Page 51 - Yahwehs Book

body of Christ. The Matthew’s Bible of 1537 also used the word “congregation” to refer to the
assembly of the body of Christ. The word “congregation” derives from the word “congregate,” which
means “to gather together.”

It was the Geneva Bible of 1557 that first used the word “church” as a rendering of the Greek word
Ekklesia. The Bishop’s Bible of 1568 was a revision of the Geneva Bible, and it also used the word
“Church.” The word church comes down to us in English through the German word Kirk. Kirk in
turn comes from the Medieval Greek Kurikon, or “Lord’s House.” Those who supported a
hierarchical form of church government preferred the word church over congregation or assembly.
It should be remembered that the King of England held the position of Supreme Governor of the
Church of England. In the year 1536 The Act of Supremacy was passed, coinciding with the English
monarchy’s split from the church of Rome. In place of the Pope, the King of England was declared
to be the head of the Church of England.

Thus the word “Church,” or “Lord’s House,” bears a double meaning. Note again the inscription
printed in the front of all of the King James’ Bibles. “To the Most High and Mighty, Prince James,
King of Britain, France, and Ireland... Defender of the Faith.” The King wanted his citizens to bear
in mind that he was the head and Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the word
“church” conveyed this idea much better than the more accurate translation of “congregation” or
“assembly.”

Another example of deliberate alteration of the text of the Scriptures is observed in the words
“baptize” and “baptism” in our English Bibles. These words are translated from variants of the Greek
word “baptisma.” This Greek word means “immerse” and indicates a full immersion beneath the
water. Baptism serves as a symbol or death to our old sinful life and our resurrection into our new
life in Christ. As people are plunged beneath the water they are carrying out a ritual burial, and as
they are brought back out of the water they are symbolizing that they have arisen to new life in
Christ.

The Church of England, however, followed the Roman Catholic practice of sprinkling water on the
forehead of the individual. It was decided, therefore, that the translators of the King James Bible
could not translate the Greek word baptisma into English as immerse. This would upset the tradition
of the Church of England. It would be a gross error, however, to render the word as “sprinkle,” for
this was clearly not the meaning of the Greek. The solution was to not translate the word at all, but
rather to transliterate it. This means that the word was carried from Greek to English unchanged and
without translation. This meant that the church could then define baptism to mean whatever they
wanted it to mean. Instead of immersion, they could define baptism as sprinkling. It would have been
difficult to define immersion as sprinkling.

Thus far we have observed how men have made deliberate alterations to the Scriptures, removing
the name of Yahweh that occurs nearly 7,000 times; translating the Greek word ekklesia as church
rather than congregation or assembly; and intentionally choosing not to translate the Greek word
baptisma in order to accommodate their false traditions. All of these actions lead men and women
away from the truth.