Question To Ask One Self

IN REGARD TO SIN IN MY LIFE---


Why did it happen?


What was the cause of it?


Need it have happen?


Why did I allow it?


H E L P


How is my PRAYER LIFE?


How is my BIBLE STUDY?

HONEST HYMN SINGING:

If we were entirely honest every time we sang a hymn or gospel song, here's how many of our old favorites would sound:


* I Surrender Some

* There Shall Be Sprinkles of Blessings

* Fill My Spoon, Lord

* Oh, How I Like Jesus

* He's Quite A Bit To Me

* I Love To Talk About Telling The Story

* Take His Life And Let Me Be

* It Is My Secret What God Can Do

* There IS Scattered Cloudiness In My Soul Today

* Onward, Christian Spectators

* Where He Leads Me I Will Consider Following

* Just As I Pretend To Be

* When The Saints Go Sneaking in

* Brethren, We Have Met To Have A Business Meeting

* Sweet Minute of Prayer

* Let Me Have My Own Way, Lord

Friday Funnies - Summertime in the North Country

Vancouver Province, Saturday, June 27, 1953

BIBLE HISTORY

Comparisons Made

Between Two Books

Final article by Rev. Mark Buch of the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle on his opinion as to the true Bible appears on this page today. Here he states various differences between the old Bible and the Revised Standard Version and why he prefers the old one.

By Mark Buch

Lovers of the Old Bible are accused that they base their resentment of the new Bible on emotionalism and prejudice of the National Council of Churches. Thus speak the sponsors of the Revised Standard Version to justify the terrific wave of resentment and offence which their Bible has caused among Evangelicals in general and Fundamentalists in particular.

As you have followed this series on the truth of verbal inspiration, it is no doubt clear to you that this is far from being true. The deep love and reverence for the old Bible is based on the foundation of its great God-inspired historical manuscripts, combined with the masterful scholarship and devotion of the men who translated it. This is nowhere more obvious than in the comparison of the two Bibles.

For example, one finds whole passages which have held an esteemed place in the old Bible for hundreds of years, but now, alas, they are discredited or dropped out altogether in the new Bible, which, so its sponsors claim, “is now in a real sense the authorized translation for our Protestant churches.”

Passage Dropped

That very important passage, John 8:1-11, has been discredited by dropping it to the bottom of the page in italics and very fine unreadable print, thereby saying that these blessed words which have brought peace and new hope to thousands of fallen men and women are not true.

Many, many endless changes in wording have been made. These words have not been exchanged for the much-vaunted, more up-to-date English words, but they have been changed with words, the meaning of which has altered the whole basic doctrines of the old Bible.

Here are a few cases: Why is “Son” in Psalms 2:12 changed to “feet” in the new Bible? In Job 19:26, the words “in my flesh” have been changed to “without my flesh”; thus the doctrine of the resurrection of the body has been shaken to its very foundation and given way to an ethereal, shadowless, ghost-like immortality in the hereafter.

More Changes

Indeed, it can be said of the Revised Standard Version: “They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him!”

In Isaiah 7:14 “virgin” has been changed to “woman” and with that “little” change goes our whole concept of the virgin Birth. In Hebrews 2:10, “captain” has been changed to “pioneer.”

Let those who in pious tones undermine the Old Book face facts. To say that the translators of the Authorized Version were blind and ignorant of these vast differences is shaming the integrity of yesterday’s Christian nobility both as to character and scholarship. And, further, it is robbing the martyr of his crown!

Languages Change

We know living languages change. We also know certain words have changed from their original meaning in our old English Bible. Most of them are corrected by the margin in many editions of the Authorized Version and no one certainly would object to them being brought up to their English meaning today. But to use this small change as a pretext to completely alter the doctrinal teaching and original meaning of the text as well as to remove altogether from the Bible scores of passages is an affront upon the Holy Scriptures.

The masterful Elizabethan English of the Authorized Version is unexcelled in the world. Its clear declarations and beautifully simple language thrills the heart as it feeds the mind and soul. For example, taken from Psalm 42:1 give the old and new versions side by side: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks So panteth my soul after thee, O God, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.”

“As the hart longs for flowing streams So longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

One quickly sees and feels which of the above is the Word of God.

This Book is God’s peculiar gift to the English-speaking world. Read it! Heed it! Believe it! As one wise woman said in yonder yesterday: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it!” And thou shalt be saved, for salvation’s message is so simple that the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Is. 35:8

Article from

“In Defence of the Authorized Version”

~~ One Pastor’s Battle

Mark Buch

This is four of four; each one first appeared in the Vancouver Province in June of 1953.

