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Preliminary Material

BECOMING A NEW PERSON

What the Bible Teaches About Regeneration, Renewal, and Christ-likeness

Copyright © 2004, 2013 by Eric H.H. Chang

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—elec­tronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission from Christian Disciples Church.

Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publish­ers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. The “NIV” and “New International Version” trademarks are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by International Bible Society. Use of either trademark requires the permission of International Bible Society.

ISBN 1-23456-789-0

Printed in the United States of America by Xulon Press, Longwood, Florida, USA

 

The Author

ERIC H.H. CHANG, 1934-2013, was born in Shanghai. In 1953, after longstanding antagonism to Christianity, he came to know the Lord through a series of mir­acles, as re­counted in his book, How I Have Come to Know God. In 1956, God opened a way for him to leave China. He enrolled at the Bible Training Institute in Glas­gow, Scotland, completing his studies there in 1959. Principal Andrew McBeath urged him to go on to further studies. He went on to London Bible College, and later graduated from University of London (King’s College and School of Oriental and African Studies), where he took up studies in Arts and Div­inity. The Lord then led him to minister to a church in Liverpool. While in Liverpool, he was or­dained by his dear aged friend, the Reverend Andrew McBeath. Several years later, Pastor Chang was invited to minister in Montreal, Canada. God blessed this ministry too, which has expanded from a relatively small church in 1976 into a fellowship of a few dozen churches today. By the grace of God, the ministry continues to grow under the Lordship of Christ, Son of God and the Head of the Church

For more Bible resources by the author, please visit Christian Disciples Church at

www.christiandc.org

An alternative URL that takes you to the same website is

www.christiandiscipleschurch.org

 

Dedication

 

DEDICATION

To all the faithful disciples of Jesus in China who “loved not their lives even unto death” (Rev.12.11).

Because of their lives, and sometimes also because of their death, “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2.47); this He continues to do in large numbers up to this present day.

 

Foreword

I thank and praise Yahweh God that this series of messages, given by Pastor Eric Chang in the 1980’s, in Montreal, Canada, is now available to a wider audience.

For many years these messages were circulated worldwide by means of cassette tapes and a church news­letter. There was, how­ever, a growing conviction among church leaders and lay people alike that the messages should be published in book form for a wider audience. I share that conviction, having seen how the ser­mons have helped many people to understand the biblical teaching of salvation, and to deal with their spiritual lives in a deep and funda­mental way.

I asked for volunteers who could spare some of their time for transcribing the messages, and within a week, offers of help came in from three continents. I allotted half the messages to the volunteers, and transcribed the other half myself. To the brothers and sisters who have given their time to the project, I say thank-you!

I proofread all the transcripts, did some editing, and then passed the manu­script to Pastor Eric for final editing. I am glad to say that this book is being translated into Chinese, Indo­nesian, and soon possibly some other languages. This gives me the con­fidence that many more people will bene­fit from these messages by God’s grace.

Pastor Eric preached these messages in a great diversity of tone and style—solemn yet positive, erudite yet down to earth, theo­logical yet practical—but they are all marked by careful expo­sition, faith­fulness to God’s word, and a pastor’s concern for the spiritual welfare of God’s people.

I thank the Lord for bringing Pastor Eric into my life, for he became my faithful teacher who, by word and by life example, taught me and many others to love the Lord with all our hearts. May Yahweh God use this humble work to glorify His great Name and edify the body of Christ!

Bentley Chan

August 2004, 2013

 

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