Mrs Leong teaching Matt.24 & Revelation at Senior Christian Camp at Batu Pahat

I just attended a Senior Christian Camp from Singapore Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church. It was held at Katarina Hotel, a 15 storeyed hotel in the off-the-beaten-track town of Batu Pahat.

Mrs Leong King Teng (formerly lecturer in Singapore Bible College) taught about the Second Coming of Christ using the core passages of Matt.24 and the book of Revelation. She is an ex-Malaysian married to a Chemistry professor in Singapore, was brought up among the Brethren church in Kuala Lumpur, very likely at Jalan Imbi Chapel. She taught New Testament Greek among other subjects at Singapore Bible College before resigning to do missions work in China. Her husband lectures in a university in the province of Kangsu in China, and they do ministry to the churches in Kangsu and other provinces in China.

She is a good Bible teacher who can preach in Mandarin besides English, and can play the piano as well, talents very suited to missions in China. The Singapore seniors had a lovely time listening and learning from her. God bless her work in China.

Andrew Loh.

Britain's Cosmologist Emeritus Predicts Doom for Planet Earth

In 2003 Sir Martin Rees, a notable Astronomer or Cosmologist of Britain, predicted that his advanced studies of the skies have convinced him that our Planet Earth is facing the final century (elsewhere he has used the phrase "Earth's Final Hour"). He is not suffering from mental depression nor has his wife or someone dearest to him betrayed him. He is stating the result of his studies of comets, asteroids and the likelihood of Earth being hit by a major piece, like the huge asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs from our planet. He is merely warning his fellow inhabitants of Planet Earth.

His prophecy of "Doom" is interesting, given that fact that Rees is not religious and is an atheist. His gloomy warnings are in line with Biblical Prophecy concerning the End of our Age. Rees is an acknowledged expert on Black Holes in space.

Here is a quotation from the book of Revelation prophesying Earth being hammered by space objects: Revelation chapter 8:8-10 : ".....a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea, and the third of the sea became blood. And the third of the sea creatures died; and the third of the ships was destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and a great star burning like a lamp fell from the heaven, and it fell on the third of the rivers and on the fountains of waters.

Meet Lai Meng Wan author of "Israel"

It is the case that God is calling out professionals from the bustling offices of secular business and into the task of extending His Majesty's Service, lowly in the eyes of society but splendidly glorious in the light of eternity. Not everyone is called, as some have to witness in the challenging environment of the marketplace.

One such man called is a former Singaporean business executive now living in Perth, Australia. Lai Meng Wan was born again into the Kingdom of God in 1986 in mid-life and began serving in different capacities in the church in Singapore. Then he did a stint of seminary studies before exiting his directorship of a US logistics company for the higher one of devoting himself to the full-time study of the Word in 1997.

I came across his book "Israel" a few months ago in the printing office of Wilson Ng, boss of Akitiara Printing (Wilson does a lot of printing of books for Christian writers from all over the world). Since I was doing research at that time on End Times materials, Wilson allowed me to read the book. The writing is solidly PreMillennial and Pre-Tribulational in its eschatology, and I was keen to find out how a Postmodern Singaporean convert to the faith picked up this "Dispensational" viewpoint amidst all the eschatological confusion proferred by the Reformed theologians.

The author has been spending the last decade of his mature years researching the subject, by the look of the References page of the book, and has even studied such stalwarts as Sir Robert Anderson (author of "The Coming Prince"), vintage expositors of Prophetic Studies which are Biblical and a gold-mine of expository truth. Meng Wan is on the right track in this book, which explores the history, the destiny and the coming future of the nation of Israel - in the light of Scripture. He is bold enough to explore his own new insights on the Biblical texts relating to the subject.

"Israel A Light unto the Nations" is highly recommended for all those wanting to understand better what all the fuss is about in the Middle East. Dr. Kameel Majdali wrote the Foreword of the book.

