The Jewish Solution

As I sat watching the second part of BBC programme, ‘Auschwitz remembered,’ on 28^th January 2020, when the 75^th year of the liberation of Jews from the concentration camp at Auschwitz by German troops at the end of World War II was being observed, I was moved to tears as some of the 200 odd survivors of Holocaust gave their testimonies at this ceremony at Auschwitz. They were old and frail, wearing a scarf of stripped design to remember the stripped pajamas they were made to wear in the concentration camp. Out of the six million Jews exterminated by the Nazis during the World War II, 1.1 million perished at Auschwitz concentration camp. The books I had read about this gruesome pogrom and the movies like Schindler’s list I had watched, where some humane Germans help the condemned Jews to survive, came flooding to my mind. ‘Diary of a young girl,’ by Anne Frank, a Jewish girl in hiding with her family, who lost her life in the last few months and the Book Thief, The Pianist, were all powerful movies.

What remains in my mind uppermost are how the hair of the women gassed were gathered to be sent to industries in Germany to be converted into wigs and bones of these victims crushed and sent to fields in Germany to serve as manure; how they conducted experiments using these victims as guinea pigs to test how much heat or cold human body can tolerate, by immersing them in very hot and very cold freezing water alternatively. Young and old, babies and teenagers were all killed, murdered and buried in mass graves. What horror! What trauma they must have undergone! The survivors would have been seared for the rest of their lives.

How did this happen? How did the German people allow Hitler and his henchmen SS officers to carry on such heinous crimes? Did they not know? As one of the survivors recalled, Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It was in the making. First Jews were segregated; not permitted even to sit on the same bench as others; sold bread only during the dusk after everybody else had had their fill; treated as separate and second class citizens; their properties confiscated and no one objected. German people watched with amusement and satisfaction, so also others in Europe. Then one fine morning they were hurdled in trains like cattle and taken to the concentration camps to be slaughtered like infected cattle. It was only after the war the horrors of these concentration camps and the torture and killings indulged by Hitler and his SS henchmen came to light. Nuremburg trials though highlighted these, really couldn’t do much as the dead have died. They cannot be brought back. Families broken were broken; they cannot be made whole. It is surprising that not one German was harmed or killed in the post war world by the afflicted Jews. May be we can say, they had taken it in their stride.

 

Again and again the plea of the survivors at this function was ‘let it not happen again,’ not just in Europe, but anywhere in the world and not just to Jews but to anyone else. Someone had invented a Eleventh Commandment in this respect. “Thou shall not be indifferent!” When good people keep quiet in the face of wrongful happenings it is then that evil flourishes. Germans watched and kept quiet allowing such discriminatory policies of the ruling elite to go without impunity. No one objected, not even the church, excepting a theologian of repute, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who resisted Nazism, was arrested in 1943 and hanged as a traitor, just 21 days before Hitler himself took his life. May be the fear of the ruling regime was a factor in people keeping quiet!

Did these six million people lose their lives for nothing? Was it just a fodder to the power hungry and xenophobic rulers of that time? Or was something else at stake? May be out of all these sacrifices and mayhem emerged Israel as a country, a nation for the Jews! Was it a price paid for the establishment of the nation of Israel? I don’t know! May be!

I am troubled when I recall things that are happening today in India. Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) being pushed through by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah who are spearheading these to eliminate those who are not able to prove that they are citizens of India, cast a long shadow of doubt. In Assam, the one State where this exercise has been done, 19 lakh people have been categorized as foreigners, not citizens of India. Detention centres have been built to accommodate these people till their fate is decided. Some are already in detention in the regular prisons along with criminals and murderers. Among these people, Hindus will be accommodated and made Indian citizens to set right the so called historical injustices. But Muslim refugees will be separated and dealt with separately, perhaps similar to the harsh treatment meted out to the Hindus in Islamic countries like Pakistan. This CAA and NTC are to be brought to cover the whole of India.

Does the story remind you of similar pogram some 75 years back let loose by Hitler and co in Europe, the scars of which are yet to heal? Is this another pogram to separate the Muslims and exterminate them in the detention centres? Once the Muslims are dealt with, won’t they train their guns at the other minority, Christians? Should we let these horrible things to be repeated in India, the land of accommodation and tolerance, which our forefathers carved as a secular, democratic, Republic? Should we allow the heritage of age old India to be spoiled and ruined by the BJP (Bharatya Janata Party), and it's the political arm the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh)?

Fortunately, in India the youth are up against arms in this respect continually carrying out agitations and protest marches in the face of police atrocities and thousand lies of repeated assurances from the ruling elite. Even women have come out of their homes to protest. Yes, Union government can bulldoze and try to implement these laws, but they cannot do it against the will of the public. Regional and opposition parties in nine States namely Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Andra Pradesh have declared that they will not implement these draconian laws.

