My Theological Musings

I was chatting with a university mate of mine who told me that some of her younger Greek friends in Australia are now unable to speak or understand the Greek language and culture.        While this is not unusual as they have grown up in the big cities in Australia, what a waste it is for them to abandon their mother tongue, when Christians around the world are learning Greek in order to understand the New Testament.        The fact that the New Testament was originally written in the koine Greek means that a lot of the nuances in the original text could be understood when one has acquired some working knowledge of Greek.          Hence, this is my encouragement to our Greek brothers and sisters, who have already assimilated to the local culture. It's time for you to pick up your mother tongue and, and start reading the New Testament in your own language.         Likewise, if you are a Messianic...

A young lecturer for my Biblical Greek class prohibited students from setting up Whatsapp chat groups. No reason was given, but in my opinion, there was every reason why such support group has been helpful to learning the biblical languages. Ignoring the instruction, a few mature students decided and agreed to proceed by setting up a chat group to learn Greek together. We shared the good resources. That was, in fact, how I was introduced to a series of online lectures by Dr Mark Schuler, a lecturer of Biblical Greek at Concordia University. Most of us followed through his online series and found Dr Schuler's videos to be a very good source of teaching. It is systematic and we were able to follow. On this point, allow me to put some thoughts together about who we are: mature students . This is especially important to lecturers who have never worked in the marketplace. Put it crudely, they just parachuted into the seminary positions after their graduation. Because of that, ...

  I have been asked a number of questions why I am promoting Messianic Congregations, celebration of Jewish new moons, Gematria, eating of kosher food and the blowing of the shofar.  My reply to them is a simple, "No!" I do not condone anyone who wants to go back to the influence of the Judaisers. But, as long as they exalt Jesus as the Messiah, and believe in Him as their personal Saviour, they are still one of us. There are also positive things that one can learn from even the Jewish rabbi themselves, which is their reverence for God and His Holy Scriptures. Although we know that the Jewish rabbis do not believe in Jesus as their Messiah, we connect with them to understand more of the Jewish cultures, in order for us to gain better insights into God's Word in the Old Testament. The bottom line is: Do not believe anything and everything you hear. If anything, we have to take things with a pinch of salt and always check everything against the Scriptures to see i...

29 March 2020 It was just in December 2019 that I wrote on my blog urging seminaries to go on the digital platform to reach a wider audience, especially countries where training of lay leaders is still very lacking or where it is too expensive to set up a seminary. This was just three months ago and I sensed the deep resistance. However, God in His wonderful ways lifted up this resistance with His one little finger what I could not do through my clarion call. He sent the COVID-19 outbreak to force all of us to go online. In short, digital. Would we still let go of this platform after the Movement Control Order (MCO) is lifted, or would we make this part of a permanent hybrid platform for both churches and seminaries? In short, we have the physical seminary or church; at the same time, the classes and services are broadcast online. Are we ready for this new way of doing church and seminary? This is a question that I would like us to think about seriously. When things go...

       Martin Luther                                                                      Johann Gutenberg Martin Luther had the content, but Gutenberg had the means to bring the Reformation across Europe far and wide. God was behind both men. The 'Gutenberg printing press' of our modern day is the Internet and the various platforms (such as this blog) that we can use to reach "Judea, Samaria and the remotest part of the world." It was Johann Gutenberg's printing press that differentiated Luther's reformation movement from the earlier reformers. My first experience with e-classes was when I paid a hefty amount to join Israel Institute of Biblical Studies to do Biblical Hebrew Level A. Now that I am two-thirds my way through the programme, I know how Webex is so useful to deliver...

What a wonderful testimony indeed when these three men obeyed the First Commandment given by Adonai Ex. 20:3 לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָיַ You shall have no other gods before Me

Our God has His fingerprints in every nation that reminds people of Himself.   It was a simple structure like this that I saw. To me, it looked like three gallows. I whispered to my missionary friend, Walt White as we were walking in one of the villages in Bangladesh to visit one of his friends. "What is this? Doesn't it look like Calvary? The pillar in the middle is taller than two other pillars one on each side?" Walt, who was a missionary in Bangladesh, told me, "This is the Syahid Minar." The story continues. The Syahid Minar is till today the monument to remind the people of Bangladesh about the Benggali Language Movement. Bangladesh used to be known as East Pakistan. When the Government of Pakistan decided to declare Urdu as their national language, the Benggalis living in East Pakistan were angry because their language was neglected. This was how the Benggali Language Movement kickstarted around 1952. The prime minister of Pakistan...

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...

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:,...