What is the Bible House to you? Some might think it is a place that sells all types of Bibles; some might think it is a Bible school; for others, it might be a church. 

Well, these are all true to a fair extent. In 1907, The Bible Society of Singapore acquired the land at 7 Armenian Street and built its home—the Bible House—there. Since then, it has been rebuilt twice and undergone numerous changes to meet the evolving needs of the Society and the world it serves. (Visit bible.org.sg/biblehouse for more information.) The current building was completed and reopened in 2011, but our work is not yet finished. The Bible House is more than just a building; it is built to further missions in Singapore and beyond—making God’s Word a living hope to all nations. 

As a global, inter-confessional organisation with Scripture as the unifying factor, the Bible Society has been serving the community of faith in Singapore, as well as beyond our shores, for more than 18 decades—expanding the Bible movement, and transforming lives with God’s Word.  

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As we were researching for this article, we interestingly chanced upon some inspiring testimonies on their personal encounters with the Bible House and how their lives were impacted and transformed. 

“I used to be a wastrel! My life changed when I met my Pastor, who handed me a tract titled ‘Jesus Loves You’. He shared John 3:16 with me and I started to question: ‘Can God really love someone like me?’ He offered to pray for me. He invited me to his church at the old Bible House located at Armenian Street.  

I remember quite clearly how some church members and I would volunteer to help the staff at the Bible House slot tracts and letters into envelopes and carry the sealed envelopes to the post office to be mailed out to the donors. Although we had no idea what the Bible House was doing besides selling Bibles, we were happy to volunteer.  

Six months later, in mid-2008, the old Bible House was torn down for redevelopment. We moved back to the ‘new Bible House’ in February 2011, and we met every Sunday at Bible House till 2015.”  

—Joseph, ex-volunteer at the old Bible House 

“I came into a personal relationship with Christ during my Pre-U days in a mission school through fellowship groups, Bible study groups… and Bible materials available at the Bible Society Bookshop.   

It was a privilege together with my wife to join the BS Team to visit the Amity Press in Nanjing to see the printing and publishing work as well as being involved with the Bible distribution in Chengdu (Szechuan) and Kunming (Yunnan). We also participated in Bible Engagement trips organised by the Bible Society to Israel and Turkey.”  

—Revd Canon Dr Louis Tay, Auxiliary Clergy, St Andrew’s Cathedral 

“I recall the Bible Society office in the old bungalow at 7 Armenian Street. Since Bible House’s completion in the 70’s, Scripture Union Singapore stopped “wandering in the wilderness” and settled comfortably in Bible House, which is very central and easily accessible.  

In 1978, the Singapore Billy Graham Crusade office was located in the Bible House. Christians from all over Singapore visited this office for materials and meetings. We used many rooms and halls in Bible House. The former Bible House was like my second home then.”  

—Rev Dr Alfred Yeo, Chairman, Scripture Union Singapore 

These testimonies highlight the Bible House’s uniqueness—hearing and seeing how a fixed asset like a building can, through its existence, staff and activities held within its premises, be used by God to serve the Bible Mission and the Christian community. 

The Bible House—Humble Beginnings  

Within Singapore, the Bible Society’s history is intertwined with the early pioneering work in the region—most notably that of Sir Stamford Raffles and Rev Dr Robert Morrison. They were some of the first to realise Singapore’s potential to be a strategic location for missions work in Asia, and it is due to their heart for the Bible Mission that The Bible Society of Singapore exists today. (Visit bible.org.sg for more information.) 

The Bible Mission was in operation in Malaya as early as 1818 when the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca was used to distribute and print Bibles. When it was re-located to Singapore and merged with a Malay College to become the Singapore Institution in 1823, the printing and distribution continued. The first Bible depot was established at 591 Victoria Street.  

