The Story of the Doctrinites - Short Story

The Meeting

Jairaj and Suraj met one day when Jairaj moved into the neighborhood. They were neighbors in a little countryside town, with sprawling green lawns and exotic pretty flowers and white bungalows.  They were both happy to know that they were both were of the same faith.

"Great!" exclaimed Suraj, "You must come home for tea; it is wonderful to have you for a neighbor.  I have members in my congregation here too, but they live quite far, not in the neighborhood!"

Jairaj replied "Me too, glad to have you as a neighbor, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever find a good neighbor because I have travelled so much and shifted houses, and frankly, I am looking forward to having a believer as a neighbor after a long time!"

They often met in each other's homes while their wives would make coffee and enjoy a good discussion, or even sometimes met for dinner.

Suraj was a pastor of a church and soon asked Jairaj to join their church, which was a solid Bible-believing church and Jairaj and family agreed to join. 

One day, as they were drinking tea out in Suraj's lawn, Suraj happened to mention, "The days are very evil, I shudder to think of the Christians who will suffer on earth during the tribulation!"

Jairaj replied, "But the believers in Christ will not be on the earth during the tribulation, they will be raptured up!"

Suraj replied, "Many will be on earth for a great part of the tribulation."

Jairaj shook his head and said, "I have yet to see that verse in the Bible which clearly mentions it."

Suraj replied sharply, "And I have yet to see the verse that mentions that all the believers will be raptured together in one time."

Jairaj replied, " Corinthians 15:52: We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." And we the believers will be transformed to receive glorified bodies and rise up in the air, and the dead will rise up with new bodies."

Suraj kept silent for a moment and said gruffly, "These are all theories, and I don't agree with that."

Jairaj did not want to argue further so there was an uncomfortable silence and finally he left for home.

The next day, they talked with each other, but it was clear that their relations were strained.  Suraj's wife suggested, "Let's call Jairaj and family for dinner, it is clear that his doctrines are muddled, and perhaps you can expound some doctrines and teach him more clearly."

Suraj brightened up and said, "Great idea, we'll get them for dinner!"

On Saturday night as they were enjoying a sumptuous dinner together in Suruaj house, Suraj mentioned,  "All the power is in the Word, without the Word, there is no power in anything we do.  Jesus said I am the bread of Life, the Word, we need to meditate on the Word all the time to have spiritual power."

Jairaj interrupted, "This is true, but I also think the power lies in the Spirit, we need the power of the Holy Spirit all the time.  We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit as believers.  He is the one who empowers us, and sometimes we may forget the Word or may not always carry our Bibles, but the Spirit is always with us.  Jesus said I am giving you the Holy Spirit because I am going away.  It is also written, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life!"

Suraj interrupted, "The Word is more important than anything else.  We automatically get the Spirit when we are saved and read the Word.  It is the duty of every Christian to know the Bible cover to cover, no excuses, the spirit can be subjective, but the word is objective!"

Jairaj said sharply, "I agree we should know our Bibles, but some Christians know their Bibles cover to cover, but are still mean and petty minded!"

Suraj said, "Nonsense, this can never happen!"

Jairaj said, "All believers need the baptism of the Spirit to serve in God in the Kingdom."

Suraj replied sharply, "We automatically get the Holy Spirit on our salvation."

Jairaj replied, "The Bible teaches of the saved believers who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit later on."

The Battle

Suddenly for the first time, a sharp argument interjected, and they argued and argued quite bitterly into the night.  In fact, their wives and children were quite embarrassed with the fierce battle of words.

Jairaj left his biryani on the plate half eaten, and the children stopped eating due to the tension in the air.  After around 45 minutes, Jairaj stood up and said to Suraj "I have to go!"

He and his family left and there was a still cold silence in Suraj's house.  No one slept that night.  The unpleasant argument had shaken up both homes, wives and children.

The next day, Jairaj happened to be in his garden watering the lawn and noticed Suraj sitting on the lawn reading.  The two men viewed each other coldly over the little wicket fence.  .A few days later, Suraj got some men to build a high brick wall around his home!

Jairaj stared at brick wall coming up and shook his head.

Jairaj immediately left Suraj's church and started his own Bible study at home.   He actually gathered a lot of people around the area.  Jairaj' Bible study was very effective.

When Suraj found out about that, he quickly spread word around the church that Jairaj was a heretic, did not believe in the Bible and only in subjective spiritual experiences, and everyone should avoid him.

Soon, the church members of Suraj's church shunned Jairaj and his family completely.  They would see Jairaj walking on the road and would quickly walk on the other side.  If they saw Jairaj in the supermarket, they quickly turned around and disappeared in another part of the supermarket and some of them actually walked out.  After all, who wants to be associated with a heretic?  Certainly not them!

The group of Jairaj's Bible study grew and were called Spiritites because they believed in the gifts and the power of the Holy Spirit.  In fact, the Spirites were were effective and powerful, filled with the fire of the Holy Ghost.  The group of Suraj's church' name was changed to be called Wordites.  The groups became stronger and over time grew into two huge denominations.

One day Jairaj came across a website, it was a website made by Suraj called Wordites.  The entire website spoke against the Spiritites and calling the Spiritites heretics and this website was set up to "expose"the Spiritites' heresy and theories.

When Jairaj saw this, he was furious.  In the meantime, the Wordite denomination members joined this tirade, furious and wrathful against the "heresy" of Jairaj.

Suraj started teaching that connection with other Christians would corrupt his church.  So basically, the Wordites just lived and communicated among themselves and were terrified if they ever spoke to any other Christian afraid of being polluted.

