As soon as we conducted a survey of Christian bookshops in Kerala, both Arun K. Paul as well as I realized that there has been a serious defection among the assemblies about the doctrines of inerrancy, infallibility, and inspiration. So much so that even many prominent Brethren leaders were proclaiming from the pulpit that Holy Spirit inspired revelation can be found in religious books outside the Bible. Two of them wrote in their books that Holy Spirit inspired revelation can be found in books of all religions.

Arun immediately launched into his thesis on this subject while I announced a series of 6 articles on what he termed as the “Prajapati Heresy”. This heresy originally started with simple studies of a Hindu god Prajapati, but by now it had become a highly codified system of Christian-Hindu doctrine because of the efforts of Dr. Koshy Abraham, Arvindaksha Menon, Dr. Josepha Padinjakkare and others. None of these men was from a Brethren background, but their heretical theology had taken the Brethren in Kerala totally captive by this time.

Suvisheshadhwani (The Voice of the Gospel) was the most prominent tabloid among the Brethren at that time, and Scaria Varghese the Chief Editor was a fearless defender of the fundamental doctrines. He immediately accepted to publish a series, and a series of six forthcoming articles on the “Prajapati Heresy” was announced.

The publication of these articles created a great hue and cry among the Brethren because a large number of them had been preaching the idea that the Hindu god Prajapati is Christ, and that the Hindu scriptures contain Holy-Spirit-inspired doctrines.

I stuck to his point that there is Holy Spirit inspired doctrines only in the Bible. This made many Brethren preachers extremely angry, and that included R. Krishnankutty, JC Dev, and Paul K. Ramakrishnan. Soon they started a smear-campaign against me, rather than confronting me at the theological level. [To Continue…]