Kaka D. Iralu
The Bible is not just a book about spirituality and religion. The Bible is much bigger and wider than that. It is in fact the standard Encyclopedia of the universe. Besides containing religious teachings, it is also the history book of all the nations of the world. Anthropology is also rooted in the Bible. It is also a book of geography, politics, law, science, ecology, agriculture besides being the best book of poetry and literature.
For example, as a book of science, long before men discovered that the earth was round, the Bible had mentioned about the circle of the earth in Is. 40: 22. As for human biology, long before men discovered that all the chemical elements found in the soil are also present in the human body, the Bible had stated that men was made from the soil. The list can go on. As for anthropology, history and geography, it states that God had made from one all the nations of the earth and gave them their respective periods and the boundaries of their habitation (Act 17: 26). As for Law and politics, with the exception of a few Muslim countries, all the Constitutions of the modern world as well as many ancient ones are based on the Ten Commandments and the laws written in the Bible. Also all cannons of modern law and all universal declarations of Human rights are based on the teachings of the Bible. As for ecology or environment or agriculture, time will not allow me to elaborate. Coming to poetry and literature, it is the standard reference book for both writers and poets.
No wonder, when Abraham Lincoln was asked by the most learned scientist of his day, “Where did you get all your knowledge from?” he replied, “I am a reader of the Bible”
Though the Bible is such a book, many narrow minded Christians try to confine it to their own narrow world of spirituality and consider all others who try to apply Biblical teachings into politics, human rights, science etc to be heretics who had missed the will of God altogether! They would want us to confine the Bible only to 1 Cor. 12 (spiritual gifts) or Mark16: 17 (Miracles). They would have us to think that the Bible is just an ancient book predicting future events and that the only reality in between, is tongue speaking and vision seeing. After all, if the Bible is just history (past) and eschatology (future) then I don’t need it. But how dare we confine the Bible into only a mere spiritual book when it is actually the Manuel book of the world. It is the manual book of the world because it tells us everything we need to know about creation and how to conduct our lives on earth within our allotted historical periods.
The Bible is also a book that tells us about God’s love. But we dare not forget that it is also a book about God’s justice and righteousness. And in line with His justice and righteousness, it is also a history book that records Gods judgments on those who had transgressed his laws in their own respective “allotted periods of history.” Presently, I am very worried that God could pour out his judgment on our Naga nation because we have grievously sinned against his laws by committing heinous sins in the name of Nagaland for Christ. Sometimes I feel that only the sound of gunfire and explosions or earthquakes will awaken our nation from its spiritual stupor and indifference to God’s justice and righteousness. Ironically, everybody is talking about spirituality while pursuing wealth and comfort. Their lifestyles seem to say that instead of fighting for God’s justice to prevail in Nagaland, pursuit of their own personal aggrandizement is their God given mission in life. As for God’s justice and righteousness, they have eyes but they do not see. They have ears but they do not hear.
On top of this, many of us today think that only those who are in full time Christian ministry are true servants of God. But in my opinion, whatever profession a Christian might be involved in- be it law, politics or business- as long as one is doing it for God and his neighbor in accordance to God’s laws, he is a full time Christian worker. Such a person is not lesser or different from the Evangelist or the Pastor. After all, how in the world can we say that only clergymen are God’s servants when 1 Cor.12 says that God has given different gifts to different Christians which include “administrators,” “teachers,” “people with God gifted wisdom and knowledge,” “givers” etc. The lists of gifts also of course include evangelists, tongue speakers and miracle workers.
The Bible also tells us that civil governments are instituted by God and that Christians should obey the laws of the government (Rom 13; 1 Pet. 2:13-17). Concluding from this injunction, many Naga Christians think that politically opposing the present Indian government in Nagaland is opposing God’s will. Here we have to make a distinction. For Nagas to oppose the legally established government of India which had been established by God for the Indian people would be an illegal activity and would also break God’s laws regarding the purpose of civil governments. But to oppose the illegally imposed Indian government over the Naga people is a Christian duty and obligation. After all Nagas had declared their independence one day prior to India’s declaration of her own independence and had formed their own Federal government of Nagaland, when Indian troops started invading Nagaland from 1948 onwards. As for the means adopted for imposition of their illegal government over the Nagas through the so called Naga People’s Convention, see details of the treachery and lies in the book “The Naga Saga” pages 15-20. For all these reasons, I for one have never considered the Indian state of Nagaland as my God’s instituted government for me.
In this connection, though Paul was the author of Romans chapter 13 and he was very respectful to the Roman civil government of his times, when his rights under that same government were violated by the Jews and the Roman bureaucracy, he appealed to Caesar-the highest court in his times (Acts25:10-12). It is also interesting to note the preceding events where the Jewish leaders twisted facts in order to kill Paul, as well as how the Roman officers dragged and delayed the case for two whole years hoping to get some bribe money from Paul (Acts 24:25,26).
In conclusion, are we, Naga Christians, practicing our Bible into every aspect of our lives or is the Bible just a spiritual and heavenly book for us? After all, we cannot just futurise our moral and social responsibilities to God and country and go on pretending that everything is just fine.
