House churches in China used to be barely covered by the media. Official sources have started giving them a higher profile. It's estimated that about 50 million Chinese are members of house churches. Why have they chosen house churches instead of the Three Self Church, which is the government-approved Christian body? How should the government better manage them? And what does the future look like for religious development in China?

Article courtesy of Global Times (GT)

by E. Thomas
Never before or since has there been such an aggregate of scholarship and spirituality that existed when 47 learned men came together to translate the King James Version. Out of the 47, 4 were college presidents, 6 were bishops, 5 were deans, 30 had doctor's degrees, 39 had master's degrees, 41 were university professors who were all Greek and Hebrew students, 13 were highly skilled Hebrew scholars of a type that rarely has existed since, 10 were Greek scholars of rare scholarship, 3 were Eastern linguists that were as much at home with Arabic and the Eastern languages as their own English.

By J. S.

We read from the book of Luke, chapter 3

John said "I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire".
I stated how this baptism of John was still in the Old Testament, possibly an Old Testament tradition.
I made a case for John's baptism being different from Jesus' baptism.
I mentioned John 4:2, that Jesus himself did not baptize.
We read 1 Cor 1:17, where Paul affirms he was not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel.
In the end, most attendees seem convicted that water Baptism is not essential to Salvation. However...

KJV History
[from Greatsite]
This "translation to end all translations" (for a while at least) was the result of the combined effort of about fifty scholars. They took into consideration: The Tyndale New Testament, The Coverdale Bible, The Matthews Bible, The Great Bible, The Geneva Bible, and even the Rheims New Testament. The great revision of the Bishop's Bible had begun. From 1605 to 1606 the scholars engaged in private research. From 1607 to 1609 the work was assembled. In 1610 the work went to press, and in 1611 the first of the huge (16 inch tall) pulpit folios known today as "The 1611 King James Bible" came off the printing press. A typographical discrepancy in Ruth 3:15 rendered a pronoun "He" instead of "She" in that verse in some printings. This caused some of the 1611 First Editions to be known by collectors as "He" Bibles, and others as "She" Bibles. Starting just one year after the huge 1611 pulpit-size King James Bibles were printed and chained to every church pulpit in England; printing then began on the earliest normal-size printings of the King James Bible. These were produced so individuals could have their own personal copy of the Bible.

by JS
For five centuries, the Douay-Rheims Bible has remained one of the standard English Bible translations for Roman Catholics around the world. As the first and most enduring translation of the Latin Vulgate, the Douay-Rheims was translated at the end of the sixteenth century at the initiative of Gregory Martin. It quickly rose in popularity among English Catholics—becoming an essential part of Catholic identity during the English Counter-Reformation—and has been reprinted hundreds of times in the centuries that followed.

Here is a short study on how two of the most outstanding Catholic versions of the Bible, the Vulgata Latina and the Douay-Rheims compare with the King James Version of the Bible.

By J.S.

I find it insulting when some people proclaim that a Christian cannot be a Christian unless he/she supports Israel...

First of all, claiming that an Old Testament scripture puts a curse on anyone who speaks against present day Israel contradicts Jesus' own words when He said: Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you (Matthew 5:44). Jesus Christ, obviously, did not agree with Moses on putting curses and He himself spoke plenty against Jews: "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. - read the rest of John, chapter 8, where Jesus opposed the Jews.

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about this, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

As the race began it was obvious that Eric Liddell was overmatched. Now the crowd in the Olympian Stadium hushed as this runner from Scotland refused to be passed. As Eric crossed the finish line, the crowd exploded into applause heard all over Paris. Eric Liddell had done the impossible. He had set a new world record! Eric's refusal earlier in the week to run on Sunday in the Olympic 100-meter race had stunned the world. Now his incredible victory in the 400-meter race further strengthened his belief in God's promise," He who honors me, I will honor." Years later, Eric Liddell would be tested far beyond mere physical ability as a missionary to China. His character, perseverance, and endurance are a challenging example for all who would obey the call to bring the gospel to the nations.

THE ROCK’N ROLL FRENZY

Randall Walton



It is most doubtful that in 1953 when Elvis Presley launched his new pop music which became known as Rock and Roll, he had the slightest idea of the cultural revolution he had sparked, or that it would devastate an entire generation of young people, or that it would be so long-lasting. Elvis was a pentecostal lad, a member of the Church of God; it must have stunned his soul when he saw the negative effect his music had upon youth, for following in the wake of this dynamic explosion were the twin demons of blatant drug abuse and unbridled sex.

Why King James
By JS

Many people have asked us why we include in our site only the King James version of the Bible and do not include other versions, namely the NIV, the New Jerusalem Bible, the Standard Bible, etc. Certainly the main reason is that the KJV of the Bible has been tried and proven in our own lives. There are, however, other reasons which affect our decision to continue to use only the King James Version, and other similar versions of the Bible in other languages, i.e., Joao Ferreira de Almeida, in Portuguese, Reina Valera, in Spanish, and Louis Second, in French, etc. Browse around in our pages and you will find that there are issues to be considered before anyone choses to adopt another version of the Bible...