TIRL’s New Year’s message

Tue Jan 14, 2013

We, the members of the Thusian Institute for Religious Liberty (TIRL) Inc, extend our warmest greeting of grace and peace to you for 2014. We also express our sympathy to all who have been affected by the devastating flood of December 24, 2013.{{more}}

As we look back, the evidence has shown that the crime situation in our country for 2013 has been alarming, with an apparent increase in violent, gun-related and gruesome crimes, the causes of which include: un-conversion of the majority of the population, uncontrollable passions of persons, extreme lust for money, extreme selfishness, love for violence (promoted by movies and songs), disrespect for the rights of men and increase in irreligiousness or turning away from and hatred for God.

As we face a new year, let us seek the Almighty God to give us a clean heart and renewed spirit (according to Psalm 51), which gives us a new purpose towards Him and towards our fellowmen by His grace. In order to address this problem of crime and violence effectively, there is a need for education on inalienable rights and freedoms in our schools, government ministries, businesses and prisons. Inalienable means that your rights come from God. They do not come from man, nature, the legislature or a majority, while inviolable means that they are not to be violated. We urge you to embrace this education to learn about your Creator, from whose hands come the rights and freedoms of all, which must be respected by all. The same Creator has rights to which you ought to submit, namely the right to be worshipped as God alone, the right to reveal truths to all and the right to be the Judge of all. He has also endowed all human beings everywhere with the inalienable right to religious liberty, to life and to private property. God also gave man freedoms which are freedom of thought, belief, opinion, conscience, choice, expression, speech and movement, all of which is for our happiness as we move about from place to place without fear of being attacked or speaking honest words without facing persecution.

Respecting rights and freedoms is bound up in love for our fellowmen according to Romans 13: 8-10 – “Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

We all need the love of God which is the foundation of genuine and lasting neighbourliness.

In 2014, we at the TIRL will continue our radio and television programmes. We are also in the final stages of producing three human rights textbooks called YES YOU HAVE RIGHTS (BOOK 1,2 and 3) for better relations in our schools, government ministries, businesses and prisons. May God grant you His mercies for a rights-friendly 2014. Happy New Year!