My dear readers,
1. Kevin’s Second Dawn
When I took up my copy of “Second Dawn” I did not put it down until the last page. The story of Kevin Tye’s grim contest with cancer so gripped me that I had to follow the unequal battle blow by blow until the bitter-sweet grande finale: for those of us who watch, it is bitter and tearful; for Kevin, a new dawn ushered him to his “Home Sweet Home." He had fought the good fight, he had finished his course.
What would you have done if greeted with the news that you had the rarest and most malignant kind of growth which had taken over all the available space in the abdomen' The bombshell burst on Kevin five months before his wedding day. As he pondered and prayed, God gave him a message. Then he said, “I know God has a purpose for my life, to help me surrender my all to Him, and to renew my first love to my Creator. I have opened my heart to God and let Him take control of my life. I am at peace with what I am going through because He has comforted me as I accept His will in my life. God has a reason for everything and my condition is a trial I have to go through … I had backslided and wasn’t putting God first in my life … I have prayed and offered myself willingly to serve Him in whatever He desires.”
2. Running the last lap
Mr Tye Kim Khiat, Kevin’s father writes in his book Second Dawn:
“As parents, we have not finished the course; Kevin has. His spiritual sprint leaves us panting in his wake. The torch he has passed on is ours to bear. His path we will tread and we know he would dearly want us to hold aloft his torch to light our way – and for all those who want to believe – so that we, too, can cross the finishing line as he did.
Kevin weighted in at 4.3 kg (9.5 pounds) at 6.10 am Singapore time on December 4, 1976, and departed at 1.50 am Australian time on April 29, 2006. From dawn to dawn, from dust to dust, a painful chapter ends, a new one unfolds: his second dawn is for all eternity.
His body had quickly turned cold – and stiff. We bade him good-night for the last time. As we stepped out of the now all-too-familiar Boxhill Hospital into the cold autumn morning, we knew that our second dawn could be on the horizon some day if we stayed the course and kept to the straight and narrow path that our son had blazed for us – so that we could meet again.
Soon, Kevin’s unswerving faith, like the red ball of the rising sun tinged with gold, would climb high into the sky to shine as our beacon. (end of quote)
3. The Bible of Bible-Presbyterianism - VI
B. 2 Pet 2:2 fulfilled
Many Churches, being taken in by the NIV propagandists, “follow their pernicious ways,” and believe their propaganda that the NIV is “most exact ... faithfully accurate.” They then embrace the NIV and regard the KJV defenders as “irrelevant trouble-makers.” Thus “the way of truth is evil spoken of” as the Apostle had said.
C. 2 Pet 2:3 fulfilled
Whereas the KJV was translated at the cost of blood, simply to make God’s Word available to the people, the NIV was made merchandise to generate more money for its owners. When media mogul Rupert Murdoch of News Corp bought Zondervan Publishing House (which owns a 30-year copyright on the NIV), immediately Zondervan’s stock jumped $4.25 per share. In 20 years the NIV is said to have 100 million copies in print and captured 45 percent of the Bible market. Just imagine the millions which have swelled the owners’ coffers from selling Bibles!
Meanwhile, Zondervan Publishing House, working to increase its share of the Bible market, has come out with more and newer versions aimed at different user groups eg. Couples’ Devotional Bible (NIV) with added sex-arousal “devotional readings”; a “NirV” specially edited for children; a “TNIV” (Todays’s NIV) a “gender-neutral version” tailored for homosexuals and lesbians, etc.
Each new printing opens up a new market, and boosts sales and profits. What did the Apostle say in 2 Pet 2 :3' Read: “... through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.”
God’s Word, the Holy Bible, has been manipulated and perverted, reduced to a commodity like any other merchandise, vying for a bigger share in the marketplace to enrich Mr Rupert Murdoch and the Zondervan Publishing House. (Mr Murdoch is a Papal Knight of the Roman Catholic Church.)
CONCLUDING THOUGHT
We are living at a time when attacks by the media on our Lord and His Word find no equal in history. Devastating and deadly are the hidden underminings of essential Christian doctrine which gain entry into Churches and Christian homes under cover of “Modern English Bibles.”
But what is most astounding is the widespread approval by “fundamentalists” and “evangelicals” of corrupt Modern English Versions as “faithful and exact renderings” of God’s Word.
In a matter of one generation the father of lies and master deceiver has practically demolished the work of the Sixteenth Century Reformation built up over four God-blessed centuries.
THOUGHT: When our Lord comes, may He find you faithful! (End of article)
Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Senior Pastor