GLIMPSES OF INDIAN CHURCH HISTORY

GOD SETS THE STAGE IN INDIA

4000 years ago, following the death of Sarah, Abraham married Keturah and had many concubines. Many think that Keturah is none other than Hagar, whom Abraham sought out after the death of Sarah. Keturah means incense or perfume. The legend is that she remined faithful to Abraham. All his children, except for Isaac, he sent eastward, presumably, some came to India (Gen. 25:1- 6). 

In the fifth century BC, Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus of Persia ruled from India to Ethiopia. Ahasuerus appointed Mordecai, a zealous Jew, to be the Prime Minister. He ruled India (Esther 1:1; 8:9, 17; 9:16). 75,000 people were killed by the Jews on the Day of Purim. We do not know how many were killed in India by “Asuras”. Many synagogues were established in India during this period, which would be replaced by worshippers of the local pantheon. Not surprisingly, therefore, many Indian gods have Jewish names.

Ramah, the most popular God of Hindus is mentioned 25 times in the Bible. Bethlehem where Yeshua was born, was situated in Ramah where Rachel is buried. Vishnu (Ish Nu=Noah), Krishna (Ethiopian word for black), Brahma (Abraham), Shiva (seven in Hebrew and auspicious in Sanskrit (2 Sam. 20:25) or Mahesh (Maha = high; Ish=god man=Adam), with a serpent around his neck, clothed in animal skin, born without father or mother, half man, half woman. One of sons was killed. The Tribals do not worship the graven image, and Aryans (Aaron) were also non-idolaters.

CASTE SYSTEM – A GIFT OF ISRAEL

Israelites were a sharply divided community, the Levites monopolizing the hereditary priesthood. The Judahites were the rulers. Both King David and Yeshua belonged to this clan. Merchants, farmers and shepherds were the wealth producers. Carpenters, blacksmiths, potters, cobblers, and cleaners did the menial jobs. Hindus are divided more or less along the same lines. Brahmins belong to a hereditary, priestly class. Kshatriyas are the ruling class dominating the armed forces. Farmers, shepherds, and merchants belong to Vaishya or Shudras also known as OBC (Other Backward Communities). Dalits the menial workers, serve all the higher castes, remain a despised people.

COMMUNICATING IN LOCAL LANGUAGE IS THE KEY

The Kerala (coconut) church survived probably because the Messianic Jews returning to India after hearing the good news in their own language at the Pentecost (Acts 2:5-12), spoke to the natives in their language. There were many synagogues along the West coast of India, but there is no evidence of ancient Christianity, probably because the Jews lived in isolation and failed to communicate. Although Yeshua mostly communicated in the Aramaic, and the original gospels written in Hebrew have now been recently discovered, the NT was strategically translated in Greek, the international language of the time and still later into Latin, the language of the Romans Empire. Not merging with the local culture and the lingo delayed the expansion of the Kingdom.

THOMAS TRADITION AND MYTHOLOGY 

Traditionally it is believed that Thomas, one of the twelve disciples of Yeshua, came to Kerala, but, there is no solid evidence. His tomb in Madras, 700 Km away from where he is supposed to have landed, dates from the 14th century. Meanwhile Saint Thomas remains peacefully buried in Cyprus. The Kerala church, with its mythology and traditions, has suffered from caste, creed, orthodoxy and arrogance problems for 2000 years, utterly failing to spread the gospel. 

Many think that they come from a high caste background, but Aryan Brahmans came to Kerala only in the 8th century. Most believers came from a Munda-Dravidian background. Interestingly, there were no temples or church buildings before the Aryans arrived. Muslims (23 %) outnumber Christians (19 %) in Kerala, while 3 % Brahmins and Nairs dominate the government and the business. On the Day of Pentecost, devout men from every nation under heaven were in Jerusalem who heard the good news in their own native language (Acts 2:5-11). Jews from India must have been there. Saint Thomas did not have to come to India, as these devout men must have brought back the gospel to their Jewish settlements not only in Kerala but across India.

