 Okay. Good. Once again, welcome everybody to BC212 course on Christian apologetics. Thanks for joining the class today. Let's take a moment to pray together and then we will get started. We'll do a quick review of what we did last week and then move forward. Okay. May I request somebody to please pray with a class? Let's get started. We want to thank you for this morning. Lord, we pray that you would speak to us from your word and help us to understand more from your scriptures, especially in the area of answering questions. Pray to God that you would give us your wisdom and understanding and the knowledge and in a way that we would be able to impact people around us a lot. Thank you for pastor. Thank you for the course. We thank you for the entire class. We will bless this once again. Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you everyone. So just a quick review. Last week we spent our time in the section where we were looking at the person of Jesus Christ and we were looking at the uniqueness of Christ. We looked at the resurrection of Christ. We just went through how we can look at the resurrection of Christ from a very logical point of view, given the information that we have in the Gospels. Of course, on one hand, like we said, we believe in the resurrection and we have experienced the risen Christ. But then if you just try to look at the Gospel account logically and go through the details, we could just from that show that the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ had to be real and not some made-up story that somebody came up with. So we kind of went through that and maybe I'll just quickly review that. In closing, we talked about why we say that salvation is only in the person of Jesus Christ. And that is again very important. We need to be very clear about that. We cannot compromise on that. Of course, we speak the truth in love, but we have to speak the truth. Salvation is only in the person of Christ. So I'll quickly review that part. And then today the plan is we'll talk about sharing Christ with the Hindu, sharing Christ with the Muslim. And then possibly we'll get into the next chapter, which is understanding suffering. So hopefully you will cover this ground, all of these things today, or at least get into the understanding suffering part. So let me just quickly review and then we will move forward. All of these PDFs have been shared with you, so you could just go to them. So the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we looked at just the Gospel accounts and said there are these obvious things that we can point to that very logically help us give evidence to the physical resurrection of Christ, the broken Roman seal, the empty tomb, the large stone that was moved, the Roman guards ran away, the great clothes were left behind, and Jesus' appearance is confirmed by witnesses. There were 500 witnesses, there were hostile witnesses, and his own family were there as witnesses. Then we said the disciples own lives, the fact that they gave their lives for the sake of this message of the resurrection, which was significant. And also today in the name of the risen Christ, lives are changed and miracles happen. Then we talked about the importance of very clearly stating that salvation is in the person of Jesus Christ. Now we say that because that's what the Bible says, the word of God clearly states it. Second, because we are convinced about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. We did that in a separate chapter. And thirdly, because there's nobody else who actually provides a complete remedy for sin and a promise of a relationship with God. There are a lot of religious teachings, but here Jesus is providing remedy for sin and bringing us into a right relationship with God. And so we say that in this word the Bible teaches salvation received by grace through faith. And what we have to do is to repent and believe. So we went through so far. So let's talk about today sharing Christ. Now we're just dealing with Hindu and Muslim. And then maybe towards the end, if we have time, we will look at a few other groupings of people. But aside from Christianity, the Christian faith, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism are the three other significant religious belief systems in the world. Hinduism and I mean Islam would probably overtake Hinduism. It's just happening. But both of these seem to be the two largest groupings, Hinduism, Islam. And so it's good for us to understand a little bit about Hinduism, understand a little bit about Islam, and see how to position the message of Jesus Christ so that a person from that background is able to understand the message and also able to see the difference. So when we talk about Hinduism and of course I'm not an expert on Hinduism and Hinduism itself is very vast. But we want to get the essence of it. What is the core of it? In contrast to the Christian faith. So the thing with Hinduism is that there are about 300 million gods and goddesses. And if you travel across India, you know, go to every village. Every village would have its possibly its own god or goddess and a mishmash. A lot of gods and goddesses, not just one. You