Duke Jeyaraj / a 2011 academic essay
Jesus issued a stirring call to His hearers to seek first His kingdom (Matt. 6:33).[1] In fact, the word ‘kingdom’ was found on the lips of Jesus some 18 times.[2] Ministry leaders then have this important mandate from Jesus to seek first His kingdom and lead others to do the same.
This paper will focus on one core value evolved by reflection, resulting in an integrated vision of Kingdom Leadership in the context of the ministry I am involved in. This would be done by gleaning from what I learnt from the readings and the class discussions during the Kingdom Leadership course
This particular core value of Kingdom Leadership that this paper will focus on – sexual sin’s presence in the life of a Christian Leader and how one can overcome the same – will greatly impact the modern youth, the Google Generation as I address them.
My Ministry Context
With the goal of reaching the Google Generation, I founded the Grabbing The Google Generation From Gehenna (Hell in Greek) Mission (G4 Mission). Who I mean by the Google Generation is simple: the modern generation of young people who are found in schools, colleges and in the corporate sector. In October 2005 I moved to the city of Hyderabad, a city that has plenty of such youth, with a vision of reaching them with the Gospel and nurturing them to become disciples of Jesus Christ. However, my goal is not only to reach and disciple such youth in this city alone, but to impact such youth world-over ultimately. So, in a sense, my ministry has a broader context.
One Core Value of a Kingdom Leader
Kingdom Leaders are to have certain non-negotiable core values. As one aspiring to be a Kingdom Leader who desires to bless the present-day youth, the Google Generation, I am seeking to focus on core value in line with my ministry context.
After throwing light on that core values with three theological perspectives (one each from the Old Testament, the New Testament and from Historical Christianity) this paper will talk about how this core value would become a part in my life and leadership style. The core value I am presenting is of paramount interest and of great importance to the Google Generation – the group I feel called to minister to.
The Kingdom Leader Must Guard His Sexual Purity
David Clarence points out that King David was an excellent leader of Israel because he accepted the discipline of God with humility. He knew Absalom rebelled against him as a result of his own torrid sexual sin. He did not want Absalom to be punished for his rebellion. David’s acceptance of God’s judgment upon himself was so complete![3] The lesson here is direct: sexual sin greatly jeopardizes the leader and his cause in God’s Kingdom. In the book, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament, we read the following forceful lines which point to the fact of David’s leadership stooping to the abject level of the pagan kings:
In 2 Samuel 11 David uses royal power first to ‘take’ Bathsheba, another man’s wife, and then to murder her husband Uriah to cover up his misdeed. …This violent use of royal power to defend royal privilege reflects the “taking” by kings of which the prophet Samuel warned.[4]
In the New Testament too, the Kingdom Leader is challenged for sexual purity. Richard B. Hays, writing about Mathew’s Gospel and in particular about Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, makes this sweeping statement to underline this: “Community members are called to put away anger, lust, violence, hypocrisy, pride and materialism.”[5] George Eldon Ladd commenting about the same passage says, “Jesus says, if there is lust, if you look upon a woman with evil desire, you stand before God as a sinner. Righteousness, sexual purity, begins in the heart.”[6] He further interprets the words of Jesus which goes, “Pluck your sinning eye!” and “Cut off your sinning hand!” this way: “If lust is your besetting sin, do anything necessary to find the solution to the problem, whatever the cost may be.”[7] Commenting on 2 Corinthians 11:1-3, Jacob Cherian notes: “…(Paul’s) main concern now is for the bride’s purity till the day of presentation.”[8] Both Jesus and Paul desired that holy Kingdom Leaders got busy in the work of getting ready a flock of holy believers before the day of judgment dawned.
