This morning, I want to preach on the subject of language, and I want to start out in Genesis 11, because this is where we see the origination of mankind using different languages. In Genesis 11, let me get there myself here, verse number one, the bible reads, "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech." We have to understand that there have been a lot of years of history up to this point. There were about 1656 years from the time of Adam to the time of the flood.
This event at the Tower of Babel has taken place about 100 years after the flood. We can deduce that from the name of Peleg, because in his days, the earth was divided, and that's when God divided mankind by dividing and confounding their languages. This is about 1700 and 50 some years into the history of mankind. Up to that point, the bible tells us here that everyone had spoken the same language. The whole earth was of one language up to that point.
It says in verse number 2, "It came to past as they journeyed from the east, referring to the people who got off the ark and their descendants." It says that. "They found a plane in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter."
"And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
"Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, confound means to confuse, said let's confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth."
This is when mankind is divided. He was very united, one name, one people, one city, one language. They're all united, and they're doing something ungodly trying to build a tower that will reach the heaven, disobeying God's command to overspread the earth. God, in order to divide mankind and to split them up, he mixes up their languages so that they can't understand one another, because he knows that if people cannot communicate and understand one another, they are not going to be able to dwell together. They're not going to be able to live together any longer.
They're going to split up, and that's exactly what happened. God miraculously caused people's languages to change and to shift to where they could no longer understand each other, and this caused them to naturally pair off with people that they could communicate with and understand, and separate themselves from those that they could not understand.
The reason that this story is so interesting is because it shows us that God's desire is that people on this earth speak different languages. It's clear from this passage that it is not God's will that everyone speak the same language, is it? God doesn't want everybody to speak the same language. God had a purpose and a plan when he created language to use it to divide mankind. That was the goal of even introducing language was to divide mankind along linguistic lines, and to separate them into different nations and families, and so forth.
That's what God was trying to accomplish here in Genesis 11. We can learn from this that God does not desire that everyone speaks the same language. He created us to speak different languages. Now, if you follow this subject throughout the Old Testament ... Turn to Daniel 4, but while you're turning there, later on in the book of Genesis ... You read about the story of Joseph. If you remember, Joseph was sold into slavery down in Egypt.
When Joseph is down in Egypt, first, he goes to prison, but then after interpreting pharaoh's dream, he is elevated to become the second in command in Egypt, second only to pharaoh, the king of Egypt. When he's in that position, his brethren come to Egypt to buy corn, and his brethren did not recognize him, because they haven't seen him in so long. He's changed so much, and he is dressed and looking like an Egyptian and so forth.
When they show up, they don't recognize him, and the bible specifically tells us that Joseph in order to continue to make his brethren think that he is an Egyptian, and that he is not one of them, Joseph speaks to them through an interpreter. Obviously, he knew their language. He grew up with them until his 17 years old, but he specifically uses an interpreter in order to continue to make them believe that he is just an Egyptian. He doesn't want them to know yet that he is their brother.
That tells me that the people in Egypt are speaking a completely different language than the people in Canaan in order for an interpreter to be needed, two different languages different spoken, one being spoken in Egypt. Joseph probably learned it in prison. He's prison for years in Egypt. He learned how to speak their language. His brethren on the other hand did not. That's why an interpreter was needed if they're going to use the Egyptian language.
That should go to teach you also that you don't always know why God does the things that He does. Joseph probably would have liked to have just gotten right to be in the second of Egypt. He got sold into slavery. He probably would have loved to just a week later be the second in command. He probably didn't enjoy sitting in prison for years. He probably didn't enjoy being a slave for years, but God knew that he wasn't prepared to do that job. He didn't even know the language, so God was preparing him during that time, teaching him.
Before he could run the whole nation, he had to learn how to run Potiphar's house. He had to learn how to run the prison. Once he'd ran Potiphar's house, run the prison, now he's ready to run he whole nation. Now he knows the language, he's been there for years and years. The reason that I bring that up is to show you that obviously throughout the bible, people are speaking different languages from one another, and God doesn't always take the time to tell us, "Oh, by the way, they were using an interpreter."
For example, obviously when we see Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob dealing with people in Egypt, and talking to Egyptians and talking to Philistines, talking to all different people, there are probably a lot of times where there was a language barrier, and where an interpreter was used. The only reason that the bible even takes the time to tell us that Joseph was using an interpreter is just because it was significant to the story to show, "Hey, he's trying to trick them. He wants them to think he is an Egyptian."
That just goes to show you that all throughout the Old Testament, obviously, different nations are speaking different languages, and when they're sending ambassadors to each other, when they're talking to each other, they're often going through an interpreter, because they don't speak the same language, which means that a lot of times when the bible tells us what someone said, it's a translation of what they said. If you're reading it in English, it's a translation of a translation, because if the bible is written in Hebrew and it's quoting Egyptians, it's taking it from Egyptian into Hebrew, and then we're taking it from Hebrew into English.
Look at Daniel 4. Daniel 4 is the famous story about Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon, and he ruled over a great empire that was virtually worldwide. He wants to send out this proclamation, because he has come to know the true God, and he wants everybody to know that the Lord is the true God of the earth, and so he wants to send this out to his whole kingdom. He rules over 100 provinces that spoke various different languages, so he wants to send out this proclamation.
In 4:1, the bible reads, "Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation."
Notice verse 1, this proclamation is being sent out to all languages. This proclamation wasn't just originally written in one language. When we say this proclamation, we're talking about the entire chapter of Daniel 4, because it ends up the chapter with Nebuchadnezzar's closing in verse 37, "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase."
Look, when God humbled Nebuchadnezzar, when God caused him to be driven to the wilderness, you can read the story later, but he's driven to the wilderness living like an animal, God wasn't just trying to get through to Nebuchadnezzar. He was also doing that so that the entire world would hear the word of God, so that this proclamation would go out, a great testimony to the power and wisdom of God that they would at least hear about who the true God was through this bible story.
Even today, we can read this bible story, and learn something about God, and learn he word of God, because there are angels in the story that speak unto Nebuchadnezzar. God's word is given to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, and that was immediately intended to go out into all languages in Daniel 4. It was originally written in all languages that were present in Nebuchadnezzar's pretty much universal kingdom that span all those languages, and tongues, and peoples that he sent that to.
