I would like to start off by saying that God’s purpose for the church has never changed, for this generation or the ones before. The church is to be the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:2-23), the church is to grow to maturity (Ephesians 4:12-13, Colossians 1:28) , and the church is to proclaim the glory of the one and only Son, making disciples of every nation (Matthew 28:18-20). God’s purpose for the first century church still stands in the twenty-first century.
Yet at the same time, in twenty-first century Singapore, the local church here faces an unprecedented situation. Christianity was introduced to Singapore in more than a hundred ago, with the first church in Singapore being an Armenian church, built in 1835. Presently, Singapore’s Christian population makes up 18.8% (including Catholics) of the total population, according to the 2015 General Household Survey. Many modern-day Singaporean Christians are second- or third-generation Christians who come from Christian families. Under the Religious Harmony Act, Singaporean Christians enjoy the freedom to practice their religions, with no obvious acts of persecution to give them much reason to question their faith. Mega-churches (defined as churches that have regular attendance of more than 10,000 people) have also sprouted and attract a weekly congregation of tens of thousands people. Singapore has also made its mark in the field of education, having one of the highest literacy rates in the world and its national university, the National University of Singapore (NUS), being ranked as the best university in Asia (Times Higher Education 2017). Furthermore, in 2015, it was reported that Singapore has the highest percentage of smartphone users (TodayOnline 2015), highlighting the amount of information and alternative opinions that Singaporeans have easy access to. Not to mention, the verdict for the high-profile case of City Harvest Church’s misappropriation of funds was just released in November last year (Business Times 2016). In light of such a modern, literate, increasingly liberal and information-driven society, how should the current generation of Singaporeans be viewing Christianity? What should the current generation of Singaporean Christians be doing?
At this point, it only seems fair to insert a disclaimer. My views on what the role of my current generation should be doing are coloured by my experiences and my personal convictions. I am well aware that the Christian circle I am a part of is but a tiny, tiny part of a much larger Christian community in Singapore. In fact, my participation in STEP has acutely reminded me that the English Presbytery that I am a part of is cannot even represent the majority of the Singaporean Synod. And so I will be the first to admit that my views are unrepresentative of the Singaporean church but even then I hope that I will be able to offer some insights as to the current and future direction of Christianity in Singapore.
It has become much harder to be a nominal Christian in this day and age. This is true not only in Singapore, but across the world. More and more youths are having their faith challenged by their peers. The Christian stance against LGBT has caused Christians to be labelled as “bigots” and “intolerant”. In Singapore, more second-generation Christians are challenging the popular belief that they are Christians “just because they were born into a Christian family”. Christians who do not have their faith anchored deeply on the word of God will no doubt be “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming”, as Paul so eloquently wrote in his letter to the Ephesians. And so many will fall away. Many will give up the faith in exchange for views that they find more palatable, more tolerant or scientifically-correct. This is not a new situation by any means. Even Jesus Himself faced much rejection during His ministry here on earth (John 6:66). The Christian faith is an offensive faith, for who likes to be told that they are sinners under the wrath of God? The Christian faith is a foolish faith to the world, for we preach Jesus crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18-23). The Christian faith is perceived as weak, for we preach loving our enemies and that it is right to suffer for doing what is right (1 Peter 2:20-23). How then should we be building our churches?
It is to this situation that Peter writes his second letter. He starts his letter by reminding the church that they have everything they need to live godly lives through their knowledge of Christ. He ends his letter by reminding them to be on their guard against false teaching and to grow in the knowledge of Christ. The middle of his letter is all about false teachings and the reality that the world will one day be destroyed. I hope that it is rather obvious by now, but 2 Peter is all about holding fast to the Scriptures. And it is this that our current generation must do and do in increasing measure.
We need to love God’s Word more. We need to read God’s Word more, not just portions of it, but the whole Word. We need to escape the predominant mind-set that the Word of God is too difficult for the layman to understand. We need to fight against views that say that Scripture is subject to interpretation and that we will never be able to know what is right, for our hope is not in our literary or exegetical skills, but in a God who has chosen to reveal Himself through the written Word. We need to boldly oppose false teaching. We need to uphold the sufficiency and clarity of Scripture and build churches that come under the Word of God in everything they do.
It is such a tragedy to have an excellent secular education system that stresses the importance of good comprehensive and literary skills, and yet have people who have gone through this education system still be either too scared to handle the Word of God, or absolutely throw all they have learnt in school out of the window when they start reading the Bible. My dream is for the church to love Scripture, that one day we may be able to confidently declare as the psalmist declares “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103 and surrounding verses)
There has been a movement over the past 4-5 years that is striving to build more word-centred churches. Expository preaching has become more prevalent and more churches are taking up One-to-one Bible reading, to encourage members to read the Bible for themselves. Word-based conferences, such as Project Timothy or Singapore Students’ Bible Conference, that go through one book of the Bible are also being held annually. Books like Dig Deeper teach simple Bible study tools to help even the layman learn how to better understand the Bible. Other books clearly and succinctly explain the whole gospel (emphasis on the word ‘whole’). And on the horizon, the opening of the Evangelical Theological College of Asia (ETCAsia) as another theological college in Singapore offers the prospect of training more Word-loving preachers and Christians. We live in such exciting times!
Woe to us who confess to be Christians yet barely touch the Bible out of church. Woe to us who proclaim the authority of Scripture yet know not enough of it to let it transform our lives. Woe to us who say we follow Jesus yet let the ways of the world dictate what we do or say instead. “For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) May we let the Word of God do its work in our lives as we faithfully study and meditate on it.
There is a danger to go to the other extreme of making Bible study become a purely intellectual study, where the mark of a good Christian is one who can rattle off pages and pages of the various catechisms by memory, and yet whose heart remains untouched by the gospel. There is much to be said with regard to this topic, which is not in the scope of this essay. But I would like quickly say that Scripture makes it abundantly clear that true faith in Christ will result in a change of heart that leads to obedience (Ezekiel 36:26-27, James 1:22-25).
To conclude, the baton has been passed on to us to carry on this good work started by missionaries in Singapore over a hundred years ago. In the rising flood of differing opinions and false teaching, we need all the more to be anchored to the true gospel, not being ashamed of this good news, for it has the power to save (Romans 1:16). We need to continuously affirm the centrality of the Word of God in the church and live according to it. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we need to preach Christ truthfully and faithfully and proclaim it to the whole world.
May the Lord find us faithful.
References
http://www.visitsingapore.com/see-do-singapore/culture-heritage/places-of-worship/armenian-church.html (Last Accessed 29 May 2017)
Department of Statistics Singapore, General Household Survey 2015
Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (Chapter 167A) 1990
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/regional-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats (Last Accessed 29 May 2017)
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/smartphone-penetration-singapore-highest-globally-survey (Last Accessed 29 May 2017)
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