Whose God is Stronger?

“I worship the true God, who is alive. He answered my prayer."

It was a sunny and hot Friday in June at the Jouthokhamar church—located beside the Adventist Hill Tracts School & Seminary (AHTSS) in Bangladesh. Nearby was a big Hindu temple. A Hindu priest lived in the temple and worshiped the idols every morning and evening.

Mr. Binod Joti Tripura was one of the school and church workers, and he was in charge of looking after that particular church. On this particular Friday morning, he went with the students to the village. When they returned to the church, they saw that someone had occupied the church’s land and had put a fence around it!

Mr. Tripura and the students tried to pull it out. Suddenly, the Hindu priest came out of his temple and started shouting at them. Then the priest started to curse Jesus, saying that He was an illegitimate son and a false prophet and called Him obscen names. Mr. Tripura and the students told him to stop using such terrible language against God.

No One to Save You

The priest became so angry with Mr. Tripura that he promised to kill him that night, “and there is no one on earth,” he said, “who can save you from my hand.”

Mr. Tripura had a lot of faith and replied, “My God is a living God. I’m sure that He is going to punish you before sunset tomorrow night. There’s no one in the world who can save you from my Almighty God’s hand.”

Many of the villagers were there, and they all heard this conversation. They knew that the Hindu priest was a powerful man, and believed that he had power from a goddess. They believed that if he wanted to, he could destroy a man’s life any time, so the villagers were afraid of him.

The village people were sure that Mr. Tripura would be killed by the Hindu priest that night. Early the next morning (Sabbath), the villagers came back to see the dead body; instead, they found him very much alive.

An Early Morning Surprise

“Why are you all here at my house so early in the morning?” Mr. Tripura asked the crowd.

“Sir,” they replied, “we love you as our neighbor, and we couldn’t sleep the whole night because we were worried about you. We thought you’d be dead by morning, so we came to pay our respects.”

“I worship a God who is living and powerful,” Mr. Tripura told them. “You’ll see the results today before sunset. He (the Hindu priest) will by punished by my God.”

“How?” asked the crowd.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Tripua replied, “but I believe that God will punish him today (Sabbath).

The students and staff decided to have a special fasting day that Sabbath. They praised God through music and a series of Bible readings and special time of prayer. “Oh Lord, we praise your name and surrender ourselves to Your feet. Please forgive our sins and accept our prayers. Lord, you know everything that has happened with the Hindu priest. We believe that you are the living God. Please show your mighty power so that the people will realize that our God is a living and Almighty God.”

A Little Cloud

They prayed to God many hours during that hot day. Finally, at 3:00 p.m. they saw a little cloud in the sky, but still they didn’t know how God was going to punish the Hindu priest.

After a while it started raining. Everyone was afraid—they realized that lightning would strike somewhere. Finally, they saw lightning strike the Hindu temple twice within five minutes. The temple started to burn and all the idols were broken down. Mr. Tripura and the students realized that it was the answer to their prayers.

The Hindu priest was really afraid, so he came and asked Mr. Tripura for forgiveness for his misdeeds against him as well as God. He forgave him completely, and the storm stopped within five or ten minutes.

Now that the rain stopped, the villagers came to see the burnt temple and broken idols of the Hindu priest. They said to Mr. Tripura, “Sir, we knew that you are a great magician. You have defeated the Hindu priest, a powerful man, by your great magic.”

“I’m really not a magician,” Mr. Tripura told the crowd. “I worship the true God, who is alive. He answered my prayer. God is Almighty and powerful. There’s nothing that God can’t do for us. Believe in Him. If we believe, then God will save us and fight against our enemies.”