The Amish Voice 7
Pennsylvania Deitsh Testament
If you would like to obtain
a New Testament with
Psalms and Prov-
erbs in Pennsyl-
vania Deitsh,
they are available for
$13.95 postpaid from the
Commitee for Translaton, 3864 Town-
ship Road 162, Sugarcreek, OH 44681. Phone 330-
852-4663.
You do not need to send money ahead of tme;
they will bill you with your order. Your local Chris-
tan bookstore may also have them available.
In making this translaton, the commitee’s pur-
pose was two-fold: 1) to adhere as closely as possi-
ble to the Textus Receptus Greek text, which is
closely associated with Luther’s (German) and the
Authorized (English) version, the two versions most
commonly in use by the Amish, and 2) to make the
translaton in fuent everyday Pennsylvania Deitsh
as it is spoken in the home.
The translaton procedures and principles used in
this translaton are basically those employed by the
Wyclife Bible Translators, and the exegesis closely
follows their series of in-house “Exegetcal Helps”.
The fnal manuscript was checked for exegetcal
accuracy by New Testament Greek specialists from
the Translaton Department of the Wyclife Bible
Translators.
One Sunday morning, a mother
went in to wake her son and tell
him it was time to get ready for
church, to which he replied, "I'm
not going."
"Why not?" she asked.
I'll give you two good reasons," he
said. "(1), they don't like me, and
(2), I don't like them."
His mother replied, "I'll give you
two good reasons why you
SHOULD go to church: (1) You're
49 years old, and (2) you're the
preacher!"
If we had a few barrels of apples and put
them into cold storage at perfect tempera-
ture and humidity, sooner or later one apple
would rot. Then another and another untl
they are all afected. As you have heard
said, one bad apple will rot the whole barrel.
Pure, perfect holiness is hard to defne be-
cause I have never seen it. Nor have you.
Like the wind, we can only defne what it
does. Think of the barrels of apples all being
perfect and without the enzyme that brings
on rotng. Then the batch would last for 25,
maybe 50 or even more years. Or even eter-
nally.
Heaven is kind of like that. There can be no
imperfecton in heaven. That is what is
taught in the passage below.
Mathew 22: 11-12; “
And when the
king came in to see the guests, he saw
there a man which had not on a wed-
ding garment: And he saith unto him,
Friend, how camest thou in hither not
having a wedding garment? And he
was speechless.”
I am sure his garment was the best he had,
but it would not do for the wedding. The
parable’s real meaning is that we cannot
enter heaven on our own righteousness, but
we have to have the garment of righteous-
ness that is supplied by the master of the
house. When I look at your righteousness, I
may very well be impressed. Yet like an ap-
ple that looks good now, does not look good
when it rots. That tny imperfecton that
begins the process of rotng will in due tme
consumes the whole barrel. If heaven al-
lowed slight imperfectons, eternity would
be at risk.
This brings us to the meaning of the gar-
ment. Jesus lived a perfect life. He is willing
to cover our lives with His if we will allow
Him to take over. The downfall of Adam and
Eve looked hopeless since man was now
incapable of perfecton and holiness. It
looked like Satan had won. The best we
could do was obedience to a degree. We
could obey the law and hope that the good
would outweigh the bad. The problem is any
bad is too much for heaven. Even one small
sin will spoil our eternal life.
James 2:10,
“
for whosoever shall keep
the whole law, and yet ofend in one
point, he is guilty of all”.
Holiness cannot live alongside with mine
and your best eforts. And we know that
God is holy. Nothing impure can be in his
presence. So we need a righteousness that
cannot be earned. It can only be imputed to
us. The German word for “imputed” is
“gerechnet.” It’s a lot like the word
“reckoning”, a term used in accountng. The
translaton actually renders the Greek word
“elogisthē” as “reckoning” in some places
and “imputed” in others. We might
‘reconcile’ our check book against the bank
statement. The end result of reckoning is
reconciliaton.
If I reckon that I have $25 in my pocket, it
will do me no good unless I can pull it out
and spend it. A bank statement is a good
way to describe how it works. If a wealthy
man were to put a large sum of money into
your account, you would reckon it to be
true. Thus you would treat it as such and
spend it. Reckoning refects a truth. Now
that you understand the word “imputed”
lets look at the following:
Romans 4:20-25 “He staggered not at
the promise of God through unbelief;
but was strong in faith, giving glory to
God; And being fully persuaded that,
what he had promised, he was able also
to perform. And therefore it was imput-
ed to him for righteousness. Now it was
not writen for his sake alone, that it
was imputed to him; But for us also, to
whom it shall be imputed, if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead; Who was delivered for
our ofences, and was raised again for
our justfcaton.”
So now we have Jesus coming into the pic-
ture. Think of it; how would you feel having
a record of righteousness as high as that of
Jesus? That is exactly what is being ofered
when we call upon the name of the Lord.
That is the only way to be truly holy enough
to stand before a holy God. Anything less
will not do. Are you dressed in the wedding
garment that God ofers?
Eli Stutzman — Ontario Canada
Phone: (519) 866-3737
Of Garments and Bad Apples
—Written by Eli Stutzman