Beyond The Bible
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When someone Googles 'the world's major religions' the search engine returns a number of websites containing information that is, at the very best, somewhat confusing; and at the very worst, downright misleading. All too often those of us who have claimed to be Christian for many years or who grew up in a Christian home/church environment very well may have forgotten that the most basic questions of faith and religion do not begin with The Bible, King James Version or otherwise, from the Judeo-Christian tradition. And forgetting those most basic questions many times preclude whether our Christian testimony and witness fall on deaf ears or not. Sadly, the vast majority of the members of our Christian churches possess a severe lack of knowledge and understanding not only about these other world religions, but their own faith as well, including a gross ignorance of The Bible they so staunchly defend when it comes under attack from the critics and opponents of our faith. Add to these facts the ever-increasing doubts created over the past 150-200 years by the critics and opponents of the Judeo-Christian faith: doubts about the very existence of God in the first place; doubts about the text of The Bible, especially The King James Version; and doubts about Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ; and it becomes readily apparent why the Christian church has lost much of its power and influence in the world since the First and Second Great Awakenings faded into the sunset! Modern Historical and Literary Criticism applied to The Bible and its contents, not to mention the unscrupulous reporting and discussion of the alleged findings of the same, have also helped to create that doubt in God's Word, and all of these things and more have helped to fulfill the prophecy of Amos that God would bring about a famine of the hearing of the Word of God; a famine that has been prevalent in modern society now for over 100 years, and continues to grow stronger by the day. If there ever was a time when both a knowledge or and an understanding of God's written revelation was needed, it is NOW! Perhaps one of the best ways to impress upon people, both within the Christian faith and without, that The Bible of the Judeo-Christian tradition remains, even in modern and post-modern times, a trustworthy revelation of the truth that there IS a God and that He, Almighty God, chose to reveal Himself in a number of ways, not the least of which is His written revelation contained in the books of The Bible; one of the best ways to impress this upon people is to challenge them to compare the sacred writings of the major world religions to that of the Judeo-Christian tradition. After all, how many of us in the Judeo-Christian faith have ever opened a copy of any of the four Vedas of Hinduism to catch even a minute glimpse of what is contained therein? Or who among us has read even a page or two of what is contained in The Qur'an of Islam? I guarantee we would be shocked. If the truth be known, the vast majority of the members of our Christian churches are lax, if not outright complacent when it comes to reading their Bible, let alone actually getting serious about in-depth study; yet another result of the prophecy of Amos concerning the famine of the hearing of God's Word. Just a few serious minutes invested in discovering what is contained in the Vedas of Hinduism and the The Qur'an of Islam would surely manifest certain reasons why The Bible of the Judeo-Christian tradition is worthy of some of our time and effort in an attempt to help us understand its place in the greater context of the religions of the world. One of the most important reasons I can offer to true, born-again Christians for not only reading and studying their Bible, but for broadening their knowledge and understanding of its place in the greater context of the religions of the world, is our children and grandchildren. For ten months out of every calendar year we send our children and grandchildren off to school where they are introduced to the ideas that permeate these other world religions, not to mention the ideas espoused by non-religious groups like agnostics and atheists. And once their elementary and secondary education is completed, we encourage many to further their education at some college or university where the same Liberal Arts Curriculum that formed the foundation for their basic education also forms the basis for the collegiate curriculum general education requirements; a course of study conspicuously devoid of the tenets and doctrines of the Judeo-Christian tradition; and that, by design. Is it any wonder that so many of our children and grandchildren that go off to college return home with their faith scarred if not outright destroyed. And the reason is because we the church and we the family and we the parents did NOT prepare our children and grandchildren for those attacks on their Christian faith; not that we did not prepare them adequately, rather, we did NOT prepare them at all! Yet another result of the prophecy of Amos and the famine of the hearing of the Word of God! How many of us have watched as the moral fiber of our nation, the USA, has degenerated over the past 50-60 years alone? Many of us complain that we want God back in our country, prayer and Bible reading back in our schools, and just yesterday I saw a picture on Facebook that stated 'Time to put God back in this house' with a picture of the White House. How little we understand of God's plans for the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church, straight from His prophecies of old, and all contained in His written revelation, The Bible! Misguided Christians and others request us to pray for Jerusalem, to pray for things to get better in our nation, for our country to return to God, all the while not realizing (because we have failed to read and study God's Word) that God's plans are unfolding before our very eyes and it is HIS WILL and warning that things will NOT get better once the events of the end of time begin, but rather, they will get progressively worse and worse, and that, very quickly! We have been duped! The very people that we sent off to colleges, universities, and seminaries over the past 150-200 years, at the very least; the very people that should have learned and discovered the truths from their extensive studies, reading, and research, all required for the degrees that they sought and earned; those people have returned to our churches in leadership roles and led us astray. But just like the message of the prophets of the Old Testament explain, it was not merely the religious leaders who led both Israel and Judah astray, but the political leaders as well; and the false prophets; and certainly not least, the people themselves. Welcome! My name is Dan Hopkinson and Sterling Ministries is my evangelistic ministry, which has been in existence since October, 1975. Feel free to persuse our entire site and if you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to sned them to us using the form on the Contact Us page.