Updates on Middle East

The Middle East has of late become a boiling cauldron of uprisings, reminding us of Psalm 2:1 "Why the big noise,nations? Why the mean plots, peoples?" (Message Bible). One day soon nations will gather in coalition to attack the tiny nation of Israel, and that's when the full impact of Psalm 2 will be fulfilled.

In the mid 1980's we in Malaysia and Singapore used to have updates on the Middle East situation and especially on Israel by visiting speakers like Lance Lambert, Derek Prince and their associates. That day is past and gone with the call home of Derek Prince and the ageing of Lance Lambert. However, the Lord is bringing new visiting speakers to keep us abreast of the Christian scene in the strategic spots of the Middle East vis-a-vis Israel.

One such contemporary speaker is Dr. Kameel Majdali, a born-again Arab of Palestinian descent (father's) and Lebanese (mother's). The parents emigrated to USA decades ago and lived as secular Arabs, bringing up their son without religious instruction. However, the Lord had a hand and someone placed a Gideon's Bible in the home library, which Kameel got hold of and devoured. When he became a Christian later, he already had a working knowledge of the Scriptures. Today he is the President of a Christian college (Teach All Nations) in Australia, where he and his Australian wife now live.

Dr Kameel held a seminar in Melaka in Calvary Life Assembly (AOG) during which he expounded in Biblical terms what is currently happening in the Middle East with all its popular tumultuous uprisings. It was Charles Spurgeon who said that Christians should read the Bible on one hand and the newspaper on the other (in a day when there were no computers and internet). Kameel uses his Bible knowledge as a Bible teacher, as well as his first-hand knowledge of Middle East current affairs via personal visits, to present vivid accounts of End Times perspectives in those prophetic hot-spots. The Lord is using knowledgeable people like him to keep our South-Eastern corner abreast of the times. God bless him.

Meet Dr. Ravi Zacharias

You may mistake Ravi Zacharias as a high-profile newscaster like David Frost, but he is actually in the business of promoting the Kingdom of God in the halls of secular learning, along the corridors of political power, in the raw market-places of the world.

Ravi was born in India in 1946 but emigrated to Canada with his family 20 years later. He became a born-again Christian after an attempted suicide failed, and as he lay on a hospital bed, an unknown Christian gave him a New Testament to read. I remember he said he was captivated by the story of Jesus while reading the Gospel of John. Later he left his career in business management to study theology. He received his Masters of Divinity from Trinity International University in Deerfield, Illinois. He went on to obtain advanced degrees in Comparative Religions, the Cults, Philosophy among other subjects. He has been a visiting scholar in most of the major universities in USA and UK, including Harvard and Cambridge.

I often hear him speak live on his "Ravi Zacharias International Ministries" radio broadcast over the internet. With his highly intellectual background, he manages to make deep high-brown subjects simple for the ordinary listener. He speaks for half an hour on the programme "Let My People Think" on a wide selection of biblical and evangelistic topics. He also presents evangelistic talks to university and college students in most of the major institutions of higher learning.

He has internationalised his evangelistic ministry and has a branch office in Singapore. He has written a number of appealing books suitable for thinkers who seek solutions to knotty intellectual problems and questions of faith. He is excellent for dealing with philosophical issues of Postmodernism and its challenges to Christianity.

Meet Louis Giglio

Louie Giglio isn't your average Sunday morning pastor or evangelist dressed in a tie-and-jacket preaching from a pulpit. He speaks to crowds of college students about Christ using the latest web technology showing the wonders of God's creation in the heavens and on earth. He designed a new style of worship geared towards these young adults, with casual attire, expressive worship and low-key visually driven evangelistic messages. He held a number of evangelistic outreaches which he called "Passion Conferences" drawing crowds of college students and young adults.

He has gathered around him a group of worship artistes - David Crowder Band, Chris tomlin, Matt Redman and Charlie Hall - performing for a record company called Sixsteps Records.

