WWUTT 495 Q&A Translating Amyraldian Calvinist Apocrypha?

What would be a good Bible to gift someone with? What's Amaraldianism? Is there a seven-point Calvinism? And why do the Catholics have so many extra books in their Bible? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study to encourage your time in the Word. Find all of our videos on our website, www .tt .com. Now here's your host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, my dear.

You're welcome.

You sound a little stuffy.

I am very stuffy.

Did I give you that?

Yes. Yes, you did.

That would be the case. I was nice and stuffy on Sunday. I had to tell everybody when I was preaching, don't shake my hand afterward.

And then he came over and snuggled next to me.

And gave it to my bride. So, in sickness and in health.

We share everything.

That's right. Even our illnesses. Welcome to the Friday edition of the broadcast. When we take questions from the listeners, you can submit questions by email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

This first email comes from Connor in Wisconsin. He says, Hey, Pastor Gabe and Becky, my two friends just got married. And my brother and I thought it would be a great idea to give them a journal Bible so that they can leave each other notes about what they have learned every day.

Aww.

I've done that in your journal Bible.

You have.

A couple of times. Written something in there discreetly that she didn't know about. And then opened right up to it.

Lo and behold.

Gabe's leaving love notes for Becky in her Bible.

It's so sweet.

So, Connor says, What kind of Bibles would you recommend? Translation-wise, we were planning on getting them an ESV. That's typically the translation that I recommend.

Yeah.

So, the three that our church recommends whenever we get new people that come in and they hear what I'm preaching from. So, they'll ask, What translation is that? I'll tell them it's the English Standard Version.

What translations would you recommend that I get? There are three that we recommend. And that's the ESV, the NASB, New American Standard Bible, and the New King James. And in that order, those three.

Right.

So, when it comes down to it, the most accurate translations that there are in the English language is the English Standard Version and the New American Standard. But if you're a traditionalist who loves the King James, that's fine.

I would just recommend that you get the New King James because the language is a little more updated.

Right.

Really, that's one of the reasons why I simply cannot recommend the King James Bible. It's a good translation, but the language is dated. And especially when it comes to teaching your kids or as they grow up and become preteens and teenagers, it's still really difficult for them to understand the King James language.

Well, and considering the fact that our vocabulary has dwindled so much.

Diminished.

Diminished.

That's a better word.

Yes.

This is true because there's this graph that you can find. I don't know where it is.

Online.

Somewhere online.

Right.

I know that the Christian Standard Bible, when they came out with, which was the Holman Christian Standard, but when they changed it to the Christian Standard, there was a graph that they put on their website, so I know that you can find it there, which shows you all of the major translations and where they fall on that graph.

But part of that graph told you what reading level that, if you're of that reading level, it's easiest to understand that particular translation.

Okay.

And the King James and the NASB were on the highest end of that reading level. So the NASB really is probably the most accurate translation, but just for readability, I would still recommend that the ESV would probably be your top choice.

Yeah.

So anyway, it sounds like Connor has already decided that. I'm just kind of providing my own reasoning there. But as far as what kinds of ESV Bibles are there that he could pick up, well, he obviously knows about the journaling Bible.

Right.

If you're going to go real basic, like you're just spending 25 or 30 bucks, I would recommend that you get the reference Bible. It's like the basic ESV, but you've got a margin in there on every page that gives you the cross references so that you can learn how to use Scripture to interpret Scripture.

And I think the reference Bible is probably the best Bible for your buck.

That's awesome.

That you can pick up. My first ESV Bible was a reference Bible, and I still have it. Terrific Bible. If you want to spend a little bit more, then you can start to get into your study Bible range, but you're spending 50, 60 bucks maybe for a study Bible.

Well, he and his brother are going in on it together, so that's only 25 apiece.

Right.

So that's not too bad.

Something like that. And something that I've recommended that couples do is to each buy a different translation. So one might have the ESV and the other one have the NASB. So when you do your study together, then you can bounce off of one another what your translations say, and it brings you to a better understanding of what that text means.

So that's another possibility. You might get two different study Bibles.

Right.

Or what were you going to say?

I was going to say,.

It looks like he's trying to get them to write back and forth of what they learned.

Well, then two different journaling Bibles.

Yes.

That would probably be the way to go.

Study Bibles don't leave a whole lot of room.

That's true. Yeah, not a lot of room to write in the margins. Now, I have a Bible that's one of the goatskin Bibles, which are real expensive. I got that on a special deal while I was at ShepCon. So anyway, the goatskin Bible or the heritage Bible, heirloom Bible, I think that's what they call it.

I think so, yeah.

Heirloom.

It has some wide margins in it that you can write in. And that's one of the things that I like about it is because I can write little notes and references, especially when I'm going to be preaching in that particular section.

Right.

