By Rod
Matthews
By Rod
Matthews
BURLEIGH HEADS, Australia--Asia (even excluding the Middle East) is a continent of nearly 30 countries that embraces nearly as many cultures and numerous religions.
Its people are as diverse as can be imagined. Their traditional beliefs, although grouped under a few well-recognized religions, are not uniform in either dogma or practice. It is a most challenging area for Christians to live in, let alone be dedicated to fulfilling their part in the commission Jesus gave his church.
If brought up in a household filled with religious fervor, it is hard to be confronted with questions that challenge your accepted beliefs. In the area where most of the work of our fellowship is focused, most people are born into families subscribing to one of the religions outlined in the box on page 17.
In some countries the national religion is a hurdle that must be overcome to introduce someone to their Savior in a life-changing way.
So the big question facing our brethren is how to represent this wonderful relationship they have with our Creator to their non-Christian neighbors.
As the church has matured and listened more accurately to the word of God, we have learned the following:
* One approach does not suit everyone.
* One magazine does not effectively reach everyone.
* Lessons and examples from one culture do not necessarily have a similar effect in another.
* Becoming a Christian does not include an automatic promise of elevation to the higher standards of living existing on earth.
A better understanding of the core of the Christian message and the above lessons have changed how we go about spreading the gospel in Asia.
Indians have an ongoing debate that Christianity buys its converts or lures them with promises of physical improvements. Unfortunately, Christians have a bad name in some areas because they are perceived to use strong-armed tactics or physical inducements to increase their numbers.
Our brethren have to not only live down what are often misperceptions about Christianity (although occasionally the examples the detractors quote are too real), but set a track record of being different. If they are to be sensitive in their Christian love, they must let their lights shine rather than let their voices be heard.
They have to be available, caring, willing to forgive offenses, praying for the enemies of the Lord and generally doing (rather than preaching) what Jesus said in Matthew 5-7.
In Secunderabad, where the church's national office is located, the church hall is also used as a base for a community counseling center. Qualified members and the pastor make their services available for a couple of hours a week to help anyone in the surrounding community in daily needs such as career counseling, marriage and parenting, medical advice, interpersonal relationship issues and religious matters.
In the Colombo suburb of Wattala, the Worldwide Educational Institute continues to provide a valuable education to youths in business studies, English language proficiency and life development skills. In this last subject, moral values and ethics from a biblical basis are taught in addition to principles that promote success as an individual and as a contributing member of society.
WEI's graduates (now more than 1,200) have established a reputation for personal excellence. The Buddhist parents of students are seeing the fruits of this way of life, and so our light is shining. A number of students attend our church services on occasions, and over the years several have become members.
In Chiang Mai, Chogait and Fong Garmolgomut, members of our fellowship, founded and continue to run a school that specializes in teaching the English language. But it is their personal example that speaks the loudest. They and their two children reflect a happiness and love for others that stands out in the Thai community.
As a result many people are compelled to ask why, and this leads to opportunities to explain sensitively more about the Christian way of life they live. In the last year four baptisms have resulted from their personal example.
We have come in contact with another congregation established many years ago but previously unknown to us that is using our name and publications. We are in a getting-to-know-you phase of a potentially beneficial relationship.
Persecution of Christians in Indonesia has caused a suspension of some of the regular visits from Malaysia by pastor Yong Chin Gee. As the volatility of the situation decreases, we hope to reestablish the routine later in the year.
At the annual festival last October, conducted on the island of Malekula, pastor Rex Morgan baptized seven people and performed a wedding ceremony for five couples.
The Australian and New Zealand brethren contributed toward purchasing a television set and video player for the group so they can view sermon tapes and offer movie nights in the community both as a fund-raiser and evangelistic outreach activity.
Most of this group speaks French as their second language rather than English, so sermons are provided on occasion by Francophone congregations in other regions.
A number of brethren are undertaking basic Christian leadership training by correspondence, and we pray that from this we may be able to ascertain who could be considered for further full-time study at a seminary in Papua New Guinea to provide our brethren with indigenous trained leaders.
The Klang congregation was host for a congregational leadership training seminar last year, and with the brethren in Singapore, they support the circulation of our Living Today magazine in those two countries as well as provide financial and material help for pastoring our scattered brethren in Myanmar and other remote parts of Asia.
Buddhism: A rejection of the caste system of Hinduism and its rigid inequality; a movement away from the ritualism and mysticism of Hinduism.
Four noble truths:
* Life consists of suffering.
* Suffering is caused by selfish desire and by the quest for private fulfillment.
* Selfish desire must be overcome.
*It can be overcome by following the Eightfold Path.
The goal of the Eightfold Path is to remake man by
Right knowledge
Right aspiration
Right speech
Right behavior
Right livelihood
Right effort
Right mindfulness
Right meditation
In an ideal form, this means no one can kill, lie, be unchaste or drink intoxicants.
The goal: to reach a state of nirvana (extinction) in which every fragment of desire disappears and the person is released from the endless cycle of birth and death.
Hinduism: Presents gods who combine a mystical merger of the infinite and finite as well as the impersonal--in contrast with the personal yet infinite God revealed in the Bible.
One god--Brahman, the Absolute, who is manifested in an elaborate pantheon of 330 million gods and goddesses.
Of these, three are worshiped most often:
Brahma--the creator
Vishnu--the preserver
Shiva--the destroyer
Hinduism is based on three suppositions:
a) the law of karma--the universal law of cause and effect that whatever happens in this life was predetermined by something from a previous life
b) the concept of reincarnation.
c) the practice of the caste system.
Hinduism suggests that man truly wants:
* to live forever (infinite being).
* to know the mysteries of the universe (infinite knowledge).
* to satisfy the senses (infinite joy).
Man wants to be like God because these are accepted godlike qualities.
Islam: Islam means "submission." It is a monotheistic religion. Muhammad rejected Christianity as polytheistic because the concept of Trinity implied to him the worship of three gods. Muhammad was illiterate, but Muslims traditionally believe he was inspired to write the Koran.
Islam has no place for reincarnation or esoteric concepts. Every person has an individual soul that must be placed in the hands of Allah. Every man is responsible for his own deeds and will stand in judgment before Allah to receive his due reward or punishment.
To eternally escape the punishment of hell, the devout Muslim tries to live his life according to the five pillars (the spiritual guideline that forms the heart of Islam).
The five pillars are:
* A creed that says, "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet." To say this and believe makes one a Muslim.
* Must engage in prayer five times a day.
* Giving of alms (usually 2.5 percent of one's wealth each year).
* Pilgrimage to Mecca--the spiritual summit of the life of a Muslim.
* Observance of the month of Ramadan--fasting every day until sunset.
A sixth pillar is sometimes added:
* Jihad--"striving for god." Sometimes this is called "holy war" because of the promise in the Koran of heaven for anyone who dies while defending the faith.
The Christian Gospel: In contrast to the religions of the world, the Bible teaches that the one Creator God is the source, ground and being of all things, and that he reveals himself to us as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God loves his creation, and has personally dealt once and for all with the problem of evil, pain, suffering and human sin by redeeming humanity and the entire creation through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the Son incarnate.
By trusting in Jesus Christ, and thereby sharing in his death and resurrection, humans enter into the joy and freedom of the kingdom of God in union with Christ and experience God's free and unmerited grace demonstrated and made effective through Jesus Christ. This good news of eternal redemption by the grace of God through faith in Christ is called the gospel.
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2000