Stephen Kotchen, RIP

Stephen Kotchen died last night, February 1, 2020. He was deaf. Stephen was a loyal reader of The Millstone Diaries, and he also followed me on various social media platforms.

Unlike most Americans I’ve encountered throughout my life, Stephen cared about truth. The Millstone Diaries will sorely miss him.

Rest in peace, my friend.

“the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.” 2 Timothy 2:19 (KJV)

 

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Ronald Reagan on the King James Bible

From the time of the apostles, Christians were united under the authority of the infallible, inerrant word of God.

 

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4 KJV)

For hundreds of years in North America, Protestant denominations were united under the authority of the King James Version of the Bible. However, today we are witnessing a divide among Protestants greater than at any time since the Reformation.

The various conflicting Bible versions that have flooded the markets in the twentieth century are the major reason for this divide. The omission, addition, and substitution of words in today’s modern Bible versions have divided Christians over doctrines and the meaning of scripture verses.

 

“In these days we may be accused of bibliolatry, and other new crimes; but we shall hold to our belief in inspiration.” Charles Spurgeon

God’s promise to preserve his words was not an empty promise. The King James Version of the Bible is God’s inspired, preserved word for the world’s English speaking people.

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Regarding the Inspiration and Reliability of the King James Bible

At 1:32 pm on August 31, 2019, I posted on Gab.com a link to the piece “Emerging Toward Rome and a New Dark Age” along with the following blurb:

“Now that the King James Bible has been removed from the hands of the majority of professing Christians, Satan’s false prophets are able to deceive them into thinking that the Roman Catholic Church is no longer the enemy of Bible-believing Christianity.”

On the same day, a little over three hours later, a retired pastor who posts at Gab.com under ChristianRepublic@Akzed responded with the following question:

Are you saying that it is the only inspired version?

Thus the exchange began:

My response: The Spirit in me has revealed it’s God’s preserved written word in English and the only English version of the Scripture that’s trustworthy. Does the S/spirit in you agree with this revelation?

ChristianRepublic@Akzed: So the Geneva Bible, Wycliffe’s translation, and others are unreliable? What are some signal differences between them and the KJV?

What does “textus receptus” mean and where did that phrase come from?

My response: Am I being quizzed here? Are you asking these questions because you really don’t know the answers and are seeking them, or are you compelled by a different spirit and laying a trap?

ChristianRepublic@Akzed: A man confident in his belief doesn’t mind it being questioned. In fact, he welcomes any opportunity to tell the truth. Please answer my questions, I’m not hostile. Iron sharpens iron.

My response: The KJV owes a great deal to earlier versions, particularly to William Tyndale and the Geneva Bible. I think the Geneva Bible is a good jumping off point and is not unreliable. But KJV stands head and shoulders above them and is the one version I trust above them all because of its superior scholarship and impact throughout the world. And the RCC hates it and has tried to destroy it for centuries. I’m not sure what you mean by “others” so specify. As for Wycliffe’s 14th century translation into English, it was done from the Latin Vulgate and is noteworthy for its bravery against a tyrannical church, but the Latin Vulgate is not a reliable translation of Scripture because of its corrupt manuscript strain from Alexandria, Egypt. As for the Majority Text, i.e., the Textus Receptus manuscripts, they come from Antioch, Syria, and are not corrupted with the Gnostic and pagan ideas that were incorporated into the corrupt manuscripts from Egypt. Are you sharp now? Peace.

“Often the statements made to question the KJV are made out of a lack of knowledge of the facts.” You want answers, read: The Roots of the KJV: Tyndale and the “Geneva Bible” at http://www.pennuto.com/bible/bibtabl.htm Peace.

ChristianRepublic@Akzed: Wow maybe you could just tell me your answers to these simple questions instead of referring me to a book. If you know the provanance of the Textus Receptus you could relay it to me in about five words.

My response: It’s not a book, it’s an article. Don’t be intellectually lazy.

