A Short History Lesson

The Protestant Reformation was inseparable from a new and heightened commitment to the Word of God. The Bible in the people’s common tongue was the key to the growth and the influence of Protestant theology. In 1525 William Tyndale produced his great English translation of the New Testament and once it got into the hands of the general population, England would never be the same. In the decades that followed, many other translations would appear, none so prominent and none so important as the King James Bible of 1611.

In 1603 Queen Elizabeth died without an heir and Scotland’s James VI acceded to the throne of England where he was crowned James I. The following year he convened the Hampton Court Conference to enter into discussions with leaders of the Church of England, including several Puritans. Not surprisingly, the conference turned out to be something of a farce. James had a lofty view of his own intellect and was dismissive of others, especially the Puritans. However, he did give in on one crucial matter important: the commissioning of a new, authorized translation of the Bible.

The early English translations of the Bible had been the work of individuals. However, this new translation was to be the work of committees. Fifty four eminent scholars were chosen to take up the work and they were divided into six teams, each of which would translate a selection of books. Though guided by the original Hebrew and Greek text, the translators worked primarily from existing English translations. The Bishops’ Bible of 1568 would be the foundational text, but, when the translators lacked clarity, they were authorized to consult the Tyndale Bible, the Coverdale Bible, Matthew’s Bible, the Great Bible, and the Geneva Bible. Before their work began, Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London, drafted fifteen translations principles that would govern their work.

It was not until 1607 that the labor began in earnest. Work continued until 1611 when the first editions were finally published by Robert Barker, a printer officially licensed by the king.

The King James Bible would be known as the Authorized Bible because it was authorized for public reading in worship services. It would be revised many times with the most enduring version finalized in the early 19th century. Year after year it would be the world’s bestselling book. For almost 250 years this text would be the dominant translation in the English language and its impact on theology, language, and the formation of the mind, is incalculable. It has rightly been described as “the most influential version of the most influential book in the world, in what is now its most influential language.”

It should be noted that many people, including Tyndale who first translated the Scriptures into the English language, died horrific deaths to make the English bible available to us.  How many today would do so?

View the complete story at: http://www.challies.com/articles/the-history-of-christianity-in-25-objects-king-james-bible#more

Ten Questions for Better Bible Study

I ran across this item the other day and copied the same and placed it in my Bible as a reminder and help to be more focused in my study.  I hope you can profit by it as well.  My apologies to the author as I forgot who originated it.

1.  What does this passage tell me about God? (Theology)

2.  What does this passage telll me about myself/humanity (Anthropology)

3.  How does this passage fit into the story of the Bible/the story of God redeeming His people (Redemption History)

4.  How does this passage lead me to Jesus? (Christocentric reading)

5.  Based on this passage are there things I need to repent of?

6.  Based on this passage are there things I ought to do/change?

7. How does this passage reveal the beauty of God and His gospel, and lead me into worship and adoration?

8.  Are there things I don't understand in this passage that I need to ask about/research further?

9.  What can I do today to apply this passage?

10. How can I share the attractiveness of Christ in this passage to people in my life?

Are You Seeking After God?

We have all heard evangelists quote from Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Usually the evangelist applies this text as an appeal to the unconverted, saying: “Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart. If you open the door, then He will come in.” In the original saying, however, Jesus directed His remarks to the church. It was not an evangelistic appeal.

So what? The point is that seeking is something that unbelievers do not do on their own. The unbeliever will not seek. The unbeliever will not knock. Seeking is the business of believers. Jonathan Edwards said, “The seeking of the Kingdom of God is the chief business of the Christian life.” Seeking is the result of faith, not the cause of it.

When we are converted to Christ, we use language of discovery to express our conversion. We speak of finding Christ. We may have bumper stickers that read, “I Found It.” These statements are indeed true. The irony is this: Once we have found Christ it is not the end of our seeking but the beginning. Usually, when we find what we are looking for, it signals the end of our searching. But when we “find” Christ, it is the beginning of our search.

The Christian life begins at conversion; it does not end where it begins. It grows; it moves from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from life to life. This movement of growth is prodded by continual seeking after God.

In your spiritual walk, are you moving from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from life to life? Are you continually seeking after God?

R.C. Sproul - September 18, 2013

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/are-you-seeking-after-god

Preaching the Word to the Pagans

Pastor Todd Pruitt comments on minimizing theological and biblical terminology and preaching to the unsaved so they will understand and believe the Gospel is confusing the congregation with preaching what he calls “gobbledygook” under the guise of evangelical preaching.

He states, “Unbelief cannot be fixed with providing someone with more information.  The refusal to believe is a moral issue – an issue of hard heartedness that apart from God’s intervention is not going to be fixed. Romans 3 states, 'no one seeks for God.'

The privilege of the preacher is that he gets to bring God’s living Word to a congregation and know, and have full confidence, that the Spirit of God is going to use His inspired Word to birth faith where there was no faith.”

Excerpt from The Mortification of Spin – The Bully Pulpit podcast dated September 25, 2013.

Todd Pruitt is a speaker on the Mortification of Spin podcast. He is a graduate of Southwest Baptist University and Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In November 2008 Todd became the teaching pastor of Church of the Saviour in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

http://info.alliancenet.org/mos/podcast/bully-pulpit-gobbledygook

Children and Obedience

The following is taken from an article by John Piper titled Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children.

I am writing this to plead with Christian parents to require obedience of their children. I am moved to write this by watching young children pay no attention to their parents’ requests, with no consequences. Parents tell a child two or three times to sit or stop and come or go, and after the third disobedience, they laughingly bribe the child. This may or may not get the behavior desired.

Last week, I saw two things that prompted this article. One was the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa, California, by police who thought he was about to shoot them with an assault rifle. It was a toy gun. What made this relevant was that the police said they told the boy two times to drop the gun. Instead he turned it on them. They fired.

I do not know the details of that situation or if Andy even heard the commands. So I can’t say for sure he was insubordinate. So my point here is not about young Lopez himself. It’s about a “what if.” What if he heard the police, and simply defied what they said? If that is true, it cost him his life. Such would be the price of disobeying proper authority.

A Tragedy in the Making

I witnessed such a scenario in the making on a plane last week. I watched a mother preparing her son to be shot.

I was sitting behind her and her son, who may have been seven years old. He was playing on his digital tablet. The flight attendant announced that all electronic devices should be turned off for take off. He didn’t turn it off. The mother didn’t require it. As the flight attendant walked by, she said he needed to turn it off and kept moving. He didn’t do it. The mother didn’t require it.

One last time, the flight attendant stood over them and said that the boy would need to give the device to his mother. He turned it off. When the flight attendant took her seat, the boy turned his device back on, and kept it on through the take off. The mother did nothing. I thought to myself, she is training him to be shot by police.

Rescue from Foolish Parenting

The defiance and laziness of unbelieving parents I can understand. I have biblical categories of the behavior of the spiritually blind. But the neglect of Christian parents perplexes me. What is behind the failure to require and receive obedience? I’m not sure. But it may be that these nine observations will help rescue some parents from the folly of laissez-faire parenting.

Read the Nine Observations HERE