Never did they warn that the Word would be corrupted or lost. Even during the Dark Ages, the Holy Scriptures were not lost. Revelation , 4 tell us that during the 1, years of papal supremacy, the two witnesses—the Old and New Testaments—still prophesied powerfully. Thou shalt keep them, 0 Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.
In summary, the Bible describes the Word of God as having the following characteristics: It does not cause confusion or doubt, but builds our faith. It is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. It has been divinely preserved and has had an active role within the church throughout every age.
Having set forth these characteristics from Scripture, let us compare the various Bible versions to them. To one extent or another this is true of every Bible version. Through the aid of the Holy Spirit, points essential to salvation are brought home, and many people can relate their conversions to one Bible version or another. But there is still a broader aspect of this subject that should be examined.
Of course this is something that cannot be precisely measured, for there are many factors that influence society. When the KJV was the primary Bible used, ministers strongly preached from it and laity eagerly committed its words to memory. As a sacred book, it was highly respected. Faith in God and the authority of His Word were paramount. Today, however, there is quite a different outlook.
Faith in God and the Scriptures is at an all-time low. Many people have lost their respect for the Scriptures. And rarely do laity commit Bible texts to memory. An epidemic of ignorance concerning the most basic Bible content is plaguing even churchgoing youth. The Bible is an ancient, divine volume, but when it is fashioned like a common book, it gets treated like one. But later they had little interest in going back to it—for the same reason!
When everyone was using the KJV, frequent repetition of the same wording was heard which helped fix it in the mind. Now, however, verses are read from versions which vary so much that they are scarcely recognized as the same passage. People just cannot seem to decide which version to memorize. Third, when you start using a modern version, it may not be long before you notice differences between it and the more familiar KJV.
There is not even a footnote to mark its omission. Another look at most modern versions uncovers additional perplexities.
Footnotes and marginal readings can be helpful, but is it possible that modern scholarship has overwhelmed the Bible student with a plethora of critical readings varying from version to version? Later we will look at a major cause of omissions. But for now, it can be postulated that the proliferation of versions has weakened the faith people once had in the authority of the Scriptures.
It is now at length too evident that Scripture is powerless without the [Catholic] Church as the witness to its inspiration, the safeguard of its integrity, and the exponent of its meaning. And it will now be clear to all men which is the true church, the real Mother to whom the Bible of right belongs. Protestantism itself has no grounds for existence apart from a strong faith in the Word of God. To summarize our findings, we see that all versions can fit the biblical characteristic of building faith.
This important characteristic of the Word of God is conditional upon the reader allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal truth. Every Bible version contains bias from its translators; the degree depends on the methods used in translating.
The freer the translation, the greater the possibility of bias, and the less reliable the version is for study purposes. A paraphrase, like the Living Bible, is not a good study Bible. The best method of translation for a study Bible is formal translation. When there is a noun in the original, a formal translation will generally have a corresponding noun in the English, a verb will have a verb, et cetera.
While this method may still leave the translation of a few passages obscure or ambiguous, the reader at least has before him a more literal translation of the words of the original. With the aid of the Holy Spirit, he will be able to discern the meaning for himself. The KJV and NASB give us further help by italicizing any words which the translators felt necessary to insert into a passage to make the meaning clear.
Versions translated formally are far less likely to have been influenced by the personal doctrinal bias of the translators and they more closely fit our second characteristic of the inspired Word. When using various translations to teach doctrine, you will find that some doctrines are more easily taught from one version than another. But all doctrines common to the Christian faith can be found in every version. Generally, however, the KJV presents many doctrines more clearly than other versions.
This is especially true of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. It should also be noted that it is much harder to prove the deity of Christ when using modern versions. A short time ago I attended a meeting held by a group of young people who seemed to be avid Bible students. I was amazed to find that they denied the deity of Christ and supported their positions by referring to textual renderings from various modern versions.
Between all the modern versions, you will find that nearly every verse proving the deity of Christ has been altered in one or the other versions. It is apparent that there has been a fundamental change in translations since the KJV. With that in mind, we now turn to a discussion of our last characteristic of the inspired Word of God. Providential Preservation of Scripture Our final characteristic is the most revealing. It says that the Word of God has been divinely preserved and has had an active role within the church throughout every age.
