4th-century Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome
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A @Christadelphians Video: Description: Five short talks introduce the reader to the careful translation of the Bible into English from manuscripts in the original languages. Modern and earlier English Bible versions are briefly reviewed in terms of their availability in printed and electronic formats. The reader is reminded that the Bible message is more important than the means of its production. SummaryThis presentation provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the Bible, tracing its journey from the original languages to the widely available Latin Vulgate translation.Highlights
A @Christadelphians Video: A @Christadelphians Video: Description: Five short talks introduce the reader to the careful translation of the Bible into English from manuscripts in the original languages. Modern and earlier English Bible versions are briefly reviewed in terms of their availability in printed and electronic formats. The reader is reminded that the Bible message is more important than the means of its production. SummaryThis presentation provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the Bible, tracing its journey from the original languages to the widely available Latin Vulgate translation.Highlights
A @Christadelphians Video: A @Christadelphians Video: Description: Five short talks introduce the reader to the careful translation of the Bible into English from manuscripts in the original languages. Modern and earlier English Bible versions are briefly reviewed in terms of their availability in printed and electronic formats. The reader is reminded that the Bible message is more important than the means of its production. SummaryThis presentation provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the Bible, tracing its journey from the original languages to the widely available Latin Vulgate translation.Highlights
This week we will be studying Luke 15:11-32 under the theme “A Parable of Two Sons.” This will be our third straight week hearing Jesus teach on The Banquet. We've heard about a Narrow Door. We've heard about Making Excuses. And now he's teaching about the difference between repentant sinners and self-righteous religious practitioners. We'll explain why the traditional title “The Parable of the Prodigal Son,” which dates back to 16th century English translations and even the Latin Vulgate, is tremendously misleading. This text is as much, or more, about an obedient older brother and how he still stands outside the banquet.How can we pray for you? tinyurl.com/stmarcusprayersFill out our online connection card: tinyurl.com/stmarcusconnectcardIf you'd like to leave an offering or monetary donation to our ministry please click here: https://tinyurl.com/stmarcusgive
ANGELA'S SYMPOSIUM 📖 Academic Study on Witchcraft, Paganism, esotericism, magick and the Occult
Lucifer is one of the most complex and historically misinterpreted figures in Western religious and esoteric traditions. While commonly associated with Satan and the Devil in Christian theology, the name Lucifer, meaning "light-bearer" in Latin, initially referred to the morning star, Venus, in Roman astronomical and literary traditions. This episode examines the historical development of Lucifer, tracing his transformation from a celestial body to a theological symbol of rebellion, pride, and forbidden knowledge.We begin by exploring Lucifer's origins in Greco-Roman thought, where he was poetically invoked as the herald of dawn, with no demonic associations. The shift toward his identification as a fallen angel occurred through the interpretation of Isaiah 14:12 in the Latin Vulgate, where St. Jerome translated helel ben shachar ("shining one, son of the dawn") as Lucifer. Though initially a reference to the Babylonian king's downfall, early Church Fathers reinterpreted this passage in a cosmic framework, eventually merging Lucifer with Satan in medieval theology.This video also examines Lucifer's presence in alternative traditions. In esoteric currents such as Gnosticism, Renaissance Hermeticism, and modern occultism, Lucifer has been reinterpreted as a symbol of enlightenment and spiritual liberation rather than as a fallen adversary of God. The Romantic era further complicated his image, with figures like John Milton and William Blake casting Lucifer as a tragic hero challenging divine authority.Using primary texts and scholarly research, this episode provides an in-depth analysis of how religious doctrine, literary imagination, and cultural shifts shaped the evolving identity of Lucifer. How did an astronomical term become a feared adversary of divine order? And what does Lucifer's ongoing reinterpretation reveal about the tension between orthodoxy and esoteric knowledge?CONNECT & SUPPORT
Welcome to Day 2591 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom – Theology Thursday – How Many Times Is Jesus Coming Back? – I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible. Wisdom-Trek Podcast Script - Day 2591 Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2591 of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Today is the 48th lesson in our segment, Theology Thursday. Utilizing excerpts from a book titled: I Dare You Not To Bore Me With The Bible written by Hebrew Bible scholar and professor the late Dr. Michael S Heiser, we will invest a couple of years going through the entire Bible, exploring short Biblical lessons that you may not have received in Bible classes or Church. The Bible is a wonderful book. Its pages reveal the epic story of God's redemption of humankind and the long, bitter conflict against evil. Yet it's also a book that seems strange to us. While God's Word was written for us, it wasn't written to us. Today's lesson is: “How Many Times is Jesus Coming Back?” [Few things in the Bible attract more attention than prophecies about the end times. Even people with only a passing acquaintance with the Bible know that it foretells a second coming of Jesus. Those who study the Bible know the book of Revelation reveals that the second coming brings an end to the reign of the antichrist (the "beast"; Rev 19:11-21). The risen Christ, the incarnation of God, returns to earth not as a suffering Savior, but as the glorious warrior- king. But does the Bible describe an earlier return of Jesus—one that precedes this triumphant arrival? The “Rapture” Some Christians believe that 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 describes how all believers will be taken from earth, dead or alive, at an appearing of Jesus before the second coming described in Revelation 19. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess 4:16-17). This earlier return of Jesus is called the "rapture" by believers who embrace this idea. The term is derived from the Latin word rapiemur (from rapio, meaning "to carry off") used by the translator of the Latin Vulgate for the Greek word harpazõ (drtráw), translated "caught up" in 1 Thessalonians 4:17. Other Christians, however, reject the idea that 1 Thessalonians 4 speaks of a different event than the return of Jesus to earth described in Revelation 19. For them, there will only be one return of Jesus in the future. So, who's right? Harmonizing The answer to the question is "it depends." If we were to read all the passages in the New Testament that speak of Jesus' future return, along with Old Testament passages that speak of a final, climactic visitation by God on earth that will put an end to evil ("the Day of the LORD"), we would notice immediately that they do not agree in the details or descriptions. For example, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 seemingly has Jesus returning in the air, gathering believers into the clouds, whereas the prophet Zechariah foretold the physical arrival of the pierced Lord on the Mount of Olives...
In this segment (of our 2-part series), Bible teacher Dave Bigler (founder of Iron Sheep Ministries) does an overview of Bible translation theory and covers all major Bible translations from the pre-Christ Septuagint to modern day translations.Watch part 1 on Textual Criticism here: https://youtu.be/UO2FgjZ87r4Talk Outline:00:11 - What is the Goal00:39 - REVIEW - part 1 lecture on Textual Criticism- WHEN, WHY, and HOW were NT spread- Textual Criticism- Confidence in our text- God is sovereign (2 Tim 3:16-17)04:50 - Why are Bible Translations so controversial?06:51 - Why are there translations? Languages change, New manuscripts are found, & Translation theory10:11 - Translation Theory- Formal Equivalence (word for word)- Focus on a literal translation of the words of the text- Dynamic (or Functional) Equivalence (thought for thought)- Paraphrase 12:21 - Ancient translations to today13:10 - Septuagint (LXX - 280 - 100 BC)Earliest translation of the Bible. It is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (before Christ and the NT). 72 translators (6 from each tribe of Israel), translated at the request of the King in Alexandria. The name was eventually shortened from 72, to just 70. Septuagint is Latin for 70.15:47 - Latin Vulgate (VUL 404 AD)Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymusin aka “Jerome” was a student of languages. He was charged by Pope Damasus to complete a translation of the OT and NT into the “common tongue.” Name: Vulgate “common or commonly known.”17:18 - Wycliffe Bible (WYC - 1382)John Wycliffe was an Oxford theologian who wanted the English people to have a Bible in their own language. Wycliffe's Bible was done by hand. It is a word-for-word translation of the Latin Vulgate. Wycliffe was heavily criticized by the Church of Rome as well as the Church of England because he taught that salvation was only available through the suffering of Christ, not through the power of the church. Wycliffe was called “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” In 1415, John Wycliffe was condemned as a heretic and in 1428 (44 years after Wycliffe's death) the Bishop of England ordered Wycliffe's remains exhumed and burned and the ashes thrown into the river.22:31 - Gutenberg Bible (1455) 1450 - Johann Gutenberg invented the Gutenberg press23:18 - The Protestant Reformation. Revolt from the abuses and totalitarian control of the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther (Germany), John Calvin (France), Ulrich Zwingli (Switzerland) were foundational in the protestant reformation. 26:03 - Tyndale Bible (1534)28:15 - Geneva Bible (1560)30:29 - King James Bible (1611)35:08 - Modern English translations.36:07 - Interlinear Bible38:53 - New American Standard Bible NASB39:57 - Amplified Bible AMP42:00 - English Standard Version ESV42:56 - King James Version KJV43:18 - What is the received text or textus receptus?45:03 - New King James Version NKJV45:57 - Christian Standard Bible CSB or HCSB47:17 - New International Version NIV49:00 - New Living Translation NLT50:02 - Good News Bible GNB50:44 - The Message MSG53:05 - Bad translations of the Bible53:35 - What is the Thomas Jefferson Bible?55:28 - what is the New World Translation of the Bible?57:45 - What now, what do you do with this information?Resources:https://www.blueletterbible.org/https://www.biblegateway.com/https://www.gotquestions.org/Books used for this talk:Gurry, Peter J.. Scribes & Scripture. Weatonm, IL: Crossway, 2022.Lightfoot, Neil R.. How we got our Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003.More information on Dave Bigler and Iron Sheep Ministries: https://ironsheep.org
On Ash Wednesday (March 5), the church enters the holy season of Lent, in which we focus on Christ's righteousness, sufferings and death, and the new testament in His blood. Much ink has been spilt over the decision of St. Jerome to translate the Greek "diatheke" as "testamentum" in his Latin Vulgate, which ultimately influenced the King James Version's selection of “testament” as a translation of this term. This, in turn, led to our common division of “Old Testament” (2 Corinthians 3:14) and “New Testament” (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 9:15). However, diatheke can also mean “covenant,” which is how many recent English translations, such as the ESV, render the term (except in Hebrews 9:16–17, where it opts for “will,” as in, “last will and testament”). Lutherans tend to prefer the translation “testament” over “covenant,” since covenants in the Bible sometimes require works on the part of humans. But in no case does a testament (a will) involve the works of the beneficiary — not to mention that it must be put into effect by the death of the testator. As we will see, even “covenant” can be understood correctly — provided that we pay attention to context and keep in mind the proper distinction between Law and Gospel. Rev. Carl Roth, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin, TX, joins Sarah to talk about the “Searching Scripture” feature in the March 2025 issue of the Lutheran Witness titled “Covenant or Testament?” on Jeremiah 31:31–34. This year, “Searching Scripture” is themed “Opening the Old Testament” and will walk through ways that the Old Testament witnesses to Jesus Christ and His grace, mercy and peace, delivered through the holy Christian church. Follow along every month and search Scripture with us! Find online exclusives of the Lutheran Witness at witness.lcms.org and subscribe to the Lutheran Witness at cph.org/witness.
On Ash Wednesday (March 5), the church enters the holy season of Lent, in which we focus on Christ's righteousness, sufferings and death, and the new testament in His blood. Much ink has been spilt over the decision of St. Jerome to translate the Greek "diatheke" as "testamentum" in his Latin Vulgate, which ultimately influenced the King James Version's selection of “testament” as a translation of this term. This, in turn, led to our common division of “Old Testament” (2 Corinthians 3:14) and “New Testament” (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 9:15). However, diatheke can also mean “covenant,” which is how many recent English translations, such as the ESV, render the term (except in Hebrews 9:16–17, where it opts for “will,” as in, “last will and testament”). Lutherans tend to prefer the translation “testament” over “covenant,” since covenants in the Bible sometimes require works on the part of humans. But in no case does a testament (a will) involve the works of the beneficiary — not to mention that it must be put into effect by the death of the testator. As we will see, even “covenant” can be understood correctly — provided that we pay attention to context and keep in mind the proper distinction between Law and Gospel. Rev. Carl Roth, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Elgin, TX, joins Sarah to talk about the “Searching Scripture” feature in the March 2025 issue of the Lutheran Witness titled “Covenant or Testament?” on Jeremiah 31:31–34. This year, “Searching Scripture” is themed “Opening the Old Testament” and will walk through ways that the Old Testament witnesses to Jesus Christ and His grace, mercy and peace, delivered through the holy Christian church. Follow along every month and search Scripture with us! Find online exclusives of the Lutheran Witness at witness.lcms.org and subscribe to the Lutheran Witness at cph.org/witness. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on The Coffee Hour? Contact us at: listener@kfuo.org.
In this episode of FACTS, Dr. Stephen Boyce dives into the fascinating textual history of the Book of Esther. Was the original version the shorter Hebrew text or the longer Greek version found in the Septuagint? Exploring the use of the Greek version by early churches, including Clement of Rome, and Jerome's struggle with it in the Latin Vulgate, Dr. Boyce examines the external manuscript evidence, internal textual details, and historical context. From debates over Haman's ancestry to the name of the Persian king, this episode uncovers the complexities of Esther's textual tradition and its significance for biblical scholarship and church history. If you'd like to donate to our ministry or be a monthly partner that receives newsletters and one on one discussions with Dr. Boyce, here's a link: https://give.tithe.ly/?formId=6381a2ee-b82f-42a7-809e-6b733cec05a7 Here's the Longer Version of Esther: https://biblehub.com/sep/esther/1.htm
SHEMA HaDAVAR (Hear the Word) by Reggie Lisemby, Executive Servant of Messianic Ministry to Israel
God's Divine Library from Hebrew Tanakh to the Greek Septuagint (LXX) to the Koine Greek NT to the Latin Vulgate to myriad English translations. And how Chaeg (Feast of) Mashiach (Messiah) became Christmas.
Two Peoples – One Way (Part 2) | Galatians 2:16 ------------------------- Sermon Outline------------------------------- Introduction: Setting the Stage I. Essential Elements of the Gospel in Galatians (vv. 15-21) A. The Universal Nature of Sin (v. 15) B. Justification Is by Faith Alone (v. 16) 1. "Justified" (dikaioō) is used 3x in v. 16 2. To be justified by faith in Christ = to have saving faith in Him as my sin bearer & only hope of righteousness before God 3. Martin Luther, Desiderius Erasmus, the Latin Vulgate and the Greek N.T. 4. If God declares us righteous through faith alone – if works don't save us or contribute to our salvation – why do them? a. The essential relationship between justification and sanctification Conclusion: Life as Preparation for Death
In today's show Dr. Anders tackles questions about the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, what does it means to love God, Mary's gradual knowledge of the mystery of Christ and more.
In today's show Dr. Anders tackles questions about the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, what does it means to love God, Mary's gradual knowledge of the mystery of Christ and more.
