 Okay, welcome back everyone to our second lecture BC 212 Christian apologetics I'm going to look at the questions in the chat So it's one question John Paul Muslims descendants of Ishmael or as it was starting here 680 doesn't hold true Now the question is do they call Allah as our God the father and Jesus as Ishana be Well, the converse should be accept this when they mention and I think related to that is another question from Elijah is the Muslim Allah same as the God of the Christian So Yes, the first part of the question John's question So traditionally the Arabs descendants of Ishmael, so we know that God had promised Abraham a son Who eventually was Isaac but before that he had Ishmael who Then the descendants of Ishmael became You know to say a thorn in the flesh or thorn on the side to The Jews the descendants of Isaac and today we trace That the Arab world part of the Arab world as descendants of Ishmael but not all Muslims are descendants of Ishmael because obviously you have Muslims all over the world in India and Southeast Asia and Other places who have no connection to the Arab world. They're just different races who have thereafter Embraced Islam so To answer that question Not all Muslims are descendants of Ishmael, but The descendants of Ishmael eventually became You know came under Under what the Prophet? Mohammed started as Islam. So to that extent There is that Connection and they trace theologically they trace their roots back all the way to Adam and the second by the question which overlaps for that Elisha asked you see when Then when the Muslim uses Allah is referring to God But who is the God is he referring to the God of the Bible? The answer is no Because the God of the Bible is a triune God Allah is not The God of the Bible came in God the son came into this world That's not Allah Who he did not send his son into this world? so to answer the question the Allah that The Muslims refer to is not the same as The triune God of the Bible. It's different. So we shouldn't confuse the two now when Muslims refer to Jesus as a prophet remember, they're not referring to him as a son of God So just because they refer to Jesus as Isha now be meaning is Jesus the Prophet They are not recognizing Jesus for who he is The son of God so it's not the same So on both these grounds it's very clear that The Allah that the Muslim refers to is not the God of the Bible The Jesus the Muslim refers to is Not Jesus The son of the living God so accepting or I should put it like this Accepting Jesus prophet as he's on a be is Not the same as accepting Jesus Christ the Son of God now eventually if they Make the transition saying the Jesus whom they refer to as a prophet is actually Jesus of the Bible. Okay, that's fine but just referring to him as Isha now be You know our prophet would not be the same and we should not win our conversations. We should not refer to Jesus as prophet we should refer to Jesus as God who became man That's the Jesus we want to present but as a starting point, you know, yeah, they when we say Jesus Of course, they're thinking Jesus as the prophet We are thinking about Jesus the God who became man, right? So this is different, but we need to be clear About the Jesus we are presenting Jaffina's question Muslim to believe in Jesus But they say Jesus pointed at the father only then why are you worshipping him? Well, you're supposed to worship his father whom we call us. How can we respond to this? So so this is where we have to talk about So when we're communicating with the Muslim, we want to emphasize that So as far as possible, we try to avoid bringing in this whole idea of son of God and Son of man those those titles of Jesus, you know later on they would hope they can understand it But when we start talking with his son of God, then obviously they have questions, you know But when we say Jesus is God who became man, so we present Jesus God who became man, which is true That the God had got the father got the son or got the father of God the eternal word God the spirit the triune God of the Bible God the eternal word became man That as Jesus crashed and he came to do it, you know set us free So if we explain that but it's not just so on the earth when he walked on the earth He had the title as son of God So that's it So that son of God is only a title given to him when he walked on the earth, but who was this person? He was the eternal word co-equal with God the father God the spirit who became man When he walked on the earth, there was a title son of God son of man other titles good shepherd and so on so forth So if you let them know that this was God who became a man In order to save us then There is no issue of you know the title The title is only describing something of his life here on earth How he lived and Son of God son of man so on So Yeah, so when we get into the notes, I will I will maybe explain and then we will see if that clarifies this. Yeah So let's go back to the notes Yeah, so when we are communicating with a Muslim We want to emphasize a loving creator God The the the fact that God the nature of God that God is a loving creator as opposed to As opposed to a God that we just submit to and you know just Serve out of fear and so on Then Secondly, we are talking about sin that affects the relationship Between God and man sin that affects the relationship Between God and man and The third point that we want to emphasize is about forgiveness Now like we said earlier this whole idea of personal sin personal forgiveness Is almost as I would use the word neglected. It's not emphasized What is emphasized is? You've lived like a good Muslim you follow the rules As long as everything is okay in terms of you following, you know, the rules things are okay So this whole the emphasis on your sin, you know, you if you do something wrong your sin You're accountability to God and you being forgiven by God is is not really emphasized Ultimately, if you live like a good Muslim walk in submission Allah will decide to accept you but we can Emphasize forgiveness at a personal level Right, so and forgiveness as something you can know that you are forgiven So for how