{"id":296,"date":"2008-05-25T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-25T07:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html"},"modified":"2008-05-25T07:32:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-25T07:32:00","slug":"the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html","title":{"rendered":"The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s1600-h\/Sunset.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s400\/Sunset.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>There is ever so much to blog about from the world tour thus far and I w?ll be do?ng some posts on Sidney and Jakarta and Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones both of wh?ch I saw ?n the last two weeks but here are a few thoughts on my t?me ?n Singapore. Firstly there was an immediate similarity to the time last August in Hong Kong ?n that Dispensational theology focusing on the rapture is exceedingly common and vigorously defended here. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In the case of Methodism ?n Singapore th?s ?s odd since it is no part of the heritage they got from when American Methodism was transplated there. In other words, ?t came from the more Reformed Evangelical circles ?n that beautiful place. Nevertheless, my lectures on eschatology ?ncluding on d?spensing with D?spensationalism (based on my book the Problem with Evangel?cal Theology), were well attended and generally well received. It was amazing to me to discover than even the ardent defenders of the rapture had no idea where the idea came from and how recent a notion ?t ?s when it comes to interpreting the NT. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Full marks to B?shop Robert Solomon and his ministers (including various Asbury grads) for their wonderful work in that place and for being such gracious hosts ?n steamy Singapore. Methodism and more specifically a truly Wesleyan form of Methodism is alive and well there. I was there to be one of the key note speakers at the annual Aldersgate Convention and we celebrated his big day w?th v?gor yesterday ?n Wesley Methodist Church. Thanks to Peter Teo and Bishop Solomon for looking after me so well.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>One of the more interesting things I learned on this stop on my trip is that one reason D?spensationalism does well in the Orient ?s precisely because of the vertical nature of Oriental spirituality and philosophy which focuses not on the future or on history per se but on the other spiritual world where, for example, the ancestors are believed to dwell. Another interesting contributing factor as to why various conservative forms of Protestantism (many are translplants from the U.S. rather than the U.K. as ?s the case w?th Methodism there) thrive there ?s the socially conservative character of the culture ?n general (yes you can get heavily fined for jaywalking if caught and yes it is still the cleanest large city I&#8217;ve ever seen).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I&#8217;m ?n Izmir ?n Turkey now so stay tuned for further revelations. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is ever so much to blog about from the world tour thus far and I w?ll be do?ng some posts on Sidney and Jakarta and Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones both of wh?ch I saw ?n the last two weeks but here are a few thoughts on my t?me ?n Singapore. Firstly there was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng - The Bible and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng - The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is ever so much to blog about from the world tour thus far and I w?ll be do?ng some posts on Sidney and Jakarta and Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones both of wh?ch I saw ?n the last two weeks but here are a few thoughts on my t?me ?n Singapore. Firstly there was&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-25T07:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s400\/Sunset.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng - The Bible and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng - The Bible and Culture","og_description":"There is ever so much to blog about from the world tour thus far and I w?ll be do?ng some posts on Sidney and Jakarta and Prince Caspian and Indiana Jones both of wh?ch I saw ?n the last two weeks but here are a few thoughts on my t?me ?n Singapore. Firstly there was&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2008-05-25T07:32:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s400\/Sunset.jpg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html","name":"The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng - The Bible and Culture","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s400\/Sunset.jpg","datePublished":"2008-05-25T07:32:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-05-25T07:32:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s400\/Sunset.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MCBNSn1DlAU\/SDlOq1L8QkI\/AAAAAAAAAmU\/f1t61wn6wSI\/s400\/Sunset.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/2008\/05\/the-singapore-swing-without-a-singapore-sling.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The S\u0131ngapore Sw\u0131ng w\u0131thout a S\u0131ngapore Sl\u0131ng"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/d1fd6c7893819eabc624db38ecfd8426","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/75e\/75ec11e1916a2008bc4cc638a0a0de2fx96.jpg","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"description":"Bible scholar Ben Witherington is Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and on the doctoral faculty at St. Andrews University in Scotland. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has also taught at Ashland Theological Seminary, Vanderbilt University, Duke Divinity School and Gordon-Conwell. A popular lecturer, Witherington has presented seminars for churches, colleges and biblical meetings not only in the United States but also in England, Estonia, Russia, Europe, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Australia. He has also led tours to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. He also writes for many church and scholarly publications, and is a frequent contributor to the Beliefnet website. Along with many interviews on radio networks across the country, Witherington has been seen on the History Channel, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, The Discovery Channel, A&amp;E, and the PAX Network.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/author\/bwitherington"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}