Hinduism and Christianity

JoyWilliams

INT-244

June 5, 2013

Instructor Wise

Hinduism and Christianity

Hinduism and Christianity are two religions that share a few things in common; both believe that God is the creator of everything. Both religions believe in sin; however Hindu's believe that when commit a sin it is against yourself with the penalty of having to go through the cycle of rebirth again, whereas Christians believe that when you sin you sin against God and the penalty is death or separation from God if you do not repent and ask for forgiveness. This is where moksha and salvation comes into play.

Hindus organize their lives around what they call the "four aims of Hinduism or "the doctrine of fourfold end of life" (Hinduism n.d.) For the Hindus that are living in the world there are three goals that need to be reached that will lead to the ultimate goal of Moksha they are, dharma righteousness in their religion, artha which is wealth, and kama which is pleasure. (Hinduism n.d.) "Moksha (which variously means self-realization, transcendence, salvation, a release from this world) has been traditionally viewed" (Kakar, 27) as a Hindu's final step of their fourfold 'end' of life; it is the breaking of the cycles Karma (the sum of a person's good and bad deeds) and Samsara (the continuing cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth). At the stage of moksha the soul becomes liberated free to live in unity with Brahman (their supreme God) or the god or goddess they have chosen to worship. Only those that have a true knowledge of life and God are able to reach Moksha "This is difficult. It comes only after much study, and requires many lifetimes." (Hopfe, Woodward, 84) Moksha is described as the liberation of one's soul; ending the cycle of rebirth so the moksha happens when a Hindu dies his last death.

There are steps to salvation for a Christian one has to admit they are a sinner and need to be saved (KJV Romans 6:23), repent from all your past sins (KJV Acts 16:31), accept that Christ's payment for your sin was allowed by God the Father (KJF John 3:16) and acknowledge Jesus as your personal savior (Acts 4:12) . Salvation to a Christian is absolutely essential in order to live eternally with God in heaven. Salvation is free but we must accept it. Salvation cannot be earned; Christians believe that our salvation was brought with precious blood of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that man is given only one life to live and God gives us free will to both acknowledge Him as Lord over our life and serve Him. In the Christian faith when someone has confessed Christ as they savior they are considered a new creature all things are passed away and behold all thing are new (KJV 2 Corinthians 5:17).