A Need to Know Basis – Mark 8

Plan Name (Maxium 50 Characters or less):A Sheep’s PrayerWhy does God reveal his truth only on a need to know basis?Plan Length(3 days minimum):3 daysAuthor/PublisherArun DurairajPlan Description(What the plan is about, how it will benefit the reader, 70 words of less)Often we wonder why God’s Will remains hidden.  Why does it feel like we are stumbling...

Pandemics of Life – Luke 24

The COVID pandemic began... Wuhan... Tom Hanks... India first cases... Lockdown, food supplies cut...Schools did not open...Life changed forever... We like routines, both short-term and long-term. We plan retirements. We think we know what happens next. This is not reality. Life is moving from one life-changing event to another. We need to move forward, not...

Judgementalness – A Peek Into Ourselves

Nobody likes being around someone who is judgmental.  They can hurt.  They seem to jump to quick conclusions about us.  We don't like that, regardless of the degree to which they are right or wrong. However, we have become such an individualist, isolationist culture that judgmentalism is seen as a character flaw even greater than...

Diagrams of the Socioeconomic System in the Torah Blueprint

The Economic Model Fig. 26. The Economic Diagram While the economic recovery model is discussed in detail in Chapter 2, this diagram emphasizes two key features in the model.  The focus of this diagram is the struggling בֵּית־אָב, indicated by the dashed border. First, the גֹאֵל is not a single assigned family.  If this were...

Congregational-Life as Christian Pedagogy

...the whole educational apparatus is given its goals and motives by the style and seriousness of congregational life. The more Christian education can grow out of— and at the same time support-congregational life, the more it will be effective for the society in which we live.  (C. E. Nelson 44) Nelson’s contention is consistent with...

The Torah Response to Social Injustice

Social injustice is bred in the stagnant pool of socioeconomic models that do not maintain the voluntary solidarity and interdependence between the wealthy and the poor.  The Torah, relying on the cumulative knowledge of 400 years of social injustice at the hands of the Egyptians, presents countermeasures against the various forms of social injustice that...

Advantageous Economic Repercussions of the Torah Blueprint

The Yield-Based Land Valuation The Jubilee formula restores a family to their מִשְׁפָּחָה and specifically, to their land.  This dual restoration has implications even to the economic models of today.   Yield-Based Valuation–Impact on Mortgage Lending Any assessment of inheritance property is based on the yield of that land until the Jubilee year.  Since land inheritance,...

Wealth in Proverbs

Introduction The Book of Proverbs has forever been the vineyard for the ad hoc plucking of verses in support of the so-called prosperity gospel.  As Kaiser claims, “Few books have been assailed more frequently for suggesting a profit, success, or materialistic motivation for right action than the book of Proverbs” (Kaiser 156)   Simpson's understanding of...

חסד in Ruth

Introduction Undercurrents ripple through the narrative of Ruth.  The author, in contrast with the majority of the canon, has created a work which uses literary form and technique, rather than direct communication to convey the motifs, none more significantly thanחסד.  Throughout the four chapters the theme of חסד can be found both in isolation and...

The Characterization of the Wicked in Psalm 5

Introduction “Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God...” (Psalm 5:2)  Psalm 5 is a lament of the psalmist to God asking for protection, for guidance and for just punishment upon the wicked.  As Jacobson states, this structure is not an unusual format for a psalm of lament.  (Jacobson 2) ...

Translating the Shema

The Shema, the Jewish proclamation of faith in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, has been interpreted in a variety of ways.  In this paper, the four commonly debated interpretations will be assessed resulting in a more precise interpretation. Translation demands that the context of the Shema must first be explored.  Craigie draws a connection to the Israelite revelation...

The Meaning and Task of Translation

One of the greatest travesties in Biblical translation extends from the basic belief in Fee's statement, “The goal of translation is to reproduce the meaning of the text, not the form.”    (Fee and Strauss 25)   This statement alone intimates two flaws in Biblical teaching leading to many of the great heresies against God and Christ....

A Form Critical Analysis of the Fourth Servant Song in Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Introduction The Fourth Servant Song, Isaiah 52:13-53:12, long a cornerstone of Christian prophetic literature, provides ample fuel to the debates that arise from its ambiguity.  Who is the servant?  Who was made to suffer and was despised?  A plethora of questions exist to be honestly wrestled with in order for a more comprehensive theology to...

