GYC 2009: unASHAMED

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Ganoune Diop: Understanding World Religions and Contemporary Worldviews

Ganoune Diop

The Everlasting Gospel as Comprehensive Antidote to the World’s Woes and Sorrows

We even accept 11 hour people, no problem.

Okay, our general title as you can see is Understanding World Religions and Contemporary Worldviews, sharing the everlasting good news.

Before talking about world religions, I would like to delineate, I mean to show as clearly as possible what is it that we call good news.

Before I start, allow me to take a few minutes and just, you know, I believe we are family, right?

So we can communicate freely here, no problem, nothing that you will be saying will be against you anyway.

What is it that we call good news or gospel?

You know the word gospel is sometimes more complicated, but what is it that we call good news?

My first meeting, I would like this to be as clear as possible so that at the end of this session, your view, I hope, of what we call everlasting gospel will be expanded.

That is really the objective, very simply stated.

So if someone meets you in the street here in Louisville and ask you, what is it that you call gospel?

That's all we have to say about the gospel?

Ours or Christ's ability to transform our lives.

Yes, sir Wonderful What 1 of the images that I use for that is God is the best architect.

You know, he can take broken bits and pieces, like when people build houses, it's messy, it's mud and everything, but then the end product is just beautiful.

So yes, God can really transform our lives and put them in a way that is marvelous.

The good news is through Christ we have been reconnected to God.

Through Christ we have been reconnected to God.

I mean everything that you say, yes please.

Everything that sin has messed up, Christ will fix it.

Everything that sin has messed up, Christ fixes it, right?

You see, and everything you say really needed to be expanded, unpacked, if you were given time.

But this morning I'm the only 1 given you know like 1 hour for this.

So let me just share with you a perspective on what we call everlasting good news.

So as you see the title of this presentation the way I put it here is a comprehensive gospel.

Notice I insist on the word comprehensive.

A Gospel of course, good news, and I put here antidote, medical term, but we will see why, to all the walls and sorrows.

I'm actually borrowing here a statement from LNGY that we will share shortly.

Okay, you know, we have a problem as human beings and essentially we can say that all world religions And this will be our setting today.

These 6 sessions will be really focusing on world religions.

But not just theoretically, we'll be talking about your neighbors.

Your neighbors are Muslims, they are Hindus, Jews, I mean secular and so forth.

But what we ought to know is that each world religion has an idea about the problems that human beings face.

And each world religion proposes a solution to those problems okay a Hindu solution may not be the same as the Buddhist as we will see a Muslim would be a different solution or even a different identification of those problems.

See, basically what I'm saying here is that different religions offer differing diagnosis and cures.

They do not identify the problems the same way.

The diagnosis that a particular religion articulates assert that every human person has basically non-physical illness so deep etc.

Each world religion identifies a basic problem.

And actually sometimes they even identify several problems.

Some of the time, they will offer 1 solution or several solutions.

But what I want to share with you today is to tell you, Only in the Bible do you find a comprehensive diagnosis or assessment of human problems.

Only in the Bible and that is my assumption, basic assumption, only in the Bible do you find a Comprehensive it doesn't mean that you don't find some Problems, you know well identified in other world religions, but only in the Bible.

Diagnosis of the problem enough of the problems and of course a comprehensive solution.

Okay so that's that is the basic assumption here but continue this.

The good news therefore or gospel can only be good enough if it addresses all the ills of human existence.

Think about it, if a person has several illnesses, finding 1 or 2 or even a few cures to his or her disease would not be good news enough.

Imagine somebody is sick and the person has several fatal diseases, several of them.

Imagine that we bring that person to a physician And the physician comes and tell the person, hey, I have found 1 cure, 1 cure rather, for 1 of your diseases.

I think it is good news, but not good enough.

Because the other fatal diseases are going to overcome that person and the person would die.

So therefore in order to heal that person, a comprehensive solution or cure must be found for that person.

So this is why I say here, all his or her diseases have to be addressed and cured.

Therefore a comprehensive solution has to be found.

I am just putting some foundation so that when you hear the word gospel think is the gospel that I'm sharing just part of the truth?

You know, just 1 aspect of the truth or am I sharing a comprehensive good news?

You see, It is interesting, sometimes people, when they just, okay of course people have their favorite topics.

You go to a church, a pastor tends to preach his favorite sermons, okay.

However, the gospel, all the gospel, that is all the purposes of God have to be shared.

Otherwise, we leave people basically depriving them with something that they fundamentally need.

Now there are as many diagnosis and cures as there are religions and philosophies.

Understanding Contemporary Worldviews and Philosophies: Post modernity, Secularism, and Paganism

Some of you have been so loyal but I'm not an American so therefore I cannot give you gifts.

Because you see, you know, in American culture, when people are loyal, you have to, you know, give them recompense and so forth.

I am more of, you know, I know you are doing, you are here out of, oh maybe I'm recorded, I should drop this aspect.

