Your Word is Truth

Fred R. Coulter—September 6, 2003

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I want to read a letter that is very interesting. Sometimes we send sermons to people for quite a while before we ever hear from them. Here's an example, so I appreciate the letter.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for keeping me on the sermon mailing list, despite never hearing from me.

We have a good number of people that way.

I've never been a letter-writer and added to that handicap I'm a top-rate procrastinator. This is the third or fourth time I've started to write you and hopefully I will get THIS ONE in the mail.

I thank God for every sermon of God's Truth that you make, because never before have I been able to understand and see the Truth from God's Word as taught by you.

Your discernment, presentation have really clearly shown and introduced me to into a relationship with my heavenly Father that I've never known before. Thank you!

So, it is having an effect! Just because we don't hear from some people.

I've always had doubts and am the classical lukewarm Christian, never letting the world get too far away from me. But since listening to your sermons and reading your letters and The Christian Passover book, things have really changed. The world no longer glitters, but wanting to be with my Lord is becoming paramount in my life.

I want to live His way, His Truth, His statutes, His covenants and His Laws and commandments. I realize the human limitations that we all have, but your teachings and hopefully with the Holy Spirit, I will strive to follow Jesus' example. I pray that I will never grieve the Holy Spirit to the extent of losing it.

Thank you again, and God bless you and your family as He is blessing your ministry. I've learned so much growing in the Lord from your teachings. They are so clear and enlightening.

That's a very good letter.

Today, in talking about Your Word is the Truth, and of course, that's what it's all about:

• the Truth of the Bible
• the Truth of God's Word
• teaching people to follow it

That's what's important.

It's so evident today, and especially if you get The Journal; you look at that and you have a problem there with not only the leaders… Of course, people always like to point to the leader and say that it's his fault.

However, it's also the fault of the followers! Someone made the comment that maybe that the comment made that 'you're all a bunch of dumb sheep' applies to a whole lot more people than could ever be supposed.

Paul never let the people off the hook! The first epistle that he wrote he instructed the brethren, and he made it clear to them that they have to prove all things. Of course, that is prove it by the Word of God, and that it was their responsibility. \

So, while you can point the finger false ministers, prophets and teachers, how many warnings did Jesus give the apostles? How many warnings did the apostles give the people about false prophets and teachers? So therefore, the responsibility really comes back upon the people, not upon the leaders.

The leaders are going to pay for it double, but those who follow a man, instead of following Christ, are also going to pay for it.

1-Thessalonians 5:21: "Prove all things…." Put it to the test, like in the sermon Are You Still Shackled to Rome? Put it to the test!

"…Hold fast to that which is good" (v 21)—meaning don't hold fast to anything that is not good.

Verse 22: "Abstain from every form of wickedness." So, the responsibility lies with anyone who hears the Word of God, and says that they believe and profess in Christ, and believe the Word of God; it is their responsibility!

When it comes time for the judgment, no one is going to stand before the throne of Christ and point the finger and say, 'He did it.' Christ is going to say, 'You are responsible!'So therefore, there is a double responsibility: first to the teachers; they are to teach the Word of God!

Let's see what is to be taught and how it is to be taught. And how that, in spite of good teaching, there will be people who won't want it! That's very important to understand.

Don't lay it all to the teacher, because if you do, you're following a man and not Christ. Paul gives this charge, and because of the situation the way that the world is, Jesus said, 'When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?'

2-Timothy 3:15: "And that from a child you have known the Holy Writings…" How many people grew up in the Church of God, who had known the Holy Scriptures from being children?

"….which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus" (v 15). The Greek word for Holy Writings means the Old Testament. The Greek in v 16 is a different word, and it means the New Testament.

Verse 16: "All Scripture is God-breathed… [that applies to the Old Testament and the New Testament] …and is profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work" (vs 16-17).

This is showing how to equip someone who is a teacher: what he needs to use these Scriptures for, and how he needs to teach the brethren.

Then Paul gives a special charge, 2-Timothy 4: "I charge you, therefore, in the sight of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ…" That's a special charge, and a special judgment that will apply to all teachers!

So, it's not what you think or what you believe, it's what the Word of God says that's important! The Word of God is only understood as you obey what you learn. Too many people like to start off with the difficult and complicated Scriptures. That's not the place to begin.

The place to begin is with the very simple ones. That's why with the monument of the Ten Commandments that they took out of the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama. A lot of people said, 'Why did God let it be taken away?' Very simple, those who want it don't believe it.

One commandment says, 'Remember the Sabbath, to keep it Holy.' Everybody knows it's the seventh-day, Saturday. But they won't do it. 'We want the Ten Commandments and see you in church on Sunday.' You just violated what you said you wanted. Here's what needs to be preached:

Verse 2: "Preach the Word!…." That's why God had it canonized by Paul, Peter and John.

• we're not to preach about ourselves
• we're not to preach other ideas
• we're not to preach doctrines of men
• we're not to preach the teachings of the 'early church fathers'

"…Be urgent in season and out of season; convict, rebuke, encourage with all patience and doctrine" (v 2). That's the responsibility for whoever is a teacher, pastor, evangelists, apostle or whatever!

