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Pastor David Mitchell
Now for the second message. Turn with me to some 119 and first 152. Amen that was a blessing sister. That was a blessing today. We're going to talk we're going to continue our discussion of Bibliology we've talked about inspiration and We've talked About Revelation actually we talked about revelation first and then inspiration and today we're going to talk about the preservation of the scriptures.
Revelation and inspiration can be a bit confusing when you deal with it theologically because they're similar but think of it as two sets and inspiration is a subset of revelation inspiration deals with God.
Giving the written word to us in time in the end time dimension that we're in it came. It's a heavenly book. It came from there to us and Inspiration deals with how that happened. We believe in verbal plenary inspiration, which means we believe that every single word is inspired and we believe that the entire Bible is inspired and.
And That's that that's as simple as we can make it. It's God breathed we call it inspired. It's not even the right word because in the Greek it means God breathed and the better word would be expired.
It's that God breathed it out and gave it to us. And so Today we start. I think on some of the most interesting studies of the whole Concept of Bibliology and one that most people quite frankly will not delve into.
I think it's because there's a fear to go where we're about to go and it can be fearsome. Unless you understand that God is sovereign and I think you're better equipped to do that than most churches today really.
At least than many churches. So I'm not afraid to take you here. It will create questions in your heart and mind and make you go before the Lord and search things. That's never bad it's always good when we're searching because that means we're studying and Otis's class is like that.
It causes us to go home and study. Where we have questions and that's one of the greatest gifts of his gift of teaching is he'll make you study. It's not all just sitting on the pew and sitting there and you do the thing and then you go home.
It's like that's just the beginning and you go home and you have to study. Well, this topic will make you think about some things. It may make some of you want to go buy some books and read them and study and so forth.
But we're going to talk about how God has providentially preserved his word down to our time. The Bible makes clear emphatic statements about itself as we have already studied some of its clearest statements promise the preservation of Itself through the ages of time and on into eternity.
Look with me if you would at Psalm 119 and 152. It says concerning thy testimonies. I have known of old that thou hast founded them forever. Now go back to verse 89 in the same chapter. I'm gonna give you I'm gonna read you several verses and we'll go back and kind of do a little word study on these verses.
Before we go any further because I want us to see the promise. I want this promise to be well instilled within our hearts and minds because if you don't have this promise anchored. Well in your life the study we're about to do can shake you.
Because it's not gonna fit in the box that you thought it would. Didn't fit in my box. And so I figure you've got one if I had one and it's not gonna fit in your box. But these verses are promises from God that you have to hang on to as you go through this study.
The next one is in verse 89 forever. O Lord thy word is settled in heaven. Now I'm coming back to Psalms in a minute. So you may not want to travel over to Matthew with me. But I'm going to read Matthew 24 35.
Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. So now we're going to certainly involve the New Testament in this study. Obviously the Psalms at least talk about the Old Testament I believe talks about the whole Bible with God's foreknowledge knowing that he has it and he's going to give it in time.
But if you don't believe that then obviously Matthew 24 35 brings the New Testament into play. First Peter 1 23 says being born again not of corruptible seed. Now we have a problem right here. If we believe that the Word of God is corrupted that we have today.
Now we may say say full well that the originals were perfect. That the original autographs as the scholars called them were absolutely inspired and miraculously perfect which they were. But that is not going to be enough for you and me who lived 2 ,000 years later.
Because the fact is if we have corruptible seed in our laps this morning. Then we have a problem with the born-again experience because look what it says being born again not of corruptible seed. But of incorruptible, that's how people get born again.
We have a bit of the part of a problem on the planet today. Especially with our children and other friends who are not yet saved if our Bible is corrupted because that is the very instrument that God uses along with his Holy Spirit to bring people into the kingdom and The Bible very clearly says we're not born again of corruptible seed.
Therefore it must be incorruptible by the Word of God. Now look at this part, which is really what we're studying. Which liveth and abideth? Forever. And In Psalm 12 6 and this is my favorite because it literally says the word that I'm looking for for this message.
Psalm 12 6 the 6 the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times. There is an awful lot in that verse that deals with our topic. Don't read too quickly over this concept of the furnace of earth.
