Reaching the Buddhists (Part 2 of 3)

Reaching the Buddhists

Sharing the Gospel with our Buddhist friends

Khen Lim

Part Two of Three

This is the second of three parts of the article series by the same name. After examining Buddhism in its parts and considering the challenges ahead, we now look at how we can reach our Buddhist friends using a better way.



Image source: Mission Frontiers

Working on a better approach

Contrary to what so many assume, the contemporary missional approach will not work on the Buddhists. It might work if you were to proselytise a Muslim but Buddhists are different. The part to do with ‘God is love’ or ‘God loves you’ or ‘God loves us first’ are alien to Buddhists because they do not possess any concept of God. To be sure, I’m referring to pure Buddhists here. In other words, telling a Buddhist that God is the culmination of love has little to no impact. And so the famous John 3:16 isn’t going to cut it.

Next, don’t get too excited about sharing the promise of eternity. While it’s a great promise for all of us, Buddhists view eternity through a different optic. For them, eternity being damned by suffering is too frightful to imagine but that’s the kind of thinking Christians aren’t used to. We must constantly remind ourselves that the main tenet of Buddhism rests on the subject of suffering. 

Even in reincarnated state, suffering still exists. To promise eternal life is just going to freak the Buddhists out. What we’re unaware of is that we’re telling them they should enjoy suffering forever. While salvation in eternity is central to Christianity and therefore is an indispensable part of our identity, it’ll just have to wait a little longer before we can explain it successfully to our Buddhist friends.

The third thing to avoid talking about this early is Desire. In contrast, Christians understand desire in a completely different way. We consider it as an emotional expression of a need that can only be acquiesced to by God. He fleshes out our desires by fulfilling the purpose by which His will accords us in life. We are to bring glory to Him by doing praiseworthy works. 

In return, our desire for God’s love is also accomplished. None of this holds appeal to Buddhists because they view desire as something undesirable. Again, therefore, this is something we cannot bring up right at the beginning.

Firstly, be Christlike

Now that we’re clear about what not to talk about, our first baby step should be to review our personal conduct. For Christians, that’s just another way of saying that we must be Christlike. This means learning from Jesus through the Gospels how He dealt with people. The Good News tells us how He drew people to Him to become His followers and how they wilfully gathered around Him, eager to hear what He taught them. 

It also means we are to emulate Jesus’ kind-heartedness, generosity as well as sense of justice, mercifulness, peace and devotion, and how He combined all of these virtues in a very appealing balance.

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on to Jesus’ disciples, they suddenly found favour with all the people. They experienced gladness and simplicity of heart and with that, they were able to happily share whatever they possessed with those who were in need:

“And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper and shared their meals with great joy and generosity – all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day, the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:44-47, NLT, my emphasis)

Without a doubt, Jesus offers the perfect template. His composure and disposition make for a wonderful ideal for Buddhists to draw inspiration from. It is ultimately Jesus’ character that Buddhists would be served best to see and witness. This means being patient and tolerant, non-judgemental, accommodating and not rude. It also means setting examples others would be pleased to admire, respect and follow.

As we are Christians, none of this should be new to us. To be Christlike is a given. In the case of reaching out to Buddhists, this becomes a great opportunity for us to truly demonstrate Christ’s love from deep within ourselves. 

Therefore, we ought very much to adopt an attitude of love and thoughtfulness towards not just the Buddhists but to all our friends, believers or otherwise. We must then be careful of our choice of words. We must also keep our rudeness in check. We must be mindful of being compassionate to our friends. And we should be all inclusive in who we want to be our friends and how we should treat them.


Image source: God is Real

Secondly, show the miracles

Showing miracles is second nature because more Buddhists than we care to imagine are really stuck into spiritual power. Many of them relish the idea of being supernatural, which explains why they’re into countless shrines, tablets, tabernacles, altars and idols. They’re also into graven images, statues and all sorts of crafted imageries that depict Buddha as well as selected Bodhisattvas. Buddhists who also dabble in Taoism immerse themselves into a remarkable plethora of deities and local spirits that they believe will endow them with spiritual power. This also applies to Hindu gods that offer a part Buddhist landscape.

Spiritual power is an enormous priority for Buddhists. You’ll see an abundance of this in their homes and even shops and offices. You see them at certain parts of the roadsides throughout Malaysia particularly where fatal auto accidents had taken place. We see special religious events where the power of the spirit is constantly being summoned and then put on (frightful) display.