Notice the responsibility of those who hear, and here we are talking about truly 'dumb sheep'; v 3: "For there shall come a time when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but according to their own lusts they shall accumulate to themselves a great number of teachers, having ears itching to hear what satisfies their cravings; and they shall turn away their own ears from the Truth…" (vs 3-4)—which is a choice!

Jesus said, 'He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches' (Rev. 2 & 3). And also, on one occasion, Jesus said to the disciples, 'Let this saying sink deep into your ears!' What is it that God requires? To obey His voice! And you've got His voice recorded right here in the Bible! You don't need a tape recorder, etc., because they didn't have recorders until here toward the end of the age. So, God had it recorded in written form, a permanent record, which God has preserved.

"…and they shall be turned aside unto myths" (v 4). That's exactly what people are doing today; they are throwing away the Word of God and running back to fables/myths. They are running back and saying, 'O Rome, please put your chain around my neck again; I want to be in bondage to you, because I'll be accepted by the world!'

They don't quite phrase it that way, but that's exactly what they're doing if they run back to the world's 'Christianity.' Not only is it a yoke and chain, but it's also a noose, because by your life and words you shall be judged! If you run back to Rome and be shackled again, what's going to happen? It's going to hang you!

It's very clear! This is what people don't like today, because they don't like to be offended. But the Word of God is called the sword of the Lord! Jesus came to bring a sword, and the sword was His Word to separate even family members. That's how powerful the Word of God is!

Let's talk about what Jesus said: Your Word is the Truth! Jesus also said and made it very clear, 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not pass away!' He made it very, very simple! You don't have to be highly educated to know what the earth is; you're standing on it. You don't have to have a scholar's degree in order to look up into the heavens to see the sky and the heavens. If you go out at night and you live in an area where it's really clear, you can see all the stars.

Heaven and earth still exists! So, the Words of Christ are never, never, never going to pass away! That's why He caused the New Testament to be written, as well as the Old Testament, and preserved by faithful men.

{note The New Testament in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version with Commentary (no longer in print, but can be found at: http://www.cbcg.org/franklin/FV_2005VP%2001-09-06.pdf }

It's important that the brethren have that so they won't be snookered by people who come along and say that 'this doesn't mean this, this doesn't mean that.'

Let's understand that Jesus has preserved His Word and caused faithful men to copy it. It's also interesting that the message to the seven churches were in Asia. Where did the Byzantine Text come from? Asia! It didn't come from Alexandria, Egypt, nor did it come from Rome.

There are some copies of New Testament text that came from there that are spurious, because they have deleted many things, which we explain in the commentaries. There are really true New Testament verses.

The translation text that I have used for the New Testament is the Stephen's Text of 1550, and I have an actual authentic first page of the Gospel of John from the Stephen's Text of 1550, and from a Stephen's Text, which is set in a different type of style of Greek text. I also have a first page of the Gospel of John from William Tyndale's New Testament, and the first page of Genesis 1 from William Tyndale's Old Testament.

God kept His Word, and it has been preserved. What we need to understand is that there were false apostles and brethren circulating even during the days of Paul and Peter. Therefore, God caused them to write and preserve the New Testament. I go into great detail and explain about that.

From The New Testament in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version with Commentary: About this Translation by Fred. R. Coulter

Fifty years after the death of the apostle John in 98-100 AD, beginning in the middle of the second century, revisers of the Greek New Testament texts—mainly in Alexandria, Egypt and possibly Rome—began to modify some portions of the New Testament. They produced texts that were, in many respects, different from the Byzantine Text.

The important thing to remember is that the Byzantine Text of all the Byzantine Texts all agree with each other 98-99%. The only difference is possibly word order, which in the Greek is not critical, and some spelling. Otherwise, it has been absolutely faithfully preserved. That's why the Byzantine Text was later called—beginning with the Stephen's Text—the Textus Receptus. That's the text from which the Geneva Bible, the King James Version and Tyndale's Bible were translated.

These other ones that were produced in Egypt and possibly Rome still had the heavy influence of the Byzantine Text. So, the long and short of it is, when you get through all the textual criticisms and everything that is done, when you bunch them altogether, there are over 5400 manuscripts and texts and lectionaries.

When you compare all of them—the Byzantine, the Alexandrian, the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus—they still agree 90%. But if you take away those that are not the Byzantine Text, you have 98-99% pure original copies of the writings of the apostles. That's why Jesus said, 'Your Word is the Truth'; if it is the Truth then it's not going to get lost in spite of what men have done to corrupt it; the Truth still stand there! God will always raise someone up to maintain the Truth, because He has promised that He would never let His Word fail.

I'm not going to go through all the history of it, but the first copies of the Byzantine Text were done in what are called uncials: all capital letters. They didn't separate the words and letters, because they had to write them on very expensive velum or the cheaper was papyrus.

Then in the 300s there was a great copying, and we have a lot of those texts left. In the 1000s there was another great re-copying; this is all in Asia Minor, and in the area of what became the Byzantine Empire. What they did about 1000A.D. is re-copy it in the miniscule, the lower case letters, and separated the words so it became more readable.

Then in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople, there came a flood of Greek Orthodox scholars. They brought the Byzantine Text with them into Western Europe. For the next 75 years the New Testament Greek was taught in all the universities in Western Europe.