would find many typically in any village you go to. So village to village, you know, so many things are there. And then overall, at a high level, they have these three gods or Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. Typically, gods are assigned by their activity, what they do or what kind of a blessing they would bring or what kind of a destruction they would cause so on so forth. So there is, there are so many. But that is also a problem because when we present Jesus, a typical Hindu, I'm not saying today, today we have very fundamental, very militant Hindus who who react differently. But I'm just saying in general, a typical Hindu would welcome any other god or goddess into this whole plethora of gods and goddesses. So there's no problem for them to add a few more, you know. So when we talk about Jesus, the problem is they are typically maybe very welcoming. Oh, yeah, he's a good person. He's another man. He's another God man. Whatever you say, they may say yes to and just add him to the list of gods and goddesses. And that's not how we want anybody to receive Christ. And that's not the way the Bible presents Christ. So we have to be careful about that. The other thing about man, of course, we know the Bible teaches man a sinful, but in Hinduism and especially when you hear, you know, when people talk about man, man is essentially considered part of God. So, you know, we, so there is this elevated status of man who can become part of God, part of the eternal God. So at the same time, sin is not a sin is looked upon more as bad deeds and good deeds as opposed to the way we look at sin. As something that actually disconnects us from God, distances us from God and would eventually result in an eternal separation from God and hell. So while the understanding of sin is there, it is more in terms of good deeds and bad deeds karma, as opposed to our understanding of sin, which is, which has serious consequences. So that's also something to keep in mind that we need to emphasize that we need to say that God is absolutely holy. We are created beings. And when we do wrong, it's not just an increment or a decrement in the count total count of good works and bad works. But it's having serious consequences. Sinful man cannot enter the presence of a holy God, you know, so that understanding has to be communicated in terms of scripture. Of course, we have the word of God, the Bible. They have the Vedas or a book of knowledge, books of knowledge and then other historical books like the Mahabharata and Ramayana and other scriptures. Now, when we read these books, they seem to be very historical stories, legends, maybe at some point. But they draw a lot of lessons from these, you know, the Mahabharata way, Ramayana. They draw stories and practical lessons and from that. And of course, the Bible stands out in a few, if you read side by side, the scriptures, of course, other than the historical books of the Old Testament. The Psalms, the Proverbs and when you come to the gospels, the teachings are very, very clear in the Bible. But here's something we don't need to necessarily compare, but it's just for information sake. Jesus, like we said, he could be either readily accepted, which is likely among many traditional Hindus. They would respect and accept him or among the militant Hindus, today they are very, very opposed to Jesus Christ. So they may react in a very violent way. Today, just because of all that has happened, they could react. They could think that we are here to convert people and so on. So that's their response to that. We have to keep in mind, in terms of, you know, life purpose, the whole part is about karma, which is your deeds. As long as you can maintain a higher count of good deeds versus lower count of bad deeds, you're going to make it. So good deeds, of course, is expressed through, you know, what you do for other people, your devotion, through your knowledge, your study, so on and so forth. So that's kind of the philosophy that they generally speaking, they would have for life. And when we talk about salvation, heaven, hell, the idea is that if you have good karma, eventually through this, as you go through a cycle of birth, life and death, that is the reincarnation and your total karma, your total good deeds are always, you're outweighing your bad deeds. Eventually, at some point, you're going to be liberated from this cycle of reincarnation. And you're going to experience salvation, moksha, and which will result in being united with God, that is your nirvana, which is that you're going to become one with God, the union with the divine. So the idea is, if you do a lot of good works, keep doing it, you will come out, you'll escape this cycle of birth, life and death, reincarnation, that is salvation. So salvation is getting out of the cycle of reincarnation, heaven is, in contrast to heaven, it is attaining nirvana, which is becoming one with the divine. So that's the idea here. And in terms of hell, there is no hell as in a place of eternal separation from God, but it is simply being trapped in the cycle of reincarnation. So that is the understanding or the overall philosophy. Now, there will be