ChristianRepublic@Akzed: I’m not aware of the Gnostic and pagan ideas in the Alexandrian texts, I’ve never seen that claim made. The various textual families were of course produced by scriptoria, and since some were more productive than others their manuscripts survive in greater numbers. The kinds of problems produced by these outfits are mainly copyists’ errors, not the introduction of heretical concepts.

Although the KJV is my go-to version, and the one I enjoy the most, there are some issues. One is e.g. its use of “bottles” for skins, which destroys the meaning of passages like e.g. Ps. 119:83 & Mark 2:22. I’m certain that the Holy Ghost doesn’t prefer “bottles” to “skins,” the latter being the word He chose to use.

Translating Elohim as “angels” in Ps. 8:5 was unnecessary, but the KJV’s Psalms committee used the Septuagint’s use of “angels” to inform their opinion here. It also carried enough weight with the Hebrews committee that it did the same with Hebrews 2:7.

The doxology at the end of the Lord’s Prayer in Mt. 6:13 is not found in the oldest manuscripts, but because it was so associated with this prayer in the liturgy in use at the time that it was included in the Greek NT text. There’s no proof that it was purposefully omitted from the earlier text due to some animus toward it: it was in fact an addition.

The title Textus Receptus comes from the publisher’s preface to an edition that followed Erasmus’s death, pledging that the Greek NT contained therein was the text that was received from the editor, Erasmus. It was not meant to imply that it is the text received from God, as some in your camp allege. Erasmus had six Greek testaments in his possession, not all were even complete NT’s.

There are other issues, but like I said the KJV is my favorite and these issues are explainable and understandable since they occurred in the age before the printing press or the Xerox machine. The Lord be with you.

My response: You must live a sheltered life not to be familiar with the claim that Gnostic and pagan ideas were incorporated in the Alexandrian manuscripts. Maybe you’re spending too much time with people like James White et al in your camp. You need a love for truth to find truth, you know?

You feign to be authoritative on the KJV translation, yet you don’t cite any sources to support where your information comes from. Do you actually think you’re as educated and accomplished as the least accomplished KJ translator? How accomplished and educated are the people from whom you derive your information about the unnecessary or omitted words in the KJV? You think they speak and read as many languages and know more about the ancient languages than the KJV translators?

To prove my point regarding Gnosticism and the Alexandrian text, the King James Bible reads, “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God….” The NIV reads, “Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not of God….” The NIV leaves out the word “Christ.” Why? Because it was translated from the Alexandrian line of Greek texts that had been corrupted by the Gnostics. For more information, see
“Christian” Gnosticisms Corruption of the Western/Alexandrian Manuscripts at
Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D.

BTW, it’s not a book, it’s an article.

ChristianRepublic@Akzed: Never heard of James White.

I didn’t cite any sources because I did my own work, unlike you. The article you attached cites Encyclopedia Britannica, not a scholarly source; in other words, you would lose points for citing it in a term paper. The article is nothing but inferences claiming that the GNT’s you don’t like are Gnostic because they quoted early texts not available to the KJV committees, I guess.

It doesn’t matter how learned a KJV translator was if he had only six texts to work from and not all were even complete Greek Testaments. Your answer to that is that all other sources discovered since the 16th Century are Gnostic. This is circular reasoning that would also cost you points in a high school term paper.

Not only are there thousands of texts that differ from the Roman Catholic editor Erasmus’s text, but NT citations in e.g. works by Ireneus and Augustine and countless other Church Fathers whose citations differ with Erasmus’s GNT, not to mention ancient breviaries and liturgies and sermons and essays that have been discovered since then that cite Scriptures that do not completely agree with the mere six incomplete sources he used. This is incontrovertible.

You believe that the Textus Receptus was the text received by the Church from God, when in fact it’s a term taken from a publisher’s preface to Erasmus’s GNT indicating that the text being published was received by the publisher from Erasmus. I have no doubt that this fact is news to you since you avoided commenting on it and probably can’t cite one of your heroes who explains this away.

