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Month: May 2016

Why Keep Contending Against False Gospel And False Christology

Acts 20: 26 – 31

26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears.

Jude 1: 3 – 4

3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

2 Tim 2: 15

15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Eph 4: 14

14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

James 5: 19 – 20

19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

The contention for truth against a different Jesus and a different gospel is of paramount importance because it concerns eternal life and death.  But overbearing contention for any whim and fancy of tradition or matter of conscience is a different matter altogether and it belongs to an unrighteous critical spirit instead.

We are most uncharitable as Christians if we do nothing to bring back brothers who have wandered from the gospel truth and do not do our best to save their souls from death.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=WL6YPLNX

 

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The Beginning Of The Birth Pains

Jesus our Lord mentioned the following signs which will precede His coming in Matt 24:

  1. False Christs.
  2. Wars and rumors of wars.
  3. Famines.
  4. Earthquakes.
  5. Persecution leading to many falling away.
  6. Many false prophets leading many astray.
  7. Lawlessness will increase.
  8. The love of many will grow cold.

Yet these are merely the signs of the beginning of the birth pains.

Throughout the history of the last 2000 years or more since Jesus ascended to heaven, such signs have been observed anyway.  So how can we be certain we are staring at the beginning of the birth pains ?

Can exponentially increased instances of these signs be considered conclusive proof ?

Firstly, it is interesting to ponder why Jesus our Lord called the beginning of the end times as birth pains.  At the onset of labor in child birth, pain caused by uterine contractions will intensify in magnitude till the baby is born.  The intensification of labor pain is a good illustration of the sudden escalation or exponential occurrence of calamitous events.

Secondly,  the sudden-ness of the escalation of an event in an exponential fashion seems to mirror the sudden-ness of His coming that our Lord Jesus had talked about that many will still be caught unawares.  Mark 13:35-37; Luke 21:34-35; 1 Thess 5:3; Prov 29:1.

The exponential function is lingering at the bottom for the most part of the time and then suddenly it shoots up to the top.   That sudden turn will usually catch many unawares because for the most part,  the event has remained dormant.

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Habakkuk 2:3

For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

Dr Albert Bartlett was the president of the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1978.  In his seminal presentation, “Arithmetic, Population and Energy”,  he mentioned this famous phrase “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is the inability to understand the exponential function”.

In his lecture, he was trying to explain that within a finite system, modest annual growth at a certain percentage cannot continue indefinitely.  In the example of oil usage, the human race may be caught unawares when modest annual growth of the use of critical resources like oil due to population growth can result in sudden escalation of depletion in a relatively short period of time.  The logic is simple and irrefutable.  And when this critical stage of depletion of oil happens, for example,  we will face an apocalypse.

Today, we face this scenario of exponential depletion of all critical resources.

And also the exponential increase of fiat monetary supply without corresponding industrial productivity expansion will result in a collapse.  We have seen the increase way past the inflexion point of the exponential curve.

Get ready for the fulfilment of the judgment of wealth mentioned in Rev 18 when the kings of the earth (governments),  merchants (global MNCs and all SMEs) and those who make their living by the sea (major seaports cum financial centres)  will weep when God judges.

– extracted from my book, The Coming Economic Flood.

The End Times Apostasy Of A Different Gospel And A Different Jesus

2 Cor 11:4.  For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

Gal 1:8-9.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.

Matt 24:24.  For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

The coming apostasy that our Lord had warned has come with a vengeance with the church readily accepting doctrines of a different gospel as well as a different Jesus.

The hyper grace reformation brings a different gospel while the new apostolic reformation brings a different Christology.

The main false Christology taught today is that Jesus left aside His divinity while He was incarnate on earth.  Why is there this necessity for the new apostolic reformation prophets to preach this peccability belief ?  (http://www.gotquestions.org/could-Jesus-have-sinned.html) It is due to misplaced zeal to promote that mere man like us can perform miracles similar or exceeding those performed by Jesus as long as one is filled by the power of the Holy Spirit since Jesus was also mere man without His divinity when He was on earth.

In my opinion,  due to the possibility of false christs and prophets to perform great signs and wonders and possibly deceive the elect,  the only way to determine whether one is from God or from the enemy today is the test on the correct doctrine of the gospel and Christology.

