peace . love . joy

Last week's been a really busy week for me!

I've just started work at my first post after informally (since the formal university convocation ceremony is not until July) graduating from 16 years of formal education. I absolutely love my job as a music teacher at an established and rather prestigeous childcare centre, although I must admit, it's not as simple than I anticipated! I'm something of a pushover when it comes to kids, so having fun in my class is not too much of a problem, but appropriate and sufficient discipline's the new kid in my town that I must familiarise myself with. Lots of new ropes to learn, new jargon, new methods of doing things.. But all I shall meet with a smile! No grimaces; only grins!

Anyway, last Sunday, I was headed home from Plaza Singapura, crossing the road to the bus stop at the middle section just between PS and Park Mall when I noticed two women with clipboards trying to get people's attention. Knowing I'm a sucker for people with sob stories to tell and merchandises to tout, I attempted to steer clear of them. I was rushing home, in any case, because of an engagement I must keep later in the afternoon. Because the other pedestrians wouldn't give way, I had to settle with walking on the grass just to avoid one of the two women.

She walked up to me and stood right smack in my path, effectively cutting off my escape routes because she wouldn't budge and would match my sliding to the right or to the left.

Asking politely for me to fill in a survey for her, I tried to be nice and accomodating since my bus had not yet arrived anyway, so I did. The survey was short enough (just one side of half an A4-sized piece of paper) and the questions simple enough to answer with just one glance.

But the last question was what really caught me off guard. It went something along the lines of:

The birds of the air have both fathers and mothers,
the beasts of the field have both fathers and mothers..
All creatures have a mother figure. There is not a single creature that can come into existence without a mother.
Our physical life is given to us through our physical mother.
Do you believe that there exists a "Heavenly Mother"?

Once the lady learnt that I am a Christian, she asked me if I have ever heard of a "Heavenly Mother". I said I had because my sister too met with a similar experience on the streets. Then she asked me about my thoughts on the matter. Now, it was quite a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon right in the middle of two busy roads teeming with noisy and smelly vehicles zooming by. Not what you'd call a very conducive environment to begin and entertain a theological debate, would you say?

She then took out her Bible and proceeded to show me Revelation 22:17. It reads:
"The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come."
And let the one who hears say, "Come."
And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price."
She told me (in a rather annoying and belittling manner) that the Bride in the verse was not the church nor Christians, but the "Mother God" because the church and Christians cannot offer Salvation; only God can, and therefore, the Bride is "Mother God".

I told her that that interpretation was not what I have learnt and understood. In fact, it sounds nothing at all like what I read the verse as, and I told them the context within which the verse must be read has been ignored. She just said "no" and re-read the verse much slower as if I didn't understood her (or maybe even English, for that matter!)

After that verse came Revelation 21:9,22
"Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying,
"Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."
"And I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb."
Her offerance for these verses were as such: John was told he would be shown the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, and that was the New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven. She said that he was not shown a person, but a city with no temple, and because the Bride was not the temple, she therefore was not the church, but the "Heavenly Mother".

I'm sorry, what?!

She didn't go very far because, as much of a pushover I pathetically am, I don't take theology very lightly. We were basically stuck on those verses with her repeating her same logic and not understanding what I was getting at until my bus came and I made a hurried and grateful escape.

Though I literally had "reach out to them" in the forefront of my mind all the while, I probably could have handled it all better than I did.

At night, as I re-read Revelation 21 and 22 again and again, I sensed a great sadness in God towards these people who believed this doctrine.

I must admit I don't know the Bible as well as I can, and I am greatly disturbed that one text so holy and perfect as the Bible can be read so grossly inaccurately! There truly can be no other word to describe my feelings than disturbed, disturbed at how a book in the Bible, the one that is to be guarded most carefully can be interpreted so wrongly!

These people come from from the World Mission Society Church of God.

I really don't know what to do, but the idea of coming up with something like a "guide" to dealing with these incorrectly quoted Scripture came to mind the minute I sat safely down in the bus. So in the following posts, I shall pick up several of their teachings and provide some answers to their quotes.

How well do you know the Bible
How well do you know the LORD
that your knowledge and experience can withstand such stumbling pebbles of misquoted texts?