How do you compare Christianity with Hinduism?

Answer 1

It doesn't. Leviticus 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.(Holy means seperate, or set apart) leviticus 19:4 Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God. That's sort of like asking "How does a pinapple compare to a cloud?" Hope this helps.

Answer 2

1. Comparison from a Hindu perspective

Hinduism is partly revelatory and mostly evolutionary, while Christianity is mostly revelatory and partly evolutionary. Hinduism is a continuously evolving religion, not founded by a particular person or prophet and shaped by the collective wisdom of enlightened masters, incarnations and revelations of God accumulated over several millenniums. It is regarded as an eternal religion (Sanatana Dharma) by its followers. Christianity is founded by Jesus Christ. To be a Christian, one should invariably believe in the way of Jesus only and acknowledge him as the only savior. Central to Christianity are the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the glory of God, as described by witnesses and others in the old and new testaments of The Bible.

The Bible is the main source of the principles and values of Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church acknowledges tradition along with Bible as the source for their doctrine. Central to Hinduism are the Smritis, or books of revelations, which include the Vedas, the Agamas and the Bhagavadgita, which Hindus revere as God in word form and which are considered to be eternal, inviolable and revealed by God for the welfare of the worlds. Tradition, law books, the epics and the Puranas and the writings of several enlightened scholars, philosophers and masters also play an important role in the religious lives of Hindus. Hinduism played a significant role in the emergence of other world class religions such as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism and shaping the history of the eastern world, while Christianity played a significant role in shaping the history of Judaism and Islam and the western world. Hinduism is also the most dominant source of inspiration for many new age religions and religious movements.

Christianity is an organized missionary religion. Its activities are guided and regulated by its churches. The churches are independent organizations having a tradition and history of their own. According to a widely accepted school of thought, the Christian Church is divided into three major groups, the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Churches and the Orthodox Churches. The apostles established several independent churches in different parts of the world of which the Roman Church of the Vatican became the most successful.

Hinduism does not have a centrally controlling organization like the church of Rome headed by the Pope or the Protestant Church of England headed by the ruler of England. It is a decentralized religion with no particular authority except the authority of some ancient scriptures to guide it. For a long time, the priestly class has kept the ritual tradition of Hinduism alive and still play a dominant role in the temple traditions. The temples do bring people together and create a sense of oneness. But they have no control over the religious lives of Hindus.

Adi Shankaracharya began the tradition of religious Matts in different parts of the country, each headed by a religious leader. But they do not have the kind of authority or influence as some of the established churches of Europe. However in both Christianity and Hinduism there is a divergence of opinion and tradition. If Christianity is a loosely held religion of several organizations, churches, movements and traditions that believe in Jesus and owe their allegiance to him, Hinduism is a set of several loosely held religions, sects, sub-sects, schools of thought and teacher traditions that believe in the Vedas and accept certain core beliefs as inviolable authority.

According to Hinduism the paths to God are many and in whatever way we worship Him sincerely He responds. Christianity has an uncompromising attitude towards other religions in matters such as the infallibility of the Bible and belief in Jesus Christ. Any form of worship not approved by the Bible is an anathema to the Christian faith. According to Christians the only way to salvation is the way of Jesus and faith in Jesus and only those who believe in him would be saved from the consequences of sin against God. It is blaspheme to question the actions of God or the teachings of Jesus or belief in Jesus himself. Technically both Islam and Christianity are intolerant religions in which there is little scope for any compromise or reconciliation. To accept another religion one has to permanently disown one's own religion and the teachings of its prophets. Hence so much of irreconcilable differences and religious animosity.

Christianity believes that God created the worlds out of nothing. Hinduism declares that nothing can come out of nothing and that everything has to exist in a latent form before it manifests. So God created the worlds out of himself using the elements and qualities of His energy known as Prakriti. Christianity believes that God and men are different. God created man in His own image but the world and men exist separately from Him. So is the kingdom of God. Hinduism believes that God created men and beings out of Himself and resides in them as individual atman or self. Essentially beings, objects and God are the same in their inmost aspect as Self. God lives everywhere. The whole universe is enveloped and inhabited by Him. His highest world is a world of uniform bliss and unconditional love in which there is no illusion, no limitation and no duality.