Some of his noteworthy productions include "How Great is our God" and "Indescribable". In one message Louie spoke about "Laminin" the cellular molecule in our skin shaped in the form of the Cross, pointing to God's witness to Christ's Redemption in our bodily structure.

He has worked with Baptist Pastor John Piper, who provides the theological firepower to educate the young converts in Bible studies.

Dvd on Rise of Christianity in China

This is an updated Dvd version of the VCD older version on the upsurge of Christianity in China till our day. It shows the irony that despite the heavy iron hand of Communist China to destroy the Christian faith in the country by the 1949 forced exodus of the Western missionaries, the Lord energised the local Chinese Christians to evangelise their own people. The underground church has grown by leaps and bounds, and in this Dvd we see testimonies of individuals from all strata of society in modern China coming to know Christ as Lord.

We have an ex-Communist Party member testifying of his conversion to Christianity. There is the testimony of a gambler-cum-gangster losing his wealth, hitting rock-bottom and finding Christ. A lady running a dancing saloon gets all her students to hear the Gospel and dance for the Lord. Amazing stories and personal testimonies follow one after another. Couples on the verge of divorce in the bustling city life of Shanghai testify how the Lord has saved their marriages, and how one spouse bore the burden of winning the other to Christ through patient enduring love.

It is a 2-hour solid presentation in spoken Mandarin and also in English, with subtitles in Chinese. A great source of inspiration for evangelisation.

Reviewed by Andrew Loh.

Francis Schaeffer the man

Many of us know Francis Schaeffer as the philosophical figure in Swiss clothes and a goatee beard giving him the appearance of a guru on the Swiss Alps of a place of refuge called L'Abri. He is well-known as an iconic figure because of his books such as "The God Who is There", "Escape From Reason" and a list of others. Most would imagine he was a great scholar seated in the halls of learning far from the ordinary lives of everyday people. But we are surprisingly wrong.

Schaeffer came from a poor family in a distant county of America. His parents were illiterate and he himself had no books to read until he worked for a rich foreigner who lent or gave him a book on philosophy. That is how he came to love the subject of Philosophy so as to write books from a Christian angle that would counter the Postmodern ideas that would plague the world in the 1960's. I think the Lord provided the means for him to go to college, poor though he was, and then to a Christian Seminary to turn out as a Presbyterian pastor. He was saved in a Presbyterian church, met his wife Edith who helped to nurture him in the refined ways of middle class society, she coming from a good educated family of some means.

Francis Schaeffer came into the Christian community for "such a time as this", that is as a man raised up to help the Church meet the intellectual challenges of Postmodernism. That is the intellectual aspect of the man.

I am more interested in the less known achievements of the man. He was not really a scholar with great credentials despite his books and writings; he was not an original thinker and did not claim to be such; his was the rare gift of reducing the obscure thinking in simple writing which the ordinary people could understand - the gift of the populariser. With his knowledge of both the Bible and Philosophy, he taught Christians how to answer and overcome the challenges offered by Relativism, Humanism and the whole gamut of Postmodernism.

What is more important than his intellectual contribution was teaching the fractured and deeply divided Evangelical Church how to convey the Truths of Scripture in the spirit of love. He had been nurtured by the Presbyterian Church in America, had seen the bitterness of the doctrinal splits between the Orthodox Presbyterians and the liberals (witnessed the carnal name-calling and legalistic disputes and quarrels over doctrines). He saw also divisions over such issues as drinking alcohol: Christians fighting one another with tongs and hammers, tooth and nail over social issues. Edith and he realised that what Evangelical Christianity needed was a model of how to reach out to people differing from us in unconditional love (Agape love) and loving them to win them over (not by preaching down at them, not by dictating doctrines to them). Hence the couple went to Swiss Alps and started the communal living of L'Abri.

Through the L'Abri community Schaeffer and wife reached a new generation of seekers (young intellectuals seeking answers) who were to impact Evangelical Christianity for generations to come. A few names will suffice: Dr Os Guinness (who grew up in Kluang, Malaysia), Jerram Barrs, Jerry Falwell, Dr. Everett Koop, to name a few.