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

The Knai Thomman, or Thomas of Cana landed in Cranganore in AD 345. He was a Syrian businessman who came to make money, and his progeny are still busy doing the same. Making money in the name of religion is now a multimillion business. Coastal cities and airports remain major gold smuggling routes, dominated by Syrian Christians. Yeshua does not need smuggled gold or Gulf money to build His church. All He needs is obedience (Psa. 51:17).

THE COCONUT CHURCH NEEDS TO BREAK OUT OF ITS SHELL

The Kerala Christians only became active after the CMS missionaries came from London in the 17th century. Not much can be expected of the liturgical and tradition-bound Orthodox churches that pledge their allegiance to foreign countries. They need to break a lot of coconuts (religious hard nuts) to expedite the recovery of souls on their road to hell. The cash and talent rich Marthoma church, which came into existence after the impact of   the London Mission has planted Marthoma ghettos all over the world but failed to have any valid impact on people of other faiths.   Their Christian Fellowships deny baptisms and Lord’s Supper to natives of north India (Titus 1:16)

 The Kerala church got a real boost only after Pentecostals stormed that state about 100 years ago. Thousands gather in conventions, praying Mammon-centered prayers about finding jobs and brides in the Gulf countries, rather than on behalf of the lost. The Malabar Mappila Muslim Neighbors of the north and the Dalits, who form 80 percent of the Majority community, remain unreached. The church also completely failed to follow up the social reformation started by Sree Narayana Guru about 150 years ago. The massive Sabarimala-Ayapana cult goes on unchallenged. 

Focus must change from Kottayam to Varkala, the holy city of Ezhava (untouchable) Dalits. Instead of demolishing each other in the courts of law, they must demolish demonic strongholds. Kerala remains one of the few states in India yet to catch the vision of planting house churches. The Kerala church is deeply mired in worship of Mammon (going to Gulf countries to make money), traditions, superiority complex (we know best-this is the way we have always done it). God had to send Corona to release all that vast captive human and other resources, for God’s greater glory.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCH INVASION GETS UNDER WAY

Although the British, the Danes and the Portuguese brought Protestant chaplains for their own employees, as early as the 17th century, they failed to evangelize Indians, because they were here to make money, not converts. However, we thank God for them, for the sword of Islam was no match against European gunpowder, otherwise India would be a Muslim country today.

THE SOUTH INDIAN CREAMY LAYER SPOILS THE CURRY

The First Protestant German Lutheran Missionaries, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Pluetschau, arrived in July 1706. After suffering persecution from their own countrymen, they established the first Protestant church in Tranquibar in Tamil Nadu. Denominationalism is the curse of South Indian churches where several denominational churches exist in the same village. There is also the worst kind of caste discrimination, where the Nadars of Tamil Nadu dominate the Pariahs, and the Malas of Andhra look down on the Madigas. In the church, there may be no Jews and Gentiles, but in South India, the low castes can neither eat together with the high caste Christians nor intermarry with them. They have separate seats in their churches and are buried in different graveyards. The best way to bury the hatchet of the evil caste system and to demolish the demon of denominationalism, is to hold fellowship meals in homes (Luke 10:7-8). The Tamils, Telugus, the Banjaras and Kannadas now have one of the fastest growing house Ekklesia movements.

THE BENGAL TIGERS OF EAST INDIA

In 1792, William Carey came to Calcutta from England, and serious church-planting work began in East India. Carey was an exemplary multifaceted missionary who changed the face of this country. The fish-eating Bengalis are ripe and ready to become fishers of men but are still waiting for a John Knoxer who will lead them into house Congregations. John Knox’s great cry was “Give me Scotland, or I die!”. In the meantime, neighboring Bihar is being transformed from the graveyard of missions into a vineyard. Bangladeshi are way ahead in planting “jamats” or gatherings among Neighbors. In fact, Bangladesh, in the last decade, has seen nearly tens of thousands of “gusal” (dips). Their Ekklesia has a flat model with no authority-centered power structures. Of late, thousands of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma), persecuted by Buddhists, are entering the Kingdom. Despite brutal persecution, the gospel is being preached by believers who are willing to lay down their lives on the line for Isa.

