Category: Water

LOST CAPTIVE UNDONE.

LOST CAPTIVE UNDONE.
Oh, the shackles cramping both my legs in this heat;
My heavy hands hang down, utter total defeat.
My head is bent eyeing their bonds with a stiff neck;
Where are the wise who’ve done no wrong; without defect?

Let them learn from my cries, dead in sins I had vent;
Life was half gone before it dawned I was hell-bent.
God’s finger of Law lit my soul and showed my fate,
When I learned my state, reading commands far too late.

In rebel’s room with no way out, locked and no relief
Beyond belief, when I found that I’m sinners’ chief.
My, oh my! What a plight, condemned and out of sight!
To whom shall I appeal? Is there proof I’m not right?

Surely I’m not that bad; some goodness must avail.
He’ll balance me up, weigh the scales if justice fails.
Then when I appear before the judge, I’ll not fudge.
I’m the man, O Lord, I admit I did misjudge.

But at last, I’ve come to my senses; I can’t succeed!
Pardon is my only hope! To whom shall I plead?
Against the laws that indict my offence
To a just judge, this would not be right. Oh, I’m dense!

Who is this that hearkens my call, coat stained with red?
His voice in the wind calls: “I’ve borne your sin instead
I’ve been bleeding, but how can I help you the best?”
Lord, save my soul from this body’s death; this my quest.

“Come follow me to my tree! Find a sight to see,
Where my burst heart’s water paid penalty for thee
My blood was shed to wash your sins, to blot them out!
I ransomed you to break your iron chains apart.”

John David

John 19:34
But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
1 John 5:6.
This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood..
1 John 5:8
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood..
*1Titus 3:5-
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost..
*1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
*Ephesians 4:5
One Lord, one faith, one baptism…
*Ephesians 5:26
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word..

*The sole baptism required for regeneration. To hope in others for it brings damnable false hope.
Poem: John David
Scriptures quoted from King James Version of the Bible (Public Domain)

LOST CAPTIVE UNDONE.

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER (2): The Awakened Believer.

THE AWAKENED BELIEVER.
1. Reading the Word of God produces moral convictions and these grow until the reader is uncomfortable. Why? “That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Romans 7:11) The seeking believer then has the choice of turning away from his convictions or continuing with the quest of his soul caused by his awakening call of Christ to follow him. Should he choose to turn away he will then be a miserable soul for whatever time it takes for him to relent from his folly and return as a pilgrim seeker.

Easy religionists of our pulpits today would jump in where angels fear to tread and reassure him with false hopes. Such clergy fail to discern the difference between awakening and conversion. The seeker’s soul will never be placated by the ‘rabbit trails’ of water-wine-wafer sacraments/ordinances; ‘full surrender’; infilling of the Spirit; tongues’ speaking; or full sanctification. Clergy making these alternative easy ways to avoid real repentance have not the slightest inkling of biblical conversion or the meaning of faith by grace that the Reformation heralded some 500 years ago and shelved by 99% of the church today.

2. The moral law and the condemnation it produces in man’s conscience is meant to bring the believer to the end of himself and distrust his own efforts, and the false hopes of his own faith, and his own religious creed/ sacrament.

3. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity for saving grace. The eleven disciples were in hiding, except John, after the crucifixion. They were at the end of themselves in mortifying sorrow facing their cowardice, disbelief, and failure.

4. This was the opportunity for the risen Christ to change their worldly sorrow into godly sorrow of repentance. Concomitantly the Lord Jesus converted their double-mindedness into genuine godly faith enabling them to believe as the day-star of the Spirit indwelling them.

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER (2): The Awakened Believer.

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER. (1)

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER.
1) The unawakened believer; (2) The awakened disciple; (3) The enlightened pilgrim; (4) The illuminated convert.

THE UNAWAKENED BELIEVER
It is not enough to believe, and there are many believers in the church who have not been awakened. They have never had an encounter with the living Christ’s spirit because they have never sought him with all of their heart. They were happy to have a quick-fix that the church has offered the world since the 19th C. There are varying degrees of belief towards Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament.

Many religious have never heard the call of Christ. They may read the Scriptures and attend Christian worship services. One day listening to the Bible-based preacher there is a personal response of the believer. He/she is suddenly arrested by the challenge to follow Christ and do His bidding. His whole being is awakened into the reality of Christ’s presence and he/she becomes an ardent follower or disciple.

Unawakened souls are not disciples of Christ, merely religious in mind. They may be in the church, but they do not have God’s presence WITH THEM and are not yet His SHEEP.

The unawakened believer has no knowledge of the Scriptures and he finds the Bible a mystery which he does not understand. He is classed as a walking dead, or ‘dead man walking’. The unawakened believer needs not to procrastinate too long or the day of grace may pass too soon.

The unawakened person may well have knowledge of creed, confession, and written articles of faith, such as water washes away sins.

Awakening does not happen at one’s own behest or the will of the preacher. It is at God’s behest alone. No decision, prayer, water, wine or wafer can compel God to awaken the lost soul, dead in sins and trespasses.

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER. (1)

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER.

1) The unawakened believer; (2) The awakened disciple; (3) The enlightened pilgrim; (4) The illuminated convert.

THE UNAWAKENED BELIEVER
It is not enough to believe, and there are many believers in the church who have not been awakened. They have never had an encounter with the living Christ’s spirit because they have never sought him with all of their heart. They were happy to have a quick-fix that the church has offered the world since the 19th C. There are varying degrees of belief towards Jesus in the Gospels of the New Testament.

Many religious have never heard the call of Christ. They may read the Scriptures and attend Christian worship services. One day listening to the Bible-based preacher there is a personal response of the believer. He/she is suddenly arrested by the challenge to follow Christ and do His bidding. His whole being is awakened into the reality of Christ’s presence and he/she becomes an ardent follower or disciple.

Unawakened souls are not disciples of Christ, merely religious in mind. They may be in the church, but they do not have God’s presence WITH THEM and are not yet His SHEEP.

The unawakened believer has no knowledge of the Scriptures and he finds the Bible a mystery which he does not understand. He is classed as a walking dead, or ‘dead man walking’. The unawakened believer needs not to procrastinate too long or the day of grace may pass too soon.

The unawakened person may well have knowledge of creed, confession, and written articles of faith, such as water washes away sins.

Awakening does not happen at one’s own behest or the will of the preacher. It is at God’s behest alone. No decision, prayer, water, wine or wafer can compel God to awaken the lost soul, dead in sins and trespasses.

THE AWAKENED BELIEVER.
1. Reading the Word of God produces moral convictions and these grow until discomforting the reader. Why? “That sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Romans 7:11)

2. The moral law and the condemnation it produces in man’s conscience is meant to bring the believer to the end of himself and distrust his own efforts, and the false hopes of his own faith, and his own religious creed/ sacrament.

3. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity for saving grace. The eleven disciples were in hiding, except John, after the crucifixion. They were at the end of themselves in mortifying sorrow facing their cowardice, disbelief, and failure.

4. This was the opportunity for the risen Christ to change their worldly sorrow into godly sorrow of repentance. Concomitantly the Lord Jesus converted their double-mindedness into genuine godly faith enabling them to believe as the day-star of the Spirit indwelling them.

THE ENLIGHTENED BELIEVER.
1. To have an enlightened mind is inadequate to understand the spiritual side of the Bible’s sixty-six volumes. It is the most unusual book ever written and one needs something more than an enlightened mind of curiosity and rational reason to understand its message.

2. Though enlightenment produces zealous interest, curiosity, and understanding of the Bible’s characters, history, and moral directives it is unable to give spiritual discernment of Christ’s grace and redemption. Independent reason will prevent the natural mind from fathoming the saga of grace from Genesis to Revelation.

3. Enlightenment is secretly driven by the Father’s magnetic attraction of the believer to His Son in the Scriptures. Though mistaken today for the new birth, it falls far short of one possessing eternal life. He/she needs the illumination of Christ’s regenerating Spirit.

