50 Years Building His Kingdom - Far Eastern Bible College

Life
Bible-Presbyterian
Church
Page 28
byterian Church, U.S.A. have been adopted
by the Bible-Presbyterian Church of Singapore
though we have our own constitution
as required by law.
Bible-Presbyterianism -
Singapore
The birth of B-Pism in Singapore was
relatively without the travail undergone by
our American forebears. In 1950, the young
graduate from Faith was invited to pastor
the proposed Life Church English Service,
which was to be set up in answer to the
growing needs of a new English-speaking
generation. After receiving his acceptance
letter, mother Life Church requested
the American B-P
Church to ordain him for the
pastoral ministry. As the
ICCC was holding its 2 nd
Plenary Congress in Geneva
in August, he was ordained
by the Philadelphia
Presbytery in the city of John
Calvin. The Life Church English
Service, with a transfer of 30 members
from mother Church, was inaugurated
at Life Church, Prinsep Street on 20 October
1950. The new pastor gave his maiden
sermon from the text “Holding forth the
Word of Life” (Phil 2:16) to an enthusiastic
congregation of 120.
Rev. Timothy Tow, together with his
comrade-in-arms, the then Elder Quek
Kiok Chiang, spared no effort in ministering
to the young Church, building up young
souls in the most holy faith, and bringing
precious souls into His Kingdom. Both
servants of God, having caught the spirit
of the 20 th Century Reformation Movement
of the ICCC, were on fire for “the word of
God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ”
(Rev 1:9) and impassioned to “earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered
unto the saints” (Jude 3).
Soon the fight for the Faith was uppermost
in the mind of the founding pastor
and his stalwart. The fledgling Church,
in holy indignation, flexed its muscles,
putting its mettle to do battle for the Truth.
The first of two big battles in its 50-year
history, the contention was to be a continuing
one against the relentless arch-enemy
of apostasy. Interestingly, the arena for both
battles was the Synod.
In the drafting of the constitution, it
was declared that, while the English Service
would remain filial to mother Church,
it was opposed to the Ecumenical Movement
and to any affiliation with the World
Council of Churches through the Malayan
Christian Council (MCC). The Chinese
Presbyterian Synod was identified with the
MCC, whose hierarchies were modernists
rejecting the infallibility of Holy Scriptures,
the virgin birth of Christ, His bodily
resurrection and personal second coming.
These leaders also held office in the
Singapore-Johore Inter-Religious
Organisation. However,
as an offshoot of
mother Church, we were
de facto linked to the
Synod. In the name of
mother Church, the testimony
of separation from the MCC was
raised by our commissioners,
namely, Rev. Timothy Tow, Elder
Quek Chiang and Deacon Hsu Chiang
Tai for a few years, but to no avail.
Withdrawal from
Presbyterian Synod
The final showdown for the Faith was
at the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Muar
in January 1955 when commissioners from
all over Malaya and Singapore congregated
for the double function of dedicating the
new church. Commissioners Rev. Timothy
Tow, Elder Quek Kiok Chiang and Deacon
Quek Khiok Meng, representing Life
Church, fought and lost the battle against
the MCC to modernist missionaries and
subservient national pastors.
The same month, the Interim Committee
decided to fully constitute our
Church and sever all ties with the Synod
because of modernism. For distinction
from the Synod churches, the word “Bible”
was affixed to make ours the Life Bible-Presbyterian
Church. Technically,
January 1955 saw the birth of the B-P
Movement, but in effect it occurred in October
1950 when the founding fathers Rev.