Now, go to Acts 2 in the New Testament. What I'm trying to get at here is that God is the one who divided the earth into different language groups, and that God's desire is that every man hear God's word in his own language, not that everyone learn a foreign language so that we can all speak the same language. Rather, it's God's desire that God's word be translated or interpreted or sent out into every language that exist today. That's God's will. That's God's plan. That's been His plan throughout history.
Look if you would at Acts 2. This is a great story on the subject of language. It says in verse 1, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." The they there are the 120 people that are listed in chapter 1. They were both men and women, and they were the early church, the ones who had stayed together, and were praying, and were waiting to be endued with power from on high.
In Acts 2:1, it says, " When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all, all 120 of them, male and female that were joined together in that early church, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."
When God's spirit comes upon the early church in Acts 2, they begin to speak with other tongues, and it's the spirit that is giving them utterance. Meaning that the spirit, the Holy Spirit, is giving them the ability to speak in another language. The spirit is the one who is doing that. It says in verse 5, "And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own, what, language."
Here, the bible is co-teaching you what the word tongue means. He said, "They are speaking in other tongues. Everybody is hearing it in their own language." Then a few verses down, they say, "We do hear them speak, verse 11, in our tongues the wonderful works of God." Even in Genesis 10 and 11, tongue and language are being used interchangeably in Genesis 10 and 11. Then here in Acts 2, same thing, tongue and language are being used interchangeably because they are the same word. They mean the same thing. It's just two different ways of saying the same thing, speaking in another tongue, speaking in another language.
In this passage, the bible's clear there were 120 people doing the speaking, not one. A lot of people will mistakenly say, "Peter preached, and 3,000 people [inaudible 00:12:38]." In reality, there were 120 people doing the preaching, and they were speaking in other tongues. That means that not all of them were speaking the same language. God miraculously allowed one to speak the language of the Parthians. God miraculously allowed another disciple to speak the language of the Arabians. It just depended on who they were talking to. The spirit of God came upon them, and they were able to speak that language.
Now, I've heard some people erroneously say about this passage that, "Oh, they didn't really speak other language. The miracle was in the hearing." God miraculously caused people to just understand. No, wrong, that's not what the bible says. The bible says, "They began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance, and that every man heard them speak in his own tongue." Now look, God could have performed this miracle a different way.
Think about this now. This should tell you what the bible teaches about language, that when we look at all these language passages, try to apply this today. Understand that God could have done a miracle, where all of the Galileans spoke their normal language, and God just miraculously allowed the foreigners to hear it in their own language, but is that what the bible says happened? No, because God is showing us here that His word can be spoken in all these languages, whether it's Daniel 4 or whether it's Acts 2.
Look, would you say these people heard a translation of God's word? You just say they heard God's word. They heard God's word in their own tongue, because we know that it was the Holy Spirit that was guiding them. It wasn't a man-made translation. No, it was God speaking through them in a foreign language showing that God can speak His word in 17 different languages. I don't think they were hearing different messages. They were all getting the same message.
Now, some people got it better than others. No, wrong, God's spirit was speaking to everybody in their own language, and they heard and understood God's word in the tongue wherein they were born, their native language. That's a great miracle of God's word. He could have performed it where they spoke Hebrew, and then everybody just heard it miraculously in their own tongue. If God has miraculously allowed people to understand Hebrew, right then, they could have gotten what the bible really said.
They all speak in Hebrew, right, and then God just miraculously allows these foreigners to just understand Hebrew, then they would have known what the bible said, but wrong. That's not what the bible says. God was just putting His word into other languages for people, because that's how they're going to understand it best in the tongue wherein they were born.
Now go to Revelation 14 at the end of the bible. The reason I'm going to different passages, I'm starting in Genesis. We're looking at Daniel. We're looking at Acts. We're just trying to go through the whole bible showing you the consistency of the bible on this subject, that there is a consistent dealing with language from start to finish.
Look at Revelation 14. This is where the bible tells us about the angel in heaven, verse 6, "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." God has a messenger that is carrying the message of the gospel for every tongue, for every language.
This proves again that God's word can be put into all languages. Acts 2 proved that. Revelations 14 proves that. Over and over again we see that. Go to 1 Corinthians 14, because of all the chapters in the New Testament that deal with language, 1 Corinthians 14 is the one that goes into the greatest detail on this subject of language or speaking in another tongue.
I want to start first of all by just showing you the last two verses. We'll look at the rest of the chapter in a moment, but just look at the last two verses, and see the significance here. In verse 39, it says, "Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and this is the key, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order."
That is a very significant statement at the end of verse 39, forbid not to speak with tongues, because that tells me that there was somebody out there who was forbidding people to speak in other languages or to speak in other tongues. Doesn't that what it shows? If God is having to take the time here to correct the church at Corinth, to make sure that they understand what His will is, and says, "Look, forbid not ..."
Why did God say thou shalt not steal? Because people steal. Why did God say thou shalt not commit adultery? Because people commit adultery. Why did He say thou shalt not kill? Because people kill. Why did He say forbid not to speak with tongue? Because there are people who forbid you to speak in other languages. Of course, those who are Pentecostals and charismatics, I'm not even going to take a lot of time this morning to deal with that stupidity, because that's what it is. I think I'm talking to an intelligent group of people.
I'm not even going to take the time to go into the stupidity of rolling around on the ground, slobbering on yourself, barking like a dog. I'm not even going to going to go into that stupidity. Is everybody here saved, everybody here believe? If you're saved, you're smart enough to know that that is nonsense. It's only unsaved people who are even sucked in by it. You'll never meet people who are saved who believe in that stuff.
Every time you run into the people that believe in this gibberish and falling on the ground ecstatic speaking, laughing revivals, they always believe a false gospel. They always believe you can lose your salvation. They always believe all kinds of false doctrine that it's not by faith alone, that it's not just trusting in Jesus Christ, but that it's also baptism, or that it's also other works that we have to perform.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time just explaining the fact that tongue means language. We already saw that in Genesis 10 and 11. We saw it in Acts 2. I don't want to spend a lot ... I've done whole sermons on that subject. I'm not going to ... Let's just forget that nonsense. Let's just look at what the bible is actually saying. If we know that tongue is talking about a foreign language as it is in Acts 2 and everywhere else, this is saying that there are people who are forbidding them to speak in a foreign language.
