The King James Version
Defended
By Dr.
Edward F. Hills
CHAPTER NINE
CHRIST'S HOLY WAR WITH
SATAN
As Dean Burgon
(1883) pointed out, the history of the New Testament
text is the history of a conflict between God and Satan.
Soon after the New Testament books were written Satan
corrupted their texts by means of heretics and misguided
critics whom he had raised up. These assaults, however,
on the integrity of the Word were repulsed by the
providence of God, who guided true believers to reject
these false readings and to preserve the True Text in
the majority of the Greek New Testament manuscripts. And
at the end of the middle ages this True Text was placed
in print and became the Textus Receptus, the foundation
of the glorious Protestant
Reformation.
But Satan was not
defeated. Instead he staged a clever come-back by means
of naturalistic New Testament textual criticism. Old
corrupt manuscripts, which had been discarded by the
God-guided usage of the believing Church, were brought
out of their hiding places and re-instated. Through
naturalistic textual criticism also the fatal logic of
unbelief was set in motion. Not only the text but every
aspect of the Bible and of Christianity came to be
regarded as a purely natural phenomenon. And today
thousands of Bible-believing Christians are falling into
this devil's trap through their use of modern-speech
versions which are based on naturalistic textual
criticism and so introduce the reader to the
naturalistic point of view. By means of these
modern-speech versions Satan deprives his victims of
both the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and
leaves them unarmed and helpless before the terrors and
temptations of this modern, apostate world. What a
clever come-back! How Satan must be hugging himself with
glee over the seeming success of his devilish
strategy.
1. The
Gospel And The Logic Of
Faith
How can we
dispel these dark clouds of error which the devil has
generated and bring a new Reformation to our modern age?
In only one way, namely, through the preaching of the
Gospel. But the Gospel which we preach must be the pure
Gospel, and we must preach it not according to the
dictates of our own human logic but according to the
logic of faith. We must preach the Gospel, first, as a
message that must be believed, second, as a
command that must be obeyed, and, third,
as an assurance that comforts
and sustains. Let us therefore discuss these three
concepts briefly.
(a) The
Gospel Is a Message that Must Be
Believed
The Gospel
is a message that must be believed. Our Lord Jesus
Himself teaches us this in the Gospel of Mark. Now after that John
was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent
ye and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14-15). And what
was this Gospel which Jesus commanded all who heard Him
to believe? That He should die upon the cross for
sinners. Jesus explained this also to His disciples on
the road to
Caesarea Philippi. And He began to
teach them, that the Son of Man must suffer many things,
and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests,
and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise
again....And when He had called the people unto Him with
His disciples also, He said unto them, Whosoever will
come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My
sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it (Mark 8:31, 34-35).
There are four
things especially which we must believe concerning
Christ's atoning death for sinners:
First, Christ
died for many sinners. For even the Son of
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and
to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).
Second, Christ
died for all kinds of sinners, for all sorts and
conditions of men. And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.
This He said, signifying what death He should die
(John
12:32-33).
Third, Christ
died for sinners the world over. For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world; but that the world through
Him might be saved (John
3:16-17).
Fourth, Christ
died for all those sinners who down through the ages
would be converted through the preaching of the Gospel.
Neither pray I
for these (the Apostles) alone, but for them
also which shall believe on Me through their word, that
they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I
in Thee, that they all may be one in Us, that the world
may believe that Thou has sent Me (John 17:20-21).
(b) The
Gospel Is a Command that Must Be
Obeyed
We must
believe the message of the Gospel that Christ died for
sinners, but we cannot really do so until we apply this
message to ourselves and believe in Jesus personally.
And this is what Jesus commands us to do in the Gospel.
What must we do,
the Jews asked Him hypocritically, that we might work
the works of God ? This is the work of God, He
answered sternly, that ye believe on
Him whom He hath sent (John 6:29). And Jesus
repeated this command again and again throughout the
course of His earthly ministry. I am the bread of
life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he
that believeth on Me shall never thirst (John 6:35).
1 am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever
liveth and believeth in Me shall never die (John
11:25-26). Ye
believe in God, believe also in Me (John 14:1).
