THE SPIRIT OF JOHN SUNG IN THE BIBLE-PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH MOVEMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA TODAY

Text: Heb. 13:7-14

"Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. "

Though we have traced the origins of the Asian Awakening culminating in the lone ministry of Dr. John Sung, and we have analysed the Awakening to learn some lessons to profit thereby, there is no better way of knowing the quality of a tree than by tasting its fruits. One fruit of the Asian Awakening is the Bible-Presbyterian Church Movement in Southeast Asia, Burma, India and Australia today.

The Bible-Presbyterian Church Movement in Southeast Asia, etc. today is energised by several forces, but that which is the main thrust is the same Spirit that raised up John Sung. Is it not a good proposition, therefore, to study what it is from the Spirit that raised John Sung that has caused this mustard seed to grow into a tree, with branches spreading far and wide?

I. Consecrated  B-P  Leaders From John Sung Days

When the B-P Church was organised in 1950, we had about thirty adult members, with their children, transferred from our mother church, which was a member of the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Singapore. Of those thirty adult members, a half-dozen of them are living today who are leaders of our church movement. They are thoroughly committed to the Lord as they were among the hundred fulltime consecrators at the first and second visits of John Sung to Singapore in 1935.

Why did and why do we consecrate ourselves to the Lord? For the love of Christ who died on the cross for our sins to save us from hell constraineth us (II Cor. 5:14). Our hearts arc so overwhelmed by the love of Jesus that nothing short of love for Him, even to death, is our response. Insofar as I was concerned, I was so moved by the doctor's description of a Brother Lee who, after his conversion, was going to Outer Mongolia with the Gospel. Growing a beard like a Mongolian and shod with grass sandals, he was preaching Christ from town to town, to the uttermost parts of Mongolia. When I heard of his willingness to suffer for Christ, I said to the Lord, "I am willing to go for You not only to Outer Mongolia, but also to Tibet."

This vow stood me in good stead when the going was rough in a month-long campaign I was engaged in Korea, 1960. Preaching 52 sermons in 25 days from town to town, I became totally exhausted by the end of the journey. At times when the going was rough, very rough, for we had to jeep through dusty and rugged terrain under the sweltering summer sun, I cried to Him inwardly. The Spirit then brought to mind that youthful vow of going to Tibet. This resuscitated my flagging will to follow Him to the end.

Three other John Sung old-timers who are leaders of the BPC Movement are also ordained ministers. Equally dedi­cated to the Lord are they, as shown by the fruits of their labours. They are Rev. K.C. Quek, our Moderator, who is pastor of Faith B-P Church and Director of Ling Kwang Home for Senior Citizens. My brother, Dr. Tow Siang Hwa, professionally a gynaecologist, is pastor of Calvary B-P Church with outreaches to Malaysia and Australia. He is also editor of RPG daily Bible-reading notes with a world-wide circulation. Finally, there is Rev. C.T. Hsu, now settled in New York, but he continues to support the missionary enterprises of Life B-P Church of which I am pastor without a break for the last 36 years. May God give us men and not machines. May the church become a movement, and not a monument.

II. Evangelism the Main Thrust of the BPC Movement

After revival, evangelism! That was Dr. Sung's utmost concern. Hence his mobilisation of the laity to form the Preaching Bands. These lay preachers, insofar as Singapore is concerned, have been a powerful force for the spreading of the Gospel. The Singapore Christian Evangelistic League, found­ed by John Sung 51 years ago, being well-nurtured by Miss Leona Wu in her lifetime, continues to function to this day. This Evangelistic League has been the mainstay of Golden Link Bible Seminary which, after 49 years, has graduated several hundred women and men. A greater half of them are serving in Southeast Asia.

Having been members of the Preaching Bands when we started the BPC in 1950, the first thought that came to mind was to evangelise Malaysia. The four walls of our Singapore church building could not hem us in. Thus, in a few months after the founding of Life Church, Rev. C.T. Hsu (then a deacon) and I were sent on two long missionary journeys to North and Inland Malaya. Of the 600 new villages created by Sir General Templer sent by Britain to ward off the Communist uprisings, one tenth were visited with the Gospel by open-air preaching and distribution of thousands of tracts and Bible portions. The evangelistic spirit is the spirit of revival. The evangelistic spirit is orthodoxy with fervency.

III. From Evangelism to Missions

This spirit for evangelism that we inherited from the John Sung Revival led us on to missions. Beginning front Jeru­salem, the Lord has enabled us to go to our Judea and Samaria, "and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Today there are over 40 congregations of B-P Churches in Singapore and an equal number of B-P Churches and Associated Churches scattered in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Australia and Burma.

