I have meet some people from Taiwan and the door is open for dialogue about Jesus. They are Buddhists. Can I get some serious answers to this issue: How can one bring a Buddhist to Jesus?

Thanks, Bill

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

Answers

Hey Bill....

I have actually had the experience of baptizing a former Buddhist into Christ. He was from Vietnam.

To be honest....I had a little bit of an inroad...in that he and his wife were having marital struggles.

Unfortunately....it was too late for the marriage....but he did continue to come to church and develop his relationship with Christ. I have lost contact with him since I left Cocoa.

Again....I was also at an advantage because in his words...."he never bought it"....(i.e., the Buddhist thing).

Wish I could be more helpful at this point. However, this fall I am teaching a World Religions course and Buddhism is of course one of the religions to be studied. If you would like....I would be glad to send you the class outline and handouts for that discussion via e- mail.

My initial reaction, however, would be to compare the historical claims of both....and....probably most importantly....the supremecy of the morality of Christianity verses Buddhism.

Good to hear from you. I think of you often!

-- Anonymous, August 04, 2000

One day, when I was in college, when the classes had just started, I prayed that the Lord would bring someone across my path for me to share the gospel with.

That night, I went to a Christian student's meeting, and started talking with a new South Korean student there, who was at the English school associated with my university. His English wasn't so good, but he was a Buddist, and I started sharing with him. I said that Jesus said tha thtis was eternal life, that they might know God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent. He said he would like to know God.

'Hoon' as he was nicknamed from one of the particles in his name, started going to church with me. I drove about 15 miles to pick him up for church in the morning. I was living with my parents at the time, and we had him over for lunch- poor guy didn't go too much for western food too much. I shared with him some, but there was a big language gap. I suggested he might want to go to a Korean meeting to understand the gospel better. The preacher at our church probably had a difficult accent for him. He said 'mountang' instead of 'mountain' and things like that.

Eventually, Hon got hooked up with some Koreans, who took him to church. Campus was a long distance call from my house, so I only contacted Hoon occasionally. He went to the Korean meeting. I spoke with him on the phone, and he was planning ot get baptized, but I for some reason I didn't make it to his baptism, and lost contact with him.

Later, he left for Korea. Some Korean students at the campus group I attended told me Hoon's story from his testimony. At first, he pretended to be interested in Chrisitanity partly to get to spend time with a native speaker. [A lot of Koreans study abroad, hang out with Koreans, and just learn from their classes, and don't make many American friends.]

Hoon said that he met an American (me) who drove a long way to take him to church, and was really nice to him. After a little while, he started feeling bad about what he was doing, and started getting interested in Christianity. He started going to church. Finally, he got baptized.

I've probably passed up more opprtunities for evangelism than I can count, but I learned something from this experience. Sometimes, you just serve people and lay your life down, and they see something and it interests them. There are probably a lot of things you can learn in terms of apologetics to share with Buddists, and that is out of my relm of expertise. The way people come to faith, no mater what hte background, is the word of God goes to work on their hearts, and the Father draws them to Christ. Share the word with htese people, and learn whatever else you can.

I never saw Hoon after that. I tried to call him when I was in Korea, and he was on vacation in Indonesia. Now I'm in Indonesia, and Hoon is probably back in Korea.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

Hey Big Brother, it's really good to see you!!

Is there a language barrier in your case?

I lived in Japan for three years...many were Buddhist...also believed in many gods. A god for everything almost, and a shrine with a god in it on every street corner. Do you know if it is the same in Thailand? I believe one of the main problems in converting the Japanese people to Christ is getting them to see there is only ONE GOD.

I do have missionary friends still living in Japan, and will email them for you to see what has worked best for them.

Your Sis,

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

Oops, that was Taiwan, not Thailand.

-- Anonymous, August 03, 2000

I wrote a commentary about this subject. I once had someone ask me the difference between Christianity and Buddhism. I hope this helps. __________________

KARMA: CHAMELEON

A girl from Argentina asked me not too long ago what the difference was between Christianity and Buddhism. While that is a broad subject, I will try to give a brief answer here.

One of the major tenets of Buddhism and Hinduism is the concept of Karma. Karma is a difficult concept, but simply put, it is like your life has a ledger sheet of good deeds and bad deeds. You have to atone for the bad deeds with good ones, trying to balance the ledger. If you don't "get it right," live a perfect life, you are doomed to start all over, through Samsara, or reincarnation.

Now something occurred to me the other day. I'm always hearing on the TV that they found some kid who is the umpteenth reincarnation of some great Lama. Well if the Lamas, the holiest of holy men in Buddhist thought, can't even get it right, after like 37 reincarnations they are still back here, what hope have we ordinary men of escaping that cycle?

Christianity, however, offers hope -- and a blessed hope it is! The Bible says that the bad deeds of our ledger sheet, to continue with this analogy, are measured not by our good deeds, but by God's ultimate standard of perfection. And by that standard we all fall short (Romans 3:23)! No amount of good deeds in the credit side can avail! God is so righteous, so holy, so perfect, that even all our best deeds look like soiled rags before Him (Isaiah 64:6). We owe a debt we cannot pay!

Ok, you're probably saying, this sounds even worse! How is there any hope in this? Well that's where the good news of the Christian message comes in. The Bible says that God saw we could not ever measure up, and saw that there was no human on the face of the earth who could ever pay the debt. So He sent His only son, Jesus Christ, to pay that debt for us. "For God loved the world so much that He gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have Eternal Life" (John 3:16) And to those who receive Him, His perfect righteousness is credited to their account (Romans 4:24)! The ledgers balance! Our debt is paid! May God be praised! We can go home to Him!

Karma, and therefore Buddhism, is a chameleon: It promises hope, blending into the background of man's vanity that he can save himself, yet in the end, it cannot deliver on its promise. Jesus, however, made good on His promise for Eternal Life: He proved it by rising from the dead Himself, and offers this resurrection Life to all who come to Him. "But to all who received Him, to them He gave the right to become sons of God" (John 1:12).

-- Anonymous, August 05, 2000

Like others, I spent two and half years in Japan and started a small congregation for the Japanese indiginous personal on the base of Eta Jima. We met in a buddhists house. The situation I ran into was the many facets which can enter into their religious beliefs. This one had a huge vault with his ancesters remains in it, a buda and all the whistles and bells, which during our services he rang profusly. I am sure he use to listen at the door, while our services were going on. One night he entered our services, and that started the ball rolling. This was some time ago and I dont remember all the details now, but like so many eastern religions, contrary to alot of other opinions, There is alot of emotion involved. Many are smart tho, but reason, Truth, logic can prevail, at others have shown. Like so many they are hungry for truth, I just remember that no arguments insued. Just straight positive truth. IT WORKS. Bro. Jack

-- Anonymous, August 06, 2000