Dalai Lama and Jesus

Today my mom forwarded me a list of quotes from the Dalai Lama for better living in 2005. To be sure, she introduced the list by saying, quote,

> Even though I don't agree with his religion------nor
> superstitions---these are some nice thoughts that we probably already
> know but are interesting. MOM

My reply:

Mom, thanks for forwarding this. Aside from the terribly common sense practicality of the Lama's words (does he actually get paid to teach this stuff?), they sparked some general thoughts that might be worth pursuing. The two questions that come to my mind are: (1) why do pagans sometimes have what appears to be wisdom and teachings that resonate with biblical teachings? and (2) how should we receive the words of pagans in these matters?

From Plato to Dalai Lama, pagan religions possess many common virtues which may often correspond to Christian teachings on a social, ethical level. This is because all mankind still bears the image of God, though heavily distorted and tainted by sin.

The sticking point, as you know, is that no pagan religion wants anyone to adhere to any of these "life virtues" to the honor and glory of the one true God. These kinds of principles are taught in order to appease the guilty conscience.

"It is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the function of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them." (Romans 2:13-15)

In that sense, it is worth remembering that things like the Dalai Lama's teachings rise like a foul, blasphemous stench in the heavens before a holy God. Lama's teachings may promote social decency and order, but it is a godless decency. Remember that the history of Israel in the OT is pretty much the history of a people sliding in and out of a singular devotion to their God. And that was God's priority, that they understood themselves to be in a covenant marriage with Yahweh and not listen to the pagan teachings of their neighbors. Through the later prophets God even characterizes his relationship to Israel as a dysfunctional marriage that demands a certificate of divorce.

God's people are no longer characterized as a sovereign theocratic nation like Israel was. We are scattered and mixed across the world where we often find ourselves in a pluralistic bazaar of religions and ideas in the public square. And although we now live in a post-Christian culture, this dying culture still continues to maintain, literally on life support, heavily dependent on borrowed stock from the same Christian worldview it scorns.

We would do well to always recognize the pseudo-spirituality and godless, prescriptive decencies of this age (not just the indecencies). Because Jesus alone obediently took upon himself the task of destroying God's enemies and delivering His people from a bondage worse than Egypt, Jesus alone is our authoritative law giver, and he gave to us a new commandment, that we love one another even as he has loved us. We will find echoes of his teachings all over the map, but we find it most clearly from his own lips. The church in the first century had to deal with the threat of imported Gnostic religious ideas, which espoused forms of wisdom and practical living (some of which resembled Christian ethics superficially) while denying the central truths of the Christian faith. Presumably with one of these movements in mind, the apostle Paul reminds the Chritians at Colossae:

"No one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

"Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)--in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?

These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." (Colossians 2)

Something we'll never learn from the Gnostics, the Dalai Lama, Oprah, Dr. Phil, etc. is that for Christians the Christ-centered motivation for our deeds in this life is an even higher priority than the actual deeds themselves. When pagans teach virtues with no appeal to a transcendent divine order, the implication is that the appeal is based on a form of individual self government they are helping us achieve. By contrast, we must live lives as those who have died to sin in Christ and been raised to new life in Him, acknowledging him as both Savior and Lord in both life and death. That is where practical living and true wisdom must spring, as far as we're concerned.

blessings,
joe