My prof's article

Article on comments by my New Testament professor. S'pore Churches Face Crisis of Bible Illiteracy: Theologian The trend of Christians knowing little about the Holy Bible is by no means confined to the West. Singapore churches face the same problem, suggests theologian Tony Siew. And churches, seminaries and churchgoers themselves are to blame for it. Dr Siew was commenting in his weblog on research findings released by Pew Research Center on September 28. He is a lecturer in New Testament at Trinity Theological College. The American think tank had found that a significant proportion of American Protestants surveyed could not answer simple questions about the Bible. Examples follow. Forty-four per cent of the Protestants do not know that the Golden Rule is not among the Ten Commandments. Nearly 40 per cent do not know that Abraham is the biblical figure who was willing to sacrifice his son’s life for God. Over 60 per cent do not know that Job is the biblical figure known for remaining obedient to God despite extraordinary suffering. Forty-three per cent were unable to name the Four Gospels. Dr Siew wrote: “If America is facing a crisis in biblical literacy, what about the rest of the world? “I would venture to suggest that if a similar survey is done in Singapore, the results will be about the same as those in America.” The former lawyer went on to suggest five reasons for Bible illiteracy among Singapore Christians. He also highlighted his observations in his October 7 blog post. Firstly, there is not much systematic teaching of major sections of the Bible through its 66 books. Preaching is often limited to a period of between 25 to 30 minutes and scheduled at the end of the service. Expository preaching is limited to a brief passage. Many parts of the Bible are not covered in church even in a period of ten years. This is worsened by the fact that not many churchgoers typically attend a regular Bible study class if it is offered at all. Secondly, the Bible is no longer at the centre of the theological curriculum in seminaries. Instead, seminary programmes are often filled with practical or skill-based courses. He wrote: “If over the course of 3 years, students only take 4 or 5 biblical courses out of a possible 30 courses… it is not surprising that one learns little about the Bible since the Bible is a collection of 66 books. “Learning to interpret the Bible canonically – how various parts are understood as a whole and how the whole is understood in the light of all its parts – takes much skill, effort and time.” Without having comprehensively studied the Bible in seminary, potential pastors are often ‘left in a lurch’ and ‘ill-prepared’ to teach the ‘whole counsel of God’ as revealed in the Bible. This has ramifications for the Bible knowledge of churchgoers. Thirdly, Christians are increasingly ‘lazy’ in reading the Bible. Many Christians neglect the discipline of personal Bible study. In fact, they have devotions irregularly. And they read the Bible only when it is preached at church. “Bible illiteracy can only be overcome when we take personal responsibility in reading our Bible systematically for men shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” he said. He was quoting a popular verse from Matthew 4. Fourthly, “pragmatism and instant success/blessings seem to be the flavour of the day even in churches,” he noted. He put the prevailing mindset thus: “Give us crumbs or tiny bits provided it works and we shall be happy with it.” “So much of preaching today is hardly apostolic preaching of truth and the whole truth,” he said. The apostolic church "devoted themselves in the teaching of the apostles," he highlighted. He was citing a verse from Acts 2. Fifth and finally, there is the failure of Christian leadership to set the Bible in the centre of all speaking, learning, ministry and practice. Yet "all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, instruction, rebuke and correction that the man of God may be proficient and equipped for every good work,” he pointed out. He was citing verses from 2 Timothy 3. Dr Siew is not the first Christian leader in Singapore to highlight a crisis of Bible illiteracy. The Reverend Edmund Chan has expressed a similar view. He did so in a video presentation for a yearly conference on theology his church organises. Chan is the Senior Pastor of the Covenant Evangelical Free Church. Nathanael Ng nathanael@christianpost.com

Reading Update

I'm pretty glad our church has started its very own book ministry, getting consignments from SKS to sell. Reading the Bible is of paramount importance, but I think reading a wide range of Christian books is essential to healthy spiritual growth and fruitfulness in the Christian walk. So.

For me, every year I try to read at least 4 Christian books a year. 1 in 3 months should be just right, even if my schedule is tight. Granted I didn't read any in the first 3 months of this year, but I've caught up since then. :p

Here are the books I'm working on this year:

Loving God With All Your Mind - J.P. Moreland. This is a FANTASTIC book, one which has radically altered my perspective to my faith. In a nutshell: Christians have forgotten how to love God with our mind, it greatly hampers our Christian witness today, and it's time for us to regain it. To me, it's a must read. Lent it to Kenneth, hope he's enjoying it.

Practising the Presence of God - Brother Lawrence. A gift to me by (Uncle) Vincent Quah. Something I read for a while earlier in the year, and then stopped. It is a pity, since it's something I sorely need to learn. I think the sheer difficulty of emulating Brother Lawrence caused me to lose heart, lol. I think I should read one chapter of this at the start of every week.

Growing Deep In Faith - Edmund Chan. Got this after IDMC. Edmund Chan is a LOT lighter to read than the other books he recommends - this is therefore a simple, easy-to-read, yet thoughtful book. Pastor Edmund has one of the simple yet best perspectives on faith around today - hence the importance of this book among the various other books that warp what faith actually is. I might do some actual engagement of content with the books I read instead of just giving a review, and I'll probably start with this one, since it's the easiest. Haha.

Of the Imitation of Christ - Thomas A Kempis. A gift from Henry, Mag and Claud for my birthday. It has apparently been translated into more languages than any other book except the Bible.... wow. It's a Christian classic, and man, this guy is hard to follow. Which I suppose is exactly right, since Jesus' teachings ARE hard to follow. I read every chapter and I go "Man, I'm so far away from being like Christ." Here's an example:

Do not think that you have made any progress unless you esteem yourself inferior to all. (Second Book, Chapter 2)

...certainly I'm a long way away from making any progress. Here I am thinking maybe I've kept my pride in check a bit better, and actually I haven't even got out of the starting blocks yet.

