Wednesday, 25th March 2026
In the last post, I blogged about how people have crossed over from one church to another, or stopped attending church altogether, effectively burning the bridge behind them.
Unfortunately, Lot's wife did and she became a pillar of salt.
We also see how the Israelites complained and some even yearned to go back to Egypt, and God effectively judged them by them dying in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land.
Aiya, those are Old Covenant examples, I hear you say.
Let's go to the New Testament then. Has there been cases of "no turning back"?
When Jesus called the 12 disciples to "Follow Me", there was effectively no turning back for them. They followed Him till the very end. Yes, Judas did betray Him but never did he "unfollow" Jesus, the way some on Facebook nowadays. He regretted his action and hung himself. 10 other disciples died for the cause, except for John who was banished to the island of Patmos.
In the Acts of the Apostles and we see Luke recording incidences of the apostles shaking the dust off their feet, which was symbolic of leaving a place decisively and never to return.
Even in the epistles, we read of how Paul, Peter and John encourage us to leave past practices behind and only look forward to what lies ahead.
Fast forward to today, and we even sing songs during altar calls such as, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me, no turning back, no turning back".
So brother Mal, are you condoning the burning of bridges?
Not at all.
In the examples cited above, the people of God in the Old Testament were asked to leave Egypt, Sodom and Gomorrah, which were pictures and shadows symbolising bondages and darkness. In the New Testament, the apostles shook the dust off their feet at Jews who rejected Jesus and turned to the Gentiles who accepted the gospel with gladness. In the epistles, the writers encouraged new converts to abandon their previous hedonistic lifestyles because they were now new creations in Christ.
The burning of bridges and total severance applied because they were previously in an ungodly place full of darkness and bondages. God had delivered them to a place of light and freedom.
Contrast this to the churches of today. Even how law-based or works-based a denominational church may be, all the pastors still fundamentally preach SOLUS CHRISTUS, ie. that salvation is through Jesus Christ alone.
When God looks upon the earth, He sees 3 groups of people: the Church, the Jews and the Gentiles.
He does not see New Creation Church, or Paya Lebar Methodist Church, or XYZ Church, but THE (definite article) Church.
I am reminded of another song that goes like this, "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together. All who follow Jesus all around the world, yes we're the church together."
In conclusion, the burning of bridges should only apply to cases when we were previously outside the Body of Christ. Within the Body of Christ, we should instead preserve harmony, and not cut off our nose to spite our face.
Jesus Himself said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples."
When George Ong constantly finds faults with Ps Prince, he is unfortunately being used by the devil to be a bad testimony to the pre-believers out there. If we as followers of Christ cannot even get along with one another, then why would they want to be Christians?
I myself have been guilty of criticising other pastors, questioning how Trinity Theological College could produce graduates so lacking in revelation knowledge. In that aspect, I am no better than George Ong, so we are all still a work-in-progress. Let us keep one another in constant prayer.