What were furnaces of earth sometimes made of back in those days, right? But God's Word is pure you ever thought about what it is that makes something pure you ladies do because you deal with cooking and food and Canning and storing and what is it that causes something to putrefy?
Yeah time. But what is it that really causes it. You got it brother Alfred now see I shouldn't say you ladies bachelors have to cook too so if it didn't have a minuscule impurity in it to start with it would never putrefy would it but.
That's the way the Word of God is is it cannot be corrupted because it is pure. So the word pure is very very important here. It's interesting that it's purified seven times. That's God's perfect number.
It is a perfect Purification that this Word of God has but notice that it's like silver that's been tried in the furnace of earth. That brings in the human aspect of the Word of God. God did not just write it in the sky.
In fact, he only wrote it once and he wrote the Ten Commandments one time with his finger after that. It was all up to Moses. As far as the Ten Commandments and so God inspired the original autographs which was Miraculous in the sense that he gave his word in an absolutely perfect form so that we have it here as it was there and is there.
But a lot of things have happened since that time those originals are gone. There is no original left. No one has found one yet. What we have is copies and So we have had the fact that these earthen vessels these men of God.
No less. Who loved God some some who hated God and they were false prophets wanting to corrupt the scriptures to teach what they wanted to believe. You had both kinds dealing with the scriptures for two thousand years.
So, how can you dare say you have a perfect copy in your lap today? Or that you have something reliable that is pure in the sense that it can save a soul. Today, well, I'll tell you how only by the sovereignty of God.
Because it's interesting as you study this that God did not use miraculous inspiration to preserve his word. He used providence. He used earthen vessels and providence. But his providence is just as powerful as he is and nothing happens outside of his hand moving it and so therefore we know that we have exactly what God gave us today and we have the promises here in Psalm 12 6 and 7 the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth.
Purified seven times now look at verse 7. Here's the promise thou shalt keep them. Oh Lord Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for Ever so you can take that verse verse 7, which was not a verse at the time.
It was a psalm and at the moment that it was spoken into this world. It carried with it the guarantee that you and I have it today somewhere on this planet. Some of you may not have it in your lap today depends on what Bible you have and Depends on what God what method God used to preserve it, but I'll promise you it's on the face of the earth somewhere.
Now there are those who would have us believe that it's hidden. I have a problem with that theory. I have a problem with the theory that God kept his word from his children down for 2 ,000 years and only revealed it in the last days.
We do know that inspiration was progressive, but there's nowhere where it says preservation was progressive in fact. Inspiration was progressive in the sense that he gave down the Word of God as he chose through the prophets of old over time over thousands of years actually.
And so it came little by little Down into this planet and was given then to the Apostles and those who walked the Associates of the Apostles the Apostle Paul giving the epistles of Paul most of our New Testament and John writing the last book the book of Revelation sometime before the year AD 100.
And it came down over a long period of time progressive. But from the point that that word that any of the words hit the planet. They began to be preserved at one time and through the same method. I believe that we'll get into as we go but that is that God preserved it throughout for each generation once it hit the planet every generation of God's people Had his word at that point on the on the planet now.
There have been times when people burned the Bible there have been times when whole groups Disallowed the people to read the Bible and even tried to put it in languages. They couldn't read so that they had to be taught By the preachers so that they could be led astray by false preachers.
There have been all kinds of times like that. But there's never been a time when God's Word wasn't on this planet to be found by his people and to be used by his people. Well, let's look at a few of these words in this morning primarily may end up being a word study.
But we need to get this basis before we move on this. I'm telling you this is the anchor. This is the surety that you have That promises you That we have God's Word. Back to Psalm 119 verse verse 152 concerning thy testimonies.
I have known of old that thou has founded them forever. This is an amazing verse because it takes us to a place that we don't know anything hardly about and it's a place where there Is no time. It's a place where everything is now.
It's a place where the father dwells and it says I Have known that of old this word of old is cat-dem which means the front of Time, it's that amazing word. I haven't seen this word a lot before in my personal word studies.
This may be the first time I've ever noticed this word Kadam the front of time. That's something it takes you back to where time started and goes back in front of that and it says that's where these testimonies came from and then it says that I Have known from the front that from the front of time you have founded them forever.
This word founded is an amazing word. It's getting into something else. I've been studying lately, which is the Godhead. But this word founded is from the Hebrew word y 'all sod which means to sit down together.
