My Theological Musings

By Stephen Ng  About three months ago (around May 2019), I suddenly had a strong urge to learn Hebrew.  For whatever reason, I started searching for materials that I could use to learn the original language used in the writing of the Old Testament.  The first thing I did was to search for the Hebrew text of the Old Testament to feel what it is like.  Well, guess what? I did not know where to begin or what to make of it. Is it more like Bangla, Hindi or Japanese? It certainly looked foreign to me.  But now, three months later, I am able to read the Hebrew text albeit with some difficulties. I am like a Primary One child learning to read Mandarin for the first time, but I press on.  It all began with just learning the 22 consonants of the Hebrew alphabet. It took me a week to practise all the letters from Aleph to Tav, learning just four letters each day. This was how I redeemed my lost hours, while waiting for my appointments.  With these letters of

JUL 29 Lessons we can learn from City Harvest Church By Stephen Ng  To many people, Pastor Kong Hee was a powerful preacher. He was the founder and former president and senior pastor of City Harvest Church in SIngapore.  It came as a shocking news that Kong Hee and five other church leaders under his guidance were convicted of Criminal Breach of Trust in 2015. He was sentenced to eight years in jail for using  $24 million of church funds and misusing another $26 million in a cover-up. At the time of writing, Kong Hee is still serving imprisonment at Changi Prison. Arising from this incident, what can the Malaysian Church learn? Let’s be brutish with the questions we have to ask: (1) Was it because of some disgruntled church members operating under “Satanic influence” had brought Kong Hee behind bars? Did they go beyond their biblical mandate to “wash the dirty linen in public” when Paul, based on the often quoted 1 Corinthians 5:, appears to be