Looking at the World.

When I read the many criticisms of the Bible and attacks on the historicity of Jesus Christ and also examine documentaries discussing movies like the De Vinci Code, I am amazed at the attitudes of these experts, who under the guise of objective investigation merely show their prejudice against the Bible.

Let me explain, as far as I know no other ancient historical literature has been treated like the Bible.

Thousands of ancient manuscripts carefully copied and translated by hand have been produced over spans of thousands of years. This makes the Bible unique. Furthermore, modern translations in almost every language have been produced and made access to the bible  worldwide. It has been regarded by many as having a good and constructive influence over their lives. A large section of it is regarded as the official history of the nation of Israel. Archaeologists often refer to it for guidance  in their search for ancient historical sites.  By contrast, secular documents whether historical or otherwise are generally only found in museums. There are generally only a few copies of these documents in existence and sometimes there are only references to them in other documents.  Yet out of all the ancient literature available it seems that it is only the bible and passages that refer to the Bible in other documents that have been singled out for skeptical criticism, whereas other historical accounts seem to be accepted without question. Why is it that it is the Bible that is always being questioned, yet it is the only document that has been treated with respect bordering on reverence by thousands of early copyists and translators. This is high suspicious and smacks of prejudice. The criticism is about both the Hebrew Scriptures and also the Greek Scriptures

I am a great believer in common sense. We know that in our time millions of books are being published on all subjects. It is extremely difficult to establish which are speaking the truth and which are not  Yet we also have much more evidence in our day to establish the truth of a matter than was available in Bible times. Consider the task facing these self-styled experts when examining a document  that was written 2000 or 3000 years ago. Consider the meager amount of external material they have available to study. Also the need to know when the document was written. and what the purpose of the document was. Was a related document also prejudiced or not? Their conclusions become just matters  of opinion, so how much confidence can we have in critics that may already have prior beliefs. For example, do they believe that prophecy can only be written after the event or that  miracles are impossible? They may even be evolutionists who reject creation. These are all prejudices that can affect their judgement. Yet these  experts will confidently tell us that this or that was added to the text, or will deny the validity of a document. The scholarship is somewhat different when textual scholars examine the Bible manuscripts. Here they have thousands of copies of the same documents from different time periods.  These can be compared with one another. In this way a later manuscript can be shown to have made a change from an earlier copy and so proving that the text has been changed. Scholars of the Higher Criticism do not use this method. They claim to analyse the writing style, and do not take into consideration that persons can write in different styles depending on the purpose. This occurs today.  By following this practice  and allowing personal beliefs to color their judgement, they will question the validity of a scriptural document or how the document it was produced. For example they chopped up the Genesis account into pieces of literature all woven together into one document. Is this logical? Or is it nonsense? Because they are considered to be experts their statements questioning the validity of documents are accepted as gospel truth by the majority of people. This is exactly what evolutionists do.

There is a relationship between the writers of the Greek scriptures and the Hebrew scriptures.  They all wholeheartedly believed in the inspiration of the Hebrew Scriptures. And used it extensively to supply authority for what they said.

The writers were all mainly Jews and their faith in the Hebrew Scriptures was so strong that they used  it extensively although it was the nation’s official history and exposed the nation’s failure to live up to its high standards.. Furthermore, during Jesus ministry and for a number of years after Jesus died, all Jesus followers were still Jews. The gospel writers pictured Jesus as a good man who quoted liberally from the Hebrew Scriptures to establish his authority. His followers  were also in a fine position to check their sacred writings and genealogies with the archived documents at the temple. They were able to verify what they were being taught. Consider these examples of the research  that the Bible writer Luke did in order to verify his writings. This Jews could check the genealogical records at their archives for themselves. These were available at the temple. Furthermore, Jesus ministry covered such a wide area that there would have been plenty of eyewitnesses to verify his work. Roman secular sources testify to the existence of the early Christians, stating that they were followers of “Christus.”  It would have been easy for any Jew to verify what he was being taught and particularly when it was quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures that were read regularly in the synagogues ,.

