Pure Words
Jesus Christ is the Word (John 1:1)
"and his name is called the Word of God" (Revelation 19:13)
The true word of God will be like him. He is "holy" (Acts 4:27); so are the "holy scriptures" (Romans 1:2, 2 Timothy 3:15).
Jesus was likened to a "King" who gave us a "better testament." The King James Bible is a "better testament." It's longevity is a portrait of the "unchangeable" and "endless life" of Jesus Christ. Jesus is also called "undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7). His "holy scriptures" must likewise be "separate from sinners." Their "pure words" will not be polluted by worldly use. They will remain "separate."
Is it a Church or a Bar?
The vocabulary of the King James Bible was not common, even in the 1500s. In the 1800s Archbishop Trench said,
"It is good that the pharseology of Scripture should not be exactly that of our common life;...just as there is a sense of fitness which dictates that the architecture of a church should be different from that of a house" (Tyndale's Triumph, Milford, Ohio: John the Baptist Printing Ministry, 1989, p.iv)The style of a building identifies what's inside. An architect would never design a church that looked like a bar, with a flashing neon sign that read~
Sunday pretzels and 'Moo Stuff',
the girlie band that 'made good'
~free of charge (...Ah sure)
~uns Come or els
Wholesome Words or X-rated?
The KJV is not the language of the earth. It has no unnecessary steeples, but is "garnished with all manner of precious," "pure," "wholesome," and "undefiled" words~~clearly having come "down from God out of heaven" "polished after the similtude of a palace" (Psalms 144:12). The world shies away from its "wholesome words" and "pure language" qualities (Zephaniah 3:9).
"If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud..."
I Timothy 6:3,4
Why must God use "separate," "wholesome," and "undefiled" words? Why can't he use 'common everyday language'? Just as pollution and pollen are inhaled with every breath of good air, so the words the world uses go into the mind, along with all of the filth surrounding them. They are stored in the memory. When that word is read again, the file containing that word pops to the forefront of the mind~hand in hand with all the pollution it has been partnered with. What does the word 'love' make many think of?
This view of how the mind works has been established in part by word association experiments done by linguists studying the cognitive processes. Researchers ask respondents to say whatever comes to the forefront of their minds in response to a particular word. For example, if a researcher says, "Happy," most people respond by saying "Birthday." These two words are stored together because of frequent association and consequently race together tandem through the brain. Word association research discloses what a word really 'means' to people, not what a dictionary says it means. This research has been collected and is available in the three following databases:
MRC Psycholinguistic Database:
This is a computer usable dictionary containing over 150,000 words with up to several dozen psycholinguistic attributes for each word. This was used for the Oxford Psycholinguistic Database available to subscribers through Oxford University Press.
WordNet:
This is a project of Princeton University's Cognitive Science Laboratory. It is a computer usable database that defines words as the mind defines them, rather than as a standard dictionary defines them.
Word Association Thesaurus:
The Edinburgh Associative Thesaurus, created by prestigious Edinburgh University in Scotland, is the only one of the three that is easily available to the general public.
A word can be entered into their 'Interactive Associative Thesaurus.' A list of words will be given that generally come to mind when that word is read or said.
Holy associations are generated by the KJV words; unholy thoughts arise from the words used by new versions.
It is critical that reading the word of God does not bring to mind foolish and sinful ideas. It is through the spotless silvered glass of the scriptures that man sees his sin stained soul (James 1:21-25). The scripture must be polished, pure and clear. It cannot be spattered with man's words, which, like the "thoughts of his heart," are "only evil continually"
Genesis 6:5
Separate from Sinners
The entire Bible is the record of God's efforts to separate a people unto himself. The "sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" will sever from "the filthiness of the heathen" Ephesians 6:17
"wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you..."
2 Corinthians 6:17
Higher...Thoughts
Christians are not just separated "from"~but "separated unto the gospel of God" (Romans 1:1)~unto higher thoughts.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heaens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts"
Isaiah 55:8,9
Some comment,
"Why can't the Bible speak as we speak?"
The answer is~because we are not speaking~GOD is speaking.
"And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent...And the LORD saith unto him,...I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say" Exodus 4:10-12
God did not say to Moses,
'Forget eloquence! Use plain talk!'
Rather, God said he would teach him eloquence. (He truly did!)Many linguists trace the origin of the alphabet to Mt. Sinai. See Mysteries of the Alphabet by Marc-Alain Ouaknin translated by Josephine Bacon, New York: Abbeville press Publishers, 1999.
"all of them were pure...and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land..."
Ezra 6:20, 21
"I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people."
Leviticus 20:24
"And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
Leviticus 20:26
"For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth..."
I Kings 8:53
"...separate yourselves from the people of the land..."
Ezra 10:11
In Conclusion, "The word of the LORD is tried..." 2 Samuel 22:31
"But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God" Acts 5:39
"There hath not failed one word..." I Kings 8:56.
"There is no other..." tried sword. David said,
"There is none like that; give it me" I Samuel 21:9.
Foxe wrote, "What he blesseth, that prevaileth...and yet man's unquiet presumption will not cease still to erect up towers of Babel against the Lord" (see Foxe's Book of Martyr's, vol. 5, p. 604).
The never-ending new versions have likewise been tried herein and be "found wanting" (Daniel 5:27). Yet such pests will go on spinning their snaring webs around the consciences of mankind. Like the wasp, whose sting is in its tail, Bible critics are, in the end, only damaging their own reputations.
"My sheep hear my voice...," wrote the apostle John (10:27). Because of his closeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle John heard things others did not hear. John heard Christ's quiet heart beat as he "leaned on his breast" (John 21:20). Later during John's exile to Patmos "for the word of God," John said he "heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet..." God then revealed to him the great things in the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:9, 10). Some times we distance ourselves from the Saviour. Then we may be too far away to hear clearly the distinctions that are discussed in this book. May we all move in a little closer to Christ. Because of our sinfulness, we may only touch the hem of his garment. Yet it will heal our spiritual blindness. Once healed, may we live the scriptures, not just be content to search them. God calls us to a Christianity of practice, not of opinion.
right on!
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