L'Abri has lived on in the lives of the people who were impacted as young seekers, who have not grown up to be influential figures in their own social circles. This is the greatest impact of Francis Schaeffer.

This is a recently released movie and Dvd about a South African farmer who had no control over his anger syndrome. It was only when he became a born-again Christian by attending his wife's church that he had a new lease of life, enabling him to conquer his demonic anger. Christian life was no picnic in the park and he had to face the disaster of losing his only son in a vehicle accident. He faced other trials too in his daily work of growing crops and potatoes. As he grew in his faith in Christ, he learned to handle himself and his African workers.

He had the unusual habit of reading the Bible sleeping under the tall stems of his crops, and he learned to hear the Lord speaking to him. With the coaching of his pastor, he became an evangelist preaching to whites and blacks. He was led to organise a huge evangelistic campaign using an outdoor stadium which could house tens of thousands. His faith in God was justified and he preached the Gospel to crowds.

There is a final challenging scene where there was no rain for his potatoes for a long season of time, and he had to rely on God to keep the crop going. At harvest time his faith in God saw the miracle of a record harvest of potatoes surviving the drought. Faith is like potatoes: you never know it is there until harvest time.

Reviewed by Andrew Loh.

Joel Rosenberg

Joel Rosenberg is a contemporary American communications strategist, who has written the "Last Jihad" series and the founder of "The Joshua Fund". Though he came from an Orthodox Jewish home, he has become an Evangelical Christian. In recent years his five novels about terrorism have jettisoned him into the media breaking-news. His book "The Ezekiel Option" won The Gold Medallion Book Award, while his other noted books include "Inside the Revolution" and "Epicenter".

He is a Pre-Millennial Pre-Tribulationalist on the Second Coming of Christ, and runs a blog on current End Times prophetic events.

Lee Strobel is an investigative journalist working for Chicago Tribune newspaper on legal issues. When his wife became an Evangelical born-again Christian, he was annoyed, and started a personal research to prove she had gone crazy. He was a hard-headed atheist who began investigating Christianity and the Bible, which he did during his spare time for a period of some 2 years. He waved his investigative journalist badge and obtained entrance into the offices and homes of Christian theologians and thinkers. He went on the web and did probing studies into the manuscripts of the Gospel of the New Testament to see how well they stood up under his search-light. He was somewhat surprised that the documents of the Christian faith - the Bible - stood up solid as a rock. He examined the Christian faith from all the angles he could muster, met with Pastors and theologians and recorded all his interviews with these experts. And guess what? He surrendered and accepted Christ as Saviour and Lord, much as past atheistic investigators did - people like the lawyer who wrote "Who Moved the Stone" (a research into the Resurrection of Jesus), and scholars like C S Lewis who was also negative towards Christianity. Lee Strobel converted to Christianity and started writing a series of books based on his interviews and research. One of the first book was "The Case For Christ", which has been transformed into a video and Dvd. "Case for Christ" is a good tool to reach hard-headed atheists and agnostics. If you need the Dvd and don't know how to get it, just call on me.

Books authored

KEYS TO THE SECOND COMING PUBLISHED APRIL 2011: A HIGHLY ILLUSTRATED PRESENTATION OF THE PREMILLENNIAL PRE-TRIBULATIONAL VIEW COMPARED WITH THE THE OTHERS (AMILLENNIAL, POSTMILLENNIAL AND HISTORIC MILLENNIAL). FULL COLOUR WITH 50 PAGES PICTURES & CHARTS, 75 PAGES OF EXPLANATARY TEXT. Chapter 1 - The Law of Double Fulfilment Chapter 2 - Problems of each Eschatological View Chapter 3 - The Millennial Reign of Christ Chapter 4 - The Second Coming Closing Chapter - Your Redemption Draws Near Author - Andrew Loh ( Email: andlfloh@gmail.com ; Hphone 019-6677090)

GENEROUS GIVING PUBLISHED 2008: A BOOK ON THE STEWARDSHIP OF MONEY PROVEN IN THE SHORT LIFE ACCOUNTS OF CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE GIVEN GENEROUSLY OUT OF THEIR LIVES AND HEARTS TO THE LORD. FROM THE DAYS OF COUNT ZINZENDORF, COUNTESS HUNTINGDON, JOHN WESLEY, GEORGE MUELLER AND DOWN TO CONTEMPORARY TIMES.

