TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE 4

The significance of these questions


These questions start discussions from the root so that people might be able to discover the Reliable Standard for life


Every individual needs an absolute standard that leads to freedom and peace and prevents breaching the law and rights of others.


If people discover that the nature of god in their scriptures is against freedom and peace, they will be challenged and moved to search for the truth.

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Thought provoking questions can lead to Truth

Questions about sin and humanity

Was the lasting righteousness inspired in you?

Who is able to implant holiness and righteousness in man’s heart?

Does your power supersede the power of Satan?

Are you able to abolish the work of the lawless Satan in your life?

Do you need a higher power to overcome Satan?

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Thought provoking questions can lead to Truth

Questions about sin and humanity

Can you see lawlessness, sin, immorality, unrighteousness as 
a problem in everybody’s life on earth?

Have you ever broken the law or the heart of someone or sinned?

Have you ever cooperated with Satan?

Does your life please God?

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Thought provoking questions can lead to Truth

Questions about God, Satan and Creation 

Is God absolutely holy, just, moral and loving? 

Is God the source of the absolute peace? 

What is the origin of sin? Where has Satan come from? 

Can a just God create sin? 

Can a genuine God have partnership with sin? 

Where did death and suffering come from? 

Did the Holy and Perfect God create a suffering imperfect world? 

Should God reveal His full and absolute justice and release man from Satan? 

Why wouldn’t God be interested in abolishing the work of Satan on earth?

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Thought provoking questions can lead to Truth

Questions about the nature and attributes of God

Is God personal or impersonal?

God is personal in the Bible

God is impersonal in all other religions

Can an impersonal god reveal himself?

If not, how then we are able to know that he exists, talks and guides?

How can someone say that he is a messenger of an impersonal god?

If god is impersonal, then how can an impersonal god create?

Does the personal God reveal Himself?

Should the personal God reveal Himself?

Why?

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The way you guide the conversation

Encourage people to believe that they are capable to discover the Truth:

How is the truth best understood?

Do you think the truth is best understood in the context of the world?

Do you think everybody follows the truth?

Do you think that everybody must follow the truth?

Do you believe that people need to understand each other’s beliefs?

Do you believe that people have capacity to understand the truth?

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The way you guide the conversation

Challenge the consciences

Can someone teach freedom or be the messenger of freedom while s/he is not free her/himself?

Can someone be a peace-maker without submission to the absolute peace?

Can someone be a good example to others both morally and ethically while s/he does not know the values of life in the context of the world and does not follow the best of all?

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The way you guide the conversation

Like the Bible, always challenge consciences

If the root is holy, so are the branches (Rom.11:16)

Can imperfect lead to perfection? (1Cor.13:10) Who can bring what is pure from impure? No one (Job.14:4

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Why do we need to invite people into a process of discovery?

People need to understand the effectiveness of the message of Christ Personally (Heb.4:12)

People need to understand the superiority of Christ in comparison with other gods or ultimate realities (Rev.17:14; 19:16) and the effectiveness of His message in comparison with other beliefs (Acts 4:12)

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Why do we need to invite people into a process of discovery?

People need to have reason for life (1Pt.3:15)
“Reasoning” is a great tool for understanding and discovering the truth

Reasoning rejects passivity, fanaticism or violence, and establishes reconciliation amongst nations, and between nations and God.

Violence in the families, in the countries and in the world is not removed unless people are open to reasoning.

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Why do we need to invite people into a process of discovery?

People have capacity to understand the truth and make decision

Because, “the requirement of the law of God is written in the hearts of people and their consciences bear witness to it” (Rom.2:14-16)

Therefore if “we set the truth plainly and commend ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God” (2Cor.4:2),

The law (values) of God is in charge to lead people to Christ (Gal.3:24)

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Why do we need to invite people 
into a process of discovery?

God is the God of reason. He gives understanding in all things (2Tim.2:7)

Come and reason together (Isa.1:18)

God presents reasons for building relationship with people

We also need to help people to be available for God for a reason and be able to express that reason to others

Those who understand God’s mind and heart better will love God with all their hearts and minds (Matt.22:37) and are used better 

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Life-changing conversations take place when:


-You understand people’s worldview

-You invite people into a process of discovery

-You know which key questions to ask

-You can anticipate the responses and are ready for the answers

-You can give good and clear reason for your faith

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Symbol of PEACE ?

