Personal Biblical Philosophy

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First of all, I'd like to state that I believe that the Bible is one-hundred percent true. Even though through the greater part of my life, I've had a hard time coming to grips with this fact. There's no picking and choosing which verses are true and which ones are not. We might not understand each and every verse, or even agree with certain verses; however, it's all God's word - so it's as true as it gets.

I don't believe that interpreters would go to all the trouble of writing the Bible unless they were inspired by God to do so. Particularly in days gone by, when there were no printing presses or modern technology. It was a tremendous amount of work!

Today, there are different versions of the Bible which in many ways is due to the variety of language, people's ethnic background and personalities. God condones this, as he addresses seven different churches within the first few pages of Revelation. God created all of us to be unique!

I'm certainly not an expert in religion or how each version of the Bible came to be, but I merely understand that God has been involved throughout the translation process. If this wasn't the case, Bibles wouldn't be accurate and biblical-prophecy would not have much value or meaning.

God has always been involved in steering world-history and at certain times more-so than others. As Scripture states, God raises leaders up and sets them aside as he pleases. This is explicitly stated in the book of Daniel.

Daniel 2, NIV: (21) He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

The fact that God is above all kings here on earth, is reiterated during the introduction to the book of Revelation as well.

Revelation 1, NIV: (5) and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, (6) and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father - to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

As far as prophecy goes, this is how the Lord ensures that all comes to pass as was originally intended. God has been with us all along and is always there to guide us throughout our struggle. From the very beginning, God had a heart for mankind and put a great deal of thought into how history should play out. If it was strictly up to us, we would have destroyed ourselves long ago, there's no doubt about it.

As mankind waddled through the industrial-age like a toddler, and was on the way to self-destruction - it wasn't long before we had created the first thermonuclear bomb. This weapon was the most devastating ever unleashed (1952, 1953). Through a recent dream God showed me that his army of heavenly hosts is now on the field, and is holding the so-called nuclear football.

As God created the world and allowed mankind to rule above all other creatures, he wanted to get the biggest bang (pun?) for his buck. There would be no point in spending millions or even billions of years (seven days) to create the world, only to have mankind totally annihilate it in a relatively short amount of time. So God has been watching and he's most certainly still on the throne.

Regarding the variety of Biblical versions, I still prefer the old King-James. It's arguably the most accurate as far as English Bibles go. I also like the fact that the KJV was written (original yr. 1611) before the era of modern science, and before our heads got too big for our bodies. For this same reason, I've also gravitated towards the Wycliffe Bible (original yr. 1382) and the Young's literal translation (original yr. 1862).

Regardless of my preferences, I still believe that all Bible versions are Scripturally sound and the translators have done their due diligence. If there are any verses which I'm not quite sure of, I often make comparisons across various versions. I find that this rounds out the translation, and often reveals a broader context. There are likely many websites out there for this, but I usually use an online program called Biblegateway.

Biblegateway is packed with many (and perhaps most) English versions of the Bible. Its website has a feature where you can hone in upon a single verse and consecutively scan all translations at once. There's another site which I use from time to time, that is dedicated to the King-James Version. It's aptly entitled King James Bible Online.

Even though my preference is still the King James, I find the New International Version ( original full version yr. 1978) easier to read and perhaps the better choice for a general audience. That's why many of the verses on this site are from the NIV.

As I said, I'm definitely not a Bible expert. I understand very little (if any) of the Hebrew language although have followed some of its gematria. Gematria is an ancient way of pulling meanings out of words, where each letter of the word represents a certain number. In ancient times, writing could be painstaking tedious; so, any short-cut for writing words was quite an advantage.

When it comes to accuracy, since Old-English words are sometimes spelled differently - I find that gematria is often-times more accurate when using the Old-English words instead of those with modern-day spelling.

As I was going for a walk one day, I saw a sign that had the acronym ABA on it. People generally understand the Aramaic word "ABBA" to mean father. But through gematria and knowing that letters A and B are the first and second letters of the alphabet, I interpret ABBA to also mean: First, and Father of the First.

The Apocrypha

There are sixty-six books in Scripture's canon, which encapsulate the official books of the Old and New Testaments. As far as the Apocrypha goes, I understand that many Roman Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include Apocrypha as well. What was laid on my heart by the Lord, is that due to our current-times... we need to include a certain amount of Apocrypha as authoritative Scripture in order to take us across the described river in the verse of Daniel 12:6.

My current impression is that these apocryphal (hidden) books are not always deemed appropriate for every-day teaching within the Church; as some folks cannot understand what's written in black and white, or they just can't accept it for whatever reason. As I consider the Bible's history, I believe that the second part of the previous statement is more to the point.

Regardless of my perspective, the Lord has saved certain documents for this very time in history (2nd Esdras 12:37,38). The Bible which I use to research Apocrypha is the original King-James version from the year 1611. This 1611-version was the last King-James Bible to include apocryphal Scripture.