adaptations, there will be variations in how people practice this. For example, there would be people who worship a certain select set of gods and goddesses, they would carry out certain rituals, so not everybody doing the same kinds of rituals. Each one are choosing their own way of doing good works and good deeds and observing festivals. All of that is a so many wide variety of expressions within Indivision. And then, of course, what has happened is that in the Western world, the whole New Age philosophy, the New Age movement, which started a couple of decades ago, adapted certain ideas of Hinduism into this New Age movement, where they're just kind of bringing in ideas from all the religions, bringing it all together and forming or formed what is generally known as the New Age. So they have taken things from Hinduism, from other Eastern religions, so on, so put it all together and created this define your own religion kind of thing. And so you will find certain ideas of Hinduism coming into that. So there may be people who are not necessarily who may be of Hindu background but who are now more of practitioners of what we would refer to as a New Age expression of Hinduism, which is a mishmash of various ideas and so on. So typically, when you look at it, especially from within India, how it is practiced, we would see caste system. This is pretty strong still, not maybe in a very obvious way, but in very silent ways. In some places, yeah, it is very obvious, but in other places, it is there, but it's very temporary quiet, but people still observe what caste are you from, especially when it comes to marriage or comes to associations or how you relate to people, these things come in. Sometimes even affects even businesses, when who you do business with, you know, the whole idea of reincarnation. We mentioned that yoga, like we said, is an important part of Hinduism and sadly globally yoga has been adapted in so many different parts of the world. It is packaged as some form of wellness, a health program, but actually its roots are very spiritual. And if you look at it, there are just these four main kinds of yoga that has to do with thought and devotion and action and control of self or self-control. So whatever physical exercises, they are technically connected back to some form of spiritual exercise. So, but anyway, yoga has, you know, you find people all over the western world practicing yoga and so on, as a way of wellness and keeping fit and so on. We talked about karma, which is actions, dharma, which is doing goodness, expressing goodness. Our task, which are human forms or incarnation of God, so they have this idea as well. So the question is, you know, we've understood a little bit about Hinduism, the background. How would we present Christ to them? What should be the points of emphasis in our conversations? And of course, we don't want to fight or argue, but when we present Christ, it's got to be clear so that they understand and then they are left to make the decision. We're not obviously going to force anybody, but just that when we communicate Christ, the message of Christ, the message of the gospel is to be very clear. And they need to see the uniqueness and the difference, the distinct distinctiveness of Christ. So how would we present Christ? First of all, like we said, sin and evil. You know, the fact that in Hinduism, sin is looked upon as, you know, okay, you've got more bad works than good works, but it's not really affecting your relationship with God in the sense that, you know, you're not distanced from God, so to speak. You just have to, you know, get better at doing more good works or do Dharma. But we need to emphasize the holiness of God, which they would agree with, God is holy, and that this is what sin does. It separates us from God. It keeps us from entering the presence of God. And there is an eternal hell that we would have to face. And then having shared that, so that's a very, that's a clear distinction from reincarnation, when we talk about sin and its consequences. Then we present forgiveness as contrasted with karma and reincarnation. So we emphasizing forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. And again, we have to very logically explains, you know, our sin has its consequences. How are we going to escape an eternal hell? Well, our sin has to be paid for and that has happened through the work that Christ did for us through the complete sacrifice. Now, so obviously in Hinduism, there is no concept of free and total forgiveness of sin and salvation as a gift. Because there the concept is you have to earn it. You've got to make sure you do more good works than bad works. You've got to make sure that your scale is higher or heavier on the side of good works. Basically, you have to earn your salvation. You've got to work for it. You've got to earn it. And so it's very different from salvation as a gift. Forgiveness for sin based on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But this is good. We can highlight that and say, look, this is what the Bible says. This is the love of God. This is God's desire to enter into a personal relationship, which again doesn't. We can talk about that