SALVATION:  THE BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALS 

By Alan Hemenway

The first evidence that God is Real is by that which is called Natural Revelation.  

It is obvious that the Universe and Life is so perfectly organized, reflected in the Sciences, that Creation cannot have all fallen in place by accident.  The overwhelming infinitely calculable odds, if it could be calculated by the human race, are against it being an accident. Our only remaining option is that there had to be an all-knowing all-powerful Creator who created and His identity is self-evident to be the One GOD!

All that we know of God through the Bible is miniscule in comparison to the totality of God.  With God being all-knowing, all powerful, perfect, and not lacking anything, God is deserving of Man's Worship.  God can do anything He sees fit, including making His will known to Man by any miracle means He determines.

The Old Testament begins with God's Creation.  The last thing He creates is Adam and Eve.  God gave them a perfect life with their having dominion over Creation.  He gave them one rule which they did not keep.  They were not to eat of the tree [of knowledge] of good and evil. It was disobedience to God which was the first sin.  It signifies the Fall of Man.  Adam and Eve's Sin thus entered and multiplied throughout the World.  

Much later, God calls upon Moses with a long term plan where God will eventually win Man back to himself.  God tells Moses to lead the Jews out of the bondage of Egypt and leads them to the land of Israel.  Along the way God leads Moses alone up a mountain where God carves in stone Ten Commandments for Moses to present to the Jews. Exodus 20:2-17.  These Ten Commandments define Sin.  It remains to be seen that Jewish Ordinances and Commandments will not lead to a sinless life that is pleasing to God.  All humanity are sinners.  Of course, God knows this and it is part of His much bigger plan where MAN, some men, will eventually find forgiveness of sin and restored fellowship.

The Old Testament, starting with, "In the beginning God [Elohim] created the heavens and the earth."  Elohim is plural which supports the doctrine of the triune personalities of God being the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as the One God.  It helps to understand that God is a multiplicity: one, times one, times one, equals one.  All three are the one Deity.  All three are unified personalities and they might not be comprehended in human terms.  They are infinitely one.  1 John 5:7, "For there are three bearing witness in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one."  [This study uses the KJ3 Literal Translation of the Bible.]

The New Testament Gospel of John starts, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being."  Verse 4: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it."  Verse 9:  "He was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.  He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, yet the world did not know Him.  He came to His own [Israel], and His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to the ones believing into His name, who were generated not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but were generated of God.  And The Word became flesh and tabernacled [dwelt]  among us.  And we beheld His glory as of the only begotten one [born] from the Father, full of grace and truth."  

Acts 4:12: "and there is salvation in no other One, for neither is there another name under Heaven having been given among men by which it is necessary for us to be saved."  Philippians 2:5-11: "For let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus, who subsisting in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross. Because of this also God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus 'every knee should bow,' of heavenly ones, and earthly ones, and ones under the earth, and 'every tongue should confess' that Jesus Christ is 'Lord,' to the glory of God the Father."    

God sent His Son, "The Word",  part of Himself, on a mission to save the World. The Word was not Jesus in the form of a fleshly man, walking in Heaven.  The Word became "flesh" - when the Virgin Mary was miraculously impregnated with Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  Next, Jesus became Christ when He was anointed by John the baptizer.  Christ does all the work to remit our sin and we do not have the sinless credentials to copy Him.  Still under the Law, it appears the baptizer did not yet know of our sins to be remitted by Jesus Christ's sacrifice [like a lamb] on a cross in our place, accepted by God the Father.

Jesus was fully Man and fully God.  Colossians 2:9, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily".  Jesus did all the work for our salvation.  We do not work our way to Heaven.  All we can do is accept the Gospel message, confess our sinful nature, and we must accept Christ for our salvation through His plan of salvation resulting in forgiveness of sin, unto eternal life.  Galatians 2:16, "knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but that it is through faith in Jesus Christ we believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of law, because all flesh will not be justified by works of law...". Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves [your doing]; it is the gift of God; not of works, that not anyone should boast;"  Prior to salvation all our good works are considered "filthy rags".  Isaiah 84:6.  Good works are performed once we are saved, motivated by the Holy Spirit in our dedicated service to the Lord.  

