The Human Heart

In this world we see all sorts of dissension – factionalism, hatred, enmity, strife, jealousy, resentment, envy, malice, and viciousness. We blame evil on systems, institutions, opposing groups, history, and ancestry. The Bible places the blame elsewhere. There is an underlying fundamental problem, the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 15:18-20). We can try to blame everything and everyone else, but the Bible refuses to do so. The problem of the heart is present in every human being, and cannot be whisked away by special works or sincere wishes.

Weak theological systems and woke philosophical systems discard this truth about the human heart to agree among themselves that man is basically good. We just need a better environment, more money, more education, and all will be well. Try as we might, this never works. So try harder, with all your might! Still doesn’t work. The wickedness of the human heart may produce cruelty in one context and self-righteousness in another context – and both cruelty and self-righteousness in another. The impulses emerge from the same human nature, the same kind of human heart that exists in every human person. Recognition of the underlying problem calls for a different solution, which is essentially spiritual heart surgery (Romans 2:28-29; Romans 10:8-10; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22).

The good news is “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Looking for a present participle

In October 2025, a member of the Textus Receptus Academy,[i] named John, created a poll about the accuracy of and difference between the KJV and the NKJV in the text of Luke 6:10a. These verses read:

• AKJV: And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man…
• NKJV: And when He had looked around at them all, He said to the man…

The purpose seemed ostensibly to defend the NKJV rendering. According to that author, “The KJV has Jesus speaking while looking. The NKJV has Jesus speaking after looking.” In the poll he asked respondents to vote, “Which is correct?” The poll options were: The KJV is correct; The NKJV is correct; both are correct; both are incorrect.

According to the creator of the poll, the right answer was “both are correct.” I agreed with this as the answer, but not for the same reason he gave: “We don’t know for sure the timing—either one is possible and it could be accurately rendered either way.” Actually, I even agree with the last part of that statement, that either understanding is accurate, based on the Greek. He teased out the fact that the aorist participle περιβλεψάμενος can translated either as antecedent (prior) to or as contemporaneous (simultaneous) with the action of the main verb. This is correct. However, in the end, I believe that John and many others of the polled missed it. When he wrote that “both are correct” what he actually meant was that both are possible correct translational renderings. He did not actually mean that “both are correct” because he went on to say “Historically, only one of the two actually happened.” In other words, he is saying either only simultaneous action happened or antecedent action happened. Both can’t be true. So, he explanation was somewhat contradictory.

However, when I say that both are correct, I am saying that Luke 6:10a in the KJV and NKJV actually mean the same thing in English. “Looking round about upon them all” (in English) is a present participle clause.[ii] Often, present participle clauses show two actions that happen at the same time. Apparently the poll creator and several others were laboring under the false conception of that being the only way a present participle clause can be used. That first explanation is a short and simple answer that does not include all the facts. Present participle clauses are used in the English language in at least six different ways: to describe simultaneous action, to show cause for an action, to give the result of an action, to add information about the subject of the main clause, adjectivally, or even to replace a full relative clause. Here are a couple of examples of how the present participle clause might be used in ways that are not simultaneous action.

• Opening the envelope, I found two train tickets.
• Running late, I missed the train.

In the first case the present participle clause expresses an action that happens in close proximity to, but just before another action (rather than simultaneous). The second case shows cause. The point is not that I was simultaneously running late while missing the train, but that I missed the train because I was running late. We speak and write this way, and are capable of understanding this way, if not set on an agenda. I believe that John’s not understanding the various uses of the present participle clause led him to assume that the meaning of Luke 6:10a in the King James and the New King James had to be mutually exclusive. Understanding the different uses of the present participle clause shows us we can understand the King James translation of Luke 6:10 as in the first example above – “looking” expresses an action that happens in close proximity to, but just before another action (rather than simultaneous). Jesus knew the thoughts of the onlookers, he asked them a question, and looked around at all of them. With no answer forthcoming, he addressed the man, “Stretch forth thy hand.” The looking occurred in very close proximity of time but immediately prior to his addressing the man with the withered hand. This interpretation will not only harmonize with the context of Luke 6:6-11, but it also harmonizes with the parallel passage in Mark 3:1-6.

Mark 3:5 And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man…

An interpretation that does not the realize the harmony of Luke 6:10 and Mark 3:5 is incorrect and unacceptable. To me, this poll seemed to be an argument only for the purpose of arguing. Straining at a gnat, John swallowed a camel.

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[i] I wrote this out then but, deciding the argument was a waste of time, I did not continue to reply in the Facebook group.
[ii] A present participle is a form using a verb + ing.

If you knew what he knows about death

Do you not see that God is as continually restoring as taking away—that every bereavement is a restoration—that when you are weeping, others, who love as well as you, are clasping in ecstasy of reunion? If you have not learned this, you cannot have been doing the will of the Father, or you would not be as you are. If you reply, how little I know your loss, I respond, indeed it is great! It seems to include God! If you knew what he knows about death, you would clap your listless hands.

George MacDonald

Lead by example

A hymn by Thomas Nichols, No. 856 in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs.

1. We, who the blessed gospel preach,
Should by example also teach;
By good example sin reprove, 
And ev’ry stumbling block remove.

2. O! may we by our lives express
The same religion we profess;
O! let us not our selves deceive,
Nor hinder those that would believe.

3. O! how shall we account for those,
Who, by us, to destruction go;
Whom we have not reproved for sin,
But rather joined with them therein.