later. That's again another point of contrast. Then we've mentioned this already. Christ contrasted with many avatars. So here again, we don't want to point fingers, but we need to emphasize that God came into this world once as opposed to, you know, in Hindu concept, God coming over and over again in various forms. God came once and he was sinless, perfect. And he completed the work because he's God. And he did not need so many attempts to do what he came to do. It was a one time sacrifice. It was perfect. It was sufficient. It was complete. So Christ being the perfect expression of God. And then the very important part of a personal relationship with God here and now, which is again a very new, very different idea for them. Relationship with God is a matter of rituals. It's a matter of trying to appease God for the wrong they may have done and then trying to do a lot of good. It's not about, you know, a father son, a father daughter type of relationship, not a personal relationship. Also in Hinduism, there's a lot of emphasis on knowledge being enlightened. You know, you try to gain more knowledge and through that you read some sort of enlightenment. We contrast that with getting to know God through a personal relationship through his word through the work of the Holy Spirit. So this is again a big distinctive or a contrast. And finally, I should say another point of emphasis of contrast is that God works in us. Christ works in us to transform our lives as opposed to in Hinduism. You work out ways to improve yourself through various forms of self-discipline or self-realization or attaining higher level of knowledge and so on. So in Hinduism, the emphasis is on you improve yourself. You make yourself better through various disciplines, whatever you can. In the Christian faith, we are saying God works in us. He makes us new creation. He empowers us to overcome sin. He empowers us to live righteousness. He reveals himself to us by his spirit and through his word. So there is a big contrast here and we can present. So presenting the gospel message, it's good to, you know, emphasize the gospel messages the same. But as we are presenting it, it's good to clarify these points. When we are speaking to an audience who are from Hindu background, that we emphasize these things or clarify these things. So they see in their minds the difference between the message of Jesus Christ and what they have as part of their philosophy. And of course they need to make their choice of choosing to believe in Christ as they experience Christ working in their lives. Now again, what we see is there are, as always, there are a lot of Hindus who come to Christ because of an experience of the power of God. Maybe a healing, maybe an answer to prayer. So there is that important aspect, the supernatural, the experience of supernatural. And then there is also those who just find the Christian faith more logical, more meaningful. They see this distinctive, this difference that Jesus Christ is, there's so much of meaning in what the message of the gospel is. So we have both, yeah, people who come to faith, the Hindus who come to faith in Christ because of a supernatural experience. And there are also people who come to faith in Christ because the message of the gospel is so clear, it's so compelling, it is so powerful in contrast to what they have as their philosophy. So if we can, you know, do our part to make sure that when we present the gospel, these things are highlighted, not in a way of putting them down, but in a way of clarifying this is what the gospel really is. It's going to help them make their decision for Christ. So let me pause here and let's take up any points, anything you want to ask, any questions, any thoughts? Is it clear? Anything okay? Okay, I see your messages, bye. Alright, so if you have a chance, whenever you're going to share with somebody from the Hindu background, keep these thoughts in mind so that you know how to present the gospel in a very clear way, in a way that they see the difference. So like that, let's look at somebody from the Muslim faith. So lesson number 14, sharing Christ with the Muslim. So like we said, Islam is among the two largest religious groups, aside from Christianity, in fact, in one sense Islam is growing rapidly, just because of the population growth, the growth of the number of people and predominantly the Middle East, and also in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, one of the world's largest Muslim populations. And so when we want to try to understand Islam or people from the Muslim faith, what do we know? What should we keep in mind? So for the, and again, we have to keep in mind that just like what we said about the Hindus, there are the conservative Muslims or the traditional Muslims who are very orthodox or hold on very tightly to Islam, the Muslim faith. And then there are the, we can call them as more contemporary Muslims who are actually distancing themselves in some way from the conventional Muslim faith. For many reasons, because one, of course, because of all that has happened globally, they do not, they do not subscribe to the kind of violence, so on, those kinds of activities, so they're distancing themselves from traditional Muslim faith. Secondly, because of the heavy restrictions that are there, they do not see that as any relevant anymore to contemporary life. So when you meet a Muslim, when you meet somebody who, you know, who seems to have a Muslim background, we should not immediately put them into a category of a conservative Muslim. They may not be, they may be a more contemporary type Muslim who they are kind of Muslim from background, but they are distancing themselves from Islam as a religion. So you find both of these kinds of people, but let us just understand their background. So they believe in one God and they call them Allah is one eternal God. Now, this also becomes a big problem or I should say a big point of difficulty for a Muslim, because when we say the Bible talks about a triune God, they will not be able to accept that. Or at least initially, they find it very difficult to accept that because for them, God is one God. How can you have three gods or, you know, God in three persons? It doesn't make sense because for them, God is one God. And so, you know, we need to be able to cross that barrier. Secondly, again, the idea of sin is different. Sin, man's sin. We, again, we understand sin, separating man from God. They have the idea of sin, but it is not emphasized. We don't find it being emphasized the way we emphasize. For them, it's more on following the cultural practices, which is the big thing, you know, okay, you have to be like this, you have to do like this, as opposed to personal sin, which isn't emphasized or spoken of much where, for us, our sin separates us from God. Sin has its effect. In Islam, it's about, hey, are you following the rules? Are you living by the rules? This is what you do. This is what you don't do. And as long as that is kept in order, the personal sin is up to the individual. It's not emphasized. Scripture, we have the Bible. They have the Qur'an that came in around 688 written by the Prophet Muhammad. Now, when we talk about the person of Jesus Christ, they recognize Jesus as a prophet, but they do not recognize him as the son of God or God incarnate. So that's something to keep in mind and that's an area where they would have questions. The purpose of life is to submit to Allah. Now, in submission to Allah, you can do a lot of things, meaning even destructive things in the name of submission to Allah. So in the name of submitting to Allah, you kill or you do other activities which are very destructive. But if it's being done in submission to Allah, it's acceptable. It's just something we don't find here in the Christian faith. Heaven or salvation is Allah is going to make the choice. So you actually don't know. So a Muslim cannot know for sure whether he's saved. He hopes he'll be saved. He hopes Allah will choose him. And so the best he does is to live in submission to Allah, follow the rules, be a good Muslim and Allah will make the decision to choose you and accept you into heaven. And hell is for those rejected by Allah. So in an effort to be chosen by Allah is where they would then maybe take the drastic step of engaging in sacrificing their own lives. Some of the things that we can say about the way Islam is practiced. Okay, just a few more things here. Islam simply means submission to God. So you're living in submission to God. And we see Mohammed around 680. He was supposed to have received messages from the angel Gabriel, which is what he is then recorded in the Quran and of course historical information. The confession they make is simply there is no God but God, Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet. So there's no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. These are the two things that's kind of framed into them. So in terms of practices, the confession of the faith they proclaim, there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. You're supposed to pray five times a day, you give to the poor, you fast during the month of Ramadan, you go to Mecca on pilgrimage and you engage in Jihad, the holy war. Which is against Walilahs and against those who are opposed to the faith. So they take these things very seriously and follow the rules as far as these things are concerned. So for a Muslim, another important part of their life is the local mufti or the local leader who makes decisions for them, which are then referred to as fatwa, the decisions made by the mufti local leader. So he is supposed to interpret Islamic law and then say what has to be done in various situations. So whatever he issues as a decree then becomes what people have to follow. So this can be a problem because different places, they can be different decisions made and you're supposed to follow it. And it could go from anything, the way people have to conduct themselves in public to clothing that's to be worn to anything. So all of these things can be decided by the mufti who issues a fatwa. Basically his interpretation of how the Islamic law is supposed to be followed in that place and time. And the big sin here in Islam is to ascribe people, ascribe equals to God. And this is why when we say Jesus is the Son of God or Jesus is God, those