a. s. mathew (May 5, 2013)
this is my humble request to all the pentecostal believers from kerala to get a copy of rev. robert f. cook's autobiography recently released in malayalam. how, this great man of god left the comfort zone of the u.s. and went to india, suffered nothing but pain and agony to spread the good news of the gospel. the readers must make an impartial judgment and evaluation of the real missionary work of the great missionaries of the past, and the recently orginated "missionary business enterprise". the translator bro. roy mepral's introduction, paragraph 3 is a precise definition of the modern corporate highflying missionary drama totally alien to the missionary calling and direction given by our lord jesus christ. what jesus said in mathew 16:24, mark 8:34 and luke 9:23?

a. s. mathew (May 5, 2013)
contd;2 i can't question ambani for his 700 cars-700 employees and 1 billion dollar 27 story palace at the middle of the slums where the poor people are waiting in line to have a pot of clean water to drink. he is not holding the bible, and no relationship with jesus christ. to my great surprise, why god didn't whisper to any of these so called special annointed prophets of god, about this very prolonged economic crisis which was started by the end of 2007? this u.s. prosperity tricks has strongly penetrated to all parts of the world, and the ministers of india, especailly of kerala are greatly influenced in this novel misleading theology totally contrary to the teaching of our lord and jesus christ. god does't want his servants to be hungry and sleeping on the roadside, but if the ministers are blindly following the u.s. made gospel while ignoring the people in their churches or neighbours who are struggling to survive, that is too sad and terrible.

a. s. mathew (May 5, 2013)
rev. robby george: even though i have made a pledge, not to write many comments in the bj, certain topics based on total tricks and hypocrisy being easily and openly practiced by the religious leadership using the name of god and holding the bible greatly frustrating me. god is love, if we are true followers of christ, we must love each other, forgive each other and take care of each other. in love, there is giving and wiping of tears. god loved us by giving his only begotten son at calvary for our salvation. the great missionary amy carmichael said " you can give a person without loving, but you can't love a person without giving". the array of prosperity preachers, wearing rolex watches-rolls royces-diamond watches-custom french-made suits-lear jets-staying in hotels spending $ 10000.00/night etc are too hard to comprehend. these preachers repeatedly tell that god spoke to them to send money by the thousands to enjoy this lifestyle.

a. s. mathew (May 3, 2013)
Rev.Robby George: Sin is the transgression of the laws of GOD, but certain sins were created by the too holy denominational leaders exclusively to be applied and followed by the believers of Kerala. But the believers of the same denominations after a night's train journey to the next State can be free from the guilt of sin wearing jewellery because it is not a sin in that State. Sin vary in different States of India? GOD's laws are universal, equally applicable to every believer all over the world. In the " heavenly encyclopedia" the most sinfree and saintly people in GOD's creation would be the "Kerala

jewellery hated saints". Short hair for the women and wearing pants were sins in the U.S., but that didn't last even for 5 decades, but the misled jewellery holiness teachings in Kerala is still roaming around without disappearing. What a sad theological trap and predicament deliberately entraping the personal freedom of other people through displaying divine sword!

rev robby george (May 3, 2013)
there is no mention of forbidding of wearing jwellery in bible. misinterpretation of word is sin in itself. ipc kerala leaders preach against jwellery but look at their wrist wearing gold rolex watches. driving fancy cars, flying in business class.. list goes on and on. immoral behavior. listen, sin is sin.

a. s. mathew (December 27, 2012)
Contd:2 I read about a spiritual movement in north India, which is called the "Christubkhtha movement". It was started through the missionary work of a charismatic Catholic Priest. Every year, thousands of people from different backgrounds, Muslims-Hindus-Brahmins-Dalits-Christians-Jains- etc will get together, worship God and have a dinner together. Here, the high class and low class people will sit together and eat, so the real fellowship of equality and love is revealed. It is high time to throw away all the man-made

external holiness signboards, but a true inner search to measure the depth of our true spirituality and relationship with JESUS. How

genuinely and humbly we deal with persons of a lower social and economical standard with us? Do we display the love of Christ to them as instructed by our Lord and Saviour is the most challenging test and question.