The right question, 

at the right time, 

can completely change 

the direction of someone’s life

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Testimony of Paul 2
Gal 1:6  I am surprised at you! In no time at all you are deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are accepting another gospel.


Gal 1:7  Actually, there is no "other gospel," but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ.


Gal 1:8  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel that is different from the one we preached to you, may he be condemned to hell!


Gal 1:9  We have said it before, and now I say it again: if anyone preaches to you a gospel that is different from the one you accepted, may he be condemned to hell!


Gal 1:10  Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.

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Testimony of Paul 1

Gal 1:1  From Paul, whose call to be an apostle did not come from human beings or by human means, but from Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from death.


Gal 1:2  All the believers who are here join me in sending greetings to the churches of Galatia:


Gal 1:3  May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.


Gal 1:4  In order to set us free from this present evil age, Christ gave himself for our sins, in obedience to the will of our God and Father.


Gal 1:5  To God be the glory forever and ever! Amen.

Muhammad and Jesus Christ - Messengers

True Muslim Believes...

I bear witness that no God but Allah 

and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah 

and I bear witness that Jesus is the servant of Allah and His Messenger

True Christian Believes....

Act 4:12  Only Jesus has the power to save! His name is the only one in all the world that can save anyone. 

Heb 1:1  In the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many ways through the prophets, 

Heb 1:2  but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. He is the one through whom God created the universe, the one whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end. 

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What's more, I discovered that what I had sought through the Buddhist path—wisdom, compassion, and lovingkindness—were found in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The supreme act of compassion was His sacrifice on the cross—that while we were still sinners, He died for us.

No human alive could ever demonstrate this kind of unselfish, unconditional love. 


No human can match God's divine mercy and lovingkindness, no matter how long we meditate or what books we've read. 


Yet we must try, for when we receive Christ, we become a new creation and begin the process of becoming Christ-like. 


The apostle John wrote. “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6, NKJV).

If this kind of personal transformation is not enlightenment, I do not know what is. 


To me, having a personal relationship with God and the assurance of salvation brings true peace. And it's ours if we but ask for it!

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So I strayed from the Buddhist path, the emptiness within me greater than before. I began to examine the claims of Jesus of Nazareth in a new light, laying aside the biases and prejudices that had caused me to dismiss Him as merely a “great human teacher.” The more I searched, the more I came to believe that there was a sovereign God who loved me and that Jesus was who He claimed to be—the Son of Man, fully human and fully God. I accepted Christ into my heart.

In doing so, I now feel that I've found true enlightenment—through a personal relationship with my Creator.

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Buddhists believe karma keeps one trapped in an endless cycle of death and rebirth (samsara), and the only way out is through enlightenment. To become enlightened, one has to eliminate desire. Buddha taught that desire is the root of suffering; that it causes attachment, which leads to suffering, and in turn causes other beings to suffer. This produces negative karma. If one eliminates desire and stops causing suffering, one can become enlightened, as he had.

But eventually I began to question. Who or what had set this law of karma in motion? Who judged these beings' actions and sentenced them to another life of pain? Why were beings punished for actions they would be unable to remember? Was desire always a bad thing? Wasn't the desire for enlightenment still desire? If so, how could one ever attain enlightenment?

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True, some Buddhists purport to believe in a god, or in a realm of higher beings called devas. Others pray to statues of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). But as a whole, Buddhism is not a theistic religion. It has a law—the law of karma—but no lawgiver.

According to the Buddhist worldview, all beings accumulate karma based on their actions, and karma dictates their life circumstances. When a person dies, the karma accumulated in that lifetime (and all previous lives) determines his or her lot in the next life.

To many Buddhists, this means that a person born into a wealthy family has good karma, while someone who lives in a poor, disease-infested village would have accumulated negative karma.

