Reply to the comment of George Joseph Enchakkattil.

Reply to the comment of George Joseph Enchakkattil.

I Thank you George Joseph, for a good comment. I had the privilege of sharing the main points of “Rebellious House” with many of our eminent and learned teachers of orthodoxy.  Many of them have silently agreed while a few of them who thought that we, orthodox have a special berth in the Kingdom and even if we break the law there is no problem; we have a host of spiritual fathers in heaven and things can be adjusted because our tradition is fantastic. What made me to write “The Rebellious House”? 

The book is not the out come of a spur of the moment. I thought of it and discussed about it with many ‘spiritual fathers’.  They were compelled to give answers which could satisfy none.  I have never used the word orthodox in the book deliberately, but in reply to the comment. I have a dream of the real Orthodox Church established by St. Thomas our apostle and I am a fanatic of that church devoid of the Antiochian filth.  I am prepared to sacrifice myself for that church in which case you can call me as a person lived and died for Jesus. In that church no one can call anyone on earth as ‘father’; the faithful will reserve the word ‘holy’ and declare that their God only is holy. They will be satisfied with the high priest sitting on the right side of the father and we can approach the mercy seat without any fear because we, ourselves are spiritual house.  In that church no one will worship the cross but the resurrected Christ. In that church believers will be saints. In that church nobody will curse anybody.  In that church Tamar is barred from attending the marriage.  In that church Mary Magdalene will not be treated as prostitute but as honorable disciple.  They will never use the blatant lie to please anyone saying ‘we do not pray to the dead we are praying only to the living; we do not pray, we are only requesting; they will never say we do not mediate we only intercede; we do not worship, we only venerate and the like irresponsible statements from the mouth of ‘your father’. In that church there is no emperor because Jesus taught ‘my ‘kingdom is not earthly’, there all are trying to imitate the life of Jesus and hoping to be kings with him. In that church people will give liberally to their brothers and there will be less disparity. There will be no one eating without doing any work. All will become ‘carpenters’ and ‘tent makers’.  In that church the believers will be prepared not only to share their wealth but prepared to lay their life for their ‘apostles’ ‘prophets’ ‘teachers’ and ‘elders’. There is a complete surrender by the believer to Jesus.  Here in this church the Chief Executive is the Holy Spirit sent to us by the promise of Jesus as planned by Our Father in heaven. I have the dream of ‘practicing’ this life with my brothers and sisters for the past 20 years for which you abuse me left and right. Out of fear of destroying criticism, I kept my baby in my womb without delivery even after completing the date set by the doctor for a further period of 20 long years.    Have you observed one thing, my bishops and priests of this church did not say a single bad  word about my book because they are still in the hands of the Holy Spirit although the Antiochian filth is tarnishing them and forcing them to conceal certain truths. I will ever remain as the smallest and humblest obedient lamb under them.  Adoption of  ‘Mavelikara Padiyola’ only is expected at this point.  Revival shows that we are not prepared to perish. Allow the good Lord to touch us and see the truth and not the blackened truth. It may not be immediately but in course of time God will bring the change and at that time I will be justified. This message is concealed through out the book “Rebellious House vs Spiritual House”. 

I wanted our Osthathios Thirumeni to write the foreword but the secretary said that the font size of the material should be above 40, a proposition not practicable for a book of 228 pages and said that he is finding it difficult to read for a long time. If ever I handed over the material of this book to you will it come out as “Rebellious House”? If I gave it to Yuhanon Mor Militius Thirumeni, will it come out as ‘Rebellious House”? I thank you because you gave me chance before our people kill me.

When the residents of Heaven, Earth and Hell declare in unequivocal terms that God is the only holy one, we orthodox say against it, is bad practice on our part.  My technical reason is we cannot be holy on earth.  We possess a sinful nature in an earthly body.  We have to physically die to become holy.  We have to abide in Christ until resurrection.  We have to receive a resurrected body.  We have to be presented before God without any blemish.  Even at this stage we cannot be holy. After this our Lord will perfect us.  Then only we are holy. Now we can see the Father. This is the reason why Jesus said “No one has seen the father”.  We Orthodox are holy and seen the God is a fallacy. That is not orthodox faith.  Neither Jesus nor Thomas nor Paul taught us in that fashion. When Jesus says do not call anyone on earth as father, it means that only and no gymnastics with words required. According to me Jesus is God and heavenly Father is my father.

