I am hoping you can help me with this huge dilemma: how to talk to a friend who has rejected Christ for Eastern religious thought. I am so ashamed that I have not kept very close to my Lord through His Word, so now I can’t think how to answer this friend who is lost deep in Eastern thought. I am hurtfully speechless when she spews out the “Jesus was a good guy…God is all good and would never create a hell…we are all good…there is no sin” stuff. I am very uneasy around her. I have to keep praying in my mind to keep her awful lies out of my head. Can you help me?!?!
My friend is visiting her dying mother, and will not be here long. So, I am desperate for quick help. I am so grateful for any help and resources you can point me to.
You sound like you are in such emotional and spiritual pain! Bless you for carrying such a deep burden for your friend.
I think the best response to the “no hell/we are all good” stuff–showing how deceived she is!–is to go for the heart. You said she is tending her dying mother, so apparently she cares for her mother. You might try this approach: “What if someone broke into your house and raped and murdered your mother? You know it could happen; it happens every day. What would you want to happen then? Would you send ‘happy thoughts’ to the raping murderer because he’s a good soul? Or would every shred of your being cry out for justice?
“I know you; I know you would want justice. And you know why? Because you are made in the image of God, and God is not only good and loving, He is also just. He wants evil punished. He promises He WILL punish evil. Don’t you find that comforting?
“Eastern philosophy doesn’t fit reality, because we know there IS evil, there IS sin, and the cry of our hearts is that evil and sin be addressed. And when you go back home, I beg you to read and research and think about the death of Christ. If He was only a good man, why did He have to die? If He was only a man, how could He come back to life, just as He promised He would?”
I suggest you leave your friend with questions instead of preaching the answers, and praying up a storm that the Holy Spirit will put hooks on your questions and not give her any peace until she deals with the truth and its implications.
I hope this helps!
In His grip,
Sue Bohlin
Probe Ministries