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KNOWING OUR
BIBLE-PRESBYTERIAN FAITH
by Rev (Dr) Jeffrey Khoo
Why should we know our Bible-Presbyterian Faith? Don’t
we know it already? Every member catechised and baptised in the B-P Church
should know why he is B-P, but sadly, this is sometimes not the case. Some
may know it in the head, but not in the heart. Some know it in name, but
not in practice. Some may believe in the B-P Faith, but do not care to
defend it. These are the fence sitters who can smile at both truth and
error. On the Bible issue, the KJV is good, but the NIV, NASB, TEV, RSV,
CEV, ESV etc are also good (maybe even better, their distorted
translations, and their underlying corrupt text notwithstanding).
Will our sons defend the Faith? There is a real need
today for Protestant sons to know the Historic Christian Faith not just
doctrinally but also polemically in the spirit of Jude 3, “Beloved, when I
gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was
needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
How we thank God for the 16th Century
Protestant Reformation! How we thank God for the brave and godly servants
like Luther, Calvin, and Knox whom the Lord had raised to defend the Faith.
Without the Light of the Reformation, we would still be in Roman Catholic
darkness and bondage today.
Reformation is unending and ever continuing. We
remember the 20th Century Reformation Movement under Dr Carl
McIntire. The B-P Church and all faithful fundamentalists fought hard and
well against modernism, ecumenism and neo-evangelicalism. It was a battle
for the Bible, and the battle was fought and won. The doctrine of Verbal
Plenary Inspiration (VPI) has become the orthodox expression of our belief
in a totally inerrant and infallible Scripture.
The battle for the Bible continues into the 21st
Century. Now the battle concerns the doctrine of the Verbal Plenary
Preservation (VPP) of Scripture. Neo-fundamentalists are denying that the
Church has a perfect Bible today. They claim that the Bible was perfect
only in the past when it was first given, but no longer perfect today. God
may have inspired His words perfectly, but did not preserve His words
perfectly. They teach that Christians do not have all of God’s words today,
and even if they do, they cannot be totally sure where the inspired words
are. There is no tangible Word of God that is infallible and inerrant in
every way today. Every Hebrew text is impure, every Greek text is impure,
every translation is impure. There is simply no such thing as a perfect
Bible, no such thing as a perfect Written Standard today. If that be the
case, how can we be sure that Christianity is true? If the Bible today
contains mistakes, how can we know for certain that our faith is sure?
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). But
they insist that the Word of God is impure and imperfect today because God
did not preserve His words infallibly. If we do not have an infallible and
inerrant Scripture today, then is not our faith vain? Are we still not in
our sins? Christians are a most miserable lot for sure!
But our Protestant Confessions of Faith since the days
of the Reformation affirm that our Scriptures have been “kept pure in all
ages” (Westminster Confession, I:9). We have a perfect Bible today, and on
the basis of the doctrine of the special providential preservation
of God’s words in the original languages, Christians by the logic of
faith can know for sure where the inspired words today are found or
located (Heb 11:3, 6).
Despite the sure teaching of Scripture (Ps 12:6-7, Matt
5:18, 24:35), and the clear testimony of the Protestant Confessions
concerning the perfect preservation of Scripture, so-called fundamentalists
today say that the perfect preservation of the Holy Scriptures is a “new
doctrine.” They say that God did not promise that He will preserve His
words infallibly to the jot and tittle. Those who teach the 100% perfection
of the Bible today are branded as “heretics.” They accuse those who teach
that the Bible is 100% perfect and without any mistakes of being “ungodly”
and “unscholarly.” The godly and scholarly man today is the one who agrees
with the so-called “facts” and “evidences” that the Bible today contains
some “insignificant mistakes,” and has “built-in redundancies.” If asked
about whether the Bible today has mistakes or not, the best that Christians
can say today is, “There are no mistakes in the Bible that should cause us
any worry.” According to these neo-fundamentalists, claiming that “The
Bible has no mistakes whatsoever, period” is extreme and untenable.
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do” (Ps 11:3)?
Our foundations are not destroyed and can never be. In
my article—“Identifying Our Bible-Presbyterian Faith”—published in the 50th
anniversary magazine of Life B-P Church, I wrote concerning our Roots, our
Book, our Lord, our Work, our Hope. But let me restate them in light of the
present battle for the VPP of Scripture.
(1) Our Roots: The B-P Faith is rooted in the
Protestant Reformation and in Biblical Fundamentalism.