This set the stage for the later Reformation. It's a very interesting thing: In 1453 Constantinople falls, three years later in 1456 the first movable type printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg. What was the first book printed? Jerome's Latin Vulgate!

God was setting the stage. You can read about the history of Tyndale. But I want to talk about one man: Erasmus of Rotterdam. It's interesting that when you get into all of these things, not only is God using those who are in His Church, but He also used those who were Israelites who did not agree with Rome. Erasmus was one of them. He was one of the greatest scholars that the world has ever seen. He got all of the Byzantine Texts; he had five editions, the first one in 1516, that's the one that Tyndale used for his 1526 edition of the New Testament. Then his third edition of 1519, Tyndale used for his 1534 English New Testament.

One year before Erasmus died, 1535, he was in Geneva; that was a safe haven. That's why later you have the Geneva Bible from the English exile that left during the reign of Queen 'Bloody' Mary.

Erasmus put together the best Byzantine Texts, refined them very, very carefully to make sure that they were all correct. Then he did his Greek-Latin parallel New Testament. The Latin of Erasmus' New Testament is substantially different than the Latin in Jerome's Latin Vulgate, which is the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

The reason it is, is because Jerome's Bible and the Latin in the Vulgate was so corrupt. You'll see some of examples of that in the Commentaries in The New Testament in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version.

What happened after the 1516 edition was that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Cathedral door on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1517, less than a year later. That was the biggest 'trick or treat' that there has ever been against the Roman Catholic Church.

There was man called Robert Estienne and he lived from 1503-1559, and he put together Erasmus' fifth edition of the Greek text with his own commentary. I have an original copy of the 1550 Stephen's New Testament, and that's the one from which I translated the New Testament.

Sidebar: Almost all the variant readings were all known back then. So, all these textual scholars and the variant readings, most of them were understood back then. Again, proving and showing that God preserved His Word; that the men who preserved it and printed it, knew and understood the Word of God to the extent of what should be and what should not be in the New Testament.

That shows God's guidance over men. Whether they were converted or not, that is in God's hands. We can't say. We can't just one way or the other, but God certainly used them for it.

Let's look at some things concerning the Word of God that Jesus said. Not only is Your Word the Truth, but John wrote:

1-John 2:21: "I did not write to you because you do not know the Truth, but because you know it, and you understand that not one lie comes from the Truth." That's got to be the cornerstone of any faithful translation!

This is proving who's speaking the Truth and who is not speaking the Truth. God didn't want you to be in doubt; that's why He gave you a Bible where you can sit down and you can open it up and that's why one of the most important things that we do, and every Church should do this: everyone have a Bible and when the minister says to turn to a Scripture and you turn there and read it with him.

Why is this important? It not only shows you where to read it, but it also can give you the proof of it while it's being read.

John 3:31—John the Baptist talking about Jesus Christ: "He Who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth. He Who comes from heaven is above all."

Where did Jesus come from? Very simple, especially with some of the current rage going on in some of the Churches of God that Jesus didn't exist until He was conceived in the womb of Mary! Where did He come from? From heaven! He's "…above all"!

Verse 32: "And what He has seen and heard, this is what He testifies; but no one receives His testimony. The one who has received His testimony has set his seal that God is true" (vs 32-33).

So, if you believe God and His Word, you're doing the same thing as an official and setting a seal that you say, 'Yes, this is true!'

Verse 34: "For He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God…" Does that not agree with what we read in 2-Tim. 4 to 'Preach the Word'? absolutely! The Bible all comes together and agrees with itself.

"…and God gives not the Spirit by measure unto Him [Christ]" (v 34).

John 6:63 is a key concerning the understanding of the Word of God. This shows how powerful the Word of God is, because the same alphabet that is used in any language that is used to translate the Bible is the same alphabet that writes of evil things, as well as good things. The same alphabet that defines for us in English the Word of God is the same alphabet that pornographer's use in their magazines. What is the difference?

John 6:63: "It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life."

It's also says in 1-Cor. 2, as Paul wrote, 'and they are spiritually discerned'!

How can anyone understand the Word of God if that is so. I think it's very simple. When you read something that is obvious that you ought to do, then you do it. That helps open understanding for you. That's how it's done.

Don't worry about the complicated things, you can tackle those after you learn more about the Bible. After all, you don't begin kindergarten in a PhD doctorate program. So, if you're going to begin, you have to begin with the simple.

What is one of the first things that little kids learn? Their alphabet! So, when you begin to read it and obey it, then God sends His Spirit to be with you. God is beginning to deal with you.

• What are you going to do?
• Are you going to believe His words?
• Are you going to believe Christ?

or

• Are you going to say—because so many people are religious freaks and they tout the Bible—'therefore, I'm going to throw it away because of these people?

You've just judged God by people's misbehavior! That's where people get themselves in trouble. Jesus didn't come preaching His own ideas. He didn't come with a new ideology or theology. He spoke the words that God the Father gave Him to speak.

John 12:49: "For I have not spoken from Myself; but the Father, Who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself, what I should say and what I should speak." He says a little later that 'these words are going to judge you.'