Character Development in Paul’s Shipwreck Saga

Introduction Seemingly out of place among the narrative in Acts, the saga of the shipwreck on the journey to Rome stands alone in its intention.  A scene by scene journey illuminates not only the characterization of the players but the purpose of its inclusion in the Acts of the Apostles as told by Luke. The...

The Evolution of “My People” in Amos

INTRODUCTION What exactly is understood by the term, “My people”, a label often used by God to refer to the Israelites.  As the book of Deuteronomy dictates, it is a community in which is privilege and responsibility to God and His law are part and parcel.  Scudder presents Deut 10:12-22 as the overall representation of...

The Nominal Christian

In a recent conversation, I realized that in India, the label of "nominal" Christian is very different than what I understood growing up in the US. In India, people are religious almost as an ethnicity.  You are born into a certain religion.  On your government applications, you check the religious affiliation box based on the...

A Path to Rest

What are your thoughts on God's Law and will and how they impact your life? We know the right thing to do is to follow them and that they bring about the long-term good. Do they really benefit us in the here and now? In this life? It can seem that, at the very best,...

Understanding the Character of God in Judges

Introduction Threaded through the cycles of Judges is the underlying character of God. Stitched with various literary techniques, three of God's character traits rise to the surface: His desire for partnership with man, His anger over man's betrayal, and ultimately His steadfast focus on His Will. A Desire for Partnership God desires a partnership with...

When religious beliefs become evil: 4 signs

The Greatest Love…

Greater love hath no man than this that a man laid down his life for his friends.  This statement is simply wrong.  Let's try "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his neighbor."  Even this is at best, incomplete. My neighbour might be my brother.  That's easy. ...

Are our health problems caused by our own sin?

The Black Paint of Sin The Fall, that ill-fated action which changed the fate of man, had such a profound impact that none can fathom the extent of the repercussions that have befallen creation nor envision the ideal community that might have been . The invasion of sin into the world has impacted every facet...

Why would God create sin?

We live in a sinful world, created by God,  yet God is without sin.  This doesn't make any sense.  Why, and even How, would a sinless God create sin?  So then is something else the cause of evil?  We understand evil to be all the morally, emotionally, and even physically "difficult" situations we encounter.  A...

Which is more important, the crucifixion or the resurrection?

I've never really celebrated Good Friday until I came to India.  The concept of Good Friday seemed like a religious ritual, as it does for fasting for lent and communion. I had never even heard of the term Maundy Thursday until a few years ago. Easter on the other hand, is something of a national celebration, with church, family, Easter Egg...

Inherently good or Inherently evil

I've been debating with myself for a while now on whether people are inherently good or evil.  Good in the sense that they would want what is best for others, but evil in that it can never come at the expense of themselves or what they love. For many, good and evil are defined by...

Smart Decisions

A friend of mine was faced with a career defining decision  of  either selecting a job that would advance her career, give her an incredible experience, and provide her with all the comforts that she has grown to love. Or. Choose a job in which she would not have any of the above.  Actually, that...

The pull of a conscience

What is it that makes us want to follow God?  In most circles, we call it a conscience.  Conscience though is probably the wrong word association.  For most of us, our conscience is what tells us that we are about to do something wrong or evil.  It acts as a watchdog for negative sin in...

No other gods before me.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. When we read this commandment, we think of all the man made idols that exist in other religions. We think of the giant, gold statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected and forced the entire Babylonian nation to worship. We think of the golden calf in the wilderness. We think...

When doing good isn’t good enough?

Now that I'm quitting my job to see if I can actually discover God's will for my life, I find myself confronted by so many people who are wondering why I am leaving.  I try to explain to them that I want to teach, I want to help people, etc...  The ironic thing is that...

Preaching or Teaching

What's the difference between a preacher and a teacher? I would love to be a teacher, but I can't stand most preachers. The preacher is supposed to announce the gospel. Proclaim it. I suppose they can proclaim any part or story in the Bible. But should they teach? A teacher explains, clarifies, and educates the...

