India Leads the Way- Part 1

What nation is the world's largest democracy, has 1.4 billion people, has 22 official languages, and yet has only 1.5% Christians?

Well, stay with us, listen, and learn. You're listening to Until He Comes, a blend of prophetic and practical biblical studies with Dr. Greg Hinnett, author of The Second Coming of Christ, His Appearing, His Return, Our Preparation. And now, author and teacher Greg Hinnett.

Well, in this episode, and probably the next one, maybe even two more episodes. I'm interviewing some of my wonderful Indian friends and I am in India at the time. And their names will be anonymous, but they want to talk to you and tell the American church what's going on in India, what's God doing? What is it that you need to know about India? I know the things you need to know.

So we're just going to kick this discussion off by asking: what do Christians in India? need right now. What would you say to American Christians and pastors and missionaries and missionary associations. The Christians in India, Pastor, Greg, I would say that we need more of the knowledge Uh God more of the knowledge of his love towards us. The teaching of uh true Christian uh believes and what the Bible truly teaches.

You know, 'cause um it's one thing for us to Just be saved. Because It's not enough. You know, you have to grow in Christ. You have to grow as a believer. You need teaching.

Oh, yes. You know, because the gospel. It's just part of it to just be saved. But you receive it, you understand that he died for you. Jesus died for you, and he paid for your sins, for your well-being and everything.

But after that, how do you grow? Because you're just a babe in Christ.

So to grow, we believe that we need milk and a lot of solid food.

So I believe this is something that From the past few years, that's something that we've noticed and we've been praying for. And we also see people also yearning for more of The knowledge of God. Yes, yes. And the teaching has to be sound and biblical, it has to be free of heresy. And so is that maybe a problem in India right now?

Yes, definitely I would say yes, 'cause there are a lot of I mean, I guess in the whole world there are a lot of denominations and different doctrines, but India being diverse as it is, Also, it has so much diversity in Christianity as well. And it's sometimes for a new believer it's very confusing. And sometimes it leads them altogether to the opposite side as well.

So it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to have good teaching, the right teaching, the right doctrines that can help the believer grow and you know mature in Christ. Yes, and also you probably have, and you correct me if I'm wrong, some. Preconceived notions that I would say essentially Hindu people have when they come to Jesus in the Bible. Right. What are some of the preconde conceived either notions or doctrines or heresies that they have that That you'd like to tell the people about.

And let me say, before you share this with us, my friends, in case you think you hear a chicken in the background, I just want you to know you do. We are in India. This is not in a sound studio. And you may hear some other passing noises of motorcycles or cars and beeping their horns.

So this is a live interview with real Indian people whom I Treasure and love.

So, what are some of the preconceived notions?

Sorry, the true farm-to-table experience. Yes, absolutely. Yes.

So, what kind of preconceived notions do Indian people have about Jesus or about his teachings or Christianity?

So, firstly, because there are millions of gods in India. They just see Jesus as just another God. They don't see him as the only God. They don't see him as the only Savior. They just see him like, oh, he's just.

another one that if we want to choose, we can choose. But uh the biggest problem is because of India's history of slavery and India's history of persecution uh by the British um Country and a colonial power. Right. So, because of the oppression that India has faced, they see Jesus, as a British God, I can understand that. Yeah, or an American God because we've received many missionaries from America and Europe because they are the ones that spread the gospel the most that we know of.

So they see it as their God. And to receive their God is to take their side and to join them in. and just forget about all the oppression that We faced as a country years ago, hundreds of years ago, and they just see it as something really bad because how could you, you know, like accept their faith or accept their God when they did such bad things to us? Yeah, you would seem to be selling out the nation. Right.

Yeah, you know, it would be a national affront. And, you know, I think we discussed this earlier, and we said there's a parallel to the way the Chinese saw Christianity coming 150, 200 years ago. And for that very reason, Hudson Taylor was led by God to cut his hair exactly like the Chinese men did at the time, wear the long ponytail, wear all the clothes, learn the language. He adopted the Chinese culture, then brought the gospel to the people, and they could see he was not trying to westernize them. Yes.

Yes.

That is a big thing as well because they think accepting Jesus would be like forgetting our culture, forgetting our roots and, you know, like our food or whatever it is. They just think that we're changing our culture and changing or trying to change our nation. And another thing that they really stress on is because once you're a Christian, you just don't stay a Christian. You just want to make everybody a Christian. And they don't like that.

