AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED
by
Benjamin Wilkinson PhD
CHAPTER XIV
The American Revision Committee and Its Influence Upon the Future
of America
AS THE influence of the Oxford Movement crossed the ocean
and began to spread in the United States, Dr.Hort could not
refrain from writing to Westcott:
"A most singular movement is taking place among the German
'Reformation' settled in America, the center of the Movement
being Mercersburg. The leading man is Dr.Nevin ... I can compare
him to no one but Newman, and higher praise it would be difficult
to give. I fear he is fast drifting Romewards." Easter Eve,
1854 (life and Letetrs of Dr.Hort, vol.1, p.277).
So wrote from England one who knew. The "Mercersburg
Movement," or the "Mercersburg Theology," made a revolutionary
and permanent change in American Theological colleges and
American theology. Dr.Nevin, however, was not the American
Newman. He was only the forerunner. The outstanding leader, his
associate, was Dr.Philip Schaff, President of both American
Committees of Revision, Old and New Testament.
The following quotation will show, in an introductory way,
how the Mercersburg Movement stood related to American churches,
to the Oxford Movement, and to Dr.Schaff:
"The works of the Mercersburg professors are fraught with
dangerous tendencies. The Reformed Dutch Church has, by a public
and solemn act, withdrawn from ecclesiastical relations with the
German Reformed Church, her ancient ally, on account of her
countenance of those works and of their authors. The General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (O.S.) has suspended her
relations with that denomination for the present year, and awaits
further developments. This painful step has, in both cases, been
taken after much deliberation, and with the calmness and dignity
which befit a Christian Church. Romanism is known to have
recently entered the Church of England in the disguise of Oxford
Tractarianism, to have drawn off no inconsiderable number of her
clergy and members, and to have gained a footing on British soil,
from which the government and public opinion together are unable
to eject her. The Mercersburg writers began with decided
commendation of the system which is called Puseyism. Their own
course has thus far strongly resembled that which has marked its
history. Step by step they have advanced, till Romanism stands
forth almost unveiled in the 'Apostles' Creed,' 'Early
Christianity,' and 'Cyprian,' of Dr.Nevin in the Mercersburg
Review ... Yet Dr.Nevin and these very works are commended and
endorsed by Dr.Schaff in this 'History of the Apostolic Church,'
and that without caution or reserve."
Before the part played by Dr.Schaff in contaminating
American theology is presented, the fundamental doctrines which
formed the issues of the Mercersburg Movement, as well as the
background of its birth, must be considered. While on a visit to
Germany in 1854, Dr.Schaff lectured before several organizations,
on Dr.Nevin and the Mercersburg Movement. From a report of his
remarks we quote the following:
"The 'Mystical Presence' published in 1846, was his (Dr.Nevin's)
first dogmatic-polemic work, a Vindication of the Mystical
Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, and of the actual
participation of believers in the power of His divine-human life,
in opposition to the prevalent symbolical view in America, which
sees in this sacrament only a commemoration of the death of
Christ now absent in heaven.... But the Movement did not here
stop. Already in the Mystical Presence, the idea of the
Incarnation of Christ came to the front very clearly, as the
central truth of Christianity... In the same track with the more
recent German theology, he (Dr.Nevin) studied with the deepest
interest the entire Puseyite controversy, foremost the writings
of Dr.John H.Newman, with whom he had many points of resemblance,
and read the works of the most important Roman Catholic
apologists and polemics, such as Bellarmine, Bossuet, Mohler,
Wiseman, and Balmes, who of course represent their system of
faith in a much more favorable light than their Protestant
opponents, and know how to idealize it, so that to a deep,
earnest spirit it becomes powerfully imposing. Dr.Nevin gave
expression to his newly gained ideas in the Mercersburg Review,
established by his pupils, edited by him, and read extensively
beyond the Reformed Church, more particularly in the Episcopal.
He there developed, in a series of essays and reviews, full of
life and spirit, and always going back to fundamental principles,
the doctrine of the Person of Christ."
It was in 1844 that Dr.Schaff, still a young man, arrived
from Germany to assume his duties as Professor of Church History
and Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary of
Mercersburg, Pa. He was just at the beginning of his theological
career in the University of Berlin, and was, says Dr.Appel, "a
gift from the Fatherland to the daughter Church on this side of
the ocean, and we may add, to the country at large, destined to
serve as an important link connecting the theological science of
this country with that of Germany." He came determined to use as
his chief argument, the theory of historical development which,
in the hands of the Catholic Mohler, had struck in Germany and
everywhere, strong blows at Protestantism and brought about the
reinstatement of the Catholic Church to a position of leadership.
On the eve of his leaving Germany, many Protestant leaders of the
new German theology rejoiced with Dr.Schaff over his call to
America. Among others who wrote to him, was Dr.Dorner, whose work
on the Atonement has ever attracted so much attention. Of Dorner,
Andrew Lang wrote in the Forum:
"Dorner's position, however, notwithstanding his protest, is
simply the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory somewhat
rationalized." Dr.Dorner wrote to Schaff:
"Especially do I ask you to give attention to the Trinitarian and
Christological controversies and the development of the theory of
the Atonement."
On his way to the United States, Dr.Schaff spent some time
in England, visiting. He met Drs.Jelf, Stanley, Pusey, Maurice,
and Jowett. He described Maurice as of a German temper of mind,
and said of Jowett that he seemed to have more sympathy with
German theological views than anyone else he met there. Pusey
spoke strongly against the sect divisions in America, "expressing
the wish that the bishops of the Anglican Church and the Roman
Catholic Church alone had the ground."
