So what's the Christian perspective on the "missing" years or
un-documented years of Jesus Christ ? Did he really went to India
?
Demon Bane,
It's always intriguing to entertain ideas that the church had
some kind of secrets about Jesus that has been hidden from
believers everywhere, or that the whole church is just being
deluded for 2000 years whereas the real truth is to be found in
some obscure places and believed by some obscure minority who has
been censured or banned by the church. It makes for a fantastic
cool story brother scenario, but that's just what it is, a CSB.
The Bible is silent and did not document what happened between
the age of 12-30, and it was pretty silent between the age of
infancy and 12 too, but atheists don't make noise about where Jesus
was during those years before He turned 12! But the careful reader
of the Bible will know that there are some indicators. For example,
in Matthew 15:53 we read, "When Jesus had finished telling
these stories and illustrations, he left that part of the
country. He
returned to Nazareth, his hometown. When he taught
there in the synagogue, everyone was amazed and said, “Where does
he get this wisdom and the power to do miracles?” Then they
scoffed, “He’s
just the carpenter’s son, and we know Mary, his mother, and his
brothers—James, Joseph,[a] Simon, and Judas. All his
sisters live right here among us. Where did he
learn all these things?” And they were deeply offended and
refused to believe in him."
What can we gather from this brief passage? Jesus returned
to his HOMETOWN, in short, we went home to Nazareth. Not His
birth-town of Bethlehem, mind you, but His hometown. Note also
the familiarity of the people to Jesus' family members. They
KNEW who His family was and His background. Did anyone
say, "Ai ya, He got all these ideas from India lah!"? No, they
were questioning how come He could speak so authoritatively
because they KNEW He had no special training or teaching
from the rabbis of the day. You can of course choose
to say that this does not prove that Jesus did not went
to India. Well, I think that's not for me to prove, but for those
who entertain this story to prove that, while allowing
Christians to point out the flaws and problems with such an idea.