Good thing I'm still young then. Halfway through the book, struggling slowly, but such is the process of sanctification.

Did The Resurrection Happen? - Gary Habermas & Antony Flew. My apologetic book for the year. The authors are a theologian and atheist, respectively, and the book is a transcript of their debate that they had in 2005, the last of three they had about the resurrection. The debate is totally absorbing, and I finished this book in one sitting. haha. It went by quicker, I suppose, since I'm quite up-to-date on the arguments concerning the resurrection. Of course, I got stoked about this book also because I have another book that Flew wrote, writing about how he has moved from being an atheist to theist... You could say he's the most prominent atheist that has changed his position.

Finally Alive - John Piper. Farewell gift from Pastor Sai Moi after my internship, and it has engaged me from the get-go. The book examines what the oft-repeated term "born again" means, and so far, Piper's got me hooked. Will definitely talk more about it once I'm finished.

The Bible Speaks Today Commentaries - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Sermon on the Mount, Philippians, 2 Timothy, Hebrews. These are my devotionals, what accompanies me for my QT. I use them also extensively for my ministry: I'm teaching the Gospels for my DG, helped out in the CE course for Philippians, did a TTC night course in 2 Timothy, and am now going through Hebrews with my own DG. The Bible Speaks Today are excellent devotional commentaries, edited by John Stott. I strongly suggest getting them - especially the Sermon on the Mount one which John Stott personally wrote.

So I got 6 books (not including commentaries) and have finished 3. At least one more to go to cap my quota for the year then.

Oh, and if you want any of the books to read, by all means just let me know and I'll be glad to pass them to you.

Me, a Messianic Jew?

Recently a lady of remarkably garish clothing visited our place of temporary worship at St. George's twice in the span of a month. And, if her impact on Dexter is any indication, she left quite an impression.

When she first engaged Dexter in deep conversation outside the worship hall at lunchtime, I just assumed she was a friendly and gregarious, if a bit odd, woman. Count me slightly wrong on that score. After a few minutes of talk I remember Kai Min, who was sitting next to me at lunch, telling me, "I think we'd better go rescue Dexter." Haha.

After a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to try my hand at doing so since I'd finished my lunch. So upon inserting myself into the conversation, I started to get to know this lady a bit better.

It turns out she was a Messianic Jew, coming to the various churches in Singapore to tell us to repent and teach us true worship. True worship, she elaborated, has to be done in one's living room, reading and singing from the Psalms - AND only from the Bible.

I recall also her fixation with names. What is your name, she said? Ivan, I replied.

Ivan is a German name. That is not a good name. Names should be from the Bible.

I decided not to argue with her that Ivan was actually a Russian variant of John. What would be a good name for me, I then asked. "I'll get back to you later on that."

This curious conversation continued, whereby she revealed also her insistence on Jesus Christ being referred to as Yeshua Hamashiach, his Hebrew name; her proclamation that her message was only for men, not for women (a bit ironic); how PAP, Hillsong, and diverse other groups were "Hell"; how I was a bit fat >:(, attributing it to all the "unclean" pork I ate; and finally how she was a prophetess, from her insight proclaiming that "you are an intelligent young man". All I did was try and throw at her all the Hebrew I knew at appropriate moments (Yeshua, Sheki'nah, Mishnah, Torah, Messiah, etc.)

What was funny was that all I was trying to do was to end the conversation pleasantly to give her a reason to leave the premises. In the end, I think she took my apparent interest to mean a possibility of a suitable convert, and asked for my email and handphone number so she could get back to me. I thus proceeded to give her my (junk) email address and my (old) handphone number. I arrived home to find my old handphone spammed with 15 new messages, outlining how I should live out the faith of a Messianic Jew, with my new name Da'vid; I was to migrate as soon as possible to Melbourne to join the wider body of Messianic Jews there. Thank goodness the instructions didn't include circumcision.

***

Well! I wonder whether I could have handled that whole incident better. The next time she came I was busy with music practice and so could not entertain her (she must have been disappointed, though, at the Hillsong songs I chose). I spoke with Pastor Henry about the incident, and he told me a better way to handle the situation is to politely but firmly tell her she was not welcome to proselyte a different faith in another religion's place of worship.

It was probably best, I guess, that I talked with her instead of allowing her to disturb someone younger and perhaps less prepared. But even so I didn't feel the inclination (maybe also cos I wasn't prepared) to share with her my own point of view about following Jesus.

Reflecting back, if I had been a bit more well-equipped I would have asked for her opinion on a few choice passages in Acts, Galatians and Hebrews, and how the early church dealt with new Gentile converts. Galatians, especially, goes to the heart of the matter; Jews who accepted Christ were insisting that their Gentile brethren had to go through the process of circumcision to truly follow Christ. And Paul made it very clear; the only circumcision that was needed was the circumcision of the heart.

This branch of Messianic Judaism that I encountered seems to cut close to the same vein, calling on Christians to embrace the Jewish way of worship as needful to follow Christ. But all these are merely millstones around people's necks, causing them to stumble in their journey towards following Christ!

Paul had some harsh words for the "circumcision party" in Galatians, and in this instance I wonder if it might be necessary to react as strongly. Because it appears such followers of Jesus are still banking on things other than the redeeming work of Christ crucified for their salvation. And that is the most dangerous thing to believe of all.

As for me? I still follow Christ, and respect and try to learn more about the Jewish way of life. But it's a life I don't have to personally lead.