Brother Russ, isn't that cool? He's done a study on the Godhead as well. And it's something that fascinates us and many of you. But any when when the writer says I have known of old that thou has founded the Word of God.
It means to sit down together and settle something. Have you ever heard of the counsel of God the counsel of God's will? There was a great counsel. There aren't many verses that talk about it about one that I can think of in the Bible that Discusses the fact that before time there was a counsel of the Godhead and at that time you in fact, my friends were elected because God loved himself so much and so.
It's amazing all that happened. But one of the things that is sure is that this Word of God was settled. It was founded In the place where there is no time in the ever present tense. It was it's a book from eternity now He goes on and he says that I have known from of old that thou has founded them forever now we can actually come down into time and This book is now in time and it goes through time and goes out the other end.
Because this word forever is the Hebrew word olam, which we have studied before recently. As a matter of fact, it means the vanishing point. So you go from a place before the beginning. The eternal Word of God is there he gives it down into time.
It is preserved through time passes out the other end of the vanishing point into eternity future. That's what you hold in your laps today. That's what God has given you an eternal book that every time we decide to pass it up to go do something else.
We should think about where it came from and where it's going and what we have. Now let's go into the verse 89 forever. Oh Lord. Thy word is settled in heaven. We have some other interesting words. The key word I believe in the Pat other verse is this idea that the Word of God is founded.
It is settled. But in this verse it says forever. Oh Lord. Thy word is settled in heaven. It uses the word settled in the English. What's interesting is this word settled in English is the different Hebrew word not sob which means to establish.
It can be translated in other places in the Old Testament as the word pillar likes the thing that holds everything up. It has been present in Heaven it is a pillar in heaven. It is standing in heaven and it has even been translated at least one place in the Old Testament into the word the best state.
Listen it's in the best state. The Word of God is perfect. That's when you see in the New Testament where it talks about the perfect law of Liberty the word perfect literally means Finished mature. It's in the best state brother.
Otis has talked about the peach. You know how his dad used to look at one that wasn't mature yet, and he'd say well, it's perfect. What he meant was it's right where it's supposed to be at at this particular time but the Word of God.
In this sense, it's already in the best state. I mean, it's ready to be eaten. Okay, and it's there. It's it's a perfect book. And so and Psalm 119 89 forever. Oh Lord. Thy word is settled in Heaven once again, the word forever is Olam which means to the vanishing point.
An eternal book settled. It's a pillar. It's established. So let's take this word established to simplify things so now we see that the Word of God is settled or founded and now we see that the word is established and was established before we ever came into this world and Now in Matthew 24 35 when Jesus said heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
I just put in my margin there. It's sure. It is not going anywhere. It's here to stay it is God's sure word and then in first Peter 123 being born again, not of corruptible seed, but Incorruptible it is pure.
There is nothing in God's Word that can make it putrefy. It is absolutely perfect. It is pure. It's God's eternal word. And then we go into Psalm 12 verses 6 and 7 my favorite 2 of all of these. We just see that it's protected.
Thou shalt keep them. O Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever. Let me give you a couple of these words. They're powerful words where he says I will keep the words the word keep is shalmar.
Which means to hedge about with thorns which means to guard but it also means to attend to. Now that is very very applicable in our current study because what we're talking about is how did it get from the originals?
To us through 2 ,000 years full of heretics and full of God's children. How did it get to us in a pure state only because of the fact that God said thou shalt preserve them. But he says thou shalt keep them and keep means to attend to which means God Providentially was watching over it every minute of every bit of time.
That has been on this planet and not just from the point when it was a canon where it was all put together in one Book it starts at the point when that word is given into time. When that word comes from the outside of time to the inside of time from that moment on God attends to that word that sentence.
That phrase that truth that principle as it builds into that chapter that book those books all the way into the canon. Even to the place where it went to the printing press for the first time in history all the way down to today God has attended to it.
Make no mistake. It may have been earthen vessels that he used but he is the Potter and. And he is the author. And he does protect and guard and place the hedge about his word because it's here for his people.
So he says you shall keep it, but he also says thou shalt preserve them from this generation. Forever preserve. The word for keep was Shomar. The word for preserve is not Tsar. You could write a little poem in Hebrew with those words.