In our missions outreach we hold the freest reins, unfet­tered by bureaucracy. Every local church is her own mission­ary society. In this connection, each Church works according to her own resources and by the wisdom the Spirit has given her. Although my Church has sent a first woman missionary to North Thailand, in all the other countries, we rather support some national leader who is dedicated, honest and capable. The interesting thing is that of the number of national leaders we support overseas, there are more Baptists than Presbyte­rians! To re-state John Sung's famous saying, "More faith, less water; less faith, more water," our missions strategy is "water more or water less, the Gospel is the best." This is not a reversal of John Sung, but rather a confirmation, for His message was Christ above denominational distinctions. For this reason, as I have stated at the outset, we are closer to you, our Baptist kinsmen, than to the English Presbyterians who sent the Gospel to our forefathers, but today are changed to another tribe under the flood waters of the Ecumenical  Movement.

One good example of missions  issuing forth from revivalism is William Burns. One   whom  God  had used  mightily  alongside  Robert  Murray  McCheyne, whereby  hundreds were  brought to repentance,  was  willing  to  pioneer  for Christ in China when no other would. Truly, missions is one fruit of revivalism. Says Edward Band, in the History of  the Presbyterian Missions 1847-1947, of William Burns, "Scarcely had Mr. Burns entered on his work in St. Peter's here, when his power as a preacher began to be felt. Gifted with a solid and vigorous understanding,  possessed of a voice of vast compass and power - unsurpassed even by that of  Mr. Spurgeon – and  withal fired with an ardour so intense and an  energy  so  exhaustless  that  nothing  could  damp  or resist  it,   Mr. Burns wielded an influence over  the masses  whom  he  addressed  which was almost without parallel since the days of Whitefield and Wesley." (p. 6). 0 give us hardy soldiers today, and not tardy scholars !

IV. From Bible Institutes to Bible College

Dr. John Sung's stress on Bible knowledge as attested by his "spiritual-nurture" meetings and three All-China Bible Institutes, in one of which he taught the Bible from cover to cover, has inspired us to establish our own Bible College. In this respect we must also give credit to the training we have received from the U.S.A. The Bible College we have founded will be a quarter of a century next year. To date, twenty graduates from Far Eastern Bible College are ordained B-P ministers, with half-a-dozen more under care.

In the same spirit to inculcate the truth, we have established a Bible Institute at the capital city of West Kalimantan (Borneo) with Djunaidi, our trusted co-labourer, as principal. This school being in Indonesia, the language of instruction is Indonesian. Next year will see the graduation of the first two students.

In North Thailand 3.5 acres of land has been acquired with a view to founding a Bible School for Tribal Peoples. Revival brings soul-thirst for God's Word. God's Word sustains the soul in revival. Rev. Paul Contento, a veteran missionary of China Inland Mission (now OMF) says, "Without the Bible College, the Church will die!"

V. A Daniel in John Sung is Come to  Judgment

Apart from the regular curriculum of Far Eastern Bible College, we have recently started a Theology for Everyone night school at which the Old Testament was taught to 200 at three hours per week for a whole semester.

Now, in our night school, when we came to Ezra leading the Second Return from Babylon, we paused at the juncture, where under his preaching, foreign wives were separated from their Jewish husbands. When we consulted Scroggie in "The Unfolding Drama of Redemption," at this point, he seems to regret what was transacted. Scroggie says, ". . . one cannot but feel that to divorce them all and send them back to their own people was wanting in humaneness." Now if you read carefully the sacred record, there was neither divorce as by force, nor any wanting in humaneness. The matter of the Jewish husbands asking for a separation from their foreign wives was a spontaneous act resulting from Ezra's revivalistic preaching, the work of the Holy Spirit, and we have a modern parallel from the Singapore Pentecost of 1935.

Among the 1,500 repentant converts of John Sung in the first campaign of 1935, there was a Mr. Gan and his three wives and their children. Mr. Gan and his three wives and children were gloriously saved. With no coercion from any quarter, much less from the doctor, he and his three wives unwound their family entanglements between themselves. Mr. Gan and his second and third wives were mutually and happily separated. with provisions made for the separation. Mr. Gan, an import-export merchant, simultaneously gave up his business to be an evangelist. Thus the blessings of revival we had experienced in 1935 threw light on a Bible passage that is adversely commented upon by the venerable Dr. Graham Scroggie whom I had the privilege of hearing at the 1954 Keswick. Had Dr. Scroggie seen the repentance of Mr. Gan and his three wives, his write-up on Ezra would be quite different. Do we read our Bibles groggily sometimes? A Daniel in John Sung has come to judgment.

