Important but non-essential Doctrines

Intro

I will not call this section “unimportant doctrines” because nothing ever done for the glory of God is not important.

The issues in this section are important, but are perfectly fine to be relegated into the category of “personal Opinion”.

So they do matter, but they only matter to the individual and are not important for salvation or even the functioning of the Church.

Knowing this we must still be aware and vigilant of these things because if a church or group places anyone of the following issues in the “Essentials” category then you can know that you are dealing with a christian sect and must get out of fellowship immediately.

1: Bible Translations

Lets begin with the issue of bible translations.

There exist churches who at their core have as an essential belief that “their” translation of the bible is the ONLY legitimate translation of the bible. The LKJ Only movement comes immediately to mind.

Now you must understand that the bible was originally written in Hebrew, Greek and a little Aramaic.

Know since we no longer speak those languages, the bible has been translated into at the latest 704 languages.

The most abundant of these is English.

That is a wonderful blessing and wonderful for the gospel to go into every tribe, tongue and nation.

To focus on the English however:

The fact is, not every translation is equal.

There are good translations, bad translations and even pure heretical translations of the bible in English.

A: Heretic Bible Translations:

1: The Message

The Message is a terrible translation of the bible. It was done by one man Eugine Peterson, with zero oversight and Mr Peterson himself hold very heretic beliefs which he has injected into the Message bible.

He completely avoid and skips over any and all scripture relating to any form of sexual sin.

2: The New World Translation (JW)

The New World Translation is the official translation of the JW.

And at first glance it might seem like a normal bible. But cults like that are always subtle.

Only 4 man where responsible for the translation, with also zero oversight and here is the most striking: None of them had any training at all in Hebrew and Greek.

So how did they get a bible?

A pastor called Charles Russell wrote down many “private revelations” from God. These revelations contradicted almost everything in the bible.

So to make their own bible they used Charles Russell notes as the basis and then inserted all of his beliefs into an already bad translation called The American Standard Version.

Their bible teaches that:

Jesus as “a god”

John 1:1 NASB95

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 1:1 NASB95

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus not eternal John 8:58

John 8:58 NASB95

58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

John 8:58 NASB95

58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”

Jesus’ blood not divine Acts 20:28

Acts 20:28 NASB95

28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Acts 20:28 NASB95

28 “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

The NWT 2013 reads: “Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son.”

3: The Clear Word (7th DA)

The Clear Word is a translation very much like the JW New World.

It takes the bible and injects “private revelations” into it.

In this case it is the private revelations of a man named William Miller as the founder but others added their won beliefs too.

Im not ging to list all the examples but fas one they totally leave out Deut 5:3 because they believe that the Sabbath command has always and will always be in existence. Debt 5:3 clearly says that the commandment were not always present so they leave it out.

Deuteronomy 5:3 NASB95

3 “The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.

4: The New American Bible/Jerusalem Bible

The New American bible is actually the official English Catholic Bible. So the bible problem is the inclusion, but more than that, the promotion of the apocrah to the same authority as the rest of the bible.

For those unaware, the apocrypha is a collection of writing which took place between the Old and New Testaments.

They were written by various people and some are jewish wisdom, other are historical accounts.

There is nothing evil or malicious about the apocrypha at all, but they are NOT cannon, they are not inspired. By elevating to the position of inspired text, it allows the catholic church to inject many of its heretical doctrines into their beliefs.

5: New Revised Standard Version (Gender numeral)

The Revised Standard bible is a bible with an agenda.

The bible exists purely as a feminist bible and seeks to remove all references to gender.

Any time the greek or Hebrew would say man, male or woman, female - the NRSV simply translates it as “people” or “persons”.

They even eliminate all words like “him”, “his”, Her” and “hers”.

Examples:

jn 14:23

John 14:23 NASB95

23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

John 14:23 NRSV

23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

You can clearly see the problems and liberal, leftist mindset trying to cause gender confusion.

6: The Passion Translation

Much like The Message, the Passion Translation is the work of a single man, again with zero oversight. That man is Brian Simmons.

It is a translation of the bible specifically done to support the beliefs of the New Apostolic Reformation.

The NAR is a terrible sect of Christianity born out of the already bad Charismatic Movement.

Justin will go into more detail, but in a nutshell, their bible allows personal experience and belief to supersede the authority of scripture.

B: Dynamic Equivalence translation:

Now Let's move onto better bibles.

The bibles in this list are all good. Some better than others but none are malicious in any way.

Also all of these bible are done by large committees and hundreds of people in oversight and checking.

The only “issue” with these translation is that in the translation process, the translators took liberty to add or change words so the meaning of the original can be more clearly understood.

You cannot easily take word for word translation and make them easy to understand without at times adding or rearranging words.

For example:

Die Kat loop onder die tafel deer.

The cat walks under the table through.

Examples of these fine translations are:

1: The NIV

2: The Amplified Bible

3: The Christian Standard Bible

I recently did a thorough examination of the CBS bible. I noted its growing popularity and prominence in christian book stores.

I bought a copy and examine the entire NT and a few key passages in the OT.

I was overall very impressed. In my opinion, it may be the best dynamic equivalence bible on the market today.

C: Best Formal Equivalence Translations:

Now we look at the best translations of the bible.

These are all word for word translations.

This means that on a readability scale they will score lower than the dynamic equivalence, but much higher on the accrue scale.

Again, these were al done by very large committees and had hundreds of people overseeing the process.

1: The KJV

2: The NKJV

3: The ESV

4: The NASB

Of all of these the NASB is noted for being the most literal English bible strangulation, however is it also quite difficult to read.

The KJV is a time tested classic and highly recommended, however it is over 400 years old, and the English language has changed a lot since then, so many people would struggle.

Also some English words have completely changed their meaning.

For example: What does qui mean? But in the KJV English at the time it actually mean carry on, the complete opposite.

Forn example:

1 Corinthians 16:13 NASB95

13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

1 Corinthians 16:13 AV

13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

2: Ecclesiology/Church Liturgy.

Church liturgy is just a fancy way of saying how a church conducts its service.

Things like order of service and such.

Her at UFGC we have n incredibly simple liturgy.

We greet, we pray, we sing, we preach, we leave.

a: Reading of verses

B: The reciting of certain creeds such as the Nicene Creed.

3: Food and Drink

A: The exclusion of certain meat products.

On this issue the bible makes itself very clear:

Matthew 15:11 NASB95

11 “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

However, there are Christians who have other beliefs, that’s fine, so long as its understood that those beliefs are your OPINION and not instructed by scripture.

B: The demand for total abstinence of alcohol.

Again here is an issue that many people have strong opinions about.

Alcohol is not forbidden in scripture, neither in the Old or the New Testaments.

Jesus himself turned water into wine.

You may have heard the false teaching that it was actually a grape juice or sorts, but here are the facts.

The greek word for wine used in the miracle is oin-os.

This is the exact same word used in Eph 5:18

Ephesians 5:18 NASB95

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

You cannot get drunk on grape juice.

Jesus himself drank Oin-os.

Mat 26:29 - the greek word: Oin-os.

Matthew 26:29 NASB95

29 “But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom.”

To say its grape juice is to be guilty of what we saw in the heresy bibles. Trying to impose your opinion into scripture.

However, the bible does, in the strongest terms, condemn drunkeness.

Ephesians 5:18 NASB95

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

The intake of too much alcohol.

And the Bible condemns addiction, which for many people, alcohol can be extremely addictive.

My advice and opinion: Do not drink at all. But that is an opinion not a command.