4. Awakening and enlightenment are all part of the Father drawing the believer to His Son. (John 6)

5. The faith of the believer is not enlightened, only his mind but the doubts of the ambivalent will remain. His own faith wavers all the time. He needs the gift of true faith by grace. Until then he is like the first twelve disciples who were lacking in faith.
An enlightened mind is not enough to understand the spiritual side of the Bible in its sixty-six volumes. It is the most unusual book ever written and one needs something more than an enlightened mind. Though that in itself produces zealous interest, curiosity, and understanding of the Bible’s characters, history, and moral challenges, the enlightenment of the mind is unable to give spiritual discernment of its real message of grace and redemption. Man’s independent reason will prevent it.

The first eleven apostles were unconverted until the first day of the resurrection (Luke 24 & John 20).
It is secretly driven by the Father’s magnetic attraction to the Scriptures. More than anything else that drawing of the Father is paramount. It is not universal, but only to the wholehearted seeker. For God the Father alone can reveal the person of the Lord Jesus Christ who then calls the believer to follow Him. However, he is still in need of illumination by Christ’s regenerating Spirit. Awakening and enlightenment are all part of the Father’s drawing the seeker to His Son.

1) Enlightening has to do with the arousal of the mind, not his faith. Though he may well be a disciple of Christ he is solely reliant on his mind until he is illuminated and born of the Spirit. He needs the grace of faith because no matter what method is employed natural faith remains natural regardless of the psychology used. Humans are natural disbelievers, better described as skeptics. At best natural faith wavers and is ambivalent. He needs the gift of true faith by grace. Until then he is like the first twelve disciples to whom Jesus questioned for their lack of faith.

a. One’s own faith, whether it is childlike or not, is natural, and the natural man receives not the things of God for they are foolishness to him. ( 1
Corinthians. 2:14).
b. Freewill faith, now popular among a full cross-section of evangelists, ministers, and preachers everywhere.
c. Freewill faith is sourced in New England Theology. Its modern resurgence was in the humanist Age of Enlightenment of the 18th Century.
d. It elevated the natural attributes of humanity’s own powers of reason, conscience, and faith and made God the source thereof.
e. Yet the NT clearly describes the degeneracy of mankind through the curse that fell on the human race through Adam.
f. That is the very reason for the 1st Advent, for which Christ was born (the Second Adam, says St. Paul).
g. William James, The Father of Modern Psychology, went one step further by linking FAITH to WILL power so that the two became synonymous. James
attributed faith to any human action towards God, though he himself was a convinced agnostic.
h. James tried to destroy biblical conversion and faith by grace emphasized in the Reformation. He discredited the major evangelists of the Great
Awakening and the Second Great Awakening by his book ‘Varieties of Religious Experience’. This masterful philosopher sadly
influenced the evangelicals and the liberals in their theological halls of learning and seminaries.

THE ILLUMINATED CONVERT.
The truly enlightened disciple becomes more frustrated as time progresses and his hunger grows. He is disappointed with himself and his own inner self.
One day he becomes so disillusioned with his own spiritual state that he considers quitting altogether.

1. He becomes sorrowful over his inner state and his inability to grasp the answers.
a. Then still reading the Word, he grows despondent about ever becoming a spiritual person or becoming good enough when he sees so many of his own foibles, failures, and sins.
b. He wishes he could be more than sorry for himself, but genuinely sorry enough to satisfy God.
c. He hungers and thirsts for a resolution with a deep longing.
2. It is then after listening to regular preaching of a godly preacher in a Bible-believing assembly expounding Christ in the Scriptures that a change will at last occur.
a. The risen Saviour invisibly presents Himself to his mind.
b. The glow of His presence is awe-inspiring and HOPE begins to burn within him.
c. Suddenly doubts are replaced by the gift of grace.
d. The Bible with which he so often struggled now seems the LIVING WORD of life which had hitherto only been a book of stories.
e. His eyes are opened and his mind and soul is ILLUMINATED by the regenerating Holy Spirit.
f. Within him, HOPE is accompanied by PEACE beyond human understanding.
g. His exuberance makes his spirit revel in JOY.
h. He has become a new creature in Christ by the power of His resurrection. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

BIBLE REFERENCES.
Preconditions to illumination (conversion).
REPENTANCE: ( 2 Corinthians 7: 8-10)
1. REPENTANCE is neither automatic nor worldly sorrow (being sorry for yourself). The sorrow of the world works death
2. WORLDLY sorrow is ‘but for a season’. The passing sorrow for one’s own consequences.
3. GODLY SORROW is the gift. You were made sorry after a godly manner. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation

THE TWELVE WERE NOT CONVERTED UNTIL THE RESURRECTION.
1. The awakened and enlightened Peter had yet to be converted (illuminated). Conversion by the washing of the blood purges the conscience. Hebrews 9:14.
(Hebrews 10:22)
2. Natural faith cannot bring salvation. James 1:6-7. Natural faith is fickle.
3. Conversion by illumination comes alone by preaching, not water, wine or wafer.
a. 1 Corinthians 1:21. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

** All scripture quoted from the KJV or King James Version (Public Domain).
BIBLE REFERENCES
1. UNAWAKENED FAITH.
a. James 2:19. …the devils also believe and tremble.
b. 1 Corinthians 15:34. awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of god:
c. Ephesians 5:14… awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
d. Romans 13:11. …it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
2. PROCESS PRIOR TO AWAKENING:
The Father draws the seeker to become wholehearted.[ Deuteronomy 10:12; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30]
a. John 6:37. All that the Father gives me shall come to me…
b. John 6:44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:
c. John 6. 45. Every man, therefore, that has heard and has learned of the Father, comes unto me.
d. John 6:65 … no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
e. Jeremiah 29:13. And you shall seek me, and find me when you shall search for me with all your heart.
f. John 10:16. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.

Freedom of the Will 1746; Jonathan Edwards: First Great Awakening who later turned against Reformation & paved the way for New England Theology’s Easy Religion that has permeated the USA and the globe.
Varieties of Religious Experience by William James the Father of Modern Psychology added fuel to the fire trying to burn out the true biblical conversion.

FOUR STAGES OF A BELIEVER.

AWAKENED BELIEVER’S ENLIGHTENMENT.

THE AWAKENED BELIEVER.
1. Reading the Word of God produces moral convictions and these grow until discomforting the reader. Why? “that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Romans 7:11)

2. The moral law and the condemnation it produces in man’s conscience, is meant to bring the believer to the end of himself and distrust his own efforts, and the false hopes of his own faith, and his own religious creed/ sacrament.

3. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity for saving grace. The eleven disciples were in hiding, except John, after the crucifixion. They were at the end of themselves in mortifying sorrow facing their cowardice, disbelief, and failure.

4. This was the opportunity for the risen Christ to change their worldly sorrow into godly sorrow of repentance. Concomitantly the Lord Jesus converted their double-mindedness into genuine godly faith enabling them to believe as the day star of the Spirit indwelled them.

5. To have an enlightened mind is inadequate to understand the spiritual side of the Bible’s sixty six volumes. It is the most unusual book ever written and one needs something more than an enlightened mind of curiosity and rational reason to understand its message.

6. Though enlightenment produces zealous interest, curiosity, and understanding of the Bible’s characters, history, and moral directives it is unable to give spiritual discernment of Christ’s grace and redemption. Independent reason will prevent the natural mind from fathoming the saga of grace from Genesis to Revelation.

7. Enlightenment is secretly driven by the Father’s magnetic attraction of the believer to His Son in the Scriptures. Though mistaken today for the new birth, it falls far short of one possessing eternal life. He/she needs the illumination of Christ’s regenerating Spirit.

8. Awakening and enlightenment are all part of the Father drawing the believer to His Son. (John 6)

9. The faith of the believer is not enlightened only his mind and doubts of the ambivalent will remain. His own faith it wavers all the time. He needs the gift of true faith by grace. Until then he is like the first twelve disciples to whom Jesus questioned for their lack of faith.

BIBLE REFERENCES.
Preconditions to illumination (conversion).
1. John 6:44. No man can come to me, EXCEPT THE FATHER which hath sent me DRAW HIM:
2. John 6:37. All that the FATHER GIVES ME shall come to me…
3. John 6. 45. Every man therefore that has HEARD, AND HAS LEARNED of the Father, comes unto me.
4. Jeremiah 29:13. And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.

