this is a production double school to God be the glory I want to welcome you to our study of world religions the title of this course is a survey of world religions my name is Roderick furred and I will be your instructor for this course I've been a Christian for the past 40 years for the past 35 years I've been a preacher of the gospel and during those years I've had the privilege of visiting in different parts of the world to preach the gospel of Christ and have had the opportunity to come into firsthand contact with various religions of the world I believe it is very important for Christians to study these religions and I welcome you to our study there will be notes that are available for this course through the world video Bible School notes that I have compiled and from which I will be teaching and I hope that you will want to contact them in order to secure a copy of these notes for yourself but I would also suggest that as I speak about the religions of the world that you also take very careful notes you will find this is a very good way to learn and to remember we're told by the authorities in religions that there are 12 living religions in the world today these are usually classified as animism Buddhism Christianity Confucianism Hinduism Islam Jainism and Judaism Shintoism Sikhism Taoism and so a streon ism now in our study of world religions we're going to be spending 20 class periods together of approximately 35 to 38 minutes in length this means that we're not going to be able to do an in-depth study of these religions or even of only one of them because there is just too much material to cover in this amount of time we call this a survey of world religions that means that we're simply going to be giving an overview of the regions there are great variations within each of the major religions of the world there have been hundreds of thousands of books written about each of these religions obviously we cannot go into very much detail so what we will be doing is that we will give you the fundamental doctrines and beliefs of these religions that are held to by most of those who claim to believe in the various religions and so our study will be a survey rather than an in-depth study it has been observed that man is incurably religious that is that all men everywhere have within them a longing or desire to believe in the supernatural archaeologists who have studied the ruins of ancient civilizations anthropologists who study the cultures of various nations of the world and historians who have recorded the past have all agreed that no culture or civilization has ever been found where people did not have some religion or some belief in divine beings outside themselves there are some societies of course which are more secular than others the former Soviet Union for 70 years did not allow belief in God and everything was done by the government of that nation to discourage belief in God and discourage belief in religion of any kind but in spite of this the people in the former Soviet Union have had that desire to believe and now that the Iron Curtain has fallen and the Soviet Union is no more the people in those Republic's that formerly made it up are turning in great numbers to belief in God there are nearly six billion people in the world today and almost all these people are associated with one or another of the world religions I believe the universe religious belief is an indication of a desire that God himself put in man when he created him there is a desire to believe and to worship there is a desire to know that our life has meaning that it's more than merely an existence upon this earth for a few years of 50 60 70 or perhaps 80 years religion separates man from the animal world evolutionists believe that man is just an animal who perhaps has evolved a little bit higher than others but the Bible disputes this evolution is not true the Bible teaches that man is made in the image of God and of all the creation of God only man is said to be made in God's image in Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 we read that God created man male and female and that God created man in His image in John 4:24 were told that God is spirit and in Luke 24:39 we're told that his spirit hath not flesh and bones that is a spirit is not physical God is not a physical being God is spirit man is created in the image of God and the image of God that man has is of a spiritual nature this is true of man it is not true of animals animals do not believe in God animals do not pray to God animals do not look to God for their blessings or thank God for the things that they have received animals do not have that spiritual nature that man has they do not have a soul or spirit that lives on from the body dies when your little dog Rover dies he's dead over life is finished for him he does not exist beyond the death of his physical life but that is not true with man man has a spirit which is immortal eternal that lives for in teaching my classes at Memphis school of preaching a few years ago I was teaching a class of the wives of our student preachers and I mentioned this point one night that animals do not have souls as men do one of the ladies in the class became very disturbed she went home and spoke to her husband it seems that they had several cats and she loved those cats a lot perhaps more than she loved her children I think and she was greatly disturbed when she learned that cats do not have souls and do not go to heaven when they die she was so disturbed in fact her husband came to me the next day and spoke to me about it and I had to clarify the point to him there are some religions of the world such as Hinduism which believe in reincarnation they believe that when one dies his spirit may be reborn in another life-form and it might be reborn in an animal if according to their belief he has bad karma and