Given your reliance upon the RC Erasmus’s GNT I’ll leave it to you to describe why he, whom Luther went to war with in “On the Bondage of the Will,” and who kept a mistress sanctioned by the pope, is your GNT source of choice. I guess that this RC source kept all of his RC prejudices out of his decision-making process when editing his GNT. How you determined this I don’t know, but what I do know is that the ignorance and arrogance you display is typical of all hillbilly theologians I’ve encountered.

My final response appeared as five separate posts and were labeled Parts 1-5:

Part 1

Although you say you never heard of James White, your disdain for Erasmus make you kindred spirits. As for doing your own work and not citing sources, I don’t what schools you’ve attend, but unless you’re an authority or expect on a subject, sources are necessary for credibility. You need to establish bone fides to be taken seriously, and of course you haven’t.

As for the article’s author citing the Britannica, he’s not writing an article for a scholarly journal or a term paper for a professor; he’s writing for a general audience and Britannica is an acceptable, credible source. What’s important is the accuracy of the material cited, more so than the source it comes from.

You say the article is based on inferences. If by inference you mean the author draws his conclusion based on evidence and reasoning, I agree. It’s what educated people who argue their assertions do; then again, it’s a brave new world now and it might be different in the schools you’ve attended.

The author did not claim the GNTs are Gnostic because they quoted early texts that were unavailable to the KJV committees. His claim is that they are Gnostic because the Gnostics redefined, rearranged, edited, and rewrote these early texts to fit their own purposes and to advance their own false teachings.

Part 2

You make the claim that, “it doesn’t matter how learned a KJV translator was if he had only six texts to work from and not all were even complete Greek Testaments.” And you follow that with, “Your answer to that is that all other sources discovered since the 16th Century are Gnostic.”

How can that be my answer when I was never given the opportunity to address your claim? Obviously, you’re putting words in my mouth.

Then you add insult to injury and say, “This [answer, which is your answer] is circular reasoning that would also cost you points in a high school term paper.”

You erect a straw man and knock it down by pointing out fallacious reasoning that actually belongs to you but you falsely attribute to me, and knowing full well that I had never responded to the claim you raised, you then ridicule my reasoning skills saying they are not at the high school level, much less the college level. Wow! Quite shameful to say the least. You really are one pathetic piece of work.

Although it’s true that the KJV is based primarily on the Greek New Testament text compiled by Erasmus in 1516, and that he used somewhere between 6-10 Greek manuscripts for the 1st edition of his Greek New Testament, your claim that a KJV translator had only six texts to work from is factually incorrect.

You’re either ignorant, loose with the truth, or just being deceptive to claim that the translators of the KJV were limited to or used only Erasmus’ manuscripts to translate the KJV. It’s true that Erasmus used the half-dozen or so manuscripts that were available to him in Bessel to compile the 1st edition of his Greek New Testament.

That said, no reputable scholar who’s studied this subject would dispute the claim that Erasmus had studied variant readings of the New Testament throughout his life before publishing his Greek New Testament, i.e., the Textus Receptus. In other words, Erasmus spent only two years in front of a handful of Greek manuscripts to compose his first edition, but his knowledge concerning the Greek New Testament and its variants did not come solely from his study of those few manuscripts during that two-year period.

Part 3

Note also the KJV was completed in 1611, 95 years after Erasmus completed his first edition of the Textus Receptus. It’s presumptive ignorance to assume that after Erasmus’ 1516 edition the next event was the translation of the King James Bible. At least 75 years of scholarship had gone into Erasmus’ Textus Receptus before the KJV was published.

Erasmus admitted that his first edition had been rushed and there were errors in it, so he updated his Textus Receptus in 1519, 1522, and 1527. Robert Estienne, aka Stephanus edited the Textus Receptus in 1546, 1549, 1550, and 1551, and Theodore Beza edited it nine times between 1565 and 1604. Most likely the translators used Beza’s 1598 edition of the Textus Receptus to underline the King James Bible.

Besides Beza’s 1598 edition, the KJV translators also had access to the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, The Coverdale Bible, The Matthew’s Bible, The Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Bishops Bible, Douay–Rheims Bible, and the Latin Vulgate Bible.