Let us hope and pray that the time tested secular spirit of India will triumph against such divisive forces and its people can live in peace proudly as Indians.

God bless India!

A Christmas Quiz!

Before Christmas season is over, I want to bring out this blog, which throws out some questions about Christmas. This was quizzed to my Bible Study Group in the first week of December and I thought it would be nice to throw it open to all. Please give the relevant verses to support your answer; you can consult your Bible. I will be giving the answers at the end! Here we go.

Questions:

1.    1.  Where was Jesus born?

2.     2. Where was the place of birth of Jesus foretold?

3.     3. Where was the baby Jesus when the three Magi came to visit him?

4.     4. How old was the baby Jesus when Herod sought to kill all the babies in Bethlehem?

5.     5. Which prophet in the OT foretold that John the Baptist will prepare the way?

6.     6. In whose spirit did John the Baptist come?

7.     7. What is Jesus’ name in Hebrew?

8.     8. Did Jesus have brothers and sisters?

      9. Was James the brother of Jesus?

1    10. Was Jude the brother of Jesus?

Answers:

1. 1.    Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem. Luke 2:16

2.  2.   Minor Prophet Micah had foretold that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5:2

3. 3. When the Magi came to visit the baby Jesus, he was in a house with his parents, probably in Jerusalem. Matthew 2:11

4. 4.   Baby Jesus was 2 years old when Herod sought to kill all the babies in Bethlehem. Herod ordered that all babies of two years old and under be killed. Matthew 2:16

5.   5.  Major Prophet Isaiah foretold about one who will prepare the way. Isaiah 40:3-5

6.   6.  John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah. Matthew 11:14; Luke 1:17

7.    7.  Jesus is called “Yeshua” in Hebrew.

8.   8.   Yes, Jesus had four brothers and a few sisters. His brothers’ names are James, Joses, Judas and Simon. Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55-56

9.    9.  James was one of the three pillars of the church in Jerusalem. Galatians 2:9. Paul calls him the brother of Jesus in Galatians 1:19. He is the half-brother of Jesus.

1   10. Jude calls himself the brother of James, who is the brother of Jesus; that would make him another half-brother of Jesus. Jude 1

So, how did you fare? Did you get all the questions correct? Were you able to get the Scriptural verses also correctly? What was your score, out of ten marks, giving one mark for every correct answer - ten out of ten? Wow, give yourself a high-five!

Well done, congratulations! And wishing you all once again a Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year!

Christmas Message

Greetings to all of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whose birth we all will be celebrating shortly.[1]

Generally at Christmas time we recount the events around the birth of Jesus. About Mary, the young maiden betrothed to Joseph the carpenter, and how she was found to be with child by the power of the Holy Spirit as informed by the angel Gabriel; how both had to journey to Bethlehem to register themselves in the census ordered by Emperor Augustus and as there was no place in the inns, she delivered her baby in the manger; how the shepherds came to visit the baby being informed by the choir of the angels; how the Magi traveled from the east, following a star and finding the baby worshiped him as a King and presented to him gold, frankincense and myrrh as gifts; how Herod King of Judea intended to kill the baby, and warned by an angel the couple ran away to Egypt with the child and after the death of Herod they returned to Judea, and settled down in Nazareth in Galilee.

But today I want to delve into the reasons or the purpose for which Jesus was born as a baby some 2000 years back. Yes, as preached by the apostles and as written in the Gospels, we all know that Jesus was born to redeem mankind, reconcile us to God and to assure us of eternal life. Let’s search what the Bible says regarding this in detail.

The angel who appeared to Joseph in his dream instructed him to take the pregnant Mary as his wife and that the child she will bear should be named “Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.”(Matthew 1:21). This is the main purpose for which Jesus came to earth. Saving us from our sins is salvation. We, the sinful mankind cannot stand before the holy and pure God, especially on the Judgment Day, for all our righteousness is but filthy rags in the eyes of God. (Isaiah 64:6). So we need someone who is born a human like us, but sinless, who will offer himself on his own free will as a sacrifice, bearing our sins. This is what Jesus did on the cross and this is the meaning of Old Testament sacrificial system. An animal is sacrificed in the place of the sinner so that the sinner is forgiven and lives, but the animal dies in his place. Jesus was the Lamb of God who died in our place so that we can go scot-free.

At this juncture it is good to know that no other religion on earth preaches forgiveness of sins. In Hinduism, even god cannot forgive sins, but an individual has to work out his own salvation by doing many good deeds to overcome the effects of his bad deeds, which is the essence of Karma theory. As one life is not sufficient to achieve this, this theory proposes that a man takes many births to finally break free of the world, which is mukti. Buddhism follows similar teaching for it is an offshoot of Hinduism. But Buddhism does not even acknowledge that there is god! In Islam, it is believed that one’s salvation depends on the mercy of Allah, and so to please Allah, they do many charitable deeds to become worthy of salvation.

