Category: Bible versions debate

A Leap Day to Redeem

Monday, February 29, 2016
Happy Leap Day!

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6 KJV).

Share God’s Word with a child you know today!

Teaching the rightly-divided Bible to children is very enjoyable. While they do not always pay attention like (some) adults do, they have much less theological garbage cluttering their minds. You share the Gospel with someone who has lived nearly a century in false religion, and, my, how resistant they are! Their hearts and minds are buried deep beneath many layers of church tradition. But, you get God’s truth into those children at an early age, and it is guaranteed to bring results at one point in their lives (today’s Scripture). You may not live to see it, but you just rest assured that God’s Word always prospers wherever He sends it, and it never returns to Him void, empty (Isaiah 55:11).

Recently, while I was talking to an adult about Scripture, my 10-year-old niece, sitting next to me, said, “You taught me that!” Why, yes, some weeks earlier, I had taught her and her brother, my seven-year-old nephew, all about Bible versions, Bible manuscripts, inspiration and preservation. Those little children know more truth about the King James Bible than most preachers and theologians ever will. Why? Religious pride blinds adults to a much greater degree than it does children. Even works-religion children will listen to Bible truth to some extent—but their hearts will be set in error by adulthood, so reach them with God’s truth before they reach adulthood! Parents and grandparents of the grace persuasion must keep that in mind.

The Millennials (born 1980-early 2000s), my generation, are so pitifully ignorant of truth and values. Only the previous generations—their parents, the Baby Boomers (1946-1964) and Generation X (1965-1980)—are negligent. It is not too late to instill into the next generation, those born since the early 2000s, as little as one single verse. How sad that so many parents and grandparents today do not have five minutes to share God’s Word with their children and grandchildren! Frankly, they will have no reason to complain if these children wind up in juvenile hall… or prison… or an early grave… or hell!

Free to Be Wrong

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever” (Psalm 119:160 KJV).

The LORD’S righteous judgments are where sole authority does belong; we are free to disagree with them, and thus we are also free to be eternally wrong!

Dear saint, once you study your King James Bible dispensationally, you want to share those truths with others. However, you will not encounter masses of people saying, “Oh, thank you for sharing the truth with us.” Most will not listen for long. In my own ministry, people respond with, “I don’t agree with you” or “You are wrong.” Very rarely do they quote verses to show themselves true. They usually have no such verses to quote, or they do not know any verses to quote anyway. Usually, they just have personal opinions and denominational doctrines to promote.

Having just heard or read me quote verses, they skip over all the Bible verses I quoted, and say, “No, I disagree.” They offer nothing to support themselves. Frankly, that is lazy. They have no interest in searching the Scriptures to see if what I said was so. Why? They have no interest in hearing God’s words. They are ungrateful that God’s Word has been preserved for them in English. While millions go without Bibles worldwide, these fools see the Bible and avoid it. That is not being mean; that is being honest. Only fools argue with Scripture. And, sad to say, but this just does not refer to lost people. So-called “Christians” and alleged “grace people” will not always address the verses you cite. They simply parrot their earlier comments as if Scriptures were never posted. Their loyalty is thus manifested to be in the “traditions” and “scholarship” of men. There is no desire to be “approved of God” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Now, please understand, they are free to believe whatever they like. But, they had better not say that it is “Bible” when they have no Bible verses to support them!! They cannot say they are “Bible believers” when they argue with the Bible. Ultimately, they have no business saying they are preaching “Christianity” when they are preaching everything but!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “What does Romans 8:28 mean?”

Divine Source and Human Receptor

Saturday, January 23, 2016

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8,9 KJV).

How does today’s Scripture explain Bible translation?

Friend, if you have ever stood for the King James Bible as the final authority for us English-speaking people, inevitably you have heard the old, soggy worn-out argument at some point, “Yeah, but the Greek really says…. The Hebrew really says…. The oldest and best manuscripts really say…. The King James Bible is not the original manuscript so it can have mistakes. Here, let me take that old book from you and tell you how it should read.” The King James rejecter and corrector flashes a foreign language text, lexicon, seminary textbook, book of scholarship. Thus begins the lecture on how your 1611 translators were inept buffoons.