a Muslim, you know Cannot know he's forgiven for the wrong he's done personally On what basis can he know that his sins are forgiven? He doesn't know right but when we present Jesus Christ as the one who paid for our sins and and Because of him, you know, we are forgiven we can you know explain to them the importance of Christ's sacrificial death on the cross now in that context in that context and I you know and Just to point to something that they commemorate, you know, which they do is to How Abraham sacrificed his son, which is which see they trace their back their history back all the way to Adam So Abraham is an important part of the whole history So We could use that to Point to Christ's sacrificial death and I'm not saying it's necessary or important just a thought but the point is to ever to talk about the fact that God is a personal God he loves us sin effects our personal relationship with God and God came into this world to pay for our sins So on that basis we can experience forgiveness of sins that is totally foreign to The Muslim faith That my sin was paid for so that therefore I can receive forgiveness of that's that's non existent No idea like that in their faith Right now it is you serve you follow you keep the you know the five practices you'll be a good Muslim Allah may accept you you say sorry for what you've done But you don't know whether you're forgiven or not you'll have to wait and see but If we are able to Convince them or help them see The love of God God coming in the person of Jesus Christ paying for our sins and And on that basis our sins are being forgiven that we personally can know we are forgiven. That's a powerful truth for them Another important part of the truth that we need to present which is Non-existent in their understanding of Religion or faith is the fatherhood of God We we mentioned about God's nature presenting God's loving nature Here here the God's a loving Creator in contrast to Allah who is Just somebody to be served and Then when we emphasize that God actually we can actually come into a personal relationship with God and You can be a son or a daughter That is you know quite startling or quite different to anything that they have been taught They have heard That God can be your father That you can come into the family of God That you can be a son of God a daughter of God You can call God your father worship of as your father and you have a pretty personal relationship with him so that is a big point of difference and Lastly The way we live Christian life we emphasize a Walk of love as Christ taught We emphasize God's written word and we emphasize God leading us by his own personal presence Now so Holy Spirit We can explain to them as God's presence in our lives or you know They slowly they will understand you know when the whole thing about incarnation God the son This you know and the Holy Spirit they will come to understand but initially, you know We have to put it in simple terms. We said God's word God's presence in our lives as opposed to the decree issued by a local religious leader because This one is based on somebody's I would say women fancy somebody's making a rule and The rest of the community is following that rule Whereas in the Christian life we all follow God's word and God's Holy Spirit and we have to walk in love So that's how we live of a Christian faith in contrast to Fatwas being assured or decrees being received from a local religious leader So just to recap here, what are we going to do when we share the gospel? With a Muslim these are the some points of emphasis The nature of God loving created God the importance of you know the emphasis of Personal sin and how it personally affects our relationship with God Explaining how forgiveness personal forgiveness can be received through what God did for us But coming into this world dying for us So when we talk about Jesus talk about Jesus as God who came into the world and now try to avoid using as far as Possible the titles of son of God and son of man and all of that God came into this world, which is true Right so God came Now if they do ask why you say son of God then we explain no on the earth you walked as a man in submission To God, so he's called the son of God But other than that just focus on the fact that God came into this world as a man to bear our sin So we could be forgiven Then we are emphasizing the fatherhood of God that we can enter into the family of God as sons and daughters of God and How we live the Christian life Now just some additional thoughts here is like I said There are many different reasons why a Muslim would come to faith in Christ One ears Because of a personal supernatural encounter With the Lord right whether it's through a vision or a dream or through a healing miracle or The powerful encounter just like we mentioned for the Hindus. So that's one Way we see Hindus coming. Sorry Muslims coming to faith Second we see Muslims coming to faith because of The The gospel accounts That means, you know, there are testimonies of Muslims reading the gospels seeing the life of Christ and being shocked that That you know the the the life of Jesus is so much in contrast to What they see in the Quran and Again, I'm not saying this in a very demeaning way, but Muhammad was supposed to have had so many wives and You know, he lived such a terrible life Which they are all aware of and Then in contrast to that to read the life the ministry and the teachings of Jesus as the gospels opens their eyes because They've always been told, you know, Jesus is a prophet leave him alone focus on Mohammed and Except Mohammed for who he is and the way he lived and all that he did But they've never been exposed to who Jesus really is so we have Muslims coming to faith by just reading the gospels and knowing for them seeing for themselves the life of Jesus Christ and his teachings that his teachings are so different from what Mohammed taught nor the Quran teachers Hey, so you have Muslims who come to faith because of that and Thirdly, yeah, Muslims have come to faith just because of The the gospel message the fact that you can come into a personal relationship with