In recent years, there have been many instances of Buddhists who truly believed that by wearing ‘specially-blessed’ amulets and talismans, they’d become invincible to the extent that they are protected from death. In at least one such case, a man in Thailand persuaded his girlfriend to use his gun and shoot point blank at his chest. 

When she feared and hesitated, he admonished her, telling her that he couldn’t die from it because he was spirit-filled. After much persuasion, she finally did pull the trigger. Almost immediately after she shot him, he of course died. Unfortunately, this isn’t the only such case.

Being so preoccupied with spiritual power, Buddhists are in a good position to discover Jesus’ miracles that are comprehensively told and described in the New Testament, beginning with the wedding in Cana. Other than those, the Old Testament has more than enough stories of great miracles that God worked through many of the patriarchs and prophets of which the parting of the Red Sea is perhaps the most well-known. 

Of course, the parting of the Jordan River is also worthy of mention as well as Elijah’s bolt of fire against the priests of Baal, Elisha’s curing of Naaman’s leprosy, Joshua’s conquest of Jericho and Moses’ many plagues against the Pharaoh.

If you’re at this stage of reaching your Buddhist friend, seize this opportunity. Tell him how God protects and heals and also how He often delivers more than what we wish for because He knows our hearts better than even ourselves. Teach him that God’s miraculous powers aren’t just great news headlines but they equip His children to overcome unemployment and find jobs and solve any range of family issues that can afflict us. God’s miracles are also very powerfully proven in our workplaces and even in the sports arena.

In 2016, we witnessed a very remarkable miracle when the shoo-in U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was swept away by the one everyone else had safely predicted would lose by an embarrassing margin. As it turned out, God made sure Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States of America. No amount of corruption could hold back God’s miracle. 

No matter how the elections were rigged and how votes were bought, Trump sailed home victoriously and in doing so, America was saved from more of Obama’s and then Clinton’s disastrous management and social engineering.

And now, not long ago, on May 9 2018, Malaysia experienced its brand of God’s miracle under similar circumstances. The incumbent Prime Minister was set to romp home in the 14th General Elections. With everything stacked against the Opposition – comprising a 93-year-old former Prime Minister who came out of retirement almost twenty years later – everyone was bemoaning that the endless cycle of massive corruption would continue despite the U.S. Department of Justice calling out Malaysia for the world’s worst case of kleptocracy. 

As it happened in November 2016 with Trump, God brought unexpected victory to Dr Mahathir Mohamed. News of the corrupt Prime Minister and virtually his entire Cabinet’s defeat sent shockwaves throughout the world. Yet, nothing could stop God’s miracle from taking place.

Because of their preoccupation with spiritual power, the way is paved for us to not only introduce the numerous biblical accounts of God’s miracles but it also opens up opportunities for us to pray for them. At this stage of our outreach, our Buddhist friends are not averse to us praying for them. 

In fact, don’t be surprised that most if not all of them like the idea and will welcome the offer. For us, the chance to pray underscores thoughtfulness and kindness on our part, a good way to show Christlikeness to them.


Image source: rezaconmigo.com

Thirdly, speak of His roles

Having now tapped into their penchant for spiritual power, this is a good time to introduce Jesus in a way Buddhists can understand and accept. That is why we’re not going to go straight into Him being the Son of God – that can wait a little longer – but instead, we need to examine the many other roles that He played during His brief years on earth.

We know Jesus was a rabbi (teacher) at a fairly early age and before that, He was also a carpenter, which He could have acquired the skill from His earthly father, Joseph. He was, of course, a Healer with many cases we can bring up that the Bible records. He was also an Exorcist, a truly compassionate Friend and a radical Reformer whose views on humanity changed the world. He was also a Prophet whose eschatological views matched those that are found in the Old Testament.

And of course, Jesus is our Saviour, the One the world has been waiting for to save us from sin and deliver us to the eternal kingdom. Don’t forget that He was also a mediating Priest and before time began, He was the Creator and an eternal Living God whose span of existence is from alpha to omega, the beginning and the end of life.

