“By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” 2nd Corinthians 13:1 First of all, this is an important principle that God has put into his Word. Every doctrine is verified by a confirmation of several witnesses throughout the Bible. One way the Lord has established the veracity of his Word, the Bible, is that every principle, every teaching, every doctrine in the Word of God is confirmed elsewhere in the Bible so that there will be more than one witness. It's necessary to be mindful of that because there are those who say you can't trust the Bible or you can't be sure whether any passage was mistranslated. The Bible confirms the Bible. The Word of God has been preserved by its doctrines being repeated throughout. God cares very much about his Word; in fact he says that he even values it above his Name. "For you have magnified your Word above all your Name." Psalm 138:2 Think about it: God spoke the universe into existence and he even calls each star by name: "He counts the number of the stars; he calls them all by name." Psalm 147:4 If he cares so much about stars and even names each one, then certainly he who has created all in such magnificence is able to watch over his precious Word to make sure that it is accurate in every language into which it is translated. To ensure that, he has confirmed every doctrine "by the mouth of two or three witnesses." Every doctrine in the Word of God will be found repeated in several places so that each will be firmly established. In 1947, in the caves of Qumran in Israel, scrolls were found which have been called "the Dead Sea Scrolls," because they were found in the caves near the Dead Sea. These are very old manuscripts from ancient times. There was found among them an almost complete book of Isaiah and upon close examination it contains almost word-for-word verification of the veracity of the book of Isaiah that we have today as translated in the King James version. And the numerous other scrolls that were found provide verification that the Bible as we have it today was carefully preserved by God himself in its accuracy. Until now, the King James version has been considered the most accurate of all the translations of the Bible in English. But in modern times men have undertaken to put forward "more understandable" versions, but in doing so the accuracy HAS been compromised and not only compromised, some passages have been actually and deliberately omitted. The NIV and other modern translations not only suffer in mistranslation, but have been altered to misrepresent key doctrines. One example out of many is the passage in Luke 4:18 in which Jesus himself states that he came to heal the broken-hearted. The NIV (New International Version) and the ESV (English Standard Version) have not only mistranslated that verse, they have actually OMITTED the part of his coming to heal the broken-hearted, words which Jesus himself actually spoke. The NIV is especially guilty of altering the Word of God, in mistranslating it, and in passages omitted. In fact, among the translators of the NIV, some were actually involved in the occult. If you have understanding about the times we're in, the last days, then it should be obvious what Satan is up to. We're in the last days and Satan is behind the multitude of cults everywhere. His great scheme has been to so alter the Word of God that people will go off in error because of it. The only way to preserve the accuracy of the Scriptures and to understand the Word of God is to adhere to the original translation, the very old King James version, even though it might be hard to read for some because of the old English - "thou" for you, and "speakest" for speak, etc. But if you care about accuracy, stick with the original translation, otherwise you lose accuracy in the "modern" versions. If the old King James translation is too difficult for you, just be careful which version you choose among the later translations. The New King James (NKJ) and the New American Standard (NASB) may have some problems, but they are the better choices if you need something other than the King James. If you care about the Word of God, it would be worthwhile to do a study on the modern translations and find out for yourself where they have been tampered with. You might be so surprised that you'll be willing to stay with the original translation for the sake of knowing what God has actually said.
In the Bible's book of Esther, Haman is shown as an extremely evil and devious man, but he was high up in the government, second only to the King of Persia which is today's Iran. Haman connived a story against the Jews and moved upon the king to destroy them all. Today we have the same story going on. Today Iran publicly and loudly proclaims to all that their goal is to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. They mean to wipe Israel off the map, "that the name of Israel be remembered no more." "They have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, THAT THE NAME OF ISRAEL MAY BE REMEMBERED NO MORE.'" Psalm 83:3-4 But why? It is the ongoing Satanic plot that has played out throughout the ages - to destroy Israel, "that the name of Israel may be remembered no more." Israel's enemies have always been giant Goliaths. But what the enemies don't realize is that Israel is not like any other country, Israel was established by the most high God, and Israel CANNOT be destroyed. God always raises up someone or something to destroy the enemy instead. As we see in the story above, recorded In the Book of Esther, God put her there in the right place at the right time, enabling her to petition the king against the plot of Haman. Esther risked her life by going before the king uninvited, and she said those words so familiar to those who know the story: "And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” Esther 4:16 But the king extended the royal scepter to her, and she told him her story. "Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews." Esther 8:3 When the king heard about Haman's plot, he was enraged at the wickedness of this man and he said: vs 5: "...let it be written to REVOKE the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces." And Haman was hanged on the gallows he had set up for Esther's righteous uncle, Mordecai the Jew! When someone comes against Israel, the people of God, they risk having their destructive goals falling on themselves instead. "On the day that the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them." Esther 9:1 This was such an act of God in delivering them, that they made it a national holiday, observed each year to this day. These stories were written for our learning, and there are many more like it that tell the same story - Satan may move against us, but those who belong to God will see Satan's efforts backfire in the end! If you belong to the Lord and are going through a grievous trial, take courage. All that Satan has meant against you will backfire on his own head. God works ALL things together for the good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). Take courage and stand, and you will see the salvation of the Lord.
