Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth… ~ Addendum Page

Addendum #1        

Bible Study Resources 

~ COMMENTARIES **

CRITICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL COMMENTARY, (6 vols) Robert Jamieson, A.R. Faussett, David Brown, William B. Eerdmans Publishing company, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA. ****

ALBERT BARNES’ NOTES ON THE BIBLE, Albert Barnes, Blackie and Sons Publications, London, 1851.  Reprinted by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA. ****

THE PULPIT COMMENTARY (26 Vol), H.D.M. Spence & Joseph S. Exell, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA, 1950. ****

ADAM CLARKE’S COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, Parsons Technology, Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA 52404, USA, 1999, Electronic Media. ****

COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT, C. F. Keil, & F. Delitzsch, (trans. from the German, 10 vols), William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 1978. ***

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE NEW TESTAMENT, (11 vols), Heinrich A.W. Meyer, T & T Clark, London, 1883.

THE KJV PARALLEL BIBLE COMMENTARY, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN 37234, USA 1994. ***

THE VICTOR BIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTARY, NEW TESTAMENT, Lawrence O. Richards, Victor books, 1825 College Ave., Wheaton Illinois 60187, USA, 1994, [Though this author disagrees with their use of the NIV, TLB, PH]. ***

EVANGELICAL COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE, Walter A. Elwell, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids MI 49516, USA, 1994, [Though this author adamantly disagrees with their use of the NIV]. ***

BELIEVERS BIBLE COMMENTARY, William McDonald, Thomas Nelson publishers, Nashville TN, 1995. ***

THE IVP BIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTARY, NEW TESTAMENT, Craig S. Keener, inner varsity press, Downers Grove Illinois 60515, USA, 1993. ***

NEW COMMENTARY ON THE WHOLE BIBLE (Based on the classic commentary of Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown), General Editor: J. D. Douglas, New Testament Editor: Philip W. Comfort, 2008, Electronic Media. ***

BIBLE BACKGROUND COMMENTARY, NEW TESTAMENT, Lawrence O. Richards, Victor Books, Wheaton, IL 60187, USA, 1994. ***

WILLMINGTON’S GUIDE OF THE BIBLE, Dr. H. L. Willmington, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60187, USA, 2008, Electronic media.

~ ENCYCLOPEDIAS ***

NELSONS ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLE FACTS, J. I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney, William White, Jr.; Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville – Atlanta – London – Vancouver, 1995. *****

THE ZONDERVAN PICTORIAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BIBLE, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1975. ****

THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA (5 vols), William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1979. ****

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EVANGELISM, Randall Balmer, Baylor University Press, Waco, TX 76704, USA, 2004. ***

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA, James Orr, Parsons Technology Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA 52404, USA, 1999, Electronic Media.

~ DICTIONARIES ****

HOLMAN BIBLE DICTIONARY, General Editor: Trent C. Butler, PH. D., Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN 37234, USA, 1991-1998, Electronic Media. *****

THE INTERPRETER’S DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE (5 vols), Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 1980. ****

THE ILLUSTRATED BIBLE DICTIONARY (3 vols), Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, England, 1980. ****

ELWELL’S EVANGELICAL DICTIONARY OF THEOLOGY, Walter A. Elwell, Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA, 1984, Electronic Media. ***

EASTON’S BIBLE DICTIONARY AND BOOK SYNOPSIS, M.G. Easton, Ellis Enterprises Inc. Oklahoma City, OK 73120, USA, 1988-1999, Electronic Media. **

UNGER’S BIBLE DICTIONARY, Merrill F. Unger, Moody Press, Chicago, IL 60610, 1979. **

~ WORD STUDIES *****

WORD STUDIES IN THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT (3 Vol.), Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 1990. **********!!!!!!!!!! ~ The best source for individual (though in the Greek many words are combined into phrases) Greek words in order to perform an accurate and specific Greek “Word Study”

THE COMPLETE WORD STUDY NEW TESTAMENT WITH GREEK PARALLEL, Spiros Zodhiates, PH T., AMG Publications, Chattanooga, TN 37422, USA, 1990, Page 00. ***

VINE’S EXPOSITORY DICTIONARY OF OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT WORDS, W.E. Vine, Ellis Enterprises Inc., Oklahoma City, OK 73120, USA, 1988, Electronic Media. ***

JAMIESON, FAUSSET AND BROWN; COMMENTARY ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS, Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, & David Brown, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, MA 01961, 1948.

BROWN-DRIVER-BRIGGS’ HEBREW DEFINITIONS, Parsons Technology Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA 52404, USA, 1999, Electronic Media. ****

WORD MEANINGS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, Ralph Earle, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 49506, USA, 1991.  ****

WILSON’S OLD TESTAMENT WORD STUDIES, William Wilson, Henderson Publishers, Peabody MA 01961, USA, 1992.  ****

HARRIS’S THEOLOGICAL WORDBOOK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, Laid R Harris, Moody Press, Chicago, IL 60610, USA, 1980, Electronic Media. ***

~ BIBLES / INTERLINEAR / LEXICONS / GRAMMATICAL CODE ~ FOR ORIGINAL LANGUAGES*****

THE INTERLINEAR HEBREW/GREEK ENGLISH BIBLE, (KJV) Jay Green, Associated Publishers and Authors, Lafayette, IN, USA, 1979.**********!!!!!!!!!! ~ The best source for original individual (though in the Greek many words are combined into phrases) Greek words in order to perform an accurate and specific Greek “Word Study”

THE SEPTUAGINT VERSION: GREEK AND ENGLISH, Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 1970, electronic edition. *****

ROBINSON’S MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS CODES, “for use with the Greek New Testaments containing parsing or declension codes.” E-Sword, Ver. 8.0.6, Rick Myers; http://www.e-sword.net. ****

NTGREEK.ORG ~ “RESOURCES FOR LEARNING NEW TESTAMENT GREEK,” Corey Keating, http://www.ntgreek.org ****

HEBREW AND ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, (Numerically coded to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance), Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, & Charles A. Briggs, Associated Publishers and Authors, Lafayette, IN 47901, USA, 1981. ****

NEW TESTAMENT GREEK SYNTAX, Wesley J. Perschbacher, Moody Press, Chicago, IL 60610, USA, 1995. ***

THE ENGLISHMAN’S GREEK CONCORDANCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, G. V. Wigram, (Numerically coded to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance), Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1979. ****

THE ENGLISHMAN’S HEBREW AND CHALDEE CONCORDANCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, G. V. Wigram, (Numerically coded to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance), Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1980. ****

STRONG’S EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE TOGETHER WITH DICTIONARIES OF HEBREW AND GREEK WORDS, James Strong, Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA, 1981-1998, Electronic Media – FOR THE CONCORDANCE ONLY – NOT THE DICTIONARY!  ****

HEBREW GREEK KEY STUDY BIBLE, (KJV) Spiros Zodhiates, PH T., AMG Publications, Chattanooga, TN 37422, USA, 1990, ***

GESENIUS’ HEBREW AND CHALDEE LEXICON TO THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES, S. P. Tregelles, (Numerically Coded to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance), Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1979.

