2005
JULY
I�m going to do something in this space that I would normally frown upon. I would normally take this Bible study section and write an expository examination of a Bible passage. I still think this is the best method of preaching. When we do �topic studies� we tend to put too much of ourselves into the writings. We tend to �proof text.� It is much better to let God speak for Himself in an examination of that which He has said.
So, why do I make an exception to my own rule? Simply because there is an effort today, as there has always been, to reduce the authority of Scripture.
For the past one hundred and fifty years, or so, the primary attack against faith in the preserved Word of God has been centered upon the �oldest and best� manuscripts - which are, in reality, neither the oldest nor the best.
This attack continues. However, a �new,� yet similar attack has come to the fore with the spurious history of the �Di Vinci Code� fictions. Both of these center on a fictional �revision� of the Holy Scriptures in the days of Constantine and the council of Nicea. The older heresy, that of the �oldest and best� manuscripts, claims that this council was used to �streamline� the Scripture into a standardized model, the implication being that there were many variations swirling around the confused church at that time. The argument goes that the Alexandrian manuscripts somehow escaped this �revision� and represent a text much closer to the original. Even the proponents of this argument will not argue that this text is the original - just that it is closer.
The more current and popular heresy is that the council was used to suppress the gnostic �gospels� because Constantine wanted a text more favorable to empire building.
I mention both as �heresy� because of their low opinion of God and His Message. If either of these heresies were true we would not have a faith worthy of defending - nor of practicing. At the heart of these fictions is a belief that God is not powerful enough to protect that which He has inspired. Not only does this impact upon His power, this also impacts upon the love of God. Did He really give us a Word - which had to be important or He would not have given it - and then withdraw that Message?
Also, how intelligent do we consider God to be? Did He really take the time and effort to inspire a Word which He either knew was going to be lost to mankind; or, did He not foresee this eventuality? Either way His intelligence is called into question!
And, if this is true, what about the Message of Salvation? What are we to make of that? Did He get it right? Do we even have what He said this to be?
And, what of the Holy Spirit. Where is His power to lead and guide the churches of the Living God? Jesus made a prophecy in Matthew 16:17 & 18 - �And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.� This is a very important prophecy in the current discussion.
In examining this verse it would be good to first consider what the passage does not say. Popular interpretation of this verse carries the implication that Jesus has promised to build His church upon Peter. This is not the case. Jesus said to Peter, �You at �Petros� (a little rock ) upon this �Petra� (a large rock) I will build my church...� A subtle but important difference. Peter is called a piece of gravel while the church is called a large stone. Gravel comes from a stone; it is of the same essence while being an individual part. Jesus is saying that Peter is part of a larger organism based on his statement of affirmation of the Person of Christ. In that sense each individual Christian is a �Peter� in this Biblical sense.
Notice that Jesus said that �flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee...� What had not been revealed? The affirmation that Jesus is �...the Christ, the Son of the living God.� It is upon this, the fact of the Divinity and Work of Jesus Christ, that Christ promised to build His church.
Notice, also, that this is NOT the church. This affirmation is that upon which the churches of Jesus are to be built. In point of fact, no church which denies the full divinity and sacrificial work of Jesus Christ is a church in the Biblical sense. The term translated �church� is �ecclesia,� which simply means an assembly called out for a particular purpose. My old unit in the 4th Infantry Division was a �church� in this sense; we were called out of the general population to perform a distinct duty. The distinct duty of each of the individual churches which Jesus established is to affirm that He is, �...the Christ, the Son of the living God.� There is much that comes under this heading. But, this much is foundational.
So, if we can not be certain that we have preserved for us the Eternal Word of God, then we can not affirm that we have a true picture of just Who Jesus Christ is in reality. Don�t say, �But my experience...� Experience is untrustworthy. Experience depends upon mood swings, subjective individual interpretation of facts, other people, reactions to medications, pizza too late at night before we go to bed, and the attacks of Satan upon our spiritual lives. In the words of the street, �Words don�t cut it! What might be, might be. But, what is, is!�
That is why God inspired His Word to us. That is why He did count it important enough to preserve it for us! His Word is a sure anchor in all changing cultures and societies. A wise man once said, �God said it. I believe it. That settles it.� He was wrong! God said it and that settles it whether I believe it or not. That is why we do have, given from the Loving God, Himself, a Word that is True and Preserved. We can trust this Word even more than we can trust ourselves!
