Concordant Translation
From Chapter XXI
AFTERTHOUGHTS AND CREDITS
An Analogy
We can compare the Word of God in its original form to a temple made of perfectly cut white marble blocks. Each block fits in its proper place without the need of mortar. Using these original blocks, we find that there is no room for error because, obviously, God did not build any room for error into His temple of truth—and the end result is a masterpiece of architecture from the Infallible Architect. Everything fits perfectly. Taken together, all the words and concepts which the blocks represent make perfect sense. And within this great temple, it is our privileged delight to “rely on the living God, Who is the Savior of all mankind, especially of believers” (I Timothy 4:10). We can feel confident and secure, resting in God’s Spirit, Love, Light and Truth.
The myriad man-made temples of Christendom, by comparison, are spotted with confusion and contradictions. Salvation, instead of pertaining to “all mankind,” pertains only to the few, and for the most part, is obtained by jumping through an arbitrary series of hoops depending on the denomination. And this salvation is a very “iffy” matter. What if the Jehovah’s Witnesses are right? Or the Mormons? What if the pope really is the Vicar of Christ? What if you need to be baptized by immersion to be saved? Or speak in tongues? Or accept a certain creed? Or attend church services more often? Or confess all of your sins? Or be “born again?”
The reason there is so much variance throughout Christendom is that the diverse Christian sects prefer to build their own flawed temples rather than to abide in God’s already established and perfected one. They do indeed use many of the perfect white marble blocks, but some they replace with marred blocks imperfectly cut by their own hands. Some are even a different hue, and some have cracks in them. Some are made of clay. Instead of allowing that the words in the Sacred Scriptures already fit perfectly, they try to fit in all their irregular blocks with the perfectly cut ones. Sometimes they force a true block into the wrong place. They wrench the blocks they deem most important from their proper places and stack them near the entrance, usually with a big sign.
To make a single structure out of all these imperfectly fitting blocks, they need to stir up some mortar—the equivalent of their own philosophies and myths. And so we wind up with 200 (or however many different denominations there are) very different-looking temples. Each has many pure blocks of truth in it, but all of the temples are botched up with blocks of thought that are out of place or do not belong at all. And then the human builders of these various temples begin to believe that the mortar they use to assemble the blocks has more truth and saving power than the original and pure blocks themselves. But still, within each one of these denominational temples, beneath the dogma, the truth is there.
In I Corinthians 11:19, the apostle Paul explains to us that there is a reason for the many different and imperfectly fashioned temples of belief: “For it must be that there are sects also among you, that those also who are qualified may be becoming apparent among you.” Sect is the Greek word hairesis and it means preference. What is your religious preference? Roman Catholic? Lutheran? Pentecostal? Unitarian? Baptist? As Paul writes in Galations 5:19-21, sects and strife and factions and dissensions are all works of the flesh, not of the spirit. But again, within each one of the Christian sects, the truth is there, hidden beneath our “preferences” and disagreements.
The Concordant Publishing Concern
Mr. A. E. Knoch (1874-1965), the co-founder, with Vladimir M. Gelesnoff (1877-1921), of the Concordant Publishing Concern began to understand these things in the early decades of the twentieth century. It became his lifetime work to give the English reader access to the original manuscripts, eliminate the bias of the translator, and present the True God’s temple of truth as it stands in the Sacred Scriptures.
In his early studies of the Sacred Scriptures, he used Greek and Hebrew concordances to get past the mistranslations to the truth. But, in his own words, it was . . .
trying, tedious toil. I could not expect others to spend so much time and labor in order to conform their Bible to the inspired original. So I was burdened with a tremendous urge to make a concordant version, which would save so much work and give the Lord’s dear saints access to God’s Word, free from the prejudice which pops up on nearly every page of the Authorized Version, which, as every concordance will show, was made without any method, and was motivated principally by professional theologians who had to please King James.
Thanks to his pioneering, inspired, and dedicated work, all of us now have access to a temple of truth nearly perfectly built—one without cracked or clay blocks, and without any man-made mortar fashioned to hold discordant translations together.
The Concordant Publishing Concern’s bi-monthly magazine, Unsearchable Riches, has now been published for more than one hundred continuous years. More than twenty years ago, I obtained all the back issues available, some going back to the 1920s. All of the writers for it have possessed a deep knowledge of the Scriptures. My mind and my spirit feasted upon every issue. Much of this book, especially chapters VI through XII, XV and XVIII, contains the writing of Mr. Knoch out of the pages of Unsearchable Riches. When I first started taking notes, I thought I would be able to re-express what he wrote in my own words. But I almost always found that I was not able to do so. Other writers for the magazine and for other Concordant publications whose sentences, paragraphs, and sometimes more, appear in this book include, Vladimir M. Gelesnoff, Adlai Loudy, Dean Hough, Cecil J. Blay, Dr. Loyal F. Hurley, William Mealand, John H. Essex, Thomas Allin, Herman Rocke, James Coram, and many more.
It is right that the work of these men should appear here because, after all, they are my teachers. My goal in compiling, editing, organizing and adding to this material has never been to be “original,” but rather to be faithful to the original Scriptures and our One Teacher, as these men have been.
Knowledge and Love
This knowledge of the Supreme Spirit’s grace and His superlative purpose for humanity is a gift of inestimable value, but it is not enough to take us into Christian maturity. For if I “should be perceiving all secrets and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so as to transport mountains, yet have not love, I am nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2). Nothing!
The last thing we want to do is start some new sect or religion. We should rather season, with our knowledge and love, those with which we may come in contact, for they all play a part in the Supreme Spirit’s purpose. Let’s leave our work and the results of it to Him, since, as He tells us in Isaiah 55:10, 11:
For not as My devices are your devices,
And not as your ways are My ways . . .
For as the heavens are loftier than the earth,
So are my ways loftier than your ways,
And My devices than your devices.
For, as descending is the downpour and the snow from the
heavens,
Yet there it is not returning, but rather soaks the earth,
And causes it to bear and to sprout,
And gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall be My word which shall fare forth from My mouth.
It shall not return to Me empty,
But rather, it does that which I desire,
And prospers in that for which I sent it.
On Sale Now for $9.95 at www.SolvingLight.com