Stephen Tong's Seminar Day 2

I arrived at 7:30 PM, 30 minutes late, and already missed his answering two questions. The Q&A session went well, too bad though that one person seeked to anger him through questions whose nature were offensive and cynical targeted toward him. I was ashamed to be the member of the church as one of us, through his questions, mocked our guest honorable speaker. Too bad... But today I witnessed Pdt. Tong's patience and self-control.

After the Q&A, one ibu-ibu presented a solo. I did not catch all the words because she sang 'seriosa' and only saw that she expressed some remorse when singing the song. I kept hearing though that she repeatedly sang: "O divine redeemer". So later I searched on the net and found it. It goes as follows:

source: http://www.welchorganist.com/pages/redeemer.html

Ah! turn me not away, receive me, tho' unworthy!
Hear Thou my cry, behold, Lord, my distress!
Answer me from Thy throne, haste Thee, Lord, to mine aid,
Thy pity show in my deep anguish!
Let not the sword of vengeance smite me,
Tho' righteous Thine anger, O Lord!
Shield me in danger, O Regard me! On Thee, Lord, alone will I call.

O Divine Redeemer! O Divine Redeemer!
I pray Thee, grant me pardon, and remember not my sins!
Forgive me, O divine Redeemer!
Night gathers round my soul; fearful I cry to Thee;
Come to mine aid, O Lord! Haste Thee, Lord, haste to help me!
Hear my cry, Save me, Lord, in Thy mercy;
Hear my cry! Come and save me, O Lord!
O, divine Redeemer! I pray Thee, grant me pardon,
And remember not, O Lord, my sins!
Save, in the day of retribution, from Death shield Thou me, O my God!
O, divine Redeemer, have mercy! Help me, my Savior!

Definitely the song that reflects our wretchedness, and our needs of the Lord.

Pdt. Tong began with the reform theology. Men are created within the realm of physical and also spiritual. Unlike animals, this duality allows men to realize that there is God and therefore religions, and it also allows men to create and develop culture.

That we seek to prove the existence of God is a wrong statement, because God has revealed Himself through the general revelation: creation & intuition. Through His creations around us, he reveals his magnificence. Through our intuition, we realize that God is in fact ingrain in our DNA, that there is a scale within us which tells us what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong.

But general revelation is not enough. We have to understand his special revelation: Jesus Christ.

Jesus being the king and the great priest. But how? He is from the Judah tribe, while priest has to come from the Levites. Pdt. Tong explained that Jesus was claimed to be at the level of Melchizedek. This is said in Psalms 110.

Psalm 110
The LORD Gives Dominion to the King.
A Psalm of David.

1The LORD says to my Lord:
"Sit at My right hand
Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet."
2The LORD will stretch forth Your strong scepter from Zion, saying,
"Rule in the midst of Your enemies."
3Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power;
In holy array, from the womb of the dawn,
Your youth are to You as the dew.
4The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind,
"You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek."
5The Lord is at Your right hand;
He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.
6He will judge among the nations,
He will fill them with corpses,
He will shatter the chief men over a broad country.
7He will drink from the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He will lift up His head.

Melchizedek is known to appear at the time of Abraham, the first priest mentioned in the Bible, before the age of Moses. So verse 4 says that Jesus has been appointed to be the eternal priest and not bounded by his tribal background.

Pdt. Tong explained that Jesus' death was delivered because religion successfully exploited politics. Moses' Law says not to murder, and so the priest could not order to have Jesus murdered. Instead, the priest reasoned with Pilates that Jesus was a traitor to the ceasar, that Jesus claimed to be the king of the Jews.

John 18.

31So Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law." The Jews said to him, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death,"

32to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.

33Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"

34Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?"

35Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?"

36Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm."

37Therefore Pilate said to Him, "So You are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say correctly that I am a king For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."

Pdt. Tong closed his sermon with Jesus' utterrance in John 16:28:

I came forth from the Father
and have come into the world;
I am leaving the world again
and going to the Father

He explained that Jesus is the only person to be originated from God and goes back to God. Religious figures like Buddha, Muhammad, and others, they never said that they were originated from God, but through history they were told to have been born into the world, and then worked their way through hoping to go to heaven.