Response Letter To A Dear Friend

I have a dear friend Deanna in Texas who sent me a very encouraging word and also discussed a recent blog I posted. I have known her and her husband since around 1992. She asked me which translation I liked the best.

Deanna worked with me for several years. We spent countless hours talking about the Lord. The only time the Lord has ever talked to me in an audible voice was regarding Deanna. She is precious to him. She is a great warrior and her loving Father has given her many trials to make her a beautiful, fruitful branch. I cannot wait to see her reward!

The following is my response and I felt I should share this.

Good morning Deanna!

I like both God's Word and the ISV. I feel the ISV is more accurate, but I often go to the King James bible to compare. The King James bible is not up to date with our English, but is a solid translation.

The ISV is currently my favorite, but has not been published. You can read it online at www.bible.cc. With the click of the mouse you can pull up multiple parallel passages from different translations and using their online concordance search for a passage based upon a few words you remember in that passage.

Professing believers often react violently to warnings, especially those warnings that sound like it is possible to fall away. I believe that is often because they are not close to God, but are drifting, in rebellion or simply do not want to face the fact of their own responsibility to obey what God says.

The churches have perverted the Grace of God and use it as a covering for willful sin. This has created multiple generations of sinners who simply cover their sin and disobedience by saying "I'm under grace". This is what Charles Stanley did when giving his response to a homosexual who said he is a gay Christian. Charles reinforced the homosexual's belief he was truly a Christian. Similar to the Catholic priests being able to forgive sin, Charles Stanley pronounced the homosexual under "grace". "Obedience" has been abandoned while consciences are defiled and soothed by an unscriptural "grace". (better wording would be "while defiled consciences are soothed by an unscriptural "grace".)wm

I simply take the warnings as written. I do not need to understand all that God says. I do not want to do as others who take a passage in the scriptures from God which disagrees with their own position and in their pride go to other places to find passages that appear to uphold their own position. When I was a Calvinist in my twenties, I used a book from John Gill which explained away every verse that disagreed with Calvinist doctrines. I shudder to think about that. I once told my pastor "Brother, I think we sometimes get close to teaching salvation by knowledge". He answered "I know what you mean".

God told us to trust and obey him. He told us;

"For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" Isaiah 55:9 ISV  

Samuel said (to King Saul), 

"Does the LORD delight as much in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22

Love,

Warren 

PS The ISV International Standard Version is only available online as it has not gone into print yet, as far as I know.