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Question #55 -
QUESTION:
Shouldn't we emphasize love for Jesus Christ rather than
squabbling over Bible translations?
ANSWER:
There is no better way to emphasize our love for Jesus Christ than
to jealously and zealously guard His word.
EXPLANATION: You can
show your "love" for the Lord Jesus Christ in two ways.
1. Any
method that YOU deem as sincere and valid in your
own sight. (See Lev. 10: 1-3)
2. You can
endeavor to keep Christ's Scriptural admonitions
as strictly as possible. (This tends to be a lifetime
endeavor.)
In John 14:23 one of the identifying marks of
anyone who loves Him is that they will "keep
my words."
You may say, "That just means to keep the
things that He said to do." BUT, the fact is that no "love"
is required to keep these sayings as evidenced in John 8:51 and
52. Love is required to keep His
"words."
Again an argument may be made that, "That
just referred to the original Greek." But alas, such a
statement only leads you into a deeper more deadly trap. The
following Scriptural example will explain.
In the book of Jonah, it is recorded that
Jonah, while running from God, is swallowed by "a great
fish." (Jonah 1:17)
In Matthew 12:40 the "great fish" is
identified by Jesus Christ as a "whale." (We are not
arguing genetics here, we are arguing the value of Christ's
"w-o-r-d-s.")
Strangely, at this very scripture, those who
claim to be able to "love" Christ and correct His Bible
steal the words right out of His mouth.
Every new translation changes Jesus
word "whale" to "fish." This is done because
they learned in their seventh grade Biology class that "a
whale is not a fish." Faced not only with a Bible that has a
seeming contradiction (not with itself but with their 7th grade
Biology teacher) but also with a Saviour who is so uninformed and
uneducated as to not know that "a whale is
not a fish," they panic. They rush to Matthew 12:40 and
remove the word "whale" from both the Bible (their
"authority in all matters of faith and practice") and
from Jesus' lips (their "Lord" and Saviour.)
The Greek word used for "whale" in
Matthew 12:40 is "ketos." The Greek word for
"fish" is "ichthus." They are NOT
the same. Jesus used the Greek word "ichthus" in several
places in Scripture, such as: Matthew 7:10 and 17:28. Certainly He
could have used it in Matthew 12:40 if He so desired.
The fundamental Bible "enhancer"
overlooks two monumental Scriptural truthes.
First he overlooks the fact that Jonah was
swallowed by a "great fish" that was specially "prepared"
by God. It should be noted here that Adam gave
names to all living creatures but one. God gave
whales their name in Genesis 1:21 BEFORE Adam named the rest of
creation in Genesis 2:19,20. That means the whale had a
"predestination" (Gen. 1:21) and a
"predestination" (Jonah 1:17) from the foundation
of the earth. NOT something even a Bible
corrector should take lightly.
The second truth ignored by God's little
"helper" is that by changing " whale " to
" fish " in Jesus' statement of Matthew 12:40 he is
guilty of breaking Jesus' admonition of John 14:23 to "keep
my w-o-r-d-s." ("Correcting" the Bible is like
"treading" quicksand. The harder you kick, the faster
you sink.)
Thus the authors of the New American Standard
Version, the New International Version, the New King James Version
and the rest of the new translations are not only wrong in their
translation of "ketos" but in their defiance of Jesus'
mandate of John 14:23.
So, when Jesus says one thing (whale) and your
Pastor, parent, or professor says another (fish) you are bound by LOVE
for Christ to reject man's opinion and embrace and defend Jesus'
w-o-r-d-s.
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