Question: I was very upset by the answer from you about the reason you prefer the KJV.... I need you to please send me several examples of what you consider "serious" errors [in modern translations]. I would also be very appreciative of some reading material that the lay person can understand...or names of some sources....Response: Thank you for your recent letter challenging me regarding my support of the KJV. This question is too complex to deal with in a brief letter, but let me try once again. You asked for sources.The best case against "KJV only" is presented by D. A. Carson in The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism. He points out, in "eight key Christological verses (Jn 1:1,18; Acts 20:28; Rom 9:5; 2 Thes 1:12, Tts 2:13; Heb 1:8; 2 Pet 1:1)... the KJV fails to underscore the deity of Christ in four." Most modern translations do as well or better. The NIV scores in seven of the eight. Even Thomas M. Strouse, though strongly criticizing Carson, admits these four KJV failures (Jn 1:18; 2 Thes 1:12; Tts 2:13; 2 Pet 1:1) and explains them as "a textual problem (Jn 1:18) and the other three are translational problems." Even its defenders must admit to some flaws in the KJV.Critics fault the KJV because it comes from a Greek New Testament which was put together by Erasmus in 1516, later improved by Theodore Beza and Robert Stephanus. The latter's fourth edition in 1551 is "substantially the Textus Receptus," according to Jasper James Ray, one of its most fervent defenders. Too late in time, say the critics, and too few manuscripts as its source. Yet this was basically the Greek text that had been accepted by the Greek church in the East for centuries (the Roman Catholic Church in the West used the Latin Vulgate), earlier manuscripts from which the Greek Bible came having been worn out and discarded. Modern translations (some are worse than others, the RSV in particular) come from a Greek text developed by Westcott and Hort (two scholarly heretics) based largely upon Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, which, though older, are clearly corrupted.
Considers the impact of Jerome's translation of the Scriptures into Latin.Produced in partnership with Museum of the Bible.
Considers the impact of Jerome's translation of the Scriptures into Latin.Produced in partnership with Museum of the Bible.
There is nothing like a cup of Turkish Coffee. That's not an opinion. It's an observation of fact. The local Starbucks does not serve Turkish Coffee.That's why I never buy Starbucks for Fr. Paul before his lectures. Why would I? Why would anyone who cares about anything important, meaning Scripture, do something so foolish? I am pretty sure there is a “Stars and Bucks” somewhere in the Middle East (and like any industrious knock-off, I bet they serve Turkish Coffee), but not the local Starbucks. This week, Fr. Paul even mentions the importance of his Turkish Coffee in the morning (with lots of water) before tackling the authorship of the Hebrew and Septuagint texts. Of course, his view goes against scholarly consensus. He also discusses his novel stance on the Book of Sirach, which goes against scholarly consensus. And his view on the choice of Greek over Latin, which goes against scholarly consensus. And the importance of the Latin Vulgate, which goes against Orthodox consensus, which is not scholarly. And the function of grammatical gender, which goes against, well, everybody but especially theologians. Why, my daughter asked me, is the Bible so negative? The Bible is humorous, I answered. The Bible is ruthless, even cruel. But negative? I, myself, am a man of optimism. The many puny human gods, I explained, are like tiny cancerous tumors. The Bible, on the other hand, is hopeful, like a doctor who prescribes chemotherapy to a person covered with many tumors. When these puny, toxic little gods are attacked, ridiculed, dismantled, and poisoned by the text of the Bible, the pain is unbearable—but the doctor goes to work against the cancer anyway because he has hope—hope against all hope when there is clearly no hope—that the treatment will bring hope.I call that insane optimism like a Gazan who just lost everything but somehow finds the strength to lift his hands in prayer—like the Olive Tree—which gives thanks only to God. You do not need a Seminary degree to unpack that puzzle. (Episode 319) ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Fr. William Rock, FSSP serves as Parochial Vicar at Regina Caeli Parish in Houston, Texas. He was ordained in October of 2019 and serves as a regular contributor to the FSSP North America Missive Blog and the TAN Direction Blog. In Today's Show As Catholics, what are we to believe about ghosts? Do they exist? Are they souls? What exactly the role of a Priest is? Did the Blessed Mother have kids after Jesus? If so, how could Mary be ever virgin? What is the best way to explain what saying the Rosary/praying to the Saints is to my daughter? In light of Traditionis Custodes what advice would Father give to fellow priests who can't celebrate the Latin mass? I now tend to see the Founding Fathers Writings as Deist philosophy to be taken with a massive truckload of salt. Any advice for a Catholic who recognizes the great government they established while distrusting basically all of their writings? The overall violence of nature and the various diseases seem to run counter to the idea that we live with a loving God. What is the best way to think about this topic? I feel as if Jesus is coming back soon, although I know we have no way of knowing that for sure. How do I know if I'm prepared? When we say in the creed that after Jesus ascended into heaven, He is “seated at the right hand of the Father.” What does that really mean? Would Fr. Rock be so kind as to talk about the difference between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint, and how the Latin Vulgate originates? Father, Most Protestants believe you can't lose grace given by God...How can we explain that we can? There is an ongoing discussion about the Luminous Mysteries. Can I pray the rest of the rosary without them? Please explain to me Luke 14:26 "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, |...| yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Can people who commit suicide receive a Catholic funeral? When we hopefully reach heaven will individuals have different size houses? And what does that mean? The Pope said that hell was empty, is this something we should take as doctrine? Can a Catholic buy a religious statue that is being sold in a flea market, since it may be blessed? Visit the show page at thestationofthecross.com/askapriest to listen live, check out the weekly lineup, listen to podcasts of past episodes, watch live video, find show resources, sign up for our mailing list of upcoming shows, and submit your question for Father!
TRANSLATING AND REVISING SCRIPTURE, Chapter 3 of As It Is Translated Correctly Read full chapter here: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/fundamentallymormon/2023/12/31/translating-and-revising-scripture-chapter-3-of-as-it-is-translated-correctly Pages 20 to 41 Too often over-zealous and misinformed preachers of today profess to have a Bible without error. However, any honest Christian scholar will admit mistakes and inaccuracies in all Bible translations. Perhaps the erudite scholars of Bible history said it best when they declared: The need for NT textual criticism results from a combination of three factors: (1) The originals, probably written on papyrus scrolls, have all perished. (2) For over 1,400 years the NT was copied by hand, and the copyists (scribes) made every conceivable error, as well as at time intentionally altering (probably with the idea of “correcting”) the text. Such errors and alterations survived in various ways, with a basic tendency to accumulate (scribes seldom left anything out, lest they omit something inspired). (3) There are now extant, in whole or in part, 5,338 Greek MSS, as well as hundreds of copies of ancient translations (not counting over 8,000 copies of the Latin Vulgate), plus the evidence from the citations of the NT in the writings of the early church fathers. Moreover, no two MSS anywhere in existence are exactly alike. (Biblical Criticism, Harrison, Waltke, Guthrie and Fee, p. 128)
Available at latinvulgate.org --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adayah2real/message
A Visit from an Angel and a Song to Remember Gabriel and Mary Luke 1:26-38 Mary was a teenager who was of low to modest means. Mary's confusion was not due to unbelief but a matter of not understanding “how” it was going to happen. Gabriel confirms the promise to Mary with the testimony of her cousin Elizabeth. Nothing is impossible with God! Elizabeth and Mary Luke 1:39-56 Mary leaves quickly to go see Elizabeth. Joseph may or may not have accompanied her. Elizabeth prophesies to Mary immediately upon hearing her voice. And then, Mary responds with some of the most amazing, inspired words in Scripture—The Magnificat. Verses 46-56 are traditionally called “The Magnificat” because the Latin Vulgate begins with “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” (“My soul magnifies the Lord”). There are easily a dozen references or allusions to the Old Testament in The Magnificat.The post The Messiah Will Come first appeared on Living Hope.
A Visit from an Angel and a Song to Remember Gabriel and Mary Luke 1:26-38 Mary was a teenager who was of low to modest means. Mary's confusion was not due to unbelief but a matter of not understanding “how” it was going to happen. Gabriel confirms the promise to Mary with the testimony of her cousin Elizabeth. Nothing is impossible with God! Elizabeth and Mary Luke 1:39-56 Mary leaves quickly to go see Elizabeth. Joseph may or may not have accompanied her. Elizabeth prophesies to Mary immediately upon hearing her voice. And then, Mary responds with some of the most amazing, inspired words in Scripture—The Magnificat. Verses 46-56 are traditionally called “The Magnificat” because the Latin Vulgate begins with “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” (“My soul magnifies the Lord”). There are easily a dozen references or allusions to the Old Testament in The Magnificat.
Reading more than one translation helps you compare and contrast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adayah2real/message
Some have cited 1 John 5:7 (“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one") as evidence that the Scriptures teach a plurality of persons in the Godhead. To make matters more confusing, many modern translations include the reference to “three witnesses” (NLT) or “three that testify” (NIV), but leave out any reference to the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.Dr. David K. Bernard discusses the history of this verse and how it fits Oneness Pentecostal theology. His answer will enlighten anyone who wants to understand this frequently-debated passage.For further study, see Dr. Bernard's books The Oneness of God and God's Infallible Word. Both titles are available at PentecostalPublishing.com.If you enjoy this podcast, leave a five-star rating and a review on iTunes or your preferred podcast platform. We also appreciate it when you share Apostolic Life in the 21st Century with family and friends.
Questions Covered: 06:47 – I struggle with the Immaculate Conception and the Latin Vulgate. 14:00 – The claim that Jesus started the Catholic Church and that you have to be a part of it to fully be united with him. 20:03 – I don’t like the structure of the rosary and how it has changed. 30:59 – Why do Catholics call priests father, and why can’t priests get married? Also, Mary was a sinner and needed saving. 39:58 – Offering suffering for others troubles me. 48:00 – How do Catholics know Mary is in heaven? …
Audio Download Questions Covered: 06:47 – I struggle with the Immaculate Conception and the Latin Vulgate. 14:00 – The claim that Jesus started the Catholic Church and that you have to be a part of it to fully be united with him. 20:03 – I don't like the structure of the rosary and how […]
“The followers of John Wycliffe undertook the first complete English translations of the Christian scriptures in the 14th century. These translations were banned in 1409 due to their association with the Lollards.[33] The Wycliffe Bible pre-dated the printing press but it was circulated very widely in manuscript form, often inscribed with a date which was earlier than 1409 in order to avoid the legal ban. Because the text of the various versions of the Wycliffe Bible was translated from the Latin Vulgate, and because it also contained no heterodox readings, the ecclesiastical authorities had no practical way to distinguish the banned version. Consequently, many Catholic commentators of the 15th and 16th centuries (such as Thomas More) took these manuscripts of English Bibles and claimed that they represented an anonymous earlier orthodox translation. In 1525, William Tyndale, an English contemporary of Martin Luther, undertook a translation of the New Testament.[34] Tyndale's translation was the first printed Bible in English. Over the next ten years, Tyndale revised his New Testament in the light of rapidly advancing biblical scholarship, and embarked on a translation of the Old Testament.[35] Despite some controversial translation choices, and in spite of Tyndale's execution on charges of heresy for having made the translated Bible, the merits of Tyndale's work and prose style made his translation the ultimate basis for all subsequent renditions into Early Modern English.[36]” Many religionists shame people for not “falling out on the altars.” In religion, going through the motions and not being truly reformed is rampant. There is denominational tribalism, praise and worship tribalism, houses of worship tribalism, popular preacher tribalism, and religious ritualism tribalism. There is what is called “Filthy Rag Theology” within their beliefs, their teachings, their music, their rituals, and their practices. Many of them don't allow The Greatest Commandment to guide all areas of their lives. They are not even comfortable discussing dinosaurs which is saddening to me. Traditionalists are hypocritically outraged over the Queen James Bible, but they celebrate King James even though he was sexually fluid. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/support
Our Journey from Genesis to Revelations --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adayah2real/message
Reading from both translations --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adayah2real/message
Martin Luther and Huldrich Zwingli were the first of the Reformers in the 16th century. Both were Roman Catholic clergy. Luther was a monk and theology teacher; Zwingli a parish priest. Both of them obtained hot off the press a copy of Erasmus's Greek New Testament in 1516. Encountering the raw text of the Bible in Greek helped uncover and correct mistranslations in the Latin Vulgate. Ultimately Luther was converted as he came to understand Romans 1:17. Zwingli became greatly influenced from preaching through the text of the Gospel of Matthew. After he recovered from near death in the plague of 1519 his breakthrough is recorded in his "plague poem." God's Word is powerful and works the miracle of regeneration and conversion as the Holy Sprit moves in the heart of people.Bible Insights with Wayne ConradContact: 8441 Hunnicut Rd Dallas, Texas 75228email: Att. Bible Insights Wayne Conradgsccdallas@gmail.com (Good Shepherd Church) Donationhttps://www.gsccdallas.org/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTZX6qasIrPmC1wQpben9ghttps://www.facebook.com/waconrad or gscchttps://www.sermonaudio.com/gsccSpirit, Truth and Grace MinistriesPhone # 214-324-9915 leave message with number for call backPsalms 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Martin Luther and Huldrich Zwingli were the first of the Reformers in the 16th century. Both were Roman Catholic clergy. Luther was a monk and theology teacher- Zwingli a parish priest. Both of them obtained hot off the press a copy of Erasmus's Greek New Testament in 1516. Encountering the raw text of the Bible in Greek helped uncover and correct mistranslations in the Latin Vulgate. Ultimately Luther was converted as he came to understand Romans 1-17. Zwingli became greatly influenced from preaching through the text of the Gospel of Matthew. After he recovered from near death in the plague of 1519 his breakthrough is recorded in his -plague poem.- God's Word is powerful and works the miracle of regeneration and conversion as the Holy Sprit moves in the heart of people.
Martin Luther and Huldrich Zwingli were the first of the Reformers in the 16th century. Both were Roman Catholic clergy. Luther was a monk and theology teacher; Zwingli a parish priest. Both of them obtained hot off the press a copy of Erasmus's Greek New Testament in 1516. Encountering the raw text of the Bible in Greek helped uncover and correct mistranslations in the Latin Vulgate. Ultimately Luther was converted as he came to understand Romans 1:17. Zwingli became greatly influenced from preaching through the text of the Gospel of Matthew. After he recovered from near death in the plague of 1519 his breakthrough is recorded in his "plague poem." God's Word is powerful and works the miracle of regeneration and conversion as the Holy Sprit moves in the heart of people.