Yes.

But we can't help it as Christians, you know. We want to spread the love. We want to speak. We want to tell others about Jesus. We're excited about him.

And you are, I can tell. Yes.

Amen. What would you like to say about that or about any problem that the That Indian Christians are experiencing right now that American Christians might need to know about, pray about. Maybe go on mission about, do something about? Yeah, what we've noticed as a pastor.

Alright, yeah.

So what I've noticed seeing many Christians is, you know, As an Indian, if I go to a particular person and talk to him about Christ, you know, there is a kind of opposition. But if somebody from different country, a white skinned guy, comes and you know tries to talk to him about Jesus or tries to help him, you know, you know, people are more accepting. They try to accept him because of his color or whatever it is.

So they try to accept him.

So what I let people of America know is: you know, they need more missionaries to come to India and more Bible scholars also to come to India and share the word. You know, I know it is a very big step right now for Americans to come to India and do that, but I would really encourage them to come to India and share the gospel because you guys are accepted here. Yes, yes. And no church has ever grown on its own infants. Every church has had to grow by mature ones who went before, yeah, and they were taught, they were trained, and they were mentored, right, and they were schooled.

And so, India needs the same thing, yeah. And we can't depend on denominations necessarily to do it. There are some wonderful denominational works I know that are going on in India, but this is a job for the whole church, not just certain factions of the Christian church.

So, and is there any persecution in India right now? Yeah. Yes, Pastor, there is persecution in India. Um pastors are being Pastors are being persecuted. Um being beaten, being uh I killed So uh Um Yeah, there is a lot of persecution in India.

And uh yet the church is uh increasing in number and being spiritually enhanced and equipped. Um so That is and and of course, I am a reader of the voice of the martyrs. and they keep in touch. They keep their finger on the pulse of persecution in all nations. And I am aware that persecution is has been going on in India.

Let me ask you this question. As far as Persecution in India. Is this more in the rural areas, more in the urban areas, the same in all areas? Tell us about it. What in your opinion?

There is persecution all around. Overall there is a persecution in all most of the churches, most of the areas. Um I think um there is a little more in the rural areas. People persecuting the RSS, persecuting the church. which is really uh hindering the gospel.

Um and the spreading of the gospel in India. Yes, and you just mentioned something that I'm sure many of my listeners do not have a clue about. That's the RSS. Who would uh like to share with us about what the RSS is and any connection you may have had in your family to that in the past? Yeah, this RSS organization or sector or cult, I don't know how we can mention it, but you know, they try to.

I think it would be accurate to say they are a cult of Hindu zealots, and their aim is to Hindu nation. Bar none, and anybody that's not Hindu is a target. Yeah, they say that India is a diverse nation, you know, you have a right to religious freedom, but then still, you know, what they do is they try to take this Hinduism saying that once upon a time India was called a Hindu country, so it is called Bharat or Bharat or Hindustan. What does that term mean? Hindustan.

Hindustan, the word comes Hindu from that as if Pakistan or Hindustan. Hindustan. So to precisely talk about the percentage of Hindus in India, there are 80% of Hindus right now in India. What this RSS They try to you know train up the young kids to the adults, you know, irrespective of age, you know, they take you to the room, you know, they brainwash you and they try to inculcate that Hinduism in your mind. And I can say that my father is one of the uh members from RSS background.

Yeah, so not now, but in the past, like 45 years ago, now he's a past. pastor, but then yeah.

So so tell us uh about the background. How he how he converted from being an RSS member to being a Christian pastor. Uh This month, for a gift of any amount, we're offering Philippian Notes, Dr. Hinnant's commentary on Philippians. Easy to understand, insightful, biblically precise, and spiritually rich, and will prove very helpful to ministers, teachers, and any hungry believer.

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Now, again, Dr. Hinnant. Right. From RSS groups. That he got into some mafia gang.

So he was smuggling gold and all that other stuff.

So one day, he was actually involved with the mafia, was he not? Yes, he is.

So one day one of his closest associates was killed by his boss, was shot.

So my dad thought, you know, one day he's gonna come after me.

So I'm gonna be dead.