Okay, just briefly, there are some booths, I was told.

Several people are engaged in Muslim ministry.

Since we were talking about Islam until now, I mentioned to you earlier Sam and Rodney and I understand they have a booth for their ministry.

They are located in Detroit, but they are developing also material.

So you may want to visit their booth over there.

So you also have Brian Gallant, who is coordinator at the North American Division.

And I'm sure you will find other things there.

That can eventually help you in, you know, your growth and discovery of how to relate to Muslims and so forth and so on.

As I told you, what I have shared here, most of it would be on, you know, like in the Adventist website and also the DVD that will be available at the general conference.

We actually have traveled quite a bit recently, do some filming in different places around the world on world religions.

I think best to go to the booths and learn the things that are on our bucket list.

If you go to the booth, then you have time to converse more.

Brian, your booth, what is the name of your booth?

Advent Interfaith Initiative, okay, so if you go there, you will find several things and yeah, basically go and see.

Now I would like to, as promised, I will come back to how to introduce Jesus, definitely.

But at this stage, I would like to just take a few minutes before presenting to you aspects of Hinduism.

And tomorrow, I will divide 1 aspect of Adventism, who are we, what is it that we share with our friends, Muslims and so forth, and then I will talk about the last presentation, yeah, how to introduce Jesus, you know, basically, but I'll talk about secular and past modernism.

Why is it that people today are difficult to reach?

We were in Seattle, no, not in Seattle, Vancouver, Canada, and then Seattle not long ago, it seemed that the more people are affluent, the more they tend to resist the gospel.

So I need to share some specific things, and also, let's humbly say it, Adventism is not really reaching contemporary culture people.

We are reaching more Muslims than actually contemporary culture.

So I think it is important we understand what is going on here.

So tomorrow I'll be spending some time with that.

It's a mixture of so many things, so many trends, that it is important for us to be specific.

But then briefly, any question of what I have presented so far?

In the news, we hear mostly about the Shiites and the Sunni Muslims.

What would be the major difference between them and the Sunni?

Okay, you see, the Sunni is the official branch of Islam, the majority, let's say.

Shia, are the Muslims that believe that the legitimate heir of the Prophet Muhammad was Ali.

And they have developed a certain, I mean they all believe in the Quran, they all you know I mean take the Quran as foundation, however it is about the legitimate succession and they have some doctrinal differences but minus I mean especially in the you know the Shia believe that the authority, spiritual authority, was carried through Muhammad and then Ali and then the successors of Ali, I mean, Hussein, you know, you have heard about Karbala and so forth.

Yes, you know, the martyrdom of Hussein and so forth.

Now, however, the Shia developed also that the authority was transmitted to Muhammad's successor through Ali and the Imams.

Therefore, they follow, I mean, Ayatollahs, for example.

They think that these people have spiritual authority.

Whereas Sunni Islam is more on the ulema, the community of spiritual leaders that have that function basically.

However, what is interesting about Sufism is that Sufism is found both in Sunni and in Shia Islam, actually across the board.

And Sufi are the most missionary in Islam.

It's not by chance that Africa, for example, has been mainly Sufi, you know, because this has, and Asia also, Indonesia, Malaysia, you have of course North Africa, because they are brotherhoods, you know, and that penetrates all over the world and so forth so on.

So this is the reason why it is difficult to really give a correct figure of how many Sufis there are, because they are across the board and the vibrant most dynamic aspect of Islam today we can say is Sufi Islam.

By the way, feel free to ask questions and if I can answer, fine.

If I cannot, I will do more homework, right?

This is like the central authority in all Islam.

This is the reason why, by the way, the Islam that I presented to you was the Quranic perspective of Islam, because you have different kinds of Islam.

I mentioned that earlier, you know, Sufi, Sunni, Shia, Ahmadiyya, I mean, different kind of Islam, fundamentalist, radical Islam, and you name it.

However, however, they all believe in the central authority of the Quran.

But beside that, this is like what you find in Christianity.

Christians, they say, oh, we believe in the Bible.

But at the same time, you find that you have traditions.

This is the reason why we Adventists, we say, hey, we go, we are a restorationist movement.

We say that because we believe other Christians did not stay uniquely in the Bible, but that they have added other things from the traditions and so forth.

Let me give you, can I take 5 minutes and give you a summary?

Well, no, I can do it tomorrow when I'll talk to you about Adventism, you know, because then I will explain to you how do we get to where we are, who are we?

You know, there was a time of formation, deformation during the Middle Age, reformation, and then the time of restoration that we are living right now.

So I'll give you the details and why, because we need to know where we come from and who we are, you see?

I just saw 1 of my former students, so that's why I say hi.

Okay, so tomorrow, give me a chance to develop that aspect, okay?

This is why we need a moderator, you see?

1 of the things that I encounter regularly, as you mentioned, I think, is an extension of the community in Islam.

Adventism, Prophecy, and The Whole Chain of Truth

Welcome to the faithful and those who have joined the faithful.

