Bible Teacher – GRABBING THE GOOGLE GEN FROM GEHENNA MISSION / DUKE JEYARAJ h

Uncle David Pawson, the most original Bible Teacher in the whole wide world according to me, is now with Jesus!

In the year 1992, Uncle R. Stanley invited him to preach in the Bible Lovers Camp of BYM in Danishpet, Salem, Tamil Nadu. I was 17 then (having just preached my first sermon in Ida Scudder School Vellore, a few months earlier).

In a talents competition in the camp I recited a Jimmy Swaggart message on hell. I also won the first prize in the daily tests conducted based on uncle Pawson’s messages in the same camp. My gift was this book – ‘The Road to Hell’ by uncle Pawson with uncle Stanley himself writing the congratulations message on the book. [Later, I would found an organisation with the word Hell (Gehenna) in its very name – in 2006]! Uncle Pawson was gutsy in writing this book, as he biblically and brilliantly opposed the mild annihilation view of hell which John Stott (the world’s leading evangelical then) had, inexplicably, promoted. I had the joy of receiving the prize from the book’s author itself.

I traveled with him by car to Vellore post the meeting. He told me: ‘Duke will preach like Duke and he will not copy anyone else!’ The original Duke Jeyaraj was born that day!

Later when I did what I could to warn the Google Generation about the hell-populating Hypergrace cult, I returned to uncle Pawson resources to find solid Cult-answering Bible Teaching. I bought his book ‘Once Saved, Always Saved?’ in this connection via Amazon. I never searched for a book with more ferocity like how I searched for this book and finally got it (it was couriered from overseas)!

I have used material from his book, Truth to Tell, to prepare evangelistic messages. It was his book on the Second Coming titled, When Jesus Returns, which made me realise this: “many top Bible Teachers believe in one Second coming of Jesus, one judgement, and heaven and hell post that!” His book, Word and Spirit Together, inspired me to chase both the Presence of God and Word of God with equal fervor.

I often referred to uncle Pawson’s book, The Normal Christian Birth, when I wrote a tract (my first tract of any sort) on the importance of immersion water baptism for adult believers as a student of Allahabad Agricultural Institute (1993-1997).

When I did a Bible Study for each of the 66 Bible Books in Hyderabad – a process that took seven years as we met only once a month as a small group of people from different churches and varied walks of life – I often would return to Uncle Pawson’s book, Unlocking the Bible, for wisdom.

I used material from one of his little books when I preached on Why God Allows Natural Disasters in a flat in Gachibowli, Hyderabad (a message for modern young working professionals).

I can safely say that his awesome use of alliteration in his writings and sermons have made his bible material even more memorable. For example, in his book, The Road To Hell, all the chapters begin with R (The Residue, The Retreat, The Reality, The Risk, The Rescue, The Reverse, The Relevance). Not just that – even the sub-points are arranged with coined words. For example in the chapter where David Pawson talks about Rescue From Hell he uses these carefully crafted words: Father’s affections, Son’s atonement, Spirit’s assistance, Believer’s adherence (notice the “a” rain in the sub-point?) But you know what – uncle Pawson, never would make a big deal of this pain-staking-efforts-in-preparation presentation style of his. He would say: “Even dogs speak in alliteration. They go ‘bow, wow’ – don’t they?!” How humble!

Praising God for uncle Pawson! Though I am no patch on him, we have some similarities! We both left the field of agriculture to do full-time ministry! We both are non-pastoral evangelists/Bible Teachers! We both try to use alliteration/rhyming words in our writings/sermons!

In a span of few days Christendom has lost its greatest apologist and its Bible Teacher! The baton is passed to our generation! Will we measure up?

Duke Jeyaraj, born to missionary parents from South India (His dad, Bro. A. Jeyaraj was one of the founders of Blessing Youth Mission), was saved at the age of 11 (in a Blessing Youth Mission program in the CSI Ranipet which Bro. A. Lionel addressed). He committed for full-time ministry at the age of 13 in a Blessing Youth Camp (following Bro. R. Stanley’s challenge). Since the age of 16 he has been preaching (his first sermon was in Ida Scudder School – Vellore). During his Agricultural Engineering Course (B. Tech.) in the Allahabad Agricultural Deemed University he actively witnessed for Christ by leading Bible Studies in the college hostel and going for tract distribution in the city with like-minded friends. After completing this course, Duke worked in Chennai briefly. During this time, Duke (who was 23 years at that time) was invited to speak to a group of Sri Lankan Tamil Youth by their pastor who read one of Duke’s articles published in a leading Christian magazine (Blessing Magazine). Since then, God has opened the doors for Duke to speak in various settings across different Church Denominations in over 20 Indian States (Punjab was the most recent new State he preached in) and in a few other countries. Church of South India, Church of North India, Society for Propagation of the Gospel, Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Assemblies of God, Mennonite Brethren, Bakth Singh Assembly and other independent, non-denominational Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal churches, etc – these are some of the church denominations that have had Duke speak in their meetings. Duke also gets invited across organisational barriers. He has spoken in events organised by organisations such as Friends Missionary Prayer Band, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Jesus Calls, Youth For Christ, Inter Collegiate Prayer Fellowship, Indian Evangelical Mission, Indian Evangelical Team, Compassion International, Evangelical Medical Fellowship India, Operation Mobilisation, India Missions Association, Metropolitan Mission, Evangelical Union, etc.

The wide acclaim and acceptance for Duke in Christendom is seen in the fact that Dr. Sam Kamaleson, the founder of Friends Missionary Prayer Band and former vice-president for World Vision International, has written the foreword for Duke’s first book. Rev. D. Mohan, the Assemblies of God General Superintendent of India, wrote an endorsement for Duke’s book, Straight Talk on Sex Love Marriage Porn and More, released in 2018. As did Rev. Anitha Aidinyantz (educator and minister of Gospel), Rev. Stanley Mehta the Overseer and Senior Pastor of the Gateway Ministries International (Mumbai) and Rev. Dr. Y. D. Jeyaseelan the National Overseer for the Victory Churches International (Delhi).

