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Question #43 -
QUESTION:
Isn't the devil behind all the confusion and fighting over Bible
versions?
ANSWER:
Undoubtedly.
EXPLANATION:
It is a great irony that many of the critics of the Bible claim
rather indignantly that the devil is behind the battle over the
King James Bible. In this they are correct. But somehow
they have managed to assume that it is the people claiming
perfection for the Bible who the devil is guiding. Is this a
correct assumption? Let us consider the history of the battle.
From the time of its publication in 1611 the
King James Bible has grown in popularity. Although not mandated by
the King to be used in the churches of England, it did, in a
matter of a few years, manage to supplant all of the great
versions translated before it. Though it was not advertised in the
Madison Avenue fashion of today's versions, it soon swept all
other versions from the hearts and hands of the citizenry of
England and its colonies.
With the conquest of the British Empire behind
it, it crossed the Atlantic to the United States. Landing here it
overwhelmed the double foothold of the Roman Catholic Church
planted previously under the flags of Spain and France.
It then began to permeate young America with
its ideals. Its truths led to the establishment of an educational
system, based on Scripture, that was unparalleled in the world. It
instilled in men the ideals of freedom and personal liberty,
thoughts so foreign to the minds of men that their inclusion in
our Constitution could only be described as an
"experiment" in government.
It commissioned preachers of righteousness who,
on foot and horseback, broke trails into the wilderness and spread
the truth of the gospel and of right living. In its wake was left
what could only be described..."one nation, under
God..." This accomplished, it set out for the
conquest of the heathen world. Bible colleges (Princeton, Harvard,
Yale) were founded. Mission societies formed. And eager young
missionaries began to scour the globe with little more than a King
James Bible and God's Holy Spirit.
But these activities did not go unnoticed by
Satan. He who had successfully counterfeited God's church,
ministers and powers certainly could not be expected to let God's
Bible roam the world unchallenged. Through agents such as Brook
Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, he published his own
translation in 1884. (The New Testament had been published in
1881.) Though there had been sporatic personal translations
between 1611 and 1884, this new translation, called the Revised
Version, was the first ever to be designed from its outset to
replace God's Authorized Bible. It failed to replace God's Bible,
but the arguments of its adherents were the first shots fired in a
nearly 400 year battle for the hearts and minds of God's people
concerning the authority and fidelity of Scripture.
In 1901 another round was fired in the form of
the American Revised Version, later called the American Standard
Version. (An intentional misnomer since it never became the
"standard" for anything.) This version,
other than being the darling of critical American scholarship met
a dismal end when, twenty-three years later, it was so totally
rejected by God's people that its copyright had to be sold. (Does
this sound like God's blessing?)
The ASV was further revised and republished in
1954 as the Revised Standard Version. This sequence of events has
repeated itself innumerable times, resulting in the New American
Standard Version of 1960, the New Scofield Version of 1967, the
New International Version of 1978, and the New King James Version
of 1979 to name a few.
The process has never changed. Every new
version that has been launched has been, without exception, a
product of Satan's Alexandrian philosophy which rejects the
premise of a perfect Bible. Furthermore, they have been copied, on
the most part, from the corrupt Alexandrian manuscript. (Although
a few have been translated from pure Antiochian manuscripts after
they were tainted by the Alexandrian philosophy.)
THIS then was Satan's battle in print,
BUT by no means was it his exclusive onslaught.
He used a standard military "two-pronged" attack.
While popularizing his Alexandrian manuscripts
via the press, he began to promote his Alexandrian philosophy in
and through Christian Bible colleges.
Soon sincere, naive, young, Bible students
attending FUNDAMENTAL Bible colleges began to
hear the infallibility of the Bible challenged in their
classrooms. In chapel services the Bible's perfection was much
touted. But then, the very same speakers, would
debase, degrade, and even mock the English Bible, always assuring
their students that they were not a "liberal" or
"modernist" because they believed that the Bible was
infallible in "the originals". That non-existent,
unobtainable, mystical entity which ALL apostates shield their
unbelief behind.
Soon stalwartness gave in to acceptance and
fidelity to a perfect bible became fidelity to one's "Alma
Mater". Young graduates, disheartened and disarmed by their
education, found themselves in pulpits across America parroting
the professor's shameful criticism of the Word of God. They
readily accepted new versions hot off the Alexandrian presses.
Then, when some Christian approached them
claiming to believe the Bible (one you could hold in your
HAND, not a lost relic from bygone days) was word
perfect (a belief they had once held
before their education stole it from them) they felt threatened.
They try to dispel this "fanatic," this
"cultist". Finally they look this faith filled Christian
in the eye and piously ask, "Don't you feel that the devil is
using this Bible version issue to divide and hinder the cause of
Christ?"
"Undoubtedly," comes back the answer
"But I'm certainly glad it's not MY CROWD
that he's using."
Who's side are YOU on?
Additional Note:
Here's something that you need to think about.
If we King James Bible believers have our way, a Preacher would
stand in a pulpit to read Scripture and everyone else in the
church would read from the same Bible. Isn't that
UNITY?
But if the Bible-correctors have their way
everyone would read from a different bible. That's confusion. And who
is the author of confusion? (I Cor. 14:33)
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