Publication Date:March 1, 1998 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description This is one volume of a series of brief books on contemporary religious movements, comparing what they believe with Christian doctrine and explaining effective ways of witnessing to their adherents.
Customer Reviews:
an excellent sourceSeptember 20, 2004 3 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a tremendous book that explains hinduism for what it is. I saw the other reviews and realized that they were really misinformed about the beliefs and reality of Christendom. What was not understood is that we(Christians) do not hate Hindus, we love them and want to reach them for Christ because the reality is, that every single person(Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Pagan, ect) that dies with trusting Christ as their savior goes to a Godless hell. We do not wish for this to happen, therefore it is our duty, as believers in Christ to do our very best to reach these people for His glory. The postmodernist may say that we shouldn't try to convert anyone because Christianity may be right for me, but Islam, Hinduism, etc, may be right for others. Well... postmodernism is complete and utter nonsense. I spoke with a Hindu once, I asked him if God(in all of his different manifestations) could ever contradict himself, the man's answer was obviously that God could do no such thing. He said that Jesus was God, so was Allah... and on and on. Then I brought up the fact that Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father but through me." Well, God cannot be wrong, the Hindu man acknowledged this, yet he could not explain how Jesus could have said such a thing. Newsflash... it's because Jesus is Jesus, the one and only Son of God, He isn't the same as Allah, or Buddha... He is not a Schizophrenic. He is one. Also, the origins of John 1:1 go back to the Greek philosophers. It was known as the Logos Theory: "in the beginning was the word(logos), and the word(logos) was with God, and the word(logos) was God." John was writing to people throughout the Roman empire who no doubt barrowed much of their culture from the ancient Greeks and had some working knowledge of the Logos Theory. In other news, Christianity is not some Jewish cult. Jesus came to fulfill the Jewish prophecies... He did so. The problem was that he was not accepted by most of His people. Anyway... good book, worth buying.
Fundamentalist drivel - stay awayApril 3, 2003 14 out of 16 found this review helpful
The previous review certainly says it all. There is no question that the authors are severely biased and their scholarship is rather non-existent. I was born and raised a Catholic, and later learned the protestant variant, so I am familiar with part of the christian spectrum. I have also read several of the classics of the Vedic literature, and they seemed quite reasonable and profound. In fact, they seemed better than anything produced by western thought. It is a pity that some christians criticize something that they don't understand. It seems that as a group, christians err on the side of being narrow-minded. Throughout history, people have been persecuted, tortured, and even executed in the name of religion. It should be simple to understand that religion (any religion) is for constructive, not destructive, purposes. Something that harms anyone or anything can't be classified as a religion anymore. We also must remember that human beings are highly individualistic. Everyone interprets his relationship with the Divine in a different way. The Bible, the Gita, the Koran... they have many different and contradictory interpretations. Who is right? Here is where we see that religion is not a matter of priests, doctrines, and books, but a personal relationship with whomever you think the Creator is. Ultimately, God must be One (however, you are free to challenge this presumption). If the Hindu people think that the One has many manifestations, what harm is there in it? What right or authority do you have to contradict such belief?. And as far as 'evangelizing'...have christians produced such a beatiful world? Have christians erased from their hearts, pettiness, envy, greed, arrogance, egotism, bigotry, and all others forms of ignorance? If yes, by all means, go and evangelize all and sundry. If not, then better worry about reforming yourselves, not others. Because others may be in much better shape than you. Now, wouldn't that be a kick?
Hinduism Exposed!June 27, 2001 4 out of 21 found this review helpful
Shows the falsehoods of Hinduism! Great Book, Buy it. Yamamamoto is a first class author, his prose is unmatched by any contempory author!
A booklet depicting Hinduism in a very negative toneAugust 24, 1998 34 out of 46 found this review helpful
A very frail attempt to depict Hinduism as a religion of confusing doctrines and Christianity as a very unified religion with all true answers.
