"Dedication—If My People Will..." 2 Chronicles 7:1-16

 

Discipleship In A Crisis

 

Letter to Jeffrey Khoo

Greetings from a friend called to be a slave in writing a blog, may the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant you mercy, grace, and peace. May the Lord Jesus bless you, and May the Holy Spirit guide you and your loved ones.

1 Timothy 5:20

But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning.

I have to remind you again that the church does not belong to anyone on earth, the church belongs to God, and glory be given to Him, not to any human on earth. In this case, BPC belongs to God. You should not continue to glorify Timothy Tow in your future writing, you are shaming Timothy Tow indirectly, he is a man, how could you give the glory due to God to your so-called founding father Timothy Tow? God is the true founder of His church, BPC, not any man. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) We must learn how to give glory due to God today!

I know you love the Bible, it is better we do not overdo this, but you defended KJV until you created the doctrine of Verbal Plenary Preservation. That is your personal high view about KJV, and I saw you went overboard, you created a split in BPC? Aren't you guilty of this split? Aren't we called to love one another? But you are attacking churches that are using NIV, this is really heartbreaking to see you involved in these sacrileges. 

You said your church BPC has 7 roots, but all these 7 roots are dead now, why are you still linking to those dead roots, you must link and join with Christ, He is the living One who can give your new life. He is the true foundation and the head of the church. The first one ever to use the word "church" was not the apostle Paul; it was Jesus himself. So it is better for you to preach Christ and not any other men! It seems to me you are living in the past, and not today? Philippians 3:13-14 - Looking to the Future, Forgetting the Past. May this verse awaken you from nightmares. I hope you may stop preaching your grandfather's fables.

Can't you see that God is in control, you are not in control, you cannot control the future of BPC, because you are not God, you have to obey God. Lately, I found out that when you saw more and more BPC becoming evangelical, you are grumbling now and then. You started to defend your church's legacy. One of the reasons, we dislike fundamentalism and even reformed theology is because of people like you, who are quarrelsome, self-centered, proud, and arrogant, unteachable! In brotherly love, we must learn from one another, you can't be right all the time, you are not infallible and perfect all the time.

Hoping one day you will realize that love is greater than all your righteousness, love is greater than obeying all the manmade commandments, greater than all the legal rules, greater than all the church constitutions, greater than defending your church's legacy...etc

1 Corinthians 7:9.

But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Surprised me that you got another wife so soon, is it because you cannot control yourself? Or you got burnt? You have to be honest with yourself. I do not want to judge you on this. From my observation, during the mourning period for the death of your first wife, you wrote an article, REFUTING THE REVISIONIST BIBLE-PRESBYTERIANS, and published it in the Burning Bush, it seems that God has hardened your heart. I am praying for you, that you may see God's leading in your life. Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

I pray that the devils will leave you soon, and you too must not listen too much to the voice in your own mind, drink a little wine since you have so many problems to handle, may God open the door in your heart for the light from above. And you may continue to see the light in the scripture, and you may become mature in Christ. Kiss each other with a holy kiss.

2 Corinthians 13:14

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Charles Seet refused to listen

I have also talked to Charles Seet face to face about reconciliation, at that moment, I hoped he repent, but I was too late, he has gone into deep errors. He has no turning back. He is so self-centered, selfish, proud, and evil, I can see his heart was full of evil spirit. I was talking to a skinny Judas.

To Charles Seet, I was a nobody to him. A few of us had talked to him too, but he did not want to listen to us. That is why, I am writing this blog, speaking to Charles Seet publicly, pointing him to one point, fundamentalists and reformed theologians like him have become a curse to us. 

Here I Am Lord

 

Jeffrey Khoo refused to listen

I have talked to Jeffrey Khoo face to face about Verbal Plenary Preservation, at that moment, I hoped he repent, but I was too late, he has gone into deep errors. He has no turning back. He is so self-centered, selfish, proud, and evil, I can see his heart was full of evil spirit. I felt I was talking to a Judas.

To Jeffrey Khoo, I was a nobody to him. A few of us had talked to him too, but he did not want to listen to us. This is why, I am writing this blog, speaking to Jeffrey Khoo publicly, pointing him to one point, fundamentalists and reformed theologians like him have become heretics and cults to us. 

