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THE REFORMATION BIBLE
Jeffrey Khoo
No Bible, no Reformation!
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom
10:17). It was God’s Word that brought about the 16th Century
Protestant Reformation. The Reformation did not happen by chance or by
accident. It was a special event preplanned by God and it finally happened
in God’s perfect time. According to
Church historian Philip Schaff, “The Reformation of the 16th
Century is, next to the
introduction of Christianity, the greatest event in history.” Just as the
Lord Jesus Christ came miraculously in “the fullness of the time” (Gal
4:4), so did the Reformation. In light of biblical precedents and special
providence (providentia
extraordinaria), the Protestant
Reformation was a “miracle event” from God.
The Reformation fire was lit by
the Light of God’s Word. The Word of God had to be put into the hands of
the common folk. The Lord used His servants like Wycliffe, Tyndale,
Coverdale, and finally the King James translators to put the Bible into
the hands of the people in the pew so that they might know the truth, and
the truth shall make them see and set them free (John 8:32).
A Good Fruit of the
Reformation
The Authorised or King James
Version (AV/KJV) is built upon all the Reformation versions (Wycliffe,
Tyndale, Coverdale, Geneva etc) of the English Bible and is providentially
the best of all the English versions. It has stood the test of time and
blessed many millions all over the world for nearly 400 years.
There are four reasons why the
KJV is superior:
It is Based on the Perfectly
Preserved Text
All Christians should believe in
the inspiration and preservation of the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim 3:16, Ps
12:6-7). Jesus used the OT Scriptures during His earthly ministry, and
considered every word of it to be inspired. In Matt 5:18, He said,
“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled.” This surely implies that the
Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved through the centuries, to the extent
that every bit of it has been left intact. If God has so preserved the
words of the OT Scriptures so that none of them is lost, will He not also
preserve the NT Scriptures? Based on God’s promises and power, we can say
with confidence that we have the very Word of God today in the divinely
preserved Hebrew and Greek texts (or words) on which the KJV is based.
It is Translated by Godly and
Able Scholars
The King James Version is an
excellent translation of the Holy Scriptures. It is a good fruit. It is a
good fruit because it comes from a good tree (Matt 7:15-20). The KJV is a
good translation because of good translators; in terms of their intellect
and learning, they were brilliant; and in their faith and devotion towards
God, they were vibrant. There were a total of 54 scholars of the highest
rank who translated the KJV. They were not only men of great learning but
also of great piety. They were skilled in the biblical languages, and
lived in a period when the English language was at its glorious height. It
was a most providentially opportune time to translate the Scriptures into
the English tongue. They began their work in 1604 and completed it in
1611—a total of seven years. Without doubt, the KJV is a result of God’s
special providence.
Consider Alexander McClure’s
“Evaluation of the KJ Translators and Translation.” He wrote, “As to the
capability of those men, we may say again, that by the good Providence of
God, their work was undertaken in a fortunate time. Not only had the
English language, that singular compound, then ripened to its full
perfection, but the study of Greek, and of the oriental tongues, ... had
then be carried to a greater extent in England than ever before or since.
... it is confidently expected that the reader of these pages will yield
to the conviction, that all the colleges of Great Britain and America,
even in this proud day of boastings, could not bring together the same
number of divines equally qualified by learning and piety for the great
undertaking. Few indeed are the living names worthy to be enrolled with
those mighty men. It would be impossible to convene out of any one
Christian denomination, or out of all, a body of translators, on whom the
whole Christian community would bestow such confidence as is reposed upon
that illustrious company, or who would prove themselves as deserving of
such confidence” (Translators Revived, 63-4).
It is Accurately Translated
Word for Word
The KJV employs a correct method
of translation. The KJV uses the verbal/formal over against the dynamic
equivalence method of translation. The verbal/formal equivalence method is
the only acceptable method for the translation of the Holy Scriptures.
Why? Simply because the Bible is the verbally inspired Word of God!
God issued a very serious
warning in Rev 22:18, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the
words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these
things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of
the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” In
any attempt to translate the Scriptures, it is paramount that there should
be no addition to, subtraction from, and changing of God’s Word. It must
be translated word for word without any alteration of its divine sense or
intent.
The dynamic equivalence method
is a subjective and interpretive thought-for-thought method. Such a method
may be applied to human literature, but certainly not Holy Scripture. The
Bible’s divine origin and its verbal inerrancy forbid it. “Virgin” must be
translated “virgin,” and not “young woman” (as in the RSV), and “blood”
must be translated “blood,” and not “death” (as in the TEV), and “only
begotten” must be translated “only begotten,” and not just “one and only”
(as in the NIV).
It is Faithful to Historic
Protestant Theology
The KJV preserves all the
fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith like the (1) Inspiration of
Scripture (2 Tim 3:16), (2) Preservation of Scripture (Ps 12:6-7), (3)
Virgin Birth of Christ (Isa 7:14), (4) Eternal Generation of Christ (John
1:14, 18, 3:16, 18, 1 John 4:9), (5) the Holy Trinity (1 John 5:7-8), (6)
the deity and humanity of Christ (1 Tim 3:16), and many others. The
modernistic 20th century versions on the other hand have
unfaithfully manipulated these biblical texts to change or corrupt these
and other fundamental truths of the Christian faith.
One fundamental doctrine of the
Christian faith that is undermined or attacked by the modern versions is
the doctrine of the Trinity. They attack this important doctrine by
scissoring out the clearest proof-text for the doctrine of the Trinity
which is 1 John 5:7, “For there are three that bear record in heaven,
the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
Some will argue that the absence of 1 John 5:7 does not affect the
doctrine of the Trinity because there are many other biblical passages
that teach it. The doctrine to them is thus not lost. While the doctrine
may not be lost, a very strong testimony for it has surely been. Which
other scriptural passage is as crystal clear as 1 John 5:7 in expressing
the unity of the three Persons of the Godhead? We lose a very valuable
proof-text by such flippant statements against the traditional preserved
text in favour of the critical cut-up text. This is not a small matter as
some would like to think. Paul warned, “a little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump” (Gal 5:9). By faith in God’s promise of perfect
preservation of not just His doctrines but also His words to the last iota
(Matt 5:18, 24:35), we believe 1 John 5:7 to be the inspired words of God
as given in the original.
A Return to the
Reformation
In an age when the pressure to
be popular, to compromise, and to backslide is so great, there is a real
need to remember and to return to the old-time faith of the Protestant
Reformation as expressed in the biblical dicta of Grace alone, Faith
alone, Christ alone, Scripture alone, and to the Glory of God alone. In
this postmodern and apostate age of uncertainty and unbelief, the
temptation is great to denounce the forever infallible and inerrant Word
of God as found in the 100% inspired and 100% preserved Hebrew, Aramaic
and Greek words of the Reformation Bible and the KJV, and to renounce the
Protestant Reformation as a mistake in the history of the church.
But true Protestant sons and
Bible-loving Christians should resist the seduction of ecumenical unity at
the expense of truth, and the temptations of a neo-deistic worldview that
denies the present perfection of the Holy Scriptures.
What of the many new and modern
versions of the Bible today? Albert Einstein once said, “A man with one
watch knows what time it is, a man with two watches is never sure.” Allow
me to apply Einstein’s words to the Bible, “A Christian with one Bible
knows what the Truth is, a Christian with two Bibles is never sure.”
Let us be sure of God’s Truth by returning to the good old Bible, the one
Bible of the great Protestant Reformation, which we have in our hands
today!
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