But how do
we obey the command of the Gospel? How do we believe in
Jesus? How do we receive Him? By repenting and applying
the message of the Gospel to ourselves (Mark 1:15). By
believing that Jesus died for us personally on the
cross. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus when he came to
Him by night seeking salvation. And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life (John
3:14-15). We must receive Jesus as our perfect
sacrifice. Whoso
eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath eternal
life: and I will raise him up at the last day (John
6:54). We must trust wholly in His body given and His
blood shed for us at Calvary. And He took bread,
and gave thanks, and brake it and gave unto them,
saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do
in remembrance of Me. Likewise also the cup after
supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My
blood, which is shed for you (Luke 22:20).
(c) The
Gospel Is an Assurance that Comforts and
Sustains
We are
saved, first, by believing the message of the Gospel
that Jesus died for sinners and, second, by applying
this message to ourselves so that we repent and believe
that Jesus died for us personally upon the cross. But
there is also a third requirement. We must persevere, we
must abide in Christ. Jesus reminds His Apostles of this
obligation in His famous metaphor, I am the vine, ye
are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye
can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast
forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned
(John 15:5-6). How about this
third requirement? Will we persevere? In the future will
we still believe and be saved, or will we cease to
believe and become unsaved? Will we abide in Christ, or
will we be cast forth as a broken branch and
perish?
The Gospel
gives us the assurance which we need to
comfort us and calm our fears. In the Gospel Jesus
teaches us that the sinners for whom He died were given
unto Him by God the Father in the eternal Covenant of
Grace before the foundation of the world. All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I
will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven
not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
Me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me,
that of all which He hath given Me I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day
(John 6:37-39). Because true believers have been
given to Christ by God the Father, they shall never
perish. My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: And
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
My Father, which gave them Me is greater than all and no
man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand
(John
10:27-29).
I am the good
shepherd, Jesus says, the good shepherd
giveth His life for the sheep (John 10:11). Christ
died for the elect, for those that had been given to Him
by God the Father before the foundation of the world. I am the good
shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As
the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I
lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:14-15).
There are three ways especially in which this doctrine
comforts believers. In the first place,
this doctrine teaches us that Jesus loved us not only on
the cross but from all eternity. He loved me and gave
Himself for me (Gal. 2:20). In the second place
this doctrine reveals to us that on the cross Jesus not
only fully satisfied for all our sins but also purchased
for us the gift of the Holy Spirit and of faith. Therefore being by
the right hand of God exalted, and having received of
the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear (Acts 2:33).
And in the third
place, this doctrine assures us that we will never
lose our eternal redemption, which was obtained for us
by Jesus through His sufferings and death. Neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us (Heb.
9:12).
2.
Hyper-Calvinism and Arminianism Versus the Logic Of
Faith
Christ died for
sinners of every sort (John 12:32). Repent and believe
that He died for you personally (John 3:14-15). Christ
died for His elect (John 10: 11). Believe and be
comforted (John 14:1). Know that Jesus loved you not
only on the cross but from all eternity (Gal. 2:20).
Know that on the cross He not only fully satisfied for
all your sins but also purchased for you the gift of the
Holy Spirit and of faith (Acts 2:33). Know that you
shall never perish because no man is able to pluck you
out of your heavenly Father's hand (John 10:29). Such is
the Gospel when it is preached according to the logic of
faith.
Many modern
Christians, however, reject this logic of faith on the
ground that it does not solve the problem of the
non-elect (the reprobate). "What about the non-elect,"
they clamor, "how do these reprobates fit into the logic
of faith? For if Christ died for the elect only, then
how can God command all men to repent and believe that
Christ died for them personally? For then He would be
asking the non-elect to believe something that is not
true in their case. And how can God find fault with the
non-elect for not believing that Christ died for them
personally? For how can He blame them for not believing
something that is not true in regard to
them?"
There are
three answers to this objection (WHICH NO CONVICTED
SINNER WILL EVER RAISE): first, the
hyper-Calvinistic answer; second, the
Arminian answer; third,
the biblical answer, which is
founded on the logic of
faith.
(a)
Hyper-Calvinism—An Error of Human
Logic
Hyper-Calvinists
base their presentation of the Gospel upon a faulty
human logic. They reason that because Christ died for
the elect only salvation is offered to the elect only.
Hence before a sinner can believe that Christ died for
him personally upon the cross, he must try to find out
whether he has any right to believe this. In other
words, according to the hyper-Calvinists, before a
sinner can receive Jesus as his Saviour, he must have
good grounds for believing that he is one of God's
elect.