The Ten Commandments

 1. I AM THE LORD THY GOD: THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME.

COMMANDS: faith, hope, love, and worship of God; reverence for holy things; prayer.

FORBIDS: idolatry; superstition; spiritism; tempting God; sacrilege; attendance at false worship.

2. THOU SHALL NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN.

COMMANDS: reverence in speaking about God and holy things; the keeping of oaths and vows.

FORBIDS: blasphemy; the irreverent use of God's name; speaking disrespectfully of holy things; false oaths and the breaking of vows.

3. KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY.

COMMANDS: going to church on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

FORBIDS: missing church through one's own fault; unnecessary servile work on Sunday and holy days of obligation.

4. HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER.

COMMANDS: love; respect; obedience on the part of children; care on the part of parents for the spiritual and temporal welfare of their children; obedience to civil and religious superiors.

FORBIDS: hatred of parents and superiors; disrespect; disobedience.

5. THOU SHALT NOT KILL.

COMMANDS: safeguarding of one's own life and bodily welfare and that of others.

FORBIDS: unjust killing; suicide; abortion; sterilization; dueling; endangering life and limb of self or others.

6. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.

COMMANDS: chastity in word and deed.

FORBIDS: obscene speech; impure actions alone or with others.

7. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.

COMMANDS: respect for the property of rights and others; the paying of just debts; paying just wages to employees; integrity in public office.

FORBIDS: theft; damage to the property of others; not paying just debts; not returning found or borrowed articles; giving unjust measure or weight in selling; not paying just wages; bribery; graft; cheating; fraud; accepting stolen property; not giving an honest day's work for wages received; breach of contract.

8. THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST THY NEIGHOUR.

COMMANDS: truthfulness; respect for the good name of others; the observance of secrecy when required.

FORBIDS: lying; injury to the good name of others; slander; talebearing; rash judgment; contemptuous speech and the violation of secrecy.

9. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHOUR'S WIFE.

COMMANDS: purity in thought.

FORBIDS: wilful impure thought and desires.

10. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHOUR'S GOODS.

COMMANDS: respect for the rights of others.

FORBIDS: the desire to take, to keep, or damage the property of others.

Restraint of Excess.

CHRYSOSTOM: Paul does not forbid alcohol; he is opposed only to its excessive use. Nor does he prohibit sexual intercourse; rather, he is against fornication. What he wants to do is to get rid of the deadly passions of lust and anger. Therefore he does not merely attack them but goes to their source as well. For nothing kindles lust or wrath so much as excessive drinking. 

Homilies on Romans 24.

Jeffrey Khoo wedding's rehearsal

"Rhythms of Tof Miriam"

 

We believe

We believe “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28)

 And we also believe “because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Hebrews 12:6 ►

We believe God will surely punish some Bible Presbyterian Church leaders, elders and deacons, and our members because God loves us. And this will be very soon.

 

Unless we repent from divisions, false teachings like Verbal Plenary Preservation, pride and lust, In a vision, I saw demon and devil, and ghosts are not far from them.

 

Repent, come out of the darkness, walk in the light. Have brotherly fellowship together in Christ

Rev Dr. Jack Sin's conclusion

Rev Dr. Jack Sin concluded that all the words of God are not preserved exclusively in the Textus Receptus (TR) underlying the King James Version (KJV) but in “all the providentially preserved Majority or 110 Traditional or Byzantine Greek manuscripts of over 5,000,” and his contention that the divine, perfect preservation of God’s words in the Greek New Testament underlying the KJV cannot be biblically or theologically proven.

What does it mean to have the fear of God?

For the unbeliever, the fear of God is the fear of the judgment of God and eternal death, which is eternal separation from God (Luke 12:5; Hebrews 10:31). For the believer, the fear of God is something much different. The believer’s fear is reverence of God. Hebrews 12:28-29 is a good description of this: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.’” This reverence and awe is exactly what the fear of God means for Christians. This is the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe.

Proverbs 1:7 declares, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Until we understand who God is and develop a reverential fear of Him, we cannot have true wisdom. True wisdom comes only from understanding who God is and that He is holy, just, and righteous. Deuteronomy 10:12, 20-21 records, “And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.” The fear of God is the basis for our walking in His ways, serving Him, and, yes, loving Him.

