Category: the Bible

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Belief in God Biblical doctrines Christianity Israel the Bible

The Chosen

If you have not yet seen this new video series on the life of Jesus Christ I recommend it to you. So far season 1 has been released (8 episodes) and free. It is available on various platforms including YouTube.

It is very engaging though it fills in details of the biblical events depicted. Of course a lot of the filled in details are not found in the Bible but they are totally reasonable within our understanding of the life people lived then.

See also https://studios.vidangel.com/the-chosen/

The next seasons are crowd funded and as a result they will make as many as they are able. It is worth listening to the some of the discussions with the director and actors as it also is inspiring. All are strong believers and want this series to be used to bring in the unsaved.

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Biblical doctrines Greek New Testament the Bible

The inspiration of Scripture

At some point in the history of the Christian Church, the Church chose the writings (gospels and epistles) of the Apostles and other disciples as the canonical inspired Scriptures. How were those Scriptures chosen? And what constitutes inspired Scriptures? How were they established?

Quite obviously the writings, which now constitutes the accepted Scriptures, were written by humans and not directly by God like He did when He wrote the 10 commandments (with Moses) on Mount Sinai using His own finger to write in stone.  So what defines inspired writings in the vein of 2 Timothy 3:16?

All scripture is given by inspiration of God [meaning God breathed], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

We know through the 1st to 3rd centuries AD there were many cults and schisms in the early Church over different heresies. There were many spurious writings claiming inspiration of God, including false gospels, some promoting pet heresies. Then in the modern period there have been much discussion about the preservation of the inspired writings.

In 1881 Westcott and Hort produced the first revised Greek NT manuscript, since the late 16th century, which they compiled largely from the Codex Sinaiticus, also known as “Aleph” (the Hebrew letter א), found by Tischendorf in 1859 at the Monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai, and, Codex Vaticanus, also known as “B”, which was found in the Vatican.  It is not known when B arrived at the Vatican, but it was included in a catalog listing in 1475. Both of these manuscripts are dated to the 4th century.

evidence-for-including-1-john-5-7-johannine-comma-kjv

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Bible prophecy Book of Revelation Roman Catholic Church the Bible The Papacy the Reformation

Revelation 11

In the last chapter we saw the revelation deal with the open book, which symbolised the Bible that God thrust upon the nations in their own native languages after the Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church was opposed to its circulation, and many persons were burned for the only crime of possessing a Bible. With that book John the Apostle was commanded to preach the true gospel. That was representative of the missions to spread the gospel to the world. Events continue on from there. Chapter 11 events occur under the sixth trumpet up to verse 15 when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet and the Lord returns to claim His kingdom.

This chapter opens with the Apostle John being given a reed to measure with (v.1). It is a divine measure, not by man’s standards but by God’s. There is a divine standard for measurement, given to the Apostles by Christ, and that is the New Testament of Jesus Christ.

bene0

The revelations always apply to peoples and nations not buildings and things. In verse 1 “…measure the temple of God, and the altar and them that worship therein” symbolises the true Church, the true faithful believers. They are measured against the Word of God, but the false church measures itself by its false pagan traditions, decisions of the Popes and decrees of councils.

Thus “the court … outside the temple” which is “given to the Gentiles” (v.2) symbolises the false church, the false institutionalised Latin Roman church, of religionists, which persecutes  “tread under foot” the true Church for “forty and two months” or 1260 days. The period of time many have suggested is calculated by a day symbolising a year. Isaac Newton wrote that these ‘days’ are actually prophetic years. Therefore the Roman church persecutes the true believers for 1260 years, though I believe that this could be symbolic of a longer period of time than that.

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Church History Greek New Testament the Bible

Which is the best English Bible?

KJV

The King James Bible (KJB) was translated from the traditional Hebrew and Greek texts (Masoretic Hebrew Text, The Second Great Rabbinic Bible and the Greek Textus Receptus  (TR) or Received Text) and God’s Words in these original sources most Christians would agree are verbally inspired or God breathed. 2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God,…”.

But here’s what interesting. Modern translations (after 1880) are largely based on the Nestle-Aland Greek text, which is an edited version of the Westcott-Hort Greek text, which is largely the Codex Vaticanus with some corrections from Codex Sinaiticus, not Textus Receptus (TR) the Greek Text on which the KJB is based. The Nestle-Aland Greek text differs from the TR by about 9,970 Greek word differences, additions or subtractions equalling 7% of the total 140,521 words in TR. 

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Belief in God Biblical doctrines the Bible

Who is the Day Star?

From one of the very first weeks of Creation, in the Garden of Eden, Satan, the Devil, has tried to usurp the power of the Creator God. Satan is also called Lucifer, a name derived from the Latin words “Luc” meaning “light” and “ferre” meaning “bearer.”

A powerful angel was he created, the number one angel in heaven, the “bearer of the light.” But he was not happy with that and wanted to be God himself. So he rebelled, because of his pride, and has been rebelling against God and His created order ever since.

Gustave Dore. Lucifer
Lucifer by Gustave Dore

Though cast down from his former state, he continues to pass himself off as a pure and good being.

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Biblical doctrines Church History the Bible

Why are John 7:53—8:11 doubted in many modern Bible translations?

The Traditional Text of the New Testament (in original Greek or other languages, i.e. Versions) traces its continuous history back to the earliest times of the Christian Church. But since 1881 with the Revisers of the Sacred Text the verses, about the woman taken in adultery, John 7:53—8:11, are doubted to have been originally inspired and hence it is claimed by some that they did not appear in the original Greek language manuscript of the Gospel of St. John.