On his arrival in this country, and at his inauguration into
the office which he accepted within the German Reformed Church,
Schaff made an address entitled, "The Principles of
Protestantism." His speech was so revolutionary that, as soon as
it was translated into English and circulated, it produced a
storm of criticism. It brought forth charges of Romanizing and
Tractarian tendencies. "The address involved the church
irreversibly in the doctrinal agitation which went on within its
pale for a quarter of a century."
Some attribute to this address the opening note of the
Mercersburg Movement. Others say it began with the tract written
in the preceding year by Dr.Nevin, entitled, "The Anxious Bench."
This tract was a terrific denunciation of the system of revivals
held in the evangelical churches and pointed out the Sacramental
System as a refuge from fanaticism. Nevertheless the inaugural
address of Dr.Schaff resulted in his being tried for heresy. He
was formally acquitted; so he and Dr.Nevin went back to the
Theological Seminary to vindicate themselves and promote their
views among the rising generation. Dr.Berg, pastor of the First
German Reformed Church of Philadelphia, bore the brunt of
opposing the Catholic tide which evidently now had set in, in
America, as it had before in Germany and England. From a
converted Catholic priest he had heard that the professors of
Mercersburg were insidiously instilling Romanizing poison in
their classroom teachings. He tried several times to bring about
a change, but finding the Synod obdurate, he went over to the
Dutch Reformed Church, taking with him the larger part of his
congregation.
The time spent by Dr.Schaff at Mercersburg was approximately
twenty years. "The Mercersburg period of Dr.Schaff's career,"
says his son. "coincided with the rise and development of the
Mercersburg theology." In 1864 he removed to New York, and for
six years was connected with the New York Sabbath Committee,
whose aim, says his son, "was not to defend the Sabbath as a
religious festival, but as an institution recognized by civil
legislation." During this time he traveled all over the United
States, north and south, seeking by documents, by editorials, and
from the pulpit and platform, to enforce Sunday Laws.
In 1870, Dr.Schaff connected with the Union Theological
Seminary where he taught for over a quarter of a century. It must
not be thought, however, that his revolutionary influence upon
American theology was limited to his stay at Mercersburg. In his
later writings and correspondence, we find those peculiar
doctrines which certain German theologians expected him to
promote in the United States, and which he urged, at times with
insistence, upon the Revision Committee.
Dr.Schaff's teachings endorse the papal hierarchy of the
Middle Ages. He magnifies the priesthood until "its ministers
have more than earthly power; its sacraments have inherent
objective efficiency." Dr.Schaff's conception of theology rests
upon the doctrine of historical development. In his life's work,
called "The History of the Apostolic Church," begun in 1853, may
be found his scheme of doctrines. His theories in this book were
so startling that several of America's leading theological
reviews denounced them as anti-Scriptural, and anti-Protestant.
In classifying the sources of history, he puts in first rank the
"official letters, decrees, and bulls of Popes," pronouncing them
"pure, original utterances of history."
"Through the misty drapery of Dr.Schaff's philosophy, every
essential feature of the papal system stands forth with a
prominence so sharply defined, as to leave doubt impossible, and
charity in despair," said one Reviewer.
The following quotations from contemporary writers of
standing present the danger of Schaff's teachings:
"It is quite time that the churches of our country should awake
to the extent and tendencies of this movement in the midst of
American Protestantism. After a series of advances and
retractations, strongly resembling the tactics of the Tractarian
party in England, we have at length a bold avowal of the 'primacy
of Peter,' the fundamental and test doctrine of the Papacy,
followed by a concession of every vital point of Christianity
Church, Ministry, Worship, Sacraments, and the Right of Private
Judgment - to Romanism, and that too, while the name and the
forms of Protestantism are (as far as possible) studiously
retained."
Remember, these are not the teachings of a Catholic, but of
the great modern leader in American theology, President of both
American Revision Committees which produced the American Standard
Revised Version. One of his tendencies is described as follows:
"The first of these which we shall mention is the 'primacy of
Peter,' which Dr.Schaff pronounces 'a subject of vast
importance,' and justly observes that 'the claims of the Papacy
are well known to center here.' Dr.Schaff fully asserts 'the
primacy of Peter,' and devotes about thirty pages of his work to
the proof of it, and the exposition of its relations to the
Christian church and its history."
We shall now see that Dr.Schaff's anti-Scriptural doctrine
of the "Person of Christ," modifies all doctrines and destroys
Inspiration:
"As the conception of Christianity as a principle or life, the
divine-human life of Christ, leads to unscriptural views of His
person; modifies essentially the scheme of redemption, and the
mode of its application; involves the theory of organic
development, with all its consequences; so, finally, it includes
a new and thoroughly anti-Protestant view of the Church."
Or, as this writer says in another place on Dr.Schaff's
conception of Christ:
"It involves the doctrine of organic development, which overturns
all the established views of the nature of revelation and of
Christian doctrine. Revelation can no longer be understood as the
supernatural objective communication of divine truths, but the
elevation of human nature to a higher state, by which its
intuitions of spiritual objects become more distinct."
What an indictment of this modern doctrine of the Person of
Christ! This teaching transfers the revelation of God from the
Bible to the feelings, emotions, intuitions, and human judgment
of the individual. It places a church composed of such
individuals above the written Word of God. May we not here direct
the reader's attention to this startling truth, that rejecting
the infallibility and inspiration of the Bible leads to seeking
refuge in another infallibility. Among Hindus and others, this is
the infallibility of the individual; among the Papists, it comes
to the infallibility of the Church.
We further quote, from a monthly magazine of standing, to
show that Dr.Schaff's system of doctrines is truly papal, and
that he was disloyal to the faith he professed: "The Church of
Rome has committed it (treason). She has denied the sovereignty
of her Lord, and appropriated His royal attributes to Peter, in
order, from that shadowy source, to derive them, by her
fictitious 'succession,' to herself. She alone, of all the
nominal churches of Christ, has done this, and a heavy reckoning
she will have for it. Dr.Schaff has taken his position in this
system so boldly and distinctly, that he quite spares us the
invidious office of giving him or his theory an odious name ...