In his book Confessions, Augustine writes, before his encounter with the grace of God that he “boiled over” in his “fornications.”[9] John Higgins, after narrating the story of Augustine in his class lectures, gleaned this lesson from Augustine’s life: the Grace of God becomes ‘the prime motivator in the Kingdom Leader by reminding us of our continuing struggle with sin.’[10]
What John Higgins talked about I found to be real in the real-life experiences of two Kingdom Leaders. I am referring to the real experiences of ongoing sexual temptation in the lives of Jack Hayford and George Verwer, both respected Kingdom Leaders.
Stephen Arterburn writes,
Author and pastor Jack Hayford once sat in his car after a banking transaction with a lovely bank teller and said to himself, “I’m going to have to purity in my mind and consecrate myself to God, or I’m going to have to masturbate right here.” That Jack could say this in front of tens of thousands of men at a Promise Keepers conference was inspirational.[11]
Now, having heard from Jack Hayford, let us move on to George Verwer’s narration of his ongoing struggles with sexual sins. He writes,
A defining moment for me occurred more than 30 years ago as I was walking in the woods outside London. From a distance I saw something hanging in the branches of a tree. It was a pornographic magazine, shot through with bullet holes. Someone had hung it there for target practice. Satan targeted me! I wish I could say I destroyed the magazine and got the victory, but the truth is, in the woods that day, that magazine made a fool of me.
I was in the woods for quite a while after my lustful episode before I could crawl my way back to the cross and ask for forgiveness. Most of the time since then, I have been able to withstand Satan’s temptations. I wish I could say that was true every time, but I’d be lying. And in the woods, I found a new approach for my own sinfulness: when I sin I ask forgiveness, time after time…
In my own life, giving myself the benefit of the benefit of the doubt, I estimate I successfully resist temptation 95 percent of the time. But with the number of temptations we face, that’s still a lot of failure!
Over the course of my 45 years as a Christian, I have failed not only in the area of lust but also irritability and anger.[12]
These honest confessions from these men of God show that no Kingdom Leader is above the attack of sexual temptation.
The Google Generation, the group I am trying to reach out to, greatly values and looks up to those with sexual purity. This can be illustrated through a real story from Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid’s life. This cricketer was once voted as the MTV Youth Icon of the year for India.[13] Here is one possible reason why he won the imagination of the modern youth of India – the generation which just loves to devour TV channels like the MTV. A good-looking female journalist from Singapore after completing an interview with Dravid asks the television crew to leave the room. After she gets alone with Dravid, this journalist moves closer to him, talks in a flirting manner and asks him to marry her. Dravid, instead of enjoying her attention and possibly using the opportunity to get physically intimate with her, got up in holy haste and in seething anger, orders her to get out of the room.[14] It is not surprising that sexually pure Dravid was a big draw among Google Generation youth. When I showed this video to 60 youngsters from the country of Bangladesh in a leadership conference I addressed, they too expressed great appreciation for Rahul Dravid, confirming to me that sexual purity in a leader’s life is something that youth of all nations greatly appreciate.
The very fact that acts of sexual impurity among India’s Google Generation is on the rise underscores the grave need for Kingdom Leaders to be extra careful in this area. 73% of Indian parents surveyed across 11 cities in the 2011 India Today Sex Survey said that they accepted and kept quiet even after having known their children – the Google Generation – were sexually active.[15] Another national newsmagazine reported that as many as 60% of the respondents of an online sex survey have had multiple sex partners.[16] When asked the question, “Have social media like Twitter, Facebook improved chances of finding sexual partners?” in a survey done in 2011, 56.9% of the respondents said ‘Yes’.[17] “Casual sex is taboo no more. One out of the every three has had a one-night stand.” – those are words printed on the cover of national news magazine in India in 2011.[18]
Despite widespread sexual immorality, there is a cry for sexual purity among the leadership, coming from the representatives of the Google Generation. A recent incident underscores this. Three Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) of the Indian state of Karnataka were allegedly caught viewing pornographic clips on mobile phones even as the State Assembly was busy discussing an important issue. They were reportedly caught in the act by a TV camera covering the events in the Assembly from the balcony. Following this, there was a debate in “Times Now,” a popular news channel moderated by straight-talking, daring, TV journalist Arnab Goswami. This writer happened to watch this debate which got heated at times. During this debate, Arnab strongly condemned the behavior of the porn-viewing MLAs using biblical terminology – he called them ‘debauchers’, without mincing words (cf. Titus 1:6).[19] Even a non-believer like Arnab Goswami (who can be taken as one of the voices of the present generation) believes porn-watching as unacceptable and sexual impropriety as despicable.
