Unicorns and the Bible

New Testament Synonyms

Sometimes we can miss the forest for the trees when it comes to reading the Bible. Robert Thomas, in dealing with eternal punishment in the Fall 1998 edition of the Master's Seminary Journal points out a common flaw in the interpretation of NT synonyms.

"A basic principle for interpreting NT synonyms dictates that a distinction in meaning between two words does not necessarily exist unless they occur in the same immediate context. That principle applies to pairs such as "I love" (agapao)/"I love" (phileo) and "other" (allos)/ "other" (heteros).

Unless they occur together, an interpreter cannot press for differences.

The same apples to kolasis/timoria (punishment/vengence). It is poor exegetical methodology to try to evade the teaching of eternal punishment on the basis of a distinction in vocabulary."

Jesus View of Eternal Punishment by Robert L. Thomas

Justice of God in Damning Sinners

Excerpts from Jonathan Edwards sermon "The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners."

“There is something peculiarly heinous in sinning against the mercy of God more than other attributes. There is such base and horrid ingratitude, in being the worse to God BECAUSE he is a being of infinite goodness and grace…. above all things [this ingratitude] renders a [sinners] wickedness vile and detestable. This ought to win us, and engage us to serve God better; but instead…[man] sins against him the more.

Romans 2:4-5 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God

....Your own conscience can give testimony to it, that this has made you refuse God's calls, and has made you [uncaring] of his repeated commands. Now, how righteous would it be if God should swear in his wrath, that you should never be the better for his being infinitely merciful!”

Who are we to judge God?



(I updated some language indicated by the bracketed words.)

The valley of Hinnom by Albert Barnes

"The valley of Hinnom. This was formerly a pleasant valley near to Jerusalem, on the south. A small brook or torrent usually ran through it and partly encompassed the city. This valley the idolatrous Israelites devoted formerly to the horrid worship of Moloch, 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Chron. 28:3.

In that worship, the ancient Jewish writers inform us, the idol of Moloch was of brass, adorned with a royal crown, having the head of a calf, and his arms extended as if to embrace anyone. When they offered children to him they heated the statue within by a great fire, and when it was burning hot they put the miserable child into his arms, where it was soon consumed by the heat; and, in order that the cries of the child might not be heard, they made a great noise with drums and other instruments about the idol."

Moloch is still worshiped today. We just call him Abortion.




DPN

She Did What She Could

I'm studying for this mornings message and wanted to share a portion of a message I was reading from Charles Spurgeon from a message he preached on the woman who broke the alabaster box in Mark 14 titled "To Lovers of Jesus -- an Example."

“And oh, Brothers and Sisters, let us always carry our case into the highest court and live before the Lord and not as the slaves of men! If we are conscious that we have sincerely done what we have done as unto the Lord and if we feel sure that He has approved our service, it is of the smallest possible consequence what men shall say about us! Let us never provoke our Brothers and Sisters to be ill-tempered with us, neither let us do anything that can be rightly censured—but if we have gone somewhat beyond common custom in the fervor of our spirit, let us reply with young David to his envious brethren, “Is there not a cause?” The opinions of other men are no rule to us—we have our own obligations to discharge and, as our debt of love is larger than usual, let us take liberty to be as full of love and zeal as we can be—only regretting that we cannot go still further in the way of sacred service.”

C.H. Spurgeon

Walking to church

I always thought it would be nice to live so close to church that I could walk. How far is too far to walk to church? Well, I suppose it depends on how bad you want to go to church.

The following is from Compendium of Baptist History by J.A. Shackleford.

Beaver Dam church, Ohio county, Kentucky, is one of the oldest churches in that state, it having been constituted as early as 1798. Some of its members lived twenty miles distant, but were regular in their attendance. They would leave their homes on Friday afternoon, many times on foot, and go part of the way, stopping to hold prayer meeting at night with some brother on the road. The journey would be finished the next morning in time for the eleven o’clock sermon. There would be preaching on Saturday both in the morning and at night, also on Sunday at eleven o’clock and at night. Monday morning the members living distant would return to their homes. There were conversions and baptisms at almost every meeting of the church. If such were not the case the members would consider the church in a very luke-warm condition, and the next meeting was usually preceded by fasting and prayer.

Such consecration and earnestness would not doubt be attended with the like results at the present day. The indifference of many church members to the interests of their church work is a said commentary upon their profession.