I just write a little tiny note off to the side and I know I'm going to be turning there once I get to that part of the text. So that's helpful if you don't like writing huge long notes, which you would need a journaling Bible for.

Yeah, you kind of have to fill out your friends. If they're wordy in their writing, then buy them a notebook that has like a pretty Bible verse on top of it or something like that on the cover. But if they don't write a whole lot or they're just new to studying and they don't have like a whole lot to say, then one of the journaling Bibles would work.

I think I've heard there's even a Bible now where there's a full blank page on one side.

Oh, yeah.

But that would be a big Bible.

That would be a very thick Bible.

So I can't remember where I saw that or even what translation it was in, but there's apparently a journaling Bible out there that's got a lot of space that you can write in.

That's awesome.

But yeah, I think Becky made a good suggestion to that. Just get them a reference Bible so that you've got the cross references in it. Learn how to use Scripture to interpret Scripture, which the study Bible will do as well.

You get the cross references and the notes at the bottom. And then buy a notebook. Just buy a fancy notebook that they can have, that they can write something in, especially if they're a lengthy writer.

But I'm the kind of person I just jot little tiny notes in there.

That's me.

Yeah.

And I underline and make smiley faces and bears and stuff like that.

That's right.

You drew a bear.

Anyway.

When we were going through 2 Kings 2, she drew a bear in there.

Rabbit trail.

Yeah.

Sorry.

So the Heirloom Bible works for me with just that small little margin space since I just write little notes.

Right.

But, yeah, if you're going to write a whole lot, just get an additional notebook.

And especially for the intent of you wanting them to share their relationship with their learning in the Bible, with what they're learning.

Yeah.

And when you're sharing notes like that, you're probably not doing it together. You're probably doing your own individual study and writing a lot and then comparing notes when you get together.

Right.

Anyway, we're just kind of rambling on suggestions here.

Feel out your friends.

Yeah.

And then I think based on their personalities, what you know they do in terms of Bible study can help you determine what kind of Bible to pick up. We live in a great age of plenty of printing presses.

There are a lot of different options in terms of Bibles out there.

Oh, man.

A shelf full of all different kinds of options.

Coloring ones.

Yeah.

Don't do those.

Don't.

Even if your friend is a colorer, don't get the coloring Bible.

Yeah.

Stay away from that one.

All right.

This next question comes from. I didn't write his name down.

Oh, yeah.

It's Jacob. Jacob from Cleveland, Tennessee, who has written to us before. Dear Reverend Hughes,. I'm the guy from Cleveland, Tennessee, who had asked about the lack of exposure surrounding Reverend Pat Robertson as a false teacher.

A regular viewer of the 700 Club called the Apostle Paul's teaching about female bishops, deacons, elders, and pastors as doctrines of men. I linked to your video on the subject for her, along with other examples in Scripture which trample her assertion.

I hope and pray that she watched it. That was the video that you were in.

Mm-hmm.

I think it's so far the only. What video? No, there was two because there was the one that you did the plug for the exit movie.

Oh, right.

That we just did a couple of weeks ago.

Right, but that wasn't my face.

Yeah, your face wasn't in that one.

Oh.

But it is in the one on.

Or my pregnant belly at that time.

Oh, my goodness.

She was pregnant with Aria in that. Isn't that right? Yeah, you would have been pregnant with Aria.

Yeah.

Because I got pictures from that recording session of me and Zieg and Annie making faces into the camera.

Oh, yes.

So, yeah, if you look for the video entitled, Women Can't Speak Up in Church, I think is the name of it. Women Can't Speak in Church. Anyway, that's the what video on women can't be pastors in church.

Becky's face is in there as well as her lovely voice. So, going on, I haven't even finished the email yet.

No, you haven't.

I think I asked you once on Twitter, but what precisely is Amaraldianism or four-point Calvinism? Remembering my father's New England ancestry, what does slash did, six-point Calvinism mean and or look like?

Google and Wikipedia are nice and all, however, errors still abound. I only understand the latter did not survive on its own. Thank you so much, sir. I don't know a whole lot about Amaraldianism. That's actually the first time I've heard it referred to as four-point Calvinism because Amaraldianism actually does preserve the doctrine of limited atonement, whereas four-point Calvinism dismisses the doctrine of limited atonement.

R .C. Sproul refers to four-point Calvinism as Arminianism because the doctrine of limited atonement basically is what makes five-point Calvinism. But anyway, Amaraldianism, although I don't know a whole lot about it, I can tell you that basically the belief is that God first decreed Christ's atonement for all who would believe, but then God decided to elect those whom he would save by faith in Christ.

This is referred to as hypothetical universalism. That's the other term that I've used, heard to describe it, not four-point Calvinism because they actually try to preserve the doctrine of limited atonement in Amaraldianism, but that doctrine is not preserved in four-point Calvinism.