a. s. mathew (December 27, 2012)
Brother Joy Chembakasseril: The driver's trash paper is a great example

when we watch very carefully, how the denominational leaders threw

out unbiblical topics as their new vocabularies in the "sin dictionary". Mustache sin-long hair sin-colored clothing sin-jewelry sin- medical treatment sin etc etc. There are some churches in the U.S. where the brothers are prohibited to wear neck-tie in the church, which is a sin. Did the devil invent the neck-tie? JESUS has never touched the subject of dress and food in any conversation and discourses. He has openly admonished many sins openly and complimented even some minor unnoticed actions in the public, but JESUS saw the great spiritual values behind those minor actions. Like the trash problem, many man-made sins have turned as big and insurmountable spiritual mountains of confusion and headaches for the average believers.

joy chembakasseril (December 27, 2012)
to thepraize- now i know why our roadside drains are clogged and why we are destined to live a life combating,mosquito-bites! please don't blame the chief minister or health minister. we are to blame our-selves for our behavior. we can see this same identical-behavior in all arena of life among our people. let it be in worldly-life or spiritual arena. with all these mosquito-bites our people has still not learned a lesson! we see this erratic-behavior in spiritual-arena too. the latest among them is ipc election. by the by, welcome back 'thepraize', welcome back to the world of constructive writing and imagination !

joy chembakasseril (December 27, 2012)
to thepraize- "the need for change should evolve in our inner-self" which means a self realization or enlightenment should happen in our inner-self. its not about what you wear or what-not you wear. its not about what you eat or what-not you eat. its not about what you use or what-not you use ! let me draw your attention to what i saw in broad daylight, while visiting our homeland. i was waiting for a bus in a bus stop going back home. here goes a bus in the opposite direction,which caught my attention. the bus driver of that bus after pulling out his snacks from the cover,while driving,threw the whole paper cover out through his driver window on to the street. this paper cover was swinging and dazzling all along the wind in broad noon sunny daylight, while everybody in the opposite side in that big bus stop watching it. i took a closer look at the bus drivers face, he has no shame doing that as if its a normal behavior. now i know why our road side drains are ? -contd

a. s. mathew (December 22, 2012)
brother thepraize: thank you. as you have stated "how can we be an effective christian" must be the most urgent and fundamental question of this most critical time we are faced with today. while reading " the great awakening" by jim wallis, forward by president jimmy carter, it opened my eyes to something i never saw in life. the vast majority of the christian community all over the world, some way missed the route to learn deeply about what jesus has taught us to do, but we were brainwashed in man-made traditions; and those traditions apparently took over the prominence of jesus's teachings to follow. jesus abbreviated the ten commandments through a very brief divine prescription-the vertical relationship with god and the horizontal relationship with the mankind. but, we have failed miserably to heed that spiritual direction of our saviour but began to give undue emphasis to many untouched subjects by our lord jesus.

thepraize (December 22, 2012)
@asm & jc,thank you sirs for providing valuable insights into this non relevant issue,how can we be an effective christian impacting the world,is a topic of relevance with a confluence of all the divided sects in modern day christendom. While there are great establishments globally,contributed by Christian community,there still exists huge opportunity and challenge to bridge the gap in all realms of human existence. Invite your thoughts on how we can be a catalyst of change !!!!

