Pure Cambridge Text

       What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? James 2:14.

       Surprisingly, most Fundamental Baptists answer, "yes".  It is no problem to them at all if a person professes faith but never has a single work that would indicate the presence of faith.  Their ears are deaf to John's admonition; Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous, 1st John 3:7.  They wave a little flag called dispensationalism.  By waving that flag, they can pick and choose what applies to them and to what they are exempt.  

         We will look at the doctrine of what James is say...

       James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting, James 1:1.  

      It is fashionable in most many Fundamental circles to relegate the Book of James to a book which has no doctrinal significance to the church.  It makes people uncomfortable with what it says.  It appears to contradict Paul's writings and it says that it was written to the twelve tribes.  When something uncomfortable is quoted from James or it appears to contradict a favorite theology, many are taught to put on their hyper-diapers, go hyper-dispensational and dismiss what was said as being irrelevant for today.  They err.

       First, let's look at the...

      And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not, Ruth 2:16.

       There are times when a good translator needs to supply words to properly interpret a verse.  Through Facebook, our good friend Avi Gold from Beer Sheba, Israel was asked by someone about the words "of purpose" in Ruth 2:16.  Avi has read the Hebrew bible as his principal text all of his life. He took time to help his friend understand the King James Bible. 

      Avi is Jewish.  He is not a Messianic Jew and he makes no claim to Christianity other than to show respect.  I read his post on Facebook and thought that readers of this blog would profit by r...

       He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he, Deuteronomy 32:4.   

      The second bible that I ever read through completely was the New American Standard Bible.  At the time, I couldn't have been more ignorant of the various bible versions.  One of their claims to fame was that they often capitalized pronouns when they referenced deity.  “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are [a]just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.  You can see both the words "his" and "he" have been capitalized.  

       In scanning other versions, the KJ21 does so,...

Answering a question about ‘no striker,'  instead of not a striker:

1 Timothy 3:3  No Striker.   We’ve seen this is not the same as ‘smiter’ – one who smites with hands; but it’s a gypsy, a wanderer, a wayfaring man; usually it’s used in a negative sense.  

There is not an article (a, an, the) for this noun so it’s considered general, not directly referred to, abstract, or uncountable.   (Sports, countries, and abstract nouns require no article – sometimes referred to as zero article.)  

If it had an article (a, an, the), it would be negated by NOT.   Not a striker.  NOT negates verbs and it negates specific, identified nouns; while NO negates uncountable or abstract nouns.  (There are exceptions, but as a rule of thumb, it...

       Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD had commanded, Exodus 36:1.  

        A young man somewhat renowned as a carpenter pointed out this verse to me and asked if that meant that the Tabernacle was built perfectly.  We can go a step further than just this verse and we can throw in Exodus 31:2-5; See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,...

       Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, Matthew 1:18.  It is interesting to note that the manner of Jesus Christ's birth is well documented but the timing is purposely obscured.  I know that we have people who claim that they can trace back the course of Abia (Luke 1:5 and 2nd Chronicles 8:14) and by noting Zacharias's time of duty, they claim that they can establish a date.  The odds of going back and setting the time when Solomon established the courses, keeping track of the many times when all temple worship ceased, understanding how Ezra reestablished those courses and then understanding how the Pharisees reestablished those course and keeping track of it on a lunar calendar rather than a solar calendar is quite beyo...

          And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer, Revelation 10:6. 

       Time no longer? What does that mean?  Increasingly, I am hearing more and more expositors suggesting that time itself will cease.  They have grown up on science fiction and speculative physics.  They envision a future in which everything happens in some eternal bliss in which there are no intervals between events.  They see it as the cosmic now.  This is ridiculous when examined biblically.  To understand that, we need to look at time itself.  What is ti...

       Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Ephesians 3:20.

       Is it unreasonable to think that God could give a perfect bible to 21st century English-speaking people?  If you were a Deist like Thomas Jefferson the answer would be , "no".  A Deist believed that God created everything and gave all things their start.  They then believed that God washed his hands of human affairs.  In other words, God started the ball rolling but does not intervene. The Merriam Webster Dictionary says this in regard to Deism:

       Belief in God based on reason rather than revelation or the teaching of any specific religion is known as deism. The word origi...

       How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality, 2nd Corinthians 8:2.  

       One of the grievous tenets of our day is the confounding of bible words until they lose their meaning.  In the bible a liberal is a good thing to be yet when we look into the matter, to be a liberal in the bible is quite different from being a liberal in today's society.  To be liberal in the bible is to be generous and free with those earthly goods given to us by God.  To be liberal in today's society necessitates disagreement with a literal bible and a desire to see charitable giving lifted from off the voluntary shoulders of the populace and la...