The Discovering Jesus through Asian eyes evangelistic booklet offers bite-sized answers to 16 commonly asked questions about the Christian faith often asked by Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.
Approximately 14,000 copies have been sold and in 2014, the Discovering Jesus through Asian eyes discussion course was launched to accompany the booklet and enable people to explore with their friends what the Bible says about these questions. Even in the early trials of the course, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh participants professed faith in Christ.
We talked with a Muslim man who came to faith through using the course.
Where do you originally come from?
I am from Kashmir in Pakistan where I didn’t really know any Christians. I hadn’t heard anything about Christianity except what I knew from my Muslim teachers. However, I wasn’t satisfied with Islam and when I came to the UK I started searching for the real truth about God. I even visited a Sikh temple to find out what they believed.
How did you come to join the Discovering Jesus course and what were your first impressions?
A friend invited me to the course and I thought why not go along. I was expecting there to be drinking and dancing in the church but instead I found nice people discussing what the Bible said about various difficult questions about Christianity. I was impressed by their friendliness and welcome.
What happened next?
A while later, I sadly split up with my wife and I decided to re-contact one of the friendly people I had met at the church. We started talking about the Bible and he told me that there were many prophecies about Jesus in the Jewish part of the Bible written hundreds of years before he was born. He explained to me that Abraham being asked to sacrifice his only son was a picture of what God would do for us in making Jesus a sacrifice for our sins and when we read Isaiah 53, which so clearly talks about Jesus although written about 700 BC, all I could say was “Wow”. He asked if he could pray for me at the end and when he prayed, we could both feel a supernatural presence. I said, “Is that magic?” and he said, “No, that’s God’s Holy Spirit.”
When he asked me if I wanted to pray to receive God’s forgiveness through Jesus and start a new life following him, I said “Yes” and I prayed to give my life to following Jesus.
Have you faced any trouble for your faith in Jesus?
Yes, some uncles threatened me and tried to put pressure on me to return to Islam and a local imam phoned up and said “We know where you live.” My car was damaged deliberately and my ex-wife had been making it difficult for me to see my son because she did not want him learning about Jesus. The church has become my new family and they support and encourage me and Jesus is with me.
Clive Thorne, co-author of the Discovering Jesus course, is available to take half day or full day seminars on how to use the materials in outreach and in training Christians on how to answer the questions that they will meet when they try to share the gospel with people from these other faith backgrounds. He can be contacted at cthorne@talktalk.net
Discovering Jesus through Asian eyes is available directly from The Good Book Company or from Amazon.