They rhyme I guess. But it literally means to protect or to maintain. To protect and maintain. So he attends to it and he maintains it he preserves it. So we see that the promise is that God's Word has been given down into our time to us.
As he used the inspired penman the original hit the planet and from that moment He began to attend to it and to keep it and to hedge about it and to protect it to keep it seven times pure. Even while it's in the earthen vessel.
Even as men dealt with it. God has had a method of keeping it pure. So it's been founded. It is established. It is sure it is pure. It is protected and it is preserved. That's what the Bible says about itself.
Now. That's a good place to start, isn't it? That takes away any fear we might have. Because we have God's promise. The Word of God as it was given by the miraculous inspiration of God in the original autographs was perfect.
Inspiration was a miraculous event. It ensured perfect verbal plenary Transmission of the heavenly book to this end time realm for God's people. However, we quickly realized that we no longer have the originals.
And I don't know how many of you have put much thought into this. But if you start thinking about it today, it'll create a lot of thought is we no longer have the original. So what about the copies of the originals that we now have some 2 ,000 years later?
Can we depend on them and that's the question of this study? Well they're The key to summarize what we've just discussed. I believe we should recognize the difference between inspiration and preservation.
Inspiration is direct and miraculous preservation uses the prosit providence of God and the the clay the human Part of it and yet God totally watching over it hedging it about and controlling it the entire time.
So That sums it up. Now we have today two theories on how God did this. Two theories on how God did this. And there are probably some corollary theories, but we can put them in two major groups one of them I will just call it the Westcott Hort theory and.
These are two men Westcott W-e-s-t-c-o-t-t and notice I misspelled it here and Hort H-o-r-t. We have the Westcott Hort theory which is accepted by virtually all Modern conservative and liberal theologians seminaries and pastors including Bob Jones University, Tennessee Temple Dallas Theological Seminary Southwestern Seminary and on and on and on.
This is the Westcott Hort theory. The second theory I call the traditional text theory. Virtually no well-known living proponent today. Unless I become well known. Because I'm a proponent of this. Now what I think you're going to find though as you study history.
This theory has never had well-known proponents because those who have held to this is simply the church the everyday people of God Walking on this planet doing as well for 2 ,000 years. So those are the two different theories.
The Westcott Hort theory the traditional text or you might call it the received text theory. Now from the first theory the Westcott Hort comes all modern translations including. Many of the words in the New King James Version.
Certainly the NIV the New American Standard the American Standard Version the Living Bible any of the Bibles. You will find out they're written for children in the common language. Includes all of them without exception the New King James does have a lot of the received text in it.
But it also has words from this other manuscript the Westcott Hort text and you have to be aware of that. You never have maybe been aware of it before but after we're through with this study. You'll be vitally aware of it and I want you to be because you need to be you don't need to be hidden to hide from truth.
Now from the second line, which we call the traditional text or the received text or that it's called the textus receptus which means the received text the way that it got its name as it has always been the.
The inward talking primarily about the New Testament text here. It's always been the text that the majority of the living Church has studied. Witnessed with and used throughout 2 ,000 years of history.
That's how it got its name. From this comes the King James version in the English. It is the only English version that we have that comes from this text. Also, Martin Luther's German Bible was from this text and the Bible is used by the people of God throughout the church age.
Hence its name the received text. It is the Bible that was used in every great revival that you've ever read of in history. Under Billy Sunday with 2 million people saved under Moody with a million people saved under Wesley and Whitfield.
Another million saved worldwide and these are just people that they counted. There's no telling how many really got saved. Mordecai him the great Evangelist who went around and had over 500 ,000 people saved in different Evangelistic revival meetings in the great Spurgeon over 400 ,000 people saved.
Every great revival that you can show me in history. The Bible that was used in the preaching and the teaching of those revivals was the received text. At which the King James is the only English version that we have from that text today.
Now, let's go into a brief history and we won't go too much longer. This morning keeping my eye on you watching you a little bit here. Let's go into a brief history of How this manuscript or how different manuscripts come down to today?
The subtitle of this lesson today is called manuscript evidence. We can go all the way back to 80 32. Turn in your Bible to Luke chapter 11 in verse 52. We go all the way back into Bible times. When Luke 11 52 and in Matthew 23 15 were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ and We see that we already began to have a corruption with the Word of God.
