 Okay, could somebody pray? Do you have an extra mic? Yes. Could somebody pray and then we'll start, please. Thank you for this wonderful morning that you blessed us with Lord. And as we're gonna dig into your word today, Lord, in the subject of Christian apologetics, there are people who would learn something new today and that Lord, as we're learning more about you, any word, I pray that it would impact us and that we would increase our knowledge in it and that we'll be able to apply it. And thank you, Jesus, that we have a good time together in this class. Amen, pray. Okay, once again, good morning. All right. So we have been talking about the person of Jesus. Of Jesus. We looked at the uniqueness of Christ. Why is Christ unique? We went through nine reasons or nine statements on that. We looked at the resurrection of Jesus and then we looked at why we say salvation is only through Jesus. Okay. So today, we want to focus on two things. One is how do we share Christ with a person who comes from the Hindu faith and how do we share Christ with a person who comes from the Muslim background, right? The intent here is not to put down other religions or philosophies that we are not condemning. But what we are saying is, when we share Christ, we need to understand their backgrounds. How are they understanding things we are saying, right? And then we need to communicate Christ in a way that will bring them to faith in the person of Jesus, right? So they need to be very clear what the gospel is and what we're inviting them to believe, to our faith. So let me just share this on the screen. This is lesson number 13 in your notes. It's page 75 and let me share this. All right. So sharing Christ with a Hindu. So just to draw a contrast or at least to understand some of the key beliefs from somebody in a Christian faith and somebody from a Hindu faith. When you talk about God, as believers, we are referring to the one eternal triune God. For somebody from the Hindu faith, they have many gods and goddesses, numerous, right? So each family, maybe even each individual, sometimes it happens at a community level. They embrace a certain set of gods and goddesses. So say, okay, here we worship these gods and goddesses. So there's so many. The number we don't know is about some 330 million gods and goddesses. But what is interesting is they also have this concept of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. It's kind of parallels our trinity. So we have to be a little careful because when we are talking about trinity, we also have, you know, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. So they are thinking that is their frame of reference. But when we say, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, we are not meaning the same thing. We're talking about the eternal God. And Triune God, one Godhead. But in their minds, they could be thinking like this. So we have to be very careful how we talk, how we communicate. When we talk about man, we say by default, man is sinful. But they essentially, let me talk about the religious philosophy, essentially say man is part of God. So there is something of divine in man already. So sometimes you'll hear some of the speeches or writing, discover the God in you, you know, the thing. So it's like, there's something already of God in you. So we have to be again careful. Scriptures, we have the Bible, they have the Vedas, Aramayana, Mahabharata and so on. Jesus Christ, again, here we have mentioned this before. When we say about Jesus, we're talking about God who became man, incarnation. But they will also have similar thing. Oh, we also have many avatars, many times God came. So you only once again, you came for us many times, you know. So that is their thinking. And also, Hinduism is more like a philosophy where you can embrace anything. So many Hindus will say, Jesus is also one more God. So I'll take the photo of Jesus, keep the Bible, add it to my collection. They don't mind. They don't mind. Generally, I'm saying, of course, I'm not talking about the radical Hindus, but generally they don't mind. So if you ask somebody, Hindu, do you accept Jesus? Yeah, I accept Jesus. But in what way they're accepting as one of the many gods? For them, it's like, yeah, one more God. Do you respect Jesus? Yeah, of course. So we have to be careful because that is not the way when the Bible is telling us to believe in Jesus, the Bible is telling us to accept Jesus. It's like, no one else, he is the only Lord and God. You'll have no other gods beside me is what the Bible is saying. So we have to be careful. Life's purpose for us, it says, OK, to know God through a personal relationship, God establishes a relationship with us, then we grow in that knowledge. Whereas here it is of attaining something through your good words, through a process of enlightenment, you attain something and eventually you should escape the cycle of reincarnation and experience Moksha and Nirvana, which is being united with God. So heaven, for us, heaven is a real place where God dwells, for us to go be with Him. In Hinduism, it's more of a process of escaping the cycle of reincarnation and becoming one united