Is karma mentioned in the Bible? Karma is the theory that, “what goes around comes around.” Karma says, “If you do something bad today, something bad will happen to you tomorrow.” Some even have karma as a picture of a beaver being killed by a tree because beaver cut down trees all the time. The Christian idea of karma is the often quoted phrase, “what you sow is what you reap.” They believe that if you sow a bad deed, you will reap a bad deed, but is this really Biblical?
Good actions will bring good results in this life. We cannot eat ice cream for breakfast lunch and dinner and expect our body to be in great health and in great shape.  if you so positive actions you will reap positive actions in many scenarios. That’s why I wrote about being a thermostat and not just a thermometer. We are called to change this world for the good will do that by good works.
The word karma is not mentioned in the bible, but would you we do see a reference of something similar in Galatians.
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. – Galatians 6:7-8
So, what is the context of this verse about? Verse 6, 9, and 10 are all talking about blessing especially those who are the household of faith (Pastors, etc.) and those who are teachers of the Bible (Pastors, etc.). People often wonder, why should I give to the church (organization)? It is because if we did not, the Pastors would not have food to eat. They (Pastors) would have to find a 2nd job, and the Sunday messages would decrease in value because they were busy working all week and not preparing a sermon. That is one of the reasons we give offerings/tithes to the church. Joseph Prince had a great opinion on this, in his book “Unmerited Favor.”
“Don’t allow anyone to confuse you with faulty interpretations of the Word. The context of Galatians 6:7-8 is about sowing and reaping money. The verses before and after (verse 6 and verses 9 and 10) clearly show that the context is talking about blessing the teachers of God’s Word with all good things, and blessing the household of faith. Hence, sowing to the flesh here refers to using money for self-indulgence instead of being generous for the kingdom of God. The verse is saying that sowing money to indulge oneself leads to results that can decay, whereas sowing money into the kingdom leads to results that are eternal” (Prince 173).
People quote Hosea 8:7, “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind…” And they quote Proverbs 22:8, “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity…” But let’s not forget, there is a big difference between the new and old covenants. Under the old covenant what sin you commit equals punishment; this is why you will find so many Old Testament scriptures on sowing and reaping sin. But, under this New Covenant, Jesus reaped all of the punishment that we sowed, and we reap all of the blessings that He sowed.
Don’t let the world influence your beliefs. Take every belief with the finished work in mind. There is a big difference and it is the Cross! The fact is that, karma is just not Biblical. Is it better to go through your life expecting bad things to happen because of your sin (karma)? Or, is it better to expect good things to happen because Jesus paid the full punishment, we deserved?
Wonderful
Thanks!
Thank you so much Caleb Gibson!! You have explained the subject of “karma so well, and very easy to understand! May our Lord, Jesus, continue to bless your heart with the gift of wisdom, courage and strength to continue to shine His true Gospel, His unconditional Love, and His exceptionally amazing Grace!! There is no other religion with the message of Salvation, but Jesus!! This is our greatest and everlasting HALLELUJAH!! Many blessings, and prayers, one of your sisters in Christ, kena
P.S. I like the name of your website! I truly see that reflected in your replies on this post! Praise the LORD!!!
Thank you Lakena!! Those are very sweet words!😄
I want to thank SonniQ for her wondering, rambling stupidity that made no sense and never once answered Boy Wonders question and I want to thank Caleb for continuing to instigate her. she wrote a lot but said nothing as she change the subject every other sentence.it was so bad I tried to laugh at it but it was imposible. no need to reply to me as I will loose the website address as soon as thi….
Cathy, what a wonderful Christian attitude! I think Jesus would be very proud of you right now. You obviously don’t take the teachings very seriously if it is so easy to write such a hateful, demeaning comment and which includes name calling. This is what I see from many Christians that reinforces what I read from many “good” Christians – you do not practice the faith your religions attempts to teach you.
The reason you did not understand what I said is because you lack the capacity to think deeper than your skin. When people in the US want to claim this country is a “Christian nation”, which it isn’t, and I read what you think is an honorable way to represent your faith, it is a scary thought. Promoting immature negativity – coming from an adult – it is the reason why so much of the hate I see and hear comes from the religious right. A lack of seeking to understand someone who doesn’t think as you do and resort to name calling – proving your ignorance – implying that your way is the only way while proving you have learned nothing from your own faith is sad. Your deplorable response to my comment is the way a Christian responds to those ideas he doesn’t understand. that is sad. It has proved you have learned nothing. I think you need to go back and study your bible.
