The Blog Of Dysfunction

Post By Dr. Johnson C. Philip from his blog
My Odyssey with Prajapati began in 1968, when a friend gave me a copy of a tract titled “Sacrifice”. This tract claimed that the Rigveda gives nine predictions about the sacrificial lamb, and that all these have been fulfilled in Jesus and in Jesus alone.

As I read it with interest, one of my senior Hindu friends challenged me to document those quotations from the Hindu scriptures. He was quite knowledgeable in the Hindu philosophy, and he bitterly criticized those Christian propagandists who do not hesitate to stoop down to any level to establish their point of view. He also said that this kind of behaviour is far removed from the high level of ethics demonstrated by Jesus and His followers.

The challenge came at a time when the Hindu scriptures were easily available to me. Further, since I had just completed my Sanskrit studies, the desire to go to the originals strongly possessed me. Unfortunately, the author of the above-mentioned tract did not bother to give the references (the reason of which would become obvious in the course of the present study). Thus over the next two years I pored over the books suggested by him, but could not find those quotations in Sanskrit.

In 1971-72 I spent considerable time with George David of MHOW, MP. He is an evangelist with the Brethren Assemblies. Undoubtedly he is one of the greatest living scholars of Hinduism among the Evangelical Christians. As a philosopher, apologist, and communicator, he enjoys continuous demand to teach these subjects of his specialization.

On my inquiry, he reminded that the approach taken by the above tract is very dangerous and can lead to total deviation from the foundations of Evangelical Christian faith. He was the first to explain the difference between the two approaches to Prajapati, now known as the Yearning and the Fulfillment theories.

George David reminded that attributing inspiration to anything outside the Bible is blasphemy. Unfortunately this is exactly what the Fulfillment Theologians have been doing. Interaction with George David continued till the late eighties. This included several sessions spent at MHOW when his massive library was at my disposal for further investigations. Also, during the same period I had four occasions to attend his classes on Hinduism, which would come close to a hundred hours.

Another person who helped me with this subject during this period was Dr. Robert Reid, a Theologian and Bible Expositor. He pointed out many of the serious errors in the doctrine of the Prajapati proponents. He also helped me to see the serious heresies into which people fell in the past when they abandoned evangelical Bibliology.
From the seventies onwards I had the privilege of collecting a good number of Hindu scriptures, commentaries, and other material. This was also the time when I began speaking on the dangers of the Prajapati Heresy. However, most of this work was confined to the Hindi Belt.

My interest in this movement in Kerala was kindled in 1992 when Mr. Koshy Abraham published his book Is Man Born A Sinner. Knowing my interest in Apologetics, he very kindly sent me a complimentary copy. I was shocked to hear the heretical teachings propounded in this book, namely that man is not born with a sin nature. This was contrary to all the canons of doctrines as believed by the Evangelical churches. Furthermore, I was surprised to notice that this was his 23rd publication.

What surprised me more was that in Kerala, the land of Christian stalwarts, none opposed such heresy. On the contrary, the writer of this book was able to entice some of the best conservative thinkers and writers into his fold. So great was the brainwashing in Kerala that a book on Prajapati contained an explicit statement to this effect that “Compared to the Bible, Revelations about Lord Jesus are found more clearly and powerfully in the Upanishads”. I opposed the publication of this book, but the solid financial support from the author based in Canada enabled him to force this publication in Malayalam. The book sold out immediately.

By 1995 the doctrinal situation was so bad that Mr. Koshy Abraham’s books were selling like hot cakes among Brethren, Baptist, and Pentecostal young believers. In many book exhibitions his books would form the largest bundles.

By now (1998) the author has authored close to 50 works, and his doctrinal position has become crystal clear to anyone who cares to read his books. He rejects the four cardinal doctrines on which the Protestant Reformation stands. He also rejects the eternity of Christ, the separation of creation from the creator, and there is almost no fundamental doctrine of the Separatist churches which he has not attacked.

The gravity of the situation became clear during a research programme undertaken by me and some students at Brethren Bible Institute at Pathanamthitta. During the last part of 1996 and in the earlier part of 1997 several of us acquired multiple copies of as many Prajapati documents as possible in Malayalam. In the light of the Conservative theology held by the Fathers of the Brethren Movement and other such separatist movement we investigated these materials thoroughly. Our unanimous conclusion was that these books teach Heresy, and many statements in them are blasphemous in nature.

Our discovery resulted in several actions: one of the students produced a research-thesis on this subject. An appendix of Prajapati was added to our book Systematic Theology. Also, I wrote a series of 7 articles in the Brethren magazine titled Suvisheshadhwani. These seven articles created such interest in this subject that more than a dozen related articles were written by Brethren scholars and theologians in Brethren magazines. Some non Brethren magazines also published articles inspired by our work.

The theological and scholarly responses to our articles have been nil. Some people claiming to be Prajapati Proponents launched into a vicious character attack, which is an activity not suitable even for unbelievers, let alone believers from Conservative Churches. However, none of these writers touched the theological issues raised in our articles. Mr. Koshy Abraham wrote me a personal letter and acknowledged that I had quoted him accurately, but he refused to accept that his anomalous stand on Bible and inspiration was heresy.

Meanwhile, the response from believers distressed by all this heresy has been tremendous. Brethren, Pentecostal, Baptist, and even Episcopalian people wrote to me or spoke to me about the need to make a thoroughly researched work available on this topic. They pointed out that having been interested in this topic now for three decades, I might be able to help a large number of lay people as well as theological experts who are interested in obtaining more facts.

Thus, the present book is given into the hands of the inquirers with the hope that this would deliver tens of thousands of sincere believers from falling into the clutches of another heresy. We have quoted liberally from the books written by Prajapati Proponents, so that the readers might see these things form themselves. Soli Deo Gloria ! [The book mentioned here will be available shortly from the “download” section of WWW.BrethrenAssembly.Com]

Dr Johnson C Philip.

[Other than being my father, Dr JCP has a PhD in Quantum Chromodynamics (Nuclear physics, broadly, for the uninitiated) a ThD in Theology (Apologetics), A DSc in Alternative Medicine (philosophy and possibe emperical basis of) has authored more than one best sellers including a massive Systematic Theology (in malayalam) is working on too many books to list, runs an impressive distance education bible school,(there is lot more but this will do, yep I adore the guy) and is my adorable mother's one and only husband.]