The Inspiration and Preservation of the Scripture
There is much being made over some of fundamentalism's various views of the Word of God. I have listened for most of my life at good men argue over basic fundamental truths. I do not claim to have all the answers, nor do I consider myself the final authority on these matters, but I have carefully examined my faith to make sure that what I believe is what God's Word teaches and is what our fathers have passed on to us.
One of the main points of controversy for many years is the issue of the Bible, it's inspiration, preservation, and particularly, the King James Bible and whether or not we have the true Word of God. Let me say as one man said long ago, there is a "ditch on both sides of the road." I have listened intently to one arguement many years ago that divided Ind. Baptist. It was dealing with the KJB and whether or not it is God's Word. Of course there was a crowd in Florida that took it so far that they preached somewhat of a "double Inspiration" and said that even the King James Bible corrected the original manuscripts. Of course that is incorrect.
Any Bible student understands that God inspired the writers of the Bible and they were "moved by the Holy Ghost" to write its pages. Inspiration took place that day when God moved upon those men. The very God of glory "breathed" those words and we have his Word to us on the pages of the Bible. Now the problem and controversy comes when men deal with the various translations. I am not going to go into detail here, but I believe that the King James Bible is the Bible for the english speaking people and has been for 400 years. It was translated from the Textus Receptus which has been established as the text that is accurate and is the true Word of God. But many say that they only believes that inspiration applies only to the original manuscripts. I heard that in Bible College almost daily. It was some kind of "badge" that all the scholars wore. They quickly wanted everyone to know that "inspiration" was only in connection with the original texts. But what many fail to deal with is the next issue which is preservation. I understand that God only inspired those men once to write the Bible. I do understand that the King James translators were not "inspired" as they translated the Scriptures. That would be double inspiration. But I do believe that God is Sovereign and God's Word did promise that He would preserve his Word to every generation, even forever. With that being said, a true Bible Believing Fundamentalist has to consider that in the equation. If God preserved His Word, then he preserved it as His Inspired Word. I believe preservation applies to inspiration. Just as God preserves His Word, he preserves the fact of His inspired Word and the very words that God breathed, he preserves them to every generation.
If God does not preserve His inspired Word, then we have a Word that is not trustworthy, or is corrupted and that is not true. I believe God "superintended" thru the ages the translation of the Scriptures, including the King James Scholars, and they were given the ability to give us a copy of the true, inspired, infallible, inspired Word of God. To believe any less than that not only gives us a Bible we cannot fully trust, but also a God that is not true to His promises. If he cannot keep the Word preserved as He gave it in the beginning, then He is not truly involved in the affairs of men and cannot be trusted for matters of life and faith. WE talk about God intervening in the lives of men, and guiding and leading us as Christians, but cannot believe Him to direct the hearts of Scholars to work together to provide comman man with a copy of God's true inspired preserved Word.
The real problem comes here when men of respect and renown begin to say things like some have said recently and it causes people to doubt and look for something they can trust. If the King James Bible is not the inspired Word of God, then where is it? If we don't have it, then God lied to us. He promised He would preserve it. If we don't have a Bible that is true without error, then we are preaching out of a corrupted book and the messages we preach are tainted.
What good is accomplished by leaders who speak such controversial words? Does it make them look smarter? Does it edify the body of Christ? Does it exalt the Savior to say the Bible is not inspired? To cast doubt on the book that for 400 years has been used as the authority of the Church does not produce good results. It is confusing, controversial, and most of all destructive to the body of Christ and the Ind. Baptist movement.
I as a Independent Baptist, and a Fundamentalist believe that God inspired the Word of God when he led men to write the pages of the Bible. I believe also that God has preserved the Inspired Word thru the translation of the King James Bible. I believe that those 1611 translators were lead and superintended by the Holy Ghost to carefully give us an accurate copy of God's Word. I believe that we have the true Inspired, preserved Word of God. I can hold up my Bible and proclaim that God and his people are not without God's Divinely inspired text. It is not hidden in heaven for only heavens' residents to see. God has given it to us in this life through the preservation of the Word. Any thing less than that stand causes our congregations to be confused. It also creates doubt within the minds of our young preachers who then begin to lean toward "higher criticism" and come to the conclusion that they somehow are made better and given greater respect if they too get into their pulpits and tell their people that this Bible has problems, but i can tell you what it should say and this would be better if it said this, and then try to convince our people that they need to build their lives on a Book that has problems and mistakes. It just wont' work!
