devadmin, Author at Revelation Movement

Vishal Mangalwadi's post about Al Jazeera’s report “Babies for sale” in Malaysia. And on abortion

(Question 1) A great deal of development aid has already been provided in Africa. Why does nothing seem to change? Finland and Switzerland are among the most developed nations in Europe. No one gave them any aid. Nor did they go out to colonize other nations. In fact, they are better developed than European nations that looted their colonies e.g., Spain, Portugal, Belgium, France, and Russia. Land, natural resources, climate and people are a nation’s hardware. The ‘word’ — language, laws, literature — is a nation’s software: its soul. Language carries the ideas that bind a people into a common culture and drive their institutions. Reformed nations developed because they educated the soul — minds, hearts, character — with God’s “word.” Dambisa Moyo, Zambian economist, educated in Harvard and Oxford, is the author of “Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa.” She states that aid worth US$1 trillion was given to Africa over five decade. Some of it helped, but most aid has hindered sustainable, long term development. Aid (i.e. injecting capital) deals with the hardware. It doesn’t change a nation’s soul — the software. Education addresses the soul. In most of Africa, “modern” education came about a century ago. Most universities taught materialistic (non-spiritual, secular) worldview which deceived African nations into thinking that financial aid or loot is the secret of economic development. Therefore, ambitious individuals, who cannot go out to colonize other nations, fight with each other to loot their own nation, its resources, including aid dollars. The failure of aid shows that the secular belief is false that economics drives the world. Europe’s Reformation believed that material progress takes place when we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness. Secularism has failed in Africa, just as it failed in most of Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. (Question 2) There are more and more Christians in Africa. Should the countries / the continent not be better off with the new Christian values? Indeed, a country such as Uganda is 84% Christian. It became an independent nation in 1962. Since then its governments have changed nine times. Yet, not a single transfer of power has been peaceful. Its constitutions have been “democratic” but military and militia leaders have had to kill each other to capture power. By the time the British established Uganda’s first university (1922), their own “Christian” universities had become secular. They taught “Liberalism” which has deceived the West as well as the brightest of Ugandan leaders. The sadder truth is that the 20th Century “Conservative” Evangelicalism which evangelized Africa became anti-intellectual and escapist. All it wanted was for Jesus to come back and take Christian souls to their mansions in heaven. It promoted ethical “values” for personal behavior but forgot the Reformation’s rich social (political, legal, ethical, economic, literary, educational, scientific) legacy. This modern evangelical Gospel “saved souls.” It had little light to guide nations. It had no power to reform, heal and bless Africa. For example, the traditional African mind understood “tribes”, “chiefdoms”, “kingdoms” and colonialism. It had no concept of “nation.” This point is explained in my new book, “This Book Changed Everything: The Bible’s Amazing Impact On Our World” [In German, “Die Seele des Westens” (Fontis, September 2019)]. Through the Atlantic Charter (1941) American President, Franklin Roosevelt, forced European empires to end imperialism. Therefore, following WW2, African colonies were made “nations.” But, no one taught former colonies how to become great nations. In fact European intellectuals began to despise the idea of nation.For prior to WW2, the Fascists had separated the idea of “nation” from the Bible. That made them abuse virtues such as “nationalism.” The Fascist corruption of nationalism, made it a repulsive word for the secularists who did not read the Bible. The Evangelical seminaries lacked the competence and the confidence to apply the Bible to politics. In fact terms such as ‘nation’ and ‘nationalism’ make them nervous, even though, the Bible says that the Bride of Christ is glorified so that she may give light to the nations (Rev 21: 22-24). The Bride becomes the New Jerusalem so that it may produce tress whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev 22:2). Evangelical theology became so individualistic that it became irrelevant for public life. It marginalized even the church, which use to be the centre of every village and town in Europe. Earlier, to reform the Church meant reforming a nation. For the church embodied a nation’s soul: its music, art, architecture, core ideas. Africa is in trouble because, as the Lausanne Congress observed in 1974, the default Evangelical eschatology has paralyzed the church. A new reformation or theological ferment is needed to equip the church to transform African nations. (Question 3) Some experts think that help makes people dependent. Would it not be consistent to withdraw aid from African countries? Does that mean that we would starve people to death? The Lord Jesus fed the hungry with bread and fish. When they came back for more bread, he refused to feed them. He pointed them to the true bread (John 6), to the real water of life — himself (John 7: 38). For “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” (Matthew 4: 4; Deut 8:3). The soul food, the software — the word — matters. Birds and animals look for bread. They don’t mind stealing it. We object to theft and loot for Man is different than animals. He was created in the Creator’s image to be creative. We are to grow grain or buy it in order to make or buy bread. We need to earn enough to share food with the needy, including with birds and animals. Secular (Communist) education and economy starved millions in Russia. It is starving people today in resource rich Venezuela. Socialist education-economy, sustained by aid and subsidies, keeps driving Indian farmers to suicide. German leaders ought to learn from

