The Legacy of Jacob - Moriel Ministries

Scott Noble
who ruled Kashmir in the eleventh century.”
Of the 40 parallels mentioned above, many
can be dismissed just by making the same
comparisons with people in general or religious
leaders in particular. Items such as they
both fasted for a long time, they were about
the same age when they began public ministry
(Jesus 30; Buddha 35- though Buddha’s age
is debatable here), the multitudes required a
sign from both, both taught compassion both
were of royal descent (in the case of Buddha
this is debatable), could be said of many
people, especially a religious leader.
Thomas (1927) summarizes the work of
several scholars in this area of study: Seydel’s
fifty instances are reduced by van den
Bergh to nine. In proportion to the investigator’s
direct knowledge of the Buddhist
sources the number seems to decrease. E.
W. Hopkins discusses five ‘cogent parallels’,
but does not consider any of them very probable.
Garbe assumes direct borrowing in four
cases, Simeon, the Temptation, Peter walking
on the sea, and the Miracle of the loaves
and fishes. Charpentier considers Simeon
the only unobjectionable example. Other
scholars reject all connexion. In any case the
chief events of the life- birth, renunciation,
enlightenment, and the death, the very items
which might give strength to the comparison-
disappear from the question. (247-248)
Rather than going through all of these,
I’ll just address some of the key ones. In the
case of Simeon seeing Jesus at the temple,
and Asita going to see the infant Gautama,
regarding the Buddhist scripture (Nalakasutta
of the Sutta-nipata), Thomas says, “It
is clearly late, as is shown by the reference
to the thirty-two marks; and as it is in general
agreement with the Sanskrit accounts,
there is nothing to prove that it is as early
as the pre-Christian era” (39). The thirty-two
marks refer to physical characteristics used to
identify a potential Buddha. This is thought
to be a later Mahayana development (K.R.
Norman, 1983, Pali Literature: including the
canonical literature in Prakrit and Sanskrit of
all the Hinayana schools of Buddhism, 42).
James Kennedy (1917), in his article “The
Gospels of the Infancy, the Lalita Vistara and
the Vishnu Purana”, addresses the walking
on water parallel:
The story occurs in the introduction to
Jataka No. 190…in this case all we know
is that the story of the monk, and the Jataka
which follows it, were considered old
enough to be included among 546 others,
when the Jataka book was compiled in the
fifth or sixth century A.D. (528)
Regarding the multiplying of food parallel,
Kennedy writes, “Like the story of the
monk we have just discussed, it occurs in the
introduction to a Jataka [No. 78], and is subject
to the same comment” (529).
Another parallel claim made regards the
prodigal son stories of Buddha and Jesus. For
an excellent description of the content differences
in these stories, please see the following
website: (www.comparativereligion.
com/prodigal.html). This story in Buddhist
scriptures is found in the Saddharmapundarika
sutra. According to the following Buddhist
website, the composition date of this
volume is later than the composition of Luke
(the gospel in which Jesus tells the story of
the prodigal son). Luke was Luke’s first volume,
the second being the book of Acts (both
of which are dated before 63 AD). Here’s the
dating assigned to the Saddharmapundarika
(also known as the “Lotus Sutra”): Contains
elements of various eras. The final edition
is believed to have taken place around 200
CE, but a lot of later interpolations are found
within it. The Buddha here is not a historical
figure, but the manifestation of an eternal,
abstract ‘Buddhahood’. Further, it contains
the doctrines of ‘Expedient Means’ (upaya)
and of the ‘One Vehicle’ (ekayana) www.akshin.net/literature/budlitsourcessanskrit.htm
Shin Buddhism (a form of Pure Land
Buddhism developed in Japan)
This form of Buddhism has been thought
of by many to be very similar to Christianity,
because the end goal is a “pure land,” and
achieving that goal is not based on self-effort,
but through the merits of Amida Buddha.
There are, however some serious differences
between Christianity and Shin Buddhism.
