Initial Creation

Oh! Christian preachers,

Why did Jehovah create the primeval man and woman devoid of discrimination? Had they discrimination, why did they eat the forbidden

fruit and fail to know that to refrain from doing forbidden things right and to do them is wrong? Why weren‟t they initially bestowed with the

knowledge of good and evil that they gained after eating the forbidden fruit?

Why did Jehovah plant a useless tree in the Garden of Eden where they were sent to live though they had no discrimination? Suppose a father brings home a pretty looking poisonous fruit, bids his children to stay away from it and in his absence the children get tempted, eat the fruit and fall sick, will you blame the children instead of the father? Similarly, would not the blame for the primeval man and woman turning sinners fall Jehovah instead of the man and woman?

Is Jehovah justified in not killing the man and woman after they ate the fruit forbidden by Him (though on eating the fruit they were to die on the same day)? If it was out of compassion for the man and woman, why didn‟t omniscient Jehovah foresee the events?

If eating forbidden fruit was to give knowledge of good and evil, is it not cheating on the part of Jehovah that He did not want them to acquire this knowledge? If it is said that it was not so, the tree had no power of bestowing such knowledge and that it was merely a symbol to indicate that abiding by Jehovah‟s commands is good and violating them is evil, this interpretation not being contained in the scripture cannot be accepted. The scripture further says, “After eating the forbidden fruit, their eyes opened”.

Why did Jehovah plant that tree in the Garden of Eden and forbid the man and woman from eating its fruit? If His purport was to make them realize that to obey His commands is good and to disobey them is bad, why did He give this command which was of no use to either Himself or others?

Had God provided them with discrimination at the time of creating them, they would have known that God is the ultimate cause and that it is good to obey Him and bad to violate. The tree of knowledge then becomes redundant. If Jehovah forbade man from eating the fruit of the tree in order to know whether or not the man would obey his command, it would mean He lacked foreknowledge and was, therefore, not omniscient.

If it is argued that Jehovah had given free will to man and man alone is responsible for his mistakes and that Jehovah was not to be blamed, it is not acceptable. For, if a father allows freedom to his innocent children and the children commit grave mistakes, who is to blame, the children or the father? Is He justified in giving freedom to persons devoid of discrimination? Can Satan have power to beguile and to bring to harm the man whom Jehovah created in His own image? If Jehovah was absent when Satan tempted the woman, it is evident that Jehovah is not  omnipresent. If He was not aware of that Satan was to tempt the woman, it is evident that Jehovah Is not omniscient. If He knew about Satan‟s intention, but failed to prevent the happenings, it is evident that Jehovah is not omnipotent. If He was aware of the happenings and allowed them to take place, it is evident that Jehovah is without compassion.

Can he who, even after seeing his child being attacked by a beast, does not try his best to rescue the child and remains quiet, be called a father? Never! Is it justified to consider Jehovah as father of all beings?

If intention of Jehovah was to punish Satan and redeem the man later, it can be deemed as an eccentric act, since it is unwise to acquire both disease and medicine.

It is said that it was Satan who spoiled man‟s mind. If it is so, there should have been an evil spirit who should have spoiled an angel‟s mind and turned him into Satan. Since there was no such spirit in existence at that time, Jehovah should be the evil spirit who spoiled everyone. Why did Jehovah curse the serpents as a whole while it was Satan who came in the form of serpent and beguiled men? Is it justified that the innocent serpents were victims of the curse whereas the actual culprits, i.e. Satan, the tree of knowledge and Jehovah who created them received no such curse?

While it was only the primeval men who disobeyed Jehovah‟s command, why did He decide to extend the curse on all their descendants? And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. He was sorry that He made them – Genesis 6:6, 7.

Having created men of His own accord, why should Jehovah feel sorry about that? His sadness over the degradation of men from pure souls to sinners is understandable. After all, Men only turned into sinners and did not cause any other harm. But, in the case of Satan who was initially an angel created by God, not only did the angel sin and turn himself into Satan but he turned men also into sinners. Thus Jehovah ought to have felt sad about the grave misdeeds of Satan, which he did not, but He chose to worry about men‟s deeds. Why is it so? It can be concluded that if Jehovah could not foresee, at the time of creation, the occurrence of these troubles, He is not omniscient, if He had the foreknowledge of these events, He is devoid of compassion and His later repentance is only pretence.