so animals in that sense do have a soul or spirit but not according to the Bible and not according to Christianity when Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Jesus did not mean by every creature to preach the gospel to animals and to insects but he simply meant to preach the gospel to men who have living Souls religion deals with the nature of man it deals with man's place in the universe and it deals with man's ultimate destiny therefore there is no more important study than the study of religion and the study of the religions of the world as we begin our study we want to notice a definition of religion what is religion according to funk and Wagnalls dictionary a commonly used dictionary religion refers to the beliefs attitudes emotions behavior and so forth constituting man's relation with the powers and principles of the universe especially with a deity or a deity now that is a very long and complicated definition let's see if we can simplify that a little bit I have a book in my library called understanding the non-christian religions it was written by Josh McDowell and Don Stuart these men define religion as that aspect of one's experience in which he attempts to live harmoniously with the power or powers he believes are controlling the world well again that is a very difficult definition and so we're going to try to make it simpler still the English word for religion comes from a Latin word the RET Latin word is religio religio comes from the root League meaning to bind re as a prefix on the front of it means to bind again religion then is the binding of man back to god or gods or to a set of beliefs that he holds to be sacred and so we will use that as our definition of religion the binding of man back to god or gods or to a set of beliefs that he holds to be sacred now it's impossible of course to give a simple comprehensive definition of religion that would cover every aspect of it because religious beliefs and practices vary very widely most religions for example have a belief in god or gods but they're some which do not as we begin our study of world religions we need to answer the question why do we need to study world religions why do we need to study world religions now I grew up in the United States of America I grew up in a part of the country where the people believed in Christianity in the broad general sense of the term I grew up in an area of the country where the Lord's church the Church of Christ was strong and well known and I never had opportunity as boy to come in contact with a Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu and even after I was a grown man and traveled somewhat in our country some say 40 years ago I never had opportunity to meet those of other world religions but eventually as I traveled outside this country I came in contact with them however that has changed that has all changed our world today has become much smaller there was a time when Christians had no need to know about Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism those who profess to be Christians could live all their lives in a country such as the United States of America and never come in contact with one of another world faiths it would only be those very few who traveled overseas are those who did missionary work perhaps who would have a need to know about these other religions but now modern Transportation has shrunk the globe that is we live in a much smaller world than the world of just a few years ago it is possible today for one to get on an airplane and go anywhere within the world in a period of less than 24 hours and so it's very easy in just a matter of hours for one to come into a country where Christianity is not the main religion and maybe Hinduism or Islam or some other not only this but even in our own countries where we may not have so many adherents of these other religions around us we can come in contact with them and their teachings by means of the modern media in our country most of us have television sets in our home it is possible today by means of a satellite link-up for all the people of the world who have television sets to view the same event at the same time occasionally there will be a major sporting event perhaps a cricket match or perhaps a tennis match art maybe a boxing match for a World Heavyweight Championship and it will be broadcast all over the world by satellite and billions of people on every continent will have opportunity to watch that event at the very time that it is happening because of modern communications we are going to come in contact with other religions of the world in a way that we never have before not only this but these religions are growing very rapidly in our country in America 40 years ago we knew nothing of Islam and there were very few Muslims here but today the Nation of Islam a Muslim sect is the fastest growing religion in America McCall's of immigration because the peoples coming to study because of business reasons or travel or whatever many visitors come to our country as they do to other countries and they bring their religious faith with them but then we need to study world religions today because world religions have become much more militant and aggressive today than ever before world religions have become much more militant and aggressive today than ever before for about 200 years according to historians the great religions of the world such as Hinduism Buddhism and Islam were not making efforts to reach out to people of other religious beliefs or faiths they were content to just carry on with what they believed and leave others alone during this period of time those from Christianity and I'm using Christianity now in a very broad sense to refer to all those people who profess to believe in Christ of whatever denomination but Christianity was seeking actively during the past 200 years to