The first references to a “depository” were in the British and Foreign Bible Society’s Annual Reports of 1879 and 1882, as well as from the reminiscences of John Haffenden, the first Agent appointed to oversee and promote the Bible Mission there. Once he arrived, he soon saw the importance of having a more proper and suitable depot. The depot was relocated to his own residence in Robinson Road, which was at a better site to facilitate the distribution of Scriptures. Its address subsequently changed again to 13 Raffles Quay in 1901.  

Until then, the depots had all been rented locations, and the persuasion that the Society should have a permanent home of its own grew increasingly stronger. This finally came into being when a site at Armenian Street was purchased with funds from the British and Foreign Bible Society’s Centenary Fund on 15 November 1907.  

The new site not only served as the desired proper depot to store and distribute Scriptures, but also functioned as the Agent’s Residence as well as the Headquarters of the Society’s work in Malaya. Thus, for the first time, the Society had a permanent landmark and building which it could call its home. 

Over the years, the Bible Society’s work in global Bible missions has expanded to embrace not only making the Word available and accessible to all, but also engaging people with the Scriptures and meeting their immediate needs by adopting a holistic approach to Bible missions to the wider world. (Turn to page 14 to read the Timeline of the Bible House.) 

Into the Next Lap 

2017 is a significant year for the Bible Society. This is the year we celebrate two major milestones: the 180th Anniversary of the Bible Society’s formal registration, and the 110th Anniversary of our residence at 7 Armenian Street. The missional focus is crucial to the Bible Society’s ministry, spurring us to be actively involved in Bible and holistic mission work beyond our shores.  

That is, we do not just hand Bibles out to people. We help different groups of people to apply the Word to their lives by addressing their specific needs. We consider our work as vital in bringing transformation in our nation and the regions around. Placed in a strategic location, we believe Singapore is called to be an Antioch of Asia to work in partnership with our sister societies in Southeast Asia (SEA Mission). Through contributions by generous donors, the Bible Society also raised funds up to S$1,000,000, both in cash and kind over the past three years, to support victims affected by the floods in Myanmar, the earthquakes in Nepal, Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban, Philippines, and the refugees in the Middle East. It is indeed a blessing to see how the Bible Society’s contributions here bless these faraway communities. 

Addressing the Needs in China 

China is the home to one of the fastest growing Christian populations in the world today. To meet this ever-growing need for God’s Word in China, the United Bible Societies (UBS) and its partners, the Three-Self Patriotic Movement and Chinese Christian Council (TSPM/CCC), along with  

social development organisations such as Amity Foundation, are working together to make the Word available to the Chinese. The Amity Printing Company—one of the largest Bible printing presses in the world—was formed to serve the churches in China by printing Bibles. Singapore, though small, played a big role in the growth of the Bible movement in China. In fellowship with UBS, The Bible Society of Singapore has been working closely with churches, Christian organisations, and prominent Chinese leaders in China to channel givings annually to support and develop the Chinese ministry in China.   

Continuing God’s Work in Myanmar 

The Bible Society is taking the WISE (Word Intake for Spiritual Edification) programme both regionally and internationally through our sister Bible Societies. In May 2015, the Bible Society sponsored the Bible Society of Myanmar’s first literacy workshop in Yangon. Church leaders, representing the three language groups of S’gaw Karan, Asho Chin and Myanmar, gathered for this workshop to equip each language group to develop a literacy curriculum—and WISE will be the follow-up programme after the literacy curriculum.  

In November 2015, the Bible Society organised a Bible Mission Trip (BMT) to Myanmar, where 13 participants visited the Myanmar Agape Orphanage in Hmawbi, Myanmar and gave Bibles to the 118 orphans.  

Also, in October 2016, another BMT was organised and the team visited and distributed Bibles and relief aid to church communities in Mandalay and Pyin Oo Lwin in the Mandalay Region. They also had the opportunity to visit four orphanages. Some of the team members have taken it upon themselves to provide some form of financial support to the poorest of the four orphanages, where the children had to live in makeshift bamboo structures. 

Channel of Blessings to the Middle East  

Through the support of our partners and donors in Singapore, we strive to raise support and reach those undergoing hardships and displacement.  