Why would God say forbid not to speak with tongues? Stop and think about it. Have there been religions and churches who have forbidden people to use their native languages in worship or in church? Absolutely. Of course, we know the Roman catholic church is the huge one. For the longest time, my friend, today, if you went to a Catholic church, it would be in English, right, but sometimes, it will be in Latin.
Let me say this. Throughout history, the Catholic church has normally only used Latin in their church services. If you went to the Catholic church 150 years ago, you'll go in there and sit there, and there will be a service that goes on for an hour, an hour and a half, and you will not understand a word of it, because it's in a foreign language. For example, when the bible was first translated into English, people were being burned at the stake. Why? For translating the bible into English.
People are being burned at the stake? Why? For teaching their children the Lord's Prayer in English. Why are people being tortured and killed for putting the bible in English? Because the Roman Catholic church is telling them it must be Latin. Latin is a holy special language. That's what they taught. The only bible that's legitimate is a Latin bible, and you must read the bible in Latin.
We must have church in Latin. You must preach in Latin, and you have all these people who would come to church, and don't get anything out of it because they don't understand a word of it, because it's in a foreign language, and it's forbidden to speak God's word in their language. You see how this verse applies? Even today, there are also Greek Orthodox churches where people go, and listen to the service in Greek, and don't understand a word of it.
I think Brother Dave told me, "I went to a Greek Orthodox wedding, and a lot of it was in Greek." He's sitting there ... IT was all Greek to him. He couldn't understand what was being said. The bible is showing us here that there were some people saying, "Hey, you can't speak that other language." Why would they say that? Well, there are people today who teach the same thing. Here is what they teach. They teach, "It's not Latin, but it's Greek and Hebrew." They basically teach that in order for you to really have the word of God, it has to be in Hebrew if you're reading the Old Testament.
If you're reading the New Testament, it has to be in Greek. The logic of this makes absolutely no sense, because of the fact that the bible is written primarily in two languages. If it had to be in one language, if there is this one special language, and look, this is what the Jews teach. The people who don't accept the New Testament that don't believe on Jesus Christ, that are part of the false religion of Judaism, they say, "Hey, God's word is only in the original Hebrew. You must have it in Hebrew."
They say, "It's not the same in other languages. It's got to be in Hebrew, or else it's not really God's word." Well, that makes sense for their false religion of Judaism, but that makes absolutely no sense for bible-believing Christianity, because we know the statement was not written in Hebrew. If God was just limited to one language, or for it to be His true God, it had to be in that one language, Hebrew, then why did He give us the New Testament in a completely different language?
Here is the other thing, the New Testament quotes the Old Testament. He doesn't say, "Okay, let's quote the Old Testament now, and then switch to Hebrew." No, absolutely not, the New Testament puts it all in Greek, puts it all translated for you. You say, "Oh, well then, it's not really God's word. It's just a translation." No. Here is what people will accuse us of doing, who believe in reading the bible in English, because that's what we believe here.
We believe that we should read the bible in English, preach the bible in English because we are english speakers who were born to speak English, so this is the language that we use, English. Here is what they'll say, "Well, you guys think that the King James bible is the word of God. You equate the King James bible with the word of God," and they say, "It's not the word of God." It's a translation of the word of God.
Well then, is every time Jesus talking in the New Testament, or every time Jesus or the apostles quote something from the Old Testament, is that not God's word? Of course it's God's word, because this whole idea of well, it's not really God's word, it's just a translation is not a biblical idea. God's word goes forth in the Old Testament in a few different languages, and the New Testament is going forth into all languages. The New Testament in not even written in Greek. This philosophy leads people into a bad doctrine.
Part of the reason why there are even New Testament believers who will try to say that the whole Greek New Testament's a fraud, because of course, we know it must have been written in Hebrew, but it's just gone, and so we're going to go find it. Then people will create fraudulent versions of it. It's out there. What we need to understand is that fixation on going back to the original languages is not of God.
Let me just prove it to you. Here is the whole bible, 11,089 chapters. Show me one place in this big long book where he ever says read it in the original language. Go back to the original language. Show me where the apostles ever said, "Well, this is what it says in Greek, but let me tell you what it really means if we go back to the original Hebrew in the Old Testament." You'll never see that.
That is something that people do today that they did not get from the bible. It's something that they use a a tool to deceive, because when you have the bible in your own language, and you can read it for yourself, you can't be deceived, and you're not depending on them. When somebody gives you the bible in your language that you were born speaking, that you've spoken every day for your whole life, you can pick it up.
You can read it. You can understand it. It makes sense to you, and when someone lies to you, you'll know they're lying. You'll say, "No. I know what the bible says. You can't lie to me. I know what it says," but when you have a church like the Roman Catholic church that's preaching in Latin, that's got the bible only in Latin, that priest can pretty much tell you whatever he wants, and you're going to have no idea whether he's telling you the truth or not.
You have no way to check. You have no way to call him on the carpet. You have no way to prove him wrong, because you are in complete darkness because you don't have the word of God in your own language, and so you can be easily deceived. God's will is that everyone have the word of God in their own language. Let me tell you something. The final authority in your life should be the bible in your own language.
Here is why. A lot of people will try to twist this. I don't say that they misunderstand it, because they don't misunderstand it. They're just liars, and they twist it on purpose. I can't believe that anybody could not understand these simple things that I'm preaching this morning. It's not that they don't understand it. It's that they purposely twist the truth of what we believe and preach.
There's a reason why we believe that the King James bible is the word of God, and why the final authority in this church for all matters of faith and practice is an English King James bible, not a Greek New Testament and not a Hebrew Old Testament. Some people will say, "Oh, you're crazy." No, there is a reason why, and I'm going to tell you right now why this book that's on the edge of the pulpit right now, the King James bible, is the final authority in this church for all matters of faith and practice.