That’s an incredible lot of titles and roles to inundate anyone, not just our Buddhist friends. While all these titles are relevant and important, there needs to be a priority as to how we introduce them without stirring up even more confusion. By way of priority, we must exercise care and caution and then pay close attention to how receptive they are to what we tell them.

A good approach would be to launch the ‘simple’ ones first and then work towards the ones that are more challenging. As we do so, our Buddhist friends will hopefully be able to better understand and accept Jesus. In the Book of John, even Jesus reminded His disciples of the need to be measured with what they learn:

“There is so much more I want to tell you but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future.” (Jn 16:12-13, NLT)

In this passage, Jesus urges us to rely on the Holy Spirit for the best way to present the truth to our Buddhist friends. He also drives home the point that as always, God’s truths are often too much to all take in but because of that, we must count on the Holy Spirit to light the way for us to understand them. 

By the same token, it is also true that we must be measured in the way we present the truth to our Buddhist friends. Hopefully when we do that, they might be able to slowly move from one level to the next in understanding Christ.

The apostle Mark offers us another example of a systematic structured approach in introducing Jesus. By comparison to what some of us have been blindly doing, take note of Mark and how he brings up Jesus’ identity one bit at a time. Firstly, he talks of Jesus’ role as a rabbi. There, He preached to the people. He spoke of the Father and the heavenly rewards. Next, he revealed Jesus’ miraculous work as a Healer, casting out evil spirits and bringing comfort to the infirmed.

And then right through all of this, Jesus was consistent in not wanting to reveal His true identity as the Son of God. For this, He wanted it to be timed appropriately. It wasn’t something that He would allow to take place on a whim. Similarly, that is also what we should do. Jesus withheld talking about His stature as the Christ. He even forbade His disciples from disclosing His identity. Simply because it was not the right time yet.

As a good example of this, Jesus admonished the evil spirits, demanding them to be quiet:

“And whenever those possessed by evil spirits caught sight of Him, the spirits would throw them to the ground in front of Him shrieking, ‘You are the Son of God!’ But Jesus sternly commanded the spirits not to reveal who He was.” (Mk 3:11-12, NLT, my emphasis)

Five chapters further, He told His disciples not to break His cover because it was not the ripe time:

“Then He asked them, ‘But who do you say I am?’ Peter replied, ‘You are the Messiah.’ But Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about Him.” (Mk 8:29-30, NLT, my emphasis)

As such a systematic approach is laid out in Scripture, we too can emulate the same by progressively revealing Jesus. There are many truths about our Saviour that require us to be cautious and wise. Too much all at once would be counterproductive. So here, I suggest you try out this order of introduction of Jesus’ identity:

1.      Jesus as the miracle worker

Recall the true stories of healing wonders in the life and times of Jesus that you can easily find through the New Testament

2.    Jesus as the teacher of morality

This is where you can share Jesus’ parables and explain the different moral themes within

3.    Jesus’ flawless character

By studying His character, we learn what it is to be Christlike and share that knowledge with the others

4.    Jesus as a teacher about the Living God

Here is the opportunity to reveal His resurrection and how He is the One true Living Word and by doing so, explain how He died for our sins so that we may be forgiven and repatriated to the Father

5.     Jesus as the Creator

Introduce Him from the perspective of the Book of Genesis and the reality of Creationism, that He alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit created all life and the Universe and that He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of time

6.    Jesus as the Judge

In recounting the moral ethic and human principle of sin, we talk about the premise that nothing ever escapes Jesus’ notice no matter the transgression

7.     Jesus as the Saviour and Son of God

And then finally, we arrive at the apex of Jesus’ identity and use this opportunity to reveal the promise He has made to all of us concerning an eternal life that is free of pain and hurt, and void of imperfections and anomalies

In each of these steps, take the time to focus on what they individually mean and how they can help our Buddhist friends to relate to life as a Christian. Before we move on to the next point, make sure that for each of these steps, you apply it to help them understand. In application, we use that knowledge to assist them to ‘see’ that part of Christ in our lives. 

Always remember that head knowledge is limiting; only in application does it offer us meaningful purpose. Only then can we help progress to a fuller understanding of Christ’s unparalleled ability to save us from sin.


Unlike Buddha, Jesus raises the dead (Image source: Group Bible Study)

Fourthly, Jesus is no Buddha

The most important aspect of this point is not so much about Jesus as it is about Gautama himself. Many Chinese adherents of Buddhism in Malaysia are quite likely to give us the impression that all they know about is Buddha. To them, there is no one else but Buddha. And by embodying the virtues of Buddha, he is the most recognisable component in their faith when it comes to their quest for enlightenment.