How can we
determine whether we are members of God's elect? How can
we find out whether we have the right to believe that
Jesus died for us upon the cross? According to the
hyper-Calvinists, there are two tests by which we can
discover this. The first test is repentance. Do we truly
repent, are we genuinely sorry for our sins? The second
test is willingness. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of Thy power (Psalm 110:3). Are we truly willing to receive Jesus as
our Saviour? Do we really wish to be saved? According to
hyper-Calvinism, we have no right to believe that Jesus
died for us personally until we can answer these
questions in the affirmative. Only if we pass these
preliminary tests, do we have any reason for supposing
that we belong to the elect for whom the Saviour laid
down His life.
Hyper-Calvinism
appeals to some because at first sight it seems to be
logical and to promote earnestness. Actually, however,
it is illogical. On the one hand, it requires us to know
that we are elect before we believe in Christ, and, on
the other hand, it teaches us that the only way we can
know that we are elect is to begin to believe in Christ
by repenting and being willing to have Him as our
Saviour. And even the earnestness of Hyper-Calvinism is
often detrimental. It takes our eyes off our Saviour and
turns them inward on ourselves and our mental state. It
fills us with doubt as to whether we are saved or even
can be saved. And, finally Hyper-Calvinism makes the
conversion of a sinner very difficult, almost
impossible. For it teaches him that he cannot believe in
Christ savingly until he is sure that he is one of the
elect. But how can a sinner ever be sure of this apart
from Christ?
(b)
Arminianism—Another Error of Human
Logic
But what if we
drop the doctrine of election altogether and assert that
Christ died for all human beings? Arminians do this and
are very pleased with themselves. They claim that this
makes the way of salvation very simple. First you take
as your major premise the proposition, "Christ died for
all human beings." Then you supply the minor premise, "I
am a human being." Then you draw the conclusion, "Christ
died for me." Then on the basis of this conclusion you
receive Christ as your Saviour.
But this "simple
Gospel" is not so simple after all. There are
difficulties. As an exposition of the way of salvation
it is faulty in three respects. In the first place, I
cannot first believe that Jesus died for others and then
as a consequence believe that Jesus died for me. For how
can I really be sure that Jesus died for others unless I
first am sure that He died for me? In the second place,
if I believe this proposition, "Jesus died for me,"
merely as the conclusion of a logical syllogism, then I
do not truly believe it and hence have no basis for
receiving Jesus as my Saviour. But on the other hand, if
I truly believe that Jesus died for me, then I have
already received Him as my Saviour. In the third place,
I cannot first believe that Jesus died for me and then
on this basis receive Jesus as my Saviour. For
repenting, believing, and receiving are all aspects of
one act of faith. They go together and cannot be
separated from one another. I receive Jesus as my
Saviour by repenting and believing that He died for me.
If I try to receive Him in any other way, then I am not
a Christian but a mystic.
Hence it is
a mistake to tell a sinner first to believe that Jesus
died for all human beings numerically, and then to
believe that Jesus died for him because he is a human
being, and finally to receive Jesus as his Saviour on
this basis. For this implies that there is no difference
between saved saints and lost sinners from the
standpoint of faith. Both saved saints and lost sinners
could unite in the same confession, "Jesus died for all
human beings. Therefore Jesus must have died for me
because I am a human being." In this case both the saved
saint and the lost sinner would believe the same thing,
and the only difference between the two would be that
the saved saint receives Christ
as his Saviour while the lost sinner doesn't. And this
would imply that we are saved not by believing but
by a receiving which
is different from believing, by a "yielding" to Christ
perhaps, or a "surrendering" to Him, or a "turning over
of our lives" to Him. But all this is salvation by works
and contrary to the Bible. For the Scriptures plainly
teach that to receive Christ as Saviour is to believe on
Him. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts
16:31). But as
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name
(John
1:12).
These, then,
are some of the cardinal errors of Arminianism. It tends
to break down the distinction between the saved and the
lost. It substitutes an unbiblical receiving for
the believing
commanded in the Gospel. Hence
it minimizes the doctrine of justification by faith and
promotes an unscriptural
mysticism.
