Contending for the Faith

“If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:9)

When reading the short Epistle of Jude, one gets the impression that Jude had intended to write a different message to the Church at large, but instead saw the necessity to write his letter, the main theme of which is a warning against false preachers and heretical doctrine. Jude explains in verse 4, that certain men had crept in unawares, infiltrated the churches and were in fact distorting the true Gospel of the Kingdom and of Jesus Christ. This was not an isolated occurrence during the time that Jude wrote his Epistle, which is dated circa 65 or 66 AD, for Paul also stated his concern about this self-same problem in his Epistle to the Galatian Church some twenty years earlier, a concern also expressed by the Apostle John in his second Epistle, wherein he expressed his concern about the false preachers and Christ deniers, sometime around 90-95 AD. This problem of distorting the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord, has been with us from the beginning of the Apostolic Era, even until now.

There have been gainsayers with us, even regarding OT Scripture, but never to the extent that the Gospel of Salvation in Jesus and His blood is being maligned today, for that is the whole Gospel that will and in fact has defeated Satan, the Accuser. Satan has lost and he knows it, but he will attempt to take as many so called believers with him on his way to the bottomless pit (Hell), to which he is ultimately destined.

Over the centuries, following the establishment of the Apostolic Church, there have been many occasions whereby even some of the early Bible Scholars and Theological stalwarts started to interpret the Word of God in their own way and understanding, and promoting doctrine and dogmas that were not always in complete agreement with the Gospel, as first proclaimed by the Apostles. Of course, one of the main culprits in the distortion of the true Word of God, has been the Romish church. From its inception shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, until the time of the Reformation, thus approximately some thousand years, they appointed themselves sole owners and authority over the writings of Scripture and denying anyone, save the Bishops and the Priests, access to the precious Word of God.

It is because through that church, some of whose earlier leaders were corrupt and immoral beyond description, that we now, even until this day, celebrate the birth of our Saviour on Dec. 25 instead of late September or early October. In order to appease the pagan world of that time, many who were Sun worshippers, they amalgamated the Roman feast of Saturnalia, the rebirth of the Sun, with the birth of our Lord, thus thereby distorting the Gospel message. This is just one example, I could name more but this will have to suffice.

When we contend for our faith the most important thing we must keep in mind is that we also strive (contend) for the truth. Without the truth that is contained in our Bible, our faith will just be an empty shell. But, in order to obtain the truth we seek, we must make sure that we have a proper Bible and preferably a reliable Bible Commentary. In many of the churches today the Bible of choice is the NIV. It is my personal opinion that that translation is a watered-down version of the true Word of God. In it are certain rewritten verses and even omitted verses, in order to appease today’s lukewarm Christians and to ease their obligations requiring their commitment and service to God. But it is not only the omission of verses or words that can lead us astray, but also the omission of a word that can lead to a wrong conception of a certain fact. Let us look, for instance, at the Book of Acts, chapter 17, verse 26, it is here that St. Paul is preaching to the Athenians, and expounding to them, that their shrine to the unknown God is none other than the Almighty Living God. This is how that verse is stated in the King James, “And hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…” (Acts 17:26). Now when this verse is read accordingly it gives license to the miscegenation and race mixing crowd, for they say, see we are all of the same blood, we all came from Adam and Eve, thus there is no problem. Now the word blood in this instance is an added word that is not found in most manuscripts. Most of us in the Christian Identity circles are aware of the pre-Adamic creation of Gen. 1 and that Adam and Eve came perhaps centuries later as found in Gen. 2. It is therefore impossible that all came of Adam and Eve, that all are of one blood. It is therefore my contention that verse is much more properly rendered in the Ferrar Fenton Bible where it read as follows, “Because He made by One every race of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth”. (Acts 17:26 FF). The words He and One are here captitalized indicating He=God the Father and One=The Creator God, Jesus Christ as per John 1:1-3. As you can thus see there is a vast difference in these two renderings of this one verse, which, in turn, determines how we or rather how the average Bible reader understands these verses. When, therefore, we contend and strive for the faith let it be founded on the truth, not in part, but the whole truth. Don’t rely on my words, but be like the Bereans of Acts 17:10,11 and search out the Scripture, whether these things are true.

I will close with the words that Paul wrote in 2Tim. 2:15, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.”