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'An Independent Baptist Church'
Godâ
God's
Wonder Book - The Bible
What a precious gift we have in our Bible...
God's personal "Manual for Life's Journey" and "Owner's Manual For Living"
What the Bible does for us....
It tells us how to be saved...it tells our children how to be saved
It tells us how to live a life of joy and fulfillment
It gives us instruction on how to protect ourselves from error and how to avoid
major mistakes in our life
It shows us where we are wrong if we are wrong and how to correct it
It teaches us how to live a life serving the Lord....a righteous life that is
pleasing to Him.
The Amazing Story of How We Got Our Bible
God uses three processes to get His Word to us.....
1. Inspiration 2. Preservation 3. Illumination
STEP ONE - INSPIRATION
The Process by which God got His
Word down to the Human Authors so they could write in down.
The Bible is inspired by God as
human authors write down the very words God wanted. (Not Just the thoughts)
2 Timothy 3:15-16 "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.
Inspired - God-breathed - All Scripture - The very words
The Bible is made up of 66 different books that were written over 1600 years
(from approximately 1500 BC to AD 100) by more than 40 kings, prophets, leaders,
and followers of Jesus. The Old Testament has 39 books (written approx. 1500-400
BC). The New Testament has 27 books (written approx. AD 45-100) The Old
Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic. The New Testament was
written in Greek.
2 Peter 1:20-21 "Knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
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.
'Moved' - Nautical term describing effects of wind upon a ship as it blows
against sails and moves it thru the water
STEP TWO - PRESERVATION
The Process by which God
'preserved' His pure Word down thru the ages so you can I could have an exact
copy of the infallible and inerrant Word of God today.
After the Books of the Bible were written, scribes produced
and distributed copies of the original manuscripts. They took painstaking care
to craft those copies by hand, long before the days of the Printing press
.
Sidney Collett, All About The Bible, page 14,15 tell of the careful process the
scribes went thru as the copied God's Word.
This was God's Second Step in His Divine process of getting the Word of God
intact to us today. That was the doctrine of Preservation. While Inspiration
got the Words from God to man and penned. Preservation was the process by which
God 'oversaw' the protection of those words down thru the centuries so we can
know for sure that we have the very words of God in our Bible today that they
had originally. Psalms 12:6,7 describes this process of Divine oversight down
thru the years as God's Word was copied by hand, as God made sure no errors
entered His Sacred Scripture so that in the20th Century we could have the intact
Word of God in Psalms 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."
Do you believe God was able to do this? Amazingly, Many Christians and
preachers evidently do not. They believe God inspired the originals, which we
no longer have, but He was unable to, or chose not to, preserve a pure copy of
the text of His Word, without error or mistake, for us today!
The books of the Bible were collected and arranged and recognized as sacred
authority by councils of rabbis and councils of church leaders based on careful
guidelines. Again God oversaw this process so that we have the very Inspired
Books of the Bible we should have, and uninspired Books were left out.
Down thru History, Satan would use 3 methods to try to stop this PRESERVATION
PROCESS. He would use PERSECUTION and PERVERSION of the Scriptures, and by
trying to get people to DOUBT on the Scriptures. Satan used the Roman
Emperors to persecute Christians and the Bible they loved. Emperor Diocletian
set out to banish the Bible from the face of the earth. He even set a plaque in
public stating that the Bible was now extinct. It didn’t work, the Bible
flourished. Isaiah 40:8 rang true.....
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
During about the 2nd Century, he tried to PERVERT the Scriptures. Satan
attempted a wholesale effort to pervert God's Word by introducing an altered
copy of the Scriptures produced by the heretic Origen from Alexandria, Egypt.
Origen denied the deity of Christ and other fundamental Doctrines. This
Alexandrian text altered and deleted thousands of verses, especially verses that
clearly taught the deity of Christ, such as 1 Timothy 3:16 which should
read,
"And without controversy great is the
mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,..."
Despite the fact that 293 out of 300 manuscripts we have today on
this passage back up the King James reading, the NIV and all the newer Bibles
chose the rendering of the Alexandrian text ....
"Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great; He appeared in a
body....."... He who?
Imagine 300 witnesses and 293 verify something and the testimony of 7 is chosen
over the 293...
In this altered Alexandrian text, the name of Christ is missing 175
times, and the word 'hell' is not found in the Old Testament, and Lucifer is
removed from the Bible completely! That is why 'Lucifer' is not in the NIV!
He's a figment of your imagination! Origen's Alexandrian text is the
text used the Roman Catholic Bible used, and later all the newer Bible
translations have used it!
