Beginning with Buddha, ending with Jesus
Dale Jones begins with Buddha’s Four Nobel Truths and helps Buddhists see how they point to Christ.
Here's an outline of how he does it.
Did you know that Buddha taught 4 important truths that help us to understand about Jesus?
Truth #1: Life is suffering
In Khmer, we have a saying, “Have a body, have suffering”. Is that right? What about rich people, do they have suffering? Does aiming to be richer in the next life rescue us from suffering?
Truth #2: Suffering is caused by sin and bad karma
Is this true? Does that mean that even rich people have sin and bad karma? What about you?
Truth #3: There is a place with no suffering
Buddha called this place nirvana, but Jesus called it the kingdom of the highest heaven. It is the place with no suffering and no sin. This is where Jesus came from and told us all about it. God wants us to be there with him.
Truth #4: How you get to nirvana
Do you know how you get to nirvana? {Usual answers revolve around going to the temple, making offerings, doing good works}
Actually Buddha didn’t teach that at all. What Buddha said is that to get to nirvana you have to be perfect in 8 areas of life: (the Eight-fold path)
- Right Understanding
- Right Aspirations
- Right Speech
- Right Behaviour (work)
- Right Occupation
- Right Effort
- Right Mindfulness
- Right Meditation
How do you think you’re doing on all that? Do you think you have much hope of getting to nirvana when you die?
This is where Buddha and Jesus are different. Buddha said that you have to save yourself. You just have to keep trying over and over again until you reach perfection in these 8 areas of life. But Jesus knew that it would be too hard for you. He loves you and came to earth, took all of your sin and bad karma on himself, so that you can have his perfection and go to be with him in nirvana.
Do you want Jesus to break the cycle of continuous birth, suffering death?
There are some parallels here of how Kevin Greeson begins in the Koran when he shares the gospel with Muslims.
