 Okay. Good morning everyone. Welcome back to our second lecture on BC212 Christian Apologetics. This would be our final lecture. We should be finishing shortly. So we've been, let me just open the PDF, share the PDF here. So we've just been talking about different social challenges and some of the other topics and like this there could be many, many topics. We won't be able to of course talk about every topic but I'm just bringing up a few things that seem to be important in our day. What about murder, war, genocide? In terms of, you know, specifically I'm not talking about murder in the case of individual murder. That we know it's wrong. God has commanded us not to kill. But in terms of war and genocide, what we're seeing, the questions people would ask is, is it right for a nation to defend itself? That means you've got armies and let's say a believer is, believers are soldiers in the army. And they're going to be sent to war or they're engaging in war with another nation, another country or sometimes against terrorists and against people are committing crime or whatever. Is it right for a believer to kill in that context? Or if a believer is a policeman, you know, is it right for him to kill? So we're talking about, you know, a smaller situation where policemen, you know, killing or in war, there is killing, there's fighting and of course lives are going to be lost. And then there is mass killing or killing an entire community or tribe or ethnic based on ethnicity so on. So all of this is very painful, but it's going on in our world. And as believers, we do have a, we do have difficulty because people will point to the Old Testament and say, hey, look, look, look, God told Israel to wipe out this tribe or wipe out that tribe or wipe out these seven nations. So many things, you know, in the Old Testament, especially we see it. So how do we respond and how, what would we say in those kinds of situations? Is it right to kill in self-defense? That's another area, completely another area. So if we say, you know, a war is okay, a soldier is fighting for his country and therefore he's defending his country, therefore he's killing other people, other soldiers. Yeah. But then he's doing it to protect his country. Now, if you take that same thought at a personal level and say, okay, can I carry a gun and kill in order to protect myself? You know, there are all these variations, that questions that begin to come all in relation to self-defense protection, whether it's protecting a nation or protecting an individual, and in which case somebody else's life is lost. And then you also have to look at all that we read in the Old Testament, the battles Israel fought and so on. And so it is a very, very complicated area. But I think we can arrive at some general statements which are valid, you know, that, okay, this is the heart of God. You know, this is what would be okay or acceptable in the eyes of God in this whole context. It's a very big area. So in that context, I just want to share a few thoughts and I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well. So when it comes to war, yes, every nation has a right to defend its own people. So when there's a war, it's being attacked, soldiers fight soldiers, armies fight armies. We don't kill innocent people. We're not supposed to kill innocent people. We're not supposed to destroy the lives of innocent people. But from our perspective of defense, the sold armies are supposed to protect the country or from terrorists and other forms of crime. And in that process, if you're killing, I feel it's okay because you're defending a country, you're defending a people. You're protecting the lives of people. And in that process, the life of the criminal, the terrorist or the people causing problems will be taken out. In that case, I feel it's okay. I'm just expressing my opinion. You're welcome to share yours. Now, if you take that into two other scenarios, which is one is personal self-defense. Well, if that is okay, then what about me defending myself? Can I kill somebody? That is a different matter. There, we would say you have to follow the rules of the land. And in various cities, various countries, the rules are different. You have to follow the rules of the land. We can't take that first scenario that we talked about and use that to apply it to a personal level. In some countries, owning a firearm is not allowed. In some countries, only certain people are permitted to have a firearm. So follow the rules of the land. That's what I would say. The other third scenario is if people extrapolate that if you say war in self-defense is okay, then can we say war in order to protect the cultural identity or the ethnic to protect an ethnicity or ethnic group and they go and kill another ethnic group? Is that okay? So in this third case, if it's not a matter of protection, more of a protection of the country, but it's more of wiping out another ethnic group, that is wrong. Genocide and it kill out, wipe out another ethnic group. That's wrong. The problem is people will point to the Old Testament and say, hey, God told Israel, wipe out all the other tribes around you because I don't want you to be polluted by their practices, their beliefs and so on. So that's a very difficult question to address because they're pointing to something in the Bible and they use that as a way to justify these