If I was searching for a faith to apply to my life and I came across what you wrote, I would have crossed Christianity off the list looking at you as an example of that faith.
This is interesting, and I enjoyed reading all of it;!! I have to laugh, no oiffense intended, but it reminds me of a Woody Allen movie when he’s trying to decide what religion or movement to join; Catholic, Hare Krishna etc.. Lol!!! It makes me wonder if I can become a “Buddhist Christian”, Lol!!! It seems when intellect/logic, spirituality/ religion attempt to merge we run into problems. The human ego which is our individual identity learned for survival,, fights for control and power. It’s always been a problem. We try to escape this by way of the divine. People trying to shed their human nature in exchange for the divine nature. Divine was imprinted on early man, as was Human. We are both, but neither can co-exist. Perhaps the reason for Christ, Buddah,etc. Trying to close the gap. Our minds are truly a battlefield! Perhaps no way to end this; just need to evolve moire. Open more of our human brains to accept and receive more of the divine.
You will probably never read this reply, but others might. There are many things taught in both Buddhism and Christianity. Both teach you to become a good human being – compassionate caring for people in need. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Buddhism goes into deeper explanations to the question “Why”. Why should you teach people the way you want to be treated? What happens – what is the effect? The law of cause and effect is the same thing as “you reap what you sow”. The article above is judging it’s importance by counting how many times it was written. Does it have to be written more than once to be something important? The main difference, of course, is that Buddhism does not believe in an external God. We believe that nature is inside of us – the god-like nature – the Buddha nature.
We have a different idea of what happens when we die, but in reality we don’t know what happens. We can only read what is written and have faith it is true – and pray – yes, Buddhists pray. The hands holding in prayer actually came from Buddhism, and using beads that are clasped between the hands.The ten commandments were Buddhists before they were Christian, and they are almost verbatim the same but comes from an earlier time than Christianity. You may want to say that isn’t true, but you have never studied Buddhism so you don’t know. People have always wanted to understand where we came from – and about life itself. Many stories, as they spread around the world became different religions but certain ideas stayed consistent throughout. It also doesn’t matter if you believe or disbelieve in cause and effect or you reap what you sow. It doesn’t take your belief in it to be true. Just like long ago people didn’t believe the world was round and thought ships could sail off the edge. You can believe or disbelieve anything you want, it doesn’t change reality. What we need is better communication between the faiths rather than say, “I am right and you are wrong”, especially if you don’t know what the premise is of other faiths.
The books in the bible that talked about karma were removed. In the middle ages when people were not allowed to read or even own a bible, the only way the political leaders could control the masses was to make sure they knew only about hell. They didn’t read bible verses at all. They knew only what the monks told them who were beholden to the law of the land. If they knew they were actually in control of what happened to them through understanding the law and cause and effect, they would not be able to keep them in fear. Over time there were quite a few books of the bible that were omitted.
How do you explain from the Christian perspective or rather your biblical holy book of truth of someone newly born and plagued with illinesses? Does this happens by chance? The demons casted a disease spell on the newly born child? Did the child commit a sin while swimming in the womb and henceforth the baby undergoes some form of punishment? Please provide a logical answer to my question. Do not provide me with an answer such as only God or rather Jesus knows. I am unable to travel back in time or have telepathic communication with your so proclaimed God. If you provide me with a ridiculous answer such as those illustrated above, then you do not deem fit to give advice and refute those claims quoted that suggest the bible mentioned karma. Honestly, a Christian faith is based on a so called holy doctrines of myths that makes no logical and scientific sense. The most ridiculous of all, is the Adam and Eve myth that suggest the human race originated from the two living being. Please enlighten me how on earth can one come to terms with such a claim that totally defies the current situation of the human race.
Hello Boy Wonder!
Wow you have lots of questions. I don’t have time right now to answer all of your questions. I can start with your first one about a, “Newly born plagued with illness.” I believe it happens by chance. When Sin entered the world, disease followed. This was never God’s plan. God made the earth and it was good. Now we live in a not good earth because of sin. That is why Christ is so relevant. He came so that we might be saved.
Hope that helps.