In the coming months we�ll be looking at the transmission of the Word of God to us today. This will be following my study outline of �God Keeps His Word.� My prayer is that this study will be profitable in your spiritual life. We do have a Word we can trust. We do have a Message that is important. May we take this Message of Salvation from sin out into the world of lost mankind.
There are a couple of points that I would like to make about this compilation before we get started.
First, and most importantly, I am not an expert in the subject of textual criticism. Anyone who would disagree with this observation has, apparently, never met me! I do believe, however, that if the Message of Scripture is for us - and I believe that It is!, then it must be important or God would not have given us that Message. Since this Message is important I do not believe that God would willingly allow that Message to be lost for a thousand years. God is powerful enough to keep that from happening if He so desired. It should be obvious that He would so desire.
There are many words which will be cited in this study that were made by people who are experts. Checks the notes. Check the bibliography as it is given. Get some of these works. Our faith is not in vain. God honors true study by giving reason for that faith which is within us. I realize that we do not have to understand everything in order for it to be of God. How good it is that God does allow us to try His works and see that they are both Good and True.
Some of the sources which I have cited would not agree with the conclusions which I have reached. For the most part these have to do with good men who are committed to the inspiration of the Holy Scripture. I have cited them because of their views on inspiration. I have taken that view of inspiration to what is, I believe, its logical result: If God did care enough to inspire His Word, He also must have cared enough to protect that Word! The God we worship is not a God of absurdity. Why would He have bothered to inspire a message which He knew - and, He would know! - was going to be lost for a thousand years and then be, maybe, patched mostly back together by the same type of men who would have allowed it to be lost in the first place? As I said, this is my conclusion and not necessarily that of all the sources which will be cited.
God�s love is shown forth in the giving of His Message to mortal man. Salvation, the approach of sinful man toward Holy God allowed, is only because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. His Message to us of that tremendous miracle of love is shown forth in the pages of His Holy Word. His power is shown forth in the preservation of that Message. His grace is shown when He allows us to respond to Him because of that Message.
The Bible is not simply a book. The Bible is not simply a record of sacred history. The Bible is even more than our guide in this life and to the next. The Bible, this is a glorious thought,
is God condescending to speak to mortal man.
God has never lost control of His Word. He has never hidden, nor has He allowed the forces of Satan to hide, His Book from His true children. His power to preserve His Book has never failed because His love toward lost mankind has never failed!
1 July 2005
INSPIRATION AND PRESERVATION
�All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness...� II Timothy 3:16
I once managed a gas station that had a car wash attached. My entire crew (I had inherited them from the former manager) consisted of high school and college age young men. The station was located at the edge of the city, sort of �out in the open,� and on the top of a small hill. While working there during the day shift I never gave that location a thought.
Then one night all these young men wanted off from work so they could go to social functions at their schools. I understood that this was going to be a highlight of their young lives, so I agreed to work the second shift so they could be with their friends and classmates. No problem. I was young enough myself that it wouldn�t be a hardship on me.
The second shift began in the late afternoon and continued on into the night. As the sun went down, the wind speed went up. This station was in a town near the Mississippi River in northern Illinois.
As the sun waned and the wind began to whip up, the mist from the car wash began to join in the mix. I soon realized something that I should have understood very easily: Wind mixed with water can get fairly cold on an evening in late March in the northern half of Illinois.
Some things are so obvious that we should simply understand them because they are what they are.
The Bible is inspired.
The Bible can be a very simple Book if we will just take the words written therein at their face value. In Genesis, for instance, the Bible simply states the existence of God. No great lengths are taken to explain that fact. The Bible just says that this is so. The closest that the Bible comes, as far as I can tell, to arguing the fact of God is in Psalms 14:1 - �The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God...�
In other words, the Bible doesn�t tell us that we have to accept the existence of God; the Bible just describes our state if we do not.
It is the same in the matter of inspiration. The Bible doesn�t take a long time to argue the fact of inspiration. It just states that fact. Pendelton, in his epic �Christian Doctrines� makes this observation:
I have thought proper to say as much as this concerning inspiration, as there will be no chapter of this work specially devoted to the subject. Indeed, such a chapter will hardly be necessary for if the Bible is, as I have attempted to show, a revelation from God, its inspiration must be granted.�
Now, as we begin to look at the transmission of this Message from God down through the ages, we would do well to look at this doctrine of inspiration.