THE NORTH-EAST

With 90 percent Christianity (mostly nominal), the missionary success story is well-known, even though they have miserably failed to evangelize Assam, Tripura, Bhutan and Sikkim. Many tribes are yet to hear the gospel. They have followed a Western model, spreading AIDS, drugs, and music, wasting money and energy on church buildings, guitars and intertribal wars. Astoundingly, they voted for BJP (Hindu Nationalist Party) in the last general elections, showing how compromised the Christians are. Mizoram alone has sent over a thousand missionaries. Based on population and per capita income, Mizoram is the largest missionary sending church in the world today. Sadly, many of these missionaries are seminary trained and so start churches that are Western implants, complete with Western language and dress code, pulpits and guitars. They have all the trappings of an attractional church, having no idea of how to indigenize and multiply, they remain mostly fruitless. 

WEST INDIA

In 1834, John Lowry came from Philadelphia USA to Ludhiana in Punjab and opened the Northwest of India, much of which is now in Pakistan. On the boat trip, he lost his wife, his friend and his wife and all his worldly possessions. Whilst Praying John Hyde was interceding, God raised up the greatest Indian saint, Dit, a small, dark, illiterate, disabled man from the untouchable Churha community in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab. Dit saw nearly 58,000 people baptized in his lifetime. He never took a penny from the church. Sadly, the church led by Western missionaries failed to develop leadership from these down and outcaste community, even though they ran some of the best colleges in that region at the time. So, they remain despised to this day, and those on the Pakistan side continue to be scavengers and often jailed for apostacy. Today, that region has a highly active CPM going on.

THE NORTHERN REGION

In 1885, the Moravians came and worked in the northern Himalayan region of Laddakh and Himachal. Unfortunately, they became overly involved in social activities. Their Hardy potatoes and Stokes apples are famous and still have great impact on their economy, but they failed to have any spiritual impact on the Buddhists, the Shia Muslims, and others. Unfortunately, Stokes himself became an Arya Samajist (Reformed Hindu). House groups are now being actively planted on the hills and valleys of the Himalayas, as far as the Tibetan border. Neighboring Nepal, of course, is on fire. This decade has seen tens of thousands of people come to faith in Messiah.

CENTRAL INDIA

Seven German Lutheran missionaries came in 1868 to a remote village called Karanjia. All seven died of cholera within six months and are buried in a mass grave in Mandla town of Madhya Pradesh in Central India. In 1924, Donald McGavran, the father of modern missions, came to Harda, where he was an utter failure. He sold the mission property to another mission and later shifted to Takhatpur village in the Bilaspur district of Chhatisgarh, where, in the late 1930s, he developed the “Homogenous Unit Principle” which led to a mass movement among the Satnamis. His basic thrust was church growth through reaching a specific cultural group. Harda is now the hub which trains many Disciple Multipliers that serve that region. He baptized the author’s parents in the local river. 

The state government passed a Draconian anti-conversion law and ironically called it “The Freedom of Religion Bill”. The Indian government promptly gave marching orders to all the foreign missionaries, which proved a great blessing in disguise. Later, McGavran taught Church Growth Principles in the now famous, Fuller School and World Missions at Pasadena. Late in his life, in a talk with George Patterson, he recognized the priority of “church multiplication” over “church growth.” Central India, the author’s state is now the home of “Global Home Church Movement.”

PEOPLE GROUP MOVEMENTS

Such movements have taken place in the past amongst Brahmins, Nadars, Pariahs, Pulia and coastal fishermen of the South. Others include the Churha movement of the Northwest, the Mizo and Naga movement of the Northeast, the Oraon and Munda movement of the East and now of the Maltose and Santhals, the Satnami and Gada movement of Chhatisgarh, the Bhil, Kukna, Gamit and Vasava movements of Gujarat, and the Mahar movement of Maharashtra. The Lalbegis, Bhangis and Balmikis and the Chamars of Uttar Pradesh. Of late Bhojpuris of UP, Banjaras (the Gypsy people spread throughout India), the Oraons of Jharkhand, the Panos and Kuis of Orissa, and Buddhists of Himachal.