In all these teachings it is, “Do good so you can be saved.” Apostles of Christ taught “We do good because we are saved.” It is from the assurance of our salvation and in gratitude of being saved that we serve others in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus is also the only one who proclaimed that he, the Son of Man, has the authority to forgive sins in Mark 2:10, while healing the paralytic who was lowered from the roof by his friends. So the first purpose for which Jesus came to earth is to offer forgiveness to sins, thereby saving us from our sins.

Secondly Jesus announced during his ministry, “Let us go to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” (Mark 1:38). So what is this message that Jesus wanted to proclaim? Jesus began his ministry by exhorting people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17). This was his message. This is also our Good News or the Gospel. If an individual repents, seeks forgiveness of his sins, he will be forgiven, for Jesus, who has the power to forgive sins, has come to the world, inaugurating the kingdom of God on earth.

Though the message of Jesus is universal and the salvation he offered is also universal, without us repenting our sins, and obtaining remission of it in faith in Jesus, God is not going to just pour out salvation over anyone. This is set clearly by Apostle Peter in his very first sermon in Jerusalem, when he said in Acts 2:38, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that our sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This forgiveness of sins or remission of sins is necessary for salvation and the first step towards this is repentance. We can glean four stages in the process of our salvation here: repentance, remission of sins in the name of Jesus Christ, baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. The message of Jesus was repentance and forgiveness of sins, the good news being Jesus has the authority to forgive our sins.

Thirdly, the birth of Jesus is never far away from his death on the cross. Jesus said he came “to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45b). As explained earlier, he came to die for us, to bear our sins and die in our place on the cross, as a substitute; to pay the ransom for our lives, to save us from sure death and die as a propitiation for our sins. It is his shed blood that ransomed those who believe in him; he had paid for our sins that we need to do no work or toil to earn our salvation. All that we need is faith in this work of his and appropriate it to us. It is “the blood of Jesus his (God’s) Son (that) cleanses us from all sins.” (I John 1:7b). Paul explains it beautifully in Romans 3:22-25. We, the believers are “now justified by his (God’s) grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.” When we believe in what Christ did for us on the cross, his righteousness is imparted to us. Hallelujah!

If the ‘reason’ for the ‘season’ is Jesus, then we can say that it is not about anything but ‘it is about the cross.’ Without the cross there is no redemption for us. It is by the blood that was shed on Calvary that our sins are forgiven. Then, he came to shed his blood on the cross as a ransom for many, all those who will believe in him.

Finally, Jesus came to earth to rise victoriously from the dead on the third day, victorious over sin and death and blazed the way to heaven in his resurrection. Can we stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb as a follower of Christ, with the names of God the Father and the Lamb written on our foreheads, as indicated in Revelation 14:1? What a privilege it would be! Is that not the final goal of every Christian who believes in Christ? We are justified, that is, declared ‘not guilty’ by God; sanctified by the Holy Spirit, transforming us from sinners to saints, a process that goes on till the end of our lives, and finally in death and resurrection we are glorified, inheriting the eternal life. This is why Jesus came to earth, so that we can inherit eternal life. “That whoever believes in him (Jesus Christ) may have eternal life.” (John 3:15b).

Then, Jesus came to earth as a baby born in the manger, some 2000 years ago, to save us from our sins, to proclaim the good news that forgiveness is available to the repentant for he has the power to forgive sins, to die for us to pay ransom for our sins, and to show us the way in resurrection to heaven to inherit eternal life.

Have you accepted this Jesus as your Savior? What amazing grace that once we have faith in him and in his sacrifice, all the above said blessings will be ours, our heritage to live with and to die for.

God bless you all. Have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

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[1] This message was delivered at the Bible Society of India (Bangalore) on 19^th December 2019 at their Carol celebrations, to which I was invited as chief guest, graciously by the General Secretary, Rev. Dr. Mani Chacko.

Anarchy and East India Company grabbing India

After blogs on Apologetics, I have switched gear and am writing on historical topics in this blog! This topic, especially of the Company and later the Crown of England of British Raj fleecing Indian rulers and Indian resources in the 18^th century and until when they left in the 20^th century, is a part of my research and written well documented in my first book, “Values and Influence of Religion in Public Administration.” I had devoted an entire chapter on ‘Colonial Ethics,’ where in spite of professing Christianity, they sucked Indian economy dry and left us as a poor Underdeveloped country.

William Dalrymple gives a detailed narrative of how the power vacuum that was present in the 18^th century Indian subcontinent due to the decline of Mughal Empire was exploited by the East India Company to their advantage and how the disunity among the then rulers of Indian subcontinent like the Maratthas, Tipu Sultan, Nizam of Hyderabad, etc was again exploited by the British, to play one against the other and win the subcontinent and its rich resources for themselves. He gives a detailed account of the political climate of the times, which I happened to read recently.[1] I will give here some interesting points.