God help us to take a stand for the sake of our families, congreations and the generation to come. Quit trying to impress people and gain the favor of the world. They have always attacked the Bible and will til the end of time. But you so called fundamentalist who claim to be our leaders, stop sending wrong signals and sounding "unclear" trumpets. You are not only dividing our ranks, but you are tearing apart the body of Christ, doing damage to the church, and causing Satan to rejoice because he too was the first one who said" ye hath God said." When you challenge what God said, you are doing the work of Satan.
I have decided to continue on in my fundamentalist stand of the Scriptures and the King James Bible. I believe when I hold up my KJB, I hold the INSPIRED, INFALLIBLE, INERRENT, PRESERVED WORD OF GOD WITHOUT APOLOGY!!!! Don't tell me that I am uneducated. I have sat in your classrooms. I have taught those classes myself but never in my 34 years of preaching have I ever been guilty of casting doubt on this book and by the grace of God never will! You that do, don't expect me to remain quiet. I will continue to stand for this Book til He comes. When you face Him, I will be there. I want to hear what you will have to say when Jesus Christ corrects you for all the times you cast doubt on His Book. I want to hear what you will say in that day when He asks you why you could not clearly with conviction defend the Word of God that he brought to us through the blood shed of our fathers who paid a great price so we could have in our hands a copy of His preserved inspired Word. I want to hear what you say in that day. I don't think you will refer to the original autographs that day. I don't think you will quote from one of your hero scholars. He is the Word of God and He will be there to hear your reply. God raised up you as a preached to proclaim his Word, not destroy it. To preach his Word, not cast doubt on it. To defend His Word, not rewrite it. To love his Word, not correct it. We have a Bible. For us English Speaking people, it is the King James Bible. It has no errors or mistakes. It is God's preserved Word. And the Inspiration that was a reality that day had been preserved for us today. He inspired it , he preserved it, we have it. Period~!!!!!!!!! Don't be afriad to believe and proclaim it. And quit trying to make it better. Just accept it and preach it as it is to people as they are!
David Harrison
Voice of Hope Ministries
http://vhopeministries.org
(used with permission)
Last Updated (Wednesday, 05 May 2010 15:47)
Wait Upon the Lord
Since I have been saved, I have always heard that we are to wait, as in be still, and see the Lord move. Certainly there are times when we should wait. However, there are times when waiting, as in being still, can lead to slothfulness. As one becomes slothful, they also become weaker. As they become weaker, they become more slothful. Preachers will often quote Psa 46:10 in conjunction with Isa 40:31
In Psa 46:10, we are being told to be still in a time of trouble so that we can see the hand of the Lord move in our lives. In that context, we should wait, as in be still. However, there is a better application of Isa 40:31. Does the Lord want us to be still? As we will soon see, the Lord does not want us to be still throughout our lives, he wants us to be servants. Consider this: when you go to a good, sit-down restaurant, someone comes and takes your order, brings you your tea, brings out your food, makes sure you have everything you need. They are serving you. We also say they are waiting on or upon you. So, how should we “…wait upon the Lord.” Again, there is a time to be still and see the hand of the Lord move, but there is a time to move as well. As a slothful person will become weaker, an active person will become stronger. This is also true in our walk with the Lord. If we sit, idle in the Lord’s work, we will never grow, we will never gain strength in the things of the Lord. However, if we are in motion, if we are serving God, our strength will grow. Our text shows us this. There are many other passages that show us that we are to serve.
There is an implication that one’s sickness could be resolved through service to the Lord. Perhaps that could tie into being slothful? One who is lazy does not want to walk door-to-door witnessing and passing out tracts. On the other hand, walking door-to-door through a neighborhood, sharing the Gospel of Christ, is decent exercise.
When we serve God, we will have joy!
When we serve God, God will honor us. Are you waiting upon the Lord? Are you serving HIM? Last Updated (Wednesday, 10 February 2010 11:09) Shoutin' ChurchesOn different occasions, various churches have come up in discussion. Often, someone will say something like, “Oh, I know that church, that used to be one of those shoutin’ churches.” What changed in those churches? More importantly, what is happening to fundamentalism as a whole?
This passage gives us a good look into the response of the Children of Israel when the Ark of the Covenant came on the scene. In their eyes, the Ark of the Covenant was the embodiment of God. In fact, they could not touch it. If they did, they would die! In this passage, we see a scene where the Ark is brought to a scene. When Israel sees the Ark – when they see God, literally, they go nuts! The noise was so loud that the Philistines heard it and believed the LORD was on the scene. Another place we see the shout is in Ezra.