Holding out for a Miracle

I was watching some TV show in which one of the characters, the villain, stated that Americans spend over 20% of Medicare costs (almost half a trillion dollars) on the last month of a patient's life.  The actual figure seems to be 24%.  With technology, we are becoming experts in prolonging the inevitable.  One thing...

The Movie Reel

Can we move outside of the movie reel?  We actually belong there because the images on the frame are real.  Their perceived motion is not.  So our perceived motion through time is not real, but perhaps we can rejoin God outside of time.  Perhaps that is what all the great religions preach. We speak of...

Integrity without Knowledge

Working from India, the culture here is that it is almost an insult to a superior if an employee admits that they do not have the ability to perform a task or provide a requested piece of information.  There is also the individual's pride which gets in the way.  But more often than nought, I...

Getting Back on Track

The worst feeling in the world is to wake up one day and to wonder what you did with your life. We are given this gift for such a short time, and as Paul said, it is a race. Am I running the race? I sometimes think it's better to move in the wrong direction...

Why do miracles seem to happen only in remote places?

We read about miracle healings in Natural Geographic magazines, missionary stories, and other articles from remote corners of the world.  Why do we not hear about them in what we would consider more civilized or educated communities.  Instead, the miracle we see in the educated communities are more along the lines of the miracle being...

Am I a Christian?

Everyone wants me to be a Christian.  Why is that?  Is it not enough that I say that I believe in God?  Is it not enough that I say that Jesus died as compensation or retribution for my sins in a way that I couldn't even begin to understand?  I think it should even be...

Now What?

Three and a half years ago, I decided that I needed to seek some shape or form of truth in which I could believe in.  In some truth in which much of the world made sense.  Having spent my early life as a Christian, I decided to depart from that fruitless base and start my...

Predestination Understood

The sermon on Sunday was fruffy.  My mind couldn't focus on anything I was hearing.  So as usual, my mind started wandering more theological paths.  I looked around the room and realized that most of the people I knew would say they believe in all the attributes of God, but at the same time, they...

Jesus in the Marketplace

There are so many books written on how Jesus wants us to act in the marketplace.  Did Jesus really intend for us to live our lives within the marketplace? I recently read a management book on how to manage like Jesus.  It compared the 12 disciples as the leadership team for Jesus' ministry.  Somehow being...

Beatitudes, A New Perspective

This sermon is meant to suggest a new perspective on one of the most sermonized texts in Scripture. Sometimes in our relationship with God and our exploration through Scripture, we have those aha moments. Moments in which Scripture etches itself into our hearts and minds. Moments in which we feel God is speaking directly to...

Is Business Acceptable Within Christian Ethics?

Introduction In today’s business community, politically correct catch phrases such as “corporate social responsibility”, “transparency”, and even “integrity” are being tossed around freely in board rooms and news briefs.  This sudden focus on business ethics and business ethical responsibility has come about in a time where the size of the industrialized workforce is doubling due...

Why the convict on the cross got to go to Heaven and why I probably won’t?

What does it take to get to heaeven?  The Bible makes it pretty clear that we need to "follow God's will", "ask  him to rule in our hearts" and "believe with all our heart" that his way is the only way.  What keeps us from making this choice?  Everything that we live for, everything that...

The Price was paid. What about the Cost?

Every good Christian knows the price of what was paid on the cross.  Mel Gibson showed us the physical aspects in detail.  We've heard numerous hymns that talk about the price that was paid for us.  So let's take it as a given that a lot was paid.   What's not ever spoken about is...

Gay Marriages or Abortion: Pick one

Recently, a friend of mine asked the question on Facebook, "if you had to vote to ban gay marriages or to ban abortion, which would you choose?"  She had a pretty good response.  What really surprised me was the number of people who voted to ban gay marriages. Depending on your beliefs, it seems to...

An omnipresent God or a pantheistic God?

Is there really a difference?  A pantheistic God is not only within everything, it IS everything.  An omnipresent God is only within everything.  Of course, if God is within all of me, then isn't all of me God?   I feel that the problem is similar to how Jesus and God are supposed to be...

What’s missing in education?

Education is supposed to prepare individuals for life.  Originally, education was about learning to read and write.  It was about providing the basic skills that are needed to advance ourselves in the world.  Education has evolved since then to more in-depth knowledge.  Many children and parents wonder how quadratic equations, Christ imagery, and the French...

