Immature

All the lecturers in Far Eastern Bible College are babes in Christ, small boys and girls still sucking milk from their mothers.

Misleading

Far Eastern Bible College is misleading people into a false belief, that they have a perfect Greek Bible, their lecturers are fooling people.

SHOW ME YOUR PERFECT GREEK BIBLE!

WHERE IS IT?

Foxes are calling sheep to go back to their "sheepfold" ?????

I N V I T A T I O N 

Calling All Alumni, Students, and Friends of FEBC

You are cordially invited to attend the following events during  

FEBC’s 50th  Anniversary Thanksgiving Week 

September 17-23, 2012 

Thanksgiving Retreat

Monday-Wednesday, September 17-19, 2012 

@ Resort Lautan Biru, Mersing, Malaysia 

Registration Deadline: August 17 th

  

Cost: $80 (subsidised) 

Register with Mrs Ruth Yap (ruth.yap@febc.edu.sg) 

Open House 

Thursday, September 20, 2012 

Welcome to Chapel & Lectures @ FEBC Hall 

9A Gilstead Road 

Time: 8 am – 12.30 pm 

Night Lecture @ Church Sanctuary: 7.30 – 9.30 pm  

Alumni Thanksgiving Service & Dinner 

Friday, September 21, 2012 

@ Far Eastern Bible College &  

Life Bible-Presbyterian Church Sanctuary  

9A Gilstead Road 

Dinner: 6 – 7 pm 

Service: 7.30 – 9.30 pm 

Come & Collect Your Copy of the Golden Jubilee Magazine 

RSVP: Ms Janet Lim (janetlim@febc.edu.sg) 

Golden Jubilee Thanksgiving Service 

Lord’s Day, September 23, 2012 

@ Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church 

201 Pandan Gardens 

Time: 6 pm (reception thereafter) 

Speaker: Dr S H Tow

Visit website: http://www.febc.edu.sg/assets/pdfs/Miscellaneous/INVITATION.pdf



I am calling every one, light minded one, to boycott these mindless events.

Please stay away from heretics!

Photo of a group of foxes

A group of foxes is a "skulk", "leash", "troop" or "earth".

Ministry is not monkey business.

1 Timothy 5:18
For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."

Come let us pray together

Heavenly Father Our God, if this Verbal Plenary Preservation is from You, let us accept it with patience, but if this Verbal Plenary Preservation is not from You, it is from Satan, the devils and its angels, I pray to God, may God oppose this Verbal Plenary Preservation and it's proponents and advocates until to the end of the world!

I pray in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

a truly definitive edition of the Old Testament.

a truly definitive edition of the Old Testament.

 

 

RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — For the past 30 years, Israeli Judaic scholarMenachem Cohen has been on a mission of biblical proportions: Correcting all known textual errors in Jewish scripture to produce a truly definitive edition of the Old Testament.

His edits, focusing primarily on grammatical blemishes and an intricate set of biblical symbols, mark the first major overhaul of the Hebrew Biblein nearly 500 years.

Poring over thousands of medieval manuscripts, the 84-year-old Cohen identified 1,500 inaccuracies in the Hebrew language texts that have been corrected in his completed 21-volume set. The final chapter is set to be published next year.

The massive project highlights how Judaism venerates each tiny biblical calligraphic notation as a way of ensuring that communities around the world use precisely the same version of the holy book.

According to Jewish law, a Torah scroll is considered void if even a single letter is incorrect or misplaced. Cohen does not call for changes in the writing of the sacred Torah scrolls used in Jewish rites, which would likely set off a firestorm of objection and criticism. Instead, he is aiming for accuracy in versions used for study by the Hebrew-reading masses.

For the people of the book, Cohen said, there was no higher calling.

"The people of Israel took upon themselves, at least in theory, one version of the Bible, down to its last letter," Cohen said, in his office at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

The last man to undertake the challenge was Jacob Ben-Hayim, who published the Mikraot Gedolot, or Great Scriptures, in Venice in 1525. His version, which unified the religion's varying texts and commentaries under a single umbrella, has remained the standard for generations, appearing to this day on bookshelves of observant Jews the world over.

