Difference between Christianity and Eastern Philosophy

[The highest point in philosophy is the basic level of Christianity]

1. Present state of Christianity

Christianity still needs to overcome many difficulties. Throughout history, Christianity always has been fighting with secular world, but only victorious battles could preserve biblical legitimacy of Christianity, and thus they had to shed so much blood for the preservation of Christianity. Early Christian churches fought numerous battles with Western philosophies, first battle with Hellenism, second battle with Scholasticism, and now we face unavoidable third fatal battle with Eastern philosophy in front of us.

As we enter into the 21th century Korean Christian churches are entrusted with an important mission for a new era, and are in charge of missionary work in Asia. When the apostle Paul was ready to start a missionary work in Asia, the Holy Spirit stopped him and re-directed and sent him to Europe, which led up to the present day (Ac 16:6-10). The work of gospel had started in Europe over two thousand years ago, and it took us two thousand years to figure out why God stopped missionary work in Asia in the meantime.

Nowadays present Christianity is not following the gospels of the Holy Spirit but rather dictated by the human intellect or rationality, and if this continues it will bring the fall of Christianity, and Christianity will not function as the salt and the light for the rapidly changing modern civilization, and furthermore it will even work contrary to its original purposes. If Christianity had begun in Asia instead of Europe, the present day picture of Christianity would have been totally different from that of today and turned into a degenerate gentile religion by uniting with Eastern philosophy.  Now Christianity faces the question of continuation or abolition in confrontation of civilization and philosophy, and thus Christianity must strongly prepare itself for a battle with Eastern philosophy as it faces the critical moment.

2. Types and Definitions of Eastern Philosophy

The beginnings of the root of Eastern philosophies including Confucianism, Taoism (philosophy of Lao-tzu and Chang-tzu), Buddhism and Western philosophy all started out for pursuing essence of life. What is my existence? Why do I exist? How can one make happiness, and how can one establish eternal life? What is the substance or the true nature of the universe? These pursuits are the beginnings of both Eastern and Western philosophies and religions that lead to present day but still in the mist of searching for the final destination. Eastern and Western religions and philosophies' outlooks may differ, but all share similar purposes, goals and destinations as well as methods of pursuit.

For instance, four different individuals A, B, C, D may climb up the top of Mt. Everest by taking four different directions for climbing (east, west, south, and north) toward the top, and the lay of each course will decide the method of climbing (rock-climbing or walking). How different their directions and methods of climbing they may take, they all will arrive at the same destination on the top of Mt. Everest.

Confucianism: Confucius perfected practical morality consistent with practicality and reality of everyday life which differs from previous general notion of morality, and his highest idea and purpose of every morality should be consistent with principle of benevolence.

Taoism: The essence of philosophy of Lao-tzu and Chang-tzu is idle nature (leaving nature as it is), and it is integrated into the principle of morality. Here 'Wu-wei' (action through non-action) aspires to arrive at one's true universal character.  In other words, it implies not dong any unnatural activity, and the specific meaning of idle nature is to stay with and not to leave the true nature. Truth itself is 'morality,' 'spirit' and change. It identifies the law of nature by harmoniously integrating itself into the nature rather than objectively analyzing the law of nature.

Western Philosophy: It implies the study of the law of universe including mankind. Natural science focuses on understanding of natural phenomenon based on the law of nature, where the science of mind places emphasis on understanding the substance behind such phenomenon and the science of mind has further developed into philosophy. The goal of philosophy is to discover all the specific facts and mutual relationship, interests and analyze in order to bring progress and improvement in human life. However, modern philosophy argues that only knowledge and endless experimentalism bring the arrival of highest ideology where the Eastern philosophies strive to achieve the goal through practice and moral discipline.

Buddhism: Buddhism is a religion that delivers and practices the teachings of Buddha based on Buddha's 'the Four Noble Truths,' and 'the Noble Eightfold Path' that says everyone can enter into Nirvana through practicing asceticism. 'Nirvana' is the ultimate goal of ascetics.

The Four Noble Truths: the truth of dukkha (nature of dukkha: suffering, anxiety, unsatisfactoriness, unease, etc.), the truth of the origin of dukkha (craving by ignorance), the truth of the cessation of dukkha (the complete cessation of dukkha is possible), the truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha (identifies a path to the cessation of dukkha).

The truth of the cessation of dukkha: Truth is the state of complete cessation of ignorance and attachment which is called 'Nirvana.'

Nirvana: a state of complete extinction of greed, anger, ignorance which goes beyond life and death.

Attachment: What is man? It continuously desires.

Ignorance: not knowing the truth of man.

3. Difference between Eastern Philosophy and Christianity

State of Nirvana which can only be achieved through hard and painful ascetic practices is only a repentance stage of Christianity. As Buddhism requires overcoming 3 dukkhas: greed, anger, ignorance; the Christianity requires repentance to be carried out in the first place. The Holy Spirit cannot descend upon unless the repentance is carried out and completed, thus in order to receive the Holy Spirit one must remove thoughts of the flesh.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God" (1 Co 2:14)

Meaning of "Flesh"
The work of the flesh are manifest, which are these: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like (Gal 5: 19-21). The Holy Spirit of faith descends upon a Christian who has completed repentance and by then once again will be baptized by the Holy Spirit that takes care of the issues of sin. The ultimate goal of Christianity is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

● The Concept of Pureness

"Pureness" can be said to be the state of 'Wu-wei' as in the Eastern philosophy. There is no human preconception, and nothing is predetermined; furthermore, it is the state of emptiness, void or "without action or control." Like the pureness of a child, it is a state that anything can be believed without external influence, any preconception and selfishness, and it is different from the condition of the total ignorance. For instance, when you teach something to little children they believe it without any doubt and follow it accordingly.

".. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.." (Ge 2:19)

As the words from the Bible the faith grows within the state of pureness. The pureness just flows proudly within. “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the water.." (Ge 1:2)

However, the pureness may become 'impure' when it is affected by external forces and filled with pleasure or human desire (Jas 4:3). If we get rid of our stereotype and desires, we may obtain the pureness. Taoism and Buddhism also speak of this idea of pureness, but their argument on the issue is one of idealism that is too difficult to be generalized. 'Wu-wei' of Taoism, "Nirvana" of Buddhism, and "nature" of philosophy, etc. are the ultimate goals of their ultimate state of ideals which are only comparable to a stage of repentance in Christianity.

The criteria of 'repentance' from the words of God is based on the Ten Commandments and ‘the works of the flesh" (Gal 5:19), and thus we must repent and throw away all the thoughts of the flesh from our mind and spirit accordingly:

"Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves" (Mt 21:12).

Christians must always repent for greed, suspicion, selfishness, etc. by reflecting the commandments, and also must understand the seriousness of stereotype and prejudice as threatening enemies.

The Repentance based on the Ten Commandments refers denying or giving up oneself and being one with God. This is called the state of pureness and the highest level that Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are striving for. The descent of the Holy Spirit does not occur unless the state of pureness is completed, thus in order to receive the Holy Spirit one has to pass the repentance stage, and it is necessary to place the criteria on pureness and practice repentance until its completion. Christianity's repented mind can be referred as the mind of pureness which can be also compared to the state of 'Wu-wei' of Taoism, "Nirvana" of Buddhism.

Once Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Philosophies reach their intended highest goals that set-up, they cannot find the true nature of their purposes and start to wander since they fail to provide next step after obtaining their highest level.

Even if they may provide following paths as next steps, they reflect too abstract and subjective tastes and perspectives of individuals coming from different levels of their own highest levels. But Christianity with the Holy Spirit as a guide explains every detail and leads every step of the way into the right direction toward the destination.

4. Superiority of Christianity

The previous example of different climbing routes, A, B, C, D (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Philosophy) of Mt. Everest may introduce serious problems for reaching the top of the mountain when climbing routes are cut off or disconnected in the middle. However, Christianity is different from the others since it reaches the top of the mountain by helicopter, and the disconnected roads are no longer a problem. Human mind (intellect and wisdom) by itself cannot find or search the connecting roads leading up to the top of the mountain, and they will be able to find the way up only through the Holy Spirit.

For example, let us compare two people planning on going to the U.S., one on foot (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Philosophy) and the other by airplane (the Holy Spirit). The one on foot may only reach the Shore of East Sea at best while the other by airplane already arrives in the U.S. As in this example, if you wish to go to the U.S. you must go by airplane, and you can draw an analogy that if you wish to arrive at salvation you must believe 'Jesus (the Holy Spirit)' where the Holy Spirit will perform an airplane task. As you need an air plane to reach the U.S., you also need a guidance of the Holy Spirit to reach the salvation. Christianity skips the basic steps and takes directly to the stage of repentance.

This is the God's blessing which allows skipping the basic steps and going directly to the repentance stage. This also introduces problems for Christianity since it has skipped the basic steps and moved up to the next step for repentance without understanding the criteria. Christianity's problem is an over usage of the word of "repentance" without knowing how to repent.

Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Philosophy require human efforts to fumble through searching for God, but in Christianity being "the religion of revelation", God the creator directly gives the secret facts of Christ through revelation; therefore, Christianity without the Holy Spirit lacks basic foundations and becomes inferior to them (Mt 11:27, Eph 1:17).

Christianity with the Holy Spirit is like directly moving up to a technical high school level skipping the basic elementary level with special knowledge and technique, whereas the other religions and philosophies accumulate knowledge and technique step by step starting from the elementary school level. Christianity without the Holy Spirit can be perceived as one without basic foundations. Thus Christianity without the Holy Spirit will experience the lack of basic foundations and can easily be dazzled by profound theory and sound logic of the other religions or philosophies and be grafted into. We should recognize the profoundness of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Philosophies since it started from the basic foundations of human intellect and have accumulated every step of the way. However, Christianity which started out in the West fell easily because it was lacking such foundations. What would be the state of Christianity without the Holy Spirit and without accumulated basic foundations of human intellect going into China and grafted into Eastern Philosophies? It is dreadful even to think about such Christianity being grafted into Hinduism of India.

How will Christianity go through the 21st century without the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Christianity is the religion of the Holy Spirit. We should throw away our own humanly thoughts and solely believe and follow the Holy Spirit. We should go forward and only try to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Guidance of the Holy Spirit is the highest level and the highest belief.

Hallelujah! All honor and glory to God alone forever and ever! Amen.