God’s Free Will

Are we the sum of our synaptic connections?  Are we a culmination of all stimuli that our brain is exposed to given the original starting point within DNA.  Do all our decisions, our thoughts, even our conscious stem from these alone?  Or is there something else within us that helps form the decisions we make? If...

Good or Evil, The Chicken or the Egg

What came first Good or Evil?  All religions seem to think that the universe is inherently good.  Everything is part of the same good God (a pantheistic God) or part of the same good God's creation.  In either case, the universe was created and "it was good". So then from where did the concept of...

Misinterpretation of the Golden Rule

"Do unto others as you would have done unto you."  This is the Ethics of Reciprocity or the common interpretation of the Golden Rule. In this interpretation, critics argue that the rule takes on the meaning that if you don't want something yourself, then you don't have to do it for others.  If you, yourself,...

Happiness in the Garden of Eden

When we think of the Garden of Eden, we think of perfect contentment, peace of mind, and complete happiness.  But what was really in the garden that gives such peace?  From what we know, just a bunch of animals and plants, and of course, a close relationship with God. What might be even more surprising...

“We believe…” versus “We understand…”

In this article, it appears that Americans are losing their resolve to believe in their faith. The quote from the professor below shows that he feels that Americans are becoming very "shallow" in terms of their religion. Americans: My faith isn't the only way In all, 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation shared...

Divergenism

BRHM.  In India, you might pronounce this Barahama (Brahma).  In the West, you might pronounce this Braham (Abraham).  It's a pretty amazing coincidence that my uncle, a devout Christian, introduced me too.  If you consider the fact that Abraham's wife was Sarah and Brahma's consort was Saraswati, it becomes even more unusual. Is it possible...

Morality – The Golden Rule

How simple is morality?  Do unto others as you would have done unto you.  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Ask that question before every decision and the question of morality becomes quite simple.  However, being a moral animal becomes quite difficult.  In fact, most likely it's the other way around, all the philosophies...

Indifferent Hypocrisy

Indifferent Hypocrisy - when one accepts beliefs which one has not taken the time to fully understand; such beliefs are typically formed from tradition, custom, hereditary passage, etc...; when confronted by the reality of the belief, one chooses to violate them; acceptance of such beliefs is the indifference; personal application of such beliefs results in the...

Observation…Interpretation…Application

Church today was pretty good.  We had a brief tutorial on how to read and study the Bible presented by Paul, the President of HBI.  I really enjoy the way he structures his presentations because he sounds less like a pastor and more like a college professor, which he is.  I did have one "doubt"...

The Others

Have you ever felt that something isn't quite right with the world?  Usually, I get this way when I think about my perception of things.  We associate the color "white" with "good".  If the color we see is really the color that is reflected from an object, then what we call "white" is really everything...

Selfless Service

"You have control over doing your respective duty only, but no control or claim over the results. The fruits of work should not be your motive, and you should never be inactive. " - 2:47 Bhagavad-Gita Personally, this is one of the most difficult concepts to grasp.  What is the purpose of works if not...

A Merger of Capitalism and Socialism

This may seem like a deviation from the general theme of my other posts.  Most of my posts are tied to the thoughts that are running through my head at the time, and those are typically driven from the books that I am reading.  Currently, I am reading the Story of Christian Theology as well as...

God’s Name

This is a quick follow-up post to my last post.  After having blogged on the difference between worshipping Jesus and God, I went to church on Sunday and came across the exact topic.  It had nothing to do with the sermon itself.  Since, after moving the service from 10am to 9am, half of us are...

To worship God or Jesus?

This is another post in which I'm clearly not ready to complete the subject.  I'm not sure if I'll ever be, so let's just call this a starting point.  Growing up, I was always taught to look to the Bible, the Cross, and sometimes even to pray to the picture of Jesus in the Last...

Illusion or Reality

If the true reailty is that all of what we perceive is an illusion and reality is void of any perception, in the crudest sense, our goal is to reduce ourselves to being equal with every other substance in the universe.  For a while, this seemed like an interesting concept.  We are only figments of our perceptions, we can not...