"Thus they were defiled by their own works, and played the harlot by their own deeds, therefore the wrath of the Lord was kindled AGAINST HIS PEOPLE so that he abhorred his own inheritance." Psalm 106:39-40 God is long-suffering toward his people. Before judgment came upon Israel, he sent prophets to them to warn them not to rebel against him. The prophets pleaded with them to return to the Lord ...but they wouldn't. The Lord had warned them not to mingle with the peoples of the nations around them, but did they listen? No. They mingled with them and eventually came under the influence of "the world," not wanting to be a consecrated people, not wanting to be separated unto the Lord, not wanting to be a spectacle to the world. They wanted to be accepted by those around them and that's how they came under their influence, took on their ways, and forgot their Lord. Peer pressure can distance people from the Lord. vs 35: "But they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works;" Having sent them prophets time and time again, he finally let them go. vs 41: "And he gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, and those who hated them ruled over them." Isn't this the state of the church today? It's hard to be a people separated to the Lord while surrounded by "the world." It's hard to avoid wanting to be accepted by all. It's hard to live with people all around you calling you into their ways and scorning you when you don't join them. America was founded upon the Judeo-Christian ethic. Indeed, and this is true, most of our ivy-league colleges were founded as seminaries - Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, and others... founded to train men to be men of God, ministers of the Gospel. How far we have fallen! God will not turn a blind eye forever. Eschatologists, those who study the events of "the last days," are saying that all the signs are here pointing to the beginning of the Tribulation, that last 7-year period when the wrath of God will be poured out onto a Christ-rejecting world. In fact, Jesus said that that time will be worse than anything the world has EVER experienced before, or ever will again. "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." Matthew 24:21 The Lord has been generous in making it very clear that anyone who won't pay attention will be left behind to endure the terrors and the suffering of the Tribulation. God set a series of "blood moons" to witness to this. Blood moons are total lunar eclipses. To make it clear that this was an act of God, each blood moon fell on God's appointed feast days. They fell on Passover and on the feast of Tabernacles two years in a row. What are the odds of that? Pretty small, I'd say. God was signaling to us that the time is near and that we must pay attention because we're fast approaching the time of the end and there isn't much time left to get serious with God and surrender to him. Nothing happened, they say? So then, you think nothing WILL happen? In addition to the four "blood moons," each and every one of them on, and only on, Passover and on the Feast of Tabernacles, he sent two total solar eclipses, he set up the Revelation 12 sign in the constellations, and then there have been wars, rumors of war, increasing earthquakes, famine, pestilence (diseases), all signs Jesus gave to alert us to the time of the end. And he's alerted us about CERN which is opening "portals" into "other dimensions" which many believe is the source of the terrible increase in violence all over the world. If you've seen all this and it doesn't move you, then turn away, nothing any of us can say will move you. We've done our part. Go your way. But if you recognize the preparation God has made before the judgments fall, and if you're not right with God, settle that now while you can. Noah spent many years warning the people of his day that disaster was approaching. They laughed at him ...and they perished. Men of God are bringing this message of warning to all who will listen. Come to Christ for his pardon, and surrender your life to the one who created you. He loves you and will receive anyone who humbles himself and receives the forgiveness of his sins for which Christ paid such a dear price to enable us to be saved. Come to him! Don't put it off. When the door closes, it will be too late. When God closed the door on Noah's ark, it was too late. A whole generation perished. Only those in the ark survived. Get into the ark, the dark clouds are before us.