YOU AND THE END TIMES

PUBLISHED 1992 : AN ATTEMPT TO SIMPLIFY THE ESCHATOLOGICAL JARGON AND VIEWPOINTS FOR THE LAY PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND.

CHARISMATIC RENEWAL THE MALAYSIAN CONNECTION

PUBLISHED 1991: a layman's account of how the Charismatic Movement started and caught on in Malaysia, showing how the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship started with the group around Dr. Peter Tong. Also how Full Gospel Assembly started as an independen Charismatic Brethren church. An account of the Latter Rain Church in Malaysia and some of its daughter churches. Personal testimonies of healings and conversions (including Uncle Khoo of Melaka and Dato Lew Sip Hon, Pastor Bernard Ong, the Tay family of Gateway Fellowship Melaka, etc.....).

Reformed Theologians Who Recognise the Right of Israel to Exist, thus retracting from the official Replacement Theology ascribed to the Reformed camp. Dr. Michael J Vlach, whom I assume is a Dispensationalist theologian, has produced a list of Reformed theologians who have affirmed a future for the nation of Israel. If this is factually true, then these theologians as listed have essentially "repented" of or retracted from the official Replacement Theology. The list includes: Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Iain Murray, John Perkins, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge, Charles Spurgeon, C E Cranfield, George E Ladd, Herman Ridderbos, John Murray, Millard Erickson and Wayne Grudem. This is a list of the smart Reformed theologians who have seen the error of Replacement Theology and have saved their reputation (and their souls) from the sinking and shifting sands of mis-interpreting Romans chapter 11. Look at what they have saved their souls from. I will now deal with how dangerous Replacement Theology has been. Touching the sensitive subject of Replacement Theology is like touching "the apple of God's eye". In fact, the Psalmist text of "touch not my anointed" rightly means to refrain from encroaching on the rights, the covenants, the privileges and the identity of Israel as an elect people of God. Replacement Theology virtually "vaporizes" Israel out of the whole of Scripture: the mystical magical wand of this voodoo doctrine essentially destroys the identity of Israel. What then happens to the eternal and unconditional Abrahamic Covenant made between God and Abraham and ratified with Isaac on to David? Jeremiah chapter 31:35-37 contain the challenge by the Lord to anyone who dares to question the perpetuity of the nation of Israel, with God pointing to the sun, moon and stars (the whole universe) as eternal witnesses of the eternal existence of Israel. Once anyone questions the right of Israel to exist or persist as an entity, he has virtually opened a Pandora's box of doctrinal evils. Let us start with the heart of the Gospel, the doctrine of Eternal Salvation through the Redemption of the Cross of Christ, which is the New Testament founded upon the blood of Jesus. If you can abrogate the Abrahamic Covenant (and its accompanying covenants down the line), you are questioning the validity of the New Covenant of the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. Once you wipe Israel out of the map of God or the Word of God, you are shaking the very foundations of the New Covenant and all that it involves. The heart of the doctrine of Salvation, of Redemption, the work of the Cross of Christ - everything is shaken. You are essentially upsetting the "apple cart" of the Christian faith. Nobody will then be assured of the eternality of Salvation. If we allow Replacement Theology to wave its magical wand to say "Poof, Israel disappear forever!" you are challenging the validity of the eternal Gospel of the Grace of God. Pastors and ministers like Stephen Sizer, or a Baptist or evangelical like Jimmy Carter and their kindred should know the implications of Replacement Theology. They are playing with fire without knowing what they are doing. I hope you wake up to the realities of the issues raised by Replacement Theology.