I know you look like you're totally following me here.

Oh, yes.

These are the technical discussions.

Not my forte.

Becky does not enjoy as much, but we read the Bible together and talk about what we read. We just don't get into some of the technical theological terms.

It's because I don't remember them. I can never keep them straight.

Yeah, she doesn't remember people's names most of the time.

Just lay on the plane for me and tell me as it is in layman's terms. I call them Becky words.

There you go.

My limited vocabulary that we were just discussing, and I'm good.

In short, there is actually no such thing as four-point Calvinism. It's theoretical, and I had not heard Amaraldianism described as four-point Calvinism. Maybe it applies. I'm not sure. But anyway, as far as six-point Calvinism goes, which you asked about, now the only true Calvinism is five-point Calvinism, the tulip, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.

Those are the five points of Calvinism. So that's true Calvinism. Anything else is simply theoretical, but it's not actually Calvinism. So there is no such thing as four-point Calvinism, and there is no such thing as six-point Calvinism, although John Piper describes himself as a seven-point Calvinist.

But when he calls himself that, it's tongue-in-cheek. So he's kind of just being humorous with it. He's not actually claiming that there is a seven-point Calvinism. But the sixth point of Calvinism, and this is according to Piper as he explains what seven-point Calvinism is, the sixth point is double predestination.

Basically, God not only chose whom he would save, but he has also chosen whom he would not save. Now, when you read about unconditional election in the doctrines of Calvin, it only passively suggests that God has elected whom he won't save.

The concept of that doctrine itself is that God has chosen whom he would save. But it's basically implied if he's chosen whom he is going to save, he's therefore chosen whom he's not going to save.

By default.

Right.

Now, the anti-Calvinists think that that's an argument in their pocket. So they'll kind of like pull that one out. Like, well, if God's chosen who he's going to save, that means he's chosen whom he's going to send to hell.

Ha ha, we've got you, Calvinists.

Well, right.

That's...

You haven't really stumped anybody there. But, like, if you consider John 6, verses 37 through 40, Jesus said, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So that's where we get the concept of unconditional election.

Now, it's implied, even in that passage in John 6. Therefore, there are those that God has not elected to save, but instead they will perish. Now, that's passively suggested in John 6, but there are other places where Jesus does openly say that you have not been known and you have not been chosen.

Matthew 7 .23, where Jesus says that on the day of judgment, there are those that will come to him and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do many mighty things in your name? And he will say to them, Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness.

I never knew you. So you were not chosen. Therefore, you will perish. So that's basically the sixth point of, the sixth theoretical point of Calvinism, which is called double predestination. The seventh point, this one's a little bit more confusing.

So now that Becky's thoroughly confused, we're going to double down here. So the seventh point of seven-point Calvinism is the best of all possible worlds. Basically, there will never be a better plan for the course of history than the one that God has made.

But we won't know that until the consummation of all things in Christ Jesus on the day of glory. So if we look at the way things are in the present world, this is not the best of all possible worlds. In our current finite existence, in the flesh in which we live, and you're looking at this going, how could this be the best of all possible worlds?

But when we get to the end of the whole course of history, we will be able to look back and see that God established the best of all possible plans and has extended to us the best of all possible eternities through Jesus Christ.

That's pretty awesome.

So now you're amazed by it rather than confused, right? Sure. Okay, terrific. So the passages of scripture that would suggest this concept to us would be like 1 Corinthians 13, 12, now we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face-to-face and then we will know just as we are fully known.

Right.

Also Exodus 3, 12, when God is speaking to Moses in the burning bush and he's telling him to go into Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. And he says to Moses, you will know that I was with you because you will come back here and worship me on this mountain.

Right.

He doesn't say to Moses, you'll know that I was with you because of the great miraculous signs that we're going to do. It's going to be hindsight. You'll get here and look back and see, this was the perfect plan that God had intended all along and you will worship me because I delivered you out of slavery and showed all my wonders and glory over Egypt in that deliverance of my people.

And so you take that concept in Exodus 3 and you expand it out onto an eternal plane. And so when we enter into glory and we're together with all of the saints whom God meant to save and we're with Christ, worshiping him forever and we're looking back over the course of all of history, not just the part of life that we lived in, but the whole course of everything from the beginning of creation to the end and we will realize, we will know, this was the absolute best from a God who is holy and perfect and just and righteous who made all things possible and delivered us for his glory.

So anyway, that's seven-point Calvinism.

I don't anticipate being disappointed at all.

You don't have to know that in order to enjoy all of the great treasures that we will receive when we are in heaven. You will not have to be able to articulate a hypothetical seven-point Calvinism.

Good.

Amen, glory. Becky's already rejoicing over that.

All right.