Imagine your Bible not having the Books of 1st and 2nd Peter?
That is how many words have been removed from this Alexandrian text
behind the newer Bibles today, like the NIV, etc.
This altered Alexandrian text differed from the text behind the King
James Bible Manuscript family in over 6000 places involving over
10,000 words!
We have an old saying in the country....THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT CAN NOT BE
THE SAME....
Now my friend, ONE of these textual families has been ALTERED...would you
agree? Both of them cannot be right....and I happen to believe God is able
to keep one of them pure for you and I today, don't you?
To put it succinctly: "To reject the text behind the KJV and its forerunners,
as modern translators have done, is to reject the text which was recognized
through the centuries as the Word of God by the New Testament saints, and which
was exalted by God as THE Bible during the greatest era of revival and
missionary activity since the first century!"
I believe God saw to it in His Preservation process that the pure text of His
Word remained unaltered in the manuscript family behind the King James Bible we
have today, known as the Traditional or Majority text. God predicted His Words
would be perverted in Jeremiah 23:36
"...ye have perverted the words of the
living God..."
But God had promised His pure Word would be preserved!
God, however, made sure a true and unaltered copy of the Scriptures was still
available for the people in the textual families behind the King James Bible.
WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR THE
KING JAMES BIBLE?
There is much TEXTUAL EVIDENCE that the King James Bible we have today is
exactly true to the original writings of the Inspired Scriptures. Of the
thousands of copies made by hand before AD 1500, more than 5300 Greek
manuscripts from the New Testament alone still exist today. Nearly 99%
of these texts support the text behind our King James Bible. Only 44 of
these 5300 Greek texts support the altered Alexandrian text which is the basis
for all of the newer versions like the NIV, NASB, or NKJV, and Catholic Bibles,
and these 44 don’t even agree with each other!
The evidence is overwhelming that our King James Bible is God's Word intact in
the English language today. The text of the Bible, the King James Version, is
better preserved than the writings of Caesar, Plato, or Aristotle.
In 1947 The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls confirmed the astonishing
reliability of some of the copies of the Old Testament made over the years. The
text of these scrolls written some 200 years before Christ match our KJV Bible
text today...
not the so-called 'older and better' manuscripts behind the newer Bibles!!!
THE TIME WAS RIGHT FOR THE BIBLE
IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
In 1611 God knew the time was right to translate the Bible into English, the
most common language of the World. God used men like John Wycliffe, William
Tyndale, and the Greek Scholar Erasmus to pave the way for this translation in
the English language.
THE MEN WHO TRANSLATED THE KING JAMES BIBLE
God prepared a group of some 47 men just for this time and this task, to
translate the Word of God into the English language of the King James Bible.
They were some of the greatest linguistic and language translating scholars the
world has ever known. Historians such as Gustavis Paine describe their genius
and dedication. Many were fluent in several languages and were considered the
finest linguistic scholars the world has ever known! They didn't have
detractions like TV and golf and hobbies like we have today....their work was
their life. It is almost laughable when so-called 'scholars' and preachers
stand in the pulpit say piously something like "The KJV reading of this verse is
a poor rendering of the text...a better choice would be..." With all due
respect, our best linguistic scholars are not worthy to tie the shoelaces of
these men who translated the King James Bible...If you have any doubt you need
to read this Book, THE MEN BEHIND THE KING JAMES BIBLE by Gustavius Paine.
THE MANUSCRIPT FAMILY OF SCRIPTURE TEXT THEY USED
The King James Translators used the same text that Tyndale, Wycliffe and Erasmus
used, the Traditional-Majority Text that had existed since it had been
originally written. Realize that these men, and the KJV translators, all had
access to the altered Alexandrian text behind the Roman Catholic Bible, but they
rejected it because they knew it was in error.
THEIR METHOD OF TRANSLATING
The Bible says in Proverbs 30:5 "Every
Word of God is pure"
The KJV translators knew the 'WORDS' were important....
God saw to it that a 'direct verbal and formal' translating method was
used to translate His Word into the English of the King James Bible.
The KJV translators translated word for word, not paraphrasing as the NIV and
other new versions today have done!
The NIV Editors admit in the preface that they did not attempt to translate
strictly a 'word for word', but rather aimed for 'equivalent ideas' or the
'thought'. The NIV Editors, as well as the other new Bibles' editors, 'intepret'
the text and attempt to put in words the 'thought' they think God was trying to
convey! This is not really translating at all.