He has determined, too, to write a 'history of the Christian
church' on this system. He has thus laid the foundation of it. We
shall have occasion to see hereafter that he carries up the whole
building plumb and true to the ground-plan, and 'after the
pattern showed him' by the most approved masters of papal
church-building."
"That such a work should have proceeded from the bosom of
the Protestant church, and from a chair of ecclesiastical history
in a church especially renowned of old for its learned and
powerful champions of reformed Christianity, is a portentous
fact. It is, to say the least, not less so, that it has somehow
gained the strongest testimonials from several of the most
respectable and influential Protestant journals. The Papacy has
never won a victory but by stealing a march. Her tactics have
fairly been successful this time. This book is circulating
through the Protestant church with an imprimatur from authorities
which no American Protestant has been in the habit of
questioning. One of them goes so far as to recommend that
Dr.Schaff's book (then only published in German) be translated
and introduced as a textbook into our theological seminaries. It
would be well, as a preparatory measure, in case that were done,
to apply to the 'General of the order of Jesus' to send us over
professors to teach it. Our Protestant professors would (till
properly initiated and trained) betray some awkwardness in laying
down the primacy of Peter as the foundation of the church of
Christ, drawing the waters of history from such sources as bulls
of the Popes, and weaving together beautiful legends and oral
traditions into an osier-work of church history, instead of
piling up, as heretofore, the solid granite of historical fact,
and the pure marble of Christian doctrine. Our students of
divinity, too, for whose 'benefit' Dr.Schaff's work is especially
intended, would be sorely puzzled when set to learn 'beautiful
legends' by heart, to search among 'bulls of the Popes' for
'doctrine and government,' and to take, for the first lesson in
Church History, 'the Primacy of Peter.' A sad change must come
over our Theological Schools when this 'broad road leading
Rome-ward' is substituted for the 'old path.'"
It may be urged that Dr.Schaff at times spoke against the
Papacy. This point is noticed by the following writer:
"It is quite true that Dr.Schaff has said some hard things of the
Papacy. He speaks of the 'extravagant claims,' 'the deadly coils
of the Papacy.' But we have not yet forgotten that Mr.Newman
pronounced the Roman Church 'impious,' 'blasphemous,' 'gross,'
'monstrous,' 'governed by the Evil One,' 'bound by a perpetual
bond and covenant to the cause of Antichrist' which 'we ought to
flee as a pestilence.' Yet a short time after, beheld him at the
feet of a Romish priest, exclaiming, 'I ask your blessing,' and
'withdrawing' before the world 'these expressions and the
arguments derived from them.' His peace was easily made....
Dr.Schaff has said, also, handsome things of Protestantism. He
has used Protestant phrases, and made Protestant observations not
a few. If Dr.Schaff had written a book of unmixed Romanism, it
would have found few readers in this country."
THE AMERICAN REVISION COMMITTEE
As in England, so in America, two Companies were formed for
Revision, one for the Old Testament, one for the New. Bishop
Ellicott and Dr.Angus of the English Revision Committee requested
Dr.Schaff to take the initiative and a leading part. In
consultation with them, he selected the American members. The
Episcopalians, having declined to nominate members from their
body, Dr.Schaff filled out the list. He drew up the provisional
draft of the Constitution, made arrangements for the organization
and first meeting. During the fourteen years of their labors, Dr.
Schaff was the life and soul of the work. He often traveled to
England, meeting with Ellicott, Westcott, Hort, and others to
smooth out difficulties and save the day in delicate situations.
"For the American share in the work," says Dr.T.W.Chambers, a
member of the American Old Testament Committee, "the Christian
public is indebted to Philip Schaff more than to all other
persons together."
The American Committees entered upon their work prejudiced
in favor of the Vulgate. They considered the Bible of the Papacy
more accurate than the King James. "But the text which the
Protestants used," said the final editor of the American Version,
"was in many cases, it is now acknowledged, less accurate than
that represented by the Vulgate." This attitude of mind
certainly would be one desired by Catholics. We have evidence
that Dr.Schaff felt at liberty to read his Roman prepossessions
into the Sacred Text. In his 'Church History' he translated that
famous passage in Matt.16:18, more in favor of Peter being the
first Pope than even papal writers, thus: "Thou art a rock, and
upon this rock I will build my church." One writer, reviewing his
"Church History," said, "Dr.Schaff has laid his hand on the text
itself. With unparalleled audacity he has translated Matt.16:18,
'thou art a rock, and on this rock, etc., as if 'Peter' and the
'rock' were expressed in the original by the same word.
Bellarmine has not ventured to do this, nor any other Romanist
within our knowledge."
Could one who had such papal leanings and who dared to
mistranslate the Scripture in his own history, be considered safe
as a leader in translating all of the rest?
The sacerdotal leaning of Dr.Schaff can be further seen from
the fact that the American Committee changed, at his personal
insistence, the rendering of the English Revision Committee of
Acts 20:28, from "overseers" to "bishops." The report of this
incident, by his son, we give in full:
"The final Revision, Paul's address to the elders, Acts 20:28, as
it came from England in 1879, contained 'overseers' in the text
and 'bishops' in the margin. In Dr.Schaff's own copy he has
written on the margin 'Bishops in the text in all passages, and
overseers in the margin (moved by Schaff and adopted unanimously
April 30, 1880). The discussion was long.' The printed copies of
the Revision, it will be seen, contain the American change and
read: 'Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops."
