Bible-Presbyterian churches (Singapore)

The Bible-Presbyterian Church (BPC) was a conservative reformed denomination in Singapore.^[1] It existed from 1955 to 1988. Since that time, Bible-Presbyterian churches (B-P churches) have continued to exist separately. The movement grew out of the Bible Presbyterian Church in the United States. As of 2009, there were 20,000 members in 32 churches.^[2]

Roland Chia suggests that the BPC was noted for a belief in literal six-day creation and a preference for the King James Version (KJV).^[3]

History

The BPC was founded in 1955 by Timothy Tow. Tow had been influenced first by John Sung, and later by Carl McIntire. He was strongly opposed to liberal theology and ecumenism, and the Chinese Presbyterian Synod was connected to the World Council of Churches. A conflict ensued, and a number of churches left the Synod. Tow had been the pastor of the Life Church English Service at Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church, and left to form Life Bible-Presbyterian Church (Life B-P Church).^[4]

In 1988, after experiencing a period of significant dissension, the Synod of the BPC voted to dissolve itself.^[5] According to Roland Chia, it was "mainly due to strong differences in interpreting the Doctrine of Biblical Separation, Fundamentalism, and Neo-Evangelicalism"^[3]– as in the statement issued by the BPC on 30 October 1988 describing the dissolution.^[6]

Divisions

Fundamentalist and evangelical

The B-P churches are essentially divided into two factions. One group of churches subscribes to the fundamentalist stance of the founders; the other considers itself to be evangelical. This latter group of churches is denounced by the former to be "neo-evangelical" or "liberal", and are often called "the new B-Ps" because of a different interpretation on the doctrine of "Biblical Separation".^[7] The evangelical branch of B-P churches embraces the fellowship of any church and seminary that professes evangelical Protestant Christianity and extends cooperation with para-church organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ International. Thus, many aspiring ministers prefer an evangelical seminary (such as Fuller Theological Seminary, Temple Baptist Seminary, Singapore Bible College, Trinity Theological College, Singapore or University of Nottingham) over the B-P's own seminary, Far Eastern Bible College (FEBC), which is fundamentalist.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Verbal Plenary Preservation

In the early 2000s, following the publication of Jeffrey Khoo’s Kept Pure In All Ages: Recapturing the Authorised Version and the Doctrine of Providential Preservation,^[14] there was a debate in the denomination over Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP), which argues that the bible is 100% preserved to “jot and tittle” perfection based on Jesus’ promise that “[t]ill heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” in Matthew 5:18, the proof text cited by the Westminster divines to support the doctrine of the divine preservation of God’s Word in Chapter 1, Article 8 of the Westminster Confession of Faith.^[15][16]

Another book, One Bible Only? – Examining Exclusive Claims for the King James Bible (Roy E. Beacham and Kevin T. Bauder, General Editors)”^[17] was promoted by Lim Teck Chye among leaders in Life B-P Church and culminated in him distributing a paper entitled “Preserving Our Godly Path” (endorsed by 21 leaders) when he spoke at the Adult Sunday School on 1 December 2002.^[18] The copy of this paper currently on Life B-P Church’s website is undated,^[19] and the copy accessed by Khoo on 1 June 2006 had been amended from the original which was first distributed to the church’s Sunday School on 1 December 2002^[20] when Tow, who did not endorse the paper, was still the pastor of the church.^[21] Khoo, who was in attendance at the Sunday School on 1 December 2002, raised his hand to clarify matters at the end of Lim’s speech but was not given a chance to respond; however, Khoo published in January 2003 in The Burning Bush (Vol 9 No 1) his article “A Plea for a Perfect Bible,”^[22] first presented on 3 October 2002 at his Soteriology Class at the FEBC.^[23]

The fundamentalist faction supported VPP and, from there, claimed that the Greek Textus Receptus/Majority Text and the Hebrew Masoretic Text underlying the King James Bible were the supernaturally, perfectly preserved texts since they were made available throughout church history without corruption, unlike the older texts underlying the modern versions. They point out how God would preserve his truth throughout all ages without needing his followers to excavate for them and thus, the Byzantine Text and the Masoretic Text which were made available to Christians throughout church history were to be favoured.

On the other hand, the evangelical camp denounced VPP and felt that in reinforcing KJV-Onlyism, it is unscriptural. The camp views VPP proponents as erroneously combining the doctrine of the inspiration of scripture and divine preservation of only one particular type of text. The fundamentalist's conclusion is that all New Testament and Old Testament manuscripts besides the KJV are corrupted, as opposed to the perfectly preserved text that underlies the KJV. But the accuracy over the Textus Receptus underlying the KJV is doubted, since there are close to 2,000 areas whereby Erasmus's Textus Receptus differs from the Majority Text (the text which he compiled from) and 52 variations have been found within just two verses within the Majority Text. Therefore, the Evangelicals conclude that the Textus Receptus is seen to be not the perfect copy of the original autograph.