You say, "Well Pastor Anderson, you're saying ..." Here's what they'll say, "You're saying that the King James bible is superior to the Greek." Of course not. Anybody who says that is a fool, Sam Gipp, Peter Ruckman, et cetera. You're saying that the English is better than the Greek. I didn't say the English is better than the Greek. I'm saying that the English is equivalent to the Greek.
You're saying that the English is more important than the Hebrew. No, I'm saying that the English is equivalent to the Hebrew. There's nothing magical and mystical about the Hebrew language. If you just go on YouTube, and type in mystical Hebrew, I'm sure you're going to find 5 million videos about all of the mystical, magical things about Hebrew. I'm sure that you'll find plenty of people that will tell you about the mystical, magical Greek language, but these are normal languages.
They're no different than English, or Spanish, or German, or anything else. They are just languages. When God divided up the languages, when God divided up the people at the Tower of Babel, He gave them all different languages, and they all spoke different languages. He didn't give one a better language than the other. He just gave everybody different languages to divide them, to split them up.
Just to prove that, God used the Hebrew language in the Old Testament, why, because he had chosen Abraham to create of Him a great nation, and that that nation would be alike to the gentiles, and so He committed unto them the oracles of God. He gave Abraham and his descendants the word of God. It was written down in Hebrew, because they were the ones who were supposed to use that book to preach on to the rest of the world, and they translated it in other languages, and gave it to other people as we see.
In the New Testament, the New Testament was not given unto us in Hebrew. It's given unto us in Greek for an obvious reason. If we look at the New Testament, the children of Israel rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't they? In John 1, it says, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
The bible is real clear that the Jews of Jesus's day rejected Him mostly, and so therefore, it was said unto them by Jesus, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. He said, "You've judged yourselves unworthy of the kingdom of God. We're going to go to the gentiles." Basically, in the New Testament, because the Jewish people buy in large rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected the apostles, rejected the gospel, it wouldn't have made much sense to write the New Testament in their language.
Let's write it in their language so that they can reject it, and not do anything with it, and not use it, and not preach it. That wouldn't make any sense, would it? Yet, we see that Peter and the apostle Paul are having all this success with winning the gentiles to the Lord. These people are predominantly Greek-speaking people.
Therefore, if that's who is getting saved, if that's where the churches are, if you're sending the book of Revelation to the seven churches in Asia, and they're all Greek-speaking churches, obviously, you're not going to tell them, "Well, let's put it the magical, mystical Hebrew language for you." They're not going to be able to understand it, so he said, "We're going to basically just put it in Greek, because that's who were writing to. That's the audience. The audience is a Greek-speaking audience. Put it in Greek."
There are parts of the Old Testament that aren't even written in Hebrew that are written in Aramaic. You know why? They're Aramaic-speaking audience. This isn't that complicated. Hebrew-speaking audience, it's written in Hebrew. Aramaic-speaking audience, it's written in Aramaic. Greek-speaking audience, it's written in Greek.
This is an English speaking audience. That means we need God's word in English. It's not going to do us any good if God's word is in a foreign language that we don't understand. If I got up here, and said a Greek New Testament here and said, "This is our final authority," then you know what that means? Almost nobody in here even knows what it says. It's the final authority even though virtually no one here knows what it says. I know what it says, and I'm going to tell you what it says. Do you know what that means? Now, I'm the mediator between God and men.
Think about that. I know what it means, and the final authority is written in the language that only I understand, and so I would tell you what it means. Now, I'm the boss. Now, I'm the head of the church. No, Christ is the head of the church, and there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ will speak to you through this book. Why? Because it is an English translation of the Greek, and it says the exact same thing as the Greek does.
Read a bible in the Greek New Testament. It's going to say the exact same thing that this book says. It's just in another language. You could read the bible in Spanish, in German, in English, in Greek. It's going to say the same thing in all of them unless there's a translation error, but if it's translated properly, if it's translated accurately, it's going to say the exact same thing in all languages. So why would I sit there and tell you, "Learn a foreign language, and read the bible in that foreign language, and you'd learn more?"
I speak a few languages. But let me tell you something. There is no language that I speak as well as I speak English. Everybody has their best language. That's their main language that they were born with. People in this church, Brother Segura, you speak English and Spanish fluently, right? What do you understand better, English or Spanish?
Brother Segura:
English way better.
Pastor Anderson:
English, way better. He could read the bible in Spanish, and he would understand it, but he would get more out of it when he's reading it in English, because it's his original primary language. Evelyn speaks great English, but Spanish is her better language. That's her primary language, and so she's always going to understand more in Spanish, because that's the language she grew up with, was born with. That's her primary language.
Even if you speak other languages, even if I got to the point where I'm fluent in a foreign language, like I speak German fluently. I speak German with my wife all the time, and don't have any trouble communicating with er in German, but you know what though? I'm never going to understand German as well as I understand English. If I were having a really serious conversation with my wife about something, I'd probably want to do it in English just to put myself on the upper footing. No, I'm just kidding.
Honestly, that's how it is. Even somebody who knows how to read Greek fluently, and knows how to read Hebrew fluently is still probably 9 times out of 10, or 99 times out of 100 going to understand the bible better reading it in their original language. Not it's original language, their original language. I'm not going to go into this a lot this morning, but we believe that the King James bible is a perfect translation into English.
That's not a crazy thing to believe at all. People are like, "Oh man, it's so crazy to believe that the King James has no errors in it." Why would it have errors in it? Think about it. First of all, basically, this book took about 100 years to translate if you think about it. If you look at when it was first, the Greek texts are being worked on, and co laded, and when they started translating it into english in the early 1500's, and it was refined, and it was refined, and it was refined. You have all these great scholars spending virtually almost 100 years on this book.
Just the King James bible itself, they spent seven years, but they were already building upon all the work that has gone before. They weren't starting from scratch. They had other English translations, and they had it all out. They had 54 guys. They had seven years, and they were already building on the last 100 years. You say, "The texts are ..." Look, it had 100 years for people to decide what was right, for people to decide what was the true word of God, for people to decide what the Greek said, and what the English should say.