ADD NOTE:

HOW THE EXCITING STORY OF THE AUTHORIZED VERSION

FOUND ITS WAY INTO THE PAGES OF THE VANCOUVER

DAILY PROVINCE NEWSPAPER

The printing of the Vancouver Daily province of the unfolding drama of the Bible battle is a story by itself worth telling. While the Vancouver Sun newspaper had given attention and considerable coverage, the Province was aloof. But there can be no doubt its editor was coming under pressure by its readers to enter the controversy. I have copies of letters to the editor to prove this.

One day I was asked if I would meet the editor, Mr. Cunningham. We met in his spacious office overlooking Victory Square Park and downtown Vancouver. I found Mr. Cunningham to be a very gracious and knowledgeable person, courteous and soft spoken with a delightful English accent. I was seated opposite his large desk in a big leather chair. Mr. Cunningham acknowledged my contribution in the controversy. I gently reminded him of the immense publicity he and others had given the R.S.V. through advertising but not a word about the Authorized Version. I asked him why the hesitancy to give the old Bible its deserts. He answered,

“I can’t see it. The Bible to me is the Bible, whatever the version. What’s the difference?” I immediately took him up on that, handing him the Authorized Version and opened to Colossians 1:14.

“You are a man of words. You live by your knowledge of English. I also do in a way.” Then putting my finger on verse 14 I asked that he read it. He did, out loud! Then I asked,

“Which is the most important phrase in that verse?” After a very brief pause he answered,

“Through his blood.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Through his blood tells us how” was his answer. I stressed how important this was. I then handed him a copy of the R.S.V. I believe it was the first edition out. I still have it. Opening it to the same text I asked him to read it. He began again, reading out loud and then stopped after the first line and with furrowed brow looked up and said,

“Why, the phrase ‘through his blood’ is missing, but why?”

I answered,

“Either they refused to translate it out of the prejudice to the old time faith of our fathers which requires the blood of God’s sacrificial (sic) lamb Jesus Christ to wash away our sins, or it wasn’t in the Greek manuscripts they used.” Looking up at me he asked,

“What do you think?” I answered,

“Knowing what we do of the R.S.V. translators committee, I’d say they spurned the Majority Text or Textus Receptus and used rather the polluted Westcott and Hort line of manuscripts.” After a moments silence he asked,

“Could you prepare a series of articles on the historicity of the Authorized Version of the Bible?”

MARK BUCH

Mark Buch (1910-1995) of Vancouver, British Columbia, defended the King James Bible for sixty years. He was born November 30, 1910. I had the pleasure of interviewing this gracious man of God on a number of occasions. He started the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle of Vancouver in 1939 and pastored it for 40 years. Buch knew and preached with many of the well-known Fundamentalist leaders of this century, including J. Frank Norris, G. Beauchamp Vick, and Bob Jones Sr. In 1990, Buch retired from the pastorate (though he continued his radio broadcasts until his death in 1995) … Way of Life.

Odd and Ends for June 26, 2007

Here are just a few things that came my way, today. jeff

Hilarious Grizzly Bear Video

http://v.mercola.com/blogs/public_blog/Hilarious-Grizzly-Bear-Video-19636.aspx

Good doctor

http://www.mercola.com/

God’s Yellow Pages

http://web2.airmail.net/dpelc/yellow/

Memorable Sports Moments

http://www.armchairgm.com/index.php?title=Memorable_Sports_Moments

Best for last …

If my nose was a running money…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egCeIwjIuZM

Mission Thoughts on Monday

To Do God’s Will

Concerning Percy Mather, pioneer missionary to Central Asia, it was written:

Mr. Mather viewed missionary life as one tremendous sacrifice which he had made once, and which with complete knowledge of all its demands, he was prepared to make again.

Speaking in Bombay on his return journey to Turkestan, he said: “I am not going back because I want to go. I am not even going back because of the need of the people. Travel and adventure have lost all fascination for men and my pleasure would be to stay in my own country. I am going back because I believe it to be the will of God for me, and ‘I delight to do Thy will, O my God.’”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_C._Mather

AND here is another

… the light calls things by their proper names…

A former missionary to the Congo told of this incident:

“As I rose from the table my right foot slipped on the earth floor, and I said the house lad must have dropped a banana skin. I put my hand lantern near the floor and a snake was scuttling away…

“What I had called a banana skin was really a snake, but this was only revealed by the light of the lantern. In telling this incident to others I might always have said I slipped on a banana skin had the light not revealed otherwise… the light calls things by their proper names…

“While my feet stood in the dark I called the thing I slipped on a banana skin, but the light showed that it was a snake, and which was I to believe? Persist in calling it a banana skin when the light showed it was a snake? How foolish!