Since Ben-Hayim had to rely on inferior manuscripts and commentaries, numerous inaccuracies crept in and were magnified in subsequent editions.

The errors have no bearing on the Bible's stories and alter nothing in its meaning. Instead, for example, in some places the markers used to denote vowels in Hebrew are incorrect; or a letter in a word may be wrong, often the result of a centuries old transcription error. Some of the fixes are in the notations used for cantillation, the text's ritual chants.

Most of the errors Cohen found were in the final two thirds of the Hebrew Bible and not in the sacred Torah scrolls, since they do not include vowel markings or cantillation notations.

Cohen said unity and accuracy were of particular importance to distinguish the sacred Jewish text from that used by those sects that broke away from Judaism, namely Christians and Samaritans.

To achieve his goal, Cohen relied primarily on the Aleppo Codex, the 1,000-year-old parchment text considered to be the most accurate copy of the Bible. For centuries it was guarded in a grotto in the great synagogue of Aleppo, Syria, out of reach of most scholars like Ben-Hayim. In 1947, a Syrian mob burned the synagogue, and the Codex briefly disappeared before most of it was smuggled into Israel a decade later.

Now digitized, the Codex, also known as the Crown, provided Cohen with a template from which to work. But because about a third of the Codex — nearly 200 pages — remains missing, Cohen had to recreate the five books of Moses based on trends he observed in the Codex as well as from other sources, such as the 11th-century Leningrad Codex, considered the second-most authoritative version of the Jewish Bible.

Cohen also included the most comprehensive commentaries available, most notably that of 11th-century Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, known as Rashi.

The result is the completion of Ben-Hayim's work.

"It was amazing to me that for 500 years, people didn't sense the errors," said Cohen, who wears a knitted skullcap and a gray goatee. "They just assumed that everything was fine, but in practice everything was not fine."

He's not the only scholar to devote decades to the task. In 1976, Rabbi Mordechai Breuer published a version of the Torah based mainly on the Aleppo Codex. The Hebrew University Bible Project in Jerusalem has also been working on a scientific edition of the Hebrew Bible, but theirs is directed toward scholars, while Cohen's output is aimed at wider consumption.

Rafael Zer, the project's editorial coordinator, called Cohen's work "quasi-scientific" because it presents a final product and does not provide the reader a way of seeing how it was reached. He credits Cohen for bringing an exact biblical text to the general public but said it "comes at the expense of absolute accuracy and an absolute scientific edition."

With the assistance of his son Shmuel, a computer programmer, Cohen launched a digital version he hopes will become a benchmark of the Israeli education system. He said his ultimate goal was to "correct the past and prepare for the future."

As a former teacher, Cohen said he took particular pride in a sophisticated search engine that allows even novices to explore his work with ease. He called computers a "third revolution" to affect Jewish scripture, following the shift from scrolls to bound books and the advent of the printing press.

"I want the Bible to be user-friendly," said Cohen, a grandfather of eight. "Today, we can create sources of information and searches that allow you to get an answer to everything you are wondering."

____

Follow Aron Heller at http://www.twitter.com/aronhellerap

Salary for Bible Presbyterian pastors

The Methodist Pastors said "You give peanuts you get monkeys!"

Innocent? No!

Do you think BOE, Board of Elder in Life Bible Presbyterian Church innocent in the quarrels with True Life Bible Presbyterian Church in Singapore.

Do you think Rev Charles Seet and Rev Colin Wong are both innocent in the lawsuit with Far Eastern Bible College?

No, The BOE and these two pastors Rev Charles Seet and Rev Colin Wong are proud, self centered, they are not humble enough, I say they are foolish.

They said slanders and gossiping are sinful. But they did not see that putting brothers in Christ into civil court, suing Christians in court is sinful too!

Hell Bank Notes

James 3:1-2a, "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways." 