convert members of these other religions and they were dormant they were non aggressive but now all that has changed and many of the great religions are now seeking to convert those who believe in Christ to their particular faith for example here in the United States of America there are six at least six missionary societies of the Hindu religion which are actively at work seeking to convert Americans to Hinduism we need to be aware of this and we need to be aware of past history you know at one time all of North Africa and all of the Middle East were regarded as Christian that is the main religion in those areas was Christianity but then in the seventh century there was the rise of Islam and Islam was spread by the sword throughout these areas and the people who once professed to be Christian became Muslims and so vast areas of the world were lost to the Muslim faith what happened before can also happen again as Christians we need to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that we have within us the Apostle Peter in 1st Peter chapter 3 and verse 15 and I'll be quoting from the King James version of the Bible King James version of the Bible 1611 I'll be quoting from that in most of the quotations that I will be using in our study together but in 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 15 the Apostle says but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts being ready always to give an answer to every man who asked a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear we as Christians need to understand what we believe and why in order to be able to meet these other religions which are seeking to convert us the writer Jude admonished his readers to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered or once for all delivered unto the Saints Jude verse 3 and so world religions have become much more militant and aggressive but not only this but we need to study world religions because we must be prepared to preach the gospel to Hindus Buddhists Muslims and others we must be prepared to preach the gospel to Hindus Buddhists Muslims and others our Lord gave us our marching orders as Christians he told his original twelve apostles go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned or condemned that's mark chapter 16 verses 15 and 16 we often call that the Great Commission these are the marching orders of the Church of Christ the Great Commission so far as I know from my study of the Bible has never been canceled set aside or put on hold it continues to be the marching orders of the church even to this very day therefore is Christians laboring under the Great Commission it is our task to take the gospel to the whole world that includes the Hindu world that includes the world of Islam that includes the Buddhist world that includes the Shintoist world that includes the world where animism is widely believed and practiced we must take the gospel to every creature now friends if we're going to do what God would have us to do in taking the gospel to every creature we must be aware of what others believe and teach if I'm going to study with an atheist a man who does not believe in God and does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God I'm going to study the arguments that a theist commonly make and I'm going to be prepared to give an answer to those arguments so that when I go to study with the man I will be able to study more effectively if I'm going to study with a Roman Catholic before I go to the study I will prepare myself by studying the major doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church by comparing them with the teaching of the scripture so that when I come to study with that individual I may be able to show him kindly and firmly and lovingly by the Word of God the error of his ways so that he will come to believe in the truth well friends the same thing is true if we're going to study with a Buddhist or Muslim or a Hindu or an adherent of one of the other religions of the world we need to be prepared for that study and the best way to prepare other than having an acquaintance with the Bible itself is to learn something about the major doctrines of their religion and compare those with the truths taught in the Word of God and be able then to more effectively teach these people the gospel of Christ it has been the custom in Churches of Christ and a very good custom I believe for many years for us to write books and to have classes on the denominational doctrines that is we study the denomination such as the Roman Catholics the Baptists Methodists Presbyterians Jehovah's Witnesses and others we study their teachings from their writings and then we find the answer to the false doctrines they teach in the Bible and we prepare ourselves for personal work in this way friends may I knee it may I suggest to you that we need to do the same in regard to the religions of the world such as Hinduism Buddhism Islam and others we need to study their doctrines and then we can more effectively teach them the gospel which will save their souls but we also need to study world religions in order to understand our world we need to study world religions in order to understand the world in which we live and to understand what is happening in it I try to keep up with the news of the world I read newspaper Susan and I watch news broadcast on television when I travel in my car I usually listen to the radio and listen to news programs I want to know what is happening in the world but I'm amazed at how often the events in the news are motivated are shaped by religious beliefs and practices now many people do not fully understand what is happening because they do not understand the religions of man which calls man to do the various things that he does for example as we listen to the news today we often hear the events that are taking place in the Middle