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GOD'S WORD ASSAILED BY THE FATHER OF LIES
S H Tow
1. THE FORMER ATTACK
God's Word is under
attack, today as never before. The conflict allows no neutrality: God or
Satan, you must take your stand.
God has one Plan for man's
eternal redemption, revealed to us, complete and perfect, through one
Bible, the King James Bible (KJB) or Authorized Version.
The King James Bible
preserves God's Salvation Plan perfectly, to the exclusion of any
corrupting doctrine or rival plan which detracts from, or, dishonours
the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
By the King James Bible,
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ revived, great Church and Missionary
movements flourished, the Kingdom of God and His Christ extended far and
wide, to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds (2 Cor 10:4).
Satan hates the King
James Bible. His diabolical genius conceived a dark scheme: the King
James Bible must be replaced! False teachers will bring forth corrupted
Modern English Versions harbouring another message, "preaching
another Jesus … another spirit … another gospel …" (2 Cor 11:4),
" And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light
… his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness;
whose end shall be according to their works" (2 Cor 11:14-15). (from
"Beyond Versions", 1998, pages 21,22)
2. OUR STEADFAST DEFENCE – THE KJV
Calvary Bible-Presbyterian
Church has taken the necessary steps to safeguard our stand on the Word
of God by writing it into our Constitution and in addition also
declaring our exclusive use of the KJV.
a) Constitution 4.2.1 (… has been our
foundational doctrine from the beginning.) It states: "We believe in
the divine, verbal and plenary inspiration of the Scriptures in the
original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and,
as the Word of God, the Supreme and final authority in faith and life."
b) The KJV (Authorised Version Holy Bible) is
the only Bible for us in Calvary at ALL meetings and worship
services, being derived from the best TEXTS, translated by the
most trustworthy TRANSLATORS, using the most accurate and
faithful TECHNIQUE, "verbal equivalence," meaning "word
for word," and the best godly THEOLOGY, uncontaminated by
modern thought, by liberalism, evolutionism and higher criticism.
3. A NEW ATTACK
The adversary's wiles
knows no bounds. Lately he has contrived a new assault on the Word of
God by attacking the source texts (manuscripts or MSS), that "the MSS
were not perfectly preserved. Therefore translations derived from them
are flawed, including all Bible versions, and the KJV."
Conclusion: the KJV
has mistakes.
What do we say to this?
We refute Satan's
accusation, that God did not preserve His Word in the MSS. Our reasons
are these:
* God
is truth and cannot lie. All His Words are verity and judgment.
*
Therefore Constitution 4.2.1. affirms with absolute confidence that
"… the Scriptures in the original languages (possess) inerrancy and
infallibility …"
* We
believe the only Bible translation which answer to the criteria of
"inerrancy and infallibility" is the KJV, because God has
preserved the source texts (MSS).
4. OUR STEADFAST DEFENCE - THE VPP
"VPP" simply means
"Verbal Plenary Preservation" of the MSS from which our KJV was
translated.
V stands for
Verbal, meaning to say, "all the words."
P stands for
Plenary, which simply means "all, and complete."
P stands for
Preservation, meaning to say God the Author had providentially preserved
His Word through the ages, keeping out all error or untruth, until today
(while the original autographs have decayed with time.)
5. WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD OF VPP?
The answer is simple. Use
an evangelistic approach: friendly, gentle, cordial, persuasive. Use no
other method. The first rule in personal evangelism is: never
pressurize, never argue, never confront.
If you believe VPP is a
good thing, introduce it gently, explain it patiently, convincingly --
like introducing the Gospel to a friend. If your listener is receptive,
thank God. If not, also thank God, and continue to pray. Do not be
impatient or aggressive. That is the surest way of losing a friend or
convert.
Let us press on with
vigour. With or without VPP, we can continue with what we have been
doing these past fifty years in our BP Church: preach the Word, save
souls, defend the gospel, build up the faith of the believers, and
earnestly contend for the faith once delivered (Jude 3).
Dr S H Tow is senior pastor of Calvary Pandan B-P
Church. The above message was published in the Church Weekly on
Reformation Sunday, 30 October 2005.
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