James 3:6,"The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."

Sending cheques to Charles Seet

Charles Seet wanted money, I going to upload a few cheques for him, including a blank cheque, he can fill in any number he likes!

Living together with the heretics...........

There is really only one true Statement of Faith that the entire Christian Church assembled has ever agreed on – the Nicene Creed which was finalized at the Council of Constantinople in AD 381.  And, interestingly, that same group specifically prohibited other creeds from being formulated and presented as the official teaching of the Christian Church. 

The views I have expressed on these blog posts and in my book are not new.  In fact, much of what I have written has been an attempt to inform people in this generation of ideas that were held by the Christian Church in the earliest years of its existence – when it was closest to the Apostles and its influence on the surrounding culture was the greatest.  

In a tract written in about AD 1627, a little known German divine named Rupertus Meldenius penned three short and very profound statements about how Christians should treat those with whom they disagree:

In essentials unity. In nonessentials liberty. In all things charity.

I want to introduce a good website to you

http://faithatworkfellowship.org/

Faith@Work

Purpose :

Community Networking for

1. Educational (through Asia Seminary for Ministry)

2. Community Projects as Catalyst, Facilitator and Conduit.

Asia Seminary For Ministry

 

Mission

Training Nationals to Nationals for integrity and skills.

(Psalm 78:72)

 

Objectives

1. To provide theological training, rightly dividing the

Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

 

2. To equip with skills for the work of the ministry (Eph.

4:12).

 

3. To facilitate personal and ministry development by

mentorship (2 Tim. 2:2).

We who do not believe in Verbal Plenary Preservation, we are flying like birds

Those who believe in Verbal Plenary Preservation....they are rats...........

Those who believe in Verbal Plenary Preservation....they are rats...........

 

 

What the Bible says about Bible Presbyterian Church and Far Eastern Bible College

I do not want to hear what Bible Presbyterian Church and Far Eastern Bible College talk about the Bible,

what I want to hear is what the Bible says about Bible Presbyterian Church and Far Eastern Bible College!

Should Christians Sue?†

Does the Bible forbid a Christian from taking another believer to court for any reason? Does this prohibition also apply to suing the unbeliever? Is an organization or business afforded the same protection from a Christian-intiated lawsuit? What if the believer is taken to court? Should he give over everything demanded by the person who sues or may he fight the claims against him? What defenses is the believer permitted? This chapter deals with some of these concerns and more.

    “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” (Matt. 5:40)

Being sued. What does this passage say to those who are being sued? Does it say that a person who is sued must deliver over to the plaintiff everything that he has been sued for? Why does this passage refer to “tunics and cloaks” and not to money? In Old Testament times and in New Testament times there were legal procedures for obtaining money judgements for owed debts. How could the passage refer to any man, without distinction as to whether that man may or may not be entitled to a recovery? If the reference is to anyone who wishes to sue, then even those who are not entitled to recover are included, but reason would dictate that the passage refers only to plaintiffs who have a just claim. Why, then, do the words seem to differ from what must be the meaning of this passage? The answer to these questions lies in the historical use and application of the coat and the cloak.

Clothing, in relation to debts, is legally significant in the Old Testament, and also the New Testament. In Old Testament times, a man’s coat or cloak was the last thing (before himself or his children) that he would sell or pledge to borrow money to survive. Because the pledge of clothing affected the most basic articles for survival, the law limited what a creditor could do to take it in satisfaction for a debt. For instance, the creditor could not go into the house of the debtor and forcibly seize the article of pledge (Deut. 24:10, 11). The same is basically true today.1 If the debtor had pledged his clothing, the creditor would have to return it to him each evening so he would have something warm to sleep in (Deut. 24:12, 13; Exod. 22:26, 27).2 Christ’s reference to the coat or cloak does not imply unlimited license to any conceivable legal demand on someone but to the returning of articles that have been pledged to creditors who have not been paid. It is, therefore, not a command to pay money that is not legally owed, but refers to debts from loans that are actually owed. Therefore, the Christian is perfectly free to raise any honest and legal defense in the event that he has been sued.

