Hope for India's Dalits (untouchables)

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Hope for India's Dalits

A commentary by Jeremy Lallier

India's Dalits, once referred to as untouchables, are still struggling, but worshipping the goddess of the English language will not solve the problem. God's fair and equitable Kingdom will.

Although discrimination based on India's caste system has been officially outlawed for almost 60 years now, the prejudices still linger—sometimes prominently—in the country. Perhaps few know this better than the Dalits.
India's most persecuted class, the Dalits (meaning "ground," "suppressed," "crushed" or "broken to pieces") are the targets of violence, discrimination and even human trafficking in a country where they comprise perhaps a sixth of the population. Recently, IBN Live reported that three Dalits were fined an equivalent total of $1,013 for their crime...of drinking from a public tap ("Dalits Fined for Daring to Drink Water From Tap ," Oct. 17, 2010).

The "goddess of the English language"?

Some among the persecuted class have devised a plan they hope will provide coming generations with a brighter future—a temple to the "goddess of the English language." The temple, to be shaped like a desktop computer, will portray English as a deity meant to be worshipped and understood at a young age.
"The idea," says Dalit author Chandra Bhan Prasad, "is to make English a matter of faith among Dalits because we believe it is an empowering language. If a Dalit woman starts worshipping English as a goddess, there is no way her kids would escape the 'ABC' from their childhood" ("India's 'Untouchables' to Build Temple to 'Goddess of the English Language ,'" Telegraph.co.uk, Oct. 27, 2010). Some believe that such worship will better equip the Dalits for higher-status jobs and begin to erase the class's stigma of inferiority.
But will it? Could mastery of the English language really open up such doors for the Dalit people? Maybe. But could it erase decades and even centuries of deep-rooted societal prejudices? Unlikely. No matter how proficient or skilled the Dalits become, they will continue to face, to some degree, the prejudices of a culture that has spent hundreds of years regarding them as almost subhuman.
It's not a problem exclusive to India, either. In almost every culture, across time and location, we find a history of strained relations and ensuing atrocities—the oppressed, the enslaved, the reviled, the scapegoated, the slaughtered.
English will not—cannot—fix this problem. No language can, nor can any human. The root is so deeply embedded in our nature that our best attempts have only suppressed it; it has never been eradicated completely.
What the Dalits need is not a temple to "the goddess of the English language." What they need—what every human being, oppressed or oppressor, needs—is an understanding of the God who shaped the universe.

What matters to God

In the eyes of our Creator, the traits we often think of as defining us are inconsequential. The color of our skin, the nobility of our blood, our country or ethnicity of origin—all these things are meaningless when we stand before the One who created us.
What matters to God is not our social status, but the state of our hearts. In instructing ancient Israel thousands of years ago, the prophet Moses explained it this way:
"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes, which I command you today for your good?..
"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing" (Deuteronomy 10:12-13 [12] And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
[13] To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

See All..., 17-18).
To put it simply, as the apostle Paul would centuries later, "There is no partiality with God" (Romans 2:11For there is no respect of persons with God.
See All...).

A Kingdom of true equality

God's way is one of equality. In God's vast eternal plan no individual or group receives special treatment. Princes and paupers are held to the same standards of right and wrong, and face the same penalties for abusing those standards. It is this system of equality that India and the world in general lacks—and it is this system that God will one day establish across the globe, never to be overturned.
As you read these words, God is guiding world events from His heavenly throne, preparing all of humanity for a Kingdom that will at long last enforce true justice for all peoples.

Christopher Columbus and Jesus Christ

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Christopher Columbus and Jesus Christ






article by Jerold Aust





Have you ever heard that Christopher Columbus gave God the credit for his journey to the New World?







Source: courtesy of the Architect of the CapitolNotice what he later wrote in describing his efforts to find a new route to India:



"It was the Lord who put into my mind (I could feel his hand upon me) the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There is no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit . . .



"For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophesied . . . No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Savior if it is just and if the intention is purely for His holy service" (quoted by Bob Gingrich, Founding Fathers vs. History Revisionists: In Their Own Words, 2008, p. 17).

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The Population Explosion and Prophecy

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The Population Explosion and Prophecy


How is the increase of the world's population related to prophecy?



According to population experts, it took almost 1,900 years for the world to slowly rise from an estimated 250 million at the time of Christ to a billion and a half at the beginning of the 20th century. Then, in the 20th century alone, the earth's population has exploded as it quadrupled in size. It has passed the staggering mark of 6 billion people. In spite of advances in birth control, the world population still rapidly climbs.



A glimpse at the trend shows why many are concerned. According to the United Nations Population Division, it took 123 years to move from 1 billion to 2 billion population. Yet it took only 33 years to reach the 3 billion mark and 14 years to arrive at the 4 billion level. Next it took only 13 years to reach 5 billion, and just 11 years later we crossed the 6 billion mark.



From now on, it is estimated, a billion people will be added every 10 years. Provided this rate of growth—adding some 80 million new people per year—continues, the planet's population will double again in 50 years.