But it is very distressing to note, that Christian leaders can trip and have tripped in this area. And this certainly brings reproach to the name of Christ. Going back to the story of the three Karnataka ministers, it is intriguing to note that one of them had asked women not to wear skimpy clothes, if they don’t want to be raped! Mumbai Mirror, a newspaper out of the city of Mumbai had this headline after this event – a headline that said a lot: “Minister who said women who wear skimpy clothes ask to be raped, caught surfing porn in Assembly.”[20] If a State Government minister who does not have a living relationship with Jesus as Savior is being ripped apart for preaching something and practicing something contrary to what he preached, one can imagine the kind of negative impact that will result when preachers/Christian leaders of the Gospel do the same thing. As Kingdom Leaders we need to ask God for strength and grace so that we would not behave in a way that the name of Jesus would be blasphemed.
Sexual Temptation can be won through accountability relationships
If sexual impurity is not an option for Kingdom Leaders, how then can they stay sexually pure? The next section will draw lessons with regard to this from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the History of Christianity. During Old Testament times, David Clarence points out, prophets “warned and corrected the leadership when they moved away from the defined parameters” and that there was no reason to believe that their ministry cannot continue even in the New Testament.[21]
Christopher Wright wrote,
The King could be approached and implored by ordinary individuals or by prophets on their behalf. Examples include Nathan’s parable on behalf of Uriah (2 Sa. 12:1-10), Joab and the wise woman of Tekoa’s parable on behalf of Absalom (2 Sa. 14:1-24), the prostitute’s appeal to Solomon (I Ki. 23:16-28 and Shunammite woman’s appeal to King Joram (2 Ki 8:1-6).[22]
When one examines the Old Testament text closely, one finds that there is no record of King David having committed adultery again following his repentance post the confrontation prophet Nathan had with him about his affair with Bathsheba. Kingdom leaders, must invite the ministry of Nathan-like accountability friends into their lives. David Clarence pointed out that accountability friends give advice to their friends who seek their help without undermining the position of those friends by quoting the case of the following duo – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Home Minister P. Chidambaram.[23] These are the sort of accountability friends whom Kingdom Leaders desperately need. They should be given the freedom to ask uncomfortable questions without much emotion like this – “When was the last time you watched porn?” Jacob Cherian referred to the sad example of the American tele-evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who kept himself ‘above’ the good people ‘around’ him. If he had allowed them to be around him and had he been frank with them, they would have been able to help him even as he battled sexual sin in his private life all alone, all through. Jacob Cherian told us further: “We are in danger of doing stupid things, when we do ministry as loners!”[24] Eugene H. Peterson, writing about the church in Rome, asserts, “spiritual formation requires that they (believers from Gentile background and Jewish background) live in open communion with one another.”[25] The key word here is ‘open’. This implies that they would be open to sharing with each other, their struggles, their failures, their temptations, and encourage each other not to give up in their battle.
The concept of ‘priesthood of all believers’ (a doctrine that has its primary biblical base from I Peter 2:9), as John Higgins pointed out, ‘was a recognition of the community of faith and the opportunity and responsibility of the believer toward his neighbor.’[26] A practical way, one believer can be responsible for another believer is by keeping short accounts with each other. They ask each other uncomfortable questions like, “When was the last time you disrobed a woman who was not your wife in your mind?” or “When was the last time you got physically intimate with a person who was not your spouse?”