Utah musician Peter Breinholt and Paul Cardall, raised in the umbrella of Mormonism, and host Paul Cardall explore the history of commercial Mormon music, Latter-Day Saint culture and theology. LDS music is a multi-million dollar industry. ABOUT CO-HOST PETER BREINHOLTWebsite: https://peterbreinholt.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peter.breinholt.3Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterbreinholt LISTEN TO PETER'S MUSICSPOTIFY https://rb.gy/c6evxAPPLE MUSIC https://rb.gy/5s7g0 ABOUT THE HOST PAUL CARDALLOfficial Website - http://www.paulcardall.comFacebook - http://www.facebook.com/paulcardallmusicYoutube - http://www.youtube.com/cardallInstagram - http://www.instagram.com/paulcardall LISTEN TO PAUL'S MUSICAPPLE MUSIC - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/paul-cardall/4312819SPOTIFY - https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FQRbf8gbKw8KZQZAJWxH2 PART ONEPaul introduces Utah musician Peter Breinholt. Growing up under the umbrella of Mormonism, they discuss the differences in how they were raised. Paul comes from an orthodox home in Salt Lake City where his family was active in all the cultural and theological teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Whereas, Peter grew up outside of Utah and didn't have an active family. He moved to Utah, started a band, and evolved into an active Latter-Day Saint.Peter explains that there are Mormons making Mormon-themed music for Mormons sold at LDS bookstores, and then there are popular bands or singers who happen to be LDS. Paul summarizes how popular LDS-themed music has become; it's a multi-million dollar industry. Peter clarifies that in Utah, where LDS headquarters are, because of the social network that the Church provides, when things catch on, it's like a wildfire. There are mega trends in Mormonism.Paul talks about pioneer immigrants who wrote hymns using the contemporary style of their time. They mention that even though there is a commercial music culture, the church itself is rather strict on what they present in worship services called Sacrament Meetings, and full-time missionaries are allowed to listen to. Electric guitars and drums aren't allowed in services. Missionaries were allowed to listen to the Tabernacle Choir and some piano music, like Paul. Today, missionaries can listen to whatever helps them feel the spirit of God, though leaders are still cautious.As the church evolved in the 80s, there was Michael McLean, a songwriter who produced a series of videos promoting church doctrine. Missionaries would take those to those who saw the ad on TV. They talk about Mormon ad campaigns in the 70s and 80s. The songs in the ads were a huge part in persuading people emotionally and had a significant influence on the direction commercial Mormon music proceeded.Peter and Paul talk about the Osmonds, the most popular LDS musicians in the 20th century. Their fifth studio album that was on the Billboard charts is called “The Plan.” Their concept album was an opportunity for The Osmonds to share Mormon theology. There have been people who have joined the church as a result of their love for Donny Osmond. They skip ahead a few decades to talk about another famous band, The Killers, whose lead singer Brandon Flowers is a devout Mormon.In the late 1970s, early 80s, Afterglow was a blockbuster duo whose songs were rich with harmonies. They were one of the first to have a record deal with the church-owned bookstore, called Deseret Book. Their music was overly religious with strict LDS themes. Deseret Book at the time had hundreds of stores along with hundreds of independent stores by people who sold LDS related products. Record labels began to pop up.Peter brings up Kenneth Cope, whose voice was featured in some of those Mormon ads. Kenneth wrote and recorded some of the most successful commercial Mormon music. All of this is happening while Amy Grant in the Christian market or Gospel Music Association was becoming successful, and her Christian-themed music crossed over into the adult contemporary top 40. Greater Than Us All was Kenneth's successful debut with His Hands and Never A Better Hero. My Servant Joseph was another hit album about with songs about LDS founder Joseph Smith. Kenneth takes his responsibilities in the church seriously and when he was called to be a Bishop, in a church with no paid ministry, we didn't hear much from Kenneth Cope until recently. He'd spent 15 years producing a new musical called "Son of Man."Along with Kenneth, Michael Webb recorded similar LDS themed songs and has since left the church. Paul says one of his favorite songs is a new Christian song by Michael Webb. Peter and Paul explore artists Julie De Azevedo, Felicia Sorensen, and other successful female artists who started to emerge in the 90s. Julie is the daughter of Lex de Azevedo, who was successful at writing LDS musicals like "Saturday's Warrior," and "My Turn on Earth." He started a record label that signed Kenneth Cope, Michael Webb, Julie, and others. Julie became a popular therapist and podcast host helping countless LDS women understand their value. They mention Hillary Weeks and move into a conversation about Jeff Simpson, a former Disney producer. Jeff was ambitious in helping take LDS music forward into a more contemporary and overall style. He had a vision to make LDS music part of the broader Christian market under the Gospel Music Association. But Jeff's label Excel was never successful because of the differences. He was successful at creating a film production and distribution entity with the breakout hit "God's Army" by Richard Dutcher. Excel would later sell to Deseret Book. He also created an award show called "The Pearls" honoring LDS music.Before talking about cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, Peter mentions Nashville Producer Jason Deere who created the Nashville Tribute Band, which was country music with LDS themes. Cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, who is now a member of YouTube sensation The Piano Guys, worked on hundreds of albums by members of the LDS faith. Peter shares how he met Steve and began using him in his band. Later, Paul used Steve to orchestrate his music with another brilliant LDS artist, Marshall McDonald. Both Marshall and Steven worked as a team to help dozens of artists. Paul invited Steve to let him produce "Sacred Cello" for Paul's label Stone Angel Music. Steve didn't believe it would be successful, but the album debuted No. 18 on the Billboard Classical Charts. Steve is an artist who shared the burden with artists that occurs in the studio and on the stage. Paul shares with Peter the countless LDS artists who created LDS-themed albums that debuted on the Billboard charts. Deseret Book began reporting sales to Soundscan."Especially For Youth" is the next topic. The weeklong camp on Brigham Young University's campus and dozen other colleges across the United States gathered LDS Youth from all over. EFY gave these LDS teenagers a 12-song compilation that featured a cassette, CD of LDS artists who wrote songs about the camp theme. Every kid received one. EFY music began in 1986 and continued until 2019 before the LDS Church changed the youth program. In the 80s not only did you have Michael McLean, Kenneth Cope, and Julie De Azevdeo, but over the decades, artists evolved out of these produced EFY albums. Why? They were approved by the church since the program was under BYU, a church-owned private university. Not everyone appreciated the songs, but the production was top quality. However, producers and artists were not given the standard music industry fees. Peter wanted to get involved and was at a point in his career where the LDS church listened to him. He recruited Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp Nelson's partner in The Piano Guys, to produce an authentic album of songs. However, they were restricted by several policies. Peter produced one more several years ago with songwriter Russ Dixon from the Utah group Colors. Concerts were also performed, and youth looked forward to it. Overtime EFY did away with the concerts because leaders felt there was too much attention drawn to the artists. There was one theme song that was the EFY “We Are The World” that brought the popular artists who were LDS together called, “Especially For Youth.” Mormons who go to the Temple make covenants that they'll donate all their time and talents to building up the Church. As a result, artists felt an obligation to do things for free or for very little pay. They discuss firesides, which are special events inside a church building. In the beginnings, Churches wanted firesides, but overtime fewer and fewer musicians were invited to perform their music about God. Peter shares his experience being asked to perform for LDS leaders and bring his band, only they wouldn't pay for anything. Peter would have to pay his band out of his pocket.Peter and Paul share their frustration as an artist who doesn't do LDS themed music. Because he lent his voice to a few LDS themed songs, the music platform's algorithm made him an LDS artist and recommends other LDS artists instead of the Americana Folk artists. Paul also shares his frustration that new material still references artists that the metadata feels is comparable to when Paul started in 1995. Paul talks about doing an album with Steele Croswhite, who was not LDS, and slowly the culture started working with people of other Christian denominations.Paul talks about his experience speaking and performing at a Missionary Fall social attended by Apostles Russell M. Nelson and Elder David A. Bednar. A previous 70s prophecy by President Spencer Kimball invited LDS members to create the very finest artist, particularly because he believed they have all the truth. He showed the apostles the classical Billboard charts that had 5 out of 10 people who were LDS. He showed that his prophecy was being fulfilled. Afterward, Elder Bednar invited Paul to write a song with him. Paul worked with Steven Sharp Nelson and Marshall McDonald to produce Paul and David Bednar's office song "One by One." Paul would later present Elder Bednar with a plaque showing he was part of a No. 1 Billboard charting album. Paul would perform this piece with LDS tenor Nathan Pacheco. Paul discusses the positive experience of doing business with Elder Bednar and the corporate church concerning owning the master rights to their song. Paul learned that Apostles do not take a royalty. If so, it goes directly to the church missionary department.Peter talks about Trina Harmon, a Nashville songwriter who isn't LDS, has helped several Mormons evolve as writers and artists. She complimented LDS members but said she's not yet met an LDS artist who is truly aligned with the mission of the Church. The LDS Church demands a lot of service and rules, leaving artists at odds in creating music. Paul agrees and says that anyone, LDS or not, who creates music that points people to Jesus Christ is important. They briefly discuss Paul Simon who is getting older and producing an album about his relationship with God. Maturing popular artists lean into producing faith-based recordings. Artists need to speak to the struggles. Peter talks about his daughter choosing to go on a mission and his concern that it could go one or two ways. Missionaries lean in or when they return, get out of the church.Paul shares Christian artist Andrew Peterson, who like Peter Breinholt, built a community of artists within a cultural context. In Mormon culture, there's a little bit of reluctance towards charismatic musicians. When Peter was connecting with the youth in a fireside, the leader stood up to make sure the audience understood that Peter is not someone who they need to look up to, but to look up to God. Leaders tend to put down artists. A leader cornered Peter to ask him if he's a kingdom builder or a Peter builder. They discuss Mormon theology about being ordained Kings and Queens, so there's a sense of looking down on those who aren't anointed joint heirs with God. Paul shares that he needed to strip away all the idols and ideology that stood in the way of having a full relationship with Christ. Paul believes in the Four Gospels over any new revelation from those who claim to be God's prophets. The Four Gospels are 4 eye witnesses of the Resurrected Lord who disagree on the details, but they all tell the same story. He goes into talking about the Codex Vaticanus and the other codexes that were used by St. Jerome to give the world the Latin Vulgate. Paul gets into why he doesn't believe in a Church that he loves with all his heart. They talk about Joseph Smith's first vision narrative that the Church has been teaching for hundreds of years, that even LDS scholars say that narrative can't be sustained. It's simply not true. Peter says that artists deconstruct. It's why artists write songs, to say something they can't say with words. They compose how they feel.They discuss challenges in Mormon doctrine. Paul talks about one of the Christian churches he attends called Immanuel Nashville with Pastor TJ Tims. Artists analyze everything.Paul and Peter end by setting up part two. ABOUT PETER BREINHOLTPeter Breinholt is well-known performer in the Salt Lake region and became so largely through word-of-mouth. His debut record became the best-selling independently released CD ever in the state of Utah, and was described a decade after it's release as "an underground classic" by Salt Lake Magazine. Peter has performed for countless sold out crowds in every major concert hall in the state, including Kingsbury Hall, Tuacahn and Sundance. Utah Governor Gary Herbert recently honored Peter with the Governor's Mansion Award for Achievement in the Performing Arts for his influence as a songwriter and performing artist.
Enjoying the journey back to the beginning --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adayah2real/message
Read the readings!! https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090323.cfm Here's what I'm looking at while going through the Latin Vulgate text of Jeremiah 20: https://vulgate.org/ot/jeremiah_20.htm Have you fallen in love with www.greekbible.com yet? And just because: St Therese's poem to The post Tingly Ears: Jeremiah, Peter, and a Huge Lesson appeared first on Love Speaks..
Reading from the Latin Vulgate, The Cepher, and The ERV translations. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adayah2real/message
Help us spread the message, Donate to the Apostolate Today! » https://fatima.org/donate/ An Ask Father session with Fr. Paul McDonald. Watch the video for this podcast: » https://fatima.org/media/ask-father/ Contact Us: » WEBSITE: https://www.fatima.org » PHONE: 1-800-263-8160 » EMAIL: info@thefatimacenter.com » FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Fatima-Center-95998926441 » YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/thefatimacenter » TWITTER: https://twitter.com/TheFatimaCenter » INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/the_fatima_center/ The Fatima Center's mission is to ensure that the entire Message of Fatima is fully known, accurately understood, and deeply appreciated so that it may be followed by all. The Fatima Center has been faithful to this mission since it was founded by the late Father Nicholas Gruner in 1978. The Message of Fatima is the ONLY solution to the crisis in the Church and the world.Is it OK to Not Pray for Myself? | Ask Father
Wednesday, 12 July 2023 So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow. Acts 18:18 The words are more closely translated as, “Now Paul, having remained many days more, having taken leave of the brothers, sailed away to Syria – and with him Priscilla and Aquila – having shaved the head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow” (CG). In the last verse, Sosthenes had taken a pounding from the Greeks, right in front of Gallio. With that remembered, it next says, “Now Paul, having remained many days more.” The exact timeframe is left unstated, but one can get the sense of several months at least. With the matter concerning the accusation of the Jews resolved, along with the pounding Sosthenes received, the times were again favorable for Paul to work unhindered among the Greeks. However, eventually, the time came for him to leave, go to Israel, and then finally come to the church in Syrian Antioch. That departure from Corinth is seen in the continued words, “having taken leave of the brothers.” Paul eventually had to extend his farewells to the brethren in Corinth. It must have been a difficult thing for him to do, having been there for such a long time, but he would also be pleased that he could leave them to run things on their own. Unfortunately, the context of 1 Corinthians is an epistle being sent to a highly dysfunctional church. However, at this time and under his watchful care, he was able to leave them and journey forth. In having taken his leave of them, it next says he “sailed away to Syria.” As noted above, this was not a straight sail to Syria, but the final leg of this particular journey. With that, it notes, “and with him Priscilla and Aquila.” Priscilla is noted first. Four times they are seen together, including this verse, Romans 16:3, 1 Corinthians 16:19, 2 Timothy 4:19. She is mentioned first three times. There is speculation as to why this is, but no definitive answer is available. Despite this curiosity, it next says, “having saved the head in Cenchrea.” The question that is raised among scholars is, “Who shaved his head?” The Greek is ambiguous enough to mean either Paul or Aquila. Aquila is the nearest antecedent and it would explain why he was mentioned after Priscilla. However, the context of the overall thought is focused on Paul. Because of this, the words are often taken as parenthetical. Despite this, some translations, such as the Latin Vulgate, say it is Aquila. The Syriac identifies it as Paul. Either way, the shaving of the head was in Cenchrea. This was the port of Corinth. In other words, the shaving of the head is at the place of departure. Strong's notes that the name Cenchrea is probably from kegchros, meaning millet. As for the act of shaving, it next says, “for he had a vow.” This is surely not a Nazirite vow as found in Numbers 6, but rather something like what is mentioned by Josephus as ‘is customary for persons in any affliction, viz. to make a vow that, for thirty days previous to that on which they intend to offer sacrifice, they will abstain from wine and will shave off their hair' (Pulpit Commentary). What seems to be suggested is that the hair was cut as the result of having been safely delivered from the afflictions faced in Corinth. In other words, this is the fulfillment of a vow, not an act to initiate a vow. As Cenchrea was the town at the entrance to the haven belonging to Corinth, Paul (or possibly, but less likely, Aquila) was acknowledging the safe deliverance promised by the Lord. This is why “Cenchrea” and “vow” are specifically mentioned in the same thought. Though not a Nazirite vow, the same process is seen. After the completion of the vow, the hair is cut off. If this was a Nazirite vow, the hair would have been cut off at the temple in Jerusalem and a set ritual would take place. Nothing of that is noted here or later concerning this vow. In other words, this cutting of the hair was an act of gratefulness to the Lord for something that had been vowed before, similar to what Jacob had said to the Lord in Genesis 28:20-22 – “Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, 21 so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. 22 And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.'” As such, this is a vow of conscience, not a matter of law. The vow was uttered, and in thankfulness for the petition having been granted, the hair is cut. Life application: The Old Testament has places where vows are spoken of and the necessity to fulfill them. For example – “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you. 22 But if you abstain from vowing, it shall not be sin to you. 23 That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.” Deuteronomy 23:21-23 The Psalms refer to vows being fulfilled by the one who made them. A valid question is, “Are Christians allowed to make vows?” Another question is, “Are Christians required to fulfill vows?” The answer to the first is, “Yes.” A person can make a vow between himself and God, himself and a friend, etc. But it must be considered that a vow is something that binds a person to what he has promised. Borrowing money for a loan is a type of vow. “I am promising to pay back this money.” This vow is usually put into writing as a means of holding the person responsible. As for fulfilling vows. This becomes a lengthy subject depending on the context. If a person makes a vow prior to being saved that is contrary to Christian life, he obviously cannot perform that vow. “I vow to support the edicts and commands of the gang I have joined, up to and including killing our rival gang members.” In Christ, a new direction must take place. However, if vows are made after becoming a Christian, and remembering that the idea of a “vow” extends to all aspects of our lives, such as marriage, borrowing money, being an employee, and so on, then we need to be responsible and fulfill our obligations in the capacity that we have promised. This is more certain because Jesus, Paul, and James each refer to a Yes being a Yes and a No being a No. Paul's is less specific, speaking of personal words and actions, but it is a precept that was understood concerning reliability. In other words, we are to be so trustworthy as followers of Christ that when we say Yes, it is a vow in and of itself. Honesty and integrity are to be the guides of our actions before God and men. Lord God, may we be responsible followers of Jesus, fulfilling the words that come forth from our lips. We know that when we fail, we are forgiven, but help us to not fail in doing what we have promised. Help us in our daily walk to do so. Be glorified in our conduct, O God. Amen.