wars that are being fought, not because there's an E. I mean, not because there's any, like I said, in the first scenario where there's an attacking enemy, but it's more of one ethnicity versus another ethnicity and so on. It's that that's at work, but they use Old Testament as a way to justify it. So that's a little difficult to address. What we say is that in the Old Testament, God wanted his people to take possession of a certain territory, certain land in order to take possession, they had to overcome the inhabitants of that land. And so they, so God directed them to do it, but he also had to preserve their beliefs, their religious beliefs and to preserve that he loved them to engage in battle and so on. But it's not easy because there's a lot of argument that can go back and forth about this whole thing. But looking at things today, we would not support this kind of fighting, the third scenario. So that's what I would say, just to go over the three scenarios. One, the first scenario is war between nations, soldiers killing soldiers, armies killing armies. The second scenario is individual protection. The third scenario is ethnic battles, fights being between, you know, ethnic groups and so on. So I just want to open up now for to hear your thoughts. What do you say? Are you okay with what I shared? Do you have anyone with a different perspective? You're welcome to share. Okay, we'll move forward. I know this is a very difficult area, but take some time to think about this. And in certain parts of the world, these kinds of questions come up and we need to be able to respond to this. Let me just address the next few topics before we close. There are these topics of corporate and government corruption. So this is something almost all of us will have to face. How do you deal with this? You know, the giving of bribes, the giving of money to get work done, to get things done, whether it happens in corporations, it happens in governments, they all engage in it. You know, I think as recent as this past week, I've heard people mentioning, you know, this is happening in the corporate world, in the government. And as believers, we are faced with it. You know, what do we do? Now, the Bible tells us very clearly that giving and receiving of bribes is wrong. So I'm not engaging it. But then there is the other side, which is extortion. That means they forcibly are taking money away from you. So if you're giving bribe because you're in the wrong, you've done something wrong, you're giving money to cover it up, that is wrong. Or you fail to do what you need to do, and you're giving money to get ahead, that is wrong. But there's also the other scenario where you're on the right, you've done everything, but money is forcibly taken away from you by, you know, whether it's in a corporate sitting or a government sitting. And that's extortion. That means you have nothing to cover up. All your papers, your work is clean, but they are forcibly taking money away from you. They're extorting money from you. So there is bribery and extortion. In the case of extortion, you're the victim, you have no choice because you've done all your work. And in that case, I don't think we can be held responsible. But in the case of bribery, we avoid it. That is wrong. The Bible tells us it is wrong to pay bribes and take bribes. So this happens both in the corporate and in the government side. And we as believers, we know where our stand is. We don't participate in giving and receiving bribes. But in some situations where there's extortion, the money is taken away from us and, you know, we leave that matter to God. This is unfair. This is unjust. I have not done anything wrong. And here there is something, you know, a corporation or government, whatever the entity, maybe it was bigger, and they're abusing their power and position. And in those situations, we say, God, you undertake for me because we can't fight against such a big system. That's already there and that's abusing its position and power. So those are two scenarios of corruption that we see around us. And we have to, as a church, stand up and, you know, with wisdom walk with wisdom and deal or address those matters. A couple of other things is civil law and faith. That means when should I obey civil government and when am I allowed to disobey civil government because of my faith? And this is again, this became a very, and it's, you know, they're very different scenarios. And it became, for example, you know, during the pandemic, in many parts of the world, the government said no gathering gatherings during the pandemic because we don't want the spread of pandemic. So now as a believer, as a Christian, we can say, OK, yeah, we will not gather. Or we will say, we could say, well, the Bible tells us to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together. So we are going to gather together. Even if the government says no gathering together, you know, so there were two groups of among the church in the church. There were two sides. There was one side, you know, in the church that said, yeah, the government says, don't gather together. Don't know gatherings because we don't want the virus to spread. And this was, you know, in the pandemic and for the safety of the well-being of everyone, no gatherings. So the law was not specific to this was not a law against the church or anything. It is for