Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers, 1st Timothy 1:9.
This blog is made better by the attention of an astute Filipino who quickly alerts me to grammatical errors or to misspellings such as using the word "principle" when "principal" is required. He found a statement that I had made about the Holy Ghost to be perplexing, or at least different than what he understood. He asked me to clarify. But, before I attempt to do so, it is necessary for me to explain my procedure for believing any doctrine.
In order for a doctrine to be a true representative of what God the Father believes in heaven, that doctrine must be a clear and accurate statement of exactly what the King James Bible says. Because there are many statements in the bible which appear contradictory on the surface, it is important to understand the context in which they are placed and the persons to whom they are directed.
As in all other doctrines that I hold as true, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost's relationship with the people of God through the years must prove true in every single verse that relates to the subject. A good doctrinal understanding of any subject should be an understanding that evolves and grows as we see nuances of doctrine in our personal growth and as we assimilate more and more scripture to our understanding. As an illustration: A child knows that his parents love him, but as he gets older and learns more of life, he sees that love more clearly. So it is with doctrine. We often believe correct things early, but as we learn more, we are better attuned to the relevance of what we learn. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know, 1st Corinthians 8:2.
There does come a point in which a man of God gains a confidence from the scripture itself in how God thinks about certain subjects. He is then bound to teach and to preach such. If in the course of my study or in my interactions with other believers, I become aware of a verse that contradicts what I am saying in even a minute way, I am obligated to study that verse in its context, and then to apply it to what I teach. If I am forced to retract something that I have previously taught, it will not be the first time. More often, I am forced to slightly alter something I have taught.
Over the years, many things that I once believed have proven to be partially in error. That almost always hurts my pride and such a blow to my pride is unfathomably good for my relationship with God. When one of my congregants points out what they see as a flaw in my approach to any doctrine, I am thrilled. Whether or not they are right is not really the issue. The important thing is that they are listening and they are judging what I say based on their personal understanding of the King James Bible. This is a joy to me.
Most of the people in my church are in subjection to the King James Bible. Like most churches, I have those who are horses who will wear no bridle. What they were taught while young is only dislodged with much preaching, much prayer and those occasional times when they allow the Spirit of God to grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
My family once had a stray chow which we adopted. He needed to be kept on a leash at all times because when he first wandered into our yard, he memorized everything and then hated every new thing ever introduced. When I bought a new truck, he hated it and fiercely lunged for it every time I drove it into the yard. A year of owning it would not change his mind. It had not been in the yard when we acquired him and therefore he hated it.
I have some in my church who cling to doctrines and ideas that in reality are not true but were taught to them early. My church has so many people from broken lives and horrible pasts who have known nothing but those doctrines that I preach, and whose lives are irrevocably changed by God for his glory, that new people often shrink from these doctrines rather than to be compared to those people. It greatly inhibits their spiritual lives.
One of the great spiritual motives in the mind of hell for the new bibles is to make the ultimate proof of all doctrine to be unattainable. The more a church or a movement embraces the new bibles, the more they are forced into one of two positions. Either they eschew doctrine completely as is the wont of many emerging churches who consider it a blessing to be doctrinally neutral on the great issues that have divided Christian denominations for years, or they glom onto a doctrine pushed by some cultish leader and have no final authority with which they can never prove nor disprove. The idea that a man with a King James Bible and with the Spirit of God is as smart as any man on earth is simply too hard for many to accept, and yet the longer I live, the more I see it just that way.
As I write, keep in mind that I am a fallible man with an infallible bible, written and made available by an infallible God. I am not distinguished by my intellect, my education, or my standing among the brethren. For the good or for the bad, I am distinguished by what I have learned from the words of a King James Bible, and how I have implemented it into my life. I am distinguished by how I teach and preach those words. The poor of Allegany County, New York have rejoiced in the preaching and teaching and many have found relief from sin and have found lives that glorify God. That is the fruit of a King James Bible preached and taught by a man that believes it.