Which Bible Can We Trust?
&Which Bible
Can We Trust?
by Roy Lister
The TEXTUS RECEPTUS, original Greek text
from which the Authorized King James Bible was translated, has been the
target of textual critics since 1611. Yet copies of it substantially
exist today without error. This is the Bible you can trust. All
this talk about older and more dependable manuscripts, like the theory
of evolution, hangs upon an UNPROVEN HYPOTHESIS.&
HERE'S THE ACID TEST
Any version of the Bible which omits Acts
8:37, or &Through His blood,& in Col. 1:14, evidently has for its
foundation a corrupted manuscript. This corruption can be traced to 200
A.D., when there lived one of the world's foremost theologians whose
name was Origen. Being a TEXTUAL CRITIC, he is supposed to have
corrected numerous portions of the sacred manuscripts. Evidence to the
contrary shows that he changed them to agree with his own human
philosophy of mystical and allegorical ideas. Thus certain original MSS.
became corrupt and it is evidently from this source the revised Bibles
of this generation have come. Read pages 900-902, Vol. 16, 1936 edition
Encyclopedia Britannica and you will see that Origen taught the &LOGOS&
is &KTISMA,& meaning the Lord Jesus Christ is a created being. Thus, he
could easily omit Acts 8:37 and other texts which testify to Christ's
Should You Choose The Bible of Your
by DONALD T. CLARKE
THE BIBLE IS AN INSPIRED BOOK
The Bible is a supernatural gift from God
and has been both inspired and preserved by the Holy Spirit. By inspired
I mean that the Holy Spirit so moved upon the hearts of men that they
recorded the very words that God wanted written in the Holy Bible. The
Bible would be no more accurate or authoritative had God written the
Scriptures with His own hand. &For the prophecy came not in old time by
but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the
Holy Ghost& (2 Peter 1:21).
THE BIBLE 1S A PRESERVED BOOK
God has safeguarded the Bible in the past
from the wicked poison of human reasoning and He will continue to do so
in the future. God is not the author of confusion and therefore He has
only inspired and preserved one Bible. &Heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away& (Matthew 24:35).
ONLY ONE BIBLE CAN BE THE WORD OF GOD
It has been estimated that there are nearly
one hundred versions of the Bible available in the English language
today. However, this multiplicity of Bibles does not alter the fact that
God has inspired and safeguarded one Bible. This one Bible
is written in the Greek language in the New Testament and is called the
Textus Receptus or Received Text. The Old Testament has been preserved
in the Masoretic Text and is written in Hebrew. The Textus Receptus of
the New Testament and the Masoretic Text of the Old Testament combine to
give us the complete Word of God. The King James Version of the
Bible stands alone as the one Bible in use today which has been
faithfully translated from these God- given manuscripts. All of the
modern versions are based wholly or in part on corrupt texts.
MODERN TRANSLATIONS ARE DIFFERENT BIBLES
Modern translations are not just simply
different versions of the King James Bible written in contemporary
language. These perversions are different Bibles entirely. Their
foundation is not the God-preserved Textus Receptus of the New
Testament. Instead, they are based on contaminated, Christ-denying
manuscripts which had been rejected by the early church fathers.
This turning away from the true Bible to a
wicked counterfeit is largely the work of humanistic scholarship. Men
who call themselves textual critics have placed their thoughts and ideas
above those of God and have presumed to improve upon that one Bible
which has been given by God. One can only conclude that they have been
so blinded by their compromise and delusions of self-importance that
they forget God has already given us His Word. The duty of every
believer today is to take the one Bible which God has given and
proclaim its glorious message of salvation to a sin-sick world.
&I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel . . .
As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other
gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed&
(Galatians 1:6, 9). Almost 2000 years ago men were preaching another
gospel no doubt from another Bible. However, never since the
Bible was given has it been under such Satanic attack as it is in our
generation. Humanistic scholarship has deviated from the Textus Receptus
in about 6000 places. This has the same effect as questioning the
inerrancy of the Holy Bible in 6000 places. Charles H. Spurgeon stated
it very well when he said, &The craving to alter the Word of God is
accursed. This is the crime of the present day. The Lord preserve us
THE PURE FOUNDATION OF THE KING JAMES
The Old Testament of the King James Bible
was translated from the Masoretic Text. This text was in use during the
time of Christ and He quoted from them many times. If the Masoretic Text
was acceptable to Christ then it certainly should be accepted by every
child of God. This text was kept pure by the Hebrew priests who were
given the responsibility of caring for it.
