Jesus gave us these warnings,
Luke 8:17-18 For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. 18 Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he [a]seems to have will be taken from him.”
Mark 4:23-25 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 24 Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. 25 For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Luke 11:33-36 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand, that those who come in may see the light. 34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”
Jesus said, Even Watchout For Lying Signs and Wonders
Mark 13: 21 “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘Look, He is there!’ do not believe it. 22 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 23 But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand.
2 Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
I try to mention in my posts the need to be a Good Berean, Acts 17:11 from time to time. You have to know the Word of God for yourself to help in not getting deceived by those misrepresenting God’s Word. Even with that, you shouldn’t be too locked into 1 single version of the Bible to study from. I study from multiple translations because in doing that more clarity and understanding is achieved. At times more error in a translation is found aslo. This morning is a perfect example of that. Take this one verse for example from my daily devotional reading that comes from the ESV. It’s 1 Samuel 6:19
ESV says 70 – And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the LORD. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great blow.
KJV says 50,070 – And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
NIV says 70 – But God struck down some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they looked into the ark of the LORD. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the LORD had dealt them.
NASB says 50,-70 – He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.
So what do you do if you want to see what the original text had to say about it? Go to the interlinear version for the language it was written in. In the Hebrew version a word H505 is used ‘eleph and means “a thousand” and this is how it was originally written.
We have NO Excuse to Not know as much as possible what the Word of God has to say to us. Bible apps with built in concordances, so many resources on the internet and easily available in print that only until recent history were NOT Available to the masses. We have NO Excuse. These word’s come to mind thinking along those lines,
Luke 12:48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
We have so many resources at our fingertips, if we choose to put them before our eyes and ears instead of all the distractions that the “world” has to offer. Those distractions often come at a great price to our relationship with God. MOST People don’t take “Great Falls” from the Grace of God. Usually it’s incremental steps in the wrong direction. God’s been bringing that word “direction” to my attention lately. If it becomes clearer, I’ll post more about it.
In The Word 