Part One in a series: Why I use only the King James Version
By Pastor Steve Van Nattan: Editor-- Balaam's Ass Speaks
In the Old and New Testament of the Bible the King James translators used a device to distinguish between "you" singular and plural. "THEE, THOU, AND THY" are for YOU SINGULAR. "YE, YOU, YOUR, WE, AND US" are for YOU OR US PLURAL. blip and Greek do this, but modern English makes no distinction. Is this important? The answer is an emphatic, YES !
Without the THEE-THOU, YE-YOU DISTINCTION, which was not even common in 1611, the translators, in the Holy Spirit, could not have made any distinction for the English reader. We will now show that it is of the highest importance in understanding the doctrine of the Lord's Church.
STUDY OF THE "THEE THOU" AND "YE YOUR" PATTERNS IN GALATIANS, EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS, AND COLOSSIANS CONTRASTED WITH PHILEMON:
The reason I chose these Pauline Epistles is: 1. Paul was the Apostle who established many churches. 2. The Holy Spirit used Paul to establish the patterns of normal church life. 3. Paul taught the doctrine of the church in great detail. 4. These four Epistles without Philemon are the core of the doctrine of the Church.
Number of verses in Gal. Eph. Phil. Col. - - - 503 Number of verses in Philemon - - - - - - - - 25
Number of "thee, thou, and thy" in 4 Epistles- 17 Number of "ye, you, and your' in 4 Epistles- - 327
Number of "thee, thou, and thy" in Philemon- 25 Number of "ye, you, and your" in Philemon- - 3
So, 12% of the verses in the Philemon have "ye and you". 100% of the verses in Philemon have "thee and thou". PHILEMON WAS WRITTEN TO ONE MAN. IT IS A VERY PERSONAL BOOK. And, 3% of the verses in the Epistles have "thee and thou". 65% of the verses in the Epistles have "ye and you". THE FOUR EPISTLES WERE WRITTEN TO THE WHOLE CHURCH OF ALL AGES.
"ye, you, your, yourselves, we, us, and our" versus "thee, thou, thine" in the Apostolic letters:
Personal pronouns [ thee, thou, thy, thine type ] - - - 1430
Collective pronouns [ ye, you, your, us, and we type ] - 5000
The Apostles clearly taught the Church as a Body, not individually !
CHRIST FOREKNOWS, CALLS, ELECTS, PREDESTINES, REDEEMS, SAVES, JUSTIFIES, SANCTIFIES, CLEANSES, WILL COME FOR, GIVES THE HOLY SPIRIT TO, USES TO WIN THE LOST, AND RESURRECTS WHOM ? ANSWER: THE LOCAL CHURCH DOCTRINE: - YOU ARE SAVED BY PERSONAL FAITH. - YOU ARE SAVED TO BE THE CHURCH. - IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SEPARATE THE TWO THOUGHTS IF YOU ARE SAVED. THE PERIL IS NOT THAT YOU WILL FORGET YOU ARE SAVED. THE PERIL IS THAT YOU WILL START THINKING IT IS, "A PERSONAL MATTER". IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO BE SAVED AND NOT BE AN ACTIVE PART OF THE LOCAL CHURCH. YOU CAN LEARN THIS ONLY FROM THE KING JAMES BIBLE !
The saints are "called" into the Church, the Body of Christ. Saints are not called to stand individually. 2 Peter 1:10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
Romans 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. [ Cf. I Corinthians 1:2. ]
Calling and election is of the Church as much as of the individual believer, in fact, it is very hard to prove, by correct use of pronouns, that the saints are individually "called" or "elected". This explains why we must never talk to a sinner about election. It will only confuse him until he is in the Body.
Over the nearly 2000 years of the Church's work in this earth we have come to see that most nations have heard the Gospel and have been "churched". For this reason many to whom we witness tell us they are "Christians". How can we test this in our day. The pronoun application is very helpful here.
The "Thee- Thou" test: They MUST have had a "Thee-Thou" experience. This is based on a good number of texts where salvation is passed on the personal pronouns. Here are a few:
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
John 11:26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Acts 8:36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
The "Ye-You" test: Those who profess Christ WILL be faithful in the local church:
blips 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Those who forsake the assembling of themselves with the saints and are not sick or chastened by God are not saved. Why? Jude 1:18 How that they (the Apostles) told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. Jude 1:19 These be they who separate themselves, (from the local church, the "you" above) sensual, having not the Spirit.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (The "They" are damned, the "us" are saved)
You can see above that those who are true believers have the Holy Spirit who never leaves them. And, true believers never leave the Lord's Church, therefore; these who abandon the Body of Christ were never born again. It is time for us to face up to this because some of our loved ones are on their way to Hell. Are we going to believe their claims to salvation?
He who claims to be born again and stands away from the local church is a blasphemer. The local church is the physical manifestation of the whole Body. Christ died for the local church as much as for the Church universal:
Ephesians 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Ephesians 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Those who are born again cannot show forth God's greatness unless they are gathering and showing His salvation collectively:
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
Philippians 1:3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now;
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
The only question left is, do you love these people enough to confront them? Eight of these "thee thou's" are quotes from the Old Testament.
The rest are personal salutations to individuals or where a single person is addressed such as Paul rebuking Peter.
Only the King James Bible can give you the doctrinal advantage of knowing who "YOU" are. What dummy would purposely obscure this advantage? Answer: Virtually every seminary professor in the Blip-- PhD notwithstanding.
Let us define our terms again: PhD-- "Piled Higher and Deeper"
-EST AND -ETH ARE NOT SO BAD
Taken from By Definition The Difficult Words of the Holy Bible Made Understandable, by James W. Knox.
Appendix D, pp. 131-132
Once the importance of the "thees" and "thous" has been mastered, the next thing to tackle are the seemingly strange endings on so many Bible words.
In Romans 14:7 we read: For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. One might wonder why we do not revise the Bible to the more broadly understood "No man lives to himself, and no man dies to himself."
As we all know, "-s" and "-es" are suffixes added to words to make them plural. One apple is added to one apple to get two apples. In modern English we have no such suffix to prevent confusion between the rendering of a noun in its plural form and the rendering of a verb in its active and onging form. The old English made this distinction by use of an "-eth" or "-est" ending.
None of us liveth to himself means that life is ongoing. Such a one is in the continual process of being alive. "No man dies to himself" means the act of dying, but this leaves us short of the meaning of the verse. Dieth tells us that he is in the continual process of dying.
At breakfast one morning, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? [John 21:15]
Notice first that Jesus saith. To revise this to "Jesus said to Simon Peter" results in our losing the vision of the moment. That would put the episode in the past tense. In the language of the KJV we are present that morning watching as the conversation takes place.
Then we have the word lovest. To modernize this to, "Do you love me?" is to miss the whole point. Jesus doesn't want to know if there are moments when Peter loves Him. He wants to know if Peter possesses a constant, ongoing love for His redeemer.
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.
Peter's reply is a testimony to his understanding that Jesus' knowledge of his heart is continuous.
Far from being burdensome, the word endings "-est" and "-eth" help to make the King James Bible so very meaningful. They carry the stories we are reading out of the past-tense mode and present them in such a way as to make us eyewitnesses to, yea, partakers of the action.
It takes only a day or two to teach an elementary school reader the use of "-ed," "-s," or "-ing." Once these simple rules are learned his enjoyment of reading climbs to new heights.
So the new Christian needs but a day or two to learn this simple rule of grammar and he can trade his past-tense, modern version for an active and exciting KJV.
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