The New Testament of the King James Version
was translated in 1611 A.D. from the Greek manuscripts known today as
the Textus Receptus. The scholars who did this work were giants in their
field. They were far superior to the self-proclaimed scholars in
Biblical criticism who are responsible for the rash of modern
perversions.
The Textus Receptus from which the King
James Bible was translated is a faithful reproduction of the original
manuscripts, which were penned by the writers of the Scriptures. The T.R.
or Traditional Text as it is also called has been traced back to the
early church.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE KING JAMES VERSION
From the birth of Christ to 100 A.D. the
original manuscripts were written in the Greek language.
The New Testament was compiled by 400
by 170 A.D. -- 20 N.T. books had been
accepted by the early Christians. &
by 400 A.D. -- all 27 books of the N.T.
had been accepted by the early Christians as they were guided by the
Holy Spirit. &
The Holy Spirit guided so that only
the genuine books were included. &
The Holy Spirit also guided in the
selection of the pure manuscripts. &
The Holy Spirit so guided that false
gospels and manuscripts were set aside.
the original manuscripts were lost but
the Received Text that was produced during this time was a faithful
reproduction of the original autographs.
452-1453 A.D. -- The Textus Receptus was
used by the Greek Church during this time under the direction of the
Holy Spirit. &
1516 A.D. -- Erasmus edited the first
printing of the Greek N.T. &
This was in agreement with the Textus
1526 A.D. -- Tyndale's New Testament in
English was printed. He was burned at the stake in 1536 because he had
the Bible printed in English. &
1550 A.D. -- Stephens Greek N.T. (Textus
Receptus). &
1611 A.D. -- The King James or
Authorised Version of the Bible was translated from the Greek Textus
Receptus in the N.T. and Hebrew Masoretic Text in the O.T. &
1611 A.D. -- To the present. Infidels
and assorted enemies of the Bible have attacked our Bible in every way
known to man, but God's Word shall abide forever.
THE CORRUPT FOUNDATION OF MODERN
TRANSLATIONS
The &other Bibles& which are so prevalent
today are as dependable as quicksand. They will vary even from printing
to printing as the constantly changing whims of man directs. However,
each new Bible will continue down the same path of confusion and error.
You cannot produce good fruit from a rotten tree.
THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE &OTHER BIBLES&
From the birth of Christ to 400 A.D.
False prophets wrote polluted gospels and other books of the Bible at
the same time that the true books of the New Testament were being
written. Paul makes mention of this in 2 Cor. 2:17, &For we are not as
many, which corrupt the Word of God .... &Under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit these tainted manuscripts were cast aside and were not
included in the Textus Receptus. &
331 A.D. Constantine ordered that an
&ecumenical Bible& be written that would be accepable to every
stripe of Christian that was under his jurisdiction. A man by the
name of Eusebius was assigned to direct this undertaking. Eusebius
was a follower of Origen who rejected the deity of Christ. He
claimed that Christ was a created being. The Jehovah's Witnesses of
today believe the same thing. This error is called the Arian heresy.
1481 A.D. The Vatican manuscript was
discovered in the Vatican Library. This is a corrupted manuscript
which repeatedly casts aside the deity of Christ. It reflects the
Arianism of Origen and is thought by some to be one of the surviving
manuscripts done be Euscbius at the command of Constantine. The date
of its writing coincides with the &ecumenical Bible& of Constantine.
1844 A.D. The Sinaitic manuscript was
discovered at Mt. Sinai in the monastery of Saint Catherine. It agrees
closely with the Vatican manuscript and minimises the deity of Christ
and is Arian in nature. It is safe to suggest that these two
manuscripts were two of the fifty that were written for Constantine.
1881 A.D. The Westcott and Hort Greek
Text was introduced. This text departed from the Textus Receptus and
follows the Vatican and Sinaitic corruptions. Most scholars from every
spectrum of Christianity have knowingly or otherwise promoted the
Westcott and Hort text from that time to the present.
