Manipur Bir Tikendrajit House in total disarray
NEW DELHI, May 19 : A rudderless ship, that is what Manipur Bir Tikendraji House at Chanakyapuri, South Delhi has been reduced to with the staff running around trying to keep the House in order. When The Sangai Express visited the State house, there .....
Incentives for Everesters
IMPHAL, May 19: The State Government will consider incentives that may be given to the five Manipuri mountaineers who have successfully scaled the world’s highest peak Mt Everest, informed the Chief Minister while talking with The Sangai Express. The.....
Governor, CM, Dy CM congratulate So far, six from State have scaled Everest
IMPHAL, May 19: Governor Gurbachan Jagat, Chief Minister O Ibobi and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam have congratulated the team of the 1st North East Mt Everest Expedition 2013 on summiting the highest peak of the world. Gurbachan Jagat said that the.....
Cleanliness drive at Ima Keithel
IMPHAL, May 18: With an objective to keep Ima Keithel neat and clean, Blooming Manipur, Kangla (Facebook Group), Manipur Times, Manipur Photography Club, European Manipuri Asso-ciation (EMA) and Manipur Cycle Club jointly organised a cleanliness drive at .....
KNF celebrates raising day
IMPHAL, May 19: The Kuki National Front (KNF) celebrated its 26th raising day at Camp Ebenezer, Sadar Hills yesterday with more than 200 cadres and leaders. The raising day celebration started with a mass fasting prayer. Addressing the gathering KNF p.....
AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day Observed Solemnly NGOs urge for amended AIDS policy
IMPHAL, May 19 : While observing the International AIDS Candle Light Memorial Day at JN Dance Academy today, 16 NGOs have urged the authorities to implement an amended Manipur State AIDS policy within three months. Generally, International AIDS Candle.....
Rongali Bihu
IMPHAL, May 19:The Asom Samaj Manipur hosted Rongali Bihu celebration at Devalaya Mandir, Kalibari (Thangal bazar) today with Education Minister M Okendro Singh gracing the celebration as the chief guest. While Okendro conveyed warm wishes to the Assam.....
To check frauds and money swindling Economic offence wing set up
IMPHAL, May 19: With the primary objective of checking the practice of swindling money from the public by non-banking financial companies (NBFC), an Economic Offence Wing has been set up in Manipur Police Department. The Economic Offence Wing was set .....
Guardians' body takes up street vendors' cause
IMPHAL, May 19: Noting that upper floors of the three market complexes at Khwairamband keithel are yet to be occupied, All Manipur Students' Guardians' Organisation has proposed that the Government of Manipur provide trading slots to women street vendors .....
DU admissions
IMPHAL, May 18 : Delhi University has announced the dates for undergraduate admissions for the academic session 2013-2014. It will commence on June 5 and continue till June 19, said a press release issued by Naga Students’ Union, Delhi. Unlike las.....
Ex-rebels are not untouchables : Dy CM
IMPHAL, May 19: Stating that the State Government has initiated several measures to bring insurgents on the path of peace, Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam has called upon all the people not to view or treat former rebels who have laid down arms and retu.....
UG cadres surrender
IMPHAL, May 19: Security forces of Red Shield Division recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition buried under ground in 2007 by a cadre of UPPK at the foothills of Thangjing ridge, said a PIB (DW) release that identified the UG cadre as SS Capt Moiran.....
ZU concerned
IMPHAL, May 19:Zeliangrong Union (Assam, Manipur, Nagaland) has expressed concern over the death of an NSCN (IM) cadre in a reported gunfight with ZUF cadres yesterday. In a press release, ZU (AMN) said that it has always been working for maintaining p.....
Tousem body
IMPHAL, May 19:Development Committee Tousem Block 52-Tamei AC has drawn the attention of Chief Minister O Ibobi regarding bad road conditions of the Sub-Division. In a press release, the committee said that the Chief Minister had promised during his vi.....
Hurt in mishap
IMPHAL, May 19:Three youngsters, who were riding a brand new Yamaha FZ motorcycle, met with an accident in front of Mantripukhri headquarters of 69 Bn CRPF this evening. According to an informed source, the biker trio hit the road median and rolled sev.....
MLA inspects
IMPHAL, May 19:Ahead of the monsoon season, Yaiskul AC MLA E Chand today conducted a field inspection of the vulnerable sections of Imphal river bank within Yaiskul Assembly segment together with IFC officials. Observing that many excavations dug up fo.....
