Challenge in Mission to Buddhists

"This chapter has sought to engage in an honest dialogue with Buddhists concerning the nature of ultimate reality and how it compares or contrasts with the Christian understanding of the Triune God of Scripture. The dialogue began with an honest admission that many observers have noted that the Christian God and the Buddhas seem to “function in their own separate universes.” This testimony is not far off the mark, for although Buddhism may be functionally theistic, even at times functionally monotheistic, at its deepest level it is clearly nontheistic. Popular Buddhist worship and experience may give the appearance of some continuity with Christianity, but the actual gap between emptiness or mind and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed great. Only the naive join in the common refrain that declares all religions are basically the same. In fact, while Buddhism and Christianity both claim the ardent allegiance of millions around the world, we must candidly admit that these two religions are fundamentally different. To use religious language to mask this difference is to be unfaithful to both the history of Buddhist thought and the integrity of Christian revelation."

(Timothy C. Tennent, Christianity at the Religious Roundtable: Evangelicalism in Conversation with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. (GrandRapids:Backer Academic, 2002), p.113)