(Luke 1:1-4) . . .Whereas many have undertaken to compile a statement of the facts that are given full credence among us, ² just as those who from [the] beginning became eyewitnesses and attendants of the message delivered these to us, ³⁴ that you may know fully the certainty of the things that you have been taught orally. . . I resolved also, because I have traced all things from the start with accuracy, to write them in logical order to you, most excellent The·oph´i·lus,

(Luke 2:1-5) . . .Now in those days a decree went forth from Caesar Au·gus´tus for all the inhabited earth to be registered; ² (this first registration took place when Qui·rin´i·us was governor of Syria;) ³ and all people went traveling to be registered, each one to his own city. ⁴ Of course, Joseph also went up from Gal´i·lee, out of the city of Naz´a·reth, into Ju·de´a, to David’s city, which is called Beth´le·hem, because of his being a member of the house and family of David, ⁵ to get registered with Mary. . .

(Luke 3:1-2) . . .In the fifteenth year of the reign of Ti·be´ri·us Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Ju·de´a, and Herod was district ruler of Gal´i·lee, but Philip his brother was district ruler of the country of It·u·rae´a and Trach·o·ni´tis, and Ly·sa´ni·as was district ruler of Ab·i·le´ne, ² in the days of chief priest An´nas and of Ca´ia·phas, God’s declaration came to John the son of Zech·a·ri´ah in the wilderness. . .

All this information was available for Jesus neighbors and contemporaries to check for themselves.

The Bible Canon

The collection, or list, of books accepted as genuine and inspired Scripture is often referred to as the Bible canon.

One of the criticisms is that the books that appear in our Bible canon were decided by the Roman Catholic Church. Was this accusation true?

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, of the first century C.E., in his work Against Apion (I, 38-41 [8]), refers to all the books that were recognized by the Hebrews as sacred. He wrote: “We do not possess myriads of inconsistent books, conflicting with each other. Our books, those which are justly accredited, are but two and twenty [the equivalent of our 39 today, as is shown in the following explanation], and contain the record of all time. Of these, five are the books of Moses, comprising the laws and the traditional history from the birth of man down to the death of the lawgiver. . . . From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes, who succeeded Xerxes as king of Persia, the prophets subsequent to Moses wrote the history of the events of their own times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life.” Thus Josephus shows that the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures had been fixed long before the first century C.E.

We today list 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures whereas the traditional Jewish canon, while including these same books, counts them as 24. Some authorities, by putting Ruth with Judges and Lamentations with Jeremiah, counted the number of books as 22, though still holding to exactly the same canonical writings. The following is the list of the 24 books according to the traditional Jewish canon:

The Law (The Pentateuch)

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

The Prophets

6. Joshua

7. Judges

8. Samuel (First and Second together as one book)

9. Kings (First and Second together as one book)

10. Isaiah

11. Jeremiah

12. Ezekiel

13. The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, as one book)

The Writings (Hagiographa)

14. Psalms

15. Proverbs

16. Job

17. The Song of Solomon

18. Ruth

19. Lamentations

20. Ecclesiastes

21. Esther

22. Daniel

23. Ezra (Nehemiah was included with Ezra)

24. Chronicles (First and Second together as one book)

The Apocrypha

What are the Apocryphal books?

The term is applied to books of doubtful authorship or authority, or those that, while considered to be of some value for historical purposes, lacked the authority to be accepted as part of the canon. Such books were kept apart and not read publicly, hence the thought of “concealed.” At the Council of Carthage, in 397 C.E., it was proposed that seven of the Apocryphal books be added to the Hebrew Scriptures, along with additions to the canonical books of Esther and Daniel. However, it was not until as late as 1546, at the Council of Trent, that the Roman Catholic Church definitely confirmed the acceptance of these additions into its catalog of Bible books. These additions were Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, three additions to Daniel, First Maccabees, and Second Maccabees. However these extra non-canonical books generally only appear in official Roman Catholic Bible translations. Jesus and his apostles are never recorded as quoting from these non-canonical books and these do not appear in the majority of Bible translations today, From this it becomes apparent that the Jews were careful to screen out books that did not qualify. The individual writers of the Hebrew books that were accepted as inspired had to qualify. Very often they quoted from one another and  the later books had to harmonize with the previous writings. Therefore it is obvious that the people of those times were not quite so gullible as the critics may believe. The Greek scriptures also had to harmonize with the Hebrew scriptures and that is why they are filled with quotations from the Hebrew canon proving the authority of Jesus and what he taught. On the other hand many of these quotations exposed the Jews religion of the time as having strayed away from the teachings of the Hebrew scriptures,