“When God, by His Spirit or through His Book calls a thing sin, shall I call it a human frailty, a weakness, or that I was just made like that?”

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” Psalm 119:105

Forty Wrestlers for Christ

In the days of the Roman Emperor Nero, a band of soldiers known as the Emperor's Wrestlers served him. They were picked from the best and the bravest of the land, recruited from the great athletes of the Roman amphitheater.

In the great amphitheater they upheld the arms of the emperor against all challengers. Before each contest they stood before the emperor's throne. Then through the courts of Rome rang the cry: "We, the wrestlers, wrestling for thee, O Emperor, to win for thee the victory and free thee, the victor's crown."

When the great Roman army was sent to fight in Gaul, no soldiers were braver or more loyal than this band of wrestlers led by their centurion Vespasian. But news reached Nero that many Roman soldiers had accepted the Christian faith. Therefore, this decree was dispatched to the centurion Vespasian; "If there be any among your soldiers who cling to the faith of the Christian, they must die!"

The decree was received in the dead of winter. The soldiers were camped on the shore of a frozen inland lake. It was with sinking heart that Vespasian, the centurion, read the emperor's message.

Vespasian called the soldiers together and asked: "Are there any among you who cling to the faith of the Christian? If so, let him step forward!" Forty wrestlers instantly stepped forward two paces, respectfully saluted, and stood at attention. Vespasian paused. He had not expected so many, nor such select ones. "Until sundown I shall await your answer," said Vespasian. Sundown came. Again the question was asked. Again the forty wrestlers stepped forward.

Vespasian pleaded with them long and earnestly without prevailing upon a single man to deny his Lord. Finally he said, "The decree of the emperor must be obeyed, but I am not willing that your comrades should shed your blood. I order you to march out upon the lake of ice, and I shall leave you there to the mercy of the elements."

The forty wrestlers were stripped and then, falling into columns of four, marched toward the center of the lake of ice. As they marched they broke into the chant of the arena: "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor's crown!" Through the night Vespasian stood by his campfire and watched. As he waited through the long night, there came to him fainter and fainter the wrestlers' song.

As morning drew near one figure, overcome by exposure, crept quietly toward the fire; in the extremity of his suffering he had renounced his Lord. Faintly but clearly from the darkness came the song: "Thirty-nine wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor's crown!"

Vespasian looked at the figure drawing close to the fire. Perhaps he saw eternal light shining there toward the center of the lake. Who can say? But off came his helmet and clothing, and he sprang upon the ice, crying, "Forty wrestlers, wrestling for Thee, O Christ, to win for Thee the victory and from Thee, the victor's crown!"

A Powerful Testimony by John Sunday

"I understand," said John Sunday, the converted Indian chief, to a congregation which he was called to address at Plymouth, England, in the year 1837, "that many of you are disappointed because I have not brought my Indian dress with me.

Perhaps if I had it on you would be afraid of me. Do you wish to know how I dressed when I was a pagan Indian? I will tell you. My face was covered with red paint. I stuck feathers in my hair. I wore a blanket and leggings. I had silver ornaments on my breast, a rifle on my shoulder, a tomahawk and scalping-knife in my belt.

That was my dress then. Do you wish to know why I wear it no longer?

You will find the cause in 2Cor. 5:17. `Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away: behold, all things are new.'

When I became a Christian, feathers and paint `passed away.' I gave my silver ornaments to the mission cause. Scalping-knife `done away.'

That, my tomahawk, (holding up a copy of the ten commandments, in the Ojibwa language.) Blanket `done away.' "Behold," he exclaimed in a manner in which simplicity and dignity of character were combined, "`behold, all things are become new!'"

Friday Funnies - Close to Home

Since Banff and Jasper Parks are close to home, just 5 hours away.

I enjoyed these and trust you will as well.

Bro. Jeff



All Time Dumbest Questions Asked By Banff Park Tourists

Yes, they're ALL TRUE as heard at the information kiosks
manned by Parks Canada staff!

