Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here from Faith Forward Baptist Church in Tempe,
Arizona to talk to you about 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God.
Well, the modern versions have all changed this to the message of the cross is to those
who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
That's a pretty big difference.
It's the NIV, the ESV, all the modern versions that do this and even the New King James version
does this being saved thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 118.
We're going to examine the evidence.
We're going to go back to the Greek text here and prove that the King James has translated
this correctly and that these modern versions are wrong.
And by the way, the King James is not the only one saying it as those of us which are saved
because all of the older English versions say that.
For example, I've got here the Tyndale 1534 New Testament.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God.
I've got here the Geneva Bible 1599 edition.
For that preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved it is the power of God.
I looked it up in Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian.
None of them have this progressive idea of being saved, like a process of being saved,
which right away, just on the face of it, this verse is ridiculous in the modern versions
because if they're going to say being saved, they have to say are perishing.
So it says the message of the cross is to those that are perishing foolishness.
Look, perishing is not a process.
You don't die in a process.
You die.
It's like I'm dying.
How long have you been dying?
All my life.
We're not dying.
We're living.
But someday those without Christ will die.
They will perish.
But they're not perishing right now.
Right now they're living their life.
Let's actually look at the evidence itself here.
Here's the verse in Greek right here across the top of the board.
First Corinthians 1 18.
So let me just break this down word by word here.
O logos is basically the same word that is so famous from John 1.
One in the beginning was the word.
Okay.
But the word logos doesn't just mean word.
It also means a speech or saying.
And even in modern Greek, if I talk about my sermons, you know, I was talking to somebody
in modern Greek about my sermons being downloaded.
And so when I refer to my sermons being on the internet, I would actually talk about
Elohimu as far as my speeches, my preaching, my sermons.
So this is what the King James is translating as preaching here.
O logos gar.
Now gar means for, but it's postpositive.
So it's for the preaching or the speech.
The word men here means on the one hand and its partner is this word ve.
So these two words go together, men and ve.
This one means on the one hand and this one means on the other hand.
So it's saying for the preaching of the cross is on the one hand apolimanis to those that
perish moria.
Okay.
Now this is where we get our word moron.
Okay.
A moron is someone who's foolish.
So moria is foolishness.
Okay.
And esti just means is.
So for the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish apolimanis.
This is the operative word we're going to come back to in a moment.
Those that are saved to those that are saved.
Imin means us.
Vinamis, power, right?
Think of dynamic preaching is powerful preaching.
So power of God is.
Okay.
So this is the key word that we want to talk about.
And obviously it's partner up here.
Apolimanis, sozo menis.
So the King James is saying those which are saved.
The new versions are saying those who are being saved.
Those that perish versus those who are perishing.
Now the verb that we're talking about here is a participle.
Okay.
And this is what's called a present participle.
It's a present passive participle, but these are both present participles.
And one of the biggest mistakes people make when approaching the Greek language
without knowing what they're talking about is going overboard on this idea of the present tense
being that which is ongoing, continual or habitual or something like that.
This is a common mistake.
Also, when people are learning Spanish and they learn about the imperfect past tense,
you know, it's not till they get more advanced that they actually understand the nuances
of when the imperfect is something that was habitual, continual or ongoing
versus another usage.
And so I'm going to prove to you beyond any shadow of a doubt,
even if you have no understanding of Greek verb tenses,
that the King James is right here.
Okay.
When it says those who are saved, that this is not a process because here I have an excerpt
from Revelation chapter 21 verse 24, which uses the exact same word here.
Okay.
So the word here is sozo menos.
Okay.
And the reason that it's sozo menis with this es ending at the end is because it has the idea
of two those who are saved.
So basically those who are saved would be sozo meni.
Okay.
Sozo menos is the root word.
Sozo meni would be those who are saved.
Sozo menis means two those who are saved.
Okay.
So it's in what's called the dative case because it's to those who are saved.
So it gets translated with the word to, to those who are saved.
It is the power of God.
Okay.
Now here in Revelation 21, 24, we also have a present participle of the exact same word
instead of sozo menis it's sozo menon because of the fact that is in the genitive
because it's the idea of, of.
So Revelation 21, 24 is talking about the new heaven and the new earth.
And it talks about the great city, new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven.
And it says the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
The nations of them which are saved.
Well, the them which are saved is this word sozo menon.
Okay.
So up here we have in 1 Corinthians 1 18 to us which are saved, it's the power of God.
And then here we have the nations of them which are saved walking in the light of the city.