Hate the person who breaks traffic rules
If you think no one is watching then you are mistaken! But unfortunately, I am not a traffic cop who will jump in front and enforce you fine for breaking the traffic rule. It is the general Indian nature of carelessness and interpretation of pampered free.....
Traditional healing methods with special reference to Manipur
By Dr K Paochunbou Every ethnic community in Manipur has well-established knowledge, skills, beliefs and practices relating to promotion of positive health and avoidance of sickness even before the hospital oriented system of medicine. In an old civiliza.....
Mis-selling Insurance
By Dipankar Jakharia Not a single week goes by when I am not asked by my readers about an ULIP policy they have invested and now feels as if they have been ripped-off by it. I have written many a times before and ready to write many a time in future abou.....
World Migratory Bird Day 2013
Large scale climatic changes, as have been experienced in the past, are expected to have an effect on the timing of migration. Studies have shown a variety of effects including timing changes in migration, breeding as well as population variations due to .....
Diaspora Speak
By : Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh
Christianity - The largest religion in the world
“It is welcoming and very soothing to see an article about Islam from a non-Muslim native brother of Manipur in the mainstream India. We need human beings like you to present the basic information of any religion as you did in case of Islam…. You can act as a guardian of peace to remove hatred and but bring peace and harmony among communities by denouncing the wrong propaganda of Islam. Your voice can bridge the gap of misunderstanding among people…”
I have quoted the above paragraph from a letter to me from the Manipuri Muslim Online Forum, pursuant to my article on Islam. This is to just show how peace-loving the Manipuri Muslims are. Like them, I stand for peaceful coexistence. I had 48 favourable comments on the article.
CHRISTIANITY, which came from the Greek word Christos, is a monotheistic (belief in one God) religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus.
A Christian means someone who holds a theological belief in Jesus as the Christ, meaning ‘Messiah’ in Hebrew – the ‘Anointed One’ in English ie ‘covered in oil’ to symbolise the introduction of divine influence. Christianity has 34,000 separate Christian groups.
A Galilean Jewish preacher and healer – Jesus of Nazareth was crucified ca. 30 CE in Calvary Hill just outside of Jerusalem on the charge of sedition against the Roman Empire. Following his death a new religious movement – “Jesus movement” started by his followers.
From this Jesus movement emerged the Christian faith. Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the mid-first century, originating in the (then) Levant region in the middle-east (modern Israel and Palestine). It quietly spread to Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor and Egypt.
Today Christianity is the largest religion in the world, practised by 2.2 billion people – a third of the world’s population. I have read the Bible a few times. It is thought-provoking.
The disciples of Jesus believed him to be Christ – a Messiah, prophesied in the Old Testament, and as a divine redeemer of humankind. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected ie physically risen from the dead.
Although a few scholars have questioned the existence of Jesus as an actual historical figure, most scholars involved with historical Jesus research, believe his existence, but not the supernatural claims associated with him.
Christianity is a ‘Book religion’. The Christian faith and obedience are enshrined in the book of the Bible. The Bible is a doctrinal book, which Christians believe as having been inspired by God. A doctrine is a belief-system, accepted as authoritative and truth.
Christians, mostly Catholics, accept a few ‘central’ doctrines of the Christian faith such as the Incarnation, Resurrection, Trinity, Virgin birth, Baptism in water and Eucharist.
Roman Catholics churches traditionally, have a large crucifixion (Christ on a cross) above the altar, a statue of Virgin Mary, and holy water in ‘stoups’ near the entrance. Churchgoers can dip their fingers in it before making the sign of the cross.
The Bible is a collection of writings (Greek, biblia=book). It is open to many interpretations. The first Christian Bible was not assembled until 350 years after the birth of Christ. The Bible was not one simple homogeneous book, in the form in which we see today.
The Bible consists of two parts: the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible). It is important to Christians, only as the God’s first covenant (testament). Though the Ten Commandments (of Moses) were respected by Jesus, his teachings were based on the love of God.
The second part is the New Testament of 27 books, composed in the centuries after Christ‘s death. It records Jesus’ birth, ministry, passion (“suffering”) and the Resurrection. It also records “Acts of the Apostles”- the story of early church after Jesus’ martyrdom.. The last book, Revelation is the vision of the end of time (Apocalypse).
