Thursday, June 11, 2020

The final chapter of the CREDO500 saga: Book published

The CREDO500 blog conference happened in 2009, and many of the contributors have moved on as well. However, the essays remained in a properly unpublished state, and I (Daniel H Chew) have been working on them. Now, finally, the conference proceedings have been compiled into two volumes and published on Amazon Kindle. Initiallly, there was a desire to publish an English version, and a separate Chinese version. However, that did not happen. Therefore, I have decided to add the original Chinese in the book as well.

The books can be bought here:

Daniel H. Chew and Jonah Tang, eds., Faith Seeking Understanding - Volume 1: The Legacy of the Reformed Tradition - Proceedings from the 2009 CREDO500 conference (San Jacinta, CA: Daniel H Chew, 2020) - HERE

Daniel H. Chew and Jonah Tang, eds., Faith Seeking Understanding - Volume 2: The Reformation and John Calvin - Proceedings from the 2009 CREDO500 conference (San Jacinta, CA: Daniel H Chew, 2020) - HERE

In order to simplify matters and since the essays were freely available, the volumes have all been priced at a low price, but not free so that it would be made clear that hard work was involved in making this work.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Another UPDATE on the CREDO500 conference

After a long time, due to myriad life and work commitments, all of the relevant essays and responses of the CREDO500 conference have been translated, edited, and formatted. We are now in the process of considering publication, so that all of these works will not be wasted.

Therefore, all of the conference materials will be taken down from the hosted website, with effect immediately. Thanks for all the support.

Monday, December 7, 2009

2009 CREDO500 Blog Conference Closing

The 2009 CREDO500 blog conference (Sept 7th-Oct 30th) in commemorating John Calvin 500th annivesary has now completed. My gratitude to Daniel for co-organizing this fruitful and enjoyable theo-blogging event. The contributions, reviews and comments were intellectually provoked and spiritually attuned to the Triune God, in pursuit of the Reformed heritages and godliness. With these two months discussions of the twenty-two topics, ranging from“The Legacy of Reformed Theology” to “The Reformation and John Calvin”. Here is an index of all the posts in the blog conference:

Introduction (by Jonah Tang)

Biography of Contributors (In Chinese)

Opening of Blog Conference (by Daniel Chew)

Part I: The Legacy of Reformed Tradition (Updated)

I. Scripture and Tradition

1. Sept 7 th: Mejlina on Scripture and Tradition (Review by Jonah Tang)

2. Sept 9th: J.J Lim on Place and Necessity of Creeds and Confessions in The Modern Church
(Review by David Chang)

II. Scripture and Theology

3. Sept 11st: Daniel Wong on Analysis and Critique of Signs and Wonders (Review by Daniel Chew)

4. Sept 14th: David Chong on Evaluating "New Perspective" on Paul's Exposition of The Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone (Review by Tsun En Lu)

III. Scipture and Counseling

5. Sept 16th: Gideon Teo on The Tradition of Counseling and Physiology (Review by Andrew Teo, and Response by Gideon Teo)

6. Sept 18th: Andrew Teo on Reclaiming The Biblical Care of Souls in The Body of Christ (Review by Gideon Teo)

IV. Scripture and Apologetics

7. Sept 21st: Benjamin Ho on Francis Schaeffer and Reformation (Review by Mejlina Tjoa)

8. Sept 23rd: Daniel Chew on Evaluating The Purpose Driven Paradigm: Recapturing The Vision of The Centrality of the Gospel (Review by Peter Wong)

V. Scripture and Culture

9. Sept 25th: Linus Chua on Reformation and Education (Review by David Chen)

10. Sept 28th: Tsun En Lu on Christian Justice and Pluralistic Society (Review by David Chong)

Part II: The Reformation and Calvin (Updated)

I. Calvin and Historical Legacy

11. Oct 3rd: Stephen Chan on Calvin's Tales of Two_Cities (Review by David Cheng)

12. Oct 5th: Jack Sin on The Spiritual Influence and Legacy of John Calvin to The Modern World
(Review by Soon Beng Lim)

13. Oct 7th: Daniel Chew New Evangelical Calvinism: An Analysis of The Calvinist Resurgence (Review by Edward Sim, and Response by Daniel Chew)

II. Calvin and God's Sovereignty

14. Oct 9th: Ang Lai Hoe on Addressing The Biblical Validity of A Claim Against Unconditional Election (Review by Lemuel Hii)

15. Oct 12nd: David Chen on Francis Turretin and Calvin's Doctrine of Election (Review by Alex Tseng)

16. Oct 14th: Alex Tseng on Karl Barth Doctrine of Election (Review by Joel Tay)

III. Calvin and Worship Theology

17. Oct 16th: Wang Zhi Yong on Calvin and The Psalms: Singing The Songs of Jehovah (Review by Cathy Tan)

18. Oct 18th: Cathy Tan on The Quest for Calvin's Essence of Worship: Passion and Love of God-A Journey Away from Ritualistic Worship (Review by Gao Ai Jun)