Comment on the Hebrew Scriptures

Of course critics have attacked the Hebrew Scriptures and challenged its accuracy. Most of these critics are materialists. By this I mean that because they do not believe in God they question how certain miracles were done and use these criticisms to invoke doubt in the minds of their readers as to whether something was possible or not. I have noticed that even writers that have written in support of the Bible have often fallen into the trap of trying to explain miracles and other events by resorting to materialistic explanations.

Why do I say that they have fallen into the trap?

Because some of these explanations in themselves fail to take into account that with the power that God has at his disposal he does not need their naturalistic explanations.  They are using the faulty reasoning of the materialist. Consider this:- I have explained repeatedly in other articles on my site that the whole matter rests on whether the universe was always here or whether it was created. With all the present scientific knowledge pointing to a beginning we can safely say that science has established that God created the universe. Even evolution has to start somewhere. But once we establish the existence of a creator with the power, wisdom and know-how to creative the awesome universe that we find ourselves in, we do not require evolutionary or naturalistic explanations. To show how foolish to look for naturalistic explanations for many of the miracles of the Bible we may ask what naturalistic explanation will one  give for the creation of the universe?  Furthermore If we tried to explain to someone that lived 3000 years ago, that it was possible to converse face to face with a person thousands of miles way, they would certainly consider any explanation as far-fetched because our knowledge and understanding of how these things are done is far superior to theirs. The fact is that we can do certain things that could not be done in the past because of our superior knowledge. Likewise, the creator of this universe and with the knowledge that he possesses is certainly fully capable of doing things that are beyond our understanding, so why should we find it necessary to convince ourselves that it was possible for God to accomplish these things by resorting to imaginative naturalistic explanations. Faith in God’s ability to perform miracles is not a blind faith, but is strongly based on the evidence of the universe that he has created.

(Hebrews 11:1-3) 11 Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld. ² For by means of this the men of old times had witness borne to them. ³ By faith we perceive that the systems of things were put in order by God’s word, so that what is beheld has come to be out of things that do not appear.

Furthermore as the universe itself gives witness of being orderly and with the laws of nature being established as applying universally, we can be sure God has created for a purpose. Such a purpose can never be explained by evolution and has to be revealed by the creator himself.

As writing has been a means of communication for thousands of years, there is nothing unreasonable about God being able to select trustworthy men,  who have proved faithful and reliable and having them record the information that he wants us to know in writing. This is far better than having it passed down by word of mouth which is so much easier to be distorted over time..

As the Bible has all the earmarks of being written by honest men who were not afraid to admit there shortcomings and whose writings promoted honesty, trustworthiness and high morality. We are entitled to ask what reason could the Bible writers possibly have for resorting to a colossal lie in order to achieve their goal of promoting honesty, reliability, trustworthiness and high morality. This does not make sense. We certainly know more about the characters of the writers of the Bible than the characters of its critics. The Bible writers had nothing to gain except persecution and yet they promoted these high principles whereas the critics could be motivated by other motives.