In the spirit of a cult leader, looking to gain power over you, he or she laments: “Oh, look at this word here—how unfortunate they missed its full meaning! It should really read…. Oops, look another wrong word. How misleading! That should have been…. You should praise God that I am here with my ‘scholarly wisdom.’ Oh, how you would have never, ever understood your Bible had I not been here to remove all of its mistakes! But, let me assure you. The Bible is God’s Word, it is our authority, and you can always believe it.” (That utter foolishness is voiced every Sunday from “Christian” pulpits worldwide. It is taught in most every Bible college and seminary.)

What the know-it-all (actually know-nothing) King James Bible corrector does not know is that before God’s Word was translated into English from Hebrew and Greek, God’s thoughts were perfectly translated into human words. You can call me crazy, but I think it takes more power of God for Him to perfectly translate divine thoughts into human thoughts, than it takes for Him to perfectly translate one human language into another. After all, did He not create the languages of the world (Genesis chapter 11), and yet reverse that confusion by translating His Word perfectly in Acts chapter 2?

Understand and Enjoy the Bible! #11

Friday, January 15, 2016

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16 KJV).

Although there is so much confusion about it, can we really understand and enjoy the Bible?

Let us consider the fifth point from today’s Scripture: “as they do also the other scriptures….” Some in “Christianity” have claimed that Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, should be ripped out of the Bible! (I receive such foolish emails.) Yet, if we are to toss out Paul’s epistles, we should also remove the whole book of Acts, plus Luke, and Peter’s epistles. In today’s Scripture, Peter endorsed Paul’s epistles as “scripture.” He placed the Pauline writings on the same level with Moses’ writings, the Four Gospels, Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, and so on.

When denominations and religious organizations have understood the Bible according to their particular theological systems for many decades or centuries, they will (understandably) refuse to see Pauline dispensational Bible study. To admit wrong would mean losing salaries, memberships, egos, diplomas, real estate, buildings—literally everything! They, like the people in Peter’s day, pervert Paul’s epistles as they do the other Scriptures. Making everything in the Bible the same, they refuse to separate Peter’s ministry from Paul’s ministry. When they come across opposing verses in the Bible, they just dismiss them with, “Oh, this verse is questionable—it was not in the originals.” Or, “Do not take it literally. It means this rather than what it says.”

Christendom must swallow its pride. It must realize something. Accepting Paul’s epistles as literal and true is not to deny the rest of the Bible with which those epistles disagree. Rather, it is accepting Paul’s epistles as true because those Pauline epistles contain the secret will of God previously unknown to man! We should “rightly divide” “truth” from “truth” in the Scripture (2 Timothy 2:15), whether concerning Paul’s epistles or any other part of the Bible.

Understand and Enjoy the Bible! #10

Thursday, January 14, 2016

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16 KJV).

Although there is so much confusion about it, can we really understand and enjoy the Bible?

Let us consider the fourth point from today’s Scripture: “which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest.” Peter did not understand everything that Paul taught. Yet, at least Peter was Holy-Spirit-filled, honest enough to admit Paul taught some doctrine that was quite different from God’s previous revelations to mankind. What happens in the religious crowd (back then and still today) is that pride gets in the way and the Scriptures are pushed out of the way. Scholarship and denominations still militantly refuse to admit that Paul’s ministry and epistles are separate and distinct from the 12 apostles’ ministries.

Since it has been repeated for 2,000 years that “everything in the Bible is the same”—the assumption that there is only one “gospel” in the Bible, only one “church” in the Bible, only one “ministry” of Jesus Christ in the Bible, only one “program” in the Bible, et cetera—people are automatically inclined to reword any and every Bible verse to the contrary. Hence, modern English versions and their underlying manuscripts are so unreliable. Their editors, translators, and teachers—going back decades and centuries past—have rephrased verses so as to harmonize Paul’s ministry with Peter’s, combine the Church the Body of Christ with the nation Israel, et cetera.