Pastor John MacArthur (Baptist, USA) who has voiced his support for national Israel. Pastor John MacArthur is a well-known leader among the Evangelicals in USA, especially among the Baptists. He was the writer of the book "Charismatic Chaos" depicting the errors of the "Health and Wealth Gospel". He is known to be forthright in his Reformed theology and has a large following among Evangelical Christians in the USA. What I particularly appreciate about MacArthur is his boldness to speak up for what is right and Scriptural. Though he is of the Reformed theological persuasion, he has been forthright and outspoken about the error of Amillennialism and Postmillennialism (and Historic Premillennialism) in their Replacement Theology (replacing Israel with the Church, claiming to take over all the blessings of Israel while leaving the bones of curses to the Jews). MacArthur has stated in no uncertain terms in conferences organised under his umbrella that Reformed believers, being Calvinists upholding the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty and Election, should be the people who support the election of Israel as the chosen people of God. So Pastor MacArthur stands out as a sore thumb in the midst of the Reformed theological camp; rather he shines as a brilliant gem in the eschatological confusion of Replacement Theology. You have to contrast John MacArthur with other noted Baptist pastors like John Piper who unfortunately remains mired in the shifting sands of Replacement Theology even though he is good in other doctrines, especially that of Salvation (Soteriology). I have already pointed out the shocking anomalies of exceptionally brilliant Reformed theologians like Benjamin Warfield espousing Replacement Theology when an objective study of the Scriptures would have shown them that Israel is very much alive and kicking even until today. Against the black and murky darkness of the Replacement Theology of the Reformed theologians, I would say that such a one as John MacArthur stands out as a beam of brilliant light. God be merciful to the Replacement Theologians.

Anglican Pastor Stephen Sizer, a virulent crusader against Israel in his biased pro-Palestinian writings and rantings.

Replacement Theology Part Two

What Scripture do Replacement theologians base their thesis of replacing Israel with the Church? It will shock us to learn that they have none. NONE ! Out of the 70 mentions of "Israel" in the whole of the New Testament these capable and diligent scholars have been able to mention one ( that's right !) one suspect text. They have stooped so low as to fasten all their hermeneutics on Galatians 6:16, and the phrase "Israel of God" in it. This Galatians verse is in the closing farewell paragraph of Apostle Paul, where he incidentally uses this term in closing. This term is not found in the 5 chapters in which Paul presents his solid teaching against the Judaisers for their serious soteriological error (returning to the Mosaic law as the means of salvation). No, the term "Israel of God" is not found in the heart of Galatians. And to think that these well-equipped Covenant/Reformed theologians would have to pick such an obscure and suspect text - well, this is beyond reasonable imagination. And they base their whole weight of their Replacement theology on such a slender thread. It astounds me to think that such a magnificent scholar like Benjamin Warfield, the best among the great Reformed scholars of all time, would lend his learning to such a belief. The trouble with Seminarians is that their Seminaries have bound them hand, foot and brain - they have signed away their independence of thought "hook, line and sinker" to their institution of learning. What a waste of learning !

However, it is not only scholars in the seminary powerhouses of theological firepower who have misused their theology against Israel. You must realise that Replacement theology is a subtle and disguised form of Anti-Jewish teaching, as guilty as Henry Ford for his publication or support of the Protocals book attacking the Jews.

Two notable figures in contemporary times can be mentioned for widely publicised violent attacks against Israel. One is Jimmy Carter who is said to be funded by the oil-rich Arabs for his travels and exertions against Israel. The other is Anglican Minister Stephen Sizer, outspoken and virulent critic of Israel in his liberal and humanitarian support for the Palestinian cause. These and other evangelical opponents of Israel have much to answer for when they stand before the Lord at the Bema.