First, it would be good to note that the verse above says that �All scripture is inspired...� The passage does not mention the men who penned those words.
Part of the majesty of the Person of God is that He used imperfect men to write a Perfect Book. Bynum (King James Fans(?)) makes the observation that �Not even Paul or Peter were infallible. It is God�s Word that is infallible and inspired of God.�
This simply means, in accordance with II Timothy 3:16, that the writer�s were not, themselves, inspired of God. However, through the Glory of God, His Spirit worked on various men, who were themselves imperfect, to produce a Word that was (and is!) perfect.
Peter, writing under inspiration, put it this way: �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.� (II Peter 1:21)
By the way, what was it that made these men holy? It was the power of God displayed through them. Check out these men in Scripture and you will see that they were flawed. It was the power of God displayed on, and in, them that produced the Bible. It was not their own human goodness.
There�s a sermon in that for today. God is able to use us if we are willing to be obedient to His Holy Will. We will not, of course, write Scripture. But, He can use us to distribute that Message of the Scripture into a world in need of the Message of God.
It is good, of course, that God in His wisdom did inspire those Words rather than those men. If the inspiration lies upon the Words, then we still have a Message which we can trust today in the faithful transmission of those Words. We have, in reality, an inspired Message in faithful copies of those very words.
The human penmen pass from history. But, the Words of the Message of God are alive and vibrant to us today as they are still the Words of God.
This also means, of course, that any other words are not the inspired message of God.
Any other scripture, so called, which is not these words from God, is not the message of God. These may contain moral and ethical teaching; but, they cannot be the message of God unless they are the inspired Words of God.
This, of course, brings up an important point. What about our translations? They are important to us. Most of us do not have a knowledge of the original languages which were in those original autographs. Can there be an �inspired� translation?
As Fuller (Which Bible?) points out, �The original Scriptures were written by direct inspiration of God. This can hardly be said of any translation.� The idea of a translation, any translation, being inspired of God is false. A translation may be God honored, or God empowered as it is true to His actual inspired words; but a translation can not be inspired.
The following argument is from my work �The Tree at Marah:�
...God could only have given full inspiration to one set of writings - the Words of the originals. After all, He is a God of Power; He is not a God of absurdity. If God did, indeed, give His Word perfect and established forever, inspired in the words of the original Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, it had to be perfect.
It could only remain perfect in exact copies of those originals. To allege that this perfection was moved from these Words to the words of any translation, even the KJB, is to say that God was mistaken in His assertion that the original inspiration was perfect. I am not ready to say that God was mistaken!
The only other possible argument I could see, to claim inspiration for the King James Bible, would be that He had inspired the words of the KJB as well. Again absurdity raises its reasonable head. To inspire the KJB in such a way is to say that God had decided on an ending program for His first stab at an eternal Word.
Again, this would bring into question as to whether or not God had made a mistake in His first stab at a Scripture that was �...settled in Heaven.� (Psalm 119:89)
This also begs the question of how long our KJB would remain as the Word of God.
This throws our entire concept of inspiration into turmoil. We have ripped from our faith that upon which our faith is founded: The Unalterable Word of God.
Not only that, but we are suddenly presented with a God Who is not the Unchanging One. He is become a vacillating Sovereign Whose pronouncements we can only trust for we know not how long. What is to become of the promise of our eternal salvation if God would change His mind on so important a factor as His very message to us?
Worse still, this sort of occurrence would bring into question the entire cosmology of Who we understand God to be. We understand God to be The God of Eternity. If He would choose to do away with His promise of an eternal Word in a time-centric manner, where does this place our understanding of Heaven, and of Hell, and of the very nature of God, Himself?
No! No! No! The King James Bible, for all that I love and revere it, can never be the completely unalterable, eternal, inspired Word of God. What a travesty it is that anyone would ever suggest that this is so!
Nonetheless I would argue that we can trust our King James Bibles as the Word of God in the English language. This venerable version was translated, unlike the many modern �versions,� from the words of the true text which God inspired and preserved for us today.
It is the transmission of those Words which will be the subject of our study.
8 July 1005
INSPIRATION AND PRESERVATION (Continued)
As we were looking at last week, the inspiration of Scripture did not lie upon the individual penmen. They were, of course, as I Peter 1:21 makes clear, �moved upon� by the Holy Spirit. But, they were not themselves inspired. It was the Words which bore the mark and imprint of inspiration.
