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E.S. John, Australia
The modern multi-faith agenda of church denominations and religions has made irreparable damage to the Malankara church. This is another vast topic that requires another book to be written. The Pentecostal and all other churches are doing some missionary works in converting some people to Christianity by employing various means, including false propaganda of miracles, charismatic healing and bribing and through several unchristian methods. Most of the conversions they have done to Pentecostal churches are from the Orthodox churches, Gal.1: 8, and still prowling upon this only Bride is a grievous affair that is to be lamented upon. Where God is, there Satan builds a robust stronghold to fight against the Almighty God, so the true Bride, Orthodox Church, is prodded upon by all other corrupt faiths.
As many of the followers of Orthodox Church have no historical and spiritual sensibility about the end of days, we have lost the far sightedness and insight which lost the point of time of the Lord's coming. Does anyone think that every Christian go to Heaven because of his religion and superficial faith in Christ? No, because heresy is a mortal sin, so also the theology of militant hatred by which the false christs and false prophets, heretics, add their numbers by underhand means; yet I adore the efforts that they put into the field of gospel works for the Lord, Phi.1; 18, during these days of persecutions and fanaticism.
The original church in Malankara that continued till the 15th century without much multi-faith influence is in turmoil now due to the importation of many 'yeasts' from all over the world. We should bear in mind that the imperative responsibility of the Orthodox Church is in continuing the task that the Lord had entrusted upon us to provide the chaste Blood and Body of Jesus till the close of the age. He, therefore, instituted the Holy Qurbana which He administered on the eve of His departure from the world. Don't look left and right and see only the enemy supporters of Christ, but see like the Eliza's servant who beheld the hosts of Heaven at the heights of his fear.
The church that became imperial in nature and split from the apostolic church in the 5th century hunted and persecuted the Bride that just survived the tides of time only because of the Groom's Divine help. The heretical church that started in the 5th century began multiplying like amaeba and supplied the world with about 2,500 leavened bread churches and their multi-fold cults. Their first intention was to build a global church empire. Thus their methods of multiplication were in many ways treacherous and unholy.
Despite the fact that the whole Middle East, Armenia and Northern Africa was within the fold of the orthodox faith, the horrendous and despicable methods emplyed by the imperial and heretic churches resulted in Islam replacing the Orthodox institutions from the Middle East and the surrounding places. The Golgotha is the foundation of the church that has to bleed till the coming of the Lord to espouse His Bride.
The orthodox never offended anyone, but it has become imperative for them to defend and protect from the atrocities of our own defected brethren and the natural enemies of Christ. Our church fathers had to defend themselves through the tidal waves of bloodshed and tears that they had to succumb to. Jacob Bourdana disguised himself as a layman and spent an oblivious life in forests and mountain terrains, so as to escape from his own brothers' inhuman hunting of the true faith bearers. This infighting served as a fertile soil for Islam to spread all over the known globe. It is a recipe that allows sprouting a global GREAT BABYLON AT THE CLOSE OF THE AGE as prophesied in Rev. 17.
There are great and small in Heaven, Lk. 7: 28; Mt. 5:19. "Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
If one wants to get a greater place in heaven, one has to believe and privately practice the faith and teach others the same thing in true spirit and fervor. The orthodox church that holds this apostolic faith as its treasure will have to wade through tears and exasperation till the end of the time, the reason for the 5 wise virgins also went into a slumber at the last moment, Mt. 25: 6. But the Groom, who knows the frailties of the flesh, didn't forsake the 5 wise virgins. Similarly, St. Peter was reinstated after his confession of his momentary weakness of the flesh. Thus the right faith, through the action follows with it, is the ingredient for salvation. Mere number game, Mt. 23: 13, won't help to win the race of salvation.
Look at the tearful and bleeding history of the Malankara Orthodox Church, a shepherdless flock that is hunted and intimidated by the fanatical religious paranoid culture since the 15th century. All the colonial invaders, who plucked the St. Thomas Christians from the apostle's bosom, claim that they are the real stewards of the Malankara Orthodox Church. They fake history with blatant lies grabbing our sheep from the original pen and use this to show their strength. In order to disseminate their yeast, they borrowed many treacherous methods to multiply their numbers.
As they have been successful in Kerala, they spread their tentacles globally because they have foreign money as a bait to start institutions and grab members by illicit means. As we have become orphans in our own home, we don't have amenities and money to stretch out to the mission fields. Some bishops and laity members of our church struggled hard to keep the flame burning by sacrificing their own lives. Those who have read and experienced the sufferings of our mother church from the period of the arrival of Portuguese onwards (15th century) feel the pinch of the shoes that scattered the sheep willingly and unwillingly to many directions. However the great tsunami of the GREAT BABYLON push will pressurize us to embrace the early days of the catacomb-hiding eventually.
Where did we get this money to give to lawyers, judges and police? We had to collect it from our own members in the church in Kerala, as we have only enemy churches in the overseas; rich countries that help the heretic churches to subjugate us. This trend of collecting money in our church has become a hobby and industry because of the flow of fossil money from our members lately, making our status as slumbering 5 virgins. We defended the church from our enemies so far. But we have to be vigilant now because of money becoming a master that makes spirituality as an industry of money-grabbing. We can't serve God and mammon at the same time.
Our church is dying due to the fact of neglect and over-mastering by various cocooning dynamics. Don't be agitated or rebelled by looking at the green pastures of superficial spiritual mirages. Hold fast and realize that the little flock is the inheritors of the heavenly Kingdom. (Lk. 12: 22). However, I appreciate greatly the mission and charitable work that the other churches are doing during these days of religious tsunamies.
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