Thinking Faith
Apologetics vs. Real World Questions - Defense of the Christian Faith.
Thinking Faith
World Religions: The Differences - The #1 Thing That Makes Christianity Different
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Every major world religion answers the same question: How do I get right with God?
And in almost every case, the answer is the same: Do more. Try harder. Earn it.
Islam calls believers to the Five Pillars. Hinduism teaches karma — your actions determine your fate. Buddhism lays out the Eightfold Path as the road to liberation. And even much of what passes for Christianity today quietly whispers the same message: God loves you… but you need to hold up your end of the bargain.
But what if the Gospel is saying something radically, scandalously different?
In this episode, Beau and Jerry explore one of the most important distinctions in all of human religion: the difference between DO and DONE.
Every other faith places the burden on the follower. Christianity alone says the work has already been completed — not by us, but for us. Jesus didn't say "It is nearly finished." He said "It is finished." (John 19:30)
We open the Scriptures and the sacred texts of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism — and let them speak for themselves.
In this episode, we cover:
- The Quran on earning God's favor through deeds — Surah 23:102–103 (the weighing of good and bad deeds on Judgment Day)
- The Bhagavad Gita on karma and duty as the path to liberation — Chapter 3:8–9
- The Dhammapada on self-purification — verse 165: "By oneself alone is one purified"
- What Paul says in Ephesians 2:8–9 — "It is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast"
- Why Ephesians 2:10 matters just as much — good works are our response to salvation, not the road to it
- The difference between merit-based religion and grace-based relationship
- Why so many Christians unconsciously slide back into "DO" thinking
- What it means that Jesus is our righteousness — not a helper, but the entire foundation
Key passages:
- Ephesians 2:8–10 — Grace, faith, gift, and the proper place of good works
- John 19:30 — "It is finished"
- Romans 3:23–24 — Justified freely by grace
- Titus 3:5 — Saved by mercy, not merit
- Galatians 2:21 — If righteousness could be earned, Christ died for nothing
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 — Christ as our righteousness
One idea we keep returning to: Religion is humanity's attempt to reach up to God. The Gospel is God reaching down to us.
Every other system says climb the ladder. Christianity says the ladder has already been climbed — on your behalf.
If you've ever felt the exhausting weight of trying to be good enough, faithful enough, spiritual enough — this episode is for you.
The goal isn't to do more. The goal is to receive what's already been done.
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Here’s Beau on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ArLszRTPV/?mibextid=wwXIfr
There I was on Green River Community College campus, and I had two friends of mine, a Mormon and a Muslim. And I was the token Christian there. We were talking and debating about as to what made our world religions different from each other. Initially, we were all kind of in this triangle, if you will, one person on each point, everybody facing the middle, as we discussed what makes us unique. And then the Muslim said, Well, your Bible has a lot of holes in it. Uh-oh. I think we need a prophet to come to correct those holes, those issues that we have seen in the Bible. My Mormon friends suddenly turned so that they were shoulder to shoulder. And I remember very distinctly standing there, seeing the polar opposites of these two world religions, Latter-day Saints and Islam, and here they were, shoulder to shoulder, paired together, looking at me, nodding in agreement with each other. And I thought to myself, wow, of anybody who should be on my team, it's the Mormon. They believe in Old Testament, New Testament stuff, or of anybody who should be on my team, it's the Muslim. Because we both go back to Abraham and the Old Testament. No, no, no. They were both in cahoots with each other. And that's when I realized, wow, Christianity is different. What makes Christianity different? And shall we explore the world religions?
SPEAKER_00Pressure testing Christianity with real world questions. We take modern issues sourced directly from you, our audience, and we see if these ancient books within the Bible have any answers. Conversational and thought-provoking? We're here for deep thinkers and natural-born skeptics. Welcome to the Thinking Faith broadcast.
SPEAKER_02You know, when you first started that, I thought it was a joke. A rabbi and a priest and a Protestant walk into a bar. As we usually do in Thinking Faith podcasts, we take the questions that are presented to us from the teens and uh we address them. And so this is the question out of the teen's mouth. What do I do if people ask me to talk about other religions? We looked at this and we thought, well, we'll start with Islam. Uh we can, if we have time, we'll delve into Judaism, the uh religion of the Jews, and then we can go into Hinduism and Buddhism. That'll cover about four billion people right there. So we'll give it a go, right? And see what we uh come up with.
