The peaceful understanding that comes from knowing that we do not fully understand the ways of God

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

Romans 11:33-34 KJV

But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.  

1 Corinthians 2:9-11 KJV

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

Isaiah 45:18-19 KJV

There is certainly and quite obviously no shortage of heavenly wisdom in the Word of God.  The last phrase of the passage from Isaiah shown above helps us to remember who exactly indeed is the source of this wisdom - The Lord God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.

Theologians are human just like the rest of us, and are in constant danger of usurping this role as they maintain and promulgate their various systematic theologies.  There's often a palpable sense that they feel they must "help God out" through a process of interpreting the scriptures in a way that forces God's Word into conformance with the man made conclusions, points, and terms of their particular theological construct.

As we have already discussed, no man can create a box that could possibly fully explain and contain the entirety of God's revealed wisdom to mankind that is found in the Holy Bible.  That doesn't keep certain men from trying, however!

Yet as God firmly reminds us in the above passage from Isaiah, "I declare things that are right".

Kind of hard to mess that one up!  God is not only the origin of all truth, it is He alone that can also declare the truth.  What does this really mean?

Leimma.net promotes a simple approach to Bible study and learning.  Identify a topic of interest, whether it be salvation, the end times, or the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Take every opportunity and advantage presented by both old school reference works such as Strong's Concordance and by modern study tools both online and in Bible software to simply identify as many scriptures as possible which relate to the topic of interest.

Then, and be forewarned - this is where it gets really complicated - just believe and accept what the scriptures themselves are plainly and naturally declaring!

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 

Matthew 11:25 KJV

In other words, if you were reading aloud in front of a group of say 10 or 100 or 1000 people who possess a more or less average reading and language comprehension, what would the consensus be on what was just read aloud?  The power of the Word of God when spoken aloud, by the way, is profound - especially when the speaker allows the words themselves to do all the talking.  The Word of God was therefore not written so that its meaning would be hidden and thus revealed only to certain men of special understanding.  God gave His Word for all mankind to read, study, ponder, reflect, and act upon.

God's Word also makes it clear that He does not elevate certain people over others in terms of importance, social standing, race, gender, or inherent dignity and worth:

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:  But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. 

Acts 10:34-35 KJV

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

Galatians 3:28-29 KJV

Our faith in Christ makes us Abraham's seed and heirs!  So with the reality of the knowledge of that special blessing, just dive in and read what God Himself has to say.  What you will find is nothing short of life changing in the sense of letting your preconceived theological notions fall away and embracing instead God's simple declarations of His truths.

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. 

Ecclesiastes 1:9 KJV

Theologies exist because the developers and adherents of these various systems are not satisfied with what God "declares to be right" in the plain language of the text.  So who would you rather trust?  The God of the Universe, the Creator of all things who gave His only begotten Son to die for us on a cross?  Or just some man from the various historical periods following the earthly ministry of Jesus and His apostles who is basically telling you that there really is such a thing as something new under the sun?

While therefore there can be danger in how the things found in the Bible can be twisted into saying something else entirely, we must also be cognizant of the danger posed by the theological beliefs of today's various theologies that are NOT in the Bible!  Systematic theologians, in their pursuit of a construct that fully expresses their beliefs and worldview, will often by sheer inference end up creating theological points that simply don't even exist in the Bible.

When challenged, then the comeback is that the points are the result of the theology's earnest effort to capture the entire meaning and intent of God's plans for us.  Therefore, over time, there are myriad beliefs, terms, and phraseologies that have "evolved" that cannot be found in the Bible at all, yet are held up as self evident truths.

We believe, on the other hand, that "the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things".  Subsequently, any and all "main" and "plain" things declared in the Word are to be held up as truth, and any and all other things that are not in the Word are to be simply ignored.  Not denigrated, not attacked - just disregarded as man's truths vs God's truths.

At this point it is important to acknowledge that the Word of God which we variously hold as individuals today close to our hearts is obviously going to be in the physical form of essentially one of the many translations that have been developed since the canon of the Old Testament and the New Testament were first established.  Controversies abound everywhere, both in the past and the present.  Who got to decide which books were "in" and which were "out"?  Which translations are legitimate and which ones are tainted?

As Christians, we believe that God directly led and inspired certain men to write down, both in Hebrew and in Greek, the words which became the Old and the New Testaments.  Because pen and paper still had a long way to go in terms of durability, these original manuscripts were obviously lost to time.  What immediately took place, however, was that the original manuscripts were copied and then distributed accordingly.  Scribes were expected to be totally accurate in this process, and any errors or omissions were typically identified quickly as manuscripts of known good provenance were compared to other manuscripts.

Then, in the first few centuries following Jesus' earthly ministry and the apostolic period, various councils were formed to evaluate the various "books" and determine which ones should be included in the canon (the "collection") of books which would then in turn represent the Old and the New Testaments.

At the same time we know that while God is infallible, men are obviously not in this category.  Regardless of the earnest efforts to maintain perfect accuracy, it would be a big stretch to suggest that what God put into place through the men who recorded the original manuscripts would remain perfectly represented as the decades and centuries of manuscript copying, canonical decisions, and translation efforts took place.