Dr.Schaff was on such good terms with the Papacy that he
sought and obtained unusual privileges to study Vatican
documents. His biographer writes: "Through Cardinal Hergenrother,
the Cardinal librarian, he received almost unrestricted access to
the Vatican Library and Archives. The latter is a distinct
department, containing the papal correspondence, encyclicals,
regesta, and other documents pertaining to the curia."
What Greek text was followed in the American New Testament
Revision Committee, may be gathered from the report given by Dr.
Schaff of his visit to the home of Bishop Westcott, Durham,
England, 1869. He said,-- "Westcott and Hort's Greek Testament I
think will suit me exactly."
Dr.Riddle tells us that in discussing the readings of the
Greek New Testament to be adopted, that, "while in the vast
majority of cases the preferences of the English Revisers were
approved, this was due to independent judgment." Dr.Riddle
further informs us that the Versions, English and American, are
in substantial agreement.
While time does not permit to study theologically the
individual members of these two committees, it is evident that
Dr.Schaff carried into the committees, the atmosphere of his
doctrines and European contacts. All the serious changes in the
English Revised, which so greatly aroused public hostility, also
appear in the American Revised. In the New Testament Company, in
which the most critical questions came up, Dr.Ezra Abbott was
accounted the most competent in problems of textual criticism. He
was a Unitarian. As a Unitarian he differed on some points from
his fellow Revisers. Of him Dr.Riddle writes, "Dr.Ezra Abbott
presented a very able paper on the last clause of Romans 9:5,
arguing that it was a doxology to God, and not to be referred to
Christ."
He succeeded in getting his view into the margin. In the
article by Dr.Abbott on Bible Texts, in Schaff-Herzog's
Encyclopedia, he claims that the early church was not so bent, as
those of this generation, upon preserving the exact words of the
original autographs of the apostles. Who will believe that those
who lived nearest the apostles cared less for the sacred writings
than we do now? To make such an arbitrary - and in the very
nature of things, unreasonable - statement indicates too low an
estimate of the sacred words for us to trust him as a qualified
Reviser. Unitarians and Romanizers may serve to revise the Bible
for others, but not for evangelical Protestants.
Thirteen colleges and universities located along the
Atlantic seaboard had members of their faculties on these two
Revision Committees. What the result has been of linking
America's educational institutions with European theology, which
Dr.Schaff set out to do; may be seen in the letter written him by
the famous Dr.Weiss of the Berlin University. He says:
"If today the famous theological seminaries in the United States
have become nurseries of theological science, so that the old
world no longer gives to them alone, but receives from them
instruction in turn, this is owing chiefly to your activity."
If the influence of Dr.Schaff's scheme was so revolutionary
upon all the theological seminaries of the United States, what
must have been his influence and that of his Revision activities
upon the American Revised Version? Will not this explain the
peculiar acceptability of the American Revised Version to those
who lean toward advanced and liberal theology?
Cardinal Newman and Dr.Schaff drank their inspiration from
the same fountain, from the higher critical theology of Germany,
at the same time both pagan and papal. As to the results of
Newman's life and the Oxford Movement, let a quarterly Review
testify:
"He (Newman) had left the leprosy of Popery cleaving to the very
walls of Oxford, to infect the youth of England, through an
unknown future."
As to the effect of Dr.Schaff, the Mercersburg theology, and
his doctrines, let the same witness testify again:
"Our examination has extended only to a little beyond the middle
of Dr.Schaff's work (i.e. his 'History of the Apostolic Church').
But the positions he has already advanced, are such as to lay the
whole truth and grace of God, and the whole liberty, hope, and
salvation of the human race, at the feet of the Roman Papacy."
Under such influences were born the English and American
Revised Versions.
...................
Note:
As before mentioned Wilkinson gives his sources of quotes via the
"number system" in the body and at the bottom of the page, which
I have not reproduced. Anyone wanting these reference can
probably obtain Benjamin Wilkinson's book from a Public Lirary.
Such was the start of the modern NT translations in the USA. It
is surely a blessing we still have editions of the Bible like
Dr.Jay P.Green Sr. Hewbrew/English and Greek/English Interlinear
Bibles, widely published and obtainable. We also have scholars
who have seen the Received Greek Text is more trustworthy than
manuscripts from the Catholic church that only surfaced in the
middle 1800s and whom upon Westcott and Hort doted as if
transfixed in a coma, but having a Roman Catholic theology mind-
set, such manuscripts were very much in line with their love for
Rome, sacriments, rituals, and Romanism theology.
If the reader has not yet done so, I encourage the reading of
Green's Introduction to his Hebrew and Greek Interlinear, on this
Website.
Keith Hunt
Modern TranslationsTheir rise to popularity AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED
CHAPTER XV
The Rising Tide of Modernism and Modern Bibles
"The Revisers had a wonderful opportunity. They might have made a
few changes and removed a few archaic expressions, and made the
Authorized Version the most acceptable and beautiful and
wonderful book of all time to come. But they wished ruthlessly to
meddle. Some of them wanted to change doctrine. Some of them did
not know good English literature when they saw it ... There were
enough modernists among the Revisers to change the words of
Scripture itself so as to throw doubt on the Scripture." (Herald
and Presbyter [Presbyterian]), July 16, 1924, p.10.
BECAUSE of the changes which came about in the nineteenth
century, there arose a new type of Protestantism and a new
version of the Protestant Bible. This new kind of Protestantism
was hostile to the fundamental doctrines of the Reformation.
Previous to this there had been only two types of Bibles in the
world, the Protestant, and the Catholic. Now Protestants were
asked to choose between the true Protestant Bible and one which
reproduced readings rejected by the Reformers.