Your claim it’s incontrovertible that thousands of texts (works by Ireneus, Augustine, countless Church Fathers, and ancient breviaries, liturgies, sermons, essays that have been discovered after Erasmus’ Greek New Testament was published) all differ or disagree with Erasmus’ Textus Receptus is misleading and deceptive.

The truth is most manuscripts discovered over the past four hundred years agree more with the Textus Receptus than they do with the 1881 Greek text of B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort or with the modern Nestle-Aland/United Bible Society (NA/UBS) text. Also, the majority text (the majority of manuscripts in the Byzantine tradition) generally agrees with the Textus Receptus and not with Westcott and Hort or NA/USB.

The fact is the NA/UBS text (used by most modern Bible versions today) is a highly edited, composite text of readings from Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and other Alexandrian manuscripts, all of which disagree with each other in thousands of places (John William Burgon, The Revision Revised, p. 11).

Part 4

You write, “You believe that the Textus Receptus was the text received by the Church from God, when in fact it’s a term taken from a publisher’s preface to Erasmus’s GNT indicating that the text being published was received by the publisher from Erasmus.”

You seem to have a genuine problem quoting people correctly. I never said that I “believe that the Textus Receptus was the text received by the Church from God.” I also know that the term Textus Receptus or Received Text was taken from the blurb, “textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum,” i.e., “therefore you have the text now received by all” which first appeared in Elzevirs of Leyden’s second edition of their GNT about 120 years after Erasmus’ first edition of the GNT was published.

The claim I made is that I believe the King James Bible is God’s written word in English, and that I trust the KJV over the Roman Catholic Bible and all modern Bible versions because the manuscript line that underlies the KJV came through Antioch, Syria, and not through Alexandria, Egypt, which is the manuscript line for all Bible versions except the King James.

You wrote, “Given your reliance upon the RC Erasmus’s GNT I’ll leave it to you to describe why he, whom Luther went to war with in “On the Bondage of the Will,” and who kept a mistress sanctioned by the pope, is your GNT source of choice. I guess that this RC source kept all of his RC prejudices out of his decision-making process when editing his GNT. How you determined this I don’t know, but what I do know is that the ignorance and arrogance you display is typical of all hillbilly theologians I’ve encountered.”

My reliance is not on Erasmus, it’s on the Holy Spirit revealing God’s written truth in the KJV. The manuscripts that came from Syria are trustworthy because the “word of the LORD was published throughout all the region” in Antioch (Acts 13:49 KJV), and it is the place where the disciples were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26 KJV). One thing more, I agree with Luther’s position in Bondage of the Will, and not with Erasmus’ position regarding free will.

The fact that you’re concerned more with Erasmus’ “prejudices” than you are Jerome’s, Wescott’s and Hort’s, or the NA/UBS translators speaks volumes about your prejudices regarding this issue and your disregard for truth.

Part 5

This translation issue involves a great deal more than just determining which Bible to read or which manuscripts, Antioch or Alexandria, are more trustworthy. This issue involves the proper attitude towards God’s written word. Should a Christian’s attitude be more like the believers in Antioch who “cleave” to the Word of God, or more like the attitude of those in Alexandria who questioned, changed, corrected, added to, and deleted from the Word of God?

The number of manuscripts being found is continually growing. Virtually every year new manuscripts are discovered, and niche translations appear to satisfy various theological and social agendas. The KJV is a product of its era, so it has not been influenced by leftist theology, evolution theory, political-correctness, and ecumenicalism, and it does not change with the discovery of new manuscripts.

In actuality, the number of manuscripts is irrelevant if God providentially provides the manuscripts. A handful are more than enough to preserve His words.

In your closing remarks, you wrote that “the ignorance and arrogance you display is typical of all hillbilly theologians I’ve encountered.” Someone with even a cursory knowledge of Bible translations would know that Alexandria, Egypt is one of only two source lines from which the family of Bible manuscripts originated, and that textual line has been corrupted with pagan and Gnostic ideas.

And I’m the ignorant hillbilly? You’re sellin’ a load of crap, but nobody here’s buyin’ it.