DAKE’S ANNOTATED REFERENCE BIBLE, Finis Jennings Dake, Dake Bible Sales, Inc., Lawrenceville, GA 30246, USA, 1991.

~ HERMENEUTICS / EXEGESIS / TEXTUAL CRITICISM ****

INERRANCY, Norman L. Geisler, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 1980.

NEW TESTAMENT EXEGESIS, Benjamin Chapman, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 49506, USA, 1977. ****

HOW TO INTERPRET THE BIBLE, USEFUL HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLES, Stephen R. Woods, The Great Unpublished.Com., 2003. **

~ THEOLOGY ****

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Lewis Sperry Shafer, (8 vols), Dallas Seminary Press, Dallas, TX, 1947. ****

EVANGELICAL DICTIONARY OF THEOLOGY (2nd Ed.), Walter A. Elwell, Baker Academic, Baker Book House Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49516, USA, 2001. ****

DICTIONARY OF NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY, C. Brown, (vol 3), Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, USA, 1978. ****

ISRAELOLOGY: THE MISSING LINK IN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries Press, Tustin, CA, 1989. ****

SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Charles Hodge, (3 vols), Hendrickson Publishers Inc., Peabody, MA 01961, USA.  Reprinted by William. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 2003. ****

THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, G.J. Botterweck, & H. Ringgren, (4 vols), William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1980. ****

THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, G. Kittel & G. Friedrich, (10 vols), William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1976. ****

PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, Floyd H. Barackman, Fleming H. Revell Co., Old Tappan, NJ 07675, USA, 1984. ***

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Moody Press, Chicago IL 60610, USA, 1959. ***

~ DOCTRINE *****

ALL THE DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE, Herbert Lockyer, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 1964-1975. *****

DICTIONARY OF PREMILLENNIAL THEOLOGY, Larry V. Crutchfield, Mal Couch General Editor, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996, page 00. *****

DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH, Clarence Larkin, Larkin Estate, Glendale, PA, USA, 1918.

COMBAT FAITH – UNSHAKABLE FAITH FOR EVERYDAY, Hal Lindsey, Western Front, Ltd., Publishing Company, Palos Verdes, CA, USA, 1999.

~ CULTURAL INSIGHTS ****

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JESUS THE MESSIAH, Alfred Edersheim, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1993. *****

HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, Philip Schaff, Parsons Technology, Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA 52404, USA, 1999, Electronic Media. *****

A SHORT LIFE OF CHRIST, Everett F. Harrison, William. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 1980. ***

JEWISH CULTURE AND CUSTOMS, A SAMPLER OF JEWISH LIFE, Steve Herzig, the friends of Israel Gospel ministry, Inc., Bellmawr, NJ, 08099, USA, 1997. ***

~ BIBLE SURVEYS ***

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE, Norman L. Geisler & William E. Nix, Moody press, Chicago IL, USA, 1968. ****

THE NEW BIBLE SURVEY, J. Lawrence Eason, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 1966. ***

~ FAITH BUILDERS **** 

THE COMING PRINCE, Sir Robert Anderson, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 49501, USA, 1894, / Reprint in 1957.

~ TYPOLOGY / FIGURES OF SPEECH / BIBLICAL SYMBOLS ****

FIGURES OF SPEECH USED IN THE BIBLE, E. W. Bullinger, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 49546, USA, 1898, / Reprint in 1999. *****

THE WITNESS OF THE STARS, E. W. Bullinger, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 49501, USA, 1893, / Reprint in 1967. ****

NUMBER IN THE SCRIPTURE, IT’S SUPERNATURAL DESIGN AND SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE, E.W . Bullinger, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 49501, USA, 1890 / Reprint in 1967. ****

THE TABERNACLE, M. R. DeHaan, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI 49502, USA, 1955. ****

THE TABERNACLE, ITS PRIEST AND ITS SERVICES, William Brown, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, MA 01961, USA, 1997. ****

THE TABERNACLE PRIESTHOOD IN OFFERINGS, I. M. Haldeman, Fleming H. Revell Co., Westwood, NJ, USA, 1925. ****

THE TEMPLE, ITS MINISTRY AND SERVICES, Alfred Edersheim, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, MI, 1958. ****

TYPES IN HEBREW, Sir Robert Anderson, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49501, USA, 1978. ***

INTERPRETING THE SYMBOLS AND TYPES, Kevin J. Conner, BT Published, Portland OR, 97220, USA, 1992. **

~ INTERNET ENCYCLOPEDIAS **

WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA, @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ~ USE DISCRETION.

THEOPEDIA, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY, Internet resource research search engine, http://www.theopedia.com. USE DISCRETION.

WIKICHRISTIAN, An encyclopedia & discussion forum for all Christians to share their faith.

http://www.wikichristian.org/index.php/Main_Page.  USE DISCRETION.

MICROSOFT ENCARTA ENCYCLOPEDIA 2000, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA 98052, USA, 1993-1999, Electronic Media. USE GREAT DISCRETION!

~ BIBLICAL COUNSELING: *****

WHY CHRISTIANS CAN’T TRUST PSYCHOLOGY, Ed Bulkley, PH. D., Harvest House Publishers, Eugene, OR 97402, 1993. *****

INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL COUNSELING: A BASIC GUIDE TO THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF COUNSELING, John F. MacArthur, Jr., Wayne A. Mack, and the Master’s College Faculty, W Publishing Group, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN 37214, USA, 1994, Page 00. *****

~ INTERNET WEBSITES ****

KOINONIA HOUSE, Founder: Dr. Chuck Missler, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83816, USA, 2008, Electronic Media, found @ khouse.org. *****

UNDERSTAND THE TIMES, Founder: Roger Oakland, PO Box 27239, Santa Ana, CA 92799, USA, 2008, Electronic Media.

