A Word about the "Silent Years"

First a personal note

I am so thankful for this opportunity to read the Gospels as a harmony or chronologically through the life of the Lord Jesus and to write about it along the way.  I have found myself growing in my love for Him more and more.  I’ve been gaining a greater peace and ability to trust Him.  I hope you have been enjoying the journey, too. 

I want to say a special “thank you” to my industrious and generous nephew Gene who so graciously loaded a Blue Letter Bible app into my blog.  This app brings up Bible passages when you to hover your cursor over a Bible reference (now appearing in blue).  Go ahead and try it:  Revelation 19:11-16  And note:  if you click on the passage that appears, you can continue to read it in its full context.  (That makes me smile!) 

And another special thank you to Gene for entertaining my whimsy by installing a “favicon”.  When you open the blog page, you will see the title of my blog, “Just a Simple Sheep” at the top of your browser.  Next to the title is a cute furry little sheep.  In addition to delighting my fancy, this little symbol makes finding the blog easier if you bookmark it on your favorites bar.

Now back to Jesus’ early life...

We have just finished the opening chapters of Jesus’ life.  The Bible gives us very little detail about His childhood and early adult years.  With the exception of the account of Jesus at twelve years old, we know nothing from His infancy to age 30.  These “silent years” have caused some speculation. 

First, we’ll discuss what we DO know.  We know from what we’ve just been reading that Jesus’ parents were devout Jews.  That means that they obeyed the Law of Moses, (also known as the Torah or Tanakh[1]).  We know that they went to Jerusalem every year at the Passover.  We also know from Mark 6:3 that Jesus was a carpenter. 

Most Biblical scholars agree that Jesus grew up learning carpentry, probably from Joseph.  Since Joseph is not mentioned after the temple experience, most scholars also agree that it is likely that he died some time during these years.  Though these are speculations, they are either implied from the text or assumed by natural life processes.

However, there are other fanciful speculations and fabrications that are circulated about Jesus’ early life.  Years ago, most Bible teachers would not even give these notions a second thought let alone teach them. However, the Bible tells us that in the last days there will be an increase of false teachers and prophets (Matt. 24:3-13) and that the spirit of antichrist will be active (1 John 2:18, 4:3).  We don’t know if we are truly in the “last of the last days”, but we do know that even the early Christians were warned about these spiritual dangers.  Today, we need to be on our guard so much more. 

In 2003 Dan Brown wrote The DaVinci Code in which he used “extrabiblical” sources to craft a fictional story that incorporates portions of Jesus’ life.  Extrabiblical means that these sources or writings are not Biblical meaning they are “outside” the truth of the Bible.  Every other book in the world is “extrabiblical”.  Scholarly books are researched and documented so that others may verify that they are factual.  However, the sources that Brown and a host of others now popularize are Gnostic and/or esoteric in origin.  That means that they are closely related to the Occult.

Because these writers have become so popular (even Christians have been entertained by them) myths and falsehoods are seeping into the church and are deceiving many at an alarming rate.  For this reason, I will bring out points about various false teachings in my blog.  Many of these are subtle and not easily recognizable.  1 Timothy 1:19 tells us that Paul warned the early believers against allowing their faith to become shipwrecked.  2 Peter 2:18-22 describes the result unpleasant of believing these false teachers.  We are ALL simple silly sheep who need our Shepherd to guide and feed us.  He is the Word made flesh itself.  We can trust Scripture and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to illuminate truth for us.

Today, many Bible-believing Christians are on their guard against Islam for good reason.  But most of us have let down our guard against Buddhism/Hinduism.  One fabrication about Jesus’ life states that He went to India during His “silent years” to study under Buddhism.  This teaching has hijacked the term Christ to mean ascended one or ascended master.  Please note the subtle shift.  The Biblical use of the term “Christ” means anointed one (Messiah in Hebrew) or the promised One who would come to deliver mankind from sin’s curse (Genesis 3:15).  Jesus died, rose again, and ascended into heaven.  But the false Christ’s ascension is very different.  In the nonBiblical view Christ was one of many ascended ones or masters.  This view teaches that God is in everyone and everything.  Therefore, all of humanity has the potential to recognize his/her own divinity.  This is also known as the “higher self” or “true self”.  When we realize and tap into our own divinity, we become “christ” or an ascended one.

Am I being petty, or am I going off on a ridiculous tangent?  My dear fellow sheep, please hear my urgent pleading.  These teachings are already embedded into new theologies coming to us from writers, conference speakers, songs, and seminaries.  If you are hearing that you can do all the works of Christ because He did them as a man—all you need to do is grow into the anointing, then you are being influenced by this false Christ spirit.  If you are reading books that tell you to embrace your true self and reject the false self, then you are experiencing teaching that, at its core, is based in a false view of who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

The angels declared at His birth that Jesus is Christ the Lord.  From His birth to His death and resurrection Jesus never ceased to be God in flesh the anointed One who came to deliver mankind from the curse of sin.  We need His deliverance because from conception to the grave our true self is full of sin, separated from God by wicked works (Isaiah 59:2, Colossians 1:21).  Jesus Christ took the punishment that we deserved on Himself to propitiate or appease God’s wrath (1 John 2:2, 4:10), thus atoning for our sin.  When we believe or embrace this truth by faith, we receive Jesus Christ’s righteousness.  His blood makes us holy (sanctifies us) both in total standing before God and in an on-going process of growth and faithful living.  There is no other “self”; there is only the Lord Jesus Christ living in me by the Holy Spirit. 

Is there a silence about Jesus’ early life?  Yes, there is.  Does the Bible leave open the possibility that Jesus could have gone to India or Britain?  No, it does not.  Jesus Himself said that He came for His people, the Jews.  His ministry focused totally on Israel while on earth.  He extended His ministry to Gentiles as they came to Him and later the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles, but His earthly ministry was focused on Israel.  I can find everything I need to know about Jesus right in the Bible, and I can trust it fully. 

As I continue to read and grow in my understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ, my desire has been to focus on who Jesus is rather than on who I am.  It’s all about Him!

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels,

that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.  2 Corinthians 4:7

Next: Matthew 3:1-12; Mark 1:1-8; Luke 3:1-18

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[1]The Tanakh is the whole Old Testament which is comprised of 39 books from Genesis to Malachi.  The Torah is the first five books.  However, sometimes Torah can also refer to the Tanakh or the totality of Jewish teaching or practice (Wikipedia).