Northwest Bible Church – July 9, 2023 – 1 Thess. – Alan Conner 1 Thess. 4:13-18 The Timing of the Rapture Intro A. THE WORD “RAPTURE” (1 Thess. 4:17). 1. The English word “rapture” comes from the Latin Vulgate's rapere. 2. The pretribulation view of the rapture. B. THE TIMING OF THE RAPTURE. 1. Context – nothing about a future tribulation period. a. Concern about the future of dead saints (1 Thess. 4:13, 18). b. Only tribulation mentioned for believers is present. 1:6; 2:14; 3:3-4. 2. The word to “meet” in 1 Thess. 4:17 only fits with a post trib. rapture. a. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Kittel, 1:380. b. The Vocabulary of the Greek New Testament, by Moulton and Milligan, p. 53, c. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Brown, 1:325, “The use of apantesis in 1 Thess. 4:17 is noteworthy. The ancient expression for the civic welcome of an important visitor or the triumphal entry of a new ruler into the capital city and thus to his reign is applied to Christ.” 3. Comparison with Mt. 24. Mt. 24 1 Thess. 4:13-18 Mt. 24:30 Son coming 1 Thess. 4:15 the coming of the Lord Mt. 24:30 from heaven 1 Thess. 4:16 from heaven Mt. 24:31 His angels 1 Thess. 4:16 voice of archangel Mt. 24:31 great trumpet 1 Thess. 4:16 trumpet of God Mt. 24:31 elect gathered 1 Thess. 4:17 caught up Mt. 25:6 to meet Him 1 Thess. 4:17 to meet the Lord Mt. 24:30 in clouds 1 Thess. 4:17 in clouds 4. Biblical attitude toward tribulation. EXPECT it, PREPARE FOR IT, REJOICE in it because you are BLESSED. Mt. 5:10-12; Lk. 9:24; Acts 5:40-41; Phil. 1:29; 3:10; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Pet. 3:14; 4:13-14; Rev. 14:12-13 Conclusion Discussion questions: How does one's view of the rapture impact their Christian lives? If the posttribulation view of the rapture is correct, how would this affect your view of suffering tribulation? See the verses under #4 above. What might be some of God's reasons for having the church go through the tribulation?
Tuesday, 4 April 2023 However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there. Acts 15:34 The previous verse said, while speaking of the emissaries from Jerusalem, “And after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles.” Now, a verse that is not found in many manuscripts says, “However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there.” The context of the previous verse was based on verse 15:32 which spoke of Judas and Silas. As it said in verse 15:33 that “they were sent back,” it would be assumed that it spoke of Judas and Silas as well. However, in verse 15:40, it will say that Paul chose Silas to join him on a second missionary journey. Because of this, it is believed by many that the words of this verse now were a later insertion to explain why Silas was available to join Paul. Some believe it to be a margin note that crept into the text. It is not found in the Syriac, Arabic, and Coptic versions. On the other hand, the Latin Vulgate says, “It seemed good to Silas to remain, but Judas went alone to Jerusalem.” Supposing it belongs there, the plural of the previous verse could indicate that others came from Jerusalem with Judas and Silas and together they left while Silas remained behind. However, that would seem to fly in the face of verse 15:27 where the council only mentions Judas and Silas. Supposing it doesn't belong, no contradiction between verses 15:34 and 15:40 should be assumed. Verse 15:36 will say, “Then after some days.” There is nothing to suggest the timeframe. It could be a few weeks or a year. It is a statement that could mean almost any amount of time. Therefore, Silas could have returned to Jerusalem and decided to go back to Antioch during those days, weeks, or months. No matter what, either one text added a thought which is spurious, or a part of the true text was dropped out that does not affect any point upon which the overall narrative or any set doctrine hinges. If it is included in a version, it should be footnoted with a comment concerning why it is not in other versions. If it is not included in a version, it should be footnoted why it is not. Life application: God has allowed man to copy and pass on His original word. God is not fallible and the word He originally breathed out is perfect because it comes from Him. However, man is fallible. Anytime man is involved in something such as this, a process of corruption will result because of man's inability to maintain the perfection of the original. We cannot reasonably look at such differences in texts and say, “This cannot be the word of God.” Rather, we can look at the whole and feel confident that it is the word of God, but that man has been graciously allowed to transmit it, causing contamination of it. And yet, God has preserved His word in a sure enough form that it still can be rightly considered His word. It is certain that if a copy of a manuscript of Shakespeare's work was found and it had spelling errors, transpositions, margin notes, missing words or sentences, etc., anyone who evaluated it would say, “This is a copy of Shakespeare's work.” In fact, it would be ridiculous to say otherwise. And yet, naysayers of the Bible demand perfection of transmission to be a part of the process of conveying His word. If it does not exist (which it could not because of the nature of man), then to them it somehow cannot be God's word. The thinking is biased and flawed. This is the trap that too many Christians have fallen into, thus believing that God has somehow preserved His word in an exacting manner that is 100% infallible in one particular version or another. They then choose a version, claim that the version they have chosen is God's only infallible word, and condemn all others as being of the devil. This leads to a cult-like mentality and very poor theology. But this claim has been made time and again over various versions in various languages. Rather than look at the matter from this viewpoint, we should look at the massive number of texts available as a blessing by which comparisons can be made to weed out obvious errors that have entered the various texts. This is responsible and it is certainly what God intended so that His word would be safely transmitted in a form that carries with it the essential information we need to share with others. Lord God, do we have a sure word? We sure do. Thank You for Your precious word, O God. Amen.
Revisit Trish and Rob's September 12, 2021 conversation with... Adam Stokes. Professor Stokes has degrees in religion from Duke University and Yale Divinity School. He is the author of from Egypt to Ohio: a Semitic Origin for the Giants of North America and The Latin Scrolls: Selections from the five Megillah translated from the Latin Vulgate. His work has been featured in various magazines and podcasts including Ancient American magazine, Earth Ancients, Expanded Perspectives, Forbidden Knowledge News, Broadcast Team Alpha and She's All Over the Place. He teaches high school Latin and a college course on the Old Testament. https://www.instagram.com/adamthegiantguy2019/
Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with a series of blessings. “Blessed are...” Jesus says, again and again. In the Latin Vulgate, these all begin with the word “beati” which translates as “blessed” or “happy.” Thus, this portion of the sermon is often called “The Beatitudes.” It had to give Jesus' listeners pause. For what Jesus calls blessed, the world never would. The world praises the strong and the self-sufficient. Jesus calls blessed what others would see as weak or stupid. But, like any good preacher, Jesus is trying to drive home one crucial point. The weaker you are, the more ready you are to rely on God's strength. The more difficult your present circumstances, the likelier you are to yearn for future reward. We have no real strength or wisdom of our own. But we don't need it. Because God's strength is enough to give the kingdom of heaven to the humble and poor in spirit.
INTRODUCTION: Barry Bowen is the Staff Investigator at Trinity Foundation, a nonprofit organization that investigates religious fraud, theft and excess. From 2005 to 2010 Bowen served as one of the third-party whistleblowers assisting the U.S. Senate in its investigation of six TV ministries. INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE (But not limited to): · Explanation Of IRS Forms 990 & 990T· The Cora Jakes-Coleman Potter's House Sex Scandal· Bisexual Televangelists · Do You REALLY Know Your Pastor?· Insight Into The Bible Translations Industry · Pastors Paying Pastors aka “Honorariums”· Church Music As A Business· Church Of God In Christ (C.O.G.I.C.) Tom Foolery· How The Church Is Like The ‘World'· Revelation Chapter 18 CONNECT WITH BARRY: Website: https://trinityfi.orgTwitter: https://twitter.com/barrybowen CONNECT WITH DE'VANNON: Website: https://www.SexDrugsAndJesus.comWebsite: https://www.DownUnderApparel.comYouTube: https://bit.ly/3daTqCMFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SexDrugsAndJesus/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sexdrugsandjesuspodcast/Twitter: https://twitter.com/TabooTopixLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devannonPinterest: https://www.pinterest.es/SexDrugsAndJesus/_saved/Email: DeVannon@SexDrugsAndJesus.com DE'VANNON'S RECOMMENDATIONS: · Pray Away Documentary (NETFLIX)o https://www.netflix.com/title/81040370o TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk_CqGVfxEs · OverviewBible (Jeffrey Kranz)o https://overviewbible.como https://www.youtube.com/c/OverviewBible · Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed (Documentary)o https://press.discoveryplus.com/lifestyle/discovery-announces-key-participants-featured-in-upcoming-expose-of-the-hillsong-church-controversy-hillsong-a-megachurch-exposed/ · Leaving Hillsong Podcast With Tanya Levino https://leavinghillsong.podbean.com · Upwork: https://www.upwork.com· FreeUp: https://freeup.net VETERAN'S SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS · Disabled American Veterans (DAV): https://www.dav.org· American Legion: https://www.legion.org · What The World Needs Now (Dionne Warwick): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHAs9cdTqg INTERESTED IN PODCASTING OR BEING A GUEST?: · PodMatch is awesome! This application streamlines the process of finding guests for your show and also helps you find shows to be a guest on. The PodMatch Community is a part of this and that is where you can ask questions and get help from an entire network of people so that you save both money and time on your podcasting journey.https://podmatch.com/signup/devannon TRANSCRIPT: Barry Bowen Part 3[00:00:00]You're listening to the sex drugs and Jesus podcast, where we discuss whatever the fuck we want to! And yes, we can put sex and drugs and Jesus all in the same bed and still be all right at the end of the day. My name is De'Vannon and I'll be interviewing guests from every corner of this world as we dig into topics that are too risqué for the morning show, as we strive to help you understand what's really going on in your life.There is nothing off the table and we've got a lot to talk about. So let's dive right into this episode.De'Vannon: Barry Bowen, staff investigator at the Trinity Foundation is back with me for the third time. Y'all. Trinity Foundation investigates churches and televangelists and stuff like that, and so Barry Bowen. The perfect fit for my show. Now, in this episode, we discussed the financial trail found within the Bible translation industry, and we're talking about millions of dollars people, millions, we're gonna talk about child molesting, [00:01:00] televangelist, atheist preachers who don't even believe a word they fucking preach. And so much more. Y'all, when I say I can't even, I mean I can not even. Please listen to this episode and share it with someone you love. And feel free to reach out to me with any comments that you might have.I'm curious to hear what you have to say.Hello everyone and welcome back to the Sex Drugs in Jesus podcast. My name is Devana and I am so glad that you decided to join me again on the day. I've got my homeboy, Barry Bowen back with me again, and we are here to break all the religious teeth down for you.And so the last time I had you on the show, We were talking about all these different churches and everything, and when we left we were gonna do like a Lakewood follow up. And so we, we, I know you've requested some information from the irs, they refused to [00:02:00] give it to you, so we're still waiting to get a lot of that.We did find out that they just started following their nine 90 tees back in like 2018. So basically we are still waiting for information on them, but can you explain everyone what a nine 90 T is? Barry: The irs requires non-profit organizations that have $1,000 or more an unrelated business income to file this Form nine 90 T.The income can be taxed and there are certain loopholes to the tax. The weirdest loophole in my opinion is rental income. So if a church is renting a facility and then they use that. Property for an outside event and they get money for, for it. It's taxable income if they own the building outright and do outside events [00:03:00] there and are paid for it.It's not taxable. It, it's really weird how the system works. But regular non-profits have to file a form called a nine 90, which is separate from the nine 90 T. There are different versions of it. One's called a postcard nine 90. That's for organizations with, I believe, $50,000 or less than revenue.Then there is a nine 90 easy form, which is for organizations with 50, more than $50,000 to under, I think $200,000. And anything more than that was the regular nine 90. And so a regular nine 90. They will disclose this kind of information in it. De'Vannon: And so we shall see in the future, you know, how transparently liquid gets so far we've been unable to attain, obtain their, their true income.[00:04:00] Though there has been some articles published, unlike their spending, but not so much on the income breakdown. So we shall see as time goes on. Did you hear about over at the, over at the Potter's house, the the the sex ring scandal with Jake's daughter, Cora? Barry: Yes. . De'Vannon: What are your thoughts?Because years ago, his son was caught up in some kind of sex shit too. And so now, We're talking about T Jake's son was caught up in some kind of sex bullshit too. And now his, as I understand it, the, the daughter core Jake's Coleman and the her husband was apparently running them holes. , what do you Barry: I have a friend who's following it very closely behind the scenes and she is like, and not in [00:05:00] shock because she knows how corrupt some of these people can be.And there have been a number of sex predators in the church. It's a tragic thing. It really does happen. What happens is churches try to be a place where people are trusted and where you can parents can trust their children to be Watched and not harmed. We know that in some cases that's not what happens.They do get harmed. Cora has, I believe, filed for divorce. I think she has, I haven't followed this it that closely. I don't know what she knew and when she started knowing it, but [00:06:00] often in the case of when these type of sex scandals happen in a church, they try to get the parents of victims to sign out of court agreements with confidentiality clauses.They try to buy their silence. So, and that's the one of the main ways of churches tried to handle these scandals. Now, that's not legal by the. What you're supposed to do is, it's supposed to be reported to law enforcement. Pastors are considered mandatory reporters. So when you have a sex scandal in a church and you report it to church staff, by law, they're supposed to contact law enforcement.De'Vannon: Well, the divorce is not going to absolve her of any guilt or clear her name or un muddy her name or anything. It's too late for that . [00:07:00]Barry: So, yeah. I attended a church years ago. There was a, where there was a sex scandal and it was tragic. I mean, I did not expect this person to do those kind of things. And he abused a young boy and that was, there were people that stopped attending church because of it.The police. So what happened is, in this case, the church cooperated with authorities and they did not try to rehabilitate him as in trying to provide a new church job for him or anything like that. I mean, in my opinion, a a sexual predator should never be hired by a church. De'Vannon: Well, the Catholic church didn't get that [00:08:00] memo.At least this church seemed like maybe they have some type of a soul. But I'd like to point out is that. , you know, these people who are doing this are not members of the BT Q I A plus community. You know, cuz these churches always trying to act like we're working around, they're trying to rape and molest their boys and everything like that, you know.But when it actually comes out, it's men who are married to women, men who identify as straight, or in case of mis cho, she's female herself. And you know, if fatt is true, then honey, then she was in there doing the dip too and fucking with these children. So we'll see what comes out in court Barry: when, and as an investigator of televangelist and other religious organizations, we get all kinds of tips and one of the things that I have learned is when a person has zero self-control in the area of [00:09:00] money, they usually have no self-control in other areas of their lives, including their sexuality.We have seen a large number of televangelists that are bisexual. I'm not about to out a bunch of people, but there are tons of rumors. Lots of them and almost all of 'em are credible. There is one that I wanna talk about though. There is a televangelist now deceased who in the 1990s, a TV network decided to do a TV expose on him.And I'll tell you who it is, after I finished telling you this story the a TV network decided they wanted to launch a new investigative one hour TV show a competitor to 60 Minutes. And this would've been one of their first TV shows. And so they started investigating a [00:10:00] televangelist and he was involved sexually with a male judge.Yes, you heard that, correct? Mm-hmm. this TV expose would've been a blockbuster. They had cameramen going into gay bars. There was employees of the organization going to gay bars. It was a wild story. But it was, or Roberts founder of, or Roberts University, the famous healing evangelist of the 1950s and later he was involved with a male judge.De'Vannon: None of this surprises. Barry: The, the, what happened was he had a