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 | | From: | admin | | Subject: | Preservation or Restoration #6 | | Date: | Sat, 13 Nov 2004 14:53:05 GMT |
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 | The following is a continuing post from the Book "Which Version is the
Bible" by Floyd Nolen Jones. Chapter 1, pages 9,10
Which Version is the Bible? Ó
Copyright 1995 · Floyd Jones Ministries, Inc.
All Rights Reserved. This book may be freely reproduced in any form as long
as it is not distributed for any material gain or profit; however, this book
may not be published without written permission.
BEWARE - "A LITTLE LEAVEN ..."
In Matthew 16:6 and 12, Jesus said unto his disciples "... Take heed and
beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." The Pharisees
and Sadducees were very religious people yet enemies of God. The disciples
finally understood in verse 12 that Jesus was not speaking of the bread
which the Pharisees and Sadducees had made. He was warning of their
doctrine - to beware of that which the religious leaders were teaching.
Today, the warning is still valid. Religious, pious devout men who attack
the Scriptures are wolves (or have been deceived by wolves) in sheep's
clothing; beware of their leaven for a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Mark 12:37 contains these words - "... And the common people heard him
gladly." Nothing has changed. This is still true. The common people still
hear Jesus and the Word of God gladly but more and more in churches and
seminaries it is no longer believed that we have the Word of God. We are
being told in conservative seminaries and Bible colleges that we do not have
the infallible Word of God and that we have lost its text. Are we to
believe that God has preserved the canon of the Bible but not the text?
If you are born again of God by the blood of Jesus Christ, through simple
faith in Jesus Christ - believing in His virgin birth, His death to pay for
our sin, and His resurrection which confirmed that He is God Almighty come
in the flesh - then it follows that you believe that God gave the canon (the
books which belong in the Bible). Are we now to believe that He did not
give or preserve for us the text - that is, what those God chosen books
actually said?
NOT AN "AD HOMINEM"
In order to fully expose the wickedness of these wolves within the flock of
God, we shall have to review the story of the 1881 revision and contrast it
to that of the 1611 King James translation. It is quite a story and in
order to disclose it, we shall have to examine the lives and beliefs of some
of the men involved. As a result, some might say that our thesis is an "ad
hominem" and therefore not valid, for it draws on emotions and feelings -
that it is a personal attack upon the men involved. Such is not the case.
We have not erected any "straw men" to attack. Rather our account is that
of an exposé, an exposé which will reveal that the Church has, for
centuries, been intimidated into following the scholarship of brilliant -
yet habitually unregenerate - men.
However, no unsaved person can teach us ANYTHING about the Bible that we
really need to know. They may be brilliant scholars of Greek and/or Hebrew.
They may be able to explain how to conjugate Greek and Hebrew verbs, but
they cannot explain or clarify Scriptural context because they do not know.
They may know all about Assyriology, Egyptology, Astronomy, the History of
Babylon, the archaeology of Israel, etc., but such information is not really
necessary to the understanding of the Holy Writ. The Scripture is a fully
self contained revelation. Were other data necessary to its comprehension
God would have included it in The Word.
With reference to these bold assessments, the Scripture proclaims that the
natural (unregenerate) man cannot receive the things of God ... "nor can he
know them" (I Cor.2:9-14). Ephesians 4:18 says that their "understanding
has been darkened". Romans 1:28 teaches that they have reprobate and
depraved minds. Matthew 13:14-15 says that they hear with their ears, but
they do not hear with their understanding and their hearts. Despite their
scholarship and their brilliance, they do not see and hear - they cannot
perceive. However, the Christian by virtue of the new birth may have his
perception opened by revelation from the Living God.
This is thus not an ad hominem. We need to understand that the men who have
led us into today's position have been, for the most part, lost and godless
(albeit "religious and devout") and that we are blindly following their
erroneous logic of textual criticism.
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