Weekly Devotional 4-1-19
Has God Changed His Message? Follow-up
Our devotional “Has God Changed His Message?” dated 3-18-19, has generated so many responses, many positive and some negative, that we feel it necessary to restate what we said. “God does not change His message. Never has and never will.” There were many affirmations of this truth, but there were a few who responded negatively. Each negative remark fed off the remarks of a previous responder. They began with a challenge to our usage of the New King James Bible (NKJB) in our Scripture postings. The challenge was that the NKJB has eliminated several words found in the King James Bible (KJB). That challenge is accurate. This led to challenges against other versions of the Bible used by various ones. All of these challenges do not change the fact that God does not change His message. He said what He meant and meant what He said. It is man that changes what God said.
Personally, I believe that the KJB does record what God through His prophets said, what Jesus said, and what He inspired His apostles to write accurately enough to convey God’s message. I also personally believe that He has protected His word in this translation. I also believe that the NKJB can be trusted even though several words have been dropped or changed. In my personal evangelism I have used both translations in witnessing to others with positive results. Many have been added to the Kingdom of God and to the church through these texts. This is also true of others who have used these translations. Granted, there are many translations and paraphrased versions that have greatly distorted God’s word, but let me say again, God has not changed His message. This was the point of the devotional.
But consider: Does a person become injurious to another when he or she cast doubt on God’s word? Wouldn’t it be better to encourage someone to read and trust the Bible rather than claim that it can’t be trusted? Perhaps it would be better if each one of us who have been Christians for any amount of time, in our own private studies, affirm to ourselves the correctness of the version we are using. If the version we are using has strayed so far that we can’t encourage others with it, then we should stop using it. Perhaps we should even warn others about its inaccuracies, but not without a full explanation. We should confirm to them that God has not changed His message. We are going to be held accountable for the way we handle God’s word and what we say about it and Him. Each of us should come before the throne of grace daily asking God to illuminate His word to us committing ourselves to following that illumination. We should not and we must not follow our own preconceived ideas. If we center on the truth that God’s word is all about Jesus Christ from cover to cover, we will be on, and stay on, the right path.
Submitted in Christian love of you all.
Steve
stevelampman@comcast.net stevelampman.com
Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man