The Jehovah's Witness Bible entitled the
&New World Translation of the Scriptures& was translated from the text
of Westcott and Hort. Their friendship with Westcott and Hort is not
surprising. They reject the deity of Christ and gain strength from this
corrupt text.
Most, if not all, of the modern
translations of the Bible follow the path of the two worst manuscripts
which are in existence. They almost seem to loathe the Textus Receptus.
This is evidenced by the fact that most Bible colleges, seminaries and
schools use some Greek text other than the Textus Receptus.
Nevertheless, the new versions are founded on faulty texts and are
not acceptable for any purpose.&
GOD'S BIBLE COMPARED WITH &ANOTHER BIBLE&
1 PETER 2:2
The King James Version:
&As newborn babes, desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.& In our God-inspired and preserved Bible the meaning of this passage
is very clear. Those who have been born again (by receiving Christ)
should feed on the Word of God that they might grow in the Christian
life. Christian growth has nothing at all to do with initial
salvation. Salvation takes place first and then the newborn child of
God is to grow. Please note that all of the following new versions
leave the door open for a gradual salvation, i.e., one of works.
Good News for Modern Man:
&Be like newborn babies, always thirsty
for the pure spiritual milk, so that by drinking it you may grow up
and be saved.&
New World Translation: (Jehovah's Witnesses)
&And as newborn infants, form a longing
for the unadultered milk belonging to the word, that through it you
may grow to salvation.&
New American Standard Bible:
&Like newborn babes, long for the pure
milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.&
The wording may be slightly different in each of these new Bibles, but
it should be obvious that they all have the same corrupt source. No
amount of polish can correct an untrustworthy text.
MATTHEW 18:11
The King James Version:
&For the Son of man is come to save
that which was lost.&
New World Translation: Verse omitted.
The Amplified New Testament:
The entire verse is in italics. Their
explanation for this omission is as follows: &Italics indicate
certain familiar words or passages found in the King James Version,
but generally omitted now because they are not adequately supported
by more recent scholarship.& Would any care to hazard a guess as to
who the more recent scholars are?
The New American Standard:
The verse is included with the
following footnote. &Most ancient manuscripts omit this verse.&
Since when is 5% of the manuscripts considered a majority?
The Living New Testament:
The verse is included (in a manner of
speaking) with the following footnote. &This verse is omitted in
many manuscripts, some ancient.&
THE PERSON OF CHRIST AND SIX NEW BIBLES
New American Standard Bible
Revised Standard Version
Living New Testament
Good News for Modern Man
New English Bible
Amplified New Testament &
John 6:69 -- Christ is omitted in 1, 2, 3,
Acts 9:20 -- Christ is changed to Jesus in
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Acts 15:11 -- Christ is omitted in 1, 2, 3,
Acts 16:31 -- Christ is omitted in 1, 2, 31
4, 5, (italicised in 6).
Romans 1:16 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 4,
5, (italicised in 6).
Romans 16:24 -- entire verse about Christ
emitted in 1, 2, 5, (verse italicised in 6).
1 Cor. 5:4 -- Christ omitted twice in 1, 2,
(omitted once in 3), 4, 5, (omitted once and italicised once in 6).
1 Cor. 9:1 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 3, 4,
2 Cot. 11:31 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 4,
5, (italicised in 6).
Eph. 3:14 -- Lord Jesus Christ omitted in
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, (italicised in 6).
Col. 1:14 -- blood omitted in 1, 2, 4, 5,
(italics in 6).
1 Thess. 2:19 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 4,
1 Thess. 3:11 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, (italics in 6).
1 Timothy 1:1 -- Lord omitted in 1, 2, 4,
1 Timothy 5:21 -- Lord omitted in 1, 2, 4,
2 Timothy 4:1 -- Lord omitted in 1, 2, 3,
Titus 1:4 -- Lord omitted in 1, 2, 4, 5,
(italics in 6).
Hebrews 3:1 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 3,
1 John 1:7 -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 4, 5,
(italics in 6).
2 John 3 -- Lord omitted in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
Rev. l:9b -- Christ omitted in 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, (italics in 6).