health problem. I can't remember if it was a stroke. [00:11:00] Some type of a me medical emergency almost died, and this was right before the TV expose was scheduled to air. And what I think is happened is they canceled the program and I think it may have been induced by stress.He knew this expose was gonna come out. But yeah, there's, that's one of the wildest stories. But I mean, there are others that we've heard of. I mean, there's there are rumors about different televangelist committing rape. There's one case I know about that the records got sealed. I think it's a protective order or something that, so they, the results can't be disclosed.I can't drop a name or anything. But the allegations were. Absolutely horrendous. De'Vannon: Well, everyone just remember, you don't really [00:12:00] know your preachers. And for all the photo ops and all the social media visits, I remember, I think when Joel and Victoria Oing would go visit Earl Roberts and it was this whole media production thing.What I always wonder is what do these televangelist talk about when they were around each other? When the cameras turn off? Because whenever they're in front of a camera, they're at work. That is a version of them. They're selling no matter who they are. In all of television, it's the same thing. So I try to encourage people to remember that you don't know you're a preacher.You're not sitting down having dinner and you doing cocaine or whatever the fuck it is you like to do with him. Like you don't really know what the fuck he does when he is not around you or who he really is. So oral robber's, fucking the shit out of this judge. At least he had enough sense to go for power , you know?You know, and so, so this, none of this surprises me. And so, okay. I wanted to talk a lot today about the [00:13:00] Bible translations industry. This is super duper important because so many people read the Bible and then they tell their life off of what they perceive it to mean. Preachers try to control their congregations through the Bible and so much, you know, politicians, especially Republicans, try to make policy in everything based off of what they believe the Bible mean.So much stuff revolves around the Bible. And so I wanted to get into the finances behind the Bible. It's a very interesting thing to me because the Bible is, we know, came from the Middle East at some point. Oh, king James decided he wanted to make an interpretation of. There's a documentary on the Discovery Plus channel right now called The Book of Queer, where they go over queer people from history who we didn't know were queer.Abraham Lincoln, this certain Pharaoh, [00:14:00] and King James himself of the King James version. According to this documentary, he was a big old queer girl and it didn't matter, you know, what he put in there, but he was fucking around with boys too. So of course, in, you know, people from Europe come over here, start fucking with the indigenous people and whatever, and they bring their religion, their Catholicism, or whatever the hell you know, they had.So now we're here in present day in the, in. This Bible is just everywhere, all over the world, and people don't really, in my opinion, treated with respect. Like it actually came from the Middle East and that we're actually worshiping a God that was originally not our own. So this, this ownership of it. It seems like a bastard bastardization of its value to me.Now, in a blog you wrote or something I found on your website, which will go in the show notes, I believe you said that there's an estimated [00:15:00] 500 million per year in the Bible translation industry. Barry: We reprinted an article from Ministry Watch. The author of the story is Warren Cole Smith. Warren Cole.Smith has written for World Magazine. He's worked for the Colson Center. He's a very credible investigative reporter. He's written a book, faith-Based Fraud. And so we've looked into religious organizations involved in publication of Bibles. He's done a very thorough dive into them and. So he wrote that a half a billion dollars annually is spent on a revenue, goes to these organizations involved in translating the Bible.But I wanna go back a few centuries before the printing press. Bibles were handwritten. It would take a [00:16:00] scribe a long time to hand write the Bible. And when Gutenberg invented his printing press, he was able to speed up the process big time. A lot of people don't know this, but one of the first things he printed was indulgences for the Catholic church so people could buy their forgiveness all way out of purgatory.So that was one of the first things he printed. The. The printing press allowed a lot more access to the scriptures. And before the printing press, I'm sorry, before the printing press, people were generally oral learners. They learned by hearing. For example, in the in Islam, there are people [00:17:00] that will memorize the entire Quran and word for word, they'll be able to memorize the entire thing.And often they will lead in prayers at the mosque. That was the way of preserving it from generation to generation is is by knowing it by heart, by memorizing it. For Christianity. There, there's even a Bible verse and that says, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So again, throughout most history, people learn by hearing.It was with the printing press that allowed people to have access and read for and study for themselves, and which is a huge development in the intellectual development of human kind. So in the [00:18:00]England, there was a man named John Woodcliff, I believe he was in England. He decided to translate, no was Tin decided to translate the Bible into English and he was actually put to death for it.The Catholic church had one translation Latin Vulgate. I think Jerome was the name of the translator. So the Bible was originally written in Hebrew, in Latin. Jesus spoke Aramaic. That was another language used in in Israel. If you study languages Greek is a very precise language. So we say the word love well, they have multiple words for love.Feel for like a friendly type, love agape, love for pure type love, ero, erotic type love. So [00:19:00]because of the preciseness of of Greek, it's easier to translate certain things. So when the printing press happened, Gutenberg did his first print run of the Bible. Wealthy people in Europe were able to buy Bibles for the first time often, and other publishers started building their own printing presses and they started publishing the Bible as well.In some cases there were crazy mistakes made. There was one Bible that when they, they did the printing plates, there was a mistake. And for like one of the 10 commandments, instead of saying dalt, not the word not was accidentally left out, I think it said Dalt committed adultery. The publisher was arrested and imprisoned.[00:20:00]So we started seeing the beginnings of the Bible publishing business. In the late 14 hundreds I believe, or early 15 hundreds. And eventually there were organizations, missionary organizations started to try to make disciples around the world. In the 18 hundreds, late 17 hundreds, early 18 hundreds, there was a Christian named William Wilberforce.He worked with the London Missionary Society and several other societies to do these type of projects. Then you start seeing America start starting to play a big role in this area, in the 18 hundreds, especially the 19 hundreds. The American Bible Society is, I believe, the largest.[00:21:00] Organization, them and wla Bible translators are two of the biggest organizations in Bible translation, especially Woodcliff. And there is a, like a federation, a group of organizations that they work together. According to Warren's research it costs approximately $30 million to complete a Bible translation.One of the problems is some of these languages it's not so easy to do. You don't necessarily have a font for them, a typeface for them. So if you sit down at a computer there are some languages that are oral only. So when, when they do a translation, it's an oral translation, they will use a microphone, they'll record verse by verse.But, but the they're, they're building databases that help speed up the process. [00:22:00] And the, the process is slowly moving forward. But because it's so, they, they, these bible translators, sometimes when they're questioned about the effectiveness of their work it's really hard for them to be able to answer in a forthright manner.When you're doing ministry, you want it to be effective, you want measurable results. And in the case of Bible publishers, a completed Bible translation is a key metric. Well, how many translations can you produce in a. I believe there are approximately 700 languages waiting to be the scriptures waiting to be translated to them or it's 700, no, I'm sorry.It's 700 [00:23:00] languages I've been translated from Bible times till now. Sorry. Got my figures wrong. It's a lot of work to be done and I think people need to be held accountable. So when it comes to translating the scriptures, one of the things that Uff Bible translators will do is they may send a missionary to an area so that they can learn the language.That's the first thing. You have to know a language before you can translate the Bible into the language. And the next problem is what if they don't have words for certain things? Imagine an Indian tribe would they have a word for the, for sword? Would they have a word for chariot? If [00:24:00]they'd never used chariots before, they would not have a word for it.Well, how would you translate that? Or is there several words that you could use to describe a cart pulled by a horse that would be used in warfare? I mean, so you're trying to figure out some things. It, it's a lot of mental work to it. The money often goes from one organization to another organization.So they will give grants to another organization to support a translation in another language. And. How effective is the organization they're working with? Does that organization file a form nine 90? Do they disclose it? When you look at these organizations, you can see what their salaries are. [00:25:00] You can go to an faa flight registry and look to see if they own any aircraft.If they own jets, it's typically not a good use of donor money. But I mean, there's a lot of key metrics to look at to try to figure out if an organization is being frugal with the money that's given to them. Do you De'Vannon: know who like if a certain person owns, they like the new living Bible or I mean, I mean the Living Bible or the, the New Living translation or the word Bible, like all of those different versions that we have in English.Does somebody own each of those? Barry: I would say in some cases, companies do. Publishers would, sometimes you can have a publisher that creates their own English language translation. So Zondervan [00:26:00] they are the copyright holder for the niv, the new international version. The King James is so old that copyright is expired.Anybody can print a King James Bible. De'Vannon: Cause what I'm wondering is like, so say Zondervan and I've seen their name, you know, in a, in NIV Bibles before, but I never knew what it meant till now. You know? So are they making royalties off of this every time it's sold or downloaded? That you know of. Barry: There are websites.Uverse is one of the biggest ones. They have a Bible. They've created a Bible app, so you can download a Bible app to your phone and it's free. They're another popular new translation is the esv, the English standard version. [00:27:00] And esv bible.org thinks their website and you can actually listen to the, to it or read it on their website for free without even buying a print version.But in some cases they, in the past, they would sell the Bible on dvd. There's one one Bible that there's an oral version of it. It's read by famous actors. They read different chapters of the Bible. The, the way this works is the, sometimes it'll be an academic effort. You'll have translators from different colleges, Christian seminaries.These are professors. They're, they're experts in biblical languages. So they've spent their life [00:28:00] studying the Hebrew and Greek. And so they'll be put on a committee, and so they will work on a Bible translation. This is actually how the NIV was done. They had a committee a working group that oversaw the translation, so.And then what happened was, there was, there was, I don't remember the guy's name, but you can actually look up a lot of these translations in Wikipedia, for example, and you can find out the history of that translation. But there was, there was a guy that, he used the King James, but did not like it. He did not like the old English, and he wanted a more modern, more current English version.And so he was the person that got the ball rolling on, on doing the niv for for college [00:29:00]students working on a, on a, getting a PhD, becoming a doctorate. Getting a doctorate degree. Sometimes they study biblical languages and if they work on a Bible translation that looks great on their resume.So they often do the work. De'Vannon: I wonder who, even in modern day times, you know, when these people are setting down to translate the Bible, are they making sure that there's proper representation? Do you have people of all races, all ethnic backgrounds, all sexual orientation backgrounds? My feeling is that, that that's not quite the case because, you know, when I read through so many different Bible translations and stuff like that, it's like I don't, I don't really, [00:30:00] there's just like, like you were saying, like there's not some words that exist, you know, like from, from Arab may that translate, you know, to English.But tho that's the same for even like current. Like, how can I say this? Like contemporary languages. So like whenever, like whenever I'm in Japan, you know, my friend lives over there and sometimes I go over there to visit her and everything and, and I'll be like, well, how do you say this? And she'll go like, well, we, we don't say that over here.That's just not a part of our culture. That's just not what we do. You know? And so, and that's, and that's for a nation that's currently like alive right now. And so, so what her point to me is like, don't think this because you do this in America, that someone, that they do that everywhere else, all over the globe because it may not be a part of their culture.And so I feel like there is a cultural lack when it comes to [00:31:00] biblical interpretation because not everybody is at the table. So if you have a whole room full of white conservative people, you know, interpreting the Bible, you know, then I feel like that's the reason why we have a. Women, you know, feeling discredited from the way they're described in the Bible and, you know, in other races just completely, you know, left out and oit it and things like that.But do you know anything about, at these organizations actually, who is in there doing it? And if there's like true diversity? Barry: I haven't done a thorough study of that. Original bible translations were generally done by conservative believers. People that I don't wanna say they had an agenda. They their goal was to make the Bible available so that other people could know it better could learn, [00:32:00] could learn the language.Could learn what the Bible to say in their own language. So in the Catholic Church, they used a Latin version of the Bible. That was why their masses were spoken in Latin. And it was done that way in the Catholic church for centuries. So during the Reformation period, you had a number of people try to translate the Bible into other languages making it a language of the people.And some cases it'd be one person doing the translation work. It wasn't a committee. John Woodcliff Tindel, Martin Luther, they primarily, I did their, their bible translation work alone, I believe. Mm-hmm. . Things have obviously changed. But even in the 19 hundreds, there was one, there have been a couple of guys that have done one.Basically, one person has authored a Bible translation or [00:33:00] transcript, or not transcript a paraphrase. For example, the Living Bible is a paraphrase. So a paraphrase is taking a, reading a verse and basically putting it into your own words. That's a paraphrase. When it comes to translations, there is a word for word and there's thought for thought, a word for word.You'd read one word and then you try to translate it into one word, the closest that would translate to that. And a word, a thought for thought. You try to take the thought represented and put it into the same thought. Give you an example in one verse in the Bible, Jesus said, asking it shall be given you seeking.You shall find, knock on the door shall be opening to you. If you read that verse in the Greek, it has a verb tense that we don't really have. It's a continuous action. So when you [00:34:00] read some modern translations of that verse, it says, keep on asking and it'll be given to you. Keep on seeking and you'll find, keep on knocking and the door will be open into you.So I mean, that gives you an idea how a translation works. So, but getting back to your original question the people doing these studies, I don't think they were really concerned a lot with diversity when they first started doing translation work. I think that would be a more recent development. There have been some women that have worked on Bible translations Historically it's been mostly men doing it, the work.Mm-hmm. . De'Vannon: But what I'm thankful for is this, is that, you know, knowledge is so much at our fingertips in this day and time that we can go online, we can get our own books, we can interpret the, you know, as much of the original language of the [00:35:00] Bible as we can find, you know, for ourselves. And so it's as painstaking as that may be.And it is not easy because I do it myself. So I like to employ this whenever there's a, a scripture of contests, like, say like the club of passages that the conservative like to use to tell people in my community or we're gonna burn in hell cuz we're not straight, you know, or if there's a script or someone's trying to use to justify slavery or the demeaning of women and stuff like that.And so, you know, I don't go in through the painstaking task of trying to interpret Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. Unless it's something that's like a big deal like that and somebody's trying to act like, oh, I absolutely know what this scripture means and there's no other way to look at it, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.And