As I am working diligently completing the standardization of the color-code across all sixteen English translations/versions in The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study that I have been writing about on Facebook, at Examiner.com, here on my own Sterling Ministries’ website, and other places, I find this morning that I cannot contain my righteous indignation any longer. How I wish today that God had given me the means to complete this study 45 years ago or so when I first discovered the similarities between The Revised Version, The Amplified Bible, and The King James Version; for then, maybe I could helped countless others who in their own ignorance have espoused positions concerning the various translations/versions of The Bible that present, at the very least, some amount of deception, and at the very most, outright lies! But I must constantly remind myself that the prophetic Word contained in The Bible, the prophetic Word of Almighty God, must be fulfilled and be fulfilled in the manner that God intended when His Holy Spirit inspired the writers of that prophetic Word centuries ago. Specifically, I am referring to the prophecy of Amos found in Amos 8:11-12 which reads:
Before continuing my rant, notice that this prophecy is NOT a famine or shortage OF the Word of God, that is not a shortage of translations/versions of the Word of God, but a famine or shortage of the HEARING of the Word of God! The fulfillment of this prophecy can arguably be claimed to have begun in the late 1800’s when the first of a long series of newer, more modern translations/versions of The Bible was published, The Revised Version (published 1881). For since that time when anyone first seriously adopted the notion that there were, somehow, deficiencies in the Authorized King James Version [for the ‘errors’ that so many critics and opponents of The King James Version of The Bible insist exist, were, for the most part (1) printer’s errors in print type set painstakingly by hand, (2) standardizations in spelling brought about by the same standardization in spelling the English language in general, and (3) minor changes in word choices that had absolutely no or very little effect on the meaning of the passage such word changes occurred in] a plethora of newer, more modern translations/versions have exploded upon the scene, each supposedly discovering some new and different issue with The King James Version and all the translations/versions that have been published before. Allegedly, many of these newer, more modern translations/versions were claimed to have been needed because of discoveries in translation brought about by the application of the Higher (historical) and Lower (literary) Criticism as well as certain discoveries made in archaeology, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls. In all actuality, these claims were more misleading and false rather than being the plain and simple truth. And the one simple thing that was missing from the mix is that which has now been accomplished in The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study completed and produced by Sterling Ministries. And this brings us to the overwhelming feeling of righteous indignation that has been welling up inside of me for months if not years: The historical record identifies a minimum of 25 scholars, translators who worked on The Revised Version completed in 1881. Among those scholars were several Americans whose renderings in translation differed from the majority, and, who were coerced into signing an agreement that they would not publish their own translation/version of their work for a minimum of fourteen years. After the fourteen years had expired, the American translators published their translation/version known as The American Standard Version. Let us remember that these scholars, Americans, English, and others, were ostensibly interested in promulgating the truth about The Bible, yet the majority who worked on this translation/version insisted on a fourteen year cushion BEFORE the American scholars published their variant translations. The obvious question that arises is why; why, if these scholars were interested in the truth, then why was a fourteen year ban on publishing variant renderings insisted upon? For clarity, let us focus merely on the five newer, more modern translations/versions that have been included in The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study, although there have been a score or more of other newer, more modern translations/versions that we could include in this part of the discussion. Exactly how many scholars were employed to complete The Revised Standard Version in the 1950’s, or The Amplified Bible in the 1960’s, and/or The NIV in the 1970’s? The exact number is immaterial to this discussion; to merely raise the question in our minds serves my purpose for this righteous indignation rant! In short, there were a number of scholars involved in creating these translations/versions yet not one that I am aware of provided the kind of information and feedback on not only these five newer, more modern translations/versions and The King James Version, let alone those translations/versions that were contemporary with The King James OR the English translations of the most ancient copies extant, The Tanakh, The Greek Septuagint, The Syriac Peshito, and The Masoretic Text, that The Color-coded, Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study has provided. This parallel comparison of these sixteen English translations/versions has provided an unprecedented, unparalleled, and hitherto unavailable opportunity for analysis of the development of not only the English Bible in general but the side-by-side, verse-by-verse comparison of any or all of the sixteen translations/versions included. And of the plethora of information that could be mentioned and commented upon, the single, preeminent observation that must be admitted by anyone who even just casually glimpses at these pages is HOW SIMILAR THE TRANSLATIONS ARE TO EACH OTHER including The King James Version! And the end of my righteous indignation rant is this: why, in light of the overabundance of available scholars and scholarship involved in not only producing this plethora of newer, more modern translations/versions of The Bible, but also the vast number of other scholars critically analyzing their work, WHY have we NOT heard about the overwhelming number of similarities between these translations/versions, including the Hebrew, the Greek, the Syriac, and the Latin most ancient copies, but instead, have had the focus drawn upon the paltry number of differences, that has resulted in discussion, debate, and argument amongst scholars and lay people alike and created DOUBT in God’s Word in the process; DOUBT that has extended beyond the confines of scholarly and religious circles out to the general population --- what a wonderful testimony such actions have provided to a lost and dying world! |
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February 2016
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