KEPT PURE IN ALL AGES
Contents
ILLUSTRATIONS.........................................................................
11
FOREWORD.................................................................................
13
PREFACE ...................................................................................... 15
CHAPTERS
I
INTRODUCTION......................................................................
17
A
21st Century Battle for the Bible
............................................... 17
Ruckman or Burgon?.....................................................................
17
Ruckman
..................................................................................
18
Burgon
...................................................................................... 18
II
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE
...................................... 21
Natural
Inspiration
......................................................................... 21
Partial
Inspiration ..........................................................................
21
Total
Inspiration
............................................................................ 21
Biblical
Meaning of Inspiration .................................................... 22
Inspiration
and Translation ............................................................ 22
Are
Translations Inspired? .......................................................
22
Accuracy
in Translations .......................................................... 23
III
THE CANONICITY OF THE BIBLE .................................... 24
Meaning
of Canon
......................................................................... 24
Identification
of the Canon ............................................................ 24
Books
of the Canon
.......................................................................
25
IV
THE TRANSMISSION OF THE BIBLE ............................... 27
Transmission
of the OT
................................................................. 27
Method
of OT Transmission .................................................... 27
8 KEPT PURE IN ALL AGES
Significance
of OT Transmission ............................................. 28
Transmission
of the NT
................................................................. 29
Periods
of NT Transmission
..................................................... 29
Types
of Scribal Errors in NT Transmission ............................ 31
V
THE PRESERVATION OF THE BIBLE ................................. 33
Preservation
of the OT .................................................................. 33
Preservation
of the NT .................................................................. 35
Textus Receptus
and Providential Preservation ............................ 35
Textus Receptus
Editors and Providential Guidance ..................... 36
Psalm
12:6-7 on Bible Preservation .............................................. 36
Westminster
Confession on Bible Preservation............................. 37
Dean
Burgon Society on Bible Preservation
................................. 38
Dr
Edward F Hills on Bible Preservation
...................................... 38
Dr
William Whitaker on Bible Preservation ................................. 40
Dean
J W Burgon on Bible Preservation
....................................... 41
Dr
Timothy Tow on Bible Preservation ........................................ 41
VI
THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE ................................. 43
Westminster
Confession on Translation ........................................ 43
The
Bible in World Languages ......................................................
43
Methods
of Translation
................................................................. 43
Formal
Equivalence Method .................................................... 43
Dynamic
Equivalence Method ................................................. 44
William
Tyndale on Accurate Translating ..................................... 45
VII
THE GREEK TEXT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT ............. 47
The
Manuscript Text-type
............................................................. 47
Byzantine
Text-type
................................................................. 47
Alexandrian
Text-type
.............................................................. 47
The
Critical Text
...................................................................... 47
The
Alexandrian Manuscripts
.................................................. 48
Proof
of corruption
................................................................... 51
The
Westcott-Hort Text
................................................................. 53
Their
Critical Edition of the Greek NT .................................... 53
Their
Textual Critical Theory ................................................... 55
Their
Heretical Beliefs .............................................................
58
9
The
Eclectic Text ......................................................................
58
The
Editors of the Critical Text ................................................
63
The
Traditional Text
...................................................................... 65
The
Byzantine/Majority Text ................................................... 65
The
Textus Receptus/Received
Text ........................................ 65
The
Preserved Text
................................................................... 66
The
“Jesus Papyrus” (Magdalen GR 17)
................................. 67
VIII
A SURVEY OF ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATIONS ....... 69
Pre-KJV
Versions
..........................................................................
69
Wycliffe’s
Translation
.............................................................. 69
Tyndale’s
Translation ............................................................... 70
Coverdale’s
Translation ............................................................ 70
The
Great Bible
........................................................................ 71
The
Geneva Bible
..................................................................... 71
Post-KJV
Versions
......................................................................... 71
Revised
Version ........................................................................
72
American
Standard Version ...................................................... 73
Revised
Standard Version
........................................................ 73
New
English Bible ...................................................................
74
Today’s
English Version
........................................................... 75
Living
Bible
.............................................................................
75
New
American Standard Bible ................................................. 76
IX
A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE
NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION ......................................
77
The
NIV is Based on a Corrupt Text
............................................. 77
NIV
Preface ..............................................................................