THE KJV STORE, www.thekjvstore.com~

FREE COMPUTER BIBLES: *****

E-SWORD, VERSION 9.5.1, Rick Myers; www.e-sword.net

Using this program can change your life, especially by using the study notes adjacent to the Scripture for references and Bible note taking. I learned 30 years ago to take notes in your Bible, if you don’t do this (unless you have a photographic memory – even then it’s presumptuous not take notes), you will never grasp God’s Word as the Holy Spirit desires you to do so, able to construct all the various connections God has built into His Word. “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” (Colossians 3:23)

Addendum #2

Two Main Problems in Studying God’s Word

When it comes to conducting a thorough and specific Bible study, wherein the specificity of the languages is to be enumerated into our current vernacular there are two main problematic areas which we will address first, as they are the easiest to tackle.  Concerning studying the New Testament there are the misunderstandings because of:

1) The use of archaic words found in the King James Bible (because of the distinctions of 21st-century English which is a living / changing language, as compared to earlier word meanings of a few hundred years ago).

2) Our lack of understanding concerning Greek grammar; and therefore an inconsistency in our perception of the modification of a word  (Inflections: Conjugation is the inflection of verbs; Declension is the inflection of nouns, adjectives and pronouns), in order to convey diverse grammatical categories (tense, mood voice, person number, gender, & case), concerning the meaning to words; as well as nuances not easily recognizes in the English.

The issue of understanding Greek grammar is addressed more thoroughly in the second half of this essay, “Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth… ~ Part 2,” ~ Link.

In dealing with the issue of the archaic language of the King James Bible, some have suggested that using any of the newer Bible translations is one way of dealing with any misunderstandings. However, this is not necessarily a correct remedy.

Problem 1) ~ Archaic Language

The problem of the archaic language of the King James Bible is not fully addressed by the use of newer Bible translations, because they introduce more extreme and numerous errors.  A short explanation (later this subject is addressed in more detail in “Landmines & Lies”) concerning why these newer translations are not the best tool for uncovering precisely what the Bible says, needs to be made.

I am not saying that the newer translations are evil, or unusable, in fact far from that; but simply that the Byzantine manuscripts are more correct in that they are closer to the original than is found in the newer translations which are based upon the Alexandrian manuscripts.

New Translations 

Before addressing the archaic language of the King James Bible, we should first address why the newer Bible translations are not the remedy.  For the first 20 years of my Christian walk, I had used many of these newer Bible translations, especially the New American Standard Version.  However, based upon my research; 15 years ago I returned to the King James Bible, when not using Greek text or an Interlinear.

When addressing the issue of the use of the King James Bible, and any source information the concern of who to trust is more than relevant.  There are many voices leading the attack against the King James Bible as well as its defense.

HOWEVER, concerning those that would seem to defend the King James Bible, there must be a distinction made.

King James Defenders vs. King James – Only Extremist

There must be a clarification made concerning those that defend the King James Bible, and those that are extremist in this pursuit to the point of heresy; some refer to both groups by the title: “King James only” people.  Those that would attack the veracity of the King James Bible, do so because of their support of the (Alexandrian) manuscripts utilized in the newer English translations.

In their assault, they inappropriately group all individuals that support the King James translation into one group; this is sometimes done naïvely, yet unfortunately, many times deceptively as a means of grouping those heretical extremist that misuse and abuse Scripture; with those that do not hold to the other’s heresy, yet support the use of the King James English translation as superior in many aspects to the newer translations.  There is a wide expanse between these two groups, and placing them together is wrong, as they stand for different things; and presenting them as one group is deceitful.

Group 1 ~ King James & Original Autographs Defenders

This group of individuals are those that maintain that the King James Bible is currently the most accurate version of the English Bible today. These individuals also maintain that the Hebrew and Greek text used in the translation of the King James version are the best source material available in order to seek greater clarity concerning any particular Biblical words.

They hold to the supremacy of the Textus Receptus over all other Greek text: yet, also may maintain the value of the Majority Text, and some of those other Byzantine text utilized in the translation of other English versions of the Bible (please see the: “Downloadable Articles…” link; the article entitled: “Who & What to Trust“).  An additional benefit of using the King James translation is that Strong’s numbering system is keyed to it, as well as the utilization of grammatical codes which have  been produced in coordination with the King James translation; all of which aids in doing word studies.

These individuals (which I am now apart) hold to the verbal inspiration of the original autographs (Please see the “What We Believe“, under the heading: “The Word of God,” ~ Link), the source material for which copies have been made with the outermost care.  They understand, and believe the evidence concerning the contamination of the Alexandrian Codices, which have been utilized for the past hundred years as seen in all the modern translations. 

They hold that the King James Bible (KJB) is the most accurate English translation to date – However, it is the Textus Receptus (TR) Greek text that is a better source material for particular word study – It is the Greek text that is superior, not the English translation (this is the difference between the two groups, besides the heretical belief that the KJB is divinely inspired), this is considered heresy to the King James-Only Extremist.  (And some of us prefer the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament, which Jesus quoted from the most, as opposed to the Hebrew Masoretic text used in the KJB, as well as is found in almost all of the protestant English Bibles, in regards to the translation of the Old Testament.)

Group 2 ~ King James-Only Extremist (Radicals)

This second group of individuals are in the minority, and in most cases are heretical, if not at least heterodoxical.  These individuals falsely believe that the King James English translation was translated by verbal inspiration of the Holy Spirit (that the KJB translators were under inspiration as to how to translate the Textus Receptus Greek into the English of the King James Bible, perfectly – correcting mistakes that were in the TR – that the KJB translators were more inspired than the original writers who produced the Greek text), into the English, including using the italics (which are not in the original manuscripts, but added by the translators believing the words are implied according to context); which in effect made the KJB a new revelation, rather than merely an accurate translation.

They go so far as to say that the King James Bible is a perfect translation, it is the pure Word of God.  They also state that the Koine Greek that was utilized to produce the King James New Testament is inferior to the English translation of it.  Beyond being a ridiculous presupposition, it is these among other aspersions which display that these individuals are a radical extremist group, who even state that the Textus Receptus is corrupt.

Below, are listed individuals that support this radical extremist agenda, they are listed in order to forewarn readers against studying any of their presentations, yet it does not take long before their error is apparent when reading their teachings.

