You're listening to KFI amix on demand. Thomas, Welcome to Jesus Christ Show.
Um. I feel that you you you provide a better service, almost
better than church because you do answer questions. The church is uh, you
know, nice, but information, it's even better about scriptures. Let's hope.
Let's hope we compliment each other then about Okay, I haven't said that.
Um. You know the vast number of translations and um that we have
in the scriptures, do you feel that it negates or distorts any of the
true meaning of the words of Christ? And um, what do you um
prefer recommend for reading material? And that's and that was a beautiful segue because
you have been talking about how scriptures are read and um, and also on
your large prayer. Its my scriptures vary a little bit when it says eternal
life or forever lasting life and that kind of thing. So just to expound
on that, I've my friends and I are really up tired about this and
argue about it because I believe, I believe that the Older a New Testament
is the one, and they have the New World and the revised world and
you know anyway, well, my question the new World translation is a Jovah's
Witness translation. Okay, So there are there are differences in translations. There
are some sects, or some groups or even some some groups that people would
refer to as non Christian cults that have different Bible versions. So putting those
aside, because that's not necessarily a translation. That can be a different version,
that's a little something different. So putting those aside. If you're just
talking about the New American Standard, King James, the New King James,
the NIV. If you're talking about translations, keep in mind that the Bible
was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and a little bit of
Aramaic. There's no way for you to get the raw experience unless you learn
Greek, Ancient Greek, Ancient Hebrew, and ancient Aramaic. Everything you're going
to consume is going to be a translation. It just has to be unless
you speak those original languages. Having said that, there are people on different
continents, in different countries that speak different languages every day and communicate the very
same things you're going through today. If they have a stomach ache, they
tell someone, Hey, I have a stomach ache, they may not use
that word. Those words in English, but they will convey that very same
issue. If they're in love with somebody, we're happy to see them,
they will convey that in their language, and it will be exactly the same
as what you're conveying in English, but in their language. So the important
thing is to not get lost in the different translations and understand that everything that
comes from one language to the other language has to be understood that it was
translated. But there's ways to get around that to understand to make sure that
the version you're using is a good one. And one of the tricks you
can use is to find a verse that you know very well and to check
it in the different versions to see how they translate that verse. So if
it translates a little wonky or a little weird, then that's maybe not the
translation for you. But if it translates that verse true to how you know
it, then you can start looking at other verses in that scripture and find
them as well. Also recommend having more than one translation or laying around.
I think three is a good number, but you can have more, of
course, And that way, if you get stuck on a particular verse,
you can go look at the verse and the other translation and see if it
sheds any more light on it. But translations don't take away from scripture.
It's just a necessity of it. Every work of antiquity that was written in
different languages are translated. If you were to read Sunsu's Art of War,
it's going to be translated. If you're reading it in English, if you're
going to read Homer's Iliad, it's going to be translated. The Odyssey going
to be translated. Any of these things are going to be translated. It's
interesting, though, how when it comes to those works, nobody thinks twice
about it, but when it comes to scripture, people are like, wait
a second, how is this translated? How do I know this is right?
And so on? But there there are things that you can do.
You can read through multiple versions and get an even better picture. But it
depends what you're doing. If you're studying, you're going to want one that
is very specific to the words used and in the communication. If you're just
getting spiritual truths out of something and you just want it more of a casual
read, then you can read more of what they call paraphrase bibles. They're
more relaxed translations and they're kind of translating the ideas rather than word for word.
So it depends. Is this for studying purposes? YEA, yeah,
well there's many Many people enjoy the NAP, which is the one that my
producer Neil uses. He loves reading out of the New American Standard Bible,
and he enjoys the NIV. But there's different versions. This is another thing
the Bible scholars don't tell you. In Bible, printers and publishers don't tell
you is there there's different versions as well. If you go back, you
can find that there are different copyright dates on like the NIV because changes have
been made as they've looked through different things, or they've found different better understanding
of certain words or things like that, they'll be corrected or they'll be modified,
and there'll be a new version that will be They don't say, hey,
it's the NIV or whatever two point zero, but technically it ends up
being that way. The key is is remembering that in the process of studying,
to cross reference things and really try and understand through. You know,
more versions as well, Like I said, a casual version, a more
word for word version like the NASB that if you're going to do word studies.