If one knows the certain events will take place in certain manner, will he not decide a definite course of action to be taken to achieve the end? If so, won‟t everything happen as planned by Jehovah and not go awry? If it goes wrong won‟t it mean that Jehovah is devoid of omniscience and omnipotence? If nothing has gone wrong, it would mean that things happened as per Jehovah‟s design. So, there is no justice at all in attributing all sins to men instead of to Jehovah. There is scriptural evidence that everything was predetermined by God – According as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love – Ephesians 1-4, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will –

Ephesians 1:11, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose – Romans 8:28, For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be

conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren – Romans 8:29, Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he

justified, them he also glorified – Romans 8:30, Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain – Acts 2:23, What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory – Romans 9:22,23, But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth – Thessalonians 2:2:13.

It can be seen from the above that Jehovah had decided that things should occur in a certain manner. It is therefore clear that all ill occurrences

took place just as designed by Jehovah. Therefore, punishing the souls for the sins committed Jehovah is grave injustice.

From the above analysis of „initial creation‟, it is proved that Jehovah doesn‟t have characteristics of God.

 Material Cause

 Oh! Christian preachers,

Does not your Bible say that Jehovah created the world out of void? Cause should always precede an effect. The effect is, however, contained in latent

form in the cause and it  becomes manifest when efficient cause comes into action later. For instance, the pot was in latent form in the clay and it  became manifest when the potter created it out of  clay. Bible mentions only efficient cause (Jehovah) for Creation which is an effect and is silent about material cause of Creation. This is no way logical.

If it is argued that God could create the world out of void because He is omnipotent, it doesn‟t fit. Omnipotence is the power to make everything function smoothly without any obstacles. Doing thing in an improper way instead of adopting right means is not a sign of omnipotence. For instance, to put a mountain within a mustard seed without changing their respective vastness and smallness is not possible. Not doing such a feat, doesn‟t strip God of His omnipotence. Otherwise, just because God doesn‟t have the power to create another omnipotent God or to destroy Himself, He would be deemed not omnipotent. Since this would not be acceptable to you,  creating world from a material cause would not take away God‟s  omnipotence.

If it is said that God Himself is both material cause and efficient cause of the world, it is not logical. Logic is that an effect is a modified material

cause. Just as the thread used to weave a white cloth should itself be white, the God, who is the material cause of the world which is both sentient

and insentient, should necessarily possess these characteristics. This is possible because one cannot possess opposite qualities at the same time.

Were God to be part sentient and part insentient, He would be comprised of parts, hence an effect and would cease to be the supreme cause. As per the basic dictum in logic, यद्यर्् सावयवम् र्त्तर्् कायतम्, यथा घटिटाद्दद, whatever is made up of parts isan effect such as pot, cloth, etc. From the above analysis of material cause of Creation, it is proved that Jehovah doesn‟t have characteristics of God.

 Purpose of Creation

Oh! Christian preachers,

Jehovah created this world comprising of sentient and insentient beings. Logic is that every effect has a cause. So, this world, being an effect, must have a cause and therefore a purpose behind it because no one will do an action without a motive. “प्रयोजनमनुद्दिश्य न मन्दोऽिि प्रवर्तर्े” – even a fool does not act without a purpose. As regards whether the motive behind the Creation is selfish or unselfish, it is beyond any doubt that this Creation is only for the benefit of Jehovah as it is said in Bible that “for I have created him for my glory” (Isaiah 43:7). Moreover, as per basic principles of  Christianity there were no souls before the beginning of Creation and it cannot, therefore, be said that Creation was for the benefit of anyone else except Jehovah. The only alternative is that Jehovah created this world for His own benefit.

Jehovah, in the beginning, created two humans who were ignorant and were not endowed with pure knowledge, planted in their vicinity a tree which apparently was of no use, forbade them, with no justification, from eating the fruits of thistree and instead of prohibiting or destroying Satan,

Jehovah let him roam freely on Earth to tempt men. Misguided by Satan, the primeval men became deluded and being tempted for pleasure they

violated the divine command and thus became sinners.

