The Golden Rule

I post on the blogs of the city where I live in and recently had someone telling me that the Golden Rule can be found in any other religion. In fact, the missionaries made up the lie about what I was saying is really found called “The Silver Rule.” This is where the teacher of the religion says that what you do not want others to do to you, do not do to them.

I was told the missionaries came up with this lie because they could not believe that the people they witnessed to could have such a rule. First off, it seems pretty dumb for the missionaries to come to people who have been handling sacred texts for years and tell them their text doesn’t say what it says. You can accuse missionaries of many things, but do not accuse them of being fools right out. That should send red flags up to anyone.

The teacher I was told to look up was Confucius. I was also told to not read the Christian commentary on him. Good thing because I don’t own a Christian commentary on Confucius. Silly me. I just happen to have a copy of the Analects of Confucius with me. So what do I do? I go last night and I start looking through them and reading them. They’re quite good, but towards the end of the evening, I look for the golden rule.

What do I find?

You guessed it. The silver rule.

Now don’t get me wrong. That’s still a great rule. I do think Confucius was a very wise teacher and I highlighted a number of the sayings that I found in the Analects. However, as wise as the greatest teachers have been, they are grasping in the dark in comparison to Christ. They are holding up candles to guide in the darkness. He is the light itself filling up the caverns we wander in.

This wasn’t just Confucius who said it either. Rabbi Hillel said the same thing to a Gentile who wanted to be a proselyte to Judaism. He said that that teaching was the Law and the Prophets and everything else was commentary. Again, that’s a great piece of advice and we should follow it, but it is not the golden rule that Christ gave us.

My main point now is that this was also done with little research on my part and apparently none on my opponents. Now if someone can show me the Golden Rule there, I’ll gladly admit my error. However, too many people have tried to pass off great ideas like this with the hopes of fooling those who are ignorant of Christianity and their Bibles. What’s sad about it is that those people usually are ignorant of Christianity and their Bibles and they get taken in by it.

I did put up the reference by the way from the Analects. I haven’t seen this individual show up yet in reply. Maybe it will happen soon.

Until then Christian, be prepared. Always be ready to check up on what you hear. Always.