The Company was formed on 31^st December 1600 by 218 men in London, ‘Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to East Indies,’ after obtaining a royal charter to trade in East Indies (Indonesia). Their first fleet safely landed back in June 1603, laden with 900 tons of pepper, cinnamon, and cloves from Acheh, situated in Sumatra, Indonesia, making 300% profit! Due to intense rivalry from a stronger and richer Dutch East India Company, the English East India Company (EIC) left the Spice Islands to less competitive goods, but luxury items, fine cotton textiles, indigo and chintzes[2], all of which were sourced in India. What a tragic turn of events for us Indians!

India in 1600s was producing about a quarter of the world’s manufacturing goods and world’s leader in manufacturing textiles. England was producing less than 3% of the world’s manufactured goods. This table will soon be turned. It is also noteworthy that the Mughal Emperor ruling India that time was the richest in the world, receiving an income of 100 million Pounds (over 10,000 million Pound Sterling today). Mughals kept a large and strong standing army that when Portuguese where flouting Mughal rules they were attacked and expelled from Hughli in Bengal in 1632. Sir Henry Middleton of EIC tried bullying the traders in Surat were attacked and driven away from the area. Only in 1615 the royal envoy of King James Sir Thomas Roe was granted firman (Imperial Order) by Emperor Jahangir to conduct trade, that too reluctantly. He allowed them to build a factory at Surat without giving any major trading privileges. Thus started the 150-200 year old relationship with the Mughal Empire, when the Company behaved an obedient trader, until when they would swallow it alive.

Aurangzeb, the last strong, no-nonsense Emperor died in 1707 and within next 50 years the Company showed its true colors and started to gobble up territorial areas in Indian subcontinent. Aurangzeb’s fanatic Islam and Deccan warfare not only emptied his treasury but also incurred the wrath of Indian rulers like Maratta Shivaji. After his death, Mughal Empire started to crumble. With no worthwhile Emperor, local Nawabs and Marathas asserted their power. Marvari Oswal Jain financiers Jagat Singh became the financiers of the trade in the troubled times, becoming more powerful than the rulers.

Marattas under Baji Rao, attacked and looted Delhi in 1737. Nader Shaw a Persian ruler, invaded Delhi in 1739 with a strong army, defeated Mughal army, looted and massacred the people of India. Some 100000 Delhites were killed. Their properties and women were captured and enslaved. For full eight days the massacre lasted and Delhi was torched. Nader Shaw had to be paid an indemnity of 100 crore rupees just to leave India and go back. He took Jahangir’s Peacock Throne studded with Kohinoor Diamond before leaving. He left with a loot worth 87 million Pound of gold, silver, and precious stones. Mughal Empire was damaged beyond rescue, a terrible blow from which they will never recover. This showed the way for the others, including European trading companies to dream of conquering the rich empire.

The French and the English will now fight for ascendancy and control of the resources of India. This was clinched in favor of the English at the Battle of Plassey in 1757. By 1755, 60% of all EIC exports from Asia were passing through Calcutta and it paid 180,000 Pounds to Mughal custom officers to buy these goods, 75% of it in the form of gold and silver bullion. This will dry up once the company seized control of Bengal. Without going into the political debacle that happened in 1757, Battle of Plassey, the amount paid off to the English Company to have a local leader, Siraj-ud-Daula the Nawab of Bengal changed and to install another, Mir Jafer in that seat, was a scandal. The locals, including the Indian financiers Jagat Singh and co, invited the muscle power of the EIC, which was under the control of Clive then, to effect this and paid for their services: Clive got 234,000 Pounds and a jagir, a landed estate worth annual payment of 27,000 Pound, (232 million Pound in today’s equivalent). Clive became stinking rich and bought estates, lands, and boroughs in England and an MP seat in British parliament. This was in addition to the loot of jewels, precious stones and pearls. Bengal, the once rich and flourishing province will sink into poverty as her treasures and finances were looted and many returned to England as new “Naboobs!” British never paid for the export of goods from  Bengal thereafter. The land revenue of Bengal paid for the export!

Another replacement- installing Mir Quasim in the place of Mir Jafer, brought more payments from the Indians. In the Battle of Buxar in 1765 the Company got the diwani (right to collect revenue and management) of the richest provinces of Mughal Empire, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Now on it was Indian wealth that would help propel Britain’s economy. The avarice of the British Company, of scrapping as much as money possible from these provinces directly led to the horrible Bengal famine of 1770, where in three million people perished.

Though praised for being instrumental in establishing British rule in India, Clive was put through impeachment proceedings for the excesses he had committed in India. At the end of a long process, he was exonerated. But very soon Clive took his life by cutting his jugular veins with a blunt paper-knife in 1774, at the age of only 49. As it was a suicide he was not given an honorable burial but was buried secretly in the night in the village church where he was born, and buried in an unmarked grave, without a plaque. A fitting end to a rapacious person, who by deceit and bribery, won his wars with the Indian chiefs, enslaving the country to shop-keepers of Europe.