In the following, expert textual critic, John Burgon outlines his case in favour of the Pericope de Adultera, as the verses are called, as genuine inspired writing of the Holy Spirit in the original 4th Gospel. The case for their omission is led by a small group of the earliest extant uncial manuscripts headed up by the Codexes Vaticanus B and Sinaiticus ℵ (Aleph).

9781888328035The following text is excerpted from Dean John William Burgon’s book “The Causes of Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Gospels,” Volume II, pp. 232-265, with only some of the original footnotes (with my emphases in bold and my editorial comments in {} brackets).

APPENDIX I

PERICOPE DE ADULTERA

I HAVE purposely reserved for the last the most difficult problem of all: viz. those twelve famous verses of St. John’s Gospel (chap. vii. 53 to viii. 11) which contain the history of ‘the woman taken in adultery,’—the pericope de adultera, as it is called. Altogether indispensable is it that the reader should approach this portion of the Gospel with the greatest amount of experience and the largest preparation. Convenient would it be, no doubt, if he could further divest himself of prejudice; but that is perhaps impossible. Let him at least endeavour to weigh the evidence which shall now be laid before him impartial scales. He must do so perforce, if he would judge rightly: for the matter to be discussed is confessedly very peculiar: in some respects, even unique. Let me convince him at once of the truth of what has been so far spoken.

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Church History the Bible

Causes of corruption in the Traditional Text

The Traditional Text of the New Testament (in original Greek or other languages, i.e. Versions) from which the true believers took their spiritual sustenance through all ages goes back to the earliest times of the Christian Church. But so does corruptions of that text in the original Greek language. The causes of corruption introduced to the Traditional Text of Holy Scripture can be broken into two categories, Unintentional and Intentional. Unintentional causes include various kinds of copyist errors. In the following, expert textual critic, John Burgon explains how and what some intentional errors were introduced by heretics into some early manuscripts. The corruption was chiefly at the hands of the editors of a small band of manuscripts headed up by the Codexes Vaticanus B and Sinaiticus ℵ (Aleph).

9781888328035The following text is excerpted from Dean John William Burgon’s book “The Causes of Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Gospels,” Volume II, pp. 192-205, without original footnotes (with my emphases in bold and my comments in {} brackets).

CHAPTER XIII: CAUSES OF CORRUPTION CHIEFLY INTENTIONAL.

IX CORRUPTION BY HERETICS

We are constrained to inquire, How all this can possibly have come about? Have there even been persons who made it their business of set purpose to corrupt the [sacred deposit of Holy Scripture entrusted to the Church for the perpetual illumination of all ages till the Lord should come ?]

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Church History the Bible The Papacy the Reformation

Where are God’s actual Words written?

Would you believe it if someone told you that the Christian Church has been without the true Words of God for at least the period of c.350 to 1870? I am talking about the Gospels and the writings of the early Apostles in their original Greek language. Talk about a conspiracy theory! But that is essentially what we are expected to believe.

423px-Holbein-erasmus
Erasmus of Rotterdam Credit: textus-receptus.com Holbein-erasmus.jpg

You say, how come? We are expected to believe that the Traditional Text of the New Testament, which was passed down through the ages, was copied over and over again, was used by the persecuted Church since the days of the Apostles until Erasmus (in 1516) compiled a Greek New Testament from chosen manuscripts to the produce the Received Text (Textus Receptus), which was eventually translated and published in English in the Authorised King James Bible, was not the true Words of God but contained many early corruptions, which had arisen during the first few centuries of the Church.

That is an incredible story. We are expected to believe that God left His Church without the true text of the New Testament for  about 1520 years until a few men found several manuscripts (one in the Vatican library, one in the waste basket in St Catherine’s monastery in Sinai) from which they were able to recover the true Words of God. Really??

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Belief in God Biblical doctrines the Bible

The Deity of Christ in the New Testament Scriptures

The deity of Christ is explicitly stated in the Scriptures. But some verses are subject to the revisionists who exclude certain readings, depending on which Greek NT manuscript they were translated from.  Whether the Traditional Text in the Textus Receptus (the Received Text, published by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1516 A.D.) is used or the Critical Text (CT), derived from the revised Greek NT of Westcott and Hort. Thus the CT is based largely on the 4th century Vaticanus B codex (book) with some readings from the Sinaiticus ℵ (Aleph) codex and a handful of others manuscripts.1 Refer here for more details on some of their corruptions.

The Textus Receptus (TR) has been classified into what some call the Majority Text (MT) because the majority (99%) of extant Greek manuscripts (mss) agree with its readings. However most modern Bible translations rely on the CT where the claim is made that the older mss are more accurate, i.e. closer to the original autographs, which, by the way, are all lost.

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Greek New Testament the Bible

Making sense of the Census of Quirinius

by Mark Rogers

In regards to the year of Jesus’ birth there have been various proposals. In particular there has been some debate about what Luke 2:1-5 really means. The debate revolves around when the empire-wide censuses took place in relation to Christ’s birth. James Trimm outlines his explanation in Birth of Yeshua at Sukkot Luke 2:1-7.  Jonathan Sarfati outlines his proposal in The Census of Quirinius. Here I would just like to suggest that there may be a simpler explanation.

What I assert is that the answer is not to be found in the dubious idea that Quirinius ruled Syria twice. The simple proposal that I suggest here is that there are two entirely different Greek words used in Luke 2:1-5, and not one, which unfortunately for 2,000 years many theologians, Bible scholars, historians, linguists, and translators have failed to notice.

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