The KJV translators even used the 'formal' method of translating, meaning they
didn't even change the 'form' of the verbs!
Yes, God oversaw this process so that the very words we have in the King James
Bible are very Words He wanted us to have, His Inspired Scripture as originally
penned by the Bible writers.
A METHOD OF CHECKING THEIR WORK
THAT WAS UNPARALLELED
To make sure they had it translated correctly, the KJV translators traded their
assigned portions to other teams in the 47 men, and each Scripture wound up
going through 13 different checks before they were finished! Modern
translators today use nothing close to this type of translating process!!
In order to translate the King James Bible into the English language, God used
Superior Translators, A superior Text, a superior Translating
method, and that is why it is superior DOCTRINALLY because it has not
omitted or altered any verses or words like the altered Alexandrian Text did.
BUT AREN'T THERE CHANGES IN THE REVISIONS OF THE KING JAMES BIBLE?
The only changes made in the 5 revisions of the KJV in the years that followed
the first edition 1611 are the correction of printing errors by the Printers and
changes in spelling and punctuation of words. (Orthographic and Lithographic)
Words didn't have a correct spelling in 1611 English, and punctuation wasn't
even settled. In the 1700's English words came to have one correct spelling and
punctuation became settled.
There were no changes in the text in these revisions!
(6) I am convinced with all my heart that the KJV we have today is the perfect,
intact Word of God in the English Language for us today, without a single error,
mistake, or contradiction. (Unless the printer at the publisher made a printing
mistake) I challenge anyone to show me ONE mistake, error, or contradiction in
the King James Version of Bible. (Our website at
www.gospelcenterchurch.org
deals with over 300 of these 'alleged' contradictions on the BIBLE
CONTRADICTIONS page.)
During the Middle Ages , Satan would continue to use PERSECUTION and
PERVERSION of God's Word and casting DOUBT upon it to attempt to destroy it.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy outlawed the Bible in the hands of the laity
during the Middle Ages and claimed only its priests were allowed to have copies.
In the 1200’s it was placed on the list of 'Forbidden Books'! These men like
Wycliffe who attempted to translate the Bible into the English language of the
people were hunted down like dogs and burned at the stake and ashes thrown into
the river by the Church leaders (Yes, the Church leaders!) just because he
distributed copies of the Bible to the common people! This persecution only
caused the Bible to flourish as people smuggled precious copies in sacks of
flour, etc.!
1 Peter 1:24,25 was still true...
"The grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you.
Satan would turn to another tactic in the 1800's and concentrate on
getting perverted versions of the Bible on the market, and at the same time
belittling the King James Bible.
He would raise two men, renowned scholars of the day, Brooks F. Westcott and
James Anthony Hort, to use the altered Alexandrian text behind the Roman
Catholic Bibles and formulate new, 'up-to-date' English translations such as the
Revised Standard Version. All of the newer versions of the Bible, starting with
the Roman Catholic Bible of the 4th Century, and including the NIV, NASB, NKJV,
and RSV are all based upon or infiltrated with readings from the altered
Alexandrian Manuscripts of the heretic Origen, known primarily today as the
Nestle-Aland Text, as formulated by two men, Westcott and Hort around 1870.
Historical documentation testifies that both of these men were heavily involved
in the occult WHILE they working on their 'Westcott-Hort' Greek text!!!!
Again, this is THE text underlying all of the newer versions today, such as the
NIV, NASB, etc.
Only the King James Bible, and its predecessors are based upon the
Traditional-Majority Text Manuscript family that dates back to that first
century when the New Testament books were written.
Recall that these two basic textual families are so different that scholars can
classify manuscripts copies we have today into either of these families! These
two manuscript families, the one behind the KJV and the ones behind all the
newer versions....differ in over 6,000 places and involved over 10,000 words!
The newer versions have removed and deleted as many words as would comprise the
Books of First and Second Peter! There are two primary Alexandrian manuscripts
that were used by Westcott and Hort to support the text in the newer Bibles to
give us these 6000 differences, and these two manuscripts are Vaticanus,
which was found on the shelves in the Vatican Library in Rome, and the other
Siniaticus, was found in a Roman Catholic Monastery waste basket near Mt.
Sinai. These two Alexandrian Manuscripts are so flawed they differ from each
and contradict each other in Gospels alone (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) in over
3000 places! Can you believe this? Yet your newer Bibles like the NIV refer to
these two "Gold Dust Twins" in the footnotes as "the oldest and best
manuscripts". They do not reflect the oldest text and are certainly not the
best. This is Satan's Lie.