The Wordites slowly lost their original fire for God and got caught up in the battle against the Spirities, tired exhausted and burned out...they stopped praying much. In fact prayer was fading out of their lives.  In the bargain, the Spiritites were being attacked spiritually, and got worn out in the spiritual battles, and could not pray effectuatively.  They realized it was a spiritual attack, but they did not seem to be able to do much and collapsed.

In the meantime, something new started happening.  People of other faiths rose up strong, got up at dawn praying, and suddenly the world was filled with people of different faiths whose faith was very strong in what they believed in. Their temples and mosques were full and overflowing and they were having quite a mighty revival among themselves.

In contrast, the Wordites and Spiritites were getting weak, exhausted in their growing petty battles, ineffective and hardly prayed at all.  They just kept having more and more Bible studies, teaching, teaching, teaching, or praying prayers with a lot of asking and wanting but hardly talked to God or worshiped Him.  Nothing much happened and no one came to know God because there was always war in their hearts.

Now, even among themselves in their own denominations, they would have further discussions among themselves and break into tinier groups and fragments.  There was so much strife within themselves and in their own groups.

In the little town, all the little groups were split up, arguing about some doctrine or the other and they started ignoring the others who did not agree with them, not speaking to them and turning their backs on them, warning others not to speak to anyone who begged to disagree in fear of spiritual pollution and excommunication.

One Winter's Night

One cold winter night, they heard a powerful airplane flying very low over their town…. The next moment, the town was in a sea of roaring fire, smoke and chars.  An enemy from their neighboring country had dropped a bomb hitting the town!

Horrified, they realized many people in the town were killed in the tragedy.  Most of the town beautiful country houses were destroyed, the water pipes burst, water was a scarcity, medicine was nil, and help was far away.  It was war!

The bomb was dropped by an enemy!

As people were dying around them.  There was weeping, wailing, screams and cries. 

Jairaj saw Suraj' house in flames and heard terrible screams.  He rushed to Suraj's house and saw Suraj's wife and children outside, but Suraj inside surrounded by flames, semi conscious.

Jairaj called out, "Suraj, take my hand!"  Suraj looked at Jairaj outstretched hand and took it and Jairaj pulled Suraj out, who was choking in the thick swirling smoke.  He put him on the lawn.  Suraj collapsed unconscious, and Jairaj resuscitated him and eventually, Suraj started to cough and get up.

Suraj realised that Jairaj had saved his life and he was overcome with gratitude.

As people were dying around them.  There was weeping, wailing, screams and cries.  In that pain and sorrow, everyone suddenly became closer and more compassionate.  There was a doctor in the group of the Wordites.  The whole town needed that doctor's help for the dying and wounded.  He had the medicines stacked in his home clinic. It happened that a member of the Spiritites had a godown (warehouse) stacked with food and bottles of water, as he was a shop owner in the local market.  He shared water and any food or commodities from his warehouse.

In that heartbreaking realization, the Spiritites and Wordites were forced to help each other and other people in the town sharing food, water and assisting with medical help.

They realized they would need to work together to build trenches as fast as they could because now there was a war.

In this war, as they reached out a helping hand to each other, something wonderful happened within them, a warm ball of fire lit up their hearts with joy.

That night, they jettisoned to the realization that they were very similar except that they placed emphasis on different things as they way they understood.

They finally realized that the greatest enemy was outside, Satan, and also within themselves, their pride.  The greatest enemies are not people.

Suraj learned that to view other believers as heretic when they actually read the Bible is cultic and dangerous. Suraj with horror realized that they were heading towards becoming a cult because they had no tolerance for other Christians and on the whole ignored them, and avoided interaction with contemporary believers of other churches.  Suraj repented of his attitude.

That night, the bomb used by Satan to destroy them had backfired in Satan's plan and conquered in God's purposes by uniting them and causing them to fall down on their knees and pray and pray and pray.

As Jairaj said "The Word of God was like a glittering diamond with many dimensions of Truth, so deep, that we humans sometimes fail to understand its depths or catch it's glitter, so we end up arguing about the different dimensions of Truths that we receive  Scripture is simple and powerful.  Let scripture interpret itself to us through God's Spirit to our hearts simply, instead of being influenced by different doctrine teachers over the centuries who want to sway us to their way of seeing things."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Now, with this new acceptance, love, and repentance within their own hearts, something wonderful was happening, revival was beginning its first flickers of fire…

 ******************************************************************************************************

In the light of eternity, perspectives change and our pettiness fades away!

2 Timothy 2:23:  Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.

Doctrine does not define us but Christ within us!  This is a story of how doctrine divides and breaks up believers in fragments – a plan of the enemy…Scripture is simple and powerful.  Let scripture interpret itself to us through God's Spirit to our hearts simply, instead of being influenced by different doctrine teachers over the centuries who want to sway us to their way of seeing things.  

In the beginning when the world began, the Word was given to the people who followed the Creator.  They followed Truth simply and obeyed.  Later, they interpreted it in the light of their own minds, rejecting many things they could not accept in their understanding.  They wanted to accept some truth and reject some truth, and this was the cause of all the turmoil in the Christian church, which threads down to our times now.

Psalm 133:1-3 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!  It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;  Psa 133:3  As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing even life for evermore.  Peace and harmony and love between believers of different demolitions is essential to bring healing, revival, blessing and touch the hurting world through the power of His presence and the power of His Living Word. 

© Rita Farhat Kurian