Author: lesterhutson316

The Devil has a reputation for being evil; not dumb or stupid. He ever seeks to use the chief tools of Christians against them, especially the Word of God which is commonly called the Bible.

I spoke of translations in my previous blog. That ole deceiver has flooded the market with translations of the Bible all claiming to be the best, the real deal. Imagine the message to children and to unbelievers who don’t have a clue about source texts and translation methods. Here we are in church where the claim is that we have the Word of God and that it is inerrant, inspired of God and 100% true and consistent in all it says; however the copy in my hand does not match what the preacher says, and several people around me have copies that are different from either mine or the preacher’s. Now that’s a strange message to get in church!

But, that old Devil is at work on other fronts too. He’s working to get Bibles out of church. Yeah! Really! Why bring your Bible to church when everything is right on the screen in front of you? You don’t need the extra baggage. Look around in your church. How many Bibles do you see? They’re vanishing! I suspect Satan is pretty happy about that. It’s an ominous sign that they’re vanishing from homes too.

When you can barely find a used copy of the Word of God in the house of God, it’s not hard to understand why more and more people have trouble locating the books of the Bible, especially those like Obadiah and Nahum. Yes; basic stories are fading from the collective mindset of society even in the Christian community. There was a day when at church people were exposed to the Bible. They learned its books, chapters and verses; and most Bibles were full of highlights, underlined passages and notes in the margins placed there by people of God who deemed them as especially precious. My mother’s Bible had tear stains all over the pages. She read it and wept.

Video projectors and screens are great tools. Power Point presentations are powerful learning aids. But, they cannot replace the Bible as the central document in church. Let us project our sermon outlines and list references to the Scriptures we use; but God forbid that we create an environment in church where people don’t need the Bible! “And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD,” 2 Kings 22:8. You’d think that of all places, the Bible would always be found in the “in the house of the LORD” which is the church. Increasingly that is not the case; however, technology (like smartphones and eReaders) does provide new ways for people to bring the Bible to church and other places. The issue is not the format; the point is keeping the Bible in church and in the hands of the people.

Few things are more precious than used Bibles. There was a day when the Bible was not available to the common man. That day is called the Dark Ages. This day in America it’s harder to find them in churches. Yes, of all places churches. Let us always beware of what we’re doing and of the impact on us what we’re doing is having. May the Word of God never vanish from the house of God!

There was a day when the Bible was believed by most Americans to be the final word on any subject. That’s been awhile!

Is your Bible reliable? How do you know? After all, in most churches everybody seems to have a different Bible: the NIV, the NASB, the RSV, the KJV, the New KJV. The list is long. The preacher or teacher reads from his Bible, but your Bible is different. You look a little deeper and realize that the difference is not merely a choice of words; there’s a difference in meaning, a substantial difference. Wow! How many Bibles are there? They all claim to be the Word of God, but they don’t all say the same thing. How many Bibles did God write? I thought there was only one true Bible. How can this be? How do I know which one to believe?

The devil is a master at creating doubt. He does it right in church! Really! With the pastor, my Sunday school teacher, the people who are supposed to know, those who’ve been to seminar and are learned, “scholars!”

It is a bit unsettling to know that the Bible translating and publishing business is driven primarily by dollars and cents, not the need for a better translation. Publishing houses make money by selling; they’re not in business to produce a better, more accurate translation of the Bible. They are somewhat like those who build automobiles and other machinery. They can’t afford to build a car that lasts a long time; they have to build cars to wear out soon. They make money off parts and selling more cars. One car for the ages is a bad idea. And, so it is with Bibles. To stay in business publishers have to keep selling Bibles. Since God gave only one Bible, publishers found their fountain of youth in translations. Your Bible is old-fashioned, out-of-date, antiquated and written in English that is obsolete. You need a new and better translation. Oh yea, and the trick keeps working! It doesn’t seem to work with Shakespeare or the Canterbury Tales, but it works with the Bible. And who are the shakers and movers who convince the masses that they need a new Bible? It’s mostly the scholars: seminary professors, language experts, theologians, professionals and often pastors. Ironically most (yes, you read it right: most) of them do not even believe the Bible. They don’t believe the Bible’s claim of divine creation, that Adam and Eve were literal, that the account of Jonah is literal, that Jesus Christ is divine, that He performed miracles or that He’s coming again. They think God should be referred to in the neuter, think women should be preachers, approve homosexuality and endorse same-sex marriages. Yet deep, sound Christians snap up their new and better translations like they were candy. Go to Lifeway and see for yourself. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an old translation of the Bible. We can’t wait to get our hands on the latest, newest version of the Bible. The driver? That “old English” is just too hard to understand; I want something in today’s English. My teacher, my preacher said this is really good, better.

