Wow

The more I read "My Utmost for His Highest," the more I am sure Oswald Chambers was inspired.  His words enlighten me and open my eyes and heart to a deeper meaning of the Bible.

Like today's devotional:

Careful infidelity

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Matthew 6:25.

Jesus sums up commonsense carefulness in a disciple as infidelity. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will press through and say—‘Now where does God come in in this relationship, in this mapped-out holiday, in these new books?’ He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

“Take no thought . . .”—don’t take the pressure of forethought upon yourself. It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything else that worries us. Have you ever noticed what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in? The devil? No, the cares of this world. It is the little worries always. I will not trust where I cannot see, that is where infidelity begins. The only cure for infidelity is obedience to the Spirit.

The great word of Jesus to His disciples is abandon.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. May 23

Which then led me to find the parable of the sower in Matthew:   

  

²² He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

The Holy Bible : King James Version. electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. Bellingham WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995, S. Mt 13:22

And my breakthrough was that indeed the little worries can wedge themselves between me and God and cause me to end up far away from Him.  And this is entirely the right illumination I needed today since dark clouds of little worries were moving in yesterday, even interrupting my sleep last night.

God really does take care of the details.

Just the facts, ma'am

Last night I learned of the existence of Karaite Jews. I was fascinated by them and dug around the Internet to learn about them.  They only accept the Old Testament as it stands and do not accept rabbinic commentary. They want to interpret and understand the scriptures for themselves.  I can really respect this. I am using lots of reference materials as I study the Bible and I am trying to understand it for myself and not just accept something because it's tradition or because someone with a title said it was so.

Quoteable

I heard a sermon posted online by the Reverend Daniel Haas of the Provo United Community Church of Christ.  It's titled "Enfolded by Love." In it he said,

"There is no such thing as an individual Christian."

I really liked that--I may not currently belong to a specific church but I am not alone. Jesus watches over all his flock.

A turn of phrase out of phase?

In Numbers, chapter 3, of the New Jerusalem Bible I read this:

(verse 3) Such were the names of Aaron's sons, priests anointed and invested with the powers of the priesthood.

Scratching my head because of the last part of the verse, I did comparisons with several other translations.  I didn't see anywhere else that mentioned "powers of the priesthood."  The other Bibles had something similar to the King James Version below:

3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests which were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office. 

Having just left a church that boasts the only "priesthood authority" on the Earth, I am sensitive to such assertions.  Is it possible that the translators of the NJB were trying to support the Roman Catholic Church's claim to priesthood?

I looked in the notes of the ArtScroll Tanach, Stone edition (a Jewish Bible).  Due to copyright, I can't quote them word-for-word.  In summary, the note for Numbers, chapter 6, verse 27, said priests (Kohanim) have no power in themselves to give blessings, they only serve as a channel or pipeline for God.


 

Neapolitan, for when you really just can't choose

As a child, I used to eat the chocolate first, then the strawberry, then the vanilla last.  When I visit an ice cream shop now as an adult I often order a mix like chocolate fudge with a scoop of bubblegum.  It's the same way for me with Bible translations: I can't choose yet, I want to try them all.

Go here for a page with a chart comparing modern English versions and other interesting facts, like how many people worked on the translations.

I have found that for general reading, I really enjoy The Message. When I come across something I want to explore, I open other translations and compare.  It's fun!  Some great resources for Bible comparison online are

http://www.biblegateway.com/

http://www.biblestudytools.com/

What does it mean?

I've been learning vocabulary used in the Christian world.

Communion or Eucharist: the Lord's Supper, also known as "the sacrament" in the LDS church

Exegesis: Greek for "lead out of," an explanation or interpretation, especially of the Bible

Indwelling: having the Holy Spirit living within us

Intercession: praying for others

Minister: Latin for "servant;" someone who is ordained as clergy

Ordination: recognizing and confirming that someone is called to the ministry, has been trained and authorized to teach and perform services like weddings and funerals. (The LDS church teaches that ordination imparts special authority and power from God and their ordained clergy are not trained in theological seminaries.)

Nicene Creed:  We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen

Pastor: "shepherd," a title for clergy, like a minister

Trinity: one God who exists as three persons (I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around this after decades of the LDS doctrine of the "Godhead." It blows my mind that I can pray to Jesus too.)

Witness: give testimony of Christ

Who did what to whom and why?