As the Holy Spirit led Peter to write, these people “wrest” (pervert, distort) the Bible (today’s Scripture). They have not learned the truths of God’s Word rightly divided. They are thus “unstable”—“tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14). Their “ministries” produce only equally unlearned (uninformed) and equally unstable (undecided) souls. Dearly beloved, now we know how the Body of Christ got into the mess in which it now sits!

Understand and Enjoy the Bible! #6

Sunday, January 10, 2016

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16 KJV).

Although there is so much confusion about it, can we really understand and enjoy the Bible? (Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes!)

How did such overwhelming confusion originate? (Lost people fabricating false Bibles and not using the true Bible God’s way!) Where, O where, is God’s answer to the extensive misunderstandings about His Word? (In His Word, plain and simple!) How could He have allowed His Word to become so muddled up? (Blame sinful man, not God!) What can we do to save ourselves from such Biblical ignorance? (In His Word, plain and simple!)

Today’s Scripture contains seven related, and yet separate, lines of thought. We will take a week to look at them. Then, we will summarize both verses and all seven points. For now, note in today’s Scripture: (1) The “longsuffering of our Lord is salvation,” (2) “Our beloved brother Paul” had “wisdom given unto him” and he wrote it down, (3) Peter admitted that “some things” Paul spoke were “hard to be understood,” (4) People who were “unlearned and unstable” were “wresting”—twisting, mixing up—Paul’s epistles, (5) Paul’s epistles were “Scripture,” (6) The non-Pauline Bible books were also “Scripture,” and (7) Those failing to use the Bible properly—especially Paul’s books—were inflicting spiritual “destruction” upon themselves and their audiences.

The Berean Bible student will carefully consider these two verses from the Apostle Peter’s farewell epistle. Friends and brethren, those words show us where the Church the Body of Christ went terribly wrong 2,000 years ago. People using Scripture to further Satan’s agenda is nothing new. People corrupting God’s Word is nothing new. People perverting the Bible to corrupt souls is nothing new. People confusing others about the Scriptures is nothing new. People confused about the Holy Bible is nothing new. Praise God for His simple answers to this colossal mess!

Our latest Bible Q&A: “Do John 5:31 and John 8:14 contradict each other?”

Understand and Enjoy the Bible! #5

Saturday, January 9, 2016

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16 KJV).

Although there is so much confusion about it, can we really understand and enjoy the Bible?

There are three primary reasons why there is such extensive argument about what the Bible actually says. Thirdly, people who do not use God’s Word God’s way cannot understand and teach the Bible correctly. Notice 2 Timothy 2:15: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Keep reading the passage, friend! “[16] But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. [17] And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; [18] Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.” Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching “the resurrection is past already.” This involves a timeline—past, present, and future. These two men were not denying the doctrine of resurrection; they were merely saying “the resurrection” had already happened. Also, the context is not Jesus Christ’s resurrection. It is the false teaching that Christians have already been resurrected.

By Hymenaeus and Philetus telling Christians that Christians had already been resurrected, Christians who had not experienced that resurrection thus doubted their salvation (“overthrow the faith of some”). Innumerable precious believers have been duped in the centuries since Hymenaeus and Philetus. Christendom abounds with smooth-talking church leaders who “teach” the Bible but who do not teach it “rightly divided.” They are not “dividing” things that God has divided; they have thoroughly mixed the Bible verses. No wonder the professing church is so mixed-up and impotent today! May all the lost people hush, may all the false Bible users shush, and may all the non-dispensationalists hush, so confusion can subside and spiritual light can enter!

Understand and Enjoy the Bible! #4

Friday, January 8, 2016

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:15,16 KJV).

Although there is so much confusion about it, can we really understand and enjoy the Bible?

There are three primary reasons why there is such extensive argument about what the Bible actually says. Secondly, people who do not have God’s Word cannot understand and teach the Bible correctly. Notice 2 Corinthians 2:17: “For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”

People have corrupted Scripture, whether the first century or the twenty-first. Read 2 Thessalonians 2:2: “That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” Someone wrote a letter, forged Paul’s name on it, and then sent it to Thessalonica to pass it off as “God’s Word.” Satan’s ministers also did that centuries prior to Paul: “Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:32).

