Reformation in the Malaysian Church: Back to the Old Path!

The substance of this article formed the opening address of the first Reformed Ministers' Conference held at Port Dickson in August 1988 alongside other talks on "the Doctrines of Grace" and "the life of Luther". It was written while Dr Poh was detained at Kamunting by the Malaysian Government, under the Internal Security Act (1960), for allegedly "christianizing the Malays". Unable to be present at the Conference, the paper was read on his behalf by Pastor Ho Eng Ghee of Sri Serdang Church.

This address was given with the conviction that there is a need for reformation to the Church. May the Sovereign God use it to the furtherance of His Kingdom on earth.

BACK TO THE OLD PATH! FIRST STEPS TO REFORMATION
1 Corinthians 14:20 says, Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. At the time when the apostle Paul wrote these words, the church at Corinth was plagued with many problems. There were factionalism, immorality, fellow believers filing law suits against one another in the civil court, a laxity of church discipline, lack of clarity on issues connected with marriage and idol worship, murmurings against the apostle Paul, lack of orderliness in worship, disputes over spiritual gifts and the resurrection of the dead.

The local church of Corinth at that time was a miniature version of the universal church today. Christians today are divided into different denominations, different groupings, and different shades of theological opinions. Christians dispute over the issues of spiritual gifts, the nature of worship, the place of preaching in the church, sanctification, the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, social concern, etc.

In the midst of the confusion and strife in Corinth, Paul said to the church, Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes. but in understanding be mature. We are not to be entangled in the problems to the point of losing our understanding. We are to extricate ourselves from the sticky molasses of problems and stand above the confusing state of things. We are to think in a mature way so that these problems may be alleviated, if not removed. Paul does not promise that the church will be free from problems. But by thinking like adults, we will be able to at least steer our way through the rocky sea.

Church leaders must never despair of the confusing state of affairs. Our people look up to us to a large extent for guidance in their Christian life. We are to think like adults, in a mature fashion. We ask ourselves, What are the things that we need to do? Now, we do not want to run around patching up the holes that keep appearing here and there in our water tank. We want to deal with the problems at a more basic level. We must understand that the current confusing state of affairs in the Church is due to some basic weaknesses. The problem lies at a more fundamental level, and it is there that we must begin. I wish to propose to you three things that we must do. These three things are gleaned from the life of Isaac as recorded for us in Genesis 26. I invite you, therefore, to turn, now to Genesis 26.

I. THE BIBLE MUST BE CENTRAL

The first thing suggested by Genesis 26 is that the Bible must occupy the central position in our Christian life. We read in verse 2, Then the Lord appeared to him and said: "Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you." God promised to bless Isaac with the covenant blessings which He had sworn to his father, Abraham. This was on the condition that Isaac stayed in Gerar for a while. Gerar was Philistine territory at that time. We can imagine how tempted Isaac must have been by the greener pasture of Egypt, at a time of famine. He was hard-pressed by the circumstances. He must have been tempted to trust in his own understanding. But the Word of God had come. Isaac chose to obey God's Word. Verse 6 says, So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

Sola Scriptura

In a time of confusion, when no one is certain of anything, God's Word comes to us with such assurance, All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever (Isa. 40:7-8). We have in our hands the sure Word of God. We must trust it. We must obey it. We must allow it to occupy the central place in our life. It is no good paying lip service to sola scriptura. Let the Bible be the sole authority in matters of faith and practice. This seems like stating the obvious. But it needs stating and it needs to be emphasized in these days when so many resort to subjective feelings or adopt pragmatic approaches.

One sure test of whether the Bible is first in your life is to observe the lives of your people. The next time you have opportunity to interact with the members of another church, observe how they operate. If you observe that in any given perplexing situation, the immediate reaction of the church members is to ask, "What does the Scripture say?", you can be sure that their pastor is a man of the Bible! People learn not only by hearing, but also by imitating. (Any one here dare to subject your church to such a test?)

