The Problem of Evil and Suffering

The above is the title of today's sermon in response to the catastrophes that had happened in Myanmar and China recently. Pastor admitted that he cannot deal with it exhaustively in an hour sermon especially in relation to the theological and philosophical aspects of theodicy. However, what is more important is to elucidate the pastoral aspect of this problem. You can listen to the sermon here. Basically, how can we as a community respond to suffering faced by those within and outside the Christian community. We may never be able to provide an answer and any answer will not be adequate for those who suffered. What we have is hope. What we can give is hope. Hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures ...1 Cor 15:3,4).

The problem of evil and suffering raises the question of God's love and omnipotence. If there is a God, he is either not a loving God or not a powerful God. Otherwise, how can he allow such natural disasters to happen and bring about so much human suffering.

I've not read all those arguments on theodicy. All I know is I believe in a God who has chosen to suffer, to be humiliated and to be condemned to the most cruel death by those whom he created and by those who have been questioning his love or omnipotence. Even though, 'for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together' (Col 1:16-17), yet he willingly took upon the cup of suffering. At the cross, the One who hold all things together cried out 'My God, my God. Why has Thou forsaken me?'.

At the cross, our right to question God on evil and suffering no longer exist. Our right to question God on evil and suffering is extinguished 'when Christ the Mighty Maker died, For man the creature's sin'. (Issac Watts)

The response then in face of evil and suffering whether on a national or personal level, is for the redeemed community to walk alongside those who are suffering, offering practical assistance and the hope of the Gospel.

Edward Shillito wrote a poem called 'Jesus of the Scars' after witnessing the carnage of World War I.

Jesus of the Scars

If we have never sought, we seek Thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-pricks on Thy brow;
We must have Thee, O Jesus of the Scars.

The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by Thy Scars we claim Thy grace.

If when the doors are shut, Thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of Thine;
We know today what wounds are; have no fear;
Show us Thy Scars; we know the countersign.

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak;
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

May the wounds of the One who hold all things together speak to our own woundedness.

13th May & Turning 40

I turned 40 today. There is a Chinese saying that man starts to blossom at 40. I will not go on to say what happens to a woman at 40 as it's pretty degrading. For me, assuming I can live up to 80, I'm starting to think of what I'm going to do for the 2nd half of my life. Mid-life crisis? Maybe.

Had a quiet family celebration. I guess it must have been pretty quiet celebration also on my 1st birthday. Despite the situation at that time, I think there was still a celebration. Come to think of it, I never asked my parents or my older sisters about what happened that day. Did I had a birthday party? I was only told of my mum risking her life cycling more than 2km from home to buy me milk powder despite the curfew. Nothing beats mother's love.

Has the ghost of 13th May being exorcised from our collective memory by the political tsunami on 8th March after 39 years? I hope so. At the same time we need to work towards a Malaysia which is free from race based politics. A Malaysia where all, irrespective of race, religion and economic status, will be free from want and fear. Where the freedom of expression and belief are upheld and protected. This is my 40th Birthday wish.

We are far from being free (Updated)

I just came back from Dataran (There is no longer a place called Dataran Merdeka in Malaysia)There was supposed to be a candlelight vigil in solidarity with Raja Petra. I reached there at about 15 minutes before 8pm. The place was already cordoned off by the police. There was no sign of anybody gathering there. At 8pm, my colleague & I decided to go to the other end of the Dataran via the back way. There were fewer police there and it was not cordoned off like the other end near the flagpole. Still no sign of people gathering. A few minutes later before a group of people went passed the police and started walking into the Dataran. They were not stopped and we decided to follow them.

It was a unique/eerie experience to walk from one end of the Dataran to the other with no traffic at all but with probably dozens of police watching you. We reached the other end and found a group of people have already gathered there. But it was a small group. Not more than 40.

