What Is A Roman Catholic Buddhist?

You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation, please stay with us.

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here is this week’s question:

Dear Dave and Tom: I have friends who are conservative Roman Catholics, and they just went through the experience of seeing their daughter become a Roman Catholic Buddhist. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms but it’s literally true. Since you both know a lot about Roman Catholicism, I wondered if you could give me some insights that I could share with them because they are quite shaken over their daughter’s conversion. This may be an opportunity to share the gospel with them as they are truly questioning their faith. Thank you for your help.

No, I am not.

Catholicism is a false religion that incorporates all manner of pagan customs into its practice.

But since you do not believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and instead believe in your man-made catechism and other non-biblical sources how could you ever know what is truth and what is not.

And as I posted earlier, all Catholics have to argue with is history, ignoring the fact that the bible is the sole support of the Christian faith and nowhere does it advocate meditation or mysticism or any other of a dozen pagan practices within Catholicism. See my previous post for the ways God reveals His will to a bible-believing Christian.

Eastern pagan religions were well known long before the 16th century. Now who is showing their ignorance. One eastern religion I can think of that was very well known before the 16th century is Islam. Muslims practice meditation.

http://www.islamicvoice.com/april.2000/dialogue.htm

Judaism is also another eastern religion and is referenced in the article below.

And the Egyptian cult of Isis, another eastern religion is also referenced in the article below.

I am sure that other bible-believing Christians like metmom, smvoice, daniel1212, cynicalbear, etc. can refute your statements better than I and speak to Hinduism and Buddhism, but I have made my point in regards to your silly comment that eastern religions were not known before the 16th century. They most assuredly were well known long before then and were even being practiced in the very place Catholics call home....Rome.

Eastern Religions in the Roman World

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/errw/hd_errw.htm

Roman religion, both by native instinct and deliberate policy, was widely inclusive, comprised of different gods, rituals, liturgies, traditions, and cults. Romans, considered by Cicero as the religiosissima gens (the most religious peoples), not only worshipped their own traditional Latin gods and associated divinities imported from the culturally respectable and authoritative world of their Greek neighbors, but often acknowledged the gods of peoples they otherwise considered to be quite alien (such as, for example, the Semitic Aphrodite of Mount Eryx). They even annexed the gods of despised enemies, such as Carthage’s Tanit-Caelestis, in a process of evocatio which assigned foreign gods Latin names. Between the late third century B.C. and the third century A.D., some eastern cults, such as those of Cybele (also known as Magna Mater), Isis, and Mithras, permeated the Roman world. These exotic cults differed from Judaism, another eastern religion, whose rites were “sanctioned by their antiquity” (Tacitus, Histories V.5) and which flourished throughout the Mediterranean world from the time of the Babylonian Captivity through the Roman diaspora and after. The cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras captivated Roman citizens with intriguing rituals and the promise of spiritual renewal in this world and salvation in the next.

Romans were particularly receptive to foreign cults at times of social upheaval, when old beliefs no longer provided answers to new uncertainties and fears. In 204 B.C., during the Second Punic War, the Romans consulted the Sibylline Oracles, which declared that the foreign invader would be driven from Italy only if the Idaean Mother (Cybele) from Anatolia were brought to Rome. The Roman political elite, in a carefully orchestrated effort to unify the citizenry, arranged for Cybele to come inside the pomerium (a religious boundary-wall surrounding a city), built her a temple on the Palatine Hill, and initiated games in honor of the Great Mother, an official political and social recognition that restored the pax deorum.

After Cybele and the foreign ways of her exotic priesthood were introduced to Rome, she became a popular goddess in Roman towns and villages in Italy. But the enthusiasm that accompanied the establishment of her cult was soon followed by suspicion and legal prohibitions. The eunuch priests (galli) that attended Cybele’s cult were confined in the sanctuary; Roman men were forbidden to castrate themselves in imitation of the galli, and only once a year were these eunuchs, dressed in exotic, colorful garb, allowed to dance through the streets of Rome in jubilant celebration (97.22.24). Nevertheless, the popularity of the goddess persisted, especially in the Imperial period, when the ruling family, eager to emphasize its Trojan ancestry, associated itself with and publicly worshipped Cybele, a goddess whose epithet, Mater Idaea, designated her as Trojan and whose cult was deeply connected with Troy and its origins.