I suggest something like that NIV is a nice split between the two where
you get a nice read, but a very accurate read as well, and
you have a couple of these laying around and you can get a really really
good picture. They'll all give you a good picture, but sometimes if one's
a little clearer, you can look it up there and clarify something that maybe
you were confused on before. So the key is to cross reference and take
deeper to find out. Yeah, it really works in your favor. Some
people go, well, it caused more confusion because there's so many translations,
But on the flip side, it actually causes a lot of clarity because you're
not going to be able to run from specifics in scripture because they are so
it depends where they're coming from. There's a more recent version, the ISV
and International Standard version, and they had a particular goal in mind as well
about the communicative property of the scripture and also grabbing certain parts like in the
Old Testament that were poetic and trying to capture those poetic moments and bring them
in. So it depends what the folks is and what they're trying to convey
and you can go through and you can look at the kind of the breakdown
of why they say their translation is a little different, or this is what
we were trying to convey and what we're trying to get across in our version,
and this is why we spent the money, because it's not cheap to
go back look at the original documents and translate them into a new version.
And they usually have like a mission statement of what they were trying to accomplish
or what their main focus was, and you can look at that and that
may help you as well. Again finding a verse that you know really well
and comparing it in different versions, and you can do this online now you
can go through. My producer Neil really enjoys using the Unbound Bible. You
can find it at Unbound dot Biola dot edu. And he loves using that
because he can switch from different versions and he can look at the verse in
different versions to see if there's something that clarifies it or you know, shows
a little bit more understanding in there. So maybe you can experiment with things
like that digital versions until you find one that you feel really seems to get
the message or speak to you. Dan Welcome to the Jesus Christ, show
hi Danny there, Yes, I am okay, I help you. Well,
I have a friend who's Jewish and I was concerned to, you know,
because he believes he doesn't believe that the Christ is in miss I asked
what I was wondering, how how that projects, you know, into the
Jewish life? How how does it go with judgment? I guess what you
mean is his judgment or understanding? Are you trying to help him understand why
you believe that that I was the Messiah? Or well, well, I
guess what I'm saying is worse that worse he standing in the internity, you
know what, he stands before Christ and said, well, you know,
why didn't you accept me? You know? There there's a couple of different
views actually, and some that aren't widely understood are known by believers. But
there are some that believe that Jews are not under the New Testament or New
Covenant. They're under the First Covenant. So if they are living by the
standards of the First Covenant, then that's the covenant that was made with God
with the Jewish people. So in that case that if somebody is living by
the law, by the Jewish law, then their salvation is based on that.
Differently, there are those that believe that, and there is some some
good theology behind that as well. But if somebody doesn't believe that I'm the
Messiah, because they're they're Jewish and people, you know, and they and
they genuinely are. Like where in the Bible does it say that there are
things that can be seen? It's important and to go through Micah five two,
Genesis forty nine ten, Zachariah ninety nine, Psalm twenty two one through
thirty one, Daniel nine twenty four through twenty seven, as all of these
continue to point towards what the Messiah needs to be, what the Messiah was
going to be like, starting with being born in Bethlehem, being born from
the tribe of Judah, that would present himself by riding on an ass Zachariah
ninety nine, would be tortured to death Psalm twenty two one through thirty one.
The Messiah would arrive before the destruction of the second the Second Temple Daniel
nine twenty fourth through twenty seven. So there are things that if you were
to some people were to them as an address, some people refer to them
as an id but think about an address. If you go from you know,
you're on the Earth, then you're in the USA, then you're in
California, then you're on this street or the city this street, and you
keep whittling it down, it will point to you. And some people believe
that you can find that very thing in scripture itself. Glenn, Welcome to
the Jesus Christ Show. Thank you, Thank you very much. You're welcome.
How can I help you? Things are good in my life, A
good job, that relationships, marriage, actually three marriages, and I've always
managed to destroy them. A good job as a law enforcement officer, I
destroy you just how did you destroy it? Whether drugs involved or drinking they
were drugs involved was destroyed. Marriages and the trust. And I've been through
recovery three times and get a little time under my belt, and then I
go back and there's so many things going on in my head free will and
God knows everything, and it it made me think, what was my purpose
in life? Why did God create me? Why did he create others?