I’m assuming your question was directed at me – not at Caleb Gibson. If you only want an answer by a Christian that only supports Cristian doctrine and doesn’t have the answers you seek – then go ahead a buy his answer. He is welcome to his own answers – that works for him – but I don’t think he answered your questions. I also don’t think you were looking for blind faith. You do have a lot of questions and it will impossible to give you the complete answer you want in a paragraph or two ( or 5 or 6). There is an answer, though. I will begin by saying I left the Christian faith 43 years ago – which gives you some indication that I have some years on me. Much of the Christian faith comes from Buddhist teachings, although much much earlier they were written in the Bible. Karma used to be in the bible but it was removed. That includes subjects like the ten commandments, which most Christians would have you believe they were given to moses on top of a mountain – of course there were no witnesses. Stories have a way of changing each time they are told. Stories of the Bible were passed down from person to person over an extremely long period of time and OF COURSE they changed and different generations added bits and pieces to stories that in the end bore no resemblance to whatever it was that started the story in the first place. This is why you can’t believe in Adam and Eve and having a body being formed out of mud or clay, depending on the story you read. If a story isn’t believable – don’t believe it – and if you are told to have blind faith it is true with no proof – then that makes you a fool, and I don’t think you are a fool.
What you probably aren’t aware of, the entire story of Jesus, his birth, his life, his death and resurrection is a story that has been told over many thousands of years, over and over and over. Thoughout the ages, what people put stock in were the stars. The entire story of Jesus is told through the constellations – details like Sun-day – the three kings – everything. Now, I imagine that all staunch Christians are, at this point, starting to foam at the mouth reading these words. It doesn’t matter to me what they think -they need, they want – to keep believing what they do and don’t listen to anything that might prove them wrong. That is their choice.
Look at the bigger picture of life and what do you see? four steps – birth, aging, sickness and death, right? ALL life goes through this process. The only thing that might change is someone who dies in an accident – they might skip the aging part – but that is part of their karma. If life goes through this process, why would our life do anything different? Birth, aging, sickness, and death, over and over. Christians can’t deal with that. They want to go from birth, aging, sickness, death then heaven. Happiness lies in heaven. They wait to die and be with loved ones. Really? heaven sounds very boring to me. What exactly do they do there? Sit at God’s feet and praise him? that would get old after a few thousand years, don’t you think?
They think what they do doesn’t matter as long as they repent before they die. Even a murderer can get into heaven. A racist, a rapist – anyone – as long as they repent before they die. So what does it matter what kind of person they are? They think if they praise God he will save them. An alien “up there” who hears all your thoughts and has a plan for your life. Wow! What you does not matter. Look around you at all the angry hateful Christians who are pissed off if you don’t believe what they do. This year it’s gotten really bad. The haters are out in force and they use the Bible to prove their point for their hatred. Blacks, gays, lgbt, OH! such horrible people. I think I’ll punch one in the face or call them names on facebook!.
In Christianity there is a phrase, “You reap what you sow” Only thing – the Bible doesn’t tell you what that is or why or what will happen if you don’t understand why that phrase is important – probably one of the most important phrases in the bible. From that concept comes your – karma. That is what that phrase means. In about the 1500’s (I’d have to look it up ) The kings (The govt) took that word out. If people could understand that the cause and effect of their actions would determine the outcome of their lives, then they could no longer keep the fear of God and hell in their head. People needed to fear that – so they weren’t taught to read and weren’t allowed to own books and had to rely on the teachings of the priests. The kings had control of religion – which is why there is a “King James” version of the bible. The bible has been changed so many times, yet people still want to say that every single word comes from God. Pretty naive. But as a whole, people believe what they were taught by the generation before them and most people don’t change and would be rejected by family and friends if they did.
Now – karma – Do you understand that what you think, say and do effects your life? You reap what you sow, the law of cause and effect, you get back what you dish out, what goes around comes around? We each have different life conditions – moods, you could say – and when something happens in your day, your mood is going to effect how you react to it. Somethings are easy to see, some are harder. When I was younger I did drugs. I stopped a long time ago. I didn’t know I had hep C. Every illness it could have caused – it did. It destroyed my nervous system and I’ve been in pain for a very long time. I got liver cancer and I also had a liver transplant. What caused it? A Christian might say it was God’s plan for me and he doesn’t give you more than you can bear. I say, bullshit. It was 100% caused by me – by my karma – It is the things I did through years of Buddhist study that gave me the knowledge and the determination and wisdom to survive something the doctors said I wouldn’t. I should be dead. God did not save me, but a Christian would say he did, so which is it? There is not one part of me that believes in God. People need to believe there is a God because they need a crutch to have the answers for their lives. They look OUTSIDE for answers when the answers are inside.
