Captive For Truth

Freedom of God

2016-06-12T21:26:00.003+05:30

We live in the age of democracy. Most of us are living in countries where all citizens are considered equal and are free. This freedom is limited to certain things which our government has given us as privilege, say for example right to freedom of speech, right to practice and profess any religion etc. But still we are not free in the fullest sense. For example, we are bound to the law of gravity even if I want to break from it, we cannot. We cannot stop time and go back to the past or future. We cannot control our aging process. We are not free from physical death. These are some of the things from which we are not free. There are so many things like that in our lives. So we are not free indeed in many things. But this is not the case with God.

God is free in absolute sense. He is not time bound. He is the one who created gravity and the laws of this universe. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is not bound to anything in this universe. He needs no councils and he is not under any other creation’s authority be it visible or invisible ones.

To reiterate that fact, let us look at two passages from scripture.

"Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements--surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? "Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'? (Job 38:2-11)”

Here God is asking a series of rhetoric questions to Job to make him understand His absolute power and His wisdom in how the entire creation has been created through His power. The above passage is just an example which I have quoted to state the point I am trying to convey. I will give another example from scripture to prove the absolute freedom God is having:

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" (Dan 4:35)

Nebuchadnezzar was a king of Babylon. During his period, Babylon was the only superpower nation of the world and almost all other civilized nations were under its control either directly or through diplomatic supremacy, somewhat like our present day United States. As a ruler and king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was proud about his accomplishments. Immediately, God gave him some mental illness and he was so humiliated that he was put to stay along with animals. Then he realised his folly and understood that there is God who is so powerful and mighty with absolute freedom to do whatever He wants to in this universe, who is much greater than the greatest king in the world.

These are some of the examples given in Scripture to show us the absolute freedom God is having. He is free to do whatever He wants to do. There is nothing which God cannot do. God is not bound to any other authority.

There are some people who ask questions like this: If God is having absolute freedom, then why is there suffering in this world? Where is God when we suffer? Can God stop all sufferings in this world?

Before giving a straight forward answer, let us remember who God is in first place. God need not have to create this universe. Even if God didn’t create this universe, even if He didn’t create any of the creation in this universe, He would have been the same. He is in no way dependant on us. Even if He didn’t create any human beings, He will be the same and he could have might as well not created anyone or anything. So the question is not ‘Can God eradicate sufferings in this world?’ but rather ‘Should God eradicate sufferings in this world?’ In other words, is God under some higher authority, where He is bound to eradicate sufferings in this world? Bible’s answer to that question is no. God is the highest authority in this universe. He is answerable to no one.

Inspite of having such absolute power, God’s only son, Jesus Christ though He has the exact nature of God, yet He chose out of His absolute freedom to become humble and take the form of human flesh and took up the cross and died for us so that we can be free from our sins. How great our God is! The very God who has absolute freedom chose to take up the worst form of bondage so as to give us freedom! Now when we ask the question why we are suffering, we should also ask this question, why God who has absolute power and freedom, should also suffer in the worst way possible? This is the only answer: “He does all that he pleases.” (Psa 115:3)

What is the application of knowing about God’s absolute freedom for us? Firstly it gives us a sense of awe and wonder about how great our God is. We worship a God who has absolute power and authority. Also this gives us humility to know how inadequate and weak we are. Inspite of this contrast, God chose to love us so much so that He gave us His only son, the Lord God Jesus Christ for the sake of our redemption from our sins. How great is the love of God?

Second thing which we can learn from this attribute is that, there is nothing beyond God’s control. Even if we think our life is so messed up, God can change that and make it a God honouring one. The best example for that is the life of Samson. We know that Samson was not faithful to God fully when he was in his youth. But towards the end of his life, when he was blind and bounded, when his life was in absolute shambles, God used him mightily so much so that the final battle is one of the greatest battle ever he had fought against the Philistines.

This is the same God upon whom we have our faith in. Therefore let us bow down and worship such an awesome God with full reverence and honor and be hopeful that He would lead us to Shalom one day. May the Lord bless us all!

On Secret Sins - Excerpts from Puritan writer S.S. Smith

2016-06-12T16:57:00.001+05:30

It has been a long time since I have written an article in this blog. Hopefully I would be able to be regularly update this blog in future, God willing. Today I would like to share some thoughts on 'secret sins' and ways to overcome them.

What is Secret Sin?

Secret sins are those which are committed either in our hearts or flesh which no one else who are close to us may know except God. These may appear benign but most of them have fallen into horrendous acts of evil because they have let the secret sins to dwell in their lives. How can we identify and make ourselves pure from secret sins?

1) Fear of God:

The starting point of any sins in our lives would be because of the lack of fear of God. So to overcome this sin, we would have to have the holy reverence and honor for God both in our thoughts and actions.

Exodus 20:20 "“Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”

2) Lack of knowledge of Word of God:

We sin in our lives because we don't know what exactly sin is. In order to know that we have to go back to scripture and meditate upon it to identify what are all the areas which are not pleasing to God so that we don't do it.

Hosea 4:6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;

Listen to the words of the puritan on this:

"Those who are least informed, indeed, cannot be wholly ignorant of the evil of these vices, but, unacquainted with the holiness and extent of the divine law, the high degree of their criminality is, in a great measure, unknown to them. They are covered with the guilt of secret faults, and are sinking into perdition, unconscious of the load that is pressing them down."

3) Love of self:

Our Lord Jesus has given a call to all of us deny our self.

"Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Mat 16:24

The reason for such call of Jesus is because we are all totally evil in our being. Our minds are totally corrupt and our natural tendency is to do evil. No man born in this world is innocent. Who has taught a child to steal chocolates from the jar? It just come naturally for all men. So the reason why we entertain secret sins is because we love our self and follow what our hearts desire rather than doing the will of God.

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?"

"Of all the principles of self-deceit pleasure is the most powerful, and opens the widest field for those impositions which men are daily passing upon themselves. They are easily deceived where they already wish to be deceived. Whatever yields them pleasure they are studious to justify. All the fallacies of reason are mustered up to defend the favorite indulgence, and to overcome those scruples that fill the mind, and oppose themselves to the first approaches of vice. "

3)Culture and society around us:

We are the products of our culture. We tend to take things for granted because everyone around us does those things. Many of our habitual sins are because of this kind of reasoning. Some sins are so specific for a particular culture. This has been repeatedly seen in history. For example, abortion is so common in our society and many people don't even consider it as sin. Even 30 years ago, homosexuality was considered an 'abomination' in west, but now it's just a 'lifestyle' because of the influence of the culture. We may also entertain may sins in our lives because others around us are doing it. Smith calls this 'general influence'.

"In consequence of that mysterious sympathy by which men are drawn together, and formed on each other's character and model, they slide insensibly into manners that are continually presented to view in the public example. Custom they confound in their ideas with propriety. And, in a thousand instances, we daily see folly lose its impertinence, and frivolity, deformity, and even vice cease to disgust when recommended and justified by fashion. The best of men frequently perceive their zeal for the glory of God, and the highest interests of human nature, languish through the lukewarmness and formality that have invaded the great body of their fellow Christians. They contract some taint in their own manners from the general license in the midst of which they live. "Because iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold."

4) Our Secular Education:

One of the most important reason Smith gives for secret sins is the influence of education. What we learn in our classroom, the underlying philosophies, drive the culture of the society. For that, I can show from the culture of my country. Indian culture of the 80s is different from the present culture because of education. The early indian culture considered traditional family morality, virtue, honesty and love for others more important than money and hedonism. Entered the education of 90s which taught us, the children of that time, that money and hedonism are the centre of everything in life. The society taught us, to become a doctor or an engineer and grow in our career, as the greatest achievement of the life. This effect is seen in the present age. Both husband and wife goes for work leaving their children to day care from the age of 1 for earning more money. This has resulted in broken marriages, broken children, increased violence against women, increased corruption in the society, abortion, etc. This is just an example. Historians attribute the fall of roman empire to the influence of education during that time, which destroyed that society to barbarianism.

This will affect our churches too. Who is called a good Christian according to our culture? Anyone who is not offending others by telling them anything that offends them. Many students fellowship don't talk about worship because it can offend people. This kind of reasoning is because of the predominant worldview of our society 'New age thinking'. The term 'agree to disagree' has come because of this faulty reasoning.

Much more are they liable to errors in their conduct of inferior moment from the false principles which the frailty of reason and the prejudices of education frequently mingle with the religious systems of the best of men. -- They maintain, perhaps, the basis of divine truth; but they erect upon it a superstructure, in many instances, incorporated with errors of greater or less magnitude. In whatever degree such errors exist, in the same proportion is the spirit of their piety impaired, and the system of their virtues rendered imperfect. According to the figure of the apostle, if they build on the solid foundation of the gospel, wood, hay, stubble, that is, any erroneous principles that lead to an unholy practice, their works shall be burnt, but themselves shall be saved yet so as by fire -- the fire shall consume all the false additions that have been made to this rock of ages which supports the faith and hope of every real believer. Yet, till the day when the fire shall try them, the mistaken professors of the gospel may not only remain blind to the imperfections of their own character, but even flatter themselves with the idea of their innocence or their merit.

With this in mind, let us seek to glorify God by repenting of our secret sins and asking God to mercifully deliver us from them.

Refutation of Cessationism – Part 1

2015-03-01T17:44:00.000+05:30

(I am going to post a series on the unbiblical doctrine of cessationism for few weeks with refutation of each arguments for cessationism each week)

Introduction:

Cessationism is a doctrinal stand which says that the miracles, prophecies, tongues, supernatural healings by the Holy Spirit etc., (Charismatic gifts) has stopped after the closure of Canon of Scripture. It is important that we define our terms correctly before starting an argument. So I am going to use the definition of CARM on Cessationism:

“Cessationism is the position within Christianity that the Charismatic Spiritual gifts (speaking in tongues, word of knowledge, word of wisdom, interpretation of tongues, etc.) ceased with the closing of the Canon of scripture and/or the death of the last apostle.”

Many Christians consider Cessationism as a minor doctrinal position like Baptism etc, which means that a person may choose to not to be a cessationist but still his salvation won’t be affected by his stance. Whereas few other Christians are so vocal and some even consider that a person may be damned to hell if he is not believing in Cessationism. Take for example the case of Dr. John MacArthur from his statement in his conference ‘Strange Fire’:

“Why don’t evangelical leaders speak against this (Charismatic) movement? Why is their such silence? Look When somebody attacks the person of Christ the Evangelical world rises up and says “no, no, no!” . . . the Holy Spirit has been under massive assault for decades and decades, and Ive been asking the question ‘where are the people rising up in protest against the abuse and the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?‘ The only thing I can suggest is that they have been literally backed up into a corner by intimidation that they need to be loving and accepting and tolerant and not divisive in the body of Christ, thats been the mantra. . .”

According to Dr. John MacArthur, if a person is doing miracles or speaking in tongues in this era, he is damned to hell because he is blaspheming the Holy Spirit, even if he claims to be a Christian and shows signs of regeneration. This is just to show you the seriousness of this issue. Many Cessationist are like him vocally accusing Christians of following a damnable heresy.

Even with this background, I can say that I am a continuationist. I believe that Charismatic Spiritual gifts has not yet ceased. The reason I am doing so is because I have Scripture as my support to prove that Charismatic Spiritual gifts to exist even now. Not only that, I am going to show that all cessationists are basing their theology on slippery slope with no scriptural evidence for their stance. I know I may be branded by these militant Cessationist as a ‘heretic’ for being a Continuationist, but Catholics did the same to the reformers for showing Justification by Faith Alone from Scripture. So I fear God more than the approval of men.

In these series of articles, I am going to disprove Cessationism with one argument at a time for each article. So let me start with the first argument today. For this passage, I would like to ask my readers to keep your bible open with 1Corinthian 13 all the time so that it would be easy for you to follow my arguments as I would be going back and forth the context of those verses to understand and refute cessationism.

Cessationist Argument 1: Charismatic Spiritual gifts will cease when the perfect ( Closed canon) comes (1Cor 13:10):

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

(1Co13:9-10)

I think an exposition of this text is sufficient for rebuttal of this argument. Let us look at the background of this text. Apostle Paul has written 1 Corinthians to Corinth church which had been struggling with many sinful practices and wrong ecclesiology. In 1Cor 12-14, he gives regulations on how to use the spiritual gifts. As he was encouraging the church to seek for spiritual gifts, he said, love is much more superior to all other spiritual gifts (1Cor 12:31), because love is patient, kind, bears all things, rejoices in the truth. It is superior to spiritual gifts because, love never ends (1Cor 13:8), but prophecies, tongues and knowledge will cease (1Cor 13:8). Paul goes on to say that “when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away (1Cor 13:10)” So both cessationists and continuationists all agree that prophecies and tongues would cease at some point of time when the ‘perfect’ comes. But both differ at this question, when prophecies and tongues cease to exist. Cessationists say that spiritual gifts would cease with the closure of canon, since according to them, in 1Cor 13:10, perfect means ‘closed canon’. Benjamin Warfield held on to this view. Continuationists would say that spiritual gifts would cease when Christ comes back again, when we are all glorified, since ‘perfect’ means ‘glorified body’.

So does ‘perfect’ means ‘Closed canon’ or ‘Glorified Body’?