The principle of sola scriptura carries with it certain corollaries. First, effort will be made to study the Scripture. Second, there will be obedience to the truths we come to be convinced of. Third, a body of truths will emerge which we will recognise as biblical Christianity. There is no need for me to elaborate on the first two. The third needs some explanation.

The Reformed Faith

The Bible is the complete revelation of God to man. There is no more prophecy from God after the completion of the Bible. Turn to the well-known passage in 2 Timothy 3:16. It says, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. All that we need to know for our Christian living is to be found in the Bible. The Bible, however, does not record the things we need to know in a systematic manner. To know the character of God, we have to study this theme in various relevant passages of the Bible. The more complete are our biblical data, and the more accurate the contexts are understood, the more correct will be our understanding of the character of God. As various themes are studied and put together, a body of truths begins to emerge. In the realm of studies, this is called Systematic Theology. There is no complete agreement between Christians on the various doctrines. However, what I am claiming is that that system of truths called Calvinism is the most accurate expression of biblical Christianity. Other systems of Christian theology are only approximations to the Truth. Calvinism expresses itself in the life of its adherents as the Reformed Faith.

We rejoice in any approximation to the Truth. We respect our brothers in Christ who differ from us on certain points according to their sincere understanding of the Scripture. My claim, however, is that the more completely we hold on to the principle of sola scriptura, the greater the likelihood that in due time we will come to believe in the Reformed Faith. Through the centuries, the Reformed Faith has been pitched against other systems. In the time of Augustine, it was pitched against Pelagianism. During the Reformation, it was pitched against Romanism. In the seventeenth century it was pitched against Arminianism. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was pitched against Hyper- Calvinism. In the nineteenth century, it was pitched against Pentecostalism. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was pitched against Modernism. At the present time, it is pitched against Neo- Pentecostalism (Charismaticism). The fact that the Reformed Faith has always been looked upon as the alternative to other systems shows that all the other systems lie on the circumference of the circle while it lies at the centre, which is the position of the Bible. We shall be covering the Calvinistic doctrines on salvation. also called the doctrines of grace, in this conference.

II. LEARN FROM OUR SPIRITUAL FOREFATHERS

Our first point was that the Bible must occupy the central position in our Christian life. We come now to the second point which is that we must learn from our spiritual fore-fathers. In other words, we must learn from Church History. A preacher must have a good grasp of Systematic Theology and Church History. The lessons we can learn from Church History are both negative and positive ones. We come back to Genesis 26. We read in verse 7 that Isaac lied to the Philistines that Rebekah was his sister, and not his wife. If she was his sister, then the Philistines stood a chance of marrying her! If Isaac said that Rebekah was his wife, some covetous Philistine might kill him first in order to get her. The amazing thing about this incident is that this was exactly the same mistake that his father, Abraham, had committed twice in his life! You may read about these in Genesis 12 and Genesis 20. On the first occasion, Abraham lied to Pharoah, and Sarah ended up in the king's harem until God intervened. In the second incident, Abraham lied to Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, with the same outcome. Isaac should have learned from his father's costly mistakes. Happily for Isaac, he did not have to pay the same price for his lie.

On the positive side, we see Isaac following his father's footstep and lived by faith in God. And he was blessed for this, as you can see from verses 12 to 14. But the thing that is of interest to us begins at verse 15. Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. Opposition from the world had begun. Isaac was driven away by Abimelech and he moved on to the Valley of Gerar. Then we read in verse 18, And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

Conservative Spirit

The significant thing about this is that Isaac went back to the old wells that had served his father so adequately in the past. He did not have the so-called enterprising spirit of modern-day Christians who attempt to introduce new forms of worship. He was content with the old proven ways. His conservative spirit is further shown by his giving those wells exactly the same name that his father had given them. Isaac was not one who despised the old ways and who was fond of inventing new ones. Isaac was a Conservative, not a Liberal!

