11 forgeries against Jesus Christ: be approved by God

How do we get approved by God?

Timothy has the answer.

II Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We must rightly divide God’s word, which is the bible.

How?

II Peter 1:20
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

The word “private” comes from the Greek word idios, which means “one’s own”, so this verse accurately reads:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of one’s own interpretation.

This is the first thing we must know in order to be approved in God’s eyes – that the bible is not to be interpreted by the student or reader of the bible.

Therefore, if the reader of the bible cannot interpret it, then nobody can! And if nobody can interpret it, we’re wasting our time, right?

Both right and wrong. Right because no person is to interpret the bible and wrong because studying the bible is not a waste of time.

Since the bible reader is not supposed to interpret the bible, logically speaking, either there is no interpretation possible, or the bible must interpret itself.

If there is no interpretation possible, then we are wasting our time! But we know God did not waste thousands of years having the bible written by many different people and sacrificing the life of his only begotten son just to have a book written that nobody can understand, so we know there must be a deeper answer.

Therefore, the bible must interpret itself and therefore, there must be some simple, logical principles we can see in God’s word and apply in order to rightly divide the bible in order to be approved before God.

If you ever run into any bible verses where they seem to contradict themselves, or confusion dominates our mind, then the answer can only be in a maximum of two places: either we don’t fully or accurately understand what we are reading, or there is a mistranslation in at least one biblical manuscript.

This article deals with the latter: mistranslations of bible verses. But it goes beyond that and actually crosses over the line into deliberate forgeries of bible verses that relate to Jesus Christ.

Why is that so important?

Because Jesus Christ is the subject of the entire bible. Literally every book of the bible has a unique theme about who Jesus Christ is in that book. So if Satan can corrupt the identity of Jesus Christ through biblical forgeries, then he can accomplish three things.

John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

First, since Jesus Christ is the only way to God, and if Satan distorts and corrupts our understanding of who Jesus Christ is, then he can potentially prevent people from even getting to God, from even being born again in the first place.

Acts 13
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him.
10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

In verse 8, what does “turn away” mean?

Definition of turn away
Strong’s Concordance #1294
diastrephó: to distort, fig. misinterpret, corrupt
Part of Speech: Verb
Phonetic Spelling: (dee-as-tref’-o)
Definition: I pervert, corrupt, oppose, distort.

HELPS Word-studies
1294 diastréphō(from 1223 /diá, “through, thoroughly,” which intensifies 4762 /stréphō, “turn”) – properly, turned through (thoroughly), into a new shape which however is “distorted, twisted; perverted” (Abbott-Smith) – i.e. “opposite” from the shape (form) it should be. “Note the intensifying force of the prefix, dia meaning, “distorted, twisted in two, corrupt” (WP, 1, 142).

So this is one of the purposes of Satan committing forgeries in the bible about Jesus Christ: to turn us away from God by corrupting the identity of his son Jesus Christ, which is through God’s word, the bible.

The second reason Satan has for corrupting the biblical manuscripts is to blind or distort our understanding of the bible, which makes known Jesus Christ, who makes known God, his father.

Here, Jesus is talking to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus.

Luke 24
25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
28 And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
29 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.
30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

Look at verse 27 again: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself”.

Jesus Christ, the red thread of the bible

As a result of knowing who Jesus Christ is in each book of the bible, look what the benefit was for these 2 men on the road to Emmaus:

31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him…

When we research the bible and apply God’s word with his love and wisdom, we get the very same benefit.

Ephesians 1:18
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

More often than not, it is forgeries and mistranslations of the bible that are the root cause of people misunderstanding the bible.

The secondary issue is wrong teaching, which is quite often based on corrupted verses to begin with, so the foundational principle is getting a correct translation first.

The third reason for Satan corrupting the bible by forgeries is to prevent us from rightly dividing God’s word so that we are not approved by God.

To the best of our knowledge, the original biblical manuscripts do not exist and have either been lost, stolen, or destroyed.

This is why we absolutely must perform some very basic biblical research skills in order to rightly divide the bible and be approved as workmen of God’s word.

Fortunately, we don’t have to be Greek or Hebrew scholars in order to rightly divide God’s word.

If we think the verse says one thing because of the forgeries, but the accurate text says something very different, then we are going to believe wrong doctrine and teach wrong doctrine, which will lead people astray and cause confusion.

A perfect example of this is the 4 criminals crucified with Jesus.

As can be seen in this screenshot of John 19:18 in the red box, the word “one” was actually added to the bible, making it look like 2 were crucified with Jesus.

But you and I can count better than that.

2 on this side + 2 on that side = 4 crucified with Jesus, but I digress.

We just need to know a few logical and common sense principles on how the bible interprets itself and what tools and resources to use so that we can get back to the original God-breathed word. Then we can say with all the confidence of the old testament prophets: “Thus saith the Lord!”

How are we going to be able to identify forgeries in the bible then? Very simple: just compare the forgeries to the original, but since we don’t have the actual original manuscripts, we have to use the next best thing: the oldest or most reliable manuscripts possible. Here is an analogy.

Proverbs 11:14
Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

There are literally thousands of complete and incomplete manuscripts of the bible all over the world. They come in various languages, ages, geographical locations, physical conditions, levels of authenticity and authority, etc.