things cannot relate to it. We cannot understand it. So the question is how do we communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to a Muslim who's been brought up in a very, very... I'm going to talk about the traditional Muslim or a conservative Muslim who's brought up in a very strict culture and manner of life. You follow these rules. These are your five practices. You live like this. This is your confession all the time. There's one God, Allah and Muhammad, this is prophet. And if you follow this kind of a lifestyle, you're going to make it to heaven. Allah will select and accept you and you will make it to heaven. So such a closed frame of thinking, how do we present the gospel to them? What are the points of emphasis when we want to bring the message of Jesus Christ? So that's something we have to think about. And then of course we know that the Muslims come to faith in Christ in various scenarios, which we will mention. So I'm not saying that this is the only way they're going to encounter Jesus. The Lord encounters them in so many different ways. But if we're given the opportunity to talk to a Muslim and share the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to be mindful of... These are the points I need to emphasize because this is where they are coming from. This is what they have been taught. This is what they believe. Therefore when I present the gospel, this is how I am supposed to present the gospel. So at the very beginning it's important for us to try to understand where this particular person is or where the group of Muslims are just speaking to. Where are they? So like we said, they are the traditional Muslims. And they are the modern day Muslims or the contemporary Muslims who are very different. They are looking to get away from the traditional Islamic thought. So they're thinking very different. The traditional Muslims are thinking very different. So for the most part in India we would run into traditional Muslims. But then if they have traveled over the world and they've been exposed to global culture they would be modern day Muslims where they are more open and more welcoming of the gospel message. So understand who are you speaking to? What kind of a Muslim this person is? Is he deeply steeped in Islam, a traditional Muslim? Or is he somebody who is wanting to come away from Islam and all of the restrictions and things that he or she has seen in Islam? Understand the difference. Establishing genuine friendship is wherever it's possible is important so that they can be a conversation. They can explore, they're given the opportunity to ask questions. And our part is to respond, is to present answers but let the Holy Spirit to the work. Now keep in mind that they are going to come with three big questions which has been kind of drilled into their thought in their teaching. One is, is Jesus really God? How can you say Jesus is Lord or Jesus is God? Did he die on the cross? Did he rise up from the dead? Because technically they've been told Jesus is not God and Jesus didn't die on the cross. His body was just taken down so he didn't really rise up from the dead. They've been taught that. So these are questions that may just come out to us. But then if they are willing to listen, then we can explain the fact that Christ died just by the account given to us. And if they are willing to listen, we can of course explain to them why it had to be a real resurrection. We've studied this before. So if these questions are put, we need to be ready to explain in a loving way that look, this is what we know about his death and about his resurrection. Now, if we're able to engage in conversation with them and have the opportunity to share the gospel, what must we do? Firstly, we must emphasize the nature of a loving God. So this is very foreign to Islam. In Islam, Allah is God, but he's a distant God. He is there more of a God who you just have to follow his rules. A God who has to be submitted to, a God who has to be served. So remember Islam simply means submission. You submit. Don't ask any questions. You just submit, you just serve. There is no idea, no thought of coming into a personal relationship with a loving God. There is no concept of Allah loving me. Allah is somebody who I submit to as a servant, as a slave. So emphasizing God as a loving creator, God who wants to be a heavenly father is so important. Second, let me set the concept of sin and how sin affects our relationship with God. That is not emphasized because in Islam it's about submission. You submit, you follow the rules and Allah will make his decision. But we're going into the details. You're saying, look, this is what happens when we sin. It affects our relationship with God. And of course, if we explain it logically, they would understand. You know, God's a holy God. When we sin, sin is not acceptable before God. When we sin, we hurt the heart of God. So I'm going to pause here. Let's go for a break and we will pick up here and go forward. And now I see some questions there. When we get a comeback after the break, we will take it up. Any other questions, you're welcome to put it on the chat. Let's be back in 10 minutes. Thank you.