When seeking out a doctor, people want to be
sure that the doctor’s training has taken place
at a reputable school, that the doctor is basing
the diagnosis on medical facts rather than just
speculation, etc. When it comes to the soul,
how much more important is it to establish
the reliability of the source and the content
of claims Looking at Shin Buddhism in this
way, there are some serious insufficiencies:
Dharmakara’s credibility: Dharmakara is
said to have been a king who gave up his
throne to become a monk and later became
Amida Buddha. It is claimed he lived approximately
65 billion years ago- using the
time unit of a kalpa, which can also be interpreted
as being “inconceivably long” (http://
www.akshin.net/pureland/pl-purelandbuddhism-partone.
htm). If this is the case, why
did he wait until the 2nd century AD (some
say the 2nd century B.C.) to reveal this plan
of his pure land It seems rather suspect that
this concept was not developed until after
Siddhartha Gautama made his claims.
Dharmakara’s limitations: Even if we are
to believe this person existed, he was still just
a man, who was preceded by another Buddha,
and who spent approximately 22 billion
years (apparently not as a man at this point),
studying other Buddha lands, in order to
develop his famed “Pure Land.” Already it’s
apparent that he’s not on the same level as
God Almighty as revealed in the Bible.
No atonement: Shin Buddhists place their
faith in Amida Buddha to secure salvation
for them. Unfortunately, this is like trusting
Moriel Thailand
a homeless man to pay our million dollar bail
to get out of jail. He barely has the means to
sustain himself, let alone get us out of the jail
caused by our sins. Anyone with their own
sins to deal with (which is everyone, including
Dharmakara if we are to suppose he existed),
can only take the punishment for their
own sins. Even then though, being imperfect,
this bearing of sins can only fulfill justice.
It can’t pay for salvation. Only Jesus, being
God in the flesh, and sinless, could take the
punishment for others.
Shinran’s choice of patriarchs (focusing
on the first patriarch): Shinran is the man
who developed Shin Buddhism into what it
is today. He lived in Japan from 1173- 1262
AD. In an attempt to establish authority for
his new interpretation of Pure Land, Shinran
chose seven patriarchs: He acknowledged
Sakyamuni Buddha as being the voice of
Amida Buddha, and then named the first patriarch-
Nagarjuna, a man in India who lived
from c. 150 AD- c. 250 AD . This wide gap
from the time of Sakyamuni Buddha, to the
time of the first patriarch (500 years, if not
more) shows just how far removed from the
original it is. Also, Nagarjuna is said to have
had interactions with giant snakes, just as
Sakyamuni encountered Mucalinda:
Mahayana tradition explains the chronological
discrepancy by contending that they
were indeed taught by the Buddha to advanced
disciples, but that he ordered that
they be hidden in the underwater realm of
nagas (beings with snakelike bodies and human
heads) until the time was right for their
propagation. The legend further reports that
the second-century philosopher Nagarjuna
(fl. ca. 150 C.E.) was the person preordained
by Buddha to recover and explicate the Perfection
of Wisdom texts.
After one of his lectures, some nagas approached
him and told him of the texts hidden
in their kingdom, and so Nagarjuna traveled
there and returned with the sutras to India.
This is a man who was taught by giant
snakes! How can we entrust ourselves to such
teachings What parents would leave their
baby in the care of a cobra Half of Nagarjuna’s
name is of Hindu origin, and the other half
comes from his interactions with these nagas:
When he preached the Dharma in the
monastery park, the nagas performed acts of
reverence such as six of the serpents forming
a parasol to shade him from the sun. Having
thus become the Lord of the Nagas, the
Acarya was named “The Naga”. Because his
skill at spreading the Mahayana Dharma resembled
the shooting speed and mastery of
the famed archer Arjuna, he became known
as well as “The Arjuna”
Shin Buddhism’s scriptures: Shin Buddhism
is based on the writings of the seven
patriarchs, as well as on the three primary
texts: scriptures of this tradition [Pure Land
in general] (which later became known as
the Triple Sutras) appeared during the ini-
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