Between the first century A.D. and our present-day, many manuscripts and versions have been passed off as “God’s Word.” Friends, we would be fools to think they are all authentic. Beware of the modern-version forgeries! And yet, unbelieving “scholarship”—or saved people misled by unbelieving “scholarship”—values them and uses their “scholarly” (ha!) readings to correct God’s infallible Word. If someone is not using the proper Bible text (in English, the King James Bible), they have no business whatsoever in speaking or writing anything related to the Book they do not have.

A Life That Will Please

Monday, January 4, 2016

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone can live a life pleasing in God’s sight!

Everyone does “good” deeds. Yet, doing “good” is not necessarily good. For instance, people often do “good” just to receive praise/reward, make up for their wrongs, feel good, et cetera. Furthermore, despite our “good” deeds, we have plenty more bad ones! Pride, lying, evil thoughts, being a false witness, and being contentious are some of the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).

Mankind cannot even keep 10 simple rules from God. However, religion continues to urge us to keep seven sacraments, utter various prayers, give assorted offerings and “tithes,” attend numerous feasts and festivals, and perform sundry other tasks to “hopefully” please God and avoid hellfire. Whether we attempt to keep a church’s laws, our laws, or God’s laws, our flesh is far too weak to ever measure up. Just look at what God’s religion did to Israel—how much worse some man-made religion does to us!

As Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee, a religious leader of Israel. He was a nitpicker concerning Law-keeping, and yet, after his soul salvation, he admitted that all of his religion was “but dung” compared to Jesus Christ’s righteousness (Philippians 3:3-11). Even for the Christian, to live a perfect life is impossible (read of Paul’s miserable existence in Romans chapter 7). Paul had to forsake his vain religion and learn today’s Scripture: the Christian life is NOT the performance of the Christian, but the Lord Jesus Christ living and working in the Christian, as the Christian walks in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to him or her!

If we trust a Saviour who will save—the Lord Jesus Christ—and trust a Book that will teach—the King James Bible—we can redeem the year for the great God and our Saviour, “who loved [us], and gave himself for [us]!” 🙂

A Book That Will Teach

Sunday, January 3, 2016

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us who alone we can trust to teach us God’s truth!

Once, I heard a minister give his self-proclaimed “prophetic” message about top headlines that would appear in the coming year. While he reassured his audience that he received this information directly from “the Lord” (?), he gave a disclaimer: “I do not know, but at the end of this year, we will see if what I say came to pass.” Unlike the inner impressions and hunches of this “Christian” preacher, the Holy Bible is infallible, and we can trust its information completely.

Long, long ago, God Almighty wrote a Book, and He preserved it through history through a multiplicity of manuscript copies, so that it could eventually be translated into English, so we could read it even today! (Of course, Satan, the master counterfeiter that he is, most certainly had his own manuscripts—they still circulate today as corrupt Bible translations.) God promised to preserve His words forever (Psalm 12:6,7; Isaiah 30:8; Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:25). Consequently, every person will stand before Him one day to give account as to what he or she did with that Bible. Did we reject it in favor of counterfeits? Did we re-translate it to fit our denominational beliefs? Did we apply it to life by faith? Did we even read it at all?

As English-speaking people, we understand—or, at least, we should understand—that we can trust the 400-year-old King James Bible. Sadly, even in many church circles, we are often cautioned not to trust God’s preserved Word. Unfortunately, footnotes, study notes, and seminarians usually attempt to claim that authority by offering “better” readings or “better” manuscripts. Beloved, we can do without unbelieving textual critics and their “scholarship.” God does not need lost people to explain His Word to His children; He never did and He never will (1 Corinthians 2:14). Never forget that!

The Holy Spirit will teach us the King James Bible if we “read” (Ephesians 3:4), “study” (2 Timothy 2:15), and “consider” it (2 Timothy 2:7)!