Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand, Judges 12:6.
Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of the King James Bible movement is the troubling tendency of its adherents to cling to theologies and terms gleaned from commentaries, which in turn were gleaned from perverted texts. Just listen to them preach. They use terms like "Holy of Holies". That is an NIV term which has supplanted God's word in both private conversation, preaching and supposed King James Bible honoring writing.
And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee, Matthew 26:73. A lot can be told by listening to a man's speech; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, Matthew 12:34. When listening to a man preach, it is soon obvious where he has learned his doctrine. If the word of God has filled his heart, he will say "most holy place", if the commentaries have filled his heart, he will say "Holy of Holies". No man who ever learned the doctrines of the tabernacle from within the pages of holy writ would ever use the term "Holy of Holies". It is always a sign of a man who learned his doctrine from the doctors of commentaries, but does his reading in the King James Bible.
Another dead giveaway is a man's trinity. Does he say, "Father, Son and Holy Spirit"? Where did he get that? He certainly never saw that in the word of God. Most Fundamental, King James Bible believing preachers now baptize their converts using the NIV. It is the NIV that tells men to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The word of God says; Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Matthew 28:19.
Why is that important? For one thing, it certainly helps identify the men who cheated in doctrine. They did not take the word of God and study to show themselves approved unto God. Like baby birds in a nest waiting for mom and dad to chew up their worms for them and spit them down their throats, most Fundamental, blah, blah, blah preachers have never truly studied. They read behind bible correcters, absorb their views and then try to teach their people.
Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge, Proverbs 19:27. The key to being a bible believer is not being able to identify false passages in new bibles. It is not knowing the lineage of various bible manuscripts. The key to being a bible believer is to only accept such doctrine that has been personally proven in a one on one relationship with the bible itself.
At my church we divide the King James crowd into two categories. We see historical bible believers, meaning that they are convinced through history and manuscript evidence that the King James Bible is the word of God. Then we have doctrinal bible believers, these are men whose belief in the King James Bible comes from its internal proofs from within its pages. A doctrinal bible believer is someone who if shown a verse in the word of God in its proper context, will change his doctrine if he finds a contradiction between that verse and what he has always believed. If the tense of a verb, the capitalization of a letter, whether a word be plural or singular in any way refutes his doctrine, he will surrender his doctrine to the authority of scripture. That is the rarest form of bible believer.
I have been saved since January of 1982. In that time I have read one commentary. In 1992, I was isolated by a volcanic eruption in the Philippines, had my water supply corrupted through earthquakes and I caught typhoid fever. My isolation kept me from getting the required antibiotics and as my wife and I lay there too sick to tend our children, the kindly Filipinos took our children to their own homes. We were too ill to protest. It is a nuance of typhoid fever that the afflicted person's mind stays very active while the body deteriorates, so I found myself unable to move much, but I was able to read Dr. Ruckman's book on Job. Besides discovering one of the best works of American prose ever written, I lost my boast that I do not read commentaries.
I believe that I have profited by not reading commentaries. I am going to suggest a threefold approach to bible study. The first approach deals with the unique position of the Apostle Paul. Please do not mistake what I am saying for some weirdo hyper-dispensationalism that rejects all scripture but Pauline Epistles for the church age. We call them hyper-diapers. Instead, we are recognizing Paul's task of introducing the Gentiles to the word of God. Probably the greatest unexplored area of the King James Bible is the relationship of Paul to the rest of scripture.
Paul will never say, blood, offering, or sacrifice without having a specific one in mind from the Old Testament. My students know this. They spend countless hours mastering both the tabernacle and the Levitical offerings. When they see Paul make reference to one, they can make the connection. For example; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven, Colossians 1:20. My students are taught to ask themselves, why is he isolating the blood of the cross? Is there a sacrifice where blood must go on wood?
Of course there is. In the cleansing of the leper in Leviticus 14, the priest is instructed to take a living bird, scarlet, hyssop and cedar wood and dip them in the blood of the sacrificed bird over running water. There is blood on wood. Then the priest does one of the most unusual things ever done in the Levitical order. He slays the trespass offering and the sin offering in the holy place. And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy, Leviticus 14:13. God reconciles things in heaven. That is pictured by the sacrifice made in the holy place.
What the priest has done is to reconcile the cleansed leper with the tabernacle itself. Likewise Paul tells us that God took the blood of the cross and reconciled things in earth and in heaven. God's love for the leper is unique. Imagine what was running through the priests' minds when lepers cleansed by Jesus Christ showed up and required the offering commanded by Moses. Imagine what they thought as they sacrificed those lambs right next to the table of shewbread, the incense altar and the candlestick.
What we will look at in the next post is a way to study Paul methodically, study the tabernacle and Levitical offerings methodically, and to study the Godhead methodically. Within a couple of years, the student of scripture can have a foundation from which to study for the rest of his life.