escape the eternal horrors of hell. One of the major beliefs in Buddhism is karma. Karma originated from the false Hindu religion and has been adopted by other false religions like Buddhism and the various New Age philosophies. It literally means deed or act, and more broadly names the universal principle of cause and effect that governs all life. The basic teaching of karma is that for every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant depending on whether the first event was pleasant or unpleasant. Karma is a philosophy that has NO basis in truth, and to be perfectly blunt, is a load of cow manure.
I have told you over and over how satan is the great perverter. Satan takes the perfect things of God and perverts them. He takes the truth of God and turns it into a lie. The TRUTH from God’s Word where the perverted lie of karma comes from is the law of sowing and reaping. We first read about it in Genesis 1:11. The foundation of the law of sowing and reaping was in agriculture. You plant seed into the ground, and in time that seed will produce a crop. This law of sowing and reaping also translates into our spiritual lives as well. The key passage is from Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia where he tells them, “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” – (Galatians 6:8 NIV)
I share with you often how our rebellion to God brings consequences and our obedience brings blessings. When we choose to live our lives in disobedience to God’s Word; when we choose to sin, we are then left to deal with the consequences of our sinful choices. God is not going to bless your sin. However, when we choose to live our lives in obedience to God’s Word, when we choose to obey Him, we reap the blessings of God in our life. It is God’s good pleasure to bless His children, He loves to bless us and it is our obedience that unlocks the blessings of God in our lives. That my friend is NOT karma, it is God allowing the consequences of our sinful choices and the blessings of our obedient choices to occur.
The myth of karma is an attempt to explain what happens to us during our life APART from God. In this perverted lie from satan, God is not part of the process. That fact alone exposes this false philosophy since NOTHING happens in your life, in my life, in this world apart from God. God did not just create the world and then decide to go take a walk and come back and check on things later to see how they were progressing. GOD HAS A PLAN AND PURPOSE FOR EVERYTHING AND NOTHING HAPPENS OUTSIDE OF THAT PLAN AND PURPOSE.
This, of course, raises the question of why do we have all of the evil and horrible things that happen in this world and in people’s lives every day. As we have discussed in the past, the evil in this world stems from the hearts of men living their lives in rebellion to God. God has permitted the evil and sin in this world for these few years in His desire to see all men come to repentance and that none be lost. We know from reading the end of the Book, there is coming a day very soon when God will step in and wipe away this world as we know it and all sin and evil will cease to exist.
One of the key passages in the Bible to understanding the mind God is found in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” What God is saying is to quit trying to get into His head because you can’t. We simply do not have the ability to know or even begin to comprehend the mind of God. The fact is, there is no place in the Bible that says we are supposed to.
As humans, we have this insatiable desire to know “why,” and the fact is there are times in our life when we will not get the answer to that question. These are the times when our faith in God must become real and while we don’t know “why,” God has a plan and purpose for everything and we have to trust Him. The interesting thing I see in my life and the lives of others is that we never ask God “why” when good things happen to us, only the bad things. Take a moment and think on that one with me. When was the last time something wonderful happened in your life and you asked God “why?” Probably never. It is almost exclusively when the tragic things happen to us that we are asking God “why?”
I love you and care about you so much. As I have asked you in the past, keep praying for Tiger Woods to come to the knowledge of Christ's love and the truth of the Bible that clearly teaches there is only one name by which men are saved, the name of Jesus. Pray for his wife and children and the healing of this marriage and family. If Tiger would come to faith in Christ, it would be a great testimony of God's redemption and no doubt, would help lead many to Christ because of Woods still enormous impact on people worldwide.
Remember, there is no such thing as karma. It is a philosophy born out of the false religions to try and explain the things that happen in our life and is nothing more than a perversion of God’s law of sowing and reaping. Let me tell you something else that doesn’t exist, and that is LUCK. I know I am bursting many bubbles today but luck is a perverted concept of chance that doesn’t exist so take that word out of your vocabulary. The reason karma and luck don’t exist is that they operate apart from God and NOTHING happens apart from God! There is nothing that happens in your life apart from God and that is why we are totally dependent upon Him.
I will be praying for you today. Praying for the Lord to keep you focused on the fact that in this life, God is on His throne at all times. He doesn’t need to take bathroom breaks, He doesn’t need to leave to fix a sandwich, He doesn’t need to take a nap, OUR GOD NEVER SLEEPS NOR SLUMBERS AND HE IS ON HIS THRONE AT ALL TIMES!!! Nothing in this world or in your life happens apart from God allowing it to happen. God allows the consequences you have to deal with from your choices made in rebellion to Him, just like He blesses you for your obedience. That is NOT karma, it is God’s law of sowing and reaping found in His Word.
I said this on another thread, but practicing Buddhists don't throw adolescent temper-tantrums when things don't go their way. Tiger's on-course behavior was anything but "Zen" when he'd hurl club, or spew an obscenity-laced diatribe in anger.