After a while an Indian police officer said that there was going to be a demonstration and asked us to disperse. A lady in our group asked him what demo he was talking about. He evaded the question and continuing to ask us to disperse saying that he has a job to do. Someone in the group said that they came to take photos of the Dataran. The police officer then told us that we can take whatever photos we want but we have to disperse within 15 minutes.

Despite some grumblings, the crowd was just to small to mount a dissent and some began to walked away including myself. No point getting arrested. The small crowd could be due to the fact that Raja Petra has agreed to post bail and will be freed tomorrow.

Tonight, freedom remains an illusion to me at Freedom Square. How can we be free when we are not allowed to gather to just light candles. Well, I guess the darkness hates light. The political tsunami on March 8 has not totally dispelled the darkness. We must be wary of the 'Empire striking back' as Kit Siang puts it.

Update: Just read Malik Imtiaz's post on The Methodology of Fear. It confirmed my thoughts of freedom being an illusion in our country. Yes, I was fearful as I walked across the Dataran. Why should I be? Because I'm not free. I'm not free from all the oppressive laws that continue to hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles.

We can never be free until and unless all the oppressive laws are abolished. We can never be free until and unless the Govt fears the people.

What happened on 8 March was merely the Battle of Midway where the tide began to turn. We must press on until the A-Bomb is dropped on this morally bankrupt BN Government. Bloody battles remain ahead. Remember before Hiroshima & Nagasaki, there were Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima & Okinawa, where some of the bloodiest battles were fought. We can also treat 8 March as the Normandy landings. There were many battles ahead before the Allies pushed into Germany and defeated Hitler. Before that we need to remember the fiasco of Operation Market Garden and the near debacle of the Battle of the Bulge.

Maybe I've announced VR (Victory for Rakyat) Day too early on 8 March. But I believe the light will eventually triumphed over darkness.

Feng Shui and the Stock Market

The Editor-in- Chief of the Benchmark magazine, a Hong Kong personal finance magazine wrote the following in her April issue editorial:

I turned on the TV one night and there was programme where callers would call in and get advice from the Feng Shui lady master who used the callers' birth dates for clues on the stock market. She even provided advice on the specific sectors these callers can consider pouring their money in. Wow! Is she even licensed, or is feng shui mastery a new exempted investment advisor category that I didn't know about? Are investors so desperate these days or advice they'd been listening to elsewhere is just not working?

I know someone who have recently sold off all his shares in the stock market based on the prediction of his feng shui master that there is going to be great crash in the Bursa Malaysia this year. This is not your ordinary Joe but someone who has helmed a few listed companies and also been an advisor to an investment bank.

Don't you think it takes a lot of faith to follow such advice and people say Feng Shui is not a religion. Of course it depends on how you define religion. No doubt the sociologists and anthropologists will have their own definition. For me, it's quite simple. Anything or anyone that you put your faith in, in order to ensure your wellbeing is your religion. It's also your idol.

Coming back to this Feng Shui and the stock market stuff, should a value investor pay any attention to it? Firstly, a value investor doesn't pay much attention to the stock market but to individual stocks. For a value investor, the stock market can remain closed for a whole year and that wouldn't disturb him/her. We look at businesses rather than markets.

So if someone predicts the market is going to crash and it does crash, the value investor will buy more when that happens. On the other hand if someone is going to predict the market is going to go up and it does go up, the value investor in not going to follow the momentum but stay put until the stocks have been overvalued and take profit. Stock market predictions does not influence how a value investor is going to invest.

I guess people are turning to these unconventional methods because the conventional ones based on Modern Finance Theory don't seem to work anymore. Analysts and economists are no better at forecasting than the Feng Shui masters and astrologers.

John Kenneth Galbraith, himself a well known economist said 'The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.'

Maybe China's ancient sage, Lao Tzu is right and was hitting out at modern day analysts/economists/Feng Shui masters etc when he said 'Those who have knowledge, don't predict. Those who predict, don't have knowledge.'

Finally the grandfather of value investing, Benjamin Graham said ' If I have noticed anything over these 60 years on Wall Street, it is people do not succeed in forecasting what's going to happen to the stock market.'