then I go in there myself, and I, and I come up with a different interpretation. And, and the whole point, the whole, the whole thing of that I get out of why we have so many of these different translations is [00:36:00] that the, is that it is such, it's just so subjective. And my whole point of diving into this is to is to get people off of the, the dependency that we can develop on any certain one translation and for God's sakes, not a person's translation.So I wanted people to know there is actually a money trail behind this. And so I feel like that that affects the way it's interpreted. And so, People can draw their own conclusions. I'm a fan of, of interpreting it myself because at this point I don't really trust what anyone has to say about the Bible.You know, I wanna, I just wanna know for myself and when we're reading an interpretation, it's important to us to know that humans interpret it. That, you know, and whatever English is print in English is not the original text. Barry: One of my favorite things is there's a website Bible hub, and they will take one verse and then list, show it in [00:37:00] a bunch of different Bible translations.So you can, like Young's literal translation and, and King James and English Standard version and the New Living Translation. So you can see the different word choices that are used. There are a lot of people that like to see how a favorite verse is translated into different script and different.Uses different word choices. So for me, as a investigative religious fraud, one of my favorite Bible verses a second Timothy I'm sorry, second Peter two verse three, in the King James version, it's talking about these false teachers and it says they will make merchandise of us, of, of people.Basically the idea is they've turned, they turned the church into a marketplace. That's what Jesus noticed when he went into the temple and threw out the money changers. They had turned it into a business, a [00:38:00] marketplace. And you read that same verse in the New Living translation. It's hilarious. It says, and they're greed.They will make a clever lies to get hold of your money. The verses are worded very differently, but I agree 100% with both . De'Vannon: Well, that brings me to my next point. I wanted to talk about two things. These honorariums, they call them, that preachers pay each other when they go to preach at different churches.And then the licensing of music, we'll start with the licensing of music. I personally, as a music writer, I kind of have a problem with the way this seems to be done in churches. So like, if you're gonna, so say if Hillsong Church is gonna create this album, you're gonna license it. And then in order for another church to use it, they're gonna sell it to them.Like, I think another church has to buy the [00:39:00] rights and things like that to use this music. And so for my perspective, if, if God gives me a song, and this is all supposed to be, you know, divinely inspired and everything like that, I feel bad about taking this song and saying, Hey you church, you can use my worship song, but you have pay me first.You know, now if it's a radio station, some sort of syndicated broadcast, that's different to me because that's not like a house of worship where people feel like they need to go. You know, you're listening to the radio or whatever you're streaming, that's on iTunes. I'm okay with that business model for worship music, but charging churches, you know, to do it.I think that that's fucked up. Barry: It is a business. So there is, there's different kinds of rights. There's copyright, there's performance rights, there's [00:40:00] broadcast rights, and there are companies that manage all these different kinds of rights. There have been churches sued for having performed songs for and didn't pay for appropriate license.churches have been sued. I mean, and so that's why it's become a business. Trying to, I lost my train of thought for a moment. Okay. So I took a media law class in college. That was one of the things that we had to learn about was copyright. And copyright has an expiration date. It's changed over the years.So I believe now it's like it expires a certain number of years after the original author dies. And if the [00:41:00] person lives a very long life, it can expire at a very, a long distance into the future. The, there's an organization, creative Commons, creative commons.org is, I believe, their website.They wanted to. Create a movement for the allow of resharing of information. And so they created a number of licenses and these are alternatives to regular copyright. So the way that the US copyright law is written, if you write something, you're the original copyright holder. It can get complicated.If you're hired by a church and you do what's called a work for hire, then the copyright can belong to the church. But for Creative Commons, they created a [00:42:00] public domain license. This is a work would then be in the public domain. Anybody could use it for whatever purpose. They, you could take their lyrics or their music rewrite, rewrite it.Remix it, whatever, and for free, there's no payments required. They have what's called an attribution license where people can use, reuse your original content as long as they give attribution. And so this is often used by photographers. For example, they'll post their pictures online with, at attribution license.Then you can use their photos to illustrate an article that you write and you just credit the photographer. There are licenses that provide for share and share alike. There are some that are for non-commercial only use. [00:43:00] So, and they give you a wide range of, of ways to work with content. And I believe that's a better model than what we're seeing right now.There's a guy named Carl Entz, who I believe we discussed in a previous podcast. He was a preacher at Hillsong. His dad Steven Entz, wrote a book, the Business of Church, and he wrote about copyright. And he suggested that a pastor could could, well normally the church would own the copyright of a sermon.The pastor be a work for a hire, what he says. But what he said that you could also, a pastor could license their sermons to the church. And so I don't feel very good about that. I think when you start doing stuff like that, then you preaching becomes about what can make the most money, [00:44:00]what can you sell the most?And worship music has become big business. Nowadays, fewer people are buying. Albums. Well actually LPs have seen a big increase in sales. It's weird. Who has seen a increase in sales albums? LPs records have had a increase in sales. I think it's people in nostalgia for old albums collectors buying them on vinyl.But a lot of people would buy a song from iTunes or instead of entire album. So records have become a big business. Or the, or gospel worship. Worship music become a big business in the church. Hillsong has made a lot of money. [00:45:00] I believe they sold 20 million albums. That's the Celtic I've seen for Hill.De'Vannon: I don't know this, it's something with this like, like what you're saying with this merchandising and you know, and everything like that, you know, it seems so innocent. Oh, we're just gonna sell a few things and, you know, the way they package it and, you know, in church, you know, here take this sermon homes, you can listen to it again and again and still be blessed and you know, get this book, get this, you know, get these conferences.You know, I used to be a member of the Church of God in Christ, and I had, I reached out to the headquarters. I wanted to go overseas and do a missions working, something like that, you know, and it was very, the missions page on their, on the international headquarters website [00:46:00] didn't have anything there.And so I emailed them. , I got informa, I think I got as far as to the gatekeeper for like the, the bishop maybe, you know, of the, of the whole hand of the whole church of God, Christ. And then they like just stopped responding because I couldn't, you know, I wanted to go do missions. I think there was a way that they would fund it or something like that, but it didn't seem like they really wanted to do it.What they did have up to date though, was their page that had all of their conferences coming up, you know, the speakers and all of that. And I just thought that that was pretty shitty because I'm like, you are always sending these preachers here and there and raising this money, but when I'm trying to talk to you about philanthropy in humanitarian efforts, that's gonna cost you money, then the line went cold, , you know, and so, and and there's a verse in the book of Revelation that has always stuck out to me is in Revelation chapter 18.[00:47:00]And it starts around, you know, verse 10 ish. And this is talking about when they say Babylon, the great is fall. And there's all kinds of different interpretation of what, what they think Babylon means. Is it you know this or is it that? I think Babylon stands for a great many forms of corruption of humanity, but I'm gonna read this anyway.And it says, in the kings of the earth, who have committed for occasion and lived deliciously with her shall BeWell her and lament her when they shall see the smoke of her burning. Standing a far off for the fear for a torment, saying, alas will last that great city, Babylon, that mighty city for in one hour is your judgment come And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buys their merchandise anymore.The merchandise of gold and silver and precious stones and of pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all thy wood and all manner of vessels of ivory and all [00:48:00] manner vessels of most precious wood and of brass and iron and marble and cinnamon and odors and ointments and frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men.And I just thought it was very interesting after listing this really, really, really long list of material things that it ends unlike humanitarian issues and the destruction of people. So as we're talking about all of this buying and trading and selling in the temple, I personally feel like from the churches to like a lot of these social media companies and things like that, and they're haste to make money and then they're greed and stuff like that.They're sacrificing people in the process. And I think that, that this verse is talking that these verses that I just [00:49:00] read are talking about that. But what do you think about the, what I just read Barry: There is different ways of interpreting the book of Revelation. It's very fascinating. So it deals with end times.A word for that is eschatology study. End times. And basically the Bible teaches that wickedness is gonna bound. People's hearts grow cold because of, of wickedness lawlessness of people and because of hypocrisy. And because of that, God will eventually pour out his wrath upon mankind and there will be punishment for sin.And there will, people have made commerce [00:50:00] an idol. They've made the entertainment industry an idol, social media and idol, all these kind of things, idols, they put ahead of God and things that they hold dear have become idols and they will see their idols destroyed. That's one of the ways that I see that passage.The. Experience that you had with Koji? With the conferences, I actually wrote an article about the these conference businesses the hum the speaking fees of honorariums. And I think there's a legitimate need and opportunity for people to network. A conference can be a great place to network and meet people.I've gone to film festivals, for [00:51:00] example. I previously worked in the film industry years ago, and so going to a film festival, you meet lots of like-minded people. You meet writers, filmmakers, actors, actresses people that wanna get their start in the industry. And so, You meet people and develop friendships that way, and then you go see their movie on when they have a movie coming out, and I know them.So it, it's a different experience than seeing a movie by nobody, you know. And so I do enjoy the aspects of networking. I've been to conferences before and that was my favorite part about it. But for the motive of the people throwing on the conference, what is their motive? And we know that like not this week, but the previous week so this would've been around the end of July [00:52:00] or beginning of August, my mind's have gone.Kenneth Copeland had his conference it's called the Southwest Believes Convention, and. It was in Fort Worth, Texas. Televangelist like Jesse de Plans would fly into Fort Worth to preach and then fly back to where he is from, and then the next day, fly right back to Fort Worth and then fly back to new Orleans.I don't think he likes to stay in hotels. Just a theory I have. Why would a person make multiple trips to day after day? It's weird to me cause those are, those trips, those flights cost thousands of dollars and but to put on a convention like that, you have to bring in a lot of money to pay for all those [00:53:00]speakers.And if you're doing that, then do you pay for their transportation? Do you pay for their jet to fly? I mean, that could have been 20,000, $40,000. I don't know. I'm guessing at a bare minimum it costs $20,000 for all those flights. I mean, you have to pay for the fuel, you have to pay for the pilots.And that's just an unnecessary expense. The conference business I think it's a lot of gamemanship. You speak at my conference and I'll speak at yours. So it's a way of self-promoting each other. I wrote an article about honorariums. It's on the Trinity Foundation website, and I, I looked at nine 90 s for non-profit organizations.[00:54:00] Sometimes they will disclose honorarium revenue. Sometimes they'll disclose honorarium expenses. So for example, some pastors or or ministry leaders, They speak at a location, but you have to pay 'em a speaking fee of their organization. So that's revenue to the organization. And so that's how that shows up.For honorary expenses, sometimes like when you host a conference, you're paying an outside speaker and they list that on their statement of expenses page. There are organizations that will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in honorariums. In the past, TBN did that, that have special guests for their beon and for some of their a praise the Lord broadcasts.And so they would spend literally, I think in some cases, over $700,000 a year on speaking honorariums. De'Vannon: I know when I was at one church in Southern California, they, you know, they had a speaker there, they already paid for her to come down. [00:55:00] They decided they want her to stay for one more sermon. And they were like, we'll give her $10,000 to, to preach again, you know, for one more hour or whatever.And of course she was like, yes, Lord. You know, and everything like that. And the highest I saw them go was maybe like 30,000, you know, now we're talking about for one sermon for about an hour. You know, to me that's exorbitant because it was US tithing, you know, and paying for them. It's not like the preacher was doing that.So what you're saying is Right, so these preachers have this whole brotherhood or whatever to include the sisters too. And they're like, okay, you got your church, I got mine. We're gonna come speak at each other's church, and we're gonna pay each other about 10 to 30,000 each. Right. Cool. And so , now the.Barry: The craziest thing I've heard of is a seed twice. So this is how I consider it a scam. The seed twice. [00:56:00] So Kenneth Copeland does this. You give him, wait, he gives your ministry a donation and then you give him a donation. It's a seed twice. So , you're getting your money back. , in some De'Vannon: cases. Wait, say that Barry: again?they call it a seed twice. Some you donate to one organization and then that organization donates back to you.De'Vannon: which organization? His, he's talking about his church. Barry: Yeah. Eagle Mountain International Church. It's also known as Kenneth Copeland Ministries. But yeah, he does this C twice zone thing. He gives donations to different organizations and then they give him a donation.De'Vannon: I don't get it. So he's gonna do, so he's personally donating to another church. His Barry: organization gives a donation, his church donates to an organization, and that [00:57:00]donation, that organization donates back to him. What's the point? You get your money back. It looks great on, Hey, we spent this amount of money on ministry, but you're getting your money backThat's what it looks De'Vannon: like to me. So it, so Kenneth Cole Ministry is gonna donate a thousand dollars to feed the children or whatever, but then they're going to also donate a thousand dollars back to Kenneth Cole Ministry. Sometimes Barry: they may not donate the full amount but I think it's a way for a bunch of organizations to put on a balance sheet or something that we, they can promote it.They can say, Hey, our audited financial statement, we gave this amount of money to ministry. De'Vannon: Hmm. Oh, so they're like scratching each other. There's backs in a way, and they're moving money around to manipulate the tax system. Okay, you Barry: give me the money and then I get it back. I mean, [00:58:00] that's what it looks like.They'd probably eject to the way that I describe it, but that's what it looks like to me. , but that's what they call it. See, twice soon. De'Vannon: They probably rejected this whole podcast , not just this episode. , it's the whole thing altogether. You know, the people who raised me though, like my evangelist Nelson, who I talk about a lot, you know, you know, they, when they traveled the country, and the world preaching and they always said that they never charged people to go.They were like, if God's gonna send me over here or, or whatever, then he's also going to provide, now I'm talking about people who were probably born in like the twenties, 1920s, thirties, forties, that sort of thing. So these people were old. And so I think she was 80 when she died about three, four years ago.And so you can do the math to see probably when she was born, but she never, you know, she felt like [00:59:00] God was calling her to Washington DC to go preach. And she had a relationship with that church as I understand it. You know, we, you know, might raise money to help her go, or she would pay for herself or something like that.But she wasn't like, I ain't showing up unless you have this amount of money. You know, it wasn't anything like that. Now they did once they would get