The vast majority of Christians are in their present faith only because they inherited it from their parents. But Christ wants followers who have deliberately chosen to follow him.
The average South Indian eats so much rice daily that the quantity is enough to keep a baby elephant alive. For the average North Indian, chapatti is the best staple for him.
Why do they prefer these? Is it because sometime in their young days each of them tasted all the different staples available in India, and one decided that rice and curry was the most delectable of them all, and the other found them not as palatable as meals made from wheat?
To take that thought a few leaps further: why does a typical Christian go to church Sunday morning, a Muslim to a Mosque on Friday, and a Hindu to a temple?
Have you ever paused for a couple of crucial minutes in your life to ponder the vital question of why you do what you do and believe what you believe today? Why really do you eat the kind of food you eat today? Why truly do you worship God the way you do today?
That one section of a population should continue to have faith in and practice what seems so obviously wrong and even ridiculous to another section is because of a strong dark force that began exerting its mind-washing power on a person’s syche from the day of es birth. It is called tradition.
Tradition is literally the most powerful manmade force on earth. Only God’s power and the devil’s temptations have greater impact on a man’s life. And tradition, in an overwhelming number of cases, is allied with the devil in binding man to the most abject forms of slavery. A slavery so insidious and prevalent you would see, if you open your inner eyes to observe it, people everywhere in all walks of life going about their daily activities in abject surrender to this force in their minds.
In my own country, the tragic custom of dowry, which to the eternal shame of the heads of most episcopalian churches and some other denominations, was by tradition enforced upon impoverished fathers of brides when these churches sanctioned the custom in their congregations. And the reason they didn’t – and many still don’t – stamp their ecclesiastical foot down vehemently on this shameful practice in Christianity: the generous slice of the dowry they received as mandatory offering. The leadership of these churches, as a whole, did nothing to put an end to the evil custom of the groom’s family demanding a price from the bride’s family, and it was finally left to a secular government to clamp down on this blotch in mainstream Christianity. I still do not hear of any of the heads of the dowry-guilty churches denouncing it in their official edicts, nor proclaiming repentance of their tacit approval of this congregational malpractice which caused extreme suffering to countless poor families with marriageable daughters, generation after generation, until it was officially banned. It is still widespread, except that it is done covertly now. But more and more young people, whose minds have been opened to see the heinousness of this tradition, are resisting it in the present times.
Take another tradition, this time in the arena of education. Little children from the age of six are daily burdened with homework imposed by their teachers and enforced by their parents, in addition to being daily weighed down with excessive facts and figures in the classroom – knowledge which mostly is forgotten or discarded for its irrelevance in the student’s life a few months after e leaves high school. Academic homework takes away much of the precious time and energy a child needs to engage in activities that will enable em to cherish the fleeting years of childhood. How many are the enlightened teachers and indignant parents who are doing all they can to root out this malignant root out of their children’s lives? (This malpractice is based on my observation of school systems in my country, and may not be so detrimental to students in other countries.)
Consider the tradition of millions of Indian and Sudanese women swirling themselves onto billions of meters of sari, while in the West the men near-strangle themselves every morning with a noose called the tie, and the women perch themselves precariously on stilts called high heels which constrain their movements and constantly expose them to the danger of cerebral damage from a fall.
Then there is the tradition of adhering to dispensable routines, silly procedures, and sillier policies in corporate offices, government departments, and institutions, simply because these are what have been traditionally practiced in such places from one management to the next, from one boss to the next.
Today, if you have time to pause for a minute or two in your busy life, let me encourage you to ponder your habits and beliefs to a depth of sincerity your mind didn’t dare to consider earlier. Ask yourself, how many of them are a result of your deliberate choice? How many of them are actually the result of traditions and customs imbibed from your parents, peers, church, and society?
It’s those Christians who dare to make bold choices of conscience who really are trustworthy in God’s eyes and who will be used by their Lord to blaze through earth to grant freedom to people languishing under the curse of practices imposed by the devil. The rest of humanity, bound in the chains of traditions and customs, continue to serve the dark spirits in their religious, cultural, social and political beliefs.
A great percentage of the world’s population live in the terrorizing grip of superstitions – myths and evil notions handed down from parent to children. To mention the churches in my land again, in some orthodox denominations there, on the wedding day, the bride and the groom would not leave their houses for the church if the time is not auspicious. This inauspicious hour, known in the local language as ‘rahu kalam’ would last about an hour. Until this hour is past, the bride and the groom, and their folks, would linger about the house, and then when the clock shows it is safe for them to venture out, they would head for the church. Where did these Christians get their belief about the evil hour? Certainly not from the Bible.
Interestingly, the number of the evil Beast mentioned in Biblical prophecy, the world ruler who will arise in the end times, is 666. This was written in the Greek language, which has alphabets that have a numerical value for each. Only two words in this language have letters that add up to 666. One is ‘prosperity’, which according to that great servant of God, Derek Prince, is the severest trial a person can go through – a trial not many Christians can handle, and which destroyed many great men of God, including Solomon. The other word, interestingly, is ‘tradition’.
Beloved follower of Christ, base your every belief and practice solely on the Word of God. If what your parents or church or spiritual teachers teach you does not conform to what you understand from your earnest study of the Bible, do not be influenced by them. If God opens your eyes to any evil influence you have acquired by tradition, cast it out of your life! If you seek the truth and pursue it with all your heart and mind, no evil force in the world can stop you. Because ‘he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world’.
Tradition binds. Truth sets you free. Freedom is among God’s greatest gift to his people. And the only way to be truly free is to know the truth, and the only way to know the truth is to keep God’s commandments.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32
You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are truth.’ Ps 119:151
Finally, coming to the core topic of this message: Are you a Christian because you inherited your beliefs by tradition, or are you following Christ because you examined the Scriptures – like the Bereans – to see if what you received eagerly from your parents and your church are true?
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11 NIV
Joseph Cherian
Prepare The Way Of The Lord! 