So he planned for three months and tried to get out of that, you know, mafia. But then somehow we got out, but then they still tried to find my dad because he's gonna expose the secrets, the dark secrets which are in mafia. But somehow, by God's plan, you know, my dad got out. And I need to tell you something. You know, when my dad got into this mafia thing, you know, he left his parents' house.

So his sister was praying, not knowing who the real God was. But one day a pastor. And his sister was Hindu. Hindu, yeah.

So one day. But of course, our listeners may not realize there are thousands of Hindu gods. And are there certain ones that are primary ones? They say they have three million. Three million guards.

They claim it.

So she was praying. She was praying to whoever you are, you know, just bring my brother back.

So one day, a pastor happens to come to my dad's parents' house and he prophesied, saying that, you know, your brother has gone out and he will come back and one day he will be a pastor. Oh. Yeah. Yes, I thought that was news. Yeah.

So then somehow he planned out to come out of that mafia and then he got out and then he got into a job. And then he moved to the place where we are staying right now. And then he was sleeping. He was a drug addict as well, alcoholic.

So one day God intervened in his life and a strong beam of light came and fell upon him. And that's how he got saved. Oh, wow. Yes, that's like the Apostle Paul. He saw Christ as a great light above the brightness of the sun.

Yes.

And so that launched him into a Christian walk. Christian walk. And then he had in his heart, you know, God spoke to him saying that, you know, I'm going to take you to the people and you'll be my servant, taking my gospel to the unreached places. Yes.

Now, you know, if you were telling me, if I'm remembering this correctly, you were telling me about the outreach that your church has now and how you go about evangelizing in the Hindu rural communities. Tell us about that. How does that unfold? Yeah, so what we do is, you know, we. Pray for a particular village.

We pray, God, do you want us to go to this village? Please help us. Yes, and again, the American listeners may have no clue as to how many villages there are in India. There are hundreds of thousands of villages everywhere. Yes, go.

Everywhere. And then God puts the burden in our heart for the particular village. And then we take Jesus' film. And uh we don't know anybody there, not even a single person.

So we take our own Adoriksha and then uh uh in the morning initially what we do is we have a medical camps. Oh. Yeah, we do free medical care.

So what we do is in most of the villages, rural villages in India, you know, people cannot afford for treatment. Oh, yes, even the most basic care. Yeah, so even for the basic care, you're right.

So what they do is, you know, they try to take whatever they get, a small pill from a medical shop, a pharmacy, supposedly.

So We take nice good doctors who are expertise in their area of studies and we do medical free camps in the morning and we take basic equipment also to do some testings in their body. Yes.

Blood tests and urine tests. Blood tests, urine tests and we do eye testings also. Yeah, vision testings. Oh yes. Yeah.

Some things like that. And then what we do is we give them free medicine and we give some glasses also if they have eye problems, if they could not give them a lot of money. I've seen many young Indian ladies with nice round new stylish glasses. Yeah, so we give them free glasses as well.

So that's how we earn their favor. You're showing them Christ's love. We are showing them Christ's love. And Jesus did that. Jesus fed the hungry multitude.

Absolutely. Jesus healed the sick. Yes.

And now, on this point, though, You said you showed them the Jesus film.

Now, which Jesus film is that? There are a number of them. Is it the 1979 film? It's the 1979 Jesus film. And I don't know if my listeners know the figures on that, but many hundreds of millions of people have come.

To Christ to that 1979 Jesus film.

Now, not only saved, but have been healed and delivered because they see the depiction of Jesus' miracles and with childlike faith they call on him to heal them or save them. Right, absolutely.

So we do that Jesus film in the evening and we say them in the morning, Hey, we have a gospel meeting, so we are going to have a Jesus film. Would you guys like to come? Even though there doesn't want to come because of the favor what we did in the morning in the medical camps, you know, they come, they are persuaded to come.

So you don't tell them you're from Bollywood, do you?

So they come and we give them free food as well. Oftentimes, you know, we see food as a uh drawing thing for people to come right Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

So that's how we uh ev evangelize.

So uh by doing this kind of evangelism, we got around six to seven villages. We could be able to win them for Christ. Yeah, and I just want to add this on a personal note. I have been moved beyond words. Uh and my listeners know I'm a I'm an author.

