The Long Walk to Freedom...709 Malaysia

 
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31, Douay Rheims)

Pilgrims in Malaysia have just shared that the entire pro-government-editor-controlled mainstream media in Malaysia is expected to carry shocking and bold headlines (lies!) reporting that the BERSIH rally today was a disaster...failing to muster any support from the people (6,000 a local daily claim)...numbers and stories will again be twisted in favor of the fearful ruling government!

What else is shocking in Malaysia...well, certainly not “truly Asia”, as the government tourism brochure will claim...BUT a land where the poor people are simply held as slaves to injustice, conspiracies, fabrication, blatant denials, un-clean electoral system, suppression of religious freedom, other evil you can think of...just to stay in power.

Well, according to our pilgrim friends in Malaysia, the “exodus” has begun...as the people “slaves” take their first brave steps out of “Egypt”...

The “seemingly deaf, dumb and blind, un-mandated” leader of the Government of Malaysia was earlier today forced to cancel his “get-away” from the country and was utterly disgraced when, as reported by alternative internet media sites, thousands (Foreign News Agency Al Jazeera claims 20,000) of brave and disciplined civilians, of various ethnic and religious background, turned up, in solidarity, in pouring rain from the heavens, on July 9, 2011 for the BERSIH rally to push for free, clean and fair elections.

These people turned up because they carried hope...they believed. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, must surely be weeping for Malaysia...even if there was just one “sheep” who dare stand up for what is evil.

BERSIH is an umbrella group representing 62 Non Government Organizations, led by one of the eight women worldwide to receive the US Secretary of State's Award for International Women of Courage in 2009.  Thumbs up to her for being an obedient instrument of God!

As a woman was instrumental in bringing Jesus Christ into the world and similarly, many great prophets in the Bible...many women today continue to speak up and lead reforms throughout the world for the sake of freedom, equality, justice...ultimately, for life!

The 709 (July 9) March was peacefully aimed at pushing for a “cleansing of the electoral filth in the nation”, but the police, instruments of the powers that be, were deliberate and aggressive...tear gas and chemical-laced water cannons were used extensively to prevent the peaceful walk for fair and clean elections!

Similar BERSIH rallies conducted by Malaysians in many countries all over the world, amongst them in Seoul, South Korea, Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Australia, Osaka, Japan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Singapore, London, Paris, Switzerland, Taipei, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ottawa, Canada, went on peacefully, some even congratulated, by the foreign police, for having organized such a peaceful demonstration!

In Malaysia, following pre-rally threats, road blocks and forced city lockdown, the supposedly guardians of the nation- the police, were busy ruthlessly baton-charging, firing tear gas and chemical-laden water cannons all over the city...including, believe it or not, into a Maternity Home...worst of all, amidst the scuffles, causing the death of a civilian!!

Reports indicated that the police have been relentless and oppressive in their efforts to bring down the marchers by sheer force, who are mostly civilians, even to the extent of locking up the public toilets in the city!

During the week before this historic day, the Government of Malaysia seems to have been badly infected with “xanthophobia” (the fear of the color yellow – BERSIH T-shirts)...resulting in the police crackdown on any persons wearing yellow...inciting hatred against the ruling party, they claimed...  It would seem that Malaysia requires police reforms as well...something that is only possible when the government changes hands...through clean and fair elections!

Nevertheless, the memorandum pleading for free, clean and fair elections in Malaysia was not presented to the King at the palace, because many of the pro-BERSIH leaders and social activists were intentionally arrested, including the youngest daughter of an Opposition leader; altogether, more than 1,600 people; men, women, boys and girls!

God is great, His protection was over the people who dared to walk for justice...today, the 709 Rally was a great success as it has awaken the people and raised their political awareness of the need for immediate electoral reforms...more than that, the people were able to witness the shameful display of raw power and “big bully dirty tactics” by the fearful “over-staying” government in their corrupt high handedness to suppress such reforms.

Today, begins a new dawn for Malaysia as the courageous citizens and fellow pilgrims rise, with God to defeat evil, corruption and injustice across the land...restoring the world that God has intended for all His children to live in, that we may love Him even more.

We continue to pray fervently for the pilgrims and the people of Malaysia as they await their new dawn...that God, the merciful, will always protect them and bring about justice, repentance and peace.

As we reflect through this experience of our fellow pilgrims in Malaysia and meditating on the Word of God this coming Bible Sunday, we should come to the realization that each of our journeys is different...each is unique...we need companions...most importantly, we need God...we need to listen to His Word...to know Him...
  

