About Life-Everlasting

KJV = King James Version of the Bible
NIV = New International Version of the Bible original work copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
NKJV = New King James Version original work copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc
ESV = The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles

Others used

JND = New Translation by John Nelson Darby (1890)
Interlinear Greek-English New Testament (Literal, Textus Receptus, King James Version), Baker Books, Michigan, 1980
Strong's = Strong's Concordance, Hebrew and Greek Lexicon (either Riverside Book and Bible House, or an on-line version)

The entire site has been rewritten so a single site can serve mobile (phones, tablets) and screens using an easy to use framework - Boostrap 5. The home (index) page was also updated to incorporate images (which the author avoided up to now to allow easy of access where internet speeds are slow). My next task is to complete the Bible overview.

Test [prove] all things; hold fast what is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:22

Over the years my brother (Stephen) and I have produced a number of sermons, lectures and messages. These range from headings through to fully formed notes. I initially prepared the web site to allow members of the congregations I spoke to, to check the Bible verses used, and to allow them to properly verify what was presented. Any preacher who does not encourage the congregation to verify and challenge errors (or potential errors including omissions) in sermons is in grave danger of falsifying the word of God, and this certainly neither honours God nor glorifies Him, but rather glorifies self. Nothing can be more arrogant than supposing that the preacher knows it all, however, sadly too often this happens. The Bible gives an example for all congregations to follow.

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so (Acts 17:10).

also

Test [prove] all things; hold fast what is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:22

The Author, a sinner, who by the grace of God has been saved, is currently on a sojourn through life. He was brought up in a Christian home, whose parents, also by the grace of God, were saved. Having parents who taught from the Bible helped with his Christian walk and with the strong support of his wife, the author has grown spiritually slowly over the years. Lapses due to complete laziness, unfortunately often occur, delaying any growth. Droughts seem to occur in climate as well as the one's spiritual life.

For a while he undertook a number of formal Bible study courses at the Adelaide College of Miniseries. He attempted to master the basics of Greek of the New Testament, in order to dust the cobwebs out of his brain; rote-learning at 50 years of age is not something that comes easy! However, William (Bill) Mounce's method is interesting, and appears to work.

David's wife grew up near Bega and they met in Canberra (which is obviously in Australia). The Author grew up in Cudlee Creek but has lived in Adelaide, Darwin, Canberra – where he met his wife – Broken Hill and Wagga Wagga. In the mid-nineties the family left Wagga and moved interstate, settled down, which allowed the children to have a stable school life.

The author is married with three adult children and lives on one and a quarter acres of land (5400 square metres square) along with puppy, who is rapidly growing (Summer 2023). The author loves gardening, and grows vegetables all year round. He enjoys bush walking and in 2017 did the three passes trek (three passes along with two mountains and Everest Base Camp) in Nepal with his eldest son and a few others from a local church.

The author has attended a number of assemblies or churches. His background is clearly fundamental, bible based, pre-millennial, pre-tribulation, interpreting Scripture in a grammatico-historical exegesis (literally where appropriate including the first 11 chapters of the Bible) and is therefore called a conservative (liking classical music may put him this category as well, along with a complete disdain for contemporary "church" music, which he believes is basically anathema), believing the modern church has slid into a state of utter mediocrity and apostasy and is well characterised by the attributes of the church at Laodicea (Revelation chapter 3).

In 2013 he and his wife were seriously hurt and tested by a local church when they were excomunicated along with a number of others for daring to follow the Word of God. Much could be said, little would be gained. It was indeed a very traumatic time in the church's history, when time after time, those that raise complaints are abused by the church; in this case, fairly trivial issues when compared with those that have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of Australian clergy and church leaders. The author's wife, with a sense of humour, says that at least this was 2013 and not 1400 when we would have been burnt at the stake. The author was assured there was nothing wrong with his preaching, devotions or leading – his doctrine was sound as is his walk with the Lord. He and his wife now attends a local (and very close) church and continues with a very long running bible study.

The author believes (helped by CHM Spurgeon) that untested faith is a weak faith. Dealing with those that lie and falsely accuse from within the church is indeed a challenge, but nothing compared with what Our Lord suffered, or indeed the great prophets, apostles and patriarchs. David not only suffered from hatred from his father–in–law, the King of Israel, but was hounded from his own land for a while and certainly would have been killed if were not for the grace of God. All this was extremely character–building for him – and our situation, I am sure, will also strengthen our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Great comfort are found in one of the author's favourite verse:

For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day (1 Timothy 1:12).