with God. Hell, it's a place of separation. But in Hinduism, it's being here on earth and being trapped in the cycle of reincarnation. That itself is hell. So again, we have to talk, think carefully. When we say born again, you must be born again. Yeah, I was born again 100 times. But they're thinking born again in a different way. Say born again, we are saying you're receiving life from God. For them, born again is a cycle of rebirth. Very different things. But the term seems almost close to each other. Actually mean very different things. So when we say born again, we have to be careful. So essentially, with this understanding, we have to be careful what terms we use and how we speak to somebody who's coming from a Hindu faith. Because we may use terms, but it is understood differently because of their background. It's understood, so we have to make it very clear, very simple how we communicate. Some other things that we must keep in mind is things about the caste system. It is true that for many, many, many years, there's been attempts to so-called abolish the caste system, but it's still part of their thinking. Generally, they would like to marry somebody from their own caste and things like that. It's still there, so probably things like that. We mentioned about reincarnation, yoga. So yoga itself is a form of spiritual exercise. So it's not just breathing exercise, physical exercise. It's a little spiritual thing and then different kinds of yoga with the intent of bringing certain kinds of spiritual benefit for the individual who's practicing those things. Karma, it has to do with actions, deeds, you do a lot of good deeds. Those are your actions, which then will determine what happens to you. Dharma is the goodness or righteousness you get from doing those good deeds. Avatar are human forms of God, Vishnu. So how given this background, so I'm not saying we should try to understand Hinduism fully, at least you have the main ideas, have a main idea. So given this background, how will we share the gospel? Clearly, without getting them to misunderstand what we are saying. So the first thing is that the existence of sin and evil, they will readily agree. Yes, there is sin. There is something called doing evil. Hinduism and Islam or Muslims will agree to that, that this is evil. This is sin. This is something that does not please God. They will agree to it. But when the Hindu is thinking about sin, he's thinking more about in the context of how it affects me in my karma. When we think about sin, we're thinking about how it affects our relationship with God. Different. So when we sin, we feel sorry because we have offended God. When a Hindu says, okay, tomorrow I have to do two more good works. I have to compensate for it. Now I told the lie, it's okay, tomorrow I'll tell two truths. Compensation, right? So that is the thing, karma, I'm thinking, okay, I know there is sin. I know there's evil. But the Hindu is thinking by default. Okay, how does it affect my overall karma, net result? Not thinking about how it's affecting my relationship with God. Very different how we perceive sin or a believable perceive sin and how a Hindu perceives sin. We agree on the concept of sin. We agree on the concept of doing wrong. But what impact it has, that is quite different. So for us, we need, as we begin our conversation, our emphasis must be on how sin affects our relationship with God. Same thing when you talk to a Muslim, we'll see in the next lesson. That also is important, hey, our sin is not just affecting us. Of course, we will suffer the result of our wrongdoing. But it's affecting relationship with God. That you have to make them understand, make them think about. There is a God who loves you, but our sin affects our relationship with God. Second, so that leads us to a discussion on forgiveness. How are you going to be forgiven for this? We agree that our sin has its consequences, right? We agree that because we sin, there will be consequences. But the Hindu is thinking in terms of, well, if somehow my wrongs, the wrongs I have done outweighs is more than my good. I'll just get another chance next time in next life. Next time when I come, I will try to do better, reincarnation. But we are saying no next tense. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. So Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 is an important scripture to remember. Say, hey, the Bible tells, this is where the Bible is different. The Bible says it is appointed to man once to die. After that comes the judgment. I mean, you die once, not two times, 10 times, 25 times. You die once, then there is judgment. You have to stand before God. God is going to judge you and what will happen to sin. Even one sin on judgment day is enough to dismiss us from the presence of God. Because God is perfectly holy. So we have to bring in that concept, right? Sin affects a relationship with God. The consequence of sin is not that you're going to go on in the cycle of reincarnation, but you have to, when you die, you can be judged. And even one sin will prevent us from getting into God's holy presence. God is absolutely holy. So they'll accept that as well. God