Very soon the Company would play one Indian ruler against the other, break their unity and grab the entire of India. In the south Haidar Ali was ruling the Mysore State. In 1780 Tipu Sultan, his son defeated the English army in Pollilur in the preset Tamil Nadu. Haidar Ali determined to throw British out of India, drew up a tripartite agreement with Prime Minister Nana Phadnavis, of Maratha Confederacy in 1780 and with the Nizam of Hyderabad. But on his death in 1783, his son Tipu soon lost the advantages and the alliance. British signed a separate treaty with Maratha in 1782. Tipu died fighting the English at Srirangapatnam, in the last Anglo-Mysore war of 1799.

Meanwhile Maratha powers, the young Scindia and Holkar on the death of their respective fathers around 1794, became bitter rivals, paving way for the British to defeat them separately. The wise and efficient Phadnavis died in 1800. Shah Alam, the blind Mughal Emperor who was under the protection of Marathas, was taken under the wings of the British in 1803. Company’s decisions were thereafter taken with the seal of approval of the nominal Emperor which became legitimate in the eyes of the people in India.

India would remain in the hands of the Company till 1857, when the First Indian Independence fight occurred and the country changed hands to that of the British Crown. It will be take another almost 100 years before India could really became independent in 1947. For almost 200 years Indian resources powered the engine of government of Great Britain. Indian itself became poor. A country that was thriving economically under the Mughals became a Third World country when the British left. That is the legacy of British Raj in India.  

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[1] William Dalrymple, The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate violence, and the Pillage of an Empire, Bloomsbury Publishing, New Delhi, 2019

[2] Printed glazed calico textiles

Understanding Islam

In the troubled times of terrorism and war in the Middle East, Syria and Afghanistan, Boko Haram in Africa and troubles between Israel and Hamas in Palestine region, and the escalating war like situation in Gulf of Hormuz near Iran in Persian Gulf, it is necessary that we have an understanding of Islam, in the name of which Muslims in these areas are fighting the West and their allies in one way or the other. Is it a clash between Christianity and Islam or just the avarice of the Western countries to exploit the oil reserves in these areas or is it the desire of Muslims to be the leaders of the world, ruling over every one? Whatever that may be, it is better that we know about Islam.

Today as of 2015, Muslims are 24.1% of the world population, 1.8 billion of the 7.3 billion people; out of this 80%, 1.5 billion are Sunnis and 20%, 340 million are Shia Muslims. Islam was founded by Prophet Muhammad, an Arab and it spread to the world. Arabs are the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham from Hagar, the Egyptian maid of Abraham’s wife Sarah, whom he married as Sarah as of that time was barren. When Ishmael was 12 years old, Sarah gave birth to Isaac, the son of promise to Abraham and Hagar and Ishmael were cast out as they were found to be antagonistic to Isaac.[1]

The main tenets of Islam are there is one god, and his name is Allah; Muhammad is his prophet. It is a strict monotheism, for God is no Father, neither has he a Son. Allah is merciful and compassionate; he will judge the people in the last day when all the dead will be resurrected, based on the good deeds they have done on earth and they will either be sent to heaven or consigned to hell. Islam encourages charity, especially to their own community.

Muhammad, the founder of Islam was born in Mecca in 570 AD; his father died even before his birth and his mother died when he was six years old. He became an orphan and was brought up by his grandfather and uncle. As a young teenage boy he used to accompany his uncle’s caravans to Syria on trade. He earned a name as a good and hard working boy, honest in his dealings and reliable. He started to work for a rich widow, Khadija, who observing his good qualities, married him, though she was 15 years older than him. They had many children but only one girl Fatima survived and she will later marry Ali, Muhammad’s cousin.

Muhammad was in the habit of retiring to caves for meditation. Once when he was in a cave in Mount Jabel al Nour, he was accosted by a spirit, called Namus, which shook him and forced him to take down what the spirit was saying. Muhammad was 40 years old at that time in AD 610, and in fear and in confusion he tried to commit suicide. But he was stopped by the spirit who assured him that he was Gabriel, the archangel. Thereon intermittently the revelation continued, for the next 23 years, which is said to constitute the Quran.

Growth of Islam in Arabia was phenomenal. The first to believe Muhammad was his wife Khadija, his cousin Ali and friend Abu Baker. Since AD 613 Muhammad started to preach his religion, preaching against idolatry and polytheism. The tribal leaders in Mecca were afraid that their livelihood will be endangered, for the town received regular pilgrims to worship the black stone, Kaaba, which had some 360 idols attached to it. As they planned to kill him, he ran away to Medina in AD 622. He got a following in Medina and after series of battles with Mecca, the Medina people, the followers of Muhammad won and he entered in triumph Mecca and demolished the idols associated with Kaaba and cleared the area.