It’s never a bad idea to look before you leap. Anybody who exercises even the slightest amount of brainpower realizes that God wrote only one Bible. Not many; just one! He wrote it in Hebrew, Chaldea and Greek. History proves beyond reasonable doubt that by end of the 16^th century a Greek standard of God’s original Bible had been established. (No, there is no original copy of any book of the Bible. There are thousands of very old copies, mostly in part and a few in whole.) For several centuries credible scholars have been in essential agreement that the standard Greek text is almost an exact replica of the original autographs which God gave to the prophets and apostles. The original Bible emerges from the agreement of the vast number of copies. God gave His Bible one time. Serious, thinking people know that our objective is to get a translation that is as close to the Bible God gave as possible. (If you know Greek and can read it for yourself, you don’t need a translation. Most of us can’t read Greek and must get the Bible in a translation.) The scholars of our day (real and pseudo) are in almost universal agreement there has long been an English translation that captures God’s Greek Bible very well. It is the King James Translation which has been around for right at 402 years. In spite of their considerable baggage, the King James translators got it pretty well right; even the critics admit that. Yet, the flow of new translations never ceases.

I am a King James Version man and I’m not ashamed of it. However, I am not saying that it is the only good English translation of the Bible. I know the KJV is just a translation and that it has shortcomings. I also know that so far there is not a better, more accurate English translation of the Bible than the King James Version. It’s a plenary (word for word) translation; not a dynamic equivalent (some person’s summary of what God said). The King James translators were honest enough to italicize words they added for clarity’s sake; others don’t tell you what they changed. Our God who gave the Bible has not finally lost it in a maze of translations. However when you go to church and hear several conflicting Bibles all claiming to be the one revelation of God it surely seems He has.

It is obvious that a seedbed for doubt is created when any person (and especially a church) cannot settle on a translation which is as near to the original autographs as is humanly possible.  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.  When a truly more accurate translation of the Bible from Greek into English comes forth, I will be very interested in it. I’m not holding my breath; the money is not there. The multitudes are not hungering for truth; they are far more interested in easy-reading and watered-down concepts even when truth takes a beating in the process. I am amazed at how successfully Satan has blinded the minds of so many pastors and teachers to the mixed message of many translations in a church. The doubt in the integrity of the Bible created thereby is enormous. A rapidly growing number of people do not believe a true Bible any longer exists. After all, their pastor and church leaders have different Bibles. Right there in church they hear many differing voices all claiming to be the Bible. Yes, a seedbed for doubt! Perhaps there used to be a Bible. Long ago God gave His Word; but it got lost. Now we don’t have it. We hear about it and what our pastor and other scholars think it said, but we can’t be sure. We really can’t be sure about anything because we don’t have a copy of Bible. We just have something close to it. And where did we get that idea? We got it in church where they really don’t have one standard Bible that they hold to be true.

The Bible you use, personally and in church; it does make a difference. It’s always good to figure out things and settle somewhere.

Christmas time! A time when the entire world is confronted with the birth of Jesus Christ! Even the most casual observer knows this season is about Him. He’s really at the root of the whole thing. Who was this Jesus Christ? God and man all in one; how could that be? A virgin birth; surely you jest! The King of kings entering humanity in a manger, the Creator of everything entering His own creation; that doesn’t make sense! What did Herod the Great have against this peasant baby? Why a manger, the shepherds, the angels, Bethlehem, the wise men? What’s the point of this whole story?

The world has to face up to the reality of sin, man’s fall and the need for a Savior. That’s what Jesus is all about, and He claimed He is the Savior.

My, what an opportunity to engage people in the true and eternal implications of Christmas! At the core of this story is sin, fallen sinners and sin’s consequences (both mortal and eternal), but the story doesn’t end there. It’s also about the love of God for lost, perishing sinners, about forgiveness and eternal life. Christmas is all about a Savior, a unique Messiah who could somehow satisfy the justice of almighty God. Christmas is about the love of God, but it’s also about the justice and judgment of God. It’s about poverty, hatred and injustice, giving and forgiving and faith. It’s about rejection and simplicity and hope for hopeless mankind. Beyond the grave! It’s about “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Christians, Christmas is our time, our holiday. Oh yes, the world exploits it: to sell everything from toys to cars, to drink more liquor, to party and to do a lot of things that no man should do. Brothers and sisters don’t be distracted or derailed by the exploitations and add-ons. Stay with the pure and beautiful realities of the Christmas story.

What a pity that some good, sincere Christians get caught up in a few pagan mixtures and get all blown out of shape by Santa Claus, Christmas trees, gifts and reindeer! In their distraction they miss a golden opportunity to spread the true message of Christmas! Brothers and sisters, we have the high ground. We have the message of hope; nobody else has it. Nobody! Christmas is ours! Rather than an ugly-spirited attitude, how much better it is to have a song on your heart and lips and a glow about you that reflects the difference a meeting with Jesus Christ makes in a life! Instead of a defensive stance about all that’s wrong with Christmas, it’s so much better to tell the truth about Christmas! And yes, there’s a lot of great truth in the Christmas story. It is truly beautiful, meaty and life-changing.

Tell your kids. Tell your friends at work; it’s still legal to do so. The Bible says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15). If there ever has been a perfect platform for doing this, it’s Christmas time. Many of our peers are doing their best to kick Christ right out of Christmas. No carols in public schools, no manger scene on the courthouse square, Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. God forbid that we sit idly by and squabble among ourselves while it happens!

