Reverend Aaron - Arumugam Pillai the first indigenous Pastor in India

- Krupanand P

     Reverend Aaron the first indigenous Pastor ordained by the Lutheran mission at Tranquebar died at Cuddalore, Tamilnadu, India on June 14, 1745.

     The Trade Treaty of Tranquebar, signed in 1620 by Rakunāta Nāyakkar (1600–1634), the ruler of the Kingdom of Tanjore (Tañcāvūr), and Ove Giedde (1594–1660), an admiral of a Danish ship that had stranded near Tranquebar, stipulated that the European inhabitants of Tranquebar had the freedom to practice their ‘Religion of Augsburg,’ namely Lutheranism. Rakunāta Nāyakkar required the Danes to maintain harmonious relationship with the Portuguese inhabitants in his domain. 

     In spite of this agreement, the Danes in Tranquebar did not build a separate building for worship for 80 years. Only in 1701 they dedicated the Zion Church for worship services in Danish and German. Their colonial interest lay in trade with Indians and not in any religious concerns. Their Indian partners and employees were ill disposed towards Christians. The Danes ensured that their Indian traders, soldiers, spies, tax collectors, and other service providers remained satisfied; hence, they refrained from any overt missionary activity.

     The year 1704, however, marked a turning point. King Friedrich IV (167 –1730)  charged his court chaplain Franz Julius Lütkens (1650–1712) to find appropriate missionary candidates. The Danes did not listen to Lütkens’ invitation. Therefore, he looked to his Pietist friends Joachim Lange (1670–1744) and others in Berlin, Germany, who in turn persuaded Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682–1719) and Heinrich Plütschau (1677–1752) to travel to Copenhagen. 

     King Friedrich IV issued the call for missionary work and ordered his Bishop Henrik Bornemann (1693–1710) to ordain these two Germans as missionaries. Consequently, they sailed from Copenhagen in November 1705 and reached Tranquebar on 9 July 1706. There they laid a firm foundation for the emergence of a Tamil Lutheran congregation. Their report on Tamil people, language, culture, religion, and converts, published in Berlin in 1708 attracted much attention in Germany. Its English translation (1709) appealed to few influential Anglicans in London, England.

     Arumugam Pillai was born in 1698 into a Hindu Vellala high caste wealthy family in Cuddalore in the South India state of Tamil Nadu. He was originally named Arumugam Pillai by his father Chokkanatha Pillai a merchant. His father traded with the East India Company, but suffered a great loss and moved his family to Arasapuram. 

     When the Tranquebar Lutheran Mission - the first Protestant mission in India - established a school in front of his house Arumugam was one of the first students at the school to learn from Tamil books printed by the Mission. 

     A teacher named Savarimuthu introduced the teachings of Jesus Christ to Arumugam when he was 19 years old. In 1718 he travelled to Tranquebar where he was baptised and Christened as 'Aaron' by Bartholomaeus Ziegenbaig a pioneer of Protestant missionary in India.

     (The German Missionary, Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (1683-1719) who arrived in India in 1706 , had deep respect for the Tamil people, their culture, and their traditions left an enduring impact upon south India and had far-reaching influence. 

     By the time William Carey, the celebrated English Baptist missionary often called the Father of the Modern Missionary Movement," arrived in Calcutta in 1793, evangelical Christianity in India was nearly a century old. Almost every missionary method that he later developed had already been tried—by a Pietist Lutheran in Tranquebar.)

      The new young believer Aaron stood steadfast in his faith despite the opposition shown by his family members. He studied Bible in Tamil Theological School and soon was appointed as an assistant catechist at New Jerusalem Church in Tranquebar.

     Aaron had a deep burden for his people and used to travel long distances to preach the gospel. He visited and proclaimed the gospel in Poralyar, Sirkali, and Sandirpadi in Tamil Nadu. 

     Impressed by his zeal for ministry, the German Lutheran Missionaries ordained him as a minister on 28 December, 1733. He became the first non-European to be ordained as a pastor. Aaron had four daughters and one of them married  Devasahayam Pillai and their daughter married John Devasahayam who was ordained in 1896 as the first Indian Anglican priest. 

     Aaron was a man with good communication skills. His inter-personal relationships enabled him to provide spiritual comfort to the locals and ministerial insights to the Europeans. He became the main link between the Tamil people and European missionaries. 

     He stood out as a man of great courage, integrity and wisdom. He didnt shy away from conflicts but faced them boldly and solved them at ease. He reasoned with local people and made efforts to end the abusive and evil social practices.

    Though his ministry was not of long duration, he earned the respect and love of both the Hindus and Christians in the regions he served. He had labored for eleven years, even after his health failed, winning hundreds to Christ. He died on June 14, 1745.