If the passage refers to the payment of pledges after the release of debt, Deuteronomy 15 then is also a clear statement that a lien should survive a discharge of the debt in bankruptcy, which is basically the case today.

Suing others. Is it righteous for a Christian to sue another Christian when he has been wronged? The apostle Paul speaks directly to this issue: “Now, therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another.Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded?” (1 Cor. 6:7).

This is a difficult saying, but there are many difficult sayings in the Bible, and their difficulty does not render them unsaid. When this saying is viewed in the light of other doctrine and in the light of present law, however, it becomes more understandable but no less difficult.

Forgiveness is a critical element throughout the Scriptures, and it is God’s desire for forgiveness and harmony among believers that forms the basis of this saying by Paul. Paul is clearly concerned here with the inherent contradiction between lawsuits and forgiveness. And Christ made it clear that there is a close relationship between forgiveness of debts and the forgiveness of sin (Matt. 18:22–35).

In the parable of the unjust steward, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who was moved to compassion and forgave his steward the money debt that was owed to him by the steward. The forgiven steward then demanded full payment from another steward. Christ calls the forgiven steward who failed to forgive his debtor a wicked servant: “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” (Matt. 18:32, 33).

Of course, we must remember that this is only a parable, and it does not state directly that a failure to forgive a money debt is sin. As a parable, it simply uses the example of the forgiveness of a money debt as an illustration of the forgiveness of sin.

However, the Greek word which is translated “debt” in this passage is the same word which is likewise translated “debt” or sin in the Lord’s prayer. This underscores the close parallel between God’s forgiveness of sins and the forgiveness of debts: “And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).

Although the primary meaning of the Greek word refers to money debts, some translations use the word as “sins” or “trespasses.” However, if the meaning of this word were limited to sins and did not include debts also, it would be hard to understand why a different and more precise word for “sins” (and not “debts”) is used only two verses later (in Matt. 6:14) in the same Lord’s prayer to refer to sins and trespasses and not to money debts. The parallel passage in Luke 11:4 uses a different word that means only “sin.” We can conclude that the word in Matthew 6:12 may be read in either way but that it will at least connote the forgiveness of money debts.

Lawsuits that demand money judgements are, therefore, by their nature the antithesis of forgiveness. It seems clear that we cannot forgive and sue at the same time. This results in an apparent theological conflict that must be resolved. It is unrighteous for a man not to pay his debts if he can reasonably do so (Ps. 37:21; Matt. 5:40), but it is likewise unrighteous for a creditor to try to exact payment from someone who cannot pay.3 The resolution of this apparent conflict lies in the fact that not all debt needs to be forgiven. The scriptural ideal is a creditor who has rendered a valid service or made a fair sale and a debtor who is willing and ultimately able to pay in full. This debt need never be forgiven.

The trouble arises when the creditor has not rendered a valid service or made a fair sale but still wishes to be paid in full for it, or when the creditor has rendered a valid service or made a fair sale but the debtor refuses to pay. Situations like these are unjust and have the makings of lawsuits. It is situations like these, however, that Paul addresses when he admonishes with regard to Christians suing Christians: “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be defrauded?” Paul is saying that the harm done by the lawsuit against a fellow Christian may do such harm that it would have been better to be harmed in a lesser way by being cheated or defrauded. Trials usually have no winners. They are arduous tasks that tax the energies and emotions of the persons involved. Even what is won may not be worth the loss of repuation for the individual and Christ’s kingdom.

The bitterness and contention generated by Christians attempting to take money from one another do more harm to God’s purposes than the enforcement of manmade justice. Nowhere are we told to collect from our enemies, but we are told to forgive them and feed them (1 Cor. 6:6, 7).

Of course, many a lawsuit is fought more for the principle of the matter than for the money. But unfortunately the principle most often so adamantly championed is revenge, and that principle is best left to God.

