Remembering the Apostle of India

"Christianity is talking face to face with the Almighty God with authority. We should be able to guide the people," said D.G.S. Dhinakaran in one of his past sermons. He was called “the apostle of his age to India.” As an evangelist, Dhinakaran touched the lives of millions in his country and around the world. Thousands of people from different backgrounds and even religions came to his funeral in Chennai, India. CBN was honored to partner with Dhinakaran. "We are very thankful for the opportunity to know him and work along side of him," said the director of CBN Asia, Ron Oates. "We thank you for the life of D.G.S. Dhinakaran. We thank you that through his ministry the name of Jesus has been raised up throughout this country." D.G.S. Dhinakaran founded the Jesus Calls Ministries after he had a vision of Christ in 1962. Then in 1986, he started a university called the First Christian Engineering College in India. It was around this time that Pat Robertson met Dhinakaran. Pat remembers, "He became a dear friend... he and his son, Paul, and his wife and their family. I was with him ministering. We had 500,000 people in attendance. He had pretty much set up that meeting, and I spoke on a Saturday night. We probably had 300,000 people accept the Lord. It was really marvelous." In March of 2000, Dhinakaran came to Pat’s re-ordination at Regent University. "He was a man who walked with Jesus, and he had many prophetic words. So it was always a treat to be with him, and to hear what he felt God was saying about this country, about India, about the world, about the coming of the Lord, and all these things," says Pat. "He liked to sing. He wasn’t a very good singer, but he liked to sing, and lead people in singing. He had a very humble, laid back approach. He wasn’t fiery and dynamic or anything, but he was very quiet. He had an annointing of the Lord that the Indian people responded to," he continues. "I’ll miss the fact that he was there. He was always encouraging me. He’d send these wonderful letters like, ‘The Lord spoke these words,’ and so forth. And here would be this prophesy he would send. But it was just a delight to know him. I just loved him. He was one of those where you know you have a dear friend, and he was a dear friend."