The Legacy of John Calvin in the Bible-Presbyterian Church

Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo

Reformed and Presbyterian churches this year celebrate the 500th year of John Calvin who was born on July 10, 1509 in Noyon, Picardy, France, and died on May 27, 1564 in Geneva, Switzerland. Calvin was the great French Reformer of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation. All Reformed and Presbyterian churches trace their ancestry and theology back to him, and the Bible-Presbyterian (B-P) Church is no different.

What is Calvin’s legacy in the B-P Church? What are the lessons to be drawn for the present and future as we strive to be a faithful church until the Lord returns? Let us look at the history and theology of the B-P Church in Singapore and how we are what we are because of God’s grace in the life and work of Calvin and other great men of God.

HISTORY

The B-P Church in Singapore has seven historical roots (according to the Rev Dr Timothy Tow, The Singapore B-P Church Story, pp9-29). Out of the seven roots, five of them (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th) are Reformed or Presbyterian roots.

John Calvin

The B-P Church is a Protestant Church. We remain part of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation movement which opposed the tyranny and the errors of the Roman Catholic Church. While many a Protestant denomination (e.g. Evangelicals and Catholics Together 1994, and Lutheran World Federation in 1999) have capitulated to the ecumenical pressure to reunite with the Roman Catholic Church, the B-P Church remains steadfast in proclaiming the five fundamental axioms of the Protestant Reformation, namely, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus, Sola Scriptura, Soli Deo Gloria.

There were two main leaders in the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther was the evangelist, and Calvin the theologian. When we call ourselves Reformed or Presbyterian we are identifying ourselves with Calvin and his theology as contained in his Institutes of the Christian Religion and the Calvinistic Westminster Confession of Faith. Calvin was a Frenchman, and so our first root is a French root.

 

English Presbyterian Mission

The second root is the English Root since our Reformed Faith is derived from the missionaries of the English Presbyterian Mission (EPM) who evangelised South China. The English Presbyterians, not wanting to conform to the Anglican Church under an Archbishop, separated themselves to form the Presbyterian Church which is governed by a plurality of spiritually qualified and mature men called Presbyters or Elders, and not by just one man. The B-P Church is a Church governed by a Board of Elders which we believe to be the biblical system of church government.

William Chalmers Burns

The third root is the Scottish Root. William Chalmers Burns (1815-1868) was a Scotsman and the “Grandfather of Bible-Presbyterians” for it was he who in 1856 visited the Teochew ancestors of the Tow’s and the Heng’s in Swatow, China, and founded the Swatow Presbyterian Church. The first convert in Swatow was Tan Khai Lin, the maternal great-grandfather of the Rev Dr Timothy Tow, who was also the first to be ordained as a pastor. Owing to economic hardships, a number of the Swatow Christians migrated to Singapore and Malaya in the 1860s and 70s. Noting the migration, the EPM sent the Rev John A B Cook to organise the migrants into four churches, one of which was Life Church, Prinsep Street (1883) or Say Mia Tng. Life B-P Church came out of Say Mia Tng.

Carl McIntire

The next Reformed root is the sixth which is the American Root. This brings us to Faith Theological Seminary and the Bible Presbyterian Church of USA founded by the Rev Dr Carl McIntire. When Timothy Tow was a student at Faith Seminary, he heard Dr McIntire’s clarion call for a 20th Century Reformation which was organised as the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC) in 1948. The call was to defend the faith in the midst of apostasy. The Liberals and Modernists were attacking the Historic Christian Faith and the Holy Scriptures left, right and centre. The young Timothy Tow heard the call, found his heart strangely warmed, and joined with his teacher—Dr Carl McIntire—in the spiritual battle for a 20th Century Reformation.

Timothy Tow

The Singapore Root is traced to the Rev Dr Timothy Tow, the founding pastor and first theologian of the B-P movement in Singapore. B-Pism in Singapore is known for its biblical separatist stance against liberalism, ecumenism, charismatism, neo-evangelicalism and every false ‘ism’ that has arisen to undermine the historic Christian Faith. The doctrine of separation is enshrined in our constitution. The Rev Dr Timothy Tow together with the Rev Dr Quek Kiok Chiang (then Elder) and the Rev Hsu Chiang Tai (then Deacon) were known as the “Three Musketeers” in the early days of the movement, earnestly contending for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3). Dr S H Tow, noting the danger in the ecumenical evangelism of Billy Graham in the 1970s, joined in the fray—the fourth Musketeer. Read all about it in Timothy Tow’s book—Disciples of McIntire.