joy chembakasseril (December 21, 2012)
wearing or not-wearing ornaments are not going to make one better off than the other__ listen to your conscience,if your conscience is clear by wearing it[ornaments] and them not being an idol before thee,wear it bravely,there is nothing wrong in it,because there is no-where in the bible,that says not to wear it,it only says cast-them-away,when a circumstance occurred! but if your conscience says its going to be a trail or temptation for you before god,please don't not wear it nor even go anywhere near it. it all depends on the individual. but nobody owns a right to criticize the other for wearing it or not wearing it,because all those things we see in nature is a creation of god with a purpose and so are gold and silver too. when you use other expensive products,you have no moral grounds to criticize the ones wearing ornaments,because you are just as good as they are! "so wearing or not-wearing a certain thing is not the issue- your conscience before god is the issue"- thx asm

a. s. mathew (December 21, 2012)
contd: 2. i do remember like yesterday, how my dad's first cousin who was one of the first pentecostal believers in our area explicitly

adopted "faith healing". he had a deep cut in his leg, and i told him that i will dress it with medicine (dettol and sulfa drugs were popularly used) and he can be healed within two or three weeks. but, he told me that it is a sin to use medicine, but he boiled "tamarind

leaf" and washed the infected wounds and put cotton over it for a very long time to get healing. his wife had yellow jaundice, never took any medicine and died. if we look to one doctor that he is the healer, then we lost the proper focusing and took off our eyes from god as our healer. as brother joy said, if our ornaments are turning like our idol worship, take that away. if our car or anything else is turning as our idol, change that fast!

a. s. mathew (December 21, 2012)
Brother Joy Chembakasseril: You said it very plainly and openly about the "Kerala Pentecostal epidemic of ornament aversion". The Pentecostal Churches-Seventh Day Adventist-Nazarene Church-Plymouth Brethren Church etc, while they were formed, to display their extreme separation from the world, they brought this "anti Jewelry" holiness theology; but now all of them have changed their theology touching the ornaments issue. The Pentecostal denominations went one step ahead and taught that our physical healing (diseases) has already accomplished at the cross, so avoided medical treatment. I do believe in divine healing, I have been healed many times. Whether it is through applying medicine or without medicine; healing is from GOD. But, more than 40 years back, the vast majority of the Pentecostal believers stood against medicine in Kerala, while they sent their children to study in the medical field to land a job easily.

joy chembakasseril (December 21, 2012)
Contd- 1 If people wearing ornaments are sinners, then, the people wearing expensive clothing, using expensive automobiles, using expensive custom built houses are just as good sinners, before GOD! There are no two ways about it!

BIBLE DOCTRINES-- are 'not meant' to be used according to anyone's will and pleasure. They are to be OBSERVED as it is in its entirety, with the real sense of it with no twist or turns_______ !!!!!

joy chembakasseril (December 21, 2012)
"there shall be no 'idol' before thee, under the sky nor shall ye create one either ___"

this is the 'essence' of the bible-doctrine, if we are to properly interpret it,pertaining to the use of expensive things like ornaments etc. some fools still don't understand it nor want to understand it,because of their falls-ego. this is an issue among malayalee pentacostals and nobody-else and its a big-time issue among them! they are being taught the wrong way and has been following that for generations and generations and now,how are they going to accept correcting it,that is the problem. so they keep on murmering the old-phrases!

'wearing-ornaments'-- is not what makes it wrong,but how you preceive wearing! 'if that turns out an "idol" cast them away' says the lord! how could i better say this ?

god told the israelites to cast-them-away,only, when they started worshiping it,as it became an 'idol" for them. if people wearing ornaments are sinners,then- contd-

thepraize (December 17, 2012)
It is easy to make a scapegoat of non relevant issues and get away than to truly follow Jesus with all of our heart and soul and reflect His life,thru us,had that been the thought we would not have seen malayalee preachers in multi million homes,involved into multi million business all in the name of Blessings from God.

