And the Word WAS God

 

 

 Rev Wilbur Witt

Revelation 22:18-19, which explicitly states that anyone who adds to or takes away from the words of the prophecy in the book will face severe consequences from God

 

So what does that mean or moreover, what identifies as a doctrinal change? A change of meaning or understanding could be such as in the beginning of the Gospel of John where the identity of Jesus states the the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Jehovah’s Witnesses took it upon themselves to add one letter, “a” to this verse that Jesus was not God but “a” God thereby invoking polytheism into the prose. In other passages in the New Testament entire lines are omitted to simplify or add “clarity.” One example is when the disciples complained to Jesus about failing to expel a demon and Christ’s explanation was that prayer and fasting were needed in order to complete this task. In some revisions this prescription is omitted. Why remove the answer to the original question? In the King James the Greek word συνέλευση (synélefsi) for “assembly” is replaced with the word “church” to satisfy King James. This does not account for exhaustion of scribes copying scroll after scroll into the night. 

These are just some examples of alterations of the original message of the Bible. Not to mention the countless opinion pieces called sermons delivered every Sunday by shepherds of the flock that correct God. So whose face should God melt off first on the last day? Well, first and foremost I’ll assure you that they’re probably all Democrats, and although I’m sure that there may be a Republican here and there the midterms are coming up, and as they say, “His will be done.” Now, where was I?

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was in Greek. That’s the basic language of the New Testament. That, in and of itself should tell you that the authors of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ascribed to the works.  Paul began his letters to various churches thirty-ish years after Jesus. And the term is churches , not church. As demonstrated by the countless correcting of procedures in his epistles Paul makes it clear that these bodies were marching to the beat of their own drummer. He did not cite the New Testament because there was no New Testament at that time, but he leaned heavily on Jewish scripture. In his humility he would never consider his letters scripture. He did mention the Last Supper, particularly the Eucharist becayseyhe was told about that by firsthand witnesses. He mainly concerned himself with the behavior of the congregations and in keeping the Greeks from being too  “Greek!” Little things such as shacking up with your stepmother or having a gay affair was not so gay to the old Rabbi.

The primary language was Greek. Since he referred to himself as a Pharisee of Pharisees, he undoubtedly spoke and read Hebrew. Aramaic was in the air, too, appearing in Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Matthew. 

**The phrase Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani is Aramaic. There were no numbered verses then. By quoting a key line, Jesus was invoking an entire passage indicating that He was fulfilling prophecy. 

So, we can reasonably suspect He spoke Aramaic. Since He dissed those in the synagogue by proclaiming the fulfillment of yet an another prophecy in Isaiah, we know that, like Paul, He was versed in Hebrew also because he was reading scripture in synagogue. 

 By the time the Gospel of John was penned the Greek used was a more highly refined, elevated version from anything a fisherman would have known or written if they could read and write at all.  (Sorry Peter.) And in addition to that, the theological approach was evolving, indicating that Jesus was a bit more than just a sidewalk soapbox  preacher looking forward to the end of the world!

So the final result is the New Testament from oral to writtenwas the combined effort of many cultures over many years with the copyright being the last line of Revelation admonishing future readers to leave well enough alone or God’ll melt their  faces off, but nobody listened and imitated versions abounded like knockoffs of a Bruce Lee movie. Everybody wants to get next to a happening guy. 

With Latin being the official language of the Roman Empire it became necessary to translate the Greek into Latin so around AD 400, Pope Damascus the 1st asked a saint by the name of Jerome to translate the Bible into the “language of the people.” One man, big book, with the Pope looking over his shoulder. Now, this guy was a saint so it can be assumed that he had saintly thoughts, and you just know those thoughts opinions never found their way into the translation of the infallible Word of God. Or did he have infallibility impugned into his mind by virtue of his relationship with the big guy because if not, you can plainly see that he would have been a nominee for number five face melting.