People do what they want to do. These people wanted to go to church, so they walked.

The Word of God is Not Bound

I like to read about the Civil War. There are so many fascinating stories, people and event that took place during this tragic war. One thing that I always find fascinating is how the war impacted people in areas that I had not before considered, especially in the churches.

The following was published in the TENNESSEE BAPTIST, August 31, 1861 by J.R. Graves,that I was directed to by Pastor David Green.

The title of the article is The Word of God is Not Bound.

“The first set of plates for printing pocket Bibles and Testaments ever owned and worked in the South were laid upon the press of the Southwestern Publishing House last Wednesday, and it can now be said for the first time that the South is independent of the North for the Word of God. Lincoln no longer binds the Word of God.

These plates for the Bible and Testament have cost, including tariff, ($150), freight and other expenses connected with them, some $1250. More than one-half of this sum was contributed by the brethren and citizens of West Tennessee and North Alabama to us personally—to enable the Publishing House to print cheap Bibles and Testaments for the Confederate soldiers. There is not another set of plates on which a pocket Bible or pocket Testament can be printed in the Southern Confederacy to-day.

Believing that the balance for the plates will be contributed as a voluntary offering to the enterprise, the Southwestern Publishing House offers to print Bibles and Testaments for the Confederate army at the following rates:
Pocket Testaments.—Plain $12.50 per 100—15 cts. retail; Gilt Sides $15 per 100—20 cts. retail.
Pocket Bibles.--$7.50 to $12 per dozen, according to style and binding. Fine bound copies, with name in gilt letters, from $2 to $5 per copy. Let every community that has sent out a company forward each soldier a Bible or Testament, and a package of religious tracts—price 25 cents per package of 300 page.

Will all our exchanges in the South call attention to this enterprise, and to the fact that the Southwestern Publishing House offers to supply 100,000 Bibles and Testaments for the Confederate army at cost of material and labor?”

There were a few thoughts I had about this.

1. Baptists love God's Word.
2. Even in the midst of Civil War, God's people must care for souls.
3. Prior to higher textual criticism, when people spoke of the Bible they thought of the Word of God, not about translations.
4. The GREATEST need in any nations is Jesus Christ.

On yard work, apples, grapes and agricultural empires

There is something about having my hand in the soil that makes me happy. As a child, I hated weeding in the garden almost as much as I hated picking green beans. It wasn't so much the work as it was not wanting to do work of any kind, and gardening was the kind I had to do. Now, I do it because I like to do it. I'm not post-modern enough to say that it is therapeutic, but gardening does make me feel better.

I've moved four times in six years, and have only had one garden in all that time, and that was a shared garden with the owner of the house I was renting. I probably won't get to have a garden this year either. The house that we bought sits on an acre, but the yard was/is in a mess. I've done a lot of work to it over the last two years, but have a lot more to go. I would like to have the land worked enough to have a garden next year, Lord willing. Today, I started planing instead of destroying, which made me happy.

Thus far, my work has consisted of deconstruction, which is really a lot of fun too. I LOVE cutting down trees. Cleaning up after? Not so much. But breaking, tearing down, cutting off is so much easier. Today marks the first day of replenishing lawn maintenance, when I have come, not to kill or destroy, but to plant.

My vast agricultural empire will consist of one Golden Delicious apple tree and four Concord Grape plants. It will be a few years before I reap any fruit, but these things take time. One thing that you don't get in moving around is the time to plant. My grandpa has trees that he planted almost 60 years ago in his yard, and a whole orchard of trees he has planted, pruned, and kept up for decades. But still, this is vanity. Those trees will eventually die, they will stop yielding fruit and will be fit for nothing but the fire. Yet the gospel seed is eternal and will reap eternal blessings. Having a farm, or a garden, or a place to plant is such a blessing but I wouldn't trade it for what God has called me to do in the ministry.

Pro-choice video

I saw this video today at challies.com. It is intentionally provocative, but needfully so. Thinking in these terms you can see how effective the pro-abortion advocates were at defining the terms. So I've decided to define the terms of my post. This is the choice.

Never say baby, use the medical term "fetus".
Never make the issue about abortion, make it about "choice".
Never say pro-abortion, say pro-choice, everyone loves to make their own choices.

Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.