BLESSING AFRICA: AFTER AID IS DEAD [A German Magazine interviews Vishal Mangalwadi] Read More »

WILL INDIA EXPLODE?

Leave a Comment / General, World News / devadmin

Not too long ago, “experts” were claiming that BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries would soon become like “First World” economies. Now, Indian voters, seem set to throw out the present government in the next three months. Why? Several studies show that as many as 45 desperate farmers-in-debt kill themselves everyday! Influential groups of “Forward” caste farmers — Patels, Jats, Marathas, Gujjars — keep organizing protest marches to demand “Reservations” (quota) in government jobs and educational institutions. Last month the government tried to appease them by granting 10% reservations to the poor among them. (Usually the well-to-do will have the resources to bribe and get the certificate that they are poor.) Rural voters number 67% of India. In order to woo their votes, Rahul Gandhi, the President of the Congress Party, is promising to waive farmers’ debts, if voted to power. Who will bear that burden? Will Rahul further bankrupt our banks? Hindutva is ‘partly’ right: India’s current agrarian crisis is a result of socialism championed by Rahul’s great-grandfather, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. European Enlightenment deceived good Indians such as our first Prime Minister. Their intentions were noble when they distributed land to the landless. Except that in the second generation a 10 acre had to be divided among 3 sons. The third generation was left with one or less acre. That is too small a plot to feed one family, let alone also a pair of oxen. The 10 acre plot should have remained with one of the sons. Other children should have been educated to process or market agri-products or innovate and maintain machinery and manure to improve food production. Thus, the “agrarian crisis” is an education-crisis. Nehruji banned visas for missionary who were educating the poor. He championed the state-operated socialist, secular education which has turned out to be a disaster . . . and not just in India. The following article, “Simple Arithmetic” points out that Secular Britain, which deceived Nehru, is also a victim of the foolishness it taught our leaders. A cashier and a manager in a grocery shop in UK do not know how to calculate 10% of £1.20. State-run education did not make Britain “Great”. Good salaries do not inspire teachers to love and educate their pupil well. Protestant nations became history’s greatest nations because the Bible taught them that teaching everyone was a mandate given to the church. Today many Christians think that ‘God wants all men to be saved and go to heaven.’ The Bible, on the other hand, taught Europe’s reformers that, “God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2: 4). Today a typical pastor works much like a Hindu “Pujari” (priest), performing religious rituals. St. Paul said that as an apostle, his job was to be a “preacher” and a “teacher of the truth to gentiles.” (1 Timothy 2: 7; Titus 1: 1). A typical school teacher rarely knows his students and their families. A pastor-teacher knows a student, his siblings, parents, and grandparents. They have a relationship. This makes educating a child a community affair. His extended family and church gets engaged in making a child what he/she can and wants to become. Secular/socialist education has corrupted not just nations, it has corrupted church’s understanding of its own mission. Far too many churches think that they are sent NOT to “disciple nations” (Matthew 28:18) but to prepare souls to get “raptured” out of this earth into the heavens. The above is not meant to deny that some churches run some of the “best” schools in nations such as India. However, today’s “Christian” education is very different than the education that created great nations such as UK. Reformer Martin Luther pioneered modern education because the Bible taught him that Jesus shed his blood on the cross to purchase Satan’s slaves to make them God’s sons, so that they might serve their Father as kings and priests. (Revelation 5: 9-10). A priest needs education because he has to know God. For reformers such as Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Beza, Knox, Melville, Comenius, Francke, universal education was an implication of the New Testament’s doctrine of “Priesthood of all believers.” Today’s tragedy is that much of Christian education has become the “Priesthood of RICH believers.” Generally, a family has to be rich enough to send their children to “Christian” schools. These schools still produce “priests” but these post-modern priests serve the god Jesus called “mammon” (money). They go to Christian schools and colleges to make money — not to serve their nations! Thankfully — a new reformation is getting started. The leadership of about 30,000 Pentecostal churches in Uganda has decided to turn their churches into centers of 21st century education. Beginning in August 2019, their leaders/pastors will enroll in a university in an Online BA in Applied Theology. Among other things the course will equip them to become Academic Pastors (apostle Paul like Pastors-Masters/ Preachers-Teachers). The university will transmit its curriculum to the remotest village via satellite. Once these pastors have learned how to educate themselves using online curriculum . . . they will become Academic Pastors in their own churches. As a centre of Hybrid – digital learning in small groups – the church will impart the finest education at affordable price to the poorest. African children living in jungles or slums, learning math through programs such as Khan Academy and Prodigy, will be able to compete with students in Britain’s state schools, Dedicated groups are making serious efforts to take this new model of education to many countries, including to India, and the USA. American church has the capacity to reform the USA, by turning 100,000 churches into centers of 21st century, hybrid, affordable eduction. What the American church lacks is a theology of discipling nations. Your participation is cordially invited. Details will soon be available on www.RevelationMovement.com

