Paulson Post

‘Could you introduce yourself briefly, please?” This question was part of the opening ritual of almost every meetings that I have been to. Likewise, an inevitable question in any job interview was, ‘tell us something about yourself?’ Though every member of the interviewing panel had a copy of the candidate's resume, this question was also part of the ritual. The answer to the question was indicative of the candidate’s confidence and self-image besides the communication skills. Following the pattern of letter writing in the Greco-Roman world that he lived, Paul greets the churches in Rome to whom he wrote the letter with a self-introduction. However, his introduction was unique in many ways. First of all, it was rather unusually long (1:1-6), six verses! Unique it was in another sense too. He just mentioned his name, ‘Paul’ and his job, ‘Apostle.’ He said that he is an apostle for the Gospel of God. Then the rest is all about Jesus! The part about him was unusually short. He beg...

Every human heart longs for Moksha or salvation. Religions advise us the various means to achieve Moksha. However, the Bible teaches that Moksha is not something to be achieved but to be experienced. It is all centered on the life of Jesus Christ. The statement that ‘Christ died’ is based on historical facts. No one seems to disagree that there lived a person called Jesus Christ and he was crucified by the Romans at the behest of some Jewish leaders. Biblical revelation goes on to say that his death was in my place for the atonement of my sins. Or in other words, the Bible claims that ‘Jesus died for me.’ The Bible goes on to say that I don’t have to do anything for my own salvation except just believe this truth. Thus, the Bible nullifies every human effort to get salvation by their own effort be it praying at shrines, making pilgrimages, etc. It is a wonderful truth that God has saved the sinful humanity at the time of the death of Christ and to be born centuries af...

The Second coming of Jesus Christ is not a popular topic these days. Even preachers in premillennial or dispensational etc, also do not seem to talk about it these days.There could be various reasons for this trend. First of all, it seems the satisfaction many Christians feel now in the present world situation. The topic of second coming had served to a large extent to cope with the pain and suffering of the present day. People could live with their sufferings now since better days are coming. Secondly, it has to do with the aversion to the details that the preaching always came with. It seems that people are fed up with the lack of consensus in the identification of the Anti-Christ, number 666, the number 144,000 and such fringe elements. The irrationality and subjectivity of such interpretations are increasingly questioned. Preaching on the second coming in the days gone by focussed on details  for which there are no strong biblical warrants. So, over the years it has become th...