Now, why is this important?
What's important is that this idea of, Oh, they're being saved.
Well, let me ask you this.
Does that work in Revelation 21, 24?
Absolutely not.
Because we're talking about after the millennium, after the great white throne judgment,
death has completely been destroyed.
Death is, is over.
It's the new heaven, the new earth, all things are new.
How could you say that those people are being saved?
It would be ridiculous.
But yet it's the exact same word sozo menon, same word, same verb tense, same verb aspect
being used in the same way.
And it would be utterly ridiculous to bring this progressive idea.
Like we're still being saved in the new heaven and the new earth.
When is this process ever going to end?
That doesn't make any sense, folks.
We aren't saved.
It's done.
Okay.
And, and the reason why this is so critical is because people who teach a works-based
salvation, they like verses like this to prop up their workspace salvation.
So you have this misleading verse in the new versions that's translated wrong.
And then they could use this to say, well, you know, we're being saved.
It's a process.
You know, we got to keep doing the works.
Okay.
Whereas the Bible is saying we're saved.
We've already believed in Christ.
We've been born again.
We've been passed from death unto life.
We're already seated with Christ in heavenly places for crying out loud.
No man can pluck us out of his hand.
We're not being saved.
We have been saved.
We are saved.
Okay.
So this right here, being the same word as down here, proves that the King James is
translating it right, those which are saved, because that's the only thing that would
make sense in Revelation 21, 24.
So let's go through this first part of Revelation 21, 24.
Quetta ethni ton sozomenon, and the nations, ethni, think like ethnic, ton sozomenon, of
them which are saved, of the saved, endo photi, in the light, optis, of her or of it,
the city is feminine.
So the nations of them which are saved, endo photi optis, in the light of it, peripartisusi,
shall walk.
The nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
So look, these two words, folks, they are the exact same word.
Again, that word is sozomenos.
Okay, here it's in the dative case, sozomenis, here sozomenon, but it's the same verb tense,
same verb aspect.
Now, there are two other scriptures that use this same word, the same passive, present,
participle.
Okay, one of them is where the disciples ask, are there few that be saved?
Okay, and then the other one is where he said the Lord added to the church daily, such as
should be saved.
So the King James is consistently all four times translating it, those that are saved,
those which are saved, are there few that be saved, such as should be saved, right?
All four times, whether it's sozomeni, sozomenus, sozomenis, sozomenon, the four forms in which
this word occurs in the New Testament, it's always consistent.
Here's the funny thing, though.
The New King James, remember, is translating this as those who are being saved here in
1 Corinthians 1-18.
But isn't it funny that when the New King James comes to the identical word in Revelation
21-24, they just put, oh, the nations of them who are saved shall walk in the light of it.
Why?
Because it would be so ridiculous to put the same translation that they put in 1 Corinthians
1-18.
So they put this wrong translation in 1-18 because they think you're going to fall for
it.
But then in Revelation 21-24, where it would be utterly ridiculous, then they put the right
translation of those who are saved.
See, a lot of people say, well, you know, if the New King James version is based on the
textus receptus, what's wrong with it?
Why don't we use it?
It's because of stuff like this.
That's why.
Because, yes, it does come, you know, 99.9% from the received text, Old Testament, New
Testament.
It's filled with garbage translations like this.
It is the result of poor scholarship, bad linguistic ability, okay?
All the old Reformation era Bibles have the idea of they are saved, not this process of
those of us who are being saved.
It's the power of God.
Those of us who are perishing, which, again, just to review, are perishing is silly in
this verse, okay?
That should be your first red flag.
Those who are perishing, they're going to perish.
They will perish.
They are such as perish, but they're not perishing at this time in a process of perishing.
I mean, you say, well, you know, our bodies are dying.
No, they're not.
I'm 38 years old.
I'm not dying.
And what about a 13-year-old who's not even done growing?
Are they dying?
Are they perishing?
No, they're growing, okay?
They are living and thriving.
But, you know, if they don't receive Christ as Savior, they will perish at some point.
So whether we take just the logical looking at this verse, whether we go and read it in
Greek, compare Scripture with Scripture, look at all the old translations, all agreeing
with the King James, and then all the modern translations go in with this garbage, then
you understand why we insist upon using the King James Bible only because we don't want
this kind of stuff in our Bible where they're taking this word, sozomenes, and foisting
this progressive process of salvation into this text where it doesn't belong.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved, it is the power of God.
God bless you.
Have a great day.