WILL INDIA EXPLODE? Read More »

The Woman Behind the West’s Economic Success – Reformation Series #2

Why the West Attracts Immigrants – Reformation Series #1

BRITAIN’S GREATEST GIFT TO INDIA — The Bible

MEET KATHERINE: The Secret of the West’s Economic Success

Beauty: Ugly and Divine

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“Charm is deceptive and beauty fades away, but a woman who fears the Lord shall be greatly praised” (Proverbs 31:30). “But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Eliab is tall and handsome, but don’t judge by things like that. God doesn’t look at what people see. People judge by what is on the outside, but the LORD looks at the heart…’” (1 Samuel 16:7). “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:3–4). Does God despise fading, external beauty? No! The Lord Jesus said that God himself creates fading beauty: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28–30). God rejected handsome Eliab, but did He call his younger brother David to become Israel’s king – because David was ugly? No! Michelangelo turned David into Europe’s icon of male beauty because the Bible says that David “was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features” (1 Samuel 16:12). David was “a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the lyre. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him” (16:18). Saul, David’s predecessor, was also chosen partly because of his ‘fading’ physical beauty: Saul “was a handsome young man. No one in Israel was more handsome than Saul, and he stood head and shoulders above everyone else” (1 Samuel 9:2). Beauty is adored because it is divine: like truth (John 14:6), goodness (Matthew 19:17), wisdom (Colossians 2:3) and love (1 John 4:8). Why is beauty divine? Beauty expresses God’s creativity. He takes delight in His work: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food . . .” (Genesis 2:9). God gave us the gifts of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking, imagining speaking so that we may take such delight in what He has made so as to praise Him (Romans 1:19–21). To love our neighbors as ourselves means to not envy (1 Corinthians 13: 4) their work and success, but to delight in what other creatures make, made as they are in Creator’s image. To love means to “encourage one another, and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11), to become godly, that is, God-like, creative. God takes delight in the words of our lips (Hebrews 13:15) as well as in the fruit of our creative, caring work (Genesis 4:4), especially when they are offered to Him or to His children as unto Him (Matthew 25:31–46). “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). Beauty is spiritual. That is why God filled creative artists with His Spirit (Exodus 31:2). Beauty becomes ugly only when it is separated from inner spirituality. This is true also of religion. There is a religiosity that God hates like filthy rags. (Isaiah 1:14; 64:6) Can Ugly Art Be Divine? Reality can be very ugly. For the world is really fallen. Can Art reflect ugliness, brokenness, evil and yet be divine? Imagine you are studying Fine Arts. For four years you have studied great masters. Besides internalising theory and art history, you have spent countless hours developing your skills and style. Now you have sat down for your final, practical exam. Every student in your class is given a canvas and three hours to paint a landscape. You are the best in your class. You complete your painting in two hours. While the colors are drying you decide to get a cup of coffee. A student looks at your canvas and knows that he won’t get the gold medal. He is jealous. So he dips his brush in black paint and splashes it on your canvas. He goes back to work on his canvas. You return to find your masterpiece a mess. You can’t possibly sign it. So, what are you going to do? You can start fighting with your neighbors. The culprit could say that you must have messed up your own canvas and now, out of envy, you were interfering with his work. Other students might support the culprit’s hypothesis. If you fight too much, you could be thrown out of the examination hall. Your other option is to pick up a knife, shred the canvas that you can no longer own, and stomp out of the examination hall. But then—you lose, your rival wins. If you are a real genius, you have another option: you can get back to work. You can turn each of those ugly dark spots into stones, rocks, plants, leaves, flowers, fruits, butterflies, birds, bad boys, clouds, kites, helicopters, planes, and so on. In the end, your landscape would have acquired greater depth, color, and reality. You were already a great creator, now you would also be a great redeemer. By embracing ugliness redemptively, your art will become truly divine—beautiful, Godlike. You will be like Jesus who embraced sinners, tax-collectors, and prostitutes (Matthew 9:10-13; 11:19) Vishal Mangalwadi ©

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The Suppressed History of Hindi