1. How do the elk know they're supposed to cross at the "Elk
Crossing" signs?

2. At what elevation does an elk become a moose?

3. Tourist: "How do you pronounce 'Elk'?"
Park Information Staff: "'Elk.'"
Tourist: "Oh."

4. Are the bears with collars tame?

5. Is there anywhere I can see the bears pose?

6. Is it okay to keep an open bag of bacon on the picnic
table, or should I store it in my tent?

7. Where can I find Alpine Flamingos?

8. I saw an animal on the way to Banff today -- could you
tell me what it was?

9. Are there birds in Canada?

10. Did I miss the turnoff for Canada?

11. Where does Alberta end and Canada begin?

12. Do you have a map of the State of Jasper?

13. Is this the part of Canada that speaks French, or is
that Saskatchewan?

14. If I go to B.C., do I have to go through Ontario?

15. Which is the way to the Columbia Rice fields?

16. How far is Banff from Canada?

17. What's the best way to see Canada in a day?

18. Do they search you at the B.C. border?

19. When we enter B.C., do we have to convert our money to
British pounds?

20. Where can I buy a raccoon hat? ALL Canadians own one,
don't they?

21. Are there phones in Banff?

22. So it's eight kilometers away... is that in miles?

23. We're on the decibel system, you know.

24. Where can I get my husband really, REALLY, lost??

25. Is that two kilometers by foot or by car?

26. Don't you Canadians know anything?

27. Where do you put the animals at night?

28. Tourist: "How do you get your lakes so blue?"
Park staff: "We take the water out in the winter and paint
the bottom."
Tourist: "Oh!"

Received from Joke du Jour.

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ROMANCING WASHINGTON, DC

Would you support a loyal follower of Charles Manson for president?

... David Koresk?

... Joseph Smith?

... Brigham Young?

Consider a man who reveres his training from that university?

Yet American politics gets more strange, foolish and sometimes wicked, possibly even prepared to honor men who are practicing in cults responsible for tragedies on the level of Jonestown or the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

The Mormon church lied about any responsibility for the Methodist wagon train . . . that is until recent years. At last, the facts are in as no one can deny the graves of the little children shot through their heads at close range.

Listen! Do tongues of deceit bother you?

As a united front, cultists use the mildest tones while sweetly looking into your eyes and continually lying, even for years and that without conscience! That's mind control! Here the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints again has controlled their leaders, brain-washed its people, and LIED to the world!

Cults are dangerous!

Type in "Mountain Meadows Massacre" on the web and see what comes up.

This movie, "September Dawn" is not produced by people with a religious agenda as it exposes the Mormon church and the chilling facts about their bloodbath of deception.

See the trailer at:

http://www.septemberdawn.net/trailer_small.html

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5UAfjHYg_II

Mormon leaders cannot be trusted.

Mormon power controls its members.

Mormon billions cannot be counted.

Mormon movies rewrite history.

Mormon teaching will damn the soul.


Article submitted by Charlie Carle

Vancouver Province, Saturday, June 20, 1953

BIBLE HISTORY

King James Version

Defended as Best

Third article in a series by Rev. Mark Buch, of the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle, on his opinions as to the true Bible and its origin is printed today. Rev. Mr. Buch is one of the Evangelical Christians who so strongly oppose the new Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The Province prints these articles and the previous set on the Revised Version so that its readers will more clearly understand the tow schools of thought.

By Mark Buch

The truth of Verbal Inspiration has been a controversy ever since the Bible’s earliest writings and will be until the coming of Christ, but increasingly so as the end of the age draws nearer and the great apostasy increases in darkness.

Has God preserved His Word intact for this generation? If it were lost with the passing of the original manuscripts, then with it has also passed the doctrine of individual responsibility of God. Then at best we shall drift on and on until we become shipwrecked upon the dark reefs of eternity’s unknown night.

Happily He who has said:”all scripture is given by inspiration of God” also said: “one jot or one title shall in no wise pass.”

Origin Traced

We have traced the origin, the simple and romantic history of the perfect line of originals and copies. Theses form the basis of our present Authorized Version in 1611.

In 1515, William Tyndale took his M.A. at Oxford. Said he “If God spares my life, ‘ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth a plough to know more of the Scriptures than the Pope.”

In 1525 he published his first English New Testament translated directly from the pure line of manuscripts and based on Erasmus’ copy of the Greek originals.

Tyndale worked under great difficulties. Driven out of England he translated parts at Cologne and parts at Worms during exile.

Copies were secretly imported into England. The Bishop of London ordered all copies burned. Anyone caught reading them was executed.

In 1535 Tyndale published his second edition which included parts of the Old Testament. Upon betrayal by his enemies he was arrested and kept in prison near Brussels sixteen months. He was later strangled and burned, but not until he had won the souls of those who guarded him to Christ.

Thus the first translator of the Authorized Version paid with his life’s blood for his noble part in giving us this sacred book.

