Why do Christians not accept other religions

Elizabethian Demonology by Thomas Alfred Spaulding explains most of these topics.

It detailed how Augustine banned the worship of Angels like Michael.

1 Like

Is kind of the same with most religions. They all can’t be right so mine is yours isn’t they can look beyond that because that’s their only frame of reference for their reality. To tell them there are other divinities is to tell them their reality is a lie and that maybe their god is not right. That’s what they mean by strictly monotheism but Ángels are god like so is it monotheism? Maybe.

1 Like

“Truth is one, paths are many” is a saying from Hinduism that most Hindu people believe, I don’t want to white-knight for a religion but they are fundamentally different at every point of philosophy from the Abrahamic faiths.

Buddhism I know less about.

Most neo-pagans (Norse, Hellenic, Kemetic) are very open and welcoming to fellow pagans who honour other pantheons, either seeing them as masks of the same deities or, often, as distinct beings who have their own existence and right to be honoured and paryed to.

There is simply nothing like the “thou shalt have no other gods before me” commandment of the desert cults found in ANY of those - and the ancient pagan religions were more open to people following other dieties, including regional and familial deities and ancestral, as well.

The Romans tended to view local gods as aspects or masks of their own deities (according to Tacitus, who was reporting what he saw back in the day) so they had no desire to impose their own godnames and faith, those came along with the cultural Romanisation to some extent but did not scar and gouge and sever links, as the Christian church later, observably, did, across Europe.

5 Likes

You are actually fine here. Its a common misconception even amongst Indians that Hinduism is a religion.
It isn’t. It is a way of living.

4 Likes

Well said. :+1:

Though in many respects it also functions like one, and I saw it get a namecheck above as being “just like the rest” which isn’t true.

We see literally no Hindu “jihad,” “tikkun olam” or “missionaries” from Hindu migrants into the west, despite large numbers, strong cultural grouping, and proliferation of temples and groups, and this (without going too political) is the clearest case I can make for its fundamental difference. :thinking:

2 Likes

Christians are alienated, here in Brazil the worst thing for the Brazilian people is not being Christian!

For me what seems to come into play here is the indoctrination of blind faith verses the gift of tangible faith.

1 Like

Christianity and Judaism absolutely believe that there are no other gods. I know because I was a minister and an Elder in Christianity and later an Orthodox Jew. I know the Bible like the back of my hand (which lead me away from the Abrahamic faiths eventually) and I understand why you might come to that conclusion. But let me give an alternative explanation.

The problem is that the Bible has remnants of some Israelite monolatrism and Semitic henotheism (and to a lesser more veiled degree of polytheistic beliefs).

The apostle Paul wrote, “But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?”

Any hints that there are other gods or that others nations have powerful deities just like YHWH has all but been glossed or explained away by saying that lesser beings manipulate humans into worshipping them (i.e. Satan and/or demons) or simply the imaginations of superstitious people. There’s some parts of Judaism that don’t even believe in demons so they still come to the same explanation that there are no other gods besides YHWH.

This same sentiment was again expressed by Paul, “What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons!”

Or as Moses said, “They provoked his jealousy with different gods; they enraged him with detestable practices. They sacrificed to demons (shedim שדים), not God, to gods they had not known, new gods that had just arrived, which your fathers did not fear.”

In fact, YHWH admits he’s the one that sends evil spirits to lie to spiritual folks through their own prophets. As it says, “You see, the LORD (YHWH) has put a lying spirit into the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD (YHWH) has pronounced disaster against you.”

The problem with just reading the Bible and not studying it is that one gets a incomplete picture. The Bible was written by many people, different times and places, with varying societies and languages that was then collected, edited and smoothed out by a later formalized priesthood in a blossoming new religion amongst the Israelites. So you’re going to get hints of a lot of different ideas and doctrines left over from ancient times when Israelite society and spirituality were at its infancy and more fluid. That’s where a lot of confusion comes into biblical theology.

4 Likes

My own opinion on it is this: Most organized religion, Christianity included, takes the idea of powerful deities or entities and corrupts and twists them in order to control the population. How do you get people to do something? Tell them an all-powerful being told them to do it and will send them to be tortured for eternity if they don’t! It doesn’t matter if the command is oppressive, or cruel, or bat-shit crazy, it came from “God” so do it or else!

I personally believe that there is a spiritual basis for all religions, that there are common entities that inspire most of the practices in human history. But for Christianity’s control scheme to work, there can’t be any other powers besides their big bearded enforcer. Thus, they just insist that nothing else exists, and the masses believe it since it comes from people who claim to be “in tune with God.”
-Seeker

3 Likes

“Spirituality unites, Religion divides” Quote: David R. Hawkins
As the old saying goes, “Divide and Rule”.
Like all of the christian denominations.
“I’m mormon, I’m catholic, I’m pentecostal, I’m lutheran , I’m Jewish, I’m muslim, I’m baptist, I’m Up Yours”.
Lost of different belief systems to choose from even in the one religion.
This way the elite can keep society fragmented and control the herd far easier.

2 Likes

It’s more than a tad ironic that abrahamic monotheism grew out of a Canaanite polytheistic context.

2 Likes