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Book: The Third Jesus by Deepak Chopra


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The Third Jesus

by Deepak Chopra                

Began: Monday, February 10, 2020

 

It becomes very apparent early in his book, Mr. Chopra desires to recreate Jesus Christ in his own image. This is nothing new. Men have attempted to make the Lord Jesus into their idea of utopia since before Jesus condescended in the flesh. Much like Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-5), Chopra would have you bow down and worship the image he constructs.

I could sum up the ‘image’ Chopra attempts to erect of Jesus Christ by his following thought.

“I want to offer the possibility that Jesus was truly, as he proclaimed, a savior. Not the savior, not the one and only Son of God. Rather, Jesus embodied the highest level of enlightenment. He spent his brief adult life describing it, teaching it, and passing it on to future generations.

Jesus intended to save the world by showing others the path to God-consciousness.” pp 9-10.

If Chopra were a Christian and led by the Holy Spirit to understand, he would not refer to Jesus Christ as “a savior.” Instead he would refer to Jesus Christ as the Savior he denies in the next sentence.

Where did Chopra develop such ideas about Jesus? His introduction tells us his idea was planted by “Christian brothers from Ireland” and “prayers at the Catholic school I attended and Vedic chants at home.” pp 1, 4. It would be easy to see how repetitious Catholic prayers, Catholic dogma, and chants from Vedas a religion of pantheism, karmic retribution, and reincarnation might form a distorted view of Biblical Jesus. He also denies the validity of the New Testament writings.

“Jesus spoke of the necessity to believe in him as the road to salvation, but those words were put into his mouth by followers writing decades later. The New Testament is an interpretation of Jesus by people who felt reborn but also left behind.” p 10.

References to Hindu religious practice occur in what appears to be an effort to intertwine eastern mysticism with Christianity, at the very least to level the two as viable paths to God. To any Christian who walks daily in God’s truth and is led by the Holy Spirit of the Bible, his effort is inadequate. A smattering of Biblical scripture out of context is given to support and elevate mystic Hinduism to Christ’s own Words.

Chopra’s confusion is further demonstrated by some statements toward the end of chapter one. “Westerners are scornful of outsiders coming in to claim Jesus as a teacher on the order of Buddha and Muhammad instead of seeing him as the one and only Son of God.” p 20. We Christians see the error of Chopra’s statement, that Jesus is the “only Son of God,” knowing Jesus to be the “only begotten Son of God” John 3:18. Deepak doesn’t stop there, “If Jesus rose to the highest level of enlightenment, why should he be unique in that regard? Buddha may be his equal (hundreds of millions of followers believe so), along with Vedic rishis like Vasishtha and Vyassa, who didn’t happen to have religions named after them.” p 20.

According to Chopra, Jesus taught there are nine ingredients essential to a spiritual life. Almost as if people could throw these things in a bowl, by their own power, mix up a cake of spirituality from within themselves. At first glance they look similar to teaching of the Bible. Here is the seventh ingredient on Chopra’s list: “Faith—When you stop believing in the illusion of the material world and see everything for what it really is—light—you have faith. The reason all things are given to someone with faith is very simple: The light can shape itself into anything at will. Physical obstacles can’t stop the free flow of light.” p 24

At this point it is time for me to stop wasting time reading this mixture of sheer nonsense mixed with an appeal to be as confused as the author. I decided to resign from nonsense and embrace Biblical Jesus Christ some time ago. I lost my confusion about truth and life while looking at myself through God’s truth in His preserved Word, the Bible. The faith I received was by grace from God not some inner specter conjured up by silent contemplation. I stopped on page 25 of this book with over 241 pages.

You can only walk so far through the garbage pile before you begin to smell just like it. I wouldn’t recommend this book for anything other than a source of paper for recycle.

Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Edited by 1Timothy115
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