Jewish Synagogue (1929) & Jewish Cementery (1805) , Penang

The state of Penang was once home to a Jewish community, until the latter part of the 1970s, by which time most had emigrated due to growing state-sanctioned antisemitism.
 
The Malaysian Jewish community consists of Jews of Sephardic origin, Mizrahi Jews, Malabar Jews and Ashkenazi Jews.
 
The arrival of Baghdadi Jews in Penang probably occurred at the turn of the 19th century as the fledgling British-ruled entrepot grew and attracted Jewish trading families such as the Sassoons and Meyers from India. There was also significant emigration of Jews from the Ottoman province of Baghdad as a result of the persecutions of the governor, Dawud Pasha, whose rule lasted from 1817 to 1831.
 
The first Baghdadi Jew known by name to have settled in Penang was Ezekiel Aaron Manasseh, who emigrated from Baghdad in 1895.
 
After WW2, a majority of the Jewish community had emigrated to Singapore, Australia, Israel and the United States. By 1963, only 20 Penang Jewish families remained in the country.
 
 

Penang Jewish Synagogue 1929

Penang's only synagogue was located on 28, Nagore Road, was opened in 1929 but closed down in 1976.   Situated at the intersection of Nagore Road and Bawasah Road, it is now a posh café.

 

Penang Jewish Cementery 1805

The Penang Jewish Cemetery was established in 1805.  The 38,087 ft2 plot of land situated at Yahudi Road ( now Jalan Zainal Abidin ).  The cemetery is managed by Penang Jewish Cemetery Trust established and registered in 1885.
 
The oldest Jewish tombstone is dated 9 July 1835 dedicated to a Mrs. Shoshan Levi. Most of the graves take the form of a triangular vaulted-lid casket, resembling ossuaries commonly found in Israel. There are approximately 107 graves located in the cemetery, with the most recent tombstone dated 2011.

How Small a Spark Has Lit a Living Fire!, 1988 (hymn)

 Shirley Erena Murray  (31 March 1931 – 25 January 2020) was a New Zealand hymn lyrics writer. Her hymns have been translated into numerous languages and are represented in more than 140 hymn collections.

 “How small a spark has lit a living fire” was Shirley Erena Murray’s contribution to the Wesley 250th Anniversary in 1988. She comments that “Colin Gibson [who composed the original tune, “Aldersgate”] and I put some heart into this, since we were both born Methodists.”

The hymn alludes to a number of aspects of the life of John and Charles Wesley and to Methodist tradition in general:

Verse 1: “to dare and bring the faith out in the open air!”

John Wesley, rather reluctantly at first, began preaching out of doors because his evangelical message and embrace of working class people was not welcome, by and large, in the Anglican parish churches of the time.

Verse 2: “the Good News travels on, it rides the road”.

Both Wesley brothers, but John in particular, rode thousands of miles on horseback across the length and breadth of Britain, preaching and establishing new meetings of Methodists.

 

Verse 3: “born in song”.

A famous description of the Methodist movement, used in the preface to the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book.

 

Verse 4: “our hearts be warmed again”.

A reference to John Wesley’s description of his conversion:

“I felt my heart strangely warmed…I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” 

Aldersgate Flame (1981)

Aldersgate Day, or Wesley Day, is a commemorative day celebrated by Methodist Christians on 24^th May or the nearest Sunday ( called Aldersgate Sunday ). It recalls the day in 1738 when Church of England priest John Wesley attended a group meeting in Aldersgate, London, where he received an experience of assurance of his New Birth. This was the pivotal event in Wesley's life that ultimately led to the development of the Methodist movement in Britain and America. 

According to his journal, Wesley found that his enthusiastic gospel message had been rejected by his Anglican brothers. Heavy-hearted, he reluctantly attended a group meeting that evening in a Moravian chapel on Aldersgate Street in London. It was there, while someone was reading from Martin Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, that he felt that his heart was "strangely warmed". He describes it as:

 “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

Daniel L. Burnett called this event Wesley's "Evangelical Conversion", even though he was already a priest of the Church of England.  In 1739 Wesley founded a new society, which would become the Methodist movement. 

Shirley Murray's hymn "How small a spark has lit a living fire!" celebrates Welsey's Aldersgate Experience and was written in 1988 for the 250th anniversary of the event.
 

 

John Wesley’s Conversion Place Memorial – The Aldersgate Flame, 1981

Coordinate : 51.51763, -0.09671

Location : EC1, Bastion High Walk, Museum of London entrance

 

At the approximate location of John Wesley's conversion, which located directly outside the entrance of the Museum of London, a modern bronze sculpture erected in 1981 commemorates the event.
 