I have never been, nor am I a King James-Only Extremist (A PERSONAL NOTE: In fact just prior to coming to this new stance on Bible translation, I was adamantly opposed to the King James only presupposition.  I originally came to the Anti-King James-Only position while involved with a Bible study, where some individuals outside of the Bible study had introduced an extremist view of the King James-Only teaching.  They came across as obnoxious, condescending, superior, mean-spirited, and legalistic; which did not help their cause.  How could these people be right?  Yet, I had forgotten the maxim that: “truth is always about the message, and not the messenger;” and spite of the fact that some of their presentations were definitely wrong [Such as teaching that Psalms 12:6-7 ~ “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.  Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever“, was God referring to the English translation of the King James Bible, which is ridiculous.  Or that the King James Version is perfect, even though at times the English translation is improper.  They are totally antithetical to the Orthodox / historical Biblical Doctrine of Inspiration, which is that the original autographs received in the Greek and Hebrew languages are inerrant and without error, not the translations into other languages.  I even found out-and-out fraud and lying as seen in many of the presentations by Gail Riplinger, which has been proven beyond doubt, not including references to her own personal life which she lied about, according to public records that could not be doctored.], I had to eventually lay down my pride before examining this most pivotal of questions.  I hate when God does that to me – praise HIM for His mercy, I still have a long ways to go), and have openly opposed many that were (some of these individuals go way beyond Biblical integrity, becoming ridiculous – even heretical), yet due to the work I had done in the Greek, I have come to believe that the (45) Alexandrian manuscripts, found in the 1800’s, which are the base manuscripts for all the newer Bible translations (RV, WNT, ASV, MB, AT, PT, BV, BNT, LNT, NAB, RSV, NASB, NIV, NEB, TEV, JB, SEB, NJB, NRSV, NIT; and many more), are without a doubt contaminated (the Alexandrian manuscripts found in Alexandria Egypt are some of the oldest New Testament manuscripts to date [as opposed to all of the Byzantine manuscripts, used in all the English translations up until 1880, especially the Textus Receptus, which is the basis for the “Authorized Version” {Yet, it was never specifically “authorized”}, which came to be known as the “King James Bible”], however, being earlier manuscripts does not mean better manuscripts, if they were contaminated at their source; which these are because of the predominant influence of the Gnostics⁶⁵ in Alexandria Egypt, who were extremely influential after the time of Jesus’ death). 

These Alexandrian manuscripts were mainly given creditability, and thereby acceptance according to the translation work conducted by Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort(1853-1881).

.
Higher Textual Criticism

These two Greek translators, Westcott and Hort were unbelieving Anglican priests that did not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, nor His atoning work on the cross, or in Biblical inerrancy; but did believe in heresies; according to their own writings (please see the below article: Addendum #3 ~ “Books Written by Westcott & Hort“). 

They helped usher in  (they were not the originators, though they were the individuals  that were behind the universal promotion and acceptance of the Alexandrian manuscripts, as well as a new translation style which is wholly based upon Higher Criticism) a progressive / logic humanistic based form of Biblical translational standards which aligned itself with “Higher Criticism” (please see the below article:  Addendum #4 ~ “A Review Of: “The Hoax of Higher Criticism,” by Gary North); a heretical movement of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries (Higher Textual Criticism started 100 years earlier by European Biblical scholars, such as: Johann Albrecht Bengel of Germany, Johann Jakob Griesbach of Germany, Jean Astruc of Paris, Johann Salomo Semler of Germany, Johann G. Eichhom of Germany, Fedinand Christian Baur of Germany, and Julius Wellhausen, Creator of the “Documentary Hypothesis,” [also: ] which proclaim that Moses was not the author of the Torah. Higher Criticism is credited as being a German theological pursuit, having been developed mainly from the German scholars, as well as from the Tubingen School of Theology);  which created and established critical rules of translation in determining the true authorship of the books of the Bible, yet always from a worldly perspective.  It is a humanistic approach which does not hold to Biblical inerrancy, always seeking to explain away miracles, according to the presupposition that the Bible is a man-contrived creation.

Lower Textual Criticism

This form of Biblical examination (Higher Criticism) is the polar extreme of what had been the (expositional) practice of textual study of God’s Word for over 2000 years, referred to as “Lower Criticism,” which was contingent upon ascertaining the meaning of Biblical text – what God wanted to say to man in and through the Bible.

The type and style of Bible translation which Westcott and Hort engineered and set as a new standard of Bible translation was birthed in this type of logic-based humanistic (claimed to be a superior & more intellectual pursuit – yet, is arrogant and high-minded) approach to Bible translation, attempting to separate itself from its religious foundations. One of its presuppositions was that the oldest manuscripts had to be the closest to the original simply due to the logic of human interaction concerning the mechanics of copying; “surly man would introduce more errors as time went on.”   

Yet, if the original source was not copied exactly, but contaminated early on, this type of reasoning falls by the wayside. And if one examines the belief system of these two heretical priest, according to their own writings which are numerous (please see the below article: Addendum #3 ~ “Books Written by Westcott & Hort“), it is amazing how their own lack of belief aligns with that of the Gnostics (who we believe were the revisers of the New Testaments which created the Alexandrian manuscripts [*45 manuscripts in all], found in the city that was the headquarters of the Gnostics at the same time the manuscripts date from,  100 to 400 AD), concerning the traditions introduced by this heretical cult into Christianity (please see the: “Downloadable Articles…” LINK; the article entitled: “Who & What to Trust“). 

Bibles & Authors We Support or Warn Against

We at Faith Video Ministries Inc. do not believe that in-depth Bible study should be done using any of the (Alexandrian manuscripts and therefore any of the) newer translations; that Bible study should be done using Greek text using only Byzantine Manuscripts (*over 6000 manuscripts), especially the Textus Receptus (Desiderius Erasmus’ text, & also texts by: Robert Stephanus, Theodore Beza [a friend and successor of John Calvin], and the Elzivir Brothers), and the Majority Text.

Concerning: Older English Bibles, we support: The King James Bible (easier to use, has Strong’s numbering system and grammatical codes for parsing, and many resources are based upon it – a long history with all problems defined), Tyndale’s Bible(hard to read or do Word Studies), Great Bible (hard to read or do Word Studies), Geneva Bible (there is a revision out, but we have not researched it – does it use Byzantinetext for correction, or Alexandrian?), and Bishop’s Bible, (hard to read or do Word Studies).  