They spent 100 years, and after this book came out, this is what everybody use. Once people got used to it and found about it, realize it, this displaced all other versions. People quit using the Geneva bible. People quit using the bishops bible. Go to the store and find ... They're starting to publish it again now just because we live in an age where everything is coming available, but honestly, try 10 years ago to walk in the store. Give me the Tyndale bible. Give me a Bishops bible. What? It's the King James and all the modern perversions of it and corruptions.
What I'm trying to say is that we believe that we have a perfect English bible. We believe that because it was translated over so many years and by so many experts, and so many people, and we believe that because God obviously wanted us to have it in our language. He knew that the English-speaking world would preach the gospel more than anyone else. Who has sent out the most missionaries over the last few hundred years?
Who has the most bible-believing churches? Is it Greece? Is Greece just some powerhouse for evangelism and the gospel and bible preaching? No, so obviously if God wants us to have the word of God, He made sure and allowed that process to take place through His providence, through His divine hand that we would get the bible today in English.
Now look, there are a lot of people out there who believe that this King James bible is a perfect English translation, but a lot of those same people when they get up to preach will say, "Let's go back to the Greek, and show you what it really says. Let's go back to the Hebrew." Even people who claim that they believe that this is a right translation will then say, "Yeah, but we still need to go to the Greek. We still need to go to the Hebrew."
Let me say this. The purpose for going back to the Greek in a sermon as a pastor is this, number one, to make yourself look smart. Let me just show you that. Are you in 1 Corinthians 14? Look at 1 Corinthians 14. It says in verse 3, "But he that prophesieth ..." Pophesieth is another word for preaching. It says in the 1 Corinthians 14:3, "But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, that means to build them up, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church."
Right there, we see that the purpose of preaching is to build you up. Isn't that what the bible is telling us? He gave pastors, he gave teachers for the edification of the saints, the edification of the body of Christ. He speaks unto them, the bible says, to comfort them, to exhort them, and to edify them, to build them up, not to build himself up. Is the purpose of preaching to build myself up? No, it's to build you up. It's to help you.
If I'm going to edify you, if I'm going to build you up, I have to speak in a language that you understand. If I'm speaking in a language you don't understand, my only purpose according to this passage can be self-edification, lifting myself up. If you go to the Latin mass, and the priest is speaking the service in Latin, is he trying to edify the congregation? No, he is edifying himself, "Hey everybody, look at me, I am the mediator between God and men. I know the truth. I speak the magical, mystical holy Latin language."
Isn't that funny how it's always a different language? Hebrew is magical and mystical. Greek is magical and mystical. Aramaic is magical. Latin, the bible wasn't even written in Latin, but Latin is a magical, mystical special language, but English is just lame. English is just junk. Greek and Latin, no, English is no different. If you want to get all magical and mystical, what's the difference between English and Greek, and Hebrew, and Latin? It's just different languages, folks. It's the same thing.
People will go back to the Greek in a sermon to elevate themselves about the audience, and to say, "Look what I know. Look at my knowledge. Look how I can read things in that bible that you can't read on your own, and that's why you need me." that is mot of God. That's not biblical. Go down to verse 9. It says, "So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? Ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification."
"Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church." He said, "Look, if you're speaking in a foreign language, it makes no sense to the people who are listening.
I'm sure Hebrew makes a lot of sense to people who speak Hebrew, but to someone who only speaks English, it doesn't make any sense to them. I could say something to you in Hebrew. It's not going to make any sense to you. I could say something in Greek. He said, "Speak in words that people can easily understand in order to edify the church."
Look at verse 16, "Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?" If I say something in a foreign language, you can't say amen to that. You can't say amen. In the Latin mass, they do say amen to that.
People say a bunch of stuff. They have no idea [what it is, and say 00:41:44], amen. They're just putting their stamp approval on some that they don't even know what was it. It says in verse 17, " For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue."
He say, "Look, use an unknown tongue elsewhere, where people understand that tongue, but in the church, you need to speak in the language that people I understand." I'd rather speak five words in English than 10,000 in Greek or Hebrew. Look at verse 29. Here is the key. This is a discussion about preaching and preaching in other languages. It says in verse 29, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge."
That is telling us that while the preaching is going on, those who are sitting in the congregation not doing the preaching are supposed to be judging, so when I'm preaching, you're supposed to be judging. When someone else is preaching, we're all supposed to be judging. That's what God's telling us in this verse. Let me ask you this. If something is done in a foreign language, are you able to judge? No.
The bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Prove all things means test all things. Prove them. See if they're legit. If you don't know the language, you can't do that. That's why no one should ever speak a foreign language in the church unless there is an interpreter putting it into the correct language, and then basically, we can judge what's being preached.
Let me just give you a few examples of this. I hope that you understood the foundation that i just laid down. I showed you in Genesis 11 how God divided languages, because He wanted people to speak different languages. He did not want us all speaking esperanto or something, where we just, "Let's make a language where we can all speak the same language and be united."
No, His goal was to divide. His goal was that we speak different languages, so it wouldn't make any sense to say, "Well, every Christian needs to learn Greek." Well then, we'd all be united in a way that He did not want us to be united. He wanted us to speak foreign languages from one another. He wanted us to be different. We saw all throughout the Old Testament that we saw that people are speaking foreign languages. Interpreters are being used. God's word is being translated into different languages, send out in the different parts of the world.
Acts 2, 17 different languages minimum, and people are speaking those languages, and it's God's word what they spoke, because it was through the Holy Ghost. We also see that nowhere in the bible from cover to cover is there a command that tells us to learn a foreign languages. Show me a verse in this whole book that says learn a foreign language. You must learn a foreign language. Show me.
On the contrary, the bible tells us that there are some people that specifically have the gift of tongues. The apostle Paul said, "I speak with tongues more than you all." Why? He's a missionary. He grew up at the feet of Gamaliel. He grew up super educated, learning a bunch of foreign languages. He went around the world preaching in all different parts of the globe, so it was a great asset to him that he spoke a lot of foreign languages.
You know there are some people who cannot learn a foreign language to save their life. These people are saying amen, because they're like, "That's me." Honestly, I've known people who went and lived in a foreign country for years, and they could never learn the language. They just did not click. I remember being in Germany with Americans that has been there for decades, and I was trying to explain them how easy it was to learn German.
