Thursday, May 28, 2015

Response I wrote to a claim I was worshiping the KJV and should repent from my sin of sharing about Biblical numbering


(Letter of response to those thinking I'm making wrong assertions re the KJV Bible)

Many scholars and casual students of scripture sometimes snap judge my hypothesis that in addition to inspiring the text, God has even inspired the Bible's chapter and verse numbering. Some respond kindly and a few others not so nicely calling me an idiot, crazy or even sinful to be promoting such an idea..

I thought I would share my latest responses to a claim I should repent from worshiping the KJV (below). I welcome your comments to any of my writings as I do consider everyone's opinion, and also desire to do what's right in my sharing of what I see. I especially appreciate direct correction and alternative views about specific things I write - Iron Sharpens Iron.
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My Response to: Am I in a cult like way worshiping the KJV?

....Cult? No I'm not part of a cult. I simply study God's Word and tell people what I observe. What I write about has not come from my dreams or a product of my imagination, but I do hope and suspect God is somehow leading me to things I discover.

I am not asserting some contrived conclusion and never set out to discover anything more in my studies than the average Bible reader -- simply to gain an understanding of what God's Word says. I work to give evidences for the claims I present (at least I try to). Could I be wrong? Absolutely! But there are many facts I present that are near impossible to explain away as coincidence. Many Bible scholars I have presented these thoughts to are unable to dispute the evidences I provide and at the same time can't bring themselves to believe God could have numbered the Bible. I totally get that -- our truths tell us the Bible is a product of men and thousands of differences in manuscripts provide great evidence that we really don't know what the exact original text of the scripture is.

Everything history tells us, as well as good logical thinking, all point to a Bible that, even though it may be inspired by God, it is clearly the work of men and subject to many errors in transmission over time. Facts we know say it is impossible...but what do we do with evidence that argues for the Bible's perfection?

For example, If you examine the middle chapter of the Bible (Psalm 117 with only two verses) and compare them with the middle two verses of KJV which are Psalm 103:1-2, both these 2 verse middle points appear to point directly to Jesus. Psalm 117 says "Praise the LORD" twice and Psalm 103:1-2 says "Bless the LORD" twice. In addition to the verse contents, is it chance the middle chapter of the Bible is the shortest and only two-verse chapter of the Bible? Is it also coincidence the exact two middle verses of the Bible fall as the first two verses of a chapter? Anyone can verify these counts for themselves. When you consider the mathematical chances this could happen coincidentially, you can't seriously assume they are a product of coincidence.

A second example: The Old Testament and New Testament are two sets of randomly organized books that were joined together many hundreds of years after they were written. How is it possible the middle chapter and middle verses seemingly line up so well? Also, how did the 24,000th Bible verse at Matthew 24:42 containing the most direct command to us to be on alert watching for the DAY of the LORD (24 hours), just happen to fall on the 24,000th Bible verse? The more of these "coincidences" you encounter, the harder it is to consider them an accident.

I'm not trying to form any following but rather want to share with others these things I've observed.. Draw your own conclusion about what this means. My conclusion is that the Bible is perfected even down to Chapter and Verse numbering. God says his word is perfect so this does not go against scripture. It supports what many Christians already believe.

Hope this explains my position a bit better

I would ask that before people label this as craziness, they look honestly at some of the evidence and consider if it is at least the result of a very curious set of coincidences. Rather than reject the evidences presented, I believe people would be amazed if they would discover these facts for themselves. It's amazingly rewarding to know in your heart the Bible we hold in our hands contains the exact Words of God Himself.

Norm Patriquin
http://www.amazingword.com
https://twitter.com/amazingword