Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Inspiration of the Scriptures, Part 4

Today will mark the conclusion of this series of meditations on the inspiration of the Scriptures. Let us return to a consideration of 2 Timothy 3:16 as there is one word in that passage that I want to emphasize.

2 Timothy 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

We showed before that the words “all scripture” cannot be limited, as many believe, to the original autographs of the Scripture. In the preceding verse Paul made mention of “the holy scriptures” that Timothy had known from a child. Recall that this could not have been referring to the original writings of the Old Testament, but rather to copies of those writings. Yet those copies are called “the holy scriptures.” Then in the very next verse Paul teaches that “all scripture,” which would include the Holy Scriptures that Timothy had, “is given by inspiration of God.”

Furthermore, consider the following passages that mention the Scriptures:

Acts 17:1  Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
2  And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,…

Acts 17:10  And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11  These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Acts 18:28  For he (Apollos) mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.

Now all these different persons and places did not have the original autographs of the Scriptures. Clearly Paul preached from copies, the Bereans searched copies, and Apollos taught from copies. Yet these copies are called by the Holy Spirit, “the scriptures.” And, remember, “all scripture is given by inspiration of God,” which would include the Scriptures mentioned in these passages.

Our Lord commanded men to “search the scriptures” (John 5:39). If he were commanding men to search the originals, then none of us today could obey that commandment because the originals no longer exist to be searched! It should be clear that when the Bible speaks of the Scriptures, it is speaking of something that men have access to, something that exists that they can see and read.

Now the thing that I want to drive home today is that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” If this statement refers only to the original autographs of the Scripture, then Paul should have said “all scripture was given by inspiration of God,” for that would indeed be the case. Rather, he wrote that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” If the book you read is the Holy Scripture, and we have shown that the Holy Scripture includes copies and translations of the text, then the Scripture you are reading is given by inspiration of God. The expression “given by inspiration of God” describes the A.V. 1611 Bible you have right now. It is given by inspiration of God.

The process of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures indeed refers to the giving of the words of God to the original writers of Scripture.

2 Peter 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.

To be sure, this part of the process of inspiration is not still going on. God is not still moving men to give forth His words. The body of divine revelation is complete.

Hebrews 1:1  God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,…

The verb phrase hath spoken is present perfect tense, referring to a completed or perfected action. In the generation of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles, God gave us the word He intends for us to have in its entirety. We seek no additional divine revelation. But God has promised the preservation and transmission of those words He has spoken in copies and translations. And these copies and translations are as much His words as when they first fell from His holy lips. Therefore, these copies and translations are given by inspiration of God. So while the inspiration of the Scriptures includes the original communication of the words of God to men, it is by no means limited to that. The inspiration of the Scriptures also includes the processes of copying and translating those words.

Therefore, the A.V. 1611 that you hold in your hands, the book that you read, study, believe, and obey is given to you by the inspiration of God. That very book that you bought or that was given to you by family or friends, you possess by the inspiration of God. It is the superintending providence of God, called inspiration, that secures to you His words, the Holy Scriptures. Prize this gift. Treat it with reverence. Love it. Read it. Study it. Believe it. Obey it. And your daily experience will confirm this glorious fact: “All Scripture," including that which you have in the A.V. 1611, "is given by inspiration of God.”

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Inspiration of the Scriptures, Part 3

I have some additional thoughts that I wish to impart respecting the inspiration of the Scriptures. Today, I would like to drive home the fact that the Holy Scriptures are not limited to the original languages in which they were first written. Note this fascinating passage:

Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,
26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:

The gospel of Jesus Christ is made manifest and made known “by the scriptures of the prophets.” If we had no scriptures of the prophets, we would have no gospel.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

The gospel was promised by God’s prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Without these Holy Scriptures, how we know we had the gospel? It is by these scriptures of the prophets that the gospel is preached. The very gospel or glad tidings is that the promise God made to the fathers has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Paul pointed this out in his sermon in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia.

