By Tin-chee Lo (June 2025)
In the early 70’s, I moved to the Silicon Valley, California and started my career in the semiconductor field. I met new friends there. Many of them had PhDs in science. Among them, there were some Christians. I said to myself, “Christians? They are highly educated elites, some of whom even hold senior management positions in the companies. They can’t be so stupid to believe in Jesus!” Under their encouragement, I attended their Bible Study Fellowships and listened to quite a number of sermons. I didn’t fully understand their messages, but the interesting thing was that the parts which I could grasp were reasonable and meaningful to my mind. I had a lot of questions and often argued with the church people fiercely. Although I found their persuasiveness weak, I admired their patience with this “troublemaker”.
I started to study on my own, but not the Bible, because no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t understand it. I read other categories in either defending the Christian faith or criticizing Christianity. I was somewhat puzzled: If Christianity is so true, why do so many intellectuals deny it? If there is a loving God who wants people to know Him, why does He make it so difficult for people to believe His existence? These questions have been in my mind for a long time. But I also observed something amazing: If I want to study a book, I usually read it from beginning to end in order to get the gist of it. But the Bible is different. No matter what book and what passage is taken from, experienced Christians can clearly extract a message from it, and these messages are self-consistent and coherent. This very fact has arrested my interest in the Bible.
From thinking about these God-things, and influenced by books I’ve read, I came to realize that one must go through one, or two, or even three levels of epistemology to gain conviction of anything, not just religious matters. These three levels are:
First is the intellectual level, namely, looking at things from a logical and philosophical perspective. There are no shortcuts at this level. It requires a great deal of effort on the seekers’ part. Some people can bypass this level, but I can’t, perhaps due to my technically trained background. I have been focusing on this level before and after I’ve become a Christian. I have intensified this work even in my retirement due to my R&D mentality.
The second level is the art (especially music) and culture level. I have many friends who believe in evolution. When I challenged them with critical questions, I found that I understood the subject better than they did. But why do people believe it? I think it is a cultural influence. The mentality of some people is that if the majority of society thinks this is right, how can it be wrong? So, the second level is based on an unfounded emotion.
The third level is the “kitchen table” level. The kitchen is the center of family activities. Children who grow up in Christian families are generally more likely to believe in Jesus than others. My parents were Christians too, though not very devoted. My father prayed at the diner table before meals. I wasn’t foreign to Christianity.
As for me, I entered the Christian faith through the first level. Others may come to Christ through different entry points in various different orders. However, my faith journey does not stay in the rigid propositions of the first level, I am also deeply affected by the second and third levels in subtle ways.
I was baptized on Easter Sunday in 1977. The amazing thing was that for several consecutive Sundays before Easter, the church sang “How Great Thou Art” and “The Old Ragged Cross” as liturgical hymns in the worship service. When I silently meditated on the words of these two hymns, I didn’t know why, my tears kept flowing. I didn’t want my wife who stood next to me to see my misted eyes, so I kept my head down because I couldn’t explain my emotion to her. Now as I think back, it must have been the moving of the Holy Spirit! I believe now that it was the moment when the Great Shepherd whispered to me.
I was born in mainland China and moved to Hong Kong in 1949 when I was six years old. I attended elementary school there till I was graduated from high school. afterwards, I went to Taiwan University to major in electrical engineering. How exciting it was: I had been trapped in the narrow Kowloon peninsula for twelve years. Now I would have the opportunity to broaden my horizons in Taiwan known as the “Treasure Island,” how could this young man not feel thrilling?
The cheapest way to get to Taiwan was by sea. I took a cargo ship, named “Sichuan” whose weekly route departed from the Sai Wan (Western) Pier on the south side of Victoria harbor every Monday evening and arrived at Keelung Port of Taiwan on Wednesday morning. As the ship about to depart, I stood on the deck and waved goodbye to my mother. This was the first time in my life leaving home. I saw my mother weeping, reluctant to part, and she seemed to fight back her tears. Her motherly love for me was fully expressed there, a scene to remember for the rest of my life. The ship slowly shifted away from shore, and on her eastward voyage, my mother’s figure gradually diminished from sight, in this way, I said good bye to this “Pearl of the Orient”. The city skyline disappeared in the dark night but her light still brightened up the sky from afar. The next day, the sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and the fierce September monsoon was blowing. In the era when weather forecasting was not well developed, I couldn’t help but sigh the Chinese proverb which says, “there are unpredictable changes in the weather,” followed by “people are subject to misfortunes or blessings at any time”.
The ship was tossed about in the rough high sea. In one moment, both sides of the ship were walled by tall standing waves, like Moses crossing the Red Sea. A moment later, the vessel was lifted up by the crest of a wave, like Noah’s ark stranded on the top of Mount Ararat, the sound of the motor spinning at high speed in the air could be heard. The ups and downs of the vessel made many passengers seasick. Thankfully, I did not have dizziness or vomiting feeling. There were rumors aboard: Some said the ship was out of control and was drifting to Shantou; others said a person was missing… The captain decided to turn back to the Hong Kong. When the ship made an 180-degree turn, the most dangerous moment was when the strong wind blew directly at the side of the ship, making it vulnerable to topple. Cargos on the deck slid from side to side, people began to feel that shipwreck was imminent. Several hours later, the captain changed his mind and made U-turn again, heading back for Taiwan… This time everyone thought that death was unavoidable. I was very sad but not about my death, but about the thought that my parents would feel the unbearable misery at the loss of their son. I realized deeply that I was helpless and really needed God. As I hark back, I believe that this was definitely the spiritual awakening of “God making me live with Christ” as said in Ephesians 2:5.