The Old Testament Law is our school master; Galatians 3:24-26, “So that the Law has become a tutor of us until Christ, that we may be justified by faith.  25  But the faith coming, we are no longer under a tutor; 26  for you are all sons of God through the faith in Christ Jesus.”  Part of the ordinances, under the Old Testament Law, is that an annual sacrifice of a perfect, spotless lamb was for the purpose of being a sacrifice for forgiving the sins of Israel temporarily until the next year all over again.  It helps Israel to eventually understand by allegory the meaning of Christ's sacrifice as the sacrificial lamb; spotless without blemish [without sin], for the sin of all the World, that only Jesus could die for the sin of humanity because only this man Jesus was without sin and acceptable to God as payment for SIN.  

We become a Christian when we accept Jesus, the Christ, as the Son of God, who died for our sin, and arose to Heaven; when we agree with this.  We have to be sincere if to validate ourselves.  Romans 10:9-10, "Because if you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation."  This is a formal act of conversion performed and administered only by the Holy Spirit, not by the hands of mortals.  Only the Holy Spirit baptizes us; the very instant we become a true believer.  This is the one baptism, as it is written in God's New Testament, under grace, Ephesians 4:4-6, "There is one body and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith  [anti-sectarian],  one baptism, one God and Father of all, He above all and through all and in you all."

The validation of the Gospel message in God’s Word is that, 1 Corinthians 15:1 “But, brothers, I reveal to you the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand,  2 by which you also are being kept safe, if you hold fast the Word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you in the first place what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised the third day, according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 Then He appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, of whom the most remain until now, but some also fell asleep.

7 Then He was seen by James, then by all the apostles; 8 and last of all, even as if to one born out of time, He was also seen by me”. This was necessary as proof that when Christians die they will be raised up into eternal life, as promised:  Romans 6:5-8, "For if we have been joined together in the likeness of His death, so also shall we be in the Resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be nullified, so that we no longer serve sin. For the one that died has been justified from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that also we shall live with Him,"  1 Corinthians 15:14-20, "But if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is worthless, and your faith is also worthless.  And also we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed as to God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if then dead ones are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised. But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is foolish; you are still in your sins. And then those that fell asleep [died] in Christ were lost. If we only have hope in Christ in this life, we are of all men most miserable. But now Christ has been raised from the dead; He became the firstfruit of those having fallen asleep."

A true Christian easily believes that the infinite powerful God created the universe; they must believe in God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit;  believe that Jesus was God's only begotten Son who, coming in the form of man, was miraculously born to a virgin.  He performed miracles such as the lame to walk, blind to see, and He raised Lazarus from the dead, and Christ Jesus was raised up into Heaven.  All this is in order to validate His Deity.  His crucifixion was acceptable to God the Father as payment for sin, and God's forgiveness of sin which is available to all humanity.  All a person has to do is believe in their heart, claim all this, and submit to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in order to receive eternal life in Heaven through Christ's Work; we are validated by our receiving the holy spirit. When Christ paid the price for our sin, all our sins (past, present, and future) were forgiven.  There is no sin that can't be forgiven. True believers are relieved of all their guilt forever... eternal life!  We cannot lose our salvation.  If you lost it, you never had it.  The un-pardonable sin is un-belief.  No un-believers will go to heaven... unless they become true believers.  

In writing this paper, I try in the utmost to keep any opinion out of it.  All human opinion regarding scripture is vanity unless it is corroborated by scripture.  Mature Christians will ascribe that comparing Scripture with Scripture settles everything; and no contradictions.  

Philippians 3:20-21, "For our citizenship is in Heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our body of humiliation, for it to be conformed to His body of glory, according to the working of His power, even to put all things under Himself."  John 10:28, "And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish to the age, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand."  Romans 8:38-39, "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  

Do you love Christ for WHO HE IS and the plan He has worked for you?
Is He Prominent [one of many] or Preeminent [unique, ultimate] in your life?

Extra… dealing with sectarian religion. 

In writing this study, the effort is to represent the Bible and not any sectarianism.

