Please Pray for FEBC
Far Eastern Bible College (FEBC) reopens tomorrow, 18 July 2011. As usual the whole College family with the new students will gather together for a day of prayer. Since the Court of Appeal had judged that we are not trespassers, but have every right to possess and use the premises in Gilstead Road, we had wanted to hold our opening day of prayer in the church sanctuary. But Life Bible-Presbyterian Church (LBPC) said that the College would have to pay a $500 fee. At any rate, it looks like our use of the sanctuary is now out of the question since FEK—LBPC’s kindergarten—has started using it for its morning assembly and singspiration when its new term began on June 27th. This has never happened before; the kindergarten had all along been using the red porch outside the sanctuary. It ought to be noted that the 1970 Agreement clearly provides for the church sanctuary to be used by FEBC for chapel service and special services.
For over two decades, FEBC had been using the sanctuary for its “Basic Theology for Everyone” night classes due to the increasing number of lay students taking our popular Monday and Thursday night classes, many working towards their Certificate of Religious Knowledge. However, on 5 October 2007, LBPC wrote to require FEBC to sign a “written unconditional undertaking that the college will not promote the VPP doctrine in the night classes, failing which we regret to inform you that this will no longer be available to the college from January 2008.”
The Rev Dr Timothy Tow, noting the overwhelming response to our night classes when the College reopened, wrote to LBPC on 4 January 2008 in his capacity as founding father of both LBPC and FEBC, pleading for the use of the sanctuary because the night classes had drawn an attendance of 270. The FEBC Hall which could only seat 180 was too small. The Rev Charles Seet, on behalf of the Board of Elders of LBPC, replied the very next day with a threatening letter, “Unless expressed permission is granted by LBPC, any unauthorised use of our Sanctuary would be a trespass on our property and we would not hesitate to take necessary actions against trespassers.”
The Court of Appeal Judges have ruled that FEBC is no trespasser. The properties of 9/9A and 10 Gilstead Road are impressed with a charitable purpose trust for FEBC and not just LBPC. FEBC was never a ministry of LBPC—it has always been an independent Bible College free from ecclesiastical control. LBPC thus had no right to demand an undertaking from FEBC and ban FEBC from using the Gilstead Road premises. Neither did LBPC have the right to forbid FEBC from teaching what she believes to be true according to the Holy Scriptures and to the historic Christian Faith. The Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP) of the Holy Scriptures is not a deviant doctrine and does not deviate from the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is judged to be the case even by the Court of Appeal. Despite this, the Pastors and Elders of LBPC have yet to retract their inflammatory words against FEBC and VPP.
Besides asking for the use of the sanctuary for our opening day of prayer, we also asked for the return of the use of the sanctuary for our night classes but they refused to accede to our request.
In view of the circumstances, FEBC will hold its day of prayer at Calvary Tengah BPC. We are grateful to the Board of Elders and Session of Calvary Tengah for their kind hospitality in opening their chapel for our use, even providing lunch for all our hungry prophets. This they have done lovingly without charge for the last five semesters (since July 2008). The Lord will not forget those who care for His prophets, “He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” (Matt 10:41, 42).
We pray the Lord to provide us with a bigger hall for our night classes. Meanwhile, we just have to hold our night classes in the FEBC Hall with video screening at the kitchen/dining area. We do what we can to accommodate all who wish to study God’s Word. We try our best not to turn anyone away for lack of space. We thank the Lord for the enthusiasm of our students and their perseverance to study God’s Word despite the inconvenience and the trouble they have to go through each time.
We thank the Lord for rescuing the College from those who had sued to evict the College from her heritage and home in Gilstead Road. We also wish to thank all who have laboured in prayer for FEBC. Now we need to pray all the more for FEBC to be able to operate freely in our Gilstead Road premises without any hindrance.
God’s Word encourages us to keep on praying: “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” (Jas 5:16-20).
If you can, do join us tomorrow for FEBC’s opening day of prayer at Calvary Tengah, Choa Chu Kang, 9 am. Transport leaves FEBC at 8.15 am. Don’t be late!
Rejoicing in the 400th Year of the KJV
The Dean Burgon Society (DBS) will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible on the 27th and 28th of July 2011. It will be held in the historic Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, New Jersey. Dr Christian Spencer, the pastor of the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood is a member of the Advisory Council of the DBS. A total of 23 pastors, theologians and missionaries have been invited to speak at the conference in defence of the Traditional Text and the Authorised Version.
I am scheduled to speak on July 28th on “The King James Bible’s Authentic Source Texts.” Since I am unable to be there personally, I have sent over my videotaped message which will be screened and streamed worldwide on that day. Dr D A Waite, President of the Dean Burgon Society, having previewed the DVD, commented, “It is an excellent presentation of both VPI and VPP that our Dean Burgon Society stands for. It was forcefully delivered. Your conviction stands out. You have fought a strong battle there in Singapore over this very issue. Praise the Lord that you were victorious as far as the FEBC property is concerned! I was glad you quoted Dr. Carl McIntire, Dr. David Otis Fuller, Dr. Lynn Gray Gordon, Dr. Edward Hills, the Westminster Confession, and the DBS Articles of Faith, among many other quotes. I was especially pleased that you mentioned Peter Ruckman and Gail Riplinger as taking an improper view of the KJB. I trust this will be a blessing to those gathered in our DBS meeting. I hope you can view some of it on the Internet at BibleForToday.org or later when we post all of the messages on our website.” JK
DBS Upholds the KJV as “the WORD OF GOD!”
Acknowledging the Bible to be the inerrant, infallible, plenarily and verbally inspired Word of God, among other equally Biblical truths, we believe and maintain the following:
A. THE BIBLE: We believe in the plenary, verbal, Divine inspiration of the sixty-six canonical books of the Old and the New Testaments (from Genesis to Revelation) in the original languages, and in their consequent infallibility and inerrancy in all matters of which they speak (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 Thessalonians 2:13). The books known as the Apocrypha, however, are not the inspired Word of God in any sense whatsoever. As the Bible uses it, the term “inspiration” refers to the writings, not the writers (2 Timothy 3:16-17); the writers are spoken of as being “holy men of God” who were “moved,” “carried” or “borne” along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally, plenarily, and verbally inspired, free from any error, infallible, and inerrant, as no other writings have ever been or ever will be inspired.
We believe that the Texts which are the closest to the original autographs of the Bible are the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text for the Old Testament, and the traditional Greek Text for the New Testament underlying the King James Version (as found in “The Greek Text Underlying The English Authorized Version of 1611”).
We, believe that the King James Version (or Authorized Version) of the English Bible is a true, faithful, and accurate translation of these two providentially preserved Texts, which in our time has no equal among all of the other English Translations. The translators did such a fine job in their translation task that we can without apology hold up the Authorized Version of 1611 and say “This is the WORD OF GOD!” while at the same time realizing that, in some verses, we must go back to the underlying original language Texts for complete clarity, and also compare Scripture with Scripture.
We believe that all the verses in the King James Version belong in the Old and the New Testaments because they represent words we believe were in the original texts, although there might be other renderings from the original languages which could also be acceptable to us today. For an exhaustive study of any of the words or verses in the Bible, we urge the student to return directly to the Traditional Masoretic Hebrew Text and the Traditional Received Greek Text rather than to any other translation for help.
(Excerpt from “The Articles of Faith of the Dean Burgon Society”)