Over the years, the Bible Society has also reached out to the refugees in the Middle East. In November 2014, the Bible Society made an appeal to bless the refugees in Lebanon. In December 2015, a few staff from the Bible Society were blessed with the opportunity to witness the situation in Lebanon first-hand and personally minister to some of these refugees. Not entitled to even basic necessities in life, the refugees relied totally on the relief distribution packages we provided, as well as aid from organisations or churches. Your generous donations made a great difference as it provided some 25,000 refugees with Scriptures and basic necessities. 

Rebuilding Lives in Nepal 

The Bible Society has also contributed generously to many meaningful projects, including fundraising efforts for the devastating earthquakes in Nepal in 2015 and the BMT to Ghyang Sukathokar Village, Nepal in November 2016. We worked closely with the Nepal Bible Society to distribute Scriptures and other relief materials such as clothing, zinc roofing and sheets to help those affected by the earthquakes to rebuild their homes. 

Shared Accomplishment with the Christian Community 

Over the decades, there have been many who have worked alongside us to further the Bible Mission. Celebrating these two major milestones is more than the accomplishment of one organisation—it is the shared accomplishment of those who have journeyed with us along the way. As our supporters, you have been such an integral part of seeing these milestones come to fruition, and we would like to invite you to join us in commemorating our major milestones with us. 

Xie Rongbin, 28, is training to be a pastor in China, where there is currently only one trained minister to 6,700 Christians. He told us what motivates him and how to avoid writing boring sermons.

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The inspiration to become a pastor comes from my grandmother. She was a beggar and brought my mother and my aunt up on the streets. She was supported by her neighbours. It was so hard. I felt I wanted to help the homeless people and to do it in a spiritual realm.

But I also want to help those who, though they are rich, are spiritually homeless. Some people have a lot of money, but in God’s eyes they are in dire need of God’s gospel. Their souls are homeless. My heart is to help them.

I also want to do this for my parents who are very serious about their faith. They always prayed with me and talked about God with me. They used to preach in villages when I was just a child and took me with them. My home became a place where people would gather together to worship God. It was an amazing start in life. They have given me great support.

There was no pastor in the town where I grew up. But there were people who were pastoral. We really need more and more pastors in China. The seminaries can’t do enough to raise so many pastors to go to the Church. The number of teachers who are qualified is restricted.

“The number of believers is growing fast. But the number of pastors qualifying is growing slowly. So the need for pastors is always great.“

Now my parents and I serve in church. After I graduate, I will go back to serve there my whole lifetime. We don’t have a church, we just meet in people’s homes. 

There are disadvantages to not having a pastor. Having a pastor would have helped me solve problems and answer questions when I was growing up, about the Bible, the world, God. No one could give me a satisfactory answer.

I think this is why heresies are popular because people don’t have a pastor to give them a biblical basis, so they will always be distracted by heretics. 

The thought of being a pastor makes me feel very stressed. I’m 28. We need more young people to do more services and works, but there aren’t so many. I will have to have lots of responsibility like leading worship and leading the choir and summer camps. I’ll have to have a finger in every pie. If I don’t give my body a chance to recover, I will burn out.

But I also feel very excited. I have been trained for four years. I have learned so many things. It has broadened my horizons. I really want to share what I have learned, especially in our Bible study group. I feel so honoured and privileged to do this. I feel quite excited and hopeful. 

“John 3:16 is my motivation. It reminds me of Jesus’ love. I’m not doing this for me.“

I used to be a bit arrogant and did things for myself, but I was greatly encouraged by seeing how other pastors lived for the homeless and poor people. I would like to serve Jesus in that way.

The books we have had from Bible Society have changed my whole theological view. The different editions that we have of the Bible make me very grateful. It’s helped me learn to dig the meaning out of the Bible. A lot of the inspiration to deepen my sermons and to make them more profound, more creative and innovative comes from these books.

