First of all, I want to wish all our readers a happy and prosperous new year. This year, 1998 is a special year. Oh, it's not special that this is our ninth year, or that it is the thirtieth anniversary of the distribution of Walter van der Kamp's The Heart of the Matter which led to the Bulletin of the Tychonian Society which in 1991 became the Biblical Astronomer. Nor is this year special because its value of 1998 is three times 666, a fact not lost on the New Age Satanists. No, this year is special because based on the best historical and Biblical analysis, this is the 2,000^th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ in the stable at Bethlehem.¹ Some of our readers believe he was born in March, others, those like your editor who believe he ministered for three and a half years starting at age 30, believe he was born in late August or early September of 2 B.C.

In this issue we continue with our assault on the ignorance of world- ling and Christian alike. My heart was broken last week at a meeting of Stan Johnson's Prophecy Club. I'm not a disciple of his, but his group does bring interesting and controversial speakers into the area. I'll not identify the particular speaker, for it wasn't primarily his fault, but I was struck with the lack of sound doctrine among the audience and the speaker. All felt free to change the words of the Holy Bible: to add words, delete words, and to change words. And it occurred to me, as if I'd forgotten, that this was foretold by the prophet Amos as well as by the Apostle Paul.

Hardly anyone in attendance believed the Scriptures as written; and why should they? No two of the many different “bibles” around agree with each other, though all agree that the AV is the worst version ever. Why should Christians not be confused? If the Bible is not trustworthy in reporting the events of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3), or if 1 John 5:7 doesn't belong in the Bible because it is a late “addition,” who can trust anything written in the Bible. Why call it the Holy Bible if it is full of errors as attested to by the multitude of omissions and footnotes informing us that the “best and most ancient” versions omit this or that, or that some “late manuscripts” add this or that?

And so it has come to pass that the Bible is no longer viewed as an authority on anything. Man is the ultimate authority, even to the Christian. O, lip service is given to some non-existent “original autographs,” but we don't have them so there's no way we can know what they said. What kind of an authority is that? The people in the audience last week were tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4:14). People look to scholars to tell them what is in the Bible. They see success as indicating God's blessings. They have forgotten that the friendship of this world is enmity with God; that it is required of a servant that he be found faithful, not successful. The only thing left for them to do is to rely upon their works. And that is what they are doing. “Save yourself by stockpiling food and guns; buy gold and silver for the troubles to come; hate the brethren who hold to the pre-tribulation rapture for they are fools (Mat. 5:22); if you don't picket abortion centers you'll go to hell, even if you speak out against abortion publicly; if you oppose a wicked government you'll be found opposing God, so don't stand up against such government and you'll please God by your work of faith”: these are typical comments and attitudes. Throughout, those who hold fast to the King James Bible are dismissed as troublemakers, dividers of the church, who must be suppressed at all cost.

The wanderers see conspiracies in everything. They see conspiracies where there are none such as in heliocentrism and evolutionism, (where any “conspiracy” was limited to a small group of men such as the London Geological Society and lasted less than two decades). They think that man's landing on the moon is a hoax; that the government suppresses knowledge of the monuments on Mars and moon; that there were no Jews prior to the twelfth century; that God has hidden secrets in the Bible which secrets can only be recovered through numerology or code analysis, etc. Each of these beliefs is grossly in error, but they absorb precious resources and keep people from the truth.

And then they fail to see conspiracies which do persist such as the fourth century heresy that only the original autographs are inerrant, which is used to discredit the King James Bible. We address several of these matters in the current issue. May the Lord allow that only the truth is remembered by the readers, and that my errors will be manifest.