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Baptism Of The Holy Spirit

Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit a separate occasion from penitent faith with water baptism to receive the Holy Spirit ?  Or it is the same ?

A Christian life is a life in the Holy Spirit.  The Christian begins his life with the new birth and the Holy Spirit is given to enable him to live the new life.  Ezek 36:25-27.

We cannot build a doctrine based on descriptive passages in Acts with 2 unique accounts in the Samaritan believers (Acts 8:5-17) and the Ephesian believers who were baptized by John the Baptist (Acts 19:1-7) that the Holy Spirit was not given.

On the other hand, other descriptive passages in Acts also seem to say that the Holy Spirit was given the moment they repented and were baptized.  After the sermon by Peter in Acts 2,  3000 believed though there was no mention they had the miraculous gifts like those at Pentecost. Peter concluded his sermon by saying,” Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” in Acts 2:38-39.

The authors of the epistles took it for granted that the Spirit was given to the believers from the new birth. (Rom 5:5; 1 Thess 4:8; 1 John 3:24, 4:13; Rom 8:9; Gal 5:25).

Then why was the Holy Spirit not given in the above 2 unique accounts ?

The believers in Acts 8:5-17 were the first Samaritan believers.  Peter and John were sent when the Jewish believers heard that the Samaritans also received the word of God and believed.  Later we learned that when Philip converted an eunuch, there was no inspection or verification by any apostle.  So why this first time with the Samaritans ?  I believe it was because it was the first time the gospel was preached outside Jerusalem.  It was a bold step for a Jewish believer to share the gospel with Samaritans.  As we know the centuries old enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans, I believe the verification by the apostles avoided the probable schism between Jewish believers and Samaritan believers in future.

Water baptism should be performed in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Matt 28:19-20.  I believed Paul doubted the faith of the Ephesian believers to be professing faith and so he asked whether they had received the Holy Spirit.  They answered that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit which confirmed that their baptism was not done in the name of the Triune God.  In other words, their understanding of the gospel was spurious.

 

 

 

 

Quantum Physics And Paradoxes In Christian Theology

The last century ushered in the age of quantum physics.   In the study of quantum physics,  physicists realize the sub atomic particles do not react to the Newtonian principles of physics held since the 17th century.

The physicist Max Planck discovered light energy came in dsicreet packets known as quanta and not just in waves and the duality of particle-wave in light became known.

The atom itself is full of mystery.   Almost 99.999999999999% is empty space.  When left on its own,  it acts in random ways but when they are lumped together to form an object,  they act normally as they do in classical physics.

Scientists have come to accept a principle formulated by Dr Bohr, the principle of complementarity to explain 2 seemingly opposite pictures of a phenomenon.

This principle simply means that the use of certain concepts in the description of nature automatically excludes the use of other concepts, which however in another connection are equally necessary for the description of the phenomenon, as re-phrased by Dr Wheeler.    The duality nature of light in particle or wave  is one example.

This “nature of complementarity” can also be redefined as the existence of two apparently contradictory concepts to fully describe reality.

Though this principle is yet to be proven, Dr Wheeler said,” Complementarity is battle-tested. No one knows an acceptable alternative. The new viewpoint is part of the working attitude of the great majority of physicists of this generation. It would be hard to name a part of science better established than the quantum principle, more thoroughly analyzed for self-consistency, or able to account for a more fantastic range of experience. There is no going back on complementarity !”

This principle seems to mirror the several paradoxes in Christian theology.

  1. The righteous status of a Christian and his still fallen state.
  2. The dual nature of Christ.
  3. Faith and works.
  4. God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.

The apparent paradoxes in Christian theology, instead of being used as proof of falsehood of the Christian faith, actually find an ally in modern physics with similar experience.

I see the sub atomic particles as a good illustration of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.   We can see the absolute freedom of the atom in random freewheeling around by itself but when lumped together to form an object, they follow strictly to natural laws. Likewise, we have free will to make choices but ultimately God is sovereign over all details.

For further reading :  http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1956/JASA12-56Bube.html

The World Has Gone Mad And Irresponsible

The global economy no longer grows as a result of industrial production and services expansion and almost all economies do not act responsibly to balance the fiscal budget anymore.

The article by Peak Prosperity explained how money printing out of thin air is used all the time to solve all economic woes at the moment and running budget deficit and not balancing budget is now the new normal.

https://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/113383/what-could-pop-everything-bubble

“This is the lesson of the past eight years: if a problem can be solved by creating new money and buying assets, then central banks will solve that problem.

Problem: stock market is declining. Solution: create new money and buy, buy, buy stock index funds. Problem solved! Market stops falling and quickly rebounds as “central banks have our backs.”

Problem: interest rates are inhibiting lending and growth. Solution: create a few trillion units of currency and buy enough sovereign bonds to drop interest rates to near-zero.

Problem: nobody’s left who can afford to buy the new nosebleed-priced flats that underpin China’s miracle-grow economy. Solution: create new currency, lend it to local government agencies who then buy the empty flats.

Problem: stagnant employment and deflation. Solution: create a trillion in new currency, buy a trillion in new government bonds that then fund infrastructure projects, i.e. bridges to nowhere.