What does this all mean? Is the earth able to sustain this level of population growth without bringing on dire consequences?



Signs of global environmental fatigue



Already the earth is showing serious consequences from this rapid population increase combined with the excessive consumption of the earth's resources. In 1989 the fishing industry reported a dwindling of fish catches in oceans, and the decline has continued. Diminishing reserves of metals, fossil fuels, forests, arable lands, freshwater and wildlife are facts of life.



Pollution has reached a global scale, with hardly any part of the earth free from contaminated air, water and soil. This is not an extremist view, but what world organizations such as the UN and the Red Cross are regularly reporting.



Perhaps in the United States, Europe and Japan, where funds are available to curb the most damaging effects of the rise in population, there is not so much concern. But these nations comprise only a sixth of the world's inhabitants. The rest of the world is in a far worse condition.



More famines predicted



The dramatic increase in the world population has placed great strains on the political, military, economic and social systems around the planet. Some relief agencies already consider parts of Africa to be in a chronic state of hunger.



The population explosion is not only a problem of quantity, but of quality—because of varying living standards. While the birth rate in industrialized countries has plummeted, in backward regions it remains quite high.



It is estimated that 95 percent of population growth will occur in the 130 poorest countries. Already a fourth of the earth's inhabitants live on less than a dollar a day. Yet this is where population growth is greatest. Two countries and one region—China (1.3 billion people), India (1.1 billion) and Africa (800 million)—contain half the world's population.



As the population grows, it strains the relations within cities and among nations. More crime, violence and disease will invariably appear as people are increasingly forced to live in cramped and unhealthy quarters.



According to 2001 UN statistics, Tokyo was the world's most populous city, with 26 million. But the UN calculates that in the next 15 years the world's largest cities will be Bombay (Mumbai), India, with 26 million; Lagos, Nigeria, with 23 million; Dhaka, Bangladesh, with 21 million; São Paulo, Brazil, with 20 million; Karachi, Pakistan, and Mexico City with 19 million; and Jakarta, Indonesia, and Calcutta and Delhi, India, with 17 million. Can these nations, many of them impoverished, continue to provide basic services and enforce the peace as their resources dry up?



Prophecy on the march



How is this related to prophecy? First, according to the end-time scenario described in the book of Revelation, a massive army from east of the Euphrates will cross the river and bring a disastrous world war. "And I heard a voice … saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.' So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million" (Revelation 9:13-16 [13] And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,

[14] Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.

[15] And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.

[16] And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.





See All...).



For this prophecy to come to pass, billions of people must exist on the planet for this region to field 200 million able-bodied soldiers. Until the latter part of the 20th century, the nations in this area could not muster even half that number. But now, for the first time in history, they can provide such a massive military force.



Also, as world population multiplied in the 20th century, so did the explosion of knowledge, made possible by improved communications, travel and technology. We can easily see the fulfillment of the prophecy God gave to Daniel: "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase" (Daniel 12:4But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.



See All...).



We take for granted such things as rapid international travel, computers, the Internet and the knowledge explosion, but these were widely available beginning only during the closing years of the 20th century.

In the News: Yoga's a Stretch - and Then Some

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In the News: Yoga's a Stretch - and Then Some

article by Amanda Stiver





A study has found that the physical exercises in the discipline of yoga, an ancient practice of stretching and meditation from India, help to relieve pain in the lower back—but that there is no evidence that the meditation element of yoga increases relief.







Source: Photos.comThe study was initiated by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and led by Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, Washington.



Low back pain sufferers were assigned to stretching classes or yoga classes or home book-based self-care. Both the stretching classes and the yoga classes were equally effective at eliminating the back pain, suggesting that the stretching aspect of yoga provides the most benefit, not the meditative portion (Jennifer Dooren, "Yoga May Help Low Back Pain. Mental Effects? Not So Much," The Wall Street Journal , Oct. 25, 2011).



Meditation is something the Bible encourages us to do, but not the transcendental meditation often associated with yoga in which, through the help of breathing exercises, the mind is emptied—which can open the mind to wrong spiritual influence. Christian meditation is restful but involves actively thinking about the ways, teachings, laws and words of the Bible as inspired by God.



From a Christian perspective, there are problems with even the physical practices of yoga. Hindu tradition asserts that the first teacher of yoga was the destroyer god Shiva—Lord of Yoga. The postures and hand positioning have pagan symbolic meaning, and some are prayer positions of pagan worship. The body positioning is supposedly to channel spiritual energies. For instance, the bodily exercises of the popular Hatha-yoga are intended to suppress the flow of energies on either side of the spine to force the kundalini (serpent power) to rise from the base of the spine through the spinal energy channel to ultimately be united with Shiva at the crown of the head. There may be nothing to this, but demons do operate within pagan religion (1 Corinthians 10:20But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.



See All...). In any case, the whole system is part of pagan ritual.



To avoid all this, find a stretching class or routine with no connection to yoga.

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