Back in April, I highlighted that a Singaporean couple was charged with distributing some evangelism tracts from Jack Chick which are considered seditious here and have been registered as a banned publication.

Following a long silence, the trial has now commenced, and I’ll be following it very closely. Below is the news article taken from today’s Straits Times.

Couple on sedition trial
by Elena Chong

A Christian couple who allegedly distributed seditious publications to three Muslims went on trial on Thursday.

Ong Kian Cheong, 49, a technical officer with SingTel, and his wife, Dorothy Chan Hien Leng, 45, an associate director with Swiss bank UBS, are facing four charges each.

They are accused of distributing a comic strip booklet titled The Little Bride to Mr Irwan Ariffin, 32, at Sembawang Drive on Oct 19 last year.

The booklet is said ‘to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between Christians and Muslims in Singapore’ according to the charge.

They allegedly distributed the same objectionable booklet to Ms Farharti Ahmad at Woodlands Drive 72 on March 6 last year, which the charge says, could ’cause feelings of enmity, hatred, ill-will or hostility between the two religious groups’.

The couple are said to have distributed another seditious publication, Who is Allah, to Mr Isa Raffee at Segar Road in the first week of last December.

The last charge accuses them of having a total of 439 copies of 11 tracts at their Maplewoods Condominium in Bukit Timah Road on Jan 30.

Mr Irwan, a staff sergeant with the Traffic Police, told the court that he opened his letter box on Oct 19 - the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri - and found the booklet.

After reading it, he felt angry and very offended.

He said the publication was ’somewhat condemning’ of his religion.

There were also other offensive references to Prophet Mohammed.

At the start of cross-examination, the couple’s lawyer, Mr Selva K. Naidu, offered his clients’ apologies for the hurt caused to his feelings and asked if he would accept their apology.

Mr Irwan, who had made a police report that day (Oct 19), said the damage had been done.

‘I do not know how many such publications that have been distributed throughout Singapore, and if any apology were to be addressed, it should not be made to me alone,’ he said. The trial continues.

Photo by WONG Kwai Chow, taken off the online article.

HT: Wretched Radio.

John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

John 3:27 KJV

The doctrine of the inability of the human mind and the need for divine illumination is so fully developed in the New Testament that it is nothing short of astonishing that we should have gone so far astray about the whole thing. Fundamentalism has stood aloof from the Liberal in self-conscious superiority and has on its own part fallen into error, the error of textualism, which is simply orthodoxy without the Holy Ghost. Everywhere among Conservatives we find persons who are Bible-taught but not Spirit-taught. They conceive truth to be something which they can grasp with the mind. If a man hold to the fundamentals of the Christian faith he is thought to possess divine truth. But it does not follow. There is no truth apart from the Spirit. The most brilliant intellect may be imbecilic when confronted with the mysteries of God. For a man to understand revealed truth requires an act of God equal to the original act which inspired the text.

“Except it be given him from heaven.” Here is the other side of the truth; here is hope for all, for these words do certainly mean that there is such a thing as a gift of knowing, a gift that comes from heaven. Christ taught His disciples to expect of the coming of the Spirit of Truth who would teach them all things. He explained Peter’s knowledge of His Saviourhood as being a direct revelation from the Father in heaven. And in one of His prayers He said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” By “wise and prudent” our Lord meant not Greek philosophers but Jewish Bible students and teachers of the Law.

…

The inward kernel of truth has the same configuration as the outward shell. The mind can grasp the shell but only the Spirit of God can lay hold of the internal essence. Our great error has been that we have trusted to the shell and have believed we were sound in the faith because we were able to explain the external shape of truth as found in the letter of the Word. From this mortal error Fundamentalism is slowly dying. We have forgotten that the essence of spiritual truth cannot come to the one who knows the external shell of truth unless there is first a miraculous operation of the Spirit within the heart. Those overtones of religious delight which accompany truth when the Spirit illuminates it are all but missing from the Church today. Those transporting glimpses of the Celestial Country are few and dim; the fragrance of “Sharon’s dewy Rose” is hardly discernible. Consequently we have been forced to look elsewhere for our delights and we have found them in the dubious artistry of converted opera singers or the tinkling melodies of odd and curious musical arrangements. We have tried to secure spiritual pleasures by working upon fleshly emotions and whipping up synthetic feelings by mean wholly carnal. And the total effect has been evil.

…

We need to re-examine the whole thing. We need to learn that truth consists not in correct doctrine, but in correct doctrine plus the inward enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. We must declare again the mystery of wisdom from above. A re-preachment of this vital truth could result in a fresh breath from God upon a stale and suffocating orthodoxy.

Tozer, A.W. The Divine Conquest. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company. 78-84.

There is much to catch up on and I’ll have to pace myself doing so. First up on the agenda is to catch up on lost sleep, having only managed to catch a total of 11 hours of shut-eye over three days. There’s also much to reflect on — despite the hectic schedule, I managed to have a few interesting conversations on theology and evangelism with some fellow Christians in camp, some of which I might share here in subsequent days.

I have also been thinking quite a bit on a new direction Word and Verse might take come the new year, but I’m going to keep mum on that till there’s confirmation that what weighs heavily in my heart regarding this matter is not of my flesh but God’s.

Thank you for all your prayers, and I pray that all has been well with you, my dear brothers and sisters. I’ll catch up with you soon via email or at your blogs.

From Lane Chaplin:

“God helps those who help themselves.”

It’s not in the Bible. It’s even anti-Biblical, but, as Ken Jones of the White Horse Inn has pointed out, many “evangelicals” think that it’s in the Bible and, when they find out that it isn’t, they think it should be. Jeff Noblit lays that myth to rest in this sermon.

May it edify you as it did me.

To watch this sermon at your leisure, bookmark this page.