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Bharatendu Harishchandra (1850-1885) became the father of Modern Hindi Literature, because he understood Lord Macaulay better than Hindu intellectuals of today, who condemn the Macaulay Minute (1835) without having read it. Bharatendu grasped Macaulay’s Protestant view that a mother-tongue is far more important a tool of nation-building than a sacred but dead language, such as Sanskrit. He agreed with the Vernacularists in his time that 14 or so dialects collectively called “Hindi” could be enriched by ideas adopted from more developed languages such as English and French. Therefore, he was transmitting the Christian view on nation-building to his fellow countrymen when he said, Nij Bhasha Unnati Ahe, sab unnati ko mul. Bin nij bhsha-gyan ke, mitat na hiy ko sul. Vividh kala shikha amit, gyan anek prakar Sab ddesan se le karhu, bhasha mahi prachar Progress is made in one’s mother tongue, the foundation of all progress. Without the knowledge of the mother tongue, there is no cure for heart’s pain. Many arts and education, infinite knowledge of various kinds, Should be taken from all countries, but propagated in one’s mother tongue. Sadly, until Bharatendu’s time, caste prejudice and cultural arrogance had prevented the Hindu religio-intellectual aristocracy from developing the language of the people that we now call “Hindi.” It was the painstaking toil of the Christian movement that gave us what has become our unofficial “national language.” Protestant Christianity with help from some Roman Catholics and many enlightened Hindus created Hindi because they were committed to moving the “Backwards” forward. The Older Meaning of “Hindi” During Bharatendu’s time, the term “Hindi” did not refer to the language that you read in the pages ofFORWARD Press. It was a generic name given by Muslims to dozens of languages – just as the Muslim term “Hindu” referred to thousands of gods and goddesses, different and even contradictory beliefs and practices, oppressors and the oppressed beyond the “Sindh” river. Sir George Abraham Grierson, who earned the right to become the Superintendent of the prestigious Linguistic Survey of India in 1898, came to Bengal in 1873. From 1880 he served as the Inspector of Schools in Bihar and then as the Additional Commissioner of Patna. He had a position that allowed him to pursue personal pleasure and power. But the spirit of Christ enabled him to use his spare time not for indulgence but to understand the people he was called to serve (govern). He focused his attention on their dialects in order to retain the richness of their culture into a wholesome language that could become a vehicle for India’s knowledge-based development. Out of Grierson’s voluntary labour came the “Seven Grammars of Bihari Dialects.” John Beames, the author of the Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages was a missionary who became the world’s foremost expert on structural variations among different languages and dialects of India. He reviewed Grierson’s master-piece above in Indian Antiquity of July 1, 1885. In that review he explained what the term “Hindi” meant in those days: “All round the outer edge of Aryan India (Gangetic planes) is a circle of kingdoms or provinces, Bengal, Orissa, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Sindh, Punjab, Nepal, and