And of course this looks back to the Old Testament so there are always corrupting forces in the world to try to corrupt God's Word and the Pharisees who developed over I guess the 400 year period of time.
They got to the place where they like to write little paraphrases of the Word. They didn't like for the people to see that the legitimate Old Testament they like for them to see their paraphrases which told them what it meant and So they are very similar to good news for modern man or some of the versions we have today which are paraphrased Bibles.
They're not really Bibles. They're one man's thinking about what the Bible says that's what the Jewish people were being taught at the time Jesus Christ arrived on the planet and When John the Baptist was here at this time for almost at least 200 out of that 400 year period that people have been taught from Targums and Paraphrases not from the Word of God.
I have a copy of one such Targum at home in one of my books. Where it takes Isaiah 53 that speaks of the suffering servant. But in the Targum it says nothing about a Messiah that would come and suffer it removes all such Allusion to that and replaces it saying that the nation of Israel would suffer.
So whoever wrote the paraphrase Didn't want to believe that there was a Messiah coming who would be crucified and killed and suffer so he removed it and He wrote the paraphrase saying here's what it really means when it says that and that's all the people were being taught.
It is a miracle that Anna and Simeon were waiting for the true Messiah. Because if they had sat under these teachers, they would not be tells me they got hold of the Word of God somewhere and we're reading it and So there have always been and Jesus alludes to this in Luke 11 52 woe unto you lawyers.
You see the lawyers and scribes. They're the ones the scholars. They're the ones who like to mess with it. They've been doing that in our day to Westcott and Hort were lawyers they were fine lawyers and scribes and they did a very dirty work on the Word of God that's going to surprise you when you See it and you probably go home and throw away your New American Standards and your NIVs and all of these Bibles when you see What they've done to it.
I Really hate to tell you this information because I have a New American Standard at home. That's one of my prized possessions. It was the first Bible that I was given when I was say even before I was saved.
Terry a cot gave it to me when I graduated from high school. I wasn't saved yet. But when I got saved Later on I found that Bible and I cherished it. Studied it for a long time and Yes, God's words in it.
Parts of it are in there, but parts of it had been removed by the Westcott Hort tradition. Now Jesus said this was happening in his day. Woe unto you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge.
Do you understand what Jesus is saying? He's saying you have removed from Isaiah 53 any mention of me. Oh, it mentions me as coming in on the white horse, but it kind of left out part of the story. You entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in you hindered.
Do you see what Jesus is telling them these teachers? He says you're not you're going to hell. You're not going into heaven and but he said the reason I'm saying one is because you're stopping those who are.
Because you've taken away the key, which is the Word of God. You've twisted it. They don't even have the truth. Matthew 23 15 he gets stronger than this he says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you compass see in land to make one proselyte and When he is made you have made him twofold the child of hell than you are.
Whoa, you tell me Jesus came to make peace. Was he ecumenical? No, well, he was he was ecumenical in the right sense, but he never would put up with falseness and untruth and false doctrine. Woe unto you you blind guides these people who use perverted scriptures and purport to teach the people are Truly what Jesus meant when he said the blind leading the blind you've used that saying all your lives.
And it only talks about one thing when Jesus says it and it's talking about using a corrupted manuscript to teach the people Untruth and to take the key away where they can't even know the truth. I'm gonna tell you it's always been done in a subtle way.
And you're gonna have people when we finish this study. We're gonna come to you you want to probably give out some of this information. You're gonna try that and you're gonna get slam-dunked because they're gonna come to you and say well listen.
You know, you can take any one of these modern Bibles and they all say the same thing basically. They all the same gospel truths are there. You can get saved with any of them just as well as you can the other and it's not important these little details.
All they did was go in and change a few these and thous and that's not true at all. There are over 5 ,000 changes. Some of those have to be important and if you're like me and you believe that every word was given then they're all important.
Haven't you ever noticed sometimes how the smallest word can change the whole sense of a scripture the word thee or the word a. It's a mayor the word of. And they say well, it doesn't matter they're just my new changes minor changes to clarify the Bible.
Not so not so. Well, let's move up to 80 58. We're still in the Bible times. 2nd Corinthians 11 and verse 4 says for if he that cometh preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached. Or if you receive another spirit, which we have not received or another gospel, which has more to do with our study today.