The word �inspiration� means literally, to breathe out. The illustration I like to use here is that of a public speaker. As I speak to a live audience, the air is forced out of my lungs and over my larynx - voice box. This action causes the air molecules to vibrate. This vibration causes a ripple effect, much like a stone thrown into a pond will produce those little waves that go out in a circular fashion from the point of impact.
As these �air waves� reach the listeners� ears, they produce a vibration against the ear drums of the hearer. This, in turn, sets off some action in the nerves of the ears which produce the phenomena of sound within the hearer.
In a very real sense, I could argue that the sound my listener would hear is my breath.
The Words of the Scripture are the very Breath of God upon our souls.
In a manner that I cannot begin to understand, much less to explain the mechanics of, we have a real relationship with the God of the Universe as we read His Word. It is a personal contact, on a spiritual level, between ourselves and God.
For the Christian, the Holy Spirit of God teaches us, and illumines what God has said, as we read these Words. That is why those same Words can offer such comfort when we need comfort, and conviction when we need convicting. The Bible, inspired of God, is a Living Book unlike any manmade book.
I have commentaries that were written centuries ago. They are very useful and give great insight on the passages upon which they comment. But, the Bible speaks to me in a way that even the best commentary never can.
As we read His Word, and pray in faith, we have a relationship with God as He is our Constant Contemporary. This is because His Living Words are fresh each time we look upon them. They are able to speak to us in this �modern� world, in our changing and varied cultures, because He is eternal. His Words are therefore also eternal.
We speak often of the �original autographs� of Scripture. These were, of course, inspired. But, any faithful copy of those words - the same words in the same order - is also inspired because these are the very Words of God as given under inspiration. A faithful and accurate copy is as inspired and authoritative as were those �original autographs.�
I have a DVD of me speaking at a Bible conference last summer. As this DVD is played, the electronic configurations within my television pick up the impulses of my words. This is converted into sound waves just as if I were speaking in person. Those sound waves reach the ears of the hearers in the same way as if I were speaking in person. Those are still my words.
But, the fact does remain that I am not with every person who might play that message on their T.V. My words, of course (and obviously!), are not inspired. Still, the DVD player does allow one to hear my exact words and to receive the message which I had intended.
God�s Words are like that - but more! My words were a reproduction of what I had said. God�s Words are more than a simple reproduction. They are His Words by inspiration. They are His breath upon us as we read His Message.
The inspiration did not lie upon the parchment, or the ink, or even with the mind and abilities of the human penmen. All of these things are temporal. They are of time and subject to decay. Inspiration lies in the Breath and Word of God. God is of eternity. His Words are not subject to decay.
We will take up this idea again in our next session as we look at the transmission of those inspired Words throughout the centuries.
15 July 2005
INSPIRATION AND PRESERVATION (Continued)
Some question has arisen as to why I am continuing to write on the doctrine of Inspiration when the professed thrust of these talks was to be on the doctrine of the Preservation of the Scripture. There is a Scriptural reason.
We are often confused with the claims of many that the only purpose of the Scripture is to teach religious stories. In actuality the Scripture gives much practical admonition for all of our lives.
This is quite reasonable and expected in a Book from God to man. After all, almost every mechanical item we buy in a store has an �owners manual� from the manufacturer to give guidance as to how to get the best performance from his machinery.
God has also given us an �owners manual� for our use in living our lives to the fullest. There are many such �nuggets of instruction� within the pages of Scripture. One of these is an observation which is readily understood by everyone from the builder of a house to a first grade teacher. Isaiah 28:10: �For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.�
Simply put, we begin with those concepts which underlie the edifice of our argument.
Without inspiration there would be no need for preservation of the Scripture. Conversely, we shall see later, without preservation there is no purpose in inspiration.
Criswell (Why I Preach That the Bible is Literally True) makes this statement: �It is the verbal inspiration which assures us that the truth delivered from God is trustworthy because the Lord communicated it to us without error.�
God is our Creator. He is, in a sense of the word, our Manufacturer. We should expect that He has given us a �Guide Book� to better order our steps in this physical world. Since we know Him to be all-powerful and loving, we understand that this Book would have to be perfect in It�s original offering to mankind.
That is what we have! We have a perfect, because God inspired It, and preserved Word because we have a Perfect and Eternal God!
It is from the pages of this �Owners Manual� that we can learn to more efficiently order our lives. It is from this Bible that we can learn of the God Who created us and stands ready to offer salvation to our sinful selves!
