No. Better would be to begin by receiving God?s forgiveness! How? It starts with understanding that your Father in Heaven provided the only way He will accept for you to be completely forgiven, now. He is absolutely righteous (just). He must punish sin, all sin; otherwise He would be unjust to punish some sin but not others. No one ?deserves? His forgiveness, only His punishment; all have sinned. However, if He provides the way for your sins to be forgiven, why not accept His way? He did?t have to and you will never be good enough on your own to deserve His forgiveness. None of us could be.
All He asks is that you confess the many ways you have offended Him - all the lies, thefts, lusting, hateful speech and thoughts, greed, unforgiven,SStc. Turn from these things truly sorry and ask His forgiveness. He will! Then trust that your Father in Heaven only accepts Jesus? sufferings on the cross as the full punishment your sins deserved!
Why not do these things right now and start down the path to freedom today? Pray something like this right now:
"Father in Heaven, I confess the many ways I have offended You (name your sins to Him specifically). Please forgive me! I need Your forgiveness! I choose to turn away now from all the ways I have insulted the love You have shown for me on Jesus? cross. I trust now that You only accept His sufferings as the punishment my sins deserved. I believe now that His resurrection from the dead proves true everything He said, and conquers the power of sin over my life. No one comes to You Father without trusting in Jesus? sacrifice. Grant me Your gift of abundant life now and eternal life come. Make me a new person who desires above all else, to love and serve You Father. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit now empowering me to obey You and prove my thankfulness to You through all I do and say and think. In Jesus' name, I ask. Amen."
Pray like that sincerely and you will be forgiven right now and receive His Holy Spirit within empowering you to obey Him. That prayer is not a one-time magic pill. Use it as often as God the Holy Spirit convicts you of any sin He may reveal from now on. It is the beginning of a constant habit of confessing sins to Him, trusting Jesus? sacrifice for you and daily seeking to be filled and re-filled with His empowering Holy Spirit. Store up His Word, the Bible in your heart so you do not sin. His Spirit within you now will help you do the things He wants and understand His Word as you read it. Obey what you read. Your obedience is the proof your repentance and trust are for real.
You were created in love to be one who would make the choice of your own free will to respond to the unspeakable love your Father in Heaven has for you. He has been waiting for you to choose to spend eternity with Him, and live for Him now all the days of your life?. This is what makes you a genuine follower of Jesus.
Read how the Bible says to be right with God, Matthew 4:17; Luke 24:46-47; Romans 2:4-5; Romans 3:23-24; James 2:10; Hebrews 9:27; 1 John 1:8-9; Romans 5:8; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 10:13; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18; John 3:36; 1 John 5: 11-13
People just get bored of trying to be like God but not following what God commands, so they move on to other means of finding enlightenment. Buddhism is interesting but it is not perfection of Love.
I quite like Buddhism. It can be a religion but it doesn't have to be. A lot of people are exclusively Buddhist but it's not out of the question to be a christian / Buddhist. I'm an atheist Buddhist so I guess I would say that there are many stories in Buddhism which are beneficial but I don't believe Gotama Sidartha was a god.
No. And why would you only follow certain areas?? God doesn't just pick and choose things for you to follow out of just whatever religion you choose to go along with. There is only one way and one set of beliefs that are true to God, even though the world is mixing everything up nowadays and just following whatever sounds good to them, and a lot of the time leaving God out of the matter and what He wants
Buddhism is an atheistic religion and has many doctrines that are in opposition with Christianity.
The most important difference is that while Buddhism does not even believe in God, in Christianity, God is supposed to be the center of our lives.
As Jesus taught us:
"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment." (Matthew 22:37)
Don't feel you have to pick any belief system. Just try and live your short life as productive and happy as possible. you know right from wrong as dictated by society as a whole and don't need to feel obligated to be told how to act by a belief system. Just live life to the fullest with integrity
I am atheist but I HIGHLY respect Buddhism, you don't have to follow its religion but you can learn a lot from it. Buddhists favor wisdom, peace, open-mindedness and the pursuit of knowledge. They don't care about money, status, or power nor whether you join or not. Very different from concrete-hard religions like Christianity where you are being bombarded by the fear of going to hell and not suppose to question God. If you have the chance, talk with a Buddhist monk and you will find they are highly intelligent and what they have to say is definitely worthwhile.
EDIT: wow there a lot of Christians bashing this question right now.....by the way Buddhism RESPECTS other religions...tolerance is something everyone can learn!
