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Will Our B-P Sons
Defend the Faith?
Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo
Will Our Sons Defend the Faith?
was the title of a good book the
Rev Dan Ebert III wrote and published by the Far Eastern Bible
College in 1999. 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
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
and Calvin whom the Lord had raised up to defend the Faith.
Without the Light of the Reformation, we today would still be in
Roman Catholic darkness and bondage.
Reformation is unending and ever continuing.
We remember the 20th Century Reformation Movement
under Dr Carl McIntire. The Bible-Presbyterian (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 not just the
doctrine of VPI, but also Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP) of
the Holy Scriptures. So-called “evangelicals” and
“fundamentalists” today are denying that the Church has in her
possession a perfect Bible. They claim that the Bible was only
infallible and inerrant in the past when it was first given, but
no longer infallible and inerrant today. God has inspired His
words perfectly, but did not preserve His words likewise. They
teach that Christians do not have all of God’s words today, and
even if they do, they cannot be absolutely 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 by special providence. 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 (Ps 11:3)!
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:VIII).
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, available and accessible (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 and Reformed Confessions concerning the jot-and-tittle
preservation of the Holy Scriptures, many who call themselves
“Protestant” and “Reformed” say that the VPP of the Holy
Scriptures is a “new doctrine.” They say that God did not
promise He will preserve His words infallibly to the last letter
and syllable. 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 as 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 is only 85% or 90% or 99.9% for it 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 deniers of
the VPP of the Holy Scriptures, claiming “the Bible today has no
mistakes whatsoever” 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. May we—as
Bible-Presbyterians—remember our Roots, our Book, our Lord, our
Work, our Hope:
(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. 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, Matt 5:18, 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.
(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, then what 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 the
neo-deism 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! It is no surprise that
neo-fundamentalists today are prepared to abandon the good name
of “Biblical fundamentalism” in favour of “paleo-evangelicalism”
which is actually the old “neo-evangelicalism.”)
(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).
We are confident that the foundations of our
faith are sure and secure. Our foundations are none other than
(1) the Living Word—our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is
“the same yesterday, today and for ever,” and (2) 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? Will our sons deny the faith, or will they defend the
Faith? O Lord, save us from the
apostasy to come! |