A NEW PROTESTANTISM WHICH IS NOT PROTESTANT
The new Protestantism arose from the new doctrine concerning
the Person of Christ. The deep love of all Christians for Christ
makes them ready listeners to any teachings which seem to exalt
Jesus and increase the glory of Christ. For this reason
Protestants easily fell in with the new doctrines concerning
Christ which were entirely different from those held by the
Reformers. The new Protestantism rejected the sole authority of
the Scriptures. They held that the church was instinct with a
mysterious life which they called the Person of Christ.
They taught that this life came into all humanity when Jesus
was manifest in the flesh; not simply the flesh of Jesus of
Nazareth, but in the flesh of all humanity. They held that this
life was progressive, and therefore, from time to time, it led
the church to new doctrines. The Bible was secondary. This life
was communicated through the sacraments, and the participants in
the sacraments graduated from one experience to a higher
experience. So Christ had two bodies, His own body in which
divinity and humanity were united, and His "theanthropic" life
common to all believers, which life constituted the body of the
church, or Christ's second body.
This new Protestantism captured most of the Church of
England, permeated other Protestant denominations in Great
Britain, and flooded the theological seminaries of America. One
college professor, alarmed at the atmosphere of paganism which
had come into American universities and denominational colleges,
investigated them and reported that "ninety per cent or more
teach a false religion as well as a false science and a false
philosophy."
False science teaches the origin of the universe by organic
development without God, and calls it evolution. German
philosophy early taught the development of humanity through the
self-evolution of the absolute spirit. The outstanding advocates
of this latter philosophy, Schelling and Hegel, were admitted
pantheists. Their theory was applied to theology in the hands of
Schleiermacher whose follower was Dr.Schaff, and whom Dr.Schaff
characterizes as "the greatest theological genius" since the
Reformation. He also said, "There is not to be found now a single
theologian of importance, in whom the influence of his great mind
is not more or less to be traced." The basis of Schleiermacher's
philosophy and theology was acknowledged by such men as Dorner to
be "thoroughly pantheistic."
One definition of pantheism is the belief that "the totality
of the universe is God." God is in the grass, the trees, the
stones, earth, man, and in all. Pantheism confounds God with
matter. Gnosticism is essentially pantheistic. "Dr.Schaff says
there is 'a pantheistic feature which runs through the whole
system' of Popery." Both Gnosticism and Pantheism are at war with
the first verse of the Bible which reads, "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth" This verse places God before
matter, makes Him the Creator of matter, and hence apart and
distinguished from the material universe.
Modernism, or the new Protestantism, is essentially
pantheistic and therefore anti-Scriptural and anti-Protestant.
Schaff says that by following this new theology, modern
evangelical Germany is as widely separated from the Reformation
as the Reformation was from Roman Catholicism. The Reformers
taught that every child of God is in immediate contact with
Christ and grows in grace and the knowledge of God through the
Word and through the Spirit. The new theology taught that
Christianity was not "a system of truth divinely revealed,
recorded in the Scriptures in a definite and complete form for
all ages," but that Christianity is Christ. The church is the
development of Christ very much as in this false philosophy, the
universe is the development of God. This, of course, is
pantheistic, though perhaps all who profess this teaching are not
avowed pantheists. The new theology changed the Protestant
conception of Christ; then very naturally it changed all the
fundamental doctrines and consequently made the Bible secondary
as the fountain of faith, while nominally giving to the Bible its
customary usages. However, like the Gnostics of old, this new
theology would not scruple to change sacred passages to support
their theology.
THE GLORIFICATION OF THE VATICANUS AND SINAITICUS
Why was it that at so late a date as 1870 the Vatican and
Sinaitic Manuscripts were brought forth and exalted to a place of
supreme dictatorship in the work of revising the King James
Bible? Especially when shocking corruptions of these documents
betray a "systematic depravation"? On this Dean Burgon says: "The
impurity of the texts exhibited by Codices B and (Z) is not a
matter of opinion, but a matter of fact. These are two of the
least trustworthy documents in existence ... Codices B and (Z)
are, demonstrably, nothing else but specimens of the depraved
class thus characterized."
Dr.Salmon declares that Burgon "had probably handled and
collated very many more MSS than either Westcott or Hort" and
"was well entitled to rank as an expert." Nevertheless, there has
been a widespread effort to belittle Dean Burgon in his
unanswerable indictment of the work of Revision. All assailants
of the Received Text or their sympathizers feel so keenly the
powerful exposures made by Dean Burgon that generally they labor
to minimize his arguments.
Concerning the depravations of Codex (a), we have the
further testimony of Dr.Scrivener. In 1864 he published "A Full
Collation of the Codex Sinaiticus." In the "Introductions" he
makes it clear that this document was corrected by ten different
scribes "at different periods." He tells of "the occurrence of so
many different styles of handwriting, apparently due to penmen
removed from each other by centuries, which deform by their
corrections every page of this venerable-looking document." Codex
(Z) is "covered with such alterations, brought in by at least ten
different revisers, some of them systematically spread over every
page."
Each of these manuscripts was made from the finest skins and
was of rare beauty. "The Codex Sinaiticus of the fourth century
is made of the finest skins of antelopes, the leaves being so
large, that a single animal would furnish only two ... Its
contemporary, the far famed Codex Vaticanus, challenges universal
admiration for the beauty of its vellum."
Evidently these manuscripts had back of them royal gold.
They were reasonably suspected to be two of the fifty Greek
Bibles which the Emperor Constantine ordered at his own expense.
Why should ten different scribes, through the centuries have
spread their corrections systematically over every page of the
beautiful Sinaiticus? Evidently no owner of so costly a document
would have permitted such disfigurements unless he consideredthe
original Greek was not genuine and needed correcting.