This booklet[ 87 pages] has picked up facts and figures from Hindu scriptures [ written thousands of years apart] at random and tried very hard to prove Hinduism as a religion of confusing concepts and ideas and Christianity as a religion of God and truth. . At the end of each chapter there is a column of "how to evangelize Hindus / Evangelistic suggestions". There are even sub chapters like WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOGA? even though AMA and other medical institutions have only found positive results in people after practicing yoga. This book is very scary, since it states on page-19 that "In 1923 the US Supreme Court ruled that "Hindus" were ineligible for U.S. citizenship" What exactly the author hinting making that statement??? I have no idea. With right wing fundamentalism taking grass roots every where in this country, Indians in fact anyone who comes from orient should be wary of booklets like this.
Author failed to explain the fact that HINDUISM IS THE ONE AND ONLY CULTURE OF INDIANS IN INDIA and not an organized religion like Islam or Christianity. Since the Book was written to portray Hinduism in a "negative tone", book failed to discuss about Hindu mathematics, Hindu astronomy, Hindu astrology, Hindu cosmology, Hindu classical dances, Hindu music, Hindu moral codes, Hindu alchemy, etc Before the onslaught of Moslems from North [7th century AD] as well as the rule of British empire, India was abundant in material and spiritual wealth as reported by great Chinese travelers like HSUAN-TSANG.
LET US HAVE A REALITY CHECK. There are only two cultures in the world. One is Hinduism and other is Judaism. All modern religions like Islam and Christianity came out of Judaism. Similarly Buddhism,[ to some extent Jainism], Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism came from Hinduism. Hindu scriptures deal with the CULTURE and HISTORY of Indians in India like 66 books of the Holy Bible deal with the CULTURE & HISTORY of Jews.
Hinduism is a very ancient CULTURE and so it has the GOOD, the BAD and UGLY things in it. Similarly Judaism has the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY things in it. Naturally modern religions like Christianity which has gone through many periodical cleansing in its 2000 years history, do not have the baggage of those two ancient cultures. NEWER THE RELIGION IS, THE BETTER IT LOOK. That is why religions like BAHAISM, UNITY and A COURSE IN MIRACLES look far better than Islam and Christianity.
By the way, Holy Bible does not deal with Chinese civilization, Mayan Civilization, Greek Civilization or Indian civilization. It only deals with the trials and tribulations of Jews. In HOLY BIBLE ONE CAN ONLY STUDY ABOUT JEWISH CULTURE AND JEWISH HISTORY. Holy Bible does not even mentions AMERICAN CONTINENT. Believe it or not, Holy Bible theologians as well as the west came to know about AMERICAN continent only when a very devout Christian Christopher Columbus accidentally stumbled upon it on his way to a very prosperous India!!! For Columbus to beg Spanish queen for money to go to India, alone make us wonder about the greatness of India at that time.
Hinduism and Judaism do not believe in conversions since both are essentially cultures. Have you ever heard of converting to a new culture? Whereas Christianity and Islam are cults of Judaism and that is why they are after forcible conversions of every one on earth to their religions. TRUE--Hindu scriptures were written by many authors and they are in thousands and have many concepts. Authors failed to state that unlike in Christianity, where writings which are different from churches teachings were burnt and authors killed, in Hinduism not even one scripture is burnt nor any author is killed since they preached a wrong doctrine or wrote a wrong book. To start with, in the history of Christianity, Bishop Arius of Alexandria was killed and his books were burnt when he proclaimed that JESUS CHRIST IS A CREATED BEING AND NOT A PROCREATOR during the Council of Nicaea - 325 AD, in which church under the Roman emperor Constantine elevated Jesus Christ to be the 2nd person of Trinity.