Our roots tell
us that we need to keep on “earnestly contending for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Calvin in the 16th
Century and McIntire in the 20th Century had their own spiritual
and doctrinal battles to fight, and we have ours (read
The Singapore B-P
Church Story by her founding pastor Rev Dr Timothy Tow). In the 21st
Century, it is for the perfect preservation of the Holy Scriptures.
The 16th and 20th Century Reformation cry of Sola
Scriptura (Scriptures Alone) must ring true even today as we seek to
defend …
(2) Our Book: The B-P Faith is anchored solely on the
divinely inspired and supernaturally preserved Word of God.
The Bible in
our hands today is not only 100% inspired but also 100% preserved (Ps
12:6-7, 2 Tim 3:16, 1 Pet 1:23-25). The Bible today is in the 100% inspired
and 100% preserved Hebrew and Greek Scriptures on which the Authorised KJV
is based, and not in the corrupt Westcott and Hort text underlying the
inferior modern English versions. There is only one Bible today (the
inspired and preserved original language Bible), because we have only one
Lord. (Read my books—Kept Pure in All Ages: Recapturing the Authorised
Version and the Doctrine of Providential Preservation; and
KJV Questions
and Answers.)
(3) Our Lord: The B-P Faith believes in a Saviour who
is 100% God and 100% Man in one Person—Jesus Christ—the only living and
true God and Saviour of the world.
Our Lord and Saviour who is all-powerful
and all-knowing surely could not have allowed any of His inspired words
(not just the doctrines) to be lost for He had promised to preserve them to
the last iota (Matt 5:18). Our Lord can only tell the truth; He cannot lie
(Rom 3:4). His promises are true and He has kept His words. If this be the
case, what then is our duty?
(4) Our Work: The B-P Faith is a militant faith which
separates from all forms of unbelief and apostasy.
It is the duty of every
Christian to believe the Bible and defend the Bible wholeheartedly and
courageously against the insidious attacks on the Scriptures by
neo-evangelicalism which says the Bible is imperfectly inspired (no perfect
Bible in the past), and neo-fundamentalism which says the Bible is
imperfectly preserved (no perfect Bible in the present). Confusion arises
when no clear stand is taken, when lines are blurred. There is a vital need
to take a separatist stand and a declared position “for the word of God,
and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:9 cf 2 Cor 6:14-7:1, 2 Thess
3:16-14). We seek God’s approval, not man’s. The compromiser is the one who
seeks the popular vote. But one with God is majority! (For a critique of
neo-fundamentalism, read my articles, “The Emergence of
Neo-Fundamentalism,” The Burning Bush [January 2004], and “Bob Jones
University, Neo-Fundamentalism, and Biblical Preservation,” The Burning
Bush [July 2005]. It is no surprise that
neo-fundamentalists today are prepared to abandon the good name of
“Biblical fundamentalism” in favour of a rather vague “preservationism” or
“paleo-evangelicalism” as suggested recently.)
(5) Our Hope: The B-P Faith believes in the glorious
promise that once a Christian is saved, he is always saved.
The God of the
Christian Bible who has promised to preserve every one of His inspired
Hebrew and Greek words has also promised to preserve every one of His
saints who have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ (John
10:27-29, Rom 8:28-39). We reject the mistaken Arminian view that a
Christian can fall into and out of grace—saved at one moment, and unsaved
the next. The Lord will never disown His children even when they are
sometimes disobedient, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Heb 12:6). Every Christian will
surely get to heaven. The Holy Spirit who indwells every believer
guarantees it (Eph 1:13-14). (For in-depth study, read
Calvin’s Institutes
Abridged by Rev Dr Timothy Tow.)
We are confident that the foundations of our faith are
sure and secure. Our foundations are none other than the Living Word—our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is “the same yesterday, today and for
ever,” and the Written Word—the 100% inspired and 100% preserved Hebrew and
Greek words of the Reformation Text that are incorruptible, unchangeable,
and forever infallible and inerrant, that form the basis of all faithful
translations of the Protestant Reformation.
As Bible-Presbyterians, we are BIBLE first, then
Presbyterians. But certain pastors and presbyters today override the Bible
and criticise the Bible they hold in their hands. The question and
challenge of the hour remains: Will history repeat itself? Is this the
generation that will see the downfall of the B-P Church? Will B-P sons deny
the Faith, or will they defend the Faith? O Lord, save us from the apostasy
to come!
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