One preacher compared the newer Bible versions to the King James Bible printed a
pamphlet showing over 300 key verses that have been changed in the New Testament
alone. This list can be found at www.av1611.org/biblecom.html or on our
website at
www.gospelcenterchurch.org on the BIBLE VERSIONS page.
Here are some more glaring doctrinal alterations in the newer Bibles
(If you've heard people say no essential doctrines are effected)
*Lucifer is removed from the NIV in Isaiah 14:12 and is not mentioned at all in
the NIV!
*The NIV teaches that Jesus sinned in Matt. 5:22 and Mark 3:5
* The NASB teaches that Good deeds get us to heaven in John 5:29
*The NKJV teaches that it is ‘difficult’ to be saved in Matthew 7:14 while
the KJV correctly says the way to be saved is only through Jesus.
* The NIV removes completely the verse of Acts 8:37 which is the best verse
refuting Infant baptism in the Bible
* The NIV teaches that salvation can be lost and God can 'disown' someone who
was at one time a believer in 2 Timothy 2:12
* The NIV removes the word 'hell' in 40 of the 53 places it is found in the KJV
and it is not found in the OT at all
* The names of Christ are omitted 175 in the newer Bibles and references to
Christ's deity are removed in NIV verses like 1 Timothy 3:16 and Phil 2:6 and
Micah 5:2 and Col. 1:16 (RSV)
* The Phillips Translation teaches you must be baptized to have your sins
forgiven in Acts 2:38
* The NIV teaches confession of sins to other human beings in James 5:16
* The newer Bibles like the NASB remove the sinful references to homosexuality
in verses like 1 Timothy 1:10 "Them that defile themselves with mankind" has
simply been replaced with "homosexual"
Remember, Satan wouldn't be stupid enough to remove every reference, to
say, Christ's deity, but if he removed the best and clearest references, it
would make it more difficult for new and young believers to grasp this Truth,
wouldn't it?
STEP THREE - ILLUMINATION
The process by which God helps
us to understand His Word thru the help of the Holy Spirit.
This leads us to the 3rd Step in the process that God used to get His Word to
us, following INSPIRATION and PRESERVATION and that is ILLUMINATION. When we
become born-again, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us and He, the Holy Spirit,
helps us to understand the Bible when we read or hear it preached! That is why
before we were saved, the Bible just didn't make any sense to us. Now that
we're born again, the Holy Spirit indwelling us helps us to understand the Bible
according to 1 John 2:27....
"But the anointing which ye have received
of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same
anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as
it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
What We Should Do With The Bible to take advantage of this Illumination
process by the Holy Spirit?
We should read it (Revelation 1:2)
We should study it (2 timothy 3:15-17)
We should search it (John 5:39)
We should meditate upon it (Psalms 1:2)
We should memorize it (Psalms 1:2)
We should obey it (James 1:22)
We should desire it and grow from it (1 Peter 2:2)
We should teach it (Deuteronomy 6:7,8)
We should preach it (2 timothy 4:2)
We should love it (Psalms 119:127)
AREN'T YOU WORSHIPPING A BOOK OF CARDBOARD AND PAPER?
No, I love and adore the Holy Scripture that is written on these pages....I
believe It is the only perfect thing on this earth!
Satan is also using his 3rd Method to try to halt the influence of the
Word of God today and that is by trying to DISCREDIT it and get people to doubt
it. Many of our school teachers, College professors, and even preachers, mock
the Bible by claiming it is full of errors and can't be believed...and it
working on many, but the Bible is still true! 2 Peter 3:3 predicted this
when it said,
"Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their
own lusts,
As the Bible was carried to other countries, it was translated into the
common language of the people by scholars who wanted others to know God's Word.
By AD 200, the Bible was translated into seven languages; by AD 500, 13
languages; by AD 900, 17 languages; by AD 1400, 28 languages; by 1800, 57
languages; by 1900, 537 languages; by 1980, 1,100 languages.
Today there are still 2,000 groups with no Bible in their own language.
BEARING PRECIOUS SEED MINISTRIES of Milford, Ohio is one ministry that is
translating and printing Bibles into languages of the world, and they translate
Word for Word from the King James Bible. (We are sad to say that Wycliffe
Bible Translators DO NOT use the KJV text and they also 'paraphrase' instead
of translating word for word. Another sad note is that The Gideons
formerly only printed KJV Bibles, but recently have began translating the newer
altered Bible versions. We have had to stop supporting Wycliffe Translators and
the Gideons because of this.)
We have God's precious Word today. I challenge you. Let's not neglect it.
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