Our Spiritual Forebears

There are certainly lessons to learn from our spiritual fore-fathers. As we make a study of Church History, we will discover that the great preachers and missionaries of the past had nearly always been men of Reformed convictions. Among the great preachers were George Whitefield, Daniel Rowlands, Jonathan Edwards, C. H. Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Among the great missionaries were William Carey, Henry Martyn, Adoniram Judson, David Brainerd and William Burns. Some of you may object and say that Arminians have been equally famous as preachers and missionaries. You may mention John Wesley, Billy Sunday and Billy Graham. Yes, of course, I would agree with you that we can learn from these men as well. We can learn from their zeal in evangelism, their sincerity, and the ardency of their spiritual life. But we learn also to avoid their Arminianism which led to the unbiblical altar call, decisionism and the many false conversions.

Separation And Unity

From Church History also, we leam of the need to practise biblical separation from those who tolerate dangerous errors that corrupt. Princeton Theological Seminary was a well-known Reformed institution for a century before the corrupting influence of Modernism crept in. Westminister Theological Seminary was established because men like Gresham Machen believed in biblical separation. C. H. Spurgeon led his church out from the Baptist Union because of similar problems. Equally, we learn of the need for like-minded people to show their spiritual unity in visible and practical ways. C. H. Spurgeon would probably have lived longer if those who held to the same Calvinistic doctrines had stood by him during the Downgrade Controversy. (This is, of course, speaking from the human point of view.) Witness also the great benefit to the Church of Jesus Christ when Jonathan Edwards and other like-minded friends in America cooperated with their British counterparts in prayer, evangelism and literature work.

Correct Doctrines

Great and lasting work done to the advancement of the cause of Christ has always accompanied powerful expository preaching and correct doctrines. Correct belief and practice have always been embodied in Creeds and Confessions of Faith. Many today despise the Creeds and Confessions, and propose new methods and new beliefs as antidodes to the ills seen in the Church. But they have not alleviated the situation. Instead, new problems have arisen. For ourselves, we must return to the well-proven Confessions of our spiritual forebears and use them.

False Doctrines

It is important that we learn from our spiritual fore-fathers. False teachings have the tendency to reappear, often in a different garb, but they remain basically the same. The devil may appear in a cheong-sam at one moment. He may appear in a sarong in the next moment, and in a sari after that. But it is still the same old devil behind the different dresses. The point is that our fore-fathers had fought many of the same errors we are facing today. If we know how they had fought any particular error, we will be able to learn from their strengths and their weaknesses. We will be able to use the same weapons that they had used so effectively. And most important of all, we will not be caught off- guard, we will not be caught by surprise and be thrown off-balanced. There will not be so much of the perplexities that we would otherwise face. Now, Isaac may be excused for his own mistake if his father had not told him of his. But we cannot be excused for not knowing our Church History! In this conference, we are singling out the life of Martin Luther to study, to see what lessons can be learnt for ourselves today.

III. HAVE GREAT VISIONS FOR GOD

We come to our third point. We have been asking what things are necessary to meet the needs of the hour. The third point is that we must have great visions for God. I do not mean visions in the sense of special, miraculous revelations from God. What I mean is that we must have great ambitions, great motivations and great initiatives to advance the cause of Christ on earth. I remember what one of the elders of Belvidere Road Church said to me before I returned from Liverpool. He said, "Poh, as a young man, you should have visions for God's work in Malaysia. I am an old man now and can only dream dreams. The Scripture says, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. That is the way it should be." That was what he said to me. You do not have to take him seriously on the way he used that verse of scripture. He was a jovial man. But he was a godly man. I am using the word visions in the sense that he meant. We must think big for God. We must take initiatives.

Editor's note: For the avoidance of doubt, Dr Poh is not a Charismatic!

Initiatives

We see Isaac doing just that in verse 23. It says, Then he went up from there to Beersheba. And you see in the very next verse that that night the Lord appeared to him to reassure him, saying, I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham's sake. Isaac had followed the command of God exactly, not going down to Egypt but remaining in Gerar for a short while, until circumstances forced him to move on. And he took the initiative to move on to Beersheba. He was heading for the right direction - the direction of the promised land. It was the natural thing to do, given the circumstances. But Isaac took that initiative, and God assured him that he was doing the right thing.

