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BIBLICAL AUTHORITY
Jeffrey Khoo
The twin doctrines of Verbal Plenary Inspiration
(VPI) and Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP) of the Holy Scriptures to the jot
and tittle (Matt 5:18) are most vital and indispensable doctrines of the
Christian Faith. That is why the Board and Faculty of the Far Eastern Bible
College (FEBC) at the behest of its founding principal—the Rev Dr Timothy
Tow—take the Dean Burgon Oath which concerns the total infallibility and
inerrancy of the Bible which we have in our hands today to the last letter and
syllable. As the Lord had raised up Martin Luther and John Calvin and others
to defend the faith in the days of the Protestant Reformation, so did the Lord
raise up Dean Burgon of Oxford and Chichester to defend the Traditional and
Reformation Text and the Authorised Version (AV) or King James Version (KJV)
against the Corrupt and Critical Text of Westcott and Hort which underlies
many modern versions and perversions of the Bible today.
Accusation
On October 28, 2007, the Revs Charles Seet and
Colin Wong—pastors of Life Bible-Presbyterian Church—preached against the
Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP) of the Holy Scriptures (sermons were
published in www.lifebpc.com). The Rev Seet claims that VPP is "only a
subjective opinion that has no biblical authority. … nowhere in the entire
Bible, Old Testament or New Testament is there any verse which says that God
is going to restore the 100% purity of the Greek and Hebrew text of His Word
to make that exactly like the original autographs." The Rev Seet went on to
accuse FEBC of taking away the authority of the Scriptures from God’s people
by upholding VPP. The Rev Wong declares that the Bible is perfect, infallible
and inerrant only in the autographs (original or first manuscripts) and not
the apographs (copies of the original manuscripts) claiming that his position
(i.e., infallible and inerrant autographs, not apographs) is the Reformed
position. We regret to say that the Revs Seet and Wong are mistaken on all
counts, not considering their misrepresentation and caricature of VPP.
The Rev Wong made a very serious accusation
which must be dealt with before we go on. He accused us of a "blatant lie" for
saying that he does not believe the Bible is perfect. Now, he replies by
asking, "Which Bible?" That is a good question. It must be categorically
stated that we have never at any time accused the Rev Wong of denying that the
Bible was perfect in the autographs, but the truth is he does not believe the
Bible to be perfect today whether in the original languages or in any version
or translation, and as such could not take the Dean Burgon Oath. Ask the Rev
Wong: "Which Bible today do you consider to be infallible and inerrant?" I am
sure he cannot tell you which for he does not know it nor have it; his perfect
Bible is unknowable and non-existent!
What are truly lies are the spurious and
malicious accusations hurled at FEBC and its faculty, that we believe in an
"inspired KJV," and that "anyone who does not use the KJV is condemned to
hell." We are called heretics, cultists, and schismatics; and threatened with
relocation from our birthplace and home at Gilstead Road. Our only, humble
plea is for a presently infallible and inerrant Bible, and for justice and
equity.
Refutation
The charge that VPP is an unbiblical doctrine
needs to be refuted (2 Tim 4:2). If VPP is not based on the Holy
Scriptures—our sole and supreme authority of our beliefs and practices—then it
is a useless doctrine indeed. However, contrary to the thinking and reasoning
of the Revs Seet and Wong, VPP is indeed a biblical doctrine as clearly taught
in Psalm 12:6-7, Matthew 5:18, 24:35, John 10:35, 1 Peter 1:23-25 and many
other passages.
Furthermore, the belief that God is able to
restore and preserve His inspired words is not without biblical precedents.
There are at least two instances in the Old Testament when God did restore His
words to 100% perfection after they had been destroyed by man. The first is
found in Exodus 19:16-21:26, 31:18-32:28, 34:1-4 (cf Deut 5:1-20) when Moses
in righteous anger smashed to pieces the two stone tablets containing the Ten
Commandments which God had authored. Are the Ten Commandments thus destroyed
and lost, or have they been restored and preserved?
Let me quote our founding pastor and teacher—the
Rev Dr Timothy Tow—who in an article on "God’s Special Providential Care of
the Text of Scripture" published in the October-December 2002 issue of the
Bible Witness wrote, "To re-establish the giving of the Law, God commanded
Moses to hew another two tablets of stone and bring them with him back to the
mountain top. ‘And he wrote on the tables according to the first writing, the
ten commandments, which the LORD spake unto you in the mount out of the midst
of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the LORD gave them unto me. And I
turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark
which I had made; and there they be, as the LORD commanded me’ (Deut 10:4-5).
The Ark of the Covenant is the only holy furniture kept inside the Holy of
Holies. God’s sacred commandments, intact and written on both sides of the two
tablets so nothing can be added and nothing can be subtracted and were kept
secure from any human intrusion. ‘For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in
heaven’ (Ps 119:89). The restoration of the two tables is to show that heaven
and earth shall pass away, but His words shall not pass away. Not one letter
or even the cross of a ‘t,’ and the dot of an ‘i.’ ‘For verily I say unto you,
Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from
the law’ [Matt 5:18]. Jesus says, ‘The scripture cannot be broken’ (John
10:35)."
The second instance is recorded in Jeremiah 36.
