ARE EXTRA-BIBLICAL PICTURE OF JESUS (SAYINGS/AGRAPHA, MIRACLES, AND LIFE EVENT) USEFUL AND TRUSTWORTHY IN EVANGELISM?

EPISODE 1

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Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

John 21:25 NIV

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

John 20:30 NIV

These two verses really sound awesome and makes us to think that the four Gospels have not recorded all the details of Jesus’ sayings, deeds, miracles and life. From bird’s eye view, overall, there are 35 miracles and 32 parables Jesus had performed and taught respectively that are available in the gospels. Analyzing logically, it is not plausible even to conclude that Jesus’ life was just limited within those acts and sayings or teachings. His ministry was for approximately three and a half years and he had lived earthly thirty-three years of life. We cannot even imagine his tons of wonderful works and sayings throughout his survival and mission. The gospel presents us however an enough picture of our Savior with adequate information. Whenever we go out in midst of people and share about Jesus, we only trust and use gospel to present Jesus. The four gospels have been verified and included during the canonization and are trustworthy. 

However, there is some unusual trend in our world today. Evangelists sometime tend to represent Jesus using extra-biblical resources beyond the gospels such as Vedas, Bhavishya Purana, Quran, etc. Again, you may raise the issue of extra-biblical resources used by defenders to prove Jesus’ historicity. These two are however entirely different entities. The resources used by defenders verify the gospels rather than presenting extra internal information. On the other hand, extra-biblical resources such as Vedas, Bhavishya Purana, Quran, etc. gives somehow entirely different picture of Jesus. Not all such resources represent Jesus directly nor they have any definite allusion to him. Some of these scripture gives a sort of mixed information about Jesus and challenges us whether to accept them or not. It’s just today many preachers believe firmly that they must have spoken of Savior or Jesus. Prajapati of Vedas, Isha putra of Bhavishya Purana and Isha of Quran are so common today. 

Being raised in a Hindu-Christian family, I have also heard that Vedas has allusion to Christ. When I grew up and progressed my journey in Christian faith, I began learning that every, almost every religious scripture has something to tell about him. Preachers often use Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Quran and Buddhist scriptures to show that Jesus is very special and was even alluded in these scriptures. Truly this was mind blowing for me when I was studying in Science faculty after SLC! I was indeed glad to know this and made some arguments from my own side to share who Jesus is. But you know? I realized later that it was indeed an axe to our own faith! If we used these all, we are in a severe trigger. You will soon understand why. Just have patient until this series ends up with an important conclusion.

Hence, let me briefly present about these three particular alleged Jesus and counterfeit Jesus and discuss agrapha from counterfeit gospels. This is important today because in this age of Information, our secular neighborhoods can be prone to any sort of misleading information. Our goal is to make their airplane land on the gospel so that they can meet Real Jesus who redeems.