The Way Which They Call Heresy

THE WAY WHICH THEY CALL HERESY

. . . after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: --Acts 24:14 . . . Canst thou speak Greek? — Acts 21:37 They tell the story of a little Welsh maid, working in England, during the week. Week ends, she would travel far to hear a Welsh Bible preached. Upset at her behavior, her employer asked, "Do you know that the Lord is really not Welsh?" The young girl replied, "Aye, mum, but He speaks to me in Welsh!" (see Acts 26:14) It is normal and scriptural for a new babe in Christ to believe ALL things in God's word (as we have it in the English A.V.). We suppose that even saved Bible Correctors, upon their conversion, once believed accordingly. We suspect that they were later "shipwrecked" or "castaway" by the consensus of liberal and unbelieving literature and scholarship, whose dirty little secret, like evolutionists, is to presuppose that the Bible has errors in it, fitting everything that they find into that unbelieving mold and then making their proclamations. Yet, new converts presuppose their Bible is correct and act accordingly in their new faith. Before the advent of the RSV, no one called Christians, who believed all that was written in God's Book, "heretics." Contrarily, converts were petted, placated, patronized, and appeased by preachers, having mental reservations, to get them to do the work. Converts were insulated by their more educated preachers, who somehow kept their unbelieving reservations from showing. After all, new converts must grow, learn, and understand the . . . ah . . . little mistakes and problems, which we have in our Standard English Bible. Educated preachers, in those days, would not discuss the so-called errors with ordinary lay folks or prospective converts. (They, somehow, knew that people do not get saved nor get as involved, if they were exposed to hard core unbelief and reservations toward God's Book; so, why not soft-peddle it?) After the RSV, our more educated preacher friends would parrot what they learned at college (or from some book) and began to slowly pulpitize laymen with subtle, better renderings from modern versions or from the Greek and Hebrew (often knowing only rudimentary Greek/Hebrew or none at all, parroting what they heard and read). After a prolonged diet of this tainted food, prospective shipwrecks began to buy and read books and modern bibles that seem to prove that these modern preachers were right and "then some." Well, since the RSV, a few persistent, die-hard Bible believers (David Otis Fuller, J.J. Ray, and Dr. Peter Ruckman) publicly forced things into the open (which these Alexandrians tried to sweep under the rug). Since their determination to alert the Christian public that there was one in the woodpile, things have changed somewhat. Now, one is forced to eventually stand against one side or the other (or else try to fool them with a subtle, double-minded, two faced, double-tongued rhetoric, playing both sides to the middle to gain support for one’s ministry or college or mission). Bible Correctors finally mustered up enough courage to get around to a frontal fight (in the eighties). Nevertheless, what else were they to do? They were desperate! Notable Bible Correctors were even willing to be led by a few grand–standers, whose association, mutability, credibility, and past are questionable. The grand–standers were armed only with a bit of history, dirt, petty criticism, and the Roman proof-text, "Canst thou speak Greek?" (Acts 21:37) while they bravely called Bible (KJB) believers - "heretics." Believers of the Book responded by rallying to the cause and assembling the volunteer militia, singing "Rally 'round the Book boys; rally 'round the Book." The battle resulted in a duel between a representative from both the Bible believing and Bible Correcting camps. Felled by four shots, one seriously wounded grandstander, consumed with hatred, withdrew to lick his wounds and mount a dirty and loathsome terrorist campaign against believers and their Book. The results over the past three decades have been much like the events of the Book of Acts. Some are confounded (Acts 2:6), some are astonished (Acts 10:45, 46), some are amazed, some are in doubt, some mock (Acts 2:11-13), and some believe the prospect of men being able to hear and read the wonderful words and works of God in their own language of their birth (Acts 2:8; Acts 26:14) without the need of the scholars’ tongues. The question is, do you believe ALL things which are written in the law and in the prophets or not? Canst thou speak Greek?

-- by Herb Evans