Verses quoted and emissions listed are by
no means exhaustive. They are merely given to show the common bond which
exists between all of the new Bibles. They stand or fall together. One
cannot accept one and reject another.
It should be plain for all to see that
Satan's strategy is to lure even God's own people away from the true
Bible. Without the inerrant Word of God there would be no salvation. &So
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God& (Romans
I thank God for my salvation and I thank
Him for preserving His Written Word for my use and for all who will rest
in Him. I am convinced that the King James Bible I hold in my hand is a
completely faithful reproduction of the Word of God. I can hold my Bible
in my hand and say without fear that I am in possession of the Word of
God that has been passed down from generation to generation by the
providential protection of my Heavenly Father.
IMPORTANT CONCLUDING SUMMARY
The King James Version is the only English
Bible in use today which is taken from the Textus Receptus. Therefore,
this must be the only Bible used by pastors, Bible students, churches,
missionary groups, educational institutions or Christian laymen.
In that it is the only authoritative and
trustworthy Bible, it should be studied consistently and
systematically. Every born-again believer in Jesus Christ should start
the day by meditating in the only Word of God and by talking to
God in prayer.
Every born-again, Bible-believing Christian
should endeavor to enlighten others about the dangers of the modern
counterfeit Bibles. This must be done if we are to heed the admonition
to &earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the
saints& (Jude 3b). God wants you to join with us in sounding the alarm
against those who would rob this generation of the only Bible.
&The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall
stand forever& (Isaiah 40:8).
All over the world there is an alarming
increase in the worship of Satan by outright willful submission to him
through occult practices. He is now loosing his forces on the civilized
world which has known the Gospel for centuries but which is not
presently heeding that Gospel. We may look for an increase in satanic
miracles and strange behavior as multitudes resort to witchcraft,
astrology, spiritism, and fortune telling.
ITS INSPIRATION
There can be no Christianity without an
inspired and authoritative Bible. C. H. Spurgeon once said, &The turning
point of the battle between those who hold 'the faith once delivered to
the saints' and their opponents, lies in the true and real inspiration
of the Holy Scriptures. This is the thermopylae of Christendom. If we
have in the Word of God no infallible standard of truth, we are at sea
without a compass, and no danger from rough weather without can be equal
to the loss within. 'If the foundation be removed, what can the
righteous do?' And this is the foundation loss of the worst kind.&
The Bible is a supernatural Book. It is
God's voice speaking, not only in the sense that the Word springs from
Him, but from the standpoint also that it is expressed by Him in His own
vocabulary.
The fundamental claim of the Bible in
relation to its inspiration is found in five passages: Luke 1:70, &As
He spake by the mouth of His Holy prophets which have been since the
world began,& 1 Cor. 2:13, &Which things also we speak, not in
the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth.& 2 Tim. 3:16, &ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of
God.& Heb. 1:1-2, &God, who at sundry times and in divers manners
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by His Son.& 2 Pet. 1:21, &For the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost.&
It is important in these days of open
attack upon the Bible and increased versions of the Bible to make clear
what we mean by divine inspiration of the Scriptures. We do not mean
what the modernists mean who claim a kind of &human genius& residing in
nor do we moan as Barth and Brunner and modern
neo-orthodox and neo-evangelicals who hold that the Bible is the Word of
God because some passages reveal a word from the Lord. This teaching
tells us that the Bible contains the Word of God but is not essentially
and verbally and wholly the inspired Word of God.
While there is open opposition from outside
the true Church in lands like Russia against the Word of God and against
those who read it, there is also opposition from within religious
circles through the modern day versions of the Bible, RSV, Good News for
Modern Man, Living Letters, New English Bible, Amplified Version and a
host of others.
I need not remind you that most of these
versions have been prepared by committees whose members reject the
infallible inspiration of the Scriptures, the deity of Christ, the blood
atonement of Christ, and other essential doctrines. I need not emphasise
that many of these versions are ecumenical efforts to unite
Protestantism and Romanism into the great whore church of Revelation 13
to 17, the ecumenical church of Antichrist.
