“Must everything in our world be predigested? Does the Bible have to be reduced to pablum? I refuse to believe that modern man, who has split the atom and is exploring space, is unable to cope with the grandeur and glory of the King James Version”
-Winston Churchill
Many so-called Bible Believers (especially preachers), say the King James Bible is the only Bible they will use and profess to believe it is the Word of God, but do not believe it is the words of God. (Go ahead, ask your preacher!) They say it is close and the best translation we have available to us in the English language, but it is surely NOT INSPIRED! WHY? Because anyone knows that a translation cannot be inspired like the revered autographs or original manuscripts (MSS). To even suggest otherwise makes one susceptible to being labeled an ignoramus or obscurantist. Of course anyone who would believe that a translation can be inspired is immediately labeled as someone who believes in “double inspiration”. (The truth is that neither the original writers of Scripture nor the King James translators were inspired. Only the words (graphe) were inspired.) Fundamentalists believe God used sinful men to write His inspired words, but for some reason do not believe He could use sinful men to preserve His words! Can you cite a verse in the Bible that says a translation can’t be inspired? I trow not!
So the young man who was saved in a fundamental, Bible believing church and feels the call of God counsels with his pastor. He is certain that this man of God believes the Bible he preaches from every week is indeed inspired. Little does he suspect that this man whom he reveres and trusts graduated from a Bible college that taught him that no translation, like the KJB, can possibly be God’s inspired words. And the college he recommends this young man to is his alma mater. When the young man gets into the Bible classes and especially the Greek and Hebrew classes he suddenly finds out that only the “originals” (which no one has ever seen or handled at one time in one place) are superior to any mere translation. He may even have professors who mock and make fun of the Bible the young man was saved under - a KJB. (I am speaking from personal experience.)
Very few so called Bible colleges, if any, teach the doctrine of the preservation of Scripture, though they teach the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. But what good is an inspired Book if no one actually believes it is inspired? Since no one has access to the original MSS or autographs and only hillbillies or rednecks believe that the God who inspired those MSS was powerful enough to preserve the same words in other languages He inspired in any translation. As Dr. Sam Gipp in his book “Is the English Bible Inspired” states: “If God did not preserve that which He inspired, then there is no perfect Bible on this earth anywhere right now. The claim of infallibility for the Bible was only relevant for the generation that held the original autographs in their hand…Inspiration without preservation is a ‘Divine waste of time.” Why would God inspire the originals and then lose them? Belief in a perfect set of originals, but not to believe in a perfect English Bible, is to believe nothing at all.
Ps 12:6-7 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.
(Of course the Bible (un)believer says the above verses only apply to the Scripture up to that time! Where does it say that? I guess we should stop believing in applying O.T. scriptures to our lives today.)
For a biblical illustration, read Jeremiah 36 where the Holy Spirit tells Jeremiah to write a message to the nation of Israel. The “original” was destroyed and Jeremiah was told to rewrite the original and “there were added unto them many like words”! Then Jeremiah wrapped and bound the second “original” and cast it into the Euphrates river. (God wasn’t interested in preserving the original!) We have a “copy” of this text in Jeremiah 45-51 which is translated from a copy of the SECOND ORIGINAL!
But, you say, that wasn’t a new translation. How about when Moses spoke Egyptian to his brothers and it was translated into Hebrew for them. Which language was inspired? Or how about when the Apostle Paul spoke Hebrew to the Jews but Luke translated what he said into Greek in Acts 21. It is translated into English in a King James. Which language was (or is) inspired?
The “sacred originals” were never assembled at one time or one place in one volume called “The Bible” such as we have today in a KJB, so in that sense at least we have an improvement over the originals. How about the chapter and verse divisions in a KJB? Is that not a practical improvement over the originals? Not only that, but no one I know could read the originals if they had them! Could you? And of course NO ONE HAS THEM!
So I ask the question, is the Bible we have INSPIRED OR EXPIRED? If faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word (and words) of God, we had better have a copy, don’t you think? What did our Savior say?
Matt 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Do YOU have “every word” ?
