By Hank Hanegraaff
Although many people have tried to merge Eastern spirituality with biblical Christianity, the chasm that separates these worldviews is an unbridgeable gulf.
First, in an Eastern worldview, God is an impersonal force or principle. In sharp distinction, the God of Christianity is a personal Being who manifests such communicable attributes as spirituality, rationality, and morality (John 4:24; Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24).
Furthermore, in an Eastern worldview, humanity’s goal is to become one with nature because nature is God. In this sense, the Eastern worldview is pantheistic: God is all and all is God. Conversely, Christianity teaches that man is created in the image and likeness of his Creator and, as such, is distinct from both nature and God (Genesis 1:26–27).
Finally, in an Eastern worldview, truth is realized through intuition rather than through the cognitive thinking process. In contrast, Christianity teaches that truth is realized through revelation (Hebrews 1:1–2), which is apprehended by the intellect (Luke 1:1–4) and then embraced by the heart (Mark 12:29–31).
[The ungodly] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.
Romans 1:25 NKJV
For further study, see James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 3rd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1997); Charles Strohmer, The Gospel and the New Spirituality (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996).
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