Thanks, JD, for the kind words and yes I do spend more time reading other books than the Bible itself. But I should say that I read a lot in total now that I am retired and having some health issues so 10% Bible and 90% other things still puts me well into the range of an average Christian's Bible reading. I would ask, did you come up with all that's in your post yourself, just by your own Bible reading, or are you sneaking a peak at some extra Biblical sources also? Either way, good job and I enjoy your posts.
Dave, I was not always as strong in my understanding that the KJV is the word of God for us English speakers. In my youth I purchased a copy of the Living Bible and read it for a while. No one in those days with whom I fellowshipped would have objected and eventually I stopped reading it because it just did not bear witness with my spirit and I discarded it never to read it again. It was not because I was influenced in any way by the KJV only crowd of which I knew very little. I was a Southern Baptist in a small community. I left the Southern Baptist in about 1983, not because of the Bible issue but because of compromise as a denomination. I came to understand that many denominational leaders of whom I supported through the co-operative program did not believe any Bible and I was convicted in my conscience about that. However it wasn't until my church was without a pastor that the powers that be decided to call a new pastor who was a member in good standing with the Masonic Lodge that prompted me to leave that church and the denomination. Would any man want his family under such lack of discernment and compromise. I did not. A little leaven leavens the whole lump!
Through the providence of God I met a man in a community about 20 miles away who was a church planter and was starting an independent Baptist church. He was a graduate of BJU. I was there with him about 12 years and though he did not make KJV an "only" he never ever preached from or promoted any other Bible. Of all the missionaries and visiting preachers I never can remember any other translation being used by them. I would have picked up on it because I study my KJV and know it well. Independent Baptist preachers just seemed to know God and recognized his word and gravitated to it in those days.
I can look back in my growth as a Christian and see the transitional stages in my development of becoming KJV only as a personal conviction on the written word of God issue. If you and I were sitting at the table conversing I could tell you of specific times, even to the detail of where I was when God taught me through my meditation certain truths that were game changers for me and was like a light of understanding things I had wondered about suddenly came on. Of course I do not have time or space here for such detail but when I learned that all God's truth was presented with both a physical and spiritual element and one was a type of the other it opened up a whole new way of gaining understanding of the mind of God. This is the reason I brought up John 6 and the manna. It is the physical type of the spiritual antitype of which Jesus Christ completes. We can confirm our doctrines in our own hearts if we know this.
This truth is presented to us by God in his scriptures in so many ways. Take, for instance, the "as" and "so" verses in the scriptures. The "as" is the type and is generally something we are familiar with and is physical while the "so" refers to the spiritual workings of God. If you were to look at Romans 5 in this light you can see it clearly.
Ro 5:12 Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Ro 5:15 But not
as the offence,
so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
As you can see, sometimes it is a contrasting type.
Ro 5:16 And not
as it was by one that sinned,
so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
Ro 5:18 Therefore
as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even
so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Ro 5:19 For
as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Ro 5:21 That
as sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Check this out:
Joh 3:14 And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Mt 24:27 For
as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west;
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Mt 12:40 For
as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
1Co 15:22 For
as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Consider the parables. They are designed by God to take something common to us and use it for light on a future event. Who does not know what leaven is and does. It is used in baking bread and it permeates the whole loaf and swells it up. It is used of Jesus as "evil."
Mt 13:33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Check the parable just before the leaven.
Mt 13:31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
Birds are almost always in scripture a symbol of demons and emissaries of Satan.
You see how the tree is abnormal in it's growth and size? The kingdom of heaven is this age. The parables are the mysteries. The kingdom in it's mystery form while the King is away is like this. The parables are prophecies. They are progressive. one follows the other in time. The parable of the woman with leaven is the 4th of seven parables in Matt 13 that chronicles this age. Not coincidentally, the woman in the 4th church in Revelation 2 does false teaching. Look:
Re 2:18 And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
19 I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
This is the same woman that is in Matt 13.
This is the introduction of Catholicism and her daughters. It is leaven and if the first false doctrine and practice of this whore don't get you the next one just might. This is where this philosophy of new Bibles comes from.
I have written a lot here Dave. Who would have any incentive to study the mind of God by doing word studies of what he said if you have 150 English Bible translations, all with different words? Answer; nobody! What could you learn from them? Answer; Nothing!
I would like to weigh in on your second paragraph. I might do that later.
