Merry Christmas

Well, I must have been a bad boy this year, as I've already gotten a lump of coal in the form of either a wireless antennae crash, or more likely a dead NIC card. Coming as it did last night when getting home from finishing Christmas shopping, there just wasn't time to fuss with it much before getting on the road today.

So, that's why posting is light and certainly will be tomorrow. But I'll also make it a priority when I get back ... there's a big week coming up politically speaking - Iowa, Jan 3rd. It should be fun.

Of course I wanted to be sure and wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy yourselves - and all the Christmas cheer your heart can hold, while also taking time to remember that at the heart of Christmas for many is a gift beyond compare. The possibility for freedom, redemption, grace and everlasting life are gifts not to be taken lightly, nor returned if you can help it!

God Bless and Merry Christmas.

Comments

[Frank G]

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well, thanks for your work

[JustADude]

Christmas cheer to you and all that you hold dear

Now for some music

Violin solo by Mannheim SteamRoller

Crank up the volume and put the surround sound on concert hall setting

Silent Night

http://profile.imeem.com/YhYppOO/music/oYshROMn/mannheim_steamroller_silent_night/

[Sir Paul]

And back at ya' Dan!

Merry Christmas to you and yours! May the Lord continue to bless you. Hey Dan, thanks again for everything you've done and for what you're going to do in the new year! Cheers mate!

Paulo

[seekeronos]

Merry Christmas to all y'all. :)

[Wahoo Willie sez:]

Thanks for the link JustaDude, makes me wish we had a little snow. Jot me down as wishing y'all a wonderful Christmas and joy and peace for the new year.

[Philip McDaniel]

Merry Christmas to all from Phil, Phil jr., Alex and Niki. We enjoy the conversations from each and every one of you...and of course a special thanks to you Dan, without whom none of this would be possible.

[joeb]

And a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in 2008 to you Dan. Thanks for all you do. And to all who post here the same to you.

[James Banzer]

Dan,

The best of the rest of Christmas to you! And have a fantastic 2008.

James

[Butch]

Merry Christmas, Dan...

[TheSpartan]

Happy Holidays...(war on Christmas).

[seekeronos]

...and Merry Christmas, Spartan... and may God the Father draw you (John 6:44) to come to know the same Lord and Saviour whose birth we commemorate today: the Lord Jesus Christ!

[TheSpartan]

He won't.

[seekeronos]

He can if He wants to... and if you wish to know if He is the True God, then all you have to do is ask Him earnestly to show Himself to you, and He shall:

"---

11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

---"

(Jeremiah 29:11, KJV)

... and I shall also pray that He does break the stony ground of your unrepentant heart to turn you to Him.

Nothing is impossible with God, and through His Son our Lord, all things are possible - especially the salvation of your immortal soul! :)

[TheSpartan]

I'd get the same results seeking salvation from a doorknob.

[BobInStamford]

What a rambling nutball. All quotations and BS. Thanks to his backward ilk, we have candidate Huckleberry.

[seekeronos]

"--- What a rambling nutball... ---"

As you wish... you ain't the first to accuse me of being a nutball, and you certainly won't be the last.

The truth is, we are all a bunch of damned fools, each and every one of us (Romans 3:23). The difference between me and you is that I'm a fool saved by grace (no longer damned) through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), and you're just a damned fool (according to Psalm 14:1) who refuses to accept God's merciful love gift of salvation.

"--- All quotations and BS. ---"

Those quotations, however, can save your wretched soul (as it did mine), if you stop trusting in your own damnfool self and trust in God's Word. In fact, I reckon you hate the Word of God because it points out EXACTLY how wrong you and your vain thinking are. (Hebrews 4:12)

"--- Thanks to his backward ilk, we have candidate Huckleberry. ---"

Speak for yourself, Mr. Grinch. :)

I do not support Mr. Huckabee.

"--- I'd get the same results seeking salvation from a doorknob. ---"

Have it you way, but I reckon you'll be singing quite a different tune (in eternal fire) in about 80-ish years or so, if you spurn the Lord's mercy and grace. (Luke 16:23-24)

You and Bob's problem is that you both (as I have for the better part of my life) trust in your own "wisdom" and in your own foul, corrupted hearts. The truth is, humanism and human wisdom is a sorrowful highway of failures (Proverbs 3:5-7; Prov. 28:26)

Yet, forgiveness and mercy can be yours for the asking... if only you would bow your knee and acknowledge that God and His Christ are righteous, and that you are wrong.

...

