What Bible translations do you recommend?

Posted on October 10, 2022 by RC

It is a good thing that so many Christians love the Bible. It may not be such a good thing that Christians love their Bibles. That is, debating the relative merits of this translation over that can get rather emotional, and swiftly. Please take what follows in the spirit it is intended. I am simply making some broad suggestions, not saying your conversion was false because it all started when you read Good News for Modern Man or some such thing. I’m simply trying to give guidelines, not arguing that we measure one another’s piety by which Bible we use.

There are at least five distinct issues related to Bible translations. The one that receives the most press is the source manuscripts. There are two competing sets of manuscript families, an older set, and a larger set. As you might guess, those who prefer the older set argue that it must be more true to the original because it is older, whereas the other group argues that the larger set must be more faithful because it is larger. In my estimation this argument is grossly overblown, as are the distinctions between the two text families. It takes a brain much larger than mine to figure out which is better.

The biggest issue for me is the translation philosophy. There is a continuum among philosophies with a literal, word by word translation on one end, and a Bible paraphrase on the other end. I am rather strongly on the side of the former and opposed to the latter. I understand the motives that bring us The Message, or the Ebonics Bible. But it’s a bad idea. The further you move away from word for word translation, the more room you leave for interpretation, rather than translation.

The third issue is beauty. Which translation in its form best befits its content? This too is one of the weaknesses of most paraphrases. Ironically, in trying to make the Bible more readable they make it instead more pedestrian. This is likewise a weakness that shows up the more we push toward word for word equivalency. The most “faithful” translation often will clank, artistically speaking.

The fourth issue is one of authority. The hard reality is that in our day, Bible translations are important to the long-term financial health of publishing companies. Some companies, it seems, in defense of their bottom lines, have added to the already crowded alphabet soup of Bible translations. Should the Bible be in the hands of publically traded companies? How about parachurch organizations? Some have argued that the church alone has the authority to translate the Bible.

The fifth issue is history. That is, which Bible translation fits best into the life of the church over the centuries? Is it not jarring to read, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want?” I believe there is great value in having a translation that has inspired our hymnody. I believe there is a profound blessing for me to memorize the same words that my grandparents memorized when they were small.

Different translations might score higher than others in one category above, but lower than others in another. No one Bible gets five stars in every category. That said, it is possible, if not wise, to use different translations for different contexts. For example, the New American Standard alone earns five stars on word for word translation. But it earns no stars for beauty. If I find myself in a situation where I need a level of precision that is high, but too low to go to an inter-linear Bible, I pick up my NASB. Otherwise, it stays on my shelf.

In like manner, the King James Bible scores points on the issue of history, and on beauty. But the anachronisms in the language are a real barrier to me. It tops the list on authority, but even there it is sketchy. An angry, and likely light in his loafers king, it seems to me, shouldn’t have the ability to supplant a perfectly good Bible like the Geneva Bible.

In the end, and on balance, my favorite for most circumstances is the New King James Bible. It scores high on history, without getting me confused. It scores high on beauty, without losing fidelity to the original text. It scores high, though not the highest, on word for word translation, while still communicating the gravity of its subject. Even on the issue of competing text families it does well as it usually includes parenthetically alternate readings in the older texts. The English Standard Version runs a close second for me. Then the Geneva Bible. This is how I approach the question, but it does not, to borrow a phrase, determine the boundaries of my fellowship.

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Voting for Death

Posted on October 7, 2022 by RC

It’s a common enough fallacy, tu quoque. It means simply, “You too.” If we are talking about something I’ve done wrong and I point out that you have done the same such has zero bearing on the wrongness of what I’d done. It may take you down a peg or two, but that’s about it. As with so many informal fallacies, social media proves to be fertile soil for such hornswaggle. Every day some conservative points out something terrible the Biden administration is doing and then some liberal throws out some wrongdoing of former President Trump. Little is served by this, except perhaps revealing our priorities.

With mid-term elections less than a month away Christians are once again arguing about whether it is permissible to vote Democratic, and whether the GOP is God’s Only Party. My own view is not as radical as some. I believe a believer can vote for a democrat. That said, I also believe a believer can commit war crimes. Believers are able to perform all sorts of wicked deeds. We are, after all, sinners. But a believer should not vote for any member of a party that is publicly committed to ensuring babies can legally be murdered. To do so is an affront to the God whose image all babies bear.