This includes abortion.

Up a Tree

I walked outside, looked up in tree in our yard and saw C.W. up in the tree. It is amazing how boys survive, with both the lack of fear, and that lack of thinking one step ahead, like "how am I going to get down?" or "I wonder if this little twig I'm standing on will hold my weight?" (look real close, can you see the limb he is standing on? Yeah, me either.)

This is how God made boys. Boys who test boundaries, who explore, who attempt feats of strength are our future dad's, future soldiers, future police officers and future preachers.

The duty of every parent of boys is NOT to keep them from being boys, but to mold them into men. To take what God has given them by way of nature and personality and then prune, bend, shape, mold them as best we can, by God's grace, into what they should be. We have failed if we turn our boys into sissies, but we have also failed if we turn our boys into selfish, reckless, arrogant men. I worked as a 4th generation apple farmer before I moved to NC. I know a little about pruning trees, especially young ones. You can prune a tree so much that you ruin it forever. You can bend a young tree until it breaks. But, it is just as bad and just as disastrous to let the tree grow wild without any pruning. My Grandpa wouldn't let anyone prune his young trees, he had to do it because he didn't trust anyone else to work on them at such a critical age. Are our kids more valuable than trees? He that hath an ear, let him hear.

That being said, all boys are different. Mine are very different, and only one of the four attempted to scale the tree. Since all boys are different, all boys needed to be molded and shaped and pruned differently. Not by what society says boys should be, but what God says boys should be. Reading through Proverbs (a book written to boys specifically: 'my son') you don't read a lot about sports, but much about the soul.

Hebrews 13:5-6

Hebrews 13:5-6

O, let my life be
without murmuring.
To live with such things
You've given to me.

The Great I AM spake
this promise I hold;
He'll never forsake
nor leave me alone

With boldness, dare say
in man, I'll not fear;
The LORD, He's my stay
In Christ I'll not fear.

My fears have no place
God's Word spoke to me,
says His Sovereign Grace
tis sufficient form me.

The Legacy of the King James Bible: A book review

The Legacy of the King James Bible
By
Leland Ryken

“But approximation is not duplication.”

“To adapt a quip by Mark Twain (when his death was erroneously reported in a news paper), rumors of the demise of the King James have been greatly exaggerated.”

I was reluctant to purchase this book. I am a little gun shy on reading books about the King James, on either side of the issue. Even when someone who doesn't use the King James praises it for any reason, there is always the obligatory “apology” for praising said aspect. I recently read someone pointing out the 400th anniversary of the KJB and the first half of the sentence was amazement at the endurance, the second half was the “BUT…”; I guess to keep the street cred you have to say something badd too? Not really.

For some people, it is difficult for them to say nice things about the KJV without the "but..." comes from groups that go so far in the other direction who follow Peter Ruckman and Gail Riplinger. No doubt there are such groups, but just because a person uses the King James doesn't mean they are part of these groups.

This characterization is just as dishonest or illinformed as the errors of Riplinger and Ruckman. This is why I didn't want to read the book, I so did not want to pay money to read a book, only to be categorized, in a cartoon-like manner, with groups that I am not part of, or want to be part of.

Through a series of events, I had a lot of credit on my Amazon account, and decided to give the book a try. I am pleased to say that I am happy that I got the book. Not only does Dr. Ryken not feel it necessary to apologize for the KJB, he defends and sings its praises. So I'm the one that has to apologize for judging the book before I read it.

Now, to the book itself.

The author not only does not use the King James personally, he has not in several decades. In fact,he worked as the literary advisor on the English Standard Version (ESV). So, naturally, there are several plugs for the ESV and a few other translations, but even at that, he does not come out to claim superiority, nor does he feel it necessary to trash the King James to uplift his preference. Ryken addresses this issue in the book. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a fair, charitable dealing with the Bible.

There are many aspects of the book that I did not agree with, and this is defiantly not a King James Only book. However, I enjoyed the book for its overall theme. The English speaking world is better off for the King James, and worse off without it.

Ryken deals with the history of the translation and the translators in how we got our English Bible. I don’t know his theological views, but he seemed to get right to the edge of the providential aspect of the translation, but never quite getting there. Regardless of your opinion of the KJV, it is undeniable that it was THE English Bible for 350 years, and regardless of the WHY it happened, it was providential that it did. This point is made several times and from several different perspectives.