Some of these possible motives could be the desire for unlimited freedom. Like many evolutionists, critics of the Bible may not like to accept responsibility for their actions. They do not like having to answer to a creator for their conduct. As the Bible promotes these high qualities and maintains that we have to answer to God for our conduct, it becomes obvious that some would love to be able to justify their desire for freedom from these restraints. If they could prove that God does not exist then this would open the door to the idea that high morality is only an opinion. Furthermore, the fact that they receive remuneration for their work and achieve notable standing amongst their followers, whereas Bible writers received nothing of that sort while they were alive, this brings the motives of the critics into question. Those that promoted Christianity and the Bible have always been an unpopular minority as secular historians like Tacitus have shown to be true. Governments always desire the total obedience of their subjects. If you doubt this then consider the existence of conscription laws. therefore it is understandable that they feel uneasy about persons that have a higher allegiance to God. We can  see this today in the way some governments treat their subjects. Furthermore the Clergy of Christendom have always led the field in persecuting person that have religious views different from their own.   During the dark ages, people were burned at the stake for owning, distributing and translating the Bible. As the Clergy exercised control and power over the lives of kings,  governments and the people in general during the dark ages, they were afraid of losing this power.  If the people became educated and read the Bible for themselves, then they might see how they were being exploited. This has been the same motives that the Jewish clergy had in opposing Jesus Christ according to the Bible itself.

(John 11:47-48) . . .Consequently the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the San´he·drin together and began to say: “What are we to do, because this man performs many signs? ⁴⁸ If we let him alone this way, they will all put faith in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

The Christian Greek Scriptures

Recently there have been many TV documentaries and much literature published, claiming to be an objective study of the Bible and its contents claiming to bring into question its truthfulness. I was also a victim of these tactics at one stage in my life. The story of my life bears testimony to the failure of Christendom’s clergy to teach their flocks accurate knowledge of the scriptures and how they were written. After 22 years in my church, I sat down one day and tried to read the Bible, confident that in all those years I should have had sufficient knowledge to understand it. I failed miserably and this caused me to become an evolutionist as this seemed to be the only possible alternative. Why did I become an evolutionist? Because I could not prove to myself the existence of God and the knowledge of the Bible that I possessed was limited to stories like Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath, the Christmas story and others. Miracles seemed preposterous to me because I lacked evidence of God’s existence  and knew little about the wisdom and design in creation. I reasoned materialistically and so found the miracles of the Bible to be unacceptable. The scene changed when someone who was studying with Jehovah’s witnesses stirred up my thinking by asking me to explain how evolution could have formed the human eye. That question started me on a new road. Questioning both evolution and the Bible. Studying with Jehovah’s witnesses opened my eyes to both science and religion as it set me on the right road to accurate knowledge.

The recent interest in the De Vinci Code emphasized  how receptive people in general are to the wild speculations and superstitions that exist.

The De Vinci Code has been written as fiction, but has caused many persons to doubt and wonder whether it is possible that their are other books that give the actual true story concerning Jesus. By referring to actual authentic documents that are in existence the story has been made to appear that it is all part of a vast conspiracy to withold this information from the people.  The final result is that doubts have been cast on the reliableness of the actual gospel accounts.  However the Gospel accounts all fulfill teachings found in the Hebrew Scriptures, as they need to do to be authentic. For example the basic teachings of the whole Bible points to the ransom of Jesus Christ. The prophecies pointed to man’s need to be ransomed and further gave signs to identify Messiah when he arrived. His death was predicted and even his resurrection. The present gospel accounts and the other books at present in the Greek Scripture canon all are in harmony with the Hebrew Scriptures..  If one accepts the nonsense about Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene and also the other spurious accounts taught in these later writings, which have been excluded by the early catalogues, then it nullifies the Hebrew Scriptures and all understanding of how the ransom works.

As the Hebrew canon was already in existence before Jesus time what was already written was fixed before the apostles or Jesus even lived on earth. In my article “Can Bible Prophecy be Trusted? “  I explain the prophecy of Daniel nine in detail.

The Bible confirmed By its Internal Harmony

Bible critics from the school of Higher Criticism which is based on evolutionary teaching assumed that all prophecies were written after the event. This was because like all materialists they cannot except the miracle of Bible prophecy.

In the book of Daniel, at chapter 9, the prophecy gave the means to calculate the year when the arrival of the long awaited Messiah would occur. Daniel also reported that Messiah would die after a three and a half year ministry. What is more, it showed that some time after those events Jerusalem and its temple would be destroyed. This occurred in 70 CE, long after Daniel, and even Jesus had died. This is true prophecy.