Which we have not accepted you might well bear with him and that was Paul's concerned that you might go with him. You might bear with him. He said that's my concern. Is these false people who come in and change the gospel?
I'm afraid you might go with them. 2nd Corinthians 11 14 and 15 and no marvel for Satan himself has transformed into an angel of light. Therefore there's no great thing that his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness.
Whose end shall be according to their works. These men can appear to be blessed men of God as They begin to corrupt the gospel in the Word of God. Galatians 1 6 and 7 warns against another gospel, which Paul says is not another gospel.
2nd Corinthians 2 17. Please turn to that one because it's the main historical verse that I want you to see. Which literally gives us history. Inside the Bible writing times that speaks about this corruption that is already taking place.
Before the Apostle Paul passed off the scene and long before John passed off the scene. There were already people corrupting manuscripts. Second Corinthians 2nd create that time. They weren't so much manuscripts as they were.
Writings on pieces of paper. Second Corinthians 2 17 for we are not as many which corrupt the Word of God. So in Paul's day, there were many already doing it. But as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
The word corrupt in the Greek language literally means to adulterate but it carries the idea of retailing. Isn't that interesting? Do you know that most of the modern versions were put together by a small number of people who became who made great wealth?
By selling Bibles. But the the textus receptus was never put together by a group of anybody. It just providentially came down to us through the ages of the church age. Nobody profited from it really now you might come to the point of the printing press.
I don't know if anyone did or not. It certainly is a best-seller, isn't it now? Let's move to ad 100. Even before the death of the Apostles. There was a strong disposition on the part of the great outlying world to destroy the new religion.
This was written in a book called the history of the Christian Church by Hearst. Goes all the way back, you know to the times even before the Apostles died just as we noticed in 2nd Corinthians 2 17. If you go to ad 100 to 200 there was a scholar named Irenaeus and We have these Remarks that were made in this time period within the first hundred years after the death of the Apostles.
Irenaeus said this concerning an agnostic named Marcion so Irenaeus who lived just after the time of John said this. Wherefore also Marcion and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the scriptures not acknowledging some books at all and Curtailing the gospel according to Luke and the epistles of Paul they assert that these alone are authentic.
Which they themselves have shortened. So we now have something you need to keep in mind throughout this study as that the property there is indication. That one of the predominant ways of changing the scriptures were to shorten them to remove information.
Not to add things to them. But to remove things the modern scholars say that the problem with the King James and the Textus Receptus is has had stuff added to it. Well compared to what? Compared to those manuscripts that don't have that stuff anymore.
Now do we just take them at their word that the Textus Receptus has had things added or might it be? That the false corrupt manuscripts had things removed. They never asked that question. But there are some great scholars who have and I'll be giving you their names and you can go get their books.
Incredible men to read after who support the received text just incredible, but they're all dead. There aren't any living proponents anymore. I don't understand that except to say that we are in the last days now.
There was another man Epiphanius Who in a treatise called the Panarion said this he described no less than 80 heretical parties at this time. Which was in between 100 and 200 AD. So before the Apostles even died the manuscripts were already being Corrupted by evil men.
In fact in one place I found this quote the worst corruptions to which the New Testament has ever been subject subjected. Originated within a hundred years after it was composed the African fathers and the whole Western with a portion of the Syrian Church used far inferior Manuscripts to those employed by Erasmus and Stevens 13 centuries later.
Now you'll be asking the question, how can that be? Well, you'll see as we go on into the into the study so one thing to remember another point is that When people come to you in the margin of your Bible and say the most ancient manuscripts don't contain this verse.
Realize that the worst corruptions of the Bible that ever happened happened within a hundred years after it was written the ancient ones. So just because it's old does not mean it's good. Remember that principle just because it's the oldest does not mean it's the best and yet the modern Westcott Hort theory is based upon the the premise that the oldest is always the best.
That was never the premise before those two men and during the life of those men. Then there were many many scholars alive who hated what they had done and they blasted it in the revised standard version has never been Accepted and that's the first version that they put out.
People don't realize that the New America Standard in a bay in IV and all these came from the same Greek texts. They don't know that the battle is kind of over now. The truth is Westcott and Hort have won over time.