The fundamentalist camp did not err, as viewed by the evangelical camp, as they believe that God has preserved His inspired words in the Traditional/Byzantine/Majority Text. However, as this has more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts, they do not deny that God allowed copyist errors or variations to enter into the transmission process through the pen of fallible scribes.^[24] They also believe that God’s providential hand kept the inspired words of Scripture from being lost or corrupted so that in the fullness of time – in the most opportune of time of the Reformation when the true church separated from the false, when the study of the original languages was emphasized, and the printing press invented (which meant that no longer would there be any need to handcopy the Scriptures thereby ensuring a uniform text) – God restored from out of a pure stream of preserved Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, the purest Hebrew and Greek Text of all—the Text that underlies the KJV—that accurately reflects the original Scriptures.^[25]

Although there were other TRs – which were also compiled from manuscripts in the Traditional/Byzantine/Majority Text and from which were translated other excellent Bibles^[26] such as Luther’s German Bible, the Spanish Reina Valera, the Polish Biblia Gdanska and the French Martin Bible – the TR underlying the KJV was a corporate effort of 57 of the most outstanding biblical-theological, and more importantly, Bible-believing scholars of their day. Consistent with Prov 11:14 that “in a multitude of counsellors there is safety,” the KJV translators – who had all the various editions of the TR to refer to – were providentially guided by the Holy Spirit to make the right textual decisions. No one should play textual critic and be a judge of God’s Word today as God is His own Textual Critic (“Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar” (Romans 3:4)). ^[27][28]

On the issue of why the TR underlying the KJV – and not Luther’s German Bible, or the Spanish Reina Valera, or the Polish Biblia Gdanska, or the French Martin Bible, or some other language Bible – is chosen (while VPP proponents do not deny such Bibles to be faithful and reliable versions that are accurately translated and based on the TR), God’s stamp of approval is clear from the fruits (Matthew 7:17-20). Helped along by the course of history (under the control of God) which has made English a world-wide language used by at least 300 million people who have English as their native tongue and by many more millions whose second language is English, the KJV is known the world over and more widely read than any other translation of the holy scriptures and it has been used by many missionaries as a basis and guide for their own translation work into other foreign languages to reach converts who know no English.^[29]

On the evangelical camp’s objection that there is no Scripture verse pointing to the Greek Text underlying the King James Version being an exact copy of the original Scriptures, VPP proponents can point them to the canonisation of Scriptures (which consist of 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament)) at the Council of Carthage in AD 397 being also not supported by any Scripture verse.^[30]

The TR underlying the KJV is not completely Erasmus’s, Stephen’s, or Beza’s but a new edition of the TR, which is purest and reflects the textual decisions of the KJV translators as they prayerfully studied and compared the manuscripts in the preserved Traditional/Byzantine/Majority Text before them. And according to the Trinitarian Bible Society, “The editions of Beza, particularly that of 1598, and the two last editions of Stephens, were the chief sources used for the English Authorised Version of 1611. … The present edition of the Textus Receptus underlying the English Authorised Version of 1611 follows the text of Beza’s 1598 edition as the primary authority, and corresponds with ‘The New Testament in the Original Greek according to the text followed in the Authorised Version,’ edited by F H A Scrivener.”^[31]

See also

• Religion in Singapore

References

External links

• Far Eastern Bible College

Christianity in Singapore
Protestantism	Megachurches City Harvest Church New Creation Church Faith Community Baptist Church Lighthouse Evangelism Church of Our Saviour Anglican Anglican Diocese of Singapore St Andrew's Cathedral St Matthew's Church Saint George's Church Holy Trinity Anglican Church Assemblies of God Elim Church Grace Assembly of God Baptist Singapore Baptist Convention Bible-Presbyterian Bible-Presbyterian Church Life Bible-Presbyterian Church Evangelical Free Covenant Evangelical Free Church Independent Bethany Independent-Presbyterian Church Cornerstone Community Church Heart of God Church Lutheran Lutheran Church in Singapore Methodist Methodist Church in Singapore Wesley Methodist Church Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church Faith Methodist Church Kampong Kapor Methodist Church Presbyterian Presbyterian Church in Singapore Singapore Life Church Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church Bethel Presbyterian Church Orchard Road Presbyterian Church
Roman Catholic	Roman Catholicism in Singapore Cathedral of the Good Shepherd Saint Joseph's Church Church of Saint Alphonsus (Novena Church) Church of the Holy Trinity Church of St Mary of the Angels Church of the Risen Christ
Eastern	Singapore Armenian Church