SPEAKER_03Now, by the end of this podcast, are they is our audience really going to be equipped with all the nuances of Buddhism and Hinduism and Islam in order to go toe-to-toe with their friends. In 30 minutes? Sure. Why not?
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, no, no. False advertising. I think you called this an appetizer or a schmorgesborg. Yeah, schmorges borg. It's an hors d'oeuvre just to, and really the focus on this podcast is to focus on the contrast between these world religions and Christianity. And it will address people who think, well, you know, don't we all worship the same God, especially in Islam and the Jews? Oh, you know, we both go back to Abraham, right? Right. I would say not so fast.
SPEAKER_03Now, this is kind of difficult because it's not very popular to show the differences in worldviews and thoughts, especially in the West. You know, it's all about building bridges. And you know, we want to live in harmony and kumbaya. And even the Pope himself has come out recently trying to diminish the differences between Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam.
SPEAKER_02We'll talk about that a little bit later. The Pope has said some interesting things that uh if there are Catholic brothers and sisters listening to this, you should take heed with what the Pope recently said. But anyway, we'll we'll get to that eventually. This is a good little teaser. Yeah, it isn't being around for the end. Oh man, oh man. Okay, how are we jumping into this? We're gonna do uh, I'm gonna start with more of a general statement. If uh if I can just boil this down to two words. Okay. The difference between Christianity and all of the world's religions is that in order to attain relationship with God in all the other world religions, or to reach nirvana or heaven, you have to do something. So I I spent hours and hours with these little pieces of paper. You have to do something. I spent a long time on that.
SPEAKER_03Wow, look at that.
SPEAKER_02Where in Christianity it has been done for you. Interesting. One more time. Okay. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, you do things in order to attain peace or a relationship with God. And in Christianity, that relationship has been done for you. Oh, it's been done. One one teen last night actually said something amazing regarding Buddhism. He said, you know, uh, a Buddhist said to him once, you know, uh Buddha, we follow him because he ascended the mountain for us. And the Christians said, Would you like me to introduce you to someone who came down from the mountain to meet us?
SPEAKER_03I see what you mean by it it's being done on behalf of God for us rather than us going through checking all the checkboxes in order to attain that merit with the divine.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. So it'll become a little bit clearer as we start giving you some examples here.
SPEAKER_03Well, and that's not very also very helpful because now people can stop the podcast because the answer is done. No, no, no. There's gonna be all sorts of juicy information.
SPEAKER_02They're gonna fast forward and say, what does Jerry have to say about the Pope? I guarantee I will offend some of you today. Oh, not really. In love.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, did did Paul ever offend anybody? Oh, yeah, you know, I just got through going through the book of Acts, and most of his sermons ended in a riot. Oh, wow. Wow. And jail time.
SPEAKER_03Not saying that you're Paul here. No, no, no, no, no. We can try to uh live to that standard of uh okay. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so um another prop that I made that I've given to my dear son Bo is a red flag. Well, that's cool. Yes, and he's going to use that. I spent a lot of time making that too. Uh he's gonna use that as I read through some of these world religions, and um, when you hear something, put the flag down. Oh not yet. Okay, when you hear something that you think doesn't really jibe with Christianity, or there's something, I don't know if that agrees with Christianity here. Throw up your red flag and I'll ask you why. How do you how do you think it it doesn't agree with it?
SPEAKER_03Okay, this is really difficult coming from a university point of view where it's the red flag is so offensive.
SPEAKER_02Wait, it's divisive. Put that flag down. Right, right, right. We need a white flag, right? Uh surrender.
SPEAKER_03The seeking the divine is is the top of the mountain. Religions are just many paths to the same mountain top. Well, okay. Here is the here is Islam in a nutshell. And it really is a nutshell. Here we go. And the reason why Islam, because probably because it's the world's most second popular religion. Absolutely. Okay, and it's by Christianity.
SPEAKER_02It's the world's fastest growing religion as well. Okay. So I got this from Islam literature itself. So Islam teaches us that salvation is attainable through the worship of God alone. Hmm. Is there a red flag for the word attainable? Mm-hmm through the worship of God alone. A person must believe in God and follow his commandments.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I mean, Jesus said to obey him, but is the stipulation you gotta follow the commandments in order to earn this love?
