Attention!! Attention!!

ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!

We have a new blogger in our midst! Michael Barone is going to be chronicling his deputation on his new blog at: http://www.prayforitaly.com/. He's already got a couple of posts up so you can stay up to date with him right from the beginning. His missionary website: http://www.gospeltoitaly.com/ still has information about him and his ministry plans, but the blog will be how he keeps people updated more regularly.

No other thoughts for today. I'm in training class again all day, but feel free to check out all the links on my site - including the heresy seeking ones :)

Let God be magnified!

2nd Post today

Don't miss out on my thought for the day in a previous post...

So, to clarify my vague post yesterday about needing a domain name: I had been thinking on Ephesians 1:6 which says in the BIBLE "to the praise of the glory of his grace..." I started thinking about that phrase: the glory of His grace. It made me realize that His grace has glory, that it is glorious grace. Because of that I started planning: http://www.gloriousgrace.com/. However, later I realized that the NIV and a bunch of modern versions (not all) use that phrase, "glorious grace" in Ephesians 1:6. I don't want to mistaken as supporting that translation of the verse, so I'm dropping that domain name. That being said, I need a new one... What do you all think about: ObserveToDo.com? It comes from Joshua 1:8, this book shall not depart out of thy mouth... that thou mayest Observe To Do according to all that is written...

What do you all think? Other suggestions? I'm in a training class all day today, so I'm posting my lunch-time thoughts early!

Oh, and by the way, since I'm goofy, I added this script to my site so that you should be able to double-click on any word on my site and it will give you a dictionary definition for that word. That's pretty perspicacious if you ask me!

Magnified Word

Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

Would you stop and just consider that for a minute...

What does the Bible say about God's name - His great Name? There are things that God does or does not do, simply for the sake of His Name - for His reputation - for His glory. He values His name, His reputation, His glory, so that He will not do anything to tarnish it. There is no other name like His...

But wait a minute. He has magnified His word above His name. The only thing that God gives more value to than His own glory - is His word. He will do ANYTHING for His own glory, except go against His word.

To think that He has magnified His word so much, and that He has given it to us, but we don't value it as much as even ___________ (you can fill in your own blank there).

KJV-Only Reason # 2

To make sure you understand what I mean when I say I am KJV-Only, you may want to go back and read my first reason for being KJV-Only to be sure you get my position right... KJV-Only Reason # 1

One of the biggest surprises that I had when studying the King James issue was when I learned that there are complete verses missing in the other translation. You can go to: http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/nivdelet.htm to see which verses they are... So why am I KJV-Only?

Reason #2: Because the KJV has all of the verses that are supposed to be in there.

Now, the other translation defenders will say that the King James Version has added those verses, not that they have taken them away. What they're saying is that they think the Alexandrian manuscripts behind the other translation are the "most reliable manuscripts." That will be another one of my reasons later on, but the issue to take note of here is that the other translation is based on different manuscripts than the King James - they were not translated from the same thing! So much for the "updating the language" argument.

Recently the "ESV" has been getting a lot of attention... It is endorsed on their website by R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Max Lucado, Ravi Zacharias, Albert Mohler, Erwin Lutzer, Paige Patterson and Steve Green - and those were just the names that I recognized. It was billed by some as the "replacement" for the KJV. When I read that, I got interested that maybe it was an updated KJV or something like that --- Nope, it was just another Critical Text-based translation that leaves out the same words, phrases and verses as the rest of them do. It's just an updated RSV... In other words, it is just a part of the 'other translation.'

Could I remind everyone what God thinks about people adding to or taking away from God's word? I can't get around thinking that somebody - on one side of the issue or the other - is going to be in some serious trouble come time for Judgment...

One last reminder - tomorrow morning is Missionary Prayer Meeting...

Need a Domain Name

Ok, this is not my Lunch-Time Thought for the day... it's not even quite lunch time yet! (as if that really matters anymore!)

Anyway, I need some recommendations for a Domain Name that would be good to use for a Bible Study website. A website that helps expound on Scripture and gives the biblical perspective on different issues. I had a name picked out and a verse to go along with it, but I came to realize that the phrase that I had come up with from that verse is actually the exact phrase that a bunch of the other Bible translations use in that same verse. I don't want to tie that verse reference with the wrong phrase, so I'm dropping that name...

That all being said, I need a new domain name! Any thoughts??? If you go to: www.GoDaddy.com you can do a quick search to see if your suggestion is already taken or not. And I'll give 20 cents to whomever comes up with the best name. But to qualify you have to click on... Oh, never mind.