God You can be forgiven that God can become your father That again, like we said like what we explained here is a very very different Very different from what they have heard and what they've been taught Right, so keep this in mind that there is no there's no one wait for a Muslim There's this this not like everybody has the same experience. There are those who Have personal encounter with Jesus supernatural encounter. There are those who are affected by the gospel account of Christ and then there are those who are affected by the gospel message, which is That you yes, you could have personal forgiveness and come into a personal relationship with God, which is It's non-existent. It's not there in Anything that they have heard taught under Islam So when we present Jesus if we can present Jesus in this manner It's going to help them You know explore Christ and know Christ The challenge like we said earlier is The the concept of a triune God is very difficult because they've been said taught. There's only one God The titles of Jesus being Son of God and That is a big difficult thing for them to accept mentally and also Sometimes Depending on whether they're a traditional Muslim or a modern Muslim Traditional Muslims will question the death burial and resurrection of Christ But then we have a way to answer that to explain Logically that he had to die just just go through the gospel accounts. This is what happened but these are the points where there would be challenges but If we can present the gospel in a simple way help them see the difference that would be great so Let's pause for some questions any questions here so far everybody with me So we have touched on the two major religions Hinduism and Islam Just keep these points in your mind So whenever you enter into conversation with the Hindu or a Muslim We're able to present the gospel so the gospel message doesn't change you're presenting Jesus But how we communicate? If we can just you know be sensitive to their background then it'll help us Communicate Jesus a little more clearer for them so that they can understand who Christ is So then make a decision to follow Christ So now we're going to change Focus again And we're gonna try to look at this big area called suffering because There are a lot of questions You know, why is there suffering in this world if God is a good God? If God created everything If God loves us Why is all these things happening? You know all kinds all kinds and Then especially when you know innocent people suffer When Good people suffer See so there are a lot of these questions around this subject of suffering Why is there all? This suffering happening so we want to try to understand suffering From a biblical perspective, you know this is what the Bible says and That's all we need to understand it ourselves and then also be able to Answer questions that people ask About suffering. Okay, so we're going to shift our Thinking a little bit now if you're moving away from soul Section on the person of Christ. We're moving to another section now on dealing with questions on suffering, okay, so Let's step into that I will share the PDF What we want to do here is to get a biblical understanding of suffering and then you know try to answer questions Like I was just measuring some things You know that that come around around this whole area of suffering and Evil that we see in the world so To get an understanding a biblical understanding of suffering we need to start with the God's heart, I mean Because many times people blame God for suffering people blame God, but we need to get a right picture So let's start at the very beginning Right now what we see here, and I'm not turning to all the scriptures But I want to just mention in Genesis chapter one very first chapter After God created everything the Bible says God saw all that he'd created and he saw that it was good You know that means in God's original creation in his original work on the earth There was no evil. There was no sin. There was no sickness that he had put on this planet and Secondly we see in chapter two that he had kept the tree of life And he told Adam you can eat of the Adam and Eve, you know, you can eat of this tree of life and What was this tree of life for? if you look in Revelation 21 and 22 it just Talks, you know indicates and not states directly, but it indicates Healing for the nations or wellness or wholeness or life and strength so It doesn't mean Adam and Eve were going to fall sick because there was no sickness. There was no sin But there was already something that God had kept in the garden for Adam and Eve to have that would just perpetuate just keep on giving them life strength and wholeness and That's what he's going to do in the new heavens and the newer There's going to be the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations That means it's there that you know, it's interesting because 21 in chapter 21 22 said there will be no more sickness no more pain no more suffering and there's also this tree of life So it's not to cure her but it's to perpetuate to just continue to give us life strength and wholeness so If you look at the beginning the first part there was no suffering There was no pain. There was no sorrow. There were no tears. There was no anguish it was not there in the garden before the fall and When we look into Revelation 21 22 we see It's not there in the new heavens and the new earth Okay, so In the beginning and in the future These things that cause pain and sorrow and tears and anguish and suffering are Not there. So in the beginning and even in the future They're not there. So we must therefore Understand who God is in this context and We must say that Or I would say it's safe to say it's safe to come to this conclusion That it is not the heart of God for people to experience suffering pain sorrow tears and anguish That's not God's original intent Why because it was not there in the beginning and it is not going to be there in the future So that's something very that's clearly indicating to us God does not want it for us Others you would have kept it there, you know make sure there's always suffering pain