Jeffress and the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas
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Established in 1996, Pathway to Victory serves as the broadcast ministry of Dr. Robert Jeffress and the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Pathway to Victory stands for truth and exists to pierce the darkness with the light of God’s Word through the most effective media available, including radio, television, and digital media. Through Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress spreads the Good News of Jesus Christ to a lost and hurting people, confronts an ungodly culture with God’s truth, and equips the saints to apply scripture to their everyday lives. More than 930 radio stations in the United States broadcast the daily radio program, while Daystar and TBN, TCT, and Cornerstone Christian television networks air Pathway to Victory both in the United States and internationally. Our mission is to provide practical application of God’s Word to everyday life through clear, Biblical teaching. Our goal is to lead people to become obedient and reproducing disciples of Jesus Christ, as He commanded in Matthew 28:18-20. As our ministry continues to grow and expand, we are confident the Lord will use Pathway to Victory to advance the mission statement of First Baptist Dallas: to transform the world with God’s Word… one life at a time. DR. ROBERT PO Box 223609 | Dallas, TX 75222 214.969.2400 | ptv.org JEFFRESS COMPLIMENTARY PDF COPY | NOT FOR PRINT According to the Bible, Satan has placed Regardless of what a veil over the minds of unbelievers other beliefs claim, (2 Corinthians 4:3–4). This veil remains until God miraculously removes it. We pray that God not all roads lead to will remove it—for one day, Jesus will return, in the body, to claim His Bride, the Church. He will Heaven. In fact, not all condemn the wicked and establish His Kingdom religions have the same on Earth. ideas about Heaven—or We only get one shot about how to get there. at getting Heaven One religion teaches that Heaven is becoming a god and populating your own planet. Another right. When we die, we says that Heaven is a paradise that must be earned cannot alter what we by performing righteous works. Yet another religion teaches that Heaven doesn’t really exist; believed while alive. you merely dissolve into the universe. Regardless of the belief system, all major world religions The moment we take teach that the way to get to Heaven is through our final breath in this doing—all except one. Christianity teaches that the way to Heaven is through accepting what life, we will either be Christ has done. In other words, Jesus has already earned Heaven for us, if we are willing to accept proved foolish or wise. Him on His terms. To ensure that what we believe about Heaven and This is what separates Christianity from all other how to get there is true, we are going to look at world religions. We see this in the Gospel of John what seven of the world’s major religions teach 14:6 where Jesus states: “I am the way, the truth, about Heaven—and the way they say to get and the life; no one comes to the Father but there.1 through Me.” COMPLIMENTARY PDF COPY | NOT FOR PRINT Biblical Christianity What Is Heaven? The New Creation The Bible teaches that Heaven is where He knew people would rebel against Him. Jesus is. The Apostle Paul made this plain in 2 In the Old Testament, God promised to send a Corinthians 5:8: “To be absent from the body Messiah (an Anointed Savior-King). God also set [is] to be at home with the Lord.” The current up a system of ritual sacrifices until the Messiah’s location of Jesus is the place where the souls arrival. Then, at the appointed time, God the of believers in Jesus go when they die. It is Father sent Jesus Christ. Jesus fulfilled the Old temporary because there will come a day when Testament prophecies of the Messiah. He lived a Jesus will create an eternal Heaven—a literal perfect life, and in about AD 33, Jesus died on a paradise on Earth. Roman cross. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. His perfect life provides righteousness. When that day comes, the souls of all His sacrificial death pays for sins. And His Christians will reunite with their immortal resurrection proves that He is God the Son. bodies, and they will live for eternity in what the Bible calls the “new heaven and new earth” To be saved, all people have to do is place (Revelation 21:1). This will be a physical their trust in what Jesus has already done for place—but nothing like the Earth we inhabit them. God saves people who don’t deserve it. today. In the New Heaven and New Earth, He gives eternal life to those who do not work God will eliminate sin, sorrow, pain, and death. for it. Christianity teaches that people simply God “will wipe away every tear” (21:4). And receive eternal life from God, by faith in Jesus. Christians will rule and reign with Jesus forever. The Holy Spirit then supernaturally connects Christians to the Church. Christians are adopted How to Get There? into God’s family. They are no longer slaves but Faith in Jesus Christ children of God through Jesus Christ. They Because God is a Trinity (Father, Son, and follow Jesus because His yoke is easy and His Holy Spirit), He was love before He created burden is light. He is their Sabbath rest. He is anything. God decided—before He created the their righteousness. He is the way, the truth, and world—that He would love people, even though the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him. COMPLIMENTARY PDF COPY | NOT FOR PRINT Hinduism How to Get There? Escape the Cycle of Reincarnation What Is Heaven? To accumulate good karma, a person must Moksha work hard within his or her caste (Varna: “tribe,” The goal in Hinduism is to escape the cycle “type,” “color,” “category,” or “class”) and follow of death and reincarnation (samsara). Hindus various yogas (“yokes” or “disciplines”). A Hindu believe that human souls—atman—live millions person must not try to rise above his or her caste of times. Everything a person does in life or marry outside of it. This is the duty—the accumulates karma—a permanent record of dharma—of every good Hindu. For example, good and bad deeds. If an individual has done a person born into a poor or “untouchable” more good things than bad in this life, then in caste—say, a street sweeper—must not try to the next life, that person will be reincarnated become a doctor or a ruler. To do so will give into a better situation or as a higher being (e.g., the poor person bad karma. In fact, if one into a better caste, as a man, or as a cow). tries to advance into a better caste, it might be the dharma of someone in the upper castes to On the other hand, if a person’s bad karma suppress that person. outweighs his or her good karma, then that person will come back in a worse circumstance or as a lower form of life (into a worse caste, as a woman, or as a slug, for example). Only after living millions of lives of doing more good deeds than bad can a person escape this cycle. This escape is called moksha. Upon achieving moksha, an individual soul is reabsorbed into the universal spirit called Brahman, like a drop of water falling into the ocean. There, one loses all individuality. COMPLIMENTARY PDF COPY | NOT FOR PRINT Buddhism How to Get There? Destroy All Desire The way to destroy desires and the karma What Is Heaven? they cause, according to Buddhist teaching, is Nirvana to avoid extremes and follow the “Middle Way.” The great desire of Buddhists is to eliminate One achieves this Middle Way by following the all desire. For Buddhists, life is suffering. “Noble Eightfold Path” and the “Five Precepts.” Buddhists do not technically believe in a soul; The Eightfold Path includes right knowledge, instead, they believe in anatman, or “no-self.” right intentions, right speech, right conduct, Yet they do believe that unresolved desires right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and feelings become reincarnated (samsara) and right meditation. into other people, animals, or living things. Those reincarnated desires and cravings then The Five Precepts are the basis of the dhamma experience—and cause—more suffering and evil. (or dharma: the “way,” “law,” or “duty”) that all good Buddhists must obey: do not intentionally Like Hindus, Buddhists believe that karma kill any living thing, take only what is given to determines the blessings of the next life. you, abstain from sensuous misconduct, do not However, Buddhists believe that even the richest speak falsely, and avoid intoxicants. and healthiest people suffer unhappiness, sorrow, and death. Thus, to a Buddhist, all karma is Following all the aspects of the Eightfold Path ultimately bad karma. and Five Precepts requires a gargantuan amount of work. This may, in fact, take multiple lifetimes However, once a person learns to desire to achieve. nothing, he or she has accomplished the state of mind called nirvana. His or her latent desires— the “self”—then dissipate into nonexistence and the person ceases to be. COMPLIMENTARY PDF COPY | NOT FOR PRINT Judaism What Is Heaven? Gan Eden (Garden of Delight) Modern Judaism (Rabbinic Judaism) is based heavily on ethnic descent and tradition, as recorded in the Talmud.