The ship arrived safely at Taiwan’s Keelung harbor on Friday morning, two days later than planned. Others might say that my safe arrival was luck, but I knew that it was God’s protection. This was one of my key encounters with the Lord in my life. If you ask me, “Why did you say that you had met God?” I cannot explain, but I know for sure. It shows that “gut feeling” is not without its place in faith. This was the testimony I said during my baptism many decades ago.
Since my baptism, I have been living a steady Christian life. I attend church meetings every Sunday and prayer meetings every Wednesday night. Sunday school and Bible study classes are precious times for me to learn and to fellowship with God’s people. With continuous study, my understanding of the Bible and theology have deepened step by step. There are several questions that I was not aware of then that had not been addressed. The answers to these questions can only be built upon theology.
Before giving my answers, let me first set out the key points of soteriology (the study of salvation) through two verses in Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians:
- (the Spirit) made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions–it is by grace you have been saved (2:5)
- For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God (2:8)
The Bible tells us that we are born with original sin, so we are all sinners and that the wages of sin is death, so natural men are spiritually dead. Because of our deadness, we will not, and cannot, love God and are not able to understand spiritual things. Therefore, the first thing God does with the elect (i.e., those He chooses to be His children) is to revive them and give them spiritual life. This step is called “rebirth” or “born again” or “regeneration.” After a person has spiritual life, his renewed mind can make reasonable and proper decisions: First, he sees that he is a sinner and needs a Savior for forgiveness. God, by His grace, gives him the gift of saving faith, and with this faith, he is justified (being made right with God) through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross. Sinner’s sins are imputed to Jesus and Jesus’s righteousness and blessings (proven by His resurrection) are imputed to him. This double-imputation causes him to be saved! With this fundamental understand, I shall now answer a few questions that I did not pay attention to in the early days of my Christian life:
Q: How was I born again?
A: I don’t know “how”. Rebirth is entirely God’s initiative. If the existence of my physical being cannot be determined by my own will, how can I acquire spiritual life by my own volition? “Life” comes before “Will”; “Rebirth” comes before “Baptism.” “Regeneration” precedes “Faith.” It does good for us to remember these sequences. It was the Spirit who made me spiritually alive, i.e., born again, not of my own effort.
Q: When was I born again?
A: The answer to this question was very clear to Apostle Paul; his supernatural experience marked his regeneration. Though I know the exact day when I was baptized, I cannot give an exact day as to when I was born again. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. A man who has been born again by the Spirit is the sheep under His care. John 10 says, “The good shepherd knows His sheep; His sheep hear His voice.” Definitely Jesus knows me, but whether I have heard His voice clearly depends on the degree of my spiritual maturity. A new believer may listen to his Great Shepherd’s voice that he has never heard before, but oftentimes the newly regenerated person may not listen INTO what He says clearly due to his immaturity. But one thing is comforting, our Good-shepherd made sure His sheep would hear Him. As C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” If you ask me when I first heard the voice of the Great Shepherd, I would probably say that it was the moment when I experienced the near-shipwreck during my voyage to Taiwan, It was, however, also possible that God had spoken to me many times before this episode, and I vaguely felt this way. All these happened long before I was baptized.
Q: What changes have taken place between before and after I believed in the Lord?
A: Again, the answer to this question was very clear to the Apostle Paul who was instantly transformed from a Persecutor to a Evangelist. But my changes have been gradual. After a person believes in the Lord like me, he immediately enters into the state of sanctification. Living in this state, the life of a Christian is constantly changed by God. This kind of imperceptible changes after rebirth is bound to happen because our spiritual life is triply secured by the blood of Christ, the intercession of the High Priest, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all the way to the Day of Glorification. My ever-increasing love for the Bible, enthusiasm of listening to sermons, and my growing interest in studying theology and apologetics are probably the most noticeable changes throughout my life.
Q: What does “bearing witness” mean?
A: Bearing witness means speaking out what we have heard from the Great Shepherd. The Great Shepherd loves us now and continuously. Therefore, the Great Shepherd must constantly speak to the reborn throughout their lives. Christians are living in the grace of listening to the voice of the Great Shepherd. So “bearing witness” is not a static living but a dynamic living of telling what God has spoken and done along your life. Therefore, we can’t say that we have already borne a “testimony of salvation” and that we have no more testimony to say. Strictly speaking, we cannot and are not qualified to write a “testimony of salvation” for ourselves, only God can because salvation is 100% from Him for reasons known only to Him. What we usually call the “testimony of salvation” is actually the first testimony after our regeneration, and not a testimony of “how” we become a Christian. We have no answer for the “how” part, we only have “evidences” that we are saved. The life of a Christian is a life of continuously bearing witnesses of those evidences. So many churches regularly publish a collection of testimonies. I think this is a very good ministry of literary evangelism.
In closing, let me quote a Bible saying which speaks of how I feel about my salvation: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect” (1 Cor. 15:10a). I am certain that my Good shepherd knows me (c.f. John 10:14), it is now up to me to pay attention to hearing His voice (c.f. John 10:3). Holy Spirit, help me! Amen.