By AD 630, the whole of Arabia was consolidated under the control of Muhammad. He is said to have fought some 56 battles around this time. He died in AD 632, poisoned by a Jewish woman who had been taken as a slave in one of his raids.

The story of Islam sweeping over the entire Middle East up to Indonesia in the east and up to Spain in the west is remarkable. After the death of Muhammad, the community elected Abu Baker as the next leader; but others wished to have Ali as the leader since he was the closest kin of Muhammad. Finally a group of four men were made to rule, Ali, Abu Baker, Uthman and Umar. This arrangement lasted less than 30 years for in AD 661 Ali was murdered and Umayyads took over the reign, with Syria as their capital. This was the starting of the major split among Muslims, Ali’s followers being Shias and the rest of them being Sunnis. By this time they had conquered Palestine, Israel, Syria and other nearby areas.

In AD 750, Ummayads were toppled by Abbasids and they ruled with Baghdad as the capital. The two major empires of the world at this time, the Roman Empire and Persian Empire had fought each other for supremacy and exhausted themselves and the Muslims almost walked over unopposed.[2] Byzantium survived till AD 1453, when Ottomans conquered them and ruled till the First World War in AD 1915. Today Muslims are in majority in almost 50 countries of the world, the whole of Central Asia, Indonesia, Middle East, Northern Africa are in their hands. In India a large population of Muslims live.

Important pointers as far as Christianity is concerned, Muslims respect Jesus Christ as a prophet of God, but not as Son of God or God. The concept of Trinity they do not accept. Their arguments against Christianity are threefold: God is not a Father; if Jesus is the Son, they ask where is God’s wife? They are sure Jesus did not die on the cross nor did he resurrect on the third day. Finally they argue that Jesus never claimed to be God.

Christians when they address Jesus Christ as Son of God do not mean God married a wife and gave birth to a Son by biological means.[3] God exists in three forms, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, the Trinity. All the three are of the same substance but are three individual beings.

That Jesus died on the cross as a substitute sacrifice for the sins of all of us, and that he was buried and rose again on the third day is the crux of Christian belief.[4] This the Muslims deny. They have two theories to explain how Jesus did not die on the cross. One, it only looked as if Jesus died on the cross, but God replaced someone else in his place in the last minute and took Jesus away to heaven before crucifixion. This is called the substitution theory. Why would God play this substitution game and fool a major religion into believing a fallacy as truth is known only to Muslims! God was offering Jesus as a Lamb of sacrifice to save the sinners, and if that is how He has planned to save the world, who are we to say that He did not do it?

The other theory claims Jesus only fainted on the cross and did not die; when he was kept in the tomb, because of the cool atmosphere inside and with the help of his disciples, he revived and walked away. This is called the swoon theory. Is it possible for any man to walk away after the whipping and nailing on the wrists and feet, and hanging on the cross for three hours? This our Muslim friends alone know! Moreover where did he go after reviving? That also Muslims alone know! This is a physical and medical impossibility and moreover the tomb was sealed by the soldiers of Pilate, the Governor of the time and there was no way Jesus’ disciples could have gone anywhere near the tomb.

We must also remember that Islam came 600 years after Christ’s death, and resurrection, which were recorded within 15-20 years of his crucifixion by eyewitnesses. Which one do we believe, the narration of those who personally saw the whole events and wrote about it within 15-20 years or something written after 600 years? Our Muslim friends need to take a call on that. Moreover after the second century AD, about almost 100 years after crucifixion, such theories that Jesus did not die on the cross and God took him away started to circulate. 500 years after that Muslims base their belief on such heretical and spurious writings. People have to be wise here.  

Jesus claimed that he is God when he made “I AM” statements recorded in the Gospel of John. At the time of his trial the High Priest asked Jesus, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus answered “I am. And you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Based on this the high priest declares that this is blasphemy, and that he should be killed.[5] Early enough he tried not to spread this news, lest the authorities kill him early on itself.

Muslims argue that Muhammad has been prophesied in the Bible! They quote Deuteronomy 18:18-19 where Moses tells Israel people that God will raise a Prophet like him from among their brethren and that they should listen to him. This prophet that is mentioned is the Messiah, Christ who will arise from among the Jews. It is definitely not Prophet Muhammad as claimed by Muslims. Deuteronomy was written after the Hebrews, the twelve tribes of Jacob, returned from slavery in Egypt and not in the time of Isaac and Ishmael. To interpret it wrongly and twist its meaning is of no credit to the Muslims!

Secondly the Muslims claim that the Helper whom Jesus promised to send once he leaves the earth, in John 16:7 is Muhammad! This is cherry-picking from Bible, that too when Muslims do not believe the other things written in the very same Bible! From John 14:16 on, John clarifies that this Helper is the Holy Spirit, who will come and reside in the believers and help them to live a life pleasing to the Lord. It is definitely not Muhammad.