is absolutely holy. One sin is enough to get me away. So then we bring the issue of forgiveness. How can we receive forgiveness? How can we receive it? And that is where we have to introduce the uniqueness of Jesus, that there is no way any man can wash away our sins. So in the Hindu philosophy, there is lots of ideas on how you can wash away your sin. One is you go dip in the river, or you go on some pilgrimage, or you do some sacrifice, a lot of different ideas. Or if some God, man, or guru, or god, woman, some mother, there's some prayer and blesses you, something like that. Your sins will be forgiven. But then that's why we have to say, look, see, every man, every man has sin of their own. We're not saying they may not be good or they may be bad. They could be better than others, but every man has sin of their own, whether it's a guru or God. So this is where Jesus, why is Jesus unique? Because he's not man who tried to become God, but it is God who became man, very different. Not some man who's trying to be good and good and good, and then attaining enlightenment. It is God who became man, and he was sinless. That's how we can say he was sinless. It is not man trying to become God, but God became man. He was sinless. So that's where everything becomes different. Everything becomes different. And then we talk about the death, the purpose of Christ's death. He paid for all our sins. The sinless one took all our sins on him. And the judgment for the sins of the whole world was put upon him. He died, he buried, he was buried, he rose up again. And today if you believe, the Bible says forgiveness is free. And you can have forgiveness here and now. You don't have to hope that you keep coming through the cycle of reincarnation, then sometimes you'll go something. No, you can have forgiveness here and now. And God brings us to a personal relationship. We come into a personal relationship. And very important, it is God who works in us to change us. Because even in the Hindu mindset, this you must change yourself. And you must gain knowledge and you must do works and you must change yourself. That is the Hindu mindset, right? But here it is, we are saying God works in us to change us and make us like him. So these are the main points of difference. You with me? Yeah, so very simple. So we won't confuse them with Trinity. Don't confuse them with being born again. If we use those terms, they'll get confused. So you don't even use those terms. Don't say Trinity, don't say must be born again. When you're speaking to a Christian crowd background, you can say you must be born again because they have that. When we're speaking to a Hindu crowd or a Hindu person, avoid using those terms because it's very confusing. Just make it very simple. Focus on sin, relationship with God, punishment for sin. How you can receive forgiveness? Why Jesus is so different? And how Jesus can change your life here and now? Very simple. They will understand. They will see the difference. Clearly, this is very different from my Hindu faith. Very different. This is so good. Any questions? Yes. Francis, Nikhil, question? Also in my school time, I'm sharing like this. Turn off my not friend. He's a group of friends. A group of friends? Yeah. All are Hindu background. So most of these things I shared. But last one topic came like this. So you are saying our God is not God. You only your God is like, I got afraid. Hey, OK, now he's going to beat. So like, at that time, I said like this, I'm not saying your God is not God. What I'm saying? Yeah. What I'm saying about my God is what I can do, like in case like the situation is happening, like, OK, you're saying like this. So how to overcome like in case like most of the clouds are coming, OK, you're saying and like it's going to be an argument or anything. So how we can say in a proper way? Yeah. So I think from the beginning, so I mean, if it, yeah, let me see this. From the beginning, we start with the term God. So like God, we agree, we believe there is a God and it should not be as though us versus them or Christians versus Hindus. It's not like that. God is there. God who created all of us. God created all of us and now we are all sinners. We are all so we are saying, look, we are talking about us as a common thing. So if we start like that, God created all of us. We are all sinners. We have all done things. So when we use that, you know, making say, look, this is applicable to all of us. So from the beginning, they will think that they will understand that this message is for everyone, all of us. But even if it eventually comes to what you just described, like they feel like, oh, you're now telling that your God is better than our God or things like this. Hey, no, no, no, that's not the point. The point is you and I are same. We are just human beings. How are we, you and I, sinners, going to find the God who created us? So I'm not saying my God or your God. I'm saying the God who created you and me. So we can say that. So the moment is, hey, you're saying my God and your God. No, I'm not. I'm saying I'm talking about you and me. I'm talking about all of us. We, us sinners, how are we going to find the