SPEAKER_02It teaches us that salvation is following God's commandments. There goes the red flag. Okay. All right, all right. This is the same message taught by all the prophets, including Moses and Jesus. Oh, wait, they just call him a prophet? That's he was just a prophet. Oh, he was just a prophet, right? There is only one worthy of worship, one God agreement. Agreed. Alone, without partners, sons, or daughters.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's one of their favorite things, is to say, oh, you Christians worship three gods, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02Salvation and thus eternal happiness can be achieved by sincere worship. So again, it's coming back to this you gotta have a sincere worship. And on the surface, that doesn't sound real bad.
SPEAKER_03No, no, no, no. We we we in the in Christianity in the Bible say that worship is important. Right. But you have to do it according to them. You have to do something. I get it.
SPEAKER_02In addition to this, Islam teaches us that humans were born without sin. Wait a second. Get the red flag. I know you were taking a sip of your tea there. You were a little late on the red flag there. Uh there were uh people who were born without sin and are naturally inclined to worship God alone without any intermediaries.
SPEAKER_03I don't think there's anything natural about okay, red flag. There we go.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. The Bible teaches it, yes, there is one intermediary between God and man, himself a man, Jesus Christ. Okay, so that's definitely a huge red flag. Big difference. To retain this state of sinlessness, mankind must only follow God's commandments and strive to live a righteous life.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that that that sounds good. Yeah, strive to live a righteous life, but the key word is the must. You must.
SPEAKER_02In Islam, your good deeds have to outweigh your bad deeds. Oh, red flag. So there's there's the balance. Your life is put in a balance. And if you fed the poor and you uh gave money to your church and you didn't yell at people and you didn't commit adultery, uh, those are all the good things, and just as long as that scale has just a few more good things than bad things, you're gonna be okay, according to Islam. Interesting.
SPEAKER_03Right. Now putting on my little atheist hat for a moment, it doesn't sound bad, per se, that you as a Muslim should try to give to the poor or try to attain righteousness. Oh, those are all good things. Try to pray to Allah or God or whoever you what's inherently dangerous about the do over the god.
SPEAKER_02You're you're absolutely right. The Bible teaches that good works are a sign of your faith. And that James, if you want to read the book of James, says that faith without good works is dead, brother.
SPEAKER_03Basically, if you believe it, do something about it. Exactly. And if you're not doing something about it, that's an indicator that you don't believe it. Right, exactly.
SPEAKER_02That makes sense. I'll give you a fe a classic verse is Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the work of God. Not by works, so that nobody can boast. Not by works, not by works, not by works. Paul pounds it away from God. Titus 3 5 says he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that's a huge difference, then huge difference. Right, and very freeing at the same time. Totally. Wow, thank goodness I don't need to uh perform, so to speak, right? Convince the God of the universe who's up there with his arms folded, wagging his little judgmental finger, going, uh-uh-uh. Right, exactly. You just said one lie too many, and you didn't offset that with giving to the poor. Yep. Eternal damnation for you. Yeah, that's rough.
SPEAKER_02One one last uh verse, Romans 5 1, which is not cited often enough, but it puts it very well. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5 1. Oh, there's no red flag there. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, made right, not by works, not by doing more good than bad, not by that scale, that that heavenly scale that Muslims are are looking towards. And it really does make sense when you see the Muslims act out their faith. The uh the uh if you want to Google the five pillars of Islam, you can see what what they really dedicate them themselves to. It's a declaration of faith. There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger, number one. Ritual prayer performed five times.
SPEAKER_03I remember going to those eastern countries, the minarets going off at at midnight sometimes. If you want to get a bonus in, there's that balance. Woke me up at 5 a.m. Face Mecca. Not bitter. Nope.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you want to sleep. I have heard others uh spending spending time in the in Muslim countries, and uh the call to prayer can be annoying. I know. Uh number three, almsgiving or charity, okay, where Muslims are required to give a portion of their wealth to those in need, typically two and a half percent, which is kind of kind of low, really. Uh but but but but really that's one of the pillars of Islam, right? Cheap. Fasting during the month of Ramadan. Okay, there's another one. Pilgrimage to Mecca, every Muslim must take if at least once in their lifetime, if they're physically and financially able to do. So those are the five pillars of Islam, and they all speak to do. Right. You gotta do these things in order to have peace with God and attain your spot in heaven and eternity with him.