John 14:23: "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If… [conditional] …anyone loves Me he will keep My Word… [notice what will happen ifyou keep His Word, all of it; everything that God has said]: …and My Father will love him…"

Do you want to be loved by God the Father, the Sovereign of the universe? That's where love begins! Not just people to people, but from God to you and then people to people with God's Spirit.

"…and We… [God the Father and Jesus Christ] …will come to him and make Our abode with him" (v 23). Then we become part of the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelling in us is the abode.

Verse 24: "The one who does not love Me does not keep My words…" There is the dividing line; very clear and simple and easy to understand. That's why it's very important that you don't let any teacher bring something to you that will break this relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

That's what God wants. That's why we don't have a hierarchy in the Christian Biblical Church of God! That's why whenever you are taught anything, you are taught what the Word of God says, and you become responsible! After all, we're to grow up. We're not to be little children boxed into kindergarten and the sandbox our whole life.

If you don't love Him and don't keep His words, what happens? You're cutoff from God!

"…and the Word… [the entire message from God the Father and Jesus Christ] …that you hear is not Mine, but the Father's, Who sent Me" (v 24).

So, if you reject the New Testament, and you reject the Word of God, you are rejecting the Sovereign of the entire universe God the Father! Now do you understanding why all the warnings:

• Jesus said, 'Let no man deceive you'
• the Apostle Peter said, 'there will be false apostles among you who will blaspheme the way of Truth

continuing with About This Translation (New Testament in Its Original Order:

Because Jesus' chosen apostles needed direct, divine spiritual guidance in order to write and canonize the New Testament…

It was not their words! They were the God-breathed words that they were inspired to write!

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance what He had taught them and, therefore, what they should write. "But when the Comforter comes, even the Holy Spirit, which the Father will send in My name, that one shall teach you all things, and shall bring to your remembrance everything that I have told you" (John 14:26).

By the way, one of the appendices that we have is really dynamite concerning how it should be translated in the New Testament concerning the Holy Spirit—Appendix U: Ways God Communicated to the Biblical Writers (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order,{afaithfulversion.org}

Also, in there is a quote of Henry B. Wallace from A Harmony of the Gospels. He's written a book: Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. He's noted to be one of the best Greek-syntax experts in the world. It's quite profound. He absolutely proves and shows that the Holy Spirit is not a third person. He makes it clear. There is no text in the New Testament where you can find the Holy Spirit—Greek 'penuma'—that is in the masculine gender, because it is not there. It's going to be clear and defined.

Again, Jesus told the apostles, "I have yet many things to tell you, but you are not able to bear them now….
One of the most important things was that He wasn't coming back any time soon. He saved that for the last seven years before the fall of Jerusalem.

…However, when that one…

And that's the correct translation, and that's what Wallace says that it should be, not he. I was studying that, and I did it and translated it this way years before I ever got Wallace's book. That's the only way I could figure that it should be translated, because it relates to the word comforter, which is a descriptive noun of the Holy Spirit.

…has come, even the Spirit of the Truth, it will lead you into all Truth because it shall not speak from itself, but whatever it shall hear it shall speak. And it shall disclose to you the things to come" (John 16:12-13).

It shall disclose and speak means that it's much like what we would say today is a recorded message. In other words, through the power of the Holy Spirit, God sends a message. He doesn't come down and speak in anyone's ear. He doesn't come down and hold anyone's hand while they're writing something to make them do something. He sends the Holy Spirit to lead them, to reveal the things to them.

Just like this tape recorder, I'm speaking into this microphone and it's recording it on a tape. Whatever I say the tape is going to speak. It's the same way with the Holy Spirit.

The apostles were chosen to write the very words of God! This was to be a witness 'unto the ends of the earth.'

• that's why it was recorded and written down
• that's why it's the Truth of God
• that's why Christ said that His words would never pass away

He intended it for this time, and from the time of the apostles down to now to be just like this: Preach the Word, and everyone reads the Word. That's what He inspired it to be.

When Paul was called, Jesus told him that he would be a witness of things that he had seen and what He [Jesus] would reveal to him, to the children of Israel and to the Gentiles. Then Paul was taught for three years in Arabia by Christ in dreams and visions.

• Did the apostles know they were writing the Scriptures?
• Did they know that they were writing the Word of God?

or

• Did they just think they had a little problem and they needed to solve it?

1-Cor. 14:36 is why only Paul, Peter and John did the canonizing. And only the apostles—Matthew; Mark, who wrote for Peter; Luke, who wrote for Paul; all the rest were apostles. The sum total of the number of men that wrote the New Testament were eight. That's profound. And Paul—including Luke and Acts—was responsible of over 50% of the New Testament.

For people to come along and say, 'We don't know who wrote, there were many, many who did it. It was just carried on by tradition and they were storytellers. They did this for 200-300 years and final the church—meaning the Catholics—wrote it down. Therefore, the New testament becomes equal and on par with the writings of the early church fathers and since we have a mandate,' the Catholics say, 'from God, we can decide what doctrine is and no one else can decide what it is.'

They still have that same philosophy today, and in the future, it's going to come out even much more severe.

1-Corinthians 14:36: "WHAT? Did the Word of God originate with you?…. [in other words, it didn't just come from anybody] …Or did it come only to you and no one else? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual…" (vs 36-37).

