Text: Rev 3:7-13
I bring you greetings from Life Bible-Presbyterian Church and Far Eastern Bible College, Singapore on this glorious occasion of the dedication of Vancouver B-P Church (Jan 2, 99). How beautifully is she decked like a bride to meet the Bridegroom today, even our Lord Jesus Christ. I marvel to see how this house has been totally transformed to such perfection for the Master's use. All glory be to the Lord.
When I was invited to speak at the Inauguration of this Church, the message which our Lord gave to Philadelphia , the sixth Church in Asia , came to mind. You are the sixth global B-P Church to arise after Perth , Melbourne , Toronto , London and Sydney . You are like Philadelphia .
There is a saying, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first" (Matt 19:30 ). From my involvement with these six global B-P Churches, you are first in your speedy development. Not only in development but in the strategic location God has given you on this Vancouver-Toronto Highway . Praise the Lord for your shining JESUS SAVES sign that points many a lost traveller to the only Saviour.
The Lord Jesus has opened you a door that no man can shut. In the words of St Paul it is "a great door and effectual" (I Cor 16:9) and this door is the door of Polemical Witness. To the Church of Philadelphia Jesus says, "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee" (Rev 3:9). Evidently, there is a contest between the Church of Philadelphia , a branch of the true Church of Jesus Christ and this false Church of Satan . So in our day there is also a contest between every true Church of God and Satan's Church.
During the 16th Century Reformation, the contest between the True Church of God and the Church of Satan gave rise to the Protestant Church . So in our days the 20th Century Reformation has given birth to the International Council of Christian Churches in our contention with the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Movement. We Bible-Presbyterians are a member of the ICCC and we bear a polemical witness against those apostate Protestant Churches that are going back to Rome . We are spiritual descendants of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Zwingli and Knox. We have no truck with the Ecumenical Movement of the World Council of Churches. The two ECT documents 1994 and 97, signed between Ecumenical American Evangelical leaders and the Roman Catholics which declare Evangelicals and Catholics are the same in stand and doctrine are treatises of treason against our Protestant Faith.
We are Bible-Presbyterians to denote that we remain faithful to the Bible which the Ecumenicals have twisted to suit their own ends. We revere the Bible to be the infallible and inerrant Word of God. In accordance with His Word we take a separatist stand against the Ecumenical Movement which is to reunite not only with Rome but with all human religions. But our Lord excludes them all when He says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (Jn 14:6).
We also uphold the King James Bible, the Queen of English translations against the hundred new versions but are perversions leaning on the corrupt text of Westcott and Hort. When the International Council of Christian Churches met in Amsterdam at its 50th Anniversary, August 1998, she passed a Resolution for the King James Bible against all the corrupt new translations. Let Vancouver Church stand together with our hundred B-P Churches and with the International Council of Christian Churches in 100 countries around the world to testify to the one and only Saviour and Great God, our Lord Jesus Christ. In obedience to His Word that we should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints, the Lord has opened us this Door of Polemical Witness that no man can shut. And let us press on the fight not only against the Ecumenical movement but also for the KJB against the 100 perversions into the 21st Century. We BPs are indeed vanguards of the 21st Century Reformation!
Secondly, the Lord has opened to Philadelphia and Vancouver a Door of Faithful Teaching. "For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name" (Rev 3:8). If we have the Faithful Word richly to impart, our Church will automatically grow.
But this is a day of famine for hearing of God's Word according to Amos 8:11, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD." How can we remedy this situation? O that there will arise amongst us someone called of God, young or not so young. In America there is a vogue of changing jobs in middle age. There is no greater change of vocation to leave the secular for the ecclesiastical. Instead of serving the world, let us serve the Lord.
I have at Far Eastern Bible College several in their forties and fifties who have felt the call of God. One in the mid-fifties who is a pharmacist with a Master's in Business Administration was recently retrenched. Though he found another job, he yielded rather to the study of theology with my encouragement. He testifies, "In my principal's words, I'm no more counting pills but rather counting the souls of men." What a glorious promotion. In less than two years he would be graduating. Is any in our midst here willing to step out and train for holy orders? "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (Isa 6:8).
Our Door of Faithful Teaching must be kept open by a steady stream of trained workers for the far flung harvest fields, not the least Canada . "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest" (Matt 9:37 ,38). We have few workers. Is that because we never asked God? We have prayed, but half-heartedly? O Lord, as you called the early disciples to continue your work on earth, so raise up someone from our midst to serve as pastor and teacher. The pastor is our open Door of Faithful Teaching!
Thirdly the Church of Philadelphia is one that labours in hope of the Lord's Return and Deliverance. "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown" ( Rev 3:11 ). To Vancouver B-P Church is opened a Door of End-time Deliverance as we struggle against great odds "in the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (v.10).
