As a completely lay person and especially when I was a new, young Christian, I had to rely on and trust what preachers, teachers and mature, experienced Christians taught me { I suppose the clever word for it these days would be being ‘discipled’} But I was also wisely councelled to always check things out with the Bible for myself.
So that I could equip myself to contend for the faith in my own small corner, I made it my personal goal and interest to study the great traditional doctrines of the Church.
I was already aware of deviant versions of the Bible [eg New World translation] and the New English Bible had been recently published then. But in general the King James Bible was still widely used, accepted and respected [ and still is by me].
I’ve found that there are sometimes certain things that have to be accepted ‘by faith’ – even if temporarily. For instance, I had difficulty acceptng the story of Creation as told in Genesis. This was because I’d been brain-washed by the world into thinking evolution was a proven, scientific fact. Indeed, one clergyman advised me that the word ‘Adam’ should simply be taken as a general term for ‘Mankind’ and not literally one man. But fortunately for me, I began meeting Christians who did take Genesis literally and who told me it was God’s word and if I accepted it ‘by faith’ – all would be revealed and that certainly proved true for me as time went on.
Another thing that I accepted by faith was that our New Testament Canon of Scripture was assembled together by the early Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to authenticate and preserve the true history and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles.
I also accepted that the meanings of words etc was not lost in the process of translation. [I do not mean here those English words that have obviously changed their meanings from their original usage]. We have to have a reliable foundation of Scripture otherwise the inevitable loss of certainty happens – and indeed is happening today. It grieves me enormously when I hear a preacher casually say that a particular word is a mistake or mistranslation of a Hebrew word. The KJ Bible has almost universally fallen out of favour because of this. All this means is that the Church hasn’t been following the truth for several hundred years. Overall, there seems to be a lack of care or fear of adding to or taking away from God’s word.
All of which now brings me to a particular, well-respected preacher who I believe is leading many Christians into error. I’m focussing on Chuck Missler because, as well as having a couple of friends who are great fans of his, I was recently alerted via two discernment ministries that he is to appear on a ‘Quantum Leap’ platform with new age speakers.
I was already vaguely aware of his interest in Bible Codes and Numerology, but hadn’t listened to much as I simply found his speech delivery too fast to hear comfortably. I was not aware though that he’s also a Gap Theorist and well into Quantum Physics and Alien beings etc.
The Gap Theory rests on the ‘true’ or alternative meaning of a couple of Hebrew words. Genesis 1:2 should really read ” the earth became [or had become] without form and chaotic“ not ” the earth was without form and void“ It seems that God’s first Creation [ angels and demons centre stage] in Gen 1:1 became such a mess that He had to have another go at it with a six day Creation. To further support the idea of something disastrous happening between verses 1 & 2 we should have paid much more attention to the Book of Enoch - no matter that the early Church did not include it in Holy Writ.
Of course, nobody knows how long this Gap lasted, so the theory serves the purposes of Theistic Evolution very nicely. It also serves well those who want to be true to a six day creation while accommodating a prior unknown amount of time to account for secular science’s so-called evidence for an old earth. The big question is of course - if all this is true – why didn’t the Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles teach it?
Now – on to Bible Codes. For those who may not be aware – and I can’t think that there are many who are not - these are supposed secret messages hidden within the scripture texts. Those who know the codes and methods can apply them to discover all sorts of ‘confirmation’ that the Bible is indeed God’s supernatural word. We are told ancient Hebrew scholars were skilled in this , so it therefore gives the seal of approval to the practise. [ The Bible's very own Bletchley park ?]
This is Occult stuff and is definitely not a legitimate area for the Christian to venture into. The only ‘hidden’ messages in the Bible are above board prophecies that become clear as they are fulfilled in history, which includes of course the mystery of the Church, hidden from the Jews. NB: there is no secret ‘Gospel in the Stars’ either !
As for Quantum Physics [Leaps] etc, this is an area I have only a slight dusting of knowledge about, but it all sounds very Sci-Fi and speculative stuff, designed to tickle the ears with theories of Aliens and other Dimensions. As far as I know, the only other dimension we are informed about in Scripture is the spirit realm – which we are not to try to contact. I have to ask myself – why would any Christian want to be part of or delve into other dimensions …. apart from researching the teachings in order to defend the faith that is ?
Some Christians seem to have the attitude that it doesn’t really matter about Chuck Missler’s ‘alien’ beliefs because it isn’t a salvation issue and he is a very well-respected, born again, Bible Scholar and Christian. But this misguided, benevolent toleration of the man should not extend to cover what he teaches. Truth is truth and we are encouraged in scripture to love it, defend it and denounce deviations from it. That isn’t to say that I personally think I have all truth … far from it, but I’ve learned that the more you realise that you can be deceived , the more careful you are and the more you grow to discern between truth from error. Neither should we become fearful and paranoid !
God intended His word to be understood by the simplest of minds and there is nothing hidden there that we shouldn’t be able to grasp in our straightforward reading. Of course there are words and stories that we can be further enlightened about – but we should never let it lead us into deviations, speculations and fables that usurp what the Apostles clearly taught.
Please put me right if you feel I have foolishly written in ignorance about anything. I am always willing to listen and learn.
Thanks for your comments Stephen – so sorry I’ve taken a long time replying – still tryng to get the hang of blogging at times!
An interesting article. I’m wary of following any “man”, and can never understand how readily some flock to hear the latest “trendy” preacher.
I’m old enough to have happily read the KJV in the early years of my walk, but I also found the NEB and Living Bible a great blessing. In the early months after my conversion I would devour the word at speed in these modern versions, and bounce back into the KJV and JND versions if I ever detected what I considered to be a poor representation of the God I was getting to know.
In essence I was getting an outline of the word, but double checking the veracity when things looked out of kilter. In recent years I’ve spent more time in The Holman Standard Bible, and the Nearly Infallible Version (NIV)!
I wish you’d been with me when I attended (as a supporter rather than student) the first week of a Missionary Training College in Kazan. My good friend Graham Herbert spoke and Althea translated into Russian (I always find these cross cultural/linguistic experiences a huge blessing as you get longer to dwell on the teaching).
Anyway to the point if you were to examine what “The World” considers reliable evidence you’d find so many of the books quoted as being discovered years later and only verified in that there are two or three nearly identical manuscripts, whilst the Word of God is established upon the evidence of simply hundreds of identical manuscripts (over thousand).
Are we building our faith on a shaky foundation? I don’t think so, and should w look for a hidden code within the text? WHY? Like you it strikes me as mumbo jumbo, almost a return to the days when the Church taught in Latin and looked to control the masses.
Oh, I wrote too much. Have a great day….
Stephen