My Theological Musings

  Pastor Lim Thean Heng of Hossana Baptist Church in Penang, whom I only came to know through cold call received his box of books. He was one of a few who reverted immediately. You can see his excitement. Praise the Lord!  By Stephen Ng  The latest book, "Same God, Different Stories" received very positive responses.           Initially, there was hardly any response from the few Chinese churches that I messaged. However, when we finally received the support from various individuals willing to support the project, we managed to raise funds to print 7000 copies.           Of this, some 4500 copies have been distributed to churches and individuals. Many picked up the books directly from my home; others I had to send via Pos Laju. The individuals and churches had to pay for the courier charges. I had a car load of boxes on the front and back seats, as well as the car booth.           On...

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned out to be a blessing in disguise even in the field of theological education. For some time now, I have been trying to encourage seminaries to go online with their programmes.           Now, for the first time, the Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary (MBTS) in Penang is offering two of its programmes online. And, the best part is this will be 100% online. For this reason, people who are in the marketplace will find it possible to follow through the programme.           Many of us who are called into marketplace ministry will not necessarily become full-time pastors. When I first enquired about Master of Theology or Master of Divinity, I was told that it requires uprooting oneself from the family to live on-campus. I told myself, "Forget about it!"           Now, I cannot resist but to consider doing my Doctor of Ministry after completing my Master of Christian Mini...

  By Stephen Ng  AFTER THE DEMISE of evangelist Billy Graham, the man God used to reach masses of people, I wonder sometimes if this marks the end of a glorious age, once characterized by big meetings at stadiums with tens of thousands of people.           Mimicking God's work through Dr Graham, Satan also had his mega meetings with thousands of people listening to some false teachers, whose power to mesmerize even the elect is simply amazing.          The Covid-19 pandemic, as we all know, does not allow large number of people to congregate in one location. With the Delta variant which is airborne, this makes the virus even more infectious when hundreds of people come together in an enclosure. The air circulation in an air-conditioned environment provides an ideal place for the virus to strike.           Even before the pandemic is over, the Japanese embassy has issued an advisory to all its ...

           There have been too many talks about the Covid-19 pandemic that sometimes,  I have some reservations regarding statements that make Covid-19 a part of the spiritual attack by the Kingdom of Darkness.            While it is true that there is an ongoing spiritual warfare, to spiritualise everything from cancer to death caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, or even losing the US presidential election, we are in danger of becoming spiritual freaks.           I remember some 40 years ago, there were many who believed in preachers such Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin and Gloria Copeland, who would turn faith and prayer into some kind of magic.           I remember buying a book by a local author who said that he had prayed for a piano. He and his wife visualised a piano at a specific location in the house. Lo and behold, the next day someone gave them a pian...

  Ottheinrich (Rev4-5)  By Stephen Ng   A lot of things in Revelation are not for speculation. To be true to the meaning of the metaphors and symbols used this concluding book of the New Testament, we have to take Speculation out of Revelation.          The author John wrote this: “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book” (Rev 22:18). This is a very strong word of caution against all sorts of speculations.          Instead, we should be like Mary mulling over the word of God when the Angel Gabriel first revealed to her that she would have a son, whose name will be as Hebrew suggests, יְשׁוּעָ means, ‘Saviour.’          Mary did not jump into the conclusion like the zealots, who were looking for a political deliverer. When Je...

       I cannot help it but to write this blog post when I received a message this morning. In fact, this is the first time ever that such a message is sent by the National Health Institute (IJN).            It reads, "IJN wishes you a Happy Birthday. May your day be filled with lots of hearts."          This is a very simple message but it lightens my day. And, coming from IJN also surprises me, as one would always think of IJN as the 'high and mighty' rescuer of lives. They don't have time for short messages like this.          What surprised me even more was an email I received from the Inland Revenue Board. They all use some software that helps them to manage customer relations, but receiving an email from the IRB to greet me on my birthday is something that I had least expected!          Why then were these organisations willing to spend time sending a s...

