Blessed Night, Loves 😊

I Pray All Is Well With Everyone…And Your Hearts And Minds Are Full Of Love, Joy, And Compassion…For All God’s Children…And All God’s Creation! And No Matter Our Nationality, The Color Of Our Skin, Or What We Believe In… All Is Considered One Humanity – Existing On This Earth; Connected By The Light Of The Living God…That Dwells Within Us! And It Matters Not Whether Any Of Us Believe It, Like It, Claim It, Or Deny It; It Is What It Is… And Not Na’ One Of Us Can Change It! No Doubt, We Can Continue To Fight The Fact…But We’ll Never Win It! But What We Can Do Is Rise Above The Darkness And Chaos Of Mankind’s Ignorance…And Live To Represent The Light Of Our Very Own “Mighty I AM Presence”…The Truth And The Life… Of Our Existence! Amen…

Give Thanks And Praises For Love And Life…

And Y’all Be Love…

“More than twenty thousand sermons are preached in the Christian pulpits, on every recurring Sabbath, to convince the people that the religion and morality taught and practiced by Jesus Christ was of divine emanation, and was never before taught in the world, that his system of morality was without a parallel, and his practical life without a precedent, that the doctrine of self-denial, humility, unselfishness, benevolence, and charity, also devout piety, kind treatment of enemies, and love for the human race, which he preached and practiced, had never before been exemplified in the life and teachings of any individual or nation.

But a thorough acquaintance with the history and moral systems of some of the oriental nations, and the practical lives of piety and self-denial exemplified in their leading men long anterior to the birth of Christ, and long before the name of Christianity was anywhere known, must convince any unprejudiced mind that such a claim is without foundation. And to prove it, we will here institute a critical comparison between Christianity and some of the older systems with respect to the essential spirit of their teachings and observe how utterly untenable and groundless is the dogmatic assumption which claims for the Christian religion either any originality or any superiority. Of course, if there is nothing new or original, there is nothing superior.

…We will now summon the testimony of various authors setting forth the historical character of the Hindu God Krishna, and the essential nature of his religion, so far as it approximates in its doctrines and moral teachings to the Christian religion. We will first hear from Colonel Wiseman, for ten years a Christian missionary in India.

“There is one Indian, Hindu, legend of considerable importance”, says this writer, “This is the story of Krishna, the Indian Apollo. In native legends he is represented as an Avatar, or incarnation of the Divinity. At his birth, choirs of Devitas, angels, sung hymns of praise, while shepherds surrounded his cradle. It was necessary to conceal his birth from the tyrant ruler, Cansa, to whom it had been foretold that the infant Savior should destroy him. The child escaped with his parents beyond the coast of Lamouna. For a time, he lived in obscurity, and then commenced a public life distinguished for prowess and beneficence. He washed the feet of the Brahmins and preached the most excellent doctrines; but at length the power of his enemies prevailed. …Before dying, he foretold the miseries which would take place in the Cali-yuga, or wicked age, Dark Age, of the world.”

“Krishna”, says another writer, “taught his followers that they alone were the true believers of the saving faith; throwing down the barriers of caste, and elevating the dogmas of their faith above the sacerdotal class, he admitted every one who felt an inward desire to the ministry to the preaching of their religion. A system thus associating itself with the habits, feelings, and personal advantages of its disciples could not fail to make rapid progress.” (Upham’s History: Doctrines of Buddhism.)

“Buddhism inculcates benevolence, tenderness, forgiveness of injuries, and love of enemies; and forbids sensuality, love of pleasure, and attachment to worldly objects.” (Judson).

“At the moment of his, Krishna’s, conception, a God left heaven to enter the womb of his mother, a virgin. Immediately after his birth he was recognized as a divine personage, and it was predicted that he would surpass all previous divine incarnations in holiness. Everyone adored him, saluting him as ‘the God of Gods.’ When twenty years of age he went into a desert, and lived there in the austerist retirement, poverty, simplicity, and virtue, spending his whole time in religious contemplation. He was tempted; in various ways, but his self-denial resisted all the seductive approaches of sin. He declared, ‘Religion is my essence.’ He experienced a lively opposition from the priests attached to the ancient creeds, as Christ subsequently did. But he triumphed over all his enemies after holding a discussion with them, as Christ did with the doctors in the Temple. He revised the existing code of morals and the social law. He reduced the main principles of morality to four, viz: mercy, aversion to cruelty, unbounded sympathy for all animated beings, and the strictest adherence to the moral law. He also gave a decalogue of commandments, viz.: 1, Not to kill; 2, Not to steal; 3, To be chaste; 4, Not to testify falsely; 5, Not to lie; 6, Not to swear; 7, To avoid all impure words; 8, To be disinterested; 9, Not to take revenge; 10, and not to be superstitious. This code of morals was firmly established in the hearts of his followers.” (Abridged from Hardy’s Manual of Buddhism.)

…”Christ and Krishna both taught the equality of man. Prayers addressed to Krishna were after this fashion: ‘O thou Supreme One, thy essence is inscrutable. Thou art all in all. The understanding of man cannot reach thy Almighty Power. I, who know nothing, fly to thee for protection. Show mercy unto me and enable me to see and know thee.’ Krishna replies, ‘Have faith in me. No one who worships me can perish. Address thyself to me as the only asylum. I will deliver thee from sin. I am animated with equal benevolence toward all beings. I know neither hatred nor partiality. Those who adore me devoutly are in me, and I in them”‘; “Christ within you the hope of glory.” (Abridged from Mr. Tuttle.)