Bear with me, I’m getting to your question. You know there are many different kinds of religions that believe in a GOD and many different sects of Christianity – Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal who all say they are right but are different. It is the same with Buddhists. There is zen, Tibetan, Shinto,Nichiren and others. All are similar but not quite. There isn’t enough space to explain to you the life of Shakamuni Buddha, but he lived much much earlier than Jesus. In Buddhist history they actual place this wise man in India during the years he disappeared, studying Buddhism. What Jesus taught later came straight out of Buddhist teachings. There is a lot that is the same between Christianity and many of the Buddhist teachings. But the Buddhist teachings – just like the Christian teachings became perverted over the years. Shakmuni traveled and taught most of his adult life, and before he died he said, forget what I have taught you so far, it was only to enable you to understand what I want to teach you now. -Those teachings were the Lotus Sutra – that is where your answer lies. But other countries couldn’t understand the teachings and used the earlier teachings and built Buddhist sects on them, each saying they had the answer. Those sects use statues of the Buddha to worship, much like Christians use Christ on a cross. They worship THE MAN. They praise THE MAN, when they should only look to what he taught. The Buddhist sect that relies only on the teaching of the last sutra that was taught – the Lotus Sutra – is the Nichiran sect of Buddhism. No matter how man times you teach someone the basics – let’s take math – if you teach one and one equals two over and over, will you ever learn physics? No.
You asked, why are babies born diseased and sick? Take it further Why are they happy, sad, angry, stupid, smart, beautiful, ugly, born to famine, born to riches, born dead, born diseased? Two things 1. Everything works on the law of cause and effect. There is no luck. There are no miracles, only causes you don’t understand so you call it luck or chance or God made it happen. It doesn’t happen sometimes, just like gravity doesn’t happen sometimes. It is a law. it is what operates the universe – not some whitehaired grandfather looking God who loves you. That’s ridiculous. Not only that, he is jealous, and hateful and sends disease and famine, too? Really??
2. Birth ageing, sickness and death. We get back what we do. We are born with the same life condition we died in. You can’t be a horrible person in this life and create happiness with it. YOU DON’T GET SAVED. That is a man made fallacy. You have to pay the price. Even while we are alive, we keep attracting the same things into our lives over and over until we learn what we need to learn. You can’t leave town and live elsewhere and start over. Your karma follows you and you take your problems with you. The life you have and the life you are born into you create all by yourself. No amount of thinking God has forgiven you will take away the effects of the things you do. You reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. If you want a better outcome you have to do something different to get it. All the forgiveness in the world does not change the things you think, say or do. A child’s diseases does not happen by accident, and you have the karma of the mother and father wrapped up in it. Why did they have a child plagued with illness. What did they DO to deserve it?
There is much more to this. I didn’t tell you how to change the karma you have. I also won’t tolerate one bible verse anyone wants to throw on me because it is meaningless and you don’t know it because you drank the koolaid probably at a very young age, or you never had the karma to hear the truth. But, Boy Wonder – if there is anything you’d like me to clarify, let me know – my husband is awaiting dinner.
Hello Sonja, just want to say sorry for not replying to your first comment, I have been very busy lately and I forgot about it when I saw it the first time.
You have some interesting thoughts. One of the first I would like to ask is this, who is karma? Whether you believe in God is one thing, but to believe that every bad deed is followed by another is just odd. I mean who is keeping track? Or is it chance? I believe the Bible is clear, “time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11).
We cannot blame God for disease because it was the result of sin. Man brought sin into the world.
Also, what are your sources? You say that it was all passed down with time and changed, but that is just an opinion. Where is the historical evidence for such a claim? There is none.
Thanks! Great to talk with you! I enjoy friendly discussions.
Caleb, karma is not a “who”. It’s not unusual to find people in the US who don’t understand Buddhism although there are many millions of us. Depends on what part of the country you are from.
These are not “my” thoughts or even optinions. There is Buddhist scripture that predates the Bible. Going back that many years Asian writing and books predates the Bible and these writings have never been changed.
