Modern Bible Version Hall of Shame 2
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The Modern Bible Version Hall of Shame By David Cloud Copyright @ 2005 by David W. Cloud 1-58318-089-3 This material cannot be placed on BBS or Internet Web sites Published by Way of Life Literature P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061 866-295-4143 (toll free) [email protected] (e-mail) http://www.wayoflife.org (web site) Canada: Bethel Baptist Church, 4212 Campbell St. N., London, Ont. N6P 1A6 519-652-2619 (voice) 519-652-0056 (fax) [email protected] (e-mail) Printed in Canada by Bethel Baptist Print Ministry 2 Contents I. The Association Between Apostasy and Modern Textual Criticism Stated by Men of God ................................................................................................................ 6 II. The Apostate Conditions that Existed When Modern Textual Criticism Was Being Formulated ...................................................................................................... 11 Theological Liberalism was blossoming Human Philisophy was exalting itself against God's Word Unitarianism was making great gains Communism was rising Evolution was developing Humanistic Psychology was developing Heretical Christian Cults were blossoming Feminism was rising Roman Catholicism was making new advances III. A Timeline of 20th Century Apostasy .............................................................. 40 IV. The Modern Bible Version Hall of Shame (from the 17th to the 21st Centuries) ......................................................................................................................... 67 V. Some Final Questions ..................................................................................... 289 3 Introduction One of the reasons why we reject the modern textual criticism that has given us the multiplicity of modern Bible versions is its affinity to and intimate association with end time apostasy. I don’t see how this can be denied in light of the following documentation. The Word of God gives the following warnings about the believer’s association with apostasy: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18). “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness” (2 Cor. 6:14). “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8). “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called” (1 Tim. 6:20). “But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some” (2 Tim. 2:16-18). “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Tim. 3:5). “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” (2 John 7-11). “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). The information in this book is the fruit of 25 years of research. When I first began studying the 4 Bible text-version issue in about 1979, I wanted to check my sources and base my research upon primary documents, as much as possible, and I have pursued that goal over the past quarter century. Today my personal library contains a large percentage of the books that have been published in this field in the past 200 years. I have researched this issue at libraries such as Regent College in Vancouver, B.C., Westminster Seminary, the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives in Nashville; the British Library; Heritage Baptist University’s collection of rare Bibles; the Mack Library at BJU; the Museum of Waldensian History at Torre Pellice, Italy; the Moravian Museums in Pennsylvania and North Carolina; the Scriptorium Center for Biblical Studies in Orlando, Florida; the Cambridge University Library; the Spurgeon Library at William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri; Wake-Forest University Library; the Waldensian Museum in Valdese, North Carolina; the William Tyndale Museum in Vilvoorde, Belgium; the Gutenberg Museum in Germany; and the Erasmus House in Belgium. Bible believers of the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries were busy rejoicing in, preaching, and obeying the Scriptures. On the other hand, the textual critics were flying in the face of the doctrine of preservation. Rejecting the Traditional Text that had been handed down to them by Bible-believing Christians, they were groping around in dark monasteries and papal libraries trying to rediscover the supposed lost Word of God. Their ears were attuned to the vain philosophies emanating from Germany, and they were applying secular principles of textual criticism to the biblical text. While not every adherent of modern textual criticism is a modernist or a Unitarian or a skeptic or a rationalist, most of its chief architects and proponents have been. Evangelicals such as the Baptist A.T. Robertson and the Presbyterian B.B. Warfield did not develop textual criticism; they did not collate manuscripts or devise theories; they merely rehashed and passed along that which they had received from the rationalistic fathers in this field. Presbyterian scholar Robert Dabney in 1871 observed that evangelicals adopted the critical text “FROM THE MINT OF INFIDEL RATIONALISM” (Dabney, “The Doctrinal Various Readings of the New Testament Greek,” Discussions Evangelical and Theological, pp. 361; this first appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review, April 1871). To get a foundation for understanding the issue of Bible texts and versions we recommend Faith vs. the Modern Bible Versions, available from Way of Life Literature. Suggestions to Readers: If you cannot cover all of the men listed in the “Modern Bible Version Hall of Shame,” we make the following suggestions. Short List: Johann Griesbach, Karl Lachmann, Samuel Tregelles, Friedrich von Tischendorf, George Vance Smith, Westcott and Hort, Philip Schaff, Ezra Abbot, Joseph Thayer, Eberhard Nestle, Hermann von Soden, Frederic Kenyon, Kirsopp Lake, Revised Standard Version, and the editors of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament. 5 Shortest List: Johann Griesbach, Karl Lachmann, George Vance Smith, Westcott and Hort, Philip Schaff, Ezra Abbot, Joseph Thayer, Eberhard Nestle, and the editors of the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN APOSTASY AND MODERN TEXTUAL CRITICISM STATED BY MEN OF GOD The following are only a few examples of these statements by discerning men of God. Many more can be found in the 460-page book For Love of the Bible: The Battle for the King James Version and the Received Text from 1800 to Present, available from Way of Life Literature. 1. The testimony of Octavius Winslow, Baptist leader in America, 1837: “THERE IS A SWEEPING SPIRIT OF INNOVATION ABROAD, AT WAR WITH EVERY INSTITUTION BEARING ON ITS FRONT THE TIME WORN MARKS OF ANTIQUITY. Things that are old are set aside or demolished, to prepare the introduction for things that are new. THE WISDOM OF THE PAST AGES IS DENOUNCED AS THE WISDOM OF THE WORLD’S INFANCY, WHILE THAT OF THE PRESENT IS REGARDED AS ONLY WORTHY OF THE NAME. But where shall we look for wisdom more profound, for eloquence of a sweeter and sublimer order,--for poetry more transcendent--for models in all the fine arts more exquisite, for divinity more sound, or for piety so exalted, as the records of ages gone by will produce? And yet, such is the political, and such the religious Radicalism of the age, no fabric however sacred is secure from its levelling influence, if there be found upon it the dust and the impress of antiquity,--the Bible not even excepted! ... a portion of the Christian church ... regardless of circumstances and reckless of consequences, push forward favourite theories and general rules beyond their legitimate and wise application” (Winslow, “Additional Reasons for Preferring the English Bible as It Is, attached to Objections to a Baptist Version of the New Testament by William Brantly, 1837, pp. 55, 56). 2. The testimony of Arthur Cleveland Coxe, an Episcopalian bishop in western New York, USA, 1857: “The movement, in England, which had made some little stir in Parliament, in behalf of a new translation, SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN SET ON FOOT BY PARTIES CONFESSEDLY AVERSE TO THE GREAT DOCTRINAL TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL. It is significant, that the Edinburgh Review, in a late article of distinctly latitudinarian character, has pronounced in favour of the experiment. ... Refined gold must be gilded, and the lily painted; and if possible, the very lights of heaven would be tinkered and repaired, by THE WILD CONCEIT OF THE TIMES. ... I submit it to the judgment of devout and reasonable men, whether, at any time, the intrusion of such novelties into a standard, on mere individual responsibility, is not most dangerous. BUT IF, AT ANY TIME, MORE ESPECIALLY AT THIS TIME, WHEN A GREAT PORTION OF OUR COUNTRY IS WITNESS TO THE MOST ALARMING THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS TOWARDS THE RATIONALISM OF GERMANY.