Nothing more shameful,,

thepraize (December 17, 2012)
it has come to such a situation that top leaders can do and get away with whatever they want to, and all the burden has to be borne by the faithfuls, all the scripture passage applies to the faithfuls and not to the leaders,what a shame and sadly,the faithfuls have determined to follow these leaders at all cost no matter what their personal integrity is. Faithfuls are exploited in the name of religion. I have few questions,does this doctrine of ornament apply only to malayalee pentecostals and are we concluding that no body apart from a malayalee will fly to heaven and interestingly an important command directly from Jesus to his diciples on washing of the feet of one another is absolutely absent from the church,cuz i understand that is a more humbling experience .... contd

thepraize (December 17, 2012)
@asm thank you sir for joining this thread, i so much wanted you here to discuss on the doctrine of ornament which pentecostal emphasise aggressively on the faithfuls. in my humble experience of knowing and reading the bible i have failed to get any context that can be used as a principal to speak for or against this,what aggravates me is the misuse of certain biblical passages for personal convenience,without reading thru the contextual meaning. firstly if we are speaking purely from a point of value, i must acknowledge that pentecostal leaders are the most richest people in modern times and this is for every body to see.secondly holiness, every leader from organised churches are involved into some kind of sexual immorality or financial misppropriation (as a responsible netizen i wud leave it at it) so are we debating here value proposition or holiness,and in any which case both are truly shallow .... contd

a. s. mathew (December 17, 2012)
Brother Thepraize: As you have clearly stated, it has terribly confused me to watch this denominational paradox with relation to ornaments! When I talked with the Church of God and Assembly of God leading Pastors in the U.S., about the practice of the Kerala believers of the same denomination that they have made the "ornament issue" as a cardinal sin, they were surprised. Why only in Kerala, this extra-special holiness was deeply rooted? But while crossing the border to Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, believers of the same denominations wear ornaments. When I was invited to speak in a Kerala Assembly of God Church in a Gulf country en route to India, my friend told me to take off my wedding ring before preaching because that ring will cause problems and friction in the Church. If somebody is totally convinced not to have any jewelry, let them do so; on the other hand imposing this non-Biblical doctrine is totally an oxymoron.

thepraize (December 17, 2012)
@raju mamootil :sir please do not interpret bible to your convenience. please read the context of exodus chapter 33 and then lets decide whether it was meant to be a doctrine of not using ornaments. secondly new testament does not mention a single word on using or not using ornament,pentecostals have tried to bring this as a doctrine from nowhere,please put your facts appropriately,bible based and we can have a academic discussion on this and please do not quote a verse from here and there and discuss out of context.

lets not forget there are issues of greater credence and relevance that are conveniently overlooked by all pentecostal leaders globally and going by your argument only malayalee pentecostals will go to heaven, becuz rest all community globally wear gold or precious jewellary,what a *** conclusion. thanks

sp kumbanad (December 17, 2012)
dear raju mamootil,

if you are perfect inside, you will be more perfect outside.

i am not looking for any loop holes to do sins. Jesus said,

what comes out from your inside, is more important. From a good

heart good things will come out. I am just saying, if you look some of the Big leaders' children, grandchildren, they are wearing ornaments. Or look at the website for the churches ran by these biggies, the believers are wearing ornaments.

raju mamootil (December 17, 2012)
i am sorry to write this. sp kumbanad (5days agao) says "man looks outside and god looks inside" its very correct 'man can only see the outer appreances but he can't see the inner appearences of a man'. but dear brother, god can see both in and out and he strictly wants you to be perfect in either sides. the word of god says if you are perfect inside, that will defenectly project outside also. good produces good and bad produces bad. this is the case in wearing ornaments also. god strictly told not to use it (exodus 33:5-6 ye are a stiffnecked people: i will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that i may know what to do unto thee. and the children of israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount horeb . let me tell you brother any teachings agaist this god's law is a sin and disobeys god. please don't look for loop hole in word of god for you to practice sin.

sp kumbanad (December 12, 2012)
Please don't say that philip p group won the election because there was a war going against wearing ornaments, and Pr. Poovakkala is supporting ornaments. You live in the US and you see many of our Big Leader's children and grand children wearing ornaments. The funny thing is that, these leaders are the one accusing Poovakkala. Man looks outside, but God looks inside. If that is right, how many from the Philp P group are clear. Drinking alcohol, Bribary, Adultry,,,they are also sins. Please don't use your column for one panel. That is against what your editor mentioned a month ago.