Sometimes, however, the bone of contention in a lawsuit may not present any issue of forgiveness. The lawsuit may hinge on a totally impersonal legal question that requires a judge vested with the authority of the government to make a decision.

A lawsuit is the result either of one person failing to fulfill a legal obligation or of one person alleging that a nonexistent legal obligation actually exists, or a little of both. A lawsuit is a dispute as to who owes what. Numerous Old Testament laws address the issue of who owes what. These laws are meant to avoid disputes by defining in advance exactly who owes what—under what circumstances. Modern laws are written for the same reason. Old Testament and modern laws are meant not to cause lawsuits and disputes but to prevent them. Just because biblical passages or modern laws provide for the recovery of sums of money for certain reasons does not mean that in all instances that right should be enforced. Very little is said in the Bible about the enforcement of rights of recovery.

The ideal seen in Scripture is not a list of circumstances where the plaintiff is not required to forgive and may sue. The scriptural ideal is for every plaintiff to be ready and willing to forgive every defendant and for every defendant to be ready and willing to make whatever reparation to the plaintiff is righteous and reasonable and scriptural. The scriptural ideal is concord not discord, agreement and reconciliation not lawsuits.

Unfortunately, discord reigns in the courts, not concord. Discord likewise reigns in the business world. If the demands of righteousness require forgiveness in the face of a discordant business world, and if lawsuits, which are standard of the day, are an elemental part of good business practice, how can Christians in business protect themselves if they cannot sue? Can a Christian ever scripturally sue anyone, and if so, whom can he sue and whom can he not sue? Scripture states directly that lawsuits should not take place between or among Christians, even in a clear case of fraud and wrongdoing. If a defendant is not a Christian, however, then Paul’s admonition not to sue should not necessarily apply. Thus a lawsuit against a corporation would probably be unaffected by 1 Corinthians 6:7.4 Also, in the event of proper church discipline, a person may be dealt with as an unbeliever (Matt. 18:17, 18). This may well render such a person outside the scope of 1 Corinthians 6:6, 7. There is no specific scriptural admonition not to sue other persons or entities, such as governments. In determining to sue or not to sue, however, the Christian should keep in mind that just because a defendant is scripturally open to suit doesn’t mean that the Christian plaintiff is not at the same time called to forgive the defendant.5

For what should a Christian not sue? One of the most common lawsuits is a negligence action. Normally this involves suing someone for injuries. The injury that is the subject of the suit may be the result of a willful and wanton act or a grossly negligent act on the part of a defendant. Exodus 21 provides a biblical basis for recovery for personal injuries that are the direct result of willful or wanton actions, such as intentional injuries and blows to another person or, as specifically mentioned in that passage, injuries caused to a pregnant woman when two men fight each other. Other such willful or wanton actions mentioned in Scripture are situations where an owner of a notoriously dangerous ox permits the ox to have access to people and to injure them, or where a man digs a pit and leaves it open for someone to fall into. These are situations that the law today calls willful or wanton acts of gross negligence, and they can form the basis of recovery today as they did at the time of the law given by Moses. A more contemporary example of grossly neglectful conduct is a drunken driver.

There is, on the other hand, no scriptural basis for recovery against someone for a good-faith mistake. That is, if someone who acts entirely in good faith causes a loss to another person, then the person who suffers loss could not, under biblical law or principle, force the person who causes the loss to repay it. Today, however, most lawsuits are founded upon good-faith mistakes. Such a lawsuit is called a negligence action. The law of negligence says in effect that if one person, who acts in good faith and without any intention to harm anyone, injures another person, then he must pay for that injury. The crux of the difference between a lawsuit to recover for willful or wanton acts and a lawsuit for negligent acts is that where there is a willful or wanton act, the person causing the injury is consciously responsible for the resulting injury; but where there is a negligent act, the person causing the injury may do it without any conscious neglect or intention. Indeed, he may cause the injury while being as careful as he knows how to be. One reason that God has not provided for recovery based on a good-faith mistake is that he knows we are all imperfect. We all make mistakes. Why, therefore, should we hold ourselves to a standard of perfection that none of us can truly meet? However, with the institution of negligence laws our legal system makes each of us, within the scope of the application of those laws, the insurer of everyone with whom we come in contact. The result of these laws is that we insure the world that all of what we do will be without error, which is absurd.

