Which Bible? Part II

This post is being written in response to the comments I got on my last post.  I didn't want to try to fit all this multitude of words into that little teeny comment box, so unless you click on someone else's blog right now, you are going to be bombarded with my reply to /johnightthirtytwo and BibleMan. Oh, wait a second. Before I invite more fire, I wanted to tell you all (all but 8 of you, 8 wonderful ladies who are my FRIENDS) that I was disappointed in the results of my delurking day! Only EIGHT?? Who's still just lurking?  I got way more than that on my counter... out with it.  Oh, okayyy, you don't have to say you love my blog.  Just post a comment. And oh, whoever you are, Anonymous non-HSB'er, you didn't leave me a way to contact you to say thank you!  So leave another one :o)  And now everyone, go get your tomatoes, you have time.  This is a long post.

Whoa!  See what I mean about it being a divisive issue?  Both of you raised some good points.  In answer to Short, the titles, subtitles, and chapter headings were not a part of the inspired, preserved words of God, but were inserted later by publishers who do not claim infallibility. The chapter and verse numbers and the paragraph markings were also added later. I agree with you.  I have seen some misleading headings when looking for passages in my own Bible. But that is not what I am talking about when comparing Bibles.

You said the KJV (which, by the way, was not the first English translation) has many errors when compared with the Hebrew. How many Hebrew texts are you talking about?  What are you comparing the KJV to?  And how do you know which one is wrong? (The originals don’t exist anymore – I know King Jehoiakim threw one of Jeremiah’s original manuscripts into the fire!)  I don’t know how many Hebrew texts there are, but I do know that there are over 5000 surviving Greek texts manuscripts which contain all or part of the New Testament. These 5000+ manuscripts agree with each other 95% of the time, and it is from these texts, called the Textus Receptus, that the KJV was translated. The other 5%, called the Alexandrian manuscripts, make up the differences between the KJV and ALL of the other modern translations, accounting for between 5000 and 36,000 differences, depending on which translation you are looking at, AND they do not even agree with each other much of the time!  The Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus, two of the manuscripts on which modern translators rely very heavily, are in this group of revised Greek texts.  This manuscript evidence stuff can get really deep, but it’s really not that hard to understand. (After all, even I can get it! lol!)

 For example, look at Mark 16, regarding the resurrection of Christ.  Six hundred and eighteen texts include the last twelve verses.  The Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus both leave out this portion of the scripture.  But there is NOT ONE other manuscript that leaves out these verses!  Yet look in your modern Bible. The NASB puts these verses in brackets, saying these verses “probably” were not in the original writings.  The other modern versions use brackets or footnotes to indicate this unfortunate “error” or “ambiguity” in translation also.  That is ridiculous!  If 618 people said they witnessed a crime and two said it didn’t happen, whom would you believe? The issue here is TRUTH. If the verses are true, what is the point of removing them, except to cast doubt on God’s Word??

 Bible Man had a good point, which is that the underlying issue here is one of final authority.  As long as we do not believe God kept his words for us, we are free to disagree with the Bible and change it.  Satan cast doubt on God’s Word right from the start of Genesis.  He asked Eve, “Yea, hath God said…?” and men have been questioning God’s Word ever since. Without God’s Word being the final authority, we ourselves will choose what to believe and what to reject.  You don’t believe Mary was a virgin? Okay, take that part out.  You don’t believe in the blood atonement?  Okay, just take the blood out. You don’t believe Jesus Christ was God manifest in the flesh?  Just attack the verses that prove his deity. What’s left? Certainly nothing to show sinners their need of Jesus Christ.

 Yes, each Bible has an agenda.  The agenda of the modern bibles is to make you doubt God and his authority.  God’s agenda in preserving his words in the King James Bible was to show English-speaking people all over the world their need to be saved from sin and hell. The Bible says we are saved through FAITH, Eph. 2:8,9. How do we get faith?  From the incorruptible Word of God, Romans 10:17 and 1 Peter 1:23.

 So if one reads the right Bible, he can get enough faith to believe that God meant HIM/her when he said, “ For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23 

 Then he looks further into the Book and sees that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Romans 6:23, and “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. 

 Then he can learn the answer, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,” Romans 10:9.  “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

 The Bible also says, “…and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7, and “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

 “Which Bible” is vitally important to our soul’s salvation.( “…the HOLY scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto SALVATION through FAITH which is in Christ Jesus,” 2 Tim. 3:15.)  1 Peter 1:23 says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of INCORRUPTIBLE, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”  Right there is a promise of preservation, and there are others, Psalm 12, Mt 24:35, Ps. 119:89. “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day,” Jn. 12:48 – can we be judged by it, if we don’t have it?

 So then, finally, do we have God’s perfect, inspired, preserved Word today? (Not, was it perfect when it was written.)  And if we DO have God’s Word today, which Bible is it???  You don’t have to believe it is the KJV, but if you believe what God has told us about his word, you must believe that he has given it to you to believe and to understand and to be accountable to. Find the one that is perfect and without error, not according to human standard, but according to its own standard, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”. You will then have found a Bible that you can trust your soul to.

Thank you, Short, for challenging me! No ruffled feathers here. Iron sharpeneth iron.