which I also hate."
If you turn to Revelation 2:6, you'll see
what I mean. Our 'Greek nugget specialists' are mentioned here and God doesn't
seem all that pleased with them.
"But this thou hast, that
thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate." (Revelation 2:6)
Who are these nasty Nicolaitans? Man,
they must have done some pretty heavy duty stuff for God to hate them. Fancy
having God hating you! Surely they must have killed someone or stolen their
life savings or been involved in sexual immorality or something!
What does the word
'Nicolaitans' mean?
Quite simply, 'nico' means 'to conquer' and
'laitanes' means 'laity'. It means 'to conquer the laity'. It means to dominate
the Mr and Mrs Average Church Go-er.
Other names for "What the Greek actually
says..." are "Let's Find those Greek Nuggets"; "The King
James Bible is such a Poor Translation"; "The Greek has so Much More
to Offer than the English" and "The Greek Game" (See "The
Answer Book" by Dr Samuel C Gipp)
The game goes like this:
The pastor stands up in the pulpit one Sunday
morning and reads the following text upon which he will base his sermon. He
says :"And now, dear flock, would you please turn to 1Timothy 1:15 and follow as I read:
This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners; of whom I am chief. "
Now, barely able to conceal what he has found
in the `greek' he proceeds to enlighten his `dumb congregation'. He reveals to
them a `greek gold nugget'. With all the humility he can muster, he proceeds to
impress all and sundry with his gigantic knowledge of Greek. He continues:
"Now my friends, if we were all Greek experts we would see that the
word 'chief' really should have been translated as `first'. Yes my friends, the
word is "protos" in the Greek and the translators botched it
up, err... at least stumbled badly. To be fair, let me just say the translators
did the best job they could."
Now, the congregation are truly gobsmacked as
they sit stunned by this `giant of the Greek' that stands before them. Can any
of them match it with this 'foreign language master' who with such ease
produces such a nugget? These everyday people don't have time to ponder Greek
intricacies like their pastor. After all he went to college and got a degree
and has studied `the Greek'!
But where does he get his vast
store of Greek knowledge from?
Dear reader, your `learned' pastor won't let
you know this, but up the back of Young's Concordance there is a list of all
the places where 'protos' is used.
In the King James Bible it is given with
several different meanings. Some are:
1. that are
first Matt19:30
2.
former
Acts 1:1
3.
first
1 Timothy 1:16
4.
chiefest
Mark 10:44
5.
chief
1 Timothy 1:15
6.
best
Luke 15:22
7.
before
John 1:15
This is how the "See How Clever I Am and You Aren't" game works.
Now should the pastor preach on 1 Timothy 1:16 He will
simply change `first' to `chief' as this is the Greek word protos
as well.
In fact, if the pastor is preaching on any of the above scriptures, he
just dips into any of the alternate meanings. He can then spend 10-15 minutes
expounding the brilliance of his choice of word while at the same time pointing
out, although the King James translators were well-intentioned, they just
didn't have the Greek language skills to translate properly. (If only God could have waited to include this pastor among the
King James translators!) His congregation, at this point, are more firmly
convinced than ever, that it will never be possible to truly understand the
Bible as well as their beloved pastor with all his Greek knowledge. Not only
that, but their pastor has proved that he's worth every bit of money they give
him. How fortunate they are to have this man!
A nicolaitane pastor dominates his
flock (conquers the layman) by showing how poor the King James Bible is. As
we've seen, God just hates the 'priestly' class lording it over the 'dummy'
class.
Your 'Greek' pastor is
full of the fear of man but not the fear of God.
He's fearful that you'll be able to read the
Bible without him. He's fearful that you won't need him anymore. He's fearful
that you might see through him.
Above all, he's fearful that the dollars will stop rolling in. He's
going to manipulate Bible meanings, so that he can intimidate you
with his knowledge of the 'Greek' and therefore dominate you into
handing over your money.
Your pastor goes on:
"You see, my dear flock, it is my job to help you understand the Bible. It's impossible to read the Bible without the Greek or Hebrew!" In fact, his learning of Greek has only served to discredit the perfect English of the King James Bible.
By Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
See our other articles:
"Why
God rejects the Originals" and- 
"Why the English
of the King James
Bible is Superior to the Greek"