To prove that Daniel had written his prophecy long before Jesus time, the gospel writers actually showed a number of occasions where not only did Jesus refer to Daniel by name, but he actually gave more detail to Daniel’s prophecy. Daniel had even prophesied when Jesus’ own death would occur. Thirty-seven years later when the Romans came and fulfilled Daniel’s prophecy regarding the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple, the historian Josephus described in detail what had occurred in his history, “The Jewish Wars.” The details in his history also supported the very detailed information that Jesus had given his disciples on what step they should take to escape the destruction. The preservation of the early Christian Congregation proved that they had accepted and acted on the warnings given.

For the Higher Critics claim that prophecy was written after the fulfillment to be true, it would mean that the book of Daniel was written after 70 CE and that the gospels had all been writen after 70 CE . Then how would we account for the vast number of Christians that were able to survive the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple because of following Jesus instructions of what they should do to escape the destruction. The writings of the Jewish historian Josephus that was written during the 1st century and which listed all the accepted Hebrew books in the Jewish canon included Daniel show that this criticism is absolute nonsense.

When we appreciate that Jesus began his ministry in 29 CE., was put to death in 33CE, and that the Jews that became Christians and followed Jesus warnings actually escaped the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, and were alive to continue with the spread of Christianity, then we can see the practical value of following the Bible. Furthermore these facts were predicted in Daniel’s prophecy. To get the details of what I have summarized, you need to read the article “Can You Trust Bible Prophecy” on my site.

None of these events could have been written after the event, proving the validity of Bible prophecy and the reliableness of the Bible itself.

The basic Bible teaching that Adam and Eve were created perfect by God, has also been disputed as being unreasonable by critics, but what is unreasonable about the human race originating from a human pair at the beginning. Once we have proved that there is a God who created this universe then the whole picture is perfectly reasonable and it is the critic who allows his materialistic approach to prevent hism from seeing the truth.

The Failure of Evolution

The Bible’s report that the first humans were created perfect and that thereafter they wilfully disobeyed God  and brought God’s sentence of death upon them which they passed on to their offspring is the only reasonable explanation why our lives are so short in comparison with other living creatures. Evolution cannot give a satisfactory answer to this problem because we are supposed to be the highest form of life on earth today. The Bible foretold degeneration and not an upward climb toward perfection such as that envisaged by evolutionists. The present state of the world supports the Bible as the evidence shows that man has degenerated and become more animalistic. Apart from the moral degeneration of society, there has been an increase of crime and ethnic violence. Humans are behaving more like unreasoning animals and also fulfilling Bible prophecy.

(2 Peter 2:12-13) ¹² But these [men], like unreasoning animals born naturally to be caught and destroyed, will, in the things of which they are ignorant and speak abusively, even suffer destruction in their own [course of] destruction, ¹³ wronging themselves as a reward for wrongdoing. . .

We may also ask evolutionists whether trees are a higher form of life because some of them are thousands of years old.

the True Teaching of the Bible

To restore what the first human pair lost for their children, justice required a ransom arrangement. The principle is a legal arrangement that is simple to understand. A perfect man possessing in his body the right to pass on his perfection to his offspring was rejected by God because of his willful disobedience. As God no longer sustained him he began to degenerate and passed on a degenerating inheritance to his offspring. As Adam’s  degenerate offspring we no longer have the ability to perfectly obey God and so although it is not our fault, our failure to keep God’s requirements condemn us as lawbreakers also to death. Because God is not only all-powerful and just but he is also compassionate and kind, he has mercifully made a legal provision to rectify the matter. Because he runs the universe on the trust that his creation have in him he cannot deny himself and to achieve his objective, he had to make a legal arrangement to rescue the fallen human race. This provision was the ransom arrangement.

The way that it worked was also simple to understand. If a perfect human, perfect like Adam remained absolutely obedient to God, was unjustly put to death, his death would cancel out what Adam did and  he would still have the right like Adam to a perfect human family.

To have this work God could not just create another perfect human and have him die. If he was resurrected he would simply have taken back what he lost. On the other hand if he remained dead how could he father this perfect family?

