What Is The Bible, Dr. Silas C. Nair
I was born in an orthodox Hindu family. My grandfather was a very religious practicing Hindu and I learned my spiritual lessons from him. Disparity in life, poverty, and the inability of his god to either save him from his cheating relations or to protect him from evils disillusioned me. I rejected idols as of no value. I became an atheist but still continued to be a Hindu. Towards the end of my teenage I moved to Bombay and became enchanted by communist ideologies. Then again, the exploitation of the masses was something that I could not tolerate and left communism also.
I looked for answers to the riddles of life but could find none. I was searching for truth without knowing if there was truth, because all around me I could find only the opposite. Then for the first time in my life I heard the gospel. What impressed me then was the absolute trust of the preacher on the One he was preaching. The next day I went again to hear the preaching. As the Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that “she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul” (Acts 16.14), the Lord opened my heart also to receive the word spoken and I was gloriously converted.
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Resisting The World 4, Dr. Johnson C. Philip
Daniel continues to be one of the most favourite books in the Old Testament. The story part attracts the young, while the second half attracts serious students of prophecy. No wonder why many people were motivated to imitate the book of Daniel. Some of these imitations have resulted in several apocryphal stories.
Daniel stands to us as a model child of God, and no amount of description can exhaust the spiritual lessons available afresh from his life for each generation of believers. In the last article we noticed that all spiritual battle is ultimately won in the believer’s mind. Daniel won the first part of the battle when he “purposed in his heart” that he would not defile himself, come what may. His three companions stood with him in this decision. The next stage was to implement this decision, and we read:
But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the Prince of the Eunuchs that he might not defile himself (Daniel 1:8).
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Silas C. Nair, silasnair@sify.com
Salvation is received in a very simple manner. Man as a sinner is doomed for destruction. But the God of love sent His Son to pay the penalty on man’s behalf. Jesus Christ died for the sinner and thus paid the penalty. God has accepted this and raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Man only needs to repent of his sin and turn to Christ for salvation. When he does this and puts his faith in Him he is saved. His sins are forgiven and he becomes a child of God. This is salvation as defined by Bible.
In salvation a repentant sinner is justified, which means he is declared as not-a-sinner. His standing before God is changed. He is also regenerated. This means a new life – life not simply of eternal duration, but life of eternal quality – is given to him. He is also adopted into the family of God. This means that he becomes an adult child of God with all the privileges of this position. He is sanctified, i.e. set apart for service to God. The blessings of salvation do not end here. In the plan of God he is already glorified and one day he will change his place to be with God forever in his glorified body.
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Dr. Johnson C. Philip
Ask students of any Sunday-school to name their favorite book in the Old Testament, and a large number of them would say “Daniel”. Here is a book that has charmed generations, and the fascination is still not dimmed. Such is the greatness of this book with a mere 12 chapters.
In the last article we noticed the way in which Nebuchadnezzar ordered the training of hostages. Almost 70 noble and royal young people meeting stringent physical and mental criteria were selected. However, the book gives us a glimpse of developments in the lives of only four of them. Perhaps there were many in the group who were more promising than these four, but what resulted in the end was determined not by their inherent abilities, nor by their training, but by what spiritual decisions they made.
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So Great Salvation
By Silas C. Nair, silasnair@sify.com
Man generally has an idea that all is not well with him and that he needs some help from outside source. So, for a long, time he has been trying to find out what is wrong with him. He came up with many answers at different times. A look into all this will serve as a good background to our study of salvation.
Anthropology, a study or doctrine of man, is a very interesting subject. Theological anthropology deals with man in his relation to God whereas scientific anthropology deals with his psycho-physical organism and natural history. But this scientific anthropology is no more scientific than theological anthropology, but merely deals with different aspects of the doctrine of man.
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Resisting The World, Dr. Johnson C. Philip
The book of Daniel is remarkable in that though it is only 12 chapter long, it has fascinated both young and old alike. This book is a delight not only for the Sunday School student, but also for the most outstanding scholar in the world.
In the last article we noticed that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon instilled a puppet government in Jerusalem in the summer of BC 605. He did not have time to restructure everything, and consequently he took plenty of hostages with him. Of these, fifty to seventy young men were from royal families. The king ordered that they be trained in a way as to make them totally loyal to the Chaldean empire. The best ones were chosen. A lot of care was given to them so as to bring them up to the king’s expectation. We read,
And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. (Dan 1:5)
Babylon was one of the richest kingdoms of that time. The best of the best food, which the king himself consumed, was to be given to them. This was partly to put them at ease, partly to win them though their “stomachs”, and partly to change their food habits, all contributing to brainwashing. Surprisingly, the same is going on all around us today though most of us do not seem to realize it. The greed for food and the consumption of popular but unhealthy food has been adversely affecting the spiritual life of millions of children and young people in the affluent countries. Now the same thing is being seen in our own country also.
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Resisting The World, Dr. Johnson C. Philip
The history found in Genesis chapter 6, where there was a great intermingling of the Sons of God and the daughters of Men repeats itself in every generation, at a social and spiritual level, of course. And the abandon with which God’s children indulge in things profane only increases with each generation.
Consequently, the twenty-first century happens to be the worst so far.
No sensible believer can ever hope to turn the clock back, but everyone can expect to fight the system as far as their personal life is concerned. And for that we have plenty of doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness in the Scriptures. What’s more, there are any number of historical records in the Bible about people who fought against the system and kept themselves uncontaminated. A study of some of these stories will be quite enlightening, and we delve in the book of Daniel to do precisely that.
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