Conferring priesthood is not by putting water on the head.  It is as taught by Moses and it is an elaborate process. Did such a thing take place in the river Jordan? This is our trick to show that Jesus became a priest there and he made all the disciples priests. Some spiritual fathers say that it is returned to God as if a circle is to be completed; it is a lie from ‘your father’;  we should take things from ‘our father’.  It is far from the truth.  Jesus did not become a priest and he did not make a single disciple as priest except the universal priesthood given to all as explained by 1Pe.2:9.  What our priests got is much greater  post; it is Apostleship, greater than the greatest post on earth, below comes the prophet, teacher and the elder. 1Cor:12:28.  Where are the prophets in Orthodox hierarchy?  Read the last chapter.

In order to show the agreement between bride and bridegroom, unholy betrothal of Tamar and Judah could have been avoided. “Who says Tamar is a prostitute”? Who says we worship the cross? Who says we pray to the dead? George Joseph, please ask your conscience.  Betraying the conscience is not orthodoxy. Conscience is one of the executive hands of the Holy Spirit. Let there be little more Jesus in us, I mean “Truth and Grace”.  Yes, Judah did not share the bed with his daughter-in-law but he went to the prostitute that happened to be his daughter-in-law; she accepted the wages for what? Did Perez take birth out of their filthy relationship?  Her husband was not Judah.  Judah was her father-in-law.  A prostitute’s wages agreement with her father-in-law is brought in between the saintly bride and bridegroom for the sake of orthodoxy. You can glorify it because we are orthodox. Glorification of 5 women I did in order to show the lowliness of Jesus, to show the intimate connection Jesus had with the sinners while remaining sinless. When I said in the preface that this is tip of the iceberg and if people reacted positively, I would have brought out innumerable filth baskets hitherto hidden from our mind.  The Holy Spirit only taught me.  Can anyone else claim that professorship? Even our ‘Sabha Vignana kosam’ says that black robe is used only by celibate priests and the occasion is Good Friday. Here priests with children wear black robes for the auspicious wedding. Is it Indian culture?

According to the word of God, we are supposed to remember the dead, we must honor them and we are expected to emulate their example. If all are alive, why did you burry them? This lie irritates the youth. Do you pray to mother Mary? The Orthodox answer is No, we are requesting her to request God.  One of the executive hands of the Holy Spirit is the conscience. Ask your conscience; can you get away with a synonym from an intelligent person?  The technique of dealing with the departed soul is called spiritism. It is a sin.  If we call the dead for anything it is called the medium and it is a sin.  Saul did it and perished; but Samuel the priest, asked a vulnerable question.  Why did you disturb my SLEEP? ‘nidrayil aai ninte varavinu katheedum mrutharil kaniyaname’. Dead saints are in their rest in Christ.  They are not supposed to work. Out of our ignorance we ask them to work; even if we make them work, can they get a reward? No. That is why it is said we will be judged for the actions done while in the body. 2Cor.5:10.  Please do not wake them up. It is a commandment. There are over 630 such commandments in the Bible.  Let them sleep. If you want to pray with them you have to join them, sleep with them and in resurrection both of you can pray together.  If you are talking about intercession, intercede together with the Holy Spirit because he is already doing it for us. If you want to pray for our brothers together with them; do it right now. You cannot go beyond.  Why consult the dead on behalf of the living; (Is: 8:19) their soul and spirit is hidden in Christ until resurrection.  Even if they pray God, for some favor, for their own son or daughter, our God will not grant them. Ez: 14: 14, 18, 20.  You can ask Jesus to do everything for you. He is sitting with the Father. He promised to get everything asked in his name. Our practice should be based on truth and good traditions. A Malayali eating with left hand, until he gets an incurable disease, is advised by a doctor to change his practice.  He will change immediately to right hand and will not argue saying it is my orthodox tradition, I will up hold my orthodox tradition. Our tradition is taught  by St.Thomas, you wanted imported one. Our paramount interest is to get salvation. Read Acts:4:12. If you want material and spiritual wealth ‘knock, seek and ask’ Jesus.  He has promised to give everything if we ask in his name.  Some of our Bishops are known for their arrogance. They must come closer to Jesus. Regarding healing, you have misunderstood the writing.  My intention is,  do not think that the ‘thylabhishekam’ can be done only just before the death.  Earlier than that, when the sick needs the spiritual cure, pray for him so that the sick and the people around him can pray together with the priest and get 100% healing.