Worship of the Egyptian mother goddess Isis was a popular alternative to the cult of Cybele (1991.76). By the middle of the first century A.D., with the political integration of the many lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean, the cult of Isis was transformed from a secret rite popular among the lower classes of Rome but not permitted within the sacred confines of the city, to a highly structured public cult closely associated with the emperors. During the reign of Vespasian, Isis was officially welcomed into the Roman pantheon, and a public temple within the sacred walls of the city was erected for her.

Although the cult of Isis, with its distinctive maternal and female characteristics, principally attracted women, the annual spring and autumn festivals held in her honor drew both sexes, of all classes, people celebrating different occasions and customs-springtime renewal, grief and joy. Plutarch describes the pervasive presence of the goddess and her exotic clothing: “the garments of Isis are dyed in rainbow colors, because her power extends over multiform matter that is subjected to all kinds of vicissitudes” (Isis and Osiris, 77).

Unlike the public rituals and processions dedicated to Cybele and Isis in Imperial Rome, the worship of Mithras was secret and mysterious. At the end of the first century A.D., the Iranian god Mithras, creator and protector of animal and plant life, began to appear in Italy, becoming especially popular with Roman legionaries, imperial slaves, and ex-slaves. Not limited to the class of soldiers, however, Mithraists could also be found in the circles of the imperial households. In the absence of Mithraic literature, evidence of the cult, its rituals, and customs comes from archaeological finds and depictions of the god.

The religion of Mithras was practiced in small groups, with ten to twelve participants. Initiates into this secret cult immediately entered a priestly hierarchy, an order of seven grades, each with specific planets, costumes, rituals, and disciplines aimed at self-advancement. Members of the cult met in a mithraeum, an underground vaulted grotto with complex astronomical and planetary symbolism. The small space of the cavern, the cult practices, and the ritual meal were modeled on the original space and deeds of Mithras—the sacrifice of a bull and the eating of its flesh (1997.145.3).

The Roman pantheon presented a wide range of cults and gods with different functions, but foreign cults promised something different, something the traditional Roman cults could not-change, both in everyday life and even, at times, in the afterlife. The selectivity and initiatory rituals of these new cults fostered a strong sense of community, focusing on the religious affiliation rather than on the public status or race of an individual within the state. As the Roman author Ovid reported, “who would dare to drive from his doorstep one whose hand shakes the sonorous sistrum [of Isis]... when, before the Mother of the gods, the flute-player sounds his curving horn, who would refuse him alms of a copper coin” (Letters from the Black Sea, I, 1, 37ff.) (45.16.2). By the end of the fourth century A.D., the official cults of Cybele, Isis, and Mithras, emblems of Roman paganism, were either completely suppressed or drastically altered and Christianity (an eastern cult as well, once called a “destructive superstition” by Tacitus) became the dominant religion of the Roman world.

Claudia Moser

Intern, Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

>> The only "Christians" that the RCC wiped out before Protestantism were those teaching heresy,<<

Interesting how it’s only Catholics that believe that.

>> Thanks to the RCC wiping out that brand of "Christianity", we have true Christian doctrines today like the correct canon of the Bible and the Nicene Creed. You can thank us later.<<

How utterly arrogant! And I suppose we should venerate Judas because he helped get Jesus crucified so we have salvation also? Catholics taking credit for what God has done will have it’s own punishment no doubt.

>> Who survived? It certainly wasn't YOUR brand of Christianity, since it didn't exist yet.<<

The church I belong to is much older than the RCC. It was started by the apostles.

Romans 16:5 Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.

Colossians 4:15 Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.

