Sunday 27 December 2020

THE BIGGEST FRAUD ON THE EARTH

 There has been a systematic effort, of late, by Muslims across the world to falsely dub and highlight Jesus Christ as just a prophet and a human being. The Quran and Muslims have always rejected the divinity of Jesus and refused to accept Him as the Son of God or God himself who came to the world for the salvation of humankind. This falsity is being spread by Satan through Islam.

 The falsification of truth started from the time of Muhammed Nabi who spread the falsehood that Allah (who they claim to be almighty God) appeared to him in a dream and conveyed the teachings that eventually appeared as Quran. This is the biggest fraud in the history of mankind.

 Nabi’s so-called dream, Quran, the barbaric teachings and the Islam are the biggest misconception that the world has ever seen. It’s clearly the work of Satan who is angry with the resurrection of Jesus Christ and salvation of mankind. Satan is trying to throw seeds of confusion and misunderstanding through Islam, Nabi and the modern Islam theologians.

 Of late, Islamists have stepped up efforts to denigrate the divinity of Jesus Christ across the world – from India, France, Iran to several countries. The idea of Islamists is to spread the Islam falsehood and destroy Christianity. Church is silent except for some lone voices like Rev Fr Michael Panachikkal who has been calling the bluffs of Islamists and their merchants of mendacity, canard and fabrication.

 Islamists can’t digest the resurrection of Jesus and the reality that He is God. If they accept it, then the foundation or base of Muslim religion will collapse. So they continue with their canards and mendacity of Christianity and Jesus Christ.

  The so-called Allah of Nabi and Muslims is not the God the Father mentioned in the Bible. The entire Quran is a grossly twisted fraud work of Nabi, parts of which were taken from the Holy Bible. The verses were twisted and some outrageous and barbaric verses to suit Nabi’s whims and fancies were added.

  Look at some Muslim nations. There’s no permission to set up a Christian church in some Muslim countries and no public services are allowed. You can’t take the Bible to those countries. Sadly, retribution to sins and sinful activities are also barbaric in those countries.

 In short, falsehood spread by Islamists is the biggest fraud on the earth. Islamists are trying to project the so-called religion as something genuine and original. This is a big smokescreen to deceive people. Islam is a big trap created by Satan. The systematic efforts of Islamists to portray Jesus Christ as a human being and reject resurrection and divinity is aimed at torpedoing God’s plan for salvation.

 Muslim brethren must realise that Jesus Christ is God himself who came to this world for the salvation of humankind. They should not get into the trap of Satan. Hope they will understand and accept Jesus Christ as the saviour, healer and God one day. They will, on the day of judgement.

 

 

Friday 25 December 2020

CHRISTMAS DAY MUSINGS

 Why was the much-awaited Messiah born in a manger? Jesus Christ could have come in any manner as nothing was impossible for God. Why did Jesus come to this world in this manner. Even the poorest of the poor could have afforded a better birth in those times.

 What message does that give us in this Christmas season? This is to make himself available to everyone -- the poor and the rich alike.
 Are the poor getting Jesus? Are they getting a chance to know Him and follow Him? Church -- there are many divisions-- is largely institutionalised now. Poor are being sidelined.
 Poor people can relate to him… ohhh Jesus was born in such a poor environment. He was also poor like you and me. The rich can relate to Him in another way --- here’s the king of kings. The saviour of mankind. Even three kings, who were actually gentiles, visited him soon after the birth.
 That said, evangelization has taken the back seat. For Roman Catholic church and Eastern churches, church services have become institutionalised and largely mechanical. Protestant churches are in thousands, that too with thousands of interpretations. Many people who were born as Christians don't follow Jesus Christ any longer. They say they have no religion. That's the case in many European countries. The result is that magnificent church buildings are either lying closed or auctioned off as the church is unable to afford the cost of maintenance.      
 Jesus tells us: you should seek poor people… who are homeless and hungry… and those who are usually despised and overlooked and those who cannot repay you. However, we, the church, are not doing it. Church is unable to keep the flock in union with Christ. 
 In this Christmas season we can watch ourselves and if necessary, change ourselves to be more like Christ. It's time to bring everybody -- both poor and rich -- to Jesus Christ. Salvations is through Him alone. Christmas is an occasion to remember this vital fact.   
 

Monday 21 December 2020

TEN TRUTHS ABOUT A LIAR

  Satan’s Achilles’s heel: hubris. Satan contends with the Son of God, is overpowered, and is ultimately defeated at the cross (Col 2:15). It’s a classic bait-and-switch. Because of his pride, Satan never sees it coming. He lacks omniscience. Pride is his most highlighted characteristic. Satan is smart, but he’s stupid and a loser. While the storyline of Scripture is silent on the precise time of Satan’s personal rebellion and from where his motivation stems, it is quite clear on his nature—he was blinded by pride.