  We have to be extra cautious not to turn our own New Year well wishes into a prophecy lest we be found to be giving false prophecies (see video).           I believe God has also used the US presidential election to confound many so-called popular "prophets" and "apostles" who claimed that Donald Trump would become a second-term president. Religion is used as a tool towards a political agenda.           One even said he was asked to look into God’s scroll and urged people to pray:  "Between Nov 3 and Jan 20, anything can happen to overturn, right? So, you want to don't stop praying till Nov 3, you want to continue till Mr Trump is safely installed (inaugurated) on Jan 20."  (1)         Watch how this jerk from India speaks:           I am not a fan of Trump and I didn’t even know who Joe Biden is until the election but I saw how false prophets were making ...

One Saturday early in the morning, I received a message from someone out of the blue who asked how I was getting on.                     I thought this sister has 'changed,' but after a short conversation, I soon learnt that she was not interested in what I was telling her.  Stateless Child          While I was more interested in telling her that I was planning to help a 13-year-old child with SLE to raise funds for her medical treatment at Selayang Hospital, she had a different agenda.           Telling her a little bit of the story of the stateless child, I urged her to also sell her posters to help raise fund for the girl as well. She merely asked if she could donate some money to the girl but at that juncture, the family had not sorted out whose account should be used. I gave her the contact of the relative so that this lady could contact her directly as I did not ...

  Click the photograph to read the article in Jerusalem Post Assuming that the third Jerusalem Temple is built, should Christians all over the world flock to Jerusalem to worship? Going by the popular trend, there will be a lot of rejoicing even amongst the Christians when the third physical temple is built .           My answer is found in Matthew 24: 15 where Jesus said:  “Ὅταν οὖν ἴδητε τὸ βδέλυγμα τῆς ἐρημώσεως τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ Δανιὴλ τοῦ προφήτου ἑστὸς ἐν τόπῳ ἁγίῳ, ὁ ἀναγινώσκων νοείτω,”  (Matthew 24:15 GNT28-T) “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in bthe holy place (let the reader understand),” (Matthew 24:15 NAS95)           Just like Lot and his family, the Lord then warned those who are in Judea to flee as far as they can.  “then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.”(Matthew 24:...

  *click on the image of the books above to link with Canaanland site* In my latest visit to Canaanland recently, I managed to pick up a book on Basics of Hebrew discourse by Matthew Patton and Frederic Clarke Putnam.           There are several books available which I thought would be good for beginners in Hebrew. Although they can be slightly pricey (about RM100-200), these books are not easy to produce, considering that it involves fonts of two different languages: English and Hebrew.          Having produced a book on basic Hebrew, titled, "You can't read Hebrew? Let me prove you wrong" (also available at Canaanland @RM25), I can understand the difficulties when a certain Hebrew text is moved from a Word document to the Adobe Illustrator software. When corrections are done by the designer who does not understand Hebrew, it can be very taxing to the author to check every Hebrew text in the pages.        ...

  The recent presidential election in the United States of America is an obvious case where religion has become the horse that people ride on when they have a personal goal to achieve.           There are some who use religion to justify their support of Trump, or vice versa. There are others who use the presidential election to build their own fanbase by predicting that Trump would win the election.           Whoever wins the presidential election is really not important to me. While I find it hard to understand why anyone would think Trump's character reflects Christ in him, a number of things Trump has done is what the Christian community in America have wanted to see. I won't be surprise that Mr Trump has also introduced policies that are not consistent with the Christian faith.             I cannot help it but give my answer when someone  asked me, "W hat is your opinion of the ...

  There have been many debates in the social media whether Trump or Biden should win in the presidential election. That is because a lot of people have been listening to false prophets who claim that they heard the Lord telling them that Trump would serve the next term.          Whether Trump or Biden will be the president of the United States of America is really none of my business. As God has even used Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar or even the Persian King Cyrus, there is no reason why God cannot use both of them to fulfill His blueprint which even Satan will never be able to guess or know.           What I am more interested is: "What does God say in His Word?" What is the role of the prophets both in the Old Testament and the present era? Are there still prophets today? What about prophecy as a gift of the Holy Spirit?  Let me Illustrate           We have 66 books in the entire Bible. Ma...