The Bible is the Word of God. This has been known and understood by believers both in the Old Testament era and in the Church Age. These two Scriptures are but a tiny sample of how the Word is a sure guide to those who live by it, and that it is inspired (God-breathed) in that, although roughly 40 men wrote the Bible, the ultimate Author of it is the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 119:105: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
2 Peter 1:19-21: And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
There are also some serious warnings in the Word of God about tampering with its contents (Revelation 22:18-19). Despite the divine origin of the Bible and the fearsome dangers of altering its words, there have been those who do it anyway, either knowingly or unknowingly. One sad example of the Word being under fire is what scholars have done to it. Whether these people realize it or not, they and other theological academicians have reduced the Bible to just another lab experiment, subjecting it to analysis while bringing their own personal biases in. Lay ministers and even the common church parishioners have also been guilty of attacking the Word. Besides the grievous butchery which has been wrought upon many Bible manuscripts, the credibility of the first 11 chapters of Genesis has been undermined, some are saying we do not need the Old Testament, and so on. We will look at each of these issues now.
A. The Bible Scholars’ Assault on the Bible
Textual criticism, which has been around since ancient times, concerns itself with finding variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or books. There are manuscripts from which the Bible is derived, in Hebrew and Aramaic originally for the Old Testament and in Koine (common) Greek originally for the New Testament. Of course, these have been translated into numerous languages. For example, in the 200’s BC the Old Testament was translated into Greek. This is the Septuagint. In the late 300’s and early 400’s AD the Christian scholar and theologian Jerome translated both testaments, along with some apocryphal books, into Latin. This is the Vulgate. So how does textual criticism factor into Bible translations and so forth?
Textual criticism of Bible texts really blossomed in the 1800’s, in the wake of the Scientific Revolution, but textual critics began to hammer away at Bible texts before then. Around 90 AD a group of Jews produced the Masoretic text, a Hebrew rendering of the Old Testament, to get away from using the Septuagint, which had become, in their eyes, the Bible of the Christians. In the early 1500’s a Dutch Catholic priest and theologian named Desiderius Erasmus put together the Textus Receptus, an important manuscript of the New Testament upon which the NT translations of the King James and New King James Bibles are based (the KJV and NKJV utilize the Masoretic text for the OT). An attack on the credibility of the Textus Receptus began in earnest in the 1730’s, but at first it was unsuccessful. That changed with the arrival of Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort in the middle 1800’s. Westcott and Hort were Anglican churchmen who, on the surface, seemed to be good Christians. In private, however, a different picture emerges. They dabbled in the occult and had contempt for the Textus Receptus. They drew upon the Alexandrian Codices and produced a critical text of the NT in which they changed the traditional Greek text in over 8400 places. Important verses were altered or dropped altogether. There is much more information on this in Level 2, Lesson 2, “More About the Bible,” on this website. What are the Alexandrian Codices? A group of manuscripts of the Bible found in Alexandria, Egypt, and dating to the 300’s and 400’s AD. Bible scholars love them because of their ancient age, but unfortunately Alexandria in ancient times was a hotbed for Gnosticism, a pestilent heresy which the Church fought even in its earliest days. Among other things, Gnosticism, like many other false teachings, denies the deity of Jesus Christ, and as far back as the writings of the second-century church father Irenaeus the Gnostics were known as “mutilators of the Scriptures.” They and other heretics of ancient times, whenever they could get their hands on copies of Bible manuscripts, would alter them, changing or deleting various Scriptures. The Alexandrian Codices are riddled with these mutilations, but Westcott and Hort had no problem with using them, producing the first edition of their corrupted NT text in 1881. Others, such as Eberhard and Erwin Nestle and Kurt Aland, produced similarly corrupted texts, and they did not even believe in the inspiration and infallibility of the Bible. There are more scholars on board with this and other nonsense also. One of the primary reasons we believe so strongly in the NKJV and the more archaic KJV is that these are not based on mutilated Bible texts.
Lost along the way also are such facts as Psalm 2 being written by David (Acts 4:25) and Paul being the true author of Hebrews with Luke physically writing what Paul said under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Eusebius, “Ecclesiastical History,” 2.17.12, 6.14.2-4). Today there are many Bible versions out there, most of them untrustworthy. Aside from the NKJV and the KJV, the only other Bible versions we fully trust are “The Hebrew-Greek-English Interlinear Bible” (for study purposes) by Jay P. Green, Sr., and the “Pure Word” (NT only) put out by One Path Publishing. To hear Bible scholars tell it, the story about the Alexandrian codices is a conspiracy theory and those who only uphold certain Bible versions are cultists, lumping us all into the same category as the most militant of the KJV-only crowd. But we know what we know from thorough research and will not change our minds or our stance for anyone. Especially beware of “The Passion Translation” and “The Message”! These should not even be called Bibles, in particular the TPT, where the “translator” has outright lied about his sources and scholarship.