(c) The
Logic of Faith —Christ's Death Sufficient for All Men
but Efficient for the
Elect
"Christ died
sufficiently for all men but efficiently only for the
elect." This is an ancient saying which is not found in
Scripture but which sums up very well the teaching of
the Bible concerning the death of Christ. It emphasizes
three points especially:
First, the
doctrine of election and God's universal command to all
men to repent and trust in Jesus' blood are not
contrary. For our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught both.
On the one hand, He taught the doctrine of election with
great plainness, especially in His high priestly prayer.
Father, the hour
is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify
Thee. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that
He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast
given Him (John 17:1-2). On the other hand, Jesus
offered salvation to all men without distinction and
even mourned over the non-elect that refused to believe
in Him. Consider, for example, His lamentation over the
apostate city of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest
them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not
(Matt. 23:37). But how do we reconcile these two
strands in our Lord's teaching? Only God knows the
answer to this question. The secret things
belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children
(Deut.
29:29).
Second, we
cannot receive Christ by human logic but only by the
logic of faith. Both the hyper-Calvinists and the
Arminians try to reason their way to Christ by means of
logical syllogisms. The hyper-Calvinist says, "Christ
died for the elect. I am one of the elect. Therefore
Christ must have died for me." The Arminian says,
"Christ died for all human beings. I am a human being.
Therefore Christ must have died for me." But it is not
in this way that we believe that Christ died for us upon
the cross. If we truly believe this, then this belief is
the foundation
of all our reasoning and not a conclusion which we
arrive at through logical reasoning. In other words, the
belief that Jesus died for us upon the cross is the
beginning of the logic of faith. We arrive at this
belief not through reasoning but through an act of
faith. And this act of faith makes us truly reasonable
because it brings us into immediate contact with Christ
in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge
(Col.
2:3).
Third, we
perform this act of faith through the effectual calling
of the Holy Spirit. How do we break through the
encirclement of our human experience and reach out and
lay hold on Christ? How are we able to believe that
Jesus died for us upon the cross? This we do not know
exactly. We only know that the Holy Spirit makes us
able. No man can
say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost (1
Cor. 12.3). We are saved through the Holy Spirit's
regenerative power. Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His
mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5). The Holy
Spirit, sent by God the Father, draws me to God's Son
and teaches me that Jesus died for me. No man can come to
Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I
will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the
prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every one
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father
cometh unto Me (John 6:44-45).
Thus it is the Holy Spirit that introduces us to the
logic of faith.
3. The Logic
Of Faith And The Christian
Thought-System
"Lord Jesus,
I repent. O blessed Redeemer, I believe that Thou didst
die for me personally upon the cross. Forgive me and
take me, O Thou my Saviour." When a sinner receives
Jesus in this manner by the power of the Holy Spirit, he
has taken the first step in the logic of faith. And this
first step leads to three
momentous changes in his life
and thinking:
First, the
converted sinner exchanges a sinful life for a godly
life. This was the emphasis of the Ancient Church.
Justin Martyr (165 A.D.) thus describes the striking
change which Christianity made in the lives of these
early believers. "We who once served lust now find our
delight only in pure morals; we who once followed
sorcery, now have consecrated ourselves to the good and
unbegotten God; we who once loved gain above all, now
give what we have for the common use and share with
every needy one. We who once hated and destroyed one
another, and on account of their different manners would
not live with men of a different tribe, now, since the
coming of Christ, live with them, pray for our enemies,
and seek to convince those who hate us unjustly that
they may live according to the good precepts of Christ,
to the end that they may become partakers with us of the
same joyful hope of a reward from God, the Ruler of all"
(First Apology, Chap. 14).
Second, the
converted sinner exchanges a guilty, evil conscience for
a good and peaceful conscience. This was the emphasis of
the Reformation Church under the leadership of Martin
Luther. During the middle ages professing Christians
tried to rid themselves of guilt and secure peace of
conscience through penances, pilgrimages, crusades, the
building of great cathedrals, and finally through the
purchase of indulgences from the pope. It was at this
point that Luther arose and nailed his Ninety-five
Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. In them he
insisted that an indulgence can never remove guilt, for
God has kept this authority in His own hand. Only by
true faith in Christ can guilt be taken away,
justification granted, and peace of conscience obtained
(Rom. 3:28). This was the message that ushered in the
Protestant Reformation.
