#3. “Unfeigned Faith”
These are the second two of four brief topics of conversation I had with other Christians at the Shepherds’ Fellowship.
Another member was a little offended because when some of them said they believe in the infallibility of Scripture, I then asked him where I could get a copy of this “infallible Bible” they say they believe in so that I could compare it to the King James Bible to see the differences and similarities. He apparently couldn’t come up with the name of his infallible Bible, and instead posted the following:
[quote] Vain Discussions. This is pointless. We should all heed the words of Paul:
"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions."
(1Ti 1:3-7 ESV)
Today there are millions of people who do not have the Bible in their language. They do not have a single translation: good or bad. There are billions of people in the world (and the vast majority of Americans) who need to hear and embrace the Gospel.
We need to remember the aim of our charge. In the KJV, it is "charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."
(1Timothy 1:5 KJV)
I have recently been called an agent of Satan by a KJV-only advocate simply because I dared to quote a verse in ESV. This has absolutely no basis in scripture, and it is yet another attempt to assign legalism to the grace of God. In short, this is a new gospel.
"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed."
(Gal 1:8 ESV)
If you prefer the KJV, by all means, continue to use it, but do not condemn your brother for not doing so and do not discourage your brothers in Christ. Matthew [/quote]
I then responded: “Hi brother Matthew. I'm sorry someone called you an agent of Satan. I have been called that and far worse by the bible agnostics, so I sympathize with you on this.
However, the verse you quoted has nothing to do with the Bible version issue. It has to do with those who were teaching the law.
I agree with you that the gospel is found in any version out there. Satan or fallen man can only corrupt the inferior bibles so much before people begin to get wise to it, and God is still in control.
But How can we know the gospel is true when it is found in various bible versions that nobody really believes are the 100% true words of God? At what point does God start to tell us the truth?
Part of the Scripture you quoted (and misapplied) talks about "faith unfeigned" - a true, sincere faith.
What is being said by many like Dan Wallace and others is something along the lines of "I believe the Bible is the infallible words of God", but then if you ask them where we can get a copy of this "infallible Bible" they profess to believe in, they never tell us.
Instead we either get something like "in the originals only" (thus No infallible Bible NOW), or "out there among 5000+ manuscripts with all their thousands of variant readings", or we get the really lame and totally illogical answer of "in many different bible versions in many different languages" even though they differ from each other by literally thousands of words (usually omissions), hundreds of different texts, and hundreds of verses that have completely different meanings one from another.
It is a documented fact that the majority of present day Christians do NOT believe The Bible is the infallible words of God, and when somebody like Dan Wallace or others say "I believe the Bible is the infallible words of God" and they don't really mean it, then this is a "pretended faith". It is professing a faith in something THEY KNOW does not exist, and it fools no one.
At least the Muslims have the common sense God gave the natural man to see through the nonsense of Christians referring to all these contradictory versions as “the infallible words of God”. Will Kinney
#4. "No Salvation Unless KJV only?”
Matthew posts: [/quote]I have good friends who prefer the KJV and believe it to be the most accurate translation, so I am certainly not talking about everyone who "holds to the KJV". The problem arises when that preference turns into judgment, and they begin to attack people's salvation merely on the grounds of their preferred translation. I have seen a concerted effort on the Internet to attack and belittle fellow brothers and sisters in Christ for this issue.[quote]
Hi Matthew. I know of hundreds of King James Bible believers and not one of them as far as I know has ever posted or said that if people use a different bible version then they are not saved. I have heard of one or two kooks who have said this, but I have never run into one of them personally.
I have run into some modern version proponents who say that if we are standing up for the King James Bible as being the only complete and 100% true words of God, then we are "children of the devil", "spawn of Satan", just plain “stupid” and “heretics”.
So there are strong emotions stirred on the issue of the Final Authority of the Bible like no other topic out there.
I very definitely believe God can use any version out there in Bible Babbleonia Land to reach His people with the gospel of salvation in Christ. I do not reject a brother or sister who happens to use a different version nor question their salvation.
What I do do is to challenge the widespread unbelief in the existence of a complete, inspired and 100% true Holy Bible. And I try to show the shallowness, unbelief, inconsistency, illogic and hypocrisy of what passes today as $cholar$hip and textual criticism that has led to the mess the church is in today regarding the authority and truth of God's words as found in a real and tangible Bible.
The "No Bible is the perfect words of God" crowd always pick on the King James Bible to try to prove some kind of error in it, so they can then sit back and think they have proven their point that No Bible in any language is the perfect words of God. I try to defend it and show that their alleged errors are not errors at all, but that it is the modern versions that are corrupt and getting worse.
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 11:15
God bless,
Will Kinney
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