What is not generally realized, however, is
the fact that these revisers are true successors of Jehoiakim, the King
of Jerusalem, whose mutilation of Scripture is given in Jeremiah 36:22,
23. A message from the Lord was dictated by Jeremiah to Baruch, son of
Nerah, who carefully wrote it in a roll. Jehoiakim came to know of this
divine oracle and sent Jehudi to get it and read it to him. As Jehudi
read, whatever did not please the king he would cut out with his
penknife and cast into the fire, burning on the hearth. Jehoiakim
continued with his mutilation of the written Word of God until nothing
was left but a heap of smoldering ashes.
Let us notice, however, how God dealt with
the penknife king. He had the burial of an ass (Jer. 22:18,19). The king
was denied the glamorous burial belonging to a good sovereign. He was
drawn outside the gates of Jerusalem, as the body of a dead ass is
dragged and left to corruption and the beaks of the vultures.
Surely such a record constitutes a warning
not to tamper with the Word of God. Yet many modern versions have used
the penknife of liberalism and the penknife of the ecumenical movement
to tamper with the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God. Yes, but
the end is not yet in sight. As modern versions and perversions continue
to cut out, rearrange, and change Scripture to suit themselves God's eye
is upon it all and His Word shall never pass away.
ITS AUTHORITY
The increasing efforts of men to do away
with the Authorised King James Version of the Bible are directed against
the authority of the Bible. Under the guise of &better translations,&
&clearer readings,& &church authority,& &Christian tradition,& &later
manuscripts,& and &helps for the reader& the corrupters of the Bible
with their many perversions have sought to undermine the deity of
Christ, the blood atonement, and other doctrines that offend the natural
You will notice that the modern versions
have as their goal the &return to the original Greek texts.& The New
American Standard Bible, for example, is based on Nestle's Greek New
Testament. Nestle's text, as the Westcott and Hort text, is the
classical Greek of Alexandrian scholarship, written in Italy. It is not
the koine Greek of New Testament scholarship, written in Asia Minor.
Nestle's &original Greek& is built on the theory of Vaticanus (the
Catholic manuscript which contains the seven corrupt books of the
Apocrypha, never recognised by Jesus or Paul, and shows its source of
corruption as Rome itself) as the most perfect text. Therefore &going to
the Greek& to correct the Authorised King James Version involves running
to Romanism to correct a Bible-believing Protestant translation.
Even since Adam fell there has been a bias
in his descendants to listen to the Devil who repeats today what he said
in the Garden of Eden, &Hath God said?&
The textual critics of our day, profoundly
trained, called higher critics, are also saying, &Hath God said?& The
more lofty textual scholars have so falsely put together the knowledge
they have gained that our generation now doubts if there is a Bible it
can completely trust and say with assurance, &God hath said.&
The Bible teaches &In the beginning
God.& This is true of the Bible itself, &All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God& (2 Tim. 3:16). As the Spirit of God &moved
upon the face of the waters& in the day of creation (Gen. 1:2), so
&Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit& (2
Pet. 1:21). God is the Creator of the universe, the creator of man, and
the Author of the Word of God, the Bible.
It is possible to know that behind all the
marvellous creation of the universe there is a God, a Creator, but let
us never forget that the God of creation is also the God of revelation.
Paul makes clear in 1 Cor. 2:9-14 that we
can only receive and understand this Word as a supernatural revelation
(vs. 10), given by supernatural illumination (vs. 11,12,14).
God has given us the inspired scriptures
for a definite purpose as recorded in 2 Tim. 3:16, 17 so that man could
have a sure authority and standard for his reproof and correction and
for &furnishing& him for right and good living by a perfect rule. Paul
made clear in speaking of the total unity of the Bible which would
shortly be completed that &when that which is perfect is come& (1
Cor. 13) that is, the full and completed New Testament, then other
temporary aids allowed to the earthly church would &be done away.&
The early church believers not only &received the word with all readiness of mind,& but they gave it the
place of final authority, and searched &the scriptures daily, whether
those things were so& (Acts 17:11). In their search for truth they
did not turn to the evaluations of human reason, nor to the traditions
and declarations of the church, but to the written Word of God.
