Sunday, February 28, 2016

Revelation 1:1-2 comments (edited): Introduction


Why the King James Bible as opposed to more modern versions? God gave the Scriptures by inspiration.

2Timothy 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Inspiration gave the men who wrote the Bible understanding, which is wisdom to write what God wanted written but to include their own style, some of their own opinions, and even things that aren’t God’s specific commands but kept in for us to learn from. This is not always word for word dictation.

Job 32:8  But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

God’s hand of inspiration extends not just to the original autographs but translations and copies and as Jesus clarifies God’s commands so can a translation make clearer what He wanted.

Jeremiah 36:32  Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

From the previous passage you would realize that you do not know nor is it important what the originals said because God wanted us to have the final result. It took about 1500 years with dozens of authors, their secretaries, copyists, and even translators to give us the Bible. It took about the same amount of time to perfect and complete that work using copyists, translators, and those faithful to it to give us a perfect and complete Bible to use. God’s hand of inspiration is evident throughout.

The doctrine that God only gave by inspiration the original autographs is as vain and blasphemous a doctrine as the one that insists that your church tradition is equal to the authority of the Scriptures.

Two important events in the history of human thought took place around the time of the publication of the King James Bible. One began in the previous century and was called the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, an attempt to overthrow the authority of the Bible, which was the foundation of Protestant and other Nonconforming Christian’s worship. The other flowed from it in the next century and was called The Enlightenment, a vain exaltation of man’s reason over God as an ideal. It can be proven, and I have done so to my own satisfaction, that all modern Bible translations flow from these movements. The King James Bible, also known as the Authorized Version, was the last major Bible translation done before these two movements resulted in German theology and rationalism that led to the modern apostasy of the exaltation of reason over revelation and a general Bible illiteracy among Protestant Christians.

God preserved His word through the ages.

Psalm 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.7  Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Psalm 119:89  LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

Most fundamentalists believe that God’s word was found only in the original autographs, inerrant and infallible, something which they have never seen and which we cannot examine.

The King James Bible is the true Bible of God and our final authority in all matters of faith, practice, and doctrine. It is there for us to see, to examine, to question, and to study; and like Christ was physically touched by the Apostles we have God’s words to handle and He speaks to us through them.

One other thing to note is that modern, scientific man is so intent on breaking reality down into its component parts that he has a hard time seeing the beauty of the forest for the trees and even the individual twigs. Let us look at the verses in context and understand metaphors for what they are without creating an entire edifice of meaninglessness that the Holy Spirit never intended.

1 ¶  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: 2  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

Who was and is Jesus Christ physically? Briefly, I will try to explain.

God is composed of three parts, as man and woman are; a body, a soul, and a spirit.

1Thessalonians 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God has a soul, the seat of self-identity and will.

Psalm 11:5  The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

This is God the Father, sometimes referred to just as God in the New Testament. He is invisible to us. As John says in John 1:18 and in 1John 4:12 no one has seen God, presumably God the Father, at any time. Every act of God’s will originates with Him.

God has a Spirit, how He moves throughout creation and acts on it and in it.

Genesis 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

This Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

1Corinthians 12:3  Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

John 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you…26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

God has a body, His person, whom man can see, and has even touched, as God in the flesh, called the Son of God.

Hebrews 1:1 ¶  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Colossians 1: 13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:14  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:15  Who is the image of the invisible God

Of course, an image is the likeness of someone, what he looks like.

Genesis 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Exodus 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

(Refer back to these verses when someone insists that the image of God is man’s ability to discern between good and evil, which is nonsense, as Adam was made in the image of God but did not taste of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil until he fell).

Jesus Christ is also the Word by which all things were created. Read the first 18 verses of the Gospel According to John.

One stark difference between man and God is that God’s three parts can act independently of each other and still be one God.

Deuteronomy 6:4  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Mark 12:29  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one 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:

2Corinthians 13:14  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

1John 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

God reveals Himself to special select people under the Law and to all believers under Grace.

Amos 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

(To deny this is to say that the so-called ‘Great Commission’ of the end of Matthew does not apply to every believer but only the Apostles).

What is an angel?

An angel is an appearance of someone or some group of individuals who are somewhere else. It is that person or group’s presence.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Matthew 18:10  Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.

Acts 12:13  And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 14  And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. 15  And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. 16  But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.

For all intents and purposes it is that individual.

Judges 2:1 ¶  And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.

Judges 13:21  But the angel of the LORD did no more appear to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. 22  And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.

Galatians 4:14  And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Revelation 21:17  And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

At the end of this chapter angels are the appearance of seven churches.

Verse 2 - John is called to relate all of the things he is about to be told and to see, which he does. You may not understand it all yet and perhaps he didn’t understand everything he saw. But, you are told about it so that when you see it you will know. See Jesus’ talk with his disciples in John 16:25. A prophecy can be given so that when it comes about you will understand it, even if you don’t beforehand.

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