East the Middle Eastern nations where Islam is the predominant religion sometimes we hear of terrorism acts of terrorism being committed and we may wonder why people can do such things as these if we understood something about the Muslim religion we would understand that often they are motivated by their religious beliefs for example today we hear about problems caused by Muslim fundamentalists in the nation of Egypt tourists are being attacked a tourist centres are being blown up and it's being done by these Muslim extremists or fundamentalist we may wonder why are they doing that why are they doing that well you see Muslim fundamentalists come from a sect of the Muslims called the Shiites and they are radical and very aggressive group they believe in a concept called jihad which means holy war and they teach that if one dies in jihad or holy war that is a war made against infidels unbelievers then he is guaranteed immediate entrance into paradise because of this there have to do some very extreme things even risk their own lives or often sacrifice their lives because after all if they do such in jihad they're going to go and mediate lead to paradise a number of years ago the United States of America had a base in the city of Beirut in Lebanon there were about 200 US Marines who were stationed at the American Embassy there a man a Muslim came in in a truck loaded with explosives and he drove the truck right into the front of that compound he went right in through the gates into the compound the guards weren't able to stop him and upon the impact of the truck with a building the entire building blew up and some 200 Marines died why did the man do such a thing as this it may seem foolish to us that the man risk his life in order to take the lives of others but here was a man who was a Muslim fundamentalist who believed in Jihad in holy war he believed he was serving his God by killing those whom he considered to be infidels or unbelievers and he believed by that very act that he would be guaranteed immediate entrance into paradise and so you see this helps us to understand the news and what is happening in our world if we understand the religions of the world which motivate people this past week I was teaching a class on world religions at the Naitonal Road Church of Christ in Memphis Tennessee where I'm a member and as we studied the concerning one of the religions of the world one of the elders spoke up and he said you know I'm glad we're having this study I'm glad we're having this study because as I see the other religions and compare them with Christianity it makes me very happy that I'm a Christian and so we might add another reason for studying world religions and that is it certainly will help us to have a greater understanding and appreciation of Christianity but now friends we want to turn our attention to another question the question is are all religions the same are all religions the same it is very common in our country for us to yes all religions are the same there are simply different paths but they're all leading to the same destination that is to God in heaven years ago when my family and I were returning from to America for a visit after having spent a few years in the African nation of Zambia we were on a plane approaching our home airport the airport near a home and there was a very well-dressed well-educated woman on the plane sitting next to us and she said I've just I'm curious I've just observed your family and I can tell that you've been overseas and I just wonder what you're doing and why you're travelling like this my wife and I explained to her that we were missionaries that we'd been in the nation of Zambia to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and this woman said I do not understand that why don't you just leave those people over there alone don't they have their own beliefs and I said yes they do well why don't you just leave them to their beliefs and you keep your beliefs to yourself which she did not understand anything obviously about Christianity nor did she understand anything about the beliefs of the people of Zambia if one can go to Zambia today he can go in those areas where Christianity has had a long influence and you'll find that the people are better educated they're better cared for medically they're better clothed they have a much higher standard of living than those in areas of the country where Christianity has not had as much of an effect I could have told this woman well we were there because before Christianity came people were doing some very peculiar things and very inhuman things to one another for example if a mother gave birth to twins it was believed that this was caused by an evil spirit and so the second born of the twins would be thrown in the river the crocodiles beliefs such as this were comin before Christianity came I heard a gospel preacher preach one time and he said I'm glad my parents were Christians when I was born because I'm a twin and I was the second born of the twins and I would not be here speaking to you today if my parents had not been Christians many people do not understand what Christianity does but they certainly do not appreciate the Christianity is that which can save their souls and so uninformed people say all religions are different paths leading to the same destination but that certainly is not true a friend of mine attending a Jewish Theological Seminary told me that he had a fellow student who was a Methodist minister this Methodist minister was preparing to go as a missionary to the Middle East he inquired of this methods Minister how he would approach the people the Middle East in order to teach them and the man said well he said this is what I'm going to do I'm going to operate a bookstore and in the bookstore I'm going to sell the books of all the great religions of the world and I'll help