“A Deity Retires! ” This was the tagline to an article in Der Spiegel about the retirement of the Dalai Lama. The “god-king” of Buddhism is tired of being divine and wants to become just a simple monk again.
He does not want to be a “wish fulfilling jewel” nor does he want to have any further “political responsibilities.”
While Jesus became frustrated with his followers, and God the Father is described as “longsuffering,” I’m thankful that we do not have a God who will abandon us, who will “leave his followers to their own devices.”
So what do you think of this paragraph about the religion that is losing its deity?
Buddhism has become the fashionable religion, from Los Angeles to London, just as the monk Padmasambhava predicted more than 1,200 years ago: “When the iron bird flies, when horses run on wheels, the king will come to the land of the red man.” The Germans are particularly enamored of Tibetan Buddhism, with their dozens of Tibetan centers and tens of thousands of Dalai Lama disciples, who see the Asian faith as the most appealing world religion, and one that generally does not look down on people of other faiths. It preaches peacefulness instead of inquisition, persuasion through meditation instead of missionary evangelism and the hope of attaining Nirvana instead of the threat of jihad, and it treats guilt and sin as concepts from a different, more punishing religious tradition and man as the sole creator of his own fate. What could possibly be wrong with that? http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,782329,00.html 8/25/2011
What could possibly be wrong with that?
Look at the assumptions about Christians:
- Christians look down on people of other faiths.
- Christians preach inquisition and judgment instead of peacefulness
- Christian persuasion through missionary evangelism is somehow inferior to persuasion through meditation.
- Guilt and sin are the result of a punishing religion, not the normal response of created-in-the-image-of-God people.
- Being the sole creator of your own fate is both true and possible—and is superior than being created by a loving Creator and living under His wing!
To the degree that any of the above are true about Christians, they are true because Christians have not acted like Jesus. Sadly, our human weakness gives rise to false assumptions about our God—all of which should motivate us even more to strive for perfection. But the flaws of Christians do not in any way diminish the divinity of our Creator! We don’t create God; He creates us!
But does it bother anyone else that this “god-king”, chosen when he was two-years-old because he was believed to be the reincarnation of the original Dalai Lama born in 1391, can simply resign his divinity.
As a Christian, I know that my faith does not rest in a god who will resign, but in I AM WHO I AM, who was, who is, and who is to come! I take great comfort in the absolute certainty that “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases! His mercies never come to an end.”
Heaven is real. Shangri-la is not! The Lord our God is One God!
Mark's Blog 
Leave a Reply