Some redefine the fear of God for believers to “respecting” Him. While respect is definitely included in the concept of fearing God, there is more to it than that. A biblical fear of God, for the believer, includes understanding how much God hates sin and fearing His judgment on sin—even in the life of a believer. Hebrews 12:5-11 describes God’s discipline of the believer. While it is done in love (Hebrews 12:6), it is still a fearful thing. As children, the fear of discipline from our parents no doubt prevented some evil actions. The same should be true in our relationship with God. We should fear His discipline, and therefore seek to live our lives in such a way that pleases Him.

Believers are not to be scared of God. We have no reason to be scared of Him. We have His promise that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). We have His promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Fearing God means having such a reverence for Him that it has a great impact on the way we live our lives. The fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshiping Him in awe.

https://www.gotquestions.org/fear-God.html

A Call to Persevere

 Jude

17 But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” 19 These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

22 Be merciful to those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

Doxology

24 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Charles Shit has NPD

What is NPD?

Narcissistic personality disorder [NPD] . . . is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of extreme confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

Why do I say Charles Shit has NPD? Because he started the lawsuit!

Look at him, he looks innocent. Hid his hands after he threw the stone on others. He kept his mustard well in the morning, he trimmed it and then went to sue Christian brothers. Such a dangerous pastor in BPC.

You better watch out, one day he may turn his back unto you too.

Outwardly, he is gentle, but he is like a snake, poisonous, dangerous, quiet, carnal. Immature tends to create his own “little church” within the larger church. Indeed, if he could get away with it, he would operate in a totally autocratic fashion, with heavy, top-down leadership.

He is very selfish, he has his own agenda. We will see that motive in his ministry in another few years' time.

Yes, toxic leaders are the distinct minority of Christian leaders. But they can do harm to the cause of Christ disproportionate to their numbers. And they can get away with their behavior for years because they often have a charismatic and charming personalities. Charming like a snake.

Watch out!

Warning to Charles Seet

1 Corinthians 6:7-9

7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters. 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? 

Article for Charles Seet to read in 2022

Courting Trouble

To understand 1 Corinthians 6 it is necessary to understand some basic characteristics of the judicial process in a Roman colony. It appears that by the mid-first century a.d. trial by jury was reserved mainly for criminal proceedings, and even then there might be exceptions.¹ Trials would be handled by some sort of judge, perhaps one of the colony’s duoviri, but it is possible that an aedile like Erastus might handle a case that arose out of some conflict or problem in the macellum (the meat market) or the marketplace.² The earliest and most famous of Roman courts was the “extortion” court, “the need for which became acute as Roman governors … discovered the possibilities of enriching themselves at the expense of the provincials.… Many of the great cases of the late republic and early empire were heard before this court.”³

There was a three-stage judicial process for civil cases. First, the plaintiff would appear before one of the city’s magistrates requesting a suit. If the magistrate agreed that there were grounds for a suit the defendant would be summoned by the plaintiff to court. The factual details of the case would be discussed and debated and a formula (statement of the factual details that both parties agreed on) arrived at. The trial would be based on what was in the formula. Second, the magistrate would then asssign a judge, agreeable to both parties, to the case and pass along to him the formula. Finally, the case would be heard by the judge and the sentence passed, but it was the plaintiff’s responsibility to see that the judgment was carried out by the defendant. This process could drag on for some time and could be aborted at various points, for example if the defendant refused to come to court in the first place and the magistrate was not inclined to use force. Going to court could be a very expensive proposition. Tacitus tells us that a lawyer in a.d. 47 could command a fee of as much as 10,000 sesterces (Ann. 11.5–7). The annual salary for a duovir’s clerk in a Roman colony in Spain was only 1200 sesterces.⁴

A number of forces in Roman society affected the adminstration of justice.⁵ Social status and rank vis-à-vis one’s opponent were major determining factors. While “the situation of the weaker plaintiff improved with the end of the Republic and the coming of the Empire,” the system remained heavily weighted in favor of people of higher status.⁶ From at least the time of Augustus certain people—fathers, patrons, magistrates, and men of standing—were basically immune from prosecution for fraud by some kinds of other people—children, freedmen, private citizens, and men of low rank. Only if a lower status person had a powerful patron was there a likelihood that he or she could bring a successful suit against someone higher up the social ladder.⁷

Another factor in civil cases was the lawyer. If he was a good rhetorician, highly skilled in forensic rhetoric, one had a chance, even if social standing stacked the odds otherwise. In courts the art of persuasion became much more than a mere exercise in public oratory. People packed many trials to hear the great orators of the day.