Here we find the wicked king Jehoiakim cutting up the inspired scroll and
throwing it into the fire (vv21-23). Can man destroy the inspired words of
God? God would have us know that His words are indestructible and eternal for
He will preserve and even restore them by His omnipotence and omniscience. In
verses 27, 28, and 32 we read, "Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah,
after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at
the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it
all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of
Judah hath burned. … Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch
the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah
all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the
fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words." Our omnipotent
and omniscient God is not only able to preserve His inspired words so that
none be lost, He is also able to restore them to perfection so that we today
might know His exact words and live by His every word (Matt 4:4).
Sola Scriptura
The Rev Seet’s concern that the absolute
authority of the Holy Scriptures should be restored to God’s people is
admirable, and that is what VPP does. VPP promotes and defends the absolute
authority of the Scriptures, that the Scriptures alone should be the supreme
and final authority of every Christian’s faith and practice (as stated in Life
BPC’s Constitution, Article 4.2.1), and not any human being or textual critic.
Let it also be known that, contrary to what the Rev Wong thinks, the Reformed
position on the infallibility and authority of the Holy Scriptures concerns
the extant apographs and not the non-existent autographs (see Turretin, Owen,
Muller, Letis).
How was the authority of the Scriptures taken
away from God’s people and the common folk in the dark ages? It was taken away
when the RCC forbade the people from reading the Scriptures for themselves,
permitting only the clergy to read and interpret the Scriptures, and
prosecuting and executing anyone who dared to translate the Bible, preach the
Bible, and distribute the Bible to the people. It is clear that VPP does none
of these. VPP encourages people to study the Bible for themselves, and is
especially concerned that they study it from the authentic and correct text,
and not the heretical and corrupt one. In the light of the logic of faith
which is based on God’s promises of VPP as taught in the Holy Scriptures, and
God’s special providential work in history and in the church, we identify the
authentic Scriptures to be the Traditional, Byzantine, Majority, and finally
Received Text of the Church Fathers, the Reformers, and the Reformation
saints, and not the heretical and corrupted Alexandrian, Minority, and Revised
texts of liberals Westcott and Hort, and ecumenical textual critics. With an
infallibly preserved original text and a very accurate translation of the
Bible as found in the AV/KJV, we tell the people they need not depend on
so-called human authorities (textual and higher critical scholars) and their
theories and speculative methods, but can take God’s Word as is, the
infallible and inerrant Word which is absolutely authoritative—"Thus saith the
LORD," "It is written"—in ascertaining truth from error. VPP encourages the
accurate and faithful translation of the Bible into different languages that
is based on the authentic and preserved text. Clearly, VPP is directing God’s
people to return to the sole and supreme authority of a presently infallible
and inerrant Scripture for all their beliefs and practices.
It is not the VPP but the non-VPP position which
has undermined the absolute authority of the Scriptures, for to the non-VPPist,
the perfect Bible is only the intangible, unavailable, and inaccessible
autographs which all "scholars" admit are non-existent today. We, on the other
hand, believe in the infallible original manuscripts (apographs) that God has
supernaturally preserved. But as far as the Rev Colin Wong is concerned, he
says, "I do not believe any single manuscript as being better than other [sic]
within the same family. The reason is that there are no two manuscripts that
are identical." So, the Rev Wong, with such imperfect manuscripts or copies,
must rely on fallible human scholars and their man-made methods of textual
criticism to decide or determine for him which is God’s word and which is not.
That is the reason why the Trinitarian Bible Society, the Dean Burgon Society,
and FEBC are steering clear of textual criticism. That is why FEBC contends
that the non-VPP position is not Sola Scriptura and is in fact against Sola
Scriptura because the textual critical scholar is now made the final authority
or an additional authority to the Scriptures.
Biblical Basis
The Rev Seet went on to argue that, "nowhere in
the Bible can we find even a single verse that says or implies God will do
this [i.e. restoring His exact words] through the translators of the King
James Version and that He will do it in the year 1611." Such an argument is
fallacious, for if we accept this argument, then we must also reject the 27
books of the NT Canon, for where in the Bible do we find any verse telling us
that there will be a NT Canon and there are exactly 27 NT books in our
Protestant Bible without any change for sure? If the Rev Seet’s argument is
accepted, then should we not similarly question the decision of the bishops of
the Council of Carthage who identified for us all the inspired books of the NT
in the year 397? With the recent discovery of new and older books like the
Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and other Gospels and Epistles which
bear the names of the Apostles, should we not revise our existing Canon
according to The Da Vinci Code? Why should we be so dogmatic and insistent
that our NT Canon be just 27 books? Let it be stated that the very basis on
which non-VPPists believe in a fixed NT Canon of just 27 inspired NT books is
the very same reason why VPPists believe in all the inspired NT words of the
Greek Textus Receptus on which the AV/KJV is based.
It goes without saying that in this postmodern
age of uncertainty and confusion when anything goes, we need a fixed and firm
foundation for our faith, existing and tangible, available and accessible.
This immutable and immoveable foundation can only be our Lord Jesus Christ and
His forever infallible and inerrant Word to the jot and tittle (Matt 5:18),
and nothing else. We continue to pray that the leadership of Life BPC will
uphold the AV/KJV not just by preference, but by affirming VPP and believing
that the original language texts or words of the Holy Scriptures underlying
the AV/KJV are without mistakes. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can
the righteous do?" (Ps 11:3). May God help us!
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This article is also published at
the website of
The Dean Burgon Society.
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