I hit a conundrum in Exodus, chapter 4. Moses and God had just been talking at the burning bush.  Moses got his instructions on freeing the people of Israel and was headed back to Egypt. When I read verses 24-26 I wondered what happened. If God wanted to kill Moses, he'd had plenty of chances already. And if Moses needed to circumcise his sons, why didn't God bring that up already? I read the same verses in every version of the Bible I had on hand to try to understand. I later found out that I'm not the only one confused. Turns out there's even a Wikipedia entry about it.

I originally read it in The Message:

^24-26 On the journey back, as they camped for the night, God met Moses and would have killed him but Zipporah took a flint knife and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' member with it. She said, "Oh! You're a bridegroom of blood to me!" Then God let him go. She used the phrase "bridegroom of blood" because of the circumcision.  1

The King James version reads:

²⁴ And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.

²⁵ Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

²⁶ So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

The New Revised Standard Version says:

24 On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him and tried to kill him. ²⁵But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, ‘Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!’ ²⁶So he let him alone. It was then she said, ‘A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.’ 2

A search on the Internet led me to an interesting article written by Ronald B. Allen about "The Bloody Bridgegroom." He summarizes other scholars' ideas on the verses and then gives his own interpretation.  He says God held Moses in a death grip because Moses had failed to circumcise his son and circumcision was a requirement of the covenant with the people of Israel. But God gave Moses a chance to redeem himself. Moses' wife, Zipporah came to the rescue, although she seemed angry at having to do it herself. 3

I found another interpretation in "Commentary on the Torah" by Richard Elliott Friedman. He translates verse 24 with "he asked to kill him" and says it is possible Moses was asking God to kill him instead of sending him to Egypt. Mr. Friedman states there were other prophets who said they preferred death to being prophets. 4

It was actually enlightening for me to see that there is a lively debate over some Bible passages. I've enjoyed using resources available to me to compare ideas.

1 "Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group." 

2 ‘New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.’ 

3 BIBLIOTHECA SACRA 153 (July-September 1996): 259-69
Copyright © 1996 by Dallas Theological Seminary.

4 HarperCollins, Apr 15, 2003

Devoting time

Imagine that you are suddenly forced to question your deepest beliefs, your lifestyle, and your relationships. That happened to me not very long ago. When I uncovered the multitude of lies that had been so carefully packaged and presented to me as shiny clean truths, I felt even my faith in God's existence waver. If there wasn't a "true church" and if all my major life decisions for the past twenty-seven years had been based on a lie, could there even be a God?

I wanted to give God a chance so I kept reading the Bible. I borrowed books about Christianity from the library.  I found out that former US president Jimmy Carter had released a book called "Through the Year with Jimmy Carter."  It is a daily devotional--according to Wikipedia, a publication that provides a "specific spiritual reading for each calendar day."

I had a free sample of the book sent to my e-reader and found that I really liked it.  Each day started with a scripture from the Bible, then an experience Jimmy Carter had that related to the verse(s), then a simple prayer regarding the theme. The sample was over three weeks long. I wrote each day in a journal about what I learned and thought and felt. The prayer part felt a little pagan to me at first.  It was someone else's prayer.  Using "You" to address God was really strange to see.  But in time I relaxed and read the prayers anyway.  I tried to say them with real intent and feeling.

I had always admired Jimmy Carter for his humanitarian work and that was what drew me to his devotional. I later discovered Oswald Chambers and his work, "My Utmost for His Highest."  No prayers here, just a verse and a mini-sermon each day.  It has been very powerful to read--Mr. Chambers pulls no punches.

The idea of a daily devotional started out strange to me but I have found it to be very useful, inspirational, and motivational to read the experiences and thoughts of other Christians.  I look forward to it each day.  It helps me learn Christian doctrine. It helps me feel less alone.

I highly recommend giving a daily devotional book or calendar to any ex-Mormon to whom you give a Bible. 

"wee have at the length, through the good hand of the Lord upon us, brought the worke to that passe that you see"

In January 1604, the recently-crowned King James the First of England called a meeting of clergy.  Leaders of the Church of England and Puritans who wanted to reform church procedures met with the king.  At the time there were two popular competing versions of the Bible: the Bishop's Bible, read in Church services, and the Geneva Bible, liked by Puritans and disliked by the king because its margin notes were anti-monarchy.  A Puritan leader at the 1604 meeting called for a new translation of the Bible and the king agreed.