But yes, for every cause there is an effect, even if that effect doesn’t happen in a time frame you can witness, but there are many you can. Realize, it isn’t just every bad deed. It is also every good one. If this weren’t the case then I guess then life would just slap you around and you could say ,”Good must have wanted me to…get sick, or get this horrible disease, have this car wreck, lost my job, lost my baby, along with good things. Why do you think an outside source has to be keeping track? I find it a bit nutty to believe that this outside source you believe in actually keeps track of everyone’s life – but only the Christians of course. The only think clear about the Bible is that has been written and rewritten many times, used and misused for control, which is what politics is trying to do very hard ‘ run the country on biblical instead of constitutional law and separation of church and state. Faith is personal. Everyone has the right to choose what makes sense to them. No one has the right to shove their religion down anyone’s throat and say – “But the Bible says…”
You sasayid “We can’t blame Good for disease because it is the result of sin.” In a way we are saying the same thing. What you call sin I call making a negative cause. When a neg cause – or sin occurs- no blame can be blamed anywhere outside of oneself. There is a negative effect to negative causes. We alone pay the price for our sins, to use your term. But I believe the man who’s questions I answered had asked what would make a newborn sick? What if he died of SIDS at 2months? What if it’s mother threw him in a trashcan at birth? What if he was born with Spina Bifida? When did he make that great sin to cause a lifetime of misery or death? Why was he born in Africa with AIDS. Can you explain that? Please don’t push it off to that now being the Lords will. I’ve heard people say,”Good must have wanted him up in heaven” simply because they never heard any other way to try and make sense of it.
There is no score keeping. There is no chance, or miracles. There are only cause you don’t have the wisdom to understand. Just because we don’t know the answers to everything doesn’t mean “God” did it, it just means we don’t have the capacity to understand. But people today DO have the capacity to understand life a lot more than they did thousands of years ago – but the Bible stood still. We know without a shadow of doubt that you can’t make a full grown person out of clay, but many people still try to convince themselves it happened because thousands of years ago as the story traveled – like gossip – it grew legs and you had to believe it. How about the story of Noah. The world flooded? They didn’t even know the world was round. There could have been a flood and their “piece” of the world flooded, but could that small group of people collect animals from the other side of the world? Not understanding weather even the Nordic countries whole heartedly believed all the gods were in the heavens. Yet can you today, not being ignorant preach the lie that Noah had a talk with God about weather, when you are no longer ignorant of these things? Do you still teach kids that a few fish and a little bread was broken up to feed multitudes and tell kids it’s true by saying it was a miracle? Do you repeat what you were taught by people who told them and people told them all because you want so much to believe in miracles?
Life is not magic. There is no entity keeping score who decides one day to throw you a benefit because you were good. No one decides to hurt a friend of yours because he did something bad to you. There is no entity that holds the cards – you just think there is because it is what you were taught to believe. Have you ever doubted it and stuffed it down as blasphemy?
I have said very little as of yet as to what. Philosophy of Buddhism is. It is not a religion because we don’t believe in an entity who can think and have human emotions. I have an advantage because I did study Christianity and so I Can compare what each faith says. I don’t know other religions. I don’t understand Islam but I don’t say they are all terrorists either.There are just as many hateful Christians as there are Muslims. I can explain Buddhism more at another time. So I understand both, but you only understand one so it creates questions. I think it is good to understand other faiths. Not for the purpose of converting. That is not what I’m trying to do. I want you to expand your understanding of life and that is done with study. If you think you know everything or think God will get mad at you, that could be an easy out. In the meantime, go to http://sgi-usa.org and read. sgi means soka gakkai international. It means Value Creation Society in Japanese. You asked my sources.I have sources. They are not opinions. As for the Bible being changed over time, there are plenty of sources. I only mentioned one to you – The King James “version”. Do you know the history behind it? There is also common sense. When stories are passed down for many thousands of years, you think it stays true to the beginning.?Exactly when does the Bible start? Of Course it has changed. People embellish to tell a better story. It is human nature. There are stories and also parables to teach lessons. There are also many parables in Buddhist teachings, but we know they are parables and don’t say they happened exactly as written. Can a turtle fit through an eye of missing wood on a stump floating in a river? No. But Christians would say yes and it was a miracle. Can you throw a Camal through an eye of a needle?