Before we delve into this discussion, it is necessary to gain a little background information. When looking into the history of the biblical text, we must be aware that the original manuscripts were written in the common languages of their day. The first manuscripts of the Bible, written by the inspired authors, are no longer in existence. Only copies of copies remain as witnesses to their original words.
When these copies are compared with one another, several hundred thousand differences can be noted. Most of the variants are misspellings or other obvious errors 7 , but thousands of other variants must be closely evaluated. To help evaluate variant readings, scholars have divided the manuscripts into text-types, i.
Throughout the years, scholars have examined the existing manuscripts, considered their various readings, and have constructed their own Greek or Hebrew text which they believe accurately represents the readings of the original manuscripts. When a translation is to be produced, scholars either choose existing Greek and Hebrew texts from which to translate, or they formulate their own text.
The text of the Old Testament has been essentially settled 8 since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The New Testament text, however, has been the cause of much heated debate. For the past hundred years there has been a rivalry between two Greek texts—the Received Text 9 and the Critical Text. A Bible version is considered only as good as the text from which it is translated.
This may sound like an impossible task for someone without a background in textual criticism. But by following the biblical teaching of preservation, we will not find it difficult. The preferred Greek text must be one which has played an active role within the church throughout every age. The Critical Text has received wide acclaim within the past hundred years, as evidenced by the large number of Bible versions translated from it. As stated above, its readings are largely influenced by the Alexandrian line of manuscripts or text-type.
Out of over 5, Greek manuscripts in existence, only a small handful often less than ten contain this text-type. They are called Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, and they date a little over years from the original writings. Catherine, a monastery at the base of Mt. He found 43 leaves of it in a basket just before it was to be burned.
Pope Nicholas V brought it to the Vatican in Then if they were caught looking too closely at any passage, two attendants would snatch the manuscript from them! In he published it. Realizing that these old manuscripts contained significantly different readings than those of the Received Text, Tischendorf was jubilant.
He believed that his efforts had at last restored the inspired Word of God to mankind after having been lost for 1, years. The Alexandrian Text had been out of circulation for 1, of these years.
If the Alexandrian Text is the pure form of the New Testament text, then it would mean that the church was deprived of its benefits for 88 percent of the time since it was written! Such an idea is strangely out of step with the biblical description of the inspired Word of God. They have never been lost, only to be discovered in a wastepaper basket or lying on a forgotten shelf in the Vatican. Not only does this text-type not meet our biblical standard of accurately representing the Word of God, but it has trouble meeting scholarly standards for accuracy of transcription.
Minor differences within text-types are normal; however, the number of variants within the Alexandrian Text is enormous. Not including minor errors such as spelling, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus disagree with each other over 3, times in the space of the four Gospels alone. Therefore, at the beginning of His revelation, Christ reminds the believers that they are not abandoned, forgotten, or forsaken.
Isaiah 40 to 55 serves to remind them of His eternal interest in them. The people of God will experience harsh times and feel that God has forsaken them as Israel of old felt. Yet this is not the reality. And this is the theme of the Book of Revelation. Yahweh will receive His people back again Rev.
And all people will know that He is indeed the Lord of history. The suffering servant. Another concept in Isaiah 40 to 55 might shed light on the idea of the faithful witness in Revelation. It is the work of the suffering servant. As the suffering servant, the witness par excellence sealed His testimony to the goodness of Yahweh by His suffering. We can look to Jesus, the new true witness par excellence , who has revealed the goodness of Yahweh in the New Testament and sealed His testimony by His suffering and death.
Furthermore, Jesus serves as the Model of how to stand firm under persecution by never compromising the truth of God 1 Tim. Because of the association between suffering and witnessing Rev.
As we can see from Isaiah and Revelation, the true witness is the One who proves His testimony by suffering and death. These are the seal of the reliability of His witness. John, in his Gospel, reflects many of the thoughts found in Isaiah 40 to 55 and Psalm In the first 12 chapters of his Gospel, John uses what can be considered forensic language to relate to his readers the cosmic lawsuit between God and the world, echoing the theme of Isaiah 40 to The issue under debate is plainly the Messiahship and divine Sonship of Jesus John — The Jewish community is to believe in Jesus because of their belief in His Father.