Nevertheless, the Roman judicial system was pervaded by “improper influences” and this “made equality before the law unattainable” or virtually so.⁸ Citizens were less likely to be arrested, beaten, and imprisoned than foreigners. “The principal criterion of legal privilege in the eyes of the Romans was dignitas or honor derived from power, style of life, and wealth.”⁹ To the wealthy, well-born, and well-connected went the chief rewards of the legal system, along with many of the other benefits available in society. There was a strongly aristocratic bias to the whole culture. Justice during the empire was far from blind and was often looking over its shoulder.

The importance of this for 1 Corinthians 6 is that at the very least one or both of the Christians going to court were probably well-to-do and hoping to exploit the judicial system to their advantage.¹⁰ As in ch. 5 we find further hints here that Paul’s chief troubles in Corinth were caused by well-to-do members of the ekklēsia.

Chapter 6 has been traditionally divided into two parts, the first on a case in a pagan court involving differences between two Christians (vv. 1–11) and the second on another case of sexual immorality (after the one in ch. 5), in this instance a man going to prostitutes (vv. 12–20). It is often doubted that the case in 6:1–11 is directly connected to the incest case addressed in ch. 5, since it has to do with fraud (v. 7) and thus is likely a property matter. But since marriage often was a property matter, there may be a close connection.

There are close links between 6:12–20 and what follows in ch. 7. Paul is trying to establish both a Christian view of the importance of the human body in the order of redemption and the practical implications of an eschatological worldview for present sexual conduct. He continues to address his audience’s view of human sexuality and their aberrant theology of salvation in ch. 7.¹¹

Both cases discussed in ch. 6 deal with a serious breach of community and an ensuing bad witness to the world. Paul argues that by taking disputes to a pagan court and by fulfilling one’s sexual drives outside the body of Christ one is violating Christian community and Christian witness. He uses several sarcastic rhetorical questions, not detailed arguments, to express himself here. Especially sarcastic is the question whether there is not one sophos (wise person) among the Corinthian Christians who could judge the matter (v. 5), in view of their claims about being wise. All these rhetorical questions are meant to shame the Corinthians into seeing their real moral condition and to deflate their unwarranted pride. This letter would be read before the whole congregation and would be a humiliating public shaming.

The point in v. 1 could be that Gentile courts are inherently unrighteous. Dio Chrysostom, commenting on Roman Corinth about a.d. 100, says that there were “lawyers innumerable perverting justice” there, and refers to young men declaiming forensic pieces in the courtyard next to the Temple of Poseidon during the Isthmian games, hoping to drum up business (8.9).¹² K. Wengst has stressed that in view of the experiences listed in his tribulation catalogs (1 Cor. 4:9ff.; 2 Cor. 11:23ff.), Paul had little reason to trust Roman justice and that this passage should be read in that light.¹³

But Paul’s sweeping dismissal of the practice of law does not amount to an attack on the law as such, and his statement that it would be better to suffer wrong (v. 7) “presupposes the recognition of law.” “Going to law here is itself regarded as doing injustice and robbing one’s adversary. That injustice and robbery thus appear in the garb of law … makes it clear why Paul can describe the judges as unjust.”¹⁴ Paul believes that Christians, like Jews before them, should settle all disputes among themselves on their own. He does not deal here with the case of a Christian and a non-Christian entangled in legal matters.

In both this and the next case, Paul provides the wider Christian perspective by bringing in eschatological matters. In the first case, he brings in the fact that on judgment day believers will judge the outside world and even angels (vv. 2f.); in the second case, he refers to the future resurrection, which shows the value that God has placed on human bodies (v. 14). The Corinthians’ problems arose not just from bad ethics or bad social values but from bad theology, which affected all worldly affairs and matters including sexual and legal matters. They had an inadequate if not non-existent future eschatology, or at least future eschatology was not shaping their values and decision making. Paul’s point in vv. 2f. is that if they are going to go on and judge the world, then surely they can handle an ordinary mundane matter now on their own.