Hinduism believes that the universe was created billions of years ago through a gradual process of materialization brought out by Prakriti and that the earth is just one world in a series of thousands of worlds. Christianity believes that the world was created a few thousand years ago over a period of seven days and that earth is the center of the universe.

Hinduism does not believe in the conversion of people. A person becomes a Hindu either by birth or through conscious choice. In the Bhagavadgita Lord Krishna advises men not to follow another's dharma however superior it may be for it would hamper their spiritual progress. Christianity does not think so. Christianity accepts conversion as a way of bringing non believers into the fold of believers and saving them from a certain damnation. It is the responsibility and sacred duty of every Christian to save their fellow human beings who are not Christians by bringing them to the path of Jesus and fulfill his promise to the mankind.

According to Hinduism man is judged by his own karma and the consequences of his desire ridden actions decide his fate and future continuously. As long he indulges in egoistic and desire ridden actions, induced by the qualities of nature, considering himself to be the doer of his actions, he runs the risk of leading an illusory and ignorant life subject to the cycle of births and deaths and the laws of nature. The only way out of this is by doing desireless actions, surrendering to God and acknowledging Him as the doer of all actions, offering the fruit of all actions to Him with detachment, devotion and sense of sacrifice. Christianity believes a person commits sin against God by transgressing His law, not against himself. If he leads a life of sin without acknowledging God and without believing in Jesus, he will become a victim of the Devil and fall into temptation. The gates of hell will be wide open for him. If he is a true believer, God will save him and grant him an eternal life in heaven. So it is the conduct of a person upon earth in the light of God's established law and his belief in God that determines the fate of an individual here and hereafter. A sinner can seek forgiveness of God and Jesus through repentance and submission and he will be forgiven according to the strength of his belief. On the Judgment Day all souls are resurrected and judged by God according to their actions on earth.

Both Hinduism and Christianity believe in the eventual destruction of the world. However Hinduism does not believe in the permanent destruction of the world but in the repetitive nature of creation. There will be repetitive cycles of creation followed by destruction. God does it for his own enjoyment. Each cosmic cycle is equivalent to a day of God which stretches over billions of years and comprises of four cosmic ages or yugas. God is creator, sustainer and also destroyer. He creates the worlds through a centrifugal process of expansion or going out like the rays of the sun or the web of a spider while he destroys them through the centripetal process of withdrawal or contraction. At the end of each cosmic cycle God withdraws His entire creation into Himself and then goes into sleep or hibernation to be awakened again after a certain time to initiate another cycle of creation. Christianity does not believe in the repetitive cycles of creation.

Creation takes place in an instant through the will of God over a period of seven days. There is no evolution of life. All life happens at once. The beings live upon earth only once never to return to it again. After that they reside either in the heaven or in the hell eternally. At the end of creation, following a fierce battle between the forces of good and evil, God heralds a Judgment Day on which he decides the fate of each individual according to his or her actions upon earth.

In Hinduism there is no concept of a prophet or messenger of God. There are no hard and fast rules as to how God reveals His knowledge and chooses His messengers. Sometimes He incarnates Himself, sometimes He reveals Himself physically to pure beings and some times He selects a heavenly being or a pure soul on earth to do the work for Him. He reveals his knowledge through the Vedas at the beginning of each cycle of creation. Besides, every self-realized person who has overcome the duality and is one with Brahman is a messenger of God in his self-realized state.

2. Comparison from a Christian perspective

Thank you for the above, very clear answer which comprehensively introduces Hinduism. It is a very intriguing taste of your religion. You also give an enlightening account of the way in which your culture perceives Christianity.

After reading your well written review I would not presume to add or take away from it anything that has been said about Hinduism. It would be fascinating to hear more about the Vedas and the core beliefs that you accept as an inviolable authority.

In the meantime, I hope you will allow me, as someone who was brought up in a largely Christian culture, to describe the way that I understand Christianity and the Bible, so that a complete comparison may be made for the contributor of this question and other readers.