-- THE PEOPLES GOSPEL HOUR
THE WONDER OF THE BOOK
The wonder of the Book grows upon us as our
experience is enlarged, for the more deeply we search it, the more we
feel that the Bible is not merely a book, but The Book. It alone is the
universal Book, the eternal Book, the Book for all time. It is the voice
of the Lord. It stands alone, unapproachable in its grandeur, as high
above all other books as heaven is above earth, or as the Son of God is
above the sons of men.
THE WONDER OF ITS FORMATION
One of the first things about this Book
that evokes our wonder is the very fact of its existence, for there was
never any order given to any man to plan the Bible, nor was there ever
any concerted plan on the part of the men who wrote to write the Bible.
The way in which the Bible grew is one of the mysteries of our time.
Little by little, century after century, it came out in fragments,
written by various men, without any concerted arrangement. One wrote a
part in Arabia, another in Syria, a third in Palestine, another in
Greece and Italy, and the first part was written hundreds of years
before the man who wrote the last part was born.
Here is a Book that took at least fifteen
hundred years to write, spanning sixty generations of this world's
history. It enlarges our conceptions of God and gives us new ideas of
His infinite patience as He watched the strain, the haste and
restlessness of man across the feverish years, while slowly the great
Book grew. Here a little, there a little, history, prophecy, poetry and
biography, it came forth before a needy world in its finished
completeness.
There was no pre-arrangement by men. It is
not as if Matthew, Mark, Luke and John met in committee and after solemn
conference and seeking for the leading of the Spirit, Matthew undertook
to write of Christ as the King, and Mark agreed to write of Him as the
Servant, Luke undertaking to delineate Him as the Man, and John
determining to crown it all by writing of Him as the Son of God. It was
not as if Paul and James met and after talking and praying about it
agreed that Paul should write of the doctrinal and James of the
practical aspects of the Christian faith. There is no trace of such a
thing. They simply wrote as they were moved by the Spirit to meet a
present need, to teach some glorious truth, to express some earnest
longing, and from the aggregation of their writings came this miraculous
unit that we call the New Testament.
THE WONDER OF ITS UNIFICATION
The Bible, though regarded as a Book, is in
fact a library of sixty-six volumes written by between thirty and forty
different authors, in three languages, on totally different topics and
in extraordinarily different circumstances. One wrote history, another
biography, one wrote on theology, another poetry, another prophecy,
others on philosophy, jurisprudence, genealogy, ethnology, and
narratives of wonderful journeys. Here in the Bible we have them all, in
a little Book that a child can carry in its little hand. The strangest
thing of all is that, although their subjects are so diverse and
difficult, and although it was impossible for the man who wrote the
first pages to have the slightest knowledge what others would write 1500
years later, yet this collection of writings is not only unified by men
in one Book, but so unified by God, the Author, that we can never think
of it today as anything else but one Book! And one Book it is indeed --
the miracle of all literary unity.
THE WONDER OF ITS INTEREST
Another marvellous thing about this Book is
that it is the only book in the world read by all classes and all sorts
of people. Literary people rarely read a child's book, and children do
not read books of philosophy and science. There is but one Book that is
read by the wisest of men, read to the little child, and read by the old
man as he trembles on the brink of another world. Professor Dyson Hague
asked the nurse what she was reading to his daughter, and she replied,
&I am reading the story of Joseph in the Bible,& and the child added,
&And please do not stop her, father.& She was listening with delighted
interest to a story that had been written in Hebrew three thousand five
hundred years before. Not far away from the same room where the child
was listening, there sat one of the greatest of modern scientists, Sir
William Dawson (a humble believer in the Lord Jesus Christ), reading
with profound devotion and higher delight the pages of the same
marvellous Book. Here is a phenomenon -- one of the ablest of modern
scientists delights in reading a Book which is the joy of a little child
in the nursery!
THE WONDER OF ITS LANGUAGE
The Book was not written in the seats of
learning, either at Athens in Greece or at Alexandria in Egypt, but in
Palestine. Some of the writers were not distinguished for their
scholarship. Some did not speak even their own language perfectly. Peter
was betrayed by his Galilean dialect, and he and John were described in
Acts 4:13 as &ignorant and unlearned men&. Many of the men who wrote the
Bible were of that character. One was a farm-hand, another a shepherd,
others were fishermen. They were men of no literary reputation, and yet
by the mysterious power of God the Book has become the standard of
language of the most literary nations of the world.