After working through the proper exegetical and biblical-theological motions, we now have a sturdier foundation upon which to establish a few implications that help us to discern the person and activity of Satan:

1.    Satan is not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, nor eternal.

There was a time when Satan was not. In contrast, there was never a ‘time’ when the Son of God was not, i.e. the Son is eternal. Satan is created and contingent just as humans are (Col 1:16-17). In Job 1:6, the Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?” to which he responded, “From roaming through the earth.” He is physically positioned in the universe. He is not omnipresent and, thus, is unlikely to be personally tempting individual Christians. In Matthew 4 and Job 1-2, he fails to know the future and his potency is shown to be limited by God.

2.    Satan exercises his otherworldly dominion by way of a hierarchical, geographical, and militaristic strategy.

In Matthew 4, Satan legitimately offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world. These kingdoms seem to have a geographical and governmental nature. This offer is textually grounded in Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82. But through the cross, Jesus took back the authority forfeited in Adam (Col 2:14-15). Therefore, in Matthew 28:18, Jesus states that all authority has been given to Him. In John 12:31 we’re told Satan is the “ruler of this world,” which rings of realm and region. Then, there is that peculiar reference to the “prince of the kingdom of Persia” in Daniel 10:13, 20. This dark prince opposes the angel Gabriel and the angelic prince Michael. It’s hierarchical. Experientially, this rings true. The nature of spiritual warfare varies depending on the continent and culture (North America, Asia, Africa, etc.). Satan leads a hierarchy of demons (Mt 12:24), a divergent and highly capable army, which implies he is leading an otherworldly ‘outfit’ that personally tempts persons (Col 2:15, 1 Pt 5:8-9) depending on the sinful sensibilities of a given culture.

3.    Satan can manipulate matter, weather systems, and bacterial life.

We see in Job 1 that Satan is able to manipulate matter and weather patterns and, in Job 2:8, he infects Job with a skin disease. His purpose is to afflict Job, and for our machinations, we note he is capable of feats not afforded to humans.

4.    Satan can influence and sway legal proceedings and governmental structures.

 In Revelation 2:10, Jesus states that Satan is in the process of influencing Smyrna’s legal proceedings by throwing a collection of Christians into prison. Likewise, in Job 1:17, he manipulates the Chaldeans, encouraging them to steal Job’s livestock. Though we are not told how he exerts his influence, we surmise he is the agent of these activities.

5.    Satan aggressively seeks to trap 
individual Christians.

 1 Timothy 3:7 says he seeks to trap elders. He is spoken of as a federal head type of figure. His minions study individuals and then seek to tempt and twist them in accordance with particularized patterns of sin. They cater and concoct a seemingly irresistible elixir of poison just for you. Television, social media, fast food, biology, age, and gender are all thrown into the recipe.

6.    Satan is more skilled at deception than any other created being.

 John 8:44 says his nature is to lie. If his mouth is moving, he is lying. He is the original liar and, therefore, the father of lies. Every lie was and is birthed in him. However, deception is all he has in his arsenal against Christians. As Colossians 2:15 teaches, this side of Calvary, Satan can accuse, but he knows—and his rebel realm know—that he has been reduced to utter fragility at the cross.

7.    Satan is able to kill Christians.

 He is able to kill you physically (Job 1-2), but not eternally (Rom 8). In Job 2, when Satan goes a second time to the LORD in the divine courtroom, he asks permission to kill Job, but God denies his request. I take that to mean Satan could have killed him, but God would not allow it. Everything Satan does comes crashing down on his own head, eventually crushing his skull (Gn 3:15) unto the glory of the Son of God and for the Christian’s good.

8.    Satan is the Lord’s lackey for the Christian’s holiness.

 In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says his thorn is “a messenger of Satan,” and yet the Lord kindly uses the thorn (against Paul’s will!) to produce sanctification and spiritual power in Paul’s ministry. How kind of the Lord to give Paul his thorn! Satan plays the pawn in God’s economy, and the thorn stays against Paul’s will. Thus, Satan is ever-regulated by Romans 8 and, therefore, is providentially powerless to wound Christians in any resurrected or eternal sense. Neither Satan nor death, neither “angels nor rulers … nor powers … will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rm 8:38).

9.    Satan will be thrown into hell in the end.

 Satan can and surely has read Matthew 25:41, which states he will ultimately be thrown into hell. That is what I mean by “Satan is so smart, he’s stupid.” This is his end, yet he rages against all “born of God” (1 Jn 3:9). He lies. He accuses the brethren (Rv 12:10). But he cannot succeed in bringing a guilty sentence upon the Christian anymore (Col 2:14).

10. Satan is resistible.

James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” He will flee from you, Christian. Resist him. If Christians resist temptation, hold firm the promise of resurrection, and do not give in, do not accept the enemy’s lies, and do not give into his accusations—Satan will eventually depart. He is limited. He is finite. He will eventually move on to easier prey.

 

CONCLUSION

My aim in this essay was to use the person of Satan as a test case. Rarely do scholars pull down the walls of their respective domains to set exegesis, biblical theology, and dogmatics in motion in a singular treatment. In the final analysis, we are not told precisely how or why Satan does certain things, but when we analyze the pertinent texts and take into account all of the data, we see what he does and what he is capable of. The Christian, then, is broken over the plight of the unregenerate, properly sobered, and bolstered that Jesus so decisively routed Satan at Calvary.

--- Sam Bierig