John, thank's for your gentle response.
God's word is the Water of Life which we should drink it in purest, most unadulterated form, never polluted. It was written in Hebrew and Greek so we require translations. If a popular translation presents the bias of the translators rather than God's truth would you care, John, or are you more comfortable trusting the traditions of men and human authority rather than God's. It's really one or the other, John.
You cite several preachers as authorities. They aren't the test! The question is: What did Jehovah say when He revealed Himself? We can detect mistranslation, if we care:
CONCORDANCES exhibit the actual meanings of the words of God. Young's is fine, Strong's may be more popular; either will do. When put to the test on 7 critical words the KJV is a disaster which I find personally disgusting! I'll cite Strongs, listing definitions found in the concordance, then numbering the ways KJV renders the words, shown in the Index-Lexicons of Hebrew and Greek in the back of the book:
NEPHESH RUACH SHEOL PSUCHE HADES GEHENNA TARTARUS
NEPHESHanimal soul: [Listed under "Soul"] 33 translations: any 4, appetite 2, Beast 2, body 7, breath 1, creature 9, dead body 8, desire 5, ghost 2, heart 15, life 119, lust 2. man 3, mind 15, one 1, own 1, person 39, pleasure 4, self 19, soul 428, thing 2, will 4, fish 1, hearty 1, mortal 1, will 1, would have it 1 etc, eat, etc. [The first 4 times Nephesh appears it applies to animals, 100 times it is destroyed, torn by lions, slain, dies; It's never deathless, eternal, undying, everlasting or immortal]
RUACH spirit, wind air 1, anger 1, blast 4, breath 28, cool 1, courage 1, mind 5, quarters 1, side 6, spirit 232, tempest 1, wind 90, vain 2, windy 1, whirlwind 1 [RUACH is not NEPHESH! The spirit is not the soul]
SHEOL the unseen state Hell 31, Grave 31, Pit 3 [The Catholic Douay version, produced 29 years before KJV, rendered it 63 times Hell, so Job prayed: "protect me in Hell" Job 14:13]
PSUCHE ANIMAL SOUL (Greek) Heart 1, life 40, mind 3, soul 58
[Same as the Hebrew Nephesh, never immortal, etc, applies to animals, dies: Rev 16:3 "every living soul died in the sea" "Every soul which will not hear that prophet (Jesus) shall be destroyed" Acts 3:23]
HADES The unseen world Hell, 10 times
GEHENNA valley of Hinnom Hell 11 times
TARTARUS to send into Once: Hell [for angels, not humans]
NOTE: IN ONE HEBREW WORD IS TRANSLATED 3 WAYS, 3 GREEK WORDS ARE TRANSLATED ONE WAY. God is not the author of confusion. [1 Cor 14:33] This confusion comeS from Satan.
At this point my experience is that folks get angry and impatient, want to shoot the messenger. On the other hand, John, you could rejoice to learn that no one will suffer eternal agony; or could they at the hands of a Merciful Loving God. Since I've presented facts if you really love God it will be important to you to investigate this matter. Buy a Young's for yourself, and McKenzies Dictionary of the Bible. [a scholarly Jesuit work] Get a New World Translation where these words are consistently rendered, along with Gods Name 7,100 times.
The views of Spurgeon, Moody, Whitfield, etc are unimportant if Holy Scripture refutes them. Would they have done their work had they had not been paid for it, John? Did they obey Matt 10:8 and 2 Thess 3:6-13? "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
God is love, and he that remains in love remains in union with God and God remains in union with him ... There is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint.Indeed, he that is under fear has not been made perfect in love. As for us, we love, because He first loved us." 1 Jn 4 NWT
I've visited thousands of homes with the KJV, but the translators made it difficult to preach the full gospel. |