everybody, everyone in the country. You know, don't know gathering. We're all under lockdown, so on. Now, there was another part of the church that said, no, the government cannot tell us what to do. It is violating our faith because our faith says we should gather. When we gather together, God's presence comes and all of that. And there were people who went against civil law on the pretext of faith. So you had, even in the church, you had, you know, two different views in should we obey this law or not. So like this, you know, I'm just giving this as an example because it is something we all observed in recent times. But like this, there could be other scenarios, situations. And how do we decide? I think, okay, let me ask this, the class, what do you think civil law and faith? How do you, you know, how do you balance the two? How do you, what is the right approach in this matter? Civil law and faith. Anybody wants to share, you're welcome to. I don't think it's very easy to balance sometimes because I've seen my parents doing some things against the faith because of the law sometimes. I'm not exposed to the laws and everything in my life. I was not in such a place yet, but I have seen people doing something that is opposite to faith sometimes. And then going back to God asking forgiveness, sometimes they don't even care about it because they just feel like everyone is doing this and what's with it. But I just think, but whenever I see it, I feel like that I just don't want to be in such a place where I fight between choosing you, choosing faith and choosing civil laws. But I do think when you choose to have faith in God and you choose not to do something or use this, there are some rewards that God has got for you. When you do the right thing with God, when you stand for the truth, even though everyone else is doing something else and you are doing the right thing. I do think that that also places in a better place that also gives us some peace. And I always think it's better to choose God's word faith. It doesn't matter. Sometimes it's the law. I think it's better to stand by him, but I'm just not exposed to that position. But I do think it's really hard to balance sometimes people are placed in such a position where they really get confused. And they just don't know sometimes. But yeah, this is my thinking. Okay. Thank you for sharing. Anyone else? So the Bible teaches us to obey civil law, right? Romans 13th chapter. It says, be submitted to your government, to your civic. Yeah, go ahead, Paul. The Bible is clear in Romans chapter 13. You have to respect the city. So where we do, I think we need to respect the civil law. But where we feel our faith is being compromised, I think we still have a chance to talk to them. We see that, hey, this is this. We talk to them directly. We post them, but we still go into that table. We discuss with them. And then if they can consider our position, then that would be right. But it's not right for us to directly post them because even the Bible says we respect authority. So that is my view. Good. Good. Yeah. So I think what Mish, you know, so what the Bible is teaching us as Paul pointed out is the Bible is very clear. The Bible says, obey civil authorities. So as long as a law, a civil law doesn't violate our faith, we must obey civil law. So example in the pandemic, again, this is my personal view. When the government said, don't meet in large gatherings or in groups, they are doing it for the benefit of everybody. It is not a law against the church. It wasn't a law against the church or anything just for everybody. There's a pandemic. It's spreading very thing. So there we obey the law. You know, yes, the Bible tells us to gather together, but you can be in the family within your family. Three, two, three people can gather. Jesus is there. And this is only a temporary thing. They're not permanently saying never the church will never meet. No, it's a temporary restriction. That means we are trying to protect everybody's lives. So that we can come out of the pandemic and then everybody's going to be okay. So in that situation for us to rebel against the government, in my opinion, was wrong. We have to support the government to protect everybody, everybody in the country. So my thought was we just follow the law at that time. Thank you. And so today, now everybody's meeting. You know, things are down and the pandemic is down. People are able to meet. There's no restriction, no worry. But at that time they said, don't meet because we need to stop the pandemic. So we obey the law. It was nothing against our faith. So that's how we have to be very wise in our decision making. Follow the law because the Bible tells us to follow the law. And it's not destroying our faith in any way, you know. Now, if the law forbids our faith, then we have to, as Paul said, it's good to see if we can have discussions with it or take it up in a civil manner, which is, you know, the government has ways. Example, you can appeal in the courts and, you know, basically present arguments against that particular law. For example, John Paul has pointed out that we have a law in our state. And this is not across the country, but it's particular to our state where we are not allowed to baptize somebody or not. We're not allowed to, but they have a procedure in place where if you want to baptize somebody from another