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Bibles
I was in grade one when I was first introduced to the Bible. Until then I was not aware that such a book existed. It was presented as the word of God. It looked like a rather ordinary book to me though a little thick. It was handed to me open at the ten commandments and I was told to read them. I started at the first and by the time I finished the fourth I was in shock.
I was five going on six or maybe completely six by then. I attended a Catholic school. I attended a Catholic church. Almost everyone I knew at the time was Catholic, all my family and relatives and all my classmates. The church had many idols, some of them immense. It was common to see statues of Mary and Jesus on shelves and desks, religious figures depicted in paintings and portraits hanging from walls and crucifixes hanging from the necks of women and priests among other ornaments. But the Bible said in the second commandment not to make idols and not to bow down before them. This was common practise that I had witnessed many times among Catholics. Alarm bells were clanging.
The fourth commandment stated to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy and went on to explain that the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. There was a calendar hanging on the front wall of our classroom near the door. I could read it from my desk. Clearly Sunday was the first day of the week and I counted the days to the last day of the week and sure enough it was seven and that day was Saturday. No Catholics went to church on Saturday as far as I knew. I had never heard of anyone going to church on Saturday to keep it holy. Did anyone in the world go to church on Saturday, I wondered? Why didn^t Catholics go to church on Saturday if the Bible, the word of God told them too? What in the world was going on? Why in the world was this going on?
If that book was the word of God and Catholics were the people of God, as I was led to believe, then one or the other was a big fake, or perhaps both. It seemed obvious that at the least Catholics could not be trusted. Therefore I had no one to confide in. For a long time I had had enough of the Bible too, it was too upsetting. Years went by and the next time I opened that book I was still in grade school and got shocked again. I read about Noah and the flood. It was astounding, not the story I had heard told. Why? Why not? Why was everyone ignoring the Bible? I was still in shock and I was on the brink of not being able to control my anger. My teacher fixed that problem with a little corporal punishment, a bit of torture.
My life was turning out to be a story of a fool going nowhere. It is called backsliding by religious adherents but it was more like natural worldly progression to me. Whatever you call it, my life was turning into a nightmare similar to the nightmares I was having in my sleep.
Not until I was twenty five did I set out to learn the truth about the Bible for myself. I accepted the first Bible that was given to me and I read it. It was a Good News Bible. It was sufficiently comprehensive for me to know that I knew of no religious organization that followed its teachings with any meaningful degree of wholeheartedness. I read it again and again all the while I visited local churches and was visited by people from a local church but to no avail. No one was following the Bible^s teachings about the Sabbath and idols in particular nor did they want to. Obviously. If they had wanted to they would have been doing it. After a few years I started feeling like a fool going nowhere again. The nightmares continued.
I was nearing wits end. My faint lamp was getting very dim and near going out. I talked to God about it and got the idea to go for a walk. I walked in my neighbourhood down by the outdoor mall and found a news stand with free Plain Truth magazines in it and I took one home. I had found the help I needed to bring clarity and understanding to the Bible. This lead me to the Worldwide Church of God back in 1984. Learning, since then, has been in leaps and bounds like a gazelle joyfully at times and at times trudging through the mud like an ox pulling a plough through a field on a rainy day with a contrite spirit.
In time I came to read several versions of the Bible and discovered the better quality Bibles; the King James Version, the New King James Version, the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, the Revised Standard Version and the Good News Bible. And learned to stay clear of broad diversions from the actual word of God like the Catholic bibles and a bunch and growing number of others that deliberately make changes to the meanings and intended meanings of many passages, even going so far as to add passages that are not in the original texts and removing others that are.
I also learned that even in the quality translations there are errors. Some are more intentional than others. Some are grave errors like assigning a personage to God^s holy spirit which is the power or strength of God by calling it he instead of it. Others are more subtle and harder to detect.
Studying original languages and original texts is a great way to learn but not very practical. It takes too much time and effort and most who try it fail to reach a level of expertise that was attained by the translators of the English versions already available. I find it more advantages, most of the time, to check various versions when studying a specific passage or topic in order to come to a full or at least a good understanding of what God intended. There are instances where a little understanding of the original language coupled with proper resource books can clarify a complex or contentious issue in just moments.
Certain translations have proclivities or tendencies. Others take certain liberties. The quality bibles stay within the bounds of reason to a high degree of acceptability. Lesser quality translations do not. With experience one learns to recognise God and to know God and His intended meaning well and is not easily fooled. One learns to be familiar with and to weed out the errors.
Fred R. Coulter and a group of men put together a modern version of the bible. How good the bible is I do not know, I have not read it, but it was put together by people from the Church of God, well trained by ministers of the Church of God. The problem I have with his book is that it is too massive. It has too much commentary. I bring it up because I have toyed with the idea of writing my own version of the holy scriptures but I feel that I may be under skilled and under qualified, it would take too much time, it may never be accepted by readers and even if it was it might take generations or the return of Christ to get it accepted. Besides, I would have to dedicate a great deal, if not all, of my time to it and I would get nothing or little else done. Also, could I produce something that was better quality than what already exists? And could I get it done before I die? Would it benefit anyone in the meantime. Would I have assisted in saving any souls in my lifetime?
For the bible to really take effect it has to be written in your heart. It has to work with every beat of your heart and be part of the life giving blood that flows through your veins in order to permeate your whole body. For most Christians, complete comprehension of the whole book will not be attained in their life times. It suffices to God that they incorporate what they are able to and that they are dedicated to changing in accordance to God^s will and at God^s speed right through to the end of their lives. At Christ^s return, in the twinkling of an eye, they will be changed from mortal to immortal, from flesh and blood to spirit. The bible will have served its purpose to cleanse the soul, to nourish the soul, to bring life to the soul and to prepare it for the Day of the Lord and the great transformation.
So read your bible. Get to know it. Ask for help in understanding, first to God and Jesus but also to your brethren and your ministers. Use the help that is available on line; UCG.org websites, search engines and email.
The Bible is a great stabilizer. People born in the church and brought up with the words of God in their ears with trustworthy parents and ministers and friends in the church are at a great advantage over the rest. Nevertheless, with God all things are possible.
2016 Jacques Gauvin