A Selection of Multi-Part Feature Articles from Lux Mundi

By Khen Lim



Image source: myjewishlearning.com

Since August last year when the Lux Mundi website first began, multi-part articles have been part of our offerings. They do not always appear but when they do, there is always a reason why or at the very least, there is some inspiration behind them.

Short of two months, this website would be one year old and in that time, we have amassed the following statistics without any help from the use of slick analytic tools or commercial wizardry:

•         125 posts with over 1,110 visits
•         45 downloadable equivalent Lux Mundi Sunday Weekly e-zines
•         Visitors from over 34 different countries worldwide with the strongest readership coming from America
•         More than 325 downloads of the Sunday Weekly

Thanks to our growing readership, we are encouraged to do better and to keep offering articles that edify, inspire, motivate and embolden. We take this rare opportunity to catalogue an updated list of the multi-part articles that have been featured in the past ten months, making it very easy for you to locate and read them. We urge you to bookmark this page for your future reference.

1.  Can There Ever Be Peace – Trying to Understand the Israel Question

This is a currently running series on the recent history of modern Israel from 1947 till today. It looks at the struggling efforts to establish the state of Israel, beginning with the founding of Zionism, the First Aliyah and then the mass persecution that led to the tragic Holocaust. Beyond the founding were of course Israel’s first taste of neighbourly enmity that stretched three major wars, all of which they were triumphant but in the modern setting, the wars are taking place outside the battlefields. This is where Israel may find the waters testy and most challenging.

There are four parts to this series and as of this time of writing, two parts are published with two more to go.

Click for Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Click here for adjunct article: The Origins of Jew Hatred, It Was Never About the Land, and Eric Hoffer Remembered.

2.  Discovering Our Roots – Defining the Evangelical Free Church in Malaysia

The Evangelical Free Church movement is but a very small one no matter where you look. Yet it is well and alive. In America where the missions to plant in Malaysia all came from, there are 1,500 local EFC chapters and yet it accounts for less than 0.5 percent of the total evangelical congregational population in the whole country. 

But there is much to learn from its history and certainly there are invaluable lessons to draw from it that help us to understand our roots. From there, we may have a more accurate contextual view of why we are who we are and where we can go in the future.

There are four parts to this series of which, as of time of writing, the final Part 4 remains.

Click for The Malaysian Connection (Part 1)

Click for The Foreign Connection (Part 2)

Click for Defining ‘Free’ (Part 3)

Click for Defining ‘Evangelical’ (Part 4/Final) 

3.  A Christian Standpoint to Chinese New Year

Over the many years, many of us will have encountered not just questions but actions by some Chinese Christians that might suggest to us that there could be some confusion as to what constitutes Chinese traditions, rituals and customs. The perplexities involved in separating one from the other have often been at dispute among Chinese Christians. Many of these are particularly pronounced during Chinese New Year.

In this three-part series, we take a very brief look at a selection of the issues that commonly crop up in view of the Chinese New Year and seek to find some understanding as to what we are to know and learn from. Hopefully we can shed some light on to a relatively sensitive issue among the ethnic Chinese.

Click for the Introduction

Click for Part 1

Click for Part 2

Click for Final Part 3

4.  The Historicity of Kadesh-Barnea

If you’re a keen reader of the Book of Genesis, you might find the name Kadesh-Barnea somewhat at the tip of a trove of very interesting tales; yet you might possibly wonder why. Kadesh-Barnea represents one of the most important historical turning points in the destiny of the Jews. Following their exodus from Egypt, God’s Chosen People would reach a point just outside the Chosen Land. Here’s the point – Chosen People for the Chosen Land. And here’s the tipping point – Kadesh-Barnea. Something very significant happens here that would make mankind turn on its head. Like they say, the rest is history.

This is actually a short article although in the future, we could explore the possibility of looking more deeply into it.

Click here.

5.  The Origins of the Bible

‘The Origins of the Bible’ is a watered-down version of a two-part 300-plus page literary work that I had originally planned for publication but since then, I had decided to hold it back for a substantial rewrite. Following the decision to launch the Lux Mundi website for my church, this was one of the earliest postings made.

