Resources

The Believer's Home Page is my personal ministry based upon the doctrine of Jesus Christ, defined and practiced by him and disciples and apostles during the first century, according to the best ancient source language manuscripts. The resources I use and introduce to you, I believe represent some of the best published resources available in the world to assist the Biblical research student in discovering exactly what the holy scriptures say, without allowing any unnecessary doctrinal prejudice from any particular Christian denomination.

Ancient Texts Used

In my work I use the most authoritative ancient biblical texts in Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek, upon which to base and derive my translations, and I use many of the most accepted research tools used by the most respected scholars of scriptural research today and historically. Jesus Christ, his apostles and disciples, and God Himself are not of any particular "Christian" denomination! Therefore, I don't believe in altering what is said in my English translations from the original language texts to make them agree or disagree with any particular Christian denomination, but believe that what they say in their native language should be translated into English verbatim, no matter what! I believe that it is a very serious sin against the Father by those "translators" who do alter the English texts from the texts of the original languages. For example: The King James Translation is chock-full of erroneous translations and paraphrases, and no one ever bothered to tell you did they? Why not? Likewise, the NIV contains many paraphrased works of fiction, omissions, changes and additions. The publishing houses thought you wouldn't mind hearing mortal's opinions pawned off as God's Word. Does that sound a little deceitful to you?

With the resources I use and describe, you can see for yourself what the ancient manuscripts and documents say, verbatim, because I give you an interlinear style translation. I show you all the words in the original language text, and my translation of each and every word, presented in minute grammatical accuracy. No paraphrasing/interpreting for you here! My translations are all word-for-word literal renderings. When I say literal translations, I mean literal translations. I'm not just slapping that title onto an almost literal translation that contains up to 5-10% paraphrases, like some literal translations I've seen. My translations contain no paraphrases. Zero. None. What you see in my interlinear-style translations are minutely grammatically accurate word-for-word-for-word... literal translations, no paraphrases, ever.

One Of My Goals

One of my goals is to get you so excited about researching the Father's Word for yourself, by showing you the ropes, i.e., what the ancient texts actually say, and the research tools and how to use them, that you no longer need me or anyone else except the Spirit of Truth working in you, to lead you into the knowledge and understanding of all of the Father's Word! Isn't that a great goal? That's exactly the way is should work according to the Father's design. Check out the word ginosko! I'll help you to understand the basics and set you on the right path, but, the desires of your heart that arise to serve God and to understand the depth of His mind and will, only you and your walk with the Father and His son Jesus Christ can work that out. Only you in fellowship with the Father and His son Jesus Christ can guide you into that part of the body of Christ where you are needed the most. It's between you and the Father. No mortal can make this decision for you.

Although I suggest certain Bible study resources and list the web sites where they may be obtained. This does not state or imply that I support or agree 100% with all the various doctrines propounded in those resources or at those web sites. This doesn't imply also that these resources are the only good resources available. What I do state and imply is that these are the resources I use sometimes, and when I find something that I think is better, I move on to it. I'm constantly on the watch for any resources that can assist me in mining God's Word toward getting back to the accuracy of what mortals from God spoke as they were carried along under holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21).

The Father has been pleased to give mortalkind revelation of His mind and will, in words. Therefore it is important that I don't insult Him by ignoring His Word and will, but on the contrary consider His Word and will more important than the air I breath, and the food and drink I take for my health and nourishment. Putting the Father's Word and will first in my life, IS putting Him first in my life. With the gift of holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth working in me, there's nothing in the scriptures I can't discover and understand. Likewise, you with the gift of holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth working in you, there is nothing in God's Word that you can't discover and understand. I believe discovering the mind of God through His Word, is the most exciting thing in the universe. I hope you do too!

Bible Translations, Concordances, And More

If you have a PC with a CD-ROM drive, then you don't need to spend a lot of money for Biblical research books. Good research books can cost anywhere between $20 and $100 apiece, and more for multi-volume sets. You can spend $1,000 on research books and still not have anywhere near the amount of resources you can get with the free Online Bible program. You can download the main program, and many Bible translations, commentaries, word studies, concordance, lexicon, interlinear, dictionaries, histories, maps, and more, free! I believe it's a better Windows-based application than anything else I've seen that you can buy. This sounds strange doesn't it, a better program for virtually free than what you can buy! That's because it's of God my friend. It's almost too good to be true, but it's true. For a small donation to their ministry, the CD-ROM version will be sent to you, bundled full of everything mentioned above, and more.

One of my main research tools is the Online Bible Millenium Edition version 1.13 released on July 6, 2002. It's published by Larry Pierce, Timnathserah Inc. a Canadian brother in Christ. It runs under Windows '98. Earlier versions run under earlier versions of Windows. It contains at least 32 English bibles, plus bibles Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Russian, and 40 others. Among the bible translations it includes the 1947 Revised Standard Version, 1889 Darby Translation, and 1898 Young's Literal Translation. It contains the King James text with links to Strong's Concordance numbers with Greek and Hebrew words defined. For commentaries and notes it contains, Family New Testament Notes, 1599 Geneva Bible footnotes, John Gill's Expositor, Matthew Henry Concise Commentary, Treasury of David, Robertson's NT Word Pictures, and Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. It contains also, pop-up maps so the student can see and understand geographical locations in relationship to each other, while reading a scripture passage. It comes with much more I haven't mentioned.