Stephen Simon is the brother of David Simon!

Frederick Alexander Blair (30 Apr 1891, Melbourne Victoria, died 22 May 1974, Adelaide) the grandfather of David & Stephen who wrote a series of books covering the prophets of the Old Testament. Most were not published, but are a wonderful resource. I intend to digitalize these and publish them a little at the time. I have only completed a number.

Many articles are also posted authored by various people which hopefully focus our minds on the work of Christ and our aim to bear fruit.

The title "Life-Everlasting.net" comes from John 3:16, perhaps the most famous verse in the Bible. It indicates that salvation is by faith and not by works. That is, one cannot ever achieve rightness before God by one's own effort. What one cannot forget is the rest of the text - John 3:16 does not stand alone:

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light [Jesus Christ] is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The greatest challenge of building a web site is dealing with the multiplicity of web browsers, especially older browsers and Internet Explorer in particular. The author built the entire site using PHP and javascript and has changed it substantially since its inception in 2007.

This site was first mounted on 24th April 2007 written in plain HTML using mainly Dreamweaver (although I prefer to manual coding) with documents produced mainly in Microsoft Word and converted to HTML. These were later hand edited as MS Word places rather a large amount of redundant code in the page. To make the site more assessable each page is indexed in alphabetical order, topic order or book order. This requires some thought and a new header for each. Finally in 5 July 2009, the site was relaunched as a dynamic web site where most pages are created automatically from a database – a content management system using PHP and SQL. This allows easy editing and better consistency across all pages and prevents me from losing pages! The entire site is mounted at A2Hosting (Since 2021). It was translated into HTML 5/CSS 3 in 2012 and a mobile version was also provided using a separate subdomain. On November 2021 the entire look of the site was revamped with a single domain for mobile and screen devices using Bootstrap.

Future:

Allow comment to be made on all material published.

Place all of Frederick Blair's expositories of the prophets on line. This requires digitalising the booklets. This process had begun.

I continuously find grammar & syntax issues and many spelling errors – these I apologise for, and will work through each page and fix, but will take some time.

There are a number of broken links, which I am finding slowly and am fixing

If you find any grammatical errors, spelling errors, broken hyperlinks or some other error on these pages please contact me mentioning the page title and location. I love hearing from you, the reader.

Webmaster

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Bible version used

The King James Version is the most often quoted on this website because it is freely available and not encumbered with copyright problems. Also, coming from a household of Christians who were around well before many of the modern translations of today, I was brought up with the King James Version.

However, I am no King James–only fanatic. To those who think the King James Version is the inspired version, you need only ask two questions: What language did Moses or Jesus speak, and what did the translators of the King James version say about their work?

To the first question, the language of the day – Hebrew or Greek (or Aramaic if reading say parts of Daniel etc.) – hence the most appropriate language to read Old Testament Scripture is in Hebrew or Aramaic and the New Testament in Koine Greek. Those that have not reached this level of learning then need to chose the best translation they can understand. English is not the language of angels, hence is not the be–all and end–all. French or German etc. may be better for you.

And to the second – the English translators never claimed divine inspiration for the KJV – they were inspired to present an easy to read version of Scripture, in English, by translating the inspired Word. They themselves never wrote one inspired word. It is also illustrative to read the 15 rules or instructions the King James translators were given, along with their own notes they made during the translation process.[1] It debunks many of the myths surrounding the KJV.

Incidentally, no–one reads the original King James, although KJV–only folk claim they do. There are two simple tests to see if you have an original translation – that of 1611. (1) Does your KJV Bible contain the Apocrypha (books added to the Bible by the Roman Catholic Church), and (2) read Matthew chapter one and observe whether there is a preponderance of words ending in "e", for instance "begate", "feare", "daye", "fishe" etc or with the "J" is rendered "I" as in "Iesse" for "Jesse". If your Bible does not render words in this fashion or does not contain the Apocrypha you do not have a 1611 KJV Bible! Your bible may contain the original preface but this does not make it the original translation. Furthermore, too many mistakes were made in the early editions to be useful, hence debunking the "inspired" theory – God does not make mistakes.

Of English speakers that deliberately revile non–KJ versions because of the Americanisation of the English: even I find it distracting to find common words such as neighbour and saviour "misspelled" in the American translations, but this we live with.

Enough said: See The Bible for more information