Guidelines for our Bible studies on this
website:
1. We treat the living
words of the living God as spoken by the Lord Jesus and given to the Apostle
Paul for the Body of Christ the same importance, as the words of the
Lord Jesus recorded in red letters in the books of
Matthew thru Acts Chp. 8, as
what should be known as the instructions to the nation Israel.
2. We will not be
wresting the scriptures against each other, we will look at the verses in their
context, and will not try to make the scriptures say anything, but what they
say.
3. We will be using the verses out of the Authorized Version,
commonly known as the KJV. It is fine if you want to look the verses up in
other translations if you like, but we will consider the Authorized Version as
our final written authority.
4. We do not and will not use the Greek,
Hebrew, Aramaic, or Latin languages to prove any points, or give any indication
that the Authorized Version has been incorrectly translated.
2Tim.2 [15] Study to shew thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth.
I hope these studies
are interesting enough to provoke you to study your Bible and for you to grow
in the grace and knowledge, of our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Since I was a young child I have
seen and participated in the Telephone game. I have seen the Telephone game
played by young and old. I have seen it played in homes, churches and in
schools, etc.
If you are not
familiar with the Telephone game I will give a brief description.
1. You get everyone
in place in order so you can keep track of who’s turn it is.
2. A person is
chosen to start the game. This person will think of a word or phrase and
whisper it to the person next to them. The word or phrase is an uncommon one,
as the idea is to see how much it changes by the game's end. Once
the word or phrase has been told to the next person, they will whisper it to
the person next to them.
3. Players
continue listening to the word or phrase and repeating what they think they
heard to the person next to them. This is done until the last person in the
line or circle is told the word or phrase.
4. Once the last person hears the word or phrase, they will
say what they think they heard out-loud. This is compared to the original word
or phrase that the game started with.
This is the moment
when all the players get to learn just how much the word or phrase changed
through their “telephone line”.
Now you may be
surprised, but many people believe that God spoke the Words, but as one man told
the next man what God said, it lost something in the translation, and was
changed into something other than what God spoke.
Now, if the God of
the Bible, which spoke the world into existence, gave the Word of God to man in
the original manuscripts, and then just left it to sinful men to haphazardly
pass it along with no help from himself, I would have to believe that we could
not trust God’s word.
But what I believe is the God of the Bible was not only
interested in the original manuscripts, but was also interested in copies, of
copies, of copies, etc. and ensuring the preservation of his Holy Words by
guiding holy men of God to preserve, and even translate his word into other
languages.
Psalms 12 [6] The words of the
LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times. [7] Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt
preserve them from this generation forever.
Matt.5 [18] For verily I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Now let’s look at how the Jewish scribes who were tasked with
recording God’s Holy Words performed their job.
Rom.3 [1] What advantage
then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? [2] Much every way:
chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.
The Jews were God's appointed guardians of his words according to
Romans 3:1-2.
Let’s look at the methods used by the Jews in fulfilling their
responsibilities as the guardians of these sacred texts.
There were eight rules that the Jewish copyists used in the
copying of the texts:
1. The parchment must be made from the skin of a clean animal
(clean meaning ceremonially clean according to the Old Testament sanitary
laws); must be prepared by a Jew only, and the skins must be fastened together
by strings taken from clean animals.
2. Each column must have no less than forty-eight, nor more than
sixty lines. The entire copy must be first lined.
3. The ink must be of no other color than black, and it must be
prepared according to a special recipe.
4. No word nor letter could be written from memory; the scribe must
have an authentic copy before him, and he must read and pronounce aloud each
word before writing it.
5. He must reverently wipe his pen each time before writing the
word for "God" (Elohim), and he must wash his whole body before
writing the name "Jehovah" (LORD in our King James Bibles), lest the
Holy Name be contaminated.
6. Strict rules were given concerning forms of the letters, spaces
between letters, words and sections, the use of the pen, the color of the
parchment, etc.
7. The revision (to correct any errors) of a roll must be made
within thirty days after the work was finished; otherwise it was worthless. One
mistake on a sheet condemned the entire sheet. If three mistakes were found on
any page, the entire manuscript was condemned.