Your hillbilly reference is not an insult; it’s a compliment, and I embrace it. After all it’s the first sign of discernment you’ve shown.

“For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh … are called:  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise” 1 Corinthians 1:26,27 KJV

Peace.

I.M. Kane

 

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Bunyan’s Allegory and the Christianity Group on Gab

Now Faithful play the Man, speak for thy God.

Fear not the wicked’s malice, nor their rod:

Speak boldly man, the Truth is on thy side;

Die for it, and to Life in triumph ride.

In many ways the Christianity group feature on Gab (a free speech social media alternative to Twitter) reminds me of the Vanity Fair in John Bunyan’s classic Pilgrims Progress. Like Bunyan’s Vanity Fair, Gab’s Christianity group is given over to frivolous pursuits and idle amusements.

Although Gab’s Christianity group is comprised mostly of unregenerate and reprobate Christians, it mirrors Bunyan’s fair in that it lures regenerate believers to the traditions, philosophies, and vain imaginings of a fallen world and away from the whole counsel of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ found only in Scripture.

As at Bunyan’s fair, “the ware of Rome and her merchandise is greatly promoted” so it is in Gab’s Christianity group. Although false gospels resound throughout the cyber group, chiefly promoted among them is Roman Catholicism’s false gospel.

Papal apologists stand at the ready to distract from the truth of Scripture and to direct attention away from it. And when all offers to recognize Church and papal supremacy are spurned and rejected, believers can expect to be verbally attacked and even threatened with violence by Church zealots and apologists.

Born-again believers are the special targets of the group’s hostility. Believers who refuse to conform to the ecumenical leanings of the maniacal group can expect to be taunted, insulted, and ridiculed.

The group’s unregenerate and reprobate Christians take great exception to anyone who claims that Scripture is the sole the authority for the Christian faith and that the King James Bible contains the only Scripture that is trustworthy.

The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy that there would be times like these. “[T]he Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (4:1-2 KJV). And reprobate Christians have a seared conscience.

The smorgasbord Christianity that pervades the Gab group is antithetical to Biblical Christianity. Scripture does not teach that God loves everybody or that everyone who believes in God or says “Jesus Christ is Lord” is Heaven bound.

There would be no need for repentance and salvation, and people would be able to think and do whatever is right in their own eyes if it were true that God loves everybody unconditionally.

Scripture clearly teaches that God does not love everybody, that people are sinners under God’s condemnation and judgment, and that repentance is necessary for salvation. The teachings of Scripture are unambiguous; God hates wickedness and all workers of iniquity.

Scripture also teaches that demons believe in God and are condemned to Hell, and that many who do great works and call Jesus Christ Lord will also spend eternity in Hell.

Biblical Christianity is exclusive and does not allow for people to pick and choose verses and passages willy nilly from a smorgasbord of options that they can combine with teachings from other religions or philosophies. Paul attests in Galatians that God does not take the bastardization of His Gospel lightly.

Generally speaking, the Christianity group on Gab displays no love for Biblical truth, nor do they want to hear it in clips or see it in placards, memes, or posts. Equivocation notwithstanding, I denounce the group’s rejection of Biblical truth.

However, as a proponent of freedom of speech and conscience (seared or not), I must defend the unregenerate and reprobate Christian’s right to reject Biblical truth. In fact, I champion both their right to reject it, as well as my right to say that they have done so.

Peace.

I.M. Kane

 

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Genesis 6:6 Figurative or Literal?

Scripture clearly teaches that God does not change His mind. “For I am the LORD, I change not” Malachi 3:6 KJV.

In Numbers we read, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (23:19 KJV)

The Apostle James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (1:17 KJV)

The three verses above state explicitly that God does not change His mind or repent as though He were making a mistake, backtracking, or trying a new approach. Yet, Genesis 6:6 says, “it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Keep in mind that one verse does not a doctrine make. Clearly Genesis 6:6 does not mean that God created humanity expecting human beings to follow Him, and He was dismayed when they didn’t and strayed.

