My Journal

Indonesian version:

v. 20, BEHOLD = lihat....how to see the door without glass? We must have a very clear vision when we hear God's word! Your vision determines what you hear.

Beethoven wrote the percussion strokes intro to his Violin Concerto based on when people knocked on his door due to loud music.

BCN 21 reached 9 year old in Lebanon, touched Tong.

Chinese Version:

For revival a church must:
- pure faith
- sacred lifestyle
- clear vision

John Song of China focused on sacred lifestyle. Martin Luther, Calvin, etc. focused on pure faith.

Lukewarm, worst than cold or hot. For if cold, one would know to repent.

Lots of first inventions from China:
- Glass, before Song Dynasty (around 1000 AD), while the West only started 13-14th century.
- Paper, Han Dynasty
- Gun powder
- Compass
- printing press
- clock, Song Dynasty, water clock, only seen in Japan now. Invented by Su Song 苏颂.

You don't need to be fluent in English to teach/preach in English. An old pastor, Pan, 79, encouraged Tong (29 then), in Singapore, to not be afraid to preach in English. John Song was bad in English grammar, but people loved and needed his message in English. Not the language, but the message. Tong had the experience in the Berkeley University The Wheeler Auditorium preaching. An old pastor (David Beckony?) also took and accompany Tong to tour the university, eating meals, etc. to encourage Tong before his preaching. 主的同在比任何是都要紧。

v.20 Why Christ, the head of the church, standing outside knocking? Because the church has chased Him out.

Ephesus - Lost the first love, barbaric, uncontrollable, inexperienced, but with true heart, precious. (First rebuke)
Smyrrna - You must endure hardship
Pergamun - You abide in Satan's throne (second rebuke)
Nicolas sect, Balaam, Jezebel. (third rebuke)
Thyatira - idol, sexual immorality (4th rebuke)
Sardis - 按名你是活的，其实是死的 (5th rebuke), lots of church members look alive but actually are dead, same with the elders.
Laodicea - Lukewarm (6th rebuke), he doesn't recognize the Lord and His glory, God will also abandon him.
You put your Lord outside (7th rebuke), knocking on the door outside.

After this sermon series. Tong will preach on the 8 judgments of the Bible, starting the next week)

Chinese Version: Rev. 3:14-22

Anything a person say in his heart to himself, will determine the direction of his future.

Martin Buber's I and Thou. But true relativity of of these relationships is in the Bible first. And the deeper relationship is a person can talk to himself, with himself. Evolutionists are shallow here, as they only could see the similarities among species, not their differences.

When would a person talk to himself: Most sorrow, happy, lonely, in danger.

My conclusion: Rather than I and Thou, this is about "I and I" - "I and myself"

v.17 "you said" - who say? the church of Laodicea said to herself.

We must watch what we said to ourselves.

Tong shared that he once noticed a rich person pretty proud of his wealth until he saw the church's museum. Lots of wealthy only have more money, land property, but know nothing else (i.e. arts, literature, history, etc.)

We evaluate ourselves, God also evaluates us. Thus there are two kinds of estimations. In v. 17, first half is men's evaluation, God's the second part. Tong relates to the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes".

Another analogy of a patient cannot hide from the doctor that x-rayed him, that he was rich. The doctor had found tens of thousands of dollars when he was x-raying him.

Tong shared a Hong Kong big Chinese church once invited him, saying that a great church should invite a great preacher. Tong said he's not great, and the debate went on. Then Tong challenged the audience and proved that their audience ain't that great because they couldn't answer his questions. Thus, everyone humbled and listened. My question would be if it is a "rally" as claimed by Tong, why challenging the audience with questions as if they were Christians - wouldn't rally be mostly non-Christians. I guess I missed something somewhere.

v. 18's summary same as the 3 points in the Indonesian version.

Why buy instead of getting them for free? Because must 付代价！

After the sermon, Tong announced Ivan Kristiono to be his successor.

Indonesian Version:

Scripture reading: Luke 14:16-24

v. 17: You said to yourself - self worship. Relation of self & self, not horizontal (fellowship of believers) and not vertical (with God). i.e. When a guy rejected by a woman, he hates himself to a point that he hates all women. I add: thus he hates God's creation and thus hates God.