THE WONDER OF ITS PRESERVATION
The Bible has withstood ages of ferocious
and incessant persecution. Century after century men have tried to burn
it and to bury it and to extirpate it. Kings of the earth set themselves
and rulers of the church have taken counsel together to destroy it.
Diocletian the Roman Emperor inaugurated in AD 303 a terrific onslaught
upon the Book. Bibles were destroyed, Christians were slain, and the
Emperor boasted that the very name of the Christians was blotted out,
and yet after a few years, the Bible came forth as Noah from the ark to
repeople the earth, and in AD 325 Constantine enthroned the Bible as the
Infallible Judge of Truth in the great council of the Church held in
that year.
Later the Church of Rome denied the
Scriptures to the people and for ages the Bible was practically an
unknown book. Martin Luther was a grown man when he said that he had
never seen a Bible in his life. No jailor ever kept a prisoner closer
than the Church of Rome kept the Bible from the people.
The worst opposition of all has been during
the last two hundred years, with rationalism and modernism seeking to
undermine the authority, inspiration and inerrancy of the Holy
Scriptures. It was Voltaire's boast that within one hundred years of his
death not a Bible would be found save as an antiquarian curiosity. Many
more than one hundred years have passed, and other pens and other voices
have joined in the attack, but the Bible remains and is being more
widely distributed and used than ever before.
THE BIBLE IS SELF-AUTHENTICATING
You need no historical critic for God's own
Word. The Holy Spirit, who is the Author of the Book, makes it speak to
our souls in such power as to give divine conviction. Men may arise to
unsettle and destroy, but the Spirit of Christ comes to validate and
confirm, with a certainty that is incommunicable by mere reason, and is
impervious to the assaults of doubt. Spurgeon spoke of a poor woman who
was challenged by an agnostic to prove that the Bible in her hand was
God's Word. She pointed to the sun and said, &Can you prove that there
is a sun in the sky?& The unbeliever answered, &Of course, the proof is
that it warms me and I see its light.& &That is it,& she replied, &and
the best proof that this Book is the Word of God is that it warms and
lights my soul.&
IT CANNOT BE IMPROVED
We do not gild gold. We do not paint
rubies. We cannot brighten diamonds. Neither can any artist add any
final touch to this finished Word of God. It stands as the sun in the
sky and this proud age can add nothing to it. It has the glory of God
and any attempt to improve it can but disfigure it. It speaks with
authority and breaks upon you as the Voice from heaven. Five hundred
times in the Pentateuch, three hundred times in the following books and
twelve hundred times in the prophets, the declarations are prefaced or
concluded with such expressions as &Hear the Word of the Lord&, or &Thus
saith the Lord&. No other book dares thus to address itself to the
universal conscience. No other speaks with such a binding claim or
presumes to command the obedience of all mankind. The Book speaks to the
inner conscience with the authority of God Himself.
IT IS LIVING AND POWERFUL
Men think of the Bible as a Book that was
inspired, and this is true, but it is also true that it still comes
sweeping into the hearts of men today, and the same breath of God that
gave it life makes it living and spiritually energising today. This is a
most remarkable and unique feature of the Bible -- I feel that it is
mine. Its promises are mine. The 103rd Psalm is not ancient Hebrew, it
is a present day message to my soul. The other day I took up an old
Bible that my mother gave me, in which years ago I had marked Genesis
28:15 when I was in great trouble and had to leave my wife and children
and travel in quest of health in distant lands. One day as I opened the
Bible at random these words came before my eye. Shall I ever forget the
flood of comfort that swept over my soul as I read that verse? &Behold,
I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and
will bring thee again to this land.& All the critics in the world could
never persuade my soul that those words were a mere echo of some far-off
relic of a Babylonian legend or oriental myth. No, no! That was a
message to me, and it swept into my soul as a voice from heaven and
lifted me up. No man will ever shake me out of the conviction that that
message was God's own Word to me -- inspiring because inspired.
IT REVEALS CHRIST
It changes mens' lives and alters their
destinies. It inaugurates world-wide movements. A single text
transformed Luther and launched the greatest of modern epochs. It comes
today into communities of unrighteousness as a regenerating force.