Not long ago Christians advocating for democrats took this approach- because Roe v. Wade is enshrined law, and the President has little impact on it, we can set that issue aside when deciding for whom we will vote. Today, Roe v. Wade is not enshrined law. Today who we vote for will have a tremendous impact on the lives, or deaths, of millions. So all these misguided Christians are backpedaling, affirming that, of course this election you can’t vote for a democrat. Too many babies’ lives are at stake.

Except no one is backpedaling. Instead, they are doubling down, and resting their arguments on tu quoque. It’s fine to vote for the death party because supposedly the other party is the insurrection party. It’s fine to vote for the death party because supposedly the other party is the poor hating party. It’s fine to vote for the death party because the other party is mean. All of which reveals not merely a fallacy but a sick and twisted set of priorities. Christians vote for the death party because they are worldly fools in open insurrection against the Word of God, haters of the poorest of the poor, the unborn, and not merely mean but cruel and sadistic.

It is time for all of us to repent. Most of us have voted for candidates who promise to protect the “right” of some mothers to kill some babies. Not a one of us has done what we ought to protect the babies. Not a one of us have valued them as our heavenly Father values them. The universality of our guilt, however, doesn’t erase it. The point isn’t, “We’re all guilty, so it’s no big deal.” Rather the point is, “We’re all guilty, and that’s a big deal.” The solution, according to God’s Word, is repentance. He promises that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Friends, do not argue with those who argue voting for the death party is morally acceptable. Simply call them to repent. Lest you become fools like them.

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, apologetics, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, philosophy, politics, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pulling Up Roots

Posted on October 6, 2022 by RC

I confess I was surprised to find it there, one of those evangelical catch phrases that unbelievers don’t understand. I’d heard people confess to the problem, warn about its destructive nature, accuse others of being in its grip- the root of bitterness. And there it was, right in Hebrews 12. I’d read Hebrews many times before, even preached from it multiple times. Somehow I missed this. Had you asked me I would have guessed either the expression came from some Christian counselor or Puritan, or that if it was in the Bible, it would be found in Proverbs.

Hebrews, of course, is written to encourage believing Jews not to turn their back on Jesus to go back to the Egypt of Judaism. Hebrews 12 begins with a “therefore,” followed by instructions for godliness before ending on the glory of our worship. It seems strange to me right in the middle of this we find the warning about roots of bitterness. Until we realize their true nature.

It is perfectly fitting that we would recognize a distinction between horizontal relationships and vertical. Joseph grasped this when he told his fearful brothers regarding their sin against him, “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). In our horizontal relationships we have sinners interacting with sinners. We have wrongdoers doing wrong to wrongdoers who do wrong back. Bitterness in that context half-way makes sense. We are genuinely wronged. But we all genuinely do wrong. In our vertical relationship, however, we are sinners interacting with a holy God. He never does wrong. We never do right. Bitterness in this context half-way makes sense. That is, were God to be bitter toward us.

This distinction between the horizontal and the vertical must never lose sight of the connection between the two. Because God is sovereign, everything we experience from other sinners on the horizontal plane is something He has ordained on the vertical plane. When we forget we find ourselves planting bitter seeds against our Father who loves us. Joseph was able to forgive the genuine wrong of his brothers because of his genuine trust in his Father in heaven.

The recipients of the letter of Hebrews were wrongly rejected by their families and their communities. They were excluded from the temple, banished from their synagogues, shunned by their kin, all for simply recognizing that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Who wouldn’t be tempted toward bitterness against those who were doing the rejecting? The danger, however, was that such bitterness would, in the mind of the wronged, implicate the Almighty. How could God allow all this hardship to befall those who are seeking to follow Jesus?

Because that’s what it means to follow Jesus. When we see the faith as a ticket to the good life, when we see our embracing of Christ as a sacrifice we make for His sake, bitterness lurks at the door. When, however, we remember what is our just due, when we remember our calling to pick up our cross daily and die to self, we not only escape the dangerous folly of being bitter toward God but escape the corrosive folly of being bitter toward others. The Hebrews, and we, Gentile children of Abraham, would be wise to remember what we are in ourselves, who we are in Christ, and how much our heavenly Father loves us.