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I came to the Buddhist path as a seeker. I was skeptical about religious claims, but felt a deep void in my 
life. I yearned for meaning and truth in a unpredictable and often hostile world. In Buddhism, I thought I had found what I was searching for.

Buddhists has never started a war. There was never a Buddhist Inquisition. They emphasized wisdom, compassion, lovingkindness, and personal transformation. And they certainly never threatened me with eternity in a lake of fire.

But it was not meant to be. That deep void in my life? It was what has often been described as a “God-shaped vacuum”—the emptiness that only God can fill. We are His creation, made in His image. He intends for us to have a relationship with Him and, when we are without Him, we feel empty and alone. No matter how long I meditated or what teachings I read, I could not fill this emptiness in my life. For in Buddhism, there is no sovereign, loving Creator.

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Thus with Muhammad and Jesus, we have two significant leaders whose words, although very different, are still impacting our world today. 


Muhammad claimed he was a prophet for Allah, and his followers say that his message supersedes that of all other prophets.

Jesus, on the other hand claimed to be more than a prophet. He said he existed before the universe was created, and that he is one with God the Father. His followers believed his words because they saw him alive after his death.

Other than the Qur’an, Muhammad left us no proof that his message was from God. His followers claim that the Qur’an is a miracle needing no proof or evidence. 


However, Jesus reportedly backed up his words and claims with a feat that would have been impossible unless God had done it. 


To his followers, it was his bodily resurrection from the dead that convinced them his words are true. 


They went everywhere proclaiming Jesus' claims to be true, even at the cost of their own lives.

If Jesus did rise from the dead, then he is the only man able to tell us what is on the other side. 


Did he tell us that we face an uncertain future after we die? Or did Jesus promise that we can be forgiven and accepted into the loving arms of God? 


Discover what Jesus said in “Why Jesus?”

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Comparing Muhammad and Jesus

Muhammad was a charismatic leader who successfully replaced much of the rampant idolatry of his time with the worship of Allah. Although he taught that Jesus was a true prophet, Muhammad didn’t accept him as the Son of God or the savior of men. He rejected Jesus’ message of love, forgiveness, and grace, in favor of obedience to the rules of Islam.

Muhammad’s essential message was one of submission and servitude to Allah. He taught that those who believe in the Qur’an and do righteous deeds will be rewarded after death, but those who disbelieve (infidels) and fail to obey Islam’s Five Pillars will suffer severe punishment. Therefore, our eternal status is based upon our deeds rather than God’s forgiveness and grace.

Jesus Christ brought a completely different message. He said those who believe in him are sons of God rather than slaves. And our hope for eternal life is based upon his sacrificial death alone, rather than our own deeds. Jesus said that those who truly put their faith in him are completely forgiven of all their sins, and have peace with God and purpose for living. And they will discover new power to live for him.

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Different Message

Jesus taught love and grace; Muhammad taught submission and rules. Muhammad taught that we must attain salvation by adhering to Islam’s Five Pillars of the Faith. In other words, our salvation depends on our own efforts. Even then, one has no assurance of forgiveness, and must depend upon the mercy of Allah for forgiveness. Some Muslims believe that the Qur'an teaches that becoming a martyr for Allah will gain them favor and they will be rewarded by a heavenly harem.

Jesus said God created us for a relationship with Himself. His plan is to adopt us into His heavenly family as His beloved children. However, we rebelled against Him and broke His moral laws. The Bible calls this sin. Such disobedience against a holy God requires judgment. Our good deeds, money, or prayers cannot take away our sins.

The Bible tells us God is a pursuing God who devised a plan to free us from our sin debt. God's solution was to pay the price Himself. In order to accomplish that, Jesus became a man who would die in our place

(Philippians 2:5). Jesus said: “God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to die for us” John 3:16). Jesus taught that salvation is a free gift which must be embraced by faith in him alone, not our deeds. It is our choice to accept or reject God's free pardon.

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Different Character

As a mortal man, Muhammad sinned like us. Jesus was said to be “without sin” (John 8:46). Even his enemies were unable to accuse him of breaking any of God’s Commandments. But Muhammad admitted he had erred, and asked Allah for forgiveness three times (Sura al-Ghafir 40:55; 47:19 al-Fath 48:2).