We must bear in mind that these false prophets today are deceitful workmen who can disguise themselves very well as apostles of Christ with their mouths even full of biblical wisdom all the time.  2 Cor 11:13-15.

So listen carefully to their core teaching on the gospel and Christology.  

(Un)conventional Wisdom

All wisdom comes from God.  The wisdom God has given us generously is meant to be shared with fellow believers.

At exceptional times like recession, certain decisions made against conventional bias are necessary to stay afloat in business.

I would like to share on two business strategies which make a difference in recession times – turning a disadvantage into an advantage;  and risk pooling which is a mathematically proven stratagem.

Strategy Of Turning A Disadvantage Into An Advantage

When every competitor sees a disadvantage in certain business situation and reject or walk away,  we can triumph through accepting the challenge of the disadvantage and turn it to our advantage.

After the 9/11 terror attack on New York World Trade Center, the dot com bubble burst and the world plunged into recession.  All over the world, the factories were cancelling orders.  I was working for a global distributor of electronic components as the chief executive in Asia then.  I allowed all cancellation knowing that the customers would bully us by not accepting deliveries anyway.  I tried cancelling the same with our suppliers at the same time otherwise I might end up with a lot of inventory booked at higher prices in case there would be price erosion due to the recession.  The group CEO and the board of directors of this NASDAQ listed company thought I was rash to allow such cancellation causing a huge drop in order backlog.  The bigger competitors of ours faced the same dilemma but they refused to allow cancellation from the same customers.

Over the next few months, I received the main bulk of the orders back from our customers at lower prices but I also got lower prices from our suppliers who were keen to keep their factories going.   The customers simply kept rescheduling the orders retained by our competitors which were booked at higher prices as compared to ours.

We had the best sales performance in this particular recession year as a result of this unconventional decision.

Strategy Of Risk Pooling

Risk pooling is a known concept in controlling inventory.   Instead of having several warehouses in several countries to service the customers better but running the risk of having the wrong inventory in the wrong country all the time,  it is better to pool all inventory in one location and service all countries.  Today, the logistics capability of delivering to the doorstep by the courier services is efficient, fast and relatively cheap.  Even for sea freight, any delivery within Asia can be accomplished in one week including custom clearance.

Risk pooling has the advantage of reducing inventory carried in total in all locations and enables sharing of the same inventory across all locations.  It also enables savings in using less human resources to manage multiple warehouses and the rental cost as well.

I have one centralized warehouse in Singapore servicing Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia with satellite sales and marketing offices in all these countries as opposed to our competitors having an office cum warehouse in each Asian country.   As a result, the delivery performance of my company is consistently above 98% while the rest of the bigger competitors are at 90% giving us a place to be competitive against the much bigger competitors.

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Confirm Your Calling And Election

2 Pet 1:3-11

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. (2 Pet 1:3).   Firstly,  the gospel is the power of God granted for eternal life in Christ Jesus (Rom 1:16) and secondly,  His precious promises are the power of God granted for growing godliness in Christ Jesus. (2 Pet 1:4).   Chief among the precious promises are the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the correction and instruction of the Word of God.

God will not make us holy against our will and without our involvement though He has given us all things necessary for us to become more and more like Christ.  We must want it and we must make every effort through discipline in supplementing our faith in Christ with the following graces of holiness :

  1. Virtue. Moral excellence which is also spiritual courage to stand for what is right.
  2. Knowledge. Knowledge of spiritual truth which can only come through studying and obeying the Word of God.
  3. Self control. We must have discipline in feeding on the Word of God, prayer, curbing our appetites and giving sacrificially.
  4. Steadfastness. Patient endurance in the face of persecution and adversity as the world will hate us on the account of our Lord and the gospel.
  5. Godliness. Our godly conduct will show others that we are truly children of God.
  6. Brotherly affection. When we love one another,  others will know we are the disciples of Christ.
  7. Love. Love for the brothers will lead to love for all man.

We must be diligent in practicing these qualities otherwise we will regress.  There is no standstill.  Either we advance or retreat in our path of discipleship in knowing our Lord more and more and be like Him. 2 Pet 1:8.  Retreat will lead to shortsightedness, blindness and forgetfulness.  2 Pet 1:9.

And if we practice these qualities diligently, we will never fall.   2 Pet 1:10.

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