Iron hurts

Proverbs tells us that iron sharpens iron. Here's my thought for this lunch-time (this is neat, actually, it's lunch-time right now and I'm thinking, and writing it down - like the way it was originally supposed to be!). Iron hurts!

Yeah, if you want to get sharp as a Christian, you'll only get sharpened if you go up against something that hurts. We (you, with your comments and I, with my post) mentioned yesterday men that will push people. They will not allow you to follow along the status quo, but will make your life uncomfortable if you're trying to take the easy street.

As experience shows us, this method of sharpening works! It's almost like God knew what He was writing about in Proverbs! But the real question we should be thinking about is this: How come we don't want to be that iron that sharpens others? Is it because we don't want others to hate us? Because, frankly, experience also teaches us that often people don't like "Iron." Quit you like men, do all things with charity, but Iron hurts!

KJV-Only: Reason # 1

The King James Bible is the perfect, inerrant, accurate, inspired and glorifed word of God in the English language. I believe that to be true.

• Perfect = free from defect and complete in the source/texts from which it was translated
• Inerrant = there are no "mistakes," "mistranslations," "bad renderings," "careless oversights..."
• Accurate = it is a perfectly accurate translation of the word of God from the original languages
• Inspired = in that the original autographs were inspired by God, and subsequently they were preserved by God, a perfectly accurate tranlsation of the inspired word of God, makes it an Inspired word of God as well, in the English language.
• Glorified = inasmuch as we give it the glory that it is due - by reading, meditating and obeying (the text above is 2 Thessalonians 3:1, speaking of the word of the Lord being glorified)

That's my stance on the King James Version. You really have to take some kind of stance on the issue, because the King James is different than the "other translation." I call it the "other translation" because all of the rest could really be lumped into one - there are exceptions, but the generalization is strong. It is the King James Bible vs. the rest of them. (For fairness sake, you could divide the other translation into two: literal translation vs. paraphrase/dynamic equivalence translation).

I have to clarify, before continuing, the issue: The King James translation was translated from a different set of original language texts than the rest of the versions were. Therefore, the other translation will have verses and phrases that are not found in them, because the texts they translated from did not have those verses and phrases in them. Sometimes, the translation will be different just because the translators of the other translation thought it would be better that way. It is NOT an issue of: "they just updated the language..." That just simply is not the case, yet I suppose that phrase would be the understanding of the vast majority of what Christianity thinks of when they hear of this issue.

I would like to share with you reasons that I, Andy Hinds, happen to hold this position on the King James Version.

Reason #1: Because a man of God challenged me on the issue when I spued my ignorant challenges against it.

I didn't say I was going to give you the best reasons, or the most conclusive reasons first. But the number one reason that I, Andy Hinds, believe the King James Bible to be the perfect, inerrant, accurate, inspired and glorifed word of God in the English language, is because Rick (who needs no introduction) held his ground against my charges of, "oh, that's not fair that the Spanish doesn't have a KJV." and: "Oh, where was the perfect word of God before 1611," and "Oh, why can't we just update the language - the KJV is so old!" and other such things. Rick left me one night after Bible study with a piece of wisdom: "I'm not going to convince you of this, you'll have to be fully persuaded in your own mind." Rick realized my stubbornness and pride, and realized that even if he won the argument, he wasn't going to win me... Anyway, he challenged me to look into it for myself - and I did!

Those next few weeks I had spent hours upon hours studying the issue. I was self-employed at the time and could easily move around my schedule, so I was spending many, many late nights up in my office reading books and browing pages on the Internet. A few weeks later, as I was going to be presenting the results of my study to our Home Bible Study, Rick asked me how long I had spent on studying and preparing. The answer I gave him, after figuring it out in my head, was about 80 hours - and that was even without the Baptist round-up!

The study showed me my ignorance of the subject, but more importantly than that, MUCH more importantly than that, during the process of studying out different changes made between the KJV and the other translation, I started realizing that I hardly knew my Bible at all - that there are things in the Bible, important things, that I really had no clue about! Throughout those couple weeks of me diving into my Bible head first, God used that to get a hold of me. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I really started to fall in love with my Bible - my King James Bible!

Thanks again, Rick! (Yeah, I know he doesn't read this blog - but it's the thought that counts!)

... and a reminder: This is Missionary Prayer Meeting week