Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Other faiths and ideologies to be discussed in
this series will include Cultural
Christianity Agnostics/Humanists Wicca
Universalism New Age/Hindu Judaism Jehovahs
Witness Mormonism Buddhism Islam
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Today, we will explore
• Cultural Christianity
• Agnostics/Humanism/Atheists

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
We must be prayerful in sharing the gospelwe
MUST NOT depend on our own strength, but on the
power of the Holy Spirit I am not ashamed of
the gospel for it is the power of salvation
Rom 116 But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my
witnesses Acts 18
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Essentials
• We have all done wrong in Gods eyesRom323
• This wrong doing separates us from God
  foreverRom 623
• God sent His Son Jesus to take our punishmentRom
  58

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Essentials
• Turn away from doing wrong as a way of lifeActs
  238
• Confess with your mouth Jesus is Lordbelieve in
  your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
  will be saved. Rom 109

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Essentials Questioncan you be a child of God
without making Jesus Lord in your life? the
answer is an emphatic -NO-
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
You are the light of the world. A city on a
hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a
lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put
it on its standlet your light shine before men,
that they may see your good deedsMatthew 514-16
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
The main thing to remember in sharing your
faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, you have
to SHARE the plan of salvation
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved. How, then, can they call on the one
they have not believed in? And how can they
believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
And how can they hear without someone preaching
to them? And how can they preach unless they are
sent?...faith comes from hearing the message and
the message is heard through the word of Christ.
Rom. 1013-15, 17
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
If they reject the message, do not stop being
their friend or loving them But God demonstrates
his own love for us in this While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 58
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Cultural Christianity

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Cultural Christians self define themselves as
  such
• they go to church once in a while, (Easter,
  Christmas, funeral)
• based on their culture and environment
• but do not have a true, Biblical relationship to
  Jesus Christ.

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
or, when they were younger, they may have said
some words a Sunday School teacher told them to
sayor they were baptized On this basis, many
believe they are Christianbut actually, they
may only be a cultural Christian
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
We do not know the hearts of man only God
does. However, the danger in our culture is that
many people have not truly had a heart
transplant Ez. 3626, 28 Matt. 721-23
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will
enter the kingdom of heaven. Then I will tell
them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me,
you evil-doers. Matt. 721, 23
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
in you I will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of fleshand I will be
your God. Ez. 3626, 28
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• The Pew Forum Research group says over 78 of US
  Citizens are Christian
• 51 Protestant
• 24 Catholic
• 1.7 Mormon
• 0.7 Jehovahs Witness

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
However, in reality, less than 10 of the US
population are -Evangelical Christian!-
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
We cannot assume people are Christian because
they go to such and such church every now and
then Going to church does not make us
Christiansdoes it?
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Michael Youseff says a common remark by Cultural
Christians goes like this My religion is
between me and my God OR My religion is very
private and I am not going to force it on
anyone Sound Familiar?
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• When sharing with cultural Christians, we have to
  assume they do not take the Bible seriously or as
  truth
• Examples you may hear
• The Bible is written by man, so why should I
  believe it?
• There are so many errors in it
• It is nonsense.

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Many churches, unfortunately do not teach truth
from Gods Word. We have a mainline church in
Asheville with the following identity statement
about the authority of the Bible In its pages
we find guidance, comfort and the stories of
God.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Do not argue about their perception of the
Bible! When they begin to say things like this,
tell them you are a student of the Bible and want
to know which parts of the Bible are not correct?

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Do not argue about their perception of the Bible!
• You want to engage them in conversation and show
  them the truths of the Bible as often as
  possible(do this prayerfully and with love!)
• 2 Timothy 18, 12
• 2 Timothy 316-17

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Establish a relationship! Be inquisitive and ask
  questionsbut do it with loving and caring manner
  without a judging attitude!
• Do you consider yourself spiritual?
• Tell me about your spirituality
• (Dont forget to really listen!)
• Can I tell you about my spirituality?