This is our Christian dogma. We have an inspired and perfect Book!
Gipp, in An Understandable History of the Bible, speaks of the specialness of this Gift to the Christian:
...�the infallible Word of God� [is] one of the doctrines that separates us from the world. We take pride in thundering forth that we are not as the unregenerate world. We have a guideline. We have the guideline, the Word of God! Then we hold our open Bible up for all to see and shout, �this is God�s Word! It�s perfect, infallible, inerrant, the very words of God.�
Gipp goes on to argue that we may make many claims as Christians. We claim the Virgin Birth, the Divinity of Christ, salvation as based on faith in the effectiveness of the death of Christ, the fact that Jesus is coming back. Other people may make outlandish claims on every subject under the sun. Many may assert that our claims are nothing more than �mooncheese.� But, our claims are backed up by - more than that, they are predicated upon the plain statements of, the Inspired and Preserved Word of God! It is to this Book that we appeal to back our claims and our beliefs.
It is to the understanding of the doctrine of preservation that we appeal to back up our fidelity to this Book. Without an inspired gospel, we cannot have a certain gospel. Without a certain gospel we have no rational to back our claims and our beliefs. Without a certainty that God did say it, and that He has preserved it so that we can know that He said it, we have no basis upon which to found our claims and theologies other than the sifting sands of the culture of changeable mankind.
It is upon a belief that this Scripture is reliable that we base our entire faith. Barnhouse (The Bible Under Attack) put it well:
�...one of the greatest leaders of the Church of England, Bishop Ryle of Liverpool, wrote: �Give me the plenary, verbal theory of Biblical inspiration with all its difficulties, rather than the doubt. I accept the difficulties and humbly wait for their solution. But while I wait, I am standing on the Rock - �IT IS WRITTEN.��
It is a truth that if we cannot accept the doctrine of inspiration of the Scripture we have no where to turn but heresy.
Criswell (Why I Preach That the Bible is Literally True) makes this observation, of inspiration:
�If we surrender the truth of verbal inspiration of the Bible, we are left like a rudderless ship on a stormy sea. We are at the mercy of every wind that blows. Deny that the Bible is the very Word fo God and we have no ultimate standard of righteousness and no supreme authority for our salvation. It is impossible to overestimate what evil is wrought when the Word of God is denied.�
He goes on to use this illustration and observation:
�...one day a friend of mine [story by W. A. Criswell] went to a great northern university to study for his Ph.D. degree in pedagogy. While he was there, he made the friendship of a young student in the divinity school. When time came for this young preacher to get his degree in theology, a church in the Midwest called him to be their pastor. The young minister went to my friend who was studying for his doctor�s degree in teaching and said these amazing words to him: �I am in a great quandary. I have been called to be a pastor of a church in the Midwest, but it is one of those old-time, old-fashioned churches that believe the Bible as the Word of God. Now I do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God and I do not know what to do.� My friend said to him, �Well, I can tell you what to do.� The young theolog eagerly replied, �What?� and my friend said, �I think you ought to quit the ministry!� That is what I also think. If a man does not believe that the Bible is the Word of God, he has no place in any pulpit in the land. All his preachments are nothing but speculations, and if he has not the authority of God back of what he says, he has nothing to say.�
Amen and Hallelujah! Preach the Truth, brother. If we do not have the honest Words which were given by God we should open a civic center, or a social organization, or write an opinion column in the local paper. Without the unction of the Word of God we have no business trying to teach the people of God the things of God!
But! If those Words were once inspired and then lost to the churches and people of God... What kind of shallow truth do we have to utter? What kind of God can we expect to expound upon? Even I can write a work which will be soon forgotten. I�m in the process of doing that!
But, God is a little above my quality. He is above my strength. He is above my intellect and skill. God, if He really did inspire any word for mankind, has the power and inclination to preserve that Word.
We cannot argue for inspiration without also arguing for preservation! We will begin to see the interconnectedness of these two cardinal doctrines in our next session.
*** 22 July 2005
INSPIRATION AND PRESERVATION (Continued)
We have been looking at the inspiration of the Scripture. The purpose has been to lay a foundation for a look at the preservation and transmission of the Scripture. This is somewhat necessary because the doctrines of Preservation and Inspiration are entwined doctrines. If one fails, so does the other. Toss out Inspiration and there is nothing to preserve. Toss our Preservation and inspiration is useless.
