China and the Bible

Monday, 23rd April 2007

I have been catching up on the earlier sermons in my JPM collection, and happen to listen to the Chinese New Year message that was preached in 2003.

In that sermon, Pastor Prince referred to Isaiah 49:12, the Amplified Bible which reads:
"Behold, these shall come from afar--and, behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim (China)."

I was not aware that China was mentioned in the Bible!

Anyway, in that passage, God declared that His people will be found in the north, the west and from the land of China!

Today, 1 in 4 persons are Chinese. God says in his Word that He does not want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentence. And that includes the people of China.

It is interesting to note that God's message can be found in Chinese characters. For example, the word boat (船) consist of the radicals ，舟, 八 and 口, which means a boat with eight persons. Noah's Ark had 8 persons altogether, namely Noah, his 3 sons and their wives.

Another example is the word create( 造), is formed from the radicals 足 and 告, which means speaking into existence a moving creation into existence.

There is a booklet that has been made available at the entrance of our church called "Discovering God in Chinese characters". It makes very interesting reading and can be used as a means to reach out to our pre-believing Mandarin-speaking relatives and colleagues.