That being said, do we then throw the baby out with the bath water, so to speak?

Of course not.  The first thing that we need to understand about the Word of God is that the words found therein are clearly inspired.  These are not just words on a page, these are words that have changed the course of history and moved both nations and individuals in profound ways.  The recognition of a text as "inspired" versus merely "recorded" was the most extremely important part of the processes used to determine our current Biblical canon.

Therefore, in full recognition of both man's fallibility and God's infallibility, to believe all of this is to also believe that an omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (all present), and omnipotent (all powerful) God and Creator is quite capable of watching over these canonical machinations of men and then making sure - at critical junctures - that the essence and accuracy of His Word is preserved in such a way that discerning Christians down through the ages and up to this present time can then recognize and value and hold dear.

Ultimately, every Christian must come to the realization that the Holy Bible in the language and form that we hold in our hands today, while probably not an absolutely perfect representation of the original pen and paper of men like Matthew, John, and Paul that was contained in their original manuscripts and written down in their own language as the Lord inspired them, is still nevertheless a miracle of His provision to believers down through the ages that we can celebrate and uphold as His inspired Word.  And by suggesting that the Bibles of today are not 100% perfect, that is not to suggest that they are substantially less than 100%.  We believe that by the Grace of God our Bibles today are still quite excellent in their representations of the original manuscripts.

That being said, now comes the issue of translations!  Like theologies themselves, adherents of one Bible translation over another can be quite passionate and outspoken in their elevation of one Bible version over another.

We do not hesitate to make clear that Leimma.net relies primarily on the 1769 revision of the Authorized Version of the Bible.  This version is of course the one that as early as 1814 then became popularly known as the "King James Version".  At any rate, the KJV is indeed currently the source of the Bible verses that are quoted and displayed within this website.

Does this therefore mean that we are "KJV only"?

Does this therefore also mean that we believe that the KJV is perfect?

Our response is a simple "no" on both counts.

We do believe, however, based on a calm, reasonable, and objective review of several key criteria that the KJV does represent a most exceptional overall translation effort that remains available and relatable to Christians today.

These key criteria include:

- The profound impact that the KJV has had both upon the Church, and the world and history in general

- The scope of its translational approach, internal review processes, and overall development

- The quality of both the scholarly team assembled and the profound resources they had available to them

- The recognition that its time period of development was relatively free of modern "wisdom" and "trends"

- The techniques used in the text to clearly identify any words not present in the original manuscripts

- The absence of study notes which would indicate or promote any bias in the translation of the verses

- The Greek manuscripts used (i.e. the "received text" or "majority texts" as opposed to "ecelectic" texts)

- The absence of a copyright which the modern versions use to establish legal "ownership" of God's Word

We therefore believe that these eight criteria have identified the KJV as the "best" and "most transparent" version of the Holy Bible that we can read and share and celebrate to this day.  The time period in which it was developed served as an optimum bridge between the ancient and the modern in terms of Bible scholarship that even in its 1769 form still is perfectly understandable today.

At the same time, as with our study of Bible topics and any conclusions that may be generated as a result, we desire to remain teachable with respect to the validity of other translations and with the knowledge that the KJV is not "perfect".

We just believe that the KJV is the least "imperfect" of all the translations available to the Body of Christ.  It is "best of the rest" in other words, and yet we are happy to be among the first to point out that other translations might very well do a better job with respect to a verse or two here and there.  What we are drawing attention to is the "rule" and not the "exceptions" to the rule.  As a rule, we feel that the KJV is pretty hard to beat!  We remain open, however, to any information that may not only help to identify these exceptions but also may be compelling enough to create the need for a major change in preferred Bible version.

In summary, Leimma.net strives to uphold an approach to "theology" that is simple but not "simplistic".  We believe that the complexity of God's Word is wonderfully represented by the simplicity of its declarations.  In other words, simple does not mean "dumb" or "foolish".  Simple in this context means direct and to the heart.

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 

Romans 14:5 KJV

While the context of this verse in Romans is specifically referring to the practice of "holy days", the principle that is taught here is nevertheless a helpful reminder to anyone who desires to teach and proclaim the truths of the Word of God.  If so called, we must always remain humble to the realization that it is not our words as men that do the "persuading", but His Word only.  Our job as Christians is to, as God provides the opportunities, do our own due diligence and then, as the Holy Spirit does the leading, share with others what truths we might have found.  But we must never lose sight of the fact that it is ultimately up to each believer to resolve these truths in their own minds and in their own walk with our Lord.

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 

Ephesians 4:14-15 KJV

Our zeal for the pursuit of God's Truth in all things must always be tempered by the gentle reminder to "speak the truth in love".  As many of us know, this can sometimes get left by the wayside as passions for a particular position are expressed.

Let us pray that we all can remember this gentle admonition and encouragement from Jesus Himself:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

John 14:6 KJV

And ultimately, our hearts must always reflect the realization that no man - no matter how clever or knowledgeable or wise - can ever usurp the position and the authority and the life giving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is with the above detailed "thesis" that Leimma.net hopes to serve as one of God's sources of light in a lost and dying world.  We hope you will be blessed as we learn more about His ways together.