Cliff Barrows, a senior associate in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, a team which is known to have steered clear of sexual temptation successfully reveals one of the secrets of doing so: “We were accountable to God, to our wives, to each other, the local committees, and the spiritual leadership of the community.”[27]
I am glad that God has placed in my ministry team a man of God much older than I am who I have given the right to question me on all matters – including those matters involving my sexual purity. This arrangement has helped me stem the constant onslaught of sexual temptations. I am of the opinion that we are not only accountable to the Gads (the name of one of the prophet friends of David was Gad) but also to God! It is my view that in our lives we need friends who are not just the Jonathans, but also friends who are the Nathans! Of course, my spouse is specially empowered by the Spirit to protect me in this area. There are times, when I turn on my phone speaker during my longish counseling phone calls with a person of the opposite gender, so that she can hear what the other person is saying. This way, I am accountable to her and protected from being tripped by sexual temptation. Even though I do not sense anything amiss in the behavior of an acquaintance of the opposite gender, if my wife does, I keep off from that acquaintance for the sake of keeping my sexual purity. Often times, I would notice, at a latter point in time, that my wife’s intuitions about a lady’s/girl’s intention in getting close to us, turned out to be absolutely true and precisely accurate.
In this online age, accountability can be found via the web as well. There is a website named accountability2you, which is a “web-based service that dumps all the pornographic material someone surfs into his or her spouse’s e-mail inbox.”[28]
Sexual Temptation can be won when one gets absorbed into the Word and God’s Presence
David Clarence pointed out to us this from the book of Ezekiel, “Failure to feed the flock scatters them” (Ezek 34:5).[29] The importance of studying the Word of God for both the shepherd and the sheep is the focus here. ‘Scattering’ (from God’s holy ways) is the result of ‘not studying’ God’s laws and storing it in one’s heart (Psa. 119:9-11). William Tyndale told a learned man who placed the words of the pope above God’s written word in the Bible: “If God spare my life….I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the Scriptures than thou dost.”[30] To heal the church of its many corruptions, the method used by the great reformers was cleansing by the Word of God. The same principle could be used in one’s personal life as Eugene Peterson notes this about Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans:
There are 65 quotations laced through his letter, cited from 16 of the 39 OT books available to him. Isaiah (with 18 citations) and Psalms (with 13) are, his favorites, but he ranges widely, covering most of the territory from Genesis to Malachi.
But it is not only that he quotes, he inhabits the story, he gives the impression of being on familiar terms with everything written by prophetic ancestors, totally at ease in this richly expansive narrative of God’s word. The scriptures have become for him ‘all autobiographical’ (Alexander Whyte’s phrase).[31]
The richness of Paul’s knowledge of God’s Word was particularly used to underscore humanity’s – both the Jews as well as the Gentiles – sin. What convicted the whole of the human race can convict the individual (who in our case is the Kingdom Leader) and keep him from falling into sin – sexual sin, including.
Now, I turn to story of Jim Bakker, the American tele-evangelist to show the link between absorbing the message of the Bible regularly and falling into sexual temptation. Even as he rapidly became popular in the United States, a time came in his life when he lost to sexual temptation. Here he describes the circumstances that led to this:
We (Jessica Hahn and I) had a fifteen- to twenty-minute tryst, a quick, furtive, sexual encounter….When it was over, I quickly left the room, and in a daze, hurried to the elevator and pressed the the button marking the eighth floor…I was horrified. Oh, God! What have I done? I had not considered the consequences of my absurd attempt to make Tammy Faye (Jim Bakker’s wife) jealous. I had not even paused to think of the potential ramifications of my actions while I was giving in to the temptation of having sex with a woman other than my wife. I had simply reacted.
I had opened the door to attack on the ministry I headed, my family, and me personally. Worse yet, the devil had not made me do any of it; I had done it of my own stubborn will.
