Our Roots

French

The B-P Singapore Tree has seven-plus-one strong and deep roots. Our Protestant Bible-Presbyterian heritage comes from British Presbyterianism and the European Reformed Faith, an offshoot of the 16th Century Reformation from the bondage of Rome to the grace of God. John Calvin, a French theologian, led this Reformed Faith, thus our French Root.

English

We trace our English root to our southern Chinese ancestors, who inherited their Presbyterianism from the English Presbyterian Mission, which separated from Anglicanism.

Scottish

In 1847, the English Presbyterians sent a Scotsman, Rev. William Chalmers Burns to China, hence our Scottish Root. In 1859, the first Swatow convert, Tan Khai Lin, a Manchu officer and the maternal great-grandfather of Rev. Timothy Tow, became the first ordained minister in 1882. Among the earliest converts emigrating to Singapore for a better livelihood was Elder Heng Chiang Mong (1856-1931), the grandfather of Dr Andrew Heng and Rev. Philip Heng. Rev. John A.B. Cook was sent to Singapore in 1881 to organise them into four churches, including Life Church in Prinsep Street, from whence sprang our B-P Movement.

German

In 1849, a German evangelist, Dr Rudolph Lechler of the Basel Missionary Society planted a church in Iam Tsau, 25 miles from Swatow, the ancestral village of Rev. Tow, giving us a German Root.

Chinese

Our Chinese Root stems from Dr John Sung, whose true Pentecostal evangelism soundly converted the founding fathers of the B-P Church in Singapore.

American

Rev. Tow studied under Dr Carl McIntire of Faith Theological Seminary, where he felt God’s call to imbibe the spirit of the 20th Century Reformation advocated by the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC). We acknowledge our American Root to Dr McIntire, the progenitor of the B-P Church and the President of the ICCC as opposed to the World Council of Churches (WCC), which is not Christian at all.

Singaporean

Though the founding fathers of Life B-P Church were all born in China, they are now full-fledged true-blue Singaporeans, who must be considered our firm Singaporean Root.

Tap Root

Central to and emanating from the preceding seven roots is the tap root in our beloved pastor, Rev. Dr Timothy Tow. From this root has sprouted the Life B-P Church and the B-P Movement, first in Singapore and Malaysia, and now throughout the world. The root in the founding pastor of B-Pism is deep and widespread, sinking itself firmly in three continents, namely Asia (Singapore and Nanking), North America (Faith Theological Seminary) and Europe (Geneva).

This root of roots in the founding pastor of B-Pism has a long history, going back to 1920 when he became the son of a mother’s vow. His devout mother offered her first-born son to the Lord to be a pastor. The future pastor’s pedigree was impeccable; his maternal great-grandfather was an ordained minister, his grandfather an evangelist and his father a physician trained in a mission hospital.

From an early age, he was nurtured for his subsequent calling. The young lad left his parents in Johore to live with his preacher-grandfather in Singapore in order to attend school here. He was academically prepared, making it to the School’s Honours Roll after he topped his Senior Cambridge Examinations at the Anglo-Chinese School in 1937. His stay at the manse of the English Presbyterian Mission Church afforded him an insight into the life of a pastor.

He was soundly converted at a series of meetings conducted by the visiting renowned Chinese evangelist, Dr John Sung, who brought Pentecostal Revival to Singapore. He was one of the first to dedicate his life for full-time service at the altar call on 8 September 1935, attributing his spontaneous response to his mother’s vow to the Lord.

Giving vent to his ambition, he successfully competed for a place to be trained as a judicial officer, which was a prestigious position during the Japanese occupation. On the return of the British, he was granted admission to read law at the University of London and Middle Temple.

In 1946, as he was about to set sail to England, his mother was taken ill suddenly and went to be with the Lord soon after. Undaunted, he was so determined to fulfil his ambition that he quoted Scripture out of context that the dead should be allowed to bury the dead. Barely five weeks later, the second blow came which left him fizzling like a punctured balloon when his seven-month old daughter died unexpectedly after surgery. Only then did he go down on bended knee to have his will subsumed under the will of the Lord. He gave up all his worldly aspirations and promised to serve the Lord to the end of his life.

Shortly after, he left for China to study under the famed Dr Chia Yu-Ming in Nanking. While there, he was spotted for his potential and recommended for transfer to Faith Theological Seminary, U.S.A. in 1947. This was to be a double blessing for the Lord’s hand was mercifully leading him away from the diabolical snare of communism in China two years later. Truly, "a man’s heart deviseth his way but the Lord directed his steps" (Prov 16:9).

Thus from the son of a mother’s vow to his sound conversion and calling, to his being forged in the crucible of fire to submit his will to the holy will of God, and to his thorough grounding in the Word of God at the Bible school of Dr Chia Yu-Ming and Faith Theological Seminary, the tap root finally found its anchorage. All this has fortified the anointed in this Polemical Witness to withstand the onslaught of all manner of apostasy in the business of the King of kings and Lord of lords for the remainder of the second millennium and beyond.