Dake Bible Discussion BoardHow a little word can change Scripture!

General Discussion Forum devoted to the study of God's Word in Honor of Finis J. Dake.
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titus213
Do Good to Them that Hate You
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Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:45 pm

How a little word can change Scripture!

Post by titus213 »

I do an email Bible Q&A for the folks at my church, who may feel funny asking me a question personally (thinking they will look stupid or something) or may just not have the time to listen to my answer (since my wife says I tend to be long-winded).

Here's one I just got this week, and I share it because it shows how one little word added to what the Bible actually says can make a HUGE difference. In this case, it is a cult which is the culprit:

Question: I have a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness. She believes that Christ is not God because He was the first creation Jehovah created, and uses these verses to prove it:

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation

Revelation 3:14 These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God

What are these verses telling us about Christ?
- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -- - - - -
Answer:
When John is told that Christ is the “Beginning” of the creation of God, it marks Jesus out as the very one by whom God created the universe. It harks back to Proverbs 8:22 and to “in the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 and John 1:3. He is the one who began creating all things in the very beginning. It does not even hint at the idea that Christ Himself WAS the beginning of God's creation, but that He began God's creative work.

In Colossians 1:15 Christ is called the “firstborn” for two reasons:

(a) He existed before all creation, just as the firstborn child exists before the rest of the family . . . it’s the same idea as expressed in verse 17 where we read “He is before all things”

(b) because Jesus is the Father’s firstborn, all creation is His inheritance, just as the firstborn son was the inheritor of the family fortune.

So the point is that the word “firstborn” signifies both first in existence and also first in authority. The one “in whom all things were created” (v.16) is not Himself a part of all created things! If He were, we would expect to see Paul write something like “in Him all other things were created”. And in fact, that is exactly how the New World Translation (the Jehovah’s Witness Bible) reads! They modify v. 16 to agree with their system by inserting the word “other”! That is clearly not the meaning of the original language, and has no basis at all in any manuscript of the New Testament.



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Ironman
Fast the Chosen Fast of God... Then Shalt Thou Be Like a Spring of Water, Whose Waters Fail Not
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Re: How a little word can change Scripture!

Post by Ironman »

Hi Titus.

And,

1 Corinthians 15:20, "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept."

Christs resurrection is a fact and the guarantee of the resurrection of all other men. The Word, John. 1:1, divested Himself of His Divinity, John 14, became a man so that He could die for men, V 21, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. V 22, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

He was the first man to die and be raised an enter Heaven. He led captivity captive; Ephesians 4:8, Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.


Galatians 4: 16, Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Michael Evans

Re: How a little word can change Scripture!

Post by Michael Evans »

All false cults deny the deity of Christ ( and that Hell is endless and inescapable once you are cast into it).
Jesus warned "If ye do not believe that I AM, ye shall die in your sins".
Deceived people do not "rightly divide the Word of Truth". You could not interpret those scriptures as saying Jesus is a created being if you looked at them in the light of scriptures such as "Before Abraham was, I AM" and Thomas' confession of "My Lord and my God!". In the same manner, 'Jesus Only' people misinterpret Jesus' title of "everlasting Father" by not viewing it in the light of other scriptures which clearly show Jesus and the Father are not the same person but could operate separately(eg. "not my will but thy will be done"). Like the people dominated by religious spirits in Jesus' day: "They err, knowing not the scriptures nor the power of God"



titus213
Do Good to Them that Hate You
Posts: 470
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:45 pm

Re: How a little word can change Scripture!

Post by titus213 »

That's right! The principle of comparing Scripture with Scripture. To me that is one of the great advantages of the DARB. It is a tool which helps us to do just that.

As Dake explains:

"The Bible is not a book of systematic discourses on any one subject, but it does give divine information on practically every subject. One must collect together, from here and there, all God's information through various writers, in order to know the whole truth. When this is done there is perfect harmony, and everything which a man really needs to know about a subject is clear."

and

"The Bible is not a book that says one thing and means another. Generally, the passages have one simple meaning. In the few which have a double meaning, this fact is quite clear, either from the verses themselves or from parallel passages. One cannot, as is sometimes said, get a thousand different meanings from the Scriptures."



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