How far is the preaching of Jesus from other religious text such as Hindu texts and others tenable?

This has been flourishing in recent days since decades and preaching of Jesus from Vedas and Bhavishya Purana has been more prevailing. Some finds Jesus through the Buddhist scripture and even the Quran as well.

These cases might have any of these reasons:

1. God has created humanity in his own image. Hence, humanity do have certain knowledge about God. This can be a general inspiration or common grace observable in those scriptures.[1] These could be or were merely traces and not authenticate revelation like the Bible.[2]^{, [3], [4]}

2. Interpolation for accommodation might be other reason by either sides.[5] While the religion keep spreading through missionary works, there is greater possibility of interpolation in the text to accommodate the environment.[6] However, this suffer danger of Synchronization. Perhaps, Isha putra of Bhavishya Purana[7] is one example.[8] Even in the NT period, wider influence of Jesus has paved its way to use his name but interpolate his story to fit heretic teaching. Popularity can lead to wide influence and interpolation over true story.[9]

3. Misinterpretation of text or selective citing can also be a reason.[10] Certain religious text might be teaching or describing something else and people might confuse them with parallelism and try to connect with Jesus. The Prajapati of Vedas might be its example[11] although there are testimony of those who have realized Jesus is true Prajapati.[12] Since the stories of Prajapati and his identification are diversity, we cannot trust their basis.[13]

4. The General revelation or common grace might have played another important role. Ancient people observed nature and brought their own hypothesis or assumption about god. This might be the case for similarity in certain descriptions about God (such as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and transcendent, creator, sustainer, destroyer, loving, justifying, wrathful, etc.). As Romans 1:20 also says God has revealed his attributes even through nature and that's the reason why we might observe certain similar description about God in ancient religious texts.

5. Certain religion like Islam grew in an environment where there were already the presence of Christians and even counterfeit gospels. Exposition of Muhammad to those people and counterfeit revelation from so-called Gabriel angel gave space to Jesus in the Quran. However, Islamic Jesus suffers vast interpolation. (Remember, Islamic version of Jesus attacks the heart of Christian faith itself!)

Whatever the cases be, we cannot use them as authenticate revelations but we can be as wise as Paul who used such approach to make people realize how they were almost closer to knowledge of God. His use of an Unknown God!

Even if the conclusion comes to be positive, I wouldn't say that using those scripture is unethical but it also depends how we use them. Do we contextualize or synchronize? Here the whole game matters!

Bibliography:

Farquhar, J. N. (John Nicol). Gita and Gospel. Madras : The Christian Literature Society for India, 1917. Accessed July 22, 2024. http://archive.org/details/gitagospel00farq.

Richard, Raj. “Reasoned Musings: Jesus In Vedas?” Reasoned Musings, May 16, 2016. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2016/05/jesus-in-vedas.html.

Scope, Faith. “Is Hindu Prajapati Same as Christ in Bible?,” n.d. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.faithscope.com/2015/11/is-hindu-prajapati-same-as-christ-in.html.

DISMISSED: Did Jesus Live In India? Did Bhavishya Purana Predict Jesus? Is Jesus Buried in Kashmir?, 2018. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EID-SJCik78.

“Evidence That Demands a Verdict - PDF Drive.” Accessed July 22, 2024. http://www.pdfdrive.com/evidence-that-demands-a-verdict-d185247707.html.

Interaction Program 2019 Part 8, 2019. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Estr-kjcc.

“Jesus Christ in Samaveda | Download Free PDF | Deception | Religion And Belief.” Scribd. Accessed July 22, 2024. https://www.scribd.com/document/446076246/Jesus-Christ-In-Samaveda.

Origins of Vedic Religion || Mr. Sanjay Sonawani || F2F Exclusive Interview, 2021. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8eOcQD1LYY.

Other Religions Point to Jesus, 2023. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUOM42eUwIs.

“के दशांश नदिनु भनेको त परमेश्वरलाई लुट्नु हो ? पाप गर्नु हो ? Face_up Simiyon with PA Thomas - YouTube.” Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYFRZQQuyvI.

क्या भविष्यपुराना में यीशु की भविष्यवाणी है ? | वेदों में यीशु | Vedon Ka Yeshu, 2020. Accessed July 21, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fCu8a6MYGE.

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[1] J. N. (John Nicol) Farquhar, Gita and Gospel (Madras : The Christian Literature Society for India, 1917), accessed July 22, 2024, http://archive.org/details/gitagospel00farq.

[2] Interaction Program 2019 Part 8, 2019, accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Estr-kjcc.

[3] “के दशांश नदिनु भनेको त परमेश्वरलाई लुट्नु हो ? पाप गर्नु हो ? Face_up Simiyon with PA Thomas - YouTube,” accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYFRZQQuyvI.

[4] क्या भविष्यपुराना में यीशु की भविष्यवाणी है ? | वेदों में यीशु | Vedon Ka Yeshu, 2020, accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fCu8a6MYGE.

[5] Origins of Vedic Religion || Mr. Sanjay Sonawani || F2F Exclusive Interview, 2021, accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8eOcQD1LYY.

[6] “Jesus Christ in Samaveda | Download Free PDF | Deception | Religion And Belief,” Scribd, accessed July 22, 2024, https://www.scribd.com/document/446076246/Jesus-Christ-In-Samaveda.

[7] DISMISSED: Did Jesus Live In India? Did Bhavishya Purana Predict Jesus? Is Jesus Buried in Kashmir?, 2018, accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EID-SJCik78.

[8] क्या भविष्यपुराना में यीशु की भविष्यवाणी है ?

[9] Other Religions Point to Jesus, 2023, accessed July 21, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUOM42eUwIs.

[10] क्या भविष्यपुराना में यीशु की भविष्यवाणी है ?

[11] Raj Richard, “Reasoned Musings: Jesus In Vedas?,” Reasoned Musings, May 16, 2016, accessed July 22, 2024, https://rajkumarrichard.blogspot.com/2016/05/jesus-in-vedas.html.

[12] “Evidence That Demands a Verdict - PDF Drive,” 42–43, accessed July 22, 2024, http://www.pdfdrive.com/evidence-that-demands-a-verdict-d185247707.html.

[13] Faith Scope, “Is Hindu Prajapati Same as Christ in Bible?,” n.d., accessed July 22, 2024, https://www.faithscope.com/2015/11/is-hindu-prajapati-same-as-christ-in.html.