Concerning: Newer English Bibles & Bible Aids (these are listed by the individuals that in their research only use Byzantine manuscripts in producing Bibles, Bible aids and resources), we support the following list of individuals and their Bible translation work: Jay P. Green Sr., Maurice A Robinson, William G Pierpont, F.H.A. Scrivener, Wilbur N. Pickering, George Ricker Berry, Thomas Newberry, Samuel Bagster, Wesley J. Perschbacher, Zane C. Hodges, Arthur L. Farstad, Robert Dick Wilson, Earl Radmacher, John William Burgon, Gary F. Zeolla, and Dr. Donald A. Waite.

Concerning: Bible Societies, we “only” support: “The Trinitarian Bible Society,” who relies solely on the Textus Receptus.

Concerning: Greek & Hebrew Lexicons & Interlinears & Translations, we support:

The New Analytical Greek Lexicon, Wesley J. Perschbacher (it is especially helpful as it list words found not only in the Critical Text like many lexicons but also words and word forms found only in the Textus Receptus and the Majority Text).

A Concise Lexicon to the Biblical Languages: Hebrew, Greek, & English, Jay P. Green, & Maurice A Robinson, Ph.D; (“Numerically Coded to Strong’s Concordance, & page Cross Referenced to: Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, Bauer-Arndt-Gingrich Greek Lexicon and Kittels Theological Dictionary”)

Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: Third Edition, Jay P. Green, Sr.

Analytical-Literal Translation of the New Testament: Third Edition (ALT3), Gary Zeolla(it is based on the most up-to-date and accurate Greek Text, the Byzantine Majority Text: Second Edition).  And the Companion Volume to the Analytical-Literal Translation: Third Edition, Gary Zeolla. 

Concerning: King James-Only Extremist, we advise to “avoid“: Benjamin G. Wilkinson, Peter Sturges Ruckman (an unbalanced heretic), Jasper James Ray, David Otis Fuller, Herman Hoskier, Texe Marrs, Don McAlvaney, Tom Anderson, Philip Mauro, Joseph Philpot, Samuel Zwemer, Ken Matto, George Sayles Bishop, Frank Logsdon, Terence Brown, E. L. Bynum, Jack Chick, Samuel C. Gipp, Jack Hyles, and Gail Riplinger (a habitual liar that distorts her research – sometime she quotes the truth and other times she is openly lies).

An Example of the Misunderstanding of Archaic Words

Part of the problem that arises when archaic words (more correctly identified as words that have changed in there meaning over time – English is a living language that evolves) are misunderstood is that in a majority of these cases, the distortion is based upon a truth found elsewhere in the Scripture (the principle is correct, however the wrong proof text is provided); that the point being made is just not applicable to the specific to the passage cited.  2 Timothy 2:15 is a good example of this, it states:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

The word “study“ (Greek: spoudazo, meaning: diligence, deliberate, labor… ~ See 1 Thess. 4:11), that is used here has nothing to do with academic pursuit, its an Old English phrase that had to do with giving diligence or making a laborious effort; and in the context of this Scripture it refers to giving diligence to a person’s behavior or lifestyle.

The same idea concerns the King James use of the word “conversation,” (Greek: anastrepho, or anatrophe or tropos, meaning: behave, behavior, manner, live, conduct yourself… ~ see KJV, 2 Cor. 1:12; Gal. 1:13; Eph. 2:3, 4:22, Phil. 1:27, Pet. 1:15), which is not a reference to talking, but is an Old English expression used during the time of the King James and had to do with a person’s behavior, which is what both of these terms mean. So, 2 Timothy 2:15 is literally saying:

That we are to live our lives displaying God’s approval upon us, based upon our behavior which is rooted in God’s Word, exhibiting God’s wisdom according to our decisions, and as such we don’t need to be ashamed as the sinner is, but that we will in this, exhibit the ability to correctly handle God’s Word (to: “rightly divide the Word of truth“)

Problem 2) ~ Greek Grammar

The rules of grammar for Greek are different from those in the English, creating problems in sentence structure where words become difficult to translate as they relate to each other, and still maintain their original meaning. Linguistics, while complicated, can assist us in untangling the differences between the sentence structure and meaning of the original language and translation into the English.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, with sub-fields such as phonetics which is concerned with the sounds of languages, phonology which concerns itself with the way sounds are used in individual languages. Pragmatics, studies the interaction between language and the contexts in which it is used.  Synchronic linguistics studies a language’s form at a fixed time in history, past or present.

Grammar is the branch of linguistics dealing with the form and structure of words or morphology, and their interrelation in sentences, called syntax which concerns the structure of phrases and sentences, and semantics (which is most important to us), which addresses the study of the meaning of words

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth ~ Defined

This essay is primarily concerned with the semantics of a word or phrase, as well as the use of synonyms (synonyms are simply words having the same or nearly the same meaning as another word; or more technically, they are “expressions that serve as a figurative or symbolic substitute for the word”), which are understood within the culture that they are used in to maintain the same meaning as other words, such as in the above example found in 2 Timothy 2:15 in the use of the expression, “the word of truth,” which is a synonym for the “Word of God,” which is also a synonym for what we refer to as “The Holy Bible.” It is in rightly dividing or better stated: “in correctly understanding” God’s Word that this essay is wholly committed.

Addendum #3

Books Written by Westcott & Hort

The Gospel According to St. John: The Authorized Version With Introduction and Notes, B. F. Westcott, William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 1981.

The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays, B. F. Westcott, William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 1989.

The Epistle of St. John: The Greek Text, With Notes and Addenda, B. F. Westcott, William B. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, 1983.

The First Epistle of St. Peter 1:2-2:17: The Greek Text With Introductory Lecture, Commentary, and Additional Notes, F. J. A. Hort, James & Klock Publishing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 1898.

The Apocalypse of St. John 1-3: The Greek Text With Introduction, Commentary, and Additional Notes, F. J. A. Hort, Klock Publishing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 1908.

Both translators, Bishop Brooke Foss Westcott of Cambridge (Trinity College and Emmanuel College), and professor Fenton John Anthony Hort expressed a complete disdain and contempt for the Textus Receptus (TR) and the King James translation; and vowed to their extinction.  They worked together as the prime architects and constructed an elaborate, yet fictitious system of New Testament Greek criticism leading to a New Testament Greek text they had engineered based upon manuscripts originating from Alexandria Egypt (and most notably: Vatican “B”, and the Sinai “Aleph”).