The real substance of Christianity, in a nutshell, is God made man. We understand him as the Spirit being - the living, eternal Word - who was made flesh, and for a while become the historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth. Formulated as 'a faith', this is understood as absolute rather than relative because it seeks to communicate that which is ultimately true and real - an absolute and stable truth as opposed to anything that is stealthily shifting and undependable. The Bible tells us that God/Christ is the same yesterday, today and always.

The word 'Christian' was first coined among the Greek Antiochenes (a Greek community living in Antioch-by-the-Orontes, a great city of the Macedonian age).

No Christian church was formed until after the time that Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended back to Heaven. As well as talking to the crowds of people whose attention he attracted, Jesus preached and taught in the synagogues of his time. During his brief term of service and ministry to the Jewish people there was no time for him to become, or to lead, a worldly institution; that was not his purpose. He has never been presented as a cult figure; he is known to Christians as their God and Savior.

Jesus Christ, who is of God, came directly to us in human form. He later returned to Heaven. It can be said that the Universal Christian Church (not an organization, but the entire Body of Christ across this world) is founded on the work of the apostles, and that Christ, spiritually, is its living head. The many and various church traditions at work in the world keep this faith live.

My own experience with committed Christians is that their shared, root religion is revelatory, as the Scriptures, in the single volume known as the Holy Bible, are regarded as complete and inerrant for all time. On the other hand, Christian communication continually adjusts its manner and character in order to interpret the same truth for different, and changing, times and for other cultures. In this specific sense of continually reinterpreting itself, it might be considered as evolutionary.

The Bible teaches that Creation and Salvation are the work of God. They were inaugurated both at once as part of the same long-term plan. In the fullness of time God entered the world in the man Jesus Christ, in a full and unique way. In Christ, he is redeeming the world to himself. That is why the appeal of Jesus Christ, even now, is the appeal of God. And that is why so many people worldwide are still hearing him and responding to him.

For the Christian, God is Savior. And since Jesus Christ was, uniquely, God in our flesh, we therefore have no difficulty accepting that Jesus lived and died for our redemption. Indeed, the Bible tells us that he was sent from Heaven precisely for that reason. God gave Jesus his name - it means "God saves". His other God-given name is Immanuel, which means "God with us".

Speaking as a Christian, I acknowledge and welcome the fact that Christians take a firm and united position on the matters of the infallibility of the Bible and belief in Jesus Christ. The Bible happens to be the work that holds in written form the unchanging truth about Christ.

I would appeal to you to carefully consider this: Jesus Christ is precisely what distinguishes the churches as being Christian.

If there were no Jesus Christ there would be no Christian faith! It is agreed that we should not take a judgemental or rigid and uncompromising view of people of other faiths. What we, in fact, do not wish to compromise is our special relationship with our own Creator. Nor would we wish to deprive anyone else of the same blessing; so it is naturally incumbent upon us to remind ourselves of, and to protect, the sacredness of Christian truth.

Evidently, Hindus and other religions also have revelatory beliefs that they hold as inviolable. This puts them in a position to understand that, if Jesus Christ was somehow taken away from the churches, then their members would be left with nothing! As it is, however, it would appear that Christians have a lot to give to the world.

Every religion has its core beliefs. Do we all have a right to defend our creed and share our faith? - There is no reason why not, when this is done in a polite and respectful manner. A good, constructive faith is worth defending for a number of reasons. One of those is that, when done in an informed and informative way, we will build each other up in faith rather than misspending our time hassling over doctrinal detail. At appropriate times, are we not all free, or even obliged, to explain and give an account for the inner strength and hope that are in us?

For the Christian, believing in Jesus is about believing who he truly is, in what he has told us, and appreciating exactly what he can do for us. Following Jesus is about loving God and loving others as ourselves.

Rather than (two millennia later) attempting to place our own feet precisely into another man's footsteps, we are asked to accept and receive the spiritual Jesus (God in the form of his Spirit). The Spirit of God then opens, explains and affirms for each of us the historically given message which is the Gospel of Jesus. The Spirit also enables us to live in a way that pleases God. Through the power of God's Spirit we apprehend and receive into ourselves the mind and nature of Christ and he thus becomes within us "the way and the truth and the life".