THE SPIRIT OF CONTROL KILLS THE MOVEMENT

Many movements were arrested because cross-cultural missionaries both from abroad and from South India, discouraged development of local leadership. Because rights are grounded in worth, failure to recognize the worth of local leaders, treating them as worthless and usurping their rights. Imported leaders, imported buildings, imported models of worship, all conspired to kill the organic spread of the gospel. However well intended, the spirit of control remains a sure recipe for inhibiting the free movement of the gospel (John 3:8).

EKKLESIAS PLANTED IN 300 YEARS

Despite the work and sacrifice of thousands of missionaries over the past 300 years, barely a few hundred congregations were established in India, mostly in the South. Very few villages had churches, most churches being in the cities. This was because they not only brought the Gospel but also Western church cultural baggage and massive foreign aid which corrupted the DNA of spontaneous indigenous movement. This corrupted DNA brought forth corrupted fruit as it effectively inhibited building relationship with the person of Yeshua within their own ethno-linguistic, cultural, and religious traditions. 

After Independence in 1947, the Nehru government put the brakes on foreign missionaries. The church went into a tailspin as Indians with little leadership experience, tried to grab the huge church properties, jockeying for hierarchical positions left vacant by missionaries. The church got bogged down in court cases resulting in a criminal waste of resources. This was because the foreign missionaries thought that they will be here forever and did not develop local leadership.

THE BRIDE BEGINS TO MULTIPLY AND FILL THE EARTH

In the early 20th century, Pentecostals stormed the whole world, speaking in tongues. This later morphed into the Charismatic Movement with signs and miracles. In the mid 80s, it became a worldwide intercessory movement. In 1993, through the efforts of the AD 2000 Movement, millions began praying for the countries of the 10/40 Window. About the same time, the DAWN (Disciple A Whole Nation) came up with the People Group approach, which gave birth to The Great Commission movement. This has led to the DMM (Disciple Making Movement), resulting in the planting of multiplying “Households of God”, which are now colonizing India and the entire earth (Eph. 2:19-20). 

INDIA ON THE BAND WAGON

There are some 650,000 villages Very few villages in north India had churches just a couple of decades ago. Today, however, we estimate that at least half of the villages have Christian witness. Hundreds of Households of God are being planted in India almost every day (Acts 16:5). The movement has reached the tipping point and is spreading like a bush fire. People who used to laugh and mock at our simple house Ekklesias that have no religious building, pulpit, pastor or money, are now asking how to run a house Ekklesia as they are under house arrest, thanks to the current Coronavirus pandemic.

THE MEGA CHURCH PHENOMENON

Mega churches hog all the glory and cash but when it comes to sheer numbers of transformed lives, they are no match to cost effective organic house Ekklesias. Mega celebrations recycle the saints by siphoning members from small, neighboring churches. 

Macro celebrations cannot provide the Body life that micro-Gatherings do. Besides, they are not reproducible. Remember Synagogues were designed for fellowship where they spent the better part of Sabbath interacting, eating, singing and resting etc. However, the mega celebrations are like the heathen temples, where crowds of devotees come and go, without having any meaningful fellowship with each other. Despite their trumpeting of astronomical amounts being given for missions, per capita giving remains mere tokenism, as large amounts are siphoned off for empire building rather than for kingdom building. 

However, of late some are reaching out to the lost through cell churches, for the wrong reason of increasing their numbers, through using despicable term “Lay” pastor for volunteers, yet a step in the right direction. This is where the unbiblical maximal meets the biblical minimal. Thanks to the little Corona, the maximal has shut down and the minimal is not only surviving but thriving. 

In some places thousands gather for healing, deliverance but unless steps are taken to disciple the new converts into disciple-multipliers, crusades and large evangelistic gatherings are a storm in the teacup with little long-term impact. Churches that had large attendees, just a few years ago, are almost gone. Deploying them gainfully to reach the unreached is an urgent issue. Now that security and Corona are major issues, large gatherings are on their way to the back pages of history.