References: (i.e. more quotes I'm sure you'll love... all taken from the King James Bible unless otherwise noted)

"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good." (Psalm 14:1)

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12)

"And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." (Luke 16:23-24)

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil." (Proverbs 3:5-7)

"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." (Proverbs 28:26)

[joeb]

Seek: I think you are a very smart person and I read all your posts. And all the quotes.
I would like for you to read the wikipedia entry on Thomas Edison. If the link below doesn't work just go to wikipedia and read the entry on Thomas Edison. Be sure to see what he had to say about God. Thanks. And Happy New Year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

[seekeronos]

An interesting read... I was unaware of Mr. Edison's views on the nature of Deity.

Of particular note, I read this in the linked article:

"---
Nature is what we know. We do not know the gods of religions. And nature is not kind, or merciful, or loving. If God made me -- the fabled God of the three qualities of which I spoke: mercy, kindness, love -- He also made the fish I catch and eat. And where do His mercy, kindness, and love for that fish come in? No; nature made us -- nature did it all -- not the gods of the religions.
---"

I won't argue for the fish... as a connoisseur of sushi and sashimi, I certainly won't. God's mercy extends to the highest pinnacle of His creation, which fell into sin.

Fish on the other hand, like all other food animals, was created, and due to the Fall, is now under man's stewardship and dominion; unlike mankind, fish comprehend neither mercy nor damnation.

While Mr. Edison is unquestionably one of the great minds of the 19th and early 20th centuries, I am afraid that this quoted view can adequately contain the wholeness of God's personhood.

From that quote, I can only infer that Mr. Edison believed in an impersonal god of natural forces, a Supreme intelligence who is yet unnamed. I think that can agree on the point that "religion", that is, those constructs we use to try to climb upward to both conceptualize and "know" God are largely man-made, and certainly orchestrated by men to a large if not generally unhealthy degree.

However, the Christ I know, the Christ of the Bible, according to the testimony of many people whom I've know, great and Godly men today, are but vile wretches in the eyes of God's Perfect and Righteous Law.

The Mercy and Grace that Mr. Edison calls into question are revealed as Jesus Christ reveals Himself to men when they are at their weakest, when they are left only with the sorrowful recognition of their filthy rags of sin and degradation, the certain knowledge that only damnation and hell can be their eternal lot apart from Christ's love: His merciful sacrifice at Calvary.

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, KJV)

You see, it is not religion (Mankind's attempts to reach God based upon his own "righteous", which the prophet Isaiah tells us in the Holy Spirit, is as filthy rags before God) that we come to know God - but a *relationship* through the Son, the Saviour Jesus Christ:

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6, KJV)

Jesus did away with man's religion by reaching down to us - humbling Himself from being seated at the right hand of the Father, being born of a virgin, living as a man, dying for our sins, and ransoming us back as God's people.

Here, then, is Jesus's prayer and promise to US - the co-inheritors of that ancient Adamic covenant through the Second Adam, that Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world:

"---
20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

21. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

22. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
---"

(John 17:2-23, KJV)

This, Joeb... is the purpose of the Christian: to know Christ, and to walk with Him and in Him, together with God. Simply enough, it is all about a living relationship... with the Living God, our Creator.

As intelligent as Mr. Edison certainly was, if he missed this, then I can with great sadness, call him a damned fool as much as I would Bob or Spartan or certain others who outwardly scorn the suffering and the salvation of our Lord, as I myself had been.

However, it is also quite possible (no one now alive likely knows, save for God) that at some later point in his life, Mr. Edison came to a saving knowledge of Christ... for it is all too possible to miss the gates of heaven by as little as 18 inches (the distance between the average man's brain and his heart).

[TheSpartan]

And we consider you a damned fool for falling prey to the mass hysteria/dillusion known as Christianity.

[seekeronos]

Better a fool for Christ than a damnfool hellbound.

But, just supposing it is as you say, a "mass hysteria" and a "delusion", what will I have lost for doing my best to live according to Christian ideals (thinking of others ahead of myself, being faithful to my wife, and a good father to my children, helping out the poor, and helping others to live a "good, clean, Christian life", and etc.) ?

I will have lost nothing, except perhaps the ridicule of man. And if you haven't noticed, I'm not too perturbed by what folks think of me on account of Christ. I owe Him way too much for that.

But what if I am right, and you are wrong?

You will stand to lose your eternal soul in hell - a place of unimaginable suffering and loss... where you will be forgotten and forsaken by God, forever separated from His love, and eternally tormented - all because you decided to kick Jesus in the shins and tell Him you don't give a fig newton about what He did to save you from that torment.

I pity you, Spartan and Bob... and I shall keep you in my prayers.