Dr. David Otis Fuller (Counterfeit or Genuine) made this observation in regards to these twin doctrines:
�Although separate doctrines, the doctrine of preservation is very closely connected to the doctrine of inerrancy. Preservation is necessary in order to maintain an adequate view of inerrancy. Without preservation, the doctrine of inerrancy is only an academic question and has little bearing on the formation of doctrine and exegesis.�
Without inerrancy, which is guaranteed by the inspiration of the Powerful, Creator God, we can have no message worth maintaining. All of our preachings are then based on conjecture, tradition, and fable. We have no firm foundation for our faith. It is all become guesswork and hope. Our very salvation is a �maybe.� And, without this inerrancy, guaranteed by inspiration, our view of God is no more certain than our night visions after eating pizza too late at night!
We would be left with nothing on which to found our faith and hope. No understanding or knowledge of the existence and nature of God. No spiritual leading for this life. No honest understanding of, or hope for, salvation in the world to come.
But, to the praise of God, He has not left us to wander our way on our spiritual journeys. He has given us an inspired road map in His Word to us. Inspiration had insured that this road map need not be updated. It is perfect in every way.
That inerrancy and inspiration could not have been continued past the first draft of the document unless God had promised, and then accomplished, the preservation of His Word. In such a case of His non-involvement in preservation we would be left as above - without a Sure Word to trust and follow!
Dr. Jack Moorman (The Authorized Version [an audio tape]) makes the observation that there are probably as many verses in the Bible on preservation as there are on inspiration.
Beyond this, Gipp (An Understandable History of the Bible) makes note that �Every argument for inerrant, infallible inspiration applies also for the inerrant, infallible preservation. It is the same God!�
This is, of course, a true observation. God is not a God of absurdity. He is a God of power. To suggest that the Great God Who created the universe and all that is within it would be so slovenly in His methods as to inspire a word which He would know would be lost to His churches, is to demean His great Works and Intelligence.
The Word we have today was either inspired and preserved under the power of God, Almighty, or we have no Word and no understanding of God. His Power is called into question as are all His mighty works of creation and sustaining.
God has the power, should He choose to act upon this fact, to both inspire and preserve. Ray (God Wrote Only One Bible) notes that, �The writing of the Word of God by inspiration is no greater miracle than the miracle of its preservation...�
A seminary professor in a Midwestern fundamentalist seminary made the statement recently that God could have chosen to preserve His Word, but obviously did not choose to do so.
This is a �fundamentalist?�
It seems obvious that God, if He did have the power to preserve His inspired Word, should He choose not to do so, is guilty of hiding His Message from His Church, the Bride of Christ! Is that the statement that a �fundamentalist,� one who believes in the �fundamentals of the faith,� would make?
No!
This is a statement that would follow that liberal theological bent which says that we do have the Word of God. It argues that we have only the �Message� of God. It argues that our God is not capable of maintaining a pure word or a pure people. It argues against the very salvation of our souls to argue that God would allow His Eternal Word to be lost in a time-centric manner.
This sort of argument argues against the majesty of the Eternal God. This argument brings doubt upon His eternal Holiness. The argument brings doubt upon the goodness of God towards man.
This sort of argument argues against the very original issuance of the Word of God into this world! If we believe that God did give His Word to mankind, we must surmise that He had a purpose in doing so. To argue that He choose not to preserve His Word is to argue that He never gave it in the first place.
In the light of inspiration, preservation is not only logical. It is also necessary!
We will look at this a little more in the next issue.
***29 July 2005
INSPIRATION AND PRESERVATION (Continued)
As we again begin this we study I�d like to reiterate the correlation between the doctrines of inspiration and preservation. They are married in the sight of God and are become one in the sight of man. We have no purpose in stating, or even believing, in a pseudo doctrine of inspiration if we can not also argue the fact of the doctrine of preservation.
Now, just in case you are placing me in your cross-hairs of oratorical brilliance over my statement calling inspiration a �pseudo doctrine,� what else can we call it if God did not preserve that which He inspired?
We certainly can�t consider inspiration an important doctrine if God thought so little of His original word to us that He didn�t care enough to preserve that message. Can we? Should we place any emphases upon a doctrine which God deemed as unimportant?
Indeed, if God considered the original writings of the Scripture as so unimportant as to withdraw His protecting hand from the finished product can we in sincerity argue that this message is still important today?
I could have saved a lot of money on schools and books if God�s (alleged) Word is just another writing by the ancients.