These Alexandrian Greek manuscripts became the basis for the 1881 English Revised Version (ERV), which contained over 3000 conflicts with the TR in the Gospels alone. Both of these men express their heresies in their disbelief concerning the inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible, the deity Jesus Christ (as well as His Pre-existence, or His eternal Being) the virgin birth, the Redemptive Efficiency of Christ’s work on the cross and atoning death for the sin of mankind, the existence of the devil, or heaven or hell; and their belief in the “Universal Fatherhood of God.”

Though there is many more heresies these two Anglican priest maintained, this should make the point concerning the credibility of these two individuals. And to assert that their own belief system would not enter into their interpretation of the New Testament is ridiculous to contemplate.  Yet, these two men are esteemed as the father’s of Higher Criticism, and hailed as the standard concerning rules of interpretation, as well as the work they produced; which is used in a majority, if not all of the Christian universities across America.

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Addendum #4

A Review of the Book: “The Hoax of Higher Criticism”

By Dr. Gary S. Day

Introduction

Without God’s Word, people cannot be sanctified for it is by His Word that they are sanctified, made saints, and given access to His heavenly sanctuary through prayer and worship.  The Word is the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, the only unchanging Word and “reliable source of ethics and law in history.”

The context of 2 Timothy 3:16 is verses 13-15, and gives the purpose of why verse 16 was written, “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.” The worsening of the evil continues over time.  The only antidote to them is being steadfast in the teaching of the Scriptures, for these evil men’s aim is to discourage the use of the Word of God by all.

Some of the strategies used have been: 1) the de-emphasizing of the Bible is worship and the substituting of church traditions and the handbooks; 2) the use of “new revelations” that  “update” the Word of God; 3) and in some places, “suppressing the production and sales of the Bible;” and, 4) the production of critical scholarship that attempts to prove that the Bible isn’t saying what it is saying, or is what it is, The Word of God.  In short the attempt is made to make the Bible a hoax.

The language of praise is adopted telling us that while mythical, the Bible deserves an important place in the history of man’s religion, and this is how it is presented in comparative religion and Bible as literature courses in universities and most theological seminaries, including more and more evangelical churches, colleges and seminaries.  Theological liberalism, which debunks the authority of the Bible, leads to relativism, which cannot sustain a society.

The road to this self-destructive position in the West began with the rise of the Enlightenment skepticism, a movement committed to “the rejection of the Bible as the inspired and authoritative Word of God.”   In the 17th century this led to the rooting of Unitarianism (through Socinianism) and Deism which eroded and replaced the Trinitarian doctrine in Christianity in the thinking of the intellectuals and political leaders, beginning with Isaac Newton.  The erosion of Biblical authority furthered more deeply in the 18th century through such men as Voltaire and Hume, with Thomas Jefferson even writing “his own highly expurgated Bible,” originally entitled, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth-Extracted textually from the Gospels.

This is a critical juncture in man’s history, for what will replace the Enlightenment based West and what will the transition cost?   When Elijah asked, ‘How long will you falter between two opinions?  If the Lord is God follow Him, but if Baal follow him.  But the people answered him not a word.”  That silence brought the judgment of fire from the sky.  And the silence of God’s people today may bring fire from the sky by the world, for they are poised to totally destroy the Word of God while Christians stand by in silence, not wanting to rock the boat or be politically incorrect.  The vast majority of the people living today will spend eternity in hell because of the Christian silence about the saving grace of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Christian! Regain your faith in God’s Word!  Begin in the halls of Christian learning acknowledging that “higher criticism is a hoax.”

The Origin of Higher Criticism

In John 5:46-47 Jesus said to the Jewish leaders that they did not believe Him because they did not believe Moses.  Many today, Jews and non-Jews alike, fall into the same category of unbelief.  This unbelief is propelled by unbelieving professors, rather than professors of Christ, in our schools.  It has taken over a century to remove Christians’ confidence in the accuracy of the Bible and this erroneous thought has deeply rooted itself in their hearts and minds.  One of the elements that are despised by these professors is the judgment of hell “upon the sons of disobedience.”  As North puts it, “They comfort themselves while discomforting their Bible-believing students with this syllogism: ‘No permanent Bible, no permanent law; no permanent law, no permanent judgment.’”

The successful assault on Christianity in the late 19th century came from Darwinism and higher criticism of the Bible, most triumphantly by German scholars, but rooted in English Deism.  These men were dedicated to achieve their primary goal; “to discover defects in the existing texts of Scripture, as well as to discover internal inconsistencies in the Bible’s overall message,” in order to discredit the Christian faith.  Higher criticism of the Bible texts is the spiritual legacy of the Enlightenment, which has placed ‘the claims of religion outside the realm of reason—and removed the basis of orthodoxy’s epistemology.’

James Barr and others recognize the link between social-action and biblical hermeneutics, from the Reformation onwards.  “It was because men sought answers to problems of life and society, as well as of thought and belief, that the Bible stimulated ‘critical’ modes of understanding itself” (see Barr’s “Forward” in Reventlow’s, Authority of the Bible).  Because the Bible allows slavery, for instance, then the Bible couldn’t be the Word of God it was proposed.

English Deism attacked Christianity based upon the faith in Newtonian natural law and because of its hostility to Old Testament law and prophecy.  The idea being, that if you can write off the OT, the NT still could be vindicated through its accord with the law of nature.  This denial of the unity of the Bible, once it became common, would lead to ”the denial of the need for an infallible New Testament in Christianity.”

The Deist attack on the Old Testament was to supplant Biblical law for natural law.  These attacks are “a fundamental aspect of the coming of modern humanist civilization.”  The ethical nature of the intellectual conflict must be understood to understand the history of higher criticism.  The result of the step by step attack by the Deist on the authority of the Bible did join the heritage of antiquity in the form of natural law and stoic thought, to produce a basically new stage in the history of ideas.

Although higher-criticism and humanism has decreased in importance since WWII, North felt compelled to write this volume based upon the renewed interest in the natural dichotomy of thought in the reconstruction of a fundamental Christian worldview and its struggle for unity of vision in the onslaught of men’s loss of faith; for example, the dualisms of OT vs. NT, dominion vs. rapture, culture vs. kingdom, law vs. grace, and many more.  Returning to the problem roots is seen to be a help in the recovery of ethical unity and of a comprehensive world-life view.  Pitting the OT against the NT is the renewal of the early heretical Marcionism. 

