Today I enjoyed lecturing for 5.5 hours on the Puritan theology of salvation (focusing particularly on adoption, sanctification, and assurance of faith) to my 46 theological students at the International Reformed Evangelical Seminary, founded by Dr. Stephen Tong and housed in the Reformed Millennium Center in Jakarta, Indonesia. Tomorrow I hope to finish the class with another 5.5 hours of lectures on Puritan theology, focusing on their teaching about the church (ecclesiology) and the last things (eschatology)—especially on heaven and hell.
Dr. Tong, founder of the Gereja Reformed Injili Indonesia denomination, also loves education, architecture, music, and art, so he designed the Reformed Millennium Center to house the Messiah Cathedral, a K-12 Christian school, the John Calvin Institute of Technology (a university), and his seminary, as well as a concert hall (photo 1) and an art museum (photo 2). Classical music concerts are held periodically in this well-equipped venue. The art museum covers two floors and is filled by the impressive personal collection of Dr. Tong and several church members. It includes replicas of many famous paintings from around the world, and a broad collection of Asian artifacts.
We also drove to the impressive downtown area of Jakarta to enjoy fellowship and a delicious meal with the Ben Intan family (photo 3, on the right) and the Robin Wijaya family (photo 3, on the left). Ben is now the president of the seminary, having taken over from Dr. Tong. He has been so very helpful to us on this trip with all of the logistics involved. I have come to appreciate him immensely. Robin was the CFO of a large company with 10,000 employees but felt strongly called in his early 50s to the ministry, so he gave up his career and now is in his last year of seminary training at the age of 57!
Please pray for us as we move on to teach and preach in South Korea tomorrow evening, D.V., for the concluding six days of our Asian itinerary.