Acts 13:32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,
33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
34 And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.
35 Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Notice that Paul cites the promise made unto the fathers by quoting the “scriptures of the prophets.” Here is an example of the gospel being made known “by the scriptures of the prophets.” It is by comparing the scriptures of the prophets to the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ that the gospel is preached. One sees this again and again in the gospel sermons recorded in the book of Acts.

Now the fascinating thing that I want to point out to you from Romans 16:25-26, is that this gospel that is made known by the scriptures of the prophets is “made known to all nations.” Now the only way this can happen is if those scriptures of the prophets are translated into the languages of those nations. This argues that other nations of other languages can, and indeed do, have the scriptures of the prophets. Otherwise, how could the gospel, which is preached by the scriptures of the prophets. be made known to them? The scriptures of the prophets are not limited to the language in which they were originally written. They can be translated and still be the scriptures of the prophets. If they are not the scriptures of the prophets, then the gospel can not be made known by them. And observe that this has happened according to the commandment of the everlasting God. It is the express commandment of God that His word be translated into other languages rather than being kept confined to the original languages in which it was first recorded.

That the same word of God can be communicated in different languages was proved on the day of Pentecost by the gift of tongues (Acts 2:4-11). Every man present that day heard the same message proclaimed “in his own language.” Now we no longer have this special gift of tongues as they did then. But this incident proves that the pure words of God can be communicated in different languages. God the Holy Spirit is not limited to any language in giving forth the word of God. He was involved in the original giving of the words of God by the prophets in the language in which they wrote. And He is involved in the translation of those words of God. So when you read the Old Testament in the A.V. 1611, you are reading the very scriptures of the prophets by which the gospel is made known. You do not need to resort to the original languages to have the scriptures of the prophets. You can know what David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other prophets wrote just by reading your English Bible. And seeing those prophecies fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, you behold the glad tidings, the very gospel of God. Blessed be His holy name! God willing, we shall have more to say about this next time.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

The Inspiration of the Scriptures, Part 2

This week I continue to present edited excerpts of my response to the pastor who had questions regarding the inspiration of the A.V. 1611. Having called the A.V. “God’s purified, inspired word for an English-speaking world,” I wrote:

And that brings me to this point: God Himself tells us that His words go through a purification process.

Psalms 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Observe that this passage connects the purification process with the preservation of God’s words. There is a reason for this process. You see, even when the New Testament was in the process of being delivered, the word of God was already being corrupted.

2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

According to this verse there was a lot of corrupting going on since many were doing it. Since corruptions manage to get into the text of God’s word, a purification process is necessary to get them out. And Psalm 12:6-7 clearly teaches God uses more than one purification in the process. This could explain the several English translations leading up to the A.V. To be sure, God could do the purifying all at once. But that is not how He has chosen to do it. You will have to ask Him why this is the case. I just accept what He said about it. And for the reasons I have already cited, I accept the A.V. 1611 as the seven-times purified words of God.

Now the question arises as to what English-speaking Christians had before they had the A.V.? This question is really akin to the question: What do Christians, who do not speak English, do for a Bible? For example, I have a copy of Luther’s translation of the Bible in German, which I have read with the exception of the Apocrypha inserted between the testaments. It is written in the old German Buchstabe. I can attest that it does not measure up to the A.V. is all respects. In fact, I once had a correspondence with a German preacher regarding the subject of divine sovereignty. One of my main proof texts in the English, Psalm 76:10, is so off in Luther’s German Bible that I could not use it to prove my point. To make my point, I simply translated the verse from the A.V. into German and left it to God to do with it what He would believing that I was giving this man the word of God in German. I have looked at other German translations and they do not even measure up to Luther. So what are Germans to do? The same could be said for many other languages. My take on it is that when the German Bible says the same thing in German as the A.V., then that much of it is God’s pure word and God can use it. I find it interesting that God did not use Germany as He used England in spreading the gospel throughout this earth. Could that have something to do with the respective Bibles of those countries?

