The Future in Eastern Religions vs. Christianity

(Originally written April 29, 2007 in Book 15)

The Future in Eastern Religions

Hinduism

Hinduism conceives time as cyclical. Currently we are living in the last age of the last era, the Kali Yuga.

At the close of this era Kalki will appear. Kali is the 10th and final incarnation of Vishnu. Kali will convert the whole world to the dharma and destroy Yama, the god of death.

Kalki and other Indic messiahs do not bring about the end of time. They only initiate the end of an age.

Eliade points out salvation is constituted by an escape from time, not a culmination of time.

Buddhism

The Bodhisattva (Buddha-in-waiting) Maitreya vowed to return as the Buddha of the next age.

Maitreya will bring about a time of universal enlightenment.

After the time of Maitreya a new era will follow and the cycle will restart.

Jainism

The final age will be the dusama dusama, a period of abject misery, no Tirthankaras, no religion and universal suffering.

Time then will begin ascending upwards again.

There will be 25 new Tirthankaras (counterparts to the other 25).

Salvation in Jainism is found in the escape from time.

The Future in Christianity

Christianity was born of fulfilled messianic expectations.

Christians used other Old Testament Messianic prophesies to corroborate the idea that Christ will come again.

Christianity possesses a powerful notion of now and not-yet.

Jesus Christ is central to Christianity in both the historical and spiritual dimensions.

Christ has four roles:
1) Teacher
2) Redeemer
3) Mystical Reality
4) Future King

The incarnation of God in Christ is different than any incarnation of a god in any other religion.

Other religions have incarnations, i.e. the avatars of Vishnu. But these are docetism incarnations.

Docetism was an early Christian heresy which claimed Christ only appeared to be human.

Christianity holds that "Jesus is fully God, but also fully human, and he has not abdicated either nature" (Corduan, 192).

Authentication: The Crucial Issue

20th century Apologetics devised the Legend-Lunatic-Liar-Lord argument about Jesus and who he said he was.

The Jews of the 1st century had no problem in accepting Jesus as supernatural but saw him as evil. The Jews put Jesus to death because they saw him as demonic.