The Bible uses figures of speech to accommodate human understanding. For example, the Bible uses anthropomorphism to ascribe physical attributes to God. The Apostle Peter refers to “the eyes of the Lord” (1 Peter 3:12), and the Apostle John mentions, the arm of the Lord (John 12:38), which depict God’s watchfulness and power respectively.

The Bible also uses anthropopathism to ascribe human feelings and passions to God. The words “repented” and “grieved” vividly portray, from a human perspective, God’s displeasure with man’s rebellion.

God’s written word uses anthropopathisms and anthropomorphisms to accommodate man’s inherent limitations and basic ignorance and to get a meaningful revelation through to him. A parent using “baby talk” to help toddlers understand more easily is another way to look at it.

The Bible uses words like “repented” and “grieved” after the manner of men to express God’s thoughts and actions. In other words, God graciously describes Himself as having human feelings, human passions, human thoughts, and human body parts to communicate effectively with man who would otherwise have no frame of reference.

Genesis 6:6 is figurative language, and not to be understood literally. God does not have eyes and arms because He is Spirit. Nor does He become emotional or get confounded over the depths of man’s depravity and wickedness because He knows everything that has happened or ever will happen and He inhabits the past, present, and future simultaneously.

The Millstone Diaries is dedicated to the truth that is of service to the Faith.

I.M. Kane

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Why I Read the King James Version of the Bible

I read the King James Bible (KJV) because it is vastly superior to every modern English translation of the Bible. Without question, the KJV is the best version available in the English language today.

The Lord Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35 KJV). The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to study the Scripture because the Scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV). God is faithful to His word; He would not inspire words that He would not preserve.

The Authorized or King James Version of the Bible is both a faithfully preserved text and a faithfully written translation. It is what God would have said had His words been written down in early modern English rather than Greek and Hebrew. Today’s modern English Bible versions such as the New International Version (NIV) are riddled with errors, omissions, and contradictions.

For example, the KJV says “faith” is one of the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22; the NIV replaces faith with “faithfulness” as one of the fruits.

Ephesians 5:9 is another example. The KJV says “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth”; the NIV omits the word Spirit and says “for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth.”

Contradictory Bible versions breed confusion among Christians. Since God is not the author of confusion, the confusion created by modern English Bible versions such as the NIV cannot be of God.

The KJV agrees with the majority of Bible manuscripts, which number over 5,000. Modern versions, including the NIV, are based on only a few manuscripts, which were rejected by the early church for being corrupt.

Initially 54 scholars and a few overseers (who went from group to group) were appointed in 1604 to translate the Authorized version. Seven translators died before the project was completed, leaving 47 to finish the job.

The translators worked at three locations: Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster. They were divided into six groups, two groups per location. The Bible was also divided into six sections. Each group took one section, working on one book at a time.

Each translator would make his own translation of the book, which was reviewed by each member of the group. The group then collectively reviewed the book. When they all agreed on the translation, they sent it on to the other five groups for evaluation. Those groups would mark anything they disagreed with before sending it back to the original group, which would read over the book again.

When all the groups finished with the book, it was sent to a select committee made up of one leader from each of the six groups to address any unresolved disagreements. The committee resolved all remaining issues before sending the book to the printers.

Unlike the “Revisers” of the late 19th Century (1871 – 1881), the KJV translators did not work in secret. The translators could ask an outside scholar for advice and input at any time. The churches remained in the loop throughout the process, and anyone could find out the status of the project.

Every Bible verse was carefully examined by as many as 50 or more people and decided upon a total of 14 times, which prevented the translator from imposing his personal viewpoint on a verse or passage. His translation had to be logically sound and reasonable or the appointed scholars would not write it into the text. These careful examinations prevented the translators from imposing their private interpretations on the verse.

The KJV translators wanted to put into English exactly what God said. Their primary concern was to find the exact English words to match the Greek and Hebrew. They used a “formal equivalence” technique, which prevented them from injecting their theological worldviews into the wording.

The translators of the modern Bible versions including the NIV use a “dynamic equivalence” translation technique. Instead of finding the exact English wording to match the original language, they try to interpret what the verse or passage means, and then they select the English words to convey that meaning.

