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.
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Dan Hopkinson
6/3/2013 05:36:48 pm
I am pleased to announce that the Side-By-Side, Verse-By-Verse, Comparison Study of fifteen other English translations/versions and The King James Version is now approximately 85% complete. The books of the Old Testament left to compare and color-code are Ruth, Esther, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and the five books of Poetry (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon) across all fifteen other translations/versions. I had reported in a number of articles on Examiner.com as Evangelical Examiner Knoxville that of all the things that I have learned from this study, first and foremost, is that the similarities far outweigh the differences; so much so that had those who are skeptical of modern scholarship been willing to compare these translations/versions decades ago instead of hoisting their Bibles high, pounding on the pulpit podium, in the name of God, ‘The King James ONLY’, and learn the very basics of translation, especially the use of good Hebrew and Greek lexicon like Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the serious controversies that have divided branches of Christianity, various denominations in Protestantism, churches within those denominations and branches, and the general laity, very well may have help us avoid those controversies altogether. Further, the churches’ testimony before a lost and dying world would NOT have been compromised by these particular controversies and the unwillingness of believers to stand fast on the battlefield as they confronted the claims of the critics and secular scholars head-on! An even more disturbing speculative observation from this study is the implication that sacred scholars have equally been a party to the deceit that the secular scholars have been employing for over 100 years. As a sidelight to this study itself, I have begun compiling a summary of the large body of evidence discovered as the study has continued that substantiates these general conclusions and speculative observations with plans to shortly produce that summary in an e-book. And as the end of this massive undertaking has appeared on the somewhat distant horizon the Holy Spirit and I have begun to consider the best way to present the results. Admittedly, not everyone within and without Christendom is going to be thrilled with those results. The fundamentalists and conservatives will be overjoyed to learn that this study once and for all puts to rest the criticism of modern scholars, both secular and sacred, that The King James Version is full of errors and therefore untrustworthy. But a great many of those fundamentalists and conservatives will be upset to learn that the very information that verifies the text and trustworthiness of their beloved King James Version also destroys their untenable position of ‘The King James ONLY’! Likewise, the moderates and liberals will be overjoyed with some of the results of this study, the ones that exonerate the work of modern translators and translations: The Revised Version (1881), The American Standard Version (1901), The Revised Standard Version (1950’s), The Amplified Bible (1960-70’s), and The NIV (1980’s), through the multitude of similarities, as well as complete verses and phrases which are almost, if not completely, identical word-for-word. However, the moderates and liberals will be dismayed as well because this study also destroys their vehement attacks on The King James Version! It will be impossible for anyone to legitimately maintain these deceitful criticisms, positions, and opinions, without presenting documentation and explanations, many of which, once understood, manifest the truth that the majority of differences are merely a matter of translators choosing to render a particular word with one of several possible English words as clearly identified in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance with Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. The number of variant renderings that appear in some of the more modern English translations/versions that have appeared since the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls are scant and not clearly identified even in those newer, more modern translations/versions; and the truth is that this study dispels the notion that the translation of The Dead Sea Scrolls required a revised translation/version of The Bible simply by virtue of their discovery and translation. The multitude of similarities between these fifteen other English translations/versions and The King James Version preclude the need for such a revision, especially in light of the assertions of some scholars that the text of The Dead Sea Scrolls substantiates the text of all of the Old Testament books. Unknowledgeable believers need to learn and understand that not one New Testament book was included in those found in The Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Dan Hopkinson
6/3/2013 05:39:03 pm
A second general conclusion that this study provides is that God’s Word has remained relatively UNCHANGED since the time of Moses! Regardless of whether the most ancient copy/copies used as a basis for translation and consultation was/were the original Hebrew (The Tanakh), The Greek Septuagint, The Syriac Peshito, or the Latin Vulgate, the similarities far outweighing the differences across over 2500 years attests to the work and effort of Almighty God to preserve His Word, even through the translation process. Further, two of the translations/versions compared and color-coded in this study, The Greek Septuagint and The Syriac Peshito, were prime candidates for any of the alleged ‘copying errors’ since they were translated into English ONLY after having been translated from the original languages of Hebrew, Koine Greek, and Aramaic into Greek and Syriac 1800-2200 years ago! Yet the similarities, even after being translated through two languages, still far outweigh the differences; differences which can be explained, for the most part, by using Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance with Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries or any other quality lexicon.
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Dan Hopkinson
6/3/2013 05:40:01 pm
One last thought: if we truly believe that The Bible, and especially The King James Version, is God’s Word, then we have nothing to fear from the critics and scholars who attack it. But what we must do is become so familiar with The King James Version and all of the attacks against it, and be WILLING to search diligently, wherever that search may take us, to discover the guile and deceit that Satan, and all who despise God, His Word, Jesus Christ, and everything holy, have used and continue to use to discredit and destroy faith in God’s Word! Our mission and charge is merely to be the absolute best witness and testimony for our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, as possible; recognizing and understanding that not one of us is worthy to be saved, redeemed, bought with a price, or to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and serve Jesus by pointing the sinner to God’s Word, testifying, and providing proof of the guile and deceit the devil is using to hinder his/her coming to the knowledge and understanding of the human condition and need for salvation, and God’s prescribed way to salvation as outlined in His Word!
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