Thereafter, without resorting to any other means of creating souls, God allowed all souls be born as progenies of primeval men who were sinners and so all the souls became sinners. Because they were sinners, they needed to be redeemed. Since Creation gave rise to sinners, it became the indirect cause for redemption. Ways of Salvation were also revealed as a form of testing the sinners. The souls were given life on Earth, which is subject to annihilation, so as to know as pure those souls who accept the means of Salvation and have the virtue of obeying God and know the

rest of the souls as impure and also about the reward and punishment they will be awarded in the next world. Creation as well as annihilation, thus, necessitates divine Grace. In order to instil fear in the pure souls in Heaven so that they do not stray from their devotion to Jehovah, punishments

are inflicted upon impure souls to suffer endlessly. Thus, souls seek redemption out of fear of punishment in Hell. Those thus redeemed will

praise God and He will shine in all His glory.Ultimate object is Jehovah‟s gratification. It can be concluded from the above that the purpose behind

the Creation was selfishness of Jehovah.

Because Jehovah created the world so that the souls will know His glory, praise Him and bow down to Him with fear and He will shine in all His

glory, it can be concluded that before the creation of the world Jehovah did not shine in all His glory. He saw this surely as a limitation in Him and

desiring to remove this inadequacy, He proceeded to create the world.

If His glory was complete before the creation, then it was needless to do a deed to increase His glory. This deed, if it was meant to reveal His glory

to the souls, was not devoid of selfishness.

Neither could He have created world to reveal His glory for the sake of the souls, because that will  contradict the fact that there were no souls  before the creation of the world.

Had Jehovah desired to augment His glory by shining through the souls He was going to create, the acts of shining and creation will become

mutually cause and effect and this will lead to a logical fallacy known as “mutual dependency –anyonyashrayam”.

Because He Himself was there to experience His glory, it would be improper to say that Jehovah‟s glory was shining completely prior to

creation but remained unappreciated and He created souls so that they will experience and praise His glory. Whatever way we may view at it,

we can conclude that Jehovah did feel an inadequacy as His glory was not shining. Because He had a sense of inadequacy, He cannot be whole

(poorna); because He worried about the inadequacy and tried to remove it, He cannot be eternally Joyful; because He started creation for His own joy, He has attachment or aversion towards that which pleases or displeases Him and thus He is suffering from delusion which is the root cause of attachment and aversion; because He did not know the means to remove his inadequacy in the beginning, he did not have beginning-less

knowledge; because He did not create the souls in the beginning, he does not have beginning-less doership; because He acquired doership later, his

doership is an „effect‟ and there must be another person as its „cause‟; because He gained „doership‟ from someone else He does not possess

sovereignty; because He lost His nature by gaining „doership‟ from someone, He is not changeless; because He is neither changeless nor adequate, He is neither without a beginning nor is He eternal or

pervading; because He created souls for His own joy and caused them to commit sin and suffer in eternal Hell, He is bereft of justice, compassion and goodness; because He did not know which souls were pure and had to find this out by testing them by giving them commandments after they were made to take birth on Earth as sinners, He is without omniscience; because He could neither be joyful nor the make souls praise Him without

making them sinners and causing them sorrow, it is evident that He is without omnipotence. Since He has defects such as inadequacy, sorrow, desire, hatred, delusion, dependence, changeability, nonpervading,

injustice, hard-heartedness, vice, limited knowledge and limited power, Jehovah does not possess Godliness. He is proved to be a sinner. Since our8 scriptures declare that these defects are the results of the bondage of “ego,

karma and Maya9”, Jehovah is indeed subject of bondage and therefore not independent. When we analyze the above characteristics of Jehovah from

the standpoint of Saiva Siddhanta10, it could be concluded that Jehovah is a mere being (pashu) who, as per karmas accumulated from His past lives, is born with a physical body; is subject to limitations in knowledge, power and capacity to experience joy and sorrow and dies at the end of his life term like any other human being.

It is the opinion of some Christian scholars that Jehovah from time immemorial had made a resolve, without any reason, to create the world at a certain point of time, at a certain location and in a certain manner and that accordingly He created the world, without any reason, at a certain point of time. But this is not acceptable because it is not  contained in Bible and is contradictory to scriptural statements such as “I made man for my glory”.