I disrobed and immediately stepped into the shower, turning the water on as hot as I could stand it. I never felt so dirty in all my life. Maybe if I make the water hotter, it will wash it all away, I thought….
I returned to my room around eleven o’ clock and tumbled into bed. I felt exhausted in every way, yet sleep eluded me. I stared at the ceiling. I replayed the events of the day in my mind again and again. How could I have been so foolish? I asked myself a thousand times. Why did I ever allow things to get to this point? I tossed and turned all night long. Everything within me seemed to have come undone as a result of fifteen to twenty minutes of sexual ‘pleasure’. If adultery was so pleasurable, why was I feeling so awful?[32]
What led Jim Bakker to commit such a sin? Before we go any further I would like to recall the following lines by Christopher J.H. Wright which will help connect me with Jim Bakker:
Ezekiel puts Judah and Sodom in the same family as sisters… He goes on to breathtakingly, to say of Judah, ‘You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous’ (Ezek 16:51).[33]
The point that Ezekiel makes here is not hard to miss. Upon seeing God’s treatment of the sexually-immoral Sodom, Judah should have been careful. But they weren’t. The reason why God allows me to read real life stories of God’s servants failing in the area of sex is to warn me not to follow the same path of self-destruction.
Jim Bakker goes on to talk about a number of things that could be sited as reasons plunging him to this depth – a depth any of us could have plunged into but for the grace of God.
I had gotten so busy trying to do something great for God and for his people, I totally missed the point. Although I talked a great deal about Jesus – and in my heart I truly loved him – I allowed myself to be drawn away from my first love. Instead of fostering an intimate relationship with Him, I loved the supernatural, the signs and wonders.[34]…I may not always have been so blatant about it, but I often preached the prosperity message….But when I began to study the Scriptures in depth while in prison, something I’m embarrassed and ashamed to admit that I rarely took time to do during the hectic years of constant building and ministering …I was very distressed at what I discovered.[35]
From the life of Jim Bakker, one learns of the connection between losing the ‘first love’ relationship with Jesus, refusing to lap up His Word through unhurried study and consequently falling into sexual sin and other dangerous evils.
In the ministry I lead for the Google Generation, after taking precautions to spend unhurried times in prayer and the word, I encourage the young people I get to preach to, to do the same. I recently discovered that even Joseph, perhaps, won over sexual temptation by carrying God’s Word in his heart. What God told Eve Joseph adapted and used when the wife of Mrs. Potiphar tempted him and he came out triumphant (Gen 3:13 and Genesis 39).
I have used Ezekiel 23, right from my Bible College days to teach young people that physical intimacy between a man and woman who are not yet married is sinful. I even a wrote a paper explaining this for my Major Prophets Course as part of the M. Div course in Southern Asia Bible College between the years 1998-2001. I have preached this truth from Ezekiel 23 extensively across India in various churches, corporate company gatherings, colleges and schools. But I hadn’t yet come across any other youth preacher who used the same chapter (Ezekiel 23) to show the path of purity for today’s youth. But I was relieved to discover Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker use Ezekiel 23 as a launch pad to drive home the same truth in a book printed in 2010! Here is what they wrote:
God views foreplay outside marriage as wrong. We get a glimpse of this in Ezekiel 23:3, where God, to portray the waywardness and apostasy of His chosen people, uses the picture of virgins in passionate sin: “In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed.” (If you’ve ever argued that God doesn’t address ‘petting’ in the Bible, let Ezekiel 23:3 serve as corrective to your thinking).[36]
The reason why I am stressing the connection of absorbing God’s Word and overcoming sexual temptation is this: the Bible is the final court of appeal for all matters of belief and behavior. In our class we were reminded of Calvin’s statement in Institutes IV, vii, 8:
…nothing should be admitted in the church as the Word of God but what is first in the law and the prophets and then in the writings of the Apostles and there is no other method of teaching aright in the church than according to the prescription and norm of the Word.[37]
If we, Kingdom Leaders, do not know what God’s word has to say on matters of sexuality we are struggling with, we will never have the will to overcome temptation. A young lady was fondled in her private parts by a particular preacher who frequented her home in a particular country. He always stopped just short of having intercourse with her in these secret sexual encounters. This preacher assured this girl what they were indulging in, was not sinful. And when this story reached my ears, this is what I thought: “If only that young girl had known what the Bible had to say about intimate touching between unmarried people, there was a good chance that this girl would have never allowed this particular preacher to abuse her so blatantly!” And just as William Tyndale desired ‘every boy driving the plough’ have a working knowledge of the Bible, I became passionate to proclaim what God’s word had to say about sex and sexual sin to each and every Google Generation youth I got the opportunity to communicate to in youth camps, youth conventions and church meetings, even at the expense of missing out on the second invitation to preach for my bold and blunt approach.