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Sacred Marriage, Hindered Prayers; Jesus’ Temptation & More

Posted on October 5, 2022 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Last Night’s Look at God’s Promise to Forgive and Cleanse

Posted on October 4, 2022 by RC

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I Will Sing an Old Song

Posted on October 4, 2022 by RC

Trouble comes to the people of God. If it is not here now, it will be here soon. Those who promise that the Christian life is a breezy walk through the meadow not only have not taken up their cross and followed Him, but, I fear, He may not have taken up His cross for them. Our walk, according to His Word, will be fraught with peril, our days filled with troubles. His yoke is indeed easy, and His burden light. But we follow Him on the via dolorosa. Praise God that He has not left us wandering in the dark. When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us. He has told us troubles will come, and He has told us how we ought to respond.

Take, for instance, the life of David. He was the original renaissance man, a man of deep and varied talents. Were we to look at his life with rose-colored glasses, we might think he moved from victory to victory. We might remember the killing of the bear and the lion, the service to King Saul, the astonishing victory over Goliath of Gath. We might recall the cries of his countrymen who sang, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7). He was made king over all Israel, expanded her borders, and established his throne in Jerusalem. He was the father to the wisest man, short of Jesus, ever to walk on the planet, a son whose rule is the very picture of the pinnacle of blessing. He was, and this surpasses all of the above, a man after God’s own heart.

Such an account of the life of David shows some glaring holes. First, there he was tending the flock, and a bear came after them, and at another time a lion. The king that he served was at best a mad man, given to fits of rage. Facing Goliath was no picnic, nor could it have been easy to go so often into battle throughout his life. Saul killed his thousands, but his special target was David, leading him to flee for his life and live in exile in Egypt. His own son toppled him from his throne, and in the end, his hands were too bloody to allow him to build the temple of the Lord. David’s highs and lows were as varied as his talents.

David’s greatest influence over the ages, however, is found in none of the above. He was a great warrior. He was, for the most part, a model king. He was an outstanding shepherd. But it is his lyrics that still shape the world. The truth of the matter is not only that the Christian’s life is much like David’s, with both breathtaking highs and soul-numbing lows, but that the life of the church is the same. The church of Jesus Christ has had, over the millennia, moments of grand triumph and episodes of grave sin. Whether it be the conquering sword of Islam or the steady decay of the Roman empire; whether it be feuding barbarian hordes or feuding clerical factions, the church has not moved from triumph to triumph. It has moved, however, under the care of the great shepherd of the sheep. And she goes on her way singing the wisdom of David (Ps. 20:1–4):

May the Lord answer you in
the day of trouble!
May the name of the God
of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help
from the sanctuary and
give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your
offerings, and regard with
favor your burnt sacrifices!
May He grant you your heart’s
desire, and fulfill all your plans.

This blessed hope, however, is no mere hope. He delivers in the day of trouble precisely because He is the author of the day of trouble. He sends the trouble and the deliverance for the same purpose, to strengthen us, to grant our hearts’ desire, to fulfill all our purpose, that we would be like the One whom He remembers, Jesus His Son.

In times of trouble, which the church faces now and will face again, David tells us that “we will rejoice in Your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.” He calls us not to fear, not to worry, but to seek first the kingdom of God (Ps. 20:6):

Now I know that the Lord
saves His anointed; he will
answer him from His holy
heaven with the saving might
of His right hand.

In times of trouble, which the church faces now and will face again, David tells us that we must look to the resurrection. The Lord has saved His anointed, and in Him, He saves us. So we will walk as the fools (Ps. 20:7–8):

Some trust in chariots, and some
in horses, but we trust in the
name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

David’s wise son told us that there is nothing new under the sun. Troubles — like those in poverty — we will have with us always. But the son of David reigns on high. And He shall reign for ever and ever. Thus we cry out in times of need, “Save, Lord!”
May the King answer us when we call.

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What is “second degree separation”?

Posted on October 3, 2022 by RC

When it comes to the fundamentals of the faith, I’m grateful to be considered a fundamentalist. I’d suggest the defining distinction between fundamentalists and evangelicals is that evangelicals have an aching hole in their souls that longs for the world’s approval. To their credit, fundamentalists just don’t care. Good on them I say. That distinction, however, is not the only one there is. At least one distinction is a strike against fundamentalism.