     During his short lived ministry he built a strong reputation as a man of courage and integrity. He was mourned by both Hindus and Christians. 

https://books.google.co.in/books?id=dbq6fkyp698C&pg=PA54&lpg=PA54&dq=aaron+the+first+Protestant+preacher+in+india&source=bl&ots=jVeL1Nf1Sb&sig=ACfU3U1EyDxtT_N1oQHx8FLw0TKiUvMtzA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGzLnLj5XxAhUGT30KHcXfA0UQ6AEwGnoECCYQAg#v=onepage&q=aaron%20the%20first%20Protestant%20preacher%20in%20india&f=false

https://onewaytheonlyway.com/aaron-arumugam-pillai/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/freed_by-aaron_0.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjGzLnLj5XxAhUGT30KHcXfA0UQFjADegQIDBAC&usg=AOvVaw19VQIjfDYbZu19LsU3MgvS&cshid=1623610808162

Book summary on Dealing With Sin in Our Children by Arthur Hildersham

     Some time ago I stumbled across the writings of the Puritans and for several years their work formed the staple of my reading. Centuries after they put pen to paper, their insights into human nature struck a chord with me and changed the way I understood sin and the grace of God forever.

     Of course, as a home-educating mother, I was incredibly excited when my two interests intersected and the Puritans had something to say about children!

Arthur Hildersham’s 29-page booklet, ‘Dealing with Sin in Our Children’ ticked both of these boxes. His work is an exhortation to parents to do their utmost to work grace in their children and to use the means that God has made available to us. I have returned to it a number of times and would love to encourage you with his main points:

The Motives

     Why should parents have a particular concern for the souls of their children? Firstly, because we love them and in justice, we are ‘bound to make amends for the wrong we have done them’. Our children’s sin is inherited from us and when we wrong somebody, we are required to do what we can to right this.

Secondly, we will be hugely comforted to know that our children have had their sinful nature healed and that they have been redeemed. Children who are regenerated will be much more loving towards their parents than those who are not. Moreover, their regeneration can be a testimony ‘of the truth and soundness of grace in us.’

The Duty

     Although our children do not ultimately belong to us but to the Lord, Hildersham’s challenge is that parents are charged with the souls of their children. He writes,

‘No minister is more straitly charged of God to teach and catechize his flock than you are to instruct your children…None have such opportunities to instruct and bring others to goodness as parents have.’

On a grander scale, ‘the hope of God’s church and the propagation of religion unto posterity depends principally upon parents taking care to make their children religious.’

The Means

Hildersham directs parents in the use of the means God has given us:

- We must be careful to maintain authority over our children. We instruct our children by teaching them to know God when they are young, by making them acquainted with the practice of reading the Bible, prayer, giving thanks at mealtimes, and singing the Psalms, by taking them with us to church, and by testing them about what they have heard.

- We are to set a good example for our children. Our children should realize from our conversations that we fear God and that we love good things. Hildersham notes, ‘domestic examples, especially the example of parents, is of more force with their children to do them either good or harm than all other examples are’.

- We carefully watch over where our children go when they leave home. We pay attention to which schoolmasters and tutors we send them to as well as which ‘services’ and marriages we place them in.

- The final means which is the key to the first four points is that of prayer (Judges 13:8). We must earnestly pray for our children.

     Hildersham wraps up with the encouragement that although he cannot assure parents that using these means will necessarily bring forth fruit in each one of our children, that: ‘None have more cause to expect and, with patience, to wait for a blessing from God in the use of the means of grace towards any than you have towards your children because of the promises God made to you concerning your children (see Genesis 17:7, Psalm 22:29-30 and Isaiah 44:3). The fruit of your labor may appear hereafter, though it does not yet, as experience has proved in many good men’s children who for a long time lived most ungraciously.’

     This booklet is an encouragement to me to continue the means that the Lord has directed, to work in faith expecting fruit, and to trust that whatever the ultimate outcome, I please the Lord by being faithful to do my duty.

Source link: Dealing With Sin in Our Children by Arthur Hildersham

Augustus Toplady joins the cry with Apostle Paul — "oh wretched man that I am!"

     Augustus Toplady (1740-1778) (author of "Rock of Ages"), wrote in his private diary under Dec 31, 1767 — "Upon a review of the past year, I desire to confess that my unfaithfulness has been exceeding great; my sins still greater; God's mercies greater than both." And again, "My short- comings, and my mis-doings, my unbelieve and want of love, would sink me into the lowest hell, was not Jesus my righteousness and my Redeemer."

