How Can Scripure Be Trusted?
Posted February 1, 2010
Mike,
I know your time is limited, but I would appreciate it if you would comment on what my friend said.
His Quote: 1Co13:4
J____I was reading this quote online, and it's probably one of the most popular and well known passages there is. Point is: There are 82 different versions of the bible you can read on there, and I'm positive there are more beyond that, because that's just a website. How can you know what language to trace a certain word back to for translation in an effort to try and fully understand scripture? Who is to say? The different versions are similar, but still, certain connotations are changed entirely. An easy example is how in the New International Version, the passage focuses on love, yet in the King James version, the word love is replaced by the word charity. These words mean entirely different things to me. What I'm getting at is this: how can I trust something when there are inconsistencies such as this plaguing its canon across the world? Why should I trust something, when there is no hard evidence to suggest where it originated? I don't know whose hand first scribed the word that eventually was translated into thousands of different words in thousands of different language, all from the that first word that eventually reached me as love and charity." End Quote.
Hi J____,
Thank you for your question.
As you know, I spend many hours feeding God's lambs and His sheep, but neither I nor any of the apostles have a commission to drag people to God. That is the work of the holy spirit alone.
Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
The Father is not yet dragging your friend to Himself, and there are many lambs and sheep who are being dragged to God who are starving for a better understanding of the Word which God has already given them the faith to believe.
Nevertheless, I have already written on this subject in this letter which you are welcome to read. This letter deals with the canonizing of scripture.
http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/2005031204.php The Catholic Church had nothing at all to do with deciding what was and what was not scripture. That was done by the holy spirit via the apostles of Christ before their deaths, as the scriptures make plain.
Anyone who is given faith in the canon and words of scripture and who is aware of the biases of the various translations, never depends upon any translation for his understanding. All true seekers of truth have learned to use the scriptural system of "the sum of thy word is truth."
Anyone who is given faith in the canon and words of scripture and who is aware of the biases of the various translations, never depends upon any translation for his understanding. All true seekers of truth have learned to use the scriptural system of "the sum of thy word is truth."
Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
This principle is discussed in the paper Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth. Here is the URL for that paper. http://iswasandwillbe.com/understandingbible.php
I hope the Lord uses these papers to drag your friend to himself.
Mike