REPENTANCE 2 Corinthians 7: 8-10.
1. REPENTANCE is neither automatic nor worldly sorrow (being sorry for yourself). Sorrow of the world works death
2. WORLDLY sorrow is ‘but for a season’. The passing sorrow for one’s own consequences.
3. GODLY SORROW is the gift. You were made sorry after a godly manner. For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation

THE UNCONVERTED APOSTLES UNTIL HIS RESURRECTION.
1. Peter unconverted. Luke 22:32 .I have prayed for you that your faith fail not and when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.
2. Conversion by the washing of the blood purges the conscience. Hebrews 9:14. (Hebrews 10:22)
3. Natural faith cannot bring salvation. James 1:6-7. Natural faith is fickle.
4. Conversion by illumination comes alone by preaching, not water, wine or wafer.
a. 1 Corinthians 1:21. it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

** All scripture quoted from the KJV or King James Version (Public Domain).

AWAKENED BELIEVER’S ENLIGHTENMENT.

Your Trust in Water or Blood?

IS YOUR TRUST IN WATER OR THE BLOOD?
1. So were you baptized to follow the kingdom example of Christ?
a) Did you know that He as a conforming Jew was baptized before He began the kingdom of heaven and that as the ‘Son of David’ in the Messianic lineage of his forbears that he needed to honour and fulfill all the promises of the patriarchs, the prophets and the Psalms of David?
b) He needed to ‘fulfill all things’ as John the Baptist was at first reluctant to baptize him because John himself insisted that he had not been baptized.
c) Did you know that Jesus declined to baptize John, the last prophet of the first testament era: Law and Prophets of which the Lord called John the greatest?
d) To fulfill the promises of the first testament of blood predicting a new High Priest would arise from the tribe of Judah
• Mark’s differing place of ascension- not Olivet-unnamed-
• Baptismal commission yet LJC neve baptized-only the twelve
• No place in the4 gospels where LJC baptized in water-not once-despite dispelled rumour in John 3 &4
• John 3-4 was started by a rumour and hearsay notwithstanding John 4:1-2 reiterated claim that the twelve baptized which has never been corroborated in the Gospels-even once.
• John B prophesiedthat Jesus would baptize others bin fire nopt water.
• The true commission from Jerusalem’s ascension mount of Olivet (Mt of Olives) reported in Acts 1 was not a baptismal commission but one that preempted the baptism of fire 50 days later at Jerusalem on the day of the feast f Pentecost.
• It is commonly known among a wide cross section of theologians (even evangelicals of the right,that the last part of Mark 16 (v9-20) was lost and replaced by another ending. Thus it is thought generally to be an unreliable section of the Word for doctrine and practice not withstanding the radical fundamentalist who may well be a pragmatic bibliolater.
• Many have advocated since the 19th C age of doctrinal pragmatism that the NT teaches baptismal regeneration like the church of Rome

REFORMATION’S NEW TESTAMENT FROM ORIGINAL GREEK.

TRUE CONVERSION MISUNDERSTOOD.

TRUE CONVERSION TO CHRIST.
There are myriad professors and only a few possessors of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. The former are secure in their false hopes based on church myths. Those myths were introduced into the persecuted Christian minority 1700 years ago by a new Roman emperor bent on forcibly nationalizing Christianity for the vast masses of both East and West.

During Christ’s earthly ministry, before he was arrested and executed, he primarily ministered to the Jews and educated his Jewish disciples. His new kingdom of heaven would be radically different from the earthly kingdom of Moses’ Law and Prophets that ended with the beheading of John the Baptist, who ministered under an old testament covenant but foretold of a new testament by the Lamb of God: Jesus Christ. He did so in the legacy of the Prophet Isaiah the evangelist of the Old Testament.

The Scriptures demand wholeheartedness. This is the one command of the Old and New Testaments that qualifies the true follower, mostly ignored by easy-evangelism and quick affirmation process of automated conversion. It is declared by the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms and the Gospels: that one must first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matt.6.33; Isaiah 55.1) with all the heart, soul and might trusting not in self-help or any other assurance but God’s.