“If we consider that Buddhism proclaimed the equality of all men and women in the sight of God, that it denounced the impious pretensions of the most mischievous priesthood the world ever saw, and that it inculcated a pure system of practical morality, we must admit that the innovation was as advantageous as it was extensively spread and adopted.” (Hue’s Journey through China, chapter 5.)

“To Krishna the Hindus were indebted for a code of pure and practical morality, which inculcated charity and chastity, performance of good works, abstinence from evil, and general kindness to all living things.” (Cunningham.)

…”The doctrine and practical piety of their Bible, the Baghavat Gita, bear a strong resemblance to those of the Holy Scriptures. It has scarcely a precept or principle that is not found in the Christian Bible. And were the people to live up to its principles of peace and love, oppression and injury would be known no more within their borders…”

…”The Brahmins found fault with him, Krishna, for receiving as disciples the outcasts of Hindu society, as the Jews did Christ for fellow-shipping publicans and sinners. But he, Krishna, replied, ‘My law is a law of mercy to all.'” (Huc’s Voyages through China.)

“Buddhism attracted and furnished consolation for the poor and unfortunate.” (Ibid.)

“Buddhism is a rationalistic and reform system as compared with Brahminism. Landresse expresses his high admiration of the heroism with which the Buddhist missionaries before Christ crossed streams and seas which had arrested armies, and traversed deserts and mountains upon which no caravans dared to venture, and braved dangers and surmounted obstacles which had defied the omnipotence of the emperors.” (A note on Landresse’s Foe Koui Ki.)

…”Brahminism or Buddhism in some of its forms is said to Constitute the religion of considerably more than half the human race. It teaches the existence of one supreme eternal, and uncreated God, called Brahma, who created the world through Krishna, the second member of the Trinity.” Paul says, God created the world through Jesus Christ, the second member of the Christian Trinity. (Ephesians, iii., 9). How striking the resemblance!

“The doctrine of the incarnation, the descent of the Deity upon earth, and his manifestation in a human form for the redemption of mankind, seems to have existed in the shape of prophecy or fact in all ages of the world. Hinduism teaches nine of these incarnations. Furthermore, it teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, the fall and redemption of man, and a state of future rewards and punishments in a future life. …This religion in chief of Asia is traceable to remote ages. The doctrine of the Trinity is represented in the Elephantine cavern, and taught in the Mahabarat, which goes back for its origin nearly two thousand years before Christ.” (New York Sunday Despatch, 1855.)

“In the year 3600, Krishna descended to the earth for the purpose of defeating the evil machinations of Chivan, the devil, as Christ ‘came to destroy the devil and his works’, see John iii., 8. After a fierce combat with the devil, or serpent, he defeated him by bruising his head, he, receiving during the contest, a wound in the heel. ‘It, the serpent, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’, Genesis iii., 15. He died at last between two thieves. …He led a pure and holy life, and was a meek, tender, and benevolent being, and enjoined charity, hospitality, and mercy, and forbade lying, prevarication, hypocrisy, and overreaching in dealing, and pilfering, and theft, and violence toward any being.” (Lecture before the Free Press Association in 1827.)

…Now, we ask, is it any wonder, in view of the foregoing historical exposition, that Eusebius should exclaim, “The religion of Jesus Christ is neither new nor strange?” (Ecclesiastical History, iv.)

Truly did St. Augustine say, “This, in our day, is the Christian religion, not as having been unknown in former times, but as having recently received that name.”

Here, then, we pause to ask our good Christian reader, Where is your original Christianity? Or what constitutes the revealed religion of Jesus Christ? Or where is the evidence that any new religion was revealed by him or preached by him, seeing we have all his religion, as shown by the foregoing historical citations, included in an old heathen system more than a thousand years old, when Jesus Christ was born?

We find it all here in this old oriental system of Buddhism, every essential part, particle, and principle of it. We find Christianity all here, its Alpha and Omega, its beginning and end. We find it here in all its details, its root, essence, and entity, all its “revealed doctrines”, religious ideas, beautiful truths, senseless dogmas and oriental phantoms. Not a doctrine, principle, or precept of the Christian system, but that is here proclaimed to the world ages, before “the angels announced the birth of a divine babe in Bethlehem.”

Will you, then, persist in claiming that “truth, life, and immortality came by Jesus Christ”, and that “Christ came to preach a new gospel to the world, and to set forth a new religion never before heard amongst men”, to use the language of Archbishop Tillotson; when the historical facts cited in this work demonstrate a hundred times over, that such a position is palpably erroneous? Will you still persist, with all those undeniable facts staring you in the face, proving and re-proving, with overwhelming demonstration, that the statement is untrue, in declaring that “the religion of Jesus Christ is the only true and soul-saving religion, and all other systems are mere straw, stubble, tradition, and superstition”, as asserted by a popular Christian writer; when no mathematician ever demonstrated a scientific problem more clearly than we have proved in these pages; that all the principle systems of the past, by no means excepting Christianity, are essentially alike in every important particular; all of their cardinal doctrines being the same, differing only in unimportant details?

Seeing, then, that all systems of religion have been found to be essentially alike in spirit and in practice, the all-important question arises here, What is the true cause assignable for this striking resemblance? How is it to be accounted for?

Perhaps some of our good Christian readers, unacquainted with history, may cherish the thought that all the oriental systems brought to notice are but imitations of Christianity; that they were reconstructed out of materials obtained from that source; that Christianity is the parent, and they the offspring. But, alas for their long-cherished idol, those who entertain such forlorn hopes are “sowing to the wind and are doomed to disappointment.” With the exception of Mahomedanism alone, Christianity is the youngest system in the whole catalogue. The historical facts to prove this statement are voluminous.”

The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors, by Kersey Graves, 1875

Warzone – Anno Domini Beats