COLLEGE EVENTS
The First FEBC BMin Convocation at
Bible College of East Africa (BCEA)
May 29, 2004
Convocation Address by Dr Jeffrey Khoo:
The Need for a 21st Century Reformation Movement
Rev Dr Mark Kim, principal of the Bible College of
East Africa, lecturers, graduands, students, and friends, I bring you warm
greetings from the directors and the faculty of the Far Eastern Bible
College in Singapore, and we wish you God’s precious blessings in the
mighty name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Bible College of East Africa was founded in 1965
by the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, USA. The
Independent Board was the missionary arm of the 20th Century Reformation
Movement that was spearheaded by the late Rev Dr Carl McIntire and the
International Council of Christian Churches. You have a precious heritage
and a rich history indeed.
Likewise, the Far Eastern Bible College has the same
heritage and history. It was founded in 1962 by a disciple of Dr Carl
McIntire, namely, the Rev Dr Timothy Tow who has taught many of us here
who are now lecturers at BCEA and at FEBC. Since we have such close ties,
we in FEBC count it a joy and privilege to have a small part in your vital
ministry here in this international city of Nairobi, and this great
country of Kenya in training young men and women to become faithful
servants of the almighty God.
How did BCEA and FEBC come into such a partnership in
theological education? It is all by the grace of God that the Holy Spirit
should work within the hearts of like-minded brethren who love the Lord
Jesus Christ and who love His Perfect Word. We have the same Reformation
and Reformed Spirit and Doctrine, and that is why we have come together to
promote the Bible College movement. How I pray the Lord that through the
graduates of BCEA more Bible Schools and Colleges would be established not
just in East Africa, but in all Africa.
The 21st Century Reformation Movement has already been
set in motion by the International Council of Christian Churches in the
16th World Congress held in the year 2000 in Jerusalem. In an outstanding
Bible resolution which states that the Holy Bible is “forever infallible
and inerrant,” the following statement was adopted:
Believing the Holy
Scriptures on the originals to be fully inspired with its words and
genders and being complete as God’s revelation to man without error;
Believing that God not only
inspired the Bible without errors in fact, doctrine and judgment but
preserved the Scriptures in all ages for all eternity as the Westminster
Confession of Faith standard says— “the O.T. in Hebrew and the N.T. in
Greek … being immediately inspired by God and by his singular care and
providence kept pure in all ages are therefore authentical …. They are to
be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they
come;”
Believing the Holy Spirit,
the third person of the Trinity, gave us a supernatural gift, and both
inspired and preserved it. By inspired we mean that the Holy Spirit moved
in the hearts of its human authors that they recorded the very words that
God wanted written in the Bible using the personality and background of
its writers but without error. “For the prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost.” II Pet 1:21;
Believing God safeguarded
the Bible in times past and will continue to do so in the future and all
eternity. He preserved one Scripture, the Bible. “Heaven and earth shall
pass away but my words shall not pass away;” Matt 24:35;
Believing the O.T. has been
preserved in the Masoretic text and the N.T. in the Textus Receptus,
combined they gave us the complete Word of God. The King James Version in
English has been faithfully translated from these God-preserved
manuscripts. …
We the International Council
of Christian Churches meeting in Jerusalem, 8-14 November 2000 strongly
urge the churches in their pulpits and people at large, to continue to use
the time honoured and faithful longer translations and not the new shorter
versions that follow in too many places the short eclectic texts. These
are very similar to the shorter Westcott and Hort texts that remove or
cast doubt on so many passages and words. Furthermore we are not against
new versions as such but believe all true and faithful versions must be
based on the traditional longer texts that the Holy Spirit preserved
through the early century versions, the early church fathers and the
faithful Textus Receptus.
Does the above resolution for a forever infallible and
inerrant Scripture have biblical and historical support? The answer is
most definitely yes. For biblical support, please turn with me to:
Psalm 12:6-7: The words of
the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from
this generation for ever.
Matthew 5:18: For verily I
say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Matthew 24:35: Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away (Mark 13:31, Luke
21:33).