The dynamic equivalence technique makes it easy for translators to impose their theological worldviews on the meaning of the verse. 

The upshot is the KJV faithfully presents what God said, and the modern versions present a translator’s interpretation of what God meant. Christians trying to decide which version to use must choose between what some translator thinks the Lord said and what the Lord actually said.

God does not make a promise that He doesn’t keep, and only the KJV upholds God’s promise to faithfully preserve His words.

Peace.

I.M. Kane

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Is the People’s God the God of Scripture?

Most people’s concept of God is foreign to what Scripture actually teaches, which explains why one of the most hated teachings of the Bible is the doctrine of God.

Most people believe that God is the cause of good things and not the cause of bad things such as earthquakes, war, sin, and evil. They believe that God is love, not justice, and a loving God honors their rights and freedoms to choose and permits them to do whatever they want to do.

The role for the people’s God is to get them out of trying situations, no questions asked, and to help them improve their lives and livelihood. The popular slogan, “Let go and let God” is as empty as it is meaningless.

The God of Scripture doesn’t need the people’s permission, approval, or agreement to perform His work or carry out His purpose.

The problem is the people’s God is not the God depicted throughout Scripture. Scripture repeatedly and emphatically teaches that God is a holy, just, Almighty Creator and that nothing exists apart from His will and power.

“And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee [Pharaoh] up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.” Exodus 9:16 KJV

“But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me” Job 23:13,14 KJV

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Proverbs 21:1 KJV

Studying the Bible is less dangerous than ignoring it. God’s written word is meant for all people. It was not written to be read and studied by priests, preachers, and scholars only.

Peace.

I.M. Kane

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God Is Not the Author of Sin, but He Causes It

God is the ultimate cause of everything, and He is neither responsible nor sinful. Whatever God does is just and right because righteousness is what God does.

God is the ultimate cause of sin, but is not its author. The immediate cause or author of sin is the one who commits it.

The laws that God imposes on men do not apply to Him because He is above law. God is the sovereign Creator, and He has absolute and unlimited rights over everything He created. He can make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor, and the vessel has no claim on Him.

God cannot be responsible for sin, even though He causes it. God’s causing Judas to betray Christ is not sinful. Judas, not God, betrayed Christ, and Judas, not God is the agent responsible for the sin. 

God doesn’t submit to law for no law is superior to Him. No law forbids Him from decreeing sinful acts to be carried out by secondary agents. 

Too often Christians have said that God permits sin, when the truth is He causes it. Scripture reveals how God decreed and caused the prophets of Ahab to lie:  

“I [Micaiah the prophet] saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. Then there came out a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil against thee.” 2 Chronicles 18:18-22 KJV 

The sinner is the author of sin and is responsible for it. God cannot be responsible for causing sin because there are no superior or greater powers to hold Him accountable and punish Him, and there are no laws for Him to disobey. 

Peace.

I.M. Kane

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What the Scripture Says about Women Pastors

Both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures make it clear that women are not to have spiritual authority over men. The OT teaches that men were under the law, and that women were under the men. This is God’s order.

God created man, and from the man He created the woman as a help mate, who by default is the weaker vessel. “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”

In The Fall, Eve was deceived by Satan, not Adam. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” Yet the sinful nature entered the human race through Adam, not Eve.

The sinful nature is passed on through the man, not through the woman, which is why the Christ had a human mother. Although she possessed a sinful nature, that nature could not be passed on to Jesus because God was His Father.

Jesus is the second Adam, and like the first Adam, He too did not have a sinful nature. However, He differed from Adam in that He could not disobey God and fall to temptation because He was the God-man “for God cannot be tempted with evil.”

25 Bible verses about women pastors

Many women say, “God called me to be a preacher.” Scripture teaches that God did not call them because God doesn’t contradict His Word. Scripture makes it clear that women are not to have spiritual authority over men.

See, https://biblereasons.com/women-pastors/ for the full article.

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PRAYER, PROMISE, PRECEPT 05-07-17

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