“The implicit and inescapable dualism of all post-Kantian thought- fact vs. meaning, science vs. ethics…became a growing intellectual problem after the 1880’s,” accelerating liberal intellectual disorientation and becoming apparent by 1963.   The combining of Van Til’s pre-suppositional apologetics, the preliminary recovery of the Puritan vision of the earthly victory of God’s Kingdom, and biblical creationism, have produced a new intellectual perspective called Christian reconstruction.   At the forefront of the reversal of this here-to-fore lost Christian confidence, is the recovery of confidence in the reliability of the whole Bible.  One reason for this confidence is the huge amount of evidence presented to the Christian about the inaccuracy of Darwinism.  North wrote this book to get Christians to recognize that biblical higher criticism is an older inaccuracy that is related philosophically to Darwinism.

The Techniques of Higher Criticism ~ 2 Pet 1:16

Determining which of the existent manuscripts of the Biblical texts are authoritative belongs to the realm of ‘lower criticism.’  Higher criticism, on the other hand “argues that nothing in the canon of the Bible is what appears to be.”  In a nutshell this is North’s position.   I will not quote in detail, but his understanding of both lower and higher criticism seems to lack a sophistication needed in a work such as this.  When blended with his childish snipes at the higher critics, to prove his points about their error, it is detractive and builds no earnest thinking because of the slurs.    Nevertheless, let us plunge on.

North rightly notes that higher criticism “regard the Bible as a kind of a novel, so they apply to the study of the Bible techniques that are used in the literary criticism of fiction.”  Yet he fails to mention that this was the early approaches, and that the literary critical techniques have gone through layers of change that a mere glossing over would not do justice to in judging this critical genre.

Nor does he adequately explain that ‘criticism’ is not the same as complaint, but means making a judgment.  Another neglected point, on North’s part, is the lack of mention of the number of critical approaches to the Biblical texts that fall into the generic category of “Higher Criticism.”  Some have even been taken up as valid for Biblical examination by the conservative Biblical scholars.  A better title for his book might be “The Hoax of the Literary Critic in Higher Criticism,” for it is only this method of higher criticism that he confronts.

It is true that “the higher critics present the Bible as a poorly assembled patchwork of lies and myths, and then they add insult to injury by arguing that their debunking operation somehow elevates our view of the Bible.”  He cites G. Earnest Wright as an example, who said, “What is important is what this great Lord has done.”  But when pressed to define what exactly God has done the higher critic authors “run for the cover of symbolism and supposed myth, in order to escape the Bible’s detailed account of what God has done.”

The same approach is done in the higher critics view of the Bible as a historical book, unique to the ancient world.  But when considering the Biblical text on subjects such as the flood, the Fall of man, the tower of Babel and the like, “the authors immediately shift their focus away from what the Bible says about God; their shift their concern to what the Hebrews came later to believe about God.”  In other words, the focus shifts from God top man, which of course is the essence of humanism.

The “blanket of hypothetically objective history” of the higher critics must also cover up in its humanistic twisted threads the resurrection of Christ, for the Bible discusses the resurrection and sin in terms of revelation, which becomes a fundamental problem if the resurrection is historical also.  To avoid the problem the resurrection is relegated to  mythic approbations.  The reason for this is, though secular writes write of it, the New Testament reveals the reality of the resurrection to a small portion of the community of faith; and faith is a place where the historian cannot operate because it is too small of a sample. 

“Facts available to all men are the only data with which he [the historian] can work, the facts available to the consciousness of a few are not objective history in the historian’s sense,” says G. Ernest Wright  (The Book of the Acts of God: Christian .Scholarship Interprets the Bible, 1957).  Thus the higher critic separates the ‘real happening’ of the crucifixion from the ‘faith-event’ of the resurrection.

The idea that under girds the approach is that God is not an objective fact of history; only man’s recorded thoughts about God are objective facts which can be studied.  Therefore the resurrection was not “an objective fact of history.”  The Bible view of the resurrection is that it is a sufficiently objective fact of history, so much so that Paul proclaimed that if Christ did not rise from the dead, then our faith is in vain.   The New Testament faith, like the Old Testament, is based upon the historical reality of the events.

North clearly points out some things that must be watched for in the interpretation of the Bible events by the higher critics: new terminology that replaces faith based terminology (e.g. the Neo-orthodox); the replacement of God led actions and actions of God with mythic language; the exchange of the God who loves the world and wants to renew a relationship through His Son Jesus Christ, with an unknowing or unknowable God; the replacement of truth with symbol, where the symbol becomes the truth; and the erasure of the judgment of God upon humanity.

The non-spiritual building blocks of the higher critic, “rests on the presupposition that all morality is relative to historical time and place, and that the laws of the Bible…are also relative.”

Concerning the literary critics’ textual criticism, North says they are “circular.”  They reconstruct the literary text to reconstruct the historical past to reconstruct the literary text.  With this reconstruction they set their standards above God’s recorded standards and imagine hundreds of intermediary editors of the Biblical texts over time.  No history is given by North concerning the genesis of literary criticism, which had its beginning when a Frenchman questioned just one thing about a passage in the book of Genesis.

The Ethics of Higher Criticism ~ 2 Tim 3:2-7

Van Til asserted that covenant-breaking [which is] man’s problem is not a lack of knowledge about God; rather it is his lack of obedience to God.  The higher/literary critics blur the universal requirements of God’s holy law.   The weakness of all books or writing that tries to explain moral error in philosophical thought and action is that the things of God are only fully comprehended and apprehended by faith, which the carnal mind does not possess, for it is at ‘enmity with God.’   The mind blinded by myth cannot understand a righteous God, though He reveals a unified ethical system within the Bible.  That is why the higher critic tries to dispose of the unity of the Bible.

The five-step presupposition to the higher critic’s study of the Bible, according to North is:

1. He assumes that the books of the Bible are textually jumbled

2. He tries to prove that the books of the Bible are textually jumbled

3 He assumes that through creative myth-making he can produce a meaningful reconstruction of what the Biblical authors really wanted to say

4. He tries to present a deeper message for the modern man that transcends the Bible’s unfortunately jumbled texts; and

5. He offers his version of the Bible’s true transcendent ethical unity

North is not far off the mark.

The conservative scholar is criticized by North because the secular scholars now pay very little attention to higher criticism’s methods or its findings, while the conservative scholar if pictured as filling their mostly unread journals with modifications of the higher critics’ findings.  My thought when I picked up North’s book to read was, “Why the re-hash?”  But North does present some good reminders…this type of work is an intellectual defense of the faith…against the resurgence of the disregard for the Bible, but too much time is being spent on things that only pass as academic studies in the study of the Bible.