Now, all those erstwhile pseudo-teachers out there in the Church of God today, listen up!

"…let him acknowledge that the things I write to you are commandments of the Lord" (v 37). He is the One Who commanded the Church of Corinth to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Verse 38: "But if anyone chooses to be ignorant, let him be ignorant." In other words, if you want to be ignorant in your own self-important intellectuality and vanity and think that you know more than God and the apostles, and think that you can take God's Word and water it down, change it, slice it, dice it and throw it away, you're ignorant!

So, Paul says, and is telling them, "…the things I write to you are commandments of the Lord" (v 37). That's very important.

Let's see what Peter said; when you read it in the King James Version it gives the impression that it's talking about the Old Testament. No!  It's not talking about the Old Testament at all, it's talking about the New Testament. It can include the Old Testament, but let's read it the way it should be translated:

2-Peter 1:20: "Knowing this first…" Greek: 'protos'—meaning that this is the primary, foundational, most important thing to understand.

"…that no prophecy…" Whatever Scripture was written down, or men were inspired to do so, were called prophets. What they wrote was a prophecy.

"…of Scripture originated as anyone's own private interpretation" (v 20). That's far different from what the King James has. This lays it on the line and makes it very clear that none of it is of any man's opinion. Rather, as Paul wrote, 'These are the God-breathed words.'

Did God preserve it? Yes! We've got the Stephen's 1550 Text with the Greek. If you know Greek and can read it, there it is, over 450 years ago. That's why what I read about Carlstadt and the Sabbath is so important, to show that if anyone reads the Bible, what day are they going to keep? The Sabbath! They can dismiss them as heretics, call them anti-Baptists, kill them, slice and dice them and burn them, but they still love God. All that they have done to them is meaningless and wasted effort, because Christ is going to resurrect them.

{Note sermon: Rome's Challenge; booklet: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants} There's no wiggle room for anyone to say that in The Holy Bible in Its Original Order that you can find Sunday-keeping. In this day of controversy and everything, shouldn't it be that way.

"…no prophecy of Scripture originated as anyone's own private interpretation, because prophecy was not brought at any time by human will, but the Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (vs 20-21).

No one should say that they have the power to change doctrine like: 'We're going to keep Sunday because I'm the head of this church and as the president of this corporate church, we're going to change doctrine and go to Sunday. If the rest of you Sabbath-keepers out there don't like it, then 'lump it.'

What is God going to say to you at the resurrection? The Sabbath is My Holy Day; these are the days that I have created! These are the days that I have commanded you to do! It was not by any man and you have no authority to do so; you nor the pope!

From: The New Testament in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version: About This New Translation:

Translation Philosophy: This translation is not the work of a committee. In recent years, as evidenced by their translations, translation committees have demonstrated that they are more committed to carnal-minded, special interest groups, who desire to make the Word of God convey a particular political, sexist or ecumenical religious agenda, than to accurately translating the Word of God in truth. Moreover, they have used inferior Alexandrian type Greek texts for their translations of the New Testament. They have further corrupted the Word of God by using common street language and superimposing a gender-neutral language on the Word of God in their efforts to please radical feminists and homosexuals. In summary, they have allowed societal mores to determine how they should present their translations; they have allowed the community to frame the Word of God.

When it is God that framed the Word of God Himself! If you throw God's Word out there and say, 'All you people, why don't you read this and see what you decide you want to keep.' That's virtually what they're doing.

The philosophy underlying this translation is to understand that what we want to present is the God-breathed words as God inspired the original apostles to write and to canonize them, and formulate that into English so that it's understandable.

One thing I learned is that the German language cannot express the Greek as accurately as English. In English and Greek, and English and Hebrew, as Tyndale said, were made for each other. That's why the English Bible is so widespread. English is almost the language of the world. Those are not incidental things. Those are profound things that God has caused to be done.

• Why didn't German make it to the top? God didn't want it!
• Why didn't Spain make it to the top? God destroyed them with the Armada for trying to destroy the people of Israel—of the ten tribes who were in England—and by trying to undo the reformation and the spreading of the Word of God in English!

Go back and read history and analyze what happened to Spain, the greatest power on earth at the time when they agreed with Rome to go destroy England and make it Catholic again. God caused the greatest storm to ever happen, and destroyed the Spanish Armada, which was the greatest fleet ever assembled at any time in history to that point.

The philosophy underlying this translation: The New Testament In Its Original Order—A Faithful Version With Commentary, by Fred R. Coulter, is a return to translating the Word of God faithfully from Greek into English. The goal of this version is: 1) To seek the truth and best represent its meaning from the original Greek into English, 2) To convey the Word of God as accurately as possible with the same divine character that is conveyed in the Greek text, 3) To recapture the original doctrines of Jesus Christ that the apostles taught the authentic primitive Church of God as recorded in the New Testament and, 4) To cherish and uphold every "jot and tittle" of the writings of the apostles of Jesus Christ so that true believers may know how to live by every Word of God in a personal, intimate relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Why did God cause most of the New Testament to be written in epistles? It's unlike any other 'religious' writing in the world. It can't be compared to them. That's why it's absolutely a damnable thing that they are doing to make the World Scriptures.