A negligence action is founded on the presupposition that everyone is held to a standard of care of the “reasonable person.” The practical application when these lawsuits are tried, is that the reasonable person is one who never makes the mistake. Therefore, all the plaintiff need do is prove that the defendant had a duty to the plaintiff, that duty was broken by an error made by the defendant, and that an injury resulted.

Another common cause of action is a suit for a breach of contract. The Christian plaintiff in this suit should consider whether or not the breach is due to an intentional act or a good-faith mistake.

How can Christians avoid getting into situations that normally can be remedied only through lawsuits? One of the first answers to this is contained in 1 Corinthians 6:5, the passage that outlaws lawsuits among Christians. In this passage Paul asks, “Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?” Paul indicates here and in the following verse that the proper alternative is to provide for arbitration within the church. Arbitration is a method whereby disputes are settled by the parties agreeing in advance that some third party will make a decision and that they will abide by that decision. It is, in effect, the setting up of a “court” within the church or between people and agreeing in advance what power and authority that “court” will have. Most states have arbitration laws that are just as binding as the courts. A church or group of churches could take advantage of such laws and institute all of the necessary scriptural principles they felt were applicable. Arbitration has another clear advantage: It provides a forum for two parties who are at odds with one another to meet and discuss and come to an agreement. Forgiveness can take place within this context far more easily than when lawyers square off and the plaintiffs and the defendants meet head-on-head in the courtroom. The court system today could hardly be made less conducive to forgiveness and reconciliation than it already is. The parties don’t speak to each other, and the lawyers, who are interested only in the legal aspects of the case, battle it out for a fee. There is no reason why litigants could not retain counsel within the context of an arbitration. When honest people with honest lawyers act with the honest intention to achieve forgiveness, justice, and equity among themselves, then God will bless their transaction. The expense and the fees that could be saved with such a resolution could be enormous. Obviously if the parties and actions are not honest, results could be much different, and a trial may ensue.

Another alternative would be for Christians to locate a Christian judge and employ him or her to hear interchurch cases. It may be necessary to pass legislation to permit parties to the litigation to file their suit and agree on a specific judge to hear the case.

Another scriptural admonition which can be used to avoid a situation leading to a lawsuit is Christ’s admonition to his disciples in Matthew 10:16: “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Perhaps the first part of this verse, “Be as wise as serpents,” is more applicable. Christ suggests that we should be wise in avoiding situations that may result in disastrous consequences. For instance, we should be extremely careful in extending credit. We should get paid in advance or have a third party hold a sum of money to be paid upon completion of a task. We should be aware of all of the facts and aware of the debt structure of persons with whom we deal. We should structure business arrangements so that there is a minimum risk. The old adage that a contract is only as good as the person with whom we contract is true.

This discussion is not intended to offer a final conclusion on every lawsuit or potential lawsuit. It is meant only to be a general discussion on general biblical principles, and not all biblical references to lawsuits have been included. All of Scripture should be applied with care and wisdom to each situation, and each situation should be judged (in light of Scripture) on its own merits.

Monetary concepts in the Old Testament offer further insight into ways to avoid conflicts. For instance, as emphasized in chapter 17 on bankruptcy, Old Testament law systematically discouraged consumer loans and transformed them into gifts every seven years (Deut. 15:2). The scriptural admonition that the borrower is the lender’s slave can apply to lenders as well as borrowers.

God’s ideal was not vindication but forgiveness, not collection but charity, and not enforcement but wisdom. It is God who is the author of all good things (James 1:17), not lawyers.

quotation from :

H. Wayne House, Christian Ministries and the Law: Revised Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1999), 175–183.