(April 2002 Edition)
Editorial - "Do Not Fret, Do Not Falter"
At the Lord's Table - "Abba, Father"
Editorial
"Do Not Fret, Do Not
Falter"
The scriptures warn us: “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be…brutal…treacherous…conceited…lovers of pleasure…” (II Tim. 3).
These are days exactly like those of Habakkuk. “Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails” (Hab. 1:3-4).
In the past few months, millions have watched as terrorists gloat over thousands of ordinary people burning and tumbling to their deaths. They have watched a Serbian dictator, charged with the cold-blooded slaughter of tens of thousands of helpless women and children, sneer contemptuously at his judges. They have watched Muslim fanatics on suicide missions repeatedly massacre innocent bystanders. And for decades they have watched the particularly ugly spectre of civil war as men commit heinous crimes against their own brothers.
In a back street in Kingston, thirty (some say fifty) private militiamen wreak deadly vengeance, dragging little children out of hiding and blowing off their heads. Like the Chaldeans described by Habakkuk, they are “a feared and dreaded people…they are a law unto themselves…they all come bent on violence…and scoff at rulers…they sweep past like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose power is their god” (Hab. 1:7,9-11
They are in Bosnia, Kosovo, Moscow, the Congo, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, Guyana, New York, Ahmedabad, London, Ramallah, Jerusalem. The brutes are everywhere. They roam free, unconvicted, or are quietly assisted to escape custody. With a corrupt legal system, and clever lawyers in their pocket, they laugh at ‘justice.’ Very few of any of these “feared and dreaded people” are ever convicted. Most walk jauntily out of courts free men (and, increasingly, women).
It is the injustice of life in 2002 that most pains the godly man and woman. Just as it did the biblical prophets: “They trample on the heads of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Therefore the prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil” (Amos 2:7;5:12-13). How true of today!
Most of us nowadays routinely experience deep injustice on a personal level. A very small instance is mentioned in the news from May Pen. We learn of the aged losing their legitimate pensions. Poor brothers and sisters are crushed by the powerful. Small or large, it hurts.
What are we, as Christadelphians, to do? Sadly, we have heard of some who have become deeply depressed and cynical, and are losing heart.
This must not be. We have been told long ago what the world will be like in our time. We know exactly what to expect. Cynical revulsion is not the answer. Neither is merely hiding our head in the sand like an ostrich.
The word of God gives us the answer. Grace is “reaching more and more people,” causing thanksgiving to “overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, [on television, for example] but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (II Cor. 4:15-18 NIV).
More practically, Paul tells the Philippians, “whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ…stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved – and that by God” (Phil. 1:27-28).
Finally, take note of Paul’s remarkable comment that follows (Phil. 1:29): “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him.”
What makes this book so much more valuable than any other guide to the Caribbean religious scene is that it is written by a West Indian churchman of East Indian origin and Hindu background. So it does not have a euro-centric bias. Within its 225 pages it is remarkably comprehensive, and enormously helpful.
It provides accurate information about the beliefs and religious life of Hindus and Muslims, Rastas and Shango, Maldevians and Moravians, Quakers and the White Robed Army -- and a vast multitude of other religions that brightly color our cultural and ecclesiastical scene.
When the brutal, greedy, fanatical European conquerors arrived in the Caribbean at the end of the fifteenth century AD, they supposedly found “savages,” and then proceeded to enslave and destroy, the beautiful, gentle and peaceable Arawak peoples. The Arawaks were like that because they believed in and worshipped “one supreme, invisible, immortal and omnipotent creator whom they called Jocahuna (Wamurreti-Kwonci in Guyana): ‘Our Maker.’ In the beginning, when everything was under water, he said “Let there be earth” and earth appeared. Mountains rose out of the water and earth became covered with vegetation. Animals appeared on earth and, at a later time, so did man.”
You can find explanations here for the “nine nights” celebration after a funeral, and why many Caribbean parents use a pet name rather than the true name when their child is young. The author discusses the origin of religious acts such as “trumping.” It is evident from this book that the Lord’s supper in Caribbean churches is not even remotely like the Christadelphian (biblical) breaking of bread, and it highlights the fact that our prospective and new members need to learn the difference and appreciate its real significance.
Personal names are of enormous religious significance in the Caribbean, especially to Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Rastafarians. They are sacred. It is considered a blasphemous insult, for example, to shorten Mohammed Ali to M. Ali or Ras Shadrach III to Mr. Shadrach.
This book also -- indirectly -- demonstrates clearly that in the Caribbean the Bible is read and loved greatly, but chiefly as an inexhaustible mine and source of support for a host of “private interpretations” and weird cults.
Here is a little pot-pourri of questions and answers to test if you need to get and read this book!
1. What is the “Holy Congregation of the Remnant of Israel”? 2. What is a “haji”? 3. What two categories of persons do not have to fast at Ramadan? 4. What is Sri Narayana (pronounced Shrinarine)? 5. What is Tadjah? 6. What salvation does a good Hindu look forward to? 7. Where is Bogoyana worshipped? 8. What does the Code of Manu require? 9. What is a “chapelle”? 10. Where is the headquarters of the White Robed Army? 11. Where is the headquarters of the Bobos? 12. Where are Saint Moses and his consort the goddess Oya worshipped? 13. In what island is Elephon worshipped? 14. When, where and by whom was the first university in the western hemisphere established?
Answers:
1. The Jewish community in Barbados. 2. A Muslim who has made the mandatory
pilgrimage to Mecca. 3. Pregnant women and the chronically ill. 4. A
Caribbean Hindu sect believing in one supreme all-loving God (they are not
idolaters like many Hindus). 5. A Shiite Muslim festival celebrated in
Trinidad. 6. Nirvana, that is, a final release from the cycle of death and
rebirth (re-incarnation). 7. Guyana. 8. Total obedience of women to
fathers and husbands. 9. A Shango meeting place in Trinidad. 10. Agricola
in Guyana. 11. Bull Bay in Jamaica. 12. Haiti. 13. Trinidad. 14. St.
Thomas Aquinas University in the Dominican Republic, founded by the Roman
Catholic Dominican monastic order in 1538.
Alan Eyre
Clues to Puzzle One: Colossians 1:4; Ephesians 1:15; Hebrews 5:11; I Corinthians 1:11; Revelation 3:1; Acts 21:20; Acts 20:7; Romans 1:7; Philippians 4:5; I Thessalonians 1:7; Acts 14:21-22; Galatians 3:1; Revelation 2:20.