The supreme wonder of the Book is Christ,
Who is its fulness, its centre, its great subject. Of the whole Book it
may be said, &The glory of God does lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof&. As long as men live upon the face of the globe, the Book
that tells of Christ the Revealer, Redeemer, the Risen, Reigning,
Returning Lord will draw men's hearts like a magnet, and men will stand
by it, and live for it, and die for it.
Do not think that we ought to read this
Book as we read any other book, or study and analyse it just as we do
any text book in literature or science. No! When you come to this Book,
come to it with reverence. Read it with a plea for the Spirit's help.
&Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground.& Other books are of the earth. This is from
heaven, it is the living Word of the Living God, Supernatural in origin,
divine in authorship, regenerative in power, infallible in authority,
personal in application, inspired in its every part.
(Summarised and selected from &The Wonder
of the Book&
by Prof. Dyson Hague, M.A.)
CONCLUSION
Let us make ourselves very clear where we
stand in relation to the Authorised Bible, God's Word. We believe the
A.V. Bible was translated by 47 scholars, men of God appointed to carry
out this vital work. These men under the inspiration of The Holy Spirit
translated from the Greek into English words, placing commas, etc.,
where necessary, thereby giving us the true meaning in our language.
There is no room for alteration to words or commas, etc., as they stand
in the A.V. Bible. So vital is this that God has distinctly warned
against tampering with His Word. He has placed in our A.V. Bible these
warnings. In Deut. 4:2a, &Ye shall not add unto the Word which I command
you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it .... &; In Prov. 30:6a,
&add thou not unto His Words& and in Rev. 22:18, 19, &(18) For I testify
unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If
any man shall add unto l hese things, God shall add unto him the plagues
that are written in this book: (19) And if any man shall take away from
the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out
of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which
are written in this book.&
Let us here give one example of tampering
with God's Word, and how vital commas are in our English translation. In
Heb. 10:12, the A.V. reads, &But this man, after He had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of G& Some
translations have placed the comma after sins making it read &After He
had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand
of God& thus making the return of Our Lord impossible. This of course
makes Roman Catholic doctrine, leaving the priests free to celebrate
&mass& as often as they please, in spite of Our Lord Jesus Christ having
offered one sacrifice for sins forever. Heb. 10:12.
We can be sure the A.V. is God's
infallible, inerrant, and no less inspired word than was the original
Greek and Hebrew from which it was translated. Would God have neglected
the preservation of His Pure Word?, if so, He certainly could not hold
us responsible. He would have left us without a Bible in which we could
place our trust, further more as few of us read and understand Greek,
what an impossible position we would find ourselves in, in relation to
our salvation.
All Things Must be Examined by the
Scriptures
When we are confronted by some new
doctrine, etc., we must do as the Bereans did, Acts 17:11. &Search the
Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.& In addition, we must,
under the guidance of The Holy Spirit learn to &rightly divide the
Word&. 2 Timothy 2:15.
We would further draw the attention of
those who would seek to alter or improve (as they imagine) the A.V. by
using some Greek text which does not agree with the A.V. if so there is
only one place for the text, the waste paper basket, as you are probably
using one of the many corrupt Greek texts, possibly Westcott and Hort's.
This has been altered and differs in something like five or six thousand
places from the Received text from which the New Testament of The A.V.
Bible was translated into English. We stand or fall on this Bible, God's
Word given to us in English.
Remember! God wrote only one Bible.
Paul said he did not adulterate the Word of
God but presented it in all its purity. However, man today has corrupted
it by adding to it through the rapid production of new translations,
paraphrases, versions, perversions and amplifications of the Scriptures.
The best that can be said for them all is that they are helping to
increase sales in most Bible Book Stores and helping the publishers to
make large profits. The Christians are left without their money and end
up in greater confusion than ever.
Compiled by-
BIBLE TRUTH SOCIETY R.D. OratiaAucklandNew Zealand
With grateful acknowledgement to our many
friends in The Lord Jesus Christ, who, by their prayers and support have
enabled us to carry on the fight against the Apostasy in the Churches,
and the Masterpiece of Satan, the perversion of The Word of God.