As the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are evidently the product of
Gnosticism, what would be more natural than that the Catholicism
of Cardinal Newman and the Gnosticism of his followers, who now
flood the Protestant churches, would seek, by every means
possible, to reinstate in leadership, Gnosticism's old
title-papers, the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus?
THE GNOSTICISM OF THE REVISERS
Cardinal Newman believed that tradition and the Catholic
Church were above the Bible. Westcott and Hort, great admirers of
Newman, were on the Revision Committee in strong leadership. Dean
Stanley believed that the Word of God did not dwell in the Bible
alone, but that it dwelt in the sacred books of other religions
as well. Dr.Schaff sat in the Parliament of Religions at the
Chicago World's Fair, 1893, and was so happy among the Buddhists,
Confucianists, Shintoists, and other world religions, that he
said he would be willing to die among them. The spirit of the
Revisionists on both sides of the ocean was an effort to find the
Word of God by the study of comparative religions. This is the
spirit of Gnosticism; it is not true faith in the inspiration and
infallibility of the Bible.
MODERN BIBLES
How far the new theology has been adopted by the editors of
the many different kinds of modern Bibles, is a question space
does not permit us to pursue. In the main, all these new editions
conform to the modern rules of textual criticism. We have already
mentioned Fenton, Goodspeed, Moffatt, Moulton, Noyes, Rotherham,
Weymouth, Twentieth Century, the Polychrome, and the Shorter
Bible. To these the names of others might be added. The Fenton
Farrar translation opens thus in Genesis, first chapter:
"By periods God created that which produced the Solar Systems;
then that which produced the Earth ... This was the close and the
dawn of the first age."
Here is plenty of scope for evolution, Gnosticism, and the
aeon theory.
The latest sensation is "A New Commentary," by Bishop Gore
(formerly of Oxford, and a descendant of the Tractarians), and
others. According to this publication David did not kill Goliath,
Noah never had an ark, Jonah was not swallowed by a whale, the
longevity of Methuselah was an impossibility, and certain Gospel
miracles are regarded with skepticism.
"Every theological seminary of standing in this country, we are
told," says one of the most widely read weeklies of America, "has
been teaching for a quarter of a century almost everything
contained in the new Commentary."
Under these circumstances, how can these theological
seminaries regard the Hebrew and the Greek of the Bible as
dependable or attach to them any degree of inspiration?
When Doctors Westcott and Hort called "vile" and
"villainous" the Received Text which, by the providence of God,
was accounted an authority for 1800 years, they opened wide the
door for individual and religious sects to bring forth new
Bibles, solely upon their own authority.
It will be necessary to cite only two texts to show why the
Protestants cannot use the Douay or Catholic Version in its
present condition:
Genesis 3:15 reads: "I will put enmities between thee and the
woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and
thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."
This rendering opens the way to exalt the Virgin Mary as a
redeemer instead of her divine Seed.
Heb.11:21 reads: "By faith Jacob dying, blessed each of the
sons of Joseph, and adored the top of his rod." What is this, if
it is not image worship? One has only to read the 13th chapter of
Daniel in the Douay, a chapter which does not exist in the King
James, to be shocked at one of the corruptions of the Word of
God, which the martyrs rejected.
What becomes, then, of the statement that all versions are
good, and that all versions contain the true, saving Word of God?
The numerous modern Bibles, translated from the Westcott and Hort
text, or from one built on similar principles, are no better in
many respects than the Douay.
Will not God hold us responsible for light and knowledge
concerning His Word? Can we escape His condemnation, if we choose
to exalt any version containing proved corruptions? Shall we not
rather, avoid putting these versions on a level with God's true
Bible?
And what is the practical result of this tide of modernism
which has largely engulfed England and is sweeping the
theological schools and popular Protestant churches in America?
It renders such a missionary useless in the foreign field. He
will find that the heathen have been in possession of a
philosophy like his for 3,000 years. He is no more certain of his
ground than they are. It is sad to see the heathen world deprived
of the Bread of Life because of modernism.
Uniformity in expressing the sacred language of the one God
is highly essential. It would be confusion, not order, if we did
not maintain uniformity of Bible language in our church services,
in our colleges and in the memory work of our children. "For God
is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches
of the saints." I Cor.14:33.
It is not those who truly love the Word of God, who wish to
multiply various versions, which they design shall be authorized
for congregational use or exalted as authority for doctrine. Let
the many versions be used as reference books, or books for study,
but let us have a uniform standard version.
NOTE:
How revolutionary have been the effects of that movement in
England which embraced Ritualism and Revision, let the following
statements from a book just off the press (1929), by H.L.
Stewart, entitled, "A Century of Anglo-Catholicism," speak:
"Condemned or sanctioned, the Movement is now admittedly beyond
all stopping. What seemed chimerical a hundred years ago seems
irresistible today. Four bishops, out of forty-three, are still
definitely hostile. On the other hand, two thousand two hundred
Anglican priests have lately published their unalterable
conviction about the Sacrament in terms which no honest man can
pretend to think different in any essential respect from those of
the Church of Rome."
Speaking of "Reservation," the practice of consecrating the
sacramental elements some time in advance of the hour when they
are to be used, and of worshiping them, H.L. Stewart gives good
authority to indicate over 800 churches and institutional chapels
"where the sacramental Elements were not only reserved but
adored." And, "One finds in Crockford's Clerical Directory for
1927, a forecast that ten years of further decline like that of
the ten just ended would wipe the Church of England out of
existence."
In referring to the "Prayer Book" controversy, which lately has
repeatedly convulsed England and which arose from the new Prayer
Book so arranged as to make a ritual like the Catholic legal in
the Church of England, this new volume says:
"Mr Rosslyn Mitchell told the House of Commons that if the
English clergy were armed with the Alternative Prayer Book, they
could make England Roman Catholic within a generation."
