Ex-Convict Pastor Reflects on Man's Freewill in Faith

Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 Posted: 3:33:58PM HKT

A pastor imprisoned for over 15 years for gangster activities said he takes full responsibility for his actions.

Using his personal experience, he reflected on how God gives people the freewill to accept or reject Him. This is in spite of His love for them, and because of His 'righteousness' and 'integrity'.

Neville Tan made the honest confession at the end of the newly-released second part of his autobiography.

Tan was answering a question he said many people had asked him; namely, what turned him into the person he was. The pastor was at one point among the most wanted criminals in Singapore. He was also marked by prison and police officials as a recalcitrant gangster.

When they suggested if it may have been his environment, upbringing and company, he said: “I do not believe so. If anything, it was I who influenced others and not the other way round.

In his books, the founding pastor of Church of God (Evangelical) vividly described how he grew up amid the violence of the Japanese Occupation.

His eldest brother was dragged off by Japanese soldiers never to return. His father was a disciplinarian, once even tying Tan as a young boy to a tree full of red ants. He was slapped by a teacher until his face was swollen for telling a lie and not being willing to confess.

Yet he admitted that his situation was no different from others, but they, including his younger brother, “reacted differently to the situation”.

It could have been that he was simply ‘sucked’ into the gangs at a time when the Japanese defeat left a power vacuum subsequently filled by the secret societies.

Again, Tan denied the possibility. In fact, he said he looked for the gangs to join them because he was threatened by one of them. A subsequent showdown landed him in prison. And because of his gang affiliations he became a target even while in prison and that led to ‘worse’ outcomes.


“Any or all of the situations above could be an excuse for what happened to me but as I look back at my own life, I can only conclude that they are but lame excuses,” he wrote in The New Iron Man.

His self-reflection made him think about the question of God’s sovereignty and Man’s freewill. This led him to the three famous parables of the lost things recorded in Luke, especially the parable of the lost son.

In the story told by Jesus, a man’s younger son demanded his share of the estate. This was an ‘abhorrent’ thing to do, for he wanted what he would get only when his father died. But the father acceded to the demand, though knowing what sort of person his son was. Therefore he was taking a big risk.

The father’s actions tell us that God does not force His will on people, but gives them a free choice, the pastor explained. Moreover, the father did not give up on his son, but patiently waited for his return. And so the son went his own way, was brought to the lowest point of his life, repented, and returned to his father. The man received him back as his son without any condition.

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Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com