here isn’t and never shall be a greater cause to live for, than to discover and play out that role that the mighty creator had on His mind when He said, “Let us make ‘Nonso’ in our own image and likeness”. Purpose is the essence of life!
“Purpose is that worthy cause for which one lives, yeah it is indeed that worthy cause for which one is willing to die”
King James VI of Scotland (later to become King James 1 of England) was born out of obscure circumstances.
He was born Scottish in a land where religious rivalry teachings were at the heart of assassinations and brutal murder, his own mother, Queen Mary of Scotland having been murdered for being a catholic queen. She was forced to abdicate the throne to one year old James and then forced to leave the kingdom a year after. She was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth 1 in England, her cousin and about 19 years later, executed in the name of treason.
James grew up under harsh conditions where people managed the throne for him (more like Galatians 4:1-2). This period was full of lots of murder and assassinations as different factions yearned for the power of the throne. In order to ensure that James grew up, a well-schooled protestant and not a Catholic, he was as a lad, given to a private tutor – the then renowned Scottish scholar and writer George Buchanan.
George Buchanan, a thorough and very disciplined scholar, restricted James to the palace. No play! James was forced to study almost all his childhood. Little did anyone know that through all this, the vessel God would use to expunge heretical teachings and preserve the undiluted Word of Truth- the bible was being prepared. During this period, James had the finest trainings in languages such as Latin and French and hence was a great scholar of even the Latin bible (then reserved for the Roman Catholic church) and indeed an extensive learner especially in Literature. He became a finely groomed academician.
At the right time, he developed a mind of his own and began questioning even the very ideas his tutor taught him from scriptures. He began to interpret for himself comparing the different versions and their distortions.
The Queen Elizabeth 1 of England eventually grew old with no child and on her dying bed, pronounced James of Scotland, her second cousin, as successor.
James came to England with a passion for unity, given the ugly experience he had as a child – several executions including that of his mother by the same queen who now pronounced him successor. In England, the major divisions were among the Bishops, the Puritans and the Catholics. The church and state then being unified, the king was as well the head of the church. This was how King James became the head of the church and would later have an ambition to birth an objective and true representation of Holy bible. The only English translation of the bible was that of the Bishops and this in itself, was equally twisted in translation to suit the personal interests of the Bishops – enriching themselves and conferring in the name of Christianity, much unchecked power and authority.
The puritans were well-schooled but of lower social class. They had their own little scripts from the Latin bible which differed from that of the Bishops. This was a big division in King James kingdom of England. This made him force his way to grant the Puritans’ request for a reformation of the church and the bible to a publicly accepted one put together by the Puritans, the bishops and all other great scholars; thereby expunging possibilities of personal interests.
While all this was happening, the Catholic practice in England faced increased non-acceptance. The Catholics realizing they were being left out and that their beliefs were about to be expunged completely began some secret agitations.
Soon some English Catholics faithfuls planned a major assassination attempt which was foiled and they were exterminated forever. The plan was exposed just the eve to the planed assassination of the king and his entire lords. Through this, the catholic hold on England was crushed – especially as a major priest to whom this evil was confessed did his best to dissuade the perpetuators but could not reveal it to the king due to the catholic confessional obligations he was under. This disdained the people of England altogether against the catholic practice and the whole plot was taken as a Catholic treason. Even the priest was arrested and killed alongside the perpetuators.
God used circumstances and soon the king gave orders that the Puritans, the Bishops and all well-schooled academics of Literature, work together to come up with a great, accurate as possible and objective English translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek versions. This worked because each group kept a suspicious eye on the other for fear that they will distort the work to their advantage. Also, the king himself declared that he would review their work as it was going to bear his name.
This drive for criticality and a resolve to make no mistakes eventually got about 50 men engaged in the most precise, painstaking 7 year project of translating the original Hebrew and Greek Bible into English. With all the various views of scholars present, the work was not biased at all to suit anyone’s particular views. Eventually, the translators got objectively unified via this extensive work. The King James English bible was born after 7 years.
The King James bible did not sell immediately until 50 years later when it began to spread after King James’ death. This is because the religious people found it difficult to adjust to a new way of faith. This bible however, paid off eventually.
It is very noteworthy too that today in places where the kings of England have their monuments built, King James’ is absent but ugly represented by a log of wood – headless, armless- an incomplete log of wood not at all like a statue. After the bible, which was God’s major assignment for this man- James of Scotland; all of King James’ other works and peace efforts did not yield much. Scandals followed his reign and his highly esteemed credibility in the sight of the public soon faded away.
His purpose was to be the instrument towards the global spread of the true gospel of Christ – The Holy Bible. He was the instrument God used to restore the truth to the world at large. Before him, the bible had been adulterated and mis-translated to preach war, salvation via fees and other lies just to favour the then powers that be who professed Christianity. Rome had the bible only in Latin for catholic priests alone to read and had for years prosecuted and executed anyone who dared translate it into English. Martin Luther the first, Tyndale and others had paid the ultimate price translating the bible into English for others to read but their English bibles had been adulterated again by the Bishops. King James was the vessel whether he knew it or not, that God used to preserve the Word of truth for all races on the earth. For his work was the breakthrough to every other translation of the bible into other languages. Today his monument though absent among the kings of England, is found in almost every household. The globally renowned King James Version Bible found in almost every home and store around the world is more than a monument with which generations to come remember him.
2Timothy 2: 20 tells us that we are, every one of us, vessels in God’s hand. Whether or not we discover ourselves in God’s agenda and yield to His purpose in our lives, doesn’t change it. Our discovery and yielding only determines one thing – the type we become. Unto honour or unto dishonor!
What’s your assignment to your world?
By Nonso Aniamaka. Copyright © 2014 wisewatchers.org. All rights reserved.