God who created you and me, all of us? So now we're not saying my God or your God, the God. How? I'll leave it at that. And of course, the moment it comes into some sort of us versus you kind of thing, you just have to keep quiet. We don't want to get into a fight and a debate and things and that. So we leave it like this. And then if there are individuals or people who have sincere questions, they're not fighting or they're not taking it as a us versus you argument. But more of, I have a sincere question about why Jesus was born in Jerusalem, why he was not born in Mumbai. Sometimes they have, why not here? Sincere question. They're not asking it to challenge us, but generally, why you have to bring God from Jerusalem to here? Sincere. Then we have, we can explain, you know that. God had to choose somebody to come, some place to come. Because if he was born in, I don't know, Bangalore, somebody's staying somewhere to say why he was born in Bangalore, why he was not born there. So that question can come from anywhere. God had to choose one community, one place to be born. And it happened that he chose Israel, Jews and Israel. I mean, if people ask sincere questions, good. If they come to fight and argue, just leave it. Good. Another question. Go ahead. Same situation also. Adam and Eve, that is one of the whole witness boy is there. So we both are fighting. He's saying, right, I'm saying, right. He directly came and said, Jesus is not there. He's saying all false and all. So in practical terms, we are going to do ministry. So in case that decision is happening, they are saying wrong, we are saying, right, Jesus is not there. And if anybody wants to receive Jesus, these kind of things are coming to their life. So how we can say and correct them? Yeah. So that's a very bad situation, especially when you have somebody like, say, from a Jehovah's Witness, the example, the Hindu person will not know the difference between Jehovah's Witness and us. Both Christians, you yourself are fighting. What's wrong with you? But he doesn't understand that the Jehovah's Witnesses are actually a cult. It's not the genuine Christian faith, right? And he won't understand that. So that's a very bad situation to happen. If it does happen, say, hey, I am stepping out of this. If any of you are interested, you can come and meet me separately, we'll talk. Because we shouldn't fight in front of the other party, in front of Jehovah's Witness. Because the Jehovah's Witnesses will not accept that Jesus is God. The very basic thing is gone. I just don't need to fight about this. So just say, hey, please excuse me. If any of you are interested, you can come and meet me personally, somewhere else. We'll talk. But I am not interested. I will not continue in this. Just leave it and go away. Because it will not go anywhere argument. And then they'll watch. They'll laugh at us. Yeah. Who was five? How can we actually debate or clarify on that? Meaning there's one God, one mediator, between God and man, the man Christ, Jesus. So you can say, yeah, that is true. That means it's talking about the meditorial role, the role that Jesus played as a man when he became a man. That does not take away from the fact that he was God. You're just saying, this is what he did as a man. As a man, he became the one who can connect us or bring us back to God. But who was this man? He was God who became man. And as a man, he's bringing us back to God. So as you see, that is very clear indication that he is God. Because only God can bring us back to himself. If he was just man, then he's like any of us. Then he is no better than me or you trying to reach God. If he was just man. But if he was God who became man, then he definitely could be the mediator who was taking man to God. But it's really focusing on his role as the redeemer, the mediator. That doesn't take away from who he was as God. And what he has been after is ascension. He is seated at the right hand of the father. He's God. Any questions from online students? Yes. Sir, the name, because most of the Hindus keep this name. And each name has different meaning. Vishnu, the sustainer. Shiva is a destroyer. So most of the Hindus, they'll keep the name after coming, after their salvation. Also, they don't change. But whatever that the name itself, it's a meaning. When Jesus also given a name, what name you have to keep for the child? Say any particular about changing the name and... Shiva means destroyer. That will affect on their life. Because David says, I will never confess any other God in my mouth. But what about this? So the question is, should somebody change their name after becoming a believer? This is my opinion. I don't know if there's a chapter in verse 2 used in responding to this question. But I think this is just my thought that it really doesn't matter. That you just keep whatever name. But you're looking it as a label, not as a definition or a description of who you are. It's just a label. Meaning, you call me, this is my name, it's a label. But who I am, is who I am in Christ. That's my identity, that's where my life comes from. And that will not be affected by what label I put. I can ask