Introduction

The Bible-Presbyterian Church movement in Singapore is now 50 years in the making, and still on the go. It is important for the B-P Church at this historical milestone to remember the precious truths that make it alive. Forgetfulness can turn a lively movement into a life-less monument. It behoves us to review our precious biblical heritage in keeping to God’s injunction - "Remember, and forget not" (Deut 9:7). I will discuss our B-P Faith in 5 parts: (1) Our Roots, (2) Our Book, (3) Our Lord, (4) Our Work, and (5) Our Hope.

Our Roots

The B-P Faith is rooted in the Protestant Reformation and in Biblical Fundamentalism.

Why are we Bible-Presbyterian? First, we are Presbyterian because we trace our roots back to the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Reformation produced these two Protestant schools: the Lutheran and the Calvinist. We come from the latter which is also known as Reformed or Presbyterian. We believe the Calvinist tradition to be the better school. We thank the Lord for Luther who led the way in freeing God’s people from Roman Catholic bondage. Luther was the evangelist of the Reformation, but Calvin was the theologian. Luther primarily preached the Christian Gospel, but Calvin did more than that; he systematised the Christian Faith. Calvin’s magnum opus - The Institutes of the Christian Religion - is perhaps the most influential book in Christendom, second only to the Bible, since the time of the Reformation. Our founding pastor - Rev. Dr Timothy Tow - who has abridged the Institutes of Calvin has rightly observed, "Calvinism is Paulinism systematised."

As Calvinists, we adopt the Reformed confession in the Westminster Standards (1643-8), which elucidate the biblical worldview as found in covenant theology vis-à-vis dispensational theology. (See Rev. Tow’s critique of dispensationalism in his book - The Law of Moses and of Jesus. See also my article, "Dispensationalism Examined" in the July'94 issue of The Burning Bush.)

We are also Bible-Presbyterians because of our Biblical and Fundamentalist roots. In this regard, we trace our biblical-fundamentalist spirit to Dr John Sung and Dr Carl McIntire. Dr John Sung (1901-1944) - the great Chinese revivalist - was instrumental in the salvation of our founding pastor. John Sung was a man of one book - the Bible. His preaching and teaching ministry left an indelible impression on young Tow Siang Hui. The Bible and Bible alone must be our sole basis for faith and practice. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt 4:4). During his ministry, John Sung spared no effort to denounce the poison of liberalism and modernism. He certainly knew how deadly this poison is, for he almost died from it at the apostate Union Seminary, or "Cemetery" as he would call it. Read Rev. Tow's John Sung My Teacher to appreciate John Sung's role in the history of the Singapore B-P Church.

Then there is Dr Carl McIntire - founder of the B-P Church and Faith Theological Seminary, USA, in 1937. Dr McIntire started the 20th Century Reformation against modernism, ecumenism, and a new enemy in neo-evangelicalism. Providentially led by God to study theology at Faith Seminary, Timothy Tow caught the fundamentalist spirit from McIntire. Upon his return to Singapore in 1950, he took a separatist stand against the liberal Presbyterians, and founded Life B-P Church at Gilstead Road in obedience to the biblical command: "come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Cor 6:17). Since then, the B-P denomination, despite its separatist stand, has experienced rapid growth. As Bible-Presbyterians, we are biblical fundamentalists called to "earnestly con-tend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). For the whole story, read The Singapore B-P Church Story by Timothy Tow. A fine synopsis is offered by Blakely Baynes Hurst, "Confessionalism and Revivalism in the Singapore Bible Presbyterian Movement," The Burning Bush 3 (1997): 69-83.

Our Book

The Bible-Presbyterian Faith is anchored solely on the divinely inspired and preserved Word of God.

We believe that the 66 books of Holy Scriptures are the divinely inspired Word of God. The biblical word for divine inspiration is Theopneustos - "God breathed" (2 Tim 3:16). As such the Bible is not sourced in man but in God. Although God used His servants to pen the Scriptures, He Himself is the Author (2 Pet 1:21). When we say that the Bible is divinely inspired, we mean that not only the whole of it is inspired (plenary inspiration) - "All Scripture is given by divine inspiration" (2 Tim 3:16), but also every word of it is inspired (verbal inspiration), even to a jot and tittle (Matt 5:18). Although the Bible is primarily a salvation textbook, it is absolutely without error when it deals with science, history, or geography. We affirm with Dean Burgon that "The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it, every verse of it, every syllable of it, every letter of it, is direct utterance of the Most High. The Bible is none other than the Word of God, not some part of it more, some part of it less, but all alike the utterance of Him that sitteth upon the throne, faultless, unerring, supreme."

Not only do we believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, we also believe that it is divinely preserved. The Westminster Confession states, "The OT in Hebrew … and the NT in Greek … being immediately inspired by God, and by His singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical." God promised in Ps 12:6-7 to preserve His Word: "The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." We believe that the OT and NT Autographs (first manuscripts penned by the original writers them-selves) were divinely preserved through the course of time in the traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text (OT) and the traditional Greek Received Text (NT), which under-lie the Authorised or King James Version (AV/KJV) of the English Bible.

Insofar as the English Bible is concerned, we believe that the AV or KJV is the most faithful, accurate, and trustworthy version. We deem the many modern English versions like the New International Version (NIV) to be perversions. This is so because they are either (1) based on the corrupt Westcott and Hort Text which scissored away many portions of God's Word (eg, the last 12 verses of Mark, John 7:53 - 8:11 - the passage on the woman taken in adultery, and 1 John 5:7-8 on the Holy Trinity), or (2) translated by means of the dynamic equivalence method that takes the audacious liberty of changing the words of Scripture based on the whim and fancy of the translator; or are both. Man has no right whatsoever to delete or to modify God's Word, and as Bible-Presbyterians we oppose vehemently any and every attempt to tamper with Holy Scripture (Rev 22:18-19). For further study, read A Theology for Every Christian - Book I: Knowing God and His Word, by Timothy Tow and Jeffrey Khoo.