My brother, in
the flesh & in the LORD, had sent me a link to an
article
The
3,000-year-old fragment of pottery that leading expert
claims could prove that Old Testament stories are TRUE
Then I
responded back to him afterwards:
Pat,
That was a very
interesting article.
Last Sunday, our
Sunday School teacher had to be out of town & he asked
me to cover, as he also did a few weeks ago.
The 1st
week we covered inspiration.
This past week
we covered preservation.
Many had never
considered inspiration in light of the true author, the
real ghost writer, the Holy Ghost writer,
as being
eternal, omniscient, omnipresent (in time & space), as
well as omnipotent.
They used to
think that the inspiration kind of "died out", over a few
generations, with the original manuscripts.
However,
considering inspiration in light of all four of those
attributes of the LORD simultaneously,
they realized
that the inspiration is alive, just like the word of God
is alive, because the Holy Ghost is eternally alive.
Psalm 12:6
The words of the LORD
are pure words: as silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7
Thou shalt keep them, O
LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for
ever.
Then they
realized that according to that Psalm 12:6-7 promise, that
the article mentioned, that it was not impossible, after
all,
for the LORD to
keep that promise, even after numerous copies, in light of
those four attributes together.
They realized
that the preservation of the word of God, preserves the
words, as well as their inspiration, by the same Holy
Ghost who inspired them in the 1st place.
As to the
struggle with preservation in the area of translation,
that is harder for folks to see,
especially the
question of whether the inspiration can be preserved when
there was a translation to another language.
We looked at:
Romans 9:17 For the scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth.
They agreed that
these words were inspired as they were given by the LORD
to Moses.
Then they agreed
that the words were still inspired when Moses translated
them into Egyptian for Pharaoh.
They then agreed
that the words were still inspired when Moses translated
the account, which happened in Egyptian, back into Hebrew,
when he penned it down.
They then agreed
that the words were still inspired when Paul translated
them into Greek when he wrote Romans.
So, the only
real question remaining, was whether they believed that
the words were still inspired in the King James Bible in
their hands.
Was the LORD
able, or unable, to keep his promise of preservation of
the words?
After all were
the words inspired because they were originally written in
Hebrew or Greek?
Was the LORD
only able to inspire in those two ancient languages?
Didn't the same
LORD, who gave Adam the language to communicate with him,
also make all those individual languages at Babel?
Didn't he also
speak by only a few men, in so many languages at the same
time, at Pentecost?
Was the Holy
Ghost unable to say some things correctly in some of those
languages, because of translation difficulties?
Is what was
spoken by the disciples on Pentecost, inspired?
If so, in which
languages was it inspired, only Hebrew & Greek?
Did not our
omniscient LORD infinitely condescend in order to speak to
us his thoughts in our human language, in the first place?
Are ancient
Hebrew & Koine Greek nearly infinitely superior to all
other languages,
so that the LORD
was unable to communicate or inspire in any other language
besides those two?
The idea of the
preservation of the word of God, and the idea that
inspiration didn't die with the man chosen to pen the
words originally,
are two
extremely difficult things for people to deal with,
especially if they have thought differently about these
things, for years.
So you can
imagine what the interaction of the class was like.
However, I think
that everyone of us in that room really enjoyed the
discussion.
Gino