Third, the
converted sinner exchanges a carnal mind for a spiritual
mind. This must be our emphasis today in the Modern
Church if we truly desire to bring in a New Reformation.
For to be
carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace (Rom. 8:6).
This is a favorite Bible verse with many pious, modern
Christians. The only trouble is that they take far too
narrow and restricted a view of the spiritual-mindedness
which God requires. It is not sufficient for us to be
spiritually minded only in our private devotions or when
doing mission work or talking with Christian friends or
speaking in a Church. Many modern Christians are
spiritually minded in these respects but are carnally
minded in their New Testament textual criticism, in
their philosophy and science, and in their economic and
political views. In these areas their thinking is the
same as the thinking of
unbelievers.
To be truly
spiritually minded, therefore, is something much bigger
and more comprehensive than these pietists suppose. To
be spiritually minded in the largest and best sense is
to follow the logic of faith out into every realm of
thought and life and thus to work out biblical views
concerning the nature of faith, concerning the holy
Scriptures, concerning philosophy and science, and
concerning politics and economics. In order, now, to see
how all this fits together, let us review very briefly
the teaching of the Bible in these four
fields.
(a) The
Biblical View of Faith—The Difference Between Faith and
Mere Belief
What is the
difference between faith and doubting? Many Christians
are unable to answer this question because they confuse
divine, God given faith with mere animal or human
belief. Animal belief arises spontaneously out of habit.
If you put your dog's food in a certain bowl, he will
soon believe that this is the place to go when hungry.
But if you stop putting food in the bowl, his belief
will begin to give place to doubt and will eventually
cease. Our human beliefs likewise arise involuntarily
out of our experience. For example, unless we are very
ill or in great danger, we cannot help believing that we will be alive
tomorrow, because this has always been our experience.
Yet we cannot be sure. So when we believe anything, we
partly doubt it, and when we doubt anything we partly
believe it.
But our
faith in God is different from all our other beliefs.
For otherwise this faith would be in part a doubting,
and our thinking would be no better than a dog's. God is
the Truth, the Supreme Reality on which all other
realities depend. A God of truth and
without iniquity, just and right is He (Deut. 32:4). And because God is most real, we
must believe in Him as such. We must let nothing else be
more real to us than God. For this is faith! Anything
less than this would be doubting. We must make God and
Jesus Christ His Son the starting point of all our
thinking.
We see, then, the
difference between the carnally minded man and the
spiritually minded man. The carnally minded man begins
his thinking with something other than God and then
believes in God merely as a probability or a
possibility. Hence he cannot distinguish between
believing and doubting. All his beliefs are doubtful.
The spiritual man takes God and Jesus Christ His Son as
the starting point of all his thinking. When anything
else becomes more real to him than God and Christ, then
he knows that he is doubting and must repent and return
to the feet of his Saviour.
(b) The
Biblical View of the Holy Scriptures — Their Content and
History
The spiritual man
is drawn to the holy Bible by the logic of faith as by a
magnet. For how else can he take God as the starting
point of all his thinking save through the diligent
study of the sacred Scriptures. They are God's
revelation of HIMSELF, the eyeglasses through which we
may view aright God’s revelation of Himself in nature,
the key to God's revelation of Himself in history, the
pure well of salvation to which the preachers of the
Gospel must continually repair for fresh supplies of
living water. In the Scriptures God reveals Himself as
the God of Creation, the God of History, and the God of
Salvation. In the first chapter of Genesis God reveals
Himself as the almighty Creator God. In the Prophets He
reveals Himself as the faithful Covenant God. In the
Four Gospels and the other New Testament books He
reveals Himself as the triune Saviour
God
Right views of the
content of the Bible lead to right views of the history
of its text. Because the Gospel is true and necessary
for the salvation of souls, the Bible which contains
this Gospel must have been infallibly inspired. And
since the Bible was infallibly inspired, it must have
been preserved down through the ages by God's special
providence And this providential preservation took place
not in holes and caves but in the usage of the Church.
And it did not cease with the invention of printing.
Hence the true text of holy Scripture is found today in
the printed Masoretic text, in the Textus Receptus, and
in the King James Version and other faithful
translations.