Time and tears went by and we saw the introduction of the King James Version, New King James, New American Bible, The Living Bible, all printed in German, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Swahili among a host of others. Jesus said to preach the gospel to the world. Surely, He wanted it to be understood by the world. The message is simple. Love your neighbor as you do yourself and love God with all your heart. Everything else is commentary. You can’t even think about reading the commentary until you have mastered the two basic steps, and to date nobody has completely mastered them yet.

There’s then there’s that God hole again. You are born with it. It’s empty until you fill it. If your garden is full of Tares you you think like a worldly person. Makes sense, tastes bad. If it is sugar and spice  and everything nice you may get through life but you will show up at the gates with no ID. If it is an understanding of spiritual things, you will be on the way. But it’s a long trip. The Kingdom of God is within you. You could have seen it had you only looked. In addition to the God Hole you have the firmware to tell you right and wrong, but just knowing the rules won’t save you. You have to have the software. On the last day God will look at your God hole. Your spiritual resume if you will, and whatever He finds may become evidence for the prosecution. Uh, that would be Satan. Read Job. It’s all there. Satan is like that divorce lawyer that takes your ex to dinner. Job clearly points out that Satan works for the state. Good or bad. Heaven or hell, better call Saul because getting Jesus to represent you  is the only way through the gate with your face! And lip service doesn’t count. Splitting hairs in the Bible doesn’t count trying to trip up the DA won’t help. That’ll get you fried. Anyone can say they are Christian. You gotta be a Christian. Trying to explain yourself won’t work. If you wasn’t wid dem brothers what are your pants doing on the floor? Right there in the big ten it says Do not commit adultery. That means don’t do it! Put your pants back on, fool!  You conformed to the world? Your God Hole is full of Tik Tok and you’re on the highway to hell. Bailiff, call the next case. 

When I released my short book The Gospel of Wilbur I braced up for all the challenges, no doubt quoting that line in Revelation. Citing my face-melting sin to the world by quoting a book that has been edited more times than The Book of Mormon. But I stand by my work. It is not an edit, or bastardization of the Gospel. It is a psychological-theological look at the theories in said book from a distinctly humanistic viewpoint for people fed up with tap dancing preachers at the First Amalgamated Church and Hamburger Bar! God will not be mocked, and if you will note I still got my face!

 Twisting the understanding of the Bible for fun and prophet is lucrative, especially if you’re a youth councilor in a girls’ summer camp. What could possibly go wrong? Lord have mercy! But expanding your understanding of God’s word according to your understanding is not a sin. Joseph Smith did one better. He just made up his own Bible, salted it down with hillbilly voodoo and people followed him all over the country while he had vision after vision about everything from cunnilingus to coffee. There’s a sucker born every minute. 

And it’s all based on the writings of an ancient manuscript with just enough loop holes to multiply the loaves in any parsonage. But to make a long story short, to date the only surviving original autograph of any of the four gospels is a piece of papyrus found in Luxor Egypt in 1901 by an amateur archaeologist. Carbon dating and a lot of wishful thinking and prayer implanted the fleeting hope in believers’ minds that maybe, just maybe Matthew was sitting at the bottom of the Mount of Olives during the Sermon on the Mount, taking down Christ’s very words as he delivered the address because they further surmised that the very reason Jesus picked Matthew for discipleship in the first place was for his ability with Greek shorthand as a Roman tax collector. You can’t make this stuff up folks! Anybody that can think they put mosquitoes and Wooly Mammoths on a bass boat can believe anything! Now ya’ll argue with me about the size of that boat. I dare you!

All that having been said I have to remind everyone that the creator of the universe is not an idiot, and we will never understand His ways. Suffice to say God does not sieze the hand of the writer, He implants the mind. From there, pen found paper, monks made copies, and Simon and Schuster found a best seller. But you must understand the spirit in the words therein. And you must know when you’re wrong. You can’t talk your way out of it on the last day. Get up off your yoga mat, stop listening to gurus and just find Jesus. He’s been there all along. You could have seen Him had you only looked!