Jean Paul Sartre - Being in itself, Being to itself [Being for itself]. Talks about how man view relationships around him and also himself. And the fault in such views.

Those who cannot see his own faults, cannot improve.

v. 18: Why buy the gold? It's the faith refined by fire.

1. A Church doesn't have khotbah yang handung iman yang sehati/murni (emas yang diuji), better ditutup.
2. Clothed in white: kelakuan yang moral yang suci.
3. Vision of mission. Visi yang jelas.

The thought of Rev. Laura Lin's church keeps come to mind when Tong preached on this passage on Laodicea. Mainly, the absence of vision, lukewarm, "I am rich, I need nothing", etc.

Not to debunk my dear Dr. Sean McDowell's argument

(actually, the Omnipotence Paradox answer predates him) but yes, we can create a square circle .

I've used this square circle answer before, Stephen Tong did as well. But I found it inadequate.

The best version I came up is this:
Can you draw...so heavy/bright/etc. that you cannot...

I've used the square circle answer before. Dr. Stephen Tong did as well. But I found this inadequate. The best one I came up with is this:

Can you draw ..(try light). so heavy/bright/etc. that you cannot .(try see)..

From the podcast: Here's the Truth About the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Modern Day Israel = half the size of New Jersey

1300 BCE, Joshua enters the land

1000 BCE, Kingdom of David, capital = Jerusalem, Ruins found: Ir David

957 BCE, 1st temple of Solomon, 2 kingdoms fighting. Philistines (seafaring) are not Palestinians (Arabs)

722 BCE, 1st Exile by Assyrians

586 BCE, Babylonian Exile, 1st temple destroyed. Ben emphasized that this predates Islam's claim of holy site.

515 BCE, Great Return from Babylonia, 2nd temple built (larger than the 1st).

332 BCE, Greeks took over Babylonia

166 BCE, Hanukah, Hasmonean Dynasty, Jews against Greek pagan practices in Israel

63 BCE, Rome took over. General Pompeii took over Israel, Judea is called instead of Israel, vassal state of Roman Empire until the end of Jewish Kingdom.

70 CE, destruction of Jerusalem. Jewish revolt against religious, political reasons. Siege of Masada. 2nd Temple destroyed.

130-136 CE, General Simon Bar Kokhba (son of the Star) led Jewish revolt which was defeated by Romans. Shapiro has coin from that time that says "to the freedom of Jerusalem". First time the area called Palestine as an insult to the Jews, due to the great damage the revolt caused.

313 CE, Roman Empire breaking up, now Byzantine rule.

7th Century CE, Founding of Islam.

636 CE, Arab invaded the land, Byzantine land = Christian.

1099-1291 CE, Crusaders fought to take back the land, and defeated in the end.

1291 CE, Muslims called Mamluks took over, for 200 years.

1517 CE, Ottoman Empire (Muslim) took over.

PS: Not a single independent state called Palestine since Judea. Merely territory of empires. Not considered a country, sparsely populated, even Mark Twain said it.

1517-1918 (End of World War I) CE, Ottoman Empire barred Jew settlements, cannot buy land if you are Jewish. Jews made backdoor deals (i.e. Jewish National Fund in late 19th century) with local Arabs to buy lands, because they try to escape from where they are back to their home land. There's always been Jewish presence in Hebron, Jerusalem, etc.

1882 CE, First Aliyah (to go up), Russian Jews escaping Russia.

1897 CE, Zionist movement (Independent Jewish State) began. Proto-Zionist (seen in Jewish prayer book): prayed for 3 times a day for reestablishment of Davidic Dynastic, Jewish Kingdom in Israel, by all serious Jews. Theodor Herzl formed World Zionist Organization, after changing from anti-Zionist to proponent of it when witnessing false accusation of a Jew (French soldier accused of spying for Austria-Hungarian) in the Dreyfus Affair. Trying to establish borders of Israel, in what was known as the Palestinian land since 136 CE.

1917 CE, Britain declares Israel independence.