Different Authority

Muhammad never performed a miracle (Qur’an 29:50), but Jesus exhibited complete authority over nature by performing numerous miracles (Mark 3:9,10).

Different Credentials

Jesus fulfilled ancient Hebrew prophecies; Muhammad did not. Muhammad offered no credentials but his revelation. Yet, nearly 300 Old Testament prophecies with 61 specific details were fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Only God could have brought all those details to pass. Thus, Jesus is a perfect match for each of them. Jesus’ divine credentials were established by his fulfillment of God’s prophetic Word.

Different Power

Jesus’ resurrection demonstrated divine power; Muhammad died and his bones are reportedly within his grave at Medina. Jesus, on the other hand, came back to life three days after he was crucified and confirmed dead by Roman executioners. Both Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection are historical facts for which there is compelling evidence.

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Muhammad and Jesus

Differences between Muhammad and Jesus

Although some similarities exist between Muhammad and Jesus, their differences are far greater. Let’s look at a few of the most important.

Different Claims

Muhammad said he was just a man; Jesus claimed to be God. In fact, Muhammad never claimed to be more than a man, a prophet of Allah. His following prayer reflects that:
"O Allah! I am but a man.” (Ahmed, Musnad, Vol. 6, pg. 103)

Although Jesus was fully a man who felt pain, became hungry, tired, and was tempted like us, Jesus also claimed to be fully God, equal with his heavenly Father. He said that prior to becoming a man, he and the father had always existed as one God, and had jointly created the universe.

Several popular conspiracy theories, like The Da Vinci Code, have asserted that the church invented Jesus’ divinity, but historical evidence indicates the earliest Christians believed that Jesus is both Lord and God.

Christianity would not be the same if Jesus’ disciples hadn’t truly believed he was God. (The term, “Son of God” does not mean a biological offspring, or that Jesus is inferior to his Father, it only reflects their relationship with one another within the godhead). All the evidence points to the fact that the disciples totally embraced his deity.

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Similarities between Jesus and Muhammad

Written legacy

Neither Jesus nor Muhammad wrote a book. However, their respective followers recorded their words that we have today; the New Testament detailing the eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ life and words, and the Qur’an, which records Muhammad’s account of his revelation. Whereas Muslims regard the Qur’an as a “Miracle” that must be taken by faith without the necessity of evidentiary support, Christians point to numerous evidences of ancient documents substantiating the reliability of the New Testament.

Worldwide influence

Muhammad’s most enduring influence has been his ability to unite disparate groups of Arab peoples under the banner of Islam, primarily by military conquest. This influence spread further by conquests of several surrounding countries.

Between the 8th century to the 13th century, Islam was instrumental in several developments in the arts and sciences. This period of cultural advancement is called“The Golden Age of Islam” During this Golden Age Muslim scholars made contributions to literature, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and chemistry. Muhammad’s influence rings loud today through his 1.8 billion followers around the world.

Jesus Christ influenced Western Civilization peacefully. He told us that God loves each of us individually and created us for Himself. He taught us to love and forgive each other. Secular world historian Will Durant credits Jesus’ teachings with “the beginning of democracy.” Jesus’ teaching of the high value of the individual resulted in the establishment of schools such as Yale and Harvard, the abolition of slavery, the elevated dignity of women, and countless hospitals charities and humanitarian works.

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Comparative Religion:

Similarities between Jesus and Muhammad

Before we look at the differences between Jesus and Muhammad, let’s identify a few of their similarities.

Great religious leaders

Jesus and Muhammad established the world’s two largest religions, Christianity with 2.1 billion, and Islam with 1.8 billion people, together half of the world’s population.

Monotheism

Although their views of God’s nature were different, both men believed in and taught about one true God who is sovereign, infinite, all powerful, all-knowing, and the ultimate judge of all mankind.

Old Testament Scriptures

Both men accepted the Old Testament as God’s Word, and acknowledged Abraham, as the one through whom God would make a great people. Jews and Christians believe God’s promise is through Abraham’s son, Isaac, while Muslims believe it is through Abraham’s other son, Ishmael.