19. Oct 20th: Timothy Peng on Reformed View of Music (Review by Yoong Jun Hao)

IV. Calvin and Practical Thelogy

20. Oct 23rd: Ten Fook Seong on Calvin's Institute and The Practice of Pietism (Review by Yong Pai Chan)

21. Oct 26th: Jason Loh on Calvin's View of The Cultural Mandate (Review by Benjamin Ho)

22. Oct 29th: David Cheng on Calvin's Law and Grace (Review by Jason Loh)

Reformation Day Dedication-Soli Deo Gloria (by Jonah Tang)

John Calvin 500th Annivesary Video (by Gospel Culture Centre)

Conclusion of Blog Conference (by Daniel Chew)

The blog conference has more or less be done in communion with The Holy Spirity, though we may not have agreed in all issues, i believe we have all been benefited by thinking through these topics altogether. Our goal is that we are a humble learner, and gracious writer, who listen other views. Discussing in a way that Grace shines through the Truth we were contending. After all, we are all into "Faith seeking understanding" with "understanding ending in Doxology" as the outcome of the exercise. Finally, thanks for all whom participate in this conference, we looking forward to more in the future.

In appreciation,
Jonah Tang

Monday, November 23, 2009

Conclusion, by Daniel Chew

[This would be my conclusion for the CREDO500 conference; my co-organizer Jonah's conclusion would come later, so stay tuned]

The CREDO500 blog conference has officially and successfully ended [after Jonah's conclusion), and as the co-organizer, English editor and translator I would like to make some concluding remarks.

First of all, I am personally thankful for this privilege of getting involved with the CREDO500 blog conference. It wasn't that long ago when I was contacted to contribute to the conference, and even more recently invited and volunteered to help out with it. I am very thankful to the other contributors, both writers and reviewers, who have made both Jonah's and my tasks much easier. Regardless of our disagreements, I appreciate all of your efforts small or large in contributing to this conference to commemorate the 500th anniversary of John Calvin, and to promote the pure Christian and Reformed faith. May the unity and co-operation seen through this conference be translated into greater unity and growth in the [Reformed] faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, and for the edification of the Church of God.

It is also sincerely hoped that all of you after this conference would come to learn something more of God and Christ, His Gospel and His Word. In the plethora of topics covered in the two months, it is sincerely hoped that one or more or all of the papers would teach you something more about our faith from the Scriptures and in the application of Scripture, as well as getting us acquainted with our Reformational heritage. If this is achieved, this conference will have achieved its success in you.

Secondly, with regards to the actual commencing of the blog conference itself, it is good to see the Body of Christ interacting with the many articles published. No doubt as the days go by, fatigue starts to set in, even for me as the editor and translator. Many of you doubtless also have your own work and life and ministry commitments to attend to, as do I. However, it is indeed heartening to see that many people still come and are hopefully edified by the articles posted, as well as taking part in the interaction where applicable.

Right from the start, the conference was overshadowed by the specter of a few hate-filled bigots who continually post cowardly and slanderous comments using multiple pseudonyms. Through posting many times and under various pseudonyms like "Antithesis", "A Reader", "The Reader", "A friend", "Ming Liang", "Luther Lim", "Calvin Chan", "Anonymous" and possibly others ("Monica C", "Eng Kiat","Pistevo"?), these few people attempt to give the illusion of a large number of people. These few people continually violate our blog conference rules and persist in attempting to post comments even after being banned and having their comments deleted. They even try to turn brothers against each other, and nearly succeeded. In this respect, I am thankful to God that most people saw through the anti-Christian attitude exhibited by these bigots, and refuse to have anything to do with them. This episode also shows us the dangers in having such an open and public conference whereby heretics of all stripes can enter and attempt to hijack the conference. As we have heard through feedback, the presence of these people do deter others from commenting so as to avoid the toxic environment and at the same time avoid being targeted by these bigots. In the event that another such conference would be planned, we would most definitely take this into consideration so as to prevent a repeat of such attacks of the devil by his minions, and thus create a godly environment conducive to the discussion of the doctrines of God's Word.

May the Lamb that was slain receive the fruits of our labors, as an offering for the glory of His Holy Name. Amen.

Sola Fide,
Sola Gratia,
Solus Christus,
Sola Scriptura,
Soli Deo Gloria.

Ecclesia Reformata et Semper Reformanda

Your servant,
Daniel Chew.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

In commemoration of John Calvin 500th anniversary

A video has been made in commemoration of the 500 anniversary of John Calvin for use in the CREDO500 conference. It is used with permission from Gospel Culture Centre, which owns the copyright for at least parts of the video. Thanks to Dr. Keng Ang LEE, Shao Wei WANG, Jun Hao YOONG, Amos CHAW, Canaan CHAW and Le Pey LEE for contributing to the making of this video.

Enjoy.