Was Christ a Buddhist?

[Gregory Matthews]

Recently, I was sent a link to a video tha suggest that Christ was actually a Buddhist and asked to comment on it.  In response to that person, I made the following comments:

I have reviewed that video that you sent me.  My comments below are unorganized.

·          *  There is a central issue here that is foundational to Christianity.   That issue is a fundamental belief that in order to restore a relationship between humanity and God, God had to take on the nature of humanity and live and die in that human form. 

·         *  Jesus Christ was exactly that, God living the life and death of humanity.

·         *  If That is not what God did, Christianity is a failed, false system of religion.

·         *  As I review the video, I am reminded of Islam, which teaches that Isa was a human Jesus.   I was not aware that Buddhism also taught such.

·         *  The above is only one example of teachings related to Buddhism that are also found in other religions.

·         *  The name Jesus is a Latin word related to the Hebrew word Joshua.  As such is was a somewhat common name in the time of Christ.  There a number of  burial boxes have been discovered that contained the bones of a Hebrew with a form of the name in Hebrew of Jesus. 

·          *  This is why in the Bible Jesus is often called  Jesus Christ, to distinguish from the others.

·          *  John 19:14 relates how a Roman guard rammed a spear into the chest of Jesus on the cross in order to make certain that Jesus was really died and this resulted in a great loss of blood.  This negates the idea that Jesus could have survived the cross.

·         *  A Christian understanding of the “wise men” who visited at the birth of Christ is that they were philosophers who had studied the Hebrew Scriptures .   I tend to agree with this position.

·         *  If I were to agree with the idea of the video that they were not such, I would wonder if perhaps they were followers of Zoroastrianism, rather than Buddhism.  However, I do not know enough about this to clearly state such.  

·        *   Islam (Quran) and some Christians (Bible) believe that the written revelation of God came in a dictated from.  Therefore, any error in what we have today demonstrates the falsity of the idea of a divine origin of that revelation.

·        *   I do not accept this idea.  Rather I believe that there is  clearly a human element in what I understand to be the Bible.  This human element is shown by some of the differences that we have in the accounts of  the death and resurrection of Christ.  In actuality, the video picked and chose from the accounts what it wanted without discussing some of the other variations.

·          *  There are stories of the so-called Lost Tribes of Israel.   The video seems to reflect some of this.  Those stories seem to be a mixture of truth and fable.

·         *  There are many stories of the life of Christ in his early years,  w hen he was living in Egypt and other such.  Again, those stories can not be substantiated.  They are probably mostly false.

·         *  The religious sites in Jerusalem may not always be what they are claimed to be.

·         *  The Knights Templar legends are a mixture of truth and fable.

·        *   Christ was buried in a grave.

·         *  The mixture of  stuff brought  to embalm Christ was designed in part to cover the smell of a dead body.

·         *  The Roman guards at the grave would have been executed if they had allowed anyone to remove the body of Christ.  The followers of Christ could not have done so.

·         *  Yes, normally, a person on the cross, lived for longer than Christ is said to have lived.  Normal life always has exceptions.

·        *   The idea that God could mate with humanity and produce children is simply a violation of basic Christianity and can only be beloved by those who believe that Christ was only human.

·         *  In brief,  while I find the video to be interesting, I am not convinced.

 

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[Gregory Matthews]

I happen to know the person who sent me that video link.  That person does not believe that there is any such thing as a  God.

Yet, I have to take the request to me as an honest request.

Fundamental to relating to people is to respond to the questions that they ask and to attempt to build.  I responded to the question asked of me.  But, the foundation of Christianity is a belief in a God that took on humanity and lived a life that we must live in order to effect our salvation.

Absent that belief, it is not a time to talk about the 2300 day, and/or  various Popes, or even whether or not the Sabbath is the 7th day of the week.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

The person to whom I sent the posted response has responded asking more of me.  My response to that follows:

There is a point to which reason and evidence ends and we enter into the unknown in which we have to depend upon supposition, conjecture and what some would call faith.   Now faith is not absent of evidence.    But, faith does go beyond what the evidence may clearly support.  An intellectualism that demands concrete evidence for all belief is essentially empty deficient and beyond the reality of the world in which we live.

“”There was a time in which reason and logic said that the Sun rotated around a stationary Earth.  It was only after some stepped  out in  faith that a conclusion was   reached that it was the Earth that rotated around the Sun.

Buddhism is a religion that demands just as much faith as does Christianity.   Fundamental to Buddhism is a faith that goes well beyond reason.

•  Buddhism began in the mid-6^th century BCE  (BC).  It was founded by Siddhartha Gautama who was born about 563 BCE. 
• From his birth the gods of  that time led in his training to defeat the efforts of his Father.
• According to Buddhist myth, Gautama attempted to live on a single grain of rice a day. 
• Buddhism has  a Satan, with the name of Mara, who attempted to tempt Gautama.
• Buddhism teaches a chain of re-birth and prior lives which is NOT reincarnation.
• As Christ was tempted in the  wilderness, Gautama was tempted to retreat into Nirvana.  He rejected this offer and nature itself responded with joy.
• Nirvana is attained through a system of re-births.
• Nirvana may be obtained with either substrate or without substrate. (with or without physical existence.).
• Buddhism today exists in two (2) major forms—Theravada and Mahayana.   However there are more minor forms, with China having 10 + forms.
• The different Buddhist groups have differing Scriptures.
  
  
  
  This is just a very short comment.  But, as you can see, much of the above rests in a faith that is beyond logical belief.    All religions do require some belief that is not based upon absolute logic and concrete evidence.  Yet, that does not mean that religion is totally without evidence and logic.
• [NOTE:  In all of my posts, I have removed material that would  identify the person to whom I am responding--GM.]