Search Utility Aids in Progress

My big thrill today? Cranking up my PC Bible software and searching the KJV for “iniquity” and related terms. I got over 300 results, and I looked them over.

Robert Morris says “iniquity” means habitual sin which is hard to quit. I think he’s right, although I’m not sure every word that begins with “iniq” refers to this. I checked the Greek and Hebrew, and in Greek, the word root that usually comes out in English as a word based on “iniquity” seems to be a word that could apply to plain old sin. In the Old Testament, I generally found that the words translated this way had a Hebrew root sort of like “ah-von,” and it seemed consistent with Morris’s take.

There is really no way to know without learning Greek and Hebrew. This stuff is too ambiguous. Sometimes words can be translated very accurately and simply, but in these cases, it didn’t work that way.

The Psalms refer to iniquity having “dominion” over people. The psalmist asked God not to let that happen to him. That’s interesting, because habits and addictions have power over us. They can screw up our free will to the point where it can be said to have ceased to exist. Ordinary cold-blooded sin isn’t like that.

I noticed that the Bible often uses “sin” and “iniquity” in the same sentences, indicating that they’re different things. That supports the Morris view. And I found indications that God may refuse to grant your prayers when you are caught up in iniquity.

If this is right, it’s a powerful revelation which should change the way people see Christianity. Instead of getting salvation and trying to be good and leaving it at that, we should be receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirt and fasting and trying to get rid of our habitual sins. Things like overeating, drinking, drug abuse, habitual anger, selfishness, covetousness, self-righteousness…it looks like these things can form a barrier between you and God, preventing him from doing things for you. This would explain lines like, “Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up.” And after that, it says, “Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord make haste to help me.”

Maybe this is related to the self-examination requirement of communion. You’re not supposed to accept communion if you have a problem with another person. And the Bible says something about God rejecting your offerings when you could be using them to help your parents. It also says that if a man doesn’t love his wife, God will not answer his prayers.

The Jews believe your offerings will be rejected if you take them from money you should be using to pay debts. Seems like the same idea.

I’m starting to think Christianity is more powerful than we have been told, at least for the last 1700 years or so. It looks like there are things we can do to increase God’s action in our lives. But they involve aligning ourselves with his will, so it’s not like you can waste it all on big houses and yachts. If God will free us from habitual sin and then allow us to pray with great confidence of success, Christianity is an even better deal than I thought. I had always assumed that we were expected to use our own meager strength to resist sin. I always found that impossible. Can it really be that what God wants to give us his strength so we can resist? What a great thing that is. Talk about victory.

I’m starting to feel like I have to think before I pray. Is there something I need to do, which I put off? Is there a responsibility I neglected? Do I need to put something right? Maybe it’s better to miss prayer, make things right, and come back than it is to pray in a state that makes the exercise less productive. Today I ended up missing prayer in the middle of the day because I had to clean the bird cages, which I had forgotten about. I think this was the right move, although obviously, the best thing would have been to have had the cages ready to go before the issue came up.

I still hate fasting, but the payoff makes it irresistible. I guess if I didn’t hate it, it wouldn’t be worth as much.