(The Christian in Roman 7 written by Arthur W. Pink)

A short review on Mrs. Hutchinson's work and Her Teaching

     Mrs. Hutchinson regarded as a Puritan born in the reign of James 1, 1620. She wrote 2 books called “On the Principles of the Christian Religion” and “of Theology”. The 1^st of these was written specifically for her daughter, and for a most practical purpose. She gave instruction that women should take particular care lest they be led away into errors.

     Mrs. Hutchinson wrote her book, rather than simply recommending others to her daughter, because she wanted it to stand as a personal witness of all she regarded as of vital importance if her daughter was to lay a foundation of “sound knowledge for the building of a holy practice.”

 

     While ever seeking to direct her daughter’s gaze upward to dwell on the majesty of God and the glory of Christ, Mrs. Hutchinson is equally concerned that she shall always do this through Scripture, the authority of which is unequivocally stated; and the book contains a solemn warning that “Christ is, in the Gospel, held forth to men to be received as their life and salvation, and they that seek a Christ anywhere but where God exhibits Him, that is, His own authorised Word, may find Christ of their own inventions, but shall never find the Christ of God, the alone Saviour of men.”

 

     The book includes a number of warnings, and among these are admonitions against people who would reject the Old Testament as of no use to believers, or who would preach that anyone once justified can fall into an unjustified state. In the controversy over the order of justification and sanctification, we are told neither can be without the other though “justification is perfect and complete, being by faith received and given us in Christ; but sanctification, being derived from Christ to us, and wrought in our souls, is perfected in the body by degrees, and admits of growth and remissions and intentions.”   Mrs. Hutchinson disputes with ministers who deny the preparatory work of convincing men they are sinners and who preach only the love of Christ, the grounds of her objection being that Scripture shows “that Christ and His apostles used the other method.” Consideration of the biblical meaning of faith also leads to a further warning that “he that receives Christ by a true saving faith, receives whole Christ in all His offices, and as well submit to Him as a King, as embraces Him as a Saviour. . . .”

 

     Love is the last vital truth which the book presents, and it is declared that none truly love God but those who love God only; and constantly; and for Himself more than for His blessings. He that loves God loves all things that are His, all those that love Him, and all His ordinances and His word. But although this consideration of “love” concludes the “foundation truths” of the book, Mrs. Hutchinson goes on at once to enumerate what she regards as the most essential principles for Christian living since, as she reminds her daughter, “to know all the truths and mysteries of Godliness, without living in and according to that knowledge, will be less excusable than ignorance.”

 

…

     She accuses the Greek poets in particular of mingling traditions with their own fables, and vestiges of truth concerning God with the worship of false gods, until it was impossible for men with blinded minds to pick out one from another, and they were led into all sorts of pernicious errors and abominations, and to worship a multitude of gods.

 

    By these means, therefore, Mrs. Hutchinson maintains that all men’s efforts to arrive at true knowledge of God not only proved hopeless, but led them to catastrophe. But, she declares at last, “God, from the foundation of the world, determined that, in His appointed time, a light should break forth to the Gentiles that sat in darkness. . . .”

    Her work in this book also explains clearly how natural theology gives the knowledge of creator in 1^st place (that they are without excuse Rom 1) and how it deviates them to create and worship multitude of gods. She stressed the importance of written Word of God (The Bible) through which only we can come to the knowledge of God.

 

Puritan Papers (Vol 1) - J.I. Packer (Pp 82-95)

Authority of the Bible 

Feed my Sheep || Sunday Worship || R C Sproul

A faithful ministry doesn't entertain goats; it feeds the sheep.

The sad reality is that many churches today are valuing entertainment over exegesis, results over regeneration, and peace with the world over the proclamation of the word.

Yet, Christ is clear: the church's mission is to make disciples. That is, to evangelize the lost and encourage and edify the saints. Too many have lost sight of this in the name of growing a bigger church. But, it is not a big church that pleases Christ, but a faithful one. May we all turn back to the word and, as Luther said, let it do its work. For, where the word is faithfully preached, the Holy Spirit faithfully attends with all of His graces, causing the dead to live and further strengthening the faith of the redeemed.

"The saints, the holy ones, those called out from the world assemble together on Sunday mornings to be fed. We are to do evangelism, engage in outreach, and be involved in ministries of mercy, but Sunday morning belongs to the sheep. It is the task of the pastor and of the church to feed the sheep. If someone who is not a sheep comes in, that's fine, but we're not going to change the menu and give the sheep goat's food... Babies have almost no influence in a culture. Before they can turn the world upside down, they have to grow up, they have to become mature, and that happens as they are fed the Word of God. Nothing less will do. Notice that when Jesus spoke to Peter, He did not say, 'Peter, if you love Me, feed the goats.' Neither did He say, 'Peter, take care of your flock; feed your sheep.' He said, 'Feed My sheep, feed My lambs, tend My sheep.'"