And yes, this is a friendly. Discussion. 🙂
So you believe karma is virtually cause and effect?
First I apologize for so many typos. I typed that on my phone and it is hard to see all the spell checks mistakes.
Yes – that is exactly what karma is – people throw the term around loosely – saying someone has bad karma, or they wouldn’t want so and so’s karma. karma is the direct effect of causes you made by your thoughts words and actions. But that does mean you make a cause and 5 minutes later the effect materializes. You can pray for something to hap[pen and hold your hand out and say, “I prayed so where are my cookies.” And by the way, Buddhists pray, but not to an imaginary outside source that you have been told is there but no one has ever seen. But karma – the effects – created by the things you do, is much heavier than the the things you think. But even the things you say can have horrible consequences to yourself than if you had kept your thoughts to yourself. But most people usually only relate to karma when it is a negative. When people make bad causes they are not going to have a happy life unless they understand and correct that part of their nature that needs changing. An anger nature is a good example. We cause our own misery and we cause our own happiness. If we think that our happiness is going to be doled out by an outside source simply because you want to be happy, yet you have done nothing to deserve that happiness, then all the praying in the world isn’t going to make that happen because this entity somehow decided that you deserved happiness even though the things you’ve done in your life has caused unhappiness? This is why even the bible teaches – you reap what you sow. WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT MEANS? And how much time do you put into understanding how it plays out in your own life?
I read an article recently on a Christian website where the preacher actually said that Christians didn’t need to worry about that phrase – even though it is mentioned literally dozens of times in the Bible – They didn’t need to worry about that teaching because Jesus died for their sins. I was shocked. Don’t worry about the things you do – you are saved. It’s like saying it is okay to do whatever you want and their are no consequences. WOW! Be an ass – be hateful – cheat on your wife. It is of no concern. There is also no benefit by doing good deeds. None of it matters. Be anyone you want – heaven awaits you anyway. The sad thing -people will listen to him and believe it. Why are there so many hateful Christians. What this man taught is really screwed up. There is an effect to every single thing you do. There is a reaction to every action whether you believe it or not. No matter what you believe, your life will follow the law of physics, not fairy tales.
Later we can talk about where heaven and hell really are.
Also – you can’t understand the language of birds and what they communicate to each other, but because humans can’t understand it, does that mean it has no meaning?
Well I believe in consequences. There is no doubt in that. Thank you for clarifying! I think you are right people use the word to seem it as if someone were going to be punished, that was the idea that I was writing. I don’t believe that God is punishing believers because Christ took their punishment on the cross.
But so often we hear in the media things like ” God is punishing the gays with a hurricane, AIDS, etc.” That is one example but I could come up with dozens. People throw the terminology around. What I never hear is anyone who is a christian say, “wait a minute. That is wrong” I hear so much hate in the media. No one says,” That is wrong. We are not taught to hate. You might think it is wrong to be gay (which I dont know) but it makes a Christian just as wrong to bash people they dont like – yet Christians don’t stand up for them as humans, many join them. Lately with this election and trans in bathrooms people have gotten so hateful and no Christian comes to their defense. So where does the punishment come from?
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also – not virtually – absolutely. There is no question that it could go either way. You are the sum total of everything you think, say or have done in the remote past.
Great teaching….now I know!
You’re welcome!
I really liked this, yet this refers to Salvation alone. In the flesh we are still a product of the decisions we make. In the world if you commit a crime you will find punishment, but that doesn’t mean your not saved. Karma is true in the world. There are consequences to sin.
You cannot believe in karma and think you can be “saved”. It is contradictory
WOW This is the first correct thing you have stated so far.
Actually, Karma is not and never was in The Holy Bible, because it is not a Christian belief, it is Buddhism. There is only ONE GOD, Creator of ALL! He sent his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, so that we may have everlasting (spiritual) life.
If anyone is looking for an honest and truthful answer to The Word, The Holy Bible, God, Jesus, Christianity…do yourself a favor and do NOT listen to or get misled by a former christian or any other religion. Galatians 6:7 NKJV “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
SonniQ, you will have to seek your answers from God Himself when your judgement day arrives. God bless you!