Note Comparison

You will note who his persecutors were. This is important, for the advocates of the Revised Standard Version repeatedly compare their Bible’s opposition with that of the first publication of the Authorized Version. Of course anyone quickly grasps the difference between the authorized Version being persecuted by the enemy of the truth and the Revised Standard Version being opposed by Evangelical Christianity.

It ought to be evident that the real deep underlying cause of confidence and faith in the Authorized Version is based, not on bias and emotionalism, but on history and scholarship which combine to prove distinctly that it springs from an entirely different source to the Revised Standard Version and its questionable ancestry.

The powers of anti-Christ paid the work of William Tyndale its greatest compliment by their implacable hatred.

This hatred and persecution was focused on the translating which was made from the pure manuscripts, while there were a number of English translation s in existence at the same time from the spurious line of manuscripts which received no such persecution.

New Translation

In 1604 King James I of England made arrangements for a new translation by appointing a committee composed of the best Hebrew and Greek scholars of the day.

Besides scholastic qualifications never since rivalled, these were men of high moral and spiritual standards with a profound reverence for the Word of God.

It is needless to say that although marvellous their scholarship and deep their reverence for the Word of God, the basis of their translation is paramount.

The Authorized Version was translated directly from the same source which was the basis for Erasmus and Stephanus’ work namely “The Textus Receptus,” the fidelity of this text to the original has never been successfully challenged!

It was further diligently compared to the masterful translation which cost the life of William Tyndale. It is this unquestionably pure and infallible source which causes the Authorized Version to tower peerlessly above all earlier and later translations.

Let me sum up this article by saying that the Authorized Version is a correct translation of a perfect copy of an infallible original!

Article from

“In Defence of the Authorized Version”

~~ One Pastor’s Battle

Mark Buch

This is third of four; each one first appeared in the Vancouver Province in June of 1953.

I luv 'watermelon'.

William Jennings Bryan thoughts on Watermelon seeds.

On Monday evening, our son and daughter in law, David and Melissa hosted a BBQ for number of friends in honour of our son Andy who is home from Iraq till the July 2^nd. Along with hamburgers, hot dogs and the works. We enjoy some very sweet watermelon. This reminded me of this profound quote from William Jennings Bryan:

“A few weeks before, someone had planted a little watermelon seed in the ground. Under the influence of sunshine and showers that little watermelon seed had taken off its coat and gone to work; it had gathered from somewhere two hundred thousand times its own weight and forced that enormous weight through a tiny stem and built a watermelon. On the outside it had put a covering of green, within that a rind of white, and within that a core of red, and then scattered through the red little seeds, each capable of doing the same work over again.

Where did that little watermelon seed get its tremendous strength? Where did it find its flavouring extract and its colouring matter? How did it build a watermelon?

Until you can explain a watermelon, do not be too sure that you can set limits to the power of the Almighty or tell just how He would do it. The most learned man in the world cannot explain a watermelon, but the most ignorant man can eat a watermelon and enjoy it.

God has given us the things that we need and He has given us the knowledge necessary to use those things, and the truth that He has revealed to us is infinitely more important for our welfare than it would be to understand the mysteries that He has seen fit to conceal from us.”

Personal note - Today, I am traveling down to Seattle, WA. to pick up my oldest grandson. Nic, will be spending about six weeks of the summer with us. Pray for our safety in travel.

Dads and Lads Campout 2007

The Berean Baptist and Spruceland Baptist Churches enjoyed a camping and fishing trip just 30 minutes west of Quesnel, BC. Pastor Andrew Baduria challenged our young men on Friday night, while Pastor Jeff Hallmark gave the challenge to the fathers on Saturday morning.

The dads beat the lads in basketball, 40 to 26. However, the lads skunked the dads on catching fish on Saturday.




Hans with the first catch of the day.












Silas, our youngest fisherman with his first catch.














Jamaal, with the largest catch of the day.












Percival with the most catch(4) of the day.













James and Pastor Hallmark out on Puntchesakut Lake.








We all had a safe and an enjoyable time in the Lord and in His creation.

Friday Funnies - Picture this:

Two patients limp into two different Canadian medical clinics with the same complaint. Both have trouble walking and appear to require a hip replacement.

The first patient is examined within the hour, is x-rayed the same day and has a time booked for surgery the following week.

The second sees his family doctor after waiting a week for an appointment, then waits eighteen weeks to see a specialist, then gets an x-ray, which isn't reviewed for another month and finally has his surgery scheduled for a year from then.

Why the different treatment for the two patients?

The first is a Golden Retriever; the second is an elderly man.