In that sense, they may, in helping themselves to understand, then believe that perhaps Jesus is ‘another’ Buddha, a person who has sought and attained enlightenment. As flattered as we may be by such claims, we must refute it on the basis that the truths about Jesus are far more than that. In fact, unlike Gautama, Jesus needn’t go seeking it because He is enlightenment personified.

This is not a trivial point; at least not to the Buddhists. We must clarify this point with them but of course, we shouldn’t shove it down their throats. Once we begin to share the fuller story of who Jesus is – ultimately progressing to the point that He is the Saviour, the Son of God – it should be clear enough for the Buddhists to understand why He is not Buddha but in fact, light years beyond that mortal accomplishment.

The same goes with the other allegation that Jesus is but a rather good man. We know He is a good man but we fall so miserably short if we leave it at that. The truth is far deeper and it is of great importance that we correct that view of Jesus. After all, we live in deceptive times where fakery is everywhere. If we’re not there yet, we’re certainly at the cusp of it. Fakery isn’t just a matter of political manoeuvring but it is also the single most powerful distraction from the truth of Christianity.

In this era of untruths, deceptions and lies, enemies of Christ are all out to discredit Him, calling Him things that He isn’t, accusing Him of things He didn’t do and mislabelling Him. Along the way, there is no doubt that they have been actively playing down His status and great importance. 

Worse, some go as far as to denounce Christ and belittle the promises of salvation and eternal life. Therefore for us to be quiet in the midst of all these accusations and false allegations is to do massive disservice to God. And to suggest that Christ is merely a ‘good man’ is no different.

Like the apostles, we must speak up for Christ. We must defend what we know are the truths about Him and in the process, we must actively debunk the rest. We have at our disposal scriptural evidence about His prophecies. We know of His history and how He has been actively transforming lives ever since the then. We have also witnessed many of His prophecies unfolding in reality. In other words, we cannot just sit back and let others paint deceptive portraits of Christ.

We look at the Book of Acts to see Peter and the others preach to the crowds, telling them not just about the miracles per se but more importantly, that they all came from Christ. And when the Sanhedrin sternly warned them “not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ Name again,” Peter and John responded, saying:

“We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:20, NLT)

For all intents and purposes, defending the truth about Christ will take a whole lot more from us than we have to give. We cannot depend solely on our strength and will. Though we know the tasks ahead of us to convict our Buddhist friends, we cannot be stubborn or ignorant about the size of the challenge. 

Therefore, again, we must call on the Holy Spirit to empower the proclamation of the Word just as God has promised. Read what Paul says about the influencing power of the Spirit in every message he preached:

“And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 2:4, NLT, my emphasis)

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus paid the same tribute to the Holy Spirit as He gave His disciples the necessary instructions before sending them out:

“When you are arrested, don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking – it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Mt 10:19-20, NLT, my emphasis)

Simply said, let’s not count on ourselves alone. Let us instead establish our trust and confidence upon the Holy Spirit. In situations such as reaching out to the Buddhists, the task is formidable and the risks are foreboding. Don’t ever think it’s a straightforward job and all it takes is your own set of skills, expertise and capabilities. 

Without the Holy Spirit, no amount of personal talent will get you the success you hope for. To reach our Buddhist friends, the first thing is to pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance and that He will reveal the hearts of those who really do want to listen. Pray that their minds and hearts will peel open so that they may begin to understand, accept and believe in Christ our Lord.


Image source: abc.net.au

Fifth, get off our high horse

Don’t let anyone tell you that outreach projects are easy. They’re not. And one of the many reasons why they’re not is because many of these unbelievers are bound to have an incessant number of questions to ask; questions that are not always straightforward to answer. Some questions are downright silly but then, not everyone is an intellectual. Some other questions can be so thought-provoking that we need to spend a little more time to respond cautiously. There are also questions that are irritating or even offensive.

All in all, the whole gamut of questions on offer can rattle the best of us and if we’re not sufficiently guarded, we could drop the ball and lose our Buddhist friends. If we’re on our high horse, we like to think that we know enough to deal with unbelievers. 