And so on. Any problem that can be solved by creating a few trillion out of thin air and buying assets will be solved.  The mechanism to solve these problems—creating currency out of nothing—is like a perpetual motion machine: there are no intrinsic limits on the amount of new money that can created at near-zero interest, as the interest payments can be funded by new money.

Even better, the central bank (the Federal Reserve) buys Treasury bonds with the new currency that generate income, which is then returned to the Treasury: a perpetual-motion money machine!

The policy of creating trillions in new currency and buying trillions in assets has inflated an everything bubble, a bubble in all the asset classes being supported or purchased by central banks and their proxies.

Many observers wonder what, if anything, could pop the everything bubble.”

The article gave 3 reasons which could be the catalyst to pop this everything bubble.

  1. For non-tradable sectors of the economy, it is already running red hot and printing money will not cool it.
  2. Social Disorder. Soaring wealth-income inequality will come to a head sooner or later.
  3. Fragmentation Of The Elites. The disappearing middle class will be a major concern very soon.

Migrant Chinese Ministry

I got to know the late Pastor Ng Tong San about a decade ago. He shared that he was called to share the gospel to the migrant Chinese working here.  He would assist interested local churches to start weekend worship services for these migrant Chinese workers and in 2010,  I was invited to serve and was roster-ed as worship leader and preacher in one or two such weekend worship services.

In 2011, he asked me to join him to minister to many elderly folk staying in a certain neighbourhood in Shenyang, China.  Some of the elderly folk were the parents of migrant workers here.  Commuting to the local church was difficult for these folk due to several reasons so he sponsored the rental of a shop unit for regular worship and fellowship.

His love for the Lord was evidenced by his zealous obedience in saving souls. Despite having not much in material possession and in less-than-desirable health, he was so generous in giving both time and resources for the Kingdom sake.

He had finished his race well at 63. I am sure our Lord would welcome him and said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.”

A life well lived for the Lord without any regret. A glowing encouragement to me to do likewise to the very end.

Pastor Ng was seated next to me, the third counting from the right.

The Day God “Ruined” My Life

(Shared the following message at a half way house to encourage the ex-convict brothers who are struggling with being accepted by society.)

At 39, I was at the pinnacle of success. I just had it good for only the next 2 years and Jesus asked me to give up everything to follow Him. He just came abruptly and “ruined” my life of living in dissipation and fleeting happiness.

I doubt St Paul would give up his illustrious life as a Pharisee without a Damascus encounter. So was I without the 911 encounter.

(http://www.jcmanifesto.org/vision-of-911-at-wtc-on-8-september-2001/)

Unlike the rich young ruler, but like St Paul who had more confidence in the flesh than most in Jewish society, I had to settle for a life in which I had to “suffer” now living as an exile and serve as a fool for His sake instead. Before, I was so well respected, had no financial worry, and lived in real creature comfort.

After which I began life in a new kingdom stripped of all such encumbrance but with a different peace and joy altogether :

From a life of meaningless existence to meaningful existence,

From a life of vain perishable pursuits to a life of meaningful imperishable pursuits,

From a life of vain hope to a life of real hope,

From a life lived eternally in self-scentedness to a life lived eternally in perfect love,

From a life eternally alienated from my Creator to a life eternally reconciled with Him,

You can say I chose to be Lazarus with no “quality” of life rather than the Rich Man.

You can also say I chose the reproach of Christ over the treasures of “Egypt”.

If Christ had not risen, just as St Paul said, I will be among men the most to be pitied. I should just eat, drink and be merry.  I chose to imitate St Paul as well in many areas as he imitated Christ our Lord.  I counted everything as garbage to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ our Lord.

Hallelujah ! He had risen and is coming back soon for us !

The Infiltration Of Secular Humanism

What is humanism ?   It is defined in Dictionary.com as any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity predominate.

Not to be confused with Christian humanism, secular humanism aims to glorify man as the author of his own and progressive salvation.

Watch the following video and see how far secular humanism has wormed its way into the Christian faith in the postmodern world today and changes her gospel into a veiled humanist gospel which is now widely known as the hyper grace gospel.  The glorification of man is veil-wrapped under God’s amazing grace and agape love.

Over the centuries, the chief aim of Christians is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  The hyper grace theology has just changed this Westminster Catechism to :

“The chief aim of God is to glorify man and make him happy.”

My friend, Samuel Tai, put it this way : “How the gospel has changed. ‘It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure’ (Phil 2:3) has now become ‘it is God who is at work for you, both to will and to work for your good pleasure’ (Humanist 6:6)”.

Watch the following video and hear these words from Victoria Osteen,

“..When you obey God, you are NOT doing it for God…When you come to church,  when you worship Him, you are NOT doing it for God really. You are doing it for yourself.  For that is what makes God happy…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbZHgGMe31s

 

A Spirit-filled Life

Some of the important ministries of the Holy Spirit are : pointing us always to Christ our Lord, helping us to fulfill the Law as in sanctifying us, leading us into God’s will and empowering us with gifts for service.

