I wanted to blog about yesterday’s opinion piece in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle from Chaplain L. Dale Johnston of North Christian Church in Cheyenne. Again, please understand I’m not commenting as a biblical expert or as some religious scholar. What I can do as human being with half a brain is look at the facts and then base my ideas, beliefs, and opinions on the conclusions I draw.
First thing that struck me about Chaplain Johnston’s article was that he wrote, “The King James translation can be trusted to be God’s revelation of truth to mankind.” Hmmm.. interesting! Here are a couple of bullet points I found on the King James translation of the Bible
· The King James Bible was first published in 1611. Other English Bibles existed, but King James didn’t like the most popular translation, the Geneva Bible, because he felt that some of the marginal notes encouraged disobedience to kings.
· King James appointed 54 men, all revered as experts/scholars at the time to rewrite and translate the bible.
· This process took approximately seven years.
· Over 30,000 changes were made from the original Greek and Hebrew writings.
· Many of the translators themselves published comments and voiced concerns about what they were doing.
· King James laid down 15 rules as far as what could and couldn’t be done over the course of the translation.
Definitely sounds like divine inspiration to me! There are so many more talking points about translating the bible. How does one accurately pass down stories from generation to generation and maintain complete integrity? How, over the course of thousands of years can accurate copies of copies be made time and time again? I just don’t understand how one man can proclaim the King James Bible to be the one and only divine authority on Christianity.
Chaplain Johnston also writes in his opinion piece, “We had better take god’s word literally because there are no contradictions or errors in it.” Ok great, so here we go back to my some of my favorite bible verses.
o If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. – Deuteronomy 21:18-21
o He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. –Exodus 21:15
o He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. – Exodus 21:17
o I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. --1 Timothy 2:12
o The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. – Leviticus 20:10
So if we must take the bible literally, my questions to Chaplain Johnston would be; when do the next rounds of stonings begin? Do any women teach Sunday School at your church? Has anyone in your congregation ever committed adultery and if so are they alive to talk about it?
And as far as the bible not containing any contradictions, what’s up with these verses?
· For I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever.-- Jeremiah 3:12
· Ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn forever.-- Jeremiah 17:4
· If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. --John 5:31
· Jesus answered: Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid. --John 8:14
· And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. --Matthew 28:18
· The whole world is under control of the evil one. --1 John 5:19
· And Jesus said, For judgement I have come into this world. John --9:39
· I came not to judge the world --John 12:47
Finally, the good chaplain called my friend Rodger McDaniel blasphemous! I don’t know if you’ve ever been at a church service and a heard a really good sermon delivered by someone who was well educated, understood the facts behind what they were talking about, and set the stage as far as what was going on at the time; but I find these kinds of sermons are wonderfully entertaining, inspiring, motivational, as well as extremely educational.
While I’ve never heard one of Rodger’s sermons, I’ve read his blog, I’ve heard him speak publically on social issues, I’ve had personal conversations with him and he is anything but a blasphemer!
Jeran
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