Photo by Matt Walsh on Unsplash There are a lot of theories on how the universe came to be. The great struggle of all atheists is to try and find a way, any possible way, to explain how the universe came into existence - without God. The theories start out sounding very logical, but when you keep asking questions, they quickly devolve into irrational and unprovable claims based on conjecture and a desperate need to exclude God. Richard Dawkins, one of the most famous atheists of the last several decades had a, now famous, debate with Dr. John Lennox, one of the great apologists of our time on whether God was a delusion or not. The debate is available on YouTube and I recommend it to everyone. Anyway, in the debate as things progressed, John Lennox began asking questions of Richard Dawkins about origin and I find the exchange very instructive. Initially, Richard Dawkins gave evolution as the origin of man, but evolution doesn’t explain how all the right ingredients for life just happened to exist on this planet. So, John Lennox pressed and asked about the origin of the universe. To which, Richard Dawkins invoked the Anthropic Principle and the Multiversal Theory. If you aren’t familiar, the Anthropic Principle simply states that the human race is here on earth right? So clearly, the ingredients for life must have worked out and now we exist. This is a hand-wavy explanation and it doesn’t answer the question of how life started. The Multiversal Theory is a naturalistic response to the extremely well-supported scientific set of principles called The Well-Tuned Universe, which I will explain briefly. Simply stated, we live on a planet that is exactly suited to life. If the gravitational force was just a little stronger or weaker, life on Earth wouldn’t be possible. Ditto for the distance between us and the sun, or us and the moon. The strong and weak nuclear forces are also exactly tuned to just the right spot for life. If these were just a little stronger or just a little weaker, life would be impossible. These forces and many others are all in place and tuned to exactly the spot they need to be to sustain life. The Well-Tuned Universe has been used as evidence for God and creation. After all, it would be preposterous to think that all these dials just happen to be in EXACTLY the right spot. Especially when we observe that no other planet we have discovered has these forces in the right proportions. The naturalistic return to this is the Multiversal Theory. Which states that life originated in this universe because this one happens to have all the right ingredients for life, but that there are millions, perhaps billions of other universes where the physics didn’t quite work out. Atheists claim that there is some universe-creating device out there that is constantly spitting out new universes. And this one, the one we live in…just happens to be the one where life is possible. But, these claims are completely unprovable and are not based on any scientific fact. Not only that, but the Multiversal Theory doesn’t explain origins. After all, even if the universe had come out of a multiverse-creating machine, where did said machine come from? To this question, there is no answer. Only faith (from atheists!) that science will one day discover proof of this theory. Naturalism cannot provide answers to the questions of origin. When pressed, Richard Dawkins - called the high priest of atheism - could only invoke conjecture and unprovable theories. However, within the Bible, we have an explanation as to how the universe came into existence: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1 - See the rest of Genesis 1 & 2 for more.) I ask you now, use the logical mind that God gave you, and answer the question: How did life begin? - Trevor For a more in-depth looks at scripture on other topics, consider purchasing my book, "Seven Tenets to Live Life Unrestrained", available on Amazon using the link below. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live. You will also get the latest news on my new book when it comes out!