There's such a diversity. Why why were we created to what purpose? If?
If I know, it's free choice, free will and God knows the
beginning and the ending, But why why will we create it? Why couldn't?
They're just the existence of the earth without us? To what purpose?
Does that makes any sense? It absolutely does, And it's a question that
I think a lot of people wrestle with whether you're and everyone has their struggles,
Glenn. Scripture is very clear that it's a righteous man is not someone
who doesn't stumble and fall. It's someone who falls seven times and seven times
gets up. So I want to encourage you regardless, you have to keep
getting up. That's going to be the key, and that's what you need
to do. Nothing that encouraged me that you said, and I could misquoted,
but don't leave in the middle of the movie. Yeah, miss the
miraculous ending. Well, that sticks with me, and that keeps me going.
It gives me a hope. Well, I'm proud of you, and
I'm and I'm sad that there is a wake of broken marriages and jobs that
have you've been fired from or left and I'm sorry for those things and saddened
by those things, but I'm encouraged by your spirit and the fact that you're
you're persevering and pushing through. Now, as far as the theological question.
It's almost twofold because you went kind of in and out of two different places.
So first the basic pushing back to the very first, why why did
God create one at all? And the truth of the matter is simply for
God's pleasure. He wanted to. That's it. There's nothing special or that.
God was not lonely. God was not sitting there going wow, it
would be great if I had some toys. There's just nothing going on.
There was no lack of fulfillment, there was nothing. God needs nothing,
There's there was no point of necessity at all. God just simply wanted to.
And it says in Scripture and Colaussians one sixteen, for by him all
things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions, or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and
for him. That's it. Through him and for him, there's no need.
There was no nothing. So that's the basic. God wanted to create,
so he created. Now you move on to the other question of why
are you here or what is the purpose? And I guess the meaning of
life per se is We've talked about this on the show before, is simply
to utilize your gifts and your abilities along lines of excellence to the edification of
yourself, to the edification of others, to the glory of God. That's
it. So the things that you can do, you should do. The
things that you can do, you should do for good reasons, for health
of your own self. The things that you can do you should do for
the health of yourself, to the health of others and the benefit of others,
and to the benefit of yourself in a healthy manner. The things you
you can do you should do to the edification in the health of you and
the health of others, imbalance, and all of that should be done understanding
who God is and giving him on the glory. If that's it. If
I may just add to that, what I've struggled with is because that has
such success and failures, I've reached out to others. But what comes along
with that, and it's my own personal defect, is bigheadedness. What I
call bigheadedness where I start to leave my own news clippings and that takes me
off again. And that's happened, It's repeated itself over and over and over
again. And that I do struggle with well, when you get let's go
with hard headedness. Hey, when you get hard headed or bullheaded and you
push through things and want to do things your own way, that's part of
your process of growing. You need to shed those scales, and that's just
part of your your process of refinement and everything in life. Most things that
contain that beauty that are man handled, like diamonds or precious gems, or
precious metals or things like that, all of those things, even useful metals
like steel. The story of steel, I want you that's going to be
your homework, Glenn, is to go back and look at the history of
steel, how it's made, and how the biggest change for the United States
came when it had to be manufactured in bulk. It was a massive change
for the United States. It really changed the ability to build skyscrapers and all
kinds of things that one change. And if you look at that, you'll
find that that man is not dissimilar to these things. The process of refinement,
cutting the stone in such a way that it gleams the brightest, polishing,
refining, burning in the highest of heats to get the draws to come
to the top, to scrape that draws off to burn some more until you
continue to refine it to where it's the most pure it can be. And
you are in that process and will be in that process what many Christians refer
to as a whip or a work in progress, and you will be in
that progress for the entirety of your life. That's part of your existence,
and that is part of what I just explained, is to utilize your gifts
and abilities, and those gifts and abilities will be refined, refining them to
the edification of you, to the edification of others, to glory of God.
