Hey everybody, Pastor Steven Anderson here from Faith for Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
So what I've got here is an original leaf from the 1611 King James Bible.
This is an actual leaf from the first edition.
They had one that was damaged, so they salvaged all the pages that they could, and they sold
off the pages individually.
So I was able to buy one of these at the Bible Museum in Goodyear.
The reason I chose this particular leaf from Matthew 24 was because I thought it was cool
to note that it has right here where he says, if you want to zoom in here, where it says
immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon
shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven
shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory and he shall send his angels with a great
sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end
of heaven together.
Look at the note that they have right next to this where it connects, you know, Jesus
sending his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and gathering the elect.
It says to see 1 Corinthians 15 52 and 1 Thessalonians 4 16.
And so basically this note is showing that they clearly understood that obviously Matthew
24 31 and 1 Thessalonians 4 are talking about the same thing.
A lot of these pre-trib preachers today, they teach that Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians
4 are not the same event.
Back then it was just considered the obvious common knowledge because when King James gave
the instructors to the translators, he told them to only put the most minimal notes or,
you know, references just for the most basic understanding.
He didn't want them to do anything controversial.
One of the things that he really hated about the Geneva Bible was all the controversial
notes.
So he wanted this to be a Bible that everybody could use.
So when they sold the King James version first printing, they wanted it to go to, you know,
people no matter what they believe.
So this is just kind of the most obvious basic note here that obviously 1 Thessalonians 4
and Matthew 24 are the same event.
So yeah, this has the little affidavit of originality that this is an original leaf.
And then what's cool, we also have here for our church members to examine whenever they
want for the historical value.
This is basically a replica of the first edition, you know, 1611 King James Version.
And you know, I've actually held one of the real ones in my hand because the real one's
worth like hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But when you hold the real one in your hand and you feel the weight of it, and you feel
like the material that the paper's made out of, this replica is a really good replica.
Like the paper feels exactly the same, the weight is the same, the size is the same,
everything is the same.
So it's a really authentic replica.
So it's kind of cool for people to be able to check out what the first edition looked
like.
And then also, you know, 1 Thessalonians 4 right here, it has the little synopsis at
the beginning, and it says here, you know, verse 13, and last of all, to sorrow moderately
for the dead, and unto this last exhortation is annexed a brief description of the resurrection
and second coming of Christ to judgment.
So anyway, I just thought that was pretty cool how they connected Matthew 24 and 1 Thessalonians
4, which is what any honest student of the Bible is going to realize.
God bless you, have a great day.