Building Upon The Foundation

You note that Isaac was a Conservative man, not a Modernist. He kept to God's Word exactly and he followed in the footsteps of his father before him. He was not a person with itching ears, wishing to hear every word of new doctrine and be tossed about. He was not a person who did things according to his own whims and fancies. But he retraced the path trodden by his father, opened up the old wells used by his father, and named them exactly the same way his father had done. Yet he did not stop there. He carried on in the direction pointed to by what had preceded. As it were, the course was already plotted out for him. He did not invent a new way. He built upon the foundation laid by his father. This is the important lesson. Our church may be correct and orthodox in all its ways and in all its doctrines, but it may have no life. It may lack vitality. Our religion may be what the Bible describes as having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Tim. 3:5).

True Christianity

True Christianity is vibrant. It is vital. It has power in it. But it is not showy. It is not full of noise and without substance. It is not mere activism. It is realistic. It is sane. It involves initiative and effort and spiritual flare. It involves faith in a sovereign God. We must have great visions for God in these days of need! The step we are about to take may be new to us. It may fill us with much fear and trepidation. But it is when we take it that we will hear the reassuring voice of God. After all, we are not doing it at our own whims and fancies, neither are we seeking our own glory. We are seeking to glorify God, according to the way charted by His Word, following in the footsteps of our spiritual forebears.

Reformed Ministers' Conference

Towards this end, we have organised this conference, which is the first Reformed Ministers' Conference in this country. Last year, when Pastor Stuart Olyott visited us, we organised a one-day conference for church leaders, held in Serdang. That was just to test the waters, and we discovered that there were many who were keen to know more of God's Word. Some fourty church-leaders turned up at that conference, and together with those from our own church, there were about 60 people. It may be argued that we should not have narrowed the scope of the present conference by calling it a Reformed Ministers' Conference. Perhaps more people would have come then. That may be true, but we do not wish to duplicate the works of others. The Brethren Churches for example have been organising the Keswick Convention and their good work has benefited many. We believe, however, that a distinctly Reformed ministry will meet the need of many in this country. We may be a small group of people now, but this is just the beginning. Anyway, we have not closed our conference to reformed men only. Instead, we have open it to all who wish to know more of the Reformed Faith. The doctrinal basis of this conference is the 1689 London Confession of Faith, a few copies of which are on sale here.

IV. WHAT TO EXPECT

We come back to our Bible passage. From Genesis 26, we have learnt three things which are needed to meet the needs of the hour in Malaysia. The first thing is that the Bible must occupy the central position in our Christian life. The second thing is that we must learn from our spiritual fore-fathers. And the third is that we must have great visions for God. These three points are exactly the characteristics of those men who have been mightily used of God in the past. And these are the men whom we wish to emulate. We can, therefore, summarise our three points into one, namely that we must return to the old path! Actually, verse 18 is a good summary of all that we are learning from Genesis 26. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them. We have to reopen the wells that our fore-fathers had dug. Those old wells had served them well. And they are good enough for us. They have been stopped up by the Philistines. There are many of them around still! We have to clear off all the rubbish that they have dumbed over those wells.

Opposition

We consider one last matter from this chapter of God's Word before we close. We ask the question: "What may we expect as we seek to return to the old path?" The present chapter tells us to expect at least three things. First, we must expect there to be opposition. This was what Isaac faced with. He had been driven away earlier because the Lord was blessing him. His prosperity was an eye-sore to the Philistines. You read this in verse 14. And then, in verse 19, when Isaac had reopened one well, the Philistines again came to cause trouble claiming that the well was theirs! Isaac moved on and opened up another well, and again, the Philistines came to quarrel over that one. It was only at the third well that Isaac was left in peace. This is what will happen to us as we seek to return to the old path. The Philistines of today will quarrel with us in the most unreasonable way. We have already met with such opposition. People dislike us. They call us names. They say we are dogmatic. They call us narrow-minded Calvinists. They misrepresent us and caricature us. But this is what we should expect as we seek reformation to our churches.

