Welcome to another edition of Coffee with Conrad. I am sitting here in my study, the steam rising from my mug, and I am thinking about you. My passion, as always, is for you to have a deep, vibrant, and supernatural relationship with the biblical Jesus. But sometimes, there are things standing in the way that we don't even realize are there.
Have you ever sat in a pew, following along in your faithful translation, while the pastor reads from something else? You look down at your page, then look up at him, and you think, "Wait a minute... that's not what that means. They aren't the same thing!" I have said it once and I will say it a thousand times: two things that are not the same thing are not the same thing.
We are living in a world of paraphrases and endless translations, and it can get muddy. In my last podcast, I went on about the word "unicorn" in the King James Bible. It makes some people's subconscious minds spin out of control, like they need to hit the reset button. These preconceived ideas and presuppositions act like a filter over our eyes. If we aren't careful, they can actually block the Spirit of Truth from reaching us.
Today, I want to talk about a few specific words that give me a "cause for pause." I am not a PhD or a world-renowned expert; I am just a guy who loves comparing translations and getting as close as possible to the "inspired moment"—that breath of God on holy men as they put the original autographs to paper. Jesus warned us in the Gospel of Luke to beware of the scribes. When I see how wildly some modern translations vary, I can see exactly why the Lord gave us that warning.
The Easter Intrusion
Let's start with a word that has bothered me for a long time: Easter. Now, I love the King James Bible. It has been my close friend for over twenty years. I think in its vernacular. I remember when someone gave me an NIV, and I tried reading it for a while, but I noticed verses were just... missing. I went back to my King James because it is keyed to the Strong's numbers, and I like getting to the root.
But even my "good friend" has a moment where it slips. In Acts 12:4, we see a word that sticks out like a sore thumb. The verse says: And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. (Acts 12:4 KJV).
The Greek word there is pascha. Everywhere else in the New Testament—twenty-eight other times—the King James correctly translates pascha as Passover. So why, in this one spot, does it suddenly become "Easter"?
Jesus Christ was Jewish. He observed the Passover. He never kept an "Easter" in His entire life. Neither did the early church. They continued observing the Passover, but with a brand-new significance found in the body and blood of Christ. You can see this in For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread (1 Corinthians 11:23 KJV).
So how did we get from the 14th of Nisan—the date God prescribed—to the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox? That is how pagans track their holidays. The name itself comes from Ishtar or Astarte. This was a change made at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD by Emperor Constantine. It was a move to distance the church from its Jewish roots and align it with pagan traditions.
It might seem like a small thing, just a word. But words carry weight. When we mix the resurrection of our Lord with rabbits and eggs—things that have nothing to do with the Bible—we do a disservice to the next generation. I’ve seen it happen. A child finds out the Easter Bunny isn't real, and in their mind, they start to wonder if the Resurrection is a fairy tale too. It’s the same with Santa Claus. When that bubble bursts, it can take their faith in the birth of Christ down with it. My people perish for lack of knowledge, as it says in My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. (Hosea 4:6 KJV).
The End of the World or the End of an Age?
There is another word that has caused a lot of "mountain-moving" anxiety: the word "world." We see it in the Great Commission and in the Olivet Discourse.
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:20 KJV).
When you hear "the end of the world," what do you see? If you are like most people raised on modern eschatology or the "Left Behind" series, you see planes falling from the sky, nuclear bombs, and zombies that can't die. You see the literal planet Earth exploding. I’ll be honest with you—at one point, I was ready to sell everything and move to the mountains because of how I understood that word.
But if you look at the Greek word used in Matthew 24:3 and Matthew 28:20, it is aion. It means an "eon" or an "age." It refers to a period of time, an epoch marked by certain spiritual or moral characteristics. It doesn't mean the physical globe.
Think about how that changes the flavor of Jesus’ promise. "I am with you until the end of this epoch of time." That feels very different than "I'm with you until the planet blows up." Even back in the days of Copernicus, scientists used the word "world" to mean what we now call the "universe." Words change. If we apply our 21st-century definitions to 17th-century translations of 1st-century Greek, we are going to end up in the weeds.
The Power of Persuasion
Perhaps the most dangerous misunderstanding comes from the word "obey." We see it in Hebrews: Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17 KJV).
In our contemporary English, "obey" sounds like a military command. It sounds like iron-clad, blind submission. But the Greek word here is peitho. According to the Vine's Lexicon, it means "to persuade, to win over." The obedience suggested here isn't about submitting to a hierarchy or a dictator; it's the result of being persuaded by the truth and the character of the leader.
I have seen this word weaponized. I’ve met people who won't buy a car, get married, or cross the street without their pastor's permission. That is "lording it over the flock," and it is dangerous. It’s what led to the shepherding movement controversies. If your pastor tells you to stay at a job that God is telling you to leave, you have a disparity between God and man.
We are called to submit to the nature, character, and authority of Jesus Christ. If a leader is "in tight" with God, you will be persuaded to follow their faith. But blind obedience to a man? That is a slippery slope.
Personal Reflections
I have been on this journey for a long time. I remember digging into my E-Sword software—which I highly recommend you get—and looking at the underlying Greek and Hebrew. It changed everything for me. It was like the scales falling from my eyes, a theme I wrote about extensively in my book, OPEN YOUR EYES: MY SUPERNATURAL JOURNEY.
I had to ask myself: why would I let my doctrine change the text? I saw what Martin Luther did when he added the word "alone" to Romans 3:28 in his German translation. He wanted it to say "faith alone" to fit his theology. I am grateful for Luther, but that is a scary place to be. We should be terrified of adding to or taking away from the Word.
I’ve had to repent for my own misunderstandings. I’ve had to realize that my "mountain-moving" fear was based on a mistranslation of "age" into "world." I’ve had to learn that true authority in the Kingdom isn't about a title; it's about a life that persuades others to follow Jesus. I had to stop looking at the "scribes" and start looking at the Spirit.
Biblical References
The weight of these words is not just a linguistic exercise; it's a matter of spiritual life and death. Consider how Paul describes our relationship to those we follow:
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16 KJV).
If we obey a doctrine of the world or a tradition of men over the Word of God, we are yielding ourselves to the wrong master. Even in the home, the command for a wife to submit is tempered by the phrase "as unto the Lord."
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22 KJV).
If a husband—or a pastor, or a government—asks you to do something the Lord would not have you do, your primary allegiance is to the King. The Germans at the Nuremberg trials tried the defense of "I was only following orders," but that doesn't hold up in the Kingdom. We are responsible for our own conscience before God.
The Milgram Scene: A Cautionary Tale
To understand how easily we are swayed by "authority," we have to look at something outside the Bible for a moment. Picture a basement at Yale University in 1961. You are sitting at a desk with a series of switches in front of you. A man in a white lab coat—an authority figure—tells you to flip the switch.
Across the wall, you hear a man scream. The lab coat says, "The experiment requires that you continue." You are reluctant. Your heart is racing. You know it’s wrong to hurt someone. But the authority figure insists.
In the Milgram experiment, a staggering number of men—ordinary, decent people—continued to flip those switches until they reached levels that would have been fatal. Why? Because they were "obeying orders." They were yielding their conscience to a person in a lab coat.
This is exactly why we must be careful with the word "obey." If we don't have the "attenuator" of the Spirit in our hearts, we can be led to do things that are completely outside the nature and character of Jesus. We must be persuaded by the Truth, not just bullied by a title.
Key Takeaways
- Context is King: Two things that are not the same thing are not the same thing. Always look at the underlying meaning of biblical words.
- Passover vs. Easter: Recognize that traditions often supersede biblical truth. Focus on the substance of Christ, our Passover Lamb.
- The End of the Age: Don't let fear-based eschatology based on the word "world" rob you of your peace. Jesus is with us until the end of the eon.
- Persuasion over Power: Biblical leadership is about being "won over" by someone's walk with God, not blind submission to a man's whims.
- Protect the Children: Be mindful of how we mix pagan myths with holy truths, as it can create a foundation of doubt later in life.
Conclusion and Call to Action
The words we read and the audio we listen to matter. They shape our reality. I want to encourage you to dig deeper into the Word for yourself. Don't just take my word for it—get into the lexicons, use tools like E-Sword, and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth.
If you want to dive deeper into these topics, I've got plenty of resources over at ConradRocks.net. You can also find more of my journey in my books, like Overcoming Night Terror: Making the Demons Leave.
If this has helped you today, please subscribe to the podcast, leave a comment, or share this with someone who needs to hear it. Let's keep the conversation going.
Action Items
- Download Study Tools: Get a copy of E-Sword or a similar Bible software and start looking up the Strong’s numbers for the words "world," "obey," and "Easter."
- Audit Your Traditions: Take a look at your holiday celebrations. Ask the Lord to show you if any pagan traditions are overshadowing the biblical significance of what you are honoring.
- Practice Discernment: The next time you feel a "check in your spirit" regarding an authority figure, take it to prayer. Ask if you are being "persuaded" by the truth or simply "obeying" out of fear.
- Read Church History: Check out Foxe's Book of Martyrs to see the price people like William Tyndale paid to get the true meaning of the Greek text into our hands.
Until we meet again, dig deeper and go higher. God bless you!
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