On the face of the Memorial are enlarged facsimile extracts in cast bronze of John Wesley’s account of the events of Wednesday May 24^th 1738, the Conversion Day of John Wesley, as described in his original printed text of the first edition of John Wesley’s Journal.
 
On the back of the Memorial are the names of the three local tradesmen concerned with Wesley in the production and marketing of the Journal, i.e. James Hutton, bookseller; WM Strahan, printer; and W. Caslon, letter-founder.
 
The sculpture was placed by the Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes on 24^th May 1981.

 

Tablet @ Aldersgate Street, 1926

Coordinate : 51.51806, -0.09683

Location : on the wall along east Aldersgate Street

 
The tablet is located on the north side of Aldersgate Street just to the north of the Museum of London. The wall, into which it is set, is part of the Barbican complex of buildings,
 
The tablet was placed by the Drew Theological Seminary of the Methodist Episcopal Church , USA.
 

 

 

Tablet @ Postman’s Park, 1926

Coordinate : 51.516885, -0.096913

Location : on the outer railings of Postman’s Park

 
Postman's Park is a public garden in central London.  Opened in 1880 on the site of the former churchyard and burial ground of St. Botolph’s Aldersgate Church.
 
In 1900, the park became the location for George Frederic Watts's Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, a memorial to ordinary people who died while saving the lives of others and who might otherwise be forgotten, in the form of a loggia and long wall housing ceramic memorial tablets.
 
A table commemorating John and Charles Wesley’s conversion was placed on the east gate of Postman’s Park, along south side of Aldersgate Street, by the side of London City Presbyterian Church.
 
The tablet was placed erected by the International Methodist Historical Union in 1926.

 

Certificate Template

 

Christ's Thron

Denoting sin, sorrow and hardship, the thorn is one of the most ancient symbols in the world; together with the rose, it represents pain and pleasure, and the thorn is an emblem of Christ's passion, as with the crown of thorns.

 

After Jesus’ trials and subsequent flogging, and before He was crucified, the Roman soldiers “twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ they said” (Matthew 27:29; see also John 19:2-5, NIV).

 

There are two native species of thorn that are predominant in the region of Judah : Paliurus spina-christi, and Ziziphus spina-christi. ( Ongzi : I hope my info is accurate )  So, either species or combination of both might be used by the Roman soldiers twisted into a crown.

 

 

  

 

 

Antichrist

 

The Preaching of the Antichrist (1500-1504)  – fresco at Chapel of San Brizio in Orvieto Catheral in Umbria, Italy  by Luca Signorell

Antichrist, or Anti-Christ, is a person prophesied by the Bible to oppose Christ. 

 

Etymology

Antichrist is translated from the combination of two ancient Greek words ἀντί + Χριστός (anti + Christos).   "Ἀντί" means not only anti in the sense of "against" and "opposite of", but also "in place of".

 

Misconception

The name itself often misled us to think that the character was depicted in the Book of Revealation, as it seems best fit in the Apocalyptic scene.

 

Antichrist in Bible

In fact, the use of the term “antichrist” occurs only in the Johannine epistles.   It is only found used 5 times in the Bible : 4 times in the First Epistle of John, and 1 time in the Second Epistle of John.

 

18 Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. NIV 1 John 2:18

22 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son. NIV 1 John 2:22

2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. NIV 1 John 4:2-3

7 I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. NIV 2 John 1:7

 

Similar Character in Bible

Consequently, attention for an individual Antichrist figure focuses on the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians, but the term "antichrist" is never used in this passages.

 

1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness[a] is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4

7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.   2 Thessalonians 2:7-10

 

Pseudochrist in Bible

Similar word “pseudochrist”, which means “false messiah” is often used by Jesus.  But both words were never used interchangeably.  

 

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. NIV Matthew 24:24 &  Mark 15:22

 

FACTS about Antichrist

1. the antichrist has already appeared. (NIV 1 John 2:18 & 1 John 4:2-3)

2.  there are many antichrists (NIV 1 John 2:18)

3. Antichrist denies the Father and The Son (NIV 1 John 2:22)

4. Antichrist denies that Jesus Christ does not come in the flesh is from God (NIV 1 John 4:2-3 & 2 John 1:7)

5. in wider sense, Antichrist is the Deceiver of Truth (NIV 2 John 1:7), Liar (NIV 1 John 2:22),.  Thus to deny Truth or lie about Truth (presenting half-Truth), itself is antichrist. 

 

 

See also : False Prophets

 

Infographic of NT Biblical Israel