The special manifestations and outworkings of the Holy Spirit in the Singapore Awakening which we experienced are higher teachings than man's. John the Apostle says, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.... But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (I Jn 2:20,27). This is what Schubert says of the wisdom he received from John Sung, "I learned more from Dr. Sung in three weeks than in three years in theological seminary." 0, may God teach us to be more than grammatically and culturally minded in the exegesis of His Holy Word.

VI. World-wide Bible-reading Notes

Equally important to John Sung was daily Bible study. This he did, reading eleven chapters everyday and thirteen on the Lord's Day. In his spirit we have also stressed daily Bible reading for our members, using S.U. notes until they were found to be contaminated a decade ago. Therefore it has been felt strongly by Dr. Tow Siang Hwa to write our own RPG (Read, Pray, Grow) Notes which arc greatly blessed of the Lord by its ready reception all over the world.

Not only to read, but also to discover between truth and error. While John Sung was a man of one book, we learn from every godly commentator, but it is the Spirit that gives discernment which we all need. In this respect we must live a holy life, so much stressed by John Sung, if the Holy Spirit is to illumine us.

VII. In John Sung^-'s Steps, A Separated Evangelism

In John Sung's steps, we have held not a few Gospel meetings whereby souls have been added to the Church. Being separatist, however, we have not only fought shy of citywide campaigns of the Billy Graham type, but exposed their unbiblical methods. How did we take such a separatist stand?

Though we have joined the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC) in the spirit of the 16th Century Reformation, we inherited the separatist spirit first from John Sung as he spoke against the modernism and social gospel of the thirties. The spirit that speaks out against the Ecumenical movement today through the Banner, official organ of the Bible-Presbyterian Church, Singapore, and through the "Far Eastern Beacon" and "S.E. Asian Christian" in Chinese by Rev. K. C. Quek is from our John Sung heritage. One famous saying of John Sung to warn us from liberals is, "To starve will not die, To eat poison will die."

VII. A Holy Life by God's Holy Commandments

The Asian Awakening, being a moving of the Spirit in the hearts of nominal Christians to repentance and the new birth, was a movement onward to a holy life. How could the evangelist bring his hearers to a holy living except he upheld the standard of God's holy laws as given in the Ten Commandments?

One commandment most commonly broken was keeping the Sabbath Day holy. Like Nehemiah being offended by the Jews "treading the wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and leading asses . . . " and also by men of Tyre who "brought fish and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah," John Sung sharply rebuked the Church and sanctified the Christian Sabbath. This did not mean the keeping of rules set by him, but rather a zealous return to regular worship and the doing of works of charity, even witnessing, on the Lord's Day. In our BPC movement today we have stressed the same to the increase of Church attendance, the lifting up of spirits in worship, the quickening of steps in witnessing. "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call  the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words : Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Isaiah 58:13,14).

As more of God's laws were discovered, the Chinese Church, which was untaught and gave way to heathen practices, now became sanctified. Converts automatically refrained from idol-food and from blood, from every com­promise in ancestor worship. The cinema, which was a great attraction in the thirties, was shunned. Members who were never exhorted by missionaries to their responsibilities in the support of the Church gave their tithes gladly. The Church became rich overnight. Members who stayed away from prayer meetings now met in numbers and in earnest, increasing even with cottage meetings and family worship.

In  these  days of  Laxity  and  promiscuity,  we  need  another  Holy  Ghost Revival

IX. Accelerated Service in Earnest Expectation of His Second Coming

One cardinal doctrine John Sung did not neglect to teach in his campaigns was the Second Coming of Christ. In eschatology he was a Premillennialist. As we see the signs of His Return increase year by year, the BPC must keep her members awake to that glorious Advent when He will come to judge the nations. In furtherance to what we have believed from our parents and from God's servant, and seeing the days are numbered, we at Life Church have coined these two slogans: 1) "Live as if our Lord is returning next Monday" (but today is Sunday!), 2) Do some good for Jesus everyday. As we so expect and wait not only for Him but on Him, our members have learned to set their affections on things above and not on things on earth (Col. 3:3). Thus, they take a keen interest in the support of missions by their regular gifts. For, they have been taught that "this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matt. 24:14). By the same reason, members of my Church gladly submit to physical restrictions so that nine other groups worshipping together in seven languages can function harmoniously. We realise our country is not here, but in heaven ! This is the continuing awakeness that has remained with the old-timer leaders from the Singapore Pentecost of the thirties, and we pray to be with our sons and daughters too. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.      Amen and Amen.