Perilous times shall come!

(2Timothy 3:1) “That in the last days perilous times shall come.”

My upbringing was not that of a Christian, sure I went to Catechism with the Catholic Church, but it was a dry dead experience, they even taught fables. In fact their doctrine is so instilled into people growing up under the catholic faith that they begin to by default live it out. It becomes acceptable to pray to Mary or one of the saints. This was clearly evident in my Grandmothers (Nonna’s) life.  Man-centered religion without any biblical truth to it! So let us call it what it is, an organization rotten to the core, my heart goes out to so many sincere believers, babes in Christ, as they could never be more than that if they have spent all their life growing up under their rule.

The Word of God, the Holy Scriptures have in fact been made available to us the common man through blood, sweat and probably many tears of great men of God. May we never forget their sacrifice!

It obviously started with God, “in the beginning” and then through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, from there we read Moses and the prophets. The New Testament begins with the birth of the Lord Jesus. The greatest of all; the One who came to pay the price for sin, and repentant sinners! But for a long period of History the Bible was not available to the common man, it was kept in secret by the governing authorities as they wanted to control and mislead the people. They had an agenda, I suppose no differently to the money preachers of today. That’s why whatever was said by the church leaders could never be questioned.

There is no hidden agenda with our great God and Father, praise His name! He speaks very plainly through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour and without mixed words, i.e. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) – There is no message clearer than this, outside of Christ covering, His sanctification, we will never call the only true God our Father. Christ instruction is plain and simple and we are now able to read it for ourselves. Why then would we want to ignore it, when it is so concise in so many areas of our lives? We know it is because of sin and we have covered this in previous posts. But my concern is why we would stay in such an organisation, if we in fact find ourselves in such a church, one that preaches and teachers against the truth. We have the Word of God at our finger tips. What excuse do we have? It was a struggle for men to get us the bible! Here is a man who died to get it to us!

Some history…

“The chain of events that led to the creation of Tyndale’s New Testament started in 1522. It was in this year that Tyndale illegally acquired a copy of Martin Luther’s German New Testament. Tyndale was inspired by Luther’s work and immediately set out to imitate Luther’s work but in English. He made his purpose known to the Bishop of London at the time Cuthbert Tunstall. Hewing to his Catholic faith, for which he would later be imprisoned, Bishop Tunstall refused Tyndale permission to write this heretical text. After this rejection Tyndale moved to the continent and ended up in Hamburg where he completed his New Testament in 1524. During this time period Tyndale frequented Wittenberg where he consulted with Martin Luther and his associate Melanchthon. The first version of Tyndale’s New Testament was put into print in 1525 in Cologne however the process was not finished. From there Tyndale moved the publishing process to Worms where the first recorded complete edition of his New Testament was published in 1526. Two revised versions were latter published in 1534 and 1536, both personally revised by Tyndale himself. After his death in 1536 Tyndale’s works have been revised and reprinted numerous times. Furthermore much of his work can be seen in other, more modern versions of the Bible, including, perhaps most famously, the King James Bible.

Tyndale's Pentateuch was published at Antwerp by Merten de Keyser in 1530. His English version of the book of Jonah was published the following year. This was followed by his revised version of the book of Genesis in 1534. Tyndale translated many other Old Testament books including Joshua, Judges, first and second Samuel, first and second Kings and first and second Chronicles. Unfortunately these unpublished works haven’t survived to today in their original forms. When Tyndale was martyred these works came to be in the possession of one his associates John Rodgers. These translations would be influential in the creation of the Matthew Bible which was published in 1537.

Tyndale used a number of sources when carrying out his translations of both the New and Old Testaments. When translating the New Testament, he referred to the third edition (1522) of Erasmus’s Greek New Testament, often referred to as the Received Text. Tyndale also used Erasmus' Latin New Testament, as well as Luther’s German version and the Vulgate. Scholars believe that Tyndale stayed away from using Wycliffe's Bible as a source because he didn’t want his English to reflect that which was used prior to the Renaissance. The sources Tyndale used for his translation of the Pentateuch however are not known for sure. Scholars believe that Tyndale used either the Hebrew Pentateuch or the Polyglot Bible, and may have referred to the Septuagint. It is suspected that his other Old Testament works were translated directly from a copy of the Hebrew Bible. He also made abundant use of Greek and Hebrew grammars.”  (Wikipedia on Tyndale)

It is obvious that God has willed for us to have the Bible, and now we have it, but if we reject its council and hold to the traditions of men, now even the more we are without excuse. If you can read, then read and make sure what men are teaching you, is sound doctrine. We have been warned that in these days “perilous times will come”.

It is simply not good enough to have a form of Godliness but to deny its power. We have been clearly instructed to turn away from such people. A clear concise instruction from the Holy Scriptures; “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2Timothy 3:5)  

If you find yourself amongst that number, whether it be in the catholic church or some perverse money preacher organisation, I then urge you flee from it with all you might and look to the Holy Scriptures, the Bible for direction. For God is for His people and will never let one of His children be lost to the wolves, but the danger of the roaring lion is a very real one and we must be on guard against him and his luring deceit.

Let us remember to pray for one another, with a sincere heart.

Signing off

Tyrone