Here, the people are rejoicing over the mercy of the Lord. Throughout Scripture, we are commanded to praise God, yet praise, though comely to God, is no longer welcome in many of our churches. We have developed what I will now call ‘neo-fundamentalism’. The absence of the shout and praise in church is only one sign of neo-fundamentalism. Neo-fundamentalism can also be seen in music and lecture. In many ways, church is becoming less of a place of worship and more of a facility of higher education. Do not misunderstand; I am not opposed to ‘teaching’ in the church. In fact, the Pastor is to be ‘apt to teach’ (1 Tim 3:2), but he is also to be an evangelist (1 Tim 4:5). What that means is that there is to be a balance between evangelistic style preaching and teaching. In fact, Paul admonished Timothy saying: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (2 Tim 4:2) In the Neo-fundamentalist movement, we also see a flight away from the Holy Spirit. There was a time that the saints of God had discernment and true worship. They were “Spirit-filled” believers. What happened? I believe that the flight away from true Spirit-filled worship is a result of our fear of the charismatic movement. Over the last hundred years or so, we have seen a perversion of worship in the charismatic movement. The charismatic movement is characterized by the un-Biblical mimicking of the gifts of the Spirit we see exercised in the book of Acts. These are gifts such as speaking in tongues, healing, etc. These gifts were given in a specific time to prove the existence of God, to prove Christ was the Messiah and prove the disciples had the power of God. When the Word of God was complete, there was no longer a need for these gifts of the Spirit. In the birth of the charismatic movement, we also saw a resurgence of the use of these so-called gifts. As the charismatic movement took shape, true believers realized these gifts were not from God and separated from those who used them. Unfortunately, they attributed the Spirit of worship with the false spirit that was being manifested in the charismatic movement. As a result, the devil has stolen true Holy-Ghost worship from most churches. Sadly, the problem is a little deeper than this. As believers moved away from the Spirit of God, their discernment has progressively failed as well. As discernment has failed, the leaders of the churches have moved away from our standard, the Word of God. Today, there are more than one-hundred different versions of the Word of God. Why are there so many? I believe it is a part of the Devil's ploy to confuse the believer. If we believe the Bible is our absolute final authority for faith and practice, which book is right? If you are reading this in English, you need to read the KJV Bible. We will not discuss why in this article. For now, trust me! As different versions of the Bible have come along, all with their different standards, we have confusion. Today, if one accepts all of these different translations equally as the Word of God, they have no absolute standard upon which they can rely. This results in their teaching of no absolute standard - no absolute right and wrong. Another issue contributing to the loss of true Spirit-filled worship is the lack of preaching. Even in churches where they are still using the right Bible, the preaching is anemic. These pulpits are filled by people who want to make everyone feel good. Sure, they may 'bump' a little sin sometimes, but they never seem to really preach on standards or consistency. As preachers, we are to preach the whole counsel of God.
Paul gave Timothy a model of what to preach. He was to reprove, rebuke and exhort. Before we go on, let's define these words: First, to reprove means to blame; to censure; to charge with a fault to the face; to chide; to reprehend. (Webster's 1828 dictionary) In other words, to reprove one means that we should openly accuse them and place the blame for their sin directly on the sinner's shoulders. Second, to rebuke means to chide; to reprove; to reprehend for a fault; to check by reproof. (Webster's 1828 dictionary) To rebuke is also to reprove someone, but it is also to chide or scold one who is wrong. By repeating Himself, God is emphasizing the need for preaching against sin and of placing the balme of sin on the individual. Finally to exhort means to encourage, to embolden, to cheer, to advise. The primary sense seems to be to excite or to give strength, spirit or courage. (Webster's 1828 dictionary) It is after sin is dealt with that preachers are to encourage and embolden the believer. Where is the fire in our pulpits today? As I said, there are so-called preachers who will 'bump' sin or mention some particular sin in passing, but not really deal with it. I believe you can pick these churches by the people. These churches are filled with chameleons. A chameleon is a person who conforms to or almost blends in with their surroundings. You may see women who are modest in church, while outside of church, they are dressed like harlots. Mark them - their pastor has lost sight of 2 Tim 4:2. Perhaps you see men who sing praises to God in the choir, yet sing the world's songs in the car. If the preacher's message is not convicting them, he may be a hireling and it is likely that he is replacing the Spirit of God with the spirit of the world. You may still have people shouting in your church. There are churches where the crowd is pumped up. Some churches have people designated as 'praise leaders' while other churches have pastors who claim to be the praise and worship leader. The Pastor's job is to PREACH the WORD OF GOD. If the pastor is doing his job, the Holy Spirit of God will lead the worship! If the worship is worked up by any MAN, it is contrived and not real! If you are reading this, and you are a pastor, challenge yourself: are you preaching the whole counsel of God, or are you pleasing men? If you are not a pastor, ask God to help you get closer to Him, to show you the truth of the Word of God and to give your pastor the power and courage to fulfill his commission. Last Updated (Monday, 25 January 2010 20:20) |
