The Lagoon TechMy little blog in Cyberspace.

Did you know that there are seven sins that God really hates (of course God hates all sin, but these sins he really hates)? Here they are, straight from the Bible:

“There are six or seven
kinds of people
    the Lord doesn’t like:
Those who are too proud
    or tell lies or murder,
    those who make evil plans
    or are quick to do wrong,
 those who tell lies in court
    or stir up trouble
    in a family.” – Proverbs 6:16-19 CEV

The Bible is God’s Word. The Bible shows people how to live. Just the book of Proverbs alone, is a goldmine for people who want to know how to live wisely. The Bible applied to everyday life back in Bible time, and the Bible still applies to everyday life now. The Bible deals with a vast range of different topics: being kind, love one another, God’s commands, the Gospel, do not steal, do not murder, etc.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” – 2 Timothy 3:16 – NIV (2011)

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Bible was written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years by 40 different authors from different walks of life, on three separate continents, yet it all fits together and has not been proven wrong.

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” – 2 Peter 1:20-21 – NIV (2011)

No one can get rid of the Bible. People have tried for a long time to attempt this task, but have gotten nowhere. This is because God says that His Word endures forever.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” – Isaiah 14:8 – NIV (2011)

All science can do is show the validity of the Bible. Since God created everything, no one can use science against the Creator. Evolution does not have any supporting evidence backing it, nor will there ever be any supporting evidence backing it. Evolution actually goes against science (ie. non-living matter turning into a living organism, etc.). There was no big bang. The Bible very clearly states that God did the creating.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1 – NIV (2011)

Here are some problems with the idea that salvation requires someone to be baptized.

1) Requiring baptism to be saved is faith+works. Salvation is by faith only…not works.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” — Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)

The Bible is very clear. No works are involved to be saved.

2) The Bible says that our works are like filthy rags. Since this is the case, how can baptism be a part of salvation, since being baptized to be saved would be performing a work?

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” — Isaiah 64:6 (KJV)

3) The Book of 1st John says:

1 John 5:13 (KJV) “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Everything in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John is to teach us how to know we are saved. Nowhere in those books is baptism mentioned. Obviously if baptism was necessary for salvation, the Lord would have made sure it was mentioned.

A lot of well-meaning people think that the KJV (King James Version) translation is inspired by the Holy Spirit. This idea is not Biblically sound.

Please note this blog post is *not* attacking KJV Only people, nor am I saying that using the KJV is bad. I am just pointing out problems with this idea that make it unBibilical.

Now let’s go though some problems with this idea.

1. God’s Word itself is inspired (2 Timothy 3:16), not just a specific translation of God’s Word. Nowhere in the Bible can you point to a verse saying that the “KJV is the only inspired translation”. That is a 100% man-made opinion.
2. What happens if you translate the KJV into another language? Since not every language is exactly the same, would the KJV translations – in other languages other than English – not be inspired since translating will be slightly different from the English version? Would everyone on Earth have to read in English to read the Bible?
3. The KJV-Only advocates supposedly believe that the Holy Spirit directed the translators in translating the KJV. How do they know this to be true? No one yet has explained to me how they know God “inspired” the KJV translation over the rest. They have not given me any technical arguments (proof with detailed facts). Instead, everything I have read have been unsubstantiated claims.
4. I read that in several different places, in the original 1611 KJV translation, the KJV translators gave alternative manuscript readings. Why give alternate readings if the Holy Spirit was guiding you? The translators would have known exactly what to write down, and not have to resort to alternate meanings if they were truly inspired by the Holy Spirit.
5. The King James Only movement is technically adding to the Bible’s revelation by saying that the KJV is inspired. Quite frankly they might as well add a verse in the Bible that says God inspired the KJV translation, since that is what they are verbally telling people anyway.
6. King James Only-ism can be considered a form of idol worship, since these people seem to (in my experience) revere the KJV translation as much – if not more – than Jesus Christ Himself.
7. Another thing that is interesting about this whole KJV Only idea is that there are several people who say that the NASB (New American Standard Bible) translation is the closest (or at least very close) to the original manuscripts. If this is in fact true, then the KJV Only movement is flawed from the beginning, since the NASB is supposed to be closer to the manuscripts than even the KJV.
8. The KJV adds the word “easter” to refer to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The ironic thing is that the word easter is *not* in the Biblical manuscripts at all. It was just a word the KJV translators added. Not to mention that the word “easter” is from pagan origins. From Google’s dictionary: “Old English ēastre ; of Germanic origin and related to German Ostern and east. According to Bede the word is derived from Ēastre, the name of a goddess associated with spring.”  The early church did not observe “easter” in any way. Technically the KJV translators replaced a part of the Bible with a word that is used for a demonic false “goddess”. How can someone say that the KJV is “inspired and perfect”?

Why believe the KJV-Only idea? The idea is to make translations that people can understand better. Yes, I know there are bad translations out there, but not all of the Bible translations are bad.

The Lord has preserved His Word for thousands of years, and He will continue to do so (Isaiah 40:8). However, we must be careful in assuming that the Lord has “inspired” a specific Bible translation. God’s Word is inspired regardless of what (good) translation we happen to prefer.