Buddha the destroyer

The other day, my wife and I were watching some National Geographic DVD about lost treasures in Afghanistan. It was about how horrible the Taliban had been with ancient art, and that they had destroyed a giant Buddha. There was also a search for a giant “lost” Buddha. Like with most TV specials of this sort, I have no idea what happened with the results as the program ended before they had found anything.

This isn’t a comprehensive study on Buddhism, nor is it about Gautama Buddha, but rather just some thoughts on some information I learned in the aforementioned video. I don’t want to look at Buddhism too much, as for some reason I feel some sort of bizarre attraction to it. As a Christian, I can’t believe that the Buddhist faith is truth, but for some reason, my sinful human side finds it very seductive and appealing. I don’t know why. This was the case when I went to site see some Buddhist temples in China and also when I see Buddhist artifacts in museums. Don’t know why, but it is a temptation for me it seems. I had even done a little meditation once for anger.

Anyways. Back to the point. This Nat Geo special said one sentence that blew me away. It was an offhanded remark, but as they said it, it set off warning bells in my head. Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit saying “DIG HERE!” They said something like “the first images used to portray Buddha were based on the Greek god Apollo.” Apparently Greek and Indian paganism had found a melting pot in Afghanistan.

This is sort of hinted at here “The scholars asserting the priority of Gandhara claim that the Buddha image originated in Gandhara and the Mathura image of Buddha was the result of its inspiration, although as against the dated Mathura images, none of the reported Gandhara images of Buddha has a date inscribed on it. Such claim is based primarily on three assumptions, namely, (a) India's early art was aniconic or unanthropomorphic; iconic or anthropomorphic perception of Divine image came to India from Greek art through the Indo-Greek rulers of Gandhara regions and later through Kushanas (25 AD - 150 AD); (b) early Indian art was bas-relief based and sculpture was not its style; and (c) in its modeling Buddha figure is an Indianized version of the Greek god Apollo.” (http://www.exoticindiaart.com/article/lordbuddha/) and “Buddhist characters are always represented with a dhoti loincloth before this innovation), the halo, the contrapposto stance of the upright figures (see: 1st–2nd century Gandhara standing Buddhas [1] and [2]), the stylized Mediterranean curly hair and top-knot apparently derived from the style of the Belvedere Apollo” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Buddhist_art)


So why did this set off warning bells? Buddhism is a religion of peace, right? What’s the big deal if Buddha was based on Apollo?

Well, Apollo in Greek is Ἀπολλύων. Wikipedia says this is the oldest spelling, “The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era, but the Doric form Απέλλων is more archaic, derived from an earlier *Απέλjων. The name is certainly cognate with the Doric month name Απέλλαιος and the Doric festival απελλαι.[3]” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo) Blue letter Bible, and most Greek concordances will give this name with the Hebrew name Abaddon, both of which mean Destroyer. http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/comm_view.cfm?AuthorID=6&contentID=4064&commInfo=17&topic=Revelation&ar=Rev_9_11

This name appears in Revelation 9:11, and he is the king of the demonic armies that arise from the abyss/bottomless pit. The Greek god Apollo seems to be a demon who has sold himself as a god. Buddha was based on, at least in part, a high ranking demon (or the devil himself) from the bottomless pit!

Another interesting link (and I'm no expert in Hindu cosmology), and this bears more research, is that some Hindus consider Buddha an avatar of Vishnu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha_in_Hinduism Vishnu in turn according to some myths, becomes Shiva. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu Shiva is of course well known as the destroyer, though this is not always the case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva

Interestingly enough, others have pointed out that CERN has a gigantic statue of Shiva in front of it. http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/782057/. You can also google CERN Shiva statue to turn it up. Interestingly, their logo looks like 666. http://public.web.cern.ch/public/

Now I am not 100% sure on whether or not this Apollyon is the Antichrist. It seems to be the case, and some prophecy scholars have said that this was the case. My thoughts, are that it might be, but please check it out for yourself in Revelation. And also check that with some good, Biblical scholars who have written on the subject.

(Update 6/3/11, I have come to the conlusion that Apollo, the angel from the bottomless pit is different than the Beast/antichrist. Read Revelation 9 - 13. Apollo leads the demons from the bottomless pit, while the beast arrives in chpt 13 and seems to be a man, who is empowered by Satan. Could they still be the same? Maybe. But we must also consider they may be different as well. Go to the scriptures see what's true and please share your thoughts in the comments. The fact does remain that Buddha's links to Apollo are indeed still there. And of course, Apollo is said to be in the bottomless pit.)

This is my speculation only. There could be, and have been whole studies done on who the antichrist is, and they’ve been done better than I have done here (http://www.lookupfellowship.com/2009/01/is-maitreya-antichrist.html and http://www.redmoonrising.com/maitreya.htm) . Yet another issue for me to pick up later I guess. The red moon rising article does a great job of comparing the Share international Maitreya with the Biblical Antichrist. Peter Goodgame, the author of red moon rising has been a guest on Future Quake a number of times.

