QUESTION
I was wondering what version of the Bible you use for your website? As I was reading your page "The Facts", you have cited Matthew 24:7 saying, "And there shall be pestilences". I have the Life Application Study Bible, and that is not in there. If you could please provide the Bible version, that would be great. Thanks and God Bless!!
ANSWER
Thanks for your question and inquiry.
I think that’s great you are studying the passages and checking to see if that’s what the verses really say. Unfortunately, not too many people bother to check and study passages/context; they tend to just take a Pastor’s word for it. We at T.R.M. believe it’s extremely important for all believers to spend personal time studying God’s Word. In addition, it’s very important for believers to check all teachings, doctrines, quotes and statements to the Word of God for context and to make sure it lines up with the Whole of scripture. All to often, false doctrines and wrong ideas come from taking a single passage out of context. Therefore, we strongly encourage all believers to study for themselves and don’t just take someone’s word for it, including T.R.M.’s.. Check and Study it for yourself and make sure what’s being said is indeed scriptural.(1 Thess. 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.) So… with all that being said.. Let’s address your question.
I suppose I’ll start by simply answering the question, “what version of the Bible you use for your website?” The Bible version I use is the NKJV (New King James Version) unless otherwise stated. Let me also add that I’m glad you brought this to my attention. I will try to make sure the Bible version is mentioned on each page as a footnote or something, so there’s no confusion when referencing the passages. Thanks for pointing that out.
At this point I would like to address why “pestilences” is not listed in your “Life Application Bible.” First of all, aside from the Life Application Bible, there are actually a few other Bible versions that omit “pestilences” from Matthew 24:7. The reason they omit the word is because many of the older Greek(Gr.)manuscripts of Matthew do not contain the word “pestilences” there. However, there are some Gr. Manuscripts of Matthew that do contain the word “pestilences”. Therefore, simply put, some Bible Versions go by the Gr. manuscripts that do have “pestilences” and other Bible Versions go by the Gr. manuscripts that don’t have it.
Now, this discrepancy might seem like a problem because how are we know whether or not to include “Pestilences” as one of the signs that Jesus gave us. At first glance it would seem like a problem, however, it’s not a problem at all. The answer to this dilemma is found in one of the parallel accounts (i.e. Same event in the another Gospels). Upon doing so we find that Luke also recorded this event of Jesus giving His Disciples a list of “signs of the end of age”. When reading Luke’s record, we discover that “Pestilences” was also listed as one of the signs. Luke 21:10-11 “…. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11) And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences;……..” So…The next question we need to ask would be — Is there any discrepancy found in the Gr. Manuscripts of Luke? The answer is…No. In fact, the Bible Versions that omit “pestilence” in Matthew do not omit the word in Luke because there is no question that “pestilences” was apart of the original record of Luke. Therefore we know for certain that “pestilences” is definitely meant to be one of the signs.
It’s important that we understand the only debate among scholars here is whether or not Matthew recorded the word “pestilences” NOT whether “pestilences” was one of the signs. I personally don’t see an issue with this, simply because, whether Matthew wrote “pestilences” or not doesn’t change the fact that Luke’s account is very clear, which no one debates. Now, if Matthew’s record was the only account that mentioned “pestilences”, then yes, the whole manuscript issue might have been a problem for us, but, since we have Luke’s account, we have no problems here. We know without doubt that Jesus listed “pestilences” as being on of the signs.
In Closing,
Also be sure to pray and ask the Lord to give you understanding of His Word as you read and study it. 1 Cor. 2:12-13 Now we have received, ……the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.13)………the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
I hope this has helped shed some light on the issue. If you have any question, comments or thoughts please feel free to contact us again. We are always more than happy to help in an anyway we can.
F.Y.I.: As we do every year, we are currently updating “The Facts” with the most current released statistics and global reports. Make sure to check back in a week or two for the latest information under each sign.
May God’s blessing and guidance be upon you.
In CHRIST, TRM
