I am just finishing up my Holy Spirit class here and it’s been so enlightening. A very cool thing that I came across during this class is the role that the Holy Spirit has in the midst of interfaith dialogue.
The great divide between other faiths generally begins with people not agreeing on who God really is. Then bringing Jesus into the mix will immediately bring an even deeper divide when dialoguing with people from other faiths. He can’t be a good prophet and at the same time a liar can He? What kind of godly prophets also lie about who they are? Jesus claimed to be the Son of the living God. It makes no sense to believe He was a good guy and not to believe the validity of what He said. Anyways, God and Jesus generally immediately create a gulf between Christians and people from other faiths.
So what if the Spirit of God became a starting point for our conversations instead? What might the Holy Spirit be doing in the midst of people who believe in other gods? Eventually conversations will turn towards Jesus and feathers may get ruffled, but why not begin with something other than division? Why not start out with something that most faiths can relate to in one way or another? Talking about the Holy Spirit is an access point into deeper dialog and deeper connection with people of other faiths. If people are open to the spiritual realm, (spirits, angels, demons, etc) then the Holy Spirit in that context can easily come into conversation as the Spirit that towers over all others. Conversing about the Spirit may be an inroad to interfaith dialogue, another angle God may want to use soften people’s hearts to eventually introduce them to Jesus Himself.
A theologian named Samartha, in urging Christians to move beyond discussions of “whether or not the Spirit is at work among people of other faiths” began to talk about “how to discern the presence and the work of the Spirit among those who live outside the visible boundary of the church (1990).” God is moving outside of our Christian circles; our job is to discern and to be wisely led by Holy Spirit as we engage others in their own faith arenas.
8 comments:
Hi Jen!
I just so happen to run across your blog while doing some "spiritual research"( and I am glad i did!). ( ; Well this is my story. I am a collge student in my sophmore year of college... I am highly active in campus ministries and I pretty much grew up in the church. I received the baptism of the holy spirit when i was in highschool... it radically changed my life and took my relationship with God to another level. Oh how I long for that fresh experience again! ( espeacially now) Just recently i feel like i have become dull ...i love ministry but lately i have been questioning my faith. I have met so many great people who do not neccesarily believe what I believe. As a christian should i discount their experience with God. Is the holy spirit ( the thing that i cherish the most) freely given to other religions too?
Thanks for your great comment, I really appreciate your honesty. First, let me encourage you that even beyond your baptism of the Holy Spirit, I believe there are still even greater measures of the Spirit waiting to be poured out on all who are hungry for it (See Spirit Flood for more on this).
And in response to your questions, I personally do not think you should discount their experience with God because I believe that everyone is on a journey and that God is at work all around us, even if it looks different than what we might expect. God can use anything to draw people to Him and I find that many times people in other faiths are actually very open to the Holy Spirit in ways that some others are not.
The questions to ask is what is the Holy Spirit already doing in a person's life and how can we participate in seeing more of that come to pass. I absolutely believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, however, the journey some people go on to discover that may begin in other religions.
The thing we as Christians need to do is to be sensitive, gentle, non-judgmental, and invite them to experience God's wonderful presence through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They will respect and listen to us most if we model this in our own lives and see them as friends rather than projects or people we need to convert. I hope that helps some and feel free to share your thoughts. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for that response! I always felt that God's love and presence was unlimited. I have seen how His love has pursued and touched many lives, regardless of thier religious backgrounds. I guess it kinda scared me... because it made me question if there was really only one way to God... which is through Christ.
I tottally agree with you Jen! If I humble myself as a christian and let love be the reason for my outreach.. I could be a better witness.
You know, I just pray that God continue to give me more understanding about what true salvation is. I feel like I can be a better participant in advancing His will if I am open to what He is doing.
Umm Jen? How can you say Jesus is the way and then turn around and say there's OTHER ways to discover Him in different religions?
What religions are you speaking of? Because the HOLY SPIRIT only exists with Jesus Christ and what HE taught. Please explain.
Dear Anonymous #2, thanks for your sincere comment and good questions. Let me first distinguish and say that I totally believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and I want everybody to eventually know Him because His love is so amazing. That is the end result, the end goal. However, the journey and starting point people go on to discover how amazing Jesus truly is and to receive His love may vary. What I am talking about is that there are multiple ways/journeys/introductions/paths that people may take to discover Him that might not fit our traditional Sunday morning thinking. I think it is important not to limit the Holy Spirit to being at work only in the Church. He is at work all around us, drawing people to Himself. He wants all to come to know Him. God can give a person from another faith a dream to draw that person to Himself. God is already at work in people's lives drawing them to Himself, even if they are brought up in another religion. He can use anything He wants to draw people to Himself whether that be a secular movie, a song, a painting, or even another religion.
I hope that helps with your question.
I am from India, I happen to see your blog when I am looking for information regarding spiritual journey read few of your posts & expereinces in journey with GOD(we call it self realisation)found it very loveable & soothing. we tend to respect other faiths & beliefs as per our faith too. As you mentioned one need to be
sensitive, gentle, non-judgmental, and invite them to experience God's wonderful presence then why do few people out here by taking the name of christ do mass conversions especially who are illetrate by offering some money or other tangible things could you please give your thoughts, hopefully the people who do that may have least understaning about christ am i right?
Dear friend from India,
Thanks for writing! I am not exactly sure how to answer your question as I have never heard about that before. Can you tell me more specifics of what is going on over there? Thanks!
There is a parallel between welf-realization and cognition, although those in and of themselves mean nothing but are close to empyting in other terms of other philosophies. I am trying to find another term in another belief 'system' that is equivalent to the Holy Spirit and have never found one. Muslim, from what I can tell, says sthe Holy Spirit, the comforter, is Muhammed which is obviously totally false as he died eating what? A poisoned lamb from a Jewish woman, how 'ironic"? Hindu believes in re-incarnation which is false and can easily be verified by a simple search in Google as to why this cannot be true, same with Buddhism. None correlate to the Spirit Of God within one's being..one can achieve the state of Zen Buddhism as a FOLLOWER of Chris, and not being an outside fan cheering him on from the grand stands of life watching it go by. One must Be Life to Know Life (YADA) and his Way is how we our thoughts are changed in according with God through His Spirit, and not the spirit of anything else..my thoughts, feeling strongly toward this. We need also to see how in the human psyche (soul), man has been waiting or mimicking sacrifices even in the depths of africa that come close to being Jesus such as Horis, but there is many more. Blessings ...and Peace he leaves you, not as THE WORLD knows peace, but has he GIVES you..store up our riches in heaven. What are those riches? The sacrifice we make for others in humility of Loving Gestures big and small, for they are not credit of my own. It is like storing Love in his account in heaven rather than burying the one gift under the ground like the wicked servant. I am still searching to find an equivalent, but that being TRUTH, can there be any other TRUTH which he said would go to all corners of the globe now being accelerated by the internet?..Looks where the center of controversy is today, where it all started nearly so..and right where 'allah' is worshipped. Would a 'prophet' eat a poisoned lamb from a Jewish woman? (if this is correct) Can God (elohym) have two names..NO..his name is not God (Yahowah?), that is the pronoun all use..it is related to Jesus which is not his real name, it is closer to Eashoa' Msheekhah (or His maternal Ruwach/Spirit,and their physical representation, Ma’aseyah Yahowsha’)
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