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John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Title Page, Dedication, Preface & Table of Contents to: Lively Oracles- The Inspired Bible In The Hearts Of Believers
Lively
Oracles
The Inspired Bible
In The Hearts
Of Believers
Acts 7:38
This is he, that was in the church
in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount
Sina,
and
with our fathers:
who received the lively oracles to
give unto us:
James H. Sightler, M.D.
Sightler Publications
175 Joe Leonard Road
Greer, SC 29651
1-864-877-1429
www.sightlerpublications.com
First Edition
Copyright 2002
by Sightler Publications.
All rights
reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher
except for brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For
information address Sightler Publications, 175 Joe Leonard Road,
Greer, SC 29651
ISBN
0-9673343-1-4
Printed in the
USA
Dedicated
to the Memory of my Mother
Helen Grace Vaughn Sightler
December 12, 1914-October 11, 2001
And to my Sister
Elizabeth Ann Sightler Carper
So much like her mother
Who has watched the home place
Since mother has gone
And has tended that dear space of my
mother’s heart
My mother was a loving comfort and
instructor to us And to her husband’s life and work
She led us to the Lord
When we did wrong she never failed
to quote to us The verse which she herself kept to the end
Proverbs 22:1
A good name is rather to be chosen
than great riches,
and loving favour rather than silver
and gold.
May
we call the King James Bible inspired, or merely the best
translation of the inspired originals or inspired copies of them? I
believe and I hope this book will help to show that the King James
Bible and those faithful vernacular translations which preceded it
have not lost any inspiration or authority in translation.
Many have believed this same thing, David
Otis Fuller, H. O. Van Gilder, Lloyd Streeter, Bob Steward,
Walter Beebe, Ian Paisley, Jack Hyles, Gail Riplinger, and John
William Burgon.
Countless pastors and church members “in the trenches” have believed
and lived it as well.
Few pastors would be unwise enough to stand in their pulpits and
openly say that the King James Bible in the hands of the
congregation is a good translation but somehow not equal to the
manuscripts. Where then
is the authority for what they preach?
Ian
Paisley in his book, My Plea for the Old Sword, quotes from a sermon
by Burgon:
I am asked
whether I believe the words of the Bible to be inspired, I answer,
to be sure I do, every one of them: and every syllable likewise.
Do not you?
…where do you, in your wisdom, stop?
The book you allow is inspired.
How about the chapters?
How about the verses?
Do you stop at the verses, and not go on to the words?…No
Sirs!…The Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth
upon the throne! Every
book of it, every chapter of it, every verse of it, every syllable
of it, (Where are we to stop?) every letter of it is the direct
utterance of the Most High!
Burgon knew
well that the ancient New Testament manuscripts did not have verse
divisions and, in the uncials, no punctuation or separation of the
words. He knew that Old
Testament chapter divisions probably began with Cardinal Hugh of St.
Cher in 1244 and those of the New Testament with Stephen Langton in
the 13th century. He
knew that verse divisions in the New Testament began with Stephanus’
Greek Textus Receptus of 1551. Tyndale’s New Testament of 1537 has
book and chapter divisions and paragraphs but no verse divisions.
Therefore Burgon was speaking of the King James Bible in his
sermon, and Paisley, when the quote was given, knew that Burgon knew
these things.
The
King James Bible did not lose inspiration or authority because the
translators purposely rendered it into an elevated, eloquent,
Biblical form of English, cast in a mold slowly shaped by the
Biblical Koine Greek and Hebrew as they had been carried over into
other languages for centuries before English came about from them
and took its best form in the 16th century.
The praise and honour given to God by the King James Bible is
the primary reason English has become a world language.
The Bible versions in use throughout history in the true
churches outside the Catholic church have all been inspired.
That our Bible has surpassed them in beauty and soul stirring
pathos is something that is in the hands of the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, who gave Hebrew to Adam and guided the development
of earlier tongues out of the integrity of His heart and with the
skillfulness of His hands and who then by that same power shaped
English itself to redeive the Hebrew and Greek expressions with a
divine ease and grace.
I
thank my son-in-law, Joel Logan, his brother Brent, and Joel’s wife,
Abby, my daughter, for their gracious help with the scriptures cited
in this book. Their
knowledge of the Bible has been a blessing and inspiration to me.
My wife, Jean, keeper at home, has made it possible for me to
write. By example, she
taught her daughters to be sober, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,
obedient to their husbands.
In the same way she taught her sons likewise to be sober
minded, showing a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing
uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, of sound speech, that cannot be
condemned.
James H. Sightler
May 15, 2002
Chapter One-Lively Oracles
The Bible Lives
Stephen Before the Council
Living Words of the Lord Jesus Christ
Chapter Two-Inspiration
New Testament
Old Testament
Speaking and Writing
Chapter Three-Publication and Translation
What Does Publication Mean
In Other Tongues-Translation
Into All the World-Publication
Chapter Four-Galilee
Galilee of the Nations
Galilee and the Ministry of the Lord
Jesus
Galilee and the Early Church
Chapter Five-Hebrew and English
Hebrew, The First Language
Hebrew Expressions in the King James
Bible
God Honours the Authorized Version