Folks, if God did not care about His Word enough to protect it then He does not consider it to be important to anyone today. And, by extension, He doesn�t care very much about us today because He has not given any new word lately!
If God did not preserve His Word then we need to close up the churches and use Sunday as a day to sleep in and read the funny papers! The world already does this! The world has a much surer grasp on spiritual realities than do any of us if the Word of God is not important to the God of the Word!
We may as well eat, drink and be merry because we have no hope of heaven.
Our studies and convocations should begin to major on the works of Shakespear and Hemmingway. At least these might have some relevance to the culture and the man in the street!
What good is it to believe that the �original autographs� were inspired and then lost to the churches of the Living God. And, what was He doing while this was going on.?
Remember the words of Elijah to the false prophets of Baal. He had challenged them to prove their god�s ability. When they failed, he asked them to �...Cry aloud: for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.� (I Kings 18:27)
Where is your god if He was unable, or just unwilling, to preserve something so important as His Message to you?
Bynum (Use the Bible God Uses), makes a very clear observation on this subject:
�Of course we believe that the original autographs were the inspired Word of God. Since no one in the past ever had all of the autographs at one time, since no one in the present even has one fragment of any of the autographs, we must approach this subject from a different angle.�
That �different angle� is that many of the theologians, and most of the present day Bible critics and translators, are wrong! Dead wrong. Deadly wrong in the spiritual sense.
Hills, (The King James Version Defended) notes that, �[i]f the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the Old and New Testament Scriptures is a true doctrine, the doctrine of the providential preservation of the Scriptures must also be a true doctrine.�
If we honestly believe in the Jesus of the Bible, we must believe in the Words of the Bible. They are either the Words of God, preserved because of His fidelity to His Own Words, or they are the words of man, subject to decay and distortion. One or the other, folks. Their ain�t no third choice unless we discount the power and love of God, Almighty!
Hills notes that this simple affirmation of our faith leads us to accept inspiration, infallible inspiration, of the original documents of Scripture and a trust that God could, would, and did providentially preserve this original text through the years of time and �...to a belief in the Bible text current among believers as the providentially preserved original text.�
Folks, we either have it (the inspired Words and the Words which were inspired!) or we don�t!
Do we honestly believe that God had no purpose other than showing He could do it, or some sort of cosmic pride, in inspiring His Word?
Gipp (An Understandable History of the Bible) asks this question and then answers it:
�Why did God inspire His word perfectly? Obviously the answer comes back, �So that man could have every word of God pure, complete, trustworthy, and without error.��
And now, we are to suppose, God lost control of that Word somewhere along the line and we must do what we can to get back to as close as we can to what He originally said? What a low view this is of God. And what a sinfully high view this is of man.
We argue that God woke up one day. He looked about the world and said, �Oh, my! Those people have lost the Word I inspired for them. What a bummer!�
Gipp further argues:
�...if God wrote the Bible perfectly in the �originals,� but we cannot have those same words today, then it would seem that He wasted His time inspiring it perfectly in the first place.�
But, in reality, the truth of the matter is even worse. If we argue that God did not care to preserve His inspired Word, but at the same time argue that our (mankind�s) intellect and work can �recreate� a facsimile of the lost Word, we are placing ourselves above God in two very sinful ways.
First of all, we are guilty of trying to undo what God has caused to happen in His oversight of human history.
If we follow an all-powerful Sovereign God, then why are we attempting to reconstruct what He has allowed to be unconstructed? Is it wise, or truly spiritual to try to retrieve that which God has decided to be of no further use?
Second, by using our own intellect to pick and choose which words may be true Words - and by extension which Words are false words, we have placed ourselves above God by making our own preferences as superior to Him.
This is what is being done as we remove our trust from the Traditional Text which God has preserved, and move on to the Hort/Westcott, or the Nestle�, or the various eclectic texts of which are the basis for the newer English versions.
As Denton wrote in The Voice of the Nazareen, we can not make a case for the inerrancy of the Scripture while we are trying to make a case that it needs to be changed. This is what is being done by using a �...perverted and polluted Greek...� text as a basis for a translation.
We will spend some time , down the line, looking at why this is a true statement. These modern texts - of the so-called �oldest and best� - are a �perverted and polluted Greek� text.
Fuller (Counterfeit or Genuine) asked this question of those who might argue that we need a new textual base for our old Book, �If the text of the Scripture was not preserved, what was the need for having an inerrant original?