The greek word for perfect in Verse 10 is ‘Teleios’ which means ‘Complete’. I agree that this can be used for both ‘Glorified body’ and ‘Closed Canon’, I would say the context of this verse seems to suggest that it means ‘glorified body’:

1) The object of this passage is Corinth church. As I have told you before, Paul is addressing the believers in Corinth Church and instructing them the right doctrines. It is against hermeneutics to suddenly change the object from ‘glorified believers’ to ‘Closure of canon’.

2) In Verse 8, Paul says ‘knowledge will pass away’. Paul here means our ‘knowledge which we know in part’ passes away (Verse 9). Partial Knowledge cannot pass away until the Second coming of Christ because when Christ comes, we will be knowing clearly about Him because Bible promises about that in Hab 2:14: For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. With the context of Verse 11,12 it would mean only when we see Christ face to face, our partial knowledge will pass away.

3) Scripture should interpret Scripture. There are similar passages in the Bible which can be used to compare this account. I will quote some here. You can look up the other passages from this website.

“(Matthew 12:32) Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age, nor in that which is to come.

(Mark 10:30) but he will receive one hundred times more now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life.

(Luke 18:30) who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life

(Ephesians 1:21) far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.”

From these verses, we can see there are two ages. This age and age to come. What is ‘This age’? This earthly life. What is ‘this age to come’? Glorified New heavens and new earth.

With this in context read these verse now:

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1Co 13:12)

If we apply the rule ‘Scripture interpret Scripture’, then the best possible meaning for the word ‘face to face’ is ‘Christ in New Heavens after second coming of Christ’, not ‘Closed Canon’. If you disagree here, then you would have to reject 2^nd coming of Christ and be a strict preterist.

This is why John Calvin also comments ‘Perfect’ as ‘Glorified body’ and ‘Face to face’ as ‘seeing Christ when we are glorified after His 2^nd coming’.

“He now proves that prophecy, and other gifts of that nature, are done away, [798] because they are conferred upon us to help our infirmity. Now our imperfection will one day have an end. Hence the use, even of those gifts, will, at the same time, be discontinued, for it were absurd that they should remain and be of no use. They will, therefore, perish. This subject he pursues to the end of the chapter.

9. We know in part This passage is misinterpreted by most persons, as if it meant that our knowledge, and in like manner our prophecy, is not yet perfect, but that we are daily making progress in them. Paul's meaning, however, is -- that it is owing to our imperfection that we at present have knowledge and prophecy. Hence the phrase in part means -- "Because we are not yet perfect." Knowledge and prophecy, therefore, have place among us so long as that imperfection cleaves to us, to which they are helps. It is true, indeed, that we ought to make progress during our whole life, and that everything that we have is merely begun. Let us observe, however, what Paul designs to prove -- that the gifts in question are but temporary. Now he proves this from the circumstance, that the advantage of them is only for a time -- so long as we aim at the mark by making progress every day.

10. When that which is perfect is come "When the goal has been reached, then the helps in the race will be done away." He retains, however, the form of expression that he had already made use of, when he contrasts perfection with what is in part "Perfection," says he, "when it will arrive, will put an end to everything that aids imperfection." But when will that perfection come? It begins, indeed, at death, for then we put off, along with the body, many infirmities; but it will not be completely manifested until the day of judgment, as we shall hear presently. Hence we infer, that the whole of this discussion is ignorantly applied to the time that is intermediate.”

And on the phrace ‘Face to face’, Calvin comments like this:

The ministry of the word, I say, is like a looking-glass For the angels have no need of preaching, or other inferior helps, nor of sacraments, for they enjoy a vision of God of another kind; [802] and God does not give them a view of his face merely in a mirror, but openly manifests himself as present with them. We, who have not as yet reached that great height, behold the image of God as it is presented before us in the word, in the sacraments, and, in fine, in the whole of the service of the Church. This vision Paul here speaks of as partaking of obscurity -- not as though it were doubtful or delusive, but because it is not so distinct as that which will be at last afforded on the final day.

We can clearly see that Calvin also is also interpreting this passage like a continuationist. Christ is what we see face to face when we are perfect.

Also there are two problems if we mean ‘closure of canon’ as ‘perfect’:

1) It means that the Scriptures were not perfect till the closure of Canon. Just because new testament was not completed during that time, that doesn’t make Old testament Scriptures as ‘imperfect’. For example in James 1:25, he says the law is perfect and he is using the same greek word ‘teleos’. So this view actually undermines the nature of Scripture and opens up the possibility of ‘imperfect Scripture somehow became perfect after canon was closed’ which is fallacious.

2) If Cessationism is true, then ‘knowledge should have also passed away now if tongues get ceased to exist at the closure of canon’ (1Co 13:8: Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away ). If that is the case, then no one can be believing in Christ! How can anyone believe in Christ without God revealing His knowledge about Christ? Cessationism actually opens up a Pandora box of logical fallacies!

This is the end of my rebuttal of first argument of cessationism. I will refute the other arguments of cessationism in the following articles and I would request my readers to keep following. Soli Deo Gloria!

God - The Portion for Righteous Man

2015-02-17T22:37:00.000+05:30

(I gave this sermon on 17-2-2015 in Danish Mission Hospital, Thirukoilur)

A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, "How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?" Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

(Psa 73:1-28)

I will divide my sermon into three topics, Exposition of Psalms, Doctrine and Practical Application.

Exposition:

The psalmist is a righteous man who has written this psalm from his perspective. He sees the lives of two types of people, an upright man and an unrighteous sinner. The unrighteous man is always proud (v.6) with all types of riches and wealth (v.12). Inspite of all these blessings he never thanks God or honour Him rather, he mocks at God (v.11). Even then he still never has any sufferings in this world (v.4,7).

But the psalmist is an upright and holy man of God (v.13), yet he is struggling with many sufferings (v.14). So he is actually envious of the unbeliever (v.3)

When he sees this from the Sanctuary of God (v.17), he understood the end of the evil men. God has kept them in a slippery slope (v.18-20) and they will be destroyed by God. Then the righteous psalmist realised his folly of envying the unbeliever and he was praising God for being his portion and strength for him (v.23,26)

Doctrine:

a) God is sovereign over both believers and unbelievers:

God controls everything He has created. He upholds the universe by His word (Heb 1:3). So God is in control of the life of both believers and unbelievers.

b) God is in control of both riches and poverty for His glory:

I am going to show you three examples how God can use both riches for destruction of a person and poverty for blessing a person.

First is the example of rich man and poor Lazarus. Rich man had all the wealth and comfort with all the pomp in this world. But his end was a miserable one since he was not upright. Whereas poor Lazarus, though he was poor in this world, yet he was a righteous man thus when he died, he entered heaven and was with God. Another instance is the story of Haman in Esther. God used Haman’s wealth for his own destruction (Est 9:12). Here we see that the earthly comfort which the evil men have is not good before God but rather they are for bringing destruction to evil people.

God can use poverty as a means of blessing for an elect. Job lost all his wealth and his health yet God used that for testing the faith of Job. Bible says in Rom 5:3-5: More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom 5:3-5). In other words, trials for a Christian is good and it will make him even more holy and upright before the Lord and ultimately will glorify God.

Conclusion:

Riches and Poverty doesn’t determine blessedness. Only righteousness is considered as blessed by God:

If you are in Christ, if you are a child of God, even if you are suffering, that is ultimately for your good. If you are having worldly blessings like good health, wealth and prosperity and you are a believer, then it is your responsibility to use that worldly blessing for God’s glory. Ultimately, in front of God’s eyes, righteous man is the blessed man and only he would inherit the heavenly kingdom. He may be poor and miserable in this earth but he would eventually be satisfied by God in Heaven. So to be blessed, we have to be righteous. Let us seek God’s righteousness and seek to glorify him to the utmost.

Canon of Scripture

2015-02-16T22:45:00.000+05:30

(This is my transcript for the sermon I had given on 15-2-2015 in Vellore Reformed Church, Christian Medical College, Vellore)

There are many ‘Christians’ who read Scriptures, who discuss about many doctrines, who wants to know about the intricacies of Baptism and second coming of Christ but when it comes to their practical life, there is no spiritual fruits. They live just like non Christians, they think just like non Christians and their actions also would be like non Christians. Jesus says, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words (Joh 14:24)”. So if you are indeed loving God, your actions will be Biblical and God honouring. And remember, the word of God is so valuable that many Christians have willingly given their lives both in the past and in present just for the sake of reading it.

I hope and pray that the message which I am giving here is not just going to be an academic interest but rather would be life changing and transforming so that we would be glorifying God to the maximum through our obedience to his words.

In this session, I am going to talk on following subtitles:

1) Pretest: To test our current knowledge before attending this session if we can answer the questions which are normally asked to a Christian from other faith.

2) Definition of Canon

3) Principles of Canon

4) How 66 books of Bible were compiled in the past

5) What is not canon?

6) Practical applications of Canon

Pretest:

I am going to give you three practical scenarios. And think about those and if you know the answer, I hope, God willing you would be even more clear about how to answer such questions. If you don’t know the answers, don’t worry you would be able to answer these after this session if you pay attention to what I am telling.

Scenarios:

1) What about the gospel of Thomas found in 1940s? Would you add that to the gospels in current Bible? If not, Why?

2) Why the catholic books like Apocrypha not added in Protestant Bible?

3) Some Hindu sages have said Jesus Christ is mentioned in Rig Veda. So is Rig Veda also God’s Word?

Canon of Scripture – Definition:

According to Merriam Webster, Canon means ‘a criterion or standard of judgement’. It simply means ‘Rule’. Roman Catholics preferred ‘list’ as the definition of Canon. Protestants consider ‘rule’ as the best definition of Canon.

Principles of Canon:

There are three rules which were considered by both old and new testament saints to test the authenticity of Scriptures.

Internal consistency of 66 books of Bible:

Gordon Clark says, “One of the main test for validity of a worldview is internal consistency of its axiom.” For Christians, we start our worldview with Scripture as the axiom. When I say internal consistency, I mean this: “All 66 books of Bible are not self-contradictory”. From Genesis to Revelation, all 66 books talk about the Attributes of God, the sinfulness of man and the need for a messiah to atone for our sins. This theme has been there throughout the scriptures. Most importantly the greatest test is whether a book is proclaiming Christ or not. Luther said, “This is the touchstone by which all books may be tested, to see whether they proclaim Christ or not, since all Scripture witnesses to Christ, and St.Paul will know nothing save Christ. Whatever does not teach Christ is not apostolic, even were it taught by St. Peter or St. Paul.”

Jesus and New testament authors quoted the passages of Old testament as Scriptures for about 295 times. Even in the new testament era, the apostles quoted from each other’s epistles as ‘Scriptures’. I will get back to you later about this in detail in the next part.

In other words, Bible has been inspired by God through many authors who lived in different parts of time, from different background (Prophets, kings, administrators, doctor, Pharisee, tax collectors) and yet they all proclaim the similar theme which is in unison with rest of the scriptures.

Illuminating witness of the Holy Spirit:

Before Jesus was taken up to heaven, He said "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. “(Joh 15:26). God has promised us that the Holy Spirit would guide us in truth. Since God’s promises will come to pass, this has been the testimony of Christians throughout all the time. Wayne Grudem puts it in this way:“

“As we read Scripture the Holy Spirit works to convince us that the books we have in Scripture are all from God and are his words to us. It has been the testimony of Christians throughout the ages that as they read the books of the Bible, the words of Scripture speak to their hearts as no other books do. Day after day, year after year, Christians find that the words of the Bible are indeed the words of God speaking to them with an authority, a power, and a persuasiveness that no other writings possess. Truly the Word of God is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).”

3) God’s providence in closing the canon:

Since God is good and perfect, it is against His nature to hide some of the ‘God’s word’ somewhere in a scroll in a secret place for more than 2000 years after Christ has risen to heaven. Heb 1:1-2 says “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. “(Heb 1:1-2). This verse is the proof for what I have said with regards to closure of canon. There are two periods of time where God revealed. One during the time of Jewish nation which we call as Old Testament and another during the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles in the 1^st century Rome, which we call it as new testament. And God has Rev 22:18,19 not to add or remove the words from the Word of God. Jesus also says in Mat 5:18, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” These are the assurances from God himself that we don’t need to worry if the Bible is incomplete.

Historical Background on Canon:

The idea of Canon started by God when He gave the Ten Commandments. “And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18). Moses wrote from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Joshua and Judges contributed books Joshua and Judges. After that prophets wrote most of the books. King Solomon wrote Proverbs, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. Psalms is collection of many people from different background. Prophets wrote the rest of the books. Last book to be written in Old Testament is Malachi around 435BC. The Jews considered these works as part of Torah and Apocrypha was not considered to be part of Canon. The confusion for Canon of Old testament was not very much because in the New testament Jesus and apostles quoted from these 39 books upto around 295 times.

Just like how the apostles quoted the Old Testament texts, they also quoted New Testament verses as Scriptures. For example, Peter is equating Pauls epistles with Scriptures in 2Pet 3:16 : “So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15–16). Paul also quotes from Luke 10:7 for the verse in 1Tim 5:18: For the Scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain," and, "The laborer deserves his wages." (1Ti 5:18). These two instances prove that the new testament books were recognised as Scriptures by the apostles.

Historically, it has been considered that the apostles were entrusted with the writing of books under divine authorship and inspiration of God. Bible says, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. (2Pe 1:21)” So the first century Christians considered new testament books as scriptures and were quoting them in their letters written to churches. But still all 25 books were not compiled together as new testament till 2^nd century. In 2^nd century, a gnostic heresy called ‘Marcion’ heresy came which claimed that gnostic gospels were the sole truth of God. Gnosticism involves various heretical doctrines like denying humanity of Jesus Christ, Literal death of Jesus on Cross etc. In order to save the church from heretical teachings, the early church leaders wanted to identify and compile the books which are truly inspired by God. Irenaeus was the first to compile as New Testament based on apostolic witness. By the end of 2^nd century, the church leaders understood and accepted the current 25 books as part of New Testament canon.

