A Dialogue on Trinity

The Characters Clark– PastorMadeleine– His daughterIt was a wintry evening, around 9 O’clock, and Rev. Clark was busy in his Study preparing for the Sunday Service, when Madeleine, his daughter of age 13, came to him and broke in “Dad, I wanted to ask something.”Clark [turning around at her]: What is it, my dear?Madeleine: Doesn’t God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit make three gods? [Then, pointing to a picture on the wall] God is that...

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Charvaka, Lokayata, the Materialist, and Secularist

© Domenic Marbaniang, Secularism in India, Google Books, 2005.The Indian school of materialism, Charvaka, perhaps developed as a reaction against the excesses of Brahmin priests and an exploitative society. It dismissed ‘necessarily all belief in everything that constitutes the specific subject-matter of religion and philosophy.’ It had place for neither God who controls the universe nor conscience that guides man. The absence of the transcendent in Charvaka might be reason for its also being called as Lokayata-darsana, meaning philosophical...

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Nehru's Secularism and the Shaping of Modern India

© Domenic Marbaniang, Indian Secularism (2005)To an atheist, religion represents superstition, primitive fear, and suppression. Such blind faith is antithetical to the rational and scientific character of secularism. While religion looks beyond the world, secularism looks within the world for answers. Nehru who represented this atheistic form of secularism wrote: ‘India is supposed to be a religious country above everything else.. The spectacle of...

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Gandhi's Views on Secularism

© Domenic Marbaniang, Indian Secularism (2005)Most Hindus can see no problem in worshipping two deities at the same time. This polytheistic nature of popular Hinduism helps Hindus to be pluralist and open to other religions as well. Gandhi viewed secularism from a religious perspective. He believed that religion and the State are inseparable, that irreligiosity encouraged by the State leads to demoralization of the people and that, therefore, the State’s religious policy should be pluralistic with equal respect to all religions. Mahatma Gandhi...

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A Dream Riddle

One dream of two segments,One prophecy on two courts,Unconfused, unmixed, in concord.The first part seems, obviously, fulfilled,I wait for the next to come,One of the dream, another of a prophecy;One ends something; the other fulfills o...

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The Power of Asking in Prayer

NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF THE POWER OF JUST ASKING. IT HAS A CLEAN HISTORY -- NEVER FAILED."Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." (1John 5:14-15)THE PROMISES OF CHRIST: THERE HAS NEVER BEEN AN UNANSWERED PRAYER THAT APPROACHES GOD IN THE CHILD-LIKE CONFIDENCE OF FAITHIN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH AND LOVEAnd whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may...

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Inter-Personal Relationships: A Biblical Perspective

IntroductionInter-personal relationship may be simply defined as that relationship that exists between two or more persons. It differs from a person’s association, or relating, to impersonal objects. Types of inter-personal relationship range from intra-family relationship (by birth, marriage, etc) to friendship, romantic love-relationship, business relationship, etc. A study of inter-personal relationship can be approached from, at least, four angles:1. The Psychological Perspective. It studies the dynamics and problem of relationships based on...

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Enlightenment, Postmodernism, and the Spirit of Truth

As the smoke of the two World Wars cleared for the blue, but indifferent, sky to canopy the chaotic world of human design, someone wondered if pre-Enlightenment man was better than the man who “had come to age”. Perhaps, the monster was better unborn or just a child. But, that which is born grows, and that which grows doesn’t remain the same. Darwinism dismantled the myth of birth; hitherto, for the past uncountable millennia, man was a child; now, a man – evil man, wild but restrained by the conscience of some “primitive-minded” fideists that...

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Do not stare at your commas as if they are your full stop

Do not stare at your commas as if they are your full stop. Commas are marks of continuity, not signs of a dead end."It's a slip, not a fall." - Abe Lincoln after losing a political contest.March 10, 2016Dale Carnegie, Lincoln the Unknown, p. 104On election night, Lincoln remained in the telegraph office, reading the returns. When he saw that he had lost, he started home. It was dark and rainy and gloomy. The path leading to his house had been worn pig-backed and was slippery. Suddenly, one foot shot from under and hit the other. Quickly he recovered...

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Presence Leadership. Be the Voice!

You fail to impact the moment you retract. Silence is entropic; mission is action. Shepherds lead by their voice and presence. Generals lead by going ahead of their army in the battlefield. There is no remote control chamber in the Kingdom of God. The seed will only grow where it falls, where it is, where it touches the soil. "Go ye out...to all nations"P.S. Even the devil leads by his presence in the world. Jesus leads by His presence in the Church. The economy of your voice can ruin or build the nation. "Open rebuke is better than secret love."...

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Faithful to the End: Amit Gilbert

While the world pursues to understand the why and how of Amit’s death from the Hindutvavadis’ attack on a Christian gathering two days back, I desire to write a few lines in memory of my student, brother, and friend in the Lord.A very calm, kind-hearted, and intensely thoughtful boy, he was soon spotted by our administration to, first, help as a Monitor for the General Convention Week held in 2009, and then appointed as General Monitor for the academic year. This was his Final Year at College.I remember him coming to my room on the last day of...

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Eye Salve

The eye salve went a missin' and, boom, blew sunshine out of sky.But, it left this hope a lingerin' that it'll come back by and by.The world needs one beautifier, this cooler of vision and eye.And, tho' the world grow sorer and indifferent,The eye salve will beauty testify:This eye salve does hope certify, vision purify, the world beautify... "anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see." -- Jesus Christ, Rev.3:18© Domenic Marbaniang, April 2...

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God's Love

Rahiman dhaga prem ka mat todevu chatkai,Tootei to phir na milei, milei ganth parijai.Never snap off the string of love, O Rahim,For broken will it not join; joined it'll leave a knot.The broken string of human love will only join through an enduring knot (Rahim).In contrast,God's love keeps no knots - He forgives and forgets, absolutely, relentlessly, irrevocab...

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Salvation from Sin

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jer 8:20)He who lives in sin doesn't fall in sin; he who falls in sin doesn't live in sin. The slip and the fall were momentary.He who is born of God doesn't desire to sin; he who desires to sin is not born of God. The slip and the fall were involuntary.No lover of Christ ever desires to displease Him; no displeaser loves Christ. The slip and the fall were a hateful lapsing.Nothing hurts and damages as the deceitfulness of sin; nothing heals and builds up as the truth of God.What...

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Good Friday Ka Mahatva - Hindi Message on All India Radio

A Message by Rev. R. Venkata Rao PaulusDownload from h...

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I Thirst (John 19:28)

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” (John 19:28)Two pieces of information inserted by John1. Jesus knew that all things were now accomplished2. Jesus said something so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.This is a retrospective interpretation. John didn’t know this then. Either Christ revealed this to the disciples after His resurrection or he understood this through the Holy Spirit later on. He only spoke of His thirst after the work was over.1. Christ’s Zeal...

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PASSION

The sun lifted his arm to hide his reddened face,The winds ceased and the earth jolted in confusion;The universe blackened; history was blotted out.The One who held this vast universe by His powerNow hung motionless in body on the Cross --That cursed pole obliterated by His crushed frame.Puny little powers had wielded powerless hammersDriving nails, lifting Him up for all eyes to see What salvation God ordained through this cursed tree.Two thieves for company; few friends, more foesWaited, as time fled, to watch this end;Time did end; history choked.The...

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