Hi Michele. Actually karma was in the Bible and anything pertaining
to it was removed during the many changes the bible went through. If you go back to the middle ages,
religion was used widely to control
the masses. People were forbidden
to learn to read and the only ones
who had a bible were the priests.It
was necessary for everyone to
believe as the church believed and if people learned anything different they would no longer fear heaven and hell. There is more to the history of the bible and what was put in it that made it what it is today. But the Bible went through many revisions. the bible then and the bible now are two different things. You have your belief and this is what you were taught is the truth and I respect that. You are a Christian and if that makes you happy and it teaches you how to live your life right and you apply that to your daily life and continue to improve yourself as a human, I would never tell you that you are wrong and you should change. Each of us has the right to seek truth as it applies to us. Everything you wrote to me is how you apply your faith to yourself. But you and i have different faiths. I am a Nichiren Buddhist and have been for almost 30 years, so I don’t speak as a novice. i mention what kind of Buddhist I am because there are different sects, just like Christianity. Because many people have no idea of what Buddhism is, they usually think of the Dalai LLama, Tibetan or zen. Nichiren Buddhism is not like that. The advantage i have with you is that I know Christianity and spent the first 18 years of my life in some Church activity almost every day of the week.It never gave me the answers I searched for, nor did i see evidence of of the teachings in the people nor did i see that the teaching affected the way they lived their lives or how they treated the people in their every day life. it was as though asking forgiveness for sins was enough for people to continue the way they were never challenging the parts of their nature that caused them unhappiness. They were confident that God had chosen their path for them and they lived happily going to church and praying to God when they needed help rather than looking inside themselves for wisdom. God must have wanted them to this problem or that illness and if they got well then it was God who did it.If God didn’t fix the problem then it was because that was what He wanted, never taking responsibility that it it was themselves that caused their problems in the first place. It was always God’s responsibility. i see and hear that to this day from the Christians in my life. The Christian religion was not enough for me. It gave me unsatisfactory answers to the question “Why?” Why do I have the nature I do?” Why are some babies born rich or poor, ugly or beautiful, starving in India or rich people. Why are some happy and some sad, healthy or sick? What is the meaning of life? Is life only lived to get to heaven? Would I be happy living there having no mountains to climb, no problems to solve, no reason to keep learning as I live in this mansion that has need to be cleaned? This is not a place that sounds appealing to me. I didn’t go from being a Christian to a Buddhist because someone misled me or talked me into it.There were 16 years years between. I even went back to Christianity for two years and tried, really tried to make it part of my life. I studied and I prayed and i went to different churches trying to find something – someone who could help me make sense of the meaning of life – not the meaning of death or what happens after. I wanted the meaning of my existence. i wanted to understand who I was. Why I did the things I did. How to change the things about myself I wanted to change. I realized I had to take responsibility for my life. Praying for “someone” else to change things didn’t work.Then I found Buddhism and it had the answers to my questions. But you don’t know anything about Nichiren Buddhism to understand. Ultimately i think it is good that other people find out what other faiths teach -not for the purpose of converting them – but for the purpose of understanding what else is in the world. We are so much more a global community now. We should reach out and try to understand each other. I, personally would like to know more about the Muslim faith. There are good and bad people in every faith all over the world -including the US. But there are many good people who are muslims – or Hindu etc. I may not believe what they teach or even think it is odd, but people have the right to their own faith without being told they are wrong.
Last – there is one line you wrote: whatever a man sows, that he will also reap . . . that is karma. That is the Law of cause and effect. Everything in your life is the effect of a cause that was made. In our faith we take that very seriously. It is the basis of why your life is the way it is. many people only thing of “You reap what you sow” when they are talking about someone else’s misfortune, but it is applied to all the good that happens as well as the bad. And judgement day? We don’t believe it is something that after you die and then you are judged. We are judged by our entire life as we live it. If you want to know what causes you made in the past you need only to look at your life today. If you want a different future you have to make the cause for it to be that way. If you don’t pay attention to cause and effect, life will just slap you around silly.
We can continue to talk if you want to. There is something to learn from everyone. you have a wonderful weekend, Michele.
Thank you, this opened my eyes!
Thank you!
great sharing! thanks!
Your welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
Even though I know this to be true. I often forget and am consumed by worldly views. So I thank you for putting this so eloquently, great way to be reminded. ” But, under this New Covenant, Jesus reaped all of the punishment that we sowed, and we reap all of the blessings that He sowed.” … Brought me to tears.
Glad you liked it. Really glad it brought you to tears! Thanks for sharing!