I was like, "Look, let me just explain it to you." They're just like, "I have no clue what you're talking about." I'm trying to say, "Look, don't you see the connection between these?" No. There are people out there who cannot learn a foreign language to save their life. Even if they did learn it, they're going to stumble with it, and struggle with it every once in a while. They just are not gifted in that way.
Other people are gifted with language. They can pick it up. There was a guy in our church named Victor a few years ago, Victor Tey. He was gifted in language. He was Chinese, and he spoke English, but we went out sowening, he'd never hardly been exposed to Spanish at all. We went out sowening, and he's listening to me give the gospel to people in Spanish, and he is like, "Oh, I bet this word means this. I bet this means this. Oh. That sounds like this means this."
What? How do you know that? He could just tell. What? Just by the way I'm saying it and everything, I mean, he just picked it up, picked it up, picked it up, and it was good because he end up living in mexico for a while, so it was good thing that he was that good at picking it up. He picked it up. He was talented in that area. Other people are not.
God doesn't expect everybody to learn a foreign language. Should some people learn foreign languages? Sure, because there are missionaries that obviously need to learn a foreign language, but if you have zero ability to learn a foreign language, God's not calling you to be a missionary to a foreign country. Isn't that common sense that God is going to give different people different talents?
If you can't carry a tune in a bucket, God's not calling you to be the next song leader of our church, because obviously, different people have different talents. Some people are good at music. Some people are good at language, so to sit there and say, "Every Christian needs to learn a foreign language, and they need to become so expert in it that they can understand it better than the English bible," is ridiculous. It's nonsense.
Let me show you the danger of this. I'm going to give you one example from Greek and example of Hebrew. These are two that I've heard over and over and over again, where people go back to the Greek and go back to Hebrew. I think this has provided a really good illustration of what I'm talking about. Go to 1 John 3. I'm going to close with these two illustrations.
I don't believe that any pastor who's preaching to an English-speaking congregation should go back to the Greek, and say, "Well, here is what it really says," because you have no idea to verify whether what he's saying is true. If I told you, "Well, the Greek word is this, and it means this," you have no idea whether that's true. You just have to trust me. I don't want you to trust me. I want you to trust God, and I want you to trust your bible. You'd be much better off trusting your English King James bible than trusting me or any other preacher.
Here is the perfect example. This is the number one example I've heard of people going back to the Greek, and saying that it says something different in the original than the English. This is one of the number one things people say the English bible is wrong. If I had a nickel for every time I heard this, I'd be wealthy. In fact, I have never shown 1 John 3 to someone who disagreed with me without them saying, "Yeah, but in the Greek."
People don't even know any Greek. People who can't count to 10 in Greek are going to tell you, "No, if you go back to the Greek, it's different." This is the number one example. Go to 1 John 3:9. This is the number one example. This is the one that has been thrown in my face the most times throughout my life of going back to the Greek. I've heard preachers do this many times, and they get a bad false doctrine from it.
Look at 1 John 3, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." Did everbody see that verse? That verse right away when you look at it, it should strike you as odd, because it seems like something very confusing." Go back to 1 John:1. 1 John 1:8 says this, "If we say that we have no sin, is everybody looking at that, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
In verse 8, he says if we say that right now we have no sin, we're wrong. We're lying. We're deceptive. If we say that we've not sin in the past, we're lying. Chapter 1 makes it real clear that we still commit sin, don't we? Isn't that crystal clear in 1 John 1:8 and 10 that if we say we don't have sin, we're lying? If we say that we haven't sinned, we're lying. Then we get to chapter 3:9, it appears to contradict, doesn't it, on the surface.
It says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." You're like, "Wait a minute. In chapter 1, it said that we all sin. Then in chapter 3 it's saying if you're born of God, you don't sin. This is confusing." Here is what people will do. Let's go back to the Greek. Some men right here, this must be something wrong with my English bible, because there is this contradict. Let's go back to the Greek.
The first thing I'm going to do when I go back to Greek, I'm going to get out my strong's concordance. Let's look this up in the strong's concordance. Let's look up the word sin. They look up the word sin, and it's just sin. Well, that's not going to work. Then they focus on that word commit. Are you looking down at 1 John 3? Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, so they'll look that up in their strong's. When they look that up in their strong's, they're going to find that that is G4160.
They've got this Greek word G4160. Here is what Strong says next to that word. Are you ready. They're like, "Something ain't right here, let's go back to the Greek." Here is what it says. Get ready for this. These are all the different meanings, abide, agree, appoint, avenge, band together, be, bear, bewray, bring forth, cast out, cause, commit, content, continue, deal, do without any delay, would do, is doing, execute, exercise, fulfill, gain, give, have, hold, journeying, skip, lay weight, lighten the sheep, make, mean, move, observe, ordain, perform, provide, have purged, purpose, put, raising up, secure, shew, shoot out, spend, take, tarry, transgress, work, yield.
Now I get it. Hold on. Think about this now. Here's what they do. Next time a preacher goes back to the Greek, just to understand, this is what he's doing. You go to strong's. You look up your Greek word, and that list is what you get. Now, you can pretty much make that verse say whatever you want, because you have all these words to choose from, and you can say, "If you look it up in the strong's Greek concordance, it actually means," and you can pick from any of those words you want.
That's what they're doing. Here is what they do. I look at this big long list of stuff that was from the strong's. That's just strong's. If strong's doesn't have what you like, you can get the Tare Greek lexicon, and you'll find a similar long list, just a different list. If you have enough books on your shelf, you can make this verse say whatever you want it to say. They get their big list, and they say, "Okay, abide, agree, appoint, avenge, band together, be, bear, bewray, bring forth, cast out, cause, commit, content, continue." Aha, now we're on to something. Continue, this verse is saying whosoever is born of God did not continue sinning.
Now we're getting somewhere, are we? Now, you have a false doctrine, where somebody can get up and preach. If you're saved, you're not going to keep on sinning." You might sin, but you're not going to continue sinning. What about this one, do without any delay? You're not just going to sin at the drop of a hat if you're born of God. You're not going to do without delay. You're going to delay a little bit first, then sin, or you can go down to hold. What this is saying is you want to hold on to sin.