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In the Bible, especially in the writings of Paul, there is a running theme of sentences and paragraphs with an A clause and a B clause. Let me demonstrate this in a verse we are probably all familiar with, Romans 6:23. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Here it is again, but I have colored the text for A clause in red and B clause in green. “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The two clauses are contrasted with the conjunction “but” (colored blue). This is significant because it shows the difference between what could be two independent statements. So, if they could have been two independent statements, why didn’t Paul write them out separately? Because without clause A, clause B is far less significant. Furthermore, without clause B, clause A is just bad news. However, “the gospel” literally means, “the good news!” So, Paul uses both together to make a better point than either could on their own. Pastors and theological professors would call this context. In other words, these two statements: “the wages of sin is death,” & “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus,” cannot be fully understood independently of each other - their significance is dependent on the other. So, why bring this up? Because it’s very easy to read the Bible and focus only on A clauses and miss the significance of the B clause that comes immediately after. I remember when I was younger, a friend of mine had written clause A of the verse above on a sticky note and was feeling very despondent because of sin in her life. I came along and wrote down the B clause and it was like her whole world had been transformed in an instant! I explained that in this verse, clause A is only mentioned so that clause B can be fully appreciated. The focus in this passage should not be “sin makes you die,” but rather, that “Christ enables you to really live!” There are a lot of these in scripture, and I encourage you as you are reading the Bible to be on the lookout for A and B clauses. The point of which in the New Testament is often used to call attention to life before, and more importantly, after Christ. For further study I have included two more examples of A and B clauses below. Notice the how the meaning of the passage develops as the paragraph moves from clause A to clause B. "For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:3-7 NASB95 “'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.' But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 NKJV Now that you have a good idea of what to look for, look up 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 & Galatians 5:19-24 in your own Bible and see if you can spot the A and B clauses. Consider highlighting the passages in a similar way to what I did above. - Trevor For more in-depth looks at scripture, consider purchasing my book, "Seven Tenets to Live Life Unrestrained", available on Amazon using the link below. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live.
James 1:17 says “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” Notice the word choice here, it is very important: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above...” This one short verse tells us so much about God and how He operates: Every good thing is from Him. Every single one of them. This means that the only place to get good and perfect gifts is directly from God. The word choice here, “good,” is important, because it equivocates to God because God is good (Psalm 34:8). And, what is good and perfect? The Best. If something is given to you, it came directly from God, and that thing is as “good” as God is and it is perfect, then it is the absolute best. God always gives the best because that is all He has This is an important revelation: If the best exclusively comes from God that means that you cannot get the best anywhere else, and anytime we experience less than the best…it didn’t come from God. A great application of this revelation is romance. When it comes to marriage, believe me, you want to get married to the best - the first time. Many of my friends dated whomever they wanted when they were younger and eventually got married…only to get divorced and hate each other a few short years later. Tragic, but totally avoidable. There are a lot of components to a good & lasting marriage, not least of which is starting off right by marrying the person God has chosen for you; that is to say, marrying the best. If dating is a function to bring you into fellowship with your eventual spouse - and I believe it is - then you should only be dating people that you might eventually marry, and the only way to know if someone is right for you, is for God to give them to you. Trying to find a spouse on your own will end in tragedy, believe me, it will. But, if you are patient and apply yourself to hear the voice of God, then your marriage will start off right: with God giving each of you to each other and the both of you accepting each other as God’s best gift for you. Consider this: What parts of my life am I experiencing the best in? What parts am I not? Is there some area, perhaps romance, where I need to seek God first and stop leaning on my own understanding? - Trevor For more about the Best, consider checking out my book, “Unrestrained.” The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive,. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live.