It is tragic today to see the B-P movement being destroyed from within. The whole denomination is now fractured into three or four camps since the dissolution of the B-P Synod in 1988 due to incipient charismatism and neo-evangelicalism (read about it in Timothy Tow’s The Singapore B-P Church Story). The falling away is seen more and more clearly as the years go by. The divide is even more pronounced today with certain B-P churches not wanting to defend the Authorised or King James Version of the Bible which was the Bible of the 16th Century Protestant Reformation, which is the Bible of the B-P Church since its founding. Certain B-P churches have already replaced the KJV with the NIV or one of the modern versions, and some others refuse to take a separatist stance against the liberal, ecumenical, and neoevangelical modern versions which are based upon corrupt texts. They even malign as “heresy” the biblical doctrine of the verbal and plenary preservation (VPP) of the Holy Scriptures in the original languages. We pray for their repentance. The truth is Psalm 12:6-7 which says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Matthew 5:18, “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” God promised to preserve His inspired words and we believe He kept His promise. The Reformers, the Westminster Divines, our founding fathers—Carl McIntire and Timothy Tow—themselves believed this. We cannot but defend the truth of a presently infallible and inerrant Bible, “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (2 Cor 13:8).

THEOLOGY

Covenant Theology

As a Calvinistic Church, the B-P Church is unashamedly covenantal in its theology. Although we accept the premillennialism of dispensational theology, we reject its theological grid. You may ask, “What is dispensationalism or dispensational theology”? You will get your answers from the Rev Dr Timothy Tow’s scholarly thesis—The Law of Moses and of Jesus—which is a critique of dispensationalism in general and its view of the Moral Law in particular. If you want to know what is Covenant Theology, read Theology for Every Christian: A Systematic Theology in the Reformed and Premillennial Tradition of J Oliver Buswell published by the Far Eastern Bible College. Briefly and simply, Covenant Theology is all about the unity of the Bible and the unity of God’s plan of salvation in Christ. It emphasises the sovereignty of God in all that happens in this world, and the faithfulness of God in keeping His promises to His people.

“Calvinism is Paulinism Systematised”

Now when we study Calvin, we are not actually studying Calvin but the Apostle Paul. “Calvinism is Paulinism systematised” said the Rev Dr Timothy Tow. Rev Tow was an expert on Calvin, who had abridged Calvin’s Institutes and wrote many books expounding Calvinism. You will want to begin with A Glimpse of the Life and Works of John Calvin, and then move on to Has God a Plan for My Life? which is really a practical application of his more doctrinal book—The Sevenfold Will of God. If you wish to feel the Calvinistic heartbeat of our founding pastor, you will want to read his book, The Story of My Bible-Presbyterian Faith, and many other books he authored on preaching and counselling, missions and evangelism, and his commentaries on the various books of the Bible.

TULIP

We also hold to the Five Points of Calvinism commonly known as TULIP—an acronym for the Five Points, viz, (1) Total Depravity, (2) Unconditional Election, (3) Limited Atonement, (4) Irresistible Grace, (5) Perseverance of the Saints. We are Five-Point Calvinists. We are not Four-Pointers or TUIPs who deny the Third Point which is Limited Atonement, nor are we Six-Pointers or TULLIPs who deny the Common Grace of God and His Desiderative Will. For elaboration, read my tract, “Hyper-Calvinism in the Light of Calvin.” Many of the books and articles mentioned above are downloadable for free from the Far Eastern Bible College website (www.febc.edu.sg).

Conclusion

The B-P Faith, which demands a separation from all forms of worldliness and unbelief and a polemical defence of the divinely inspired and perfectly preserved Words of God in these last days of unbelief and apostasy, will not be appreciated by many but by the faithful remnant. Calvin himself was greatly persecuted for preaching and writing in defence of the Reformed and Protestant Faith, and for exposing the sins and heresies of his day. But despite the dangers he faced, he often encouraged himself and his hearers by quoting Romans 8:31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Who is more powerful than God? None!