B. Assaults on the Bible from Others
Other people within the Church, including a growing number of evangelicals, are expressing doubts about several key aspects of the faith. This includes the inerrancy of the Word of God. Doubts are increasing as to whether the Bible is, in fact, infallible. Receiving particular scrutiny are the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis, which covers, among other vital topics, creation, the fall of mankind into sin, the origin of the giants, the Flood, and the tower of Babel debacle. Parishioners and sometimes even clergy are coming to see Genesis 1-11 as allegorical or even mythical. Manmade science is slowly conquering the faith in Holy Writ, aided by demons and the inundation of younger people with the idea of “trusting the science.” Apparently this warped ideology has worked its way into seminaries, but this is not too surprising considering that these prestigious theological schools are factories turning out ministers tailor-made to suit the needs of their respective denominations. When the Spirit is quenched, God leaves people to their own devices, and He is not going to interfere with those who are bound and determined to question His Word. Instead, they will suffer the consequences for doing so if they do not repent.
Think about it: If any part of the Bible is fallible, if any part of it is false, then it cannot be trusted and that makes God a liar. This lack of belief is exactly what the kingdom of darkness wants. All the way back in the Garden of Eden, the serpent—Satan—tricked Eve into questioning what God said, then when he succeeded, he went on to deceive her further (Genesis 3:1-5). He has been doing the same thing ever since. Satan has unnumbered multitudes of demons doing all manner of evil, and one of their chief missions is to get the lost and the saved alike to lose faith in the Word of God. You must know that the Bible is infallible, inerrant, and that God will never lie.
Another dangerous trend that has developed in the Church is the questioning of whether Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. This can be traced back not only to bad theology, but also to a lack of trust in what the Bible says about Christ and being born again only through Him. If false gods and religions also lead to heaven, then what is the point of being a Christian? If there were other ways to salvation, that would make God guilty of murder for sending His Son to die on the cross! There is no way that God would have begotten Jesus, fully God and fully man, and allowed Him to suffer the way He did if His sacrifice was not the only way to salvation. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes unto the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
The erroneous belief that as New Testament saints we can “unhitch” ourselves from the Old Testament has emerged. Well, before the NT Biblical canon existed or was finalized, what do you suppose was the Bible for the early Christians? The Old Testament, of course. Look at the Psalms, the Proverbs, the stories of the first Israelites, of the Israelite kings, and of the old prophets and their prophecies about the coming Messiah. The OT is rich with wisdom, knowledge, and a lot of other things we all need to know. It teaches us about many good things, such as faith in and obedience to God (1 Corinthians 10:1-11; Hebrews 11:1-40; 2 Peter 2:4-6). It is said that the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed and that the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. We might not be bound to the Jewish ceremonial laws, but God forbid that we should ever be “unhitched” from the OT!
Yet another downfall for Christians’ faith in the Bible is the existence of so many watered-down, corrupted Bible translations. While there are still large parts of the Word that are not altered even in these Bibles, at least in the word-for-word translations, the fact that they have been altered at all makes them incomplete. Paraphrase Bibles are even worse. God puts an extremely high value on His Word (Psalm 138:2), and He is not about to bless tainted versions of it.
I saved this revelation for this section: There are letter sequences, encoded words and names, and numerical codes all throughout the Bible. For more on this, refer to the Bible lesson mentioned earlier in this blog or go on YouTube and search for Chuck Missler’s videos on the topics of Bible codes and heptadic structure. In such manuscripts as the Masoretic text and the Textus Receptus, all these sequences, words, names, and numerical codes hold together. In other manuscripts they break down in places where the Word has been altered. Take note, some Bible scholars say that Mark 16:9-20 was a later addition to the Bible. However, close examination of its verses shows it adheres to the heptadic structure (patterns of sevens) which exist throughout the rest of the New Testament. This is material proof that Mark 16:9-20 belongs in the Bible, but we already know that through faith and through the use of reliable Bible versions. There is even a heptadic bridge interlocking the Old and New Testaments. Can’t “unhitch” from the OT, can we? Different Bible versions lead to confusion. It causes some to wonder which version is right, and even if the Bible can be trusted. The lesser empowerment of watered-down versions causes faith to wilt and starve, leaving believers open to doubt. Newer generations of Christians have regularly dealt with bad Bible versions from the beginning of their salvation do not know any better. They do not realize how they are being cheated.
As disciples of Jesus Christ it is paramount that we must believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Word of God. Hold on to that belief no matter what the Bible scholars, seminary professors, or any other fellow believers have to say about it. Believe in the Bible regardless of what “the science” says or what “the evidence” shows. Know and never doubt that what Jesus did for us is the only way to salvation. He is the only Savior and Lord. Please, use a reliable Bible version such as the NKJV or the older KJV! Value the whole Bible from cover to cover, the OT and the NT, knowing that all of it is inspired by the Holy Spirit and that it is living (Hebrews 4:12). Pray and read the Word regularly. Be a doer of the Word, not an attacker and a doubter of it.