What is the value of a human life? This question has plagued poets and philosophers alike for millennia because many seek to find worth from a naturalistic worldview, that is to exclude God. The Bible offers great insight into this topic, but before we get into that I’d like to take a second to explain some of the problems that those who do not believe in God are inevitably faced with. When defining worth apart from the Bible and God, there are three main issues: First, on the cosmic scale of things, do human beings have worth? Second, if they have worth, from where do they derive it? And third, if human beings do have worth, is that worth of equal value across the population? In other words, are all humans of equal worth, or are some humans more valuable than others? From a secular standpoint, these questions are hard to answer. After all, according to the theory of evolution, we are just chemical accidents; the result of time + matter + chance. By that ideology, there is no intrinsic worth to human beings, we are simply the current leaders of the food chain. There is no purpose in life, there is no special value in humans, and we are just cosmic accidents on a blue dot floating through an uncaring universe. This makes for a very grim view of the world and our place in it. Thankfully, there is another perspective...God’s. When researching the Biblical perspective on intrinsic worth, I find that it shares incredible similarities with how fine art is valued. Art derives its worth from three places, incidentally the same three places that we derive ours 1. Who created itArt is more valuable when a great and respected artist created it. For instance, two identical pieces of art come up for sale, one by your neighbor, the other by Rembrandt. Obviously, the one by the classic Dutch master will be much more valuable. From the biblical perspective, the same concept applies to us, "then the Lord God formed man of the dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). God made us, He is the ultimate creator, and we have a great of value because we are His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). 2. The skill used to produce itIf Rembrandt was still alive, and if you were to give me and him the same paint materials and amount of time, there is no question that Rembrandt would come up with a much better painting, and therefore a great deal more valuable painting than I would. His skill far exceeds my own. The mastery he would use to produce his work would drastically overshadow mine. In the same way, God used a great deal of mastery to create us, "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well" (Psalm 139:13-14). Because of the skill God used to create us we have value. 3. The price someone is willing to pay for itThis last one is the most significant factor in determining the value of something. Who created a piece and the skill used to create it both play heavily into how valuable art is, but ultimately the value is determined by the price someone will pay for it. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16, see also 1 Corinthians 6:20, 1 Peter 2:24, and Isaiah 53). The ultimate price was paid for you when Jesus died on that cross. And regardless of how you feel, what you think, or what others may say, your life has great value; God died so you could live. Therefore all human life has intrinsic worth, worth far exceeding any price you could possibly conceive. Think of yourself how God thinks of you, and think of others just the same: Christ died for us all. You have value, not because of what You have done, or what you may do. But, because of God, who created you, who used his masterful skill to knit you together, and because Jesus died for you. You have intrinsic worth, that no one, not even you can take away. - Trevor Photo by Avery Klein on Unsplash For more about God's perspective of you, consider checking out my book, “Unrestrained.” The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and it has helped people see God in a truer way. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live.
Google defines trauma as, “a deeply distressing or disturbing experience.” No doubt everyone can relate to this, after all, part of the human experience is suffering. What’s interesting about trauma and traumatic events is this: regardless of “how bad” the event was, it still affects us deeply. Let me give you an example. Let’s say there were two young men and one was bullied at school in the 2nd grade, but the other was bullied all throughout school. We would all no doubt agree that the second young man had “worse” trauma, right? Nevertheless, we all also agree that the second boy's experience doesn’t invalidate the first’s. We don’t experience suffering relative to others, we experience it relative to ourselves; another person’s suffering does not invalidate our own. Viktor Frankl, a WWII Nazi death camp survivor said the following about suffering in his book, Man’s Search for Meaning: “To draw an analogy: a man's suffering is similar to the behavior of a gas. If a certain quantity of gas is pumped into an empty chamber, it will fill the chamber completely and evenly, no matter how big the chamber. Thus suffering completely fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore the "size" of human suffering is absolutely relative.” Therefore we draw this conclusion: relative level of trauma does not invalidate our response to it or our feelings about it. Therefore further, do not let anyone invalidate what you have been through just because they or someone else has been through “worse.” That being said, having experienced suffering doesn't make you unique, how you conquer it and use that past experience to fuel your future does. Healing isn’t about “getting over it”, it’s about moving on. The Holy Spirit is here to help you grow past the trauma, to move on from it to where it no longer holds you hostage; chained to the past, but rather to use that trauma as a stepping stone to propel you at lightspeed into your future. So, what does moving on look like? Moving on is the process of forgiving those individuals who were involved in your past that hurt you. Moving on also means forgiving yourself. Trauma in this sense can be likened to physical trauma. If you were to cut your arm a process of healing would take place. Depending on the severity of the cut you might end up with a scar. And, scars are okay, they are a witness that healing has taken place. You see, moving on from emotional trauma doesn’t make the situation go away, it heals the hurt and allows you to grow stronger because of it. Much like a cut on your arm, the trauma may leave a scar on your heart, but through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness, that hard place on your heart can be turned soft again. This means that the place in life where you were once a victim now becomes a place of great triumph. Consider Jesus, who was beaten beyond recognition, had a crown of thorns pounded down onto His head, and then was executed in the most brutal fashion by being hung on a cross, all for crimes He didn’t commit. Jesus took that pain and suffering and turned it into a victory, not just for Him, but for all humankind. Take your trauma and do the same. Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me." Luke 9:23 NIV Reference Verses
- Trevor For more about moving on, consider checking out my book, “Unrestrained.” The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and it has helped people see God in a comforting light. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live.
