[sword-devel] Doctrinal Statement

[Michael Paul Johnson]

At 09:00 PM 7/28/00 +0000, darwin@ichristian.com wrote:

>Michael Paul Johnson writes:
><SNIP>
>> It is interesting to me that people draw boundaries around their kind of
>> Christianity based on intellectual agreement with a set of doctrines, but
>> God looks for people who put their faith in Jesus Christ, believing in
>> their hearts and saying that they do.
>
>When the doctrines revolve around the identity of Jesus, and his actions,
>then this seems a good place to differentiate sound doctrine from heresy.

True. More important than "official" doctrines, however, is what individuals actually believe and act on, and more importantly, Who they believe in. I have often been with people who were at great odds with each other over some doctrines, but they agreed in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and were all dedicated to serving Him. I see this as just a consequence of having our human spirits saved instantly, but our mind goes through a process of renewal by the Word of God. If you think about it for a few seconds, you will recognize that if we all get closer to Jesus Christ in our ways and our teachings, then we will of necessity be getting closer to each other. That is my only hope for true unity in the Body of Christ.

...
><SNIP>
>> This is a good idea. Note that I have developed a habit of digitally
>> signing  and dating releases of the World English Bible using MD5SUM and
>> PGP. It would be a good practice to do this with other Bible texts, as
>> well, once we come to a reasonably high confidence in the integrity of
>> each text.
>
>I noticed this recently when I downloaded the latest WEB, and would like to
>thank you for this.  It is especially important to do since there is no
>reliable printed copy to compare to.  It gives me the assurance of a valid
>copy.

You are welcome. By the way, we are working on putting the New Testament plus Psalms and Proverbs of the World English Bible in print, soon. (The Old Testament is still being edited.) The assurance of a digital signature still probably exceeds that of the printed edition. Since the World English Bible is a Public Domain text, anyone can print it, and depending on how they do it, someone might introduce some kind of error in the process. (We try to minimize that by providing easy electronic texts to work from.) We also claim a trademark on "World English Bible" so that we have a legal recourse if someone tries to intentionally modify the text and then claim it is the same translation. As a practical matter, though, we rely on God to protect His Word.

>Also, thanks for your efforts on the work on the WEB in general!

Thank you. Thank you for your efforts in making it more accessible by putting it in Bible study software.

Jesus Christ is Lord!

_______

Michael Paul Johnson                   
mpj@eBible.org    http://ebible.org/mpj