Fundamentalists have long practiced what is called “second degree separation.” This is an ethic that suggests that a person is not only guilty for all that they have done, said or felt, but that they are guilty for all that those they are willing to work with have done, said or felt. TD Jakes is outside the circle of the acceptable because he embraces a form of heresy known as modalism. That should be clear to all. A fundamentalist, however, would put outside the circle anyone with an orthodox view of the trinity that doesn’t put TD Jakes outside the circle. If you’re not completely for us, they argue, you are completely against us.

Don’t misunderstand. Any evangelical that is unphased by the modalist heresy is foolish, wrong, in a dangerous place and likely soft. Any evangelical should be able to say the same thing. Second degree separation, however, finds the evangelical unphased by another’s modalism guilty of that which does not phase them. The unphased evangelical is drawn outside the circle by the fundamentalist.

Perhaps the strange case of Outside the Camp will help make this more clear. Outside the Camp is a tiny splinter group of professing believers who claim to believe in God’s sovereignty over all things, that see themselves as Calvinists. But we’ve just gotten started. The OTC crew also believes that those who do not believe in Calvinism cannot be saved. They believe that Arminians will go to hell when they die. But wait, there’s more. As if this weren’t bad enough, step three is where it gets truly bizarre. According to Outside the Camp, not only must one rest in the finished work of Christ alone in order to be saved, not only must one rest in Christ but also must be a Calvinist to be saved, but one must believe that one must rest in the finished work of Christ and be a Calvinist but one must believe one must believe in Calvinism in order to be saved, in order to be saved. Clear?

To put it another way, to these poor, misguided souls, people like Calvin, Zwingli, the Puritans, Edwards, Hodge, Warfield, Hodge, Machen, Sproul are all in hell because they, while believing in Calvinism, don’t believe believing Calvinism is strictly necessary. That’s not a good place to be, not a good position to take.

Please note- I’m not confusing fundamentalism with the Outside the Camp camp. Each, I’m sure, repudiates the other. They do, however, have this second degree separation concept in common with each other. Note this as well. If you’re a fundamentalist practicing second degree separation, I’ll disagree with you, but as a brother in Christ.

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Sacred Marriage, Weaker Vessels; Hurricane Ian and God

Posted on September 30, 2022 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Pluralism

Posted on September 29, 2022 by RC

There is no such thing as the “More Party.” They do not run campaigns seeking to unseat sitting officials of the “Less Party.” Both “more” and “less” need more context and less ambiguity. We need to know what we are getting more or less of. In like manner, the question of pluralism begs a previous question — plural what? What is it the pluralists want more of? On the surface it might seem that what they want more of is religions. One religion isn’t enough. We need to construct, according to these people, a world with plenty of room for Hindus and Hottentots, for Muslims and Mormons, for Buddhists and Baptists. When we look deeper, however, we run headlong into an inescapable spiritual reality, that every religion in the end is all about authority. What they want is multiple authorities. If there is, in the end, only one authority, and I am not that authority, then I am under authority. But, if there are lots of authorities, which is another way of saying there is no authority, then I am free to rule my own world. Then there is not only room for Shintoism, but for Sheila-ism. There is not only room for Roman Catholicism, but for R.C. Sproulicism.

When the apostle Paul writes in Romans 1 that the natural man suppresses the knowledge of God in unrighteousness, that he denies what he knows, we understand that he does this so that he might continue to sin without fear of reprisal. The natural man constructs a view of the world wherein he never need dread facing the judgment of God. This construct not only will actually require the facing of the judgment of God, but is in fact already a judgment of God. It is the very foolishness that God gives their minds over to.

But what about us? Pluralism isn’t the exclusive province of the unbeliever. We who profess the lordship of Christ, more often than not, in turn find pluralism appealing. We who have been given new hearts presumably are about the business of putting to death our desire for self-rule. We ought, it would seem, to be of the “Less Party.” I fear our motives are scarcely more honorable than our unbelieving friends’ motives. It is a different twist on the question of authority. They will not affirm the lordship of Christ over them because they fear that Christ will reign over them. We are fearful of affirming the lordship of Christ over all things, including our neighbors, because we are afraid of our neighbors ruling over us. Pluralism is a half-hearted attempt at a compromise of convenience — we won’t condemn you if you won’t condemn us. We won’t say you are wrong, if you won’t say that we are wrong. We won’t find your views backwards and repugnant, if you won’t find our views backwards and repugnant. What a deal. And all it costs us is the central and first affirmation of our own faith: Jesus is Lord. All we have to give up to win peace with our neighbors is the proclamation of the Gospel.

