Are you having trouble promoting your heretical ideas? Are people simply not listening to your twisting of essential Christian doctrines? Well here are a few steps to help you get followers and spread your false teaching!Step 1: Redefine important doctrinal words
This is a Mormon and Jehovah Witness classic. The Mormons say they believe in salvation by grace, but they define it as "Your saved by works after all you can do." This is a clear contradiction of scripture as this ex-Mormon explains
There are lots of other false teachers that have done this, a popular one is N. T. Wright who defines Justification as "Covenant Faithfulness" and faith as "faithfulness." Just imagine how much that screws up the gospel when he quotes Romans 3:21-22 as "Now God's covenant faithfulness has been unveiled through the faithfulness of the Messiah for the benefit of all who are faithful." This is a great way to really confuse people who aren't familiar with the Bible which actually says: "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." Wright does a stellar job of distorting the meaning of a clear verse that teaches about salvation by faith alone in order to preach the heretical doctrine of works righteousness.
Step 2: Make your own translation of the Bible to promote your lies!
This is really just a continuation of step 1. After people keep bringing up those pesky verses that prove your deceptive doctrines wrong, the next step is to make your own Bible that you can point to in order to prove your point. The Jehovah Witnesses have led the way in this department of mis-translation. Their New World Translation messes up the Bible so bad you can barely recognize it, that is, if you're at all familiar with the Bible, which most perspective cult followers aren't, so that works out really well. But you don't have to make big changes to the Bible to teach lies, even little words like "a" put in the right places can alter essential doctrines about Christ's deity. They do this by adding this word in John 1:1 making it say that the Word was "a" God. Witch obviously distorts clear teaching from the Bible that there is only one God (Deteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!" ) and that Jesus is fully God (as John 1:1 actually says, as well as John 20:28).
N. T. Wright has recently followed this tradition by releasing The Kingdom New
Testament in which he applies his redefinition method. He redefines the word "Christ" as "King," which is only one office of the Messiah (Christ), the Anointed One, who came to be Prophet, Priest and King. Wright does this to promote his teaching that Jesus is currently using the church to make all things new - people, governments and nature. Like a lot of false teaching, this is a half truth. It's true that Jesus is the King and that He does want to reign with His people, but the Bible clearly says that that won't happen until Jesus returns, as Jesus says: "I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5); however, that is only a minor change compared to what Wright does with words like "justification" and "faith", as mentioned above. Like most false translations of the Bible, Wright's translation isn't consistent, he translates the Greek word "pistis" as "faithfulness" and as "faith" in Romans 1:16-17: "I'm not ashamed of the good news; it's God's power bringing salvation to everyone who believes - to the Jew first and also, equally to the Greek. This is because God's covenant justice is unveiled in it, from faithfulness to faithfulness. As it is written, 'the just shall live by faith.'"Step 3: Accuse everybody else of being wrong
This is a classic cult move and every cult does it, but it is done in several different ways. Some use the textbook: "our original leader got a direct revelation from God" - the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are prime examples of this. Others say that there are secrets that no one else has discovered in the Bible until now, false teachers that use this lie are Harold Camping
and (you guessed it) N. T. Wright. In his books like What Saint Paul Really Said he claims that the evangelical understanding of the gospel is based on Martin Luther and that "Paul’s gospel was not a doctrine of how to get saved." So if you'll just forget about Luther and every evangelical preacher of the gospel since the Reformation and follow Wright you'll have everything "Wright", right?
Conclusion: expect opposition
Even though the Devil has been hard at work to destroy the truth, Jesus' promise is still true, "I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). It might sound discouraging, but no matter how many lies you put out or who you have telling them, the Lord Jesus will still be pressing on, building His church, and using "the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise..." because "God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty" (1 Corinthians 1:27). You just can't win against the Christ. But if you follow these three steps of cult building you can enjoy a time of wealth and power in this life before you are thrown into the lake of fire for all eternity with "whoever loves and practices a lie" (Revelation 22:15).
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ReplyDeleteToday, an important part Bible study is the comparison of translations. Regarding their comparative value, Miles Coverdale (b.1488-d.1568), the one credited with having produced the very first complete printed translation of the Bible into English, wrote: "...one translation declareth, openeth and illustrateth another, and ... in many cases one is a plain commentary unto another."
Apparently, the King James Version translators had also appreciated the work of early translators, for upon their title page they explained that their own work had been, "Translated out of the Original Tongues and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised." – (italics added).
Interestingly, these KJV translators had even further advised, that is, within their original "Preface: To the Reader": "Therefore as St Augustine [b.354-d.430] saith, 'a variety of translations is profitable for finding out the sense of scriptures.'" – (italics added).
Although, for many, John 1:1 plainly declares Jesus (the Word) is God, few are aware of the number of other ways in which hundreds of Biblical Theologians, Scholars and Translators alike have, down thru the centuries, chosen to render the third clause of this verse – that is, as something other than, "and the Word was God."
Since John 1:1 may be the most discussed, explained and/or debated scripture of any in the Bible, after 20+ years study (as of 12/2011), it may interest you to know that there is soon to be released an Extensive Annotated Bibliography, providing the dedicated student of the Bible a sampling of what has been offered by many, well respected Bible scholars, that is, as to the many appropriate, alternative renditions of this most controversial scripture, John 1:1.
To learn more of its design and expected release date, you are invited to visit:
http://www.goodcompanionbooks.com
As you might expect, we are very excited at the opportunity to share our findings with others.
Agape, JohnOneOne.
Dear JohnOneOne, it appears that you have been influenced by the doctrine of the Watch Tower Organization. As I'm sure you know, Greek has no indefinite article, no "a," to supply the "a" when it isn't there can do serious damage to understanding the original meaning of the text. As Norman Geilser explains, "In Greek the definite article is used, it often stresses the individual, and, when it is not present, it refers to the nature of the one denoted. Thus, the verse [John 1:1] can be rendered, "and the Word was of the nature of God." The full deity of Christ is supported not only by general usage of the same construction, but by other references in John to Jesus being God (8:58, 10:30, 20:28) and the rest of the New Testament (Col. 1:15-16, Titus 2:13).
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, some NT texts use the same definite article and speak of Christ as "the God" (Titus 2:13). So it does not matter whether John did or did not use the definite article here - the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is God, not just a god (Heb. 1:8).
That Jesus is Jehovah is clear from the fact that the NT attributes to Jesus characteristics which in the OT apply only to God." Referring to Christ's crucifixion John 19:37 says "And again another Scripture says, 'They shall look on Him whom they pierced.'" which is a quote from Zechariah 12:10, which is, in context, is referring to Jehovah:
"In that day will Jehovah defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David as God, as the Angel of Jehovah before them.
And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look on me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn."