Lord’s Day, Vol. 13 No. 48
The Old Paths Conference 2025 (10th – 11th December, Daily 9.30am – 9.00pm)
The theme of this year’s Old Paths Conference is “Reclaiming Today the Strength of the English Reformation”. It begs the question “What is the strength?” The LORD is the strength of His people – Psalm 119:57 (KJV) CHETH. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.
When individuals embrace the LORD and follow hard after Him, there is an immeasurable strength that comes with it – Psalm 63:8 (KJV) My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
These individuals influence families, churches, nation and the spiritual strength extends to nations through the preaching of the gospel. When a nation embraces the living and true God in the political realm, there is hope for that nation. The laws of God teach its people righteous ways which translates ultimately to God’s favour – Proverbs 14:34 (KJV) Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.
England was just an island state. Yet when the nation embraces the living and true God, that island was blessed with the extension of its dominion in the largest empire on earth known in human history. England extended her dominion to the United States of America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Nigeria, just to name a few. A total of 56 countries around the world was a part of the British Commonwealth. There was direct rule by the British in most of these nations.
It is from the British that the law forbidding same sex sexual relationships is codified under section 377A of the Singapore law. Of course, it can be further traced to Roman law from which the British inherited. The greatest contributions to Western civilisation was the clarification and transmission of Roman law in the Byzantine Empire where Constantinople was its capital for a thousand years from 330 A.D. to 1453 A.D. The Byzantine Empire or the Eastern Roman Empire embraced the living and true God of the Bible. [Time Life Encyclopaedia, Great Ages of Man Series – Byzantium]
In England, John Wycliffe (1330 A.D. to 31 December 1384 A.D.), called the Morning Star of the Reformation, translated the Bible into the English language for the first time from the Latin Vulgate, the Latin version of the Holy Bible, between late 1370 – 1395 A.D. He trained “poor preachers” to preach the gospel throughout the towns and cities of England, commonly called the Lollands by Wycliffe’s enemies. Wycliffe renounced the false teaching of Rome and sought to re-establish the pure, undiluted gospel. “Yet he discovered as time passed, that reformation could not be brought about in one year, or in ten; it required long effort and much patience.” [Sketches from Church History]
An interest in ancient Greek literature began to show itself during the period of the Renaissance (14th – 17th century A.D.), for in 1453 the Ottoman Turks had captured Constantinople, and scholars fled westwards taking valuable manuscripts with them. Most significantly, the ancient Greek Text of the New Testament for the translation to be made later by William Tyndale who was martyred on 6 October 1536 when he was condemned for heresy for translating the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek.
From England, came the King James Bible (1611), the best translation of the Bible in the English language versus corrupt modern versions. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1643-1648) [which we have spent the past year studying the Shorter and Larger Catechism] and Westminster Annotations which are footnotes of the Bible, [which we are reprinting for the first time since the original printing 400 years ago in three volumes – Genesis – Esther (Vol. 1) in 2024, Job – Malachi (Vol. 2) in 2025 to be distributed during this year’s Conference, and The New Testament, God willing, in 2026], voluminous Christian literature, at its best, during the period of the Puritans.