I've used this program for many years, and I've compared it to every Bible study/research tool that I can find, and it continues to have more and do more. The price again, FREE if you download it. I suggest you get the CD-ROM package and give them a small donation. How rich is God? It's made available to the world because of the love of God in the heart of Larry Pierce and many other believers working with him, shoulder to shoulder, at Timnathserah Inc..

Go to: http://www.OnlineBible.Org

Please visit the site to get a better idea of how robust this program really is, and/or the latest version. You can call the Online Bible folks and they will send you the latest CD version with printed User's Manual for a small donation. Or you can go to their web site and download the whole program and any of the other resources on the CD-ROM, including the User's Manual. I called and ordered the CD-ROM and Printed User's manual because I didn't want to use my time downloading 640 megabytes of CD-ROM content over an internet connection, but more importantly, I thought they deserved a little reward/donation for all their love and hard work for the brothers and sisters in Christ.

Another primary research tool I use is The New Greek-English Interlinear New Testament by Robert K. Brown and Philip W. Comfort, published by the United Bible Societies, 4th edition, 1993, on CD-ROM. This resource is invaluable for checking the exact grammatical usage of any word in the best original language Greek texts. It contains an audio pronunciation dictionary for each word, links to Strong's Greek and Hebrew Dictionaries, and an English transliteration. I highly recommend this resource as well.

Another resource I use is The Master Christian Library, version 8 on CD-ROM. Whatever the Online Bible CD-ROM doesn't have, this one does. It has Bible translations, commentaries, historical works like the Apocrypha, the ante-Nicene, Nicene, and post-Nicene Fathers collection, tons of theology - especially Derickson's (you don't need a lot of Theology), collections and works of John Bunyan, John Calvin, Alfred Edersheim, Johnathan Edwards, Charles G. Finney, William Law, Martin Luther, Dwight L. Moody, John Owen, John Wesley, and much more miscellaneous resources, over 330 resources in all!

Other Source Texts

Two literal translations I reference quite often, but not included on the CD-ROMs are The Interlinear Hebrew/Greek English Bible by Jay P. Green, and Berry's Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. I use these as well as Young's Literal Translation (comes with Online Bible) quite extensively when checking for accuracy of translation. One of the key commentaries I use is Robertson's Word Pictures, who oftentimes, with his fabulous mastery of the Greek language, gives you about the best literal translation you can possibly get, plus he knows the scriptures forwards and backwards and can give you quick hints about the location and context of other usages in scripture of that Greek word or phrase.

When I need to construct my own translations because in my opinion one or another translator didn't do a good enough job to suit me, which is very often because I'm very fussy, I use the United Bible Societies interlinear text along with Berry's Interlinear text (the Greek Textus Receptus upon which many of the new covenant translations are based) for the exact words and wording used by the ancients in their original language. I routinely check Green's, Young's, Berry's, Robertson's and others translators work for suggestions for the wording which most accurately reflects the meaning of the original language text words.

Meanings of words change over time. When studying the scriptures it's important that the believer know the etymological (historical) meaning of a Greek or Hebrew word, or phrase, back at the time it was used, and especially as used in scripture. Three textbook resources I use for this are, A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament by Ethelbert W. Bullinger, and Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W. E. Vine, and A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, by Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and F. Wilbur Gingrich. The Online Bible concordances supply the believer/disciple with basic etymological suggestions in the form of identifying root words.

At times in the English translations, the translators add English words which do not appear in the Greek or Hebrew source texts, and change words in the English to mean something different than what they mean in the source texts, and delete words in the English translation while the Greek or Hebrew text clearly shows the word or phrases. Why? Only God Knows!

While most of this is done on purpose by the translators, perhaps attempting to help you understand what they think the text in its original language meant, many times the translators themselves are in error in their understanding of the text, and thus pass their error on to the English reader. I have difficulty believing that they are either naive enough, or egotistical enough to do this. There are substantial parts of traditional Christian doctrine based upon error like this, which is another reason why I search the scriptures, to insure I'm not believing lies.

Sometimes errors lie in the Textus Receptus itself, where at one time a workman of the word made a marginal note about the text, then later, down through the years as copies of copies are made, various marginal notes mysteriously become included into the text as if they were spoken originally by mortals from God who spoke as they were carried along under holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). An entry like this is referred to as a gloss. So, to check the accuracy of the Hebrew and Greek source texts, I use English translations of the Aramaic Peshitta text, and a copy of the Syriac text itself. I do not believe the Aramaic text is the final authority over the Hebrew and Greek texts, but it oftentimes offers a slightly different wording which sometimes helps me to see more depth in what the holy Spirit said. Since the King James "Authorized" Version translation was published in 1611, three earlier surviving manuscripts of the Greek Scriptures have been discovered - Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus, which are available to help the believer/disciple of Jesus Christ come closer to the original Word of God that mortals from God spoke as they were carried along under holy Spirit.

Maps

The Oxford Bible Atlas has been a standard for many years for the bible student. It contains many wonderful photographs plus historical and archeological information about Biblical locations. It's sort of an atlas, dictionary, and encyclopedia combined into one resource.

Bible Dictionary

There are many good Bible Dictionaries to choose from. The New Bible Dictionary by J. D. Douglas is a good dictionary. No Biblical research library should be without one, two or three.