If you don’t dig into the Bible in a new way, your sermon will be a bit boring and tedious. After learning the original languages of Greek and Hebrew here, it has helped us a lot. It’s been so important.

If I’m honest though, we do need more dictionaries. We want the English editions. The books are always borrowed by others and it’s hard to get a chance to use them.

We all feel like missionaries, that we have to go back to our own churches and help as many people as possible.

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Xie Rongbin is 28 and from Nanping in Fujian Province. He’s studying at Nanjing Theological Seminary. Find out how you can help support students like Xie and build the next generation of pastors in China.

The Bible House arose out of the need for a dedicated Bible depot to facilitate the growing Bible Mission work in Singapore and Malaya. With the acquisition of the site at 7 Armenian Street in 1907, the Bible Society obtained its permanent house and has kept it by God’s grace to this day. Through the years, the Bible House went through numerous upgrades, expanding the Society’s scope of service to peoples in the Asia Pacific and beyond. In commemoration of its 110th anniversary, here are some key milestones of Bible House’s history. 

1823: The Bible Mission commenced and operated from the Singapore Institution, which was formed in 1823 and functioned as a place for printing and distributing Scriptures. 

1879: The first Bible depot was established at a rented location at 591 Victoria Street to accommodate the growing needs of the Bible Mission. 

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1886: The depot was moved to the Agent’s own residence on Robinson Road. 

1901: The depot relocated again to 13 Raffles Quay. 

1907: 15 Nov: The land at 7 Armenian Street was purchased, becoming the site for the Society’s permanent home. 

1909: 22 Feb: The Bible House was fully constructed and opened. It functioned as the Bible depot, the Agent’s new residence, and the headquarters of the Bible Mission in Malaya. 

1942: Apr 1942: The Japanese took possession of the Bible House until the end of the Japanese Occupation. 

1945: Nov 1945: The British Military Administration occupied the Bible House and used it as a university for British troops until early 1946 when it was returned to the Society. 

1968: The plan to rebuild the Bible House into a six-storey, contemporary-style building was approved by the government. 

1974: Apr: After two years of reconstruction, the new Bible House was reopened. 

1982: A separate warehouse unit was purchased, boosting the Bible House’s capacity for storing Scriptures. 

1990: A Computer-Assisted Text Processing Centre was established, enhancing the Society’s ability to serve the needs of Bible Societies in the Asia Pacific. 

1995: The Scripture Publishing Centre was launched, an integral step to making the Bible House a Bible Knowledge Centre. 

2005: Jul 2005: The Christian Resource Centre, jointly set up by the Society and Fellowship of Evangelical Students, began operations, selling a wide selection of Christian books. 

2011: 3 Mar: The Bible House was reopened after a second rebuilding to meet the needs and challenges of the new millennium. 

2012: The Bible House’s Bible Shop was renamed Bible Resource Centre @ Armenian to reflect the wider range of resources made available besides Bibles. 

2013: Nov 2013: The Bible Museum was completed, showcasing the history of the Bible and the local Bible movement. 

2017: 26 Apr: The brand-new rooftop Pavilion of the Nations will be opened, further enhancing the Society’s ability to serve the local and international communities. 

‘They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end’ (Psalm 102:25-26). So writes the Psalmist, as he reflects on the temporal nature of all created things – however excellent – compared to the unchanging permanence of their Creator.

Passages that speak of the unchanging nature of God are scattered throughout the Bible. In Malachi 3:6, the fact of God’s unchanging or immutable nature is categorically declared by the Creator himself: ‘For I, the Lord, do not change …’ And in his epistle, James testifies that ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow or change’ (James 1:17).

The doctrine of divine immutability – that the eternal Creator of the universe does not change because he cannot change – has occupied a central place in the Christian understanding of God since the beginning of Christianity. Divine immutability not only distinguishes the Creator from the created order – which is always in flux and subject to change – it sets him apart from other notions of deity found in the Ancient Near Eastern and the Greco-Roman worlds.

