Transformation India Project was successfully held in the state of Karnataka on 26th and 27th January. It was arranged by Sol. Roopesh and AOJ Karnataka team in the village is situated near Hassan city on the way to Chikmagalur. More than thirty people attended. Sol. Johnson and me from Chennai along with AOJ Bangalore team conducted the program.

The place is very fertile with extensive areas. The land is irrigated by Yagachi River and Yagachi dam; there are many ponds and water bodies nearby. The water bodies are not polluted. There are many Areca nut plantations. People also sow rice and ragi. Ginger, tomato, corn and other vegetables are common.  

On our way to Kamenahalli we stopped for food at Guntanelli, we visited a field near they used modern techniques for farming. We visited Mr Deepu who worked there; he gave a lot of valuable information about drip irrigation and other modern techniques they used to improve the yield. He was very happy to welcome and teach us.  As I was used to the Chennai culture, I paid him for his help which he rejected promptly. Sol Roopesh was explaining that people from this area are very righteous and kind in their deeds so God has blessed them abundantly.  But due to idol worship many people are suffering from some kind of chronic disease.

The believers in Kamenahalli village were very humble and friendly; many of them have attended BFF in Bangalore. They are already doing a good job in agriculture. Many of them were under alcohol addiction but after BFF, they began a new life. They have had some difficulty in conducting Troop Church but after TIP program they were encouraged and assured us that they will conduct Troop Church regularly.

The people although good at agriculture did not enjoy the full yield of their work, they were not aware of the Biblical principles of farming; they were using a large quantity of pesticides. Some of the points they learned during TIP program are

Love your neighbor as yourself
There should be no poor among you
The land belongs to the lord
Break the curse on the land
Take authority over the land
Avoid pesticides
Give a portion of the profit to the needy
Give rest to the land

Conduct Troop Church regularly

On the first day of the program we taught the subject “go and do likewise” and ten points of natural farming, we also held practical. The next day the group was split into four groups and troop church was conducted, the believers were very happy and were encouraged. Many gave testimony about the greatest commandment of Jesus.

The grace of Jesus was there with us throughout the program. After the program, people gave many testimonies. They said that they never knew that the land was under curse and the fact that we need to take authority over the land. Real blessing comes by helping the poor. Many shared the vision about increased yield of the land, some said the devil was running away from the area. The believers were convicted to take the program to other villages and to conduct troop church regularly. Some practical ideas were also given to them regarding becoming an entrepreneur under PST program.  We thank Jesus for all the grace he provided throughout the program. All glory to Jesus.  Amen.

- Sol Dr. Benedict Aruldas.

The World without Christianity: “Unimaginable”

A couple of years ago, Jeremiah Johnston and his wife binge-watched the HBO series “The Man in the High Castle.” The series is set in a world where Nazi Germany and Japan won World War II and now occupy the United States.

It’s a world where euthanasia is mandatory, and the ashes of victims fall on passersby. In other words, it’s a world without Christianity, not to mention Judaism.

After watching the series, Johnston’s wife told him that he needed to write about what they had just watched. He did, and the result is his outstanding book, “Unimaginable: What the World Would Be Like Without Christianity.”

But Johnston’s book is not about a fictional world like the “The Man in the High Castle.” His book is straight out of history, about the real world that Christianity replaced—a pagan world that is showing signs of a comeback in this post-Christian age.

Johnston introduces us to the world in which Christianity was born, and eventually transformed. He tells the story of Hilarion, an otherwise-unremarkable Roman citizen who had traveled to Egypt. He writes to his pregnant wife that he may not make it home in time for the birth. So he wishes her “good luck” and then tells her what to do when the child is born: “If it is a boy, keep it; if it is a girl, throw it out.”

As I said, there was nothing remarkable about Hilarion or his attitude towards his soon-to-be-born child. As Johnston tells us, “…in the first-century Roman world . . . killing an unwanted child was no big deal.” He quotes the philosopher Seneca, who wrote: “Unnatural progeny we destroy; we drown even children who at birth are weak or abnormal.”

Into this world came Christianity, whose teaching and practice was 180 degrees from that of the surrounding societies. The early second century Christian document known as “the “Didache” told Christians “Do not murder a child by abortion, nor kill it at birth.” The Epistle of Barnabas, which dates from a few decades later, similarly said “Do not murder a child by abortion, nor, again, destroy that which is born.”

Believe it or not, infanticide is just one example of the cruelty and callousness that characterized the ancient world. Anyone who wasn’t a nobleman—emphasis on the “man”—was a potential, and often actual, victim of this same kind of cruelty: infants, women, slaves, and the poor to name but a few.

Against this backdrop, Paul’s declaration that “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” had the potential to turn the world upside down.

And that’s exactly what it did. It took time, and there were fits and starts, but Christianity made the world we now take for granted, possible.

As Johnston tells readers, the West’s rejection of Christianity threatens to undo this world. For those who scoff at such an idea, he lays out the recent historical record, which isn’t pretty. Evils such as scientific racism, which posits that some groups are inherently inferior to others, eugenics, and its ultimate expression, the Third Reich, all have their origins in worldviews that rejected Christianity.

He reminds us that these literally godless worldviews have left a body count in the hundreds of millions: the Holocaust, Stalin’s victims, the killing fields of Cambodia, and the estimated seventy million Chinese who died under Mao.

Given this historical record, it is unimaginable that we should want to revert to a world prior to Christianity. Or at last it should be unimaginable. That’s why I can’t recommend the book “Unimaginable” highly enough. It’s a book that every Christian interested in worldview, and, especially those who aren’t, should have in their library. And this month, it’s our gift to those who make a donation to BreakPoint and the Colson Center.

 

3 Arrested after 7-Year-Old Boy Dies from Punishment for Not Knowing Bible Verses

Three people have been arrested in Wisconsin for the death of a 7-year-old boy after they allegedly punished him for failing to memorize a list of Bible verses.

According to Fox News, 7-year-old Ethan was in Timothy and Tina Hauschultz care when they, along with their 15-year-old son, forced him to hold a log weighing nearly 50 pounds for two hours every day for a week. 

The Medical Examiner determined that the 15-year-old hit and kicked Ethan around 100 times and put Ethan’s head in a puddle before rolling the 44-pound log on his chest and standing on his head and body. The teen then buried Ethan under a pile of snow causing him to die from hypothermia and blunt force trauma in April of 2018.

Fox News reports that the 15-year-old confessed to police that he was tasked with overseeing Ethan and his twin brother’s punishments. Reportedly, both children were undergoing this cruel treatment because they were unable to memorize 13 Bible verses selected by Timothy. 

The relationship between the Ethan and the Hauschultz is not known at this time, but Ethan and two of his siblings, including his twin, were placed under the guardianship of the Hauschultz by court-appointment.

As the incident was unfolding, Ethan’s birth mother, Andrea Everett, was called to the scene, and upon arriving she learned that her son was dead.

She told Fox News, “When I got there Ethan did not have a heartbeat and his temperature was 23 degrees. They worked on him for five hours, giving him CPR the entire time, and still couldn't get a heartbeat. There was no brain activity."

Everett is seeking justice for the death of her son. 

Timothy Hauschultz, 48, has been charged with felony murder and felony contributing to the delinquency of a child. Tina Hauschultz, 35, has been charged with failing to prevent bodily harm and intentionally contributing to the delinquency of a child. The 15-year-old has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide and he and his father face several additional charges.