Sexual Temptation can be won by the demonstrating advance alertness
N. T. Wright wrote, “(Jesus’) death under the weight of sin results in release for all those held captive by its guilt and power.”[38] What N.T. Wright talks about here is positional sanctification – a sanctification that is ours because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. But the Bible in other places talks about practical sanctification – a sanctification that results when practical steps of obedience are taken by the believer. Running the Christian race ‘with endurance’ practically involves ‘laying aside every weight and the sin (or persons/possessions/places who lead us to sin) which clings so closely (Heb. 12:1)! Jacob Cherian pointed out from Genesis 4:7 that sin, like a crouching predator, seeks to attack the unsuspecting target.[39] So, we must be alert and spiritually prepared to face the subtle onslaught of sexual temptation which can come at a time when we least expect it. Evangelist Billy Graham explains a practical step he and his ministry associates undertook after a holding a successful meeting in 1948 keeping this in mind:
We all knew of evangelists who had fallen into immorality while separated from their families by travel. We pledged among ourselves to avoid any situation that would have even the appearance of compromise or suspicion. From that day on, I did not travel, meet, or eat alone with a woman other than my wife. We determined that the apostle Paul’s mandate to the young pastor Timothy would be ours as well: “Flee….youthful lusts!” (2 Timothy 2:22 KJV)[40]
By following what he just explained very strictly, Dr. Graham was able to live a life that steered clear of even a whiff of sexual temptation. Dr. Graham, by doing this, also imitated Joseph in the Bible who ‘refused to even be with’ Mrs. Portiphar alone (Genesis 39:10).
As a leader who works among the Google Generation I, a vulnerable, normal red-blooded young preacher, do get plenty of opportunities to meet folks from the opposite gender in locked door settings during counseling times or even during casual conversations. But, as one who has learnt priceless truths from the example of Joseph in the Old Testament and Dr. Billy Graham of our time, I refuse such opportunities steadfastly. If I have to meet with a person of the opposite gender alone, the door of the room where we are meeting would be kept wide open or we would talk in a place where everyone can see us talking. Better safe, than sorry!
In this paper, I gleaned out just one of the core values of a Kingdom Leader the Scriptures and Church History invites him/her to possess. Not only that. We saw how that core value can be a reality in the day-to-day life of the Kingdom leader in a practical way. John Higgins mentioned that ‘the Kingdom Leader must champion a cause worth dying for’.[41] The names of Polycarp, John Hus, Girolamo Savonarola and Thomas Cranmer found their way in the list of names of Kingdom Leaders who were willing to die for their God-given causes.[42] When it comes to preserving our purity, the Bible teaches we must be willing to die – willing to even shed our blood if need be (Heb 12:4). I am ready for such a kind of commitment trusting in the Lord to help me. One of the writers of “Our Daily Bread” wrote the following lines which express my desire to preserve purity come what may, even death or martyrdom:
In the forests of northern Europe and Asia lives a little animal called the ermine, known for his snow-white fur in winter. He instinctively protects his white coat against anything that would soil it.