How about keep? You're not going to keep sinning. Do you see how dangerous this is, where you can just make the bible whatever you want? I'm going to prove that this is wrong in a moment. I'm going to show you what the verse really means using an English bible, and I'm going to prove to you why this makes no sense. You can then look this verse up in Vine's expository dictionary of New Testament words. If you look up commit, it will tell you that commit means to commit sin.
It gives you examples of John 8:34, "He that committeth sin is the servant of sin," and it gives you examples of John 8:34, "He that committeth sin is the servant of sin." It gives you James 5:15, "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him," but then it has a note about 1 John 3:9. It tells you, "Well, the word means commit, but the KJV wrongly translates this as commit in 1 John 3:9," it says even though they just finished telling you that the word means commit sin.
In 1 John 3:9, the King James wrongly has commit, which is an impossible meaning. According to you, it's an impossible meaning. Do you see what they're doing? What they're doing is they're looking at what the bible actually says, and saying, "Well, that's impossible." Comparing chapter 1 to chapter 3. That's impossible, so let's change it to something else. That's what they're saying, but it's really just that they don't understand, and I'm going to prove that to you.
Look what he says, "The revised version rightly has doeth instead of commit "of a continuous habit." First of all, doeth does not mean a continuous habit. Here is what it says, "Committing of an act is not [inaudible 00:56:06]. All these Greek sources are all telling you, "Hey, it doesn't mean commit. It doesn't really mean. That's not what it says." Why? Because that would be possible, because we don't think it make sense. We'll give you a list of 40 other words to choose from. Everybody that you talk to about 1 John 3:9, "Yeah, but if you go back to the Greek, that means you're continually sinning. You're living in sin. You're sinning as a way of life. You're sinning by habit."
They're just adding to God's word. Now, let me just prove it all to be a lie. Go to 1 John 5, and look at verse 18. It says in 1 John 5:18, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not." What's missing? Commit. All of this about the word commit, all of this stuff that I got from these Greek Lexicons and strong's concordance, and Vine's dictionary, all explaining to you why there's no way commit can really mean commit. That doesn't make any sense. There's no way it can mean that. It can't be. Then we find the exact same statement in 1 John 5, where that word's gone.
It just says, "Whosoever is born of God sinneth not." What are you going to do with that Vine? What are you going to do with that Tare? What are you going to with that Strong? There's no word for you to play around with, and that verse is there. Does everybody understand what I'm showing you hear? Everybody, let's speak English for a minute. In 1 John 3, it says in verse 9, "Whosoever of God did not commit sin." In 1 John 5, it says, "Whatsoever is born of God sinneth not." Is there any difference between sinning and committing sin?
Is there any difference? What is the difference between commit sin and sin? None, that's why in our English bible, we have the identical statement in 1 John 3 and 1 John 5. One of them just words it differently, but it's saying the exact same thing. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin. Whosoever is born of God [inaudible 00:58:12], but if you believe these people, then they're saying, "That word commit that changes everything, because the Greek word for commit, pisteuo. It means that it's continuous. It's a habit. It means to hold on to. It means you're doing it without delay. It means you're continuing.
It's all fraud. You can prove it to be a fraud just by comparing chapter 3 and chapter 5, but to the unlearned who are just sitting in the pew just, "Oh, okay, that's what that means. Well, if that's what Strong's concordance says, then shut my stupid mouth." That's what's going on today in pulpits all across America. They go back to the Greek. Look, if going back to Strong's is wrong on this, and wrong in Vine's and Tare, and all these other people, what else are they wrong about?
Why are you trusting them? Why are you giving your pastor a smorgasbord of 50 different words to choose from where you can make the bible say whatever you want it to say? It's dangerous. I got to hurry, but let me just quickly explain to you what the verse is actually saying. I don't have time. I wanted to go through and read it all for you. In Romans 7, the bible makes it real clear that basically, when we sin, it's not the new man sinning. It's the old man that's sinning. It's the unregenerate flesh, because when you got saved, your spirit got you saved, but your flesh is not born of God. Your flesh would be born of God at the rapture when the body is resurrected, when the body is regenerated.
Paul even says in Romans 7 that when he does the things he doesn't do, and he basically commit sin, he says, "It's no longer I that doeth, but sin that dwelleth in me." He says that the flesh is what causes the sin, but that the new man, the spiritual man that's born of God doesn't commit sin. The bible says, "If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Behold old things are passed away, and behold all things are become new," so when a person gets saved according to the bible, and you can read this in Romans 7:14-25, Romans 8:10, 21-23.
2 Corinthians 5:17 make it very clear that the new creature, the new man, the inward man, the spiritual born again child of God does not and cannot sin, which is why when you get to heaven, you'll never sin again. The only reason that we're sinning right now is because we are in our flesh, and that there's a war going on between the old man and the new man. The bible says, "Put on the new man." When John is saying in 1 John 3 that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, he's talking about the new man.
The new man does not sin. The old man is not born of God, so when you walk in the flesh, you're going to commit sin, because your old man is unregenerate. That's a whole sermon in and of itself, and that's to just suffice to show you that 1 John 3 and 5 are saying identical thing, without the word commit, that shows you that they're big much to do about the word commit is a fraud. There you go.
Here's another example. Go back to Genesis 1. Here is an example from the Hebrew. That's an example of a real common thing, where they'll take you back to the Greek. I'd say about 50% of the time when I hear preachers go aback to the Greek, it's to say that something's ongoing, instead of just saying it happened like the bible said it happened. That's the kind of stuff that they'll pull out, and they create a false doctrine by doing that because here is what they say, "If you keep on sinning, you're not saved. If you continue to sin, you're not saved."
Is it possible to be saved and continue sinning? Of course it is. Why? Because you're in the flesh, and if a person gets saved, and they don't go to church, they don't read their bible, they don't pray, and they don't get discipled, and they don't get taught anything, guess what, they're going to continue sinning. It doesn't mean they're not saved. It means that they're walking in the flesh. When you feed the flesh TV, and rock and roll, and magazines, and everything that is gratifying the flesh, and you're starving the spirit of any bible, or prayer, or hymns, you're going to be in the flesh. You're going to commit a lot of sins.
