1. Wall Street Journal（http://blogs.wsj.com）
Malay Muslim Rally Fizzles, 24 October 2011
by Patrick Barta and Celine Fernandez
It was billed as a “Gathering of a Million Muslims,” but it was anything but.
A much-touted weekend assembly of Malaysian Muslims who are angry over an alleged plot to make Christianity the national religion turned out to be smaller than expected, drawing an estimated 5,000 or so followers to an 80,000-capacity stadium in Shah Alam, near Kuala Lumpur, on Saturday.
Rally leaders at the “Himpunan Sejuta Umat” event warned that apostasy in Malaysia was a bigger problem than people realize, and suggested the problem could be part of a global effort to challenge Islam, according to local media accounts of the rally, which also included music, songs and poetry recitals.
The gathering ended with a 10-point declaration that included calls for new laws to curb proselytizing by non-Muslims and a review of the national education system to make sure Muslim students aren’t exposed to information that can erode their faith.
Government officials praised attendees for keeping the event orderly, and organizers said they were pleased with the event, which they said had met their goal of helping defend their faith.
“We managed to attract the attention and the interest of the whole nation to our cause,” said Yusri bin Mohamad, co-chairman of Himpunan, who took issue with crowd estimates reported in the Malaysian press. He said he had heard from stadium officials that as many as 20,000 people were there at the height of the program, which he said “is a good number for us to get, considering that we began organizing this program three weeks ago only.”
He said the group was planning to “go on a road show” to various states to explain its declarations and added that people shouldn’t take the “Million Muslims” moniker too literally. “It is more symbolic,” he said.
Either way, the turnout was not quite the massive – and potentially volatile – gathering that some residents expected.
The supposed plan to switch to Christianity was long ago batted down by the government, and there isn’t much evidence that Christians in Malaysia are trying to convert Muslims. Persuading Muslims to renounce Islam is illegal in much of the predominantly-Muslim country.
However, the rumors have continued to spread since a pro-government newspaper reported in May that ethnic-Chinese Christians were scheming to put make Christianity Malaysia’s official religion and place a Christian in the post of prime minister. Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said in a written answer in Parliament that there was no evidence to support the claims, which were first made by blogger Zakhir Mohamad.
The low turnout Saturday doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of Muslims who believe the rumors – and it doesn’t mean the issue is over. Indeed, tensions between conservative Muslims and Christians have been intense in Malaysia in recent years, especially after several churches were firebombed last year after a court ruled that Malay-speaking Christians could use the term “Allah” for God. Muslim hardliners argued that only followers of Islam can use the term.
The Sultan of Selangor state, meanwhile, this month said Islamic authorities would provide counseling to a dozen Muslims after they attended a community dinner at a local church hall in August. Church officials have said no proselytizing occurred at the event.
2. Christian Post, Singapore version（http://sg.christianpost.com）
The Lutheran Tradition
The term ‘Lutheran’ refers to the teachings and practices, 25 October 2011
Most historians of Western Christianity would mark Oct 31, 1517 as the beginning of the great intellectual and religious movement called the Protestant Reformation. On that fateful day, Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk posted his famous Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg condemning the abuses of the indulgence system of the Roman Catholic Church.
Although Oct 31, 1517 symbolically marks the beginning of the Reformation, initiatives to reform the Church are evident much earlier. While seeking to reform the Church, Luther never intended to break away from it. However, during the years 1518 to 1521 he became more and more convinced that the only way in which the necessary reforms could be introduced was for Christians to separate themselves from the Roman Catholic system.
The term “Lutheran” therefore refers to the teachings and practices associated with Martin Luther and the reforms he initiated. Initially, Luther’s detractors used this term to identify the groups associated with the Reformer. But gradually, Luther’s followers themselves adopted the term as the official description of their churches.
If the birthday of the Reformation is Oct 31, 1517, the birthday of the Lutheran Church, historians maintain, is June 25, 1530, with the presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Soon the Lutheran expression of the Protestant Reformation spread to Scandinavia and other parts of Europe.
