Open your Bible to Acts 16:16-17. Scripture reads “Once, as we were on our way to prayer, a slave girl met us who had a spirit of prediction and made a large profit for her owners by fortune-telling. As she followed Paul and us she cried out, ‘These men are the slaves of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you a way of salvation’.” Your Bible may read a little differently by saying “the way of salvation”. However in the Greek text the definite article is not present to read “the” but it reads “a” or “any”. This is very important in understanding why Paul was so aggravated at her.
She was saying to the crowd that there were many ways to salvation and she could prove it by the many idols she was selling for her owners.
The Scriptures are accurate and precise. As men were moved by the Holy Spirit to write God’s Word for us, not one error was found. Such a thing as a definite article means the difference between life and death when it comes to eternal salvation. Open your Bible to John 14:4-6. Scripture reads “You know the way where I am going. ‘Lord’, Thomas said, ‘we don’t know where You are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me” These verses contain the definite article “the”. Jesus is not a way, but the way. Acts 4:12 says “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”
Coming soon to cable TV is a special by Oprah Winfrey titled “Belief”.
“My great hope was to create a series that would be ‘Planet Spirit’ for our planet so that we would be able to see what people of the world believe and how that connects us as one,” says Oprah.
I wonder if she will leave out the definite article.
Larry Johnson is the Pastor of Safe Harbor Church in Boardman, Ohio. He writes a weekly column in the Boardman News, and serves as a volunteer chaplain to the Boardman Police Department. He may be reached for comment at ljohnson@safeharborboardman.com