The Bible…Entrusted to Catholics!

Since my previous posting was on the Bible, perhaps I will continue to share a little more about the same…


Many people, especially evangelical ‘Christians’ have been led to believe that the Roman Catholic traditions and doctrines are opposed to, and contradicted by, the very letter of God’s written Word; the Bible.

Apparently, these Christians believe that Rome embraces and propagates dogmas and traditions which could not stand a moment’s examination if exposed to the Holy Scriptures.  Admittedly, there have been various other ‘invented’ stories of old, about Rome’s prohibition of the reading of the Bible and other attitudes toward the Holy Scriptures.

Why this negative perception against the Roman Catholic Church, the very church founded by Jesus Christ?

Why such ‘ganged-up’ negative Christian perception against the very Church, whose liturgy has been obediently biblical in every way, than any other ‘Christian’ evangelical churches anywhere around the world today?

Sources have it that the Protestant’s initial account of the pre-Reformation Catholicism has been largely a falsification of history.

Thereafter, all the other different, independent breakaway ‘churches’ and ‘denominations’ mushrooming from thereon kept ‘modeling’ and ‘exaggerating’ this misconstrued perception of Rome...as if ‘eliminating’ these Catholics would somehow facilitate the increase in membership of their congregation.

It is important for everyone to remember that, until the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Bible was the only edition since, obviously, there was no other major Christian denomination till then.

The simple truth, according to Rev Henry Grey Graham, is that the Catholic Church has...

“… been the parent, the author and maker, under God, of the Bible; that she has guarded it and defended it all through the ages, and preserved it from error or destruction; that she has ever held it in highest veneration and esteem, and has grounded her doctrines upon it; that she alone has the right to call it her book; that she alone possesses the true Bible and the whole Bible, and that copies of the Scriptures existing outside of her pale are partly incorrect and partly defective, and that whatever in them is true, is true because derived from her who alone possesses the Book in its fullness and its truth.

If they were Catholics, they would love God’s Holy Word more and more; they would understand it better; they would adore the Divine Providence that took such a wise and sure means of preserving and perpetuating it; and they would profoundly admire the Catholic Church for her ceaseless vigilance, untiring zeal and unswerving fidelity to the commission entrusted to her by Almighty God.”

Very simply, the rest of Christendom owes to the Roman Catholic Church, their ‘connection’ to the Bible.  The Bible was not printed in any language till about 1,500 years after the birth of Jesus Christ!

A German named John Gooseflesh or better known as Johann Gutenberg only discovered the art of printing somewhere in the 15th century.

Before that, the Testaments and the Gospels would mostly be read from the handwritten or hand-copying manuscript of monks or friars.  This was how people before the 15th century became familiar with Christianity.

So much for the commonly misunderstood absurd fallacy that the Bible and the Bible alone can save the souls of mankind; the so-called doctrine of sola scriptura!  Our loving and merciful God surely cannot be indifferent to the countless souls for first 1,500 years?


Thus, the Church and Faith existed way before the Bible – many became Christians by hearing the truth of God from the lips of Christ’s missionaries – the living teaching tradition of the Catholic Church.

It is also a fact in history that the Council of Carthage (387AD), mainly through the influence of St Augustine, through her Popes, settled on the precise Canon or Collection of New Testament Scriptures as we have them in Bibles now.

Together with the Old Testament, the Bible, as it stands today, is composed of 73 separate books.  For the next couple of centuries, even if the Church had given a copy of the bible to every Catholic, it would have done little good because the vast majority of the world was illiterate. Besides, the cost of printing would have been tremendous.

 

It is a absurd for people to step in, 1,500 years after the Catholic Church had had possession of the Bible and to pretend that it is theirs and that they alone know what the meaning of it is and that Scripture alone, without the voice of the Catholic Church explaining them, are intended by God to be the sole guide and rule of faith.

Why, some Christian groups did not even appropriate the whole of the Catholic books; casting out some (seven books) from ‘their’ collection.


Today, one can find countless versions of the Bible in bookshops.  Everone seem to fancy translating a copy of their own.  Getting a bible these days can be a daunting task for the uninitiated.

Whilst the King James Version of the bible cannot be faulted for the beauty of its language and majesty of its expression, it contains an incomplete version of the Hebrew Scriptures and is sometimes difficult to understand.


