Buddhism contrasted with Christianity-Pt 3 (Monier-Williams over William J. Danker... and David Scaer)

      This concludes from Part 2 adding information and comments on the writing of Monier Monier-Williams on Buddhism vs. Christianity.

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      Anyone who would claim that Monier-Williams was not conversant with the religion of Buddhism or that Buddhism may have changed or have variants since his day would thereby indicate a presumption.  Monier-Williams had extensive first-hand knowledge among the people of India. —  Many today would look to Mahatma Gandhi and his "Gandhism" to understand the Eastern religions.  —
      In my initial blog post on "Pieper's Error", I reported that I was unable to find out from Concordia Publishing House how they discovered "Pieper's Error" to correct it from Max Mueller to Monier-Williams.  Since that time, further research is conclusive that the discovery was made from a 1977 article by Prof. William J. Danker after he (and his more famous brother Frederick W. Danker) had been removed from Concordia Seminary for false teaching.  (Note to CPH editors: you can now add notes to your file for anyone who asks you, that it was Danker's essay that was the impetus to correct "Pieper's error" in Christian Dogmatics, Volume 1, page 15)
      An LC-MS trained liberal "Lutheran" teacher, Prof. William J. Danker († 2001), attempted (in his essay pg 238) to refute Monier-Williams and claimed that a "Pure Land Buddhism" had a "sweeping emphasis on salvation by grace through faith in Amida Buddha".  He even claimed that "ideas of salvation by grace are not unknown in Hinduism" (which Prof. David Scaer of Fort Wayne repeats).  Danker of course gives his interpretation from an erring perspective as he discards Holy Scripture and muddles the teaching on pure grace, grace alone, and Justification.  But most importantly, all Christians can judge Prof. William J. Danker to be utterly foolish in these claims for they know beforehand (a priori) that he was deceived.  How so? Because Holy Scripture says so:

1 Cor. 2:9 – Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 

Danker would have shrugged off this verse just like Hermann Sasse shrugged off Pieper's use of John 10:35 -- "The Scripture cannot be broken."  But dear reader, you may not shrug off Scripture... if you covet your soul's salvation. — Indeed, I claim Danker's refutations as a proof of the trustworthiness of Monier-Williams' account.  Danker may have had experiences in the East (especially Japan), but whatever good was done in his mission work in the East was not from his errors and weaknesses but from whatever truth remained from his schooling at Concordia Seminary.  Unfortunately his "Japan Lutheran Church" is plagued with his unionistic (at times false) teaching. Prof. Scaer calls Danker's writing "a fascinating article" (search "a fascinating article" here), certainly because he follows Danker's false teaching.  And both Danker and Scaer would say they were teachers of the Christian faith. (Note to Japan Lutheran Church: look to Franz Pieper's teaching to find the path to the true Lutheran teaching, the pure teaching of Grace.)  —
     I cringed in places where it seemed that Monier-Williams allowed too much credence to Buddhism and other Eastern religions in this essay.  But these misgivings melted away as Monier-Williams throws all ideas of man-made religions to the ground in relation to the Truth.  And although Pieper erroneously identified his quote to be that of Max Müller, yet Pieper's confirmation of this message is one of the greatest Christian compliments ever pronounced on an Englishman!  The exception to this would be for those Lutherans in England who desperately worked to get the true religion to that country during the Reformation century.
    May the name of Monier-Williams be remembered through Franz Pieper's quote of him and by his wonderful defense of the only true religion.

• Monier-Williams: "...throughout all the heathen religions there is the one refrain through all: salvation by works. They all say that salvation must be purchased, must be bought with a price, and that the sole price, the sole purchase-money, must be our works and deservings. Our own Holy Bible, our sacred Book of the East, is from beginning to end a protest against this doctrine."
• Galations 2:16 – Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, ... for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
• Ephesian 2:8-9 – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.