The logic of faith
also shows us the inconsistencies and absurdities of
unbelieving Bible study. The Old Testament critics, for
example, admit that the art of writing had been known
for centuries before the time of Moses, but they still
insist that the Old Testament material was transmitted
orally for hundreds of years after the death of Moses,
not being written down until the 8th century B.C. And in
the New Testament field unbelieving scholars tell us
that the books of the New Testament were written not by
the Apostles but by anonymous persons in the Early
Church and that Christianity, including even Jesus
Himself, was also the invention of such anonymous
persons. But if these anonymous persons had so much
ability as this, how could they possibly have remained
anonymous?
(c) The
Biblical View of Philosophy and Science—Truth and
Fact
Through the
study of the Scriptures also we are led to a biblical
view of philosophy and science and especially of truth
and fact. It is in this last respect that modern
unbelievers fail notably. For the most part they are
positivists. They insist that we must begin our thinking
with facts,
facts which (they claim) are independent of God,
facts (they say) that are so no matter whether God
exists or not. But when you ask them what facts are,
they cannot tell you. Hence they are beginning their
thinking blindly. The Bible, on the other hand, tells us
what facts are. Facts are temporal truths
which God, the eternal Truth
(John 14:6), has established by His works of creation
and providence. God reveals these facts in nature and in
the holy Scriptures, and in and through the facts He
reveals Himself. The facts which God clearly reveals are
certain, the facts which He less clearly reveals are
probable, and the facts which He does not reveal at all
are His secrets (Deut. 29:29), forever hidden from the
mind of man. Error and falsehood, however, are not from
God but from Satan, the evil
one.
By virtue of God's
common grace unbelieving scientists know many facts, but
because they ignore God's revelation of Himself in and
through these facts, they too fall into many
inconsistencies. For example, they say that the universe
has been expanding into infinite space from all
eternity. Why then hasn't it disappeared long ago? Some
try to answer this question by supposing that the
universe is constantly being replenished by hydrogen
atoms which come from nothing. Others say that the
universe is alternately expanding and contracting like
an accordion. They admit, however, that this oscillation
could not have gone on from all eternity but would have
eventually "damped out" and come to a halt.
(1)
In other
scientific fields also unbelievers contradict themselves
in fundamental ways. In geology, for example, the
uniformitarians admit that the fossils were buried
quickly, but at the same time they insist that the
strata in which the fossils are buried were laid down
very slowly. And similarly, evolutionists appeal to
reason in the effort to justify their theory, but at the
same time they overthrow the authority of human reason
by assigning it an animal origin. And nuclear physicists
also contradict themselves, professing to believe in
scientific law but at the same time maintaining that the
atom is governed by the laws of
chance.
We see therefore
that in spite of the many marvelous achievements the
history of modern science has been one of apostasy and
rebellion against God. Newton, the father of modern
science, believed in God, but he was led by his
rationalism to give first place in his thinking to four
independent, disconnected absolutes which he had set up,
namely, time, space, inertia, and gravity. To God,
creation, providence, and the Bible Newton gave only
second place in his thinking. And later scientists
dropped these religious concepts, retaining only
Newton's rationalistic absolutes. Hence the
contradictions which we have
noticed.
Einstein revised
Newtonian science (on his own confession) in a
pantheistic direction. He made simultaneity relative to
the human observer. This led to two different kinds of
simultaneity, namely, the simultaneity of events near at
hand in which the observer is present (mathematically
plus), and the simultaneity of events far away in which
the observer is absent (mathematically minus). But
Einstein ignored this discrepancy. And Einstein also
ignored the observable fact that simultaneous events do
not occur in exactly the same space but do occur at
exactly the same time. Hence simultaneity is coincidence
in time only and does not at all depend on the human
observer and his position in space.
On what then
does simultaneity depend? On the eternal plan of God. In
the Bible God reveals Himself as the only Absolute. I am God, and there
is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me
(Isaiah 46 9). God's eternal plan for all things is
the only ultimate continuum. Declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My pleasure (Isaiah 46:10). Hence
God created time when He began to fulfill His eternal
plan, and God created space when He created the world.
Simultaneity, therefore, depends on the eternal decree
of God, who
worketh all things after the counsel of His own will
(Eph. 1:11). Such is the
comprehensive framework which the Bible affords for all
the details of science.
The Bible,
therefore, enables us to interpret scientific
experiments properly. For example, the Michelson-Morley
experiment, which Einstein tried to explain away,
actually indicates that the earth is not travelling in
space but is stationary. In other words, the earth
cannot be removed
out of its place (Psalm 104:5).