— R.C. Sproul

Undeserved Blessing Deuteronomy 9

Deut 9:4–5

4 “You shall not say to yourself when Yahweh your God is driving them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness Yahweh brought me to take possession of this land’; but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh is driving them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness and because of the uprightness of your heart that you are coming to take possession of their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations Yahweh your God is driving them before you, and in order to confirm the promise that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 

     HE now more plainly warns the people not to exalt themselves in proud and foolish boasting. 

     "Speak not thou in thine heart" is equivalent to reflecting or conceiving an opinion. 

Wherefore Moses not only reproves the boasting of the lips, but the hidden arrogance, wherewith men are puffed up, when they take to themselves the praise which is due to GOD.   Moreover, he not only prohibits them from ascribing it to their own valour, that they had rooted their enemies, and gained possession of the land, but also from imagining that this was the just recompense of their merits.

     Moses does not forbid the people from thinking that they had themselves acquired the land without GOD's aid; nay, he takes it for granted that they themselves will acknowledge that it was by GOD's help that they were victorious; but he is not contented with this limited gratitude unless they at the same time acknowledge that they had deserved nothing of the kind, and therefore that it was a mere and gratuitous act of HIS bounty. 

     Note the reason given in the second clause, the nations were driven out (of Caanan) on account of their own wickedness; 

HE transferred the Land from the Reprobate to those whom HE had chosen graciously (unconditional election). There remains nothing to boast but to say "For by Grace, we are saved".

     Total Depravity - They don't desire GOD. They were naturally perverse and rebellious. They don't choose GOD. For they are 'Stiff-necked' people. 

     'Stiff-necked' - this metaphor is taken from 'oxen', which are useless unless untill they are accustomed to bend their necks; it is then the same as saying that they were not only unsubmissive, but that in their obstinancy they shook off the yoke. 

     Hence, it sufficiently appears that there was no room for merits. If so, then GOD's covenant would have been nullified. (Promise given to their forefathers were found on mere grace of GOD.)

     Now if in regard to an earthly inheritance GOD so greatly exalts HIS mercy, what must we think of the heavenly inheritance? HE would have it attributed to HIMSELF alone, that the children of Israel possess the land of Canaan; how much less, then will HE tolerate the obtrusion of men's merits in order to the acquisition of Heaven? Nor is there anything in the pretense of the Papists that they attribute the first place to GOD's bounty; because HE claims altogether for HIMSELF what they would share with HIM. 

     But if any object that this was only said to HIS ancient people, I reply, that we are no better than they. Let each retire to HIMSELF, and HE will not excuse the hardness of the neck. 

     But they who are regenerated by GOD' SPIRIT, know that they are not naturally formed unto obedience; and thus that it is only mercy which makes them differ from worst of men.

Deut 9:6-7

“So you should understand that it is not because of your righteousness that Yahweh your God is giving you this good land to take possession of it, because you are a stubborn people. Remember, do not forget, that you provoked Yahweh your God in the desert, and from the day that you went out from the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were rebelling against Yahweh.

(Selected from John Calvin's Complete Commentary)

Matthew Poole’s English Annotations on the Bible on Deuteronomy 9:4 ~ 

     Neither for thy upright heart, nor holy life, which are the two things which God above all things regards, 

1 Chron. 29:17

, 

Ps. 15:1–2

; and consequently he excludes all merit. And surely they who did not deserve this earthly Canaan, could not merit the kingdom of glory. That he may perform the word which he sware; to show my faithfulness in accomplishing that promise which I graciously made and confirmed with my oath. By which words it is implied, that this land was not given to them for the righteousness of their fathers, though they were righteous and holy persons, and much less for their own righteousness, which they had not, as it follows.

Immortal Till Work Done

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. (Psalm 118:17)

     A fair assurance this! It was no doubt based upon a promise, inwardly whispered in the psalmist's heart, which he seized upon and enjoyed. Is my case like that of David? Am I depressed because the enemy affronts me? Are there multitudes against me and few on my side? Does unbelief bid me lie down and die in despair-a defeated, dishonored man? Do my enemies begin to dig my grave?

     What then? Shall I yield to the whisper of fear, and give up the battle, and with it give up all hope? Far from it. There is life in me yet: "I shall not die." Vigor will return and remove my weakness: "I shall live." The Lord lives, and I shall live also. My mouth shall again be opened: "I shall declare the works of Jehovah." Yes, and I shall speak of the present trouble as another instance of the wonder-working faithfulness and love of the Lord my God. Those who would gladly measure me for my coffin had better wait a bit, for "the Lord hath chastened me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death." Glory be to His name forever! I am immortal till my work is done. Till the Lord wills it, no vault can close upon me.