John, Mary, Sue, whatever label anybody puts on their name. It's just a label. But who you really are, who you are in? Christ. That's the real person. So that's my personal thought that there's no need to change the name. If somebody wants to change, they feel like I want to take a name of David, or Isaiah, or Ezekiel, or Jeremiah, or something. You take that name, if they feel they want to. They want to keep their whole name, it's fine. It doesn't matter. It's a problem with changing names. If you especially have a lot of documents, you're going to change the name of all the documents. That's a big headache. David. He's a DSP, David. I'm not following him, so I don't know if he's changing. David. David. I've read it. And I was thinking the lady, she's not following us. I'm just going to say, I'm just going to say, in Korea, if you change the name, you can change the name. Hmm, here is very confusing. Here are a lot of paperwork, if you want to change the name. Then you want to change your name. I think she tried for 10 days. Any other questions? Fine. So that's talking about when you're sharing with the Hindu, right? The goal is keep it very simple, so that it's not confusing to them. And you're addressing the main thing. The main. Now, when we share Christ, or when we are sharing Christ with a Muslim. Yeah, yeah, a lot of people, especially during my early days when I was sharing, at those days, of course, we should do a lot of one-on-one evangelism. So that's when, then after that, you started doing all this from a big stage and preaching to crowds and all this, that's a little different. So one-on-one, and I think it's just keeping it as simple like this and not getting complicated. Because after they come to the faith, then they will learn about Holy Spirit, all the actual, the triune God, and so on and so forth. And even the different names of God, of the Lord Jesus, the titles were given to Jesus. They will learn all that, they will understand. Somehow the understanding comes. So some of the Hindu friends that I've led to the Lord are actually serving God. You know, serving God today, they're pastors serving God. So it's wonderful to see that happen. And but it's very simple, nothing complicated. Just like I was sharing, share the gospel, would you like to receive Christ? Yeah, then as soon as you receive Christ, I give them a New Testament and say, you start reading the New Testament. Then they will start learning about the life of Jesus. And of course, we lead them into the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And what I noticed is after they make the commitment to Christ and they start reading the New Testament, some of these questions about this confusion about Trinity and all is not there. Just God gives them the understanding that, oh, God the Father, I can call God my Father. I want the Holy Spirit to work in my life. So it's fine. And now even in church these days, when I see, like of course what's happening these days is these are people who are from the Hindu faith, but they already believe in Jesus and then they come to church. Even that's amazing because they understand, they receive the truth about the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit or all the different titles of Jesus. Oh, they understand. This is who Jesus is. There's no confusion that just because there are, you know, example, 10 different titles of Jesus doesn't mean there are 10 different versions of Jesus. That confusion is not there. But we know it's the same Jesus says that he has different titles. He's called the good shepherd, the light of the world, the bread of life. All right. So I think in my experience, the best thing is keep it very simple, like how we shared this now. Just say that, that is enough. So is there any particular things that when we are sharing to urban people and rural people, the people who are educated and non-educated, is there any particular points to touch when we are sharing on the first time? Now I haven't done like too much of rural, I mean the village areas, the times when I used to do villages, it used to be mainly in crusades, like meetings, you know. So then there'll be crowds of people in front of you. And of course everything is being done through an interpreter. So in those meetings, the emphasis is on the healing and some miracles. We present Jesus, again similarly like this, present Jesus as the one who died for us. So simple gospel, very simple gospel message. And then present him as the one who heals and delivers. So somehow in the villages, that to them is the sign that what we are saying is true. In the city, urban context, it's more of, if I understand what you're saying is correct, I will follow. So in the urban context, we have to explain it very clearly, start like the whole starting from a relationship with God created us, some relation of some, if they understand that very clearly, okay. In the rural context preaching in the gospel crusades, it's been more of, this is who Jesus is, but here's the evidence, which is, okay, we'll pray in his name and they'll be healing and deliverance. Then it's a sign for them that I will follow this Jesus. So that's what, now even