There is no word TRINITY in the entire Holy Bible and TRINITY DOCTRINE was added to Christianity [ during the Council of Nicaea -325 AD] after Roman emperor Constantine became a Christian. The Council of Nicaea was called by Roman emperor Constantine who even took part in the discussions as per the Encyclopedia Britannica [ book 8 page 675] Believe it or not emperor Constantine promoted TRINITY DOCTRINE to fuse pagan Romans worshiping many gods with Christians who were worshiping Jesus Christ If you look at SCHAFF-HERZOG ENCYCLOPEDIA, TRINITY was not established until 363 A.D. It says that TRINITY is the result of three centuries of doctrinal development. The New Catholic Encyclopedia adds that devotion to Trinity had begun in monasteries at Aniane and Tours, in the 8th century. The very first author of English translation of the Holy Bible, WILLIAM TYNDALE was killed at stake and his works were burnt since church did not like his translation!!! In 1536, after spending many months in prison, WILLIAM TYNDALE was burnt at stake crying, "LORD, OPEN THE EYES OF THE KING OF ENGLAND." Justin Martyer [ 100-165 AD] founder of the very first the very first Christian school of Theology was very straight forward about reincarnation, when he wrote in his popular book DIALOGUE WITH TRYPO, how the souls inhibit a succession of bodies, but they could not remember their previous lives. But his ideas on reincarnation were thrown was thrown out by the church. Time and again Christian church expunged people and doctrines.
In the interest of protecting truth as they see, Christian church for centuries have persecuted anyone who came with new theories. Any one who study world history will know what happened to GALILEO, Copernicus, Martin Luther etc in the hands of church.
GOD IN HINDUISM. On page 55, authors discuss about Hindu concept of God. But they failed to mention about BRAHMAN - the ONE and ONLY God of Hinduism. Author may not know that JOHN 1:1 [70 A.D.] came from Hindu [ at least 5000 BC] Long before John 1:1 was written Vedas wrote the same thing. "prajapathi vai agre asset" IN THE BEGINNING WAS PRAJAPTHI, THE BRAHMAN-THE GOD, "Tasya Vag dvitiya Aseet" WITH WHOM WAS THE WORD; "Vag vai parama Brahman" AND THE WORD WAS VERILY THE SUPREME BRAHMAN -THE GOD John 1:1 states: IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND THE WORD WAS GOD.
Hindu scriptures state THERE IS ONE AND ONLY GOD WHICH EXPRESSES ITSELF IN TRILLIONS OF FORMS. In fact, they wrote confused between BRAHMAN [ the Absolute] and BRAHMA [ the creator]. They wrote, Brahman or Krishna was the beginning of all things without stating that Krishna is an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Of course, Vedas mention many gods, since Vedas are the every first books written. Old Testament similarly mentions many gods like BAAL and EL, until Moses killed every one who worshiped any other god than Jehovah.
Authors quote so many scriptures to state that Jesus Christ is God. But failed to state that Judaism [ mother religion] does not see Jesus Christ as God or as Son of God. Islam [ sister religion ] does not see Jesus Christ as God or Son of God, even though Koran mentions the name of Jesus Christ many times in the Koran. Jehovah Witness does not see Jesus Christ as God!!!!!! All of them read the same Holy Bible!!!!!!!!!!Amazing!! JEALOUS GOD IN THE BIBLE---authors forget to mention that God said I am a jealous God in the Bible since he was fighting for territorial rights with BAAL [ horn god] and EL. God in the Holy Bible was not fighting with Hindu gods!!! That concept did not originate against Hindus worshiping gods. Jews used to worship many gods until the time of Judges. Joshua 22:22 states, GOD OF GODS IS YAHWEH, GOD; GOD OF GODS IS YAHWEH. SELF WORSHIP IS SELF-DECEPTIVE AND IDOLATROUS [ page 58] authors fail to recognize the fact that a Hindu is not worshiping body as God but the IMMORTAL SOUL WITHIN THE BODY AS GOD. It is stupid and egoistic to worship body as God and no Hindu scripture advocate that. Again, a Hindu is not worshiping SELF, but realizing that he/she is not the body but the immortal soul. Since there is no word IMMORTAL SOUL in the entire Holy Bible, author's attacking SELF-WORSHIP is understandable. Hindu salvation and Christian salvation concepts are totally different. Hindu salvation is known as SELF REALIZATION. Hindu scriptures state that Man's problem is that he believes that he is the body and not the immortal soul within. So a man has to realize that he is the soul within, then automatically he achieve salvation. I really wish people who read this book also read books like AM I A HINDU? [ISBN 1-8799
