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Far Eastern Bible College
32nd Graduation Service
in Convocation at
Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church
The Lord's Day, May 6, 2007, 6.00 pm
REMARKS BY
THE ACADEMIC DEAN
The late
Rev Dr Paul Contento, OMF missionary to China and Indochina, said,
“Without the Bible College, the Church would die.” That is very true.
Seeing that the “Trend is towards the Trained, the Rev Dr Timothy Tow
founded the Far Eastern Bible College in 1962. Rev Contento who is a
good friend of our founder and principal laid the foundation stone of
the College on April 28, 1962, at 9A Gilstead Road, to train godly and
faithful men for the Lord’s service. He also prayed for a Moody or a
Wesley to arise from the halls of the College.
The Far
Eastern Bible College is not only a seminary to prepare men and women
called of God to full-time Christian ministry, it is also a “spiritual
SAFTI (Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute)” in the words of the
founding principal—the Rev Dr Timothy Tow—to train up good soldiers for
Christ who will “earnestly contend for the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).
There are
many kinds of students or graduates, but which of them will succeed and
be true servants of God’s holy and spiritual work? The Rev Dr Timothy
Tow says,
If a student is industrious and not lazy, and loves his God with all
his heart and respects his teachers and can live peacefully with his
roommates and performs his duties meticulously, though men say he has
not earned a degree and is not learned, I will certainly say that he
is. The secret to continuing church growth is the Bible College that
trains men and women of character.
The FEBC
remains steadfast and uncompromising in teaching and defending the 100%
inspired and 100% preserved words of God in the Hebrew Masoretic Text
and the Greek Textus Receptus on which the Authorised or King James
Version is based. While most Bible Colleges and Seminaries today deny
the present infallibility and inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, the Far
Eastern Bible College stands unequivocal in affirming that the Holy
Bible which we have in our hands today is 100% perfect, without any
mistake based on God’s promise of special providence that He alone
shall keep His inspired Word pure and intact (Ps 12:6-7, Matt 5:18,
24:35, John 10:35). Those who cannot or refuse to sign FEBC’s statement
of faith disqualify themselves from teaching at the college. What is
our Statement of Faith? It is found in the latest edition of The
Burning Bush.
It is
observed by church analysts that the heart of Christianity is moving
away from the West towards the East, away from USA and Europe to Asia
and Africa. As such, the Far Eastern Bible College must speed up
missions and church growth by way of the Bible College movement to
assist in the establishment of new Bible Colleges, or to strengthen
younger and growing colleges in Asia and Africa. The faculty of these
colleges can come to FEBC to earn their Masters and Doctoral degrees in
a theologically conservative and multicultural environment, and in a
globally connected and multiracial country as Singapore.
By so
doing, we will fulfill the didactic aspect of the Great Commission, “Teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,” as
well as infallible Pauline formula for theological education as stated
in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among
many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able
to teach others also.”
May the
Lord keep and sustain our beloved founder and principal, Rev Dr Timothy
Tow, and preserve and use the FEBC, Board, faculty, alumni and students
to the glory of His Name.
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