Jesus Christ as "the way" is the spiritual agent (God's Spirit) enabling us to enter directly and confidently into God's presence. Jesus as "the truth" is the same spiritual agent opening our eyes to the (spiritual) meaning of the scriptures. Jesus as "the life" is, again, the same spiritual agent who regenerates our human spirits, seals us as God's own Children and is the indwelling guarantee of our eternal life and heavenly inheritance.

As explained from a Hindu point of view, I cannot realistically follow another individual's Dharma. If we accept God's gift of himself to us through his Son, Jesus, he then comes to live within us in the form of his Holy Spirit (= God's own Spirit). It is, then, by walking in step with the Spirit - nurturing that relationship with our higher Self, that we truly fulfil our own specific destiny and Dharma. This is not to imply any adjustment to the definition of sin; rather it is an acceptance that we are all different, and are also at various stages of spiritual growth.

Whether it is realised or not, the Spirit of God is always present to us; it's just that we need to proactively welcome him into our own (human) spirits and hearts. I suspect that Hindus have always had a similar kind of root belief. The previous answer states, "Hinduism believes that God created men and beings out of Himself and resides in them as individual atman or self." Yes, absolutely; we Christians refer to the innermost self as the spirit of an individual. God is a Spirit and he gives each one of us a spirit. The spirit provides both the conscious, self life (soul) as well as the unconscious, organic life within any living and breathing being.

We understand that the human spirit is God's breath of life in us. At the outset of creation, God intimately breathes the human spirit into a body that he has prepared and it becomes a living self/soul. God - that is, his Spirit - then continues to hold that self in existence. There is therefore always that fixed relation between God's own Spirit and your human spirit - "In Him we live and move and have our being" (St Paul quoting the Cretan philosopher Epimenides.)

Jesus summarized all the divine commandments in one: Love God and others. Any person can demonstrate love of God by inviting and welcoming his Spirit to come and live within their own human spirit. In this way a person begins to become one with God. There is more than one person in God, so we need not fear losing our individuality in him.

The Bible does not explicitly say whether inanimate matter has any kind of spirit associated with it but it does explain that all things in existence are held together by God. It also advises us that God is not like any kind of material thing even if it is a shiny totem of precious stones and metals. "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent." (St Paul)

God does not set out to torture or destroy people! When he came into the world he did not judge or condemn people, but he did shine a light on hypocrisy. During this age he is inviting us to become part of his own Heavenly Family in eternity. He has created us with the avowed intention of sharing his own life and the fullness of his own being with us; that is why we are made in his likeness.

Apart from making my contribution to this answer, why would I trouble to tell anyone about my faith? I hope the reason is fairly obvious. If you have something good to share, do you then generously and joyfully share it, or do you jealously keep it all for yourself? God is generous; generosity is part of the fruit of his Spirit.

Conversion is a matter solely between a person and God. Conversion cannot be forced upon anyone. That is because it requires inner changes in a person that cannot be brought about through fear, pressure or coercion. You might be bullied into 'accepting', or even 'confessing', a 'religion', but that would clearly have nothing to do with the true God and genuine faith.

No Christian should say that any person is damned/condemned. That would be incredibly presumptuous, to say the least. It is not our place to judge or condemn people. God quite explicitly tells us not to do it. We are permitted to say what we see as being constructive or destructive behaviours when it is appropriate to make such distinction.

Christians see the repeating cycle of creation, death and destruction going on all around them. We are thus aware that Creation-and-Salvation is not done in an instant. As my own character grows in God, I am still being created and renewed. Gardeners and farmers repeatedly sow seeds; new babies are born every day. The repeating pattern of life, then death, followed by decay, seems to be a fixed feature of this present creation. We see it throughout all of nature; nowadays, astronomers are seeing how it affects even the stellar life-cycle.

