Re-interpreting Christianity
Joel Kontinen
Take a large bowl. Pour some liberal theology on the bottom, add a pinch of Indian philosophy and sprikle some evolution on top and you will get a mixture that once again attempts to re-interpret Chistianity.
Deepak Chopra is a medical doctor and alternative medicine guru whose newest book The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore (Crown publishing, 2008) presents Jesus as a cosmic Christ, a spirit guide whose teaching is no longer the monopoly of the Christian church. Chopra’s Jesus attempted to save the world by showing the way to God- consciousness.
Why, then, the third Jesus? Chopra, who has written over 50 books, teaches that the first Jesus was a Jewish rabbi who changed western religion by his life. The second Jesus is the Jesus of theology and church dogmas, the cause of strive and countless battles. Chopra’s third Jesus is a saviour but not the only saviour and certainly not God’s only begotten Son. Chopra believes that Jesus’ followers put words into his mouth many centuries later, for instance, the saying that faith in Jesus is a prerequisite for salvation. Chopra says that the third Jesus “embodied the highest level of enlightenment.”
Interviewed by Time magazine, Chopra suggested that God should be a woman: “The next stage of human evolution has to be the survival of the wisest, not the survival of the fittest. For that we need intuition, compassion and a woman God.”
Chopra’s Jesus is a typical new age saviour. Believing in him does not require real repentance or even biblical faith. However, the Jesus of the New Testament says that He is the only way to eternal life: ”I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Peter testified of Jesus: ”Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
The third Jesus is a false Christ who has nothing to do with the real Jesus.
Sources:
Chopra Center. The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore
By Deepak Chopra. http://www.chopra.com/thirdjesus/excerpt
Talking with Deepak Chopra. Time (European edition) 171:8, 14. (25 February 2008).
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