Conclusion

The one fact that North unearths is that the methodology of the literary critic and others of his steed is backed by a cultural milieu called humanism, whose tentacles are shaping the young minds in our colleges and universities to turn from the living God to the god of self.   This falseness which passes as truth must be weeded out of their worldview.  The task of the modern scholar must not be narrowly focused.  The defending of the Bible of the Word of God goes beyond technical issues of textual analysis.  The debate must be taken back to the streets in the social conflicts of the day as it was done in the first Christian century; the Gospel message still changes lives.

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Addendum #5

“In The Name of…“

(Deuteronomy 18:7)  “Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.”  

(Deuteronomy 18:20)  “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.”

(Deuteronomy 18:22)  “When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”

(Deuteronomy 21:5)  “And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried:”

(Deuteronomy 25:6)  “And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel.”

(1 Samuel 17:45)  “Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”

(1 Samuel 20:42)  “And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the LORD, saying, The LORD be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed for ever. And he arose and departed: and Jonathan went into the city.”

(1 Samuel 25:9)  “And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.”

(2 Samuel 6:18)  “And as soon as David had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.”

(1 Kings 18:32)  “And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.”

(1 Kings 22:16)  “And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD?”

(2 Kings 2:24)  “And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.”

(1 Chronicles 16:2)  “And when David had made an end of offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD.”

(1 Chronicles 21:19)  “And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.”

(2 Chronicles 18:15)  “And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou say nothing but the truth to me in the name of the LORD?”

(2 Chronicles 33:18)  “Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel.”

(Ezra 5:1)  “Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.”

(Esther 3:12)  “Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring.”

(Psalms 20:5)  “We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.”

(Psalms 118:10)  “All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them.”

(Psalms 118:11)  “They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.”

(Psalms 118:12)  “They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.”

(Psalms 118:26)  “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.”

(Psalms 124:8)  “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

(Psalms 129:8)  “Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.”

(Isaiah 50:10)  “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.”

(Jeremiah 11:21)  “Therefore thus saith the LORD of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that thou die not by our hand:”

(Jeremiah 26:9)  “Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.”

(Jeremiah 26:16)  “Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.”

(Jeremiah 26:20)  “And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah:”

(Jeremiah 44:16)  “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee.”

(Micah 4:5)  “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.”

(Zephaniah 3:12)  “I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD.”

(Zechariah 13:3)  “And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.”

(Matthew 10:41)  “He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.”

(Matthew 10:42)  “And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.”

(Matthew 21:9)  “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”

(Matthew 23:39)  “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

(Matthew 28:19)  “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”

(Mark 11:9)  “And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:”

(Mark 11:10)  “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.”

(Luke 13:35)  “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

(Luke 19:38)  “Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.”

(John 3:18)  “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

(John 12:13)  “Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

(Acts 2:38)  “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

(Acts 3:6)  “Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”

(Acts 4:18)  “And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.”

(Acts 5:40)  “And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.”

(Acts 8:16)  “For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

(Acts 9:27)  “But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.”

(Acts 9:29)  “And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.”

(Acts 10:48)  “And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.”

(Acts 16:18)  “And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.”

(Acts 19:5)  “When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

(1 Corinthians 1:13)  “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?”

(1 Corinthians 5:4)  “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

(1 Corinthians 6:11)  “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

(Ephesians 5:20)  “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”

(Colossians 3:17)  “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

(2 Thessalonians 3:6)  “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”

(James 5:10)  “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.”

(James 5:14)  “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:”
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Addendum #6 

The Importance of Open Disclosure

Years ago, it was common that prior to an author presenting his subject matter concerning history (“His-story” ~ hence the origin of the word? ~ not really, it comes the Greek historein, meaning: “to inquire“), he would reveal his own presupposition (means: “a previous suppositionor surmise“) concerning the subject he was presenting, up front.

He would do this so that the reader or audience could take into consideration the author’s own perspective (means: “a mental view,” perspective has been called the glasses we see the world through) when considering the evidence of his presentation.  This display of integrity is rarely seen in our current day, even though after only a few minutes anyone can determine another person’s perspective concerning any given subject (“… for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” ~ Matt. 12:34; Luk. 6:45); opinions are easy to observe.

It is impossible to separate a person from their opinion (means: “a personal belief or conclusion held with confidence concerning the value or limitations of something else“).  One of the hallmarks of the pride of our current generation is the absurd declaration that someone can set aside their own opinion, and speak from a position without bias (means: “bent or tendency toward or away from,” whereas there is a slight bent towards or away from something ~ a minor flavor towards or against) or prejudice (means: “to judge before hand,” normally based upon poor logic or hasty generalization ~ a major complete conclusion made for or against).

It is only when we understand the relevance of our own frame of reference (means: “a system of ideas, in terms of which other ideas are interpreted or assigned meaning” ~ normally based upon the experiences gained through environment, education, religion, and parenting) concerning our own bias (weak  leanings) and prejudice (strong conclusions), that we have any opportunity to evaluate something on a more objective (means: “not from one person’s point of view” ~ unbiased & non-prejudice ~ non-emotional) basis, as compared to the subjective(means: “from someone’s point of view” ~  personal ~ mental or emotional) mindset that attempts to rule us all.  It is only when we become honest about our own presuppositions, admitting our frame of reference, owning (“admitting”) in our biases and prejudices that we can better be able to approach any subject more objectively in investigating it.

It is due to the fall of man that he, according to his new nature is a slave to sin.  Yet also, man is also created with desires, likes and dislikes.  It is in the realm of seeking (non-sensual ~ non-sinful) pleasure that we understand that if our favorite ice cream is strawberry, which like better than any other, this means that we like vanilla or chocolate less, and perhaps we may even hate pistachio – we call this our taste, our preference, our likes and dislikes – our opinion.

Life would seem meaningless without preferences, and preferences are simply an indication of a bias that we have toward something, positively; which in turn mandates a biased against something else, negatively.  Therefore it makes sense that men of integrity when presenting their version of history would openly, up front present their own presuppositions in order that the reader would be able to evaluate what was presented based on understanding the storyteller’s frame of mind.

An example of the importance of this type of integrity can be seen in the following.  In reading a book which questions the Holocaust, it would be pertinent in first knowing that the author was an “SS” officer who maintained his rationality for “the final solution of the Jewish question,” before determining the validity of any assertions that are made in the book, or that the book was even worth reading in the first place.”

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