in the urban context, science and miracles are important. There are people who will respond to that, but it's important for them to understand, logically, what we are saying. Okay, any questions? All right, so what are we going to do? Okay, so let's now just look at the next lesson. Okay, so Chaya, there's a message on the chat. Sometimes when we send verses to any of our family members to comfort them in times of need, they get encouraged, but when we tell them it's from the Bible, they don't want to accept. How to deal with this? Well, we do have to tell them from where the source is. That is, it's from the Bible. If they don't want to accept, then I think we shouldn't force it, like don't force it on them because then it will push them further away from receiving, you know, or being open. So I think if people say, hey, I don't want it, then I think we should respect that and just don't keep, don't continue sending Bible verses or things. If they have told you, I don't want, it is one thing, I mean, maybe they are interested, but just that they may not accept, you know, they may not immediately respond to the Bible. So if they're open to receiving it, they don't mind you sending the scriptures, Bible verses, then you can continue sending it. But if they tell us, tell you directly that please don't send me Bible verses, then we must respect that request and don't send it to them. Okay. So it really depends on how that response comes. We need to respect people and if they are willing to continue receiving the Bible verses, but just that they're not willing to go to the Bible, that's okay. You just keep sending Bible verses because at some point they may get interested and say, okay, can I read the Bible? So it really depends how they're responding. Okay. So let me talk about sharing Christ with a Muslim. It's a little challenging because, again, we have to keep in mind that there are different kinds of Muslims, the different kinds of Muslims. See, right now, think of what's happening in the Middle East, you know, this war between Israel and Hamas, which is a group among the Palestinians who are militant. They're all Muslims and this has been going on for a long time. So since 1948, they've been constant fights. And there's a book that came out. It's a book, it's the titles called The Son of Hamas. It was written by the son of, I think it was the very first or the earliest among the earliest leaders of the Hamas group. So we're going back to the early days, so 1940 and the 50s on. So this young man was the son of one of the leaders of the Hamas militant group, Son of Hamas, forgot his name. And he shares in that book how he encountered Jesus Christ, how he came to faith in Christ. So for him, he was looking at all that the Hamas were doing, that all the activity, terrorist bombing, killing, all of that. And he was then and during that time, there were people in Israel, like he used to walk around and then the people came and give him a new testament to faith. He started reading a little bit quietly, secretly. He's the son of the leader. And the book describes a lot of things, but he began to see the difference. In the Jesus and the violence that was, that's kind of almost encouraged in Islam. I saw the difference. And eventually he came, he gave his life to Christ secretly, but then he had to leave. So he escaped into, he had to leave, I think he's somewhere in the U.S., but his life is very, he could get killed if people know where he is and what he's doing. Because he's become a follower of Jesus. But what I wanted to say is that difference, it's not easy for people to see. Because one is both, so Christianity came out of Judaism. And Judaism, Islam and Christianity kind of trace their roots back in a similar way, not exactly the same way, but in a similar way, all the way to the Garden of Eden, Abraham, and all the way into the Garden of Eden. So it's almost looking like, hey, Islam, Christianity are almost the same. And in Islam, they are very, I'm talking about the traditional Muslim, is very, what to say, I'll use the word trained in their faith, very strong. Now there are modern Muslims who do not like what is going on, the militant part of Islam and all that. So they are slightly different. They are more open. They agree, hey, we shouldn't be killing people and all those things. They agree to those things. But I'm just saying that the traditional Muslim is pretty well trained in their disciplines. So they will ask questions like, you're saying Jesus is the Son of God. How can God have a Son? Who was God's wife then? They're trained to ask those questions. You say Jesus rose from the dead. How do you know he rose from the dead? The disciple just stole his body and put it in the tomb. They don't believe in the death and the resurrection of Jesus. So they're trained to ask those questions. So it's a little bit more difficult when we share in Christ with the Muslim, but there are some key points, key areas, and how we can present the message of Jesus and how they will open up to the Gospel. So take a break and when you come back from the break, we will highlight those key areas and how to share Christ with a Muslim.