But this concept has not only been misunderstood, it has also been subjected to serious distortions.

Part of the reason why misconceptions of divine immutability had arisen in history of theology is the uncritical incorporation of Hellenistic philosophy into the Christian understanding of God. Such metaphysical adulterations have resulted in a notion of divine immutability that renders God immobile and sterile – for movement, it is argued, suggests change.

This idea of immutability as immobility is further reinforced by certain conceptions of eternality. The Bible clearly depicts the Creator as eternal, without beginning or end. But eternality, according to some philosophical accounts, is equated with timelessness.

This means that the eternal God must be motionless and inactive – for movement suggests sequence, which in turn in some sense implies change. Because of these metaphysical aberrations, to speak of divine immutability is to picture him in an ‘eternally frozen pose’, to use J. I. Packer’s memorable expression.

But this conception of God is totally alien to the Creator and Redeemer that the Bible speaks about, who is actively involved in the affairs of the world, especially those of his people.

In rejecting this erroneous view of divine immutability, and in an attempt to recover something of the biblical testimony of God as dynamic and responsive to his creatures, some modern theologians have swung to the other extreme. They have constructed a God who is so vulnerable to the contingencies of history and who can be so profoundly affected by human actions that even his grand purpose for the world can be thwarted or derailed.

We see this in some versions of process theology and open theism.

Such approaches, however, are distortions because they paint a picture of a God who is not sovereign, all-powerful and wise. In this sense, our conception of divine immutability can give the other divine attributes a different hue.

Any attempt to understand what it means to say that God is immutable or unchanging must avoid the two opposite errors of equating immutability with immobility on the one hand, and of forming a picture of God whose will and purpose are completely malleable, subjected to human actions, on the other.

Furthermore, any attempt to speak of divine immutability must take absolutely seriously the entire counsel of the Word of God. It must resist the temptation of privileging some biblical passages over others, even if it enables us to avoid some theological conundrums.

Thus, for example, in Numbers 23:19 we read: ‘God is not a man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind’. But in Ezekiel 16: 42, we have these words: ‘So will I satisfy my wrath on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you. I will be calm and will no more be angry’ – suggesting a change of mind.

Attempts to explain the passages that speak about God changing his mind by describing them as anthropomorphic – as attempts to depict God in human terms – are not always convincing. The question remains: do these passages say something true about God?

How, then, are we to understand what the Bible means by divine immutability? Space allows us to only outline an answer to this question.

To speak of divine immutability is to maintain that God’s being and nature does not undergo any change – it is to say that God is perfect. God does not experience any qualitative change: he neither grows nor diminishes.

Divine immutability also suggests that God’s character is consistent – he is not good today, but evil tomorrow. God is always just, always merciful, always loving. Divine immutability therefore suggests that God is always trustworthy.

And finally, divine immutability points to the fact that God’s purpose and plan for the world that he has created are unchanging. God will accomplish whatever he has purposed to achieve when he brought the world into being.

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This understanding of the unchanging nature of God addresses the deficiencies in the concept of immutability that is distorted by Hellenistic philosophy on the one hand, and the view espoused by process theology and open theism on the other.

It corresponds closely to the biblical testimony about an unchanging God who is profoundly and intimately involved in the creation, the loving and faithful God who has made a covenant with his people.

The early church avoided active engagement with Roman politics, where the contestation for power was brutal and political fortune was fickle, brutish and short. The bedraggled religious community was already leading a precarious existence since it lacked political patronage. As such, it would be wise for it to avoid getting entangled with mighty Caesar who would not hesitate to snuff out any potential challenge to his throne. However, political realism did not mean that the church retreated into a cocooned existence in the ghetto. Instead, it sought to serve wider society by building effective social-economic networks for social renewal.

A Social Message of the Power of Love in Action

Lucian (a non-Christian) was impressed by the solidarity among the Christians. He testified that “their original lawgiver has taught them that they were all brethren, one of another . . . They become incredibly alert of anything  . . . that affects their common interests.”