77
UBSGNT
and NANTG ............................................................ 77
The
NIV Casts Doubt on God’s Word ........................................... 79
The
Woman Taken in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11) ..................... 79
The
Last 12 Verses of Mark (Mark 16:9-20) ........................... 81
The
NIV Scissors Out God’s Word
............................................... 82
Entire
Passages Questioned ...................................................... 82
Entire
Verses Omitted
.............................................................. 82
Portions
of Verses Omitted or Modified .................................. 82
The
Johannine Comma Removed (1 John 5:7-8)
..................... 87
10 KEPT PURE IN ALL AGES
The
NIV Attacks Vital Doctrines of the Christian Faith ............... 90
Attack
on the Eternal Generation of God the Son ....................
90
Attack
on the Virgin Birth of Christ
......................................... 90
Attack
on the Theanthropic Person of Christ
........................... 92
Attack
on the Eternal Punishment of Sinners in Hell ............... 93
Attack
on Christ as the Judge who is God ............................... 93
The
NIV Mistranslates God’s Word .............................................. 94
Mistranslation
of Ps 12:7 on the Preservation of
God’s
Word .........................................................................
94
Mistranslation
of Isa 49:12 on God’s Promise to
the Chinese ..........................................................................
95
Mistranslation
of 2 Thess 3:6 on Secondary
Separation
........................................................................... 97
The
NIV Opposes a Strictly Messianic Fulfilment of
Isa
7:14 in its Study Bible
........................................................ 98
X
THE SUPERIORITY OF THE KING JAMES VERSION .... 101
The
KJV is Superior Because It is Based on
the Preserved Text
.................................................................. 101
The
KJV is Superior Because of Its Godly and
Able
Translators
..................................................................... 101
The
KJV Translators were Men of Great Piety ...................... 103
The
KJV Translators were Men of Great Learning ................ 104
The
KJV is Superior Because It is an
Accurate
Translation
.............................................................. 108
The
KJV is Superior Because It is Faithful to
Historic
Protestant Theology ..................................................
109
XI
FAQ ABOUT THE KJV ....................................................... 111
XII
CONCLUSION
.................................................................... 125
International
Council of Christian Churches’
Resolution
on the KJV
........................................................... 125
Acknowledgement
and Recommendation of Sources ................. 129
APPENDIX: BOB JONES UNIVERSITY AND
THE KJV ..... 134
ILLUSTRATIONS
John
William Burgon (1813-1888) ..........................................................
19
Inspiration
and Preservation
.................................................................... 26
New
Testament Greek Text
...................................................................... 34
William
Tyndale (1494-1536)
................................................................. 42
How
We Got Our Bible (KJV)
................................................................ 46
The
Entrance of the Leaven of Textual Criticism
into Fundamentalism ...............................................................................
56
B
F Westcott (1825-1901) and F J A Hort (1828-1892) .......................... 60
Modern
English Bibles “100 Per-Versions”
............................................ 91
Two
Streams of English Bibles
.............................................................. 100
One
Version—KJV—Holy Bible
.......................................................... 102
The King James Bible Vs the Hundred Versions ................................... 110
There is a battle
to be fought today. It is a battle for the Bible. The
battle
in the last century concerned the doctrine of Bible inspiration. In
this
new century, the battle concerns the doctrine of Bible preservation.
The doctrine of
inspiration is meaningless without the doctrine of
preservation.
The same God who inspired His Word has promised to
preserve
His Word. The Westminister Confession affirms the
twin
doctrines
of Bible inspiration and Bible preservation: “The Old Testament
in
Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old),
and
the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of the writing of it,
was
most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by
God,
and, by his singular care and providence, kept pure in all ages, are
therefore
authentical.”
This book
originated with lecture notes for an evening course on the
“KJV-NIV Debate”
that I taught at the Far Eastern Bible College in 1998.
The course was in
response to certain ministers who sought to displace
the
KJV in favour of the NIV in our Bible-Presbyterian
churches. By the
grace
of God, Life Bible-Presbyterian Church—mother of all B-P
churches
in Singapore—has taken a strong unequivocal stand for the KJV
against
the many modern perversions of the Bible (see “A Doctrinal
Positional
Statement of Life B-P Church,” in her golden anniversary
magazine,
50 Years Building His Kingdom).