These are “the multitude of counsellors” we consult, along with the laws of logic, and sound principles of how the bible interprets itself, in order to get back to the original word of God.

Sometimes, we may even need to consult history or science or get more information on biblical culture in order to help us, but the general idea is to consult multiple, objective and authoritative sources of biblical information.

No human reasoning or piece of evidence should ever usurp the final authority of God the creator.

What is forgery?

Definition of forgery
for·ger·y [fawr-juh-ree, fohr-]
noun, plural for·ger·ies.
1. the crime of falsely making or altering a writing by which the legal rights or obligations of another person are apparently affected; simulated signing of another person’s name to any such writing whether or not it is also the forger’s name.
2. the production of a spurious work that is claimed to be genuine, as a coin, a painting, or the like.
3. something, as a coin, a work of art, or a writing, produced by forgery.
4. an act of producing something forged.
5. Archaic. invention; artifice.

Now let’s look at the definition of “spurious”

Definition of spurious
spu·ri·ous [spyoor-ee-uhs]
adjective
1. not genuine, authentic, or true; not from the claimed, pretended, or proper source; counterfeit.
2. Biology. (of two or more parts, plants, etc.) having a similar appearance but a different structure.
3. of illegitimate birth; bastard.

Comparison of God’s works to the bible:
The DNA double helix molecule that God designed is the most incredibly complex and advanced information storage medium known to man.

The universe that God created is so vast that the entire human race combined cannot even begin to fully comprehend it.

Yet the bible, God’s word, which is his will, never says that these are to be magnified above his name. Only God’s perfect and eternal word is in that position. The word of God is the only work of God that he underwrote, that he signed his name to.

Here is a quote from Leslie Wickman PhD, former Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space corporate astronaut, rocket scientist, and engineer on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station programs, [among other things]:

“Since God reveals himself in both Scripture and nature, the two cannot logically contradict each other. So the key to a fuller understanding of who God is lies in seeing how the message of scripture and the evidence from nature fit together and inform each other”.

Another way of saying this is:

• Theology is the study of the revealed will of God, which is the bible
• Science is the study of the works of God, which is the creation

Psalms 138:2
I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

If the crime of forgery was proportional to the importance of the document that was forged, then the people who committed forgery in the bible should receive the greatest punishment since the bible is the greatest document ever written.

We are dealing with changes in the biblical manuscripts that are so bold and dramatic that no person could have done it accidentally. How can somebody “accidentally” add several new words to a Greek text that did not exist in any previous manuscripts?

Furthermore, the forgeries have been committed over many centuries, and promote the exact same false theology over and over again, so this cannot be the work of just one or two individuals that are disgruntled against God.

This implies the forgeries came from the same source.

What entity since the second century [the last book of the bible written was Revelation, which was approximately in 100AD] has this particular set of characteristics of a master forger?

• Longevity: be alive for many centuries
• Ability: have the capacity to deliberately alter many different biblical manuscripts from different parts of the world and in different languages
• Consistency: make all the forgeries have the same theme
• Motive: have a reason to commit as many forgeries as possible against the greatest document ever written as a repeat offender
• Commitment & determination: have the tenacity to endure century after century in order to attain a goal

To answer this question, let’s use a simple process of elimination.

Deuteronomy 4:2
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.

Revelation 22
18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Wow, look at the message from the very last 4 verses of the bible – a stern and direct warning from God not to add or subtract any words to or from the bible, so how important can that be???

Therefore, since God does not authorize any changes to his word, he would not and could not corrupt his own word himself, nor could an angel or Jesus Christ, have committed these forgeries either.

Certainly, none of the natural elements, or anything in the plant kingdom, animal kingdom, any single human, or even an entire chronological chain of human conspirators spread out over time could have done this.

Am I being thorough enough here – natural elements?!

Obviously, in the end, it was many different humans that were the agents of corruption that made changes to the actual, physical documents, but still, no human or conspiracy can fulfill the 5 characteristics of the master forger.

There are 2 and only 2 spiritual powers in existence in the universe, God and the devil. By a very simple process of elimination, since God could not commit these forgeries, the devil is the only one left.

The devil is the only entity that can fulfill all 5 criteria of the master forger: longevity, ability, consistency, motive and commitment.

After all, he is God’s only arch enemy.

That explains the forgeries.

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

Subtil comes from the Hebrew word arum and means crafty, cunning, and shrewd.

That explains the forgeries.

Here in John, Jesus is confronting a particular group of religious leaders who had sold their soul to the devil.

John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The usage of the phrase “the father” is a Hebrew idiom and means originator of lies.

That explains the forgeries even more because a forgery of a document turns the truth of the document into a lie.

Furthermore, when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness for forty days, he deliberately misquoted old testament scripture in an attempt to deceive Jesus, so if all that isn’t a smoking gun against Satan, then I don’t know what one is…

Another purpose of biblical forgeries is to steal the holiness, credibility, authority, precision, & integrity of the bible for itself by being placed inside the bible, posing as genuine Scripture.

So biblical forgeries are, in essence, a form of perjury, which is lying.

British Dictionary definitions for perjury
noun (pl) -juries
1. (criminal law) the offense committed by a witness in judicial proceedings who, having been lawfully sworn or having affirmed, willfully gives false evidence.

11 Felony Forgeries against Jesus Christ