Answering Mayaram of Mission Poeli

 In her latest article in missionkaali.org https://missionkaali.org/how-did-we-become-christian/ mayaram gives a brief excerpt from her recent speech in a certain 'Sangamtalks'... It seems that she barely qualifies to be called an Ex Christian.. no no.. it's not that no true Scotsman fallacy thing I am talking about.. I think she never was involved in a real actual theologically rigorous church life to be able to grasp christianity or the bible.. ultimately the church and the members are to be blamed! Christians have dumbed down quite a bit , so much as to give a bad name to christianity (I am guilty of that as well) but.. wait

What prevents ANYONE from availing the great wealth of resources available to study interpret and understand the biblical text in proper context and do hermeneutics authentically! That's besides the point.. let me get to the article now

1) she starts with the classical genetic fallacy. (I talk about some of the logical fallacies in this video https://youtu.be/J4EWTovte-4 kindly bear with the blaring music.. Wil correct in my future bids)

The idea that an ideology or a religion or a decision can be assessed based on its origin! 

It doesn't matter on what reason someone became a Christian. It doesn't have any effect on the validity of the decision!

2) with that being said what percentage of Christian have changed religions for monetary gains? Mayaram and Mission Poeli often claims this.. where is the statistics? I don't deny that people chnage religions for money.. people do crazy stuff for crazy reasons all the time.. I won't be surprised if a boy or girl converts merely to get married to his or her lover! I see that happening so often.. and people who convert for the wrong reasons will eventually revert back.. that is what my though is

3) the historical existence of Jesus is barely disputed , as she quotes Bart ehrman, he himself admits that it is never a dispute in academia 

Coming to the words and verses on the teachings of Jesus Christ, what historical verification do we have? 

We have the Christians who were persecuted and stood up against those trying moments and held on to their testimony. Would anyone die for what they know to be a fake story? Possible but very very unlikely 

( My video on Christian persecution https://youtu.be/m9GSeg1gyvo )

We have embarassing details about the disciples themselves in the gospel accounts like the place where Peter is called 'Satan' by Jesus or where Peter betrays Jesus 3 times or where all the disciples ran away and went back to their prior jobs after Jesus was crucified and the fact that women (whose testimony was not considered valid in a misogynistic Jewish culture of that time) were the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection 

Early witness - pre Pauline creed that Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15 could be conservatively dated to as early as 10 years after the death of Jesus Christ 

Multiple extra biblical sources of Jesus which portray him to have started a new religion , performed miracles and believed to have died and resurrected 

These evidences show the great degree of veracity of the gospel accounts

4) (I have already spoken on the interpolation issues here - https://youtu.be/hg2CagHMc50 )

The more number of manuscripts you have of an ancient text the more number of variations you will find.. 

this is common wisdom amonst the hsitorians.. and for a literature like the new testament which has more than 25000 manuscripts 

(compare that to the Rig Veda which has barely 100 manuscripts all more than atleast 1000 years after it has been originally written , not to mention that it remained as oral tradition for a longer time before it was written!) 

You are bound to find a lot of textual variations! And no not all variations are interpolations.. 9o percent of them are merely small letter or punctuation type of mistakes and have no bearing on the theological meaning of any of the text!

And certainly these variations exist even more so in the text of Ramayana or Mahabharata? 

Does that disqualify those scriptures for mayaram or mission poeli?

Using the same yardscale on your own scripture?

5) mayaram is simply ignorant to think that the new testament cannon was decided or concluded in the council of nicea! There is no evidence for such a 'Davinci code danbrown' sort of ignorant claim! The canon was simply reaffirmed in the council.. which was finalised atleast by the end of the 2nd century AD

6) yes there is differnet books in different denominations! Can you show me any contradictory theology that you get from such variation? None as far as I have read them and analysed.. if there are any, I hope mayaram can point that out

7) why were some books included in the canon while others were not..

It was for one or more of the following reasons

1- fraudulent writings - gospels written by someone other than the apostles but spread falsely as if they were authored by an apostle

2- books written much later, when the apostles were dead and gone! 

3- not preached or practiced in any of the apostolic churches which were instituted by the early apostles,.. books which had no apostolic tradition!

All of these gnostic books are mostly available to us and one can read them and see that they are in no way authentic even on a surface reading!

8) the variations within the gospel narratives regarding the final words of jesus on the cross.. 

In the end I recommend that mayaram try to be honest with the texts and the evidence rather than mis represent and strawman Christian literature and theology

I welcome them to criticise and question christians and their beliefs.. but I request them to be unbiased and open to the truth and be willing to admit their bias

Shalom.. good day

TamChris