As we learn to walk by the Spirit, that is, fixing our heart on the triune God, meditating on His Word, communing with Him in prayer and ministering to one another in the One Body of Christ, we will start to experience His ministries in our lives in glorifying Christ our Lord.

(Eph 5:18-21. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.)

And the following physical evidence of being filled daily by His Spirit will manifest :

  1. Singing spiritual songs and making music from our hearts to the Lord and to one another.
  2. Always giving thanks to God for everything in the name of Jesus our Lord.
  3. Submitting to one another and bearing each other’s burden for the sake of Christ our Lord.

What Do We Live For ?

The Journal of Humanistic Psychology Vol 43 No 1, Winter 2003 lists some of the common themes for the meaning of life:

1.   To enjoy and experience life.

2.  To love, help or serve others.

3.  To contribute to something greater than ourselves.

4.  To become self actualized.

5.  To create your own meaning.

6.  To serve or worship God and/or prepare for the next (or after-) life.

Appended are some quotes falling broadly into these universal themes :

“People ask me – what do you live for? Is it for God, gold or glory? Or for girls?’’ he says with a laugh. “Those are the four G’s. I’m not saying I don’t believe in God. But I’m saying that I don’t live for God. I think God is here,’’ he says, placing an emphatic hand on his chest.  “If you’re honest with yourself that’s good enough. Do I live for gold? I’m lucky, I live beyond gold because I’ve made it. So I think I’m living more for glory. That’s a sense of achievement.”

– Ron Sim,  Founder, Osim International

“When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the latest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this world a slightly better place than how we found it?”

–  Lee Wei Ling, Director, National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore

“The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.  If you are not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that’s real torture.  So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: “Oh, 62 I’m retiring.” I say to them: “You really want to die quickly ?”  If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going.  Have a purpose driven life and finish well, my friends.”

– Lee Kuan Yew, former Minister Mentor, Government of the Republic of Singapore

“The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly.  The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.”

– Mohandas Gandhi,  Father of Nation, India

“…What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful…We live very close together. So, our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

–  Dalai Lama,  Religious Leader, Tibet


“If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.  But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ…For me to live is Christ;  to die is gain.”

–  St Paul,  Apostle,  Kingdom of God

“Knowing that there is judgment after my appointment with death, I seek to reconcile with my Creator by receiving His grace in Christ Jesus.  It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live, I live by faith in Christ Jesus believing fully He has gone ahead to prepare a room for me in His coming glorious Kingdom.  So I seek His Kingdom and His righteousness above all and forsake all worldly perishable pursuits in exchange for these imperishable ones.”

–      Anthony Ho, a child of God, Kingdom of God

The Coming Collapse Of China’s Ponzi Scheme Economy

A very well written article by a financial columnist of South China Morning Post, Mr Jake Van Der Kamp, explaining the mechanics of a ponzi scheme economy of China.

Using example of steel production as representative of all manufacturing industries,  the article explained this way :

“Why is so much steel needed?

Simple. It is needed to build more steel mills so as to build more shipyards, ports, railways and bridges so that more ships can be built to carry more iron ore to more ports and thence along more rails and bridges to more steel mills so as to build more shipyards, ports, railways …

What we have here, in short, is a giant Ponzi scheme. In a Ponzi scheme you pay out the winnings of the first entrants with what others later pay into it.

As long as it keeps growing everything is fine. When it stops growing it collapses.

In this case you justify production with demand based purely on more production. As long as you keep pushing production up everything looks fine. At its peak in 2014 China turned out 30 times more cement than the United States, and the latest production figures are only a smidgen less than 2014’s.

Command systems may be good at deciding where to direct economic effort in wartime but they are hopeless in peacetime at deciding when to stop and do something else.

They just keep going down the same old track and then what you get is economic cancer, uncontrollable growth.”

You can read more in the following link.

http://www.scmp.com/news/article/2108442/my-prediction-coming-collapse-chinas-ponzi-scheme-economy

Testimony (16)

In an earlier testimony, I shared about the terrible eczema condition of my eldest son when he was 18 years of age.  Unlike my eldest son whose condition only worsened when he was in his teens,  my youngest son suffered terribly from it since birth.

He had eczema all over his body and even on his face.   He could not sleep every night waking us up all the time in the early morning.   I could not manage and I had to hire 2 domestic helpers to help us tend to him round the clock in bathing him and applying moisturizing cream often throughout the whole day.

One day, one of the domestic helpers even fainted due to exhaustion taking care of him.

We tried several methods of easing his pain so that he could have a good night’s sleep such as having him putting on one set of wet pajamas  and another set of dry clothes over it, or sewing specially made pajamas that did not allow him to scratch his body.  All specialist treatment then were ineffective.

We could only turn to God to plead for His healing in desperation when it was really unbearable for us to see him suffering at such a young age.   All praise and thanks to the Lord that his face and his body were cleared of eczema except his knees and elbows very soon which allowed him to sleep right through the night.   (We thanked God for forgiving our weakness in faith as well for not going to Him in the very first instance.)

By the grace of God since his stressful toddling days, his eczema has been contained and confined to knees only which are controlled well with moisturizing cream today.   He can even participate in field sports and rigorous training now.