by: Stephen Shutt
2 Timothy 3:14-17 – “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
This passage of Scripture has been fiercely debated for over 150 years, and most notably so within the past 50 years with the arrival of so many different English Bibles. While this issue has been dealt with frequently, and I have no doubt that many of you understand the importance of having a perfect Bible, I do wonder if we realize what exactly it is that we have. In my own life, I often take this holy book for granted…knowing that its origins are Divine, but not really believing it enough to act upon its precepts. The part that often troubled me was not the fact that God gave me a book and told me to read it that I may know Him and His love, but that He literally chose every single Word on every single page. Sure, that sounds odd; but think about it, God himself chose every Word that would be placed before you and I when we pick up our Bible.
I am very aware that many good men have thrown this idea out there, and have not really taken it seriously – especially when it comes to our English King James Bible. But think about this very thing for just a few moments: God not only chose the words that were first spoken by the prophets, scribes, kings, and the disciples/apostles; He chose the very words of the people who would later write them out – sometimes hundreds, if not thousands of years after the fact – in exact and precise detail. Think about the awesomeness of that! Now add to it the fact that many of the things we read of in Book of Genesis were not originally spoken in Hebrew…but were spoken in a completely different language (as is the case of Joseph’s revelation of himself to his brethren; the Bible says that he spoke through an interpreter in Genesis 42:23).
God chose every word spoken by Paul, and then chose every single word transcribed by Tertius when it was sent to the church in Rome (which would have been a Latin speaking church). He chose the very words of the first missionaries who brought the Gospel to Africa, and to Europe in the 2nd century. He chose every single Word that is held within the text of your Authorized King James Bible. He was as much in charge of the English words as He was in charge of the original words.
Have you ever watched a master penman write? Look it up on YouTube or some similar technology when you have a moment. That master penman already has the completed picture in his mind of what he wants to write. He already sees the style, the skips of the pen over the parchment, the texture of the ink, the color of the ink, and the type of pen that will best complete his dream and bring his vision to life. No pen can argue with the master penman over why he was chosen for that task. The job of the pen is to simply be ready to be used, and to be used as the master penman sees fit. There are parchments that certain ink pens do very well with, while they do poorly with others. However, a master penman may well choose a pen noted for its bad qualities, and turn those “failings” into a completely unique and beautiful masterpiece that nobody would have believed possible. All the while, the penman is in complete control over every movement the pen makes.
In the same fashion, the Master Penman chose each writer and translator down through history to bring forth and refine His vision, and to bring it to life. The sweet indwelling Spirit of the Master Penman is like the ink that fills the earthly pen, and it paints the same picture every single time – no matter the parchment type, or the color of the ink. Each says the same thing, because each is moved and divinely guarded by the same power that caused its very existence. Nothing is diminished because of the variant texture of the parchments used, or because of the different pens. It is all checked, weighed, measured, and refined by the Master. Every Word is God’s. Every stroke of the pen is His doing – no matter the language into which is written.
When a preacher states that what the reader has in their hand is not exact, he has demoted and denigrated its authority and position in that person’s life. At the exact same moment, that preacher has inferred that what he has is the very Word of God (or at the very least, he has enough learning to know where to look for it), and thus the person hearing him should trust in his understanding and learning to provide the literal words of God to those poor uneducated people. It is yet another dividing line between the ‘educated’ clergy and the ‘unlearned’ laity. They can’t really know what that passage means because it’s not really the “literal” word that God wanted them to have.
My brethren, please do not be offended at the over-simplicity of this article on such a delicate and important topic. That being said, it is high time that we stop trying to complicate the clear Word of the living God with the complicated theories of men from a certain school, church, educational background or even a certain generational arena. If we say the King James Bible is the Word of God, then it stands to reason that every Word within it is God’s. To say that a word “literally” means something other than the word used and the context in which is used, is to say that God didn’t do a very good job in telling us exactly what He meant and precisely what we needed to know.
If God said it, then preach it – all of it. Tell the people what “thus saith the Lord,” not what “thus saith [insert your favorite preacher’s name].” Even if your favorite preacher agrees with the Word of God, you are to preach the Word of God first…nothing else matters. When you get to the part that clearly deals with a specific subject, you are to preach it – all of it, in its clear context. When you find that something you have believed for a long time cannot be supported with Scripture, you are to preach what the Bible says about it – exactly what it says, regardless of what others will think or say. Allow Scripture to dictate where you take your message, and your life inside and outside the pulpit. Trust in the God Who saved you, and just preach His Word – exactly as it reads – and be faithful to every Word the Bible holds. You will find that it is by far more effective when the people in your church can take their Bible home and see the same thing you preached, without having to refer to the notes from your sermon.
Stephen Shutt