Dear Lord, We thank you for the many blessings that abound in our lives and all around us every day. We are grateful for the earth that we live in, which you created. For the breath of life you give to us, and most especially for Your Son, Jesus. Who has revealed Your nature to us. (Genesis 1 & Hebrews 1:1-3) May it be on us and in our homes according to the gift of your grace, according to the working of your power. According to the riches of your grace and mercy Lord, bless us. (Ephesians 3:7) We ask this not out of selfish ambition or out of greed, but rather as a means of obtaining our inheritance so that we may bless the world around us. Which you promised to us and set a seal of it in our heart with Your Spirit. (Philippians 2:3-4 & Ephesians 1:11-14) This we ask, Father - this we claim, that you bless and multiply us and our houses so abundantly that we overflow. We cannot keep it in. It cascades off of us onto those around us so that Your promise may be fulfilled “I will bless you, and you shall be a blessing.” This we confess and know is your unchanging purpose. (Genesis 12:1-3 & Hebrews 6:13-18) Because of Your kindness, we are able to receive this blessing. And, not just that, but also the washing and regeneration of the Holy Spirit that you have lavishly poured out upon us. Not on the basis of works which we have done in or out of righteousness, but rather, on faith. Faith in Your Beloved Son. (Titus 3:4-7) Words do not fully express the gratitude I feel for everything you have done. For the stars, the sky, the mountains, for my children and my wife. For my health and wit, for personality and imagination; for every good thing ever known by mankind, God I give you credit and humbly say, thank you. (Psalm 19:1, Philippians 4:6-7, and James 1:17) - Trevor If you enjoyed this post, consider checking out my book, “Unrestrained.” The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and it has helped people see God in a comforting light. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live.
As a youth in a Pentecostal church, I was constantly asked if I had “received the call to ministry.” This was a regular part of any significant meeting. I received mine at a large gathering of the Church of God when I was 18 years old, in Weatherford Texas. I remember the moment clearly. I had gone forward to the altar to pray and be prayed for, the music was going and the Spirit was moving. After about ten minutes I stood up and made instant eye contact with one of the youth leaders. He motioned me over, looked me straight in the eyes, and simply asked, “do you have any doubts now?” I didn’t. I was asked to speak several times in that youth group before starting as a youth pastor at my home church in Cottondale. Over the years I have functioned as a worship team member and leader, a youth pastor, small group leader, counselor, and camp chaplain. I also played in a Christian rock band for several years where I had the opportunity to pray with struggling people of all ages. Over the years of ministry, my understanding of what it means to be called to ministry and “full-time ministry” has changed. In the early days, I thought you had to receive a paycheck from a church, have a degree, or at least hold a position within a church to be considered a full-time minister. However, none of these things are true. I have met and worked with many men and women in positions of authority in a church who did very little helpful ministry. I have had lengthy discussions with seminary graduates who could name every member of Jesus’ genealogy, or quote entire chapters of the Bible, but didn’t have an ounce of revelation. I have seen great charismatic speakers deliver rousing, passionate sermons and received large sums of tithes, who wouldn’t help one of the people they had just preached to change a flat tire. Great education, authority in a local body, and gifts of preaching do not make you a full-time minister. So, what does? “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 2 Peter 2:9-10 NIV You are a chosen people and a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation, God’s special possession. You once were not God’s people, but now you are. There is no distinction about who is qualified to do ministry. If the Spirit of God resides in you, then you have every qualification needed to do ministry. So, you’re not the senior pastor, so what? Ministry