SLEEPING AT HARVEST

Too long I’ve lain me down to sleep

And prayed the Lord my soul to keep.

I should awake before I die

And realize time is passing by;

And rise and go and tell the lost

Despite my plans, despite the cost.

Too long I’ve lain me down to sleep

While multitudes about me weep;

And altar cries of dark despair,

For no one ever seems to care.

My life is short and soon I’ll stand

With sinner’s blood upon my hands,

Unless I wake before I die

And realize time is passing by


By Truax

Vancouver Province, Saturday, June 13, 1953

BIBLE HISTORY

Christians Took

Scrolls Into Alps

The Province today publishes the second in a series of three articles by Rev. Mark Buch, pastor of the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle, on his opinions as to the true origin of the Bible.

By Mark Buch

Have we today a perfect copy of God’s Word and where is it to be found? This question is constantly being asked. The loud differences in our Bibles are ample proof that they cannot all have been written by one perfect God, for God does not contradict Himself.

To grant the original manuscripts were the perfect, inspired Word of God two or three thousand years ago, is small comfort to man today, for it is common knowledge that they are lost. The big question to us then is not, “Did God inspire the original manuscripts?” We know He did but has God preserved that perfect revelation through time in copying and translation? Again and again the Word itself emphatically stated He has. (1 Peter 1:25) “The Word of the Lord endureth forever, and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

The miracle of the preservation of the Old Testament and its copies through times’ vicissitudes is made simple by the miracle of the Hebrew people. Their devotion and reverence of the Word of God surpasses all comparison. In making copies of the Hebrew manuscripts, not only words but even the letters were counted and the number of times each particular letter occurred was recorded. No corrections were allowed. If a mistake of even one letter was found the whole sheet was destroyed. When a manuscript was worn out and a perfect copy made, the old one was reverently buried in a Jewish cemetery. The very passing away of these originals proves they were not essential to the preservation of God’s Word, or God would not have allowed them to perish!

The New Testament

We now pass to the preservation of the Greek text that is the New Testament. Said the apostle through the inspiration of the Spirit of God (1Thess. 2:13) “When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the Word of God.”

We immediately as the pertinent question: “What text did the true church embrace through the Dark Ages?” Surely anyone sincerely searching for the true Word of God would not go to the persecutors of Christianity or to the apostate and sworn enemies of the pure Bible.

Common sense, let alone spiritual guidance, would seek and expect to find the precious Scriptures enshrined and guarded among God’s people who were loyal and obedient to the Book and its message the Gospel of Grace, even unto death.

In The Alps

These groups of Christians, faithful to the apostolic teachings, were driven by persecution to hide for safety in valleys and mountain recesses in Switzerland and southern France where they zealously guarded the ancient scrolls in caves and catacombs of the Alps. Best known among these groups were the Waldenses and the Albigenses, sometimes called the valdois.

The manuscripts are further aglow with the romance of divine preservation in copying. Desiderious Erasmus, know as Europe’s leading Greek scholar, journeyed to Switzerland and there in the heart of the land of the Valdois in 1516 published at Bazel a Greek New Testament copied directly from these ancient manuscripts. According to the Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, three of these are still in existence at Bazel and the fourth at Mayhimgen, Bavaria.

Second Publisher

The second publisher is known as Stephanus. He based his work upon that of Erasmus.

The work of Stephanus became know as Textus Receptus, the received text. This text was the basis of the Authorized Version.

I have now brought you along the path of pure Scriptures to the era of the translation commonly known as the Authorized Version is the oldest and purest in the world. It springs from a line and history altogether different from the spurious line, such as the Revised Standard Version.

Article from

“In Defence of the Authorized Version”

~~ One Pastor’s Battle

Mark Buch

This is two of four; each one first appeared in the Vancouver Province in June of 1953.

The New Testament Baptist Church

"MARKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH"

1. Its Head and Founder--CHRIST. He is the law-giver; the Church is only the executive. (Matt. 16:18; Col. 1:18)

2. Its only rule of faith and practice--THE BIBLE. (II Tim. 3:15-17)

3. Its name--"CHURCH," "CHURCHES." (Matt. 16:18; Rev. 22:16)

4. Its polity--CONGREGATIONAL--all members equal. (Matt. 20:24-28; Matt. 23:5-12)

5. Its members--only saved people. (Eph. 2:21; I Peter 2:5)

6. Its ordinances--BELIEVERS' BAPTISM, FOLLOWED BY THE LORD'S SUPPER. (Matt. 28:19-20)

7. Its officers--PASTORS AND DEACONS. (I Tim. 3:1-16)

8. Its work--getting folks saved, baptizing them (with a baptism that meets all the requirements of God's Word), teaching them ("to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"). (Matt. 28:16-20)

9. Its financial plan--"Even so (TITHES and OFFERINGS) hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel," (I Cor. 9:14)

10. Its weapons of warfare--spiritual, not carnal. (II Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:10-20)

11. Its independence--separation of Church and State. (Matt. 22:21)

Intro. by Clarence Walker

Some Unerring, Infallible Marks

If in going down through the centuries we run upon a group or groups of people bearing not these distinguishing marks and teaching other things for fundamental doctrines, let us beware.

