Bridge of Reason

If you want to know what this series is about go to my first post here . Brian Simmons claims 'the anointing' on him was strong such that people in a local supermarket fell around him as he walked the aisles with his shopping trolley. People simply couldn’t keep their feet while he was around. He insists his ‘staff’ were often witnesses of these events, especially the raising of a child from the dead. In an interview with Sid Roth , Brian Simmons reveals this and tells how Jesus appeared to him, telling him he should write a new translation of the Bible. He paints a picture of his having such anointing his ’staff’ asked, on his simply entering a room, ‘What happened to you?’ The dramatisation on the Sid Roth show leaves no doubt many witnessed the most spectacular events marking this man’s life. From his time as a young man in the army to raising the dead in India, nothing about him seems ordinary. What is interesting is that he doesn’t bring any witnesses of these r...

The Mormon missionary manual, Preach my Gospel, teaches: "The Church of Jesus Christ is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets (see Ephesians 2:19–20; 4:11–14). These leaders have divine priesthood authority. Through revelation they direct the affairs of the Church. They maintain doctrinal purity, authorize the administration of ordinances, and call and confer the priesthood authority upon others" This is about the classic Mormon argument that, either there is a continuity of authority from the days of the apostles, in which case the Catholic Church has prior claim to supreme authority, or there has been a break in continuity from those days, an apostasy, therefore the Mormon claim to be a restoration stands true. When a Mormon male is ordained an elder in the church he is given a document known as a 'line of authority,' showing an unbroken line of ordinations, from the one who laid hands on him back to Joseph Smith, and then to Peter, James, and John who, ...

I am going to stick my neck out here and assume I am not by any means the only one to recognise a distinct lack of beauty and poetry in the New World Translation. I would go further and suggest utilitarianism is the guiding light of its ‘translators.’ In short, they abuse the language and the label 'translator.' Are they so incapable of appreciating the higher arts that clunky and mechanical seems to them to be art? Blessed are the Meek I am thumbing through their Examining the Scriptures Daily, 2020 edition, and verses jump out at me as I think, ‘My Bible doesn’t say that!’ Here is an example from January 17: ‘ Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ Mt.5:5 ESV ‘ Happy are the mild-tempered, for they shall inherit the earth.’ Mt.5:5 NWT ‘ Meek’ here is the Greek praus (prah-oos) and is variously translated ‘ meek, gentle, kind, forgiving, mild, benevolent, humane, humble, considerate.’ It identifies the positive moral quality of dealing with p...

If you want to know what this series is about go to my first post here . I have been reflecting further on the claims made for The Passion Translation (TPT). “The Passion Translation is an excellent translation you can use as your primary text to seriously study God’s Word ... the text has been interpreted from the original language, carrying its original meaning and giving you an accurate, reliable expression of God’s original message” You can find this claim here  in the FAQs section under the question, 'Is the TPT considered a good translation for serious study?' You can find links to helpful and authoritative reviews in my first post in this series. Stop and consider this for a moment. In an interview with Sid Roth , Brian Simmons tells how Jesus appeared to him, telling him he should write a new translation of the Bible. This is from about the 15:17 mark point in the interview. Not only that, Jesus would reveal to him secrets of the Hebrew language and...

Bible translations abound in our day and age, along with thematic Bibles for men, for women, for teenagers, children, parents, for armchair archaeologists and coffee shop philosophers, for people 'who really want to go on with God,' to those special Christians among us who seem to have God sitting on their shoulder and chatting away all the live-long day. The list seems endless and as long as there is a niche market and money to be made they'll keep coming I imagine. Then there are the paraphrase Bibles, useful in their way, but surely not for the pulpit (but oh, we've seen it done). It is hard to get people to understand that they are supposed to come to the Bible, not the other way around. They are meant to sit under the teaching of the Bible, the Bible is not meant to bend itself out of shape to suit their preferences or play to their ignorance. Any good Bible translation will speak to your heart and there is no need for your Bible to talk down to you. The P...

Someone over at Quora asked this question and I was curious to know the answer. The reply on Quora, from an inactive Witness with a still faithful family, talks about video conferencing among other things. The Memorial Meal, where gathering was prohibited, took place online, with a leader giving the talk on Zoom. They made bread according to the prescribed recipe, had some wine, and afterwards threw it away in the kitchen bin I imagine. It will come as no surprise to find everyone dressed for this as though they were going to the Kingdom Hall, even though they were at home. The door-to-door work and the cart witnessing are cancelled of course. However, undaunted, they have resorted to telephone witnessing, calling back their call backs on the phone. Some are letter writing, again no surprise given the way the Society can marshal their army of members to mass produce letters of protest at the drop of a hat, clogging up the already burdened mailing system. You can r ead more here. ...

The message of salvation is wonderful. Paul writes, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive’ (1 Cor.15:22) John writes, ‘Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life’ (1 John 5:12) Jesus himself declared, ‘I came that you may have life and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10) Salvation is more than escaping eternal punishment, it is about life, abundant, full, and eternal, deliverance from sin-slavery. If we are saved, trusting in Christ for our eternity (2 Tim.1:12), that is a good thing. More, if we are made disciples, which Jesus commanded (Mt.28:16-20) and set our face towards obedience (Mt.7:21-23), that is a fruitful thing. We have looked at a possible Christian rule for life , the question of Am I Saved? and we have looked at obedience . We will go on in future posts to look at sanctification and perseverance, but now we look at purpose. Sinai Still Speaks God, through Moses, explained his purposes to the children of Isr...