sorrows and tears He would have made sure it was already there in the garden before the fall But that's not the case So what I'm trying to say is you look at God's plan overall plan and try and then we can come to this conclusion that It is not God's it is not in God's heart for All the suffering and evil and sin and pain and all those things. That's not part of his heart so We know that before the fall Lucifer and his fallen angels were there and But they had rebelled against God God didn't create them that way they had to be like it's God they were cast out of heaven and They made it their agenda to get a place on earth so Lucifer Came Satan came in the form of a serpent He deceived Adam and Eve Got them to disobey God and then Sin came into this world and that Disobedience is what opened the door to all form of evil, but remember That this was not the plan of God it was not God's original intent God didn't plan for Adam to sin and For all this thing to come into the world that was not He told Adam don't eat Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you eat from the tree of life So demonstrate your obedience and have a long life But the devil got it up opposite. He said If you know basically if you disobey God, I'm gonna you will experience death and that's what the devil got Adam and Eve into and That opened the door to all kinds of evil So We should not blame God even for the original sin It was Adam's responsibility We shouldn't blame God for the door being opened to evil coming into this world God didn't open the door Adam did and Through Adam's disobedience Adam and Eve and I say Adam I mean both Adam and Eve they disobeyed God and through that came physical spiritual death and physical death and everything that followed and So now this earth that God created which was perfect and good which he didn't trust it to Adam and Eve Adam and Eve opened the door Let the enemy come in and with it all sin and sickness and disease everything coming in But in the midst of that the Bible says God continues to work And what does God do? He executes loving kindness justice and righteousness So God is still willing to work or God is still working on the earth Even though the door has been opened by Adam and Eve to the devil and what he's doing but God is still working and so What we need to understand and in our minds is We are seeing suffering and evil in this world God is a big God very powerful God Who is also working on the earth but why is all this going on and What? What good can come out of all this? That's something we need to try and understand and when we face or when we see things happening In our minds we need to be able to To whatever extent possible See the big picture And even though in a specific situation we may not have an answer At least we can see the big picture and say okay, you know what? From the perspective of the big picture. I can understand it. I May not have an answer for every individual situation It is painful what people are going through but at least I understand the big picture and that can give us some sense of Resolution so Let's look at it suffering Ever since the fall Sin came into this world and they've been the associated evil and Jesus made it very clear in John 16 verse 33 He said in this world you will have Tribulation But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world So he said you know peace I leave with you my peace I gift you not as a world gives give I into you That's not your heartbeat trouble. I did not be afraid And he said in this world You know, you will have tribulation. So there is Tribulation difficulties hardships all kinds of things happening in this world We understand that we are not denying that Secondly, we understand that suffering could be in different areas. It could be spiritual. It could be emotional. It could be physical Then the enemy Satan attacks Causing problems in all these areas and there are other reasons why there are problems happening Spiritual emotional physics and all in all realms There is suffering people can face pain and hurt and distress in all of these areas but biblically if we want to break it down and Understand why is there suffering? I want us to look at these Reasons here and we will go through this each of these in detail But biblically when we break it down Why do people face suffering? Why do things happen now want to break and I break it down into these six six statements or you know, you can say categories one there is suffering due to What people refer to over the Bible refers to as the bondage of corruption We'll talk about it Then there is suffering due to one's own actions Then there is suffering due to satanic oppression. That means the devil does things Then there is suffering due to other people's actions. That means other people are being evil causing pain and suffering to others There is suffering due to divine judgment and God has to judge sin and Then there is suffering due to willing sacrifice That means people are you know do this willingly and they fit you know, they they are willing to endure suffering so Let's try and understand each of these as we You know try to understand this subject of suffering. Let me pause here. I just want to make sure we're all together So far everyone's fine you're together any questions, okay, let's move forward Let's get started with the first one suffering due to the bondage of Corruption So let's turn our Bibles to Roman separate. I'll just introduce this and we will explain it further next week Let's go to Romans up to eight Let's read please somebody could read for us It's a 17 to 23 please somebody could read that passage for us We'll get started and we'll go into it Romans chapter 8 verse 17 to 23 now hope we are children then we are hairs hairs of God and co-heirs of trust But indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory I Consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be believed in us For the certain way for the creation rates in eager Expectation for the children of God to be revealed for the creation was subjected to frustration Not by its own choice But by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to Decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God We know that the whole creation has been growing as in the pains of childhood Right up to the present time Not only so but we ourselves who have the first booth of spirit Grown in early as the week eagerly for our adoption to some ship the redemption of our bodies Thank you So Paul In Romans 8 17 to 23 Paul He says look we are Children of God We are heirs joint heirs. I mean we have this wonderful Place The children of God. We are the heirs of God joint as with Christ. I'm looking at verse 17 now and yet We suffer and he says But if we suffer with him or for him We will be glorified. So we are as God has brought us into this amazing place of being children of God as of God Scientist with Christ and yet look. There's the other side. They're suffering here, but then the suffering is He's trying to let us know that it's a it's a Temporary time boxed thing Because after all of this we will be glorified It's going to result in some amazing glory So there is beautiful place to begin with God has brought us as children of God There's going to be glory, but now there is some suffering we're going to go through then he begins explaining to us Why there is suffering verse 18 he says, you know Yeah, I was 18 the sufferings were going through in this time boxed period of life here on earth It is it is cannot be even compared to the glory that we are going to experience in the future. So You know, let's encourage ourselves with that And then he's verse 19 and he says Even creation is waiting with expectation For the glory that we are going to partake of as sons and daughters of God means even creation is looking forward to that Just as much as we are looking forward to that glory that God will give to us Even creation is looking forward to then he begins explaining why creation is looking forward to that verse 20 because Creation was subject to futility Not willingly that means God didn't plan this God didn't want to do this But he let it happen with hope or in expectation What happened verse 21 And the the expectation is that creation will be delivered From the bondage of corruption So right now creation is in this state that we refer to as It is in bondage to corruption Now we can understand it That from the time so when God created everything everything was perfect and good But when Adam sinned everything was subject to corruption so Right now creation itself is in bondage to corruption or decay it's it has deviated from its original state of being good But verse 21 says It creation also will be delivered Just as we are going to be delivered from the present suffering Creation also will be delivered from its state of being in bondage to corruption And experience the kind of liberty that we are going to experience as children of God verse 22 He says all of creation is groaning and laboring with birth pangs until now. That's like it is also waiting you know for this glorious Day of glory that we're going to experience right now. It's going through pains and expectation of it Okay, so here's the thing All of creation Was subject put in bondage to corruption It went into corruption That means God created everything perfect He created everything To he put in all the processes everything to for fun to function well But from the time of the fall creation itself went into Corruption a decade it deviated from its original design So example Adam and Eve Created to live perpetually physically in their bodies. They would not die The bodies were not designed to die But after this fall They died spiritually And eventually Their bodies also died decade now it took time to get so imagine those days. They lived 700 years 800 years and then died Today it shortened, you know, we're 70 80 90 something like that For those days it was 10 times more and everything else that we see There was no sickness but sickness came in There was no disease disease came in Uh Babies would have been born perfect, but babies could be deformed You know, uh That was not God's design as so many things that You know, I'm sure that in God's earth At the very beginning there were no earthquakes and tsunamis and Weather phenomena that would be destructive But now creation subject to corruption They're deviating from its original design but What Paul has said here in Romans 8 is Even creation will be delivered And brought into a place of glory Which is what evolution 21 and 22 teaches And God makes new heavens and new earth None of these problems will be there so We will talk more about this next week, but the first reason why there is suffering Is because everything Which was created good From the time of fall has started deviating or going away from its original state Of being perfect It's becoming corrupted. It's became corrupt. It's decaying And God let it happen Because he knows that in the end he's going to bring it back into a place of glory Okay, so think about this we will Discuss this further next week and explain it further Take up any questions on it as well. Okay Let's close in prayer Can somebody close and pray and dismiss the class we'll get ready for our next lecture as well anybody can pray And dismiss us We thank you for this beautiful day and for the beautiful class we have God we declare that We thank you for coming down For us. Thank you for checking all our sins upon the cross. We thank you for never leaving us and we thank you for your love to us as Jesus Even though we suffer a little while here. We believe there is a great glory waiting for us. Lord Help us to strengthen ourselves and you help us to build our faith in your Jesus I Please each of my classmates into your hands be with them and guide them I bless them in the name of Jesus As we learn about you Lord as we learn about how to share the gospel with others Give us that boldness and courage to step out and to share it with love and in the right way We bless pastor ashes. We are so thankful for his teachings but be with him and be his strength in Jesus Amen, thank you everyone. God bless. Thank you And we will meet again. God bless. Bye now Thank you. Thank you everyone. God bless