Lutheranism came to America in 1619, and the first Lutheran Church was erected in Wilmington, Delaware in 1638. Although it began as a small movement, by 1800 it swelled, resulting in the establishment of the first Lutheran Synod in Pennsylvania. In 1847, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LC-MS) was formed with Dr. C. F. W. Walther as President. Soon after seminaries were established for the training of Lutheran clergy: Concordia Seminary in St Louis, Missouri and Concordia Theological Seminary in Forth Wayne, Indiana.
In the early 1950s Lutheran missionaries from America started churches in Malaysia and Singapore. Although originally belonging to one diocese, the Lutheran church in Singapore felt the need to be constituted as a separate church because of the expansion of its work here. The Lutheran Church in Singapore was eventually constituted in October 1997.
A common way of characterising the Lutheran theological tradition is to focus on its fundamental doctrinal emphases: sola scriptura (Scripture alone), sola gratia (grace alone) and sola fidei (faith alone). These are the classical themes of the Reformation, but they are featured significantly in the Lutheran tradition.
Sola scriptura has to do with the source of Christian theology, the basis of our knowledge of God. Luther emphasised the primacy of Scripture over human tradition and speculation in the Church’s understanding of God and the world. By sola scriptura, Luther and the other Reformers insisted that theological knowledge – knowledge of who God is and what He has done – is made possible only by God’s revelation, to which the Bible bears witness. Luther maintained that the authority of Scripture in establishing the doctrines and practices of the Church far exceeded that of the pronouncements of ecclesiastical councils and popes. Only Scripture is infallible, while ecclesial authorities, insofar as they are derived from that of Scripture, are not.
Referring to Scripture, Luther has famously asserted, “This queen must rule, and everyone must obey, and be subject to her. The pope, Luther, Augustine, Paul, and angel from heaven – these should not be masters, judges and arbiters but only witnesses, disciples, and confessors of Scripture.” But Luther’s emphasis on the centrality of the Bible must not be mistaken for bibliolatry – the worship of the Bible. Neither does this emphasis imply that tradition has no place whatsoever in the theology of the Church. Like the other Reformers, Luther acknowledged the (secondary) authority of the ecumenical Creeds because they accurately and faithfully summarise the teachings of Scripture.
Sola gratia and sola fide relate to Luther’s doctrine of salvation, particularly his understanding of how the sinner is justified before a holy God. The doctrine of justification is one of the most important theological tenets for the Reformers of the 15th century. Against a particular interpretation of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church concerning salvation that places some weight on human merit or work, the Reformers maintain that sinners are made righteous solely by the grace of God (sola gratia) on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the cross. This salvation, which is made possible by grace, is received by faith alone (sola fide). For the Lutherans, faith itself is not work. It is rather a gift from God that enables the sinner to appropriate the salvific blessings that come from Christ. As the Formula of Concord so clearly puts it, “Faith does not justify because it is so good a work and so God-pleasing a virtue, but because it lays hold on and accepts the merit of Christ in the promise of the holy Gospel.”
Lutheran worship is profoundly Christ-centred in that it is the celebration of forgiveness, salvation and freedom from sin and death that is made possible by the death of Christ on the cross. Historically, the term that is used by Lutherans to describe Christian worship is Divine Service. It designates a time that is especially set apart from the mundane demands of work in order to focus attention on God. In line with the teachings of the great Reformer, the Divine Service comprises the proclamation of the Word of God, and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.
Unlike other approaches in the Protestant tradition, Lutheran worship continues to use ecclesiastical art like crucifixes, paintings, stained-glass windows, and even statues of Jesus and the apostles. Lutheran theology and liturgy therefore express some of the richest aspects of the Protestant heritage, and indeed that of Western Christianity.
・Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor of Christian Doctrine at Trinity Theological College. This article originally appeared in the May 2010 issue of Methodist Message and is reproduced here with permission.
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