If Christians accept the miracles of LORD Jesus Christ, should they accept the miracles of Hindu gurus?
Those sentences which are colored in orange are from Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati book Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) and those which are colored in black are Jerry Thomas’s response.
"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people and his fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy: and he healed them." (4:23, 24.)
C. We would have believed all this about Jesus that is written in the Bible, had the claims of the (popes and magicians), who in our day pretend to drive out devils and cure disease through charms and incantations, blessings or a pinch of ash, been true. All these things are meant, for ensnaring poor, ignorant, guileless people into superstition. If the Christians believe that Jesus really worked miracles, why do not they believe all that is claimed by the popes of the goddess (in India) to be true, because their claims are very much like those of Jesus.
Answer: Now the cat is out of the bag. Maharishi’s objection to the miracles of Jesus Christ stems from the mythical stories and exploitative examples he had seen within Hinduism. Having seen the oppression and exploitation within Hinduism and the fictional stories, Maharishi erroneously concluded that Christian faith must also be like Hinduism. Let us go point by point to answer Maharishi.
(a) The Holy Bible makes it very clear that false prophets/christs can also perform miracles.
Deuteronomy 13: 1-3 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods'–which you have not known–'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Matthew 24:24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.
The number of miracles that the false prophets performed and will perform in the future as recorded in the Holy Bible will put the mystical Maharishi’s to shame.
– Exodus 7:9-12- Magicians of Egypt could convert a rod to a serpent.
– Exodus 7:22- Magicians of Egypt could convert water into blood.
– Exodus 8:7- Magicians could bring frog out of water.
– 1 Samuel 28: 11-13- Spiritists could speak to dead persons and bring the soul of the dead back to communicate with the living. Spiritists could also predict the future accurately.
– Matthew 7:21-23- False prophets can cast out demons, prophesize and do many wonders. – Acts 16: 16-18 demon possessed people could even tell the names of the strangers and what exactly they do apart from predicting the future.– 2 Corinthians 11:14- Satan himself could appear to people as an angel of light.
– Revelation 13: 13- false prophet can heal deadly wound, bring fire from heaven and make the idol speak and act to kill those who do not worship it. Remember that the spirit of antichrist is already at work (1 John 4:3).
Are there any miracles which our contemporary Babas, Matas and Swami’s do which do not fall under one of these categories? No. Not at all.
So miracles in itself do not attest one to be a true or a false prophet.
That raises the question – what is so unique about LORD Jesus Christ?
(b) There are at least two unique aspects to LORD Jesus Christ and His signs.
One- He gave a specific and unique sign which no one else ever gave.
John 2: 18-22 So the Jews answered and said to Him, "What SIGN do You show to us, since You do these things?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Then the Jews said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.”
Further, LORD Jesus Christ declared that He has the power to give up His life and take it back again.
John 10:17-18 “"Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."
The fact that LORD Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose on the third day as He said is not done by any of these Maharishi’s. And the resurrection is a well attested historical fact. Even Antony Flew, arguably the most famous philosophical atheist in the English speaking world at one time and now a deist, had said that resurrection is the best attested miracle (http://www.philchristi.org/library/articles.asp?pid=28&mode=detail)
Secondly:
Birth, life, death and resurrection of LORD Jesus Christ was accurately prophesied in the Holy Bible centuries before. In other words, those are validated by the Holy Scripture. More than 300 prophecies were fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. Some of which you can see here: http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/prophchr.html#R0bRq9vgS8XW
This point is again important as we examine some of the miracle working Babas around. Leave alone being prophesied by any religious scripture, including their own religious scriptures, they blatantly and clearly contradict their own scripture.
For example, take the example of Satya Sai Baba. He teaches pantheism – that the god and the world is one. Then how is he different from the rest of humanity. If god and the world is one, and all dualities are Maya, is he not clearly admitting that his miracles are Mayas? Also, remember that he does not do any unique miracle apart from those which can be performed by false prophets.
Before we move to the next aspect of the question, let me furnish the Biblical verse which combines both these
unique aspects of LORD Jesus Christ miracles.
Rom 1:1-4 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
Let us now address the question as to how the Christians can reject the miracles of the “popes of goddess” and accept those which the true one does.
(c) Criteria for Christians to test the spirits
In the context of false prophets who does miracles, Christians are asked to test the spirit.
1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
This is a logical criterion. Since LORD Jesus Christ had irrefutably proved that He is God, then it must be necessary for every godly spirit to confess the name of Jesus Christ and admit that He is God incarnate.
Further, another criterion which the Holy Bible gives is as follows:
Matthew 7:15-20 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor [can] a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
It goes without saying that most of the “popes of goddess” fail in this second criteria without failure!!!
Therefore, Maharishi’s assumption that if the Christians accept the miracles of Jesus Christ then they must accept the miracles of “popes of goddess” is unfounded. Christians do have criteria by which they can reject and accept miracle workers.