While addressing this question of the English-speaking Christians before the advent of the A.V., let me pose another question. Both questions will be answered in my reply. The afore-mentioned preacher, who was contending for the Geneva, asked me this: If the Geneva Version was the word of God in English, then what about the prohibition to add to the word or to take away from the word (REV 22:18-19)? Did the A.V. add to or take away? Good question! First, one need not have the entire Bible in order to have the word of God. A single word from the mouth of God is as much His word as all the words He has spoken put together. For example, the patriarch Abraham most certainly had the word of God, even though he did not have the entire revelation of God as it stood complete after the ministry of the apostles of Jesus Christ. If all I had access to was the gospel of John, I would have the word of God and would be responsible for the knowledge I gain from that much of the divine revelation. Therefore, if I were to simply print one book of the Bible or a few verses of the Bible on a tract, I would still be giving out the word of God. I am giving out the word of God when I cite various passages in a sermon, but I am by no means quoting every single word God ever said. See my point? In other words, if only a portion of the word of God is given out, this does not mean that the word of God itself has necessarily been taken from or added to. Adding to or taking from refers to tampering with the pure text itself so as to make it say what one wants it to say. An example of the crime described in REV 22:18-19 would be the modern versions deleting the word firstborn from Matthew 1:25 or leaving 1John 5:7 out of the text. Secondly, the A.V. is the book that God has most abundantly used to produce the effect that He says His word produces, as I showed above. It is for this reason that I judge all versions against this one. I cannot base my judgments on a Bible I have never read. I do not know either Hebrew or Greek. To be able to read the Bible with clear understanding in those languages would require mammoth effort. Being a student of foreign languages, I know whereof I speak. Furthermore, I have never read where God requires me to know those languages in order to know His word. Believing the A.V. to be the pure words of God in English, I conclude that any version that says the same things that the A.V. says, has that much of the word of God in it. Insofar as the Geneva says what the A.V. says, it is God’s pure, inspired word. And God blesses His word and it accomplishes His purposes (Isaiah 55:11). It may well be that because the English-speaking believers were faithful to the stock of the divine revelation that they had, God gave them His complete revelation in a thoroughly purified form. Any portions that they did not have, God, who preserved them, could bring them forward to the translators just as the word of God was brought forward in Josiah’s day after it had been tucked away in the temple (2 Kings 22:8). The Scriptures teach that God gives increased knowledge to those who are faithful with the knowledge that they have (Matthew 13:12; Proverbs 1:5; 2:1-7).

For me the question is: What Bible has God given to me? I am not responsible to answer for what God has done or does with other people in other times and climes. That is His business. He can give them whatever He wants, as much as He wants, for as long as He wants, to accomplish what He wants. My calling is to follow Him and to do that I need His direction. For my part, I am satisfied that I have that direction in the A.V. 1611. I seek no more.

Finally, the entire issue revolves around whether there is an absolute, final authority to which appeal can be made and against which all others can be weighed. The A.V. unmistakably bears God’s seal as being that authority by virtue of the use God has made of it and its fruits. It bears the insignia that God Himself described in the Book that proves it to be the Book God wants us to have in our language. A faithful adherence to the A.V. will confirm this fact abundantly.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Inspiration of the Scriptures, Part 1

I recently had some questions posed to me by a pastor who had some problems with ministers such as I myself, who say that the Authorized or King James Version of 1611 is an inspired translation of the word of God. I will not list what his issues were. Suffice it to say that some of them were addressed in my response. For today’s meditation, I am going to give you edited excerpts of my response to him in the hope that they may confirm your faith in the inspiration of the Bible you read and believe, the A.V. 1611. Following are the excerpts from my letter.

First of all, any position any man takes regarding the inspiration of the Scriptures, he takes based on a Bible he has in his hand. For example, men quote 2 Timothy 3:16 as proof that only the original autographs of Scripture were inspired. But notice. They take this position regarding a book they never saw and they never read based on a statement in a book they did see and read. But when I read the A.V. 1611 I note that its words on the page I am reading call themselves the Scriptures or the words of God. Therefore, I read them as just that, the Scriptures and the words of God. And when those Scriptures say of themselves that they are given by inspiration of God, I take them at face value. I read those very words on the page in English as given to me by inspiration of God. I receive the words on the pages of an A.V. 1611 as the very word of God, and not as the word of men about the word of God. These are not merely the words of the A.V. translators. They are the words of God. And receiving these words as they are in truth, the word of God, they work effectually in me and in those to whom I preach them when they also receive them that way (1Thessalonians 2:13). It all boils down to this: Do I have the inspired words of God in the A.V. 1611? If not, then what do I have? Is it only a translation of the inspired words? Does translation destroy inspiration? Because words are translated, do they cease to be the words of the speaker who spoke them? When Pilate’s writing was placed on the cross in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin (John 19:20-22), were they not all equally his words?