I doubt he's ever been any kind of Buddhist, much less an observant one.
Read my post above. Buddhism is a joke. I’ve never met a Buddhist who wasn’t awfully dang certain of how they were smarter than anybody else, spouting off retarded BS (read “Bull Sh*t” not the letters) and calling it deep and spiritual.
Here is a koan for Tiger:
If you cheat on your wife with a porn star and your wife never finds out about it, was it cheating?
Now that he’s probably lost all his girlfriends *and* his wife, I think the following koan is fitting. Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?
He certainly didn't have to, but his wife my have told him to. She might be a little sick about hearing how she brained him senseless with a 9-iron, especially if it didn't happen but even if it did.
Our best is not enough. According to the Bible, our best is as filthy rags.
You said— “...you sort of misquote someone else’s Book.”
Just curious. What would have been the correct quote, and what Book is it from? Thanks.
““”is as frail and sinful as the rest of us””
Speak for thyself, John Alden.
As all Americans know, everyone is allowed one mistake. Having already made my one permissible mistake, I am thus assured that all my decisions in the future will correct.
What? Me worry!
There are too many pseudo-conservatives and secularists attacking Christianity in this thread. The much-abused author of the article said nothing that is not firmly enshrined in the Bible.
If America dumps Christianity, vapid and soul-killing socialism will fill the void. Faith in Christ is central to the strength of our civilization, the health of our marriages, the destiny of our nation. If we smoke, drink and abort our way into a libertarian stupor, we become another enfeebled population-shrinking Europe, overrun by Muslim immigrants and sharia law and too weak to resist the crushing burden of big government.
i’m curious... when did that whole freedom of religion thing become freedom for one religion (Christianity) and piss on all the other religious beliefs in the world? i thought only islam did that crap.
"Behold! The Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." It's from Psalms. We are talking Hebrew here so other translations and word orders are possible. (I put Guardian of Israel before the verbs, but that phrase comes at the end of the verse.) But your putting sleep before slumber struck me as rather weird. I don't think I've ever heard it that way.
ML/NJ
I understand your feeling. The title is difficult and the opinion is very difficult to take if you are not a Christian. I think the main thing is that God of the Bible does not want to see anyone perish (2 Peter 3:9). The main difference between the God of Islam and the true God is that the true God gives us a free will choice. We can accept that Jesus came to give us life (John 10:10) and die for the sins of the world (1 Peter 2:24) or we can reject Him (Matthew 25:30). It is our choice and there are consequences of making that one choice. I hope for everyone to choose “life” ( John 3:16 — “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”)
I
Tiger Woods is a good golfer.
Beyond that, he is nothing more a phony illusion the media built up — and then covered — up for their own comfort and convenience.
In many ways he is just like Obama — only not as bad.
Obama doesn’t have enough class or character to confess his lies to the American people, and ask them to forgive him for wrecking the economy of this country.
When you tear down the illusion of Tiger Woods,
you still have one of he best golfers who ever played the game.
When the illusion of Obama is finally torn down, the ignorant sheep who voted for him will see that he has done NOTHING positive or constructive for this country, and they
will see him for the Radical Racist, Muslim Communist that he is.
The only person who must be happy Obama is such a horrible failure as a president is Jimmy Carter, because now Jimmy won’t be remembered as the worst president in history — only the second worst.
The biggest difference between Tiger Woods and Obama is the difference between disgust and anger.
Most decent people are disgusted with what Tiger Woods did and even more disgusted with the media obsession with investigating every bimbo in Tiger’s sordid story.
But anger is what most people feel over Obama’s total failure as a president and the failure of Pelosi and Reid to listen to the will of the MAJORITY.
Anger is what most decent people feel for lamestream media whores who failed to investigate Obama’s background and affiliation with racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright, unapologetic terrorist William Ayres, and Chicago real estate crook Tony Rezko.
But the lies and the arrogance of Obama, Pelosi and Reid are comin’ home to roost,
and judgment day is coming in November.
The Tea Parties were the Beginning of the BACKLASH.
And with every election, the BACKLASH builds.
The voters of Virginia elected Bob McDonnell first Republican governor in eight years.
The voters of New Jersey elected Chris Christie over
corrupt incumbent Democrat Gov. John Corzine
The voters of Massachusetts sent a loud and clear rebuke to Obama, Pelosi and Reid
when they picked Scott Brown to succeed the drunken disgrace of Teddy Kennedy.
I can’t wait for November when real American patriots take this country back
from the Democrat extremists and socialists.
i am a christian and i understand it perfectly. the right to freedom of religion is only valid (in some opinions) if it is christian. christians do not like having their beliefs belittled and their freedom to worship as they believe restricted and yet so many of them demand that other belief systems be restricted and call them a “cult”, a “sham”, or deride them as not being a real religion. sounds an awful lot like what islam teaches.