is not solely done from the pulpit. So you don’t have a degree in divinity, does that lessen the impact of Christ on your life? So you don’t get paid to help with children’s church, so what?! If you have Christ, you have life! You have light! And not just that, but marvelous light (see again 1 Peter 2:9-10)! That light is within you and you take it with you wherever you go. Looking again at the above verse, the concept of being part of a royal priesthood may sound strange, but not when you consider the context. God is the King, so all of His children are also royal (Romans 8:14-16). Jesus is the high priest, so everyone who ministers on His behalf follows in His priesthood (Hebrews 7:23-28). Therefore you are a priest of the New Covenant, not like the old priests who had to offer daily sacrifices to stave off the wrath of God. You show the world the light of Christ from within you. A light produced by flame. A flame that no man, demon, or circumstance can extinguish. The very flame of God. “For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:29 NIV When people ask me if I’m a full-time minister, I ask them if they are full-time breathing. I usually draw a strange stare or short laugh. But, here's the facts, if you are alive, you are breathing full-time, and if you are breathing full-time with the Holy Spirit inside of you, you are a full-time minister. Whether you are preaching crusades, volunteering at the animal shelter, or helping your neighbor take out the trash, you are a full-time minister! It doesn't matter if you’re 15 years old, or if you are 5, or 55 for that matter. It doesn't matter if you’re getting paid, volunteering, or working for the man to put food on the table. It also doesn’t matter if you’re well educated, have read the Bible 10 times, or get nervous talking to strangers: You are a light bearer; you are full-time ministering! So, if we are all full-time ministers, then what use is a “call to ministry”? A call to ministry is when you wake up and realize that your actions do not happen in a vacuum. Let me say that again: Your Actions Do Not Happen in a Vacuum! What I mean by that is this: everything you do, whether in public or private, is done as a representative of the New Covenant. Meaning, that every action you take reflects upon the whole of Christianity. I remember having a conversation with a stranger at the State Fair several years ago, which seemed to be going well…until I mentioned I was a Christian. The guy I was talking to gave me a weird look, then asked me how I could call myself a Christian with all the horrible things that Christians have done over the years. He proceeded to tell me about abuses he had sustained from the church he grew up in. I did my best to share the love of Jesus with the guy, but his heart was hard from all the betrayals. This is what I am talking about. Despite the fact that I had never hurt that man, because I called myself a Christian, he applied all that anger and resentment toward me. The people who did hurt him were long gone, but the wounds from their injustices remained: Your Actions Do Not Happen in a Vacuum, they have far-reaching implications. Just the same as a stone thrown into a peaceful pond ripples out and distorts the water all around, so your actions and your words carry on far beyond your immediate circle of influence and will be judged on or against all Christians everywhere. So, does this mean that you should be meek and quiet and keep your faith to yourself? NO! “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” Luke 8:16-17 NIV You have the very light of the world living inside of you, you can’t keep this to yourself! This is the “call to ministry”, to share your faith in every aspect of your life. To worship God not just on Sunday morning, but all day, every day. So, I encourage you with this: Don’t wait until a big meeting to decide you want to live your life for God, make that decision today. Receive your call to ministry right here, right now. And, help share the love of God with those around you. The effects of which will not be measured in days, but in generations. - Trevor For more about my story, the New Covenant, and hearing God’s voice, consider checking out my book, “Unrestrained.” The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and it has helped people see God in a comforting light. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live.