Whether or not Feng Shui is considered a religion, it is incompatible with the Christian worldview. God, the creator of heaven and earth is sovereign and not 'Qi'. Christians are assured that all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). It may not always seem so and this is when we need to follow the advice of St. Augustine, 'Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that we may understand'.

Btw, did any Feng Shui master predicted the sub-prime fiasco and the credit crisis?

Will Mahatir ever repent and be saved?

In one of his recent articles Raja Petra has this to say

All the great religions, in particular the religions of the book, speak about repentance, forgiveness and redemption. Even God possesses forgiving qualities. But forgiveness can only be forthcoming with repentance and redemption. Yes, there is much Mahathir must redeem before forgiveness can be given. And has Mahathir truly repented? For if he has not then forgiving would be impossible.

Well, I'm not sure how other religions of the books view repentance and salvation. My opinion will be based on my Christian belief. But even within Christianity, there are different views on how one actually is saved. As the header in my blog suggests, I'm offering my opinion from a Reformed perspective, one that is unfortunately not very popular nowadays especially in Malaysia.

Mahatir will never be able to repent. But that doesn't mean he can never be saved. Does that sound contradictory? Is salvation possible without repentance? No. But repentance is not possible without regeneration. Left to our own, we will never be able to repent. This is because we are dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). How can a spiritually dead person repents?

For a person to repent, he/she must be regenerated first and this regeneration is entirely the work of God. ....he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit ...(Titus 3:5).

Even before that, God has to issue the call or summons just like Jesus calling Lazarus from the dead. (And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified - Romans 8:30). Those who are called are called according to God's purpose (Romans 8:28). In other words, the call is effectual.

John Murray wrote this on regeneration. God's grace reaches down to the depths of our need and meets all the exigencies of the moral and spiritual impossibility which inheres in our depravity and inability. And that grace is the grace of regeneration. ...........God effects a change which is radical and all-pervasive, a change which cannot explain in terms of any combination, permutation, or accumulation of human resources, a change which is nothing less than a new creation by him who calls the things that be not as though they were, who spake and it was done, who commanded and it stood fast. This in a word, is regeneration. ( Redemption - Accomplished and Applied)

An unregenerated person cannot repent whereas a regenerated person cannot but repent and believe.

The Reformed position is salvation is solely the work of God. We do not and cannot contribute anything to our salvation. Even our faith by which we are justified is only possible through the Holy Spirit's prior work of regenerating us. Another term for this is monergism.

Back to the question, Will Mahatir ever repent and be saved? Based on Reformed theology, no one is beyond redemption if God in His sovereign will and purpose chooses to call and regenerate a person. But on the other hand if one's theology is based on the requirement that a person have to repent first and be saved, then Mahatir will surely be damned. He will never repent.

If Mahatir by the grace of God ever repents, I hope I wouldn't be like Jonah who got angry with God for not punishing the people of Nineveh for their wickedness because they repented.

Good Friday & Hymns

I think some of the best hymns that ever written were written on the theme of the cross, Christ's passion & death and what all these meant to us. Two of my favourites were penned by Issac Watts.

 Alas! and did my Savior bleed, 
and did my Sovereign die!
Would he devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes that I have done,
he groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
and shut its glories in,
when God, the mighty maker, died
for man the creature's sin.


But drops of tears can ne'er repay
the debt of love I owe.
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
'tis all that I can do. 

 When I survey the wondrous cross 
on which the Prince of Glory died;
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all. 

Some people found the word 'worm' offensive in the 1st hymn and removed it and substitute it with 'sinner'. I prefer the original which is more graphic. The more wretched we see ourselves, the more precious will the grace of God be to us.

'Two things are needed to humble us. First, let us consider God in His greatness, glory, holiness, power, majesty and authority. Then, let us consider ourselves in our mean, abject, and sinful condition - especially our enmity against God, which still remains in our heart'. (John Owen)

Our response to His grace - Both the hymns come to the same conclusion. Ourselves, our lives.