faith, you have to follow this procedure. So they're not saying you cannot baptize somebody from another faith. They're saying if you want to baptize somebody from another faith, you have to go and report it to the, you know, particular office, the Sildar's office and they will make an announcement for 30 days and they have put a procedure in place. Now, if we look at it, this thing is actually the whole thing is in many ways a violation of the constitution, the Indian constitution. That's why it has been already appealed in the Supreme Court. So this anti-conversion law has been appealed in Supreme Court. That means that our bodies were taking it up for discussion. Now that it's up as a process and, you know, the discussions will happen and so on. So until that time, what do we do? We need to protect ourselves because until that act is repealed, they can enforce it, you know. So be wise about it. Don't do it. Or if you want to do it, follow the procedure they've given. Or the third thing is we can go across the border into another state where this particular law is not in effect and conducted. So my response would be the simplest thing. Hey, just go across the border, go to the neighboring state where this law is not in effect. Do the model baptism, come back. No issues. So and then of course, the right people are taking up the case in the Supreme Court and, you know, that will go on. So while this particular government has passed this anti-conversion law, what do we do? It's best not to get ourselves into unnecessary trouble, but just be wise on how to, you know, we can still get our baptism done. Just go across the border to another state and do it, you know, so we don't have to waste our time trying to follow their lengthy procedure, which will take months just to get one person baptized in unnecessary trouble. We just be wise about it. And like Jesus said, you know, be wise as serpents and harmless as dows. And at the same time, the proceedings will go on in the Supreme Court when this whole thing is being debated. And it's very likely it'll get overturned because it is a violation of the Constitution itself. Right. Yeah. All right. So civil law and faith, there are lots of other scenarios. So the summation or the summary is we must obey civil law. God has told us to do that. And as long as civil law doesn't directly violate our faith, we obey it. If it does violate our faith, then it's good to discuss. It's good to resolve it in a peaceful manner. And until that resolution is arrived, just follow the law. Don't unnecessarily put yourself in trouble. Right. Or look for creative ways to do what you have to do without violating the law. In the case of what aboutism, you can do it in another state and not get into trouble at all. So you can do that. Yeah. The last one I just want to talk about, and I mean, there could be many topics. We just deal with one more in close is, you know, these things, the caste system, dowry, practicing yoga. That is more specific to the Indian culture. You know, in the Indian culture, there is what is known as caste system, which is in certain parts of the country. And I'm not saying it's everywhere, but in certain parts of the country, people look at which particular community you belong to, and then they classify you in your social ranking or social status based on that. There's a hierarchy that is established because of which community you come from. Then there is dowry, which is the giving and receiving of giving of money, huge amounts of money in order for the woman to be given in marriage. And so that's another thing that's, you know, I think it's specific to India. And then there is this practice of yoga. I'll share quickly my thoughts on this, you know, so obviously the caste system is wrong because God created every human person equal. And so we need to treat people equally. It doesn't matter what community or background they come from. We see each person has created the image of God, love them, respect them equally. And, you know, no ranking them based on their community. Now, if people want to get married with somebody else from the same community, that's their choice. Okay, so we are not against that. You know, that's their own preference. We're not against it. We don't judge it, condemn it. That's just their own preference and there's nothing wrong with that. But in general, we don't judge people or rank people based on their cultural origin. Dowry, it's wrong in the sense that, you know, if somebody says, I will only marry if you give me so much money, that is wrong. But if somebody wants to give gifts, that's entirely up to them. That's fine. So something that is done willingly, lovingly, willfully. Okay, you do what you want. But to insist, to demand, that is wrong. So dowry is more of a demand that is wrong. But if somebody, you know, they want to give gifts, exchange gifts, whatever you wanted to do. But marriage itself is a sacred thing and it's not connected or dependent on these material things. The last one, yoga, my personal thing is to say that it's wrong for a Christian to practice yoga because yoga itself is rooted in a religious system. Its origins are religious. There's nothing wrong with a believer doing exercise. Of course, you do exercise however you want. But to engage directly in this kind of an exercise, which has its roots in a religion, a religious