Some have identified “the despised” (or “the least esteemed”) in v. 4 as Christians,¹⁵ in which case Paul is showing his contempt for the litigators, or possibly he wants to invert the secular pyramid by putting the least esteemed of the congregation on top as judges. But if the word in question really means “despised,” then this view seems unlikely. It is more likely that the ekklēsia in this verse is the secular assembly, not the Christian congregation.¹⁶ Men oun (“no, rather,” “therefore”) in the first clause must be given its due weight, so that v. 4 answers to v. 3.¹⁷ In v. 4, then, Paul asks rhetorically whether resorting to a pagan court does not amount to appointing outsiders ill-suited to the task to judge among Christians.

Paul is clear in v. 7 that going to pagan court already amounts to moral failure. He asks the plaintiff, in words probably drawing on the Jesus tradition, would it not be better to be defrauded? In v. 8 he addresses the one who did the defrauding and reminds him that people who behave in this manner will not inherit God’s dominion when it finally comes.^[1]

 

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¹ Jesus’ case might have been such an exception since Pilate, not the Sanhedrin, was in the end the one who decided it.

² Cf. J. K. Chow, Patronage and Power: A Study of Social Networks in Corinth (Sheffield: JSOT, 1992), p. 80.

³ G. A. Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World 300 b.c. to a.d. 300 (Princeton: Princeton University, 1972), pp. 11f.

Ann Annales

⁴ Cf. Chow, Patronage and Power, p. 76.

⁵ See P. Garnsey, Social Status and Legal Privilege in the Roman Empire (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970), pp. 183ff.

⁶ Ibid., p. 192, cf. p. 217: “The possibility of suits brought by men of comparatively humble origin and position against men of rank cannot be ruled out; but they are unlikely to have been a frequent occurrence.”

⁷ It is better to speak of social status or level and not social class, since the modern notion of class does not really suit the situation in the Roman Empire. There was nothing quite equivalent to our middle class. The three basic distinctions were between citizen and foreigner, honestiores and humiliores, and freeborn and slave. Depending on which distinction was being used, one could be higher or lower. For example, a freeborn person could be poor, whereas a freedman or freedwoman could be rich, and this was of great importance in a city in which one bought one’s way into society, public office, and sometimes even justice. Furthermore, some honestiores did not have citizenship while some humiliores did. See A. Clarke, Secular and Christian Leadership in Corinth (dissertation, Cambridge, 1991), pp. 26ff.

⁸ Garnsey, Social Status, p. 207.

⁹ Ibid., p. 279.

¹⁰ Cicero (Pro Caecina 73) complains that three things hinder justice from being done in the provinces east of Rome: gratia, potentia, and pecunia, that is, “excessive favor,” power or great resources, and money, that is, bribery.

¹¹ Many Corinthian Christians apparently thought that salvation did not involve the body.

¹² If one also considers the analogy with Jesus’ parable in Luke 18, it is believable that Paul may have been referring to judges in Corinth. Unlike B. W. Winter, “Civil Litigation in Secular Corinth and the Church,” NTS 37 (1991), pp. 559–72, I doubt that Paul’s reference is to juries, since small civil claims did not usually call for a jury. The plural “the unrighteous ones” does not require a reference to a jury, since Paul is generalizing here.

¹³ K. Wengst, Pax Romana and the Peace of Jesus Christ (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), pp. 76f.

¹⁴ Ibid. This assessment does not conflict with what Paul says in Romans 13 since there he speaks of the divinely ordained and intended function of government, not of some particular practice of it, and he is not referring to Christians making use of the judicial system but of actions initiated by the authorities.

¹⁵ Winter, “Civil Litigation,” p. 570.

¹⁶ It is possible that en tȩ̄ ekklēsia̧ means “of the assembly” so that Paul’s complaint is about making pagans judges of the Christian ekklēsia. In any case, if Paul could call secular judges “unrighteous” (v. 1), he could equally well call them “despised.”

¹⁷ J. B. Lightfoot, Notes on the Epistles of Saint Paul (Winona Lake: Alpha, reprint), p. 213.

^[1] Witherington, Ben, III. 1995. Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.