[TheSpartan]

Thing is I've probably lived what most would consider a decent "Christian" life so the whole thing is pretty irrelevant in my view. True I've not accepted JC as my personal Lord and Savior, yadda, yadda, yadda...And don't waste your time praying for me, I consider it an assault on my person...

"You will stand to lose your eternal soul in hell - a place of unimaginable suffering and loss..."

Alabama?

[joeb]

Hey Spartan how are those weak Big Ten teams like Michigan and Michigan State and Ohio State working out for you this year? Watch what the SEC and LSU does to Ohio State.
By the way I understand Fred Thompson has a home on the Gulf Coast in Alabama.

[seekeronos]

Yet your "good works" cannot and do not please God, unless you trust in Jesus Christ. He is the only way by which humankind can be redeemed and made acceptable to God.

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6, KJV)

Don't deceive yourself into thinking that your secular humanist ideals and good works shall save you from the fiery hell. They won't.

"--- And don't waste your time praying for me, I consider it an assault on my person... ---"

Ooops! Too late for that, I reckon. But cheer up - the only way my prayers would really "assault your person" would be if I had prayed an imprecatory prayer, which is something I tend to avoid due to the dire weight and consequences it can carry; or if you were actually a demon or other evil spirit. You are, I trust, human, no?

/* slight snark in a lightly humorous vein for that last item... */

[TheSpartan]

I don't do good deeds or pray to idols for salvation in an afterlife that doesn't exist. I do good deeds because they are good. If your god is so egotistical that somehow that's not good enough and he/she/it needs me to bow down in reverence than I fear your god may be no better then the men that invented he/she/it.

[Philip McDaniel]

"I'd get the same results seeking salvation from a doorknob."
LOL
That may be...depending on what's behind the door. There are many paths to God as the saying goes. I certainly don't have any answers, just questions. Perhaps all of ours will be answered some day.

[seekeronos]

The answers are in the King James Bible:

John 14:6 - "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

And, in 1 Timothy 2:3-6 we find out again that God's plan for us is salvation ONLY through Jesus Christ:

"---

3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

4. Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

5. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

6. Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

---"

Spartan starts out wisely by saying that he doesn't worship idols - for idols are man-made creations and are utterly impotent and cannot save.

But Jesus Christ is THE Creator, and is the only One Who was able to ransom lost mankind back to Himself in God.

And yes, Spartan, whether you like it or not, someday you will bow your knee and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And why should you bow your knee to Him? Because He alone is able to save you from your sins - and He loves you enough to have died and risen again just for you.

You may bow your knee in worship of the Creator in this life, or with a dread certainty of judgment in the next:

"--

5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6. Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7. But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

---"

(Philippians 2:5-11, KJV)

To sum up:

* Only one path to salvation and redemption: Jesus Christ. There is only One way, not many. (Any other "path" is a lie of the devil).

* Someday you WILL meet Jesus, and you will worship Him - whether it be as your beloved friend and Saviour, or as the dread Judge of the Living and the Dead.

[TheSpartan]

I've always wondered why the KJV? Weren't the previous versions good enough? I mean James just gathered the best writers of his day s they'd write a bible in his honor...how is that paying homage to god?

And no, I'll never meet god Seek.

[seekeronos]

"--- And no, I'll never meet god Seek. ---"

Oh, yes you will. To be specific, He'll meet you, either at the Judgment Day, or when you humble yourself and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.

"--- I've always wondered why the KJV? Weren't the previous versions good enough? ---"

It is a rather long and detailed study, but yes, I believe that in the English language, the KJV is the version that God has reserved His words, having been through seven iterations (incl. the Geneva Bible and the Bishop's Bible), and derives from the Textus Receptus New Testament and the Masoretic Old Testament derived from Aleppo Codex.

These two works (collectively the Northern Stream) are the most accurate Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic scripts we have short of the original autographs. Many other "bible" (especially English) translations/transliterations are based on the corrupted Southern Stream, or Alexandrian Codices.

A much more detailed examination of why the KJV is God's preserved word in English can be found at http://www.av1611.org/

As for your contention that the Holy Scriptures are a fraud passed off by one of the disciples, you are once again, quite wrong.

The Old Testament (OT) was largely compiled by Moses (the Pentateuch/first five books a.k.a. "The Law"), King David (Psalms) King Solomon (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon: the Wisdom Books) various prophets (most of the rest of the OT called "the Prophets"); most of this was compiled about 500-1000 years before Christ.

The New Testament was written in the first century AD, with the Pauline epistles and the Jacobean (James) and Petrine epistles first, in the 40s-60s AD, and the four Evangelion (Gospels) following in the late 50s - 70s, and finally, the Johannine epistles and the Revelation written at the end of the first century.