And you're going to be doing that until you take your last breath and
go home to be with the Maker. And that's your goal. That's your
job above all other jobs. That is your job is to refine yourself,
continue to become better, to be kind, and to help those that need
help. And because they're in the refining process too, everyone is thanks sir,
You're welcome. Take that and go in peace. And you spend a
little time looking reading up on the story of steel in the United States and
the refinement of that massive metal that that changed the way America works, and
see how it pertains to you as an individual in the process of molten metals
and the forging and all of those things that take place to make something sturdy
and strong and build higher each time. Yes, sorry, well that's your
homework and go in peace, Glenn, God bless you. That is that
is a tough road and to have the the skeletons of failed marriages and failed
jobs, especially a noble job like law enforcement. And I know right now
it's a that's a tough gig, and I realize that's not your gig currently,
but there are a lot of men and women out there fighting to do
that noble profession against those that don't believe it can be done, and against
those that will infiltrate the bad apples, that will infiltrate and try and spread
the disbelief the misinformation that that's what law enforcement is all about. And it
takes a lot of people down. There are a lot of good people that
try and make that work and are disheartened by the pain and the suffering in
the world and the disdain for law enforcement at times and different communities and different
parts of the world during different times. And that doesn't mean that law enforcement
is always right, certainly not. But man, there are a lot of
men and women that have broken just as you have under the weight and the
pressure of that very thing. So I use your story as an opportunity to
reach out and to ask for prayers for all involved. It's very simple.
When asked if people want to jump on sides and make things about sides,
I will tell you it is very simple. On this program, you support
the righteous. It doesn't matter what color they are, doesn't matter if they're
wearing a uniform or not wearing an uniform. You abide and live in the
law, pushing civil obedience aside, because that is a righteous form of disobey
the law and has its time and a place, just like war or anything
else, but always landing on the side of those that are righteous and abiding
by that which is best for all, not just for the individual, and
to be at peace that you stand by. When you stand by someone righteous,
you don't have to worry about the uniform or not. You say that
you stand by righteous cops, see by righteous individuals and community members. You
stand by those that want to see the community as a whole working together an
ecosystem, because I assure you, like every other ecosystem, you get rid
of the smallest participant of that ecosystem, and it gets shot, and all
of a sudden, that whole ecosystem, like a woven sweater pulled apart by
its thread, starts to unravel. But pray for those that are in that
situation, especially these days, to find their balance, to continue to hope,
and to protect those that need it. Alexa, Welcome to the Jesus
Christ Show. Hi, Hi there, How can I help you? Okay,
Well, I'm learning about evolution story now and we're talking about dinosaurs,
and well it got me thinking, why doesn't God like not talk about dinosaurs
in the Bible. Hold me a scientific evidence that they're um, that they've
been living, they were living on the Earth millions of years. Well,
there's just because the Bible doesn't talk about something doesn't mean that it didn't exist.
The Bible doesn't talk about every specific thing either, and what might be
important to humankind in that sense might not be important to the theological passage way
that God creates in scripture. So the Bible should not contradict. Now,
if the Bible said there were no dinosaurs, there'd be a problem, But
the Bible doesn't. There are actually some that believe the Bible does talk about
dinosaurs in the book of Job Job forty forty one when it talks about the
Bohemith and the Leviathan. But keep in mind that the Bible is is not
a science book, but contains science. It's not a history book per se,
but it is historical. It gives all those things, but its primary
goal and the narrative of scripture is about the relationship between God and man,
and God in each other, not God in animals of any kind. So
even it's not the Bible saying there aren't dinosaurs and your teacher is saying there
are dinosaurs, the Bible doesn't focus on them because they're not a necessity to
the story about mankind. They play an important part sort of in the scheme
of things about the planet, but not so much in the scheme of things
about God and God's relationship with man. So there are different theories ALEXA that
different theologians have as to what part they did play, and what their purpose
was and is and all of those things. But just because the Bible doesn't
say and on that day great lizards were created and all of that doesn't mean
that they didn't exist. There's a lot of things, a lot of different
animals the Bible doesn't talk about. And although they may be impressive to you,
size ability, those types of things, they wouldn't be to God.
And then unless they had a specific purpose for you and for your faith,
they don't need to be focused on. And as many believe, many scientists
believe they didn't interact with man, and if they didn't interact with man,
it's not important to the story of Man. And there are, though,
there are some people that believe they did interact with man, believe it or
not, and that's those would be people that may look at the book a
job and say, look, they interacted with Man. There there's beasts that
are talked about that are different than any other beast, which is why they're
talked about there. So it depends on your perspective, but certainly they're not
a contradiction. And remember these simple words, I am with you always,
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