Seems like the Demons of the lucky necklace/charm had their say finally. I received an infringement notice from the moderators.
No problem. You may win the battles for the demons, we will win the war for Christ.
Anyway, last week at the North India Christian Youth crusades held at Gwalior, Jhansi, Agra, Noida and Delhi, nearly 2000 non-christian youths became christian and gave their lives for Chirst. One third of this number are planning to be evangelists. The series of crusades for Christ were a resounding success with more than 40,000 participants. Praise be to the creator and sustainer of the Universe, our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you scroll back and checkout the replies for this topic, then you will notice that most of the people defending Hinduism are the same people who are born into Christianity and consider themselves religious. And all of these people “who are criticizing” are doing so from the comfort of their homes without as much as, setting a foot on the mission fields. John Dayal is probably the most famous of all India Christians today. Yet prominent laid back Christians like P.C. Chacko and P.N Benjamin have repeatedly criticized John for exposing the,”Myth of Hinduism”.
During our last 16 years in evangelization we have noticed this trend extensively in India. There are many world famous Christian writers like Rashid Alamir, Zac Ponnen, John Spencer, Craig Winn who have complained about this same thing because they will expose the hollowness of religions. But if you are one of those like Ravi Zacharias who preaches that all religions are one and the same, the sailing is smooth for you. Unfortunately if the Bible is to be believed then it will be the former who will be making merry in the afterlife and the later will be condemned to the lake of fire. I can almost hear Jesus Christ’s teachings:
"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’ (Matt 7:21-23)
And the will of the father is that all enter the kingdom of heaven. But the way is open only through Jesus Christ our Savior. Yet not many Christians believe in it though the Bible repeatedly states it. What Christians have forgotten is that man is saved through Grace and not through works. God loves us all equaly – Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists. What we fail to realize is the central thought of the Bible – There is nothing that we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing in the world that we can do to make God love us less. He has done it all at Calvary. And this message is echoed throughout the Bible especially in John 3:16-18. God condemns no one; we condemn ourselves if we chose not to receive the free gift of salvation available only through Jesus Christ. That in a nutshell is the message of the New Testament.
Yet the nominal and the so called religious Christians (who have never set foot on a mission field or as much as passed a Bible tract to others or told the good news of salvation in Christ to their non-Christian neighbors) are the first ones who will condemn the missionaries and the ones who are doing something to preach hte gospel of Christ. The doers for Christ are termed as religious bigots and fanatics while the no doers are termed as Saints.
People with no knowlege or half knowledge on various religions are acting like experts in this forum. My advise is please do your research first and then post. Please do not post what you think is right on a subject. Like the person who quoted earlier “Gandhi was a monotheist. He didn’t pray to “gods”, he prayed to God.” He even quoted a saying of Ghandhi, “If I am to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling, God must be in my heart and on my lips…”
Ghandhi was not a monotheist. Being a hindu, he was a worshipper of many Gods. Wonder what the person who posted the above will think of next! Maybe that Hitler was a great Saint who was lynched preaching the gospel of Christ to the Jews?
When Ghandhi died, he did have the name of a hindu god on his lips. His last words were “Hey Ram” and Ram is the name of one of the main hindu gods. Yet if the Bible is to be believed then Ghandhi did not (will not) make it to heaven. The moral of Ghandhi’s life is that whether you die with the name of some God in your heart of on your lips. It won’t save you. Even if you die with the name of Jesus on your lips (these days many people use it as a slang) or a crucifix in your hand it won’t save you. You need to look at the scene of the crucifixion of Christ to understand how to be saved. Here is the narration from Luke 23:40-43.
40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” 43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
The key to get to heaven is given here in a few sentences. The first is REPENTANCE. We see it in verses 40-41. The second thief acknowleges his sinfulness and is sorry for his deeds. Without repentance there can no salvation.
The second is RECEIVING JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR ONLY SAVIOR.
We see this in verse 42.
When the thief pleaded with Jesus, he accepted Jesus as his Savior. He made Jesus the mediator between himself and God. And since Jesus Christ was his Savior, the penalty of the Thiefs Sins would be paid by Jesus Christ. This is the essence of Christianity.
The third is FORGIVENESS
This is seen is verse 43. There is no great suprise in this verse. It was expected. God forgives anyone who repents from the heart and asks for forgiveness.
Jesus promised in John 6:37,
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me.
We see that in the parable of the prodigal son also. The thief would never a church, never read the Bible, never make good the crimes he had commited to the people he had robbed or never seek forgiveness from his victims. Yet he was saved through the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ who was sacrified for his sake and for the sake of all humanity.
As I said earlier, sadly 98% of people who think they will make it into heaven won’t make it there. They will never be able to meet the thief who managed to get himself into heaven by trusting in Jesus at the last moment. And when these 98% die, it will be too late for these people to rectify their mistakes. As I said ealier, better go to heaven in rags then to hell in riches. Preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and renew your life to serve only him. Deny youself, take up your cross and follow the God who can save you.