Fur hunters take advantage of this unusual trait of the ermine. They don’t set a snare to catch him, but instead they find his home, which is usually a cleft in a rock or a hollow in an old tree. They smear the entrance and interior with grime. Then the hunters set their dogs loose to find and chase the ermine. The frightened animal flees toward home but doesn’t enter because of the filth. Rather than soil his white coat, he is trapped by the dogs and captured while preserving his purity. For the ermine, purity is more precious than life.[43]
I want to be like that ermine for whom purity is more precious than life.
SOURCES CONSULTED
Arterburn, Stephen, Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey. Every Man’s Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time. Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2010.
Bakker, Jim with Ken Abraham. I was Wrong: The Untold Story of the Shocking Journey from PTL Power to Prison and Beyond. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996.
Birch, Bruce C and Walter Brueggeman. A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament. Nashville: Abingdon, 1999.
Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
Ladd, George Eldon. The Gospel of the Kingdom. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1959.
Myra, Harold and Marshall Shelley. The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.
Peterson, Eugene. “Pastor Paul”. In Romans and the People of God. Edited by Sven K. Soderlund and N. T. Wright. Grand Rapids: Eerdmens, 1999.
Verwer, George. Drops From a Leaking Tap. Hyderabad: Authentic, 2010.
Wright, Christopher J.H. Living as the People of God. England: IVP, 1983.
Wright, N. T. Evil and the Justice of God. Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2006.
Unpublished Article:
Cherian, Jacob. “The Significance, Function and Implications of the Parental Imagery in Paul’s Pastoral care.” Th. M. Thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, 1996.
Class Notes:
Cherian, Jacob. “Kingdom Leadership: Theological Perspectives from the Old Testament, New Testament and Historical Christianity.” Class notes for Core 6 Course at the Southern Asia Bible College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 27-July 01, 2011.
Clarence, David. “Kingdom Leadership: Theological Perspectives from the Old Testament, New Testament and Historical Christianity.” Class notes for Core 6 Course at the Southern Asia Bible College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 27-July 01, 2011.
Higgins, John. “Kingdom Leadership: Theological Perspectives from the Old Testament, New Testament and Historical Christianity.” Class notes for Core 6 Course at the Southern Asia Bible College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 27-July 01, 2011.
Internet:
“Dravid voted MTV youth icon of the year,” http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2004- 06-28/news/27395664_1_mtv-youth-icon-rahul-dravid-mtv-networks-india (accessed February 12, 2012)., http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/keyword/mtv/recent/4 (accessed February 12, 2011).
Information from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D8QM2NDgdc (accessed February 12, 2012).
Ashley Fantz, “Can the Christian Ccrusade Aagainst Ppornography Bbear Ffruit?”,
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/21/can-the-burgeoning-christian-crusade-against-pornography-beat-fruit-/comment-page-4/#comment-639636 (accessed August 21, 2011).
“The Ermine”.” http://bible.org/illustration/ermine (accessed February 17, 2012).
Magazines/Newspapers:
Mumbai Mirror, February 8, 2012.
Outlook, December 26, 2011.
Outlook, January 24, 2011.
India Today, December 5, 2011.
The Sunday Indian, July 31, 2011.
Bloomberg Businessweek (Double Issue), August 16 – August 29, 2010.
Outlook, April 5, 2010.
The Week, July 11, 2010.
Television Programs:
“News Hour”, Times Now, February 7, 2012, 9 pm show.
[1]All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New International Version.
[2] Jacob Cherian, “Kingdom Leadership: Theological Perspectives from the Old Testament, New Testament and Historical Christianity” (class notes for Core 6 Course at the Southern Asia Bible College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 27-July 01, 2011), 5.