The main focus of the book is dealing with the influence of the King James primarily in English literature (which makes sense, Ryken is a literary professor, so this is his wheelhouse). He labors on showing how the King James has influenced authors (religious and secular) in the last 400 years. It is surprising to read how authors were influenced by the KJV both directly and indirectly. Though toward the end, it seemed a tad redundant to one who isn't familiar with some of the authors. But, that is my fault, not his. My ears perked up when he mentioned Charles Dickens, and Hemingway, so if you are familiar with all the case points, I doubt it would seem redundant or tedious.

There is another theme running throughout the book; the denigration of the culture and the rise of modern translation coincide. Does one thing have anything to do with the other? Perhaps, and I believe that it does. Ryken slays the “archaic” argument, and shows how the even the soft endings (runneth, instead of runs)takes away from the translation. Even better than pointing this out, he tells you WHY this is, from a literary perspective.

"The sentiment is widely held that because today we find the KJB archaic and difficult, it must have been equally archaic and difficult for readers in previous eras. It is a great fallacy. Readers of the KJV through the centuries did not struggle with its language, just as modern readers who never relinquished the KJV manage just fine with it. Are we better off today without the KJV than Christendom was for three centuries with it? NO: those eras had many advantages over us. Although we cannot turn back the clock, we should lament what has been lost, not claim an illusory superiority."

Now, I don't think the KJV is "lost" and he kind of contradicts himself when earlier in the book he says that the King James Bible is still consistently in the top three of Bible sales. How can a "lost" book be in the top three? But, as for the overall point he is making, I thought it was spot on.

Here is how he sums what we have lost.

"What has been lost? A common English Bible, nearly universal reverence for the Bible as an authoritative book, and biblical literacy. Finally we have lost the affective and literary power of the King James Bible – not in an absolute sense, inasmuch as the RSV, NKJV, and ESV do a wonderful job of approximating the qualities of the KJV in updated English vocabulary. But approximation is not duplication. OF course dynamic equivalent and colloquial translations do not come close to the King James standard, and modern readers of those translations have no reason to gloat; they have exchanged a birthright of excellence for something manifestly inferior."

He also weighs in on the profitability of multiple English versions.

“If Bible knowledge in our day has declined across the board, where is the alleged gain from modern translations? The very proliferation of translations has discouraged the Christian public from seeking to know what the Bible actually says.”

Indeed. Where is the fruit? Look at our English culture and can we say that Biblical knowledge and literacy is higher than it was 100 years ago? Even 50? There could be many factors that play into that, but it is certainly an interesting thought to consider the rise of multiple Bible translation with the fall and degeneration of society in the English Speaking West. Could higher textual criticism have caused society to distrust and disregard the Bible? There is a danger in always telling people why their Bible is wrong (even if you mean "translation" the hearer often hears "words" and many times won't make the connection).

I enjoyed the book and found it refreshing to read a book that had good things to say about the Bible I have used all of my life and will continue to do so, without apology.

Turn my eyes

Psalms 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

We cannot close our eyes to the world we live in, and you cannot drive down the road without coming in contact with vanity of one form or another.

On a drive to the supermarket, you may have to encounter:

1. sinful billboards


2. covetousness over the nicer cars


3. road rage


4. immodest joggers

just to name a few, and I'm sure you can name many more. The point being, we cannot stay in our homes (as if the dangers are any less) or we cannot drive with our eyes closed, or at least we couldn't drive for very LONG with our eyes closed.

We must, by God's power, be vigilant in turning from sin and temptation and seeing sin for what it is. I like what Albert Barnes said on this verse:

"An ugly object loses much of its deformity when we look often upon it; and this is a benevolent law, lest we should be miserable when we are under a necessity of looking on it. Sin follows this general law, and is to be avoided altogether, even in its contemplation, if we would be safe. A man should be thankful in this world that he has eyelids; and as he can close his eyes, so he should often do it."

When we see such things on the highway (or any place for that matter), we should turn away from the sin, and our hearts should break for the sinners and desire they turn (repent) too. Instead of indulging the flesh in sin, we should weep for the lost. Instead of becoming hermits, we should preach the gospel. We must not indulge the flesh and we must turn our eyes from sin but be careful all the while, not to close our eyes to the sinner who needs Christ.