Duke has also served as an English Translator at one time for Bro. Mohan C. Lazarus’ God TV program.

Duke’s writing ministry is also inter-organisational. Light of Life, a leading Christian magazine that goes to about 20,000 folk across the world, publishes Duke’s Bible-light-shining articles on current topics regularly. “The Sowing Circle” (The Bible Society of India’s magazine), “The Sower” (Methodist Church’s magazine), “Insight” (Assemblies of God’s Bible College Annual Magazine), “AIM” (Evangelical Fellowship of India’s magazine), “Blessing” (Blessing Youth Mission’s magazine), “Kerith” (the youth magazine of Friends Missionary Prayer Band) and the printed voice of the Indian Evangelical Team – all have carried Duke’s articles at various times.

At various times, Indian newspapers/news-magazines such as Outlook, India Today, The Week, The Sunday Indian, The Sportstar, Frontline, The Hindu, Deccan Chronicle, etc have carried Duke’s hard-hitting comments on sports events and contemporary events.

It has been Duke’s privilege to speak to college students right in their campus on hot youth issues from the Bible, over the years. Duke has addressed students in Christian Medical College-Vellore, Madras Christian College-Chennai, Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, National Institute of Technology (REC)-Trichy, Pondicherry Central University, Kurnool Medical College, Lady Doak College-Madurai, Bishop Heber College-Trichy, Karunya University-Coimbatore, etc, at various times on timely topics. Duke has even preached to the students of St. Aloysius College, a Roman Catholic Secular College in Jabalpur at one time.

Duke also has spoken in some schools to teens on subjects like relationships with parents, elders and the opposite gender, on writing exams well, on wise career choice, etc. He was a featured speaker to teens in Mount Carmel Schools, New Delhi.

Duke has the honor of speaking to Corporate Company Employees right inside their office campuses. He had done that in Mindspace IT Park and in CyberGateway IT Park in Hyderabad. He was featured as a speaker in a National-level God@Work Corporate Company Employees Conference in Bangalore. Duke has addressed the believers of one of India’s leading IT companies in their National-level meet. Talking about National level meets – Duke has address youth gatherings of the Assemblies of God, the Indian Pentecostal Assembly, Church of South India, Evangelical Medical Fellowship (Shiloh), etc.

Duke has briefly worked in Corporate Companies (including the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) group). While he worked there, he conducted brief break-time fellowship meetings right inside the office premises.

Duke, at various times in his life, has served as a youth pastor, Bible College Teacher, Writer, Editor, Counsellor, Travelling Missionary Revival Preacher, etc.

Every time and where ever Duke speaks, he constantly seeks to call the audience to repent from their sin and trust in Jesus who is the only way, by presenting Bible Truth wrapped around contemporary events the Jesus Luke 13:1-5 way. And the results have been very very encouraging. Hundreds have to Christ following his messages. Duke also expounds the Word of God in a practical way so that at the end of these messages the audiences are challenged for holy living, witnessing and ministry involvement through the local church and para-church organisations. Some young people have joined fulltime ministry having committed their lives for the same after one of Duke’s messages. Duke in 28 years of itinerant preaching has always adhered to pulpit ethics – he has never used the pulpit of a church or a ministry to shoot down its own doctrines and beliefs. Instead, he has always sought to build up, encourage, challenge, motivate the audience and make them more effective and more energetic in their own local churches or other ministries they are already involved in.

Duke has addressed crowds over one thousand on different occasions. While he has done this, he also keeps addressing small groups of people as well.

Duke lives in Hyderabad with his wife, Evan, who is also an itinerant speaker. They have two little children – Dale and Datasha. Duke has the following theological degrees: Masters in Divinity (Gold Medal) and Master of Arts in Christianity. He started his doctorate in ministry (D. Min.) in Southern Asia Bible College, Bangalore in 2009 and graduated in 2014 (he, along with one other classmate, was the quickest to graduate) with his project on making disciples of Jesus out of Information Technology Professionals.

Duke, in Feb 2006, started G4 Mission – an inter-denominational, inter-organisational organisation that aims to grab the Google Generation (modern youth) going to Gehenna (Hell) using creative ways. This Mission is run by free will offerings of Indians who believe in its vision. Duke and his wife are now the full-time staff of this ministry. The day-to-day operations of this ministry are practically executed by volunteers who are in different places and in different jobs (Our video volunteer works with Infosys). G4 Mission is governed by an independent Government-registered Trust which includes non-relatives of Duke in it. The accounts of this Trust are submitted to the Government of India annually. Duke publishes a magazine called, “The Days Of Your Youth”, once in two months. This magazine wraps Bible Truth around contemporary events. In November 2010, Duke released a book titled, “No Beating About The Bush Straight Talk On Hushed Up Matters: Contemporary-event wrapped essays on what the Bible has to say about sex, love and marriage, plus more!” after many years of distributing his books in the photocopy spiral bound format. This book was printed by Word of Christ publishers in an undated format in 2018. Daniel In Dell and The Goodnews for the Google Generation are two of Duke’s other books (out of print now).

The testimonies of those who have been immensely blessed by Duke’s writing ministry come from across the globe from different countries. Duke believes he is called to be one of the donkeys invited to carry Jesus to the modern generation – a generation he calls ‘Facebook Folk’, ‘Hotmail Herd’, ‘Yahoo Youth’, ‘Google Generation’, etc.

You can meet Duke online at various websites: