Why do so many Christians remain ignorant of what's in their own Bibles?
Joe Kovacs, the executive news editor of WND and author of the best-selling books "The Divine Secret" and "Shocked by the Bible" recently appeared on "Smart Life with Dr. Gina" to discuss some of the astonishing facts on the pages of the Scripture.
"Many of us love going to church and some of us read the Bible on a regular basis, but even if you do, there is so much in the Bible that you would be shocked to know is there," Dr. Gina Louden, a WND columnist, said as she began the program.
The following is a transcript of the discussion:
Dr. Gina Louden: "You say Easter has vanished from modern biblical translation. What?!"
Joe Kovacs: "The funny thing is, Easter has hopped right off the page of the Bible. It only appears once in the King James Version, and nearly every other Bible since 1611 has taken it out, because they realize that word [Easter] shouldn't be in there. It's a mistranslation of the word 'pascha' in Greek, which means Passover, and is used some 27, 28 other times in the Bible and is always translated 'Passover.'
"But Easter itself, people don't know what that word means. It's the actual name of the Babylonian, pagan fertility goddess and goddess of the dawn associated with all kinds of fertility symbols like eggs and bunny rabbits and little chicks and all that kind of thing. It has nothing to do with the Bible. It has nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
"When I tell [people] when they read the Bible, is read the words on the page. They mean exactly what they say. The say exactly what they mean. You don't have to add things into the Bible that aren't there, and you will have a much clearer understanding of the message of God because I believe the Bible is completely true. It's the only explanation of why we're here, where we're going, and our divine destiny which is not floating on a cloud playing a harp forever doing a bunch of nothingness that so many people believe. It's much more fantastic.
Dr. Gina: "Another misnomer that we often hear about the Bible is we tend to picture angels with these big, beautiful wings and long, flowing, golden hair and they're sort of Barbie-esque little creatures that flitter around like fairies, I think. And the description in the Bible is quite different, isn't it?"
Joe Kovacs: "Well, angels can take on different forms, including looking like human beings on the street. You might be walking down the street and encounter somebody who asks you a question and that could be an angel appearing as a human being.
"As a matter of fact in Genesis, the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah actually wanted to gang-rape two angels that were appearing just as men. They didn't know they were angels, but they were angels, but they were just appearing as ordinary men strolling through the streets of Sodom and Gomorrah and they wanted to have their way with them.
At other times, angels you see have different faces – sometimes the face of an ox or the face of a man or the face of another animal depending on which way they're looking and sometimes it does mention that they have wings and they're known to transport people even through the air. Like when Elijah was 'transported to heaven,' he didn't go to the third heaven, the unseen heaven where God lives, he was merely picked up by an angel and transported, airlifted through the air, the first heaven and then plopped down somewhere else. So angels are very interesting.
"We're not made in the image of angels, by the way. We're made in the image of God, and I point that out in the books because God is actually having children. The Bible is filled with the phrase, 'the children of God,' and people don't realize what that means. God is actually having divine children who will be above the angels, judging the angels, judging the citizens of this world, and sitting down on Jesus' own throne, the divine throne as mentioned in the Book of Revelation [3:21], ruling planet Earth, reigning with Jesus for all eternity. It's a glorious destiny.
Dr. Gina: "It really is. And one of the things you mentioned is that there's a 'Live Forever Diet.' As we grapple, many Christians grapple with what diet is best for us, you say it's right there in the Bible."
Joe Kovacs: The Bible ... started with a giant food test for Adam and Eve. In the very beginning, God said 'You can eat from every tree that you want in this garden of Eden, except don't eat from that one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil because if you eat from it, you will die.' Otherwise, they would have eaten from the tree of life and lived forever, and the Bible actually uses the phrase 'live forever.' So they chose the wrong tree, and we're in this death situation now.
Dr. Gina: "Putting it mildly."
Joe Kovacs: "'The Walking Dead' is what we are like that AMC-TV show. Everybody is dead until they come to God and He offers us eternal life for free if we want life. But back to the food, people don't realize God has said there are certain foods you can eat like cows and chickens, but there are certain foods you cannot eat, like pork and shellfish and dogs and gorillas and anything with a paw."
Dr. Gina: "Yes, it specifies don't eat your dog or cat for dinner. I'm glad that it let us know that. And it also says that ... you say also that Eve never actually bit into the apple that we all perceive to have bitten into. At least that's not in the Bible."
Joe Kovacs: "Right. The Bible never specifies the actual fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil except to say that it was from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It never says the word apple in there, so there's all kinds of speculation of what kind of fruit it was. And people have made movies and cartoons of Adam and Eve chomping into some juicy, Red Delicious apple all the time, but the Bible never says apple.
"Ironically, a possible theory of why people think it's an apple is that the Latin word for apple – malus – is the exact same word as the Latin word for evil – malus. That's where we get the word malice from in English. So when people read the Bible for centuries in Latin, they could playfully understand the tree of knowledge of good and evil as the tree of knowledge of good and apple. I don't know for sure that that's the reason, but it's a fact and people can investigate for themselves. But the Bible never mentions the fruit by name of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Dr. Gina: "And Jesus also says that no one had gone to heaven except Him. So what happened to everybody else who died?"
Joe Kovacs: "People are actually in the grave. I'm glad you pointed this out because just three verses before the famous John 3:16 that everybody knows, in John 3:13 Jesus says no one has ever gone to heaven except Me, the Son of Man who came down from heaven. So everybody who ever lived with the exception of Jesus is still in the grave.
They will be resurrected because there are actually two resurrections coming. When Jesus comes back, the believers, the followers, the church – however you wish to phrase it – He will raise them from the grave and give them eternal life ruling with Him. But then a thousand years later, everyone else who ever lived – from Adam and Eve through the Middle Ages, Adolf Hitler, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, you name it – they will be raised, and that's the famous Judgment Day. And they will be judged according to what they have done, and they'll see all their sins repeated in front of them and find out that they're guilty.
"But the good news is that God is not raising them to destroy them. He is actually going to give them another chance, without the devil around, and they will be judged by those who made it in the first round. And this is what I focused on in 'The Divine Secret' is that there is good news for people who don't understand the message now, or never heard the name Jesus Christ or the plan of God. So you don't have to fret so much about your friends and neighbors and loved ones who aren't believers now. They will have a chance in the future."
Dr. Gina: "There is so much more I wanted to discuss with you [that] we're not going to get to. God ordered many of His own people to get divorced, you say. God ran lotteries. People are just gonna have to read your books: 'The Divine Secret' and 'Shocked by the Bible.' Joe Kovacs, thank you for being with us today."
Why does the Bible say believers will sit on the throne of Jesus Christ and judge angels? Find out in your personally autographed copy of "The Divine Secret" by Joe Kovacs right now, or get autographed copies of both "The Divine Secret" and the classic "Shocked by the Bible" bundled together!