Catholics generally use translation of the Scriptures if it bears the Nihil Obstat (Latin for “nothing hinders”) certifying that it contains nothing contrary to faith or morals and the final Imprimatur (Latin for ‘let it be printed’) of a Catholic Bishop.

Catholics prefers the New American Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible and the New Revised Standard Version, although the older and more beautiful expressed Jerusalem Bible, Douay Rheims and Revised Standard Version is also used.  To appreciate the entire lyrical beauty of the Psalms, try reading the Grail Version.

It is not surprising today that more and more evangelical multi-million dollars mega christian ‘churches’ are mushrooming all over the place; consequence of the audacity of humanity to change, by a stroke of a pen, whatever doctrines that are not ‘applicable’ and adapting new ones to suit a particular community.

‘Individual’ interpretation of scripture continues to mutilate and disfigure the Word of God for their own convenience – these new churches being run more like a business economic entities nowadays - membership into such churches replicate entrance-screening for some exclusive social clubs and parishioners (people who are actually hungry for God) milked of their wealth under the disguised name of ‘tithing’.


Catholics, as declared by the Second Vatican Council, “venerates” the Scripture – extending many visible signs of this reverence for the Word of God, especially in the liturgy.

These have been adopted for ages, as the Church sees Scriptures as a very special gift of God’s revelation to His people.

Catholics “…know that were it not for the Church, there would be no Bible, for it was the Church that sifted through the many books claiming divine inspiration and came up with the books that now serve as the definitive canon of works regarded as divinely inspired and worthy of incorporation into what is now considered the Bible.” (Father Peter M.J. Stravinkas, The Catholic Answer Book)

Hence, the only Church that is traceable back to the apostles and Jesus Christ, over the course of her long history, has nothing to be ashamed of in her treatment of the Bible, but deserves the praise and thanks of all Christians for so zealously and fearlessly protecting it from corruption and contempt.

The Roman Catholic Church remains the largest church in the world today.  Although the Church has its imperfections, at its heart is the endless stream of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

In the 16th century, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine wrote, “The one and true Church is the community of men brought together by the profession of the same Christian faith and conjoined in the communion of the same sacraments, under the government of the legitimate pastors and especially the one vicar of Christ on earth, the Roman pontiff.”


The Second Vatican Council describes sacred Tradition (the handing on of God’s Word by the successors of the apostles) and sacred Scripture, entrusted to the Catholic Church, as being “like a mirror, in which the Church, during its pilgrim journey on earth, contemplates God.”

For all these treasures, including the gift of the real presence and many more rich traditions, I am simply humbled that God has gifted me the heritage of the Catholic faith!

For the rest out there who wish to come home to discover the real truth and beauty of the Catholic Church, check with either a genuine online Catholic source or your local Catholic Church...

The late Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said that, “There are not even 100 people in this country who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they think the Catholic Church to be.”

Via Dolorosa…The Journey of Christians In Malaysia

As the journey in this season of Lent continues, I read of a shocking report describing another subtle and shameful “persecution” faced by the Christian communities in Malaysia, a country in South East Asia, this present day. 

I would like to take some time to share this with the rest of the world.



Obviously, the massive earthquake and destructive effects of the tsunami hitting Japan has not woken up the hardened and corrupted hearts of the powers-that-be in the ruling government of Malaysia. 

In fact, certain local controlled media even had the nerve to publish (subsequently apologized) insulting cartoons poking fun of this most catastrophic tsunami, claiming thousands of innocent lives.

This self-professed developed country officials obviously does not understand the meaning of the word 'empathy' and neither do they see solidarity of the ONE human race!!

Such blatant acts of defacing and desecrating the inspired holy Word of God and marginalising against the Christian communities in Malaysia must be made known to the rest of the world so that the global Christian family can pray in solidarity for the ultimate reform in freedom of worship for all religions in Malaysia.

I quote the recent article from the online alternative news portal, The Malaysian Insider below.


This is testimony of the nature of the cross that Christians must carry in a shameful country such as this…their journey of the Way Of The Cross, hence, becomes very real daily...


“KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — The Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) was told today that its shipment of 5,100 Malay bibles seized at Port Klang had already been stamped with the home ministry’s official seal without its prior permission.


“At 5pm today, KDN informed Bible Society of Malaysia that they had already chopped the bibles and asked Bible Society of Malaysia to come collect the bibles,” the importer said in a statement to The Malaysian Insider, calling the home ministry by its Malay initials.


“Bible Society of Malaysia is alarmed by the defacement of the Christian bible by non-Christians chopping it with words that the Christians have not accepted or agreed to,” it added.