Does God create and then destroy solely for his own enjoyment? While we may not always understand his way of thinking, he is not capricious; his personal nature is to love. He therefore acts responsibly. He creates men and women for fellowship with himself, ultimately for them to share fully in his life and being.

As he is the God of love, he is necessarily also the God of justice. The Bible, accordingly, tells us that this universe has been quite deliberately given over to death and decay. It insists that we are all entirely mortal: Neither our bodies nor our souls are indestructible. Our spirits/souls return to God at death but this does not mean they are naturally everlasting and immortal.

At the resurrection some will rise to eternal life; others will rise to condemnation and (final) destruction. God's necessary justice will then have been dispensed. If we are condemned, we will have only condemned ourselves by continually refusing to recognise or accept God's love in his gift of eternal life.

It requires humility before God to accept that you naturally fall short of his glory and do not have within yourself the necessary resources to change this. It may not be your 'fault' that you naturally fall short, but it is your choice and your responsibility in, taking, or leaving, God's offer of salvation. That is what the final judgement is really about. Do we, in the last resort, want to keep walking our own way, or do we want to walk with God and ultimately live with him?

Irrespective of any religion or the lack of one, we each have our own relationship to, or with, our Creator. Abram (latterly, Abraham), from the ancient city Ur of the Chaldees, did not subscribe to any major religion currently known to us. Abram was not a Jew and he had not heard of the future historical life of Jesus of Nazareth. But he had the faith to listen to God and do as bidden. As a result, his faith was ascribed to him as godliness. It was his response of faith that saved him. St Paul explains that a man is judged according to the degree of understanding of God he has been given and how he responds to that. An external appearance - like being known as a Jew, a Christian, a Hindu, a Sikh is not what counts in Heaven. What counts is actually what is happening right inside a person.

For instance, according to St Paul a person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. In truth, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by a written code.

I very much like the following paragraph, taken from the first answer given above; I believe it is in accordance with both Hinduism and Christianity.

"As long as (a person) indulges in egoistic and desire ridden actions, induced by the qualities of nature, considering himself to be the doer of his actions, he runs the risk of leading an illusory and ignorant life subject to the cycle of births and deaths and the laws of nature. The only way out of this is by doing desireless actions, surrendering to God and acknowledging Him as the doer of all actions, offering the fruit of all actions to Him with detachment, devotion and sense of sacrifice."

This clearly speaks of faith - of relationship with God. It also speaks of escape from death and of the responsibility of every person for checking their own motivations and behaviors. It is a pithy summary of what St Paul seeks to clarify in chapters 6-8 of his Letter to the Romans. When I read a quote like that I see that faithful Hindus and faithful Christians are really drinking from the same fountain, in spite of the fact that some of our core beliefs, or the forms of words in which they have been interpreted, might appear to be at odds.

Words, purely on their own, frequently fail to convey spiritual truth. It has always been that way; hence, religious bigotry and conflict. That is why faith (a live relationship with God) is more vital than theologies and doctrines. We Christians think of the Bible as the word/words of God. But without the Spirit of God to interpret it, then it can seem confusing and contradictory.

We may have a holy book, but it does not do us any good if we do not seek God for its living meaning. I am not saying that sacred literature is pointless or has no worth; far from it.

I am saying that Hindus and Christians have something vital in common. We jointly believe in the Creator God who has our welfare at heart and we are aware that human nature in the raw (the way or law of basic human nature) is the major obstacle to spiritual growth.

I believe that the priceless things we share are more important than our dogmatic differences.

Answer 3

Below are simple comparisons that I wrote.

The Existence of a Personal God.

- Hindus believe in two major gods, Vishnu and Siva, as well as in millions of lesser gods.

- Christians believe that God is a being who created humans in his own image and who loves them and wants to have a personal relationship with them.

The Subject of Salvation.

- Hindus believe you achieve salvation by devotion, works, and self-control.

- Christians believe that Jesus Christ died for their sins. If people turn from their sins and follow Jesus, they can be forgiven and have the hope of being with Jesus in heaven.

The Person of Jesus Christ.

- Hindus believe that Jesus was just on of many incarnations - or sons - of God. Yet they also assert that Christ was not the unique Son of God. He was no more divine then any other man, and he did not die for people's sins.