The Bible says God cannot lie.  God has no guile.  God does not do evil that good may come of it.  God does not amuse Himself by giving us tests to see how much pain and suffering we can take.  He will have His own reason for our learning through any unusual means necessary.  God allows pain as the consequence of sin, which we bring onto ourselves.  The reason for evil and suffering in the World is of Man's doing by going against God.  It’s MAN’s doing!  Satan is the tempter.  God gives believers the grace and strength to be faithful to Him, whatever the temptation, your weakness already forgiven. If God forced the World to behave, He would have no Grace for us to respond to Him.

It is important to learn the nature of God through the Bible and to not conjure up a religiosity that may seem Biblical but is not.  It is man-made religion.  Man has a tendency to be pagan.  When Adam and Eve discovered that they were naked, they covered themselves.  God said, "Who told you that you were naked?" Even true believers might have an erroneous tendency to think they have to do something to please God.  People might even think that God needs their help.  They become divided... sectarian... denominational, which is the independent choosy spirit.  It is written that division is sin.  2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For a time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their lusts, they will heap up to themselves teachers tickling the ear; and they will turn away the ear from the truth and will be turned aside to myths.”  Titus 3:10-11, “Reject the heretical man after a first and second admonition, knowing that such a one has been perverted and sins, being self-condemned.”  1 Corinthians 1:10-13, “Now I exhort you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all say the same, and there be no schisms among you, but you be restored to harmony, in the same mind and in the same judgment.  11  For about you, my brothers, it was shown to me by the ones of Chloe that there are contentions among you.  12  But I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ.  13  Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?”  Our selfish pride motivates us to be independently authoritative but our knowledge is not infinitely reliable.  We need pastors and teachers who are strong in the Lord, by the Holy Spirit, to minister the singular message of the Bible and not be swayed by any sectarian doctrines.

God allows Man to reject Him because He does not force Man to accept Him. Faith and belief must be a person's free choice.  Nobody gets saved against their will!  Does it work to pray for someone to be saved?  The Lord forgives the sinner who repents.  God's way with Man is to draw Man to Himself by His love and ready forgiveness.  We do not forgive sin; we are not bigger than God. Cheap empty forgiveness is when Christians rush in and forgive sinners before God does.  The Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6:12,  “And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”; the King James Bible "forgive" is aphes in the original Greek which really means to let go or surrender; "debts" is opheilo; the personal dynamic is to owe someone something. Ephesians 4:32 says, "forgive yourselves, even as also God in Christ forgave you."  In the original Greek it is karixomai, literally to show oneself to be pleasant. (Kittle's N.T. Dictionary)  Where God has forgiven someone, we must accept it without reservation, “as also God in Christ forgave you", put this together and it means not hold a grudge against them when God has forgiven them.  That's the literal meaning and we should not make it any different.

When a sinner "believes on the Lord Jesus Christ" he is "crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, raised with Christ" and his new life is "hid with Christ in God." Gal. 2:20; Col. 2:10-12; 3:1-4; Rom. 6:1-5.  The Word of God says the Christian is crucified WITH Christ, not LIKE Christ.  Many sectarians are eager to have followers seek to imitate Christ's water baptism. They do this in spite of the fact the apostle is speaking of Christ's burial in death and not His burial in the waters of Jordan. [Maurice Johnson]

Progressive Revelation Foretold:  When our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His Jewish disciples on the night He was betrayed, He said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now; howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John 16:12-13.) Had He told them at that time that the Jews' religion (Gal. 1:13-14) under which they were living was decaying and waxing old and ready to vanish away (Heb. 8:13), that it stood only in meats and drinks and divers baptisms and carnal ordinances (Heb. 9:10), and was to be displaced with "better" things (Heb. 7:19) “Law perfected nothing”; (7:22) “Surety of a better covenant”; (8:6) “Mediator of a better covenant”; (9:23) “by better sacrifices than these”; (10:34) “a better and abiding possession”; (11:40) “God having foreseen something better concerning us”, they could not have borne it. That revelation had to wait for about thirty years, when God gave it to Paul, in order that all differences between Jews who believe and Gentiles who believe might be dissolved. Three years after the revelation in Hebrews; Peter said there were some things in Paul's Scriptures "hard to be understood." 2 Pet. 3:15-16.  [Ed Stevens]

