words words words

I only have 30 minutes to write this. I promised Pastor Art he could get back on the computer at 12:35, after I posted my entry for the day. I’ve been lying in bed composing it. Staying in bed until noon is a sure fire symptom of clinical depression, especially for me, the early riser. I think I remember cursing the rooster at about 5:30.
Anyway, my topic for the day is WORDS.
Way back when Pastor Art (temple corners) and I were newborn Christians and our main source of spiritual nourishment was Christian Radio (Chuck Smith, Chuck Swindoll, James MacAurthur, Don Fransico and Keith Green), we were often confused by conflicting teaching and apparent contradictions. I was a Roman Catholic turned Witch then Born Again. He was a Junky turned Pagan then Born Again, so our minds were pretty messed up. But God in His Mercy and Wisdom led us to good teachers and godly mentors, through of all places, a United Methodist Church. We’ve shared about that on this site as well as on “Gateway of the Rock”.
One of the problems we ran into, being United Methodist, was that although our pastor was Born Again, and our mentors were Spirit Filled, the denomination its self was very liberal, and some of the people we rubbed shoulders with during denominational functions were very New Age. Coming out of the Occult, both of us were very aware of this problem, of the lies that were creeping in. One such lie was concerning the feminine side of God, the idea that God was both Father and Mother. And one of the arguments was that the Greek word for father which was used in the Bible could mean either parent.
The United Methodist Denomination, especially in the east, was striving to totally rewrite
Christianity in a gender neutral manner, beginning with their hymnal - liturgy. It was at that point Pastor Art decided he needed to learn the original languages, Greek and Hebrew. He needed to know what it really said, what it really meant. While he was earning his bachelors degree in Religion and Philosophy he took every Greek and Hebrew class he could. He found Hebrew easier than most because he is dyslexic and reading from right to left seemed natural to him. For his advanced Greek class he translated the book of Romans, chapters 1 to 11, and he got the only A in the class. Our library is filled with dictionaries and lexicons. I sometimes resort to good old Strongs Concordance, but he says that’s just kids stuff.
WORDS. LOGOS. What do they all mean? They are powerful. They can cause great pain. They can be manipulated, twisted, misused. Remember what James says. Yet, we are told that In The Beginning was the WORD.
I’ve been reading, and participating in some rather intense debates here in blog land.
The words here have been filled with great emotion and great conviction. Some have been cynical (I tend to be cynical at times). Some have been down right cruel.
Many have been using the Holy Words of God to “prove” their points and demonstrate their knowledge and credibility. So I started thinking about the Bible as we have it in our hands. Originally written in very ancient and precise languages. Every pastor knows how many Greek words there are for love. Which word was Jesus using when he asked Peter
“do you love me?” I’ve heard several sermons on that one.
But the question I’ve been asking is who were the people who translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, and into German, and into English??? Did they have a hidden agenda, a bias? I think I’m going to miss my 12:34 dead line, but I am almost done with this. I believe that the doctrine of Divine Election has been distorted because the men who translated the scriptures into the common language and who wrote many of the commentaries used today were anti Semitic. The elect, the chosen were and still are the Jews. And take a look at 1 Samuel 2:25
“ If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him, but if a man sins against the LORD who can intercede for him. But they would not listen to the voice of their father for the Lord desired to put them to death.” Wow, what a case for predestination. The sons did not have a choice. But when I asked good old Pastor Art to look that up, we discovered that the word translated as FOR could also mean therefore, or so. Which would change the whole meaning of that sentence from a case of predestination to a case of cause and effect, free will, free choice resulting in severe punishment.
Lately, I read on a friend’s blog, that it was Luther who decided to remove what we call the Apocrypha from the Bible. Pastor Art and I are looking into that one. So far it seems that at the time of the Apostles, most Jews accepted those books as part of the Holy Scriptures and that they would fall under the 2Tim.2:16 “all Scripture“.
Ok, so I’m ten minutes past my dead line, and I guess writing this has been therapeutic, better than whining and panicking. I really don’t know where I’m going with all this.
On the way home from worship practice a familiar song was playing. One that has been ringing in my ears and speaking to my heart for quite a while.
“Every blessing you pour out, I’ll turn back in praise.
When the darkness closes in, still I will say…Blessed be the name of the Lord
You give and take away, You give and take away, my heart will choose to say
Blessed be your Holy Name!.”
I was going to ask the worship team to pray for us, for me, my husband, and my prodigal son. My prodigal son who is on his way home…so tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree, its been three long years. But who won’t be able to come home if our landlord forces us to move, which is what I believe is going to happen, no matter how hard any of us prays…and I didn’t ask the team to pray. I’d just start crying. Big baby that I am.
So let me focus on heady stuff. Let me debate with theologians and write words about the WORD.
Oh no, I just heard Pastor Art sigh. The computer clock says 12:55. I think I’ll go clean out the closet. Even if we don’t have to move it will be good to get rid of some junk.
Well friends, I guess I’ll stop rambling. Blessings and Blog On!