We open our bibles and consider the question of lawlessness. What does it mean to be lawless? Traditionally, it is taught to us that when we come to the point of believing in Jesus, as Lord and Savior of our lives, and confess such with our mouth, Jesus comes to live in our hearts and we need to live the rest of our lives in grateful obedience to Him and God. While it is rarely ever said out loud, this grateful obedience is meant as a pseudo-payment for salvation. As in, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe” (Jesus Paid it All, made popular by Kim Walker-Smith & other artists). This idea makes salvation out to be a loan. Where Jesus (the bank), paid for your salvation. Now you (the borrower), need to do good works and avoid bad works to pay Jesus back for what He did. The culture perpetuated by individuals and institutions holding to these ideals makes you feel condemned for not going “above and beyond for Christ.” Anybody who walks not in accord with these principles is “lawless.” therefore under this definition, to be lawless is to keep sinning after receiving salvation. This is ridiculous. And frankly, heretical. The problem is twofold: First, this view puts all the attention on you, and second that it encourages lawlessness. In fact…it empowers it. The notion that each time you sin, you likewise require repentance means that you can repent your way out of any behavior. Taking this ideology out to its logical conclusion - you may behave as you like, so long as you repent after. Of course, there is a flip side to this, and that is people who feel that they need to earn God's forgiveness. To help demonstrate this, we will utilize a metaphor familiar to scripture, and that is a boat out on the water. Saying certain words and performing certain actions, such as good works, is essentially rowing the boat. That is to say that each act of obedience moves us closer to God - trying to row our way into God’s good graces; trying to row our way to heaven. What this culture has missed is grace. You see, grace isn’t partial. Ever. Grace is always 100%. It’s binary: either it’s on or it’s off, there is no in-between. Grace cannot forgive some sins and not forgive others. Grace obliterates all sin for the life of a believer. Past, present, and future. Therefore, there is no work we can do that can earn grace, and there is no way to pay Jesus back for what He did. Any attempt to do so is an attempt to achieve righteousness on our own; self-righteousness. So, if not good works to keep salvation, then what? “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14-15 NASB). When we live our lives in submission to the Holy Spirit, that means that we are living our lives at the whim of the wind - the original Greek for spirit is pneuma, which means wind or breath. We're meant to be sailors, not rowers. In order to completely accept this, we must dismiss the notion that our actions in any way in endear us to God. There is no distance between God and you once you have received the Holy Spirit. There is also one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, no further mediation on our part is needed. To say, or act in a way different, is to spit in the face of Christ as He stands before God. So then, what is lawlessness? Lawlessness is when we decide to do things our own way, not under the guidance and authority of the Spirit of God. It’s when we take the sail down and try to row our way to something we have more interest in. This effort is easily masked as good works. But, the fact is that there is only One who can define whether a work is good or not, and that is God. Not everything we think of as good is actually good. Many times in my life I have thought to move forward with a project that seemed, for all the world, a good thing to do. Only to have it be a constant uphill fight that produced fatigue and frustration, instead of the life and peace promised in Romans 8:6. After this project I would talk to God and realize that He never told me to do it, or that He had designed for it to be done at a different time or in a different way…I should have spoken to Him first. Not after needlessly investing time, effort, and resources into something that never bore any fruit. Therefore the only way to do good works is to hear His voice and to seek His will first. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 NASB) - Trevor For more about sin, the New Covenant, and hearing God’s voice, consider checking out my book, “Unrestrained.” The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and it has helped people see God in a comforting light. Thank you for reading this blog. If you enjoyed it, you can subscribe to my newsletter for notifications each time a new Various Revelations blog goes live. For centuries, the only readily available English translation of the Bible was the King James or Authorized Version of the Bible. Printed originally in 1611, this translation heavily favors the theology of the Church of England during that time. While this translation did utilize original word manuscripts of the day (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek), it was also heavily influenced by the Latin Vulgate. This is evidenced in several places, my favorite of which is the occasional use of the word unicorn. Now, in modern times, there are over 100 English translations of the Bible. Most of these