What is not Canon?

Church is not the authority of Scripture:

The most important argument of Roman Catholics for Scriptures is that, the church authorities of the past were the one who decided what books are to be part of Scripture and what books are not canon. Canon is not the list of books as approved by any human authority. Be it apostles, prophets or Church councils. The Scriptures are self-attested. God providentially illuminated the church leaders in the past to recognize and understand the superiority and the authority of the books of the New Testament. In other words, Church is not above Scripture to decide which books to include and which book to not to include. Rather, God made the church to recognise the books in the new testament as Scriptures through the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit.

Practical application of Canon:

Satan’s attack on Christianity always started with undermining the truthfulness of Scripture and to add or modify the Scripture with falsehood. Be it during the time of Adam and Eve, or with the usage of the divorce laws by Pharisees, Satan always attacks Scripture. Almost all Pseudo-Christianity like Roman Catholics, Liberals, JW, Morons have a distorted Scripture. So if you want to know if a person is truly saved or not, look at his attitude towards Scripture. They may be reading all other Christian related books, watch Christian movies, listen to contemporary Christian songs and even organise Shiloh. But If he or she is not at all interested in reading Scriptures and practically applying it in their lives, it more or less means that they are not saved. Because only a regenerated person will have a desire and passion to read the Word of God. Only a truly saved person can say: “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. (Psa 119:72)”.

Also closed canon gives us assurance that we don’t need to go and run around other books and ‘prophecies’ to know about the salvation and things of above pertaining to God. We don’t need to run around special anointed leaders to know God’s will. We can read the Scriptures and God will reveal it to us His will directly to us. Read Deu 29:29.

"The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

(Deu 29:29)

If Bible is truly God’s word inspired, then it also means all of what Bible says is true. The mark of a true Christian is not by just easy believerism. When I say ‘easy believer’ I mean Christians who claim to be born again but their lives have been just like that of the world. A true Christian will have new affections to please God. He would willingly want to do the things pleasing God. In order to know what pleases God, we need to go back to Scriptures since 2 Tim 3:16 says Bible is complete for all necessary Christian life. If you are a Christian, you should be asking this question to you: What motivates your daily activitities? For example, why you go to college? Why you choose a particular future goal? Why you go for shopping etc? Why do Pegasus etc…. What is your answer for these questions? If your answers are no different from what the world says, then you should be questioning your salvation. A Christian should base his life through scripture. You should be able to say the reason why you live in a way different from what the world says.

Answers for Scenarios:

1) What about the gospel of Thomas found in 1940s? Would you add that to the gospels in current Bible? If not, Why?

Because it is not internally consistent. And God in His providence would not have kept Christians for the past 2000 years in darkness without revelation, illuminating work of the spirit

2) Why the catholic books like Apocrypha not added in Protestant Bible?

Not internally consistent, God’s word has more authority than church councils, illuminating work of the Spirit

3) Some Hindu sages have said Jesus Christ is mentioned in Rig Veda. So is Rig Veda also God’s Word?

Even if Jesus is mentioned, that doesn’t make any difference. Ultimately Vedas and Puranas endorse other gods also which is in total contradiction to the nature of Christian God. So either it is an intellectual plagiarism of Bible or just hearsay which ultimately means not truth.

Why I am not an Arminian

2014-11-02T21:12:00.000+05:30

Two days ago, while the world was celebrating Halloween, Protestant Christian Churches all over the world remembered the most significant event which happened in 1517 on the same day, when Luther nailed the 95 thesis and rebuking the wicked practices of Catholic church, as Reformation day.

I think that this was one of the world’s most significant event which turned the history upside down because Reformation is the reason for the spread of the gospel all over the world and it is only because of reformation, true Christians were able to read the Bible in their own language. Most of the world renowned educational institutions, orphanages, missionary activities and medical philanthropic missions can be directly linked to the fruits of Reformation.

In spite of all these legacies, many of the 21^st century Protestants hardly would have heard of Luther’s name. Among those who know about Luther hardly know about the debate which he had with a Catholic called Erasmus refuting the doctrine of Free will through his book, “The bondage of the Will”.

Now most of the evangelicals believe in Free Will and a theological system called Arminianism or Semi-Pelagianism. There are various arguments to disprove Arminianism from Scripture. Yet here in this article, I would address few of it, which convinced me that Arminianism is not Biblical.

Those who want to know what Arminianism is, click here

1) Arminianism undermines the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross:

According to Arminians, Jesus Christ has died for the all the sins of the whole world. If that is the case, everyone should be in heaven. Hell should contain only Satan and his evil angels. But Bible clearly says that there will be some men who will be going to hell (Mat 7:23). If men are going to hell inspite of what Christ death on the cross, by logic that implies that the blood of Christ was not sufficient enough for those in hell to be saved.

Armininans would say that those men are thrown to hell because they did not choose Christ out of their free will. So by implication, Christians are saved only by the ‘choice’ which they took in believing Christ because of their ‘free will’. This creates an even greater problem and I would tell you why. If the act of ‘choosing Christ by Free Will’ is what is going to make a difference between heaven and hell, then the death of Christ on the cross is of no primary importance. A person can go to hell due to his choice inspite of what Christ did for him on the cross.

On the contrary, Bible says that the death of Christ on the cross is enough to save the person from the punishment of Hell.

He (Christ) entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Heb 9:12)

Samson, David, etc at times took bad choices and sinned yet they were not sent to hell because they were elect and Christ had died for all of their sins including their bad choices and thus became champions of faith (Hebrew 11). So the blood of Christ is powerful than the evil choices of the elect.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (Joh 10:27-28)

Christ had died specifically for His elect. Thus His death is sufficient and specific to save them from all the sins including their evil choices.

2) Armininanism undermines the power of God in prayer:

Bible says we should pray for unbelievers that they will be saved (2The 3:1). If man has ‘Free will’ to not to choose God, then why pray for unbelievers to be saved? By implication of Arminianism, no matter how much we pray, no matter how much grace God gives, a person can frustrate God’s grace by using his ‘free will’ not to choose Christ? This would discourage me from praying for a person because only his choice can save him from his sins ultimately.

But we pray because, Bible says that God hears the righteous prayers (James 5:16) and changes the hearts of unbelievers to be saved. Because only God can change a person’s heart. No man can change his heart by his own.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Eze 36:25-26)

Here we can see it is God who gives a new heart and removes the heart of flesh. Only then a person will have a desire to love Christ. If you think you can change a person’s heart by your own power, then you will only be disappointed by your failure because only God can create a new heart and no one else can. The only thing which we can do is to pray for that person to change and to preach the gospel continuously and commanding him to repent.

3) Arminianism undermines the sinfulness of man:

If a sinful man is sent to hell because of sin of not choosing Christ, by implication, those who are going to heaven are better and morally good than those going to hell since they have chosen Christ. So that means that there is some inherent goodness in those who are going to heaven, which made them choose Christ. This view not only can give us pride and a sense of superiority over unbelievers but also undermines the glory of God.

Rather Bible says all men have equally sinned in the eyes of God and all men are totally depraved. There is no inherent goodness of man.

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. (Rom 3:10-11)

Thus there is nothing inherent in man to choose God. Only God can supernaturally enable a man to choose Christ.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (Joh 15:16)

Free will theology is wrong, unbiblical and can dishonour God if practically applied. Thus I am not an Armininan.

If you have liked reading this, you can also read O Faithless Generation! and also Two Dangerous Sins which A Reformed Christian can face

The Two Dangerous Sins which a Reformed Christian can Face

2014-09-21T21:03:00.004+05:30

All Christians are sinners. Bible says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1Jo 1:8)”. Yet there are two particular sins which are notoriously common with people adherent to ‘Doctrines of Grace’ which is also called ‘Calvinism’. Though these sins can be there among Christians belonging to other denominations, yet a wrong understanding of Calvinistic theology can make these sins very obvious. I will address both of these and write a rebuttal for the same from Scripture. I am not writing this with a ‘holier than thou’ attitude, but I know these things because I have also committed these sins after starting to believe in Calvinism. So let me address these primarily as a means to admonish Calvinistic believers:

1) Pride of our Theological knowledge:

Honestly speaking, of all the denominations in protestant Christianity, most number of Christian works are written by Calvinistic preachers and teachers. People like John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and other puritans have written so many great works in Christian faith which is a treasure house and a shining gem of Christianity. When a Christian discovers these great truths of Calvinism from Scripture, he would be overjoyed and glad about the greatness and magnificence of God’s wisdom. But sometimes, these ‘new’ Calvinists, tend to compare their theological knowledge with believers who are theologically naïve and develop a sense of superiority complex, thinking that they know so much from Scripture. This would manifest in two ways:

a) Not willing to learn further from Scripture or from other Christian works.

b) Having ‘holier than thou’ attitude with Christians who are not as theologically mature as them.

I want to share two verses for these people.

"God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (Jam 4:6)

Bible says it is God who reveals all the truths of Scripture to man, since naturally man is blind (Eph 1:4). When God is revealing to us more from Scripture, a true Calvinist would be more and more humble about the magnificence and greatness of God’s wisdom and knowledge rather than being proud of his theological superiority. A consistent reformed Christian would exclaim with Paul in pure humility:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?" "Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?" For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

(Rom 11:33-36)

If you think you are rich in theology, consider again: God can take away all the theological knowledge from you anytime if you are proud since it is God who has given you wisdom to understand this and you did not 'choose' on your own.

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Rev 3:16-17)

I want to clarify another important thing with regard to this. I am not in anyway encouraging theological ignorance and this should not be taken as an excuse to not to learn theology at all. A Christian should always be ready to listen to what God is speaking to us through Scripture and through the work of Godly teachers and preachers with an attitude which Samuel had to listen to Lord’s voice(1 Sam 3:10)

2) Prayerlessness:

It is one of the duties of a Christian to watch and pray daily. Prayer is a means of communication of our thankfulness and petition to God. When we are newly into reformed faith, sometime, we undermine the importance of prayer. We think, “Since God has predestined everything in my life, why should I have to pray? Anyway irrespective of whether I pray or not, God is not going to change what he has destined. So why should I pray?”

To answer this question simply: “We have to pray because, God has commanded us to do so”. Let me explain to you in detail. The duty of a Christian is to obey God and enjoy Him forever. One of the means of obedience is through pray. Bible gives ample amount of instructions for a Christian to pray. Our Lord taught us how to pray in Matthew 6. Yet if we are not praying, it means we are disobeying God. And Bible says that God hears our prayers and acts accordingly. Let me explain to you with this following verse:

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison--

(Col 4:3)

Paul asks the believers to pray for his work. He says that God will hear their prayer to open the door for the word. Many Arminians think that God doesn’t know our future and only by our prayer that we can ‘remind’ God to act. But Paul knows that God has ordained everything what is going to happen in future. Paul would have known this verse: Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' (Isa 46:9-10)”. Yet he is asking the believers to pray because:

a) It is a commandment of God for Christians to pray.

b) God chooses to act providentially through the means of our prayer. In that way, we are not believing in a fatalistic gods of Islam and Hinduism but to the God who listens to our prayer and rewards our efforts by His action, though all these are ordained already before the foundation of this world.

That was the reason why Paul is asking all the believers to pray regularly. Therefore let us all be living a prayerful life, consistent with what is taught in Scripture. I humbly write all these for the edification of fellow warriors of Christian faith so that we would be more and more sanctified in Christlikeness.

If you have liked this, you can also read Why I am not an Arminian?

Overcoming Habitual Sins

2014-09-07T01:50:00.004+05:30

The word ‘sin’ when loosely defined from Scripture means ‘Transgression of God’s laws’. Though man was created in the image of God, yet because of his fall, sin came into this world. And all men are dead in their sins (Rom 3:10). Even after being regenerated by God, Christians commit sin. But we know that God is infinitely Holy and righteous. Even the least of the sins which we do, is considered as a serious violation in God’s laws. Yet there is a particular type of sin which is more dangerous than the rest of them. That is habitual sins. Habitual sins are the type of sins where we tend to do a sinful activity regularly without any willingness to come out of it. These sins can be anything like occasional lying, getting angry for no reason, lustful eyes, drunkenness or love of money. C H Spurgeon once said regarding Habitual sins like this:

“Habitual sins are like holes in a ship. Even the small holes can sink a giant ship”.

Habitual sins are dangerous because,

1) One may not think that he is sinning in the first place. He may become too hardened to repent and may not be quickened by the Spirit.

2) Even if he realises that he is sinning, still he would be indulging in that because he would be under the deception that he will get the ultimate satisfaction only through that sin. For example, Alcoholic addicts most often would know the harmful effects of it, yet they sin because of this deception.

What are the biblical ways of overcoming habitual sins?

1) Repentance and Godly Sorrow:

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2Co 7:10)

Both believers and unbelievers commit sin. But the only difference between them is the genuine grief and sorrow which a believer will have for the sins which he has committed. This may look too basic for a believer. You could have been in the Lord for a long time. Still this is the primary step in overcoming habitual sin. Bible says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psa 51:17)”. So first we need to repent of the sins which we are committing habitually.