SPEAKER_03Right. Um now I've read some of the Quran, and there are some verses in there where it says that Allah is gracious, Allah will forgive, but underneath that is this foundation of if you are a good and well-performing Muslim. Yeah. And so I warned the audience out there, yes, you can pick and choose certain verses that say, well, see, it says that Allah is all forgiving. Uh go back to their five pillars right there. It's all about doing. You gotta do those checkboxes to earn that favor with Allah.
SPEAKER_02Yep. You know, funny you mentioned the Quran. Uh, there are um questions that someone could ask a Muslim uh about who Jesus Christ was. And I'm gonna read you some verses out of the Quran uh and how it contrasts, really. Quran teaches that Muhammad is the last and greatest prophet, okay, and that Jesus is only a great prophet. Okay, so however, uh the Quran teaches that Jesus was was without sin and virgin born. Quran 347. Interesting. Okay. There's some alignment there. Yep. Muhammad committed sins and was not born a virgin. Quran teaches that Jesus created a bird by Allah's command. Muhammad confessed that he did not have the ability to create. Quran 6.102. Muhammad insisted that only Allah can create even a fly. Quran 2273. Quran teaches that Allah did not give Muhammad the ability to make the deaf hear, whereas Jesus heals those born blind and lepers. Quran 349. I'm not citing this is all from the Quran, not the Bible. Last one, Muhammad is dead and buried in Medina and awaiting judgment, whereas the body, the Jesus body bodily ascended to heaven. Quran 4, 158.
SPEAKER_03So Jesus So they do concede quite a bit about the I don't necessarily want to say divinity of Christ, because you already said they just believe he's a prophet only.
SPEAKER_02Well, it says Quran 345, Jesus is also called the Messiah.
SPEAKER_03What?
SPEAKER_02And will return to judge Quran 355, 4159. So the question is so then why should Christians consider Muhammad the greatest prophet? I understand where you're going. Oh the Quran itself teaches that he was more than the greatest prophet. So uh Muslims need to dig into the Quran and um and address the the conflicts, contradictions in there. Absolutely. Yeah. Um, you know, you mentioned at the beginning that we ought to be gracious to other world religions and you know uh accept them, uh, which we should. There they are, we should accept them as people, we should love them as people. But when it comes down to theology, we don't need to accept that. And as a Christian, you should not accept their theology. Their theology is diametrically opposed to what the Bible says, as I just stated all those uh uh examples in the Quran. Some people uh remark that it's uncomfortable to say that Islam is a violent faith, it's a violent religion.
SPEAKER_03After all, uh my Muslim friend who I mentioned at the beginning of this, very nice fellow. I mean extremely sweet. Right. But where are you going with the violent portion?
SPEAKER_02Let me give you current some Quran sites. Um quote fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you. Quran 2190. When the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, Quran 9.5. Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give give you victory over them and heal the breast of the believing people, Quran 9.14. Surely Allah loves those who fight in his cause, Quran 61.4.
SPEAKER_03That's Jesus from I was just gonna say a little different from Jesus. Let me put the red flag up for a moment. There you go.
SPEAKER_02Jesus Jesus came as the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_03Wow, that is very different.
SPEAKER_02So it's it's it's very different than from Christianity, and I hope that's the the point that we're trying to underscore here. We're not trying to get into apologetics and and get into every single doctrine that they believe. But I I hope our audience will hear those words and say, wow, there is a big difference between Islam and Christianity, and that is our point to cover. Shall I get into what the Pope recently said?
SPEAKER_03Oh, the Pope, oh boy. Now we need to be careful saying that the Pope is not a spokesperson for all of Christianity. No, unfortunately, within the pop culture, they will consider him as such, and they will put him on the front page of the newspaper saying the Pope says this on behalf of all Christians.
SPEAKER_02So what did he say? I I could say that the Pope is not the spokesperson for all of Christianity. I think most people will agree, but he is the spokesperson of the Catholic Church, and that's a billion plus people. So if again, if you are a Catholic brother or sister, hear these words and really think about what the Pope recently said. Here's what it is this is what's been in the news. In his address, the Pope affirmed that the Catholic Church recognizes the validity of the faith held by Muslims. He noted that Muslims worship the one merciful God who is also creator of heaven and earth. This acknowledgment reflects a broader understanding of shared monotheistic beliefs.
SPEAKER_03Red flag. Red flag. Did he not even read? Does he not know the differences between their founding prophet and even if you were to call Jesus just a prophet? There is such a wild difference.