It has an absolute inertia which cannot be overcome.
This absolute inertia of the earth, combined with the
earth's gravity, probably guides the motion of the sun
and moon. It would not control the movements of the
planets, however, since these are governed by the
gravity of the sun. Hence it is probable that the sun,
like the moon, revolves about the earth, while the
planets revolve about the sun. This hypothesis was
advanced 400 years ago by Tycho Brahe. Unfortunately, it
was rejected by his pupil Kepler, who for mystic reasons
preferred a sun-centered
universe.
(For further
discussion see Believing Bible
Study, pp. 165-71,
223-24.)
(d) The
Biblical View of Politics and Economics — Occupy Till I
Come
On September 25,
1961, President John F. Kennedy made an address before
the United Nations General Assembly in which he
committed the United States of America to an eventual
surrender to the United Nations Peace Force. "The
program to be presented to this Assembly for general and
complete disarmament under effective international
control moves to bridge the gap between those who insist
on a gradual approach and those who talk only of the
final and total achievement. It would create machinery
to keep the peace as it destroys the machinery of war.
It would proceed through balanced and safeguarded stages
designed to give no state a military advantage over
another. It would place the final responsibility for
verification and control where it belongs not with the
big powers alone, not with one's adversary or one's
self, but in an international organization within the
framework of the United Nations."
(2)
For almost two
decades this policy of unilateral disarmament and
surrender has been relentlessly pursued by the forces of
the Liberal-left, until now the end of the road is
clearly in sight. Humanly speaking, the United States
has only a few more years to exist as an independent
nation. Soon riots and insurrections will take place.
Then the Russians will move in with overwhelming force
in the name of the United Nations, and the United States
Government will surrender as planned. Then world
government, the goal of the Liberal-left, will have been
achieved. Christians, however, will be bitterly
persecuted even unto death.
Most
American citizens are completely carnal, absorbed in
their fleshly pursuits and oblivious to their country's
impending doom. And, tragically, this carnal
carelessness is shared by many professing Christians.
They take a balcony view of these threatening dangers
and will not lift a finger to avert them, insisting that
the rapture will take place before these disasters
overtake America. But this is a misuse of biblical
prophecy. Christ's word to us is, Occupy till I come
(Luke 19:13). We must not use the doctrine of the
second coming of our Lord as an excuse for failure to do
our present duty now. As spiritually minded Christians
we must work for the re-arming of our country and do
everything we can to roll back the tide of atheism and
communism which is now engulfing the world. But in order
to accomplish this we must first arm ourselves with the sword of the
Spirit (Eph. 6:17), namely, the
true Word of God, which is found today in the printed
Masoretic text, the Textus Receptus, and the King James
Version and other faithful
translations.
(e) Why
Believing Bible Students Must Use the King James
Version—A
Recapitulation
In regard to
Bible versions many contemporary Christians are behaving
like spoiled and rebellious children. They want a Bible
version that pleases them no matter whether it pleases
God or not. "We want a Bible version in our own idiom,"
they clamor. "We want a Bible that talks to us in the
same way in which we talk to our friends over the
telephone. We want an informal God, no better educated
than ourselves, with a limited vocabulary and a taste
for modern slang." And having thus registered their
preference, they go their several ways. Some of them
unite with the modernists in using the R.S.V. or the
N.E.B. Others deem the N.A.S.V. or the N.I.V. more
"evangelical". Still others opt for the T.E.V. or the Living
Bible.
But God is
bigger than you are, dear friend, and the Bible version
which you must use is not a matter for you to decide
according to your whims and prejudices. It has already
been decided for you by the workings of God's special
providence. If you ignore this providence and choose to
adopt one of the modern versions, you will be taking the
first step in the logic of unbelief. For the arguments
which you must use to justify your choice are the same
arguments which unbelievers use to justify theirs, the
same method. If you adopt one of these modern versions,
you must adopt the naturalistic New Testament textual
criticism upon which it rests. This naturalistic textual
criticism requires us to study the New Testament text in
the same way in which we study the texts of secular
books which have not been preserved by God's special providence. In
other words, naturalistic textual criticism regards the
special, providential preservation of the Scriptures as
of no importance for the study of the New Testament
text. But if we concede this, then it follows that the
infallible inspiration of the Scriptures is likewise
unimportant. For why is it important that God should
infallibly inspire the Scriptures, if it is not
important that He should preserve them by His special
providence?