The church instead rushes to tell its audience that they are all eligible for God’s grace of conversion without such wholeheartedness, which it claims will develop in due course. It uses different ordinances and sacraments to initiate seekers, who for the most part have never genuinely sought God. Once initiated they are indoctrinated with false hopes. These disciples mostly fail to possess Christ’s indwelling Spirit even as the first Twelve lacked the Indweller before Jesus rose from the grave. They think that following him and thereby being WITH him is eternal life. Read Luke 24 and John 20 closely to understand how conversion opened their eyes to understand the Scriptures, and how the new indweller made their hearts burn within, and their disbelief was turned to faith, hope and joy. “Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” he said, and their lives were transformed. John 20. 2 Cor. 5.17. No wonder that in the next 40 days 109 were converted to join the Eleven in the Upper Room after the Ascension.

TRUE CONVERSION MISUNDERSTOOD.

EARLIEST PUBLISHED BIBLES IN PRINT.

EARLIEST-PUBLISHED-BIBLES-IN-PRINT.
The earliest published English Bibles or New Testaments after Gutenberg’s 1450 invention of the printing press were from the Puritan minded Protestant Reformers in the immediate wake of the Reformation. Though the first book printed in Europe was a Bible it was merely a publication of the Latin Vulgate Bible of the Holy Roman Empire, understood by a limited few in 1450.

After the Reformation New Testament translators used the Greek New Testament of Erasmus producing editions in German, English, French, etc. To the English reader the six authoritative and unadulterated editions of the Bible were printed in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Rome’s Latin Bible, had remained unchallenged for a thousand years since the 3rd century until John Wycliffe scribed it into common English parlance around the1390’s, and Tyndale printed it in 1526 nine years after Luther’s German N.T. Wycliffe, whose bones were later burned in protest, died before he could be martyred and Tyndale was burned and strangled at the stake in 1536. Needless to say the Holy Roman Empire protected its Latin Bible with a vengeance.

By 800 AD it was protected under the criminal code from being retranslated into any other language. The two exceptions were however, in the 4th and 5th centuries, when Constantine and then Jerome revised the Old Latin. Nevertheless, Jerome’s Vulgate perpetuated Roman Catholic dogma of its seven sacraments included in Constantine’s first revision of 3rd C Old Latin N.T.

After the formation of the Holy Roman Empire by the Pope in 800 AD, the Vatican ensured that any further revision or translation, within its vastly growing empire, would be illegal and offenders would suffer capital punishment. It martyred any would be reformer. In the Reformation of 1517 many translators and publishers fled to Geneva to escape imprisonment.

Later restrictions were tightened to include any private reading or ownership of any part of the Bible. This was to make sure that its reading and propagation publicly was limited to the Catholic priesthood. Even the priesthood was under this taboo.

John Wycliffe was called the Morning Star of the Reformation 200 years before it occurred. Shortly after Wycliffe, the Muslims conquered Constantinople (formerly Byzantium, now Istanbul) causing the Greek scholars of the church to flee to Europe with their trove of New Testament Greek manuscripts.
Thus Renaissance humanist scholar Erasmus used these to compile a Greek New Testament, the original language in which it had been written. The literati, linguists, translators and publishers like the Frenchman Robert Entienne (alias Stephanus) showed new interest in the veracity and authority of the Holy Bible and versified it for the reading public.

But Erasmus in translating the Greek New Testament ignored Constantine’s seven sacramental inclusions into holy writ of the Latin Bible. This spurred both Luther and Tyndale to produce the first German and English New Testaments respectively. Indeed four more English updated translations of the Puritan era were published in London and Geneva before Roman Catholic scholars began to undermine the translation process in the 18th C Age of Enlightenment. This was a resurgence of Renaissance humanist endeavour, but far more libertine in character. It elevated reason against the sacrosanct inspired preservation of holy writ’s absolute authority.

The six most reliable translations led often to the translator’s martyrdom by the long reach of the Vatican and the Holy Roman Empire based in Franco Germany. Of these translations only two remain in print for the public: the 16th C. Geneva Bible and the 17th C. King James Bible. In 1611 it marked the end of one hundred years that had changed Britain and America and the regions beyond by the impact of Reformation reformers, translators and publishers.

The final demise of respect for inspiration and authority of Reformation’s preservation of Scripture began in the next century by Roman resurgence promoting the re-elevation of the Vatican’s Codex Vaticanus Bible MS in Latin and their scholars progressively influencing Protestant scholars to adopt Reason (logic); Philosophy (Thomas Aquinas etc); and Psychology (William James) to interpret, and, or, translate holy writ.
Bible criticism became a humanist science in itself encouraging readers to understand and interpret the Scriptures.