1. Christ, the author of this religion, organized His followers or disciples into a Church. And the disciples were to organize other churches as this religion spread and other disciples were "made." (Ray, Bapt, Succession, Revised Edition, 1st Chap.)

2. This organization or church, according to the Scriptures and according to the practice of the Apostles and early churches, was given two kinds of officers and only two--pastors and deacons. The pastor was called "Bishop." Both pastor and deacons to be selected by the church and to be servants of the church.

3. The churches in their government and discipline to be entirely separate and independent of each other, Jerusalem to have no authority over Antioch--nor Antioch over Ephesus; nor Ephesus over Corinth, and so forth. And their government to be congregational, democratic. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

4. To the church were given two ordinances and only two, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These to be perpetual and memorial.

5. Only the "saved" were to be received as members of the church (Acts 2:47). These saved ones to be saved by grace alone without any works of the law (Eph, 2:5, 8, 9). These saved ones and they only, to be immersed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). And only those thus received and baptized, to partake of the Lord's Supper, and the supper to be celebrated only by the church, in church capacity.

6. The inspired scriptures, and they only, in fact, the New Testament and that only, to be the rule and guide of faith and life, not only for the church as an organization, but for each individual member of that organization.

7. Christ Jesus, the founder of this organization and the savior of its members, to be their only priest and king, their only Lord and Lawgiver, and the only head of the churches. The churches to be executive only in carrying out their Lord's will and completed laws, never legislative, to amend or abrogate old laws or to make new ones.

8. This religion of Christ to be individual, personal, and purely voluntary or through persuasion. No physical or governmental compulsion. A matter of distinct individual and personal choice. "Choose you" is the scriptural injunction. It could be neither accepted nor rejected nor lived by proxy nor under compulsion.

9. Mark well! That neither Christ nor His apostles, ever gave to His followers, what is know today as a denominational name, such as "Catholic," "Lutheran," "Presbyterian," "Episcopal," and so forth--unless the name given by Christ to John was intended for such, "The Baptist," "John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:11 and 10 or 12 other times.) Christ called the individual follower "disciple." Two or more were called "disciples." The organization of disciples, whether at Jerusalem or Antioch or elsewhere, was called Church. If more than one of these separate organizations were referred to, they were called Churches. The word church in the singular was never used when referring to more than one of these organizations. Nor even when referring to them all.

10. I venture to give one more distinguishing mark. We will call it--Complete separation of Church and State. No combination, no mixture of this spiritual religion with a temporal power. "Religious Liberty," for everybody.

From the Trail of Blood by J. M. Carroll

THE WEAVER

My life is but a weaving betwixt my God and me;

I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly

Will God unfold the pattern and explain the reason why.

For the dark threads are as needful in the Weaver’s skillful hand

As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned.

Written by Grant Colfax Tuller

Sunday AM Message - June 10th 2007

Christ Return, Our Reunion

I Thessalonians 4:12-18

That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I. The Revelation from God – vs. 13, 15a

II. The Return of Jesus Christ – vs. 14, 15

III. The Resurrections of the Believer’s bodies – vs. 15, 16

IV. The Rapture of the New Testament Saints – v. 17

V. The Reunion of God’s Children – vs. 17, 18

Classic Lateral Thinking Exercise #'s 4 - 6

4. One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How?





5. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle that can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very well-known software company as an interview question for prospective employees.





6. A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?


Check last Saturday for # 1 - 3

Answers will be posted in comments later.

Friday Funnies - Cool Cats

*Little Tim's Goldfish*

Little Tim was in the garden filling in a hole
when his neighbor peered over the fence.

Interested in what the cheeky-faced youngster
was up to, he politely asked, "What'cha doing, Tim?"

"My goldfish died," replied the boy tearfully,
without looking up. "I've just buried him."

The neighbor was concerned. "That's an awfully
big hole for a goldfish, isn't it?"