Pastor Paul Fedena
Fedena's Website
Fedena's Newsletter
No Fake News from Fedena
-Winston Churchill
Many so-called Bible Believers (especially preachers), say the King James Bible is the only Bible they will use and profess to believe it is the Word of God, but do not believe it is the words of God. (Go ahead, ask your preacher!) They say it is close and the best translation we have available to us in the English language, but it is surely NOT INSPIRED! WHY? Because anyone knows that a translation cannot be inspired like the revered autographs or original manuscripts (MSS). To even suggest otherwise makes one susceptible to being labeled an ignoramus or obscurantist. Of course anyone who would believe that a translation can be inspired is immediately labeled as someone who believes in “double inspiration”. (The truth is that neither the original writers of Scripture nor the King James translators were inspired. Only the words (graphe) were inspired.) Fundamentalists believe God used sinful men to write His inspired words, but for some reason do not believe He could use sinful men to preserve His words! Can you cite a verse in the Bible that says a translation can’t be inspired? I trow not!
So the young man who was saved in a fundamental, Bible believing church and feels the call of God counsels with his pastor. He is certain that this man of God believes the Bible he preaches from every week is indeed inspired. Little does he suspect that this man whom he reveres and trusts graduated from a Bible college that taught him that no translation, like the KJB, can possibly be God’s inspired words. And the college he recommends this young man to is his alma mater. When the young man gets into the Bible classes and especially the Greek and Hebrew classes he suddenly finds out that only the “originals” (which no one has ever seen or handled at one time in one place) are superior to any mere translation. He may even have professors who mock and make fun of the Bible the young man was saved under - a KJB. (I am speaking from personal experience.)
Very few so called Bible colleges, if any, teach the doctrine of the preservation of Scripture, though they teach the doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture. But what good is an inspired Book if no one actually believes it is inspired? Since no one has access to the original MSS or autographs and only hillbillies or rednecks believe that the God who inspired those MSS was powerful enough to preserve the same words in other languages He inspired in any translation. As Dr. Sam Gipp in his book “Is the English Bible Inspired” states: “If God did not preserve that which He inspired, then there is no perfect Bible on this earth anywhere right now. The claim of infallibility for the Bible was only relevant for the generation that held the original autographs in their hand…Inspiration without preservation is a ‘Divine waste of time.” Why would God inspire the originals and then lose them? Belief in a perfect set of originals, but not to believe in a perfect English Bible, is to believe nothing at all.
Ps 12:6-7 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.
(Of course the Bible (un)believer says the above verses only apply to the Scripture up to that time! Where does it say that? I guess we should stop believing in applying O.T. scriptures to our lives today.)
For a biblical illustration, read Jeremiah 36 where the Holy Spirit tells Jeremiah to write a message to the nation of Israel. The “original” was destroyed and Jeremiah was told to rewrite the original and “there were added unto them many like words”! Then Jeremiah wrapped and bound the second “original” and cast it into the Euphrates river. (God wasn’t interested in preserving the original!) We have a “copy” of this text in Jeremiah 45-51 which is translated from a copy of the SECOND ORIGINAL!
But, you say, that wasn’t a new translation. How about when Moses spoke Egyptian to his brothers and it was translated into Hebrew for them. Which language was inspired? Or how about when the Apostle Paul spoke Hebrew to the Jews but Luke translated what he said into Greek in Acts 21. It is translated into English in a King James. Which language was (or is) inspired?
The “sacred originals” were never assembled at one time or one place in one volume called “The Bible” such as we have today in a KJB, so in that sense at least we have an improvement over the originals. How about the chapter and verse divisions in a KJB? Is that not a practical improvement over the originals? Not only that, but no one I know could read the originals if they had them! Could you? And of course NO ONE HAS THEM!
So I ask the question, is the Bible we have INSPIRED OR EXPIRED? If faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word (and words) of God, we had better have a copy, don’t you think? What did our Savior say?
Matt 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Do YOU have “every word” ?
Pastor Paul Fedena
Fedena's Website
Fedena's Newsletter
No Fake News from Fedena