The core of the New Testament is the four Gospels, simply called “the Gospel” (= good news from Greek euaggelion). They are attributed to authors called Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Christian theologies are highly complex. They can however, be broadly divided into two: (1) dogmatic theology; and (2) moral theology. The dogmatic theory is the science of the theoretical truths of God. Moral theory – a part of dogmatic theory explains the divine laws and the relationship of man to God.
The first Bible was printed in Latin in 1454 CE by Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany, from a Giant manuscript Bible (in Latin). The first English Bible was a translated version of this by Bede in the 7th Century CE, faulty and incorrect.
Miles Cloverdale (1488- 1568) translated and printed the First English Bible from Greek in 1536 CE. He later added versions of others derived mostly from the Latin and Hebrew text of the Vulgate (4th century Bible), supplemented by reference to Martin Luther’s German Bible.
Cloverdale then incorporated the revised version of the Book of Psalms into the Book of Common Prayer in 1539, for public and corporate worship. The Book of Common Prayer is distinctive for the dignity accorded to the Virgin Mary and certainty of the Resurrection of dead Christ.
In the circuitous process of life and death the most profound message the Gospel writers brought from Jesus was his saviour status, meaning he would save human souls who believe in him.
The early Christians had very little systematised doctrines. They learned about the teachings of Christ by word of mouth. The Christian doctrine is important. Without the doctrine the Apostles could not have passed on the message of the Bible to which they often had to refer.
There are so many interpretations of the Bible in the English language, because many writers made different versions of the Bible, according to what they thought to be the proper rendering, such as the ‘Geneva Bible’ of 1560 and the ‘Bishops’ Bible’ of 1568.
To give clarity to the confusion, King James of England authorised an English translation from its Hebrew and Greek origins known as the ‘King James’ version of 1611.
There are no copies of the original Bible. There is no such thing as an original Greek Bible with all 27 manuscripts bound together in one book. There are thousands of manuscripts, all claiming to be the correct translations of the originals.
The Bible was translated first into Latin in the 2nd century CE in North Africa. The early Greek text of the New Testament was found to be a difficult one to translate.
At the time of Christ, a crude form of Greek called Koine was the official language of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. Christ spoke a dialect of Hebrew called Aramaic which was the language of Palestine at that time.
Aramaic was a western Semitic language which remained in use for a few centuries after Christ’s death before dying out when the Arabs conquered the region and spread the new faith of Islam. It was only a couple of decades ago that the inhabitants of three villages in eastern Syria – Maaloula, Bakhaa and Joubadeen were found to be speaking Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.
The Bible was accepted as God’s words, divine revelations, until during the Renaissance in Europe when the first critical thinkers emerged. They challenged the divinity of the Bible.
Over the centuries people who were staunch defenders of the divinity of the Bible began to have second thoughts.
The Bible relies heavily on ‘Revelations’ to prove its divinity. The divinity of the Bible depends mostly on two things – prophecies and miracles. The fulfilment of prophecies is very important for the Bible to show that God was involved in writing it. Mathew and Jeremiah were good prophecy makers.
Faith and divine revelations are related as cause and effect. God reveals Himself as we humans do not know everything. The Biblical term apocalypse (Greek - apocalupsis, Latin - revelatio) means an unveiling. A revelation discloses what was previously unknown or, partially known hidden designs of God.
Most Jews in the Second Temple period (530 BCE - 70 CE) believed in prophecy. They simply regarded prophecy as prediction. Christians thereafter, took prophecy to heart and believed that God kept sending messengers like Jesus to call people back to obedience to Him. A prophecy is a recorded event in the Bible, which the prophets foretold many years before it happened.
For Christianity (especially Catholicism) the biblical miracles are very important as they make God’s existence convincing. One of the most famous miracles was “Jesus’ walk on water”. According to biblical narratives, Jesus sent the disciples in a boat in the Sea of Galilee, ahead of him, to the other side. Then they saw Jesus “walking on the sea” three miles to meet them. Then he climbed into the boat (Mathew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21).
The existence of God and the resurrection of Christ are probably the most basic elements of Christianity. Without coming back from death Jesus could not have been the son of God.
The controversial doctrine of “Trinity” (whether one God or three Gods) is very important for Christianity because of its role in Christian salvation.