The biography of Muhammad was written after almost 150 years of his death by one Ibn Ishag, but was lost and edited twice before releasing. Compare this with the Gospels written within 15-20 years of the crucifixion of Christ! Quran itself was consolidated and written some 200 years after the death of Muhammad. Some 80 odd versions of it were circulating when Utman, the third Caliph in AD 644 recalled all these, burnt them and issued an official standardised version of Quran. Such a thing never happened with New Testament of the Bible, because for three centuries Christians were not under a single person’s rule. Only when Constantine, the Roman Emperor, became a Christian in AD 337, he could have done it, but there are no records of him or anybody else doing it. The copies of the New Testament would have run into millions in the three hundred years! Moreover the Quran as we have today was brought out only in 1924!

Last few facts on Muhammad, the Prophet. He was helpful and compassionate, especially to his own people, but was merciless in war. Once he ordered the beheading of 900 captured men. He permitted his men to rape the captured women, kill the men and teenage boys, but keep the women and small children to be sold as slaves. He emphasised that to kill an ‘infidel,’ that is ‘unbeliever’ is pleasing to Allah and is the duty of every Muslim. Surah 9:5 says ‘fight and kill infidels wherever you see them.’ Actually Islam is not a religion of peace, it means “Submission,” submission to what is written in Quran, which itself is telling them to kill all unbelievers, unless they convert or pay the special tax.

The sayings of Muhammad, hadith, are again not from him in totality. In AD 830 one Al Bukhari collected some 6,00,000 supposed sayings of Prophet Muhammad that were circulating. He then rejected all but 7275 and these he issued as the hadith, on which the Muslims rely as if it is God’s word.

Muhammad the Prophet in his personal life was not above board. He had 18 wives and married the 9 year old Aisha when he was 52 years old and consummated that marriage. He allowed temporary marriages, which is nothing but prostitution. In India too we have heard rich Arab Muslims coming and marrying girls for three months and then leaving them with a simple talak, talak, talak. In Iran, a Muslim country, this practice is still prevalent. Where is the morality in all these? Our Muslim friends need to think it over.

Jesus Christ in comparison was pure and never participated in any war or killed people. He helped people, fed them, healed the blind and the deaf, made the lame to walk, and raise the dead, when he lived on earth. He offered himself to be killed voluntarily as a sacrifice to bear the sins of the world. In doing so, he did not rule the world, but saved the world.  Praise be to Him. Our Muslim friends will have to assess and see who is truthful, Jesus or Muhammad and decide. These are the last times we are living in. Not much time is left before Christ returns, when we will have to give an account of our faith and deeds. We all need wisdom here.

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[1] Genesis 16:1, 2, 15; 21:3, 9, 10, 14

[2] Tom Holland, In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the end of the Ancient World, 2012

[3] In today’s scientific development man is making babies outside the womb and cloning them as well! So is it very difficult for God to make a baby without a biological father? Funnily, Muslims accept virgin birth of Jesus!

[4] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

[5] Mark 14:61-62, 63-64

The Problem of Pain

Every one of us is familiar with pain in this life. There is not one who is not affected by its toxic tentacles. The basic question in problem of pain is, why does a good and benevolent God allow pain in this world? Is it because He is good but powerless against evil? Or is it that He is not good but evil? Or is it that He does not care? If God is not omnipotent or not good, then He is not worthy of worship. This in nut shell is the problem of pain.

This question of pain and suffering in the world moved Gautama Buddha to renounce his life as a prince and go in search of an answer to this problem. What he found led to Buddhism, its basic tenet being, desire is the root cause of pain in the world and that in removing this desire one gets liberation. The kshatrya princes of yester years in India meditated on this problem and came up with the principles enunciated in Upanishads, that a good man suffers in this life because of the accumulated sins he had committed in the previous lives; it is basically the bad karma from his previous births that have come to haunt him in this life, an understanding that gave rise to Karma theory and reincarnation or repeated cycle of births and deaths. These are not satisfactory explanations and there is no evidence to show that killing desires or suppressing them will liberate a person from pain or that a cycle of previous lives exist.

How does the Bible, the Scriptures of Christians, deal with this question of pain? What is the explanation provided there? The very first chapter of Genesis, the first book in the Bible deals with the creation of this world and all that is in it, including man. It shows God as all powerful, pure and good, who after each creation affirmed what he created, was good. He made man and woman in His own image, in the image of God – with all His attributes and powers and eternal life. “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.”[1] So how did evil enter in this beautiful world of God?

