Glory to God in the Highest, And on Earth Peace, Goodwill Toward Men
(Message delivered by Pastor at the True Life Church Christmas Eve Carol Service, Dec 24, 05)
Text: Luke 2:14
Tonight we are gathered together in God’s House to celebrate the Birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ according as God the Father has done it. First, He sent an angel to announce to shepherds watching over their sheep by night. What He said was good tidings of great joy to all people. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” As the angel announced this good news, a multitude of angelic host, I’m sure much bigger than our Church Choir tonight, praised God saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
So we are gathered here tonight to praise God the Father in the highest. Why? Because He has made a plan for us by sending His Virgin-born Son Jesus Christ and this plan can bring us peace and goodwill from heaven to earth.
But what the world, whether Singapore or Perth would make of Christmas is for its own benefit. We have just returned from Perth where they have celebrated a pageant of Christmas with twenty Santa Clauses jumping off sledges releasing boxes of gifts, followed by semi-nude dancing girls announcing the reduction of prices because of Christmas. This scene of Santa Clauses and seminude
girls they show on the TV I do not know how many times a day. All the talk of Christmas is money, money, money. To make money out of you at Christmas.
But to us every Christmas is God’s Amnesty to men. Amnesty is forgiveness. What a wonderful occasion it is tonight that if you will confess that Jesus is God’s Virgin-born Son and that He came to die for your sins and rose again the third day, you will be saved. Will you do it right now? This is what the angels meant “And on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” St. Paul in Rom 9:10 says the same thing, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
And God is so anxious to let man know the way of salvation that in Gen. 3:15 He declares the Seed of the woman, not the seed of man, His Virgin-born Son shall crush Satan. This glad news of the first Christmas is given to us, lost and sinful men, at the dawn of history and is repeated every Christmas, even Christmas 2005 to you and to me. That is why we are so filled with gladness and joy unspeakable tonight. Amen.
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VERBAL PLENARY PRESERVATION OF SCRIPTURES
The Session of Calvary Jaya B-P Fellowship affirms and continues to uphold its stand in the Constitution Article 4.2.1 which states:-
“We believe in the divine, verbal and plenary inspiration of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and, as the Word of God, the Supreme and final authority in faith and life.”
This is further elaborated in the following tenets by Far Eastern Bible College, Singapore (published in The Burning Bush, January 2006 issue, Volume 12 Number 1) and embraced by Calvary Jaya B-P Fellowship:-
1) God has supernaturally preserved each and every one of His inspired Hebrew/Aramaic OT words and Greek NT words to the last jot and tittle, so that in every age, God’s people will always have in their possession His infallible and inerrant Word kept intact without the loss of any word (Ps 12:6-7, Matt 5:18, 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, John 10:35).
2) The “providential” preservation of Scriptures is understood as God’s special and not general providence. Special providence or providentia extraordinaria speaks of God’s miraculous intervention in the events of history and in the affairs of mankind in fulfilment of His sovereign will for the sake of His elect and to the glory of His Name. The divine preservation of the Canon (books) and Text (words) of Scripture comes under God’s special providence.
3) The Bible is not only infallible and inerrant in the past (in the Autographs), but also infallible and inerrant today (in the Apographs).
4) The infallible and inerrant words of Scripture are found in the faithfully preserved Traditional/Byzantine/Majority manuscripts, and fully represented in the Printed and Received Text (or Textus Receptus) that underlie the Reformation Bibles best represented by the KJV, and NOT in the corrupted and rejected texts of Westcott and Hort that underlie the many modern versions of the English Bible like the NIV, NASV, ESV, RSV, TEV, CEV, TLB etc.
5) There are no mistakes in the Bible, period. If there are “discrepancies” in the Bible, the “discrepancies” are only seeming or apparent, NOT real or actual. Any inability to understand or explain difficult passages in the Bible in no way negates its infallibility and inerrancy, applying the faithful Pauline principle of biblical interpretation: “let God be true, but every man a liar” (Rom 3:4).
6) Knowing where the perfect Bible is, is a matter of textual recognition and NOT textual criticism. In the field of textual recognition, Burgon is good, Hills is better, Waite is best.
7) The Chinese Union Version (CUV) is the “Word of God” for the Chinese people today since it is the best, most faithful, most reliable, and most accurate version among the Chinese versions presently available. Great care ought to be taken not to undermine our Chinese brethren’s confidence in the CUV. Nevertheless, versions or translations are never superior to the inspired and preserved Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Scriptures; thus there is a need to consult these original language Scriptures for clarity and fullness of meaning, and to compare Scripture with Scripture.
The Session of Calvary Jaya B-P Fellowship
Christmas Caroling, Dec 23, 2005</center”>