The love of Christians was exceptional in times of plagues and calamities. Eyewitnesses reported that when an epidemic struck, the populace rejected the sick and abandoned unburied corpses in their desperate attempts to avoid infections from a contagious and fatal disease. In contrast, Bishop Dionysius described how Christians “held fast to each other, visited the sick without fear, ministered to them assiduously, and served them for the sake of Christ . . . many did die, after caring for the sick and giving health to others, transplanting the death of others, as it were, into themselves.”

The impact of such selfless service was highlighted by the early Church historian Eusebius. He wrote, “Then did they show themselves to the heathen in the clearest light. For the Christians were the only people who amid such terrible ills showed their fellow-feeling and humanity by their actions. Day by day, some would busy themselves with attending to the dead and burying them (for there were numbers to whom no one else paid any heed); others gathered in one spot all who were afflicted by hunger throughout the whole city, and gave bread to them all. When it became known, people glorified the Christians’ God, and, convinced by the facts, confessed the Christians alone were truly pious and religious.”

It must be emphasised that for the early church Christian social welfare was not merely an emergency service but an ongoing mission expressing itself in several ways:

First, the church was at the forefront of private charity. In AD 250, the Roman Church distributed alms and supported about 1,500 widows and poor and disabled persons. There was no other equivalent charity in the Roman world.

Second, the church cared for slaves and poor people needing burial. Converted slaves were granted equal dignity and fullest rights in church. Indeed, slaves could become clergymen or even bishops. Christians extended burial services to strangers because they share a common humanity. Undoubtedly, such care comforted grieving relatives and cultivated sympathies for Christianity.

Third, the church provided employment and insisted that every able-bodied person must work. The church formed guilds to provide work for any brother in need. We can only admire its balanced social policy: “For those able to work, provide work; and to those incapable of work, be charitable.”

A Refuge and Haven of Peace in Times of Social Chaos

Roman cities had an average population density equivalent to that found in modern industrial slums. Given the absence of social welfare in Roman society it was no wonder that crime was rampant.

As one contemporary witness testified, “Night fell over the city like a shadow of a great danger, diffused, sinister, and menacing. Everyone fled to his home, shut himself in, and barricaded the entrance . . . if the rich had to sally forth, they were accompanied by slaves who carried torches to light and to protect them on their way . . . Juvenal sighs that to go out to supper without having made your will was to expose yourself to reproach of carelessness.”

In contrast, the church was a haven of peace and support amidst urban lawlessness and insecurity. The church provided the essentials of social security and, more importantly, a sense of belonging in a city of strangers.

Neighbourhoods were transformed when neighbours were bound together not only by common rites but by a common way of life. Admittedly, social compassion was not a virtue found exclusively among Christians, but in those days Christians appeared to have practised it more effectively than any other group.

Rodney Stark aptly captures the social impact of early Christianity, “Christianity revitalised life in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems.

To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family.

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To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires, and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing service.”

In summary, the church became an institution for social renewal—the new civilising and cohesive power that could unite and care for the diverse races of the Empire.

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Dr Ng Kam Weng is Research Director of Kairos Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur. Previously, he had been a fellow at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies and a member of the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton University. From 1989 to 1992 he taught at the Malaysia Bible Seminary Graduate School. He has a PhD from Cambridge University.

Running Bible Society in Pakistan is a risky business, but it doesn’t stop Anthony Lamuel. Find out how he’s sharing God’s work and strengthening the Church in a place where Christians are a persecuted minority.

Anthony Lamuel arrives at the office. He passes the steel reinforced concrete planters, which prevent cars ramming the building. Notes the 16 CCTV cameras circling the building. Walks through an airport-style scanner and down a narrow, 10ft-long corridor lined with steel-reinforced doors. In the reception area he greets security staff, who have guns slung over their shoulders, and stretches out his arms to be frisked while someone searches his bag.

