1. Christ
was a mere human, not divine.
2. Christ
did not die; hence HE did not resurrect.
3. Christ
does not offer salvation (Christ cannot save people).
4.
Therefore, the Bible is incorrect and Christianity is invalid.
Such claims
denigrating the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ are not new to Historic
Christianity (remember the Da Vinci Code?). So Christians need not be offended
by such claims.
Naïve
Christians could be rattled by such claims. Hence, Christians who are strong in
their faith should make use of these opportunities to strengthen the faith of their
naïve neighbor.
The popular
Indian magazine, India Today, reveals the major claims of this book, 1
“Here are some of the audacious claims
made by the author in his book:
1. Ganesh Damodar claims that
Christianity is a sect of Hinduism.
2. The present day Palestinian and
Arab territories were a Hindu land.
3. He went on to say that Christ
traveled to India and learnt yoga. Who knows Modi might have also learnt it
from 'our very own' Christ, right?
4. Christ's real name was Keshao
Krishna, according to the author. He even had a dark complexion and his mother
tongue was Tamil.
5. Christ's sacred thread ceremony
(janeyu) was held when he was 12, according to Brahmin tradition. He even wore
a sacred thread.
6. Apparently, Christianity was never
a separate religion and it was a Hindu cult and doctrine introduced by Christ.
7. Christ was saved after his
crucifixion by people from the Essene's cult, who practiced Yoga and spiritual
science.
8. He was given medicinal herbs and
plants for his recovery from the 'deathbed'. Christ also was taken to Kashmir.
9. It was in Kashmir that Christ
prayed to Lord Shiva and he spent the last days of his life in the Himalayas.
10. Damodar claims that Christ's
family dressed in an 'Indian' way and had Hindu signs on their bodies.”
So how
should Christians respond to this book?
Here is my
response for your consideration.
There are
multiple approaches to debunk Christ Parichay. One option is to present
reasonable evidences to believe the inerrancy or, minimally, the infallibility
of the Bible. If the Bible is factual, then the claims of Christ Parichay could
be discarded, because the Bible contradicts Christ Parichay.
Another
option is to present reasonable evidences to believe in Christ’s resurrection.
If Christ’s resurrection is factual, then Christ died on the cross. Therefore,
Christ did not travel to India, as this book claims.
Consider
the central tenet to Historic Christianity, which is the resurrection of Christ.
The Bible says that Christianity would crumble if resurrection is proved false,
“And if Christ has not been raised, our
preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15: 14, NIV).
This book
negates Christ’s resurrection (ref. #7). So if we can reasonably ascertain the
validity of Christ’s resurrection, then this book, with all of its claims, can
be safely discarded and forgotten. (If Christ did not resurrect, HE is not the
Son of God, so Christianity would be rendered false and invalid.)
In an earlier
blog of mine, I had mentioned the reasons to believe in Christ’s resurrection.2
Historians
affirm Christ’s resurrection because there were confirmations by independent
sources (Gospels and Paul’s letters), unsympathetic sources (Tacitus, who was
not a friend of Christianity, affirmed Christ’s crucifixion), and that of eyewitnesses
(1 Corinthians 15: 3-7).
Dr. Gary
Habermas’ minimal facts approach lends greater credibility to Christ’s
resurrection, “Furthermore, Dr. Gary
Habermas, Distinguished Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and Chairman of
the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, who
specializes in the study of Resurrection-of-Jesus research, states five highly
credible historical facts a.k.a. “Minimal Facts” that almost every historian
accepts:
“1) Jesus died due to crucifixion.
2) His disciples had experiences
that they thought were appearances of the risen Jesus.
3) Their lives were transformed
because of this conviction.
4) As a result, they proclaimed
this message very soon after Jesus’ death, actually within weeks…
5) A man named Saul of Tarsus was
converted to Jesus Christ by what he also concluded was a personal appearance
of the risen Jesus to him.
These are five tough facts that
virtually everyone is going to grant as historical, especially the scholars who
have studied this area.” 3
Moreover, Habermas includes the
conversion of Apostle James, brother of Christ Jesus and a skeptic, who became
a follower of Christ after HE appeared to him. These historical facts are
sufficient to conclude that Christ’s resurrection was factual.”3
Christ’s
resurrection is heavily predicated on HIS death on the cross. If Christ did not
die, then HE could not have resurrected.
In our
context, if Christ had died on the cross, then the claim of the book “Christ
Parichay” is invalid. Christ could not have traveled to Kashmir for HE died on
the cross and resurrected.
Christ’s death
on the cross is also a highly credible historical fact. The “Swoon Theory,”
which negates Christ’s death on the cross has been debunked, “The Quran states that Jesus did not die on
the cross. Other detractors of Christianity state that Jesus merely swooned or
lost consciousness at the cross.
Medical science strongly suggests
that Jesus died of asphyxiation. The heart wound inflicted by the soldier upon
the crucified Christ confirmed Christ’s death. The sucking chest condition
(Piercing of the spear into Christ’s upper thoracic area would have prevented
effective breathing and produce sucking sound from the wound. This would have
certainly killed Christ) is an added affirmation for Christ’s death on the
cross.
But the supreme defeater to the
objection that Christ did not die on the cross comes from the German liberal
scholar, David Strauss.
Strauss asserted that the swoon
theory was self-contradictory. If swoon theory was accurate, then Jesus would
have been alive. The disciples then would have no reason to preach the gospel,
for there need be no forgiveness, no church, and no eternal hope in Christ.
Finally, we can safely bury the
swoon theory for we also have the affirmation of Christ’s crucifixion by non-Christian
historians such as Thallus (52AD), Mara Bar-Serapion (70AD), Josephus (93AD),
Pliny the Younger (112AD), Cornelius Tacitus (116AD), and Phlegon (140AD).”4
Therefore,
we have reliable evidences to believe in Christ’s death and resurrection. In
fact, Christ’s death and resurrection are believed by most critical scholars
today. Hence, we can safely and securely discard the claims of the book Christ
Parichay.
But be sure
of this; Christianity has flourished in spite of unrelenting attacks during the
past 2000 years. In the same vein, Christianity will continue to stand strong until
the Lord Jesus Christ returns.
“To him who is able to keep you from
stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and
with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and
authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!
Amen.” (Jude 1: 24-25, NIV)
Endnotes:
1 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/jesus-christ-tamil-hindu-rss/1/602926.html
2 http://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.in/2016/03/why-should-we-believe-christs.html
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
No comments:
Post a Comment