We assume that our Bible knowledge and church leadership authority are great enough enablers for us to take on the unbelievers and convince them without breaking sweat. If that’s what you think, you’re wrong. That kind of pride and arrogance are what many Buddhists believe Christians possess, which is where we fail big time.

Sharing the Good News with our Buddhist friends isn’t a competition. Outreach missions aren’t about setting a target with a number in mind and then going out and bringing the rewards home. It’s not something to be combative where we try to outdo one another by ‘scoring’ more. 

Instead, it’s all about making Jesus known to them as their Saviour. It’s about being receptive to their problems and struggles and seeing how the Lord can help our friends to resolve them. It’s about going out there and being openly friendly, kind, caring and thoughtful above whatever targets you think you need to reach. What that needs, therefore, is a peaceful and calm heart and a sincere intention to really want to help.

Staunch Buddhists like to be calm and peaceful when they discuss matters. They’re not into heated arguments, banging the table to make their point or to breathe down anyone’s neck. And so, for them, whoever speaks out of turn or builds up an unnecessary head of steam is a big turn-off. What they’re after is a mature discussion where no one gets ignored or talked over. If everyone is given the chance to speak with mutual respect, a lot can get done.

If Christians cannot sit down and have friendly discussions without rousing one another, don’t even get started. In fact, you really shouldn’t even be in the mission team. If we cannot be meek, patient and kind in words, let someone who can, take your place. 

Meanwhile, it might be beneficial to ask your pastor to organise training sessions for you to improve your approach and learn some tact. And if you’re the type who cannot accept that others have a right to their opinion, you’d probably need some serious counselling yourself.

Sharing the Good News with our Buddhist friends isn’t an opportunity for showboating. Remember, it’s not about you. Flaunting your biblical knowledge isn’t going to win you friends in this regard. All it does is drive people away. Head knowledge may win you Bible quizzes but in any outreach work, it can be an aversion to the unbelievers and a loss of opportunity for you. 

Sometimes, head knowledge can become a liability because it makes it difficult for you to really focus on the issues at heart. It blinds you from understand the real tasks at hand.

Even if you’re not the type with dominant head knowledge, you can also fall into the trap of being overly theological, meaning you can delve into the Bible and immerse yourself in discussions that can leave your Buddhist friends out in the cold. Be mindful that most unbelievers do not have any real understanding of the Bible. They may have read some passages here and there but they remain ill-prepared to engage in any meaningful dialogue with us.

Many years ago, I know of a friend whose teenage son was a bit of a bookworm. A reclusive at heart and one who had enormous trouble making friends and socialising, he’d bury himself in the family’s veritable library, ploughing through book after book. Born into a family that had a great passion for reading, he was in his element. No friends but surrounded by plenty of books, he simply became a walking encyclopaedia, capable of telling anyone what books he had read and what they were about.

When he proudly told me that he had read three different translations of the Bible at least six times from cover to cover, I had to ask him what he understood from that experience. He couldn’t answer. I asked what the most important message was that he gathered from all that reading. He still couldn’t answer. I asked him if he could relate to any of the things he read in the Bible all those many times. Again, he failed to answer.

That was many years ago. Today, he is still an unbeliever although his father converted and became a Roman Catholic (he just loved the rituals). Like the rest of the family, the son just drifts along with the tide and now that he has graduated from university, he still lacks that sense of purpose in his life. So, six readings later covering three different versions of the Bible translation, he’s as good as having not read it in the first place.

In a similar vein, someone who is academically a very astute Bible scholar might be the best candidate to pen a book on Christianity but he might be the most ill-suited to speak to unbelievers. With his dry and terse theology, the chances are that he’d likely leave our Buddhist friends in greater confusion. 

In other words, they might have been better off not to listen in the first place. He might not intentionally do that but sometimes when we are so enthused about the Word, we forget to pay attention at the needs of those who desire to listen to what we have to say.


Image source: Live Global

Our Buddhist friends are at our beck and call. They could be willing to listen. But we’re not them and they’re not us. We know the Bible; they don’t or they don’t know enough. We’re already Christians but being Buddhists, they don’t understand our faith. 

For us to make sense to them, we have to make sense of who they are, what they believe, what they know and how they live their lives. We cannot be presumptuous or arrogant. We cannot afford to flaunt our knowledge just to impress them but lose them on the turn because they may not give us another opportunity to speak to them again.