2) Prayer:

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. (Mat 26:41)

We cannot overcome habitual sins without prayer. Only by the power of God, we can overcome. Prayer is a means in which we can communicate to God our inability to be holy and blameless by ourselves. It is the way to show that we are only dependant on God for our salvation and our sanctification and denying of our own self. And Jesus promised this: And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith." (Mat 21:22). God will teach us specific ways to overcome these sins.

3) Meditation of God’s word:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. (Psa 1:1-2)

The only way we can overcome sin is to think of whatever things which are praiseworthy and honourable (Phi 4:8). We can be victorious over our sins only if we know the precepts of God. Bible says “God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (Hos 4:6)”. If we read Proverbs, the wise men are differentiated from foolish people not because of their IQ but because of their righteousness. So we need to think biblically all the time to overcome sins. Apart from our daily meditation of Scripture, we should be reading the word of God during our leisure time too. I find listening to audio Bible while having dinner very edifying instead of watch TV or a movie. Likewise each of us can find a way in which we can meditate Scripture.

4) Fear of God:

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, (Deu 10:12)

The main reason why we sin is because we don’t have the fear of God. We don’t understand His attributes. We tend to take him for granted. We are not victims of habitual addictions but rather we are sinning because of our own wickedness. We forget that, “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. “(Heb 4:13). If we truly remember God as he is, then we would never do those ‘trivial’ sins which can cost our eternity. We should actively strive to think more about God’s character and His Holiness so that we would truly fear him and obey his commands.

5) Discipline:

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1Co 9:25-27)

We may have to redefine our lives to overcome habitual sins. We should make changes in such a way that the sin which we do regularly, should be made difficult to commit. If you expose your sin to light, then it would not do that again. If you are addicted to alcohol, you can start by doing simple things like not going through the street where they sell liquor. If internet is distracting you to commit lust, then it is better to cancel your internet connection or keep your computer in a common place. We should remember that it is better to enter into heaven without having used internet in our life, rather than going to hell because of it.

6) Pleasure of doing God’s will:

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psa 16:11)

The reason why habitual sins thrive in our lives is because we tend to believe the time-tested lie of Satan that obedience to God will not satisfy our soul. But Bible says in so many places that only if we seek to obey God’s will, we would have ultimate happiness. John Piper puts that beautifully here: “God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him”. We should learn to trust more in God and be content in the pleasure which He gives us willingly if we obey His will.

7) Love thy Neighbour:

Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mar 12:29-31)

When we are sinning, we are actually not loving God and also our neighbour. If you are habitually angry with your wife, the reason is because you are not loving your wife and you are not honouring God. If we love God and love others, we can truly overcome sin.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (1Pe 4:8)

8) Accountability partner:

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! (Ecc 4:9-10)

It is always good if you can have an accountability partner, who can help us in overcoming the sins we are struggling with. It should be preferably a mature believer who can be trustworthy and who truly cares for your wellbeing.

Finally let us remember that the Blood of Christ is sufficient to overcome all sins. Even though we may fall now, God is gracious and merciful because if He has regenerated you, He has promised that we would be sanctified and glorified to become like Christ.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order

that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Rom 8:29-30)

So if God has chosen us for eternity, “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. “(Rom 8:33). Thus let us trust in God for doing His work of salvation in our lives since the God whom we believe in is faithful and mighty to save.

If you have liked this, you can also read Television - An addiction that makes us an Idiot

What is Freedom?

2014-08-17T13:46:00.000+05:30

India celebrated its Independence this week. 67 years ago, India got her freedom from the British Empire to be an independent Sovereign Republican State. From the national parade in the Red Fort to the Prime Minister’s speech, most of us in the most populous nation would have remembered something about what exactly the term ‘Freedom’ means. Just like the millions of gods in our nation, there are millions of definitions of ‘Freedom’ among our people. I read some articles in Internet as in how our nation thinks of ‘Freedom’. I found an interesting article in ‘The Times of India’ where some youngsters defined what Freedom is by holding a placard in their hands like in the picturehere. Here are some of them in their words.

“#Freedom is:

Wearing what I want and not being called a slut.

Being able to choose my own sexual preferences.

Equal rights for LGBT

Not being looked up to as the ‘Breadwinner’ of the Family

Choosing to not to have kids”

These are just some of the many definitions which can be found among our people. Some of which are thought provoking. But there is still one question it begs: How can all of them have a totally different meaning of freedom? Say let us take the reasoning of a pro LGBT person. For him, Freedom is ‘not to be told that homosexuality is wrong’. There are two problems with these kind of reasoning. First, if telling a person that he is wrong is slavery, then ISIS militants and Nazi Germans would also say that they are denied of freedom to kill the minorities and Jews, since most of the world are criticising for their actions. Second, he is not practicing what he preaches. If a homosexual wants no one to tell that his lifestyle is wrong, then he has no right to say that people who are opposing his lifestyle is wrong. Conservatives can also cry like him saying: “Freedom is not being labelled as bigot by a homosexual”

This is the problem of our Post-Modern society. Our society is crumbling in front of our eyes without our notice. Each one has a meaning of freedom. Freedom for one can be a slavery to another. Nazi’s definition of freedom would have been slavery for the Jews. This brings us the necessity to have objective morality. Now you would ask me a question. So what about the objective moral laws like the Sharia law of Islam or Communist manifesto? Yes. They are objective but they were framed by evil sinful men. So though they are objective, they are far from Justice. So the laws should be given by a Just and a Righteous person. Who is the righteous person in this universe?

Only God is good:

"The Rock, his (God) work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. (Deu 32:4)

Only God is Holy and blameless. There is no one in this universe who is blameless, who is just. Bible says, "None is righteous, no, not one; (Rom 3:10)”. So whether it is the homosexual liberal agnostic or a conservative Muslim or a moralistic Hindu, all human beings are sinners by default.

2. Only good God can define what freedom is and what is good for us:

(Deu 10:12-13)

God created this universe. God created us in His image for His glory. Since only God is good, only He knows what is right and what is good for us. No human can define what is good because he himself is evil. How can evil produce any good? Rather like how this verse above says, God has given his commands and morality which is the only objective righteous truth. Only if we obey the laws, like the above verse says, we would have real freedom. These laws are not considered to be a bondage but rather as a fence to prevent us from falling down the cliff of slavery. And all these laws are given in Scripture (2Tim 3:16,17)

3. Only God can give true freedom:

As I have shown you from above, all of us are evil. Evil is opposite to what the commands and precepts of God. So since we all have disobeyed his commands, all of us are under the slavery of sin. And since God is just and holy, He will punish us because justice requires punishment of evil doers. Since He is infinitely Holy and Just, our punishment will also be infinitely severe. But God in His mercy, He gave us His only Son, the Lord God Jesus Christ to become a man in earth, just like us and came to take the punishment we justly deserve. He took the punishment of those who would believe in Him and died, 2000 years ago, on a cross so that the justice of God and His wrath would satisfied. And God raised Him on the third day from the Dead to prove that He had succeeded in taking the punishment of His children and now He is lifted up in Heaven. Only Jesus can give us true freedom. So if you repent and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sin, you would be truly free indeed and you will have eternal life.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (Joh 8:36)

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. (Rom 6:22)

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Gal 5:1)

If you have liked this, you may also like Man and his gods

Medical Missions – My thoughts (Part 2)

2014-08-04T23:57:00.001+05:30

This is a continuation of my previous article. I was not able to address all the issues related to medical missions in my previous article. Also I had seen many comments regarding what I had said previously. I will try to address those and also give more clarification regarding my position on medical missions. This is a long article. Kindly do bear with me.

Role of Mission hospitals and Church:

A lot of doctors working in mission hospitals in this era are of the opinion that mission hospitals should be independent of Church. The reason why they claim to do so is because of all the corruption which is present in the mainline churches and its influence is felt even in mission hospitals. Some doctors say mission hospitals should be the first to be established in an area where Christ is not heard so that it would facilitate the missionaries to preach the gospel without the opposition because the locals would be impressed by the good works of mission hospitals and thus be more willing to listen to the gospel which is preached.

I agree that our good works would give a positive influence on those to whom we preach the gospel. But Bible says in Romans 1:16 that gospel itself is a power for those who are destined to be saved. We don’t do all the good works and charity to facilitate the preaching of the gospel but out of good will to fulfil the second greatest command of God, “Love thy neighbour”.

And Biblically it is Church which should lead in doing missions, not the mission hospitals. If you read Acts 6:1-6, Church in Jerusalem actually was overburdened with both teaching and doing charity (which at that time was to serve their poor widows). So the Church actually set apart some of its leaders to do the act of charity while others can do the act of preaching and teaching. This was the basis in which many of the mission hospitals were established in India. Mission hospitals should be under the authority of the church. This does not mean that Church has to influence the mission hospitals in all the decision which it takes but mission hospitals should be in a way doing the work of a charity in the area where church needs, to help the poor brethren who are sick.

Now you would ask me why all the mission hospitals under the church are very badly affected by politics? The answer is because the Church is sick now. The church in India is really sick and dead. The leaders of our mainline churches are not regenerate. They don’t fear the Lord. They are not loving him. They are not afraid of his holiness and righteousness. They fear men. And these men dominate the governing board and they all want to 'eat' whatever property church owns and thus our mission hospitals are dead. So the politics of mission hospitals under churches is a symptom of the greater disease, which is dead Church.

Can the good deeds done by the mission hospitals like CFH, Oddanchatram justify its existence without the authority of Church?

A Christian should base his actions on how Bible instructs. As I have said before, a Christian charity hospital should be a helping arm of the local Church in that locality of need. Mission hospitals like CFH and current Christian Medical College, Vellore are not under the authority of Church at least in practice nor do they directly help the church in that locality. I am not saying what they are doing is of no use for Christ. They are very charitable and I commend their efforts to be straight forward and ethical in their practice. But we cannot call them as Mission hospitals in biblical terms. They are at the maximum doing charity to poor people and there are not actively involved in helping the Church in preaching the gospel.

For a Christian, end does not justify the means. So just because good deeds are done by these hospitals, does not necessarily mean they are established by Biblical means. For example, Aravind eye hospitals, Ramakrishna Mission hospitals etc, are also established with charity as a motive. And they do a really good job in treating poor patients. But that does not mean that they are established according to God’s will nor their belief is right.

Can mission doctors propagate good deeds done in the mission hospitals to inspire people and to gather funds for their hospital?

A Christian should be inspired to do good deeds out of love for God not out of compulsion or persuasion of others. And a Christian should depend on God first for all the provisions. George Muller is a good example of that. He ran orphanages without asking anyone for help because he trusted that God would provide for the functioning of his orphanage. Likewise, doctors working in the area of need should be primarily dependent on God for their help. And Church should actively address the needs of the hospital. If you read Acts, the Christians of Antioch helped the saints of Jerusalem spontaneously without anyone prompting them to help (Acts 11:28-30). So we should also have faith in God for our physical needs to be fulfilled in our mission hospitals in need.

A Case study of the mission hospital where I am working now (and I am not a medical missionary just because I am working in mission hospital!)

Most of my readers will know that I am also a medical doctor. I am currently working in Danish Mission Hospital, in a small town in Tamil Nadu, India called Tirukkovilur. This hospital is also a mission hospital. Our hospital was established in 1911. Before that Lutheran missionaries from Denmark Missionary Society came to India to this locality to preach the gospel and they established churches here. In those days, infectious diseases were quite rampant and both missionaries and the locals were dying because of that. So believing doctors from Denmark, under the guidance of our Church, Denmark Lutheran Church, established our hospital in this place. It served it's purpose at that time. After 100 years, the scenario is completely different. Tamil Nadu is one of the most developed parts of India. And this town has all the basic facilities with good government secondary hospital along with many private hospitals. And because of better sanitation and education, most of the endemic diseases of the past are controlled now. And people here also are well off than the past. So technically, the existence of my hospital in this locality does not serve the purpose of why it was established, 100 years back.

So does that mean that mission hospitals are not relevant now? Absolutely not. Like I said in my previous article, mission hospitals are still in need in parts of our country where there are missionaries who are planting churches, where the health care is poor and endemic diseases are common. For example, the tribal villages in Chattisgarh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh. The doctors who are doing charity in such mission hospitals are the ones who are doing medical missions, in historical point of view.

So the point is this: Just because a doctor is working in a mission hospital now situated in a fairly developed part of India, does not make him or her, a Medical Missionary. Medical Missionary is one, who is actually helping the Church of a primitive place with poor health facilities primarily through his charitable good deeds for preventing the locals and Christian missionaries dying of endemic diseases.

Please read my previous article Medical Missions- My thoughts (Part 1) also

Medical Missions - My thoughts (Part 1)

2014-08-02T15:18:00.001+05:30

Historically, the medical missionary concept or mission doctors were sent to help the missionaries who are preaching the gospel with the health needs of the society, because of two reasons. One, the missionaries themselves were dying. Two, as an act of benevolence as a Christian charity. David Livingstone, Hudson taylor went out with this motive as a medical missionary. But slowly for the past 70 years, medical missionaries have become a separate entity by themselves. Atleast now, most of them go with helping the sick and poor in that area as the primary motive and gospel as a secondary motive. I am not categorizing all medical missionaries like this, but now almost most of them have this as a motive or ‘calling’. Is it biblical?

The medical missionaries reason out like this:

1) Jesus and Apostles did healing ministry:

But it was done by the power of Holy Spirit

As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
(Act 10:36-38)

It was done to authenticate the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:22, 2 Cor 12:12).