If it is true Jehovah had the resolve from time immemorial, without any reason, to create the world at a certain point of time, at a certain location and in a certain manner, He should have had a similar resolve regarding sustenance and annihilation of the world. This implies that Jehovah will grant Heaven or Hell to souls as per the above resolve and not based on their sins or merits. Souls need not strive to become worthy of Salvation and the Bible, which bids the souls to have faith and make efforts towards this end, bears therefore no relevance. Therefore, Jehovah who revealed Bible to the world is unwise. Some might say that it is not befitting the

souls to question the purpose behind God‟s creation and that God‟s actions are beyond human logic. This would give rise to logical fallacy known as “anishtaprasangam”. Persons belonging to every religion would hold their scriptures as God‟s own words. If anyone, after a critical study of scriptures of a religion, points out any flaw and declares them as false and worth rejecting, he is countered with an argument by the faithful of that religion that scriptures are God„s work and are beyond the logic of souls whose knowledge is limited and that God can act as per His wish. If so, all religions have to be considered as true and equal. The Christians‟ claim that their religion is the only true religion does not therefore hold water.

If one says that purpose of creation is beyond comprehension of souls it cannot be accepted as Bible clearly states Jehovah made this word for His glory. For that matter, no scripture deals with subjects which are incomprehensible. In spite of Jehovah‟s admitting creation of world for His own glory, if one says that purpose of creation is beyond words, it is equivalent to one calling his mother barren. From the above analysis of purpose of Creation, it is proved that Jehovah doesn‟t have characteristics of God.

JESUS RESURRECTION

Author:- Pandit Gangaprasad ji Upadyaya 

Jesus death is as mysterious as his birth. It is written in? Bible:-

1. Jesus was crucified.
2. He died on the cross.
3. His body was put in a Sepulcher. (a small room or monument, cut in rock or built of stone, in which a         dead person is laid or buried)
4. On the third day, the Sepulcher was found empty.
5. Christ was thereafter seen walking by several people elsewhere.
6. He rose to heaven with body.
7. He is sitting right side of his father, God, in heaven.

These things have been described in details in Matth, Chapter XXVII and XXVIII, Mark chap. XVI, Luke chapter XXIV, and John chapters XX and XXXI. The details differ so much that no fair-minded person can be persuaded (duce (someone) to do something through reasoning or argument) to believe them. Even Christians would not believe a similarly worded story in the case of another person. Any written or printed material is not a history. And when uncommon things are said, the testimony should be free from all shades of doubts. If four witness in the form of Matthew, Mark, Like and John appears before a court and they give a same account as is given in the New Testaments, With the difference that some other name is given in the place of Jesus, even Christian Judge of the present High Court would brush it aside as a tissue of either hallucinations (an experience involving the apparent perception of something not present) or lies. Just look at the points:-

1. Matthew mentions ‘a great earthquake.” The other three are silent on this point. It was an important point. Had there been an earthquake, it should have been marked by others.
2. 2.       Matthew mentions one angel who told the women that ‘he is risen.’ Mark gives “a young man.” St Luke gives ‘two men stood by them in shining garment; St John also names ‘two’.
3. 3.       According to St. John, Mary “turned” herself back and saw Jesus standing.” This Fact is not mentioned by the other three.

It was Joseph of Arimathaea Who secretly went to Pilate for the body of Jesus.

Mark says, ‘Pilate marveled   if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.’ (Mark X, 44)  (1)

(1)    “The concluding eleven verses of St. Mark, XVI, that speak of the resurrection as well as of the foreign mission and the signs, with the sweeping condemnation of the Non-Christian world, so unbecoming of the gentle soul like Jesus, have been proved to be an addition and forgery, and do not exist in the vulgate (the principal Latin version of the Bible, prepared mainly by St Jerome in the late 4th century, and (as revised in 1592) adopted as the official text for the Roman Catholic Church), nor in the ancient Greece Mss.

