SIDING WITH THE PLOWMAN

 

LANDMARK BAPTIST CHURCH

 

 

(Meditate on this.  There will be a test at the end of the article!)

The successful work of the plowman is described in Isaiah 28:23-29 as coming forth from the Lord. I believe spiritual plowmen are also “furnished by the Lord,” II Timothy 3:16.

Through historical Christian writings, the word plowman or ploughman has become a synonym for the common man. The word spelled “plough” (Luke 9:62) refers to the instrument, while spelled “plow” is what happens to the ground. Therefore, when referring to the man it can accurately be spelled either way. Just a little nugget from the English without any Greek (where is your sense of humor?).

Charles Spurgeon entitled some writings as “John Ploughman Talk.” It was WilliamTyndale who, with others, was used mightily of God to get the Word of God into English that said to the pope, “I will make the boy that driveth the plough to know more of God's Word than thou knowest.”

His statement turned out to be prophetical as God touched the heart of the king and brought under His (God's) watch care the men in the background of the King James Bible. No Bible in history has ever revealed the providential hand of God on it as has our Authorized Version. It has been the one God has used to be His standard authority around the world. It has been translated by more missionaries in all languages above any other.

America’s founding fathers and documents rest on it. Check the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, etc. It was the book, being believed and preached that brought forth the greatest revivals of history. However now there seems to be a movement to repeat history by taking the ploughboy’s” Bible away from him. It is not this time being done by the Catholic pope, but by egotistical men who think more highly of themselves than they ought.

They are saying to John Plowman, you must come to me, I know the original language, and there-by the true Word of God, as it is only to be found in the “originals.” This is not only a lie because God has not seen fit to preserve the original writings, but it was the written and spoken words that God gave through inspiration, not the languages themselves.

In fact, God used the ploughman’s language of the times to communicate to his fallen creatures. By the way He does know all the languages; after all, He gave language and added many more at the tower of Babel. He has control of both the speaking and hearing of them; consider the phenomena of Pentecost. It is His choice to do with His Word as He chooses.

He chose to allow Moses to break the “Divine originals” of the “big ten” in a temper fit. However, He chose to give another copy. He did the same thing with Jeremiah after the king destroyed much of the first originals.

In fact, He even added more words in the second copy, see Jeremiah 36:32. There might be a lesson here for you who worry about the “italicized” words in the KJV. God knew the word “unknown” before He led the translators to use it (see Acts 17:23 and II Corinthians 6:9).

The movement, even among some Independent Baptists today, to discredit the KJV sets up a strawman about some, perhaps, thinking the translators were inspired. This then leads to saying the KJV is not inspired. If the revelation is from God, if His Word was once written by men He chose to inspire, and we know it was, then what happened to it? When did it become uninspired?

We know that God did promised to preserve it, see Isaiah 40:8, Psalms 12:6,7. If God spoke the creation into being and parted the Red Sea and made the sun stand still, could He not keep His promise to preserve His word?

I mean even give John Plowman a copy to hold and use in his plowing? Well, if He did preserve His inspired Word where is it? Is it in the several thousand fragments which are not the originals themselves? Can we only find it when supposed intellectual brethren search their man-made lexicon for the opinions of other self-made judges?

No, God has watched over, guided and led men of His choosing to faithfully preserve His inspired Word for John Plowman today (Psalm 68:11). It lost none of its original inspiration in “the process” God chose to preserve it. The translators were used of God much more than they themselves knew in their life-time.

It happened before when God so used men. Peter, in I Peter 1:10-12, tells us the prophets prophesied of the grace that would come, not to themselves but unto us. He said even the angels desired to look into it. However, it would not offend me for some Bible-believing  ploughman to say the translators were inspired. I would not call him ignorant or foolish.

If he believes and preaches and wins souls with a book he believes came down from God on a “gold string” from Heaven, fine. He will have more reward at the Judgment Seat than the intellectual dry-dust doctor who hadn’t won a soul since he got his PHD.

The recent efforts of trying to point out that there is a difference in the words “inspiration” and “preservation” is a subtle attack to make the KJV to be less than what the common man believes it to be. For most of its history, it has always been called “inspired” by common people.

For example, check page 369 in the “Soul-Stirring Hymnal” printed by the Sword of the Lord. Read the words copyrighted first in 1926 that we have all sung in our churches; “Divinely inspired the whole way through, I know the Bible is true.”

This current stir is going to hurt in the Bible-believing churches causing the people to hear a trumpet with an “uncertain sound.” By whatever means that was used to direct, guide, and watch over the translators, the proof is God did use them and the “proof is in the pudding.”

There was no need to re-inspire or use “double-inspiration” which has become a “code word” to try to discredit the KJV. The once inspired words of God lost nothing by being put in English as God led in the process. Both Wycliffe and Miles Coverdale stated the English Bible was given by the Holy Spirit’s watch care.