Ours is the greatest story ever told. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:11-14). Now that’s something to shout about! This is no time for political correctness. Go, tell it on the mountains; Jesus Christ is born! It is truly a life-changing story.

Draw a line from dot one to dot two then to dot three until you connect all the dots. The kids love it. While mom and dad eat lasagna and chat with friends, the kids get the picture. The exercise is not very difficult and it’s scientific enough to avoid debate.

Inherent in this kind of activity is the concept of cause and effect. For every cause there must be an effect. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” Galatians 6:7.

There are connections between the seeds we sow and the harvests we reap: how we manage our money and our financial future, the education we get and our ability to compete in society, how we treat our bodies and our later health, our attitude toward God and the condition of our society and nation.

In 1932 John Dewey, who is regarded as the father of education in America, wrote The Humanist Manifesto. Its basic premise is that we’ve grown up and we know there is no God. We no longer need this ancient mythological belief and it should be removed from the educational process. America and the world bought it. Thirty years later prayer was removed from public education.

In the infancy of this country, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to the Danbury, Connecticut Baptists in which he affirmed that in America there would be no state church. Nothing in the letter hints that there would be no Christianity in American politics, government or public education. That letter has been blatantly misrepresented, abused and misapplied. It is commonly given constitutional status and is repeatedly misused to remove all vestiges of God and Christianity from all facets of American public life: public education, government operations, national parks and monuments, the pledge of allegiance and now the military.

No Christmas carols or mention of Jesus in a school Christmas program, no prayer or mention of God at a graduation ceremony, no prayer or mention of Jesus Christ to a dying soldier on a battlefield, no display of The Ten Commandments in a school or public building! America desperately needs a moral compass, dying men need comfort and men need the hope that is in Jesus Christ.

Yet there is a surge in our country to rewrite our history and abolish our belief system. A classic example is origins. Don’t let our kids know that on the issue of origins there is a viable option to Darwinian Evolution and that the alternative position is loaded with factual, empirical evidence. Hide the numerous and gaping gaps in the evolutionary hypothesis. The correct answer is obvious: just tell the truth. Isn’t truth the heart of academic freedom and true science? Present all the evidence; let the facts speak for themselves. Draw conclusions based on the evidence, not preconceived notions.

This rewriting of our history makes it appear to our kids that America is the brainchild of a group of money-hungry capitalists who have greedily exploited the rest of the world. It hides the mass of documented evidence that America came into existence as a direct result of desperate Christians who fled here from Britain and Europe to avoid the cruel oppression and persecution of state church governments. Many of them came here at great personal sacrifice and paid with their blood and lives to establish an America free of a state church and where freedom and individual liberty were every person’s rights. Instead of telling the truth about America’s godly heritage, the current wave is play down her real heroes and exalt her shady, dark-side characters. A godly heritage made America a great nation with enormous blessings. From across the globe people risk their lives crossing our borders to get here. In our histories why not simply tell the truth about the Christian beliefs and practices of our founders and forefathers?

The Bible is the core document that framed our Constitution and molded our society, yet there is a stampede to downplay and eradicate the Bible from our society. Relegate the Bible to the status of all other ordinary books and through translations water down the copies you keep. Replace the Bible with video games and Nintendos. The fact is that the Bible has proven its worth. No document has come even close to having as great an impact for the better upon humanity as has the holy Bible. This day it has the answers to man’s deepest needs and for society’s ills.

We have exalted sports and violence, made heroes out of Hollywood’s vilest, ridiculed people of good character and those who have firm convictions and high standards. Somehow we have made good evil and evil good.

Then we wonder! We wonder why our child doesn’t mind and are so disrespectful. We wonder why there is so much purse-snatching, an increasing number of home invasions and bank robberies and school shootings. We wonder why our politicians can’t handle our tax dollars and about our sea of political corruption at every level. We wonder why violence threatens every American, why life is so cheap that America murders over 10,000 unborn babies every day and why America is financially ruined in spite of a greater tax burden than this world has ever known. We wonder why homosexuals are glamorized while moral people and Christian families are demonized, why law-abiding American citizens are forced to provide free medical care, food stamps and a plethora of free services for multitudes of people who are here unlawfully while responsible working people are forced to subsidize them.

Dot, dots, dots!  Connect the dots. It’s not rocket science. There’s a clear-cut connection between cause and effect, between decisions and consequences. There is generally a lapse of time between the planting of a seed and the harvest, but the harvest comes. America is feeling the harvest. A few generations ago the people of this country decided to remove God out of their lives. Some rejected Him totally; others give Him lip service, but for all practical purposes He’s gone. With His removal from the daily fabric of American society has come the consequences. Connect the dots; the picture is not pretty.

As long as the move away from God continues, the picture will get worse; but it does not have to continue. We can repent, turn around, go back to our roots, return to our God. “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs 14:34. Without a return to God, America is certain to perish, but He can save us. He can restore us. We cannot ignore the dots. We must return to Him. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteousness man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,” Isaiah 55:7.