We in East Asia are the first to be tried "in the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world." The economic storm raging in the Far East , instead of subsiding in one or two years as predicted by vote-catching political leaders, has rather worsened. Singapore is just feeling the pinch. From this year we will suffer a 10% cut in our Central Provident Fund. And, instead of the annual increment there will be a decrement on top of the CPF cut. Tourism has hit an all-time low of -13.5%. Airlines are scrambling for passengers. United Airlines and Northwest will use smaller planes on their Asian routes from 1999. The order for new planes from East Asia has dropped drastically, so that Boeing is obliged to retrench 48,000 of her workers. Does Canada also feel a chill down the spine, like your zero degrees not to my liking?
But a more ominous situation like thunder clouds looming in the horizon is crouching upon us, not only East Asia but the whole world! And this in a matter of eleven months. I refer to the recurring jitters from what is called the Millennium Bug or the Y2K Problem. To say it's a Problem is to hide its ugliness. Rather it will be a Pogrom. Now, Pogrom is a Russian word which means devastation and is applied to the destruction of the Jews. It is more truthful to call it Y2K Pogrom.
When the Millennium Bug bites, computers that are not compliant will be paralysed. This will cause a chain reaction when e.g. electricity will be knocked out, producing a scenario like Auckland , totally blacked out for weeks. But the real scare is staring at air travel. The French Minister of Transport feared all planes would be grounded Jan 1, 2000 . KLM has warned she will not fly to certain "blacklisted" airports. A Hongkong newspaper has painted the scenario of two planes colliding midair. BBC has warned planes may drop out of the sky. For this reason I'm leading a Holy Land Tour in March this year, 1999, and not in 2,000, to play safe. I advise you to hug Mother Earth and pray at the advent of the New Millennium.
What I've mentioned is only the tip of the Iceberg. Many computer experts are warning that the devastation brought about by the Millennium Bug will be the greatest since Noah's Flood, and I believe so.
You've all heard about the Millennium Bug,
Also known as the Y2K problem.
There're only eleven months before it strikes,
E'en earlier by '99 September.
Tangled with the computers are the chips,
Billions upon billions scattered worldwide.
All the king's horses and all the king's men,
Are not able to save us when they bite.
I have no computer, I don't care what
Will come by this Monster Millennium Bug.
All that I care is Christ's coming is near,
He'll snatch me away from its grisly hug.
In America opportunists are selling survival kits to make a fast buck. They suggest withdrawing money from the bank and stocking up essential foods, etc, etc. In so doing the situation brought about by the rush for survival would become more threatening than the Bug itself.
While it is good to help ourselves before Doomsday, our hope is only in the Lord. We have a Blessed Hope called the Rapture of Saints (I Thess 4:13 -18). Rapture here is not talking of some ecstatic experience, but rather the forceful catching up of Christians from a burning earth to meet Jesus in the air. Christ will soon come to save us by His Resurrection and Ascension Power with a global Airlift. He will explode His A Bomb and R Bomb, to put it more succinctly.
In order to qualify for this Happy Blastoff, you must be a born again Christian. You must have the Spirit of Christ in you (Rom 8:9), or else it will not work. A giant Magnet will suck up nails and not toothpicks though toothpicks are lighter and you know why. There must be affinity of substance, iron and iron, not iron and wood. Let me ask you again, "Are you a born again Christian having the Spirit of Christ living in you"? Have you repented of your sins and asked Jesus to forgive you because only He can save you? For He the Son of God died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins and mine. By His rising from the dead on the third day we will also rise together with Him.
The great door and effectual God has opened for Vancouver B-P Church is a triple Door of Polemical Witness, Faithful Teaching and End-time Deliverance. The greatest of these three is the Door of End-time Deliverance because it concerns you, not for time but for eternity. With the situation in the world worsening each day, is your ambition for deliverance or affluence, life everlasting or eternal death? Listen to what Jeremiah the prophet said to Baruch his secretary, "And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest" (Jer 45:5). Amen.
Be the first to react on this!
Timothy Tow Siang Hui (28 December 1920 – 20 April 2009) was a Singaporean pastor who founded the Bible-Presbyterian Church. He was also founding principal of the Far Eastern Bible College.
Tow was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School. He was influenced first by John Sung, and later by Carl McIntire. He studied at Faith Theological Seminary and was ordained in Geneva in 1950 at a special meeting of the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian Church. Tow returned to Singapore and became pastor of the Life Church English Service at Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church. In 1955, he led a group out of the Chinese Presbyterian Synod to form the Bible-Presbyterian Church. Tow's congregation became known as Life Bible-Presbyterian Church (Life BPC). He later returned to Faith Theological Seminary and completed a Master of Sacred Theology degree.