Covenants between God and the Jews are "eternal". Is.55:3, 61:8. Je32:40. Ez37:26. Before Jesus died, the Law was still in effect.  The instant Jesus died, the veil of the temple was miraculously torn from top to bottom; no longer needing a high priest as an intermediary for our access to God.  The Jewish Law with animal sacrifices, ceremonial cleansings and baptismal washings [look up Mikvehs in Wikipedia], and holy days, ceased.  Otherwise, we would still have a works program.  

Jewish Water Baptisms – Mikvehs: The mikveh was used by men and women to maintain ritual purity before or after various events, including with proselytes, according to regulations laid down in the Torah and in classical rabbinical literature. (Wikipedia)  Believing Jews brought Jewish traditions into the church. John the baptizer’s father was Zechariah, the High Priest, qualifying John for the priesthood.  John, under Law, was trying to get all Israel to repent to get the Kingdom then; but Jesus was preparing us for something better.  Not one of the late 7 prison Epistles of Paul address the doctrines of water baptism, the Lord’s supper, new covenant tithing, or Sabbath keeping. Why?  Because we believers are called to walk by faith, not by sight.”;  2 Cor. 5:7.  “We are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have NO CONFIDENCE IN THE FLESH.”; Phil. 3:3.

The  Passover Supper for Jews only, one night per year, does not translate into "communion Sunday". How can you hold a memorial for someone who is not dead but alive in Heaven and alive inside you?  The Greek word mixed up with communion is kononia; only accurate for definition as fellowship. Communion is fellowship, not an ordinance. At the last Passover, Jesus was present explaining the Passover Seder elements as pointing to him and there he was!  He always was and is our Passover covering.  

Nowhere in Scripture are we told that the New Covenant belongs to the body of Christ.    Jeremiah 31:31-34  “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”  It hasn’t happened yet, due to this description in Jeremiah.

What about the Gentiles? Acts 15:28-29;  “Only put no greater burdon but to only have four requirements being abstinence of idol sacrifices, blood, that strangled, and fornication.”  This is in opposition to celebrating ordinances and holy days as if under the Law;  no mention of such.  By the end of Acts, no ordinances nor holy days for any Jew or Gentile Believer!  Man's allegories in support of ordinances and holy days lack scriptural proof texts; the proof is the opposite: A year after Acts, all in 64 A.D., Paul writes Colossians 2:14, "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances"; Ephesians 2:14-15, "making us both one... cease the enmity, the Law of commandments"; and Hebrews 9:10, "foods and drinks, and various washings, and fleshly ordinances, until the time of reformation".

Galatians is a good intro to Romans, and warning that Christians are not under the Jewish Law.  A transition all through the book of Acts: starts Acts 10 and 15, with the help of Galatians and Romans, shows the church going from all Jewish believers, to gentiles growing in acceptance, then all equal in faith and practice. It took the apostles awhile to understand.  Paul made clear the time of reformation (Heb. 9:10) after Acts.  Please study Biblical Christianity and purge man-made "traditions" from your thinking;  The KJV Easter [i.e., Ishtar, Eostre, Baal, Ashteroth] happened to occur on Pasha that year, the day of the Crucifiction, and should read "Passover" instead of “Easter”. Acts 12:4.  Christmas is not in the Bible; it is the pagan Roman festival tradition and worship of Nimrod. They were introduced about the 4th Century.  [See Encyclopedia Britannica]

The carnal ordinances, the ceremonies, the meats and drinks, which were imposed on the Jews in the Mosaic law, have now come to an end. Note with an open mind what God’s Word says, Heb. 9:10, concerning the system...  "Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings (equals Greek baptismos) and carnal ordinances imposed on them (the Jews) until the time of reformation.”; (Διορθώσεως επικειμενα ; diorthoseos epikeimena ; Literal: “setting things right being imposed”).