8. Every word and every letter was counted, and if a letter was
omitted, or if an extra letter was inserted, or if two letters touched one
another, the manuscript was condemned and destroyed at once.
This type of attitude toward making copies of the words of the
living God, simply builds my faith in the ability of God to have men preserve
his Holy Word.
I was asked about
the New Testament and it’s preservation.
Jesus spoke his words
to his disciples (Jews) and then appeared to Paul and spoke words to
Paul giving him the position
of “Apostle to the Gentiles” and the instructions for the body of Christ in the
dispensation of Grace.
I believe that the
God of the Old Testament “Jesus” and the God of the New Testament “Jesus” simply
continued this well-established process for preserving his words.
With that being said
I also believe Satan has his men out there working
hard to make false copies and cause people to doubt God’s word.
In the end I believe Christians have to trust in the leading of
the Holy Spirit to discern truth from error, and which Bible can be trusted.
Now I want to go back to the Telephone game for a minute, I saw it
played in a front of a Church by it’s members on the pulpit stage.
It was
after that event at one of our Bible studies I had a friend bring pens and pads
to our house for another type of game.
A pen and pad were
given to each person. A printed verse on a sheet of paper was given to first person gathered at our house and
asked to copy the verse in it’s entirety including any commas, exclamation
marks, periods, etc. and all the words being careful not to make any mistakes
and pass it to the next person.
The results, unlike
the telephone game, when the last person presented what they had copied matched
the original.
I realize that
copying the whole Bible is more labor intensive, but this little example did
prove given enough time that we could have copied the entire Bible without any mistakes.
As a precautionary step we could have added proofreaders to our team to ensure
success, as every good writer and printer will have proofread or have
proofreaders check their work.
I am so thankful for
the Preachers that were my mentors. They were
Bible Believers and not bible correctors!
Satan is having a
field day with the Body of Christ with all these modern-day preachers.
They proclaim the gospel of the kingdom with its earthly kingdom. They teach repentance, confession of sins, and
water baptism are required to be saved or to be a member of a denomination.
They teach miraculous signs as evidence of salvation, such as speaking in
tongues and healing. They teach the observance of the law, teaching the
conditional forgiveness of sins based on forgiving others, teaching forsaking
all and selling all to gain eternal life. They proclaim to have the authority
to forgive sins.
These things are
simply incompatible with the truths found in the Pauline epistles and the
gospel of the grace of God. Even if you believe the Bible and you fail to
understand the word of truth rightly divided, you can be misled, not lost just
misled, and rendered a useless Christian witness.
We are saved not by
our works, but by our faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus!
Eph.2 [8] For by grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: [9] Not of works, lest
any man should boast.
With modern day
technology being what it is, it is very easy to do word searches and check when
someone quotes a Bible verse or tells you something is in the Bible for you to
look it up and verify if they are pulling your leg!
The Truth of God’s
Holy word is easy to determine if you let the Holy Spirit lead you.
Remember all of the
confusion among Christianity/Christians today can be attributed to the simple
fact that the church, the Body of Christ, does not recognize the separate,
distinct, and unique apostleship, ministry, and message of Paul.
If you have never
trusted the Lord Jesus as your savior, I encourage you to believe in him and
invite him to save you today! All one need do is to trust and believe in the
Lord Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins to be
made new in him.
Gal.2 [16] Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus
Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,
and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified
Eph.3 [17] That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, [19] And to know the love
of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fulness of God.
What a great day that will be
when Jesus Christ returns in all his glory. Friend don’t let that day take you
unawares. Today Jesus has his arms outstretched and open to sinners to put
their trust in him. One day we will all stand before him. He will either be our
savior or our judge, don’t put it off, invite Jesus to save you today!
"The crowd that will not accept one truth
will decay to the point that it does not accept one God: many denominations,
many translations, many gods."
2Tim.2 [15] Study
to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Come join with us
as we study God’s Holy Word!
Remember most
unsound Bible Doctrine, is sound Bible Doctrine misapplied to the
wrong time period, or wrong group of people.
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