Buddhism teachings are good but unfortunately, no human being living on this planet earth can follow and practise them. As long as one is still breathing, one will still be prone to sins. Some monks tried to live in solitary in the mountain to apply the teachings, but I doubt it will succeed for human interactions will still produce emotional feeling like hatred and anger.
So the only most logical way, is to follow Jesus Christ, when we accept Christ we are counted as righteous by God. The righteousness of Jesus is imputed to us, but that is a positional reality. God calls us "saints" because of what Jesus has done, and what Jesus does in our life. But, he also knows that as long as we are in this body of flesh we will occasionally fall, most definite, all of us will fall one day or another.
JESUS has died for all our sins, past, present and future sins. His blood is not the common blood of bulls and lambs, but the divine blood of the son of God. Thus the power of cleansing is not merely a year like those sacrificial bulls and lambs, but the power of cleansing in the blood of Jesus is forever. There is no more sin in our life that needs to be pardoned nor to be punished, as all has been pardoned on the cross, and Jesus had received all the punishment on the cross. To say that my sins tomorrow cannot be pardoned is to mock God by trivializing the sacrifice Jesus has made on the cross.
The bible told us by apostle Paul that there is no more consciousness of sins, we are all having the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus when we received Jesus Christ to live in our heart. Then Jesus will work within us, by the presence of Holy spirit as He promised in the Bible, to transform us inside out. Including any infirmities & unhealthy habits, like mental illness, smoking, pornography / sex addictions, homosexuality, etc. will be healed in His name. This process may take time for some and may not be immediate for most. Just remember that we should always go back to Jesus Christ as soon as possible whenever we fall and should ask Him for help to strengthen us whenever we failed Him. His promise as stated in the bible, is to heal all of us in Body, soul and spirit, a total wholeness / Shalom. And for one thing very sure, Jesus Christ will never condemn your failures as He knows your difficulties and situations. Just let Jesus live in your heart and let Him heal you in time.
I believe certain tenets of Buddhism are true, but I don't believe in an afterlife because I have yet to be convinced of it, so I do not think it is a justified belief. I only have my experiences to draw from.
Yes
Buddha actually existed.
Buddha gives advices, not commands
Buddha says you should be tolerant
Buddha promotes peace and loving, and don't call anybody to fight for a holy land
Buddha says ones should be rational and wise
Buddha believes everyone are equal, and their good or bad results all depend on what things they've caused, not by believing in some invisible deity or how well you worship a Devinne.
Buddhism is the religion of calm and goodness
You don't have to becomes a Buddhist or get a statue and burning in senses for him everyday
Just live his words, and you'll be a worthwhile person.
All the religions spread the world by force of rulers & briefing by Business people for their benefits only. The only religion, to the best of my knowledge & belief Buddhism alone spread among people in Asia by its high concepts even with out God. Buddha was not against God but could not comprehend God as was under stood by those days and hence He keep quite when any body asked about God. But he attained the state of "Nirvana" (Arahati in Pali Language which was very popular at the time) means naked. That is the soul will project out of body and become Naked as body is cover for soul like dress is cover for body and merge with Nature (universal field). They are very much consciously developed and very soft loving nature, agreeable with all in the world.
The Brahmin's cunningly destroyed that religion in India and very few followers in India. A good worthwhile.
To many, Buddhism goes beyond religion and is more of a philosophy or 'way of life'. It is a philosophy because philosophy 'means love of wisdom' and the Buddhist path can be summed up as:
(1) to lead a moral life,
(2) to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions, and
(3) to develop wisdom and understanding.
Buddhist teachings can be understood and tested by anyone. Buddhism teaches that the solutions to our problems are within ourselves not outside. The Buddha asked all his followers not to take his word as true, but rather to test the teachings for themselves. Ln this way, each person decides for themselves and takes responsibility for their own actions and understanding. This makes Buddhism less of a fixed package of beliefs which is to be accepted in its entirety, and more of a teaching which each person learns and uses in their own way.
Therefore whether it is worthwhile to practice is a question that one should decide himself. To what extent should one practice is depend on ones effort and wisdom. When you attain certain level of development in mind you will realize that nothing can be excluded from the noble teaching of Buddha. Until you attain that level you are free to believe some and not to believe some. But, you will get the results accordingly.
Do you think Buddhism is a worthwhile belief system for anyone to follow?
