As shown in the last post, Satan has, in his attempt to defeat the Cross, raised up strongholds of darkness that serve as traps for billions of people on planet earth. One of them that has been here for centuries, and is a serious challenge to missions, is the Hindu religion.
Hinduism has its origins at around 1500 B.C., making it one of the oldest religions in the world. There was no one founder and it is believed to have started in the Indus valley, located in modern-day Pakistan. Hinduism is considered the most complex belief system today, making it a standing challenge to mission efforts. Only Islam and Christianity have more followers than this religion. According to the Joshua Project, there are 2,550 entire people groups who are Hindu, most living in central Asia. Almost all of these have never heard the Gospel or known a Christian.
One of the most important aspects of Hindu society is the caste system. This is the belief that humans are not all created equal, but have different worth, depending on what the actions of their previous lives were. This consists of four levels or stages. These are, from the highest caste to the lowest, as follows: the Brahmins, or priests; the Kshatriyas, or soldiers and king-warrior class; the Vaishyas, or merchants, farmers, laborers, and craftspeople; and the Harijahns, or the untouchables, which are considered sub-human and are treated worse than animals. In the Hindu religion, you are born into a caste and can never leave it. Your only hope of rising up to a better caste is to live a good life and perhaps, after you die, you’ll be reborn higher ‘up the ladder.’ Sadly, because Hindus believe that the state people are in is because of what they did in their previous lives, no help is given to those in need. It is not surprising that India, where most Hindus live, is the country with the largest slum in the world. Orphans and beggars are common because the people believe they are paying for the sins of their past lives and therefore feel no obligation to help them.
Completely opposite to Christians in that salvation must be earned, they believe in reincarnation. That is, if you live a morally correct life, after you die you will come back as a successful and high caste person. If your previous life was lived in evil, you will be reborn as someone in a lower caste, or maybe even an animal. Their ultimate goal is to get good karma, or good deeds, so that they will finally break out of the cycle of reincarnation. This way the Hindus believe they will reach a place of perfect peace, without suffering, and lose their individual identity to be merger into the ‘universal oneness.’
One of the things that make the Hindus very unique is the fact that they worship more than 330 million deities. Nearly a billion people are trapped in the religion, worshipping deaf idols. Most have never heard of the One true God, believing they must do good karma to earn the favor of their gods. They live in complete darkness, without hope.
Yet God is doing amazing things to tear down this stronghold of the enemy. He is raising up laborers who are willing to reach out the Hindus and destroy the powers of darkness that are binding these people’s lives.
When Gospel Outreach for Asia started, we saw this need to reach the Hindus and other false religions across Asia. This is why we have worked to send thousands of dollars to places like India, to set the captives free. This has been used to produce thousands of Bibles and tracts, which are given to people, such as the Hindus, so that they may see the glorious light of the Gospel for the very first time. Please, consider helping us today.
-Reagan Schrock, GOA blog manager
Thanks to the Joshua Project for prviding many of the figures in this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment