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Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 008

(Some Christians teach that passages in non-Christian scriptures that are similar to the Bible are also inspired. Bible does not support that view. In the last chapter the writers offered a study of the passages in non-Christian religious books that bear some similarity to statements in the Bible. This chapter continues the same theme — The Editor) 

In the last chapter we indicated that many similarities are just accidental and that we do not have to take them seriously. We also reminded that many statements look similar because the Christian writers take just two to five words from a Hindu text, and then compare this with biblical statements. On the other hand, if they take the entire sentence from the Hindu scriptures, the similarity would vanish. In this chapter we mention some more causes for similarity, and also why this does not indicate that the non-Christian scriptures are inspired by Holy Spirit. 

1. Similarity Because Of Blindness: Modern man is very intelligent, and he is able to detect even minute things. Yet in the field of establishing a link between the Bible and the non-Christian scriptures most people close their eyes. Consequently, differences are overlooked and only similarities are mentioned. 

Some people go a step further, just overlook the difference, and announce that two passages are similar. For an example, we quote from the well-known tract known as SACRIFICE. According to this tract, the nine features of the sacrifice mentioned in the Rig Veda are fulfilled totally and completely in Lord Jesus. What this tract fails to mention is that the Rig Veda mentions HUNDREDS of characteristics of sacrifices, and that all of these are contrary to what was found in Christ. 

If a hand full of features are selected from hundreds, anyone can prove anything by a doing a careful selection. This is not honesty, but pure deception. This is what everyone calls a white lie. On the other hand if the Rig Veda had mentioned only a total of nine characteristics (and no more), and if all of them were fulfilled in Christ, we could say that Rig Veda points to Christ. 

The same selective argument can be used to prove that Rig Veda has been talking about Muhammad Sahib of Moslems, Buddha, or even Mahatma Gandhi. This is exactly the same false method used by Joseph Edamaruku to allegedly prove that Christ was not a historical person. Selective description and proof has been a well-tried weapon in the hands of infidels, atheists, antisocial elements, and all kinds of wrongdoers. While this is alright for their ethics, this practice is not appropriate for a Christian. 

2. Similarity Because Of Imposed Christian Hermeneutics: Every statement has a context, and a proper understanding of it is essential for correct interpretation. If the context is ignored, any kind of meaning can be imposed upon what is said. That is why Biblical Hermeneutics is taught in all good Bible schools. 

Muslims very zealously quote from the Bible and interpret according to their outlook. Christians do not accept this approach. Similarly, there are hundreds of Hindu gurus in India who quote from the Bible and try to establish Hindu doctrines. Then there are palmists who quote Job 37:7, "He sealeth up the hand of every man; that all men may know his work", and claim that this proves that Palmistry is a God-made science. 

No sensible Christian would every accept this kind of distortion. He would insist that every statement of the Bible should be interpreted only in the light of the Bible. It is only commonsense that Bible should be interpreted under biblical hermeneutics, while the Hindu scriptures should be interpreted under the Hindu hermeneutics. Further, since there are several competing philosophies and theologies in Hinduism, each religious book should be interpreted only according to the schools of philosophy to which it belongs. 

What Christians often do is to take a fragmentary statement from the non-Christian scriptures, give it a Christian color, and then interpret it according to Christian hermeneutics. This is as unethical as the Hindus who try to interpret the Bible for justifying their religion. 

Let us take the well-known quotation: ASATO MA SADGAMAYA, TAMASO MA JYOTIGRGAMAYA, MRUTYORMAM AMRUTAMGAMAYA, which being interpreted means, lead me from falshood to truth, from darkness to light, and from mortality to immortality. These sentences look very attractive, and they express a yearning in the hearts of our Hindu neighbors. This quote can even be used as a starting point to demonstrate that only Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Light. However, some people go much beyond that approach. 

There are many Christians who quote this passage and claim that it is identical in meaning and in spirit with what the Bible says. That is false because they have assumed that the actual meaning and intention of this sloka is what is obtained by applying a Christian outlook or hermeneutics to it. That is totally wrong. The person who originally spoke it, and the scripture in which it is recorded have already assigned a definite meaning to this sloka. Every statement has to be interpreted in its context, and therefore Christians have no right to detach this sloka from its context and then claim that this statement has meaning identical to what is seen in the Bible. 

When the Hindu scripture says ASATO MA SADGAMAYA, it is not saying that God should lead the devotee from all falsehoods into truth. Rather, it is saying that he wants to leave the false perception of creation and move to a true perception. The falsehood, according to him, is the idea that man and God are different from each other. The truth, according to him, is the idea that man, the universe, and God are all one. By TRUTH the Hindu here means the Advaita truth that says AHAM BRAHMASMI, TAT TWAM ASI: I am God, and likewise you are also God. 

Similarly, each sloka or quotation that many Christian friends produce from the Hindu scriptures to show similarity with the Bible actually have meaning totally different from what the Christian friends tell us. The Christian friends are applying Biblical hermeneutics to Hindu scriptures to derive meanings that are totally alien to what those books say. This is a totally deceptive method for interpreting something, and using this a clever person can prove almost anything. 

When we do not allow Hindus, Muslims, and Bahais to interpret the Bible according to their hermeneutics, in the like manner we should also be honest enough not to interpret their books according to principles of Christian hermeneutics. 
Summary

In an era when there is a great burden in the hearts of Christians to lead others to Christ, it is tempting to quote from non-Christian relig
ious books. This tendency started around 1930, and today it has degenerated into a serious heresy. According to the present heretical view, just as the Bible is the inspired word of God, in the same way inspired word of God is found in the religious books of others. Close to a hundred books, tracts, and articles have already appeared in the Malayalam language which promote this heretical viewpoint. 

According to the Bible, divine revelation, inspired by the Holy Spirit is recorded in Bible and Bible alone. There is no inspired revelation of God outside the Bible. Though God makes Himself known to people through Nature, this knowledge is not sufficient to lead people to Christ. People come to Christ only through the message found in Bible. 

Similarity between statements in the Bible and non-Christian books is either accidental or the result of deliberate deception on the part of Christians. There are no actual similarities in essence. Attributing divine inspiration (similar to that of Bible) to any non-Christian scriptures, or even to parts of them, is a serious heresy. 

It is dangerous to add to the Bible by claiming that there are divinely inspired or Holy Spirit inspired messages outside the Bible. But since this message has been forgotten by many people in our generation, let this book serve as a warning to every believer who is careless about Bible study. Ignoring your Bible, and remaining ignorant about important doctrines, is a sure way to invite spiritual slavery and curse. May God help each one of us to remain away from the trap and bondage of ignorance.  

Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 008

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Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 007
What About The Similarities

Accidental And Superficial Similarities: Though similarities are found between statements in the Bible and almost all other religions, the most explored area is the Christianity/Hinduism relationship. Thus we will concentrate mainly upon this subject in this chapter. However, it should be kept in mind that what is said here about Christianity/Hinduism applies equally to Christianity and all other religions. 

First of all, some of the similarities are only mere coincidences. When two people speak voluminously on any given subject, they are bound to make some similar statements even if they are speaking from totally opposing viewpoints. Anyone who has heard a lengthy debate knows this fact. In such cases, the similarities are mere accidents, and they should not be used to conclude that the speakers agree with each other in essential matters. Rather, those accidental similarities should be examined in the light of the total position of the speakers before one can come to any conclusions. 

The same is the case with many Christian/Hindu similarities. The religious books of both groups speak on a large number of common subjects. The Hindus have produced literally of thousands of philosophical books, all having the status of holy books. Thus some accidental similarity is inevitable, but that is not the mark of Holy Spirit’s inspiration of these Hindu books. When those quotations are taken in the light of the entire thesis of the Hindu writers, it would become clear that that there is no actual agreement between them and the Bible. 

For example, the Hindu scriptures talk about God, salvation, condemnation, heaven, earth, sin, justification, afterlife, incarnation, and many other subjects of interest to Christians also. But just because they happen to use these words does not mean that both of them are talking in substance about the same subject. For the Christian, God is a person while for the Hindu his god is impersonal. The Christian talks of salvation in the sense of escaping from condemnation, hell, and a new life. His personality and individuality are not obliterated. For a Hindu, salvation means being merged back into the Ultimate Reality (Para-Brahma), who himself is an impersonal cosmic force and not a person. So while the Christian idea of salvation is speaking about an individual rising to the most blessed personal state, the Hindu salvation is talking about going out of personal existence. Both of them are not one and the same. 

The same divide is seen on whatever theological subject that we talk. Thus the first category of similarity seen between the Bible and Hindu scriptures is mere accidental coincidence. Further, most often this is only a coincidence in words, not of ideas. Thus attributing to Holy Spirit’s inspiration to such passages is not only a theological heresy, but also an intellectual stupidity. Even the Hindus know that. For example, some of the books published by Geeta Press Gorakhpur and the Ramakrishna Mission in Madras have analyzed and pointed out these differences beneath the seeming outward similarities. If they are able to see the difference, we who have available to us the illumination of the Holy Spirit ought to see these things far more clearly and insightfully. 

Similarities When Context Is Ignored: we have an atheist acquaintance who keeps intimidating young and undiscerning Christians by claiming that the Bible itself says that there is no God. On being challenged, he promptly produces a Bible proudly and shows two underlined passages that say THERE IS NO GOD. This silences plenty of our people, mostly those who are not acquainted with the Bible. What is worse is that many of these defeated Christian young people do not even try to check the whole passage, to the delight of the atheist. 

The context in which a statement is made has significant effect upon its final meaning. The full passage here says that "The fool hath said in his heart that there is no God." Had the young person taken a few moments more to examine the complete verse, he would not have been so dejected! The same is the case with many quotations from the Hindu scriptures that are attributed a Bible-like status. 

As we write this chapter, we have in front of us an English tract titled SACRIFICE, published by GLS, Bombay. This publishing house and many other Christian publishing houses and even individual Christians have published this tract in Hindi, Telegu, Malayalam, and numerous other languages. (This little pamphlet is the initiator of the Heretical thinking among Christians, today known as the Prajapati Movement. It is already on the way to become what can rightly be called the Prajapati Cult). 

The first page of this pamphlet contains nine quotations from Hindu scriptures, all about sacrifices. This seems quite interesting and exciting to the naive Christian who all the while thought that only the Bible speaks about sacrifice. This tract says that the Hindu scriptures also speak about sacrifices for salvation, and the Christian swallows this proposal hook, sinker, and the pole. 

What the Christians overlook is the fact that the context is not given, nor are the source references cited. If the location were given (Book, chapter, verses), then it would be easy for anyone to check the context. Though the author has successfully prevented investigators from checking the context, a close look at the quotations themselves reveal that their context is missing. Of the nine quotations, most of them contain only THREE words or less. Any intelligent person knows that there are no sentences with so few words, specially of theological significance. For these words to express meaning, the remaining words from the FULL sentence have to become known, which the author successfully hides. This is exactly similar to what our atheist acquaintance has been doing. 

In essence, many of the alleged similarities are not similarities at all. They are just one to three Sanskrit words forcefully detached out of their context and presented to a mostly Christian audience that does not know the original language. Then the biased Christian interpreter interprets these fragments and gives them a Biblical slant, and a lot of people are trapped into believing that the Hindu scriptures speak exactly what the Bible speaks !! This trick becomes obvious when one notices that the three-word Sanskrit quotations are explained using full-length sentences of our language ! 

This is jugglery, not Bible exposition. Using this approach anyone can prove anything, so it is dishonest and unethical.

Summary

Many Christians make a big case out of the assumed similarities between statements of the Bible and the non-Christian scriptures. These similarities are either mere accidents or are the result of taking the text out of context. No serious Christian shou
ld pay attention to such jugglery. Rather, it is high time to question the ignorance or the dishonesty of such writers and also to suppress their writings altogether. 

Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 007

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Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 006

Similarities Between The Bible And Other Books

With the increasing availability of non-Christian religious books in the market, more and more Christians have begun to study them. This practice was hastened by the influence of two groups of people, the theological radicals and the universalist Hindus. 

The theological radicals all over the world are the illegitimate children, born out of the unfortunate church-state marriage in Germany. Because of historical coincidences, all major theological institutions in that country were government-run institutions. Consequently, Bible colleges were run more like government institutions, and less like the house of God. This resulted in many deviations. 

Like the Tower of Babel conceived by Nimrod the ruler, Government institutions can never be the custodians of divine truth. Human mind is enmity against God, the ultimate output would always be a rebellion against divine truth. The same thing happened in Germany. Gradually the theological colleges became staffed with highly learned professors who were not even born again ! A lavish amount of research money was available to them, so they set out to publish books with a vengeance. These books flooded the whole theological world and influenced entire generations of theological students worldwide. This is how the cancer of infidelity spread even among evangelical theological students. 

One contention of the radical movement was that there is nothing original or divine in the Bible. According to them, all world religions including the Christian faith had their origin and development through a lengthy process of evolution. In this process, the Christian faith borrowed almost all its theological ideas from other religions, having nothing unique to itself. This idea then motivated them to study other religions with a reverence that should have been reserved for the Christian faith. 

Consequently, theologically radical colleges give great emphasis to studying religious books of other religions placing them on par with the Bible, and even above it. This group has done a lot to devaluate the Bible and also to elevate the non-Christian books in the minds of Christians. The influence of these groups have resulted in Christian placing Shivalinga, the sign of Oum, and other symbols in churches and Bible seminaries. It is the same influence which cause a theological college in Bangalore to install a statue of Lord Jesus sitting in lotus position upon a coiled snake, reminiscent of the Hindu gods. 