I found it so, and printed it out in a marginal note on these eleven verses. The fact is not unknown to the British and Foreign Bible society; yet they do not care to remove the verses from the Bibles.” (Sources of Christianity by Khwaja Kamaluddin, page 123)

Now assuming that Mary and Mary Magdalena found the sepulcher empty and also assuming that Christ was Seen by some persons after the event, the only conclusion that a sane man would arrive at is that Jesus did not die on the cross, that Joseph of Arimathaea, who was friend of Jesus, played some tricks and spirited away the body of Jesus. The man or men whom the women took an angels of God, might have been some persons acquainted with the secret. It is written that “the sepulcher was new wherein was never man yet laid.”

In all probability the sepulcher must have been so devised by Joseph himself that the stone might be easily set aside. This has been anticipated by Matthew and is clear from the following statements:-

“Now the next day, that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priest and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying, sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that the sepulcher he made sur, until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead; so the last error shall worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went, and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.” (Matt. Chapter xxvii, 62-66)

The other three witnesses mention neither a watch nor an earthquake. It seems that in order to cofound. Matthew coined the story of earthquake. The points to be considered are the following:-

1. Why did Pilate marvel if he were already dead?
2. Why did not Pilate satisfy himself personally on the point and why did he confine his enquiry to merely the statement of the centurion? It is not possible that the Centurion might have been purchased by the rich Joseph of Arimathaea?
3. When the people complained, why did not Pilate look to the watch personally?
4. How was the stone sealed? What was the nature of the watch and what guarantee was there that the watch was all above temptations?

Then there are two more aspects which are of a very great importance: first of all, the possibility of resurrections; secondly, the purpose of resurrection. Either Christ died on the cross or did not die. In the latter case the question of resurrection does not rise and the miracle loses all its value. In the former case, death can only mean the total departure of the soul from the body. When Jesus body was lying in the sepulcher, his soul must have departed. To where? You can say “to heaven.”  Then why did it return? And how? Why did it take three days to return?

As regards the question of ‘purpose’ the only purpose imaginable can be the over-awing of the unbelievers by the uncanniness of the process. But here too the purpose fails miserably. The miracle could have done openly before all, even on the cross and might have converted the whole world. But instead of this we find Jesus crying “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark.XXXVII, 46)

Are these not the ways of ordinary men? Any man would cry like that at the time of death. Then if the purpose was to convince people of Jesus divinity, better person should have the witness than the two half-crazy women who what of attachment and what of credulity could not discern whether it was Jesus or the Gardner. There is one more point. If Jesus foretold his resurrection on the third day, as people complained against Pilate, was it known to the women?  If so why did they not expect in due course? Why did they come to sepulcher with the intension of paying their respect to dead?

If the purpose was not public proclamation but something private and secret, even then the whole story seems to be silly? Jesus appears to some friends and only and then asks them to proclaimed the event.

Then there is the question of the passion of Jesus’ body to heaven. This is the funniest event. Only those who believe heaven is somewhere in the skies above and solid bodies can rise up to they can regard it as true. In these days such persons are very rare except in exceptional asylum. Unless heaven be a court of a despotic king in some physical sense, it is absurd to say that the body of Jesus Christ passed to it, and he is still seen sitting on right side of his father. If you treat it figuratively, you have to put it nakedly so that the sense might be understood.

We should not have taken notice of such a fairy-tale, had it not been for the fact that the resurrect of the Jesus Christ is the most important portion of the Christian creed, as important as its birth. God’s son needs be born in an unusual way and so must he need die. Ingersoll has well said, “How do they prove Christ rose from the dead? They found the account in the book. Who wrote the book? They do not know. What evidence is this? None, unless all things found in books are true.”

“They say that Christianity was established, proved to be true, and by miracles wrought nearly two thousand years ago. Not one of these miracles can be established except by impudent and ignorant assertions –except by poisoning and deforming the minds of the ignorant and the young.”

Professor Huxley says,

“On the strength of an undeniable improbability, however, we not only have right to demand, but are morally bound to require, strong evidence in favor of miracle before even we take it into serious consideration. But when, instead of such evidence, nothing is produced but stories originating nobody knows how or when, among persons who could firmly believe in the devils which enter pigs, I confess that my feelings is one of astonishment that any one should except a reasonable man to take such testimony seriously.”