Speaking of the controversy in England between Higher Criticism
and belief in the Bible, he further says:
"Making its normal speed of progress, according to the rate at
which new thought travels westward, it has now reached America,
to divide the churches of the United States into Modernist and
Fundamentalist."
.......................
MY NOTE:
Indeed today we have more and more people and "churches" using
modern versions based upon the corrupt MSS of the Vaticanus and
Sinaiticus, popularised by Westcott and Hort. Put that together
with a huge chunk of "Christians" that do not read much of the
Bible anyway, and you have a mixture of luke warm Laodicea church
attenders that fit very well indeed the prophetic 7th church of
Revelation chapter three. They think they are in need of nothing
on the spiritual side, but Jesus tells them to anoint their eyes
with eye slav (get true spirituality of mind-set) that they made
truly see correctly spiritual truths; they are admonished to
REPENT!
Keith Hunt
ConclusionReceived Text holds the best ... AUTHORIZED BIBLE VINDICATED
by
Benjamin Wilkinson PhD
CHAPTER XVI
Conclusion
BARREN rock, mountain solitude, and lonely wilderness have
all contributed their brave sons to defend the Word of God, and,
if need be, to die that it might be kept unadulterated. He who
hath chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty,
would not permit man to be robbed of that simplicity of the
divine Word which made the untampered Scriptures a peculiar
treasure.
The moral law within the heart is compelling. One great
philosopher felt this when he said, "There are two things in the
universe which awe me: the glory of the heavens above and the
majesty of the moral law within me." God did not leave mankind to
struggle in ignorance with the awful impressiveness of the law
within, without revealing Himself in His Word as the moral
Governor of the universe. The supreme lessons of the Bible only
can reach the deeper feelings of the heart. The Bible is the
absolute standard of right and wrong. In the Word dwells
spiritual life the most perfect. Jesus said, "It is the Spirit
that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63.
The Psalmist wrote: "Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy
name." The created worlds magnify the exalted name of the
Eternal. But God has magnified His Word above all these. It is an
unhappy hour when humanity lightly esteems the Bible; for there
God reveals Himself more than through the material universe. A
man is no better than his word; if one fails to command
confidence, so does the other. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but God's Word shall never pass away.
In the Bible is revealed the standard by which we shall be
tried when the judgment day comes. From the garden of Eden until
now, one standard and one only has been revealed. Inspiration
declares that this revelation has been under the special
protection of all power in heaven and in earth. "The words of the
Lord are pure words," says the Psalmist, "as silver tried in a
furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, 0
Lord, thou shalt preserve every one of them, (margin) from this
generation forever." Psalms 12:6,7. Lonely mounds in distant
lands mark the graves where fell those who forsook home and
civilization that the Word of God might live.
We believe in Jesus Christ as the divine Teacher, because
unlike Mohammed and others, He did not come unheralded. There
were fifteen hundred years of prophecy pointing forward to His
coming among men. A perfect transmission of these predictions was
necessary if they were to be fulfilled in every specification.
There is nothing which so stirs men to the holiest living as the
story of Jesus Christ. Yet only within the lids of the Bible is
that story found. At the cost of great sufferings, God yielded up
His son. The history of the ages which prepared for this holy
event, and the story of our Redeemer's life are all found within
the same volume. These priceless records have been the object of
God's infinite solicitude.
The divine Saviour and the holy apostles spoke beforehand of
events which would occur even to the end of time. Of what value
would such a prophetic revelation be, if it were not to guide
those who would pass through the predicted scenes, and if it were
not to warn the wicked and encourage the good? This value,
however, would be destroyed if the words foretelling the events,
the meaning of the events, and the prediction of rewards and
punishments were so tampered with that the force of the divine
utterance was destroyed. Moreover the very fact that the Word
could make such a prediction not only stamps the Word as divine
but condemns as wicked, yes, points out as being the predicted
apostasy, that system which would either tamper with the Word, or
make the Word secondary. The writing of the Word of God by
Inspiration is no greater miracle than the miracle of its
preservation.
The pathetic question of Pilate, "What is Truth," is not
more pathetic than the error of those who say that only by
balancing one version against another, or by examining the
various manuscript readings, those of apostates as well as those
of the faithful, can we arrive at approximate truth.
Left to ourselves we stumble through the darkness guided
only by the little lamp of reason. But when we accept the Bible,
a great light shines upon our path. History and prophecy unite to
confirm our faith. Daniel, and John, the apostle, point out the
four great empires which succeeded one another, Babylon,
Medo-Persia, Greece, and pagan Rome. After these arose a cruel,
anti-Christian power, the Papacy, from whose terrible
persecutions the church fled into the wilderness. As Daniel and
John predicted, the Papacy trod underfoot the Truth, the Word of
God. From false manuscripts she issued a volume which she chose
to call a Bible, but added tradition and elevated it to a greater
inspiration than the Scriptures themselves.
Eating the bread of poverty and dressed in the garments of
penury, the church in the wilderness followed on to serve the
Lord. She possessed the untampered manuscripts of holy revelation
which discountenanced the claims of the Papacy. Among this little
flock, stood out prominently the Waldenses. Generation after
generation of skilled copyists handed down, unadulterated, the
pure Word. Repeatedly their glorious truth spread far among the
nations. In terror, the Papacy thundered at the monarchs of
Europe to stamp out this heresy by the sword of steel. In vain
the popish battalions drenched the plains of Europe with martyr
blood. The Word lived, unconquered.
