This week Mrs Tong came and was with Dr Tong at the side room. Every time Mrs Tong comes, Dr Tong of course would be most relaxed, as she takes complete care of him, even scheduling his worldwide time-table. While Dr Tong was eating his quick dinner, Mrs Tong joked that we should keep a chicken under the table whenever Dr Tong eats, so that the chicken can finish up the food dropped on the floor because Dr Tong is always rushing when he eats at seminars. Rev Koh then quickly added that in no time, the chicken would be very fat indeed since so much rice drop on the floor... very funny stuff. The Tongs of course, exemplify the very model of marriage that Dr Tong speaks so strongly about on stage. Their love for each other is clear for all to see, as they have a natural habit of kidding each other, relating their many humourous stories about their courtship and married life whenever we gather together. There is an unreserved support from Mrs Tong for Dr Tong's ministry, in that it is clear to me that she considers her calling in life in the support of this servant of God. That support is so crucial in light of the fact that Dr Tong is often not at home due to his worldwide ministries. Dr Tong has always said that he felt that many a times, servants of God cannot accomplish greater tasks for God because they have been hindered by unsupportive spouse.
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HEB 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

For the third time, Dr Tong spoke on this topic, indicating the importance he attaches to this issue, an issue long-lost to many churches today. The first talk was on honoring marriage, the second on living a pure life within marriage. Dr Tong emphasized again the importance of the family as the fundamental unit of human societies and the individual. When the family breaks, everything else will break, culminating in the fall of the nation. The family is built upon a pure and undefiled love-life, without which everything starts to deteriote.

Clearly in scripture, this message is consistent from the Old to the New Testament. The idea of relationship is very important in the Bible. When the Bible says that Adam 'knew' Eve, this knowledge is a complete one, a consummation of relationships including a physical one where one is completely opened to the other party. Knowing is a relationship, not a simple reason-based matter. This was why Blaise Pascal pointed out correctly that one cannot possibly know God more than one loves Him. You would only know God as much as you love Him. The love of a husband and wife therefore is a complete surrender to each other. They no longer live for themselves, but for each other. Their entire life then is devoted to the other person.

Thus, marriage is necessarily mono-gamous in nature. Some people point out that the Bible does not have a clear instruction that one should be monogamous. Some faith proposes that a man can have four wives. Dr Tong said that even statis statistics object to this, let alone the Bible. The population of humanity is about evenly split between the male and female. Naturally speaking, a man would live on the average 5 years less than a woman. So if a man have many wives, there would not be even women for all men, violating nature itself. Dr Tong said that the book of Malachi also indicate that God has intended for Adam to only have one wife although He is certainly able to make more (Malachi 2:15). Therefore, coupled with what Dr Tong already preached about marriage being a complete surrender of one to another, monogamy is certainly God's will for mankind.

Focusing on the verse "God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral", Dr Tong emphasized that this is not an opinion expressed by the author, but a declaration of God's judgement. It is something that must surely happen, in that God will certainly judge the adulterer and sexually immoral. God is not to be taken lightly, and the Bible gives us this stern warning relating to our sexual lives. Clearly, the Bible tells us that God was furious whenever humanity behaves like animals, engaging and indulging in sexual prosmiscuity. The decadence during the days of Noah resulted in the flood that destroyed the world, but a remnant was preserved (Isaiah 10:2). God continues to use this method to filter out the people who are not pleasing to Him throughout history. So we need to take note that one of the key reasons for the wrath of God would be sexual immorality.

Dr Tong then related the incident of Sodom and Gomorrah, and how Lot was willing to even sacrifice his daughters (Genesis 19) to the mob outside of his home. Lot was obviously a person with flaws, but he was willing to sacrifice his family to preserve his guests. Christians ought to understand that we need to protect the minorities and weak among us. So Lot was a person with a noble side as well. Lot was also a person who feared God, and he knew that he had to protect the messengers from God. Christian leaders in particular, need to learn that we are to be faithful to the responsibilities that God has given to us. Lot was also a sacrificial person, willing to sacrifice himself. This is why we read in 2 Peter 2:7 declared Lot to be a righteous man. So we need to have a matured and balanced view when we look at characters in the scripture. Lot was also successful in hom education, in that he was able to have daughters who remained virgins in a decadent land. Dr Tong asked if spiritual leaders today can claim the same, that they have children who are virgins.

So Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. But Lot and his family did not have complete victory as well. Lot's wife could not forget the luxurious past and looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot's daughters committed incest with him, thinking that they needed to pro-create. Dr Tong said that this was because Lot should never had stayed in Sodom in the first place. Because he wanted to be successful in business, he moved his family into the midst of decadence. So while he was able to maintain his daughters' virginity, he could not erase the influence the decadence had on his children. The offsprings of that incest were the Moabites and Ammonites, and the fury of God was seen in the laws of Moses, forbidding the descendants of the Ammonite and Moabite from entering into the temple till the tenth generation (Deut 23:3). But God was still merciful, and a Moabite woman was counted in the genealogy leading to Jesus Christ; and that woman was Ruth. So while God is furious about sin, He is still a merciful God.

Dr Tong said that both the era of Noah, together with Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because marriage was not honoured, and sexual decadence prevailed. Every time such things occur, the wrath of God will come quickly. When a people is sexually conservative, the people would receive the blessings from God's common grace. So when a country like Singapore bans pornographic material, God would have mercy on it. Sexual immorality is so serious that it is listed as one of the ten commandments together with committing murder, and bearing false witness. Also, the Israelites sinned against God when they brought in a Midianite woman to the camp and sexual immorality occured. A plague was sent to the Israelites, and was lifted only when Phinehas speared the offending man and woman (Numbers 25:7), but by then, 24,000 people already died. Again, this shows us how serious God treats sexual immorality.

It may seems like the LORD is silent now towards sexual immorality. The fact is that the Bible is consistent, as Revelation tells us that "Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood" (Rev 22:15).

In the Old Testament, Moses was commanded to destroy all the seven tribes of Canaan (Exodus 23:24). Liberal theologians used to think that this signifies the evolution of religion, whereby God is to be considered as primitive and cruel in the Old Testament, and progressively, He evolves into a more compassionate and reasonable God. Dr Tong spent some time explaning the history of evolution philosophy, starting from Greek philosophy to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This very popular philosophy became a master key for all to use to explain practically all human issues, and liberal theologians also used it to explain the seemingly cruel decisions of God, proposing that even God needs to evolve.

But 20th century archaelogy showed us finally that the Canaanites were people who worshipped their idols with ceremonies of mass sexual activities and orgies. Because of this, God wanted them to be destroyed. This does not mean that God was not a God of love. On the contrary, had the tribes not been destroyed, humanity would have become extinct because of the horrifying consequences of such activities. Therefore, one should not be so presumptous about the Bible because God is always right. Dr Tong spent much time to emphasize this, cited other examples, like Daniel, the poems of David, Belteshazzar, even Pontius Pilate; all thought to be non-existent by liberal theologians who were proven wrong time and again.

Dr Tong warned the people that whenever God is seemingly silent, one needs to be extra-careful. The Bible says that when God is silent, we need to be afraid (Isaiah 57:11) God was silent to the liberal theologians, and after they had made all their claims, God ironically used His enemies to prove the liberals wrong. The unbelievers used literary criticism methods and archaelogy to discover that the Bible is right all along.

The final emphasis is that God really do abhore sexual sins because they are against God's original purpose for mankind, a violation that affects the very history of mankind. Dr Tong challenged all present to rededicate themselves to God and be determined to lead a sexually pure life, being responsible for the message that God has given to us.

Disclaimer: This summary does NOT represent the official position of STEMI (Stephen Tong Evangelistic Ministry International), and is the personal opinion of the author, expressed without prejudice. Expressed opinions are meant for academic discussions only.