So we are going to talk about a world of thought, and I have to almost apologize ahead of time, because there may be sometimes some concepts that I will need to unpack a little bit.

This may be a little more difficult than the previous presentation, even though I may be presuming too much because I have tried to make it as clear as possible.

We will talk about certain philosophers and so forth, But you will see there is a reason why we will be doing that.

And in the end, you will see that it is useful.

The second section, then I will go back more profoundly to the Bible where we will see we will rediscover eventually our identity, who we are as Adventists, and it's the most exciting thing in the world.

But right away, let me just plunge in our topic here, reaching contemporary culture.

Because really, it's about reaching out to our neighbors, your friends, the people you go to school with, and so forth.

And I was saying, yes, earlier, that this is the most difficult group to reach today, and it's proven.

And I'll come back to that, so I'll be more specific about the answer.

So reaching contemporary culture, current challenges, and promises for evangelism.

Interestingly, I started working on this about 20 years ago.

Just starting when I was teaching comparative religions in particular, but this was basically my presupposition.

The following presentation is purpose to heighten our awareness of the need to search for effective ways to communicate the everlasting gospel.

Seeking effective ways to communicate the everlasting gospel, Revelation 14 basically.

We face unprecedented challenges from the current generation of men and women.

Thoughts, philosophies, religious and mystic traditions, various worldviews are often at odd and compete with a biblical understanding of truth, meaning, and life.

Now also the the way though the gospel is at times packaged does not seem to resonate with important segments of the population of the northern hemisphere in particular with major city dwellers worldwide.

Statistics are overwhelming, okay, about that.

So testifying to the gospel of redemption, reconciliation, and fellowship is at the heart of the mission of the church.

Now the current status of world mission, now the reason why I was telling you earlier, I started reflecting on this way, I mean, long before I went to join the Adventist mission.

So, this is just something that the Lord was putting in place progressively long time ago and I didn't even know about it.

Now, the current status of world mission reveals that the Seventh-day Adventist outreach is most effective among people groups whose world views are not based on modern, past modern philosophies or on monotheistic tribal societies.

By the way, by monotheistic tribal societies I mean Judaism and Islam.

We seem not to be very successful among these people group, that is, modern, past modern and monotheistic tribal societies.

I think at the end of this presentation, it's going to be clear.

In other words, modern and postmodern mindset, and I will define that very soon, and worldview remains significant challenges.

The same also can be said, and I just mentioned that, on tribal societies, frame of reference, Judaism and Islam.

Our pastors, evangelists, and various witnesses, including you, we are most successful in societies outside of this spectrum.

We seem to be more at ease to relate to modern worldview, a pre-modern worldview.

Even in North America, the people we are reaching are more of, I mean, they believe in miracles already.

They also have a religious, They already have a religious frame of reference.

We are reaching, I mean Hispanics, coming in this.

Many immigrants, and interestingly, the immigrants that we are reaching are those from the islands coming, or from Africa.

The African American community is becoming difficult to reach, especially those who are affluent.

So you can see clearly that this is just, We are not being successful regardless of the methods that people use here and there.

If you were to know the alarming rate of church growth, it's terrible.

Now, I remember, it is just interesting, I remember about 15 years ago, it was the fashion of the day to talk about secular.

So books were written on secular, but all of a sudden it died down, even in the church.

So people, when they talk about mission now, it is so biased, we think mission overseas.

Among them, probably 24, 000 from the islands.

If you take away people living in the Bracknell area around New Bowl.

We are not being as successful as we should be.

Anyway, let me just move on to say this then.

Church growth in America, the same thing.

So the most challenging mission field is not Islam actually, but this people group.

Now, the current missiological challenges call for an urgent increase and well-informed awareness of the various presuppositions and school of thought.

We need to understand people in order to communicate with them effectively.

Now true God can override and you know help us to reach but what we can do when we know who people are I mean the way Jesus did it then is much better or more productive.

Now to state it humbly it could be helpful for today evangelism to develop a familiarity with how various people groups relate to meaning, knowledge, reality, and truth.

Okay, this being said, let me just say this.

The term, let me start with that, the term postmodern has become a fashion today.

You know, all people talk about postmodernism and so forth.

However, we must be aware that any periodization, meaning putting history into time period, of history creates problem.

Why is the period between roughly 700 to 1500 of our common era called Middle Ages?

How about the derogatory term, the expression Dark Ages?

So then why did most of Western philosophies take root in event related to the so-called enlightenment?

Actually, what was the initial connotation of the word modernism?

We need to be aware, you know, we can ignore all this and say well all we need is the Holy Spirit.

But the Holy Spirit asks us also to know how people think so that we can relate to people intelligently.

Why call a phenomenon, a philosophy, a way of life, post-modern?

Series

Ganoune Diop: Understanding World Religions and Contemporary Worldviews

Understanding Contemporary Worldviews and Philosophies: Post modernity, Secularism, and Paganism

Transcript

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