The serpent, a cunning personification of Satan, Evil, tempted the woman by offering an incentive to disobey God’s one commandment to the ancient pair, not to eat the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. The incentive was they will be like gods if they ate the fruit. Eve ruminates the thought in her mind, evaluating the proposition, and adduces reasons why she and her husband could eat that forbidden fruit. The tree was good for food, it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise. After reasoning thus, weighing the pros and cons she eats the fruit and gave it to her husband. who was there by her side and he also ate it. It was a willful disobedience. Then their eyes were opened and they could know good and the evil. A couple who knew only good and nothing about evil, now knew about evil and thus evil entered the world, pain, suffering and eventually death entered in its wake.

Now, for some of the questions, asked by the skeptics. They ask, it was after all an apple that she ate; was it such a big crime that God should punish the whole human race to suffering and death? It was not just an apple that she ate that caused all these. She and her husband chose to defy God, and His commandment, due to the desire to be like God. That was a red alert and a banner of revolt. They did not want to be under the control of God, but be independent and masters of their own fate. It is very like the rebellion of a teenager, who defies his parents saying, “This is my life; I will do whatever I want with it.” That is a serious threat to parental authority; so also here. God had to deal with it severely, lest it goes out of hand.

Then they ask, for one person’s mistake or sin, why the whole human race should be punished? Well, in modern days everyone is familiar with DNA and how genes pass on the parental characters to their offspring and so on down to the generations. We also know about mutations that occur, which being in changes in the DNA, which are then passed on to their generations. Is it very difficult to imagine that when Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, a mutation or change in their genetic make-up occurred and this got passed on to all human beings, who arose from this first pair? I think that is what must really have happened.

The most interesting question is, God being omniscient, knew full well that the human pair will disobey him and eat the forbidden fruit, then why did He place such a tree in the Garden at all? Well, God did not create us to be robots, but human beings with reasoning capacity and a free will. In so creating the human beings, He ran the risk of them choosing bad over good and wrong over right. It was a risk that He had to take; it was the price He had to pay for creating human beings in His image. Even before laying the foundations of this world He knew this is going to happen and had already made His plans to retrieve human beings from such an evil-ridden world.

Some would like to defend the female of the species by saying, poor Eve was alone when the serpent seduced her. This is not true according to the biblical account. Adam was very much with her. She took the initiative, reasoned out and decided to eat the fruit and gave it to her husband, who also ate it. She was neither vulnerable nor poor nor alone. She was a strong woman, who took a reasoned out decision; unfortunately the decision was a bad decision and back fired on the entire human race.

In this sin-ridden world, good people also suffer because the entire values system in the world has been marred or polluted because of evil and sin. Good or bad, every one born as human being suffer this misfortune.

But God has not left the beautiful and a world full of goodness He created to suffer and perish in evil. He had devised a plan, a plan that started at the very moment when Eve plucked the fruit to eat. He told the woman that her ‘Seed’ will bruise the head of the serpent, the Devil.[2] Paul clarifies that this ‘Seed’ is Christ. God’s plan was that Jesus be born as a human being, but without sin, and be crucified by the evil forces, die and be buried, but rise again on the third day having won a victory over evil. Because of this, he received the power to forgive the sins of human beings, if they ask in sincere repentance, so that they could be reconciled with God.

Many non-believers raise the question is it necessary for God to let His Son Jesus Christ die such a gruesome death on the cross? Was there no other better way of redeeming the people from sin and suffering? Well, evil can be overcome only by goodness. That is the law of the universe created by God. Paul urges the Christians in Rome, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”[3] That is what Jesus did. He overcame the world, not by paying evil for evil, but by paying evil with goodness. His death and apparent defeat to the evil forces on the cross, turned out to be a victory over the evil forces, for God raise him alive from death and he became the Savior to all those who would put their trust in him.

Now that we have seen how the real Fall happened and how this Original Sin is the reason for evil to enter the world and overpower mankind, let’s see how God uses these sufferings to our advantage. When sufferings strike us, we start searching for God. When we are happy and everything is going on well, hardly we even remember God. But in trials and tribulations we get close to God and seek His help to get us out of trouble. Intense pain and suffering pushes us to seek God. C.S. Lewis writes, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse the deaf world.”[4]

Thus the Bible teaches us that God is good and the counterpart of goodness is evil; God has the wisdom to separate good from the evil, and do only good; man lacks that wisdom. God is omnipotent, all powerful, still because He has given man a free will, He has to allow him to commit mistakes and learn. But He provided an antidote to evil in His Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us, submitting to the powers of evil, but overcame them by his goodness and death as a sacrifice to free us from the iron-grip of sin and evil. God is not indifferent; He deeply cares for us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”[5]

I hope you got a good picture of the truth, truth about sin and suffering, why God allows it, human beings’ role in it, and God’s remedial measure to counter the evil in this world.

God bless you and keep you.

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[1] Genesis 1:31

[2] Genesis 3:15

[3] Romans 12:21

[4] Lewis, C.S., The Problem of Pain, HarperSan Francisco, 1940, copy 1996, p.91

[5] John 3:16