As a result of the strayed 18th C Enlightenment, two 19th C. Anglo-Roman priests: Westcott and Hort wrote their own Greek New Testament, spurning both the Reformation and the invaluable work of Erasmus. They used the abovementioned libertine rationale of reason. All modern Bible translations from the 19th C to the 21st C are based on this spurious work.

But modernization under the guise of readability in common parlance was totally eclipsed by using a spurious key of hermeneutics: understanding the text through reason employing pragmatic comparison rather than comparing Scripture with Scripture. This which relied upon the rationale of the early post-Reformation Bible’s irrevocable and absolute authority.

The result is today’s mayhem of Christendom polarized between the status quo using different shades of pragmatic Bible reading, and minority right wing bibliolatrous Bible reading by the popular fundamentalists (usually misusing the KJV) who will venerate one word, phrase or verse doing an injustice to both Scripture and the biblical method of interpreting the text.

Somewhere in the fog of apostasy and the mayhem of hundreds of modern translations, most have forgotten the cause for the exponential increase of sectarianism in the 19th C. that ushered in such a rise of controversy that there are now 2,800 separate sects and denominations under the banner of Christendom. (Encyclopaedia of the Christian Church 1977).

NOTES.
(N.T or NT = New Testament. Holy writ = the Bible.)
Article by John David of Bonita Bible Mission public domain.
KJV is the King James Version Public Domain ex (biblegateway.com)

EARLIEST PUBLISHED BIBLES IN PRINT.

ISAIAH 2: Foreword

Isaiah’s future hope: the 1st & 2nd coming of Christ.
Having described Jerusalem’s decadence and its self-inflicted woes, God’s voice through Isaiah his mouthpiece, calls Jerusalem a wayward woman. Albeit, the prophet sees Jerusalem through the eyes of the distant future. He encompasses both the First Advent and the Second Coming of Christ (the Second Advent) to planet Earth. Prior to the second advent he foresees the apocalyptic judgment of Earth by a wrathful God acting in vengeance for its endemic wickedness and rejection of his entreaties offering merciful forgiveness to genuine penitents. Whether from prophets, apostles, evangelists or saints the resistance was impenetrable.

Immanuel, Christ would first come as a Lamb, and then return at the end of the age as King of Kings to rule and reign with a rod of iron from Zion. The millennial reign of Jesus Christ would be from Jerusalem where he is due to return on the Mount of Olives, from which he ascended not Galilee as the 4th C amended Matthew 26; 28; Mark 14; & 16 purport. As Luke, John, and Acts declare: His passion, resurrection, and ascension was not from Galilee’s unnamed mountain, but Jerusalem near Bethany on the Mt. Olivet. The major prophets and the minor prophets agree with John and Luke that the second advent return of Immanuel will be to Jerusalem. Importantly and precisely Zechariah 14 correlates with Luke where (in Acts 1) before the apostles the angel heralds the eventual returning descent of Christ to the very same Mount of Olives. This made the apostles of Christ beholden to proclaim that same message as harbingers of the Second Coming.
John David
KJV Scripture Chapter Isaiah 2: public Domain see:
http://bonitabiblemission.worthyofpraise.org/isaiah-2-foreword/

ISAIAH 2: Explanatory Foreword

SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES: Did Jesus Baptize?

Truth is Stranger than Fiction: Baptism
Matthew 28
In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into GALILEE; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.
9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into GALILEE , and there shall they see me.
11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into GALILEE , into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
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:
20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.  
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FOOTNOTES
Matthew 28:7; 10; 16. Jerusalem was the location of his passion, resurrection, forty days’ appearances; apostolic commission and ascension from the Mount of Olives nearby . Cp. Footnote to verse 20.
Matthew 28:10
Matthew 28:16
Matthew 28:19. The apostles did not practise a threefold invocation, seemingly unaware of its decree. Harmonizing the Gospels and Acts there was only one Great Commission given to the apostles. Zechariah 14 predicted Christ’s return to Mt. Olivet where Luke also locates both ascension and second coming. Luke 24; Acts 1. St. John too, focused on Jerusalem, notwithstanding his Epilogue, chapter 21.

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