A Certainty of the Words
The Certainty, or Lack Thereof
Modern Christianity is suffering. They doubt the Text of Scripture and question the legitimacy of many of its passages. However, this is not what God desires."That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?" (Proverbs 22:21, emphasis mine)
We can have a certainty in the Words of Truth—in the Word of God. We can trust the Words of Scripture! But today, modern translations cast doubt on Mark 16:9-20, John 7:53-8:11, and many other verses. The opposite of certainty is uncertainty. People today are questioning the certainty of those Words they call the Scriptures!
"How can such a revision of the Scriptures be said to be the inerrant Word of God when multitudes of passages are brought into question by placing them in brackets?...With the questioning of many passages...how can one in all honesty confess unconditional trust in these new Bibles?"¹
The Words of Truth
We need to have a better understanding of what these Words of Truth are. As we saw before, they are certain words. We also see they are acceptable and upright words:"The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth." (Ecclesiastes 12:10, emphasis mine)
We also find that the Words of Truth are God’s judgments (Psalm 119:43). These Words of Truth are, well, true! In John 17:17, Christ prays the Father to "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." From other passages we know the Words of God are pure (Psalm 12:6, 119:140; Proverbs 30:5), it is tried (2 Samuel 22:31; Psalm 18:30), quick, powerful, and sharper than a twoedged sword (Hebrews 4:12), righteous (Psalm 19:9), good (2 Kings 20:19), and the list goes on.
There is one attribute I purposefully left out. It's the word “preserved.” The Words have been preserved! Below is a table of four attributes of the Word of God: That it is good, that it is righteous, that it is true, and that it is preserved.
Notice, please, that the amount of verses teaching the preservation of God's Word are neck and neck with those saying the Word of God is good or righteous. We all agree that God's Word is good, true, and righteous, so why is it so hard to believe it is preserved as well?
Consequences of Uncertainty
Born in 1812, Archibald Alexander would later become a Reverend and a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. This man made a statement which I think reveals how little certainty he really had in the Scriptures."It is even possible that some of the autographs, if we had them, might not be altogether free from such errors as arise from the slip of the pen, as the Apostles and [their] Amanuensis who were not inspired."²
The original writings of Scripture could have had errors? While I acknowledge this is an extreme case, and Bible-believing Christians would reject this idea, nonetheless it reveals something true. When one begins by believing that God didn’t perfectly preserve His Word, it leads to such thinking as Rev. Alexander expressed. Do you want to have an uncertain faith like this man? Or do you want to trust God preserved His Words?
What other things come as a result of uncertainty? At the end of his first Epistle, John writes:
We see the order in which there is certainty. First, we find that which is written. Then, only after we have established what is written can we be certain that we have eternal life. Why can we be certain that we have eternal life? Because the Bible says so! Without a certainty of the Words, you have no certainty of salvation. (Don't misunderstand me, someone can be saved and deny the preservation of Scripture, but a true certainty of salvation comes from a certainty of the Words.)
What other things come as a result of uncertainty? At the end of his first Epistle, John writes:
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:13)
We see the order in which there is certainty. First, we find that which is written. Then, only after we have established what is written can we be certain that we have eternal life. Why can we be certain that we have eternal life? Because the Bible says so! Without a certainty of the Words, you have no certainty of salvation. (Don't misunderstand me, someone can be saved and deny the preservation of Scripture, but a true certainty of salvation comes from a certainty of the Words.)
With an uncertain foundation, we have no basis upon which to build our faith and doctrine. Ephesians 2:19-20 tells us that we are built upon the "foundation of the apostles and prophets"—in other words, those writings penned by those men; the Bible. The Word of God is central to our faith. Without a certain Word, Christianity has no power for it is the Word of God that gives us the Gospel. It is the Word of God that tells us how to live. It is the Word of God that tells us everything God wants us to know. What a shame it would be if we could not trust the one Book that's infallible!
When you have no certainty, how can you study?
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
We are told to study God's Word—how can we truly do that when we are uncertain about the text? When a new discovery tomorrow could overturn our whole understanding of a particular passage, that doesn't lead people to have much faith in the text of Scripture.
When you stand before God, (whether saved or not), God will not care if you had an uncertainty in the Words. What I mean by that is this: God will judge the lost according to their works, and He will grant rewards to Christians based on their works. If a lost person doesn't get saved, God will not care when they say, "But I didn't know your Word was true!" Similarly, with a Christian, when we are at the bema seat of Christ, our works will be tried. If our works are burned up, He will not care if we try and make excuses, "I didn't know that verse was inspired!"—He preserved His Word and He expects us to live by it.
When you stand before God, (whether saved or not), God will not care if you had an uncertainty in the Words. What I mean by that is this: God will judge the lost according to their works, and He will grant rewards to Christians based on their works. If a lost person doesn't get saved, God will not care when they say, "But I didn't know your Word was true!" Similarly, with a Christian, when we are at the bema seat of Christ, our works will be tried. If our works are burned up, He will not care if we try and make excuses, "I didn't know that verse was inspired!"—He preserved His Word and He expects us to live by it.
Scholars over the Scriptural Stewards
When you have no certainty of the Words of Truth, you consequently put man's word above God's Word. Consider what the Apostle Paul wrote:"And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another." (1 Corinthians 4:6, emphasis mine)
We are told not to think of men above that which is written. What is “that which is written”? Is it merely Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians? No, if we look in Ecclesiastes 12, we find the phrase “that which was written”. And the Words of Truth are identified as that which was written. Going back to Paul, he essentially says, “We ought not put man above God's Word.” When a person listens to (often unbelieving) scholars who cast doubt on the Scriptures rather than trusting God's clear promises, we've got it out of order. If God said it, then it doesn't matter what scholars say, it is Scripture!
God did not commit the Scriptures to the hands of scholars. When writing to the church at Rome, the Apostle says the following:
"[1] What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? [2] Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God." (Romans 3:1-2, emphasis mine)
To whom was the Old Testament committed? The Jews! The church did not take over Israel's job of preserving the Old Testament. For the New Testament, it's the spiritual Israel who preserves the Scriptures.
"For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." (John 17:8, emphasis mine)
Does it say Christ's Words were given to the scholars? No, that's not what it says! Jesus says that He gave the Words to them—the disciples; the church. And He says that the disciples received those Words. They didn't need scholars to bash them atop the head for them to recognize God's Word—they received it when it was given!
We see that the Old Testament was committed to physical Israel and the New Testament to spiritual Israel. Where do scholars fit into this? Are there saved scholars? Sure, there are. But the Word was committed to the church, not to colleges or committees full of heretical men like Kurt Aland, Brooke Foss Wescott, Fenton J.A. Hort, and many others holding to higher criticism.
The Amos 8 Era
"[11] ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: [12] And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it." (Amos 8:11-12)
I believe we are in an Amos 8 time. People seek the word of the Lord but they can’t find it! In a day and age where anyone can go to the store and buy a Bible and when someone can go online and buy an endless stock of Scriptures, one might ask, "How can this be?" I will tell you how.
People are being propagated a fake—a phony! They’re being given a "Bible" that steals God’s Word from them! Amos 8 says that people will go around seeking the Word of the Lord, but they won’t find it. People today are being given the NIV, the ESV, the NLT, the NASB—they’re searching to and fro for God’s Word, but they won’t find it. That’s because God’s Word isn’t buried somewhere! It’s not in some monastery getting ready to be burned nor is it in the Vatican! We’ve always had God’s Word!
A Certain Text
"Where is God’s Word?" you may be asking. That's a good question for we can talk all day about needing certainty, but we cannot apply that truth to our lives without a clear view as to which words are those Words of Truth.
Many today, in an effort to have a certainty, will cite the enormous amounts of manuscripts we have of the Bible. If you've listened to or read any apologetic lecturer/author, you've likely heard something about the 5,000-6,000 Greek manuscripts we have (alongside the approximate 25,000 in other languages). This certainly gives a certainty, does it not? We have all of these manuscripts agreeing to a relatively high percentage. The problem arises when you realize that most of the time, these apologists aren't using a Bible that is supported by all of those manuscripts.
They say "We have a certainty because of the sheer volume of manuscript evidence we have" but turn around and use a Bible based on (at most) 45 manuscripts! It’s not consistent. If you want a certainty, you can only come to one conclusion. We need to consider a few things. What text did God preserve? What text did the church receive? And where is this text?
Firstly, what text did God preserve? The majority of Greek manuscripts we have are of the Byzantine tradition. God has preserved this text—the amount of manuscript evidence proves this. The rate of agreement between these texts is amazing as well. This is a testament to Christ’s promise that His "words shall not pass away" (Matthew 24:35). What better way to preserve it than to populate the world with copies of it?
Next, we will look at the text used by the church. The Greek church used the Byzantine text. This is why it reproduced so much—it had faithful followers preserving what God inspired. The church has always received the Byzantine text and translations from the same vein (such as the Syriac Peshitta). As Jesus stated:
"For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." (John 17:8, emphasis mine)
The disciples received Christ’s Words. The church receives God’s Words! We ought not to dismiss the testimony of the church on this issue. The church received the Byzantine text.
Lastly, where is this text? First, let's figure out where it's not. If Christ's church received His Word and it populated the Christian world for the last ~2,000 years, then there are a few places it won't be. It won't be locked in the Vatican until the 1840s, nor would it be hidden away in a monetary being destined for the fire! If you know anything about the manuscripts behind modern translations, you'd realize Sinaiticus was consigned to the fires at a Greek monastery. The Greek church didn't even accept the manuscripts modern translations stem from—and they still don't!
We can have certainty in the Words of the King James Bible and its underlying Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic texts. The New Testament of the KJV is the Textus Receptus, a subtext of the Byzantine type. God's people, by and large, have accepted the Byzantine text, specifically the subtext of the Textus Receptus, which is a testament to it being the place where we can find the true Text. We can find it in the Textus Receptus.
As mentioned earlier, God gave the job of keeping the Old Testament to the physical nation of Israel. Would it not then make sense that the text they preserved would be the right Old Testament text? Yet we have all of these scholars trying to correct the preserved Jewish text with a non-standardized Greek translation called the Septuagint. I would rather trust God! The Jewish people accept and have preserved the Hebrew Bible as found in the Masoretic Text. This is the text that the King James Bible’s Old Testament is translated from.
It seems to me that the King James Bible is the Bible for the English language. We can have certainty in its words! We can know, “Thus saith the LORD” rather than "Yea hath God said?" You can learn more about why I use the KJV in my post, Why KJV?, but, we must have a certainty in God's Word!
Sources:
1. Pappas, C. H. ThM. In Defense of the Authenticity of 1 John 5:7. 2nd ed., WestBow Press, 2018. pp. vix-xv.
2. New Testament number 1, "The autographs, or
original...", Box: 23, Folder: 4. The Archibald Alexander Manuscript
Collection, SCM 219. Princeton Theological Seminary. Library. Special
Collections.
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