Philemon 1:2 And to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellowsoldier, and to the church in thy house:

We see the RCC which was established hundreds of years later this way.

Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. 18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

>> Yes, which is why the Catholic Church can trace its lineage back 2000 years to the original apostles, through an unbroken chain<<

That is if you believe the tall tales of men. A long line of word of mouth which we all know has never been reliable. The RCC claims “special knowledge and tradition” or “special revelation” which is common among cults. Jim Jones, David Koresh, Joseph Smith, Mohamed, also claimed knowledge not contained in scripture. The RCC is no different and may be worse. The amalgamation of paganism and Christianity is what God calls whoring around and has a specific call for His people to “come out of her”.

I’ll abide by the words of the apostles and “search the scriptures daily” to see if the things they teach are true and if the apostles didn’t teach it will consider those who preach “another gospel” to be accursed.

An interesting interview.

I note that at one point Mr. Knitter states that a friend of his once said, “Christianity is long on content but short on method and technique.” This is the attitude that underlies this whole concept of being both Christian and a Buddhist. The most sad part of that statement is that it woefully misses entirely the essence of what it is to be Christian.

The essence of Buddhist belief can be found in the Four Noble Truths: Existence is suffering (dukkha). Dukkha arises from attachment. To end dukkha one must end attachment. To end attachment one must follow the Eightfold Path.

The Eightfold Path, then, is the “method.” The Eightfold Path is Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration, all of which culminate in Right Knowledge and Right Liberation. All practices within Buddhism are meant to cultivate these Eight Virtues. The key is that human effort transforms us from ignorant beings who cause suffering for ourselves and others into enlightened beings who are at peace both within and without.

But what is it to be a Christian, really and truly? A Christian is one who puts his faith and trust in Christ as the source of his salvation. A Christian is one who knows that we humans are sinful creatures, creatures whose sin found its origins in human strivings to be “like God, knowing good from evil.” A Christian is one who throws himself on the mercy of God in penitence because he knows that he cannot be good under his own efforts and that he, judged upon his own merits, most certainly deserves the worst and most awful of punishments. A Christian is one who believes that God, in His infinite love and mercy, decided to send his only begotten Son to die for those sins, that they might be forgiven and so that man might be transformed through Faith in Him.

As Christians we believe that our own efforts are but straw before God and that whatever is golden in what we might do must come from the grace of God Himself. If there is any good to be found in our actions, all glory for that good belongs to God Alone. It is God that saves, it is God that sanctifies, it is God that transforms. At the end of the day we are but unprofitable servants whose Master was gracious enough to do the work He commanded of us. We can only do good insofar as God has given it us to do so.

If one wants to follow Christ more closely, be he Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox, he most certainly does not need to embrace meditation and mantras and other Buddhist practices. Doing so only throws straw upon gold. Instead, he must make a strict examination of his life, drop to his knees, repent of the evil he has done, and throw himself upon the mercy of Christ. As an exercise of that faith he should take up regular prayer, fasting, participation in the sacraments, and do works of charity — not because these things in themselves will save him or make him a better person, mind you, but rather because they are signs of that Faith which saves and the works which his Lord has commanded. Insofar as he is still a sinner in need of forgiveness, he must take great care to forgive others for the slights committed against himself.

There is no room in any of that for Buddhism. To try to claim the title of “Christian Buddhist” is to try to make oneself good under one’s own efforts. It insults God and pushes Him away from one’s heart.

>> Interesting how it’s only Catholics that believe that. <<

I take it you've never met an Orthodox Christian in your life? There are 300 million of them in the world, and they're also be happy to explain to you that protestant churches were started in the 1600s and are NOT the "original church" started by Jesus. They, like Catholics, also believe in venerated the Virgin Mary and salvation through faith and works, which protestants falsely claim only "Catholics" believe. Perhaps you need to talk to an Orthodox Christian minister sometime and educate yourself about Christian theology.