SPEAKER_02Does he not understand the do and done? I I don't really know what the approach is, but uh, if you've listened to this podcast, you know that my roots, my alma matta is uh is Catholicism. I was raised a Catholic the first 18 years of my life. And uh uh I don't and I know there's always been a very ecumenical, come on, let's let's all hug each other and get along type approach from Catholicism. But when I read those words from the Pope, I I thought of James 2.19. You believe that there is one God? Good, yeah, yeah, yeah. Even the demons believe that and shudder. Oh, oops. So he's trying to find this this uh this commonality of we're both monotheistic. Yes, we are, but pretty much from there it departs. And I've even had people say that, well, you know, both of our faiths go back to Abraham, so we're really brothers and sisters when it comes down to it. They're not. If you're a Christian, the the Muslims are not your brothers and sisters in the faith. They believe something completely different.
SPEAKER_03And it would be a disservice to s to them to say that we are the same. They probably would disagree with. With you. Right. If you really dig into it. Right. And if you do have a Muslim friend who's probably a very kind person, and it's not their character I question, it's it's their beliefs. Yes. It's not their character I question. Again, there's some surface level Muslims who are such such kind people. And initially, when you talk with them, they'll try to build a rapport and say, let's build a bridge together. Yeah. It's like you agree on one God, we agree on one God. You agree on a praying to this God, we agree on praying to this God. And if you just leave it at that, well, you didn't get anywhere. No. Especially when it comes to the truth. And isn't the truth something that we are both fighting for? Right.
SPEAKER_02Apologetics, I think I've stated this in the past. Apologetics of the Christian faith is not to win an argument. The end result that you're striving for is truth. Yes. That's what you want to get at. And I'll really emphasize, you know, we don't hate Muslims by far no way. We disagree with their theology because their theology is bad. You know, and it and it that's hard for people to hear because you think, oh no, no, no. I didn't write it. I didn't write the Quran and I didn't write the Bible. What I am telling you, look at the two contrasts between them. It's a math problem. It's not an opinion. You read both of them and you say, they don't agree.
SPEAKER_01I gotcha.
SPEAKER_02These people don't agree with each other.
SPEAKER_03Interesting. So these are the two top world religions right here Christianity and Islam.
SPEAKER_02They are indeed, yeah. And before we move on, let me give let me give a voice for Catholicism real quick before we do, because those statements in the news by the Pope generated some emotive uh opinions, right? Yeah. And I found one uh from a bishop, a Catholic bishop, Marian Eleganti. He expressed concerns that the Holy Father's comments underestimated the serious theological differences between Christianity and Islam. And this is what he said, pointing to the Islamic teaching that God has no son, the bishop argued, quote, where's the same God? It is impossible, he said. It is such a contradiction and warned the Pope that his optimism reflects a naive relationship with Islam. Oh, a bishop is questioning the Pope. He'll be he'll be running a Catholic church in Ephraida real soon. Maybe, maybe even fife.
SPEAKER_03But he's he spoke up, and good for him, good for this bishop to say, Christians, or Catholics rather, who are contending for the truth found in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Good for them. Yeah, good, good on this uh this Catholic bishop. He in the end said Christians must be discerning in how they understand other religions. Sure. And that right there is a kind of a good nutshell of what this current podcast is. You must be discerning about other religions, period.
SPEAKER_03I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah, so that we don't throw all of the Catholics under what under the bus and say, come on, guys, some of you are still fighting for the truth, and even if you have to disagree with the Pope, good on you.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Exactly. Um, should we move on to the other theistic religions in the world?
SPEAKER_03I mean, I just got a whole bunch of appetizers of Islam. I don't know if I my tummy is empty enough or anything else. Exactly. What else do you have? I'm curious.
SPEAKER_02Um the other theistic religion, and for our audience, the theistic religions believe in one God, in a personal god, versus pantheism, which believes in many gods, which is Hinduism and Buddhism. Pan means all, uh Theos means God, okay? So pantheism uh are the mostly the Eastern religions, right? Judaism is a theistic religion. Uh there's about 15 million Jews in the world, um, most of them in US and in Israel, okay? About seven and a half million each, and a few hundred scattered throughout the the uh rest of the world. I don't I shouldn't say a few hundred, a few, two to three hundred per country throughout the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_03They're very small compared to to uh you know Islam and Christianity.