This last question comes from Daryl in Florida and he says, hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. Don't you like how your name is coming in there. Now on all these email addresses?

It's so sweet. Thank you, guys.

I have a question regarding a funeral I recently attended. A family member passed away and he had a Catholic funeral. During the memorial service, the preacher read out of the Book of Wisdom. I knew this was not a book in the Holy Bible, so I asked my grandfather about this and he said there are books of the Bible the Catholics have that other denominations don't have, even books that were supposedly written by Christ himself.

My question is, where are they getting these books from and why are they not in every Bible? I love the podcast. Listen to it every day while I'm at work. Keep up the great work and God bless you both.

Well, Daryl, might I recommend to you a new book that just came out this week from Pastor Nate Pickowitz up in New Hampshire. The book is entitled Why We're Protestant. And he actually does address this in the book, talking about these extra books that have been added to the Roman Catholic canon that does not exist in the common canon of the Holy Scriptures.

So here's what Pastor Nate wrote in Why We're Protestant. In the manuscript that I have, this is pages 24 and 25. I had an earlier manuscript before the final publication, which I did order my own copy, but it hasn't arrived to me yet.

So anyway, here's what Pastor Nate said. In the most general sense, the canon is the authoritative books that God gave his corporate church. Historically, the accepted canon consisted of 66 books, 39 Old Testament books, Genesis to Malachi, and 27 New Testament books, Matthew to Revelation.

However, during the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church asserted that there were additional books inspired by God which belonged in the canon. What came to be known as the Apocrypha consisted of the books of Tobit, Judith, the additions to Esther, the additions to Daniel, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, also called Sirach, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

In response to the Reformers' claims that many of the Catholic Church's practices were unbiblical, the Council of Trent, 1545 to 1563, canonized the Apocrypha, thus deeming it to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God.

This was no doubt an attempt to legitimize things like prayers for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12 verses 40 -46, atonement by works in Sirach 3 .30, and the immaculate conception of Mary in the Wisdom book 8 verses 19 -20.

But after 1 ,500 years of being absent from the canon, did the Apocrypha suddenly deserve to be included? Certainly not. So for more information about that and to understand why we're Protestant and not Roman Catholic, I would encourage you to pick up that book from Nate Pikowitz, Why We're Protestant, on Amazon.

Now instead of going to Amazon .com and typing in the title, for a limited time we have a link to that book in our own bookstore on the What website. So just go to www .utt .com and you'll see right there at the top Nate Pikowitz' new book, Why We're Protestant.

It's a great read, especially this year, considering this is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Coming up real soon.

Yes, October 31st.

Yay.

We're going to do a Reformation party again.

We are.

And unfortunately, we don't have Justin and Blankie with us anymore.

They offered to come back for that.

Are you serious?

I'm dead serious.

Oh man, that would be awesome.

Wouldn't it?

We had this young couple in our church that were really big on medieval stuff.

They're super fun.

We were so looking forward to being able to do the Reformation party with them during the 500th anniversary because they just add that awesome flair to the party.

Oh yeah, fantastic.

But then they moved. They moved back to California, but apparently they're going to come back and visit us.

Yeah.

Excellent.

We'll pray for it.

All right, you just gave me something to be excited about. I'm looking forward to now. Something else to be excited about on October 31st.

We have a lot of other well-deserving of praise helpers.

Oh yes.

Don't get us wrong.

Very creative sorts as well.

Oh yes, wonderful.

Who are going to help put this shindig together.

Justin and Blankie just fit the mold. It was awesome having them here.

Yeah, he showed up in that tunic with the sword and everything. It was like, oh yeah, there we go.

So cool.

This feels like a Protestant Reformation now. Well, thank you so much for joining us for this week. And that's it. I guess I'm continuing our study on 1 Thessalonians next week and 2 Kings in the Old Testament study.

You look like you need to go to bed.

You guess.

Well, why don't we pray?

No, you said, I guess I'm.

I guess I'm starting it.

Yeah, I am.

I guess I'm continuing.

I guess I am. Because I was waiting for you to kind of like chime in with something else.

Oh, sorry.

So that's why I just. That's why I said, I guess I'm continuing next. I don't know what else to say.

I don't know. My brain is.

Right, like I said, let's pray and you can go to bed. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for this time together. And that we would desire to know your word more and more, growing in the knowledge of Christ, being filled up with the promises and the knowledge of your word, looking forward all the more to the day of glory, which has been promised to us in Christ Jesus.

Keep us steadfast. Keep the things that we've talked about on our minds so that we might be encouraged as we go throughout our day, throughout our weekend. Looking forward to Sunday, when we gather as the saints together in worship of our great God and King Jesus Christ, our Savior, in whose name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Come from Alabama.

Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me.

That's funny.

You said, don't you cry for me.

And you opened up to lamentations.

Well, I come from Alabama.