BIRDS ON A WIRE

"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" 

- Matthew 11:15

"For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear."  Matthew 13:15-16.

 "Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?  Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?" Mark 8:17-18

 

The modern church has lost its chart and compass. In a sea of blustery storms and heavy gales, the helmsman knows not the course or the way to steer. Perhaps 'lost' is a misnomer - discarded is a more accurate term for the error of the modern church. Much like the flippant view today of the US Constitution, the inerrancy of Holy Scripture has become outdated and out of fashion. But God "changeth not", and neither does His Holy Will and Word as expressed in Scripture. Greek scholars have no justification to change meanings of verses with alternate words because they are not even using the same manuscript evidence as that to which the Articles of Religion refer as those whose "authority was never in doubt in the Church" and as those "commonly received". In other words, the Received Text in use at the time were accounted Canonical and not the text proposed by a deluded church of our time. Moreover, the Greek scholars of the New Testament appointed for translation of the KJV were eminently qualified and superior in intellect (as well as spiritual insight) to those claiming to satisfy the itching ears of a politically correct generation.

 

There remains an evidence of the Received Text which supersedes even the intellectual and textual debate - it is the spiritual testimony provided by the Holy Spirit itself upon the efficacy and veracity of every Word of Scripture. Has the church lost its ability to hear the "still, small voice?" 1 Kings 19:12

 

In Dr. F. N. Peloubet's "Suggestive Illustrations of the Gospel", a comparison is given of those who are spiritually dead and dull of hearing with sparrows sitting on a telegraph line on the prairie. They are perfectly oblivious to the messages passing under their feet - messages of great joy, of sorrow, of monumental import in business as well as personal matters. Not only are they oblivious to those messages, but they could not care less of what the messages say.

 

Have we become like those birds on the telegraph line on the prairie? Wake up, Church, and believe again!

 

+Jerry L. Ogles, D.D.

Presiding Bishop,