The importance of clear articulation

Today I had a pretty interesting encounter in church.Two foreigners came to church today.One of them, a Mr John from Europe approached me and started asking me a lot of questions.Here is an excerpt below
(FG-Foreign guy)


FG::So what do you folks do apart from Church ?
Me:Well we have fellowship every sunday where we meet up

FG:Well dont you guys do anything apart from that ?
Me:Well we witness wherever we are, whenever we get the opportunity

FG:Well what do you think about so many divisions in the Church , there are Catholics,Protestants etc etc?
Me:As long as people are united in the essentials I guess it shouldnt really be a problem

FG:People might not be really united there , what about your belief of Salvation by faith whereas, some others believe
in salvation by faith+works?Dont you think thats a key issue

Me:Yes that is a key issue .Divine sovereignty and human responsibility you take either
of those away and you have a problem, this is an issue which is still held in some tension and I am happy to let it stay that way

FG:Coming to that.Do you believe God predestines people ?
Me:Yes.

FG:So that means you are a Calvinist?
Me:Yes.

FG:So that means you must also believe in double pre-destination ?Dont you think thats unfair?
Me:How Calvinistic was Calvin anyway ?That is a slight distortion.I believe that God is solely responsible for our Salvation and while I believe that God pre-destines people to heaven he does not pre-destine people for Hell.To summarize I would say that if we are saved it is because of God,If we fall then that is because of us.

At this time my mom called and I had to leave him :) .

The point I am trying to make here is that.Try to have not only have a clear understanding of the Gospel but also try practicing a clear articulation of the key points of Christianity.I felt I could have articulated some of the points above a lot better[Quoting scripture,making it clearer, asking him counter questions etc..]

I believe that the person was a Mormon and if I had continued.He would have told me that Joseph Smith had the answer to all of this.I am beginning to lose my faith in these foreign people especially since I had a previous encounter with another foreigner who did the exact same thing.Will it not be better for these guys to preach the message of the Gospel to non-christian people ?

Personal Responsibility and corruption

Starting Aug-16th in what has been characterized as the second freedom struggle for India,Unprecedented Media coverage has been given to Anna Hazare.While the nation has very rightly stood behind Anna and voiced its anger over corruption.I still feel that a lot more has to be done with respect to corruption.We have conveniently left behind our personal responsibility in the matter

How many of you would

1.Stop downloading movies/songs from the internet because they are pirated ?

2.Stop bribing the traffic cop and instead go to a court and pay the fine ?

3.Stop indiscriminately take xerox copies of the foreign author book/study material because it violates copyright?

4.Stop posting something on your Facebook wall and start doing something concrete instead?


Everything starts at the lowest level with self.Instead of blaming the government over and over again why do we not try to improve our country by correcting something we can.Of course it is basic human tendency to take the shortest and easiest way possible and it will be hard to break out of this , but at the end of the day nothing significant got done without hard work.

Also many innovative ideas are being proposed and some have been implemented to eliminate corruption.One innovative example was the number-plate registration procedure in the RTO.To get a fancy number earlier you might have had to shell out a bribe.However now the government collects money and even issues a receipt if you want fancy number.How cool it would be if bribes were legalized.What an idea Sirji???

I am pretty sure that we can all come up with innovative ideas such as these to lessen corruption.With this combination of innovation and personal discipline I am sure that corruption will come down far more effectively instead of the blame-game going on

"Be the change you want to see."

Christianity in a Nutshell

What does it mean to be a Christian? .The word Christian means many things to many people .Hence it is essential that we have a clear understanding of what it means to be a ‘Christian’

If we ask a random set of people what it means to be Christian the most popular responses you would get are ‘Someone who follows the ten commandments’ or ‘Someone who does good things’ and so on. I would like to define Christianity in very simple terms below

‘A Christian is someone who believes and affirms the life, person and work of Jesus Christ.’

That is the Christian acknowledges the life of Jesus Christ , his ministry here on earth and his death on the cross for our redemption and that belief in the above is the only way to salvation.

Though there are many many more things which are necessary for Orthodox Christianity , the above encompasses the very core of what it means to be Christian. That is if you do not agree with the above you can call yourself something else but not ‘Christian’

Often we tend to ignore this very central fact and disagree about things which are far less important/trivial to the faith. We should not disagree with people on things such as whether drinking is sinful, what sort of music/worship we should have in Church, views on creation/evolution etc where the topic might be much more subjective and there is no one ‘Right Answer’ to the question .Though we can debate on these things( and such debate is helpful) it is far more important to remember what the essentials of Christianity are

Therefore choose to fight your battles very carefully .Make sure that you are rejected for the ‘Right reasons’

What is theology?

What is Theology?

The word theology usually conjures up images of people in white robes who sit in a dim room and pore over big books , or of big professors in well dressed suits discussing it in some university campus.

Wikipedia simply defines theology thus "Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary." .Boring people poring over boring stuff :)

Though this is the formal definition of theology ,I would say that everyone who has thought about or asked the Ultimate questions in life is a theologian in some sense

Why is there something rather than nothing ?

What happens after death ?

Is there someone called God?

Is there only one way to God? etc..

Why should we study theology?
As in my previous discussion.Religion is the Primary Lens through which we tend to see the world.Therefore whatever views we may tend to have on issues such as abortion and the way we live will be governed by our belief systems

Also it is important for all of us to understand Why we believe what we believe.The first greatest critic of our religion will usually be ourselves.Therefore it is essential that we test our belief systems both rationally and intellectually before we commit to it. Or if we are already committed to a position we should just back up a little way and understand why we do it.This will help us get confidence in what we believe and we will be able to present a reasoned and mature defense of the gospel whenever we are called to do so


How should theology be done ?
Theology is best done as a community.This is where a strong fellowship will help us out a lot.For example if you had noticed that when most of the girls speak there is more of an emotional angle to it whereas men tend to think and speak more rationally and logically.Both sides are important and will help us get a more well rounded perspective of the issue at hand.Of course this does not in any way undermine the importance of good personal study

I hope I have given a fair understanding of the Why's and What's of theology.Please do give me your thoughts and suggestions

Blog Theme Theology

When I started this blog.I didnt really think a theme was necessary.However now after a very long time,I feel a theme is necessary because 'You need to stand for something , or you will fall for anything'[How cliched can you get!!]

Going forward my posts are going to be primarily on theology related items.The theme of my blog is 'Faith seeking understanding' .All of us were brought up in some religion because our parents were so.But as we become more and more mature I feel it is necessary to go back critically evaluate and understand the belief systems we have imbibed from childhood.

We critically evaluate almost every other thing in life be it a utility purchase, a life partner choice , a career choice etc. But we somehow have forgotten the need to evaluate the religion we follow.Religion is the lens through which we view the world and it affects almost everything we do.Therefore to understand why you follow something becomes very important.Ritualistic religion which we see practiced around is really going to get us no-where

Though the views on this blog are primarily from a Christian Standpoint.I am sure it would be very useful to others who have an inquisitiveness in theology related aspects

Disclaimer: I dont claim to have the answers to everything or to have everything figured out :).Therefore I might not have the maturity/knowledge to engage in meaningful dialogue on certain issues