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Question #28 -
QUESTION:
Is the King James Bible inspired or preserved?
ANSWER:
The original autographs were inspired.
The King James Bible is those same autographs preserved
up to today.
EXPLANATION:
The best way to simply describe
inspiration and preservation of the Bible is as follows:
Inspiration is when God takes
a blank piece of paper (papyrus, vellum, etc.)
and uses men to write His words.
Preservation is when God takes
those words already written and
uses men to preserve them to today.
Both of these actions are DIVINE
and are assured by God as recorded in Psalm 12:6, 7.
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, 0 LORD, thou
shalt preserve them from this generation for ever."
In Psalm 12:6 God assures us that His originals
are perfect. Even though penned by fallible men with the heinous
sins of; murder (Moses and David), adultery (David), idolatry
(Solomon), and denial of the lord (Peter), God's words are
untainted by the sins of the penmen.
That the originals were inspired perfect in
their entirety is an undisputed belief among fundamentalists
today.
But most fundamentalists argue
that only the "originals” were perfect. They say that today
we have nothing but copies and translations of those copies. They
seem indignant at the thought that any "mere
translation" should be considered a perfect copy of the
originals. They claim that copies and translations are products of
uninspired men and therefore must all contain mistakes.
Fundamentalists clinging to this tenet are
mislead. Their folly in accepting this erroneous teaching is
fourfold.
1. It is somewhat confusing and unexplainable
that a person could claim that God could not use, sinful men to preserve
His words when all fundamentalists believe that
he used sinful men to write His inspired words.
Certainly a God who had enough power to inspire
His words would also have enough power to preserve them. I highly
doubt that He has lost such ability over the
years.
2. Why would God inspire the originals and then
lose them? Why give a perfect Bible to men like
Peter, John, James, Andrew and company and not us? They
had seen, heard, and touched the Lord (I John 1:1). We haven't! If
anyone ever needed a perfect Bible it is us,
nearly two thousand years separated from a Saviour we have never
seen!
Why did God inspire a perfect original if He
didn't plan on preserving it? Couldn't He have afforded some
error, in His originals just as some believe He has allowed some
errors in today's Bible! Or do critics of God's perfect Bible
believe that God was unable to prevent errors in
the copies. It would seem like only half of a God who had the
power to do one but not the other.
3. It is a "convenient" faith which
cannot be tested. In other words, it is rather safe to believe in
a perfect set of originals which have been LOST.
Since they are lost, no one can ever practically challenge such a
belief. Adherents to such a shallow persuasion can rest safely in
the fact that they will never be proven wrong since the evidence
needed to prove them wrong (the "originals") is lost.
But if they dare put the same faith in a Bible
available today, they know that they will definitely be bloodied
defending their faith.
Thus, to believe in a perfect set of originals,
but not to believe in a perfect English Bible, is to believe nothing
at all.
4. Regardless of their arguments against the
doctrine of a preserved perfect Bible, such a
fact as much guaranteed by Scripture as the bodily return of Jesus
Christ (Acts 1:8).
Psalm 12:7 plainly states, thou shalt keep
them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for
ever."
Thus we have God promising to preserve
the same words that He inspired. Not too much of
a feat to overwhelm such an omnipotent Being.
The fearful fundamentalist launches two attacks
on the Scriptural teaching found in Psalm 12:7.
1. They claim, "Verse 7 is talking about
the Jews, not the Bible." Then to add credence to their claim
they rush out and publish a translation that says just that in
Psalm 12:7. Let's look at this verse in the New International
Version.
"O LORD, you will keep us
safe and protect us from such people
forever."
This is an irresponsible and dishonest
translation. The Hebrew word "shamar" meaning "to
keep" which the New International Version translators render
"you will keep us" is found in the
future second person singular "thou shalt keep" and is
directed to the THIRD person plural
"them" and NOT the first
person plural "us" as the New International Version
translators rendered it. Thus we see it is the King James, God’s
perfect, preserved Bible which has accurately
preserved the reading of the originals, not the
unreliable New International Version.
Psalm 12:7 is not God's
promise to preserve the Jews, a promise which flourishes elsewhere
in Scripture. It is God’s promise to preserve His words, and is
a direct reference to those words as described in Psalm 12:6.
2. Oftimes a Christian, whose faith is too weak
to accept the literal truth of Psalm 12:6, 7, will piously quote
Psalm 119:89.
“For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven.” Then they will state that God actually meant that He
preserved His perfect Bible in Heaven, not on
Earth. And they say this with a straight face! This escape to a
house of straw is embarrassingly humorous.
First, it is foolish for anyone to believe that
God inspired a perfect original on earth so that
He could have it brought to Heaven. Is that
supposed to be the reason that He wrote the originals? The answer
is embarrassingly simple. The Bible is addressed
to man, not God. God did not write a perfect book
directed to man and then put it in a library in
Heaven where man cannot benefit from its existence. Again we ask,
"What good to us, here and now,
is a perfect book locked up out of reach in Heaven?"
Secondly, Psalm 12:6 makes reference to His
words being on earth. To preserve them somewhere
other than on earth is not to preserve them at all. So we see then
that God inspired the originals perfectly. Then
over the centuries He has preserved those same
word today. They are found in the Authorized Version.
ADDITIONAL NOTE:
In the area of "inspired
translations" it might be noted that the double truth of
Genesis 22:8 which in a King James Bible is plainly revealed as a
prophetic reference to Jesus Christ, is lost in such weak
translations as the New King James, the New International Version,
and the New American Standard Version.
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