If you put on the new man, if you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's a biblical doctrine. That's the truth, but see, this has a created a whole lying doctrine, where people will say, "Hey, if you're living in sin, you're not saved. If you're still drinking, you're not saved. If you're fornicating, you're not saved." That's a lie. There are saved people who commit those sins, because salvation is by faith, not of works. It's based of what we believe, not of what we do." That's why this is such a dangerous doctrine, where yo go back to the Greek, and make stuff up that isn't there, and that can be disproven using English alone.
Notice, I dint use Greek and Hebrew to disprove it, did I? I disproved it right here in English between chapter 3 and chapter 5. Why? Because that's a language that we all understand, and everyone in this room could see that what I said was true, because they all saw it with their own eyes in the language that they were born. Quickly, one last example, Genesis 1:2. The bible says in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
Now, there are people out there who teach what's called the Gap Theory. They teach that there's a gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. When you read that there, did you see a gap just now? It just goes right into it, "And the earth was without form and void." It's a continuation of the same thought. The word and there is very strongly tying what we just read with what we're about to read. "He created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void," one continuous thought, one continuous idea.
This doesn't work for people who believed in the gap theory. The reason they believe in the gap theory is not because of any biblical reason, but it's because they trust science falsely so called that the world's billions of years old, so they have to try to make that fit the bible. That doesn't fit the bible. The world is less than 7,000 years old according to the bible. You believe that by faith, or you can believe these fools in the university who have said in their heart that there is no God.
This verse doesn't work for the gap theory. Pretty much every person I've ever heard teach the gap theory will tell you this. I've heard this from multiple preachers. Chuck Missler was one that preach the gap theory and told this. Jesusthesavior.com, another famous website that taught this. This is what they say, "The word and there if you back to the original Hebrew, it's actually the word but," is what they'll say. The word and is actually but in the original Hebrew, so what it should say is in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, but the earth was without form and void."
If I got up here and told you that right now, let's pretend I'm one of these deceivers. I'm one of these liars who twist what the bible says by lying to you, and telling you that the English bible is not right. In the foreign language, it says something different. Would you really have any way of checking that out to see whether what I was saying was true or not? If I told you this actually says but, so all of the people listening to Chuck Missler say that, how can they even verify it, right? They're just like, "Okay, in the original, it says but."
If I showed you a Hebrew bible right now, do you know what it would look like to you? Chicken scratch is what it would look like. It would look to you like a bunch of squiggles, and dots, and squares, and lines, and you would look at it, and it would be completely meaningless to you, because it doesn't even look anything like even the letters that we use in English. It looks like little hieroglyphics. Do you see how you would just be totally have to rely on me that I'm telling you the truth?
Of course, this English bible has been around for 400 years. If it were lying, we could have figured that out by now. I can just get up and just say whatever I want, just, "In the Hebrew, it says but." Here is what's funny. If you actually read Genesis 1 in Hebrew, that word and, look at it in English. What's the first word of verse 3? What's the first word of verse 4? What's the first word of verse 5? What's the first word of verse 6? Seven? Eight? Nine? Ten? Eleven? Are you seeing a pattern? Do you notice that almost every verse in this chapter starts with the word and? Did everybody see that?
Do you notice that the word and is in verse one when it says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth? Now, let me give you a revelation. The Hebrew word at the beginning of verse two is identical as the one at the beginning of verse three, is identical with the one beginning of verse four, is identical with the one that says the heaven and the earth. Basically, if you're going to believe this liar who just wants to change one of those to but, "Oh, that's a big but because I said so," then this is how it would read, "In the beginning, God created the heaven, but the earth, but the earth was without form but void, but darkness was upon the face of the deep, but the spirit of God moved upon the face of waters. But God said let there be light, but there was light."
Does anybody think that's what it should say? Go ahead and keep listening to these people that tell you your English bible is wrong, and you got to go back to the Greek. Go ahead and keep listening to these people that will tell you what it really said in Greek, because it's so much more interesting. You'd say, "Why do people listen to these people?" Because they don't like to just read the bible. It's like they just want some magical, mystical hidden thing, look, forget what's hidden. Read what's right in front of you.
You want to learn about something magical and mystical language. You've got the truth right here. You've got the most powerful book. You've got God's word. You've got the truth. You've got the answer to every question in the universe, in your life, in your family, in your church. Everything that you need is right here in your hand, and you want to go abhorring after false prophets who are going to tell you what the bible really says, and change it. They're changing God's word. Anybody who would get up, and repeat that lie will pretty much ... To sit there and say, "Oh, in the Hebrew, it actually says but," when it's the same word all the way down every verse in that chapter except two, do you think he doesn't know that?
You think anybody who reads Hebrew hasn't noticed that it's the same word? They are lying. It's just a willful, purposeful, "Oh, they're just making a mistake." No, they're just getting up and lying to you. They're just lying. They're just saying it says but. No, you're lying. They don't know what they're doing. They don't want you to be edified. They don't want you to now the truth. They have an agenda to change God's word. Listen to me, if you're smart, you'll pick up your English bible, and realize, "I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be living in 2013, America where I have the whole bible translated to me into English over the course of 100 years of refining, over the course of 7 years full time by 54 great scholars.
I've got the word of God right here in my language. Thank God, I don't have to try to read it in some chicken scratch. To them, it's not chicken scratch. To them, the way we write is probably chicken scratch. Why don't you just thank God for giving you His word in your own language just like He did in Acts 2, just like He did in Daniel 4, and quit looking for some unicorn, some four-leaf clover, some mystical, magical other language.
[Inaudible 01:10:18] in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, help us to study it. Help us to understand the deep truths that are found therein. Thank you so much Lord for giving it to us in our own language. If we had to learn foreign languages, we'd never understand it as well as our native tongue. We'd have to move to Greece in order to really learn it, but thank you so much Lord that we have it in English. We can just read it in English, and understand it.
Lord, I know there are nations out there that don't have the word of God in their language, or maybe they only have part of the word of God. I pray that you would raise up men that would translate it into those languages, and missionaries that would preach the gospel to the people in the language they were born. They shouldn't have to learn English. They shouldn't have to learn Greek, or Hebrew, or Latin or anything else. Help us to get the word of God into all languages to all people. In Jesus's name, we pray.