THE MEGA WEB OF EKKLESIAS

Yeshua chose influencers over smart young men. Disciples of Yeshua, Peter and Paul were market men with a significant web of influence in their communities. They were as committed to their businesses as their ministries. Peter used his hands to catch fish as well as to catch two-legged fish. Paul used his hands to make tents for a living as well as for mighty deeds. There was no bifurcation. 

Today many Ekklesia planting movements are led by physicians, engineers, soldiers, professionals, businessmen and rarely by theologians. This broad-based participation of professionals with a much larger web of influence in their communities, has important missiological ramifications. Regional webs provide dynamic, organic fora for expression, forging strategic partnerships and resourcing. Such webs link across continents. Frequent interaction on issues of strategy, methodology, leadership development, etc., helps them to refine their game plan. As a result, significant Christ-ward demographic shift is already taking place in Asia, Africa and the Latin America.

THE ELECTION MANIFESTO

Politics is about power, legitimate power. But that is not what happens in the secular or godless politics. Late in 2003, the nationalist political parties were talking about electricity, water and road, thereby making a clean electoral sweep of some of the states of India. However, they then started implementing their hidden agenda of sectarian ideology of hatred in the country. Sure of their victory, they opted for immediate federal elections. Worried by the turn of events, the Christians formed the National Prayer Network and mobilized millions of intercessors to cry out to the Lord. God faithfully answered their prayers, and the communal parties were completely routed.

The losers did not know how they lost it, nor the winners understand how they won it. They called it the “X” factor, but we know that it was the “Prayer factor”. The intercessors changed the government of the day. Through fasting, repentance and intercession we put legitimate political power in place and rule nations (2 Chron. 7:14).

RULE THE NATIONS THROUGH INTERCESSION

During the 2004 American elections, a quarter of a million homosexuals, abortionists and liberals held a protest rally, exposing their backsides with obscenities written on them, against the outright Christian stand of George W. Bush. Over a million Christians in India networked together, interceding with God to choose the right candidate. Millions in other countries also prayed, but we feel that our million intercessors tilted the balance, putting the right man in the White House.

We are facing greater advocacy challenges all at once. This is perhaps not surprising given the march of secular humanism through our parliaments, courts and institutions. Of late intercessors are regularly praying for all those who have rule and authority over us and bathing them in prayer. We can already see the impact, as anti-conversion laws have been repealed, education freed from sectarian ideology, corruption in high places exposed, justice increasingly available in the courts, and media and government focusing more and more on the plight of the poor. Whilst “the poor are always with us”, wherever CPMs are going on, a remarkable economic recovery is underway. Increasingly, the poor have bread on the plate, their children are attending schools, and many have shifted from mud houses to bricks (1 Tim. 2:1-4). 

TRADITIONAL CHURCHES TAKE THE BACK SEAT

India’s population exceeds 1.3 billion with only 2.3 percent Christians, but most people guess that it is at least 7 percent if not more. Until recently, Roman Catholics were the biggest church, but they are facing a serious downturn of some 2.6 percent. Protestant churches are seeing an even greater loss (2 8%). Meanwhile, little house churches are springing up like mushrooms, overtaking Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal churches combined. In those old wineskins, very few have a burden for the lost. It is the new believers that are changing the spiritual profile of the nation. At this rate, there will soon be, Christian witness in most of the 650,000 villages of India.

GEMS:

• The only tradition that Yeshua set for us is to have daily encounter with the lost, the least and the wayward in towns and villages, on the streets, in the homes and the marketplace and the only ritual He bequeathed was to heal the sick, deliver the demonized and preach the gospel. 
• To define a church by its place, time and program is to trivialize the sacrifice of its founder who defined it as neither here nor there but anywhere, anytime, anyone can worship in Spirit and in truth. 
• The living stones are his temple and the tabernacle, that build his Ekklesia. It is people, never the place, or the program. (1Pet. 2:5)

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Victor Choudhrie

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