Tim patted down the last heap of earth, then
replied, "That's because he's inside your dumb cat."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Two Heartland students were going door to door, and knocked on
the door of a woman who was not happy to see them.

She told them in no uncertain terms that she did not want to hear
their message and slammed the door in their faces.

To her surprise, however, the door did not close and, in fact,
bounced back open.

She tried slamming the door again, really put her back into it,
but with the same result - the door bounced back open.

Convinced these rude young people were sticking their foot in the
door, she reared back to give it a slam that would teach them a
lesson, when one of them said, "Ma'am, before you do that again you
need to move your cat."

Don't mean to offend 'cat lovers', but was thinking of my good friend, Don Rice.

So is Mitt Romney a biblical Christian?

A friend recently heard that Mitt Romney claimed that yes he is a Christian and yes he believes in the Bible. However I cannot seem to track that down yet in a speech if he claimed that. So is he a biblical Christian?

Well, I envision guys on bicycles peddling down the street and stopping to speak before a TV camera. A million people hear, yes we are the Hell's Angels. Or someone with a broken down donkey claims, yes she is a full-blooded Thoughbred. Or maybe a local truckstop with a greasy food kitchen hangs their neon sign that reads Outback Steak House. Picture the Canaanites with their pagan worship insisting, yes we are Jews too. And what if the head of the Southern Baptist Convention claimed, oh yes we believe that we are Mormons too.

Well, the Hell's Angels might have some real bad words to say to the bicyclers and put some bruises on their bodies. Kentucky would ridicule a Throughbred donkey with shame. The Outback Steakhouse would sue the socks off that truckstop. Israel would be reeling over the religious foolish nonsense and the violation of God's truth. And the Desert News would whine before Utah about the Baptists and a new attack against the LDS church.

An article by Bill McKeever shared some very excellent insights:

Joseph Smith claimed he had seen both God the Father and Jesus Christ. When he asked these personages which church he should join, he was told to join none of them, "for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight" (Joseph Smith History 1:19).

When asked "Will all be damned but Mormons?" Smith replied, "Yes, and a great portion of them unless they repent and work righteousness" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 119).

"Behold there are save two churches only; the one is the church of the Lamb of God, and the other is the church of the devil; wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth" (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 14:10).

The Doctrine and Covenants (1:30) leaves no doubt to the Mormon teaching of exclusivity when it says the LDS church is, "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased. . ." Brigham Young (Mormonism's Second President) --

"When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73).

"The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171).

"With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199).

"Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

"The religion of God embraces every fact that exists in all the wide arena of nature, while the religions of men consist of theory devoid of fact, or of any true principle of guidance; hence the professing Christian world are like a ship upon a boisterous ocean without rudder, compass, or pilot, and are tossed hither and thither by every wind of doctrine" (Journal of Discourses 10:265).

". . .the time came when Paganism was engrafted into Christianity, and at last Christianity was converted into Paganism rather than converting the Pagans" (Journal of Discourses 22:44).

"Brother Taylor has just said that the religions of the day were hatched in hell. The eggs were laid in hell, hatched on its borders, and kicked on to the earth" (Journal of Discourses 6:176). John Taylor (Mormonism's 3rd President) --

"We talk about Christianity, but it is a perfect pack of nonsense . . .the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century" (Journal of Discourses 6:167).

"What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast." (Journal of Discourses 6:25).

"What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing . . .Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest of fools; they know neither God nor the things of God" (Journal of Discourses 13:225).

"And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? . . .You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses 6:24).

McKeever simply quoted their own prophets who mocked biblical Christianity. So now if words or definitions mean anything at all, a Mormon history of error and inconsistency as the LDS prophets have been groping for the truth is not a problem to them. But as their blind are falling into ditches, we refuse to trust or to follow them because they obviously don't know what they're talking about. So now the LDS keep crying out as it offends them that we say Mormons are not the same as Christians. A guy on a bike is not a Hell's Angel. A truckstop is not a steakhouse. Canaanites were not Jews. And Baptists have never claimed to be Mormons. Mormonism is a cult! And never until Mormonism reputiated a complete history of the doctrines of devils is there any way that Mormons can become Christians. And it is impossible that Mitt Romney running for the White House can be a true biblical Christian! The claims of Mormonism are as much real history as "The Rescuers Down Under." But as smaller kids might believe a fictionous cartoon, Mormons believe what they hear from their LDS leaders and began to call themselves Christians.

Pray for Mitt and pray for Mormons. By the power of God they can come to turn from the lies of Mormonism and embrace the biblical, Christian truth to be saved.

Submitted by Charlie Carle