God overcame the problem by taking the life of his foremost spirit son and implanted it in the womb of an imperfect human mother. As God was the father of this embryo, as an earthly son of God, the child was perfect and was able to grow to manhood, when he would face these trials of obedience. After Jesus paid the ransom price by his death, God could resurrect him back to heaven, as he had done nothing to disqualify him from his earlier heavenly life. In that position he still had the right to a perfect human family although he could not have this family by normal means. However he could adopt those humans who, although imperfect showed by their efforts to be obedient, that they would be perfectly obedient once they were perfect.

These humans will be brought back in the resurrection on earth and gradually brought to perfection by the healing power that Jesus as their heavenly king possesses. In this way God restores what Adam lost for us, but in a legal way.

All these facts were already recorded as prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures and were supported by the teachings of the gospel accounts and other Christian books found in our Bibles

The Rise of Apostasy

These self-styled critics need to study the Bible more correctly. For example, Jesus predicted the arising of apostasy after his death. All of these things I have discussed previously in other articles on my site. The apostle Paul claimed that already in his day these apostates were attempting to mislead the true Christians. He then predicted that after their restraining influence was removed, (doubtless with the death of the apostles) the apostasy would take over. All this had been predicted by Jesus. The last Bible writer John in his final years wrote that the last hour of true Christianity was at hand, because of the rise of apostates whom he called Antichrists. So between the end of the 1^st century and the year 325 CE., When the official Roman Catholic religion was formed under Emperor Constantine’s direction, about 200 years were available for apostate writings, and other false teaching to be brought into the new apostate Christian religion. It was during this time that these apostate writings were written. These so-called extra missing books  are only authentic in that they are not modern day creations, masquerading as ancient documents. . However being ancient documents did not mean that they belonged in the Greek scripture canon. These extra books were only written hundreds of years after the writing of the Greek Scriptures as the early catalogues show. These early catalogues listed the canon of books that are in our Bibles today. Contrary to any claim that the Roman Catholic Church had a hand in deciding which books were to be included in the canon of inspired scripture, earlier catalogues of the Christian Greek scriptures support the Christian Greek writings that are in our Bible’s today and these definitely exclude these other apostate writings, As we have seen the Hebrew canon had already been established before Christ’s time.

But just as all Christians did not become apostate at the same time, efforts were made to make sure that what was included in the Greek Canon met with the requirements of authenticity. That is why the early catalogues prior to 325 CE never ever included these so-called missing books.  We can be certain that the canonical books in our modern day Bibles were the accepted writings in the canon of the Greek scriptures. The Devils has always tried to work in apostate literature so as to blur the truth.

It was after 325 CE that the breakaway from the Roman Catholic Church began to occur. These breakaway churches continued to accept most of the basic teachings of the Roman Catholic Church except for the small changes that was the reason for their breaking away, The legends and myths that arose were the result of the ignorance of the people as to the teachings of the Bible and are not to be confused with the true Christianity of the Bible. Relics began to be worshipped and all sort of imaginative stories appeared, many of them doubtless based on many of these non-canonical writings. Myths about Jesus marrying Mary Magdalene are therefore merely the results of apostate teaching. The Bible had predicted the rise of false teaching. The authenticity of these later documents mean nothing as they were all introduced many years after the Bible’s canon was established. This fact is verified by the catalogues that we have from those days. This is one of the benefits of the Bible. Its many manuscripts all help honest scholars to arrive at what is truth.

(2 Timothy 4:3-5) . . .For there will be a period of time when they will not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they will accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, whereas they will be turned aside to false stories. ⁵ You, though, keep your senses in all things, suffer evil, do [the] work of an evangelizer, fully accomplish your ministry.

The Importance of Accurate Knowledge

Here is a  typical example of how efforts to change the texts of the Bible fail.

The Authorized or King James Version of the Bible tranlated 1 John 5:7

“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”

Whereas the American Standard Version translates the same verse as:-

“And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth”

Why the difference? The King James translation was made from a text know as the “textus receptus.” Whereas the Amercan Standard version has been translated from older manuscripts. Obviously the later manuscript attempted to change the text, but the older manuscript showed what the original text was. Most modern Bibles are translated from a text which has been compiled from older manuscripts.