1 Peter 1:23-25: Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the
glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
For historical support, let me quote from the
Westminster Confession of Faith (I:8):
The Old Testament in Hebrew
(which was the native language of the people of God of old), and the New
Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it was most
generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and,
by His singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are therefore
authentical.
Let me now cite the doctrinal Constitution of the Far
Eastern Bible College:
We believe in the divine,
Verbal Plenary Inspiration (Autographs) and Verbal Plenary Preservation (Apographs)
of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy
and infallibility, and as the perfect Word of God, the supreme and final
authority in faith and life (2 Tim 3:16, 2 Pet 1:20-21, Ps 12:6-7, Matt
5:18, 24:35).
We believe the Hebrew Old
Testament and the Greek New Testament underlying the Authorised (King
James) Version to be the very Word of God, infallible and inerrant.
We uphold the Authorised
(King James) Version to be the Word of God—the best, most faithful, most
accurate, most beautiful translation of the Bible in the English language,
and do employ it alone as our primary scriptural text in the public
reading, preaching, and teaching of the English Bible.
The Board of Directors and
Faculty shall affirm their allegiance to the Word of God by taking the
Dean Burgon Oath at every annual convocation: I swear in the Name of the
Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit that I believe “the Bible is none
other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the throne. Every book of
it, every chapter of it, every verse of it, every word of it, every
syllable of it, every letter of it, is direct utterance of the Most High.
The Bible is none other than the Word of God, not some part of it more,
some part of it less, but all alike the utterance of Him that sitteth upon
the throne, faultless, unerring, supreme.”
To safeguard the college, to strengthen the faith of
many, and to glorify the almighty God our Lord and Saviour, may I humbly
beseech the principal and faculty of the Bible College of East Africa to
take the Dean Burgon Oath at every annual convocation.
Now let me give a charge to the class of 2004. It is
taken from Joshua 1:7-9:
Only be thou strong and very
courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all (not
some, not most, but all) the law, which Moses my servant
commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that
thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall
not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and
night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is
written therein (and if the Lord requires us to do according to all
that is written, surely He must have ensured that all His words remain
forever written and available to us): for then thou shalt make thy way
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Have not I commanded
thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Remember this important principle: “God says it, that
settles it, I believe it!” Indeed, we must never doubt, we must never
question, we must never criticise the Word of God. We must never say the
Bible contains mistakes, we must never say the Bible is imperfect, we must
never say we do not have God’s perfect Word today.
Dear friends, do you remember the words of Jesus? The
Lord Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). If Jesus says we
must live by His every word, surely we must have each and every one of His
words today, yes, even to the jot and tittle. Jesus promised us a 100%
Bible and surely we have a fully inspired and fully preserved Bible today
in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures underlying the good old Authorised
Version.
The crisis we face today is a crisis of F-A-I-T-H. God
says it, that settles it, and our duty is simply to believe it. The
problem is never with the Bible; the problem is always with us—we simply
do not believe what God so plainly says in His Word. Unless we truly, I
mean truly believe that God is not lying to us when He said that He will
preserve His words to the jot and tittle, we will not be able to say we
have an infallible Bible today! “The Law of the LORD is perfect,
converting the soul” (Ps 19:7).
This convocation to confer the Bachelor of Ministry
degree to 8 from the pioneer batch of BMin students is a milestone in the
history of the Far Eastern Bible College and the Bible College of East
Africa. It is my prayer that this joint cooperation and fellowship that we
have will grow from strength to strength as we earnestly contend for the
Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ towards a 21st Century
Reformation Movement to the glory of God. As our Lord Jesus Christ—the
Living Word—is 100% God and 100% Man in One Person, so also is the Written
Word 100% inspired and 100% preserved in the Hebrew OT and Greek NT in one
Book which we call the Holy Scriptures.
May God give us holy courage to hold fast to the pure
Word of God and the true Testimony of Jesus Christ until He returns. Amen.
Testimonies of the BMin Graduates
Photos of
the BMin Convocation at BCEA
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