This is Bible Society in Pakistan. This is what our ministry looks like in one of the most dangerous countries in the world in which to be a Christian. (Pakistan is number six on Open Doors’ World Watch list 2016, with ‘extreme levels of persecution’ against Christians. It comes behind North Korea, Iraq, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria.)

“Let me be honest,” said Anthony, who has led our work in Pakistan for almost 20 years, and has been on staff for the last 37. “In the back of the mind, the fear is always there. But in the jungle you have wolves and tigers – and the rabbit has to come out of his hole some time.”

The Christian minority

Christians are in the tiny minority in this country – some 2.5 million people, around 1.6% of the population. Most are rural people, and 80% live below the poverty line. They are the cotton pickers, the factory workers, the cleaners and labourers. In the city they live in slums and shanty towns. Most face exploitation, prejudice and oppression.

Since the 9/11 attacks in America, pressure on Christians has intensified. “The problem is that we are identified as Westerners,” said Anthony. “At the same time, radicals label every non-Muslim as an infidel – and killing them is a big honour to Allah.”

There has been a spate of deadly assaults in recent years. Back in 2009, a church and homes were torched, and eight people were burnt alive. In 2013, over 80 people were killed in a twin-suicide bombing at a Peshawar church.* Two blasts at churches in March 2015 killed 14 people and injured more than 70. And last Easter Sunday, 75 people, including many children, were murdered when a suicide bomber targeted a Lahore park.

Bible Society’s bookshop in Karachi was attacked too, just over 10 years ago. But Anthony is a high profile figure in Pakistan, and his reputation and Bible Society’s credibility affords a level of protection.

“Many Muslim groups take out magazine ads to try to discredit us, but we are a respected organisation,” he said. “The government wants to protect freedom of worship and needs to show it is taking action against terrorists.”

As well as helping to install the security measures at our head office, the authorities dispatch two police officers every week to stand guard over Anthony’s church. The armed officers sit in the tower at St Andrew’s, in Lahore, during services and visitors are questioned before entering.

So what is Bible Society doing in the face of such tremendous challenges? Anthony has two key aims: to strengthen the Church, and share God’s word.

Strengthening the Church

“This is a marginalised Church,” said Anthony. “So when Christians brush shoulders with others in open society, their beliefs are challenged. If they are well equipped, they can withstand the pressure.”

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In the two decades since he’s been in charge, Anthony has produced two children’s Bibles, two study Bibles, one New Testament with notes, a full Sunday school curriculum for children and has equipped seminary students. He focuses on young people because a staggering 46% of Pakistan’s population is under 15 and a further 22% is aged 16 to 30.

“The Church here is one generation away from extinction,” he says.

He’s also launched a Bible-based literacy programme because so many women and girls, in particular, are illiterate. “Only half of school age children go to school, and half of those drop out within three years,” said Anthony.

“That’s a challenge. We focus on women because mothers are pivotal in Pakistani culture; a mother who reads the Bible to her children will bring light into the whole family.”

Sharing the Bible

Anthony’s other key aim – to share God’s word in this difficult context – is the work that puts him in real danger. But he’s smart, and careful. “Constitutionally, I have a right to worship, evangelise and buy and sell Bibles – but it’s not wise to do some things,” he says.

More than 40,000 Bibles a year are sold from our shop in Lahore, to anyone who wants to buy one.

We are constantly replenishing the stock of Gideons New Testaments in hospitals as so many are pocketed and taken home by patients.

“For every Bible which goes out, it’s my vision and prayer that the Holy Spirit will speak to the reader,” says Anthony with a smile.

“I could have left Pakistan many years ago,” he reflects. “But this work is a commitment, a calling. It’s not easy, but if we leave, what will happen? Christians are fearful and need support. And for those who are seeking out the truth, we must be here to serve them.”

Speaker: Dr William Wan
Venue: Bible House Level 4 Seminar Room
Time: 7.30pm – 9.00pm

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A reflection from China Pastors Familiarisation Bible Land Tour to Israel from 2 – 11 February 2017.