My line of thought here is that praying to Buddha (and the Buddha Idol) is more or less praying to the demon Apollo. This can be taken one step further by including Maitreya (believed to be the future incarnation of the next Buddha). There are currently Maitreya (probably not the Benjamin Crème one) Buddha idols. Some of which even look like an ET. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitreya, see the Korean statue.

Whether or not this Maitreya is an “ET” (aka demon posing as an alien) is moot. My thought is that whoever is revealed as Maitreya will actually be the being from the bottomless pit, and/or the Antichrist. (See note above, I think they are actually separate entities) The image of the beast, may perhaps be a new form of Maitreya Buddha statue. My theory is that the “life” given to the image of the beast, could well be supernatural, but maybe it’s something robotic. Just a thought.

That’s just a theory anyways. If the “real” Maitreya ends up being the Antichrist, I think that there is enough evidence to make that connection. 1) Maitreya is a future Buddha. 2) Buddha (and by association) all of his incarnation and images was based on the image of Apollo at some point. 3) Apollo is revealed to be the demon in the bottomless pit.

Here’s a little more tying deified Buddha to an Antichrist likeness. At this point, I should say that I think there is some departure from the original human Buddha, and the Buddha that everyone has deified. They’ve made a man into a legend and a god. While he may have had supernatural encounters, I think some things have been embellished to make him more godlike. At any rate, here is one supernatural claim that I think came well after Buddha’s lifetime, but interestingly imitates Christ. It may have even made the rounds when Buddha was alive, but i don't know for sure. But how is it that the historical Buddha who lived around 600BC – 500 BC can imitate Christ? Ah, that's where God has the edge. Prophecy! Around 700BC, more than 100 years before Buddha, the Prophet Isaiah gave that famous prophecy about the virgin that would would conceive! God meant Christ, the Messiah. And Satan meant to twist and imitate it ahead of time by attaching the born of a virgin motif to one of his religions.

Here's the blurb about Buddha's "miraculous" birth. “Gautama is said to have developed supramundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha. Again, I don't think this is true, but it's been attached to the legend of Buddha nontheless. And I speculate that Satan started this story based on Isaiah's prophecy to muddy the waters.


So, we started with Buddha being linked to Apollo, the destroyer of Revelation. Conveniently, there is believed to be an incarnation of Buddha coming in the future, named or called Maitreya. Interestingly, Buddha was also linked to Hinduism’s Vishnu who is in turn the flipside of the same coin to Shiva. Shiva, has a large statue at CERN. Some believe that CERN could create a black hole, or bottomless pit if you prefer. That's quite a coincidence.

What does all this mean? I suppose it means that it will be easy for the Destroyer to be sold as the incarnation of all of these deities. He doesn't have to be called any of these names, but he may be sold as the newest avatar of them. Once that occurs, many will easily worship him thinking he is their god that has returned. In doing so, they merely fulfil Biblical prophecy. On the surface, these beings all seem very different, and there are differences. But in the end, the Destroyer is the Destroyer, and no matter which form he takes, he will ultimately lose to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.


(Update 6-4-11)

First I want to apologize for my wild speculation above. I guess that's the risk we take when we comment on prophecy, but unlike others in my field, I will admit when I'm wrong. I know God will hold me accountable if I don't.

So, I'm not sure what convicted me here. Perhaps it was listening to Patty Heron say that Apollo is the Beast/Antichrist and then I looked into it further. Perhaps his interview raised a question that made me question this, and I was like "Wait a second, I said that too. Better change the blog."

I don't know. But when I looked at Revelation 9 and 13 it really doesn't seem that they could be the same. Apollyon is described as an angel, king of the bottomless pit. The Beast, a man given power by the dragon. At the end of the day though, praying to a Buddha is still 1) praying to an idol and 2) praying to a demon or his image. Even if it's not the Antichrist it's still bad.

So, at the end of the day, I don't know. There appear to be similarities, but there also seem to be difference. I do know that one day, it will become self evident, so please forgive me for perhaps being wrong.

Here's the link for Revelation 9, please read that through 13.

Rev 9

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Rev&c=9&v=1&t=NKJV#top

Rev 13

http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Rev&c=13&v=1&t=NKJV


Revelation 9:11

And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew [is] Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.


Revelation 13

Rev 13:1 NKJV - Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
Rev 13:2 NKJV - Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like [the feet of] a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 NKJV - And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
Rev 13:4 NKJV - So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who [is] like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
Rev 13:5 NKJV - And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months.
Rev 13:6 NKJV - Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 NKJV - It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
Rev 13:8 NKJV - All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 13:9 NKJV - If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Rev 13:10 NKJV - He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Rev 13:11 NKJV - Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
Rev 13:12 NKJV - And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13 NKJV - He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
Rev 13:14 NKJV - And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
Rev 13:15 NKJV - He was granted [power] to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
Rev 13:16 NKJV - He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
Rev 13:17 NKJV - and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18 NKJV - Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number [is] 666.






(Update 10-21-2011: guess what? More info that perhaps contradicts my views on Apollyon/Antichrist. Chris White has a great verse by verse here that gives an alternative of the Appollo being the antichrist. Who's right? God only knows, but I think you should at least be aware of the different views.

http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/?p=315