The Way I Share the Gospel: Part 2
Contributor: Brother Setiawan
This series of blog posts is made from excerpts of a booklet, “The Way I Share the Gospel” available on the Library page in the Resource Hub. We are grateful for this contribution from our Indonesian brother and sister who have faithfully and lovingly served many years among Tibetans and for the insights they offer.
Read: Series Introduction: The Way I Share the Gospel – Part 1
Preface: My efforts to know my Tibetan friends come out of a heart that is longing to know what they believe. My wife and I have been living amongst the Tibetan people these past 19 years, where we have gotten to know them in the mission field. It is through this experience I have written this little book with the hope that it will be useful for finding out the right method to share the gospel with them.
A Brief Comparison Between Christianity and Buddhism
| Christianity | Buddhism | |
| Salvation | Saved from the wrath of God. (Roman 8:1) | Tharba ཐར་པ། means one is saved from the state of being reborn in one of the six cycles of existence and become non-existent (where there is no more suffering). |
| Heaven | A place that Jesus prepares for those who believe in Him. (John 14:2) | Nirvana: a word which is not equivalent to heaven in the Bible. There is another word they call Lhayul ལྷ་ཡུལ། which means the place of spirits or gods. |
| Hell | A place for eternal punishment for those who reject Jesus Christ. (2 Thes 1:9) | Nyelwa དམྱལ་བ། which means the lowest state among the six cycles of existence where they suffer from the flame of fire and the cold. They say it is still possible to come out of nyelwa. Now, who are they that go to nyelwa? They don’t talk about the body. It is the namshe of a person that goes to nyelwa. |
| The Next Life | The life in the second coming of Jesus Christ. (Rev 22:3-5) In Biblical terms, the next life is when Jesus comes again. He will raise the dead, and those who believe in Him will be with Him in heaven where there is no more suffering. | Tse chima ཚེ་ཕྱི་མ། When a human dies, he will be reborn in one of the six realms, and there he will continue to suffer. This is what they mean by tse chima. |
What about sin and forgiveness of sin? In Buddhism, we don’t find the forgiveness of sin or the one who can forgive sin. Sin has nothing to do with God or breaking God’s law. Also, when talking about salvation they don’t mean being saved from the eternal coming punishment, but saved from the suffering of being reborn in the six realms of existence.
Warning: We need to be careful when using Biblical terms, for they have a Buddhist understanding for each word. In other words when we use a Biblical word we need to explain it clearly and clarify what it means and what it doesn’t mean. This is to avoid building up something on the basis of Buddhist understanding which may lead to syncretism.
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References
The Way I Share the Gospel (PDF): page 4
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