The Uniqueness of Epistles as Scripture: After the Gospels and Acts, God the Father and Jesus Christ inspired the rest of the New Testament to be written in the form of personal letters, or epistles….

How many times have even the Protestants stressed a personal relationship with God? That's why it's written in personal letters. This is profound!

…These are entirely different from the writings of the Old Testament, which consist of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, or writings. None of the books of the Old Testament were written as an epistle. The New Testament reveals that God the Father gave His Son, Jesus Christ—Who was God manifested in the flesh—as the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. He is a personal Savior, so that each believer may receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life….

that's why one of the most often quoted verses is:

…"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but may have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

John 20:17 is also revealing about the personal nature of the New Testament, and the personal relationship that God the Father and Jesus Christ want each one of us to have.

When Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection, He instructed her to tell the brethren that He had risen from the dead: "Go to My brethren…

That is a first person, personal relationship!

…and tell them that I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God" (John 20:17)….

You have nothing like that in the Old Testament!

…In saying this, Jesus revealed that our relationship to Him is that of a brother or sister, and to the Father, a son or daughter—a family relationship. Jesus Christ is the firstborn among many brethren (Rom. 8:29)…

Yet, one of the leading textual critics—Maurice Robinson—who does an excellent job in looking at the text, especially the Byzantine Text, made the comment to Gary Stazak that we are almost heretics, because we believe that the relationship with God is a family relationship and that we are going to be in the Family of God.

Amazing! Those who handle the Word of God don't understand it. That's an incredible thing! There are scholars out there who believe this and who know. One of them is Edmond D. Hiebert, whom I quote quite a bit. He points out:

…"The New Testament is striking in that practically one-third of its contents is letters. Twenty-one of the twenty-seven books are epistles….In this prominent use of the epistolary form the New Testament is distinct from all the other sacred writings of the world. 'The Scriptures of other oriental religions—the Vedas, the Zend Avesta, the Tripitaka, the Koran, the writings of Confucius—lack the direct personal address altogether.' Pagan religions are ignorant of the new life in Christ that gave rise to the New Testament letters. The epistles unfold in terms of human experience the nature and process of God's redemptive movements [His love and His plans].

"This characteristic is the unique glory of the New Testament….

That's why I call it the greatest book in the world, or the most magnificent book in the world.

….While the Old Testament contains numerous references to the use of letters and even preserves a few of them (cf. Jer. 29; Ezra 5:6-17), no books of the Old Testament are cast into the epistolary form. Says Bengel, 'The epistolary form is a pre-eminence of the Scriptures of the New Testament as compared to those of the Old.'

"The use of the epistle as a medium of revelation in the New Testament reveals the difference between the ages of law and grace. Under the legal dispensation the demands of God were set forth in legal documents, sealed with the direct authority of God…

they also are in the New Testament, too

…in the age of grace God further makes known His will to His children through loving letters of instruction and exhortation. The difference is aptly summarized by Heward when he remarks, 'Statutory codes [are] for subjects, letters of spiritual advice [are] for sons.' Under the law, prophets delivered oracles to the people, solemnly setting forth their authoritative pronouncements with a 'thus saith the Lord.' With the inauguration of the age of grace, the apostle wrote letters to the brethren in a spirit of loving intimacy, setting forth the significance and implications of their new position in Christ. The New Testament use of the epistle as a vehicle of revelation emphasized the truth that now God's method is that of companionship rather than that of dictation….

Which then excludes a dictatorial hierarchy. If you are personal, one-to-one relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, you don't need a hierarchy, a priesthood, or a confessional booth.

…The revelation is made not so much in the way of information as in the way of education.

because you're being prepared for eternal life

"The apostles' use of the letter to convey their teachings was eminently suited to the nature of Christianity. Christianity is basically a personal relationship between the individual and God through faith in Christ Jesus. The epistle readily lent itself to a free discussion of these personal relations in Christianity. It was likewise well adapted to an informal discussion of the fundamental theological doctrines, which the readers had already accepted. Paul directed his epistles to converts who had already accepted Christ and His Gospel but whose lives revealed the need for further instruction in the outworkings of those truths in daily conduct" (Hiebert, An Introduction to the New Testament, vol. 2, pp. 13-14, bold emphasis added).

So, you can see that there a good number of faithful scholars out there.

Greater still, under the New Covenant, believers become the children of God the Father through the begettal of the Holy Spirit. Because they have a personal, spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father, they can use terms of personal endearment when addressing the Father: "You have received the Spirit of sonship, whereby we call out, 'Abba [Daddy], Father.' The Spirit itself bears witness conjointly with our own spirit, testifying that we are the children of God. Now if we are children, we are also heirs—truly, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (Rom. 8:15-17).

So much for those who say that we are heretics, because we believe that we are going to be in the Family of God.

Along with the personal thing concerning our relationship with God and that the epistles are letters, there is also in the Greek a very profound form of verb, which tells us something very meaningful.

We don't have any such thing in the English. We do in a different form, and it's called verb and reflexive pronoun. But in the Greek, not only do they have verb and reflexive pronoun, they also have what is called middle voice verb. This is very easy to understand: You're the subject and what you do and say you are personally involved or it is something that you do for yourselves! It's an action back to you.

We're going to look at a few verses where the middle voice verb is used. I have well over fifty translated in the New Testament.

Middle Voice Verbs: Some middle voice verbs are unique in that the subject that is performing the action either experiences the result of the action or participates in the action. For example, middle voice verbs that reflect the action in reference to the subject should be translated "I myself," "he himself," "you yourself," "you yourselves," "we ourselves," etc., and when expressing personal involvement, "I personally." Unfortunately, most translators have not translated middle voice verbs accurately to reflect the true meaning expressed in the Greek….

We take care of that in this translation

…In this translation, where the added expression "self" is awkward in English, the subject's personal involvement is expressed by using the word "personally."

John 15:16: "You yourselves did not choose Me, but I have personally chosen you…" This verse shows both types of the middle voice verb.

That makes it much more profound. It shows the personal involvement in our lives. We're going to see not only there that Christ personally chose the apostles, but He's personally chosen you and me, everyone whom He's called!

Eph. 1:4: "According as He has personally chosen us for Himself..." In this case it would be awkward to translate the middle voice as "He Himself has chosen us for Himself"; therefore, God's personal involvement in choosing us is expressed by the word "personally."

Since God chooses us personally, when you are an affront to God or blaspheme Him, you are a candidate for the Lake of Fire. If God the Father and Jesus Christ are going to personally involved Themselves in your life and call you and give you the Holy Spirit, and you treat it lightly, that is really a different situation altogether.

That's why it says in Heb. 10 that if you thought that someone was under the hand of two or three witnesses and died according to the Law of Moses, of what punishment do you think he shall be thought worthy of who tramples underfoot the grace of God? And counts the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified as an unholy thing.

This is Jesus talking to Paul about his calling when Jesus knocked him down on his way to Damascus:

Acts 26:17: "I am personally selecting you…"

Now you know why Paul was so dogmatic! What he wrote he said were 'the commandments of the Lord.' Now, Ananias said to Paul:

Acts 22:14: "The God of our fathers has personally chosen you…"

Now you understand why the New Testament is not anyone's opinion! And you understand why, if you're shopping around looking at different Churches of God, trying to find the Truth, stop it! Get your nose in the Bible and get your personal relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father straightened out!

There are people out there and I just got an e-mail from someone who has been searching for years. She, on her own for the last four years, has been keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days at home alone, trying to find people who would truly teach what the Bible said, because that's what she looked into. She finally came across our website and she's really happy about it.

In 1-John 1 we're going to see a middle voice verb and the verb and a reflexive pronoun, both.

I John 1:6: "If we proclaim that we have fellowship with Him, but we are walking in the darkness…
one foot in the world, one foot in the Church!

…we are lying to ourselves ..." This middle voice verb clearly shows that the subject "we" is initiating the action as well as receiving the consequences of the action (self-deception). A single middle voice verb 'psuedometha' is used to convey the meaning that must be translated into the English phrase "we are lying to ourselves."

Middle voice verbs are different from verbs used with a reflexive pronoun. Verbs used with a reflexive pronoun to express the involvement of self are also used in the New Testament. In I John 1:8, John expressed nearly the same thought as he did in verse 6 by using a verb with a reflexive pronoun, "If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving [verb] ourselves [reflexive pronoun], and the Truth is not in us."

Gal. 4 'knocks in a cocked hat' all of the Protestant theories that Paul was talking against the Holy Days of God when he says that you're 'observing days, months and times and years.' The Protestants go there and say, 'See, Paul is doing away with the Sabbath and the Holy Days.' No he's not!

Gal. 4:9-10: "But on the other hand, after having known God—rather, after having been known by God—how is it that you are turning again…

They were going back to something from Christ.

…to the weak and impotent elements, to which you again desire to be in bondage? You are of your own selves…

middle voice verb, 'doing this on your own'!

…observing days, and months, and times and years."….

This is really important, because:

….By using a middle voice verb in this passage, the apostle Paul is showing that what the Galatians were doing was contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ—they were returning to their former pagan beliefs. They themselves of their own accord were observing pagan religious days, months, times and years. In effect, by such practices, they were rejecting God's commands to observe the Sabbath and Holy Days.

Right out of the shoot, there's going to be no doubt when someone gets this translation that the Sabbath and Holy Days are what God commands. Not only that we'll have the proof in there concerning Sunday, the Holy Spirit, that it's not a person. It's going to be really a good, good tool for the brethren.

How many know anything about the history of the preservation of the text? We're going to have that there. Gary Stazak has done a wonderful job writing about the preservation of Old Testament and the New Testament. I cover why it is, when it was written, who wrote and when it was canonized.

Gary Stazak covers the Old Testament up to that point, and then he covers the New Testament on into the Reformation. It's all going to be there. It's not going to be like you have now. You have a King James Version of the Bible, the authorized version, King James of England authorized it. When you read that you think: What did he have to do with the Word of God? He had very little unless there are some Bibles that have some explanations in them, which tells a little bit about the preservation of the text.

Heb. 9:11-12: "But Christ Himself has become High Priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made by human hands (that is, not of this present physical creation)….

referring to the temple that was about to be destroyed

…Not by the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of His own blood, He entered once for all into the Holiest, having by Himself secured everlasting redemption for us."

That helps really make it clear. Christ is personally done this.

