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Witnessing to Buddhists

phil marriner said:
You forgot to add these scriptures
Philippians 2:12
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
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That verse is addressing Christians and how they are to be responding after they have placed their faith in Christ alone for salvation. It is not dealing with how one becomes a Christian.
 
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Hmmmm :chin
 
What about Galatians 6:7 - "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Could this be interpreted as a description of karma?
 
KevinK said:
What about Galatians 6:7 - "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Could this be interpreted as a description of karma?
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So is this view of Karma what you want to associate with Galatians 6:7 (ESV)?

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Karma is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today.

What is the cause of the inequality that exists among mankind?
Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery?
Why should one person be a mental prodigy, and another an idiot?
Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies?
Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle?
Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed?|
Why should some be blessed, and others cursed from their births?

Either this inequality of mankind has a cause, or it is purely accidental. No sensible person would think of attributing this unevenness, this inequality, and this diversity to blind chance or pure accident.

In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture", but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

Perplexed by the seemingly inexplicable, apparent disparity that existed among humanity, a young truth-seeker approached the Buddha and questioned him regarding this intricate problem of inequality:

"What is the cause, what is the reason, O Lord," questioned he, "that we find amongst mankind the short-lived and long-lived, the healthy and the diseased, the ugly and beautiful, those lacking influence and the powerful, the poor and the rich, the low-born and the high-born, and the ignorant and the wise?"

The Buddha’s reply was:

"All living beings have actions (Karma) as their own, their inheritance, their congenital cause, their kinsman, their refuge. It is Karma that differentiates beings into low and high states."

He then explained the cause of such differences in accordance with the law of cause and effect.

Certainly we are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being. They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalised by the karmic energy needed for the production of the foetus. Karma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of this being.

The accumulated karmic tendencies, inherited in the course of previous lives, at times play a far greater role than the hereditary parental cells and genes in the formation of both physical and mental characteristics (available at: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm).​

Oz
 
Kathi said:
Yes,it definately is not Christian.But it is very popular.
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Kathi,

There are many things that have not been popular and I've seen lots of them trying to be implemented by Christians through my longish life. These have included:
* Christianised hippies;
* Christianised druggies - Christians defending marijuana and heroin use;
* Christianised new agers;
* Now, Christianised postmodern deconstructionists.

I wonder how many more faddish things will come along that Christian will gravitate towards rather than know their Bibles and live and act in a godly fashion according to a Christian world and life view that exalts Jesus only.
 
OzSpen said:
Kathi,

There are many things that have not been popular and I've seen lots of them trying to be implemented by Christians through my longish life. These have included:
* Christianised hippies;
* Christianised druggies - Christians defending marijuana and heroin use;
* Christianised new agers;
* Now, Christianised postmodern deconstructionists.

I wonder how many more faddish things will come along that Christian will gravitate towards rather than know their Bibles and live and act in a godly fashion according to a Christian world and life view that exalts Jesus only.
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The Bible tells us there will be alot.That is rather heartbreaking.
 
I talked to a Buddhist and he said he doesn't like the idea that if he becomes a Christian, that he won't be with his Buddhist family and ancestors after he dies.
 
I used to chant in the very early 70's well at the time I did not know any better. We would chant the words Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.


Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō (南無妙法蓮華経), (also Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō)[1] (English: Devotion to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra or Glory to the Sutra of the Lotus of the Supreme Law)[2][3] is a mantra that is chanted as the central practice of all forms of Nichiren Buddhism—Myōhō Renge Kyō being the Japanese title of the Lotus Sūtra. The mantra is referred to as daimoku (題目[4]?) or, in honorific form, o-daimoku (お題目) and was first revealed by the Japanese Buddhist teacher Nichiren on the 28th day of the fourth lunar month of 1253 CE at Seichō-ji (also called Kiyosumi-dera) near Kominato in current-day part of the city of Kamogawa, Japan.[5][6] The practice of chanting the daimoku is called shōdai (唱題). The purpose of chanting daimoku is to attain perfect and complete awakening.
 
OzSpen said:
It is not a matter of dancing around the issue. I try to be a communicator and engage people in conversation and not be bombastic in blasting them with opinionated dogmatism.

If I have a dogmatic approach as you are suggesting, I would not be surprised if they came back with: 'There's no hell according to my religious book, the Tipitaka. I have no reason to believe your Christian religious book'. I want to engage in 2-way conversation and not 1-way monologue.

By the way, do you believe that hell will be experienced after death by all unbelievers?
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They who are of him heres his children they who are not can not hear or see
 
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