It was during the First and early second centuries before the NT canon was established that gifts like tongues and the word of prophecy still were common, but once the general canon took shape, and was confirmed at the Council of Nicaea (which was necessary to dispose of the heretical Gnostic gospels and Pseudigraphia from the Canon).

The rest is a matter of the canon getting preserved in the Byzantine (northern stream) and corrupted in the Alexandrian (southern stream) Codices.

The Byzantine Codices were driven into hiding as the Roman and Alexandrian Sees published their respective Codices (the Roman See later gaining supremacy with its Codex Vaticanus), thus asserting a corrupt version of God's word over the Church Faithful.

Yet God was not slack, and preserved the Northern Stream, seeing to it that a righteous king (James Stuart Rex) commissioned the KJV to be developed from Erasmus's Textus Receptus.

[seekeronos]

Oops. the correct URL I wanted to post for the detailed background of the KJV is http://av1611.com/kjbp/

[TheSpartan]

"it is a rather long and detailed study, but yes, I believe that in the English language, the KJV is the version that God has reserved His words, having been through seven iterations (incl. the Geneva Bible and the Bishop's Bible), and derives from the Textus Receptus New Testament and the Masoretic Old Testament derived from Aleppo Codex."

He wasn't good enough to get it done right the first time? And why did he have to call in Shakespeare?

[seekeronos]

The KJV is a successor to the earlier versions in that it had for its time, the most literal and exact meanings of the words preserved in the TR (Textus Receptus).

The earlier versions were not necessarily inaccurate, but were based in part on texts like the Latin Vulgate or other inferior sources. In a fashion, the scripture about the Lord's words being like "finest gold, proven seven times in the furnace" is fulfilled.

"--- And why did he have to call in Shakespeare? ---"

Shakespeare had nothing to do with the translation of the KJV from the TR. King James commissioned a large number of translators who worked in independent groups in separate locations under guard to ensure that no corrupt text was inserted or preserved text removed or changed. Each of the independent groups cross-verified the other groups' works as well.

But if you are instead mocking the language used in the era that the KJV was first printed, well... that was how people actually spoke back then. Yet, the interesting thing is, even today, with the archaic verb tenses and a few words that have fallen out of common English usage, the KJV still reads on a 5th grade level and is easily understood by young children and more easily memorized than corrupt transliterations like the NRSV, the NIV or the NASB, or even blatant paraphrases like "The Message" or "The Living Bible".

[TheSpartan]

"Shakespeare had nothing to do with the translation of the KJV from the TR. King James commissioned a large number of translators who worked in independent groups in separate locations under guard to ensure that no corrupt text was inserted or preserved text removed or changed. Each of the independent groups cross-verified the other groups' works as well."

Lol, ok. Read psalm 46 again... Shakespeare hacked the KJV.

[TheSpartan]

Wait, the people of 17th C. england spoke in Free Verse? Who knew?

[seekeronos]

"--- Lol, ok. Read psalm 46 again... Shakespeare hacked the KJV. ---"

A popular urban legend to be sure, one that supposedly has its roots in Rudyard Kipling's observation that there is a verse in Ps. 46 constaining the word "shake" and another verse containing the word "spear".

This takes several leaps and reaches to arrive at the ciphers used (as held by this urban myth) that Shakespeare somehow infiltrated the translation process.

It is such a reach, in fact, that I won't take valuable space here to discuss it, but since you doubt (or more likely, mock) - I'll point you to http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/1828 which does a more than fair job of exposing this fallacy.

Also see http://www.kjvonly.org/aisi/2002/aisi_5_2_02.htm

Trickery with numbers that must call upon the exclusion of scriptural words (such as the "Selah" following the "spear" in verse 9) tends to cast doubts upon these rumours, as well as Shakespeare's ignorance of ancient Hebrew and Aramaic.

Compare:

(Psalm 46 - Geneva Bible, pub. 1560)

"---

1. To him that excelleth upon Alamoth a song committed to the sons of Korah.
God is our hope and strength, and help in troubles, ready to be found.

2. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be moved, and though the
mountains fall into the midst of the sea.

3. Though the waters thereof rage and be troubled, and the mountains SHAKE at
the surges of the same. Selah,

4. Yet there is a River, whose streams shall make glad the city of God: even the
Sanctuary of the Tabernacles of the most High.

5. God is in the midst of it: therefore shall it not be moved: God shall help it very
early.

6. When the nations raged, and the kingdoms were moved, God thundered, and
the earth melted.

7. The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

8. Come, and behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the
earth.

9. He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the world: he breaketh the bow and
cutteth the SPEAR, and burneth the chariots with fire.

10. Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, and I will
be exalted in the earth.

11. The Lord of hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

---"
(Psalm 46, Geneva Bible)

And the same passage in the 1568 Bishop's Bible (watch out, words not corrected for modern English spelling)

"---

1. The Lorde is our refuge & strength: a helpe very easyly founde in troubles.

2. Therfore we wyll not feare though the earth be transposed: and though the hilles rushe into the middest of the sea.

3. Though the waters thereof rage and swell: and though the mountaynes SHAKE at the surges of the same. Selah.

4. Yet the fludde by his ryuers shall make glad the citie of God: the holy place of the tabernacles of the most hyghest.

5. God is in the myddest of her, therfore she can not be remoued: the Lorde wyll helpe her, and that ryght early.

6. The heathen make much a do, and the kyngdomes are moued: but God shewed his voyce, and the earth melted away.

7. The God of hoastes is with vs: the Lorde of Iacob is our refuge. Selah.

8. O come hither and beholde the workes of God: what distructions he hath brought vpon the earth.

9. He maketh warres to ceasse in all the worlde: he breaketh the bowe, & knappeth the SPEARE in sunder, and burneth the charettes in the fire.

10. Be styll then, and knowe that I am the Lorde: I wyll be exalted among the heathen, I wyll be exalted in the earth.

11. The God of hoastes is with vs: the Lorde of Iacob is our refuge. Selah.

---"

Furthermore, the Geneva Bible (pub. 1560) and the Bishops Bible (pub. 1568) are two of the aforementioned predecessor works to the KJV, and these both also have similar wording and word order for Psalm 46... indicating that these words existed well before William Shakespeare was of an age to write coherent sentences, much less compose plays and poems.

"--- Wait, the people of 17th C. england spoke in Free Verse? Who knew? ---"

Nay, thou churlish and vexsome knave. Those olde worthie Englischmen spake as was meet for vnderstandynge with diuers words and in such verbal formes and sundry styles not used in to-day's writ and tongue. Surely thou art not such a mean man and lacking in letters to know not that oure forefathers spake with a clear tongue and diction, and not in strange rimes that even a younge childe discerneth the meaning thereof?

For the writ of foure centuries passed, which was also the writ of the Holy Bible, was also the writ of all Britons, and easyly understood by any person learnt in his letters.

Yet the spellynge, of covrse, not being reduced to a common standard untyl the time of Mr. Noah Webster.

[TheSpartan]

Ooooh you can google...apologetics press is the very first debunker on the internet...also happens to be a christian press...no axe to grind there.

The word counts were sufficiently different in previous texts for it to be a significant move for it to now be an even 46 words.

Believe what you will, I find it humorous that it ws written so a 5th grader could understand it, seems appropriate given the quality of many religious minds today.

[seekeronos]

"--- Ooooh you can google... ---"

And you can make a simple thing like googling an item to fact-check it seem like such a far-and-away difficult thing that it is worth your bother to come off like a condescending snit.

But to be honest, I've been aware of the Psalm 46 "co-inkydink" for quite a few years now. It is just such an utterly ridiculous thing to reject God's word over, yet scoffers will easily wrangle over the most minute point - effectively swallowing a camel in order to strain out a gnat.

"--- The word counts were sufficiently different in previous texts for it to be a significant move for it to now be an even 46 words. ---"

Not really. Even the 46-up/46-down word count to find "shake" and "speare" falls apart under scrutiny, because in the 46-up count, you must ignore the biblical word "Selah".

And in the Bishop's Bible (tBB: 48-up/47-down, not counting the terminal "Selah" in v. 11 and counting the ampersand character as the word "and") and Geneva Bible (GB: 44-up/47-down not counting the the final "Selah: in v. 11 and the choir direction in v.1, so that the count starts from "God is our hope" to be consistent with KJV and tBB) that count varies by one to three words... hardly a significant, in light of the fact that the GB was published four years before Shakespeare's birth, and tBB when he was four years old.

And even if we can allow for the amusing thought that God saw fit to permit the "Shakespeare" reference as evidence of His sense of humour, then it has served its purpose in causing people to talk about His word.

Nevertheless, I still stand by the KJV as the best and only preserved translation of the Word of God to the English-speaking peoples of the world.

"--- Believe what you will, I find it humorous that it was written so a 5th grader could understand it, seems appropriate given the quality of many religious minds today. ---"

Indeed, Christ calls us to become as "little children", to receive the word of the Kingdom of God with a childlike heart.

Yet it is also the same word by which men and women must be saved.