SPEAKER_02It is indeed it is indeed. And most of those uh Jews who live in the United States are in Florida, New York, and California.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and then interesting. Anyway, uh so this is what the Jews believe regarding Jesus. First of all, the Jews believe in the Old Testament, so we we share something there with them. Uh the New Testament, they do not recognize, they believe that Jesus was a great prophet, okay, similar to Islam, but not the Messiah. Okay. There's my red flag. Yep, yep. Uh, repentance, good deeds, and adherence to God's commandments as a means to restore one's relationship with God and achieve salvation. Pick up that red flag.
SPEAKER_03Wait a sec. I thought you said we're moving moving on from Islam.
SPEAKER_02No. No, this is this is the commandments as a means to restore one's relationship with God and achieve salvation. So obviously, there's no longer a temple. The temple was destroyed centuries ago. Uh, they no longer sacrifice in the temple. Uh, and so what do they do? Matter of fact, that was asked by a teen last night. So if they don't sacrifice animal sacrifice anymore, how do they rid themselves of their sins? Uh, and that's a great question for for Jews, but they they concentrate on on um the means to restore their relationship is good deeds and repentance and adherence to God's commands.
SPEAKER_01It's all about the do.
SPEAKER_02Give me that do. Give me that do. Yep. Do this, do this, do this. And the Bible says you cannot earn a relationship with God. Period. No deeds can undo the sins we've committed. Good deeds are important in the lives of believers, but they don't provide salvation. That's the big difference. It has been said we do good works as a result of our faith, not to provide for our salvation. Gotcha. That's the biggest difference between world religions. Actually, I did this, I did this once last night. Everybody laughed. Ah, yeah. Okay, okay. You know, um tease the old guy. He's trying to teach you. Do and done, right? That's brilliant. Uh, so we get back to you know, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, not by works, not by works, not by works, so that no one can boast. Uh, if we can move on to uh two world religions that are very similar to each other in a way, Buddhism and Hinduism. Yes, Buddhism is derived from Hinduism, is it not? I believe so, yeah. Yep, yep. Buddhists they're mostly in Isla uh is in uh Thailand, where you have been recently. Uh China, China, Japan, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea. There's about 320 million Buddhists, about 4% of the world's population. Uh, I once heard somebody say 320 million Buddhists all couldn't be wrong, could they? Yeah, they could. That's argument ad populous. That's a logical fallacy. Okay. How do you attain salvation in Buddhism? You have to get rid of desire through an eightfold path. Nirvana in Buddhism is the ultimate goal. Nirvana is not a grunge band out of the 1990s that started in Seattle. Uh, nirvana is the Buddhist heaven. Okay, it's often described as extinguishing of desires and release from the cycle of rebirth, reincarnation, leading to a profound peace and freedom and from all forms of suffering. The more I read about uh Buddhism, uh, the less I understand. You just you start reading some of these, and you think this is just very esoteric subjective. And I know that's my Western mind trying to let me give you a quote um from Buddhism. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Wait a second.
SPEAKER_01Star Wars. I tricked you. It's Yoda. Get that red flag up Yoda, Yoda, preaching Buddhism.
SPEAKER_03I mean, there is a lot of overlap between that new age, that the force is with you, it surrounds us, it binds us, it's an impersonal force. And when you do die, you become like a drop in the ocean. You're just extinguished. Exactly. As opposed to Christianity. I mean, we are free from suffering, wouldn't they agree on that when we die? Yes, absolutely. However, what's different between the Christian heaven and the Buddhist quote nirvana? Lots.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So you in the Christian heaven, you maintain your personality as you enjoy eternity with God. In Buddhism, you lose your personality, you lose your sense of being a person as that drop in the ocean does. It's just diluted into it. Buddhists have an eightfold path. Get ready for your red flag. Okay. Here's the eightfold path. I'm sure one of them I'll agree with. Attain attain nirvana, the right view, the right intention, the right speech, the right action, the right livelihood, the right effort, the right mindfulness, and the right confront concentration, concentration. Do, do, do. Gotcha. You gotta do these eightfold paths in order to attain boxes, and therefore you can accept and receive nirvana in the end. It's all placed on you versus it's done for you in Christianity through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Okay. Interesting. Do do do. There are a lot of similarities, as is I said, in Hinduism. Let's jump into Hinduism because there's we're gonna hear the same a lot of the same. Hinduism is mostly in uh India and Nepal. Again, you were there two weeks ago. Bangladesh. 1.1 billion people. Wow. Okay, lots of Hindus in the world. Salvation can be defined as freedom of the soul from the cycle of re of birth and rebirth. Oh, and becoming one with the supreme soul. The Sanskrit word for salvation is moksha or nirvana. Hindus mainly use the word moksha, Buddhists use the word nirvana, but the meaning is the same. Okay, according to his Hinduism, the soul, Yatma, uh dwells in every living being. A little bit of yoda in there.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh, death is that of the body and not of the soul, as the soul is immortal. There is a uh an agreement with Christianity there. When a person dies, the soul enters a new body.