But in their lifetime They did not win and no one accepted that version. And all of the people of God the men of God the God-fearing prayer warriors who also happen to be scholars wrote against this concept of Saying that the oldest is the best in every case.
No one ever believed that it was a new concept. Around 175 AD Tatian wrote a quote harmony of the four Gospels, which was called the Diatasaron it was so notoriously corrupt that one Syrian bishop threw out 200 copies of it Lest his members take it and believe that it's the true gospel.
Now I'm telling you this to let you know that before ad 175 these things were already happening. There are already copies that had to be destroyed because they were corrupt. So when you go back to a copy that dates a 500 AD and Westcott and Hort tell you well They're so ancient that they have to be true 300 years before that they were throwing away copies that were older than that one because they weren't true.
So that logic simply does not hold up. And not that it wouldn't be true in a certain case, but it's just not always true and They act as if it's always true. About this same time 175 AD Those who corrupted the scriptures began to claim to be quote correcting them.
That is the terminology that's been held down to the day all the way through Westcott and Hort. They're correcting the Bible to make it right now what's interesting is if Westcott and Hort theory is true that nobody between the year 100 AD and The late 1800s had the Word of God because Westcott and Hort gave it to us.
Do you believe that? That's what they asked you to believe. They want you to believe that preservation is progressive just like inspiration was. But there's nowhere in the scripture that it tells us that in fact God tells us very clearly that the moment that word hits the planet I Guard it.
Didn't we read that this morning somewhere? It doesn't fit the theory and yet it's so easy to be swayed by these scholars because they write such beautiful words. Well I'm gonna go ahead. We're almost through with this little historical part.
So bear with me for a couple more 331 AD. Now we're getting into the time of Constantine. Constantine from a human viewpoint did more to Destroy the church than any human probably since the apostolic age.
Because what he did was he made it popular he made it the national religion of the Roman Empire and he began to Pay the bishops that were in line with his thinking so much money that they became wealthy and died wealthy and They became corrupted and the Roman Catholic Church came out of this process.
But in 331 AD Constantine attempted to bring peace to a warring quote Christian sects because what he wanted to do was bring peace in his nation. He could care less about the church or the Bible. He wanted to find some unifying force in his nation and he thought well religion works.
Let's just pick Christianity. We'll let it be the unifying force. Then he looked around and he saw they were the same way as we are today. They like to bicker. They like to argue over points of Scripture and they did it all the time.
So you had all these sects they already had denominations. They weren't called the same things We call them today, but they had denominations and groups. Well Constantine said we're not gonna have that in my kingdom because I wanted to bring unity.
So we're just going to get rid of all everybody that doesn't agree with me and it's gonna be you we're gonna have unity here. So what he did one of the things he did was he adopted a Bible which contained the pure Word of God along with?
Conflicting revised versions that other groups liked put it all together into one Bible so he made peace with all the groups they could all live with this Bible and In his view, you know his group could live with it.
And so we go back in history to 185 to 254 AD a man named origin. It's kind of interesting that his name spelled like the word origin. Because he is the origin of the corrupt line of Scriptures. But he taught that the logos which is the word referring to Jesus Christ was Seema which means the Lord Jesus Christ was a created being so origin believed that Jesus was a created being he was not God and Origin is the first man who ever did a revision and a correction of the Greek text and He did so in a book that he called the hexapla which after he died his disciple whose name was Erasmus took this and took one of the Columns this thing had five or actually had four columns when origin did it.
He had four columns where he would give the scriptures and they all contradicted. But he wanted you to have them all so you can pick which one's God's Word. It's kind of like some of the Bibles you have today where you can buy it and I'll have three columns.
You have the King James you'll have something else and something else. That's where the idea came from just throw it all out there and let you know. Just figure out which one it is the right one. That was his concept and they contradicted each other just like the ones today do and you say well they do really don't.
Well they really do before the studies over I'll give you as many as 200 different verses you can use as a Key verse to use to see if the versions differ or not and you'll see hundreds and thousands of places where they differ and they put them in columns side-by-side and this book is called the hexapla and so then Eusebius comes along.