are readily accessible on the internet for free through websites such as biblehub.com and biblegateway.com. With so many options, it’s natural to start asking questions like, “which one is right for me?” “Which translation is best?” “What is the most accurate translation of the Bible?” You have probably already read many other opinions online before making your way here, so if you’re in a hurry, see the bottom of this post for general recommendations. For those who want more information, here goes: There are two main categories of Bibles: translations and paraphrases. Translations utilize the original language manuscripts in order to show the reader a reasonable representation of what the Bible says. Whereas paraphrases put the Bible into the author’s own words, attempting to show the reader what the Bible means. So, paraphrase or translation, which one is better? That’s up to you. Generally, paraphrases are easier to read than translations; however, they sacrifice a lot of accuracy for that readability So, if it’s your first time reading the Bible and you don’t read very much otherwise, you may want to try a paraphrase. However, if you have already read the Bible, or you are looking to get more out of a read-through, or most especially if you are teaching, then you are going to want a translation. When I talk about translations, I usually refer to a scale of accuracy and readability. While it’s true that some translations do a very good job of accurately representing the word and still making it reasonably easy to digest, the easiest translations to read are often the least accurate. Why is that? Because the Bible wasn’t written in English. The Bible is very old, even the newest parts were penned almost 2000 years ago, well before English became as common as it is. The Bible is divided into two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was primarily written in Hebrew, with a few chapters here and there in Aramaic. And, The New Testament is written in ancient Koine Greek. Translators take manuscripts in these original languages and put them in modern English vernacular, and as anyone who speaks more than one language can tell you, not everything translates word-for-word. Some words in Greek require full sentences to explain, but to put a full explanation in the middle of a verse in the Bible would be distracting to read and make it difficult to follow what the passage meant. Not only that, but all of the original languages use different sentence structures than English. Therefore, it is the translators' job to decide how accurate they should remain to the words originally used, but still, make the text legible. Each translation has a different philosophy regarding where to draw the line. Some are committed to creating a word-for-word English translation that is very close to the original, while others are just as committed to making a thought-for-thought Bible that most people can read without too much effort or extrabiblical study guides, such as dictionaries and lexicons. So, what is this scale and where do translations fall on it? Before you look at it, understand that my opinions on accuracy are somewhat subjective. That being said, I do have the benefit of having read through the Bible in multiple translations, many times, over the course of many years. I believe I have a good idea of what the intent of the Holy Spirit was when he moved the authors to pen their texts. Add to that that many of the foundations and companies that have produced these Bibles have reputations; some for accuracy, legalism, readability, or specific denominational theology. My goal is not to demonize any translation, but rather to give you as much information as possible, so that you feel comfortable making a good decision regarding which Bible to read. Additionally, as mentioned above, there are over 100 English translations of the Bible, for the purposes of this discussion, I will use six well-known translations and one paraphrase. So, what is the best translation of the Bible? Well, that should be you. The Bible is an amazing record of what God has done throughout time, how He has related to man, and it gives a pure message of salvation in Jesus. But, it is just a book. The very words of God, yes! But, a book nevertheless. The Bible cannot change a tire, pray with your kids, or help your neighbor mow their lawn. But, it can have a huge impact on how you do all of those things and more. You might well be the only exposure some people have to scripture, therefore you should be the best representation of it. Additionally, the Holy Spirit has been given to you to teach you “all things.” If you are tuned into the Holy Spirit, then while you are reading the Bible, God will be writing on your heart. This transition takes time but is absolutely worth it. General Recommendations:Disclaimer: This section uses affiliate links. I don't care where you get your Bibles from, but using the links helps me out. Thanks! Best of both worlds: |
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AuthorTrevor's debut book, Unrestrained is available for order now on Amazon here. AboutA place for me to post various, short revelations that the Lord has given me. It is my hope that you will find these helpful, and that they will inspire you to seek out revelation on your own. Archives
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