Saw this testimony of a modern version user and thought I would share: Title: When Libraries Attack To , This Thanksgiving my family was making a list of things we were thankful for when some old memories came to mind. God used your pastor to help me (and my family) in a very significant way. Although these events happened 35 years ago, I am still grateful; and decided to put it in writing. The same day Jesus saved me; I rummaged through a box in my closet and retrieved a book my Grandmother had given me years earlier, a Catholic New English Bible with the Apocrypha. I read this for nearly a year before learning the Apocrypha was not even part of the Bible. The Bible fascinated me, and I studied it with passion. I bought myself an interleaf NASV (version recommended by my pastor). I also purchased a library’s worth of study materials, JFB Commentary, ISB Encyclopedia, Amplified Bible, a hardcover 5 parallel version bible, several dictionaries, Strong’s Concordance and various study books, all the standard stuff. In those days, studying was exhausting and cross checking took forever. About 3 years after Jesus saved me, my faith entered a crisis phase. The year was 1978. The first blow was from my church. Serious doctrinal issues with my charismatic assembly led me to a deacon/pastor meeting. I wrote them a paper unwisely titled “A plea for Sanity” Questions on eternal security, tongues, and healing resulted in my excommunication. Their answers to my questions included that I was listening to false teachers, and I was in danger of becoming demon possessed. I was hurt, and disconcerted. The real knock-out punch, however, came from books. I worked afternoons, so I was often up late. It was 3:00 AM, and my assortment of bibles and dictionaries were on the kitchen table. My wife and kids were sleeping. Then it happened; my library attacked “The Bible was wrong” it told me in the middle of the night. “The last half of Romans 8:1 was a mistake, those words shouldn’t be there.” Oh, I had seen scholars deliver higher textual criticisms before, but I never really thought about it. I just assumed they knew more than the rest of us. - But tonight their words sunk in. My heart started beating like bombs were going off in my chest. Romans 8:1 there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. JFB: who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit--The evidence of manuscripts seems to show that this clause formed no part of the original text of this verse, but blah blah Clarke: This last clause is wanting in the principal MSS., versions, and fathers. Griesbach has excluded it from the text; and Dr. White says, Certissime delenda; it should most undoubtedly be expunged The Old Testament gave me no relief. The critics were in rare form that night-ironic how my studies included examining the devil. Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! Calvin: The exposition of this passage, which some have given, as if it referred to Satan, has arisen from ignorance; for the context plainly shows that these statements must be understood in reference to the king of the Babylonians. But when passages of Scripture are taken up at random, and no attention is paid to the context, we need not wonder that mistakes of this kind frequently arise. Yet it was an instance of very gross ignorance, to imagine that Lucifer was the king of devils, and that the Prophet gave him this name. But as these inventions have no probability whatever, let us pass by them as useless fables. ISBE: The Old Testament passage is rendered in the King James Version Lucifer, son of the morning, in the King James Version margin and the Revised Version (British and American) day-star, i.e. the morning star. The reference is to the king of Babylon In 2 Pet 1:19, Until .... the daystar arise in your hearts, the word is literally, light-bringer. It is applicable, therefore, not only to the planet Venus, seen as a morning star, herald of the dawn, but to the sun itself, and is used here as a title of our Lord. I could go on and on. But how many: “most unfortunate renderings” “grievous scribal errors” or “ignorant misgivings upon the holy writ” can a Bible believer endure? So I leave the evidence in the library where hundreds of scholars documented their own words for congregations and the court to see. “So God” I prayed –“Are they right? What if John 3:16 is a grievous rendering? What if Romans 10:9-10 is wrong? The smartest Christians in the world don’t believe you preserved your words without error. The original manuscripts are gone. Why do these scholars keep bragging about believing in the inerrancy of original manuscripts when those documents don’t even exist? Liars, deceivers - what do they believe in? A stack of papers they keep correcting. I quietly put my library away. I was done. I wasn’t wasting one more minute studying a book full of mistakes. And be not deceived, I’m not talking about a few mistakes - the smartest Christians in the world have found thousands of errors in the Bible. I turned off the light and went to bed. In those days, I worked as a fork lift driver in a large automobile warehouse. About two weeks after the library attacked me, I was delivering a pallet of car parts on the truck dock. Ron Leggitt worked on the loading docks as a checker. Ron motioned with his hands signaling where he wanted me to put the pallet down. I got off the fork truck and handed him some paperwork. Ron and I knew each other, but not closely. Although I had left Pentecostalism, I was still a doctrinal mess. Ron was a Baptist. This being said, we respected each other, but not much fellowship. Whats wrong, Joe? Ron asked. You dont seem very happy these days. What transpired next was quite remarkable! I told Ron what happened to me, told him about my experience at the kitchen table. Told him how the scholars proved to me the Bible was not perfect. Ron listened quietly and then said: Did you ever notice those guys in your commentaries and encyclopedias are always correcting only the King James Bible? They never say anything about the other bibles. God did preserve his book. The King James Bible is perfect. Satan uses those guys to discourage Christians just like you. I stood there on a loading dock for the next 10 minutes listening to Ron explain how the Bible was inspired and preserved, and why it had to be. He quoted Psalms 12:6, 7. At first I was in absolute shock. Everything Ron was saying made sense. He was absolutely right- it was only the King James Bible the scholars were correcting. Over the next several months Ron taught me the dispensationalist perspective on interpretation. He taught me about rightly dividing the Bible. He introduced me to books and authors worth reading- Clarence Larkin and Peter Ruckman among them. In conclusion, I would like to thank you, Ron. God used you to teach me the Bible is preserved without error. The greatest thing that ever happened to me was getting saved. The second greatest thing was learning God preserved his words in the King James Bible. One cannot overstate the overwhelming awakening I experienced when I suddenly had the Bible. I am still not over it. What a wondrous treasure. Thank you, Joseph 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.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 23:30:00 +0000
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