It was always accompanied by preaching and teaching (Mat 4:23).

It was instantaneous healing. (Mat 9:6-8; Acts 3:7-8; Acts 14:1-8,10; Acts 19:11,12; and many more)

2. Healing a person as a whole:

Bible always gives importance to Spiritual healing than physical healing.

1Ti 4:7-8 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

So if medical missionaries are healing physically the patients who are coming to them, are they also spiritually healing them by preaching the gospel? Most often they give an excuse that they are busy. Yes that is true. But some of them, who don’t want to accept this truth, preach something else to their patients, which is not a gospel and think that they are preaching the gospel. For example ‘Jesus loves you’ is the most common ‘gospel’ of everyone.

I agree that this statement is true and biblical. But it is not the gospel. The gospel is summarised in following verses:

1Co 15:1-4 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Are the current medical missionaries truly healing a person as a whole?

3. Luke was a doctor:

Bible mentions Luke as having a profession as a doctor, just like how Peter as a fisherman, Matthew as a tax-collector. Nothing more than this. There is no description of his profession mentioned in the Bible. Just because Luke was a Christian, does that mean he should be called medical missionary? Then Peter should start fishing mission, Paul should start tent-making mission, isn’t it?

4. Showing the love of Christ by the compassionate touch of a doctor:

But as a Christian, whether we are doctors of plumbers, we ought to show the love of Christ by our actions.

This is not something limited only for Christian doctors.

5. Medicine paves a path for the gospel to ease the opposition:

If that's the case, we would be relying on human effort rather than the power of God. It is not only dishonouring God but also exalts our profession to such an extent that God, who is all powerful, Sovereign, who has all authorities under Him, for whom the earth is just like a drop of dew, should stoop down to a Christian doctor’s help to work on people's heart? Isn’t that sinful? That is a manifestation of pride.

Rather we should need the power of Holy Spirit to work on the people to listen the gospel.

For gospel “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” (Rom 1:16).

6. We are doing good deeds for God:

That's a noble motive. But we should remember that while we are practicing medicine for helping the poor, we should do it in such a way how Jesus commanded us to do good deeds.

Mat 6:3-4 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

But very often, medical missionaries talk so much about what they are doing in the mission hospitals, how many patients are healed, how many free surgeries they have done, how many villages they have reached as community work, etc.. about themselves to others. Jesus said this is not a sign of a Christian but a Pharisee.

Mat 6:2 "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward

So these are my thoughts regarding what a ‘typical medical missionary’ is doing. I understand that most of them are doing this out of ignorance of the Word. But as Proverbs 19:2 says, even if we have zeal, if we don’t do what we are supposed to do, as revealed as in accordance to Scripture, then we are not honouring God.

Yet I still think that even now doctors are needed in mission fields, where there are no health facilities, where missionaries and patients are dying of endemic diseases there. So I would name such doctors as mission doctors, or medical missionaries, whose primary goal is to help the health needs of the missionaries in preaching the gospel. That was how many medical missionaries of past came. I will give some more thoughts in my coming article.

This article is continued in Medical Missions - My thoughts (Part 2)

Can a Christian practice Yoga?

2014-07-20T20:02:00.001+05:30

Yoga, which once used to be a phenomenon of Eastern religions, has become an universal lifestyle. Studies have shown that even in a predominantly Christian population like that of the U.S, about 20% of people regularly practice Yoga and other versions of it. In many schools in the U.S, practice of Yoga have become very common. Doctors also recommend them as an ‘alternative’ therapy for many illnesses like schizophrenia, heart diseases etc.

Many of the yoga practitioners claim it to be a ‘science’ just like physics or mathematics. Most of them say it is nothing religious and just an exercise. But there are New Age Movements like Transcendental Meditation etc., which claims Yoga to be a spiritual exercise.

So what exactly is Yoga? Is it just an exercise for relaxing our body or a spiritual worship of a deity? So before I talk about the Christian view of Yoga, I would like to say a few things about Yoga.

What is Yoga?

The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from a Sanskrit vedic text which means, ‘to add’, ‘to join’ or ‘to attach’. According to ‘Art of Living’, Yoga is ‘a complete way of living which includes philosophy, path of devotional bliss, path of blissful action, path of mind control which is called ‘asanas’. Let me explain to you the background of Yoga in Hindu philosophy. Hinduism is a pantheistic religion according to which everyone and everything is god. In Hindu traditions, man can become god if he is able to attain the higher wisdom or ‘spirituality’ to unite with ‘Brahma’ which is the greatest manifestation of god likeness. This Brahma is not a person but just a phenomenon or power. To become a god, man has to activate his ‘chakras’ to attain highest form of life in the next incarnation. This can be done through various ‘means’ also called as ‘karma’. For example, some attain through worship of various gods in the temples also called ‘Bhakt’, some through doing social service called ‘dharma’ etc. One of the means to attain the higher spirituality is ‘Yoga’. If you do various yoga ‘asanas’ or ‘postures’, you would be more and more closer to the higher spirituality which would enable you to ‘improve’ your karma thereby attaining higher ‘god’ likeness. These postures are designed in such a way that they represent the form of worship to various Hindu gods.

Is Yoga and Christianity compatible?

Though science has shown some health benefits in doing yoga, it is still a mystery as in how those benefits happen. For example, there are proven scientific principle on how weight reduction will reduce the incidence of heart attacks. There are no such scientific principle in Yoga. With this in mind, let us see the problems of Yoga:

1) Inherent goodness of man:

Since Yoga is derived from Hindu philosophy, it is based on a worldview which believes that man is inherently ‘good’. But Bible
clearly says that men are all sinful.

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. (Rom 3:10-11)”

From the sages of the Ganges to the celebrities in Hollywood, all human beings are sinners and all are bad people. This truth is denied in yoga.

2) Our ‘self’ is the ultimate end of the universe:

Yoga also claims that man can find answers by himself from within his mind. He is not dependent on others and he is not accountable to God. All he needs to do is to improve his spirituality. But Bible says that man has been made for the glory of God and he is absolutely dependent on God for his living.

"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." (Rev 4:11)

'In him (God) we live and move and have our being'(Act 17:28)

This is in contrast to the claims of yoga, where they teach us that we ourselves are gods. Even Satan tempted Eve saying the same thing. Listen to the words of Satan:

For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Gen 3:5)

So yoga involves the idolatry of self.

3) Emptying our thoughts:

Yogic meditation emphases in making our minds empty without thinking anything. This is exactly opposite to what Bible teaches. Jesus makes his disciples to think by giving questions and parables to understand the kingdom of God. Biblical meditation means to think about what God has told us through Scriptures. Listen to what Paul says on Christian meditation:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Phi 4:8)

And God also warns us not to keep our mind empty which would make us even more evil and destroy our soul (Luke 11:26)

4) Asanas or ‘postures’ give peace of mind:

Yoga asanas are done to unite the mind and soul with the Brahma, which would give peace to that person who is doing it. This ‘peace’ is different from the peace which Bible promises for a Christian. For us, peace means ‘salvation’. It means that once we were enemies of God and because of the reconciliation of Christ for our sins with the Father, we have peace with God and we are now treated as children of God.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 5:1)

Since these principles of yoga are in inherent contradiction with what Scripture teaches, a Bible believing Christian should not practice yoga. If he does so, then it means he is disobeying Christ and he is worshipping another god.

Can a Christian then do only the physical exercise part of Yoga and not get involved in Spiritual aspect of it?

Many well-known yoga gurus have clearly said that the physical and the mental part of yoga cannot be separated. There are two reasons why a Christian should not do the ‘stretching’ and physical exercise part of yoga without the spiritual part:

1) Yogic asanas and postures are based on Hindu Philosophy. These postures are designed not based on scientific reasons but based on the forms of worship of Hindu deities. So even if there is health benefits in it, it can be mostly due to demonic influence.

2) Since the theory behind these physical exercises is based on a pagan worship, Scripture forbids such actions.

"When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. (Deu 18:9)

3) Doing physical yoga alone is logically not possible. If a scientist says that he believes in Creation but he would do his biological research based on evolution, then it means he is actually not believing in creation since his actions are not in accordance to what he believes in. A Christian should love the Lord with the renewing of mind and his faith should be shown in actions.

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (Jam 2:17)

Thus if a person claims to be a Christian, he should not practice yoga. Yoga cannot give the peace and satisfaction which God has promised us to give through the Scriptures. Let us not walk in darkness as the unbelievers do by doing yoga but rather walk in Christ.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
(Eph 5:8)

If you have liked this, you may also read Is it Ethical to practice Euthanasia?

Is it Ethical to practice Euthanasia?

2014-07-13T20:20:00.001+05:30

Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to alleviate pain and suffering. It has been made legal in some countries like Belgium and Netherlands. Do we have the right to take another man’s life just to reduce pain?

There are many congenital and chromosomal anomalies which can result in Fetal malformations. Some diseases like anencephaly are too complicated that there is almost 0% chance that they would survive after birth. In such case, is it ethical to terminate such pregnancy before the heart stops beating?

Before we go on to the answer, let us remember that only through Scripture can we derive biblical ethics. And Scripture is sufficient for all the answers related to life and morality (2Tim 3:16,17)

According to Scripture, life of man starts at conception (Psa 139:13, Jer 1:5). So a fertilised ovum is fully human with a distinct body and soul, made in the image of God just like anyone else. Since the fall, all mankind has been suffering with disease and sickness. Even all these congenital malformations are all due to that. So a malformed fetus is no less human than a normal fetus.

And in Gen 9:4, God says, “"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” Only God can take a man’s life because God created man in His image.

And only in case of capital punishment (Rom 13:1-5), God has given men who are governing, the permission to take another man’s life.

With this in mind, let us look at another passage and compare with our present scenario:

David said to him, "Where do you come from?" And he said to him, "I have escaped from the camp of Israel." And David said to him, "How did it go? Tell me." And he answered, "The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead." Then David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?" And the young man who told him said, "By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, 'Here I am.' And he said to me, 'Who are you?' I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.' And he said to me 'Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.' So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord." Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword. And David said to the young man who told him, "Where do you come from?" And he answered, "I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite." David said to him, "How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?" Then David called one of the young men and said, "Go, execute him." And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, "Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the LORD's anointed.'"
(2Sa 1:3-16)

If you look at the previous chapter, Saul was mortally wounded and he committed suicide. Though the

incident which was told by Amalekite was a made-up story, let us look at verse 9,10: And he said to me

'Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.' So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord." (2Sa 1:9-10)

He ‘took’ the life of Saul to alleviate his sufferings. He would have been the first to give euthanasia if this story were true. But David punished him with capital punishment because he killed a man who was made in the image of God, who was also anointed by God.

So it is unethical to take another man’s life even if he is suffering from pain because God has not given us authority to take another man’s life to relieve his pain. Even if the patient willingly gives permission to take his life, doctors have no authority to take his life, because God created man and only God has the right to take his life. So euthanasia is unethical. In case of fetal malformations also, the same principle applies. We can terminate the pregnancy only if the fetal heartbeat stops spontaneously, because if we do so before that, then it is murder no matter how noble our intentions are.

If you have liked this, you can also read Can a Christian practice Yoga?

Miracles and Medicine

2014-07-06T21:01:00.002+05:30

All of us have had illness and poor health at some point of time. Disease and Death prevail all living creature because of fall of man. There are so many views on sickness present among both Christians and others. Some belief systems like Scientology and also some Christian groups believe that going to doctors is a sin and we need to believe in God/higher power to get healed. Steve Jobs, a prominent entrepreneur and the founder of Apple Inc., believed in this theory and did not get treated for his cancer and eventually succumbed to death. Whereas some do not believe in miracles and supernatural healing but rather trusting only on doctors and physicians like people who believe in Cessationism and most of the atheists. So if you are a Christian, believing in the finished work of Christ on the cross, and if you are sick, how should we react? Should we have to go to a doctor or just need to pray to get healed?

Let me address the common misconceptions in each of the headings and try to give a biblical explanation for the same:

Misconception 1: We should not use medicines to get our disease treated

There are ample instances where medicine were used in a positive way all throughout Scripture. There are many verses that speak of using “medical treatments” such as applying bandages (Isaiah 1:6), oil (James5:14), oil and wine (Luke 10:34), leaves (Ezekiel 47:12), wine (1 Timothy5:23), and salves, particularly the “balm of Gilead” (Jeremiah 8:22). Also, Luke, the author of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, is referred to by Paul as “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14). Paul explicitly admonishes Timothy in 1Timothy 5:23 to take wine for the sake of his stomach ailments.

The most common verse which is used to support this view is in 2Chro 16:12, “In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians.” But if you look at the passage closely, the reason why Asa sinned against the Lord is not because he took medicines and sought help only from the physicians and not seeking the Lord also in healing of the disease.

We should remember that “For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof." (1Co 10:26). There is nothing in this earth which is apart from God. God created everything and He is the one who is sustaining it. Even the medical knowledge which he has given for the physicians is of the Lord and the medicines and treatment which they give is also from the Lord. So ultimately we should trust in the Lord for the healing of our sickness and also use these medical means which He has graciously given us.

Misconception 2: Miraculous healing does not happen now

Many atheistic people would have such view. Unfortunately even in Christian circles among the affluent and cessationistic group are having such views. Bible have ample number of examples where God has miraculously healed people through supernatural means. Can God heal through miracles now? Jesus has promised to ALL disciples that he would give Spiritual gifts after He is taken up to heaven (Mar 16:16,17). And the first century Christians also proved it. There are no verses in the Bible which says that the miracles and the spiritual gifts would cease to exist rather Paul says to, “earnestly desire spiritual gifts” in 1Cor 14:1. And God gives different spiritual gifts to believers for the sake of common good of church (1Cor 12:7). So we can still expect miraculous supernatural healing in our lives.