- Christians believe that Jesus is God as wel as man, that he was sinless, and that he died to redeem mankind.

~Prince Lion - A True Christian.

Source: Self-knowledge and the Holy Bible.

Answer 4

A:

The one thing morally wrong with Hinduism was its historic support for the Caste System, in which some Indians were inferior to others, merely on the basis of birth. Caste discrimination is now officially illegal although, like race discrimination in the Christian United States, it will take decades to eliminate.

Otherwise, there is little to discriminate between Hinduism and Christianity, apart from religious beliefs. Whether one or the other, or even both, worship non-existent gods is a matter of personal opinion.

Answer 5

Describing the Hindu faith is difficult as some sects believe the opposite of others in certain areas. On a basic level Hindus believe in many gods that are actually one god. Hindus also believe in reincarnation while the whole thrust of the Christian Bible is against the notion of reincarnation. Hindus believe souls reincarnate and eventually reach perfection after many reincarnations. The fallacy of this belief is shown, in one way, by the fact that no human, other than Jesus, was a perfect human. If Hindus are moving towards perfection with each successive life then where are all the perfect humans?

Hindus believe that once a soul reaches perfection they become like a drop of water in the ocean of their god's love. This is similar in some ways to Christians' Heaven, however, Heaven has many rooms and is not described as an ocean in the Bible. Again though, if there is any validity to the Hindu faith, where are all the perfect humans that have gone through all those reincarnations?

Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life and that nobody reaches the Father (God) other than through Jesus. Think about that.

Christians believe in one God that is the true God - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Christians believe in a Trinity - God, Jesus (the Son of God) and the Holy Spirit. One thing you must know is that if you ever blaspheme the Holy Spirit you are damned to hell. God will not forgive you for blaspheming the Holy Spirit. God gives the Holy Spirit freely to anyone who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Also, it is important to understand that Christianity is not really a religion. Religions give rules that make the followers move closer to God. Christianity is a faith where God reaches down to the followers through Jesus. In Christianity, God meets the follower where that follower is, wherever that follower is in his or her life. When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and believe that Jesus was God incarnated as a man (the Son of God) and that Jesus was crucified (Jesus was the sacrificed lamb for the sins of all mankind) and buried and that Jesus was resurrected on the third day (he truly conquered death), God lets the Holy Spirit flow through you and influence you. God also forgives you for all your sins (other than blaspheming the Holy Spirit). You experience true grace, forgiveness for your sins, and you inevitably want to become, and do become, a better human being. This process is called sanctification and Christians are at different stages of sanctification, but they are all still Christians - truly saved and will truly inherit the Kingdom of God. If you read the Bible you will learn more about how God wants you to behave and think. However, you must want to become a better person to actually apply the wisdom from the Bible. The Holy Spirit helps you do this. Again, experiencing grace (forgiveness for your sins) is a large factor in wanting to become a better person.

Answer 6

Hinduism - about 4,000 years old in India and like Christianity (2,000 years) has survived making it one of the world's oldest religions. Hinduism has no known single founder or creed which is different from Jesus in Christianity. However, all believers are committed to pursuing an ideal way of life, known as dharma.

Hinduism has a caste system with 'untouchables' the lowest of the four. There is no caste system in Christianity as all are equal just called at different times. Besides everything being sacred in the eyes of Hindus, it has a belief in the transmigration of the souls, or reincarnation. They believe the soul undergoes a cycle of rebirth and passes from body to body. Which body the soul moves into is determined by the goodness of a person's actions, known as karma. Hindus also believe in a multitude of gods who abide in the universe.

On the other hand, most Christians do not believe in reincarnation or transmigration of 'souls.' Indeed, many in Christianity interchange the meanings of two distinct words 'soul and spirit' which causes different beliefs. Christians believe salvation is the gift of God and not of our particular goodness/works. Christians believe in One God but differ on the members of the Godhead being 1, 2 or 3 currently.

Answer 7

Hindus believe in reincarnation; Christians don't.

Hindus believe in karma siddantham; Christians don't.