Close to fifty scholars began work on the new translation.  They divided into teams for Old and New Testaments, and the Apocrypha.  They had fifteen rules to follow.  One rule was to alter the Bishop's Bible as little as possible.  Another allowed them to use other translations (like the Geneva Bible or Tyndale's work) if they agreed better with the text. Margin notes were only allowed for explanation of Greek and Hebrew terms.

The Bible was published in 1611 but revisions continued until 1769, which edition came to be the "authorized" version used today.  If you would like to see what the original King James Bible looked like, go to http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/the-king-james-bible/digitized-kjv-of-1611/

For many years the only copy of the King James Bible that I owned was "copyright 1979, the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, printed by permission of the Crown's patentee, Cambridge University Press."  The front page explained that it was the "Authorized King James Version with explanatory notes and cross references to the standard works of the church..."  It came with copious footnotes and chapter headings, a section of maps with gazetteer, a Bible Dictionary, Topical Guide, and an appendix with the Joseph Smith Translation.  It did not include any books considered part of the Apocrypha.

Today I own a Scofield Study Bible, my first Bible purchase after deciding to leave the LDS church.  My trust in the Mormon scriptures was gone and I was feeling lost.  I wanted to read the Bible but I had no idea which Bible translation to turn to, so I stuck with what I knew: the King James Version.  I didn't have any Christian friends to consult but Scofield's reference Bible came highly praised on Amazon.com.  I previewed its contents online (since I live in a place where this item is not stocked in any local bookstore).  Scofield's reference Bible provides cross references of Bible themes and commentary and I figured I could use all the help I could get as I transitioned to being a Christian.  I wanted to explore this new world and wasn't sure how much of what I had learned was true or accepted opinion in the Christian world.

Once it arrived I examined it. The King James language is familiar, and having lots of notes on the pages feels comfortable.  The words of Jesus are printed in red, which was different and I liked that.  I love the supplemental materials in the back: the index to themes, the dictionary of proper names, the subject index, and the concordance.  There are maps too. This Bible is a little library in itself.

On the downside, I saw that the commentary reads very authoritatively.  As a Mormon, I used to heed authority ("the words of the living prophet") and put aside doubts that would have to be explained in the next life. I was a little skeptical and wary of these notes in the Scofield Bible, but figured I could read them and research the ideas in other sources.  I would want a new Christian like me to explore the world of Christianity and not just accept something because it is scholarly or sounds definitive.  I did find the cross-references and additional notes helpful and interesting. On the whole, I would still recommend this as a good transition Bible for an ex-Mormon, as a good replacement for the LDS version.

Why this blog?

An energetic young Mormon missionary recently wrote home and said "the Bible is sooo 2000 years ago. Let's talk about the Book of Mormon, huh?"

I felt sad when I saw that. That had also been my opinion when I was an active member of the Mormon church (aka The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS). For me, the Bible was a thick and mysterious tome, difficult to understand. I had only read small parts of it, usually in conjunction with a Sunday School class. A lot more of my attention and study was on the Book of Mormon, and I read that cover to cover multiple times.  Most of my friends in the church seemed to feel the same, preferring it over the Bible.  The LDS church leadership itself constantly urges the members to read and share the Book of Mormon; missionaries give away free copies to anyone and everyone.  On its introduction page, the founder of the church, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

Meanwhile, the church, in its Articles of Faith, number 8, says "We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly..."  This tends to give the impression that the Bible is not trustworthy.  Joseph Smith himself made corrections to the King James Version and the church put his notes and changes in footnotes and an appendix in the back of their standard church Bible.

Speaking of this standard LDS Bible, it's the Authorized King James Version without Apocrypha.  The church publishes it themselves and includes study helps like maps, a Bible Dictionary, and a topical guide. In all my decades of Sunday meetings and weekly activities, I only ever once saw someone bring a different Bible to church--a person who wasn't a member and was being taught by the missionaries. 


I feel sorry for my former brothers and sisters of the LDS church and I wanted to do something to help them see that the Bible is relevant and useful today.  The idea for "Bibles for Mormons" came with this vision:
I want to see Mormons reading, respecting, and recommending the Bible.

To that end I plan to post about different translations and versions of the Bible, Biblical history and archeology, and study helps.  I plan to give Bibles to LDS friends and write about those experiences.  I want to share my own thoughts as I read the Bible.  And I hope to encourage readers to present Bibles to their Mormon friends and family.