The influence of these theological mercenaries have been quite pervasive, and that is the first factor which has brought non-Christian religious books into Christian churches. The second group which attracted Christians are the Universalists Hindus. 

Universalism is the idea that all religions lead to the same destination, and that all religions should be respected equally. With this mindset, many learned Hindu scholars and sanyasis have been quoting liberally from the Bible. A notable example is the widely available book, The Autobiography Of A Yogi. Also, almost all the major Hindu reformist group leaders quote liberally from the Bible. This has come as a pleasant surprise to many Christians, who have never paused to examine the way in which these people are using the Bible to justify their own brand of philosophy and theology. 

With the very visible work of the two groups above, a lot of Christians have become interested in non-Christian religious books, especially that of the Hindus. Numerous quotations taken from the Hindu scriptures have even become well-known among Christians. For example, almost every educated Christian today knows the Hindu prayer, ASATO MA SADGAMAYA, TAMASO MA JYOTIRGAMAYA, MRUTYORMAM AMRUTMAGAMAYA (Lead me from falsehood to truth, from darkness to light, and from mortality to immortality). Even the casual Christian notices some similarities between at least some of these statements and the Bible. Thus arises the question of their status. 

If a passage in the non-Christian religious book is similar with passages found in the Bible, are they proclaiming the same truth. Further, if the biblical passage is inspired by the Holy Spirit, can we deny the same status to the identical passages in the non-Christian scriptures ? The question is reasonable, and a proper answer is indeed needed

Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 006

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Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 005
Can Man Discover Spiritual Truths Himself

Having said the above, several questions still remain. For example, someone might feel that though there is no inspired revelation outside the Bible, yet there might be some highly valuable or profitable religious books ! Some Christians might feel that non-Christian religions have produced some of the greatest sages and acetics the world has ever seen. 

Many of these sages or Maharshis have produced vast volumes of philosophical and theological discourses. Often the work of a single sage might be more voluminous than the entire Bible. Many of the statements in these books might be very similar or even identical to what is found in the Bible. Thus is it not possible that they were able to discover, through personal investigation, the same spiritual truths that are recorded in the Bible. Further, should we not give them the status of revelation seeing that they have discovered the same truths that are found in the Bible. As to whether the truths recorded outside the Bible are the same in essence with what is found in the Bible, we would discuss in another sections. Here we will concentrate upon the discovery of human truth by great thinkers and ascetics through insight, meditation, and reflection. 

Bible emphasizes in several places that spiritual things are foolish for the natural man. According to I Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned". In other words, of his own wisdom natural man does not receive divine information. On the other hand, divine message looks foolish to him and therefore he would not appreciate, record, or propagate them. Whatever he propagates has to look wise to him. But anything that looks wise to a human heart is contrary to the Scripture. 

Further, in several places the scripture reminds that things having their origin in human mind is totally corrupt and contrary to God. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually", Gen. 6:5. 

Even if a man seems like searching God, here is what the Bible has to say, "The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek God. They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one", Ps. 14:2-3. "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God", Rom. 3:11. If anyone thinks that it is possible for human mind to understand doctrines or obtain revelation which is the "mind of Christ", here is what the scripture says, "For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts", Is. 55:8-9 

All this attempt to elevate the works of even the greatest sages and ascetics to the level of the Bible is futile. No human can perceive divine information through his own efforts, insights, or meditation. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor ? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again", Rom. 11:33-35 

The human mind is so corrupt and the human wisdom is so marred by sin that no human howsoever great can discover or perceive spiritual truths through any human process of meditation. Thus once again it is erroneous and even heretical to suggest that spiritual truths identical with that of the Bible have been recorded in books produced by non-Christian sages and ascetics. 
Conclusion

It is very tempting to tell the non-Christian that their sages have written things that are found in the Bible also. In fact some Bengali Protestant Christians started this approach about fifty years ago, but most evangelical theologians and teachers opposed this approach. They pointed out not only the error in this approach, but also the grave deviations that would eventually result through this approach. 

Fifty years from that beginning, today we stand at a time in history when the doctrinal knowledge of people has become minimum, and the dangers pointed out by our forefathers have come out to be true. People who were in the habit of referring to religious books of others have now totally abandoned the Bible. They show more loyalty to the religious books of Hindus rather than to the Bible. They even distort biblical truths so as to bring them in conformity with Hindus. 

This is exactly the danger when we fail to distinguish between divine revelation and human speculation. 

Christian Apologetics Free Course 5, Lesson 005

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