form, then that is participating in it. And we stay away from it. You want to exercise, do whatever exercise you want, but don't have to do this or anything like that, a religious form of exercise. So that would be my position. Okay. So any thoughts on these three things? I know it's very specific to the Indian culture. So, you know, if anybody wants to say anything on these three things, you're welcome. Or ask questions on it, you're welcome. Okay. All right. So there are, you know, many other social challenges. And who knows, you know, six months from today, six years from today, there may be other problems that are other challenges that come up where the church has to give an answer. We as believers are faced with and we have to give a response. And this lesson is mainly to help us think about things from a biblical perspective. And you can use the framework that we have put in this lesson and wherever the Bible is silent, try to make the best decision and just say, look, this is my opinion. I can't give you chapter and verse on it, but this is what I think. We don't force our ideas on people at that point. Yeah, just share your idea and let them make their decision. But in places where the Bible is very clear, then we say this is what the Bible says chapter and verse. This is it. Then we know we are our standards very clear. Okay. So we follow the general way to approach these questions and social challenges. I think we will be able to respond correctly to these things. So with this, we will bring this course to a close. I will work on putting out the assignments in Google Classroom and those who are doing it in e-learning will have the same questions in e-learning. And we have time to the end of the month till November Friday, November 26. Yeah, do do the assessments. It'll just be a quick review stuff from start to finish. I will just put some questions that will take us through like a review of the entire course content. I'm going to try and work on it this week. I couldn't make time last week. I will work on it this week and then just put it out so that you'll have enough time. So in total, you may need not more than two, three hours to do it. I would say maximum. You can just think of three hours to do this assessment, the whole assessment, 100 marks. But it'll go through the whole course. So keep your notes with you. It'll be open book, open Bible exam or assessment. I shouldn't call it exam, but assessment. So keep your notes with you. Keep your Bible with you. And go through it, but be very thoughtful, right? Because you have to think about every question, answer it thoughtfully. And, you know, you'll be able to complete the assessments. All right. So you would be notified as soon as I put it up at Google classroom. You'll get the email saying the assessments are up and you can do it. And yeah, just be a quick review. Just one more reminder on Wednesday, November 16th, which is next week. We are having just an online call, Wednesday, 16th, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. morning. So if you can join, it's just an open time for discussion, question answers, mentoring, so on. So if you are able to join that call, you're welcome to do it. Just ask any questions or even share feedback. Tell us, you're welcome to tell us anything that we can do better, areas that we can improve. So if you can, please join us. You will get an email reminder about that as well. Okay, so thank you everyone for being on this course. It was good interacting. It was good listening to your questions and also your idea, your thoughts during the course. I'm going to request somebody to pray and close and we will dismiss after that. Could somebody pray with us, please? Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you for helping us to come together, to learn from your word and make your parcels to be able to answer questions which would arise, Lord Jesus. I want to thank you for this course. Thank you for pastor for sharing these valuable insights over these months, Lord God. We pray, Lord, as we continue to learn and equip ourselves, we pray that your Holy Spirit would continue to minister to us and lead us in the right direction, Lord Jesus. And as your word says, you're the God who gives us right words to speak. And we are asked for Lord Jesus. And we pray that we would continue to depend on you, continue to trust you and help us to carry out your name, Lord Jesus, to the people around us and wherever it is required, Lord Jesus. And we also pray that as you are the God who causes to diffuse the fragrance of your knowledge through us, Lord Jesus, we pray that we would continue to display that, Lord Jesus. And you are the God who always causes us to triumph, God. And we pray that in our ministry, in everything that we do, in our interaction, even with people who are of the similar faith or for different faith, we pray that help us to continue to diffuse your fragrance, God. And we thank you for your goodness. Thank you for this beautiful course and thank you for the entire class. We thank you once again, Lord, in Jesus' most precious name, we pray, amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, everyone. God bless you. Enjoy the rest of the day. Enjoy the rest of the semester. God bless. Talk to you all soon. Bye now. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. God bless. Bye now. Thank you.