each man to find God according to his own religion a member of the Lord's Church had returned from a missionary journey to India he had taken some excellent films of himself and his fellow preachers and he was showing these to a congregation I happen to be present at the time he showed a Hindu temple he spoke of the millions of gods that Hindus believed in and worship he showed the shots of idols that they worship and then he made the statement Hinduism is not really very different from Christianity where he did not know what he was talking about he should not have gone on that missionary journey until he learned something so that he would be able to teach others friends I'm a Christian and I'm going to be teaching this course from the Christian viewpoint and I want you to know that I understand that there is but one true way to God to salvation and to everlasting life I believe in only one God there is only one God in the book of Deuteronomy chapter six and verse four we have what is sometimes called the Shema sh e ma the Shema it says hear o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord the Apostle Paul wrote there is one God and one mediator between God and man himself the man Christ Jesus first Timothy 2 verse 5 James said you believe there's one God you do well the devil's also believe in tremble James 2:19 and so I believe there is but one true God I believe also there is only one Savior there is only one Savior Jesus Christ who is the only way to the Father in John chapter 14 and verse 6 Jesus made the statement I am the way the truth and the life no man comes unto the father but by me words could not be any clearer than this I am the way the truth and the life said the Lord no man comes to the Father except by me in the original greek of the new testament the statement is much stronger than it is in english jesus in effect is saying i even i or i only and the way to the Father and so there is only one Savior Jesus Christ - there is only one gospel the word gospel means good news there is only one gospel referring to the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ the Apostle Paul said for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek there is but one gospel which is the power of God unto salvation no other power is known which can save man from his sins but the gospel of Jesus Christ and then friends there is but one body or one Church there is only one body now many people who profess to be Christians would disagree with me on this point there are literally hundreds of different bodies or denominations which claim to be following Jesus Christ yet they wear different names they teach different doctrines they worship in different ways and even teach different ways to heaven but they claim to be following Jesus but friends the Bible does not so teach jesus promised in Matthew 16 verse 18 when Peter had made the good confession thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God he said upon this rock that is upon this great truth that Peter had confessed that he was the Christ the Son of the Living God he said upon this rock I will build my church notice Jesus said my church it belongs to him and he said church which is singular in the book of Ephesians which is called Paul's great treatise on the church Paul emphasizes the relationship between Christ and His Church in chapter 1 verses 22 and 23 he speaks of the things that God has done for Jesus Christ and he says has put all things under his feet and given him to be head over all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him that filleth all in all now friends notice if you will that the church is the body of Christ in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 4 Paul says there's one body and one spirit even as you're called in one hope of your calling and so if the church is the body of Christ and if there's but one body that means there is but one church which is accepted by Almighty God in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 23 the Apostle Paul writes for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body Christ has promised to save the body the body is the church there is but one body therefore one church that the Lord has promised to save friends I believe that Christianity is the only true way but further there is but one plan of salvation there is but one plan of salvation given in the Word of God first of all one must hear the gospel of Jesus Christ one must hear the gospel according to Romans 10:17 and then second one must believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God one must believe in Jesus John chapter 8 verse 24 third one must repent of all his past sins Luke 13:3 one must repent of his sins then one must confess Christ before men one must confess Christ Romans chapter 10 and verse 10 finally one must be baptized for the remission of sins one must be baptized as taught in Acts chapter 2 verse 38 and many other passages and so friends Christianity true Christianity is the only way now in our lesson today we have learned that all societies of men a practice some form of religion we've learned that religion separates man from the animal world we've learned a simple definition of religion that it's a binding back of man to God we've learned why we need to study world religions the world has become much smaller world religions now seek to convert us we must preach the gospel to those of other religions and we cannot fully understand what is happening in our world without a knowledge of the religions which influence these events finally we learn that Jesus Christ is the only way to God and to eternal life therefore not all religions of the world are the same we will continue our study of world religions and we will look at the religion called Islam in our next lesson this is a production of world video Bible School to God be the glory