Was Jesus a Teenage Guru?

Gary: You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Coming up, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth examination of the doctrine of salvation, so please stay with us.

Now, “Contending for the Faith.” In this regular feature of our program, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and subscribers. Here’s this week’s question: “The gospels are silent about the approximately 18 years between the last time we hear of Jesus in the temple as a boy in Luke:2:41-52 [41] Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover. [42] And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. [43] And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. [44] But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. [45] And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. [46] And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. [47] And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. [48] And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. [49] And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? [50] And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. [51] And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. [52] And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
See All... and the beginning of his ministry at about 30 years of age Luke:3:23And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,
See All.... I have come across the report a number of times, not only in the Aquarian Gospel, but in newspapers as well, that during those missing years, Jesus was in India studying under the gurus. The wisdom he acquired there supposedly became the basis for His ministry. I don’t buy it, but how would you respond if someone told you that?”

Tom: Dave, there are a lot of ideas about Jesus and there are no shortage of books related to the missing years and you know, the gospel of this, and they just recently found the gospel of that, and the gospel of Thomas, and you know, so on and so forth. They do introduce a lot of information about supposedly—about Jesus that you don’t find in the Bible. And people say, well you know, it could have been. How do we deal with something like that?

Dave: Well, first of all I trust the Bible because I can prove that this is God’s Word. Every way you look at it. Scientifically, historically, there is absolutely no doubt.

Tom: Right, archeologically and on and on.

Dave: Yeah. Absolutely not a doubt that the Bible is the Word of God, okay? I do not have any confidence, that kind of confidence, in these other records, because they have all kinds of problems. All kinds of flaws in them.

So, what does the Bible say? Well, first of all, if Jesus had traveled to India to Tibet, like some of these would try to say…

Tom: Now, for the purpose of bringing Eastern religions, the ideas of the East, to demonstrate that really there are lots different ways to God and putting sort of a stamp of approval on it.

Dave: Well, even regardless of what reason He went, if He had done that, he would have been known as a Jewish Marco Polo. He would have been famous in Israel just on that basis alone. But nobody says that about Him. “Isn’t this Jesus of Nazareth, the son of a carpenter? You know, why does—who does He think He is that He can do these great things, and teach, and so forth?”
That does not sound like the sort of awe with which you would hold someone who has been off to India and Tibet. So, from that standpoint, it doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, did Jesus ever bring any of these ideas back with Him, you know, if He went on this journey?

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: No, He didn’t. In fact, everything that Jesus says is to the contrary. He was not a vegetarian. He ate the Passover lamb, he ate fish, and so on. These are all vegetarians. He would have had to study under a guru, and every guru has to bring the wisdom of his guru. He never talked about his guru. He talked about His Father in heaven, which the gurus wouldn’t like to hear, and nor did the rabbis like to hear that.

 Jesus never said that He was a man who would have adopted acetic practices and yoga and meditation and so forth in order to become God. He claimed to be God who had become a man in order to redeem us.

The gurus deny that there is sin. Jesus talked about sin. He said that he had come to seek and to save the lost.

Jesus washed peoples’ feet. A guru would never do that. You couldn’t touch him. That would contaminate him.

I mean, there are just so many ways in which everything that Jesus said and everything that He did denies any possibility that He went to India and to Tibet to study under the gurus. He gives you absolutely the opposite of their philosophy. The Bible gives you absolutely [the] opposite. There’s no reincarnation. There’s resurrection. It just does not tie in with the Word of God at all.

Tom: This seems to fly in the face of Gandhi. Wasn’t it Gandhi that said he was both Christian—that he was a Christian, yet he was also a Buddhist, that he was also a Muslim, and that he was also a Hindu?

Dave: Yeah, but you can’t [be all] those things. It doesn’t make any sense.

Tom: But that’s the idea from the East. It’s the embrace that smothers.

Dave: Well, it’s the attempt by people. They don’t like Jesus as He is. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes unto the Father but by Me.” He talks about the Father. He didn’t talk about Brahman. He didn’t talk about becoming one with the universe. But He said this: “[In] my Father’s house are many mansions. I’m going to come back and take you there.” You don’t get anything like that. Everything that Jesus said and did, just contradicts this whole idea.

Well, then why do they come up with this idea? Because they don’t like the Jesus in the Bible. They don’t want Him to be the only begotten Son of God. They want Him to be one of the sons of God, and we’re all sons of God. No! “You only come to the Father by Me.” And Paul said we become the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And Jesus said to the Jews

(and that’s to all of us), “You are of your father, the devil.” So, “We don’t like this Jesus.” So they try to come up with another Jesus, a Hindu Jesus or a Buddhist Jesus.

Tom: Or a new age—a new age Jesus.

Dave: Well, basically it’s a new age Jesus, and it won’t work, because it will not fit the Bible.