Does generational curse exist now? Can someone be sick because of curses? Bible says in many places that God would curse and inflict sickness upon disobedience to His commands (Exodus 20:5). But when we are becoming a Christian, then we are new creation (2Cor 5:17). Bible also says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1). So when we are in Christ we are not cursed rather God has already put all those curses in Christ for the sake of us. So we don’t need to be afraid of generational curses.

Misconception 3: God will heal all the diseases in our body if we are becoming a Christian:

If we are Christians, would God heal all our sickness? We believe that God is sovereign and all powerful and there is nothing too difficult for him. Yet this does not mean that all our sickness should be healed. God may allow us to go through these trials and diseases to understand His grace and mercy even more. For example, Paul was afflicted with a disease for which he repeatedly prayed to God, yet God chose to not to heal him. Let us see the reaction of Paul for it:

So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2Co 12:7-10)

God used Paul's disease to know more about His grace and mercy that Paul had experienced even though he was suffering with a disease to keep him humble and also to depend on God’s grace only not trusting upon his own health. Thus God may choose use the diseases for the sake of our own spiritual growth so that we would love God even more in such darkest days of our lives.

True Healing:

Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1Ti 4:7-8)

Paul here says that bodily training is of some value. He does not say that there is no use if our body is healthy. If God is calling you to be a missionary to Himalayas, you have to be physically fit to go to that place and minister. But that does not mean that we should spend all our energy in concentrating in our bodies to be fit. Rather we should concentrate more on our spiritual sanctification and try to be more and more holy and blameless so that we would be more close to God. Paul uses the word ‘train’ in godliness because spiritual holiness and righteous living comes with regular practice. If we are holy, that would be a guard rail for most of the sickness. For example, it has been scientifically proven that Smoking and alcohol can itself be a direct cause of many chronic illness in lungs, liver and heart. Gluttons, people who are obsessed with over eating are prone to develop diseases like Stroke, Coronary Artery Diseases and Obesity. There are numerous sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, Syphilis for which the most common cause would be marital unfaithfulness. Even the present Health Minister of India, Dr. Harsh Vardhan acknowledged that. Many psychiatric illness can be traced to sinfulness in the patients.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with these:

1) It is biblical to take medicines from a doctor for the sake of our diseases by thanking God and trusting Him that He would heal us through the means of the treatment if it is God’s will.

2) It is biblical to also believe in miraculous healing through a believer in Christ and God can heal a person through miraculous means if He wills.

3) We have to concentrate both on our physical and our spiritual health. But top priority should be given for our spiritual health.

So as a Christian and a medical doctor, it is my heartfelt desire that you would grow more and more close to God and grow in holiness and trust in God in everything even in the midst of sickness.

If you have liked this, you can also read Cessationism and Unbelief

Students, Learn for the Glory of God!

2014-06-29T20:18:00.001+05:30

In India, the most important thing for a child to do in life is to study the basic sciences in school and to get a good grade. This society believes in getting good grades in schools as the highest achievement which a student can ever get. This continues till the time of college and even at work. For the past 21 years, from the time of my schooling till now, I have been studying. I was also brought up with the ultimate motive of studying for my own self-glorification. And to achieve this goal, there are many ways and tips which the secular world teaches us. Most of it is based on worldly, devilish motives and often it does more harm than good.

It is to be noted that only after protestant reformation, universities and schools were established. It is biblical idea to learn arts and sciences related to day to day life from our elders and teachers since it is a creation mandate (Gen 1:28). Yet often, we are no different than the unbelievers in our motives of studying these sciences. Let us see the biblical way to achieve this end:

1) Studying for the glory of God:

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. (1Co 10:31)

In the old testament times, when God showed His glory to the Israelites in the wilderness, they would tremble and fear. That fear is out of reverence and absolute purity of God that the sinfulness of them would be so clearly perceived and they tremble upon ashamed. In the new covenant, God has called us to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:2) for the glory of God. What a great privilege which we have in Christ! This should be the motive of our life in each and everything which we do. Even while we are studying, we should study so that the name of the God be glorified in our work. Many students study just for passing in exams or getting selected in a desired vocation. Some go for special class to be motivated to study after seeing others studying. If that is our goal, then that is idolatry and we are disobeying the 1st commandment.

2) Myth of memory power:

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Pro 1:7)

There is a belief among students that some are genetically superior that they are very studious when compared to others. In order to acquire more memory, they follow man made rules and restriction to achieve the feat. It is noteworthy that some are blessed with more wisdom to remember what they study, but that does not make them inherently superior.

It has been proven that sense experience is not necessary for learning. For example, we don’t have any sense inputs in our brain while we are dreaming yet we are able to remember those dreams. How are we able to do that? If Brain is the seat of memory, then how dead people who are in heaven or in hell able to have memory while their body is in the earth? (Remember Lazarus-Rich man Parable? Read my article on Science for more info on senses)

This just proves that no one is inherently having higher memory than others but rather it is God who gives more memory to individuals by His own Sovereign Will. And we as Christians students, we should study for the glory of God rather than pleasing men. That should be the motive of our studies. Even if we can’t remember the things which we study, if we are consistently working hard and preparing, then God would bless our efforts and He would give us the reward in the right time.

3) Revision is the means by which God gives us memory:

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Jos 1:8)

Though God is the one who makes us remember the information of sciences which we learn, it is our duty to be responsible and hardworking, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Eph 5:16). It is God who is omniscient, who knows everything. So it would not be difficult for God to bestow us with the information directly in our minds without we reading and studying from books. But God has used books as a means through which He chose to give information so that we would be growing in our knowledge to test us whether we are obedient to His commands. If we truly love Him, we would follow His means of acquiring knowledge, which is by repetitive recollection of what we studied.

Learning is a Godly affair. Let us continue in our pursuits of knowledge with the God glorifying, Christ exalting goal and seek to bring God’s kingdom in this earth.

If you have liked this, you can also read When a Christian goes to college

Why do you Fear?

2014-06-24T00:10:00.001+05:30

We all know about the events happening in Iraq. A terror organisation called ISIS has taken over half of Iraq and has threatened the world with their blitzkrieg attack. This is the first time, a terror organisation has taken about quarter of Iraq along with important cities and even close to the capital of Iraq. They have achieved all these in a matter of days with comparatively inferior weapons when compared to the U.S trained and equipped Iraqi army. The greatest weapon which they have is by creating terror among Iraqi army by their brutal method of killing enemy soldiers and this method has demoralised Iraqi soldiers to such an extent that they have given up their weaponry and their armory and ran away.

Even we Christians can be demoralised by Satan and his armies. Though we are more than conquerors, at times, we give in to his lies and live a life of defeat. Here are four ways Satan can tempt us to be afraid and ways to overcome that fear.

1) Fear of failure:

The greatest temptation which Satan would bring into our lives is what if we fail. Even the disciples after Christ was crucified had that fear. They thought that Christ would be victorious against the evil Roman Empire and rule their country. But Christ’s death on the cross demoralised them to such an extent that they were not willing to go out fearing Jews (John 20:19). We can also be afraid of failures which may come in our spiritual life like failure to overcome temptations, failure in our ministry, failure in our workplace etc. We may be afraid of losing our salvation too.

But if we are thinking consistently as according to what God has promised us, we would not fear. Jesus promised His disciples so many times before he was crucified that He would be risen from the dead and will be with them forever alive. But they failed to remember that and thus feared. Let’s not be afraid like that of the disciples and remember the promises of God that we will win.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Rom 8:35-37)

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful." (Rev 17:14)

2) Fear of men:

Another fear which can drive us to despair is the fear of men. They can be tyrant rulers, persecutors from other faith, evil men, thieves, con men, evil leaders in our work place etc. We can be bogged down in our faith by these. But Bible warns us that fear of men is dangerous.

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. (Pro 29:25)

But if we are fearing man and not God, we are in a greater danger than the former.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat 10:28)

You go to your friend’s house. There you find that he has a powerful huge dog which can tear you apart but on hearing the master’s voice, the dog obeys the master and befriends you. God is the one whom we should be revered. If we are obedient to Him, He would be like that example and be gracious and merciful. But if we are sinful and fearing man, then He would be a terror to us.

3) Fear of security:

We all want our lives to be secured. We want to get a secured job. We want our families to be safe. But safety should not make us to be afraid of dangers and thus not risking for the sake of God. I am not saying that we should not care for our loved ones. A husband ought to love his wife and has to be faithful to the vows he has promised and protect her from evil. It is his duty to show love as Christ has loved us. He has to take up all the sweat and toil for the sake of his wife’s comfort. It is his primary responsibility that he should teach his wife and children the precepts of God. That’s what Christ has done for the Church. And Christ would not divorce Church even if the church is unfaithful. That’s why divorce is wrong.

We would be afraid only if our wealth is in a vulnerable place from which it can be taken away from us. But we should remember that Christ has already bought us for a price and has called us to lay our treasures in Heaven. So even if we lose our physical belongings to any unfortunate event, even if we lose our loved ones we should not be hopeless like that of unbelievers, but hopeful of the unchanging promises of God.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Mat 6:19-20)

4) Fear of future trials:

We hear of wars, famines, floods, robberies and other evils all the time. We can become afraid of our future job, promotions etc. A student can become afraid of passing in exams. But we should not be worrying about all these rather we should be concentrating on the glory of God.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Mat 6:34)

I liked one scene from the movie “The Dark Knight Rises”. Batman would try many times to escape a prison but would fail. When he was dejected of his repeated failures, the inmate would suggest to escape without any support so that the fear of death would make him jump the pit. I would like to say something from this. We have to choose between two types of fear to succeed or to fail. If we fear God then we would succeed and we would not be afraid of anything. If we fear anything else other than God, we would fail for sure. If an irrational fear can make that hero to succeed failures, how much more the fear of God would make us more than conquerors?

He who kneel before God can stand before anyone – Martin Luther

If you have liked this, you may also read Marriage and God

The magnificence of Scripture

2014-06-17T22:44:00.001+05:30

Recently, a friend and me were talking about issues regarding divorce and abortion. I was telling him that God has made marriage as a covenant to be lasted till the time of death and divorce is not an option at all. And abortion for the sake of contraception is wrong and unethical. But my friend’s opinion was that divorce is okay if there is a 'valid' reason. And we can abort the child depending on the ‘situation’. We found out the reason for our disagreement is because of our attitude towards Scripture. My friend said, scriptures though is God’s word cannot answer for issues of daily living like the case above. We can see that our view on Scripture can drastically change our way of thinking and change our life dramatically.

Many of us are of the view, like my friend above, that Scripture is a good book but is irrelevant for the issues of 21st century. But if Scripture cannot answer for issues like this, how can we trust it for much more important things like our salvation?

Scripture – Sufficient for our faith:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2Ti 3:16-17)

In this context, Paul was warning Timothy about the false teachings which were prevalent among Christians during his time and told him to be steadfast in his faith. Then he exhorted him declaring that Scripture is God’s Word breathed out directly from the Holy Spirit (2Pet 1:21). Though God can speak to us through a prophecy or dream, yet that would contain a human element and thus can be fallible. But Scripture does not contain those human elements because “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. (2Pe 1:20)”. Thus it is free from corruption due to sinfulness of man.

If we expand 2Tim 3:16, we can find that Scripture is sufficient for teaching, reproof, correction and training in righteousness. Let us look for each of it in detail.

1) Sufficiency of Scripture in teaching:

Scripture is sufficient for teaching about Christianity. Scripture gives first hand account of who God is, His attributes, His nature and His relationship with man.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." (Exo 34:6-7)

Scripture is sufficient to know about the teachings regarding our salvation of our sins and the good works which we are expected to do when we are saved.

He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. (Psa 107:20)

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Heb 1:1-2)

If we want to know what God wants to teach us, we can go back to Scriptures and meditate on His words. We have to test each and every teaching to be true from Scripture. This exercise should not be considered as a sign of not trusting the messenger but faith in the unchanging Word of God.

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. (Act 17:10-11)

Paul here tells us that, Bereans when compared to the Thessalonians, were more noble because they were testing Paul’s preaching from God’s word. Paul did not consider this as lack of trust upon his word, but as a sign of respect and reverence for Scripture. Thus we should also be like Bereans testing all the teachings of Christianity from Scripture. That is a noble affair in the sight of Lord.

2) Sufficiency of Scripture for reproof and correction:

There are plenty of verses in which God talks about the different types of sins, and the call for repentance. We can read the old testament prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah rebuking Israelites for their sins. They are recorded in Scripture for us so that we would not do the same sins which they have committed.

It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day." (Jer 44:23)

1Co 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

(ESV)

3) Sufficiency of Scripture for training in righteousness:

Scriptures are sufficient for our guidance in holiness. Only through Scriptures, we can know about how to please God. The Ten Commandments show the holiness of God and His expectation from us.

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psa 119:11)

The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; (Psa 19:8)

After resurrection, when Jesus showed Thomas His physical hands to touch and see to prove that He is resurrected, He said the following words to exhort us who believe Him through His words revealed in Scripture:

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." (Joh 20:29)

Let us therefore meditate on Scriptures to know what God wants us to do for Him in this life. Scripture is sufficient for us for everything God wants us to know in this world.

