QUESTION: Shouldn't we emphasize love for Jesus Christ rather than 
          squabbling over Bible translations?

ANSWER: There is no better way to emphasize our love for Jesus Christ 
than to jealously and zealously guard His word.

EXPLANATION: You can show your "love" for the Lord Jesus Christ in two 
ways.

1. Any method that YOU deem as sincere and valid in your own sight. 
(See Lev. 10:1-3.)

2. You can endeavor to keep Christ's Scriptural admonitions as 
strictly as possible. (This tends to be a lifetime endeavor.)

In John 14:23 one of the identifying marks of anyone who loves Him is 
that they will "keep my words."

You may say, "That just means to keep the things that He said to do." 
BUT, the fact is that no "love" is required to keep His sayings as 
evidenced in John 8:51,52. Love is required to keep His "words."

Again an argument may be made that, "That just referred to the 
original Greek." But alas, such a statement only leads you into a 
deeper, more deadly trap. The following Scriptural example will 
explain.

In the book of Jonah, it is recorded that Jonah, while running from 
God, is swallowed by "a great fish" (Jonah 1:17).

In Matthew 12:40 the "great fish" is identified by Jesus Christ as a 
"whale. " (We are not arguing genetics here; we are arguing the value 
of Christ's "w-o-r-d-s.")

Strangely, at this very scripture, those who claim to be able to 
"love" Christ and correct His Bible steal the words right out of His 
mouth.

Every new translation changes Jesus' word "whale" to "fish." This is 
done because they learned in their seventh grade biology class that "a 
whale is not a fish." Faced not only with a Bible that has a seeming 
contradiction (not with itself but with their seventh grade biology 
teacher) but also with a Saviour who is so uninformed and uneducated 
as to not know that "a whale is not a fish," they panic. They rush to 
Matthew 12:40 and remove the word "whale" from both the Bible (their 
"authority in all matters of faith and practice") and from Jesus' lips 
(their "Lord" and Saviour.)

The Greek word used for "whale" in Matthew 12:40 is "ketos. " The 
Greek word for "fish" is "ichthus." They are NOT the same. Jesus used 
the Greek word "ichthus" in several places in Scripture, such as: 
Matthew 7:10 and 17:28. Certainly He could have used it in Matthew 
12:40 if He so desired.

The fundamental Bible "enhancer" overlooks two monumental Scriptural 
truths.

First he overlooks the fact that Jonah was swallowed by a "great fish" 
that was specially "prepared" by God. It should be noted here that 
Adam gave names to all living creatures but one. God gave whales their 
name in Genesis 1:21 BEFORE Adam named the rest of creation in Genesis 
2:19,20. That means the whale had a "pre-destination" (Gen. 1:21) and 
a "pre-destination" (Jonah 1:17) from the foundation of the earthÄNOT 
something even a Bible corrector should take lightly.

The second truth ignored by God's little "helper" is that by changing 
"whale" to "fish" in Jesus' statement of Matthew 12:40 he is guilty of 
breaking Jesus' admonition of John 14:23 to "keep my w-o-r-d-s." 
("Correcting" the Bible is like "treading" quicksand. The harder you 
kick, the faster you sink.)

Thus the authors of the New American Standard Version, the New 
International Version, the New King James Verslon and the rest of the 
new translations are not only wrong in their translation of "ketos" 
but in their defiance of Jesus mandate

So, when Jesus says one thing (whale) and your pastor, parent, or 
professor says another (fish) you are bound by LOVE for Christ to 
reject man's opinion and embrace and defend Jesus' w-o-r-d-s.

../