there, you know, if they wanted to raise a speaker. A speaker's offering, then it's whatever that amount would be. It's not like it had to be a minimum for it to show up, you know, for the speaker to show up.And so I feel like her style was more in line with how the apostles started doing Jesus's ministry. You know, they took what they had and went out and preached the word and they kind of took care of these, of these preachers when they got to different towns. I don't find anywhere in the scripture where go and preach the gospel, but only do it if you're paid a minimum amount of money.Barry: you know, I don't, that [01:00:00] verse isn't there,De'Vannon: And so what this is, is the church being very hypocritical and wanting to look like the world. And so if it's something that the church doesn't want you to do, drink, masturbate, have sex outside of marriage, or generally enjoy your life. They're like, you don't want to be like the world. We can't have you being worldly rah ra ra, ra.But when it comes down to finances, they want to pattern themselves after Fortune 500 companies and they wanna pattern themselves after the world. They're like, why shouldn't we make, it's the same thing as a corporate executive does. Why shouldn't we make the same thing every other speaker does? It's because we're in the church doesn't mean we shouldn't be paid.Right. So then it's okay to be like the world . Barry: Well, some of these preachers, I don't think they believe a word they preach . And I don't wanna name names, but we have an [01:01:00] informant that told us about a pastor that was an atheist. He didn't pray. And in fact, I just mentioned that in one of the articles that I posted this morning.I can't identify the preacher's name. He's definitely on our radar. But there's a preacher that he's an atheist agnostic. He doesn't believe what happened is it, I'd wrote an article about privacy laws preventing transparency. Attorney Foundation did a report on him to the irs and we're not able to know the status of that report because of the way the IRS laws are.But yeah, preacher doesn't believe the Bible. It's just a scam to get money. Preaches the Prosperity Gospel, but he doesn't believe the Bible. And and there are, there are [01:02:00] a number of preachers that I would put in the same category. Obviously I can't read their minds. There's a guy named Mike Murdoch.I have serious doubts that he believes what he, some of the stuff that he preaches, Tilton. Robert Tilton. I seriously be doubt he believes some of the things that he's said. Again, that's my own opinion. But I just, some of the things they say, don't look authentic to me, don't look real. And some of these people are the ones really pushing the prosperity gospel.De'Vannon: It's I've observed a pattern, like when I was still in the church, they would do this thing and they were doing like escalating offering amounts, so they would be like, , they would get every one all pumped up. We want you to give a hundred dollars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or perhaps deescalating.It would go [01:03:00] both ways. Sometimes they would make a whole big deal out of somebody who they were to give a thousand or a hundred, and then they'd go, okay, well if you can't do that, then we'll take 80 huge blessings come your way, miracles and all of that, not that, and we'll take 60, you know, whatever. Then they'll work their way down the 20.You know, at first I thought maybe it was a legit thing, but then I noticed other preachers doing this at different churches, you know, if I'm recalling correctly. So it's like they were borrowing best practices and then saying that it was divinely inspired every time they did. . And one time when I was at this church in Southern California, I went to go give, like the last few dollars I had, it was like three or $4.I'm thinking I'm gonna be like, you know, the lady who gave the two mites or whatever and be honored, the preacher, he was like, I don't need this . You know, he like, he like rejected my offering because it wasn't at his minimum. And so because they have this mind, [01:04:00] right? They have this, these preachers, they have this mindset that they're worth so much.They're like, I shouldn't, you know, don't give me any less than $20. That's, that seems to be the standard. And they were like, I don't want an offering. If you're gonna gimme less than 20. And then they would turn around and try to prime us up and be like, if you have somebody out there who's broke them, even let them ride in your car, you don't want that rubbing off on you.You know, if they don't, you know if there's somebody who's gonna pull you down. I'm like, well, Jesus wouldn't have told me to not give someone a ride because they don't have, they don't make over 40,000 a year or a hundred thousand or whatever, you know? Yikes. , Barry: did you see the news about the recent preacher that was allegedly robbed of him and his wife of jewelry worth a million dollars?De'Vannon: That does sound vaguely familiar, but Barry: just recently, a couple weeks ago, this event happened on a Sunday and [01:05:00] in New York City, and the preacher looks like a conman. I mean, you, like, how does a pastor afford a Rolls Royce? I mean, you look in his Instagram videos and he does some of these videos inside his car, and if you look on some on the headrests, they have the double R, that's the Rolls Royce symbol there, and you're like, okay, are you using church funds to pay for this lifestyle?The IRS has a standard for pay. It's called a reasonableness. If something is not considered, if it's considered unreasonable, then it should be illegal. Or you should be taxed extra for it. That's I'm in regards to non-profit salaries. And churches are nonprofits. De'Vannon: Yeah, I'm looking at this guy now.Well, perhaps the Lord made it right, you know, he [01:06:00] robbed others. Now his ass got robbed. You know, God is not mock. Whatever you, so you will reap. The Lord didn't tell me he was, this was his karma. I'm just saying. I don't know. Seemed like with all that money, he might have had better security. , Barry: there's a person on the stage sitting in a chair or, or next to the stage, let say this person is sitting in a chair when this so-called robbery happens.And it's interesting watching that person's mannerisms as he is watching this go down. He does not look scared to me anyway. And when I see that, I'm wondering, okay, is this insurance fraud? Is he, is this actually a scam? I mean, that's what it looks like to me. I mean, obviously I'm not a juror and I don't have any inside information, but it doesn't look legitimate to me.Doesn't look authentic. De'Vannon: Oh, so you think it's like a scam and he knew it was gonna happen. ? Barry: Yes. Totally. De'Vannon: Looks like a scam. . [01:07:00] No, it has been done. It has been done. So, so knowing all these things we know about churches, People like you and I work to inform people so that they can be more aware of where they're spending their time, where they're spending their money, where they're investing their trust.People still are gonna go to these churches no matter what we say. Some people might stop. So why is it that we fall for this prosperity Gospel? Why do we keep going to these churches? I did it like I'm, I'm, I sat there, listened to these people telling me things that I knew was bullshit, that that preacher rejected my dollars that I wanted to give them.And I still kept going to that church. You know why? I know I started going to these churches? Cause it was just really nice to hear a preacher being somewhat positive rather than growing up in the south where everything's a sin and you just can't do any fucking thing. So it was a lesser of two evils.But the person I am now, I'm like, you know what? I don't need any [01:08:00] church at all. I know how to go to God for myself. So, Why do you think people still put themselves in front of this abuse, even with, you know, all this knowledge that we're giving them? Barry: When I was a teenager, we had an event one night with our youth group.It was a lock in. And so in the midst of all these entertaining things that we did, games, et cetera, we had some Bible studies and et cetera and discussion times. And we had a discussion about what did you wanna become, what did you wanna be in life? And as our group when to discuss that sort of like became a thing.Everybody wanted to be successful. And I think that's right at the heart of the Prosperity Gospel, people wanna be valid. They wanna be seen as a success. They do not want, they wanna be [01:09:00]self-reliant. They don't wanna depend on anyone for anything. So when a preacher preaches that you can get your heart's desire, if you do this you'll get, well, if you do this, your debts will be paid if you do this.People sometimes are desperate and it's sometimes the desperate people that are donating to the Prosperity Gospel preachers. Often it's the poorest of the poor that donate to 'em. We know for a fact that there was one preacher that was deliberately send letters to people in low income zip codes.They give more than wealthy people.I mean, it's, it's sad targeting the poorest of the poor, but that's what they do. And it's a white [01:10:00] preacher targeting neighborhoods that are, a lot of them are black. I call it racism. What he's doing I believe it's absolutely evil. What how this is being done and why do people keep doing it?Some are desperate. Some have bought into the Prosperity Gospel. They, they wanna be rich. I think it's, sometimes it's people, they just haven't heard the truth and they're, they don't, they've, because of that, they accepted a lie. If they had a preacher instead of preaching the prosperity gospel was, would, would teach things like.there's a Bible verse where Jesus said, the poor will always be with you. You didn't say you everybody would be rich. If, if, if they, you had a preacher that was telling them a different message. [01:11:00] I think some people would be, more people would be open to it, but it just, that's all they hear. And one one of the verses that I mentioned earlier was the verse where asking shall be given you, seeking you shall find.Seeking is a big part of scripture. There's a Bible verse in the Old Testament where it says, it's the glory of God to conceal a matter, the glory of kings to seek it out. Mm-hmm. . So God deliberately conceals the truth. He wants us to look for it. There's another verse in the Bible that says to study, to show yourself approved on demand so you can rightfully divide the word of truth.Basically, we need to study the word on our own. We can't rely on just someone to tell us everything. And so I think people have not been taught to seek the scriptures to learn for themselves. They've not been taught to do [01:12:00] that. De'Vannon: No, not until now, because motherfuckers like you and I are preaching, you know, you know, autonomy to people.I want people to not only study the Bible, but to study these motherfucking preachers because you know, you're investing, like, you're literally trusting your entire eternity and soul to this person on stage. You know, they have an entity to run, so no, they're not going to tell you to go. They go. So follow God without them, they need you to keep coming back to the church.I don't have an agenda other than I want you to be spiritually fit and spiritually independent so that if those churches fall, if organized, religion should fall and you don't know what the hell is gonna happen from one day to the next. You're not sitting there. Like in a spiritual limbo. Cause you don't know what to do.You can't go to church, you can't do this. The saddest thing that I heard from the war in Ukraine was there was a Ukrainian lady who was fighting against the Russians and she was like, I'm not afraid to die. I'm just afraid to die because I haven't had a [01:13:00] chance to make it to confession. Like, you know, that's too much control for the church to have over somebody's eternity, for you to think that you can even repent until you can go and talk to a physical human.There was no point in Jesus coming if it was gonna be all that. And so, so I want people to. study their leaders, like we were talking about before we hopped on this broadcast. I want people to find out when these different, all these teachers and preachers are running around these churches, when the hell are these people really called?You know? Are they really called? How do you know that, you know, there has to be some sort of reason in the Bible. No, Lord, you know, appears to people. There's a moment when they're not called. There's a moment where there is, you know, something has to change. You know? Was it a dream? Was it a vision? You know, don't just accept them because they're up on stage and, and we're wrapping up now.So after I say all this, I'm gonna let you say whatever you wanna say and have a last word. I, I do not believe that just because somebody is the son of a preacher or they [01:14:00] inherit a ministry, I don't, I don't subscribe to this whole, everybody in the family is called, you know, you know, God. I just, I just don't, because in the Bible,I don't see like many situations and I can't, I can't think of any right now where the mom, the dad, the aunts, the uncles, all the kids, everybody has a special mission from God. I don't see family ministries, you know, you know, that span generations in these, you know, in these books. And so, and even kings, you know, you know, the, you know, the bloodline of Abraham, you know, is different, you know, and then we're talking about even then just the son was the leader and everything like that.And then even at that, he technically wasn't a priest, you know? And so, you know, so this, everybody's called, I question it. And so what I'm seeing now is like, These, these kids or these preachers are starting to preach. You know, I saw one [01:15:00] not too long ago, you know, I'm not gonna say the preacher's name, but you know, both parents are rich.Now he's starting to preach and he's talking about telling people you know, about being poor and how they're gonna make it, you know, and they hard times and everything like that. And I'm all like, boy, what the fuck you know about hard times? You know, I don't, especially financial hard times, you know, so these, these children are preaching what they know people want here, but you have not lived on food stamps, social security, food and security, not knowing how you're gonna keep the lights on.That is not a life, you know, because you were born a millionaire. And so now that you are a preacher's kid and you were born rich, you're gonna get up there and, and speak this package match message that you know you can sell to your audience. I don't. I don't know. That just pisses me off.Barry: My dad was a minister and he felt [01:16:00] called of God to become a minister. It's not what he wanted to do. My dad wanted to be a professional baseball player. He loved sports, but he ended up becoming a minister. His title was Minister of Education and Outreach. He worked in several Baptist churches over his career.And so in his job he would train Bible teachers and recruit Bible teachers for the church. He would visit the hospitals each week he would visit nursing homes each week. And he enjoyed serving people that they couldn't do anything for. Going to see somebody that's sick in a hospital, seeing somebody in a nursing home that's weak and they can't go anywhere.He would bring joy to their lives. Some of these people, they wouldn't have any family members visiting them during the week and just him going to, and to see them, [01:17:00] it made their day. And so that was the type of home that I grew up in. One time there was a family they moved to where we lived in Louisiana.They were, he was job hunting, the dad, the husband they had a newborn child and they're broke. Homeless. We let them live with us and our house for months, I think about six months. So we took in the homeless. That's what I believe real Christianity's about. It's about sacrifice, not success.It's about taking up your cross and following me, and that doesn't include a dollar bill and profits. De'Vannon: Yeah, that sounds super sincere. You know, his part, he sounds like he was accessible to people and not like the big guy on stage. You know, who we have to stand in line [01:18:00] with. Maybe they'll sign our book even though they're our pastorBarry: When our Sunday service would end Sunday morning, my dad almost always would try to be at the back door of the church. When people were leaving, he would greet people. So he would shake people's hands and say hi. He wanted to greet everybody. He wanted people to get to know who he was.My dad loved visitation. He loved visiting people in their homes. That's, again, something that's going outta style. Fewer and fewer people doing are doing church visitation. Also, there's more and more of a mindset of my home as my castle. It's a place of privacy. And so you see less of that,
This episode features a short introduction to the life of Saint Jerome, as well as a few excerpts from his written homily on Psalm 11. To access Saint Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation of Scripture, see: https://vulgata.net/ To read Pope Francis's apostolic letter on the occasion of the sixteen hundredth anniversary of the death of Saint Jerome, visit: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20200930_scripturae-sacrae-affectus.html For more on the Jewish roots of Christianity, see: https://www.amazon.com/Emmanuel-Levinas-Variations-God-Us-ebook/dp/B09V39ZXKB/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1666727177&sr=8-6 For more exciting content in Catholic theology, philosophy and spirituality, visit: https://myinteriorcastle.com/store Follow us on Social Media- Facebook at "Donald Wallenfang" Twitter- @septimasmoradas Instagram- myinteriorcastle313 YouTube- "Donald Wallenfang"