The Trinitarian doctrine is that Father (God) planned salvation by sending his only Son (Jesus) who revealed and showed the way to salvation. Then the Holy Spirit takes over and completes the salvation by entering the life of people who accept Christ as the saviour.
The birth, crucifixion and resurrection of Christ were not that important to the early Christians. Christmas was not celebrated until 400 CE, since Christ’s death of birth was not known.
The Biblical researchers are still unable to give the exact year of Jesus’ birth. It was however agreed that he was definitely born during the reign of Herod who died in 4 BCE, aged 69.
The Gospels do not mention anything about Jesus’ childhood and adolescence.
Whatever the peripherals are, God is central to the Christian faith and the essence of Christianity is devotion to Christ to save the soul.
The writer is based in the UK
Email: imsingh@onetel.com
Website: www.drimsingh.co.uk
M.A.H
This is a vry gud article 4 those who wan 2 kno abt christian religion. Vry interestng. The main point is christian brothern wil hv confuse til da doomsday abt jesus. Coz evrythn exist abt christainity aftr jesus depart 4m dis earth. N da founder of christainity is not jesus it was st. Paul da enemy of jesus so he preach da teachng of jesus on wrong way. Jesus never write any of da book of bible n say any1 2 write. Al it hapen after 350yrs aftr jesus. Thnx Dr. Singh 4 ur gud knowledge.
Maipong
This write-up is more of a mere interpretation, reinterpretation and misinterpretation of Christianity. As a believer I do not want to argue about the doctrines of Christianity and I do not want other Christians also to put an argument. I am a Christian by birth but till now I consider myself fallible to put a judgement on the doctrines. True Christianity is more about practical living than arguments.
Valley Meitei
IM Singh’s article should have been based on one of the doctrines of Christ & its application for Christians rather than merely presenting some historical arguments about Christianity which can be easily done by any ordinary person with the help of few biblical books. Manipur needs strong biblical teaching as most the Christians are like semi cooked pork. Had there been 11 true Christians in Manipur, whole state would have become Christians by now. Brotherly & sisterly love & peace between
Valley Meitei
(Cont.)Chingmi & Tammi would have existed. Now tribals who claimed to be 99% Christians in Manipur are playing “Tribal Card” & trying hard to bring hatred. They instead of witnessing Christ’s love to nonchristians played satanic role & spoiled Christ & his universal doctrine. In this context, it will be helpful for kacha Christians to have true biblical message. I hope educated people like IM Singh would genuinely contribute to the needs of our society rather than cut & paste article.
Chingmi
Dude! christian means the follower of Jesus Christ and His teaching. Whosoever believe in Jesus Christ and His teaching while He was alive or after His death is christian. Paul was the enemy of Jesus Christ but later on he accepted Jesus and preach about Jesus and His teaching. A person like scholar Dr. Singh will read bible, gita, quran etc. for research not to seek what is written there.I guess u've never read a Bible. Read from Matthew to Revelation o1 or 2 chapter a day n think over.
MANIPURI FORUM FOR PEACE
I read earlier some articles, not books of you and give thanks for giving your hands in most important areas and issues of Manipur. I worry however for your less information in the field that you have taken up, for example Trinity is always in the singular; not in Gods it is only 3 in one God; not 3 different forms, like the "SUN" not "SUNS", which may have sunlight, sunshade and sunburn. I'm inviting you to visit Bangladesh. You have become my friend now. Thanks.
M.A.H
History is vry importnt 2 kno abt each n every religion. Without history n teachng of doctrine. it is useless 2 follow dat religion in blind.
Bible
Second coming of jesus is only to clarify to the christian that he is not god cos many christan taken him wrongly without any knowledge that jesus is god,but he was a messenger of God miraculously birth to a virgin marry nd it does nt make him a god,he was like adam who created without father nd mother,if u say jesus is god cos of without father if that adam is greater god cos no father or mother,or milchichedik is again greater god than adam cos no fathr or mothr no begining no end a/c to bible
M.A.H
History is vry importnt 2 kno abt each n every religion. Without history n teachng of doctrine. it is useless 2 follow dat religion in blind.
Ito Veto
It is a very good article I like it. A virgin can be a mother by insemination. The stories of aliens and mysteries of our world, the Stonehenge, pyramids, the Nazca Lines of Peru etc. Christ's father might be an alien.