After Acts 28:28 was written, the Epistle to the Hebrews, AD 64, along with Ephesians and Colossians were written, finally releasing the "Jews which believe" from the Mosaic system, and unveiling the "better" things that displace the fulfilled law. This brought them into the same relationship away from the law that the "Gentiles which believe" had been enjoying for twenty years; and completing one major purpose of the Book of Acts.

Christ “who hath made both one, and broken down the middle wall of partition between us; [Jew and Gentile believers,] having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances” Eph. 2:14-15; and “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”, Col. 2:14; abolished at the cross… but not revealed until after the close of the book of Acts, a year later, when Hebrews is written to Jewish believers and Colossians and Ephesians written to Gentile believers; this is “the time of reformation”. Hebrews 9:10; the original Greek literally, “setting things right imposed”.  

RE: The Great Commission,  Keep in mind, when you read this, that Ephesians 4:4-5 says that there is only ONE BAPTISM.  Matthew 28:18-20, “... Jesus spoke with them, saying, All authority in Heaven and on earth was given to me.  19  Therefore going, disciple all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  20  teaching them to observe all things as I command you…”.  Acts 2:40-41, “And with many other words he [Peter] earnestly testified and exhorted, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.  41  Truly, then, the ones gladly welcoming his words were baptized. And about three thousand souls were added that day”.  Acts 4:4, “But many of the ones hearing the Word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.”  The preaching is what got them saved by receiving the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  A sectarian group goes through the trouble of explaining how a group of five thousand people can line up and start dunking each other until all are dunked.  Do they believe the Word of God, Ephesians 4:4-5?  No!  No water!

 I quote Ephesians to preachers; they say they believe scripture, but they still have difficulty answering me when I ask them why they have two baptisms.  They skirt the issue by saying water baptism is "an outer sign of an inner work"; and it is to obey Jesus' commandment - which is no such thing.  If Christians can purge themselves of false doctrine, the Holy Spirit will no longer be grieved but free them up to more truth. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and gives us discernment if we are solid believers.  It was the preaching of the Word that got folks baptized in the Holy Spirit, not water!  He who believes is baptized.  Demons believe but they are not baptized; as well as some people who have some Biblical knowledge but haven't really received the Lord. True belief and baptism are instantly the same process; an instant one step process.  

John's Kingdom message was that if Israel would repent, that the Kingdom of God would be established, right away, and that was all that John's baptism amounted to (still under the law; Salvation by Jesus Christ's death, burial, and Resurrection not known yet).  In the Millennial Kingdom and in the New Heaven and the New Earth, all Israel will know the Lord and we know that still hasn't happened yet.  See Jeremiah 31:31-34.  John was confused when Jesus came amidst John’s [Mikveh] water ceremony because he knew that Jesus was sinless and did not need the remission of sin; Matthew 3:13-17.  The Mikveh are traditional Jewish cleansings and washings, by immersion, that are familiar to John and familiar to practicing Jews at various events in the life of Jews, including the remission of sins (see Wikipedia, including current and archaeological photos).  There had to be a different reason for Jesus to come forward.  It was his anointing to be the Christ. Christos means "anointed one".  There is no efficacy in copying Christ, for us to be anointed like Him.  The Mikveh ceremonies were known, of course, and were performed by Phillip on the Ethiopian eunuch, early during the transition through Acts.

Bishops (so-called), in the original Greek are literally overseers from among the local elders [all the older men] and are discerned for 17 qualifications as per Titus 1:4-9, Timothy 3:1-7.  Few of the elders are overseers.  The fine ministering gifts such as preaching, teaching, serving, giving, exhortation, organization, and mercy are ministries; every Christian should have at least one.  The qualifications presented in Titus and Timothy for overseer and deacon are for functions.  These are the only recognizable functions the apostles left us. There is no "office of" allusion in the original literal Greek. They did not hire and fire lesser known men from outside, nor have seminaries. The Greek word ekklesia, mis-translated church [German kirche building], literally means "out-called-ones" = all believers. It is never, ever called a building in the New Testament.  

The religious order, from the 4th Century, incorporated a semblance of the Jewish ordinances and holy days which are not valid under Grace.  It was about 1300 more years until the Lutheran Reformation but the churches still didn't quite figure it out.  The ordinances and holy days are promoted as unquestioned tradition today.  It's one of the greatest compromises to weaken Christianity back into a pagan works program.  