If you don’t believe God could lead the translators through His Spirit, don’t get up before your people and say you think God is leading you on your next project. Therefore, when I hold up my Bible before my congregation and tell them it is the very inspired words of God, I am not being a liar or hypocrite.

If some preachers today were honest, they would have to say,  “It’s God’s words except maybe 3% to 5%; however, I am not sure exactly where that 3% to 5% is that is false.” Could be John 3:16. Too many are changing the Word before the congregation in such a way that the plowboys (common man) feel they must come to the preacher (pope) to find out what God “really said.” You think that is going to encourage Bible-reading by the layman?

By the way, when did God appoint you to second guess the men He used to produce the “master piece” that has His stamp of approval on it for these many centuries? Are you more holy than they? Wonder how much internet and TV they watched?

In their day, hardly a woman’s ankle was seen bare in the house of God; what did you see last Sunday? The audacity that “I must run to the lexicon” to see if they really got the word “Easter” right – I mean all of them apparently agreed that the context called for it (and it did as it was Herod’s pagan Easter.) But you say, I’ll correct them and show my people how smart I am and how blessed they are to have me. Yeah, right!

Finally, I am amazed at the extent some men are letting the devil influence them today. Remember, it started in the garden with putting a question mark and thereby a doubt on the Word of God. When one says, “I’m a King James man, but ...” you better get a good hold on your Bible because an attack to create doubt is coming.

It may start small with the “hard to read” original gothic type in the 1611. Next, the lie of many revisions of the KJV, at first, contained the Apocrypha. Well, give the whole truth. It did contain it between the Testaments, not mixed in, as the Catholic Bible does, to confuse. Expense and bulk caused it to soon be dropped as it was never considered by John Ploughman to be part of the Word of God, any more than you or I think our maps or subject index is.

But, when wanting to cast a shadow of doubt, some will use any tree Satan hides behind. For instance, the fact of spelling changes and the abuse by a number of modern day printers to change capitals and shorten or in some cases lengthen (see II Timothy 3:16)* without making the purchaser aware does not count as nullifying the KJV.

While this has been done (Thomas Nelson in the lead) there are many editions that have not been tampered with. The dollar bill is behind much of the abuse by these tamperers since there is no copyright on the true KJ text. Their fiddling with the capitals and spelling is often to clear themselves to put their own copyright on it. Yet, they lie so that they may sell a “King James Version.”

Well, I am sticking with the John Ploughman’s. I believe that “Joe the Plumber” should be able to get saved and pick up a perfectly inspired and preserved copy of God’s Word and begin to preach to the elite “Obama’s” of this world without having to learn Greek or Hebrew so he can check up and see if the translators got it right.

In fact, if Joe the Plumber doesn’t have a copy of God’s perfect Word maybe Jesus the Carpenter was fooled too, because He quoted from copies and called it Scripture (Matthew 4"4 – “every word” and in Luke 4:21, etc.). None were originals.

In conclusion, with the Psalmist, “I have been young, and now am old” and I am seeing the foolishness of preachers that would make many old ploughmen of yesterday sick.

Young preacher, if you want God’s blessing and power on your life, do not doubt that you have a perfect copy of God’s Word in the KJV. If it is not His perfect inspired Word preserved by Him for you, where is it to be found? The answer is nowhere.

The devil can and does inspire many questions and fools even good men. If you will take the position of Bible-believing “faith,” this means what you can’t explain or reason out you will trust and believe God until He gives you light on it.

My own testimony is He will. Wait on Him. Don’t flunk the test. If the time has come that we must choose sides, let’s side with the John Ploughmen of our day. I believe Jesus did, for Mark 12:37 says, “And the common people heard Him gladly.”

DO THIS TEST

Grade your own paper.  God will grade later.  II Corinthians 5:10

1. Do the original writings (autographs sounds more scholarly) exist anywhere? o Yes o No

2. Did God promise that His words would always exist? o Yes o No

3. Do you believe God has the power to keep any promise?

o Yes o No

4. Since “things that are different are not the same,” can all the versions be God’s perfect Word?

o Yes o No

5. Is there one version of God’s written Word that indicates it is used of God above all others?

o Yes o No

6. Is it true that a “ploughman” can hold in his hand today a copy of God’s perfectly inspired and perfectly preserved Word?

o Yes o No

7. Therefore, is it right to say the King James Bible is the perfectly inspired and perfectly preserved Word of God? o Yes o No

8. If a common man does not have a perfect copy of God’s inspired Word to hold in his hand today, has God failed to keep His promise? o Yes o No

9. Psalms 119:89 says, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.”  Does this mean God can give it accurately to mankind?

o Yes o No

10. If at the Judgment Seat I find out I believed the Book too much, will that be safe ground to stand on? o Yes o No

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Isaiah 40:8)