Did I say Eusebius a minute ago? Who'd I say was origins disciple? I'm wrong. It's Eusebius. I didn't I thought I said Erasmus that is gonna come after a while. Eusebius is this man's name. He was the disciple of origin who also was Constantine's buddy and He edited this hexapla and added a fifth column to origins Bible and Constantine chose this as His version the fifth column of the hexapla and he asked Eusebius to prepare 50 copies of it without the other columns just a bit and that was the Bible that became the Roman Catholic Bible of today, isn't that interesting study and yet origin set the basis for Constantine by Eusebius in the year 331 AD.
These men who believe this among some of them are Burgeon Miller Gregory Price a T Robertson Philip Schaff Dr. Scrivener and a man named Hurst and these are awesome scholars. You need to read some of their works.
It's not like reading like reading though, but it is amazing reading these men all believe that the Sinaiticus and the Vaticanus which are the two manuscripts from predominantly the Vaticanus that Westcott and Hort went back to and Called the neutral text which all other Bibles had to fit.
These scholars believe that those two were actually two of the 50 copies That Eusebius made and they in fact have been dated to the same time Approximately or shortly thereafter after these copies were made.
They were written on vellum, which is unborn sheepskin. But the interesting thing about the Vaticanus is as part of it is on unborn sheepskin the other parts on goatskin. Which a true Believer would never have done that Wouldn't put it on goatskin.
I don't think I don't know if they would but I don't think they would. But but it's very fascinating that these came down to Westcott and Hort and became the key manuscripts that they used to create all of our modern versions and they match the fifth column of the Hexapla.
Hexapla, which was origins Bible and Eusebius Bible that he made for Constantine all of your modern versions Come from that line of manuscript. So we could Kind of summarize this part with this. We see a corrupt line of manuscript coming down and I'm going to give you the key names.
So you can see through time how it comes it comes from those that Paul wrote about all the way down to origin and From him to Eusebius who was Constantine's friend there that helped him pull together his Roman Catholic world.
Which gave us the Hexapla which was the five-column Bible for all the different versions of the day. Which came down to the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. Vaticanus by the way means that this manuscript was found in the Vatican library.
That's where they found it and all your modern versions are based on it. The Sinaiticus was found In a monastery in a room that happened to have nothing in it, but garbage and that is a historical fact.
It was a room where the garbage was and that's where this manuscript was found. So you come down to the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus which came to Westcott and Hort and they Formulated all of our modern versions other than the King James Version from that and then it comes also To shortly after the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus were written.
Jerome is another key name because he took the old Latin Vulgate and Corrected it so that it came in the form of the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus and matched the corrupt line. So you have to keep this in mind as we go further in days to come when we talk about the Latin Vulgate the word Vulgate means it was accepted by the people.
We have the Greek Vulgate, which is where the Texas Receptus comes from the Latin Vulgate. Can be a little confusing because there are two of them. The one that is commonly called the Latin Vulgate today is the corrupted version that came from Jerome.
But there was an ancient Latin Vulgate that matches the received text that is older. Before Jerome got his hands on it. A lot of people will never speak of that, but it's out there. So I think we best stop there.
We'll pick up here next time what we might do since I think that our Meetings this afternoon will be short. I might just cover 15 minutes of this after lunch, but I'll let you hold me to it. You can watch your clock and we'll hold it to that after lunch.
Let's stand and have prayer together. Now listen, this is the kind of study where you're at a disadvantage if you don't get all of it so If you know folks that missed today, you know. They're one thing is I'm obviously be putting all this in print and put it down here as the time comes.
So we will have it there for folks. So you put the whole thing together because if you miss the part that we did today on God's promise to revert preserve his word. It can be quite a frightening study.
But if you understand his promise, then you have nothing to fear. So let's pray together father. We thank you so much for your word. We thank you that you've given it to us down to this day. You've preserved it even through pots of clay.
Because your hand is so mighty and Lord, we thank you that you've given us pure words. Words that those of us in this room were born again. We were saved by these words and all those who shall be born again shall be saved by only pure words.
And we thank you that you've given it down to us and we ask that you help us do our part in our time through our own personal study and diligence to take to the next generation the pure Word of God and Father we ask that you go with us into our lunchtime today and bless our meal together and fellowship that we have around the Lord Jesus Christ and around your word and with each other.
What a blessed time it is to be able to spend with each other and we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.