Every generation conjures up who the anti-Christ might be, and the Rapture soon because of the then current events. The anti-Christ is revealed after the Rapture.  We are gone; we don't go through the Tribulation. It could be soon or even 2000 years.  See Revelation 19 regarding Armageddon. The Lord's timing will be perfect in spite of our anxiety.

Galatians 1:8-9, "But even if we, or an angel out of Heaven, should preach the gospel to you beside the gospel we preached to you, let him be accursed."  Revelation 22:18-19;  "For I testify together with everyone hearing the Words of the prophecy of this Book, if anyone adds to these things, God will add upon him the plagues having been written in this Book. And if anyone takes away from the Words of the Book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and of the things having been written in this Book."  Proverbs 30:5-6, "Every Word of God is refined, He is a shield to those who seek refuge in Him.  Do not add to His Words, that He not reprove you, and you be found a liar."  Deut. 4:2, "You shall not add to the Word which I command you, nor take from it, to keep the commandments of Jehovah your God which I command you." Deut. 12:32, "All the things that I command you, take heed to do them and you shall not add to it, nor take away from it."  2 Timothy 2:15, “Be eager, study to present yourself approved to God, a workman unashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”  A true Bible must contain the words of God, only His words, and no words added from the minds of men (such as paraphrases, synonyms, mistranslations, traditional biases, interpretations, etc.).  “Rightly dividing” is comparing scripture with scripture for a comprehensive and corroborative understanding.  Moses smote the rock instead of commanding it, and don't you do it in kind!!! It is paganism among Christians and worthy of God's rebuke;  It should be recognized by the saints but many are irresponsible and likely under God's judgment for it today.  Because of our choosey spirit we go astray and advocate for alternative subjective meanings thinking we are spiritual.

I want to know exactly what GOD'S WORD says.  Modern versions bring chaos and confusion to inspiration!  Who is the author of confusion… even goes to church?

The recent KJ3 LITV is a Literal Version of the Textus Receptus/Majority Greek text of the New Testament, to be as precise as originally intended.  A child can understand it!  No paraphrasing nor "dynamic equivalence."  A book (by S.I.Hayakawa) of synonyms reveals that synonyms have different shades of meaning!  All "popular" translations of the New Testament since 1881 are from the varied 5th Century Gnostic Greek text from Alexandria Egypt: The Alexandrian Text... also called the "Critical Text", Nestle-Aland Greek Text, Westcott-Hort, or Novum Testamentum Graece; identified in the forward of your paraphrased modern Bible; The King James Version is from the legitimate Textus Receptus/MajorityText but terminology was inserted for ecclesiastical control by the clergy/laity system, such as: Rule over, Obey, and Submit; and "office of" isn't in the original! See/Hear the study on the Internet: "The Great Ecclesiastical Conspiracy"  www.awildernessvoice.com/GEC.html     www.awildernessvoice.com/MP3/GEC.mp3

The Lord hates division among His people.  Romans 16:17.  Man's choosy spirit has caused the confusion in multitudes of denominational churches.  There might even be 10,000 sectarian denominations in the World.  Therefore, it must be concluded that most Christians have at least some error; even though they claim to be scriptural; who can you trust?  Their competing translations add to the confusion.  It would seem that any sincere and mature Believer wouldn't want anything less than the most accurate New Testament translation from the original Greek. The SOLUTION is to simply abide by the most reliable Textus Receptus literal Greek translation to settle all doctrinal issues; Greek is the language God chose for us.  We can't all be Greek scholars; there are some, and all the work has already been done,  but we have largely neglected checks and balances by failing to rightly divide the Word of God for ourselves.  

See the entire KJ3 Literal Version:  http://www.thewordnotes.com/litv/litv.htm

Alan Hemenway                                   Most of all, the Lord desires close 

www.ChurchGrowth.cc                        fellowship with you. The best way is

www.MauriceJohnsonArchives.com    through prayer which is talking to God

September 18, 2021, Edited March 3, 2025             anytime, on anything, in any posture.