4. O! let us by no means intrude
On men, by such ingratitude;
But flee from sin, to God confess,
And pray him to forgive and bless.

5. We are the instrumental means
And cause of the most awful scenes;
If we God’s holy ways refuse,
And his most precious cause abuse.

Little is known of Thomas Nichols, the author of the above hymn. He published Hymns and Anthems: Composed on Divine Subjects, Agreeable to Sacred Scripture, Inspected and approved by the Rev. Isaac Backus (Albany, NY: Charles R. & George Webster, 1793). Thomas Nichols was affiliated with the New-Britain Baptist Church in Rensselaer County, New York (see also The Universal Register of the Baptist Denomination in North America, 1790-1794). David Music states that the book contains “206 hymns and thirty-two anthems” which “appear to be entirely original.” The book contained a recommendation by Isaac Backus.

This Thomas Nichols is probably the same Thomas Nichols who lived at Stephen Town (Stephentown) Albany County, New York, as recorded in the 1790 U. S. Census. Rensselaer County would be created from Albany County in 1791. In 1796, the Thomas Nichols who compiled Hymns and Anthems published “A Discourse on Poverty & Riches, in a Medium of Gospel Doctrine.” The fact that no address was given for ordering, but that it was available for purchase at the office of the Vermont Gazette (in Bennington, Vermont) suggests that the author lived in that general area. Bennington is in a neighboring county of Rensselaer County, New York and is roughly 30 miles from Stephentown, New York. 

Some genealogists have Thomas Nichols born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island in 1723 and died in 1798 in Vermont. However, I believe the 1798 death in Vermont is confused with a different Thomas Nichols who also came from Rhode Island. The birth in East Greenwich agrees with Isaac Backus’s note in his diary in 1791, “…Feb…The 15th, old Mr. Thomas Nichols, of Eastgreenwich, came here, and got me to examine and recommend a Hymn-book which he had composed, in an evangelical strain. He went away the 17th.” (Backus would only have to have been referencing where he was originally from, not where he currently lived in 1791.)

Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs pairs this hymn with Earl, an anonymous tune found in The Silver Chime of 1862, by George F. Root.

In Rephidim

Where Jesus Leads.

To Rephidim, to Rephidim, we follow him, we follow him.
In places dry and battles grim, in Rephidim, in Rephidim.
Where Jesus leads is always right,
Whether in sunshine or shadow of night.
Where Jesus leads is always wise,
E’en in dry places where battles arise.
Where Jesus leads is always best,

By the still waters to eternal rest.
To Rephidim, to Rephidim, we follow him, we follow him.
In places dry and battles grim, in Rephidim, in Rephidim.

The name Jehovah

Q. Why does the King James sometimes depart from the standard convention of translating יְהוָה as Lord in order to translate it as Jehovah 7 times?

A. The King James Bible uses Jehovah 7 times, 4 times as God’s name, plus 3 times where his name is part of a place name.

• Exodus 6:3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
• Psalm 83:18 that men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
• Isaiah 12:2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
• Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
• Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
• Exodus 17:15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:
• Judges 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

Some have answered that Jehovah is used in these places because it is used as a proper name. That does not suffice, because it is a proper name in the other places. These seven choices break down into three categories.

A place name.

In Genesis 22:14, Exodus 17:15, and Judges 6:24 Jehovah is part of a place name. In Genesis 22 and Judges 6, a geographical location; in Exodus 17, an altar at a particular place, given a name.

A double name.

In Isaiah 12:2 and 26:4, there is a double name, in the Hebrew יָהּ יְהוָה (Jah Jehovah). So the translators use the standard convention once and Jehovah once to translate the double name.

A (contextually) unique name.

Jehovah as used in Exodus 6:3 and Psalm 83:18 is contextually unique, seen by the way his name is referenced. For example, Christopher Yetzer writes, “Exodus 6:3 is pointing out the name which He was not known by and in Psalms the name which is alone His.”

I will take Jesus at his word

 This is what much so-called Christianity in the United States has degenerated to:

“I always think of all the world’s faith traditions as a circle, with that divine mystery of the universe in the middle. We all have different names for that mystery, whether it’s God or Yahweh or Allah or Nirvana or Great Spirit. Whatever you call it, this is all different pathways to the same fundamental truth.” James Talarico

I will take Jesus at his word.

The Bible Made Them Baptists

From time to time I have written on “The Bible Makes Baptists.” Here is an excerpt from “Brazil Needs Gospel Preachers,” by Harvey Boyce Taylor (1870-1932) in News and Truths, September 27, 1922. Paraíba is state in northeastern Brazil. Recife is the capital city of Pernambuco, another state in northeastern Brazil. This is another historical example of the reading of the Bible producing Baptist belief.

The third case in point is the capital of the state of Paraíba. We had no missionary, no preaching, no Baptists in that capital. Quite a number of disciples were made under the preaching of a Presbyterian missionary. In a little while after reading their New Testament, they got dissatisfied with Presbyterianism and went to the missionary and asked him if there wasn’t anybody who did things like they did in Bible days. He tried to satisfy them but couldn’t and then told them where they could get a Congregationalist preacher, as one of the things they did not like was the Presbyterian form of church government. The Congregationalist preacher came up from Recife. After talking with these folks and trying to satisfy them, and failing, he told them they were Baptists. They had never heard of the Baptists. They had simply read the New Testament and it had made them what they were. They got in touch with a Baptist missionary down at Recife and he came out and baptized 40 of them and organized them into a church. That was the first New Testament church in the state of Paraíba.