Question:

Please, I want to know if there are prophecies about other nations, and about India in the Hindu scriptures [editor’s note, I assme this person means to ask if there are prophecies of India in the Hindu scriptures], and why the Hindus say that a man in a white horse will came like a "savior", why scholars say that: Christianity came from Hinduism. Why did Gregorio destroy Hindu images in the church? Hebrew used a syllable "om." I have bought a book by Geofrey Parrinder , Cristianity and Hinduism, because I saw that he was a Methodist pastor, so, in his book he says that the Israelits were polytheists, and that Christianity and Hinduism are the same thing, and other absurdities. I was shocked because I never had heard something like that. and I am from Brazil, and in my country I do not find books which teaches this idea, so , please help me with my doubts.

Answer:

This is an easy one. There is definitely no prophecy specific to India in the Bible. Of course, there are prophecies about specific nations in the Old Testament, such as Egypt, Edom, Libya, Greece, Persia, Babylon and even Rome, but there is no legitimacy to the claim that India is specifically referred to in any biblical prophecy. It is true that some New Agers and Hindus like to claim that such prophecies exist, but I have see no credible example which will hold up to scrutiny. Such things are taken out of context.

I will have to admit that I am not aware of the prophecy in the Hindu scripture about a man on a white horse. Perhaps you can do some research or ask the friend or source from which you got this claim to tell you where they found it. Is it in the Vedas? The Upanishads? The Sutras? One of the epics? Even if it is so, it is extremely unlikely that this has anything to do with Jesus Christ. A number of Hindus have tried to find a place for Jesus in their teachings or to claim that Jesus is just another guru. This is nothing new, but it simply does not make sense. If Jesus is who he said he is, then he certainly is not just a guru. He is God in the flesh.

Many New Agers claim that Jesus traveled to India during the "lost years." Again, what is missing here is evidence (and common sense!). The claim that Gregorio destroyed Hindu images in the church is completely specious. I assume that this Gregorio is probably Pope Gregory "the Great" (sixth century). Like I said this is a completely specious claim. I have never seen a shred of evidence to support this claim. It is true that Gregory had pagan idols removed from certain temples. Such idols would have included some of the religions of the East, such as Manichaeism, but I have seen no evidence for Hindu worship in Rome in the sixth century. You should probably learn to be a bit more skeptical about such claims. What is the evidence? Will such claims hold up to reasonable criticism?

I have certainly heard of the claim that Christianity came from Hinduism. Again, there is not the slightest historical evidence to support this. Serious scholars do not make such claims. Christianity came from Judaism. This is the unanimous conclusion of historians at the time of Rome. There may have been some influences on Jewish thinking from the peoples in Egypt or Mesopotamia, but there is no credible evidence for influence of Hinduism on Christianity. It is easy to make such claims, but the credible historical evidence for this is nonexistent. It is hard to respond to general claims without any facts, so if you can send me resources for these claims I can do some research, but even without seeing the specifics, I can assure you that this is NOT good scholarship.

I have never seen the claim that the Hebrew language includes the symbol "om." Again, this is a red herring. Let us assume for just a moment that the Hebrew language had a word which sounds like a Hindu word. What would that prove? Here is what I can say. Neither Judaism or Christianity has ever included using "om" as part of a meditation technique to get in touch with some sort of pantheistic "god." This is really rather silly.

I have never heard of Geofrey Parrinder (by the way, he is a legitimate scholar), but what I can say is that this person does not have any good evidence for this specious claim. He might be an ordained Methodist minister, but his theory is bogus. Again, unless you present some of his actual arguments, not just claims, it is hard to give a specific response. Let me give a general response. Hinduism says that God is the universe (pantheism), whereas Judaism and Christianity say that God created the universe (theism). These are exact opposites. They cannot both be true and Hinduism and Christianity are diametrically opposed to one another. Because Hindus believe that God is the universe, they believe the universe is eternal–that time is cyclic. This is the opposite of what both the Old and the New Testament says. Science tells us that the universe is not eternal and it is not cyclic. It tells us that the universe was created. This is in agreement with Hebrews 11:3 and Genesis chapter one. Jesus said that he was God in the flesh. This cannot possibly make sense in Hinduism. Hebrews tells us that we die once, and after that we face judgement. Hinduism says that we go through repeated cycles of death and rebirth. Anyone who says that Christianity comes from Hinduism is flat wrong. Period. Hinduism says that physical things are essentially evil and not real. Judaism says that physical reality is real and it is good (Genesis 1:31). These two claims cannot possibly be made to agree. This claim of the Methodist minister is sheer nonse.

This person claims that Judaism used to be polytheistic. There is a problem with this claim. There is no evidence for it. Period. None. Now, it is true that many of the Jews worshipped idols, but they are alwasy roundly concdemned for doing so in the scriptures. Again, this is a completely groundless claim. You will do well to ignore this very poor scholarship. If you can send me any more specific claims and examples of the evidence this person is using I can respond to it, but in the mean time I hope this helps.

John Oakes