APR 18

Jeremiah 6:16
Memorise Jeremiah 6:16
“see, and ask for the old paths…”

HOW DID EVENTS IN THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, USA IMPACT US? (I)

The events that led to the establishment of the Bible Presbyterian Church, USA, and Faith Theological Seminary have a lasting impact for us. 10 years before Timothy Tow’s enrollment at Faith Seminary, there was already the fundamentalist-modernist controversy within the Presbyterian Church, USA.

Tow learnt of how Dr. Gresham Machen rose to stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30) and chose the old paths. These paths are the ways God has prescribed for us to walk. These are paths walked by our spiritual fathers. These are the paths that Calvin, Luther and others walked at the time of the Reformation. Yet these very paths were attacked by modernists. Sadly, the Presbyterian Church USA was taken by Satan. Machen graduated from Princeton and spent a year in Germany where he tasted the bitterness of German unbelief and vowed to fight this poison then beginning to infiltrate the churches in America. This led to the founding of the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination. However, the Lord took Machen home soon after that, and a group led by Dr. Carl McIntire, withdrew from the infant Orthodox Presbyterian Church to form the Bible Presbyterian Church. The mantle then fell upon Carl McIntire to continue the fight.

All these events affected Timothy Tow. God impressed upon his heart to value the old paths too. It was the good way and he should walk therein. He showed it when he returned to Singapore. As pastor of the English service of the Life Church at Prinsep Street, he saw the need for his Interim Committee to break from the mother church, thus starting the Bible-Presbyterian Church Movement.

Dear teens, do you also value the old paths? When you see error creeping into the church e.g. that salvation can be obtained without repentance of our sins, you must realize that something is wrong. You search the Scriptures to give proof that it is wrong. Then, in the confidence of His Word, we reject such false teachings and alert like-minded brethren. If we know the truth and keep quiet, are we contending for the faith?

Thought: The old paths are marked by God Himself.
Prayer: Our heavenly Father, grant us grace and faith to value and defend the old paths.