Unlike the huge and consuming work done earlier, this article is nonetheless quite comprehensive and by all accounts, should have been sectioned into several parts. And in hindsight, it would have been better because readability would also have improved. The gist of this article is to indicate the various key developments in how the Bible came into being and also how the different books were unanimously chosen, why certain ones were rejected and how the emergence of the Protestant Reformation movement helped to give it a sharper definition.

Click here.

6.  The Ten Commandments Series

From the scale of commitment here, this is one of the most ambitious multi-part writing project we have ever embarked on for the church website. Inspired by our church’s ‘back to basics’ initiative, both my pastor and I decided that we would carve out the ten Commandments between us and preach. In the meantime, I would flesh them out for the website. Invariably of course, that meant some of the commandments that were not handled by me (for preaching) would have missing articles online.

We began by helping readers to understand why we decided to embark on this massive project here before we then introduce a concise overview to the Ten Commandments here. Then we look at Exodus 20 where it all began. Here, we actually take a look at one commandment at a time in order to help the reader to have a reasonably sound overview of what each one is about.

Next came a brief article on the relevance of the Ten Commandments where we examine how practical and applicable they are to today’s society. Articles such as this one are obviously meant for new beginners in Christ who seek a simple way to tuck a bit of knowledge and understanding to begin their walk.

Then we look into ten interesting aspects of the Ten Commandments to spot little nuggets here and there that reveal things we hadn’t expected or didn’t have a proper understanding of. Click here for the article. This would be the last introductory-type article before we commenced with the series.

First Commandment – currently not available

Second Commandment – False Gods in the Context of Contemporary Lifestyles

Third Commandment – There Is Honour in God’s Praiseworthy Name – A Perspective of the Third Commandment

Fourth Commandment – Is There Value in the Sabbath? An Overview of the Fourth Commandment

Fifth Commandment – currently not available

Sixth Commandment – Man Defiles What God Insists – The Brazen Modern-Day Desecration of the Sixth Commandment

Seventh Commandment – currently not available

Eighth Commandment – Stealing Leads to Murder and also The Eighth Commandment Conquers All

Ninth Commandment – pending possible publication

Tenth Commandment – pending possible publication

7.  Heroes of Faith Series

This is easily the most challenging and mammoth writing project to date. A total of eighteen articles flesh out this series to include the seventeen Hebrews-based Heroes of Faith and the last one to cover a minor litany of others.

Each article not only has a feature write-up about the hero but we also look into a cataloguing of his achievements and personal strengths and weaknesses. We also try to find lessons to learn from this biblical character and to back this up with relevant Bible references including one key verse that best define this hero of faith.

Part 1 (Abel), Part 2 (Enoch), Part 3 (Noah), Part 4 (Abraham), Part 5 (Sarah), Part 6 (Isaac), Part 7 (Jacob), Part 8 (Joseph), Part 9 (Moses), Part 10 (Joshua), Part 11 (Rahab), Part 12 (Gideon), Part 13 (Barak), Part 14 (Samson), Part 15 (Jephthah), Part 16 (David), Part 17 (Samuel), Part 18 (Others)

8.  Chiune Sugihara – Righteous Among Nations

Published in August 2014, this was our first multi-part article to appear and till today, it continues to be the most read, garnering hits every day since the first appearance of our website. It is also the one article that has attracted worldwide readership from countries as far and as unlikely as Moldova, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and not to mention, Japan.

Chiune Sugihara is the only Japanese to be so distinguished by the Israeli government and for good reason. Through Sugihara’s tireless efforts, thousands of Jews were saved from certain death during the Second World War. Our article traces the history of Sugihara from childhood through to his early diplomatic posting in Manchuria before he was despatched to Europe where he would do miraculous things to honour God’s Chosen People.

This is a wonderful story about all-too-rare courage, determination to do right and the audacity to challenge authorities and while he did the unthinkable, he suffered the repercussions from his own government. Sugihara’s family survives him today while Israel has immortalised him with the title of ‘Righteous Among Nations.’

Part One (Click here), Part Two (Click here) and Final Part Three (Click here)