Rather than go heavy with the theology, this would be the best chance to share our personal experiences with them. Our testimonies for Christ would plug the gap very nicely here. It would be a far gentler – yet confident – way to help them understand and believe. 

Personal testimonies are real stories that are applications of our lives as Christians. They add the all-important gloss to the Biblical truths that we live by. When our Buddhist friends listen to our own personal stories, they can see for themselves not just how we live our lives but how God protects and saves us from peril. When they do that, they may also be able to come to terms with their own struggles.

In her book ‘The Desire of Ages’ (1940), Ellen G. White wrote:

“Our confession of His faithfulness is Heaven’s chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world. We are to acknowledge His grace as made known through the holy men of old; but that which will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience. These precious acknowledgements to the praise of the glory of His grace, when supported by a Christlike life, have an irresistible power that works for the salvation of souls.”

If you’re looking for an alternative – but very interesting – angle to introduce God to your Buddhist friends, try letting them know that the ancient Chinese language laid irrefutable proof of the God of Abraham and that it is very highly possible that the Chinese themselves were the remnant of the dispersion caused by the Tower of Babel. Needless to say, you’ll need plenty of proof for all that.

  
Ethel R Nelson and C.H. Kang (Image source: Adventism in China)

In the book entitled, ‘The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language’ (Concordia, Aug 1979), the authors C.H. Kang and Ethel R Nelson observed amazing correlations between the Chinese language and the elements of the Genesis as told in the Bible, that accounted for man’s early beginnings.

The book illustrates plenty of ideographic pictures that form the Chinese language so many thousands of years ago and in many of them, the written characters – when broken down into component parts – reveal memories of man’s early days including God’s creation of man and woman, the institutionalisation of marriage, Satan’s temptation and the Fall resulting in Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Noah’s family and the Great Flood and also the Tower of Babel. All of these were told by the strokes of the bamboo brush that produced these ancient Chinese characters.

With this great literary work, Kang and Nelson remind us of China’s 4,500 years of civilisation and in their formative periods, they were monotheists who served a Supreme Heavenly Ruler. Further studies may reveal that the beliefs of ancient Chinese harked back to a time when they worshipped the One True God, the Creator of Genesis and in the likelihood that this is the case, then what you have in your hands is an incredible revelation that is worthy of sharing with your Buddhist friends.

One of the authors, Ethel Nelson, recalled that in her study into the history of the written Chinese language, there was some agreement among different treatises that its approximate time of origin goes back to as early as 2500BC, which she found “provocative,” considering that the great dispersion of human races from the Tower of Babel was dated – via the Biblical genealogies – to around 2218BC.

But of course, even if the book offers us stunning evidence on the backs of patient and painstaking archaeological work over forty years, you could find some who may challenge it. Be that as it may, the evidence that the authors serve up is impossible to ignore. None of your Buddhist friends can simply brush it aside. Neither can they claim that the perfect matchings of the Chinese characters and the evidence of the Genesis are merely coincidental.


Image source: Pursuing Veritas

Sixth, don’t forget to go easy

When I was newly baptised in Geelong, Australia, I was spiritually wet between the ears. That was almost thirty-five years ago and back then, when I attended my first Bible Study class, I was introduced to Scripture via the Gospel of John. And boy, was it an uphill battle for me!

It was only many years later that I realised that John wrote the Gospel essentially for believers. Although there has been much discussion as to whether John wrote the Gospel for non-Christians or Christians, I have personally always had the feeling that by the manner in which it was written, only someone who has come to faith and continue to want to grow can understand.

Of course, to be fair, Bible scholars will tell you that the attention given to the word ‘believe’ that John used suggests it to be fairly equal both ways, as in ‘begin to believe’ (aorist tense, πιστεύσετε (pisteusete), for non-Christians) and ‘continue to believe’ (present tense, πιστεύετε (pisteuete), for Christians).

Even so, I’d consider John’s structure and style would have been more familiar to those who are already familiar with the faith. For weeks, I struggled with it. In fact, trying to get past the first chapter was tough enough. But when I decided later on to move on to Gospel of Matthew, things changed. 