Worship in Pantheism

Hinduism claims that God is in all things.  Buddhism goes one step further to claim that there is no God, but that all things are one.  These are the two most well-established religions founded on the concept of pantheism.  Obviously, there are many that follow the tenets of these religions. In the brief time I've spent...

Convergenism: The Natural Selection of Religion

Herbert Spencer believed that Evolution and Natural Selection could be applied to all aspects of the Universe.  To see if this can be applied at least to religion, we must first understand what the difference is between natural selection and random selection? I was watching "Jesus Among Other Gods" by Ravi Zacharias.  I have to give...

A True Christian

The company I work for was founded by three deeply religious individuals.  It was started in the US, where I was employed for 10 years, and now I am a manager in the Chennai branch that opened a few years ago.  It's a small company.  Other than myself, I have a managing director above me here in Chennai.  Our...

The Universe in 168 hours

Possibly the greatest conflict between science and religion has been creation.  The Bible "clearly" says the world and everything else was created in seven days, well six days plus one.  Every fact and theory that science has ever uncovered indicates an earth and universe much older than that.  Since around the mid-1800s, when science, with...

Science Versus Religion

This debate has gone on long enough.  And I have no plans on ending it.  As usual, I'll just shed my own thoughts on the topic.  Ultimately, it all boils down to the fact that I could never understand why religion was so against science.  This week, our great Pope had the following to say:...

Divine Inspiration

It's amazing how easily we accept that the Bible is the divinely-inspired word of God.  As if God would not allow all the radically different versions of the Bible to tell a different story.  Somehow we believe that God would not allow us to go astray from his message.  At what point in the Bible...

Einstein’s Cosmic Religion

Who would have thought that Einstein, of all people, was religious?  I'm reading a book on his views, lectures, and life examples that illustrated his belief in a God.  I would say he was more of a Hindu or a Buddhist.  He believed in a "cosmic religion" which basically means that God IS the Universe.  The...

Empty Space

Hindus and Buddhists both agree that the world as we see it is an illusion.  Christians and Muslims, though they may not mention the word illusion, agree that there is an alternate reality where Heaven exists.  For all religions, God exists in that alternate plane of existence, but of course, he can communicate with us...

Why I’m not a Hindu.

What's the difference between Convergenism and Hinduism? When I was in high school, I was an ardent Christian, and I had some Hindu friends.  They couldn't understand why I would not "accept" their religion.  In my mind, if I believed my religion, that meant that all other religions were false.  It would be as if...

Jesus in the Eyes of a Hindu

This post will probably be repeated and expanded in various other posts as my own understanding grows.  Since I'm too lazy to spend three years of research before posting, consider this my first draft.  First, let me give a quick runthrough of the story of Jesus as it is told in the Bible. Christianity stipulates...

The Butchering of Prayer

Have you ever heard a pastor or elder pray for what seemed like an eternity?  How about heard all the prayers asking for blessings?  And they may not even seem like vain blessings.  Like "bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies" or "Lord please let me drive home safely in the rain" or...

A Mother’s Words of Wisdom

My Mom is not someone you might term as a logical person.  She speaks from her heart, from her gut, her foot and only then her head.  For as long as I can remember, I recall times when my Dad, Brother and I would laugh at some of the crazy things she would say or do. ...

Blind Men and the Elephant

Many people have heard the analogy of the blind men and the elephant.  But I'll give you my version.  There are three teams in this game.  All three teams are located in different rooms.  They are told to pick one among them to go into the next room, observe something and then report back to...

Christmas

So this is the day that Jesus came to Earth to show us the way to Heaven.  In Matthew, it starts listing all the generations preceding Jesus.  It's funny how he lists all this history from Adam to Joseph.  Then we're supposed to come to the conclusion that Jesus was in the line of David. ...

What is Convergenism?

Convergenism is derived from the word convergence which in turn is derived from the two latin roots "com" and "verge".  "Com" meaning "together" or "in association" and "verge" meaning "to tend" or "to incline".  Put them together, and we have my new word.  Except for one small part.  I've thrown in a powerful little suffix...

What’s this about?

This blog is about convergenism.  It is my attempt to put into words my continually evolving understanding of religion, morality, spirituality, and life in general.