>> Catholics taking credit for what God has done will have it’s own punishment no doubt. <<

God wrote the Nicene Creed and provided a modern bible with all the books in the correct order? I'm pretty sure even your fellow protestants won't agree with you there, and admit those things were done by mortal Christian men who were inspired BY God, rather being directly given to us by God himself.

>> The church I belong to is much older than the RCC. It was started by the apostles. <<

Really? Why don't you tell us all the name of your denomination and who the leader is, and explain HOW its the exact same church the apostles had (even though the apostles rejected all your protestant doctrines), and existed all these years even though nobody ever heard of your doctrines until 1800 years AFTER Christ walked the earth.

If you try to duck the question and claim to be started by the apostles merely because your church is "Christian", it has as much validly as a guy opening a hamburger chain down the block this week, and claiming his chain invented the hamburger. Anyone can call themselves Christian and CLAIM to have the same faith as the apostles, that doesn't make it so. What apostle started your church, and who is his modern day successor that carries on the church in present-day?

>> That is if you believe the tall tales of men. A long line of word of mouth which we all know has never been reliable. <<

Very true. That's why the founder of my church is Jesus Christ, rather that a man like John Calvin, John Wesley, or numerous other protestant men who started their own church from scratch centuries after Christ, and falsely claimed it was the "original" church of the apostles.

>> it will consider those who preach “another gospel” to be accursed. <<

The Catholic Church does not preach "another gospel". It preaches the Old and New Testaments, and has been preaching them long before protestants started doing so in the 1600s.

>> There are 300 million of them in the world,<<

Wide is the road!

>> those things were done by mortal Christian men who were inspired BY God<<

Like I said. God used Judas also. And Herod and lots of people who were in error and opposition to God.

>> Why don't you tell us all the name of your denomination and who the leader is, and explain HOW its the exact same church the apostles<<

It’s called the universal body of Christ and Christ is the leader. It’s the exact same as the apostles started in that we use only what the apostles taught.

>> (even though the apostles rejected all your protestant doctrines)<<

What’s a Protestant? Methodist? Luthern? Non denominational? LDS? How about the Episcopalian? Protestant is simply Catholic light.

>> What apostle started your church, and who is his modern day successor that carries on the church in present-day?<<

For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

>> That's why the founder of my church is Jesus Christ<<

Then show where Jesus Christ taught the assumption of Mary, veneration of saints, or praying to other than the Father. If you can’t, you are preaching another gospel with all it’s ramifications.

>> It preaches the Old and New Testaments,<<

Then show where the apostles taught the things listed in the point above.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Magníficat ánima mea Dóminum,
et exsultávit spíritus meus
in Deo salvatóre meo,
quia respéxit humilitátem
ancíllæ suæ.

Ecce enim ex hoc beátam
me dicent omnes generatiónes,
quia fecit mihi magna,
qui potens est,
et sanctum nomen eius,
et misericórdia eius in progénies
et progénies timéntibus eum.
Fecit poténtiam in bráchio suo,
dispérsit supérbos mente cordis sui;
depósuit poténtes de sede
et exaltávit húmiles.
Esuriéntes implévit bonis
et dívites dimísit inánes.
Suscépit Ísrael púerum suum,
recordátus misericórdiæ,
sicut locútus est ad patres nostros,
Ábraham et sémini eius in sæcula.

Glória Patri et Fílio
et Spirítui Sancto.
Sicut erat in princípio,
et nunc et semper,
et in sæcula sæculórum.

Amen.

She became the Mother of God, in which work so many and such great good things are bestowed on her as pass man’s understanding. For on this there follows all honor, all blessedness, and her unique place in the whole of mankind, among which she has no equal, namely, that she had a child by the Father in heaven, and such a Child . . . Hence men have crowded all her glory into a single word, calling her the Mother of God . . . None can say of her nor announce to her greater things, even though he had as many tongues as the earth possesses flowers and blades of grass: the sky, stars; and the sea, grains of sand. It needs to be pondered in the heart what it means to be the Mother of God.

(Commentary on the Magnificat, 1521; in Luther’s Works, Pelikan et al, vol. 21, 326)

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