Where, oh where,
dear brother or sister, did you ever get the idea that
it is up to you to decide which Bible version you will
receive as God's holy Word. As long as you harbor this
false notion, you are little better than an unbeliever.
As long as you cherish this erroneous opinion, you are
entirely on your own. For you the Bible has no real
authority, only that which your rebellious reason deigns
to give it. For you there is no comfort no assurance of
faith. Cast off, therefore, this carnal mind that leads
to death! Put on the spiritual mind that leads to life
and peace! Receive by faith the True Text of God's holy
Word, which has been preserved down through the ages by
His special providence and now is found in the Masoretic
Hebrew text, the Greek Textus Receptus, and the King
James Version and other faithful
translations!
4. Why Satan
Can Not Win — God's Eternal
Purpose
Today Satan
seems successful as never before not only in raising up
adversaries to persecute and destroy God's people but
also in depriving them of their faith in the Word of God
through naturalistic New Testament textual criticism and
the resultant modernism. Will Satan's clever come-back
be finally successful? No, for this is but a phase of
his losing battle. The Bible indicates that Satan was
once the fairest of God's creatures. He was the anointed cherub
(Ezek. 28:14). He was Lucifer, son of the
morning (Isaiah 14:12), bright
as the morning star. But he fell through pride (1 Tim.
3:6) and dragged down a multitude of rebellious spirits
with him (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6). Then, after his fall,
Satan began his long and stubborn guerrilla-warfare
against God. In the Garden of Eden he persuaded our
first parents to violate the Covenant of Works and thus
involved the whole human race in his ruinous
conspiracy.
But God was
ready for this stratagem of Satan. Even before He
created the world God had provided the remedy for Adam's
sin. In the eternal Covenant of Grace He had appointed
Jesus Christ His Son to be the Second Adam and to do
what the first Adam failed to do, namely, to fulfill the
broken Covenant of Works and save His people from its
condemnation As
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive (1 Cor. 15:22). By His life of perfect
obedience and by His sufferings and death Jesus
completely fulfilled the requirements of the Covenant of
Works and paid the penalty of its violation. Through His
obedience Christ earned for His people the gift of
righteousness and delivered them from the guilt of
Adam's sin. For
as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous
(Rom. 5:19). By the regenerating power of the Holy
Spirit Christ unites His people to Himself and
constitutes them one new human race. If any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). And
finally, His saving work shall culminate in the
restoration of the whole universe. Behold, I make all
things new (Rev.
21:5).
God in His
eternal plan and purpose decreed the fall of Satan and
the sin of Adam in order that He might reveal His wrath,
His power, His longsuffering, and His redeeming love and
mercy. What if
God, willing to shew His wrath, and to make His power
known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction: And that He might make
known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
which He had afore prepared unto glory even us whom He
hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles? (Rom.
9:22-24).
Satan's
attack upon the holy Bible is bound to fail, because the
Bible is the Book
of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7). The Bible is eternal,
infallible, pure and sure, and in it God reveals Himself,
not mere information concerning
Himself but HIMSELF. In the Bible God reveals Himself as
the almighty Creator God, the faithful Covenant God, and
the triune Saviour God. The God of Creation, the God of
History, and the God of Salvation! In the Bible Christ
reveals Himself to sinners as Prophet, Priest, and
King.
"I believe that
Jesus died for me!" This confession is the foundation of
the Christian thought-system, the beginning of the logic
of faith. Because the Gospel is true and necessary for
the salvation of souls, the Bible, which contains the
Gospel, was infallibly inspired and has been
providentially preserved down through the ages.
Therefore, dear Christian Readers, continue in this
life-giving logic. Be spiritually minded in all your
thinking, especially in your New Testament textual
criticism. Take your stand with Christ and receive from
His hands the True Text of holy Scripture which He has
preserved for you by His special providence. Then, armed
with the sword of the Spirit and sheltered by the shield
of faith, press on to victory.
HEAVEN
AND EARTH SHALL PASS AWAY, BUT MY WORDS SHALL NOT PASS
AWAY (Matt. 24:35).