Colossians 1:13 (KJV): "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son."

(FV): "Who has personally rescued us from the power of darkness and has transferred us unto the kingdom of the Son of His love." It shows His personal involvement there.

Verse 18 (KJV): "And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence."

(FV): "And He is the Head of the Body, the Church; Who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead so that in all things He Himself might hold the preeminence."

There are other types of middle voice verbs where there is no action. It is like: I choose, I prefer, I sell, I bring a lawsuit, I'm on my guard.

There is no action, this is something you were thinking; it doesn't affect you and receiving back to yourself. It's just another type of middle voice verb that is called a deponent verb. They're basically intransitive, meaning that there is no object, no action to an object.

This gives just a little about the Word of God, the Truth of God and some of the things that I've been doing with the translation.

We also have had some good editors working for us. Marcia Ritke-Momose, Becky Ritke, as well as Carl and Jean Franklin, so it's going to be much better edited.

We also have someone not in the Church who has been an English professor at Southwestern Michigan College for over 30 years. He teaches the classics of English, such as Shakespeare and so forth. He's doing the final editing. Once they're all done, and Kip Johnson has done reading, because He reads after them and finds if they have missed anything. The truth is, no one can ever edit his own things and ever get it right. I've gotten things that I wrote what I thought was right, and I edited it over and over, and if you're missing a word you read it in, because you wrote it and you know what you want to say.

So, I take it to Delores and she asks, 'Has this been edited?' When someone fresh reads it, who hasn't written it, then they can find the mistakes. Well, here's what the professor wrote, because he sent back chapters 1-6:

Congratulations on an excellent draft of the New Testament commentary. The draft is notably lucid, fluid and coherent from paragraph to paragraph, section to section and chapter to chapter. Furthermore, it is laudably clean in expression, usage and mechanics with a modicum of questions by me in those areas.

So, he had some questions that he wrote down.

As with the New Testament translation, I have read it thrice, and littered the margins with my editorial comments.

He doesn't like the boldface type, but I'm going to tell him that's my style and that someone can go through and just read the boldface type and they will catch all the important parts.

On mechanics there are few errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling—very nice.

I feel very happy that coming from a professor of English. He has had some things that he put in there: he would circle the words and then he would put it in the margin, like where I had the New Testament is the greatest book in the Bible. He noted in the margin: diction: word could be upgraded, 'most magnificent.' I thought that was better, so I replaced greatest with most magnificent. That's really what it is.
So, between all the editors, they're getting rid of all of my bad English, and I'm happy about that, because English was not one of my strong suits. As a matter of fact, it was like millstone around my neck when I was going to school. So, in order to write, I've had to learn an awful lot.

It's not the work of a committee, though we do have those who are editing and helping. We've also enlisted the use of the best people possible. One other comment I want to make. I start out the acknowledgements with this:

John 4:34: "Jesus said to them, 'My meat is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do not say that there are yet four months, and then the harvest comes. I say to you, look around. Lift up your eyes and see the fields, for they are already white to harvest'" (vs 34-35).

God is opening new doors in the world today by this great confrontation concerning the Ten Commandments. That's going to stir a lot of people up!

Verse 36: "And the one who reaps receives a reward, and gathers fruit unto eternal life; so that the one who is sowing and the one who is reaping may both rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, that one sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that in which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor" (vs 36-38).

That's what I'm doing with this. I'm entering into the labors of all the writers that God inspired in the whole Bible, the apostles of the New Testament. All those who have labored to hand-copy it accurately and faithfully down through the centuries so that we could have the Greek text. All of those who were faithful writers and preservers. All of those like Professor Hiebert and others who were faithful scholars and stuck to the Word of God and who understood the Truth of God and who put it together. Like Dr. Ernest Martin, in spite of the things that he did, which were not correct with some of the beliefs that he had. He was one of the preeminent scholars in the canonization of the Bible.

I'm operating and working in their labors. They get all the credit, too, because they were out there working long before I ever came on the scene. So, it is true, this is a culmination of the work of many people. Therefore, I'm happy that we could consult all the experts in the field to get it right.

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version (except where noted)

Scriptural References:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22
• 2 Timothy 3:15-17
• 2 Timothy 4:1-4
• 1 John 2:21
• John 3:31-34
• John 6:63
• John 12:49
• John 14:23-24, 26
• John 3:16
• John 20:17
• John 15:16
• Ephesians 1:4
• Acts 26:17
• Acts 22:14
• Galatians 4:9-10
• Hebrews 9:1-12
• 1 Corinthians 14:36-38, 37
• 2 Peter 1:20-21
• 1 John 1:6
• Colossians 1:13, 18
• John 4:34-38

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 2; 3
• 1 Corinthians 2
• Hebrews 10

Also referenced:

• The New Testament in It's Original Order, A Faithful Version with Commentary (no longer in print, but can be found at: http://www.cbcg.org/franklin/FV_2005VP%2001-09-06.pdf)

• Appendix U: Ways God Communicated to the Biblical Writers (The Holy Bible in Its Original Order,{afaithfulversion.org}

• Sermons:
• Rome's Challenge
• Are You Still Shackled to Rome
• Booklet: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants

FRC: bo
Transcribed: 4/1/18