Reflections on the BP Church & Revelation
By Ps Vernon Quek
Since its founding in 1937 in Collingswood, New Jersey, the global Bible-Presbyterian Church has rightly desired to keep, or guard, the Gospel and biblical truth[1] – this has been and must continue to be a key part of what it means to be Bible-Presbyterian.
Eschatology, the study of the end times, particularly in the book of Revelation, holds a significant place in BP theology. And so, as we near the end of our Revelation series, and as we sat under God’s word in Revelation 20 last Sunday, I’ve been reflecting on what we can learn from our denomination’s history and how we can continue to keep and guard the Gospel well.
If you haven’t read the Word in Season article written by Ps Dev in last week’s bulletin, I recommend you do so to get a bigger picture of the debate, and how we should approach it.
Very sadly in our history, the good desire to guard biblical truth in the BP Church often came without love and humility, resulting in multiple heart-breaking divisions and splits within our denomination.
We rightly want to guard the fundamentals of our faith, but one key lesson that we can learn from BP history is that knowing what is NOT fundamental is equally important in guarding the faith well. Discernment between what Scripture says is primary (what MUST be obeyed) and what is secondary (what we can take different views on) is something we must all learn.
This discernment isn’t just something that the Pastors, Elders and leaders need. Every member of the Body needs to discern between the two as we seek to grow to maturity[2].
Every secondary doctrine or distinctive that we wrongly elevate to be a fundamental that we (and all other believers) must adhere to ends up distracting us from the main thing: the Gospel.
It is often said that God is clear on the fundamentals in the Bible, and one way we can test whether something is fundamental and primary in our faith is how much God tells us in His Word about said topic. Take the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus for example: this is not only mentioned time and time again throughout the Bible, but we are explicitly told why this matters to us as believers[3] – this is not a topic we are meant to have different views on!
After last week’s sermons on Revelation 20, many of the post-sermon conversations revolved around which millennial view we as a Preaching Team or the leadership of Zion Bishan take. In case it wasn’t obvious from the sermons, or Ps Dev’s article, this topic is not a fundamental one to our faith. If it were, I believe that God would have said a lot more to us about the thousand years than just these few verses.
Let’s keep praying that Zion Bishan and the wider BP Church will keep the main thing the main thing in these last days. We as pastors and elders would appreciate your prayers for wisdom as we lead the church family in this. Our prayer is that every single one of us will be able to discern what is of Gospel importance, and what is not, as we live in light of Jesus’ imminent return.
[1] 1 Timothy 6:20 & 2 Timothy 1:14
[2] Hebrews 5:14
[3] 1 Corinthians 15