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In the Eastern Church, the Trisagon is usually sung before the Prokeimenon of the Gospel and the reading of the Epistle. Known as Ter Sanctus in Western Christianity, this ancient prayer celebrates the holiness and transcendence of God with the familiar words taken from Isaiah 6:3: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts …’

The transcendence of God is everywhere attested to in the Bible. In Psalm 113: 5-6, the psalmist declares: ‘Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?’

And in Isaiah 55, a passage well known to Christians of all stripes, the transcendence of God is depicted in light of his unfathomable ways: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’ (vv 8-9).

It was belief in the utter transcendence of God that marked out the Israelites from the ancient world, leading them not only to reject all forms of idolatry but also the reverencing of all earthly sovereigns as divine, even at great political and social cost.

To speak of the transcendence of God is to emphasise his absolute uniqueness. As Emil Brunner explains: ‘Transcendence of essence means that God is God alone, and that his “Godhood” is absolutely and irrevocably different from all other forms of being’. Put differently, divine transcendence points to God’s ‘wholly otherness’, his absolute distinction from the creation.

The concept of divine transcendence must always be accompanied by the concept of divine immanence if theology is to achieve a more balanced understanding of the God revealed in Scripture. For the Bible portrays God as the transcendent Creator who is also intimately involved in the world he has sovereignly brought into being.

As Donald Bloesch puts it: ‘If we conceive of God as infinitely other, we must at the same time envisage him as infinitely close. If we picture him as wholly transcendent, we must at the same time allow for the truth that he is radically immanent in the sense of being present with us and for us’.

The immanence of God has to do with his active presence in the whole of creation. Scripture attests to this in various ways. For example, in Jeremiah 23: 24, the Lord declares: ‘Can a man hide himself in secret places to that I cannot see? … Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ The divine immanence signals God’s closest and most intimate relationship with the world, but without ever compromising his transcendental otherness.

To quote Bloesch again: ‘… he is never immanent without being essentially transcendent, just as he does not remain transcendent without making himself for our sakes immanent’.

Understanding the relationship between the divine transcendence and the divine immanence is extremely important if modern theology is to navigate safely across the metaphysical labyrinth and avoid the Charybdis of deism and the Scylla of pantheism.

Deism so emphasises divine transcendence that the god it creates is for the most part an absentee deity, aloof to the affairs of the world. Pantheism, on the other hand, privileges divine immanence in such a way that the distinction between God and the world is erased.

In contemporary theology, it was Karl Barth, the great Swiss German theologian who emphasised the importance of the otherness of God – his utter transcendence – more than any other theologian in his long and bitter battle against the theological liberalism of his day.

Liberalism envisions the divine immanence in such a way that the work of God is often conflated with the historical and political processes. The gap between God and human beings is narrowed and even blurred, and the enterprises fanned by human ideologies and ambition are often confused with the divine purpose.

Such immanentism has made the liberal Protestant churches of Barth’s day susceptible to the Nazi ideology and agenda.

In response, Barth emphasised the infinite and qualitative distinction between God and the world, his utter transcendence. God cannot be gleaned from our observation of the empirical world – hence Barth’s rejection of the natural theology of liberal Christianity. He is only known by revelation, which comes from above.

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For Barth, human beings can never succeed in domesticating God or coercing him into endorsing their most ambitious political and social projects. The transcendent God, who is ever immanent in his creation, remains forever sovereign.

Christians worship the God who is at once transcendent and immanent without attempting to unravel this unfathomable mystery. Christians worship the Creator and Sustainer of the universe who dwells in the hearts of human beings (John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 3:16), the God who is exalted but never remote.

As Gregory of Nyssa has declared: ‘God’s transcendent power is not so much displayed in the vastness of the heavens, or the luster of the stars, or the orderly arrangement of the universe or his perpetual oversight of it, as in his condescension to our weak nature’.