Last year I added a page on this site where readers can submit questions or suggest topics (click here for that page). Recently I received the following questions:

How Do I Watch Your Church Services Live Online?

To livestream services from White Fields Church, the best option is to subscribe to our YouTube channel: White Fields Church YouTube channel. Two of our services are livestreamed, at 9:30 & 11:00 AM on Sundays, and if you click the bell to receive notifications, it will alert you when we go live.

Which Bible Translation is Closest to the Original Biblical Writings, and Why?

Specifically this reader asked me to rank the New Living Translation, English Standard Version, New International Version, & New King James Version.

There are two main factors that go into determining which Bible translation would be closest to the original Biblical writings:

1. Source documents
2. Accurate translation of the text

For this reason my ranking would be the following:

1. English Standard Version (ESV)
2. New International Version (NIV)
3. New King James Version (NKJV)
4. New Living Translation (NLT)

This is not a matter of readability, or preference about the use of language. The ESV, NIV, and NLT all use the same source documents, which use older manuscripts and more manuscripts than those used in the NKJV. The NKJV is mostly the King James Version updated for modern English vernacular, but it uses the same source documents. Those source documents are based on a set of manuscripts compiled in the 1500’s. Since that time, we have been able to gather more and older source documents, which means greater accuracy towards the original text.

The other issue with translation is the literal versus vernacular continuum, and the New Living Translation looses much of the literal meaning of the text in its attempt to be readable in modern English, in my opinion.

I have gone into more detail on Bible translation in a mini-series I did on this blog a few years ago, and I would refer you to that for further reading. In this series I addressed how translation works, the controversial 2011 NIV translation, and the question of whether new translations remove verses:

1. Making Sense of Different Bible Translations – Part 1
2. Making Sense of Different Bible Translations – Part 2: the King James Bible
3. Making Sense of Different Bible Translations – Part 3: Gender-Inclusive Language and the NIV

Is the “Rapture” Biblical?

The “rapture” is the belief that believers, who are alive at some point in time when it takes place, will be “caught up” to God from Earth while still alive.

This is a Biblical teaching, taught by Jesus in Matthew 24:

Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 

Matthew 24:40-41

And by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

Furthermore, I believe that in Revelation 4, what John experienced was a “preview” of the rapture:

After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 

Revelation 4:1-2

The question is not so much if the rapture is Biblical, but when it will take place. Will it take place before the “Great Tribulation” (the time of great trouble described in Revelation and elsewhere where God will bring judgment upon the Earth, with the opportunity for people to still repent and be saved), whether it will happen in the middle, or whether it will happen at the end, or that the rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus will happen at the same time.

My view is that the rapture will take place prior to the wrath of God being poured out in temporal judgment on the Earth, in other words: before the tribulation. The reason for this is because there is a pattern throughout the Bible showing that when God brings judgment upon the Earth, he removes the righteous.

Before God judged the world in Noah’s time (which the coming judgment is compared to 1 Peter 3), God spared righteous Noah from the flood. When God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, he removed “righteous” Lot. When God judged Egypt, he made a way for the Israelites to be spared from the judgment.

Far be it from you to do such a thing–to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! 

Genesis 18:25

If we have been declared righteous through faith in the completed work of Jesus on our behalf, then we are counted in this category, not because of any merit of our own, but by Christ’s merit accounted to us.

This assumes, by the way, a futurist view of Revelation, which I can address later on if you’d like.

Can you Recommend a “Down to Earth” End Times Study?

I would recommend Chuck Smith’s The Final Act. Pastor Chuck has a great way of making things simple and clear, which is helpful on a topic like this.

Thank you for the questions! 

For any further questions or topics you’d like me to address, fill out the form on this page: Ask a Question or Suggest a Topic.