Christian History

Abode of God Collin Leong.  Feb 5, 2013 Colossal snow sculptures and life-sized ice castles glowed with multi-colored lights at night. A cozy café serving liquor and hot cocoa that was entirely carved out of ice including its walls, windows, bar counters, tables and stools. This was our trip to  Harbin , a city in the north east corner of China, where the world's largest annual ice and snow sculpting festival are held annually. Harbin Ice Festival (China) Saint Sophia Cathedral, Harbin, China But what surprised me most was an enormous Russian cathedral situated right in the centre of Harbin city across from a vibrant local marketplace. The obtrusive Russian architecture looked decidedly out of place, as if a whirlwind had uprooted it from Russia and plunked it down in this small Chinese city. It’s said that shortly after being defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Army built the monumental  Saint Sophia Cathedral  in 1907 as a spiritual symbol to restore th...

  Re-birth of Israel Collin Leong. March 2, 2024 A. Background Israel's Second Temple, built in 516 BC by Zerubbabel (Ezra Chapter 3-6), was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans.  In 135 AD, the Romans expelled all the Jews out of Jerusalem, and salted the earth so that nothing can grow, and renamed Judea to Palestine. For over a thousand of years, Israel, as a country and a nation, vanished form the earth.  What a gloomy picture! But God promised to bring a new birth to Israel, as described by Jeremiah and Isaiah: Jeremiah 30:3 -   "For behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.” Isaiah 14:2: -  “The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make capt...