Uh it's not easy to move an author beyond words. When I've seen first hand the intense, uh pitiable Uh poverty. uh that is everywhere in the rural areas of India. Uh I knew it was there, I read about it, heard about it, but it is real, it is intense. And as long as these people are not in touch with the true God and are worshiping other gods.

You know, they're cut off from God's favor and help, and it's just terrible to see.

So, when you go in there and feed them, I know that really speaks to them. Yes.

Exactly.

So we what we also do is, you know, every year, me and my wife, along with our few of our friends, you know, what we do is, you know, there are a lot of single parents and then you know a lot of kids who don't have food and who don't have proper education and who don't have you know nice proper clothes you know we try to give them some Christmas presents every year yes yeah and even in the school academic year starting years you know we try to buy them books also right educational books for their education so that's how we try to win them and we have an access by doing those things to those people poor people you know I can say some people don't even have one meal a day yes yeah right that's intense how the poverty is in India in some of the villages and I can't say I'm one of those people because I've been fed royally over here and I've loved every minute of it but this this is a real problem you know if American Christians would like to get involved and helping we know there are many different missionary groups uh that have ways of getting into India. and have ways of getting resources into India, and specifically the gospel as well.

So this would be a wonderful thing for them to contribute if they're hearing you all today and they're really moved and say, Uh India's 1.4 billion people. People. India surpassed China recently as the most populous nation on earth. 22 major languages. It's just, it is a microcosm.

I mean, it's a world within the world. Right. Right here in one land. And so, you know, if you're listening and you want to know what to do, I would say begin by prayer. Here in the churches of India, I know from speaking with you all and being in your meetings, I know that you deeply believe in intercession.

Absolutely. Yes.

So I know you will want the Americans to certainly begin with intercession. Tell me about your intercessory meetings here that you have in Your charge. Yeah. You pray once a week, twice a week, several times a week.

So we pray uh thrice a week. Uh we And uh We pray. a lot of things about um The church for the development of the church. Um Many churches are very are in poverty.

So there are There is a great help to be is needed for the Indian Church in order to help the pastors and also to get the gospel Uh across the India and the areas which they are.

So We pray for that a lot and um Yeah. Uh Adding to that, I think um Helping, physical helping is a much needed thing. You know, when uh You know, we have the uh resources for helping and uh Um it's uh good to help rather than praying first. Yeah. That is um what I think uh Um yeah.

That's good. And I know you have praying programs here too.

So tell us about your intercessory prayer ministry. Right. We have. Several meetings, don't you? To be honest, almost every we every day in the week we have prayers going on.

Yeah, I think that's wonderful. I think that's the way the early church did it. I think it's the way we should do it. Yeah, we have a. Like he was saying, we do have a lot of meetings, but it's not for everybody.

It's not like the whole church comes together every day, but it's like groups of people. Like, say, like on Mondays, I gather some of the youth girls and we pray together. Yes.

And on Wednesdays, the church comes together. But on Tuesdays and Fridays, the women come together. But on Saturday night, the whole church comes together again. And on Sunday, obviously, it's a great place to be. Yes, I know you told me about that last night.

Yes.

Right. Well, you know, prayer, the power of prayer isn't in numbers, is it? Yeah. It's wonderful if you have a church where many people pray, but it doesn't take many to pray. What did Jesus say about that?

If two agree or three or three come together in my name, there am I in the midst. And he said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask what you will and it shall be done.

So, you know. You who are listening in America, take it upon yourself now to begin to pray for these precious Indian brothers and sisters, their churches, their ministries to the poor, to the needy, their evangelism. Maybe you cannot go. Not everybody can go, but they can go. They're willing to go.

They're eager to go. They're brave. They're fearless.

So take this to heart and begin with intercession. We are so glad that you've tuned into the podcast today. In our next episode, we will continue discussing some amazing facts about India and the Christians who lived there, and what you can do as an American Christian or as a listener in other countries to get involved with God's work in India. If this message has blessed you, tell your friends and please consider helping us stay on the air by sending your tax-deductible donation to Greg Hennett Ministries. Also, remember, you may download the Until He Comes podcast from your preferred podcast app.

May you walk closely with Christ and trust and obey Him in your daily tests of faith and patience until He Comes. This is the Truth Network. Mm-hmm.