50 Years Building His Kingdom - Far Eastern Bible College

Life
Bible-Presbyterian
Church
gences, sanctioned by Pope Leo X to raise
money for the rebuilding of St Peter’s
Church in Rome, faded. Enlightened people
began to realise that forgiveness is rich
and free in Christ Jesus alone, and not a
commodity that can be bought in the
‘spiritual’ marketplace. The financial
corruption and spiritual deception of the
Church were finally over.
The Knowledge Based
Christian (KBC)
The Reformation
brought home the importance
of Christian Education.
In medieval times,
only the priests were educated.
Now, all true believers
need to understand
their new-found faith. The
Bible is given to them in
their own vernacular language,
and they can read it,
relish it and apply it. The knowledge based
Christian (KBC) is our answer in this
treacherous and deceptive ecclesiastical
world of the last days. Thank God for Rev.
Dr Timothy Tow and Rev. Dr Quek Kiok
Chiang, the founders of the B-P movement
that caught the vision of the 20th century
reformation movement in a time of a great
falling away in the ecumenical movement,
the Charismatics, New Age Movement,
Freudian Psychology, Alpha Course and
other outlandish spiritual phenomena. The
B-P Church and other Bible-believing
Churches must continue to propagate the
gospel, and fervently and faithfully contend
for the faith that was once delivered
to the saints (1 Thess 2:15).
One of the great ideas of the Reformation
was to unveil the enormous wealth
of Holy Scripture and have it savoured by
the common people. Calvin encouraged
learning in Geneva, and soon John Knox
of Scotland and others came from afar.
With the invention of the printing press by
Johann Guttenberg in 1454-1455 (a divine
provision), literature could be duplicated
“The Reformation
was surely one of
the most lifeshaping
and lifechanging
movements in
modern history.”
quickly and disseminated all over Europe.
Exegetical works, commentaries and biblical
theological textbooks like Calvin’s
Institutes, flooded Europe. These relieved
the people of erroneous and heretical
preaching and practices. The Reformers’
motto was ‘Back to the Scriptures’, and this
dramatically influenced all aspects of Western
thought. The Reformation
was surely one of the
most life-shaping and lifechanging
movements in
modern history. The biblical
illiteracy of the common
people, that had
darkened minds for so
many centuries, was finally
over. Hosea 4:6 says,
‘My people are destroyed
for lack of knowledge: because
thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject
thee, that thou shalt be no
priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the
law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.’
That curse was in large part removed
by the Reformation. The Church regained
its true sense of spiritual direction. It rediscovered
the real dynamics of the early
Church in expository preaching, a proper
observance of the sacraments, true worship,
prayer and evangelical repentance. It was
almost a second Pentecost, a revival initiated
by the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Why was there a Reformation Because
there was a lost gospel to be re-discovered
in all its fulness because the
Church had veered from the straight and
narrow way. So till today, the Reformation
gives us biblical bearings, landmarks
and pertinent lessons with which
to address the issues and problems of our
own times. Let us, then, make use of the
inspiration and resources of the past, be
enthused and zealously affected again for
the continuance and the conservation of
true religion according to the pure gospel
of Jesus Christ.
Rev. Jack Sin
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