I do not think that it is right to turn to cultural anthropologies in order to either affirm or negate a doctrine. Human experience is not the criteria of biblical doctrine. For instance, there have been cultures where people lived nude, without any covering whatsoever, and felt no sense of shame--that doesn't falsify the Genesis account in which Adam and Eve felt ashamed that they were naked, after the Fall. There have been certain cultures where cannibalism was practiced and people ate their neighbors--that doesn't become an experiential argument for the ethical innocence of cannibalism. I think we must be careful not to bring in the experience of man in a culture to validate or invalidate a biblical doctrine.
In 1995, while waiting alone in a van for his colleagues who had gone shopping, Wilson Burhankar, presently Senior Associate Pastor at the Fellowship Church of Itarsi, fell into ecstasy remembering the awesome goodness of God in his life. It was his first year in the Seminary as a teacher and his first year as a full-time Worship Leader at the Itarsi Church. He remembered the ill-battered lifestyle that he had lived prior to knowing Christ, the drunken boozes, the street fights, the nights spent singing at religious gatherings, and the continual stress and pain inflicted on his family because of his sin-laden lifestyle. But, one day the Lord changed his life all over. He came to the Seminary and underwent three years of theological training. The greatest surprise came when Dr. Thomas asked him to consider to stay back and minister here as a worship leader. Inside he felt totally unworthy, and yet was confident of the grace of the Lord. As he sat in the van considering these things, the...
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