Today no modern translation uses the King James rendering because it has been exposed as being a spurious addition to the text. This does not mean that one cannot use the King James version. We can still learn the truth from most Bible translation, as long as we remember that the translation is not directly inspired by God. If we find a contradiction in it then we need to check further, perhaps using analytical concordances or other translations to see if the text can be translated some other way that will be harmonious with the rest of the Bible.  However during the 1950’s most clergymen accused Jehovah’s witnesses of changing the Bible until they became aware of the fact that their own scholars had made these discoveries.

The important thing to remember is that Satan the Devil, God’s adversary has always been attacking the Bible and trying to discredit it in the people’s eyes.

The attack first started by an attempt to keep the Bible in dead languages. This was instituted by the apostate clergy of Christendom. It was claimed that it needed to be interpreted by the clergy and therefore laypersons should not have access to it. By these means Bible translators and Copyists were tortured and burned at the stake for trying to bring the Bible to the people.

During this time many broke away to form new churches because of the peoples attempts to get  knowledge from the Bible. Unfortunately there was no return to accurate truth because, according to Bible prophecy the apostasy was only to be exposed during the  2^nd presence of Jesus Christ, ( My other articles supply the details and proof of these prophecies)

(Daniel 12:4) . . .And as for you, O Daniel, make secret the words and seal up the book, until the time of [the] end. Many will rove about, and the [true] knowledge will become abundant.. . .

(Daniel 12:9-10) . . .And he went on to say: “Go, Daniel, because the words are made secret and sealed up until the time of [the] end. ¹⁰ Many will cleanse themselves and whiten themselves and will be refined. And the wicked ones will certainly act wickedly, and no wicked ones at all will understand; but the ones having insight will understand.

The Failure of Criticism

When this attempt to keep the Bible away from the people failed because of the invention of the printing press it became necessary to use other means. From then on the clergy began to introduce their own official Bible translations so as to maintain their influence on the people. At the same time they introduced different forms of scholarship, such as the “Higher Criticism.” It is well known that Charles Darwin had achieved his academic qualifications by studying theology with the clergy of Christendom. Obviously his studies brought him no closer to God and only raised more questions in his mind and so he eventually took a post as a naturalist on the ship, the Beagle resulting in his writing “Origin of the Species.”

The late 19^th and 20^th century has abounded with scholars whose purpose was to break down people’s faith in the Bible, whilst at the same time pretending to be teaching the Bible. When my children were growing up, I went through their school text books on “Social Studies” and blackened out all the faith destroying assertions that these writers were inserting into their books so as to tear down the faith of the children. The fact is that accurate knowledge is the key to resisting all these faith-destroying schemes of the Devil. Consider what the Bible has to say about the purpose of the true Congregation and it will become apparent that the Bible advocates that persons are not to be pew sitters, but every Christian should be able to defend himself against false teaching because of his accurate knowledge of the Bible.

(Ephesians 4:11-15) . . .And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers, ¹² with a view to the readjustment of the holy ones, for ministerial work, for the building up of the body of the Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the oneness in the faith and in the accurate knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of stature that belongs to the fullness of the Christ; ¹⁴ in order that we should no longer be babes, tossed about as by waves and carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching by means of the trickery of men, by means of cunning in contriving error. ¹⁵ But speaking the truth, let us by love grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. . .

This is what Jehovah’s witnesses have done and that is why they are at present disliked by the clergy of Christendom, who misrepresent them to political authorities and try to have their preaching methods outlawed although these were the very methods used by Jesus and his apostles. If one looks at the official Watchtower site and also the site called knocking which is an objective secular consideration of Jehovah’s witnesses examples of this persecution will be shown. The links to these sites can be obtained by looking at the links on my site

My advice to you is to ask Jehovah’s witnesses to study with you and if you are unable to get hold of them, to look at the Watchtower official site and contact them if necessary.

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