Perseverance

We learn next the need for perseverance. Isaac would have given up if not for this quality of great perseverance in him. He had exerted much effort digging out the earth from a well. There was now fresh water for his flock. We would have expected that he should be left in peace to enjoy the fruit of his labour. But no. The Philistines came, not to fill up the well again, but to claim it for themselves! The cheek of it! This happened again at the next well. But Isaac persevered on. At last, he was left alone. A lot of good works have floundered not because of the lack of gifted men nor of resources, but because of a lack of this quality called perseverance. People give up too soon, while their enemies are so relentless in the pursuit. We must persevere on in the face of trials and difficulties. We are meeting here as ministers and church-leaders, and their wives, of course. The tasks are many. The responsibility is great. There will be times when we call out: “Who is sufficient for these things?” But God will say to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Blessings

There is a final thing we may expect from the work of reformation, which is that there will be blessings from God. Not only will God's Word come to us reassuringly, as happened to Isaac (see verse 24), but there will be tangible tokens of God's grace as we walk in His way. There will be an overall improvement in the spirituality of our people. In verse 25 we read So he built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well. Our ministry will affect the lives of others and cause even our former enemies to turn over and seek fellowship with us. We see this in the case of Abimelech. He came with his prime minister and army commander to seek the right hand of fellowship from Isaac. There are strong indications that Abimelech was a converted man already. Abraham's ministry had had an influence on him. Years ago, he had taken Abraham's wife as his mistress. With Isaac, he did not dare to take his wife. It may be that he did not find Rebekah as beautiful as Sarah. But that cannot be true because the Scripture tells us that Rebekah was a strikingly beautiful person. The more likely explanation is that Abimelech had learned his lesson well in the incident with Abraham and his wife. Then, you notice that in verse 28, Abimelech referred to Isaac's God as the LORD, i.e. Jehovah. You turn now to Genesis 21:22 and compare with the words he used when he came to make a treaty with Abraham. The same thing is said in his first sentence, but note the marked difference in the way he referred to Abraham's God. He said, God is with you, whereas in Genesis 26:28 he said, We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. Abimelech was a converted man when he came to see Isaac.

Those were not the only blessings experienced by Isaac. In verse 32, Isaac's servant came back excitedly and declared, We have found water! To a pastoral community, fresh water was a precious commodity. Once you understand that you will appreciate what a blessing it was to have found a source of fresh water. This is often the case with us if we are faithful to God's Word and seek to walk in His way. One blessing comes after another, so that we are moved to praise and thank God for His grace and mercy.

*One more lesson should be noted. Look at verse 34. Years later, Isaac's son, Esau, married two women from among the unbelieving Hittites. And they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Be prepared for disappointments from your own people in the time to come!

V. SUMMARY

Let us summarise. The need of the hour is for us to return to the old path. That involves three things

1. the Bible must occupy the central position in our Christian life;

2. we must learn from our spiritual fore-fathers; and

3. we must have great visions for God.

As we seek to return to the old path, we may expect three things (i) there will be opposition from those who are hostile to the Reformed Faith; (ii) there will be a need for perseverance on our part; and (iii) there will be blessings from God.

Let us, then, return to the old path!

POSTSCRIPT

This talk was adapted and delivered during the 2024 Reformed Minister's Conference, during Dr Poh's final conference as organiser, 36 years after it was originally given. Dr Poh has now retired, but we desire to keep the same spirit and walk in the same paths, as people who are committed to the Word of God, always learning from our spiritual forebears, striving to do great things for God. Despite much opposition, we have noted a consistency in keeping to the old paths throughout Dr Poh's 42 years of ministry. We prayerfully look forward to seeing many more feet walking on these same old paths. Semper Reformanda (Always Reforming)!

Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16

The recording of the talk: "Back to the Old Path! Continuing the Reformation" can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/live/dZ8mO0P5-so?feature=shared