Unlike John’s, Matthew wrote his to appeal to Jewish Christians living within their own community. The Jewish Christians were growing increasingly distant from other Jews because they had embraced Christ. And in doing so, they had become more Gentile in their membership and outlook. The apostle Matthew decided that his Gospel would be a vision “of an assembly or church in which both Jew and Gentile would flourish together.”

Matthew’s concerns centred on a period after Jerusalem had fallen. One perplexing question for the apostle was how these Christian communities – who, at that time, didn’t even call themselves Christians – relate to others who claim to be Israel. These were people who hadn’t consciously realised that they were anything different than the Israel they knew. 

As such, he wrote the Gospel to show the Jewish community that Jesus was fully a man from Israel and to do that, he focused on his genealogy to underline that He was not only the son of David but, going all the way back, was also the son of Abraham. Doing all this made the Gospel of Matthew very readable in a factual historical sense and certainly in the legitimate tradition of Israel’s teaching of the law.

At that time of my Christian walk, Matthew did for me what John couldn’t. Of course years later, John’s Gospel gained a greater sense of importance but that starting point for me was very important to get right. Had I struggled to understand the Bible, I believe my walk would also have suffered as well.

Ten years ago when I met my wife, leading her to Christ took on a different level of importance. This was because her cultural background (and education) was quite different from mine. John was certainly out of the question. Matthew would’ve been better but still a little on the challenging side. 

As it turned out, for her, the Book of Genesis made the best sense. It helped her to understand God as a Creator. It also made good sense to her why it was the very first book to appear in the Bible. Besides, reading about how God created the earth, the vegetation and then the wildlife and domestic animals before He mastercrafted man was as fascinating as it was awesome.

Introducing Marianne by way of Creationism – and therefore, talking about God in His primacy – might sound unusual but it isn’t, because she was not exactly a practising Buddhist. Though her parents were (and still are), she was, as she said, “a free thinker” who had tinkered with the idea of Christianity before. And therefore, the basis of choosing Genesis was not incongruent.

For her, Genesis was straightforward. It recorded God’s chronological events of creation and it showed where man began and what really happened from the very beginning. And it moved from there in a fairly consistent chronological fashion. The Genesis proved the catalyst for Marianne to devour the Bible and till today, she can remember vividly how much of an impact that had on her.

Choosing which book to start reading in the Bible is somewhat a personal choice. Others don’t think so. Many actually believe that any of the four Gospels is the best way to start even for unbelievers, pointing almost unanimously to John, believe it or not, as a great way to begin. 

In fact, there are some who think that Psalms and Proverbs are not as important as Paul’s letters and the Gospels. And to all of those whom I’ve cherry-picked here, I can only say that their opinions might not work for all people in the same way as mine does not beyond the Buddhists that I have targeted in this article.

The issue here is to find an easy way for our Buddhist friends to begin on the walk to understand God. As much as it is a personal choice, ours is to suggest a way that is unintimidating and effective, a way that eases their way of understanding and one that allows them to find inspiration. 

As important as it is to find the best introductory book in the Bible is to identify the best English translation for them. As a matter of an example, many of our Buddhist friends are unlikely to find the KJV (or even the NKJV) version easy for them to read. As poetically beautiful as this translation is to us, we need to consider their position.

Having said all that, I would think that a better starting point in the Bible for our Buddhist friends is either Proverbs or Ecclesiastes because Solomon’s works revolve around wisdom. And wisdom is an excellent way to begin. After that, we can proceed to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) because these are collections of His sayings and teachings. 

It is here that we get an excellent eye-opener into Jesus’ thoughts as well as His moral teachings. They offer our Buddhist friends an invaluable insight into sound Christian ethical foundation, the likes of which Buddhism itself is profoundly weak in by comparison.

It’s only after all these that you can move to the parables in the Gospel of Luke. The parables are a great way to enable Buddhists to examine Jesus’ way of thinking. Through stories that come alive, our Buddhist friends have a great chance to understand the kinds of lessons that Jesus offers that underscore His profound wisdom. Every parable introduces Buddhists to important lessons in life that shape our Christian faith and to that end, they have an excellent opportunity to then understand where we come from.

And in the end, the Buddhists get to view Jesus’ wisdom as well as His dominant role as the Prince of Peace. If we begin with His thoughts and viewpoints, it will be easier – and more natural – to slowly progress to a stage where we can ultimately talk about Him as our Saviour and Son of God.


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