Jesus is all too aware of our fears. He knows how painful it is to be scorned by the broader culture. He knows what it’s like to have a single dominant religion find your religion to be foolish and superstitious. He has experience in suffering under a single monolithic power. He’s entered into this reality and conquered it. And He commands of us that we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He commands that we put our worries away, and trust in Him.

We evangelicals make the foolish mistake of thinking that when enough souls decide to make Jesus the Lord of their lives, that He will become the Lord of all things. The reality is that Jesus is already Lord over all things. His kingdom, strictly speaking, does not expand, for even now it knows no borders. He does not, therefore, engage in some sort of power sharing arrangement with other pretenders to His throne, whether they be false deities, or those who falsely worship them. His lordship is not something we accomplish. It is something we recognize and submit to. It is not something we negotiate; it is something we proclaim.

That Jesus is Lord, however, is not some grim reality that we proclaim with all the grace of a desert prophet. It is something we proclaim with all the grace of joy. It was our Lord Himself, after all, who commanded us to “Take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). It’s over. The kingdom is here, and Jesus has won. What fools we are to rush off to negotiate with the enemy to save our skins.

His victory, of course, does not mean that we rush off to kill all our enemies. It means instead that we are to love them. Our love for them must be strong enough, however, to tell them with both passion and compassion, that their hopes are in vain, that their gods are mute and dumb, and that there is only one name under heaven by which a man must be saved. Our love for them does not present the Christian Gospel as an option. It does not lead us to argue that it’s a good option that has worked well for us. Our love instead commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the Gospel, lest they perish. Our love calls on all our enemies to kiss the Son, lest He be angry and they perish along the way (Ps. 2:12).

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, Big Eva, church, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, persecution, politics, post-modernism, preaching, RC Sproul JR, sovereignty | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Blkfzmeqte?

Posted on September 28, 2022 by RC

There is an organic connection often between the sins we commit and their consequences. If you struggle with contentment, expect to see financial hardship in your future. If I struggle with gossip, I shouldn’t be surprised that people are talking about me. The same thing is true culturally as well. A culture that lives by the sword, like Russia, ought to foresee a sword at the time of its death. A culture that, so desperate to escape its own guilt that it is willing to kill truth, becomes a culture that blkfzmeqte.

What is blkfzmeqte? Great question. A culture, however, that doesn’t know what an unborn child is, what a marriage is, what a boy or a girl is, a culture that isn’t sure what is is isn’t a culture that can define anything. Thus we become a culture for which President Biden serves as its spokesperson. The gibberish that constantly comes out of his mouth isn’t merely a symptom of his age and declining capacities (truth be told I’m old enough to remember that for decades he has been an annual gold medal winner at the gaffe-alympics). It is a symptom of the politics of misinformation, the poison fruit of the sophistry tree. That the president’s public statements, when they are understandable, are regularly swiftly corrected by his handlers may be the fruit of his being a puppet. Such corrections may also come to ensure that there is no truth to answer for.

The promise of relativism, the notion that each of us can have our own truth, is supposed to be peace. It is instead chaos. The postmodern idea that all language is but a power grab is classic projection, a power grab by postmoderns to silence all others. When propositions can no longer be judged to be true or false, the words that construct those propositions, each one on its own, likewise become meaningless. It’s not just that we have to be open to others who think 2 and 2 make 5 but that 2 is now blkfzmeqte, 2 is now gimble and together they make blue.

One cannot refuse to submit to the Word and still have fruitful access to words. One cannot deny the One without sacrificing the many. One cannot say to the One who spoke all reality into existence that we will make our own reality and still be able to speak. One cannot silence others without gagging oneself.

When the President next time makes the rounds of social media for sputtering out non-logisms, do not settle for merely having a laugh at the leader of the other side of the aisle. Instead understand it is just a symptom of the great disease that is destroying the entire country, that infects both major political parties. Instead understand that his gaffe is no more nonsense than when he tells us spending solves inflation, gas prices have gone down, abortion is a woman’s right, marriage is any two people who love each other. When you’re done laughing, pray for God’s mercy on us.

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