For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. 3 They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face. 4 Pilate went out again and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.” 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” 6 When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.” 7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.”Here Pilate's cruel streak comes out. Odd as this sounds, the scourging (v.1ff) appears to be a fresh strategy to set Jesus free (see v.12).Note: Jesus' crown (vv.2-3) may well have been made from the thorns of the date palm. These were up to 12 inches long. The radiate crown would have made Jesus look like a sun-god. This feature is common to Greco-Roman coinage.The Romans had three degrees of corporal punishment:Fustigatio (beating) -- the lightest punishment.Flagellatio (flogging) -- more severe.Verberatio (scourging) -- the most severe, often leading to death. This was the punishment Christ endured.The crown of thorns is painfully placed on his head, and a purple robe draped over him -- a mockery of his kingship (v.2).Further, he is slapped in the face.Jesus suffers grievous bodily injury. For a medical account of what Jesus was going through, click here. (Note: this account is easy to read, and eliminates embellishments like the "bloody sweat."Again Pilate pronounces Jesus innocent (v.4), uttering the famous words, "Behold the man!"This translates to Ecce homo, in the once popular Latin Vulgate translation.Moreover, "Behold the man" indicated Jesus' humanity. As Beasley-Murray and others have commented, the word has truly become flesh -- torn, bleeding, beaten -- with worse to come.Knowing that it is illegal for the Jews to crucify Christ, Pilate seems to rub it in (v.6): "Take him yourselves and crucify him!"Note: With the crown on his head and the words the governor uttered, is the situation allusive of Zechariah 6:1-12?8 Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. 9 He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. 10 Pilate therefore said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” 12 From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”The words "Son of God" (v.7) seem to resonate with Pilate, and frighten him (v.8).Pilate takes Jesus back into the Praetorium (probably the Fortress Antonia). Pilate resumes his interrogation of Jesus, who does not reply.Pilate reminds Jesus who is in charge (v.10-11), and yet Jesus counters that there is a higher authority.Who is the one guilty of "greater sin"? Caiaphas, the high priest, seems the most likely candidate.From here on, Pilate even more earnestly desires to free Jesus (v.12).13 When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” 16 Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.The Jews push back.Since Jesus pretends to be the King of Israel, he is a political threat to Rome.If Pilate frees Jesus, he is not a "friend of Caesar."This is a technical term. To be a "friend of Caesar" -- an accolade Pilate may already have received -- is an honor.The emperor, Tiberius (14-37 AD) had become suspicious. One did not want to lose his trust.To lose the status of "Friend of Caesar" could be not only shameful, but dangerous. The Jews are threatening the governor.Here is supreme irony! The highest Roman official in the land is accused of lack of loyalty to Rome by a people who detest Rome, and can't wait to be free of its control (v.12).Pilate sits on his judgment seat (v.13) at Gabbatha, or Lithostrotos. For a picture, click here.Pilate's attitude is not quite the same as in verses 4-6. There is no hint of ridicule. The Jews would have been awaiting the pronouncement of the sentence against Jesus. Instead...Pilate, pronounces, "Behold, your king!" He knows this will gall the priests.And yet it seems Jesus is the one sitting in the judgment seat, while Pilate is in the hot seat!It is the sixth hour -- very early in the morning.In a few hours the slaughter of the Passover lambs will begin.The Jews will stop working.All leaven (yeast) will be taken out of the houses and burned.Jesus is the Lamb of God (John 1:29,36). For the Passover background, read Exodus 12.The response, "We have no king but Caesar" (v.15) is an implicit abandonment of the messianic hope.Once again, the irony is biting."[The threat] broke down Pilate's resistance. His fear of the sinister and suspicious emperor was even greater than his awe of the mysterious personality of the Accused; his own safety appeared to him more important than a passing triumph over the accusers who were unsympathetic to him" (Blinzler, Der Prozess Jesus, 338).And so Pilate finally turns Jesus over to be crucified (v.16).From verse 16 onward, many elements of the synoptic tradition are absent: the mocking; the darkness; the cry of dereliction (Mark 15:34); the tearing of the temple curtain; the opening of the graves (Matthew 27:52); and the centurion's confession.At the same time, John includes details not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke: the inscription; the quotations in 19:24,28-29,36-37; the address to his mother; and the piercing of Jesus' side.So they took Jesus; 17 and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Jesus carries his own cross and is crucified at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull (v.17).Plutarch records, "Each criminal as part of his punishment carries his cross on his back" (The Divine Vengeance, 554 A-B).There is also a pertinent Jewish saying: "As one bears the cross on one's shoulders," Isaac carried the wood (Gen. Rab. 56.4, on Genesis 22:6). The symbolism of the sacrifice of Isaac is in the background."There they crucified him" (v.18).The 2nd century Gnostic Basilides said Simon died on cross instead of Jesus (Nag Hammadi documents).This idea (the substitute) seems to have influenced Muhammad.The inscription above states his crime, though the wording is remarkable (v.19). What brevity! No macabre or sombre obsession with the gory details of the passion. The paucity of detail is striking.He is crucified between two criminals. See Isaiah 53:12.20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,' but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.'” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” The Jewish leaders ask Pilate to change the placard so that it read "... I am Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews."Pilate refuses. "What I have written, I have written," responds Pilate (v.22).The inscription could have easily been altered (v.21) by adding a single word: eimí (Greek), sum (Latin), or 'aní (Hebrew).This is his last act of revenge on the chief priests.The inscription in Latin would have read Iesous Nazarenos Rex Iudaeorum, which in Anglican/ Catholic churches is often abbreviated to INRI.And yet this is supreme irony: the two men most responsible for the death of Jesus publicly proclaim his Messiahship!Caiaphas unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was the means of redemption for Israel and the nation (11:49-50).Pilate proclaimed that Jesus was the King of Israel.Thought questions:Have I ever sacrificed principle for expedience? Is there a little of Pilate in me?Was there another way? Why do I think Jesus had to die -- as opposed to God simply forgiving every sincere person?The Christian God became flesh. How is this different from the capricious gods of Hinduism, the aloof Allah of the Muslims, or the serenely detached Buddha?Am I still moved by the Crucifixion?Reading over Psalm 22 and Psalm 69, can I find the verses that would have been especially meaningful to the early disciples?
Many people are familiar with the books that are placed in some Bibles between the Old Testament and the New Testament but what are they and are they important for us to read to learn about God and to grow in our Christian lives? The best way to answer those questions correctly is to look at the history of when and how they were written and how they relate to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was the Bible Jesus and Paul used and quoted from. If we didn't have the Septuagint, we most likely would not have the Apocrypha in Bibles today as it was primarily their inclusion with the Septuagint that Jerome used to translate the Bible into the Latin Vulgate that they were considered part of the Old Testament scriptures. Evaluated on their own, they were never included in the Old Testament canon. In addition to false teachings in them including prayers for the dead and alms as contributing to salvation, you'll see from this lesson how on the basis of their manuscript history alone, they have no place in the canonical Old Testament. For links to the video on this, notes and the chart that goes with it, click this link: https://wp.me/pazrJD-xh For many more resources to help you know, trust, and apply the Bible, go to www.Bible805.com --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/yvon-prehn8/support
For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.This a well-known passage, even though it is not in the original manuscripts of John's gospel.This pericope is not written in the style of John, nor is it original to John.It is missing from the earliest Greek manuscripts of John. Of course this was the original language of the gospel, and evidence here should be weighed most heavily.It is missing also from the oldest Syriac manuscripts.The passage is found in the following manuscripts, though often with an asterisk or obelisk, indicating doubt as to its authenticity:The later Koine Greek manuscripts.The Latin Vulgate (c.400 AD) and some Old Latin manuscripts.The Ethiopic version.The writings of Augustine and Ambrose (c.400 AD).Codex D.It often does not appear at its present position. Other locations include:Following Luke 21:38.After John 7:36.After John 7:44.After 21:25.No eastern commentator mentions the passage before the 10th century, and no Greek commentator mentions the passage before the 12th century.Still, it rings true, is of early origin, and is therefore is found in most Bibles. Few scholars believe the account to misrepresent Jesus, even if it was not originally in its present location in John.[53 Then each of them went home, 8:1 while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.As was Jesus' custom during the feasts, he taught in the day and stayed evenings somewhere on the Mount of Olives (v.1). He probably enjoyed the hospitality of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. (Search your concordance under Bethany.)The venue for his teaching was the temple complex. (And by forgiving the adulteress, he was challenging, "usurping," the authority of the priests.)The time was early morning, before the heat of the day.He taught in the seated position (v.2), which was the normal posture of a rabbi with his disciples.3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.Then comes the shocking interruption (v.3).The question, and the arrest of the woman, seem staged.Since adultery takes place in secret, it is likely that the accusers had been waiting (and hoping) for the transgression to take place. Their posturing, like the adultery itself, was premeditated.Only the woman has been brought in, despite the implicit charge that the man had been present (v.4).The accusers have little concern for her.Their aim is only to trap Jesus.Would Jesus then contradict himself, or the Mosaic law?Here is the trap (vv.5-6).Jesus advocated compassion. He forbade us even to hate our enemies. He had intimated that the new covenant was in the process of being inaugurated -- that the old law might not apply anymore.And yet the Torah required the death penalty for both parties (Leviticus 20:10).Would contradict the Torah, or his own teaching?Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. 9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."]Masterfully, Jesus extricates both himself and the woman from the dilemma.His reply is perfectly suited to the occasion. Jesus was always an excellent thinker on his feet.About Jesus' writing in the dirt:Many have speculated what word(s) -- if any -- he wrote.He seems to be deflecting the attention from the woman and her accusers -- perhaps regaining control of the situation.Acknowledging the demand of the law for adulterers ("Let anyone without sin cast the first stone...") while confronting all present with their own sin (and potential hypocrisy in judging her) (v.7ff).Everyone in the group is challenged!The older in the crowd, realizing that Jesus occupies the moral high ground and will not be trapped, walk away.The younger in the crowd, less savvy and more moralistic, linger longer, but they too in the end leave the scene.The accusers apparently depart as well.In the end, only two persons remain.While offering her divine forgiveness, Jesus hardly condones her immorality. "Sin no more" (v.11).The heart-warming vignette demonstrates the church's attitude towards erring members.Sin will not be taken lightly, yet...... forgiveness is always available -- if there is repentance.ConclusionAlthough most NT scholars reject the story as original in the fourth gospel, they are also of one mind in accepting its veracity.It is perfectly in character with what we know of Jesus and his attitude towards sin/sinners.It is unlikely to be an invention of the later church, since in the second century sin was dealt with much more harshly than it is in this passage.Some early Christian preserved the story, and some early copyist of John placed it between chapters 7 and 8, probably because it seemed a good fit (verses about judgment, tensions between Jesus and the Pharisees).This passage is one of several understood by early Christians to forbid capital punishment.For example, consider the words of Lactantius (c.290-300 AD): When God forbids us to kill, he not only prohibits the violence that is condemned by public laws, but he also forbids the violence that is deemed lawful by men. Thus it is not lawful for a just man to engage in warfare, since his warfare is injustice itself. Nor is it [lawful] to accuse anyone of a capital offense. It makes no difference whether you put a man to death by word, or by the sword. It is the act of putting to death itself which is prohibited. Therefore, regarding this precept of God there should be no exception at all. Rather it is always unlawful to put to death a man, whom God willed to be a sacred creature.For more on this, see my article on The Death Penalty, or the various lessons on crime and punishment. Had I been present, which of the characters in this story would I have been: an older person, a younger person, the woman, or the accusers?
Sermon by Steve Sweigart Pilate asked Jesus "What is truth?" How do we know what is truth and how did we get our version of the Bible? Early writing, translating, and copying was extremely labor intensive. The Greek Septuagint was the early Bible for the common man and the early church. The Latin Vulgate was a Latin translation for the rich and the elite and became the official translation of the Roman Catholic Church. William Tyndale and John Wycliffe each translated the Bible into English. In 1604, King James authorized 54 scholars to create the King James Bible we use to this day.
Question Time Stamps for Quick Reference: 0:00 - Introduction 1. 1:29 [Is Salvation Applied to All Mankind?] Since Jesus died to save all of mankind, won't everyone be saved regardless of whether or not they place their faith in Christ, just like how gravity still works on everyone whether they believe in it or not? 2. 6:47 [About Energy & the Kalam] Why couldn't energy be infinite, considering that we (as Christians) believe in an infinite God? The reason I'm asking is because the biggest Atheist objection I get to the Kalam while evangelizing is that 1. Energy can create a universe (quantum fluctuations) and 2. Energy may be constant (infinite). Can you object to these claims thoughtfully? 3. 10:18 [How can Jesus “become” sin?] The Bible says that Jesus “became sin who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). You also mentioned it at times in your videos. How can Jesus become sin? 4. 15:08 [About Jerome, Latin Vulgate, Changes] Around 400 A.D., what were the biggest changes in doctrine that Jerome introduced in his first Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, and how did they differ from the original Gospel? 5. 18:55 [What does “impure” mean in Ephesians?] What does Paul mean, specifically, by "impure" in Ephesians 5:5? I can't find anything at all that clearly defines this. I would love to know what Paul, as a Jew, meant exactly by this term. 6. 25:23 [Advice while “Waiting on the Lord”] I'm currently in a season of "waiting on the Lord" to know what He wants me to do with my life. Any advice for someone in this season? 7. 28:20 [Can Christians Serve in Government Roles?] Can a Christian be called to be a governing authority talked about in Romans 13:1 with all that such a role would demand? Does it conflict or contradict with Romans 12:17 onwards? 8. 32:07 [What does Idolatry Look Like Today?] What would you say is modern day idolatry? I spend way more time on Christian YouTube channels and my phone than I do reading the Bible or praying. Do you get concerned that people may idolize you? 9. 38:37 [About Unclean Food/Items] In Mark 7: 14-19, why does Jesus seem appalled that the Jews believe that touching or eating certain things could make them unclean, given Leviticus 5:2-6 and Leviticus 11? This concept came from God. 10. 44:21 [Why Would God Give Multiple Wives?] It's often said that God does not affirm polygamy in the Old Testament, but 2 Samuel 12:8 seems to refute that. Why would God give multiple wives to David if he opposes polygamy? 11. 51:05 [When Were the Angels Created?] Were angels created on day 1 (with the heavens and all the hosts in them? (Nehemiah 9-6) Genesis 1 is not as clear. Are the hosts the angels? 12. 54:03 [How to Lovingly Correct Others] When discussing “correcting each other” in Bible studies (eg. Galatians 6:1, Matthew 18: 15), people mostly focus on when/why we shouldn't admonish someone. What does loving and appropriate discipline look like? 13. 59:33 [How do we Biblically Love Ourselves?] How can I love myself biblically? Any advice or Scripture? I feel like I hate myself sometimes. 14. 1:04:54 [Help with Reaching Atheist Family Members] Most of my friends and family are atheists and don't take any argument for God seriously. How can I reach them in a way that they will listen and start to take Christianity seriously? 15. 1:06:38 [Biblical Thoughts about Birth Control] What is a biblical perspective on married believers using birth control or permanent measures (e.g. a vasectomy)? Heard some say no based on Genesis 38 and Psalm 139. 16. 1:09:40 [Why did God Allow Satan into the Garden?] Why would a God who hates evil place evil incarnate (Satan) into the garden, when the world was still good and sinless, knowing it would lead to the corruption of humans? 17. 1:12:39 [Does Judas have a Throne?] In Matthew 19: 28, Jesus told His twelve disciples that they will have twelve thrones of judgment to judge the twelve tribes in the future. Does Judas still have a throne? 18. 1:16:17 [Why is Jesus C