[3]David Clarence, “Kingdom Leadership: Theological Perspectives from the Old Testament, New Testament and Historical Christianity.” (Oral Lecture for Core 6 Course at the Southern Asia Bible College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 27-July 01, 2011),
[4]Bruce C. Birch and Walter Brueggeman, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 242.
[5]Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 98.
[6]George Eldon Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1959), 84.
[7]Ibid., 84-85.
[8]Jacob Cherian, “The Significance, Function and Implications of the Parental Imagery in Paul’s Pastoral care.” Th. M. Thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, 1996, 72.
[9]Augustine, Confessions of St. Augustine, Translated by Edward Bouverie Persie, 26, publisher details not available.
[10]John Higgins, “Kingdom Leadership: Theological Perspectives from the Old Testament, New Testament and Historical Christianity” (class notes for Core 6 Course at the Southern Asia Bible College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, June 27-July 01, 2011), 2.
[11]Stephen Arterburn, Fred Stoeker with Mike Yorkey, Every Man’s Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2010), 89.
[12]George Verwer, Drops From a Leaking Tap (Hyderabad: Authentic, 2010), 74-75.
[13]“Dravid voted MTV youth icon of the year,” http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2004-06-28/news/27395664_1_mtv-youth-icon-rahul-dravid-mtv-networks-india (accessed February 12, 2012).
[14]Information gathered from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D8QM2NDgdc (accessed February 12, 2012).
[15]Shilpa Phadke, “Parent Trap,” India Today, December 5, 2011, 78.
[16] The Sunday Indian, July 31, 2011, 38.
[17] Outlook, December 26, 2011, 43.
[18]Outlook, January 24, 2011, cover.
[19]As seen on television on “News Hour”, Times Now, February 7, 2012, 9 pm show.
[20] Niranjan Kaggere and S. Shyam Prasad, “Minister who said women who wear skimpy clothes ask to be raped, caught surfing porn in Assembly,” Mumbai Mirror, February 8, 2012.
[21]David Clarence, “Kingdom Leadership ” (class notes), 3.
[22]Christopher J. H. Wright, Living as the People of God (England: IVP, 1983), 120.
[23]Ibid.
[24]Jacob Cherian, “Kingdom Leadership,” (class notes), page no.
[25]Eugene H. Peterson, “Pastor Paul”, Sven K. Soderlund and N. T. Wright, eds. Romans and the People of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmens, 1999), 291.
[26]John Higgins, “Course Name” (class notes), 13.
[27]Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley, The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 57.
[28]Ashley Fantz, “Can the Christian Crusade Against Pornography Bear Fruit?” http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/21/can-the-burgeoning-christian-crusade-against-pornography-beat-fruit-/comment-page-4/#comment-639636 (accessed August 21, 2011).
[29]David Clarence, “Course Name” (class notes), page no.
[30]John Higgins, “Course Name” (class notes), 6.
[31]Eugene H. Peterson, “Pastor Paul”, 286.
[32]Jim Bakker with Ken Abraham, I was Wrong: The Untold Story of the Shocking Journey from PTL Power to Prison and Beyond (Nashville:Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996), 20-22.
[33]Wright, Living as the People of God, 61-62.
[34]Ibid., 464.
[35]Ibid., 5.
[36]Arterburn and Stoeker with Yorkey, Every Man’s, 66.
[37]John Higgins, “Course Name” (class notes), 4.
[38] N. T. Wright, Evil and the Justice of God (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 2006), 90.
[39]Jacob Cherian, “Kingdom Leadership” (class notes), 3.
[40]Myra and Shelley, Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham, 55.
[41]Dr. John Higgins, “Course Name” (class notes), 14.
[42]Ibid.
[43] “The Ermine”, http://bible.org/illustration/ermine (accessed February 17, 2012).
(This is an assignment that Duke Jeyaraj wrote as part of his Doctor of Ministry course with Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore; This particular essay was written in July 2011; Should you desire to financially support Duke and his ministry, use this weblink: https://razorpay.me/@g4mission )