Some other notable hymns on the same theme;

O, Sacred Head Now Wounded

The Old Rugged Cross

Hallelujah! What a Saviour

There is a Fountain

Value Investing - The Investment Philosophy That Works

(This is the unedited version of the article that appears in the Personal Money magazine, March 2008 issue)

I can’t remember when I actually started investing. It must be a few years after I’ve started working because what I earned the first few years was just enough to make ends meet. In addition, I bought a condo at the wrong time i.e. just before the Asian Financial Crisis. Due to the soaring interest rate, I was forced to borrow from my father to reduce the loan amount and negotiated with the bank for a fixed monthly payment.

However, I bought my first insurance policy during my first working year. It was not sold to me. I literally bought it i.e. I took the initiative to approach an insurance agent to work out a plan for me. Although I didn’t really have any dependants at that time, I felt that if something were to happen to me and it doesn’t result in death, I didn’t want to be a burden to my family.

Coming back to investments, I started off by buying unit trusts. I thought investing in unit trusts was a great idea. People pooling their money together and diversifying their risks through professional management. After a while it’s doesn’t seem to be moving anywhere. I made some money. I lose some money.

Then I started reading books about investments. John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, the 2^nd largest mutual fund in the US revealed to me what was wrong with my unit trusts investments. Cost. It was really costly to invest in Malaysian unit trusts then. Your investment will immediately go down by 5%-7% upon purchase of an equity fund. The unit trusts industry is now moving in the right direction by cutting its sales charge.

I started to invest directly in the stock market in 2001 after reading Peter Lynch. One of the tips he gave on how to pick stocks was ‘Visit the shopping mall’. See what kind of products people buy or what shops were always full with customers. Link them back to the companies that own these products or shops. I noticed Jaya Jusco in 1 Utama was always full of people during the weekends. It’s the same at the Jaya Jusco in Melaka whenever I visited my sister. I checked its market price. Low PE. There was little or no coverage by analysts. Another tip given by Peter Lynch was look for companies that are not covered by analysts. So Jaya Jusco was the first stock I bought at around RM3.00.

One more advice from Peter Lynch was to look at companies that are not glamourous or doing boring business but profitable. What could be more boring than a company producing nuts and bolts? That was why I bought into TONG HERR in 2003 at less than RM1.50. I don’t think there were many analysts covering the company at that time.

I began to slowly catch on with the concept of value investing having read Ben Graham and books about Warren Buffet. Value investing is really an investment philosophy. Lawrence Cunningham says it’s partly a state of mind and it is characterized by habitually relating the price of a stock to the value of the underlying business. I also subscribe to the Tan Teng Boo’s investment newsletter iCapital. Tan is one fund manager that practices value investing. iCapital.biz, a closed end fund managed by Tan has given investors a 160% (as of 31^st December 2007) return since its IPO in Oct 2006. I never believe in subscribing to IPOs but iCapital.biz was the only IPO that I’ve subscribed to.

Value investing is not an easy investment philosophy to follow. It demands a lot of patience, discipline and faith. Sometimes it doesn’t appear to work. But my faith in value investing paid off in 2007 after my portfolio made a return of 66.96%.

Lastly, let me share my IDEAL way of investing in the stock market. I – Ignore the madness of the crowd D- Disregard those Modern Finance Theories e.g. Modern Portfolio Theory, Efficient Market Hypothesis, beta etc E – Examine business, not markets A – Avoid market timing L – Look for diamonds in the rough, companies ignored by analysts. The above ideas are not original but the acronym is. I must admit there were times when I didn’t follow my own IDEAL. That was when I got into trouble. IDEAL + PATIENCE + DISCIPLINE = INVESTMENT SUCCESS Well, I still consider myself a novice when it comes to investing. No one can claim to be an expert unless he/she has gone through a stock market crash and survive.