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Do not get drawn into a theological argument. We
should defend what we believe, but be careful not
to become argumentative. When they begin to ask
questions just to try to stump us with
questions such as Where did Cain get his wife?
we need to discern does he really want to know or
are they wanting to argue.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
The Bible says, Dont have anything to do with
foolish and stupid arguments, because you know
they produce quarrelsthe god of this age has
blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they
cannot see the light of the gospel 2 Timothy
223, 2 Corinthians 44
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Remember, we cannot debate them to Christ!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
In reality People do not care how much you
know, until they know how much you care!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Share your personal testimony. Make it NO
longer than 2 minutes!!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• video

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Agnosticism
• Humanism
• Atheism

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Agnosticism a person who holds the view that
  any ultimate reality (as God) is unknown and
  probably unknowable
• Humanism a philosophy that usually rejects
  supernaturalism and stresses an individual's
  dignity and worth and capacity for
  self-realization through reason
• Atheism a disbelief in the existence of deity
  the doctrine that there is no deity

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
These are not limited to people OUTSIDE the
memberships of churches
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Al Mohler calls these the four horsemen of the
  modern apocalypse of the 19th century
• Fredrich Nietzsche
• Karl Marx
• Charles Darwin
• Sigmund Freud

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Nietzsche actually celebrated the death of
God Marx said religion is the opiate of the
masses. Darwin made famous the theory of
evolution which excludes the work of the Creator
God Freud said, religion is merely an illusion
that would eventually pass away.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Al Mohler call these men the four horsemen of the
  New Atheist Apocalypse
• Richard Dawkins
• Daniel Dennett
• Sam Harris
• Christopher Hitchens

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Richard Dawkins, a well known author on the NY
Times best selling list says the central evil of
Jesus is restrictivism. i.e. religion poses a
social danger because of its exclusivity demands.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Richard Dawkins and others like him has a
world-wide followingtheir basic philosophy is
that it makes many people believe the mess (evil)
the world is in is due to this belief system of
religion.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
This philosophy is rampant in academia if you
are follower of Jesus Christ, expect to be
ridiculed by professors and students alike for
being closed minded and a believer in fairy
tales, (Tiger Woods)
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Beliefs
• No soul can exist apart from the body
• No life after death
• No future resurrection
• No heaven or hell

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
They do not have the Judeo-Christian worldview,
so questions from EE or FAITH will not even
register with them In your opinion FAITH If
you are standing before God EE
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• We, therefore can represent what they do not like
  about God and the church.
• We need to ask questions like
• What do you think the Bible says about Jesus?
• The most common answer
• He is to love people.

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• What do you think the church should be about?...
• we are to love people.
• Do you think those who have hurt you were doing
  what Jesus would have wanted?
• No

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
We need to tell them that we are sorry for the
way some church-goers act. Please do not hate
God or the church because of people
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
One more final question most atheists/humanists,
etc. will probably ask it concerns the problem
of evil If God is a loving, good, all powerful
God, why did He create evil or let evil happen,
(such as the Holocaust)? TOUGH QUESTION!
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths

• Evil can be defined
• a departure from the way things ought to be
• ..although evil is real, it was not created by
  God, but it was made possible by God.
• The free-will defense is one way to answer this
  question

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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
God created everything and called it very good
but man, who was created with potential for evil,
messed up Gods planman chose to disobey God
created man as free moral agentsthey have
ability to Choose good or Choose evil.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
God is all knowingHe knew evil would resultbut
good would ultimately come from it. It is not
incompatible for both the God of the Bible and
evil to exist
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Goodness finds it source in Gods character, and
the standard of goodness is Gods character
itself For God to destroy evil would ultimately
be evil itself since it would take away the
greatest good-the ability to love God.
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
The main answer to the problem of evil is the
person of Jesus... Moral evil finds its remedy in
the perfect obedience of the life of Jesus and
His death on behalf of those who believe in Him
for the payment of sin. (Job 421-6)
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Sharing Our Faith with those of other faiths
Above all, again, rely on the power of the Holy
Spirit to guide you and to change the heart of
the person you are speaking Remember, God is in
the business of miraclestrust Him