As for the A.V. 1611 that I hold in my hand and read, I have found no provable error or contradiction in it. Wherever it can be verified historically and scientifically, I find that it is always telling me the truth. When I look at the history of its usage, I find that it bears the fruits of the word of God in glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ (John 16:14), in evangelism (Colossians 1:5-6), and in Christian growth (1 Peter 2:2). I find its verses effective in resisting Satan (Ephesians 6:17). The effects of the words of wisdom are clearly outlined in Proverbs 8:1-21. I see these effects flowing from the A.V. 1611. The Bible I read has, to my knowledge, never deceived me or let me down. I have absolutely no reason to doubt that it is the very words of God to me.

As for the so-called revisions of the A.V. 1611, I would refer you to an article written by David Reagan entitled KJV 1611 “The Myth of Early Revisions.” You can google that title and it will appear. I think Mr. Reagan fairly deals with this issue. An update in spelling or a correction of a typographical error is not the same as a revision or a new translation. Updating the spelling of the A.V. and correcting its typographical errors are quite a different process than the translators were engaged in when they originally put out the A.V. Updating spelling and correcting typos of an existing work are not translating that work.

You raise the issue of the Geneva Bible. I had this issue raised with me many years ago by a pastor in Louisiana who wanted to argue for the superiority of the Geneva Version. One of his objections to the A.V. 1611 was the usage of the word Easter in Acts 12:4. Apparently the Geneva Version he had used the word Passover. I have in my possession a valuable work entitled English Hexapla. It contains the following versions of the New Testament side by side: Wycliffe - 1380, Tyndale - 1534, Cranmer - 1539, Geneva – 1557, Rheims - 1582, Authorized – 1611. I am very blessed to have this gem in my library. I pointed out to him that the Geneva Version that I had also used the word Easter in Acts 12:4. That pretty well shot his argument.

Now let’s address the issue of the inspiration of the Scriptures. Here is the proof text:

2 Timothy 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

First off, notice that Timothy had known the holy scriptures from a child, which argues that he had been exposed to them. Now it is obvious that whatever Timothy was exposed to, it had to have been copies. After all, he could not have read the original autograph of Moses’ law as that was put in the ark of the covenant and no one was allowed to even look into the ark (1 Samuel 6:19). Besides, Timothy’s father was a Greek (Acts 16:1). There is no way the Jews would have allowed any original autographs of their sacred writings to be in the home of a Greek. So Timothy obviously came to know the holy scriptures from copies. And, yet, notice! This is critical. Whatever Timothy had been exposed to and had come to know, was called in verse 15 the holy scriptures. Then in the very next verse Paul clearly states that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Would not all scripture include the holy scriptures that Timothy had? Obviously it would. Therefore, it follows that the holy scriptures that Timothy had access to were given by inspiration of God since all scripture is so given. From this we may conclude that the process of inspiration of the scriptures not only includes the writing of the original autographs by their authors, but also the transmission of those writings in copies. And considering the promise of Christ that His gospel would be published among all nations (Mark 13:10), this process includes translating as well. That word publish is interesting considering its modern usage. Might the Holy Spirit have been anticipating something?

In 1588 England defeated the Spanish armada and went on to become the major sea-power of the world. England set up colonies around the globe so that it was said: “The sun never sets on the British flag.” Then God gave His purified text in 1611. And where Britain went, the A.V. 1611 went. And following from these two events English has become the international language of this earth. The A.V. is God’s purified, inspired word for an English speaking world.

I will let this suffice for today. God willing, I will continue this in our next meditation.