Timothy Tow


Timothy Tow Siang Hui was a Singaporean pastor who founded the Bible-Presbyterian Church. He was also founding principal of the Far Eastern Bible College.

Personal life

Tow was educated at the Anglo-Chinese School. He was influenced first by John Sung, and later by Carl McIntire. He studied at Faith Theological Seminary and was ordained in Geneva in 1950 at a special meeting of the Philadelphia Presbytery of the Bible Presbyterian Church. Tow returned to Singapore and became pastor of the Life Church English Service at Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church. In 1955, he led a group out of the Chinese Presbyterian Synod to form the Bible-Presbyterian Church. Tow's congregation became known as Life Bible-Presbyterian Church. He later returned to Faith Theological Seminary and completed a Master of Sacred Theology degree.
In 2003, Tow resigned from Life BPC and founded True Life Bible-Presbyterian Church. He had been criticized for holding to the doctrine of Verbal Plenary Preservation and, together with the other directors of the Far Eastern Bible College, was sued in 2008 by Life BPC for teaching this doctrine in the Church's attempt to evict the College from the Gilstead Road premises which had been shared by the two institutions from the outset. However the Church failed as the Court of Appeal of Singapore, the apex court in the Singapore legal system, ruled on 26 April 2011 that “the VPP doctrine is actually closely related to the VPI doctrine which both parties adhere to,” ;” “the College, in adopting the VPP doctrine, has not deviated from the fundamental principles which guide and inform the work of the College right from its inception, and as expressed in the Westminster Confession;” “t is not inconsistent for a Christian who believes fully in the principles contained within the Westminster Confession to also subscribe to the VPP doctrine;” and “n the absence of anything in the Westminster Confession that deals with the status of the apographs, we hesitate to find that the verbal plenary preservation doctrine is a deviation from the principles contained within the Westminster Confession."

Publications