Matthew 7:1-3
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
“Our best is not enough. According to the Bible, our best is as filthy rags.”
And where does that logically leave us?
You left off the sarcasm tag. Right?
“...christians do not like having their beliefs belittled and their freedom to worship as they believe restricted and yet so many of them demand that other belief systems be restricted and call them a “cult”, a “sham”, or deride them as not being a real religion. sounds an awful lot like what islam teaches.”
Bears repeating.
There is a fundamental difference between American Buddhists and Asian Buddhists. American Buddhists are usually liberals looking to join some group with the latest fad. For Asians, it is part of their spiritual culture. What you say is true of the American Buddhists (liberals).
You are taking Matthew 7 out of context. The word “judge” is used in various ways in our culture. It can mean to discern between right and wrong or it can mean to decide what punishment ought to be imposed on a criminal or it can mean to presume to know the heart of another.
The Bible tells us we are indeed supposed to judge. We are to judge fellow believers (elders are supposed to do this) (1 Corinthians 5:12;14:29). In the future we shall judge the whole World (see 1 Corinthians 6:2) and even Angels! (see 1 Corinthians 6:3). The Apostle Paul instructed the Elders of the church at Corinth to judge a man guilty because he was seen living with his father’s wife (his stepmother) and to turn him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh (death/illness).
Biblically, we are also called to judge between who is a Christian and who isn’t (see 1 Corinthians 5:10). This means we have to be able to decide if someone is by definition, at any given moment of time (not finally), on their way to hell or not! How do I know that?
2 Corinthians 6:14 tells us that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers in marriage. If we can’t judge between who is saved and who isn’t, then we can’t get married. Obviously judging or discerning takes time and effort but it must, and should, be done.
Man looks upon the outward appearance but God looks at the heart (see 1 Samuel 16:7). This means that we must judge others by what we “see” which is not the same as by “outward appearance”. What does the Scripture say about this? Deuteronomy 17:6;19:15, Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1 and Hebrews 10:28 all speak of judging according to what human beings have “seen”. It is the law of witnesses upon which our whole penal/judicial system is based.
We don’t dare judge according to what things look like but what actually exists. If someone fails to invite you to a gathering it is judging wrongfully to assume that their motives in their hearts were bad. It would be wrong to think they harbor hatred inside toward you, or that they didn’t invite you because they envied you, or some other unlovely motive.
Too often humans infringe on the divine prerogative of God by assuming they know what someone else is thinking and what motivates them. If you insist on putting a bad motive on them and treating them accordingly, you are violating “judge not lest you be judged. and are judging “before the time” (see1 Co.4:5) You must “judge not according to the appearance but with righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
This doesn’t mean that we are left without a clue about what goes on inside of people. The murderers of the Christian martyrs of Columbine High School showed their malicious intent by their deeds and their words. We can look into their hearts only a little by what the witnesses said about them. These evil ones asked if the people believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and then shot them dead! We can properly judge that these two murderers were full of hate for Christians. “By their fruits ye shall know them” and the produce of their lives was rotten! Again, we can only tentatively draw these partial conclusions based upon testimony of “two or three witnesses.” God alone knows the full story.
God alone can finally, and with total authority, pronounce eternal damnation on a soul. We can only look upon the outward appearance and draw conclusions based on witnesses and the fruit of people’s lives.
Nobody should presume they know that they are 100% certain that anyone else is in hell. However, I would rationally draw the conclusion that Adolf Hitler and the two murderers in Columbine are tucked away in eternal torment because they killed others and themselves. 1 John 3:15 tells us that “no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” If their last fruit displayed on earth was to murder themselves then it is highly likely they are in the place of torments right now! I am 99% sure of this. It is only my fallible opinion and I could be wrong. God will decide finally at the Great White throne!
Needing salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (KJV)
As you can see, the Son of God said it, not a frail, sinful human being. There is no way, truth or life that does not come from the one and only living God. All other gods are false, no matter how nice or comforting they sound. To reject the Son is to reject both the Father's and the Son's sacrifice to pay for our sins. God gave us free will and it's up to us to not choose death over life.
Every human being on the face of the planet will go to the lake of Fire for all eternity, unless there is something to satisfy the judgment of God which is righteous, not scarred by any human nature in us. Only one name under heaven is provided for us to be saved. BTW, there is no reincarnation, only one life with body and soul, then the first death, then the Judgment, then either an eternal destiny in the Lake of Fire or with God by His Will.
Guess who that might be. (Hint: it isn’t Krishna or Hindu or Buddha, but it is a man who is perfectly righteous and also the Son of God, who has been resurrected and sits today on the right hand of the Father in Heaven awaiting His enemies to be made a footstool beneath His feet.)
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