John affirms that he has written his Gospel so that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing in His name, people may have eternal life John In the context of the lawsuit in the Gospel of John, Christ is the representative of God, and the Jews are the representatives of the world. The works that Jesus did were a testimony that he came from the Father John Instead of the cross being His judgment, it is really the judgment of the world; by it every mouth is stopped and the whole world is found guilty before God ; cf.
Romans It is Christ who, as the faithful and true witness, has the proper claim on His people. As to the concept of witnessing in the Johannine epistles, it centers on the fact that the apostles testify to the authenticity of the work and life of Jesus.
The opening words of the first Epistle have the emphasis upon the apostles or eye-witnesses of Jesus Christ 1 John , 2. They saw and testify to it, proclaiming that eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to them so that all may have fellowship with them 1 John —3. A witness also proclaims the meaning and significance of those events. The emphasis on the descriptions of something perceived by the senses means that the writer [John] cannot be thinking merely of a message that is heard.
It was ineffective either because it was nonexistent or because it was consistently compromised by their participation in idolatrous facets of the Laodicean culture. The concept of witnessing in the Gospel of John and its affirmation in the Epistles is crucial for the understanding of the concept of the faithful witness in Revelation.
The devil has been defeated and no longer has any power over them. Instead of conforming to the culture, we as Christians will be called to challenge what society says is normal and speak the difficult things.
Thus, He understands our challenges in being faithful witnesses in the end times. Before Jesus returns, Christians will face tremendous pressures to compromise on truth.
The world will shake and there will be persecution, famine, and war Matthew —9. Many false prophets and false christs will come, preaching a message that sounds good but leads to death Matthew In this environment, the Lord is preparing forerunner messengers who will faithfully proclaim Jesus and His return, no matter what pressures arise. These bold men and women will release truth to all who will hear, reaching the lost and stirring the Church to live as an equally-yoked bride to Christ.
We certainly have many things to do from our Lord. We must grow in grace personally. We must work diligently in our occupations. We must raise our family and bring up our children in the fear of the Lord. We must seek the things of the church and of Jesus Christ. And we are to be witnesses — not in addition to all of those things that I mentioned — but our lives must be lived in such a way that they are constantly giving a testimony before the world, before our children, before the church, of the Lord who has loved and saved us.
And we must use the opportunities that God gives to us to speak of Him who is our God and our Savior. For the subject of evangelism and witnessing can, perhaps, raise certain red flags due to false ideas and methods so abundant today concerning evangelism and witnessing.
And there is the idea that the church must conform itself to the world in order to attract the world into the church, thereby ignoring the majesty and glory of God and the reverence which is His due.
There are emotion-based decisions. There is witnessing which proceeds from the idea that people must be pressed for a decision, that each Christian then becomes something like a salesman, to see if he can make a sale for Jesus Christ.
There is abundant error. But error must not make us shy away from that which is right. Error must not rob us of the truth. We must not react to error by beginning to look at our personal call to witness with suspicion. Biblical principles must be brought to bear on our hearts. And out of those principles must come a heartfelt, warm, and faithful witness of the truth of our God.
Each one of us is called to be a witness. A witness is one who, first of all, has seen something and knows something. Secondly, a witness is one who has been called upon to testify of what he has seen and known. The word is familiar to us in the court of law. The defense or prosecution will bring forth witnesses, that is, people who have firsthand knowledge, who have seen or heard. Now, placed upon the stand, they are given the legal obligation, the responsibility to speak and to say what they have seen.
Failure to do so is punishable by the law. So also are we witnesses of Christ. That implies, first of all, that you and I, as Christians, as members of the church, have been given to see and know the things of the Spirit of God, the things of Christ. I Corinthians makes this plain. That comes out very powerfully in the passage in Isaiah In the opening verses of that beautiful chapter, God speaks of His eternal, His sovereign, His powerful love toward the elect.
Then God says in verse 10, By grace, you are the ones whom I have chosen. And I have chosen you that ye might know and believe Me and understand that I am God. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I am the Lord and beside Me there is no savior. And because all of this, ye are My witnesses, that I am God.
God is speaking here of the most basic, the most majestic, the most awesome of all truths.
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