SPEAKER_03Oh dear. Oh dear, a little red flag. Yeah, just a moment here. And this is what people call reincarnation.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. And the Bible teaches for it is appointed uh unto man once to die, and after that to face judgment.
SPEAKER_03I think you mentioned that scripture to me recently. Uh yes, because that was the changing, life-changing verse for a very, very strong Hindu uh friend of mine in Nepal. Wow, and he was reading through the Bible, like, wow, what what a wonderful uh holy book this is. Because the God of Christianity is just one of our 30 million gods. So why not? Let's just read this. And he came upon that verse and it hit him as the truth, the capital T truth. And he went, Oh, we die once, and then we are judged. I gotta get right with the real God. Yeah. And from then on, as he became a Christian, it just absolutely transformed him. Wow. Because no longer was he caught in this sad cycle where he has to be reincarnated upwards of eight million times in order to eventually be released from this very sad cycle. Yeah. Whether he is reincarnated as a fly or if he's lucky, a cow. And I didn't have a good burger for a long time. Because you do not touch cows, even if they are sitting in the middle of traffic and stopping you. Yeah, and I'm like, we gotta play, we we gotta someplace to be, guys. And they're like, you do not bother the cow. He's taking a nap in the middle of the road. Interesting. I was very tempted to get out of the bus and say, I'm a Christian, I'm okay with slapping him on the butt. Give me a stick. Yeah, I'm somewhere to go. I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I was I was I I chose my battles there. Good for you. But when there is a heart-to-heart, man, there are no punches pulled to say, hey man, this this Hindu faith that you have is wildly different from the view that uh Christianity has this God who says this is a free gift instead of these sad sacrifices that they need to give every day. It's just so heartbreaking to see the people go and giving their food to these statues, these people pieces of rock that they paint and make look beautiful. Um, and it's like, no, no, you you can eat that food. Yeah. And meanwhile, it's just this sad cycle.
SPEAKER_02It is very sad. Didn't you speaking of your friend, didn't he become a pastor? Isn't he a pastor over there? An evangelist?
SPEAKER_03He's he said that he will no longer ever put the tikka on his forehead. Uh so the tikka is that little dot on the middle of the forehead and said to bring uh good luck. It's kind of symbolizes the third eye in Hinduism. And so if you're a Christian, you do not put the tikka on your forehead. Yeah, uh, because they're like, no, no, no, no, no. We are very, very different. Yeah, well, at least they recognize that. Oh boy, do they?
SPEAKER_02Excellent, excellent, yeah. So you meant you mentioned that uh according to Hinduism, a soul must go through 8,400,000. You missed the 400,000 there, life forms before reaching the rare human form. So you you make your way through these recycles, recycles, karma, karma, karma, karma, karma. Um, and you have to overcome those and eventually become a human. And from there, your purity begins to continue to go. So, you know, we're gonna use Adolf Hitler. Everybody loves to kick Adolf Hitler, right? What did he, based upon karma, what did he come back as? Probably a cockroach. Probably, you know, he went backwards. He didn't go forward there. Okay, but but the in a nutshell, in Hinduism, you have to overcome karma through reincarnations by doing good works. Get that flag. The red flag, red flag, yeah, and so again, you gotta do, do, do. And by the way, there is no forgiveness in karma. You blow it in karma, you're stuck with it, man. And that's where the freedom of Christianity comes in. That, yeah, we are sinful creatures, but there is forgiveness as we confess our sins to God. He will purify us. And that is the good news. That's that's why the gospel is called the good news that these billions of people need to be shared. That's why evangelism is so important because you're right, there is a sadness there that these people have believed this for thousands of years, and there is good news for them to be able to hear about the salvation through Jesus Christ!