Let Gilly tell us how the Waldenses survived the fury of the
Papacy:
"They occupy a mountain district ... and yet from this secluded
spot, have they disseminated doctrines, whose influence is felt
over the most refined and civilized part of Europe. They ...
speak the same language, have the same patriarchal habits, and
simple virtues, and retain the same religion, which was known to
exist there more than a thousand years ago. They profess to
constitute the remains of the pure and primitive Christian
church, and those who would question their claims cannot show
either by history or tradition that they ever subscribed to the
popish rituals, or bowed before any of the idols of the Roman
Church ... They have seldom been free from persecution, or
vexatious and intolerant oppression, and yet nothing could ever
induce them to conform, even outwardly, with the religion of the
state ... In short, there is no other way of explaining the
political, moral, and religious phenomenon, which the Vaudois
have continued to display for so many centuries, than by
ascribing it to the manifest interposition of Providence, which
has chosen in them 'the weak things of this world to confound the
things that are mighty.'"
The Redeemer said: "Thy word is truth." Rome, the Papacy,
did as the prophet Daniel wrote, she "cast down the truth to the
ground." While Rome was cruelly persecuting the church in the
wilderness, was she also the divinely appointed guardian of the
true Word of God? God placed the answer to this question in
prophecy. And now the Revised Version, built almost entirely on
the Vatican Manuscript, kept in the Pope's library, and upon the
Sinaiticus, found in a Catholic monastery, (types of manuscripts
upon which the Vulgate was built), comes forward and proposes to
set aside the text of our Authorized Bible.
The Authorized Version was translated in 1611, just before
the Puritans departed from England, so that they carried it with
them across stormy seas to lay the foundation of one of the
greatest governments the world has ever known. The Authorized
Version of God's Holy Word had much to do with the laying of the
foundation of our great country.
When the Bible was translated in 1611, God foresaw the wide
extended use of the English language; and, therefore, in our
Authorized Bible, gave the best translation that has ever been
made, not only in the English language, but as many scholars say,
ever made in any language.
The original Scriptures were written by direct inspiration
of God. This can hardly be said of any translation. Nevertheless,
when apostasy had cast its dark shadow over the Western lands of
opportunity, God raised up the men of 1611. They were true
Protestants. Many of their friends and associates had already
fallen before the sword of despotism while witnessing for the
Holy Word. And in a marvelous way God worked to give us through
them an English version from the genuine manuscripts. It grew and
soon exercised a mighty influence upon the whole world. But this
was an offense to the old systems of the past. Then arose the
pantheistic theology of Germany, the ritualistic Oxford Movement
of England, and the Romanizing Mercersburg theology of America.
Through the leaders, or associates of the leaders, in these
movements, revised versions were brought forth which raised again
to influence manuscripts and versions long discarded by the more
simple, more democratic bodies of Christianity, because of the
bewildering confusion which their uncertain message produced.
Again the people of God are called upon to face this subtile
and insidious program. It is difficult for them to expose the
systematic depravation without being misunderstood, and without
being charged with attacking the genuine, while seeking to expose
the erroneous mixed with the genuine. They recognize that these
modern versions can be used as books of reference even if they
cannot be put on a level with the Received Text.
Paul said, in Acts 17:28, "As certain also of your own poets
have said, For we are also his offspring." Paul quoted good
sayings from the pagan poets, but did not use these Greek writers
as authority. It is as unthinkable to forbid excellent quotations
from pagan land heathen scholars as it would be to place their
writings on a level with the pure Word of God. Likewise, parts of
modern versions edited by scholars may be used with care in
considering Bible verses from another angle. This fact, however,
is taken advantage of, to claim divine inspiration for all the
rest, and sow confusion among the churches of believers.
Through the Reformation, the Received Text was again given
to the Church. In the ages of twilight and gloom, the corrupt
church did not think enough of the corrupt Bible to give it
circulation. Since the Reformation, the Received Text, both in
Hebrew and in Greek, has spread abroad throughout the world.
Wherever it is accurately translated, regardless of whatever the
language may be, it is as truly the Word of God, as our own
Authorized Bible. Nevertheless, in a remarkable way, God has
honored the King James Version. It is the Bible of the
160,000,000, English speaking people, whose tongue is spoken by
more of the human race than any other. German and Russian are
each the language of 100,000,000; while French is spoken by
70,000,000. The King James Version has been translated into many
other languages. One writer claims 886. It is the Book of the
human race. It is the author of vastly more missionary
enterprises than any other version. It is God's missionary Book.
We shall need the Lord Jesus in the hour of death, we shall
need Him in the morning of the resurrection. We should recognize
our need of Him now. We partake of Him, not through some
ceremony, wherein a mysterious life takes hold of us. When we
receive by faith the written Word of God, the good pleasure of
the Lord is upon us, and we partake of Him. Through this Word we
receive the power of God, the same Word by which He upholds all
things, by which He swings the mighty worlds and suns through the
deeps of the stellar universe. This Word is able to save us and
to keep us forever. This Word shall conduct us to our Father's
throne on high. "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the
Word of our God shall stand forever."
"The starry firmament on high, And all the glories of the
sky,
Yet shine not to thy praise, O Lord, So brightly as thy
written Word.
The hopes that holy Word supplies, Its truths divine and
precepts wise,
In each a heavenly beam I see,
And every beam conducts to Thee.
Almighty Lord, the sun shall fail,
The moon her borrowed glory veil,
And deepest reverence hush on high
The joyful chorus of the sky.
But fixed for everlasting years,
Unmoved amid the wreck of spheres,
Thy Word shall shine in cloudless day,
When heaven and earth have passed away."
...........................
THE END
Note:
If you have not done so, read the "Introduction" to Jay P. Green
Sr. Interlinear Greek/English New Testament, on this Website. And
I recommend you buy Green's 4 vol. set Interlinear Hebrew/English
and Interlinear Greek/English Bible, obtainable from "Christian
Book Distribution" at a reasonable price: www.Christianbook.com
Keith Hunt
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