While I appreciate your knowledge in our faith and traditions, your ability to get away from your conscience is purely orthodox. Is it required when we deal with godly matters? This attitude chased our youth from us. Let us be frank at least to our children. “Sleebaye nuangal kumbidunnu” is bowing and worshipping. We break the 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd commandments of God at the same time. Your next explanation will be “we are worshipping Lord Jesus”.  By breaking the law you do not worship God.  It is a sin. Next you say I am respecting.  If you see your nursery teacher, you will respect her from the bottom of your heart; but will you prostrate before her? No. Killing the conscience is also a sin. Mahakavi misnamed his book under the influence of Pulikottil, priests have spread the wrong news for the past several decades and the good disciple of Christ became a prostitute among malayalees.  It matters.  Can it be corrected?  I brought the subject to request our priests to desist from further maligning her. Preaching exactly opposite to the writing of the Bible is bad on the part of the preachers. If you like it, have it.

Second part is difficult because the subjects dealt with are hereto unknown to many of us.  They are research papers meant for further study; not for easy reading. But it is true according to the Bible.  If sufficiently not quoted who will believe this layman?

About the holy Bible many have written much and mine is only an addendum not a comprehensive text.  Respect the written word of God is the message. The word is intended to bring the reader closer to the feet of Jesus. As regards the sacraments the statements made are true but the respect and regard for all our sacraments are of utmost importance.  Here, we can boast that we are orthodox. No other denomination can challenge us! Yet Paul says boast in Christ crucified. There is no question of snubbing; it is intended for a person who has been the principal of the Seminary and claiming to be taller than the Everest. “We shall not aspire for any spiritual gifts except love”.  In this single sentence he contradicts two of the statements of Paul.  Love is not a spiritual gift.

Paul says aspire for all the spiritual gifts especially the gift of prophecy. I have to kill my conscience to agree to your view, Read Lk: 10:21.  I have made The Holy Trinity absolutely simple; this is enough for a believer. Of course, more eminent people might have explained in better ways.  May God bless them. Once I had a talk with a great Theologian. He explained vividly about Christology and was satisfied with his discourse.  Finally I asked a question; how did Mary conceive Jesus?  He said who knows?  One verse from Genesis satisfied him. Then he was wonderstruck and asked who taught you? No doubt his discourse was intellectual gymnastics. I am an ordinary man and love simplicity.

Dear George Joseph, I disagree with your conclusion. It is my good experience in the faith and belief of the church that I gained as a Sunday school student. Further as  Sunday school teacher and  preacher. Then as secretary and treasurer repeatedly and convener of projects and my close relationship with the Catholicos’, Bishops and priests and my zealous towards the Holy Bible which resulted in the publication of this book. I am ever indebted to my church, but I want her to be unblemished.  I want all her children to be proud of her. I want them to understand that the very moment “the prodigal son got up from the pigs pen, he was born again. I want them to believe that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ now. I want them to believe all our dead are living in Christ but we are forbidden to get in touch with them; because it is a sin. I do not want to betray their conscience and chase them from our church. Message for the youth is: by telling the truth also we can survive, by listening to the conscience also we can live; no special berth for orthodox can be gained by breaking the law; no entry through the windows; by imitating the life of Jesus we can lead a successful life; Jesus is truth. Believe in Acts: 4:12.

A. V. Thomas.