If you have liked this, you can also read 9 Marks of a False Teacher

Are you afraid of persecution?

2014-06-15T21:23:00.001+05:30

It is the command of our savior to preach the gospel to all nations. And we are supposed to preach the gospel in season and out of season. Yet, we Christians fail to do so most of the time. One of the way in which we justify that is, the fear of persecution. I have had this temptation most of the time when I wanted to preach the gospel. To make this temptation even worse for me, my natural personality is to be like an introvert, and I always think twice before I talk. Yet that does not give an excuse for me to not to preach the gospel. So how can we proclaim the gospel without the fear of persecution? Let us look at the promises of God for it:

Don’t be afraid of men:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mat 10:28)

The main reason why we don’t preach the gospel is not because of fear of persecution. It is actually a symptom of a greater disease. It is the lack of fear of God and the reverence for His holiness and righteousness. When we are not afraid of God, then we would form another idol, which in this case is fear of men. We want to please men thus we remain passive. But Bible here clearly says that it is wiser to be afraid of someone who is greater than man, who can send us to hell, i.e. God.

A Case study of Peter:

Before our Lord was crucified, Peter was warned that he would deny Christ. But instead of asking for strength from God, he trusted in his own strength and boasted about his own performance.

Peter answered him, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away." (Mat 26:33)

Peter said to him, "Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you (Mat 26:35)

Here Peter is, not only trusting in his own strength but also is proud that he is better than the rest in loving God. But we all know that he failed and Christ was right. But here is the good news. Even as he realised that he was a failure and tried to run away from Christ, after He rose from the dead, Jesus specifically went in search of Peter in John 21, and reassured His love for him though he did not deserve it.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs"(Joh 21:15)

And not just that, He gave a promise to Peter that He would glorify God in his martyrdom.

Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." (Joh 21:18)

Peter was broke. He realised that he is not worthy of the love of Christ. Yet Christ again proved his election and showed his special love for Peter because He is elect. Thus Christ used Peter’s apparent loss for his own gain and history proves that God used Peter mightily for the advancement of His kingdom. The same Peter, who denied Christ in gethsemane out of fear of men, volunteered to be crucified upside down, not because of his own strength but because of the unchanging promise of God. This reminds me of the following verse:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

We may lose a battle to the enemy, but even that loss has been predestined by God for our good so that we would come even more close to God. And God has promised us that we will ultimately win this spiritual war.

Likewise, we should also repent of our past sins and trust only in God’s promises. We cannot preach the gospel by our own strength but by the power of God alone. Let us trust in His faithful promises and be a watchman proclaiming the good news to the poor.

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
(Luk 12:11-12)

If you have liked this, you may also like Why do you fear? and Blessed is he who mourns with Oppressed

Blessed is he who mourns with the oppressed

2014-05-26T01:12:00.001+05:30

It is not uncommon for a Christian to be persecuted. Even the captain of our salvation was murdered by the slaves of darkness. In Bible, we see the righteous facing death for the sake of their holiness from Abel to the first century Christians. By the grace of God, in our era, God has given some countries (or parts of countries) which are relatively free from persecution. When I say free from persecution, what I mean is brutal death and severe physical abuse for the sake of believing in Christ. But not all Christians are free from persecution.

Even now, Christians are brutally murdered hanged in public, put in concentration camps etc. Recent examples being the abduction of Christian girls in Sudan, capital punishment for a Christian pregnant woman in Nigeria, blasphemy laws of Pakistan and the concentration camps of North Korea. For the Christians in these parts of the world, day to day living in these countries would be a fight between life and death.

Yet, for those who are living in the comfortable parts of the world, including some professing Christians, they not only are ignorant of the suffering of their brethren, but also so indifferent for the same. When I was talking to some of my Christian friends about the recent political changes in my country and my concern for the safety of the Christians, most of them gave a reply saying only ‘those’ Christians in the hostile parts of my nation would be ‘affected’ by them. They not only realise that they are also in the same boat as those brethren but what bothered me the most was their total indifference and the lack of concern for the suffering Christians but also their selfishness and their pride. They would have no problem if the Christians are butchered in those areas provided they are comfortable and promised ‘development’ and good governance.

Let us see the biblical way of how to react when our brethren are suffering for their faith:

1) Christians are parts of the same body of Christ:

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1Co 12:26-27)

We are all saved by one God, the Man Jesus Christ. We are all partaking with Him in the same body. Whether we are in China or in the U.S, if one Christian in a third world suffers for the sake of his faith, a professing Christian will definitely understand the pain and will also mourn. If your tooth is paining, would your hands be indifferent of it or would not bother, thinking my hands are more important than tooth? Then why you Christians don’t want to come out of your comfort zones?

2) Mourn for those who are suffering:

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (Rom 12:15)

We are to mourn and cry unto the Lord for our brethren who are dying for their faith. If you see in Psa 79:1-4, there he cries for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Israelites who have been taken as captives. Likewise we should also cry for the Spiritual Israel, the church who are getting persecuted for the sake of Christ.

3) Prayer:

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison-- that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. (Col 4:3-4)

Though God knew from the past the things of the future, and His plans can’t be thwarted, it is pleasing for Him to listen to us and hear our pleas in such a way, He uses our prayers as a means towards the execution of His Sovereign plan. So let us pray for our brethren’s safety and also for the sake of their faith in the times of trouble.

So let us not be selfish and self centred, thinking only about us, but rather remember our brethren all over the world suffering for the sake of Christ.

Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Mat 25:32-46)

Let us rather be a sheep and help our brethren suffering for Christ.

If you have liked this, you can also read Are you afraid of Persecution?

Ethics and the World

2014-05-18T15:58:00.001+05:30

²⁴“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. – Mat 7:24-25

Our society is rapidly changing. The things and values which we considered as abnormal and taboo are now considered to be the new normality. In the above verse, Jesus says that whoever obeys His commands and lives according to His words would be like a person who has built his house on a solid foundation. The ethics which the Bible teaches would withstand the troubles and dangers of our life and will be a blessing for us.

Bible says in Psalm19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul”. A law can be ethical only if it is given by an infinitely Holy and Righteous being, who is only God. But instead if we follow the world and its way of ethics, then it would be a snare for us, not only in our Spiritual life, but also in our daily living. Any other ethics which is not from God, is from a finite, fallible being, which would be fallacious. I will show the fallacies of some of the worldly ethics.

Abortion and Holocaust:

Many say that abortion is a rightful ‘choice’ which every woman can make. If a woman feels she doesn't need a child, then she can do Medical Termination of Pregnancy. People supporting abortion argue saying it would bring economic burden to the poor families. But Hitler also argued that Jews are the reason for the economic burden of Nazi Germany, and murdered them in concentration camps. He followed the same principle of abortion.

Some say if the child conceived is deformed or ill, we can abort. By what criteria, would you define the illness of a child which requires for abortion or not? For some, a child with Down’s syndrome can be a candidate of abortion. For others even short fingers can be a deformity. Who defines it? If deformed babies can be killed, then why not kill deformed and old aged people, so that the ‘burden’ of the society can be reduced? Hitler also killed people who are old, people with Down’s syndrome etc. in concentration camps quoting the same reason.

So you can see that the reasons for abortion are based on a flimsy ground which is self-contradictory. Scripture says, in Gen 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Since man is made in the image of God, no human being has a right to take the life of any other man even if he is deformed. Since life starts at conception (Psa 51:5), each and every embryo conceived is a human being made in the image of God. So to do abortion is to murder that person.

Religious freedom Vs Tyranny:

Many atheists would proudly say that most of the wars of this world are fought due to religion. They say that religious people (especially Christians) are the most intolerant people of all times. If that is the case, why are all the communistic countries of the world like North Korea, Soviet Union, Cuba, China etc, based on atheistic principles, committing human rights violations much more than the countries founded by Christian principles? What made countries whose constitution founded by Christian values like the U.S, Britain and even India, striving for religious freedom?

It is because right to freedom of religion is based on Christian principle. A person can believe in Christ only if God enables him to know the truth and gives him the power to believe. A sinful man is spiritually dead (Eph 2:1). And Christianity is a religion not based on external changes but based on change in heart (Eze36:25-27). And only God can change a person’s heart (2Cor 10:4). So instead of following the worldly way of intimidation and fear, we preach Christ crucified with grace and peace and wait on the Lord to bring the changes in people’s hearts.

Jesus says, in Mat 7, ^“26And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Whoever bases his ethics on a Non-Biblical worldview, is like the guy who builds his house on sinking sand. His ethics will crumble by self-contradiction.

Christian, what is your worldview based on? Is it based on Scripture, the solid rock or the world, the sinking sand?

Here is a video by Dr. Ken Ham who describes how biblical worldview based on Genesis to Revelation can be a blessing for humanity:

If you have liked this, you may also read Can a Christian practice Yoga?

Christ in the midst of Poverty

2014-05-11T12:54:00.001+05:30

About one third of the people in this world are poor. Many people are suffering and are finding it difficult to even to meet their most basic needs of their lives. Even many Christians are poor especially in the developing nations. There are many preachers who say that Christians are meant to be rich because Christ has died for them and removed all the curses. So they say if a person is poor, then it means that he is still under the curse. For example, look at the quote of a famous prosperity preacher, Benny Hinn on poverty:

“Poverty is from the devil and that God wants all Christians to be prosperous” - Benny Hinn

It is true that poverty can be due to our own sinfulness. Bible says in Pro 10:4, “A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich” also in Pro 13:18, “Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.” It is clear that out of our own sinfulness and laziness we can become poor. Sometimes it can be due to punishment of God for our past sinfulness (Deu 28:36-44). But that is not the only cause of poverty. Bible shows that even righteous people were poor for the sake of their righteousness. Job became poor because of his righteousness. If Benny Hinn and his friends are right, then the captain of our salvation, Lord Jesus Christ would be the most cursed being in this universe. He suffered so much that he did not even have a place to sleep (John 8:1). If the ultimate aim of a Christian is to become a billionaire, then we should be following Steve Jobs rather than Jesus Christ since Christ is a very bad example.

Christ did not come to this world to make us rich, wealthy and prosperous. Jesus said in John 18:36, “My Kingdom is not of this world”. Christ came to save us from our sinfulness and redeem us from our eternal condemnation and Hell. He bought us salvation from the punishment we rightly deserved for our sins. Christ promised that, ‘In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."(Joh 16:33). And He also promised for eternal happiness and riches in the new heavens and the earth.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Rev 21:4)

Though Christ prophesised that we will be suffering in this world, yet He has also given this wonderful promises too:

God will provide us for our basic needs:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (Mat 6:31-32)

God has promised us to provide us the basic food and clothing to live in this world. He has not promised us food from Taj Hotel, accommodation in a Castle or drive a Ferrari, but He did promise us that we would get our daily food and clothing till we die.

So how should a Christian respond to riches and poverty?

1) Christians should help their poor brethren:

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1Ti 6:17-19)

It is our duty as a Christian that we should help our poor brethren. Bible has examples of so many faithful Christian saints, who have helped poor brethren in Christ to the point that they have lost all their wealth (2Cor 8:2). Bible says, “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2Co 9:6-7)”. Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' (Mat 25:40). So we need to cheerfully give our wealth for our poor brethren.

2) Love of money – Root of all evil:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
(1Ti 6:10)

Anyone can be tempted to become rich, since rich and poor people are all depraved. But this temptation is very high with rich people. There were so many people who lost their faith due to their love of money. Remember the young man who was not willing to follow Christ for the sake of his wealth (Mat 19:16-24)

3) Godliness with contentment:

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. (1Ti 6:6-8)

Our treasure is Christ. To be content does not mean that we should be living in a cave or a monastery without anything but to be satisfied only in Christ. The reason why people crave to become rich and wealthy including preachers like Paul Dinakaran, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Sam P Chelladurai etc., is because they think that they can be satisfied by money. But they fail to realise that only an infinite being can satisfy and bring true happiness to man, which is only God (Pro 27:20). We are not going to be living in this earth forever. So why spend our entire life thinking about becoming rich? Therefore let us rest upon Christ and not upon our wealth so that we would be using the God given blessings of this world for His glory.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. (Heb 11:13)

Blessed are those persecuted for Christ

2014-05-04T20:21:00.001+05:30

It is been consistent throughout the history that Christians are the most persecuted people groups of all times. Even in an open society like the U.S, Christians are targeted by all other faith groups. The way of persecution ranges from trivial discrimination to death in most of the time. In my country, we are now at the junction of political instability and the rise of anti-christian groups. A Christian should always be ready to glorify God during the time of persecution. Let us remember few points from Scripture regarding this:

1) God is Sovereign over persecution:

The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.
(Pro 21:1)

If we are ruled by a tyrant who despises God and persecutes Christians, we should remember that even he is under the control of God. There is not one neutron of an atom of this universe which is not under the control of our heavenly Master. God can use even the worst persecutors of Christians for the furtherance of His kingdom. When our Saviour was about to face the most terrible persecution ever faced by any human being, look at His reply for Pilate’s question: "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. (Joh 19:11)”. It was Satan’s plan to destroy the Son of God through persecuting Him but God used that event for His glory and redeemed us thus advancing His kingdom. If you look at Acts 8, when persecution started in Jerusalem, the disciples went to the regions of gentile and started preaching the gospel to advance the kingdom of God. Thus God can use even the darkest hour of Christianity for His glory. Let us remember this verse and trust in His providence during persecution:

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"
(Dan 4:35)

2. No servant is greater than the master:

"A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. (Mat 10:24)

If this wicked world did not spare the God’s only Son, the Holy one of Israel, how would it leave us alone? Rather, we should remember that it is because of Christ, we are suffering (Mat 10:22). Even our own parents can hate us. But let us remember that Christ is with us when we are persecuted. Let us remember the blessed promise of our Saviour:

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Mat 10:29-33)

3.Bless those who curse you:

"But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (Luk 6:27-28)

As Christians, we are called to bless and pray for those who persecute us. Bible says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." (Rom 12:19) . Our God is mighty to save us. He will punish the evil doers for each and every tear which they made us shed for the sake of His name. So we should do good to those who do bad to us, “for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head." (Rom 12:20)

4. Blessed are those who are persecuted:

"Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!
(Luk 6:22)

It is a blessed state to be hated by the prince of this world, because if God promises something to pass, it will happen. And he would bless us abundantly if we are suffering for the sake of God.

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
(2Co 4:17)

So as Christians, we should be ready to face persecution for the sake of Christ. This affliction is going to be temporary. No matter how hard it is, no matter how bad the afflicters are, they are all mortal and they are all going to die one day. Let us therefore share with the afflictions of Christ (1The 1:6) and strive through the narrow path so that we would be satisfied infinitely from the infinite blessings of God.

When a Christian goes to College

2014-04-20T23:13:00.001+05:30

Before the industrialization era, families were living together as joint societies. Children would learn the tradecraft from their fathers and most often they didn't move away from them until they were married. But the situation has changed now. We live in a different society where we have to do higher education to get into a vocation. And most of the time, we will have to send our children to a place which is away from their home. This can be challenging both for parents and their children.

After finishing my schooling, when I joined the college for higher studies, I had lot of challenges for which I was not at all prepared. It took almost a year for me to get used to the new environment. Here I would like to give some insights from Scripture which I think would be useful for those joining colleges away from home.

1. God is still with you even when are on your own:

"There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.
(1Sa 2:2)

You are now separated from your parents and your loved ones physically. Atleast now we have telephones and Skype, so you can keep in touch with them. But still, the only person who is with you is God. He is Sovereign, omniscient and all knowing who is willing to help you when you are in need. His mercy endures forever. And His steadfast love never changes. God has put this test upon you to know whether you can still worship the Lord and walk in His ways like how you used to do when you were at home. Remember that we worship the God who also faced wilderness and loneliness (Mat 4) yet was without sinful. So you will never be on your own if you are a child of God because He will never let anyone take you away from Him.

2. Culture Shock:

But Joshua said to the people, "You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good."
(Jos 24:19-20)

God brought Israel after 400 years of slavery in Egypt and 40 years in wilderness, into the Promised Land. Israelites are now faced with a culture which is way different than what they have seen so far. Thus God gives this warning so that they would be holy and righteous in this new culture. Likewise, you will be exposed to a culture which may be different from what you have been brought up. You may be different from the peers who are there. They may lure you to do the ‘cool’ things in college. I am not saying we should never adopt other cultures. But rather, Christians should be discerning what is right from wrong. Let this verse be a guide to decide good from bad:

3.Clash of the Worldviews:

Whoever is not with me (Christ) is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
(Mat 12:30)

You will be faced by people from different faith, different beliefs and different worldview. Your friends may believe in other gods. Your college professor may teach evolution and claim that to be the pinnacle of truth. You may be mocked by others for your faith. But there is only one truth in this world and that truth is revealed in the Scripture (John 17:17). All the other worldviews other than the Biblical worldview, are self contradictory and are all false. They may try to deceive you by giving ‘scientific’ evidence etc, but if you logically analyse their arguments, it will be fallacious. So remember what Paul had said to Timothy:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
(2Ti 3:14-15)

4. Friends:

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
(Pro 13:20)

You will have to be wise in choosing your friends. I had studied in a college in India where most of the students were from Christian background. Some of them were from devout Christian families. But as they come to college, they get in touch with foolish friends and wreck their lives. You may think that you can exert moral restraint while hanging out with your immoral friends but it will wreck your Spiritual life because we are also sinfully depraved and we should try to avoid temptations at all cost. Remember this verse: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
(2Co 6:14)

5. Preach the gospel:

Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
(2Ti 4:2)

College is where you will get to spend a lot of time with people of different faith for a long time. You can get to know about each and everyone and help them out of their problems through the guidance of Scripture. You can share your faith with them and discuss in detail about the gospel of Christ. Use this time for advancing the kingdom of God.

6. Personal unaided devotion of God’s Word and prayer:

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psa 27:4)

You may not have to go for all the fellowships, worships, group prayers and bible studies in the college if you are busy. But you should never skip your personal devotion to God. This would be difficult for you because most of the time your friends and roommates would be hanging with you in your hostels. Jesus Christ, while He was in the world, always spent time with the Father in prayers and fasting in the wilderness alone without His disciples. Likewise we should spend our time with God in loneliness with our personal meditation on Scriptures and prayers. Only then we would get the power of Holy Spirit to overcome the trials, temptations and persecutions which we would face.

These are some of the things which a Christian needs to remember while in college. You may not be the intelligent, famous guy of your college but remember this verse:

His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. (Psa 147:10-11)

Below is a 5 minute clip by a Creation Scientist who gives some practical guidance for Christians to survive in college with their faith intact:

If you have liked this, you can also read Students learn for the glory of God!

Television - An Addiction that makes us an Idiot

2014-04-13T14:10:00.001+05:30

Let me define my terms first. What I mean by 'Television' is, the programs which we watch for entertainment like secular TV series, movies etc. I do not mean the instrument through which we see images and sounds transmitted from a distant place, nor do I mean the other constructive programs like documentaries, news etc. The term 'Addiction' according to Merriam-Webster means, 'An unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something'. And the term 'Idiot' also synonymous with 'Simpleton' refers to someone 'who does not have a good sense or judgement'.

Television is addictive. We tend to have an unusual interest to see what's going to happen in the next episode of the series. While watching a movie, most of the time we forget to think of the things which are happening around us. Your ailing parents may need your help with their daily medicines or your wife may need your help in kitchen or your children may need your guidance for their project. But all these things vanishes when you are sitting in front of a television for a movie as if they don't exist. So it is an addiction.

Television makes us an idiot. Most of the time, the things which are considered abnormal or evil in real life, is portrayed as if it is 'heroic' or something which is great and admirable. We laugh at the 'hero' who mocks at the 'comedian' for his external appearance or his inefficiency, but in real life, if some does the same, we call such people as proud and arrogant. James Bond is considered to be cool for the stunts, but we may tend to give a soft corner for all the fornication which he does. So the things which are considered as sinful behavior are praised in secular movies. And we tend not to judge movies like how we judge in real life. Thus these secular programs makes us an idiot by definition.

Christians are called to walk by faith, not by sight (2Cor 5:7). Appearances are deceptive. Bible has many examples of people who had fallen into sin because trusted in their eyes not faith. Eve 'saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes' (Gen 3:6), and by trusting her own eyes more than the unchanging Word of God, she sinned. Lot 'lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord' (Gen 13:10) and went to Sodom and Gomorrah which became a snare for his life.

Let us be careful of what we watch. Our heart is deceptively wicked. And when we watch all these wicked things, our minds will be hijacked by the worldview which the TV portrays. And we may be deceived to believe them to be the truth by the visual 'treat' which we get for our eyes from them. And we can be tempted to make the lead character as an example to look for. That is the basis for all the fan clubs present behind the movie artists both in India and also in Hollywood.

Christians beware. Let us remember this verse: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Eph 5:15-16). We are not going to live in this earth forever, rather our days are counted (Psa 102:11). We have to be accountable to God for the precious time which the Lord has give to us. And God is going to reward us in heaven for all that we have done for Him in this earth. If we are exchanging this time in countless hours of movies and TV series with stupid, sinful secular worldview, then we are committing idolatry.

I am not saying we should not watch movies at all. We can watch them to get some idea of the worldview which the secular world propagates. Even that can be dangerous since Bible calls us 'to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil (Rom 16:19). If you are spending your entire time watching TV and thinking about the end of 'How I met your mother' , instead of prayer and bible study, then you should reconsider your walk with God.

Finally let me end with a question to my readers: Are you glad and happy by watching a movie rather than worshiping God? Is the duties of God a boring affair when compared to movies? Do you long to watch the new superhero movie than prayer and meditation of God's Word? Do you admire your favorite actor and his actions more than Christ and His sacrificial work on the cross? If your answer is yes, then you are an idolater. Repent and trust in Jesus and ask for His mercy to deliver from this addiction. God is gracious to hear our pleas and He is mighty to save.

If you have liked this, you can also read Temptations

Internship for the glory of God

2014-04-06T15:16:00.001+05:30

Every medical doctor in India, after finishing the undergraduate course, has to be posted under senior doctors of all fields over a period of one year in a medical college. This period of time is called Internship or Resident housemanship. This is one of the toughest path of the medical career. This can be demanding both physically and mentally. The physical work can be too much that at times it would be difficult to find time even to eat and sleep. But as a Christian, we have to honor God even in this season. Here are some of the things which I think would be helpful for all believers who are going through this period of trial.

1) God's glory comes first than food and sleep:

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.

(Joh 4:34)

I know interns who are reading this, are going to say, 'How is that possible when finding time to eat and sleep is a luxury?' But as Christians, we should remember that our primary motive in everything we do is to glorify God. God is the one who has put you in this period. In the context of this passage, Jesus was hungry and thirsty physically yet He gave priority for the work of pleasing God's Will all the time by showing the way of salvation to the Samaritans there (John 4), more than His physical hunger for food (John 4:6). So even in this period of trial, we should glorify God. If you are weak and busy to find time for God, ask God for help in prayer, since He is the one who is providentially controlling everything in life even this season of time. And He will give you time to worship Him and read the Scriptures.

2) Still, food and rest are important:

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.

(1Co 3:17)

Since Holy Spirit is dwelling with us in our body, it is our duty to take care of our body too. So even if you are having a lot of work to do in ward, still it is your duty to eat and sleep. One thing which I found it useful during internship was to prioritize the work and finish the work which is of top priority and if they are settled, eat quick frequent meals in between. And drink plenty of water. I used to drink tap water to quench my thirst in CMC if I was busy. Also remember that work will always be there no matter how much you try to complete it. So why destroy the temple of God for your never ending task?

3) Obey your masters:

Slaves are to be under the control of their masters in all respects, giving them satisfaction, not talking back to them or stealing from them, but exhibiting complete good faith, so as to adorn the doctrine of God our savior in every way.

(Tit 2:9-10)

Slaves, obey your human masters in everything, not only when being watched, as currying favor, but in simplicity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will receive recompense for the wrong he committed, and there is no partiality.

(Col 3:22-25)

Slaves, be obedient to your human masters with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ, not only when being watched, as currying favor, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, willingly serving the Lord and not human beings, knowing that each will be requited from the Lord for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

(Eph 6:5-8)

Whether we are Interns or Professors, it is God who gives us our vocation. And the registrars and the consultants entrust the work on us with hope that we would complete it. So in order to please God, we have to obey the authorities above us. At times, these masters may be very unreasonable to us. They may be lazy, abusive, unreasonable or even clumsy but since God has put them above you, you have to obey them. They may make you to do the work of an attender like getting blood from blood bank, coffee for the department, getting the sample to the lab by yourself, etc. It may be insulting for you to do that after having passed one of the toughest exams in the world. Many of your co-interns may encourage you to rebel against doing such menial works. But remember that the blessing which you get should be from God. And if we obey God in all these things with humility, God will reward us.

4) Humility:

So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

(1Pe 5:6)

Many a times people who are below you won't respect you. You may find difficult nurses, attenders who won't be cooperative. They may even insult you. They won't care that you are working without sleep. But be humble in all these remembering this verse above. Remember that God is always with you to help you even if no other coworker is with you.

5) Honesty:

Christians should be honest in everything. You may be tempted to lie for the sake of ease at work. People will encourage you to bluff. But remember that it will not honor God. You might have forgotten to do the work which you ought to do. Accept your ignorance and the punishment for the same, rather than covering it up. From my personal experience, I have seen many registrars and consultants appreciating the interns who are honest, sincere and hard working. Your gold medal will not be of any value to them if you are dishonest and lazy.

6) Don't try to please men:

The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the LORD is safe.

(Pro 29:25)

No matter how hard you work, no matter how efficient and honest you are, there will be some people who are not going to be happy with you. So instead of wasting your energy to please them, if you please God, you will have your reward at the right time.

7) Avoid being jealous of others:

Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

(Rom 13:13-14)

You may be tempted to be jealous of your co-intern who is the most favored of your department. Or you can be jealous of your other colleagues. But remember that jealousy is a deed of flesh and we should be walking in the Spirit.

8) Reward in Heaven:

And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple-- amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."

(Mat 10:42)

Always remember that we are strangers and nomads in this world. Our real dwelling place is in heaven. You may not be remembered by your registrars or consultants or your colleagues for your good works. People may not appreciate your honesty and obedience. Your colleagues may not be faithful for being kind and considerate to them. But remember that God is watching us and He would reward us abundantly infront of everyone for all the good works we have done for Him.

These are few things which God had taught me during internship. I learnt many of these through painful means. But I still consider that God allowed this period of life for the sake of my sanctification so that I will be glorifying God in a much better way.

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

(Psa 31:24)

If you have liked this, you can also read Work - A blessing or A curse