the ‘Indian’, or as the Muhammmaden called it, the Hindi, spoken in each of these places came by degrees to be called Bengali, Oriya, Marathi and so on. But in the centre there remained a vast area for which no special name was found: it was merely Hindi and its language or languages were all merely Hindi. It has long been known that under the general term [Hindi] were included forms of speech differing very widely from each other, and it only remained for some scholar to enquire into the subject and classify these various forms, referring them to their proper relationships. Grierson has done this for the eastern part of the hitherto undefined area, and he has therefore, a perfect right to give a name [“Bihari’] to the form of speech whose independence he has successfully established.” Hindu sages did not lack ability. They had already done a superb job in refining Sanskrit and its grammar. Their problem was that their religious worldview prevented them from sharing Sanskrit. The secret of their cultural power over fellow Hindus lay in keeping the common people ignorant of the language of the gods. The secrecy or monopoly of “knowledge,” turned Sanskrit, an otherwise scientific language, into a vehicle of religio-magical mumbo-jumbo. Nor did Muslim Maulanas lack talent. Their difficulty was that their theology and religion also prevented them from developing the dialects of the downtrodden. Islam was as interested in converting Hindus as was Christianity, yet Islam did not develop our dialects because its culture values submission more than intellectual freedom to pursue truth. It is estimated that a relatively weaker European country such as Spain publishes more books in a year than the whole of the Arabic world has published in a thousand years. The West’s vibrant literary tradition emerged because the Bible said that the Lord Jesus brought grace and truth (John 1: 17). The first two of the Ten Commandments required Jews and Christians to believe only what is true. That became the seed for a passion for truth which enabled Christianity to cultivate languages, libraries, schools, universities, and research labs as they developed technology and modern science. This intellectual tradition made the West powerful. Christ’s Spirit Why did the West share its secret of power so liberally and sacrificially? The Bible said that the Lord Jesus sacrificed himself to save this world, enslaved by sin and suffering. That inspired Christian scholars and saints to also dedicate their lives to go to the remotest parts of the world and live with Stone Age tribes to develop their mother-tongues. They gave to the marginalized the opportunity to acquire the secrets of intellectual power generated in more developed parts of the world. The Macaulay Minute, so hated by our bigoted elite, asked the East India Company to prepare a class of Indians, who would learn English, in order to give to India access to European sciences, arts, laws, governance, organization, values, and management. Understanding the nobility of

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Dr Vishal Mangalwadi's 76th Birthday

devadmin

MAKING SENSE OF OUR AGE OF NONSENSE

AMERICA: READY TO ELECT A HOMOSEXUAL PRESIDENT?

BLESSING AFRICA: AFTER AID IS DEAD [A German Magazine interviews Vishal Mangalwadi]