The BSM had earlier today refused to collect its cargo of holy books that had been detained for the last two years after the home ministry imposed two conditions for their release.


The society was stunned that home ministry officials had moved to act on their own and only notified BSM after the act, and called on the ministry to immediately put a stop to it.


“As the bible is the holy book of the Christians, due respect should be given to it by consulting the relevant Christian representative organs before any external text is inserted into the bibles.


“Bible Society of Malaysia calls upon KDN to stop chopping the copies of the Alkitab detained at Port Kelang [sic],” it said in the statement issued today.


Church leaders have stressed that they cannot follow the conditions imposed by the ministry, as it would mean desecrating their own holy book.


A separate shipment of 30,000 Malay bibles worth RM78,000 imported by the Sarawak branch of global Christian group, The Gideons, was also seized at Kuching port.


It is not known if they have been subjected to the same treatment as BSM’s cargo.


The Sarawak importer had said it too was refusing to collect the Alkitab for the same reasons as the BSM.


The Malaysian Insider understands Sarawak home ministry officials had earlier contacted the importer to collect their holy books and carry out the stamping on their own.


Both importers are seeking advice from national church leaders on the matter.


BSM reminded the home ministry of its previous agreement made with the Christian community and repeated in an official letter dated December 22, 2005 “that Christians are permitted to have access to their holy book in the Bahasa Malaysia language provided that the sign of the cross and the words ‘Penerbitan Kristian’ are respectfully imprinted by Christians themselves”.


The society urged the home ministry to honour that agreement.


Yesterday, the importers each received a notice from the home ministry’s Publications Control and Quranic Text Division secretary, Datuk Zaitun Ab Samad, informing them of the two conditions imposed for the release.


The first requires the importers to directly stamp on the cover of each of the 35,000 copies the following words: “Peringatan: ‘Al Kitab Berita Baik’ ini untuk kegunaan penganut agama Kristian sahaja. Dengan perintah Menteri Dalam Negeri.”


[In English: “Reminder: This ‘Al Kitab Berita Baik’ is for the use of Christians only. By order of the Home Minister.”]


The cover of the Alkitab would be stamped with the department’s official seal and dated as well.


The second condition requires the importers to stamp a serial number on each copy, as if to demarcate copies from the released shipment and to enable the book to be traced back to the port of import.”

The Church...The Rock...

Just completed this book by Jeff Cavins; a great conversion story. Inspiring and satisfying to the longing and hungry heart.






The opening pages of this book carry an excerpt from Pope John Paul II (Tertio Millennio Adveniente), “God therefore goes in search of man who is His special possession in a way unlike any other creature”.

This very down-to-earth book describes vividly the journey of an angry son who left the Catholic Church out of rebellion; unable to fill the emptiness within – “I wasn’t being fed”. This is the testimony of a baptized Catholic on a spiritual search – raised in a devoted Catholic family, was an altar boy, attended weekly Mass, goes to confession as a family, carries a rosary, held the Bible with great reverence, wore a scapular. This book reveals how he turned away from the Eucharist because he wanted something more.


It tells the engaging story of the encounter with Bible Christians communities; confidently “on fire”, Bibles worn from daily use, born again! The book contains simple honesty, largely disillusioned, about the Catholic mass being “dead”, built on empty traditions, Catholics being viewed as ignorant, even dumb sometimes, not knowing Christ and worst of all, not even knowing the Word of God. The author’s marriage to a Protestant and more than 12 years serving as a Protestant pastor makes this conversion story so much more emotionally intriguing and relevant in the midst of this chaotic world we live in.


The journey then unpeels layer-by-layer of the author’s re-discovery of the truth, the misconception that he would be better fed elsewhere and how this truth redefines the apostolic tradition of our one holy Catholic Church; how the Bible then truly comes to life.


What makes this conversion story appealing to all is the revelation of many Catholic theological insights in simple layman lingo, at times, humorous; all these interwoven between God’s gentle promptings in calling the author and his family back to the Catholic Church. This is a story of reconciliation with the Catholic Church, a prodigal son’s repentance and return to his father, coupled with the faithfulness of a mother who prayed for his return home at every Mass.


This book proclaims the treasures of our Catholic faith and also equips us to evangelize this faith to others. Appropriately, the closing sentence in the Postscript of this testimony reads,”…you can do greater things than you have ever imagined.”


If your heart is hungry, this never-can-put-down book will feed you with good nourishment