came not in old time by the will of man: but
holy men of God spake as they were moved
by
the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1:21)
This term
'originals' specifically refers to what was written down in the Greek language
which were given by God to his apostles and prophets in the New Testament. As
holy men of God spoke (2 Peter 1:21), someone wrote down these words on
parchment, calf-hide or paper.
Where are they today?
Destroyed because of time, overuse and the
ravages of time.
Could God have kept the ‘originals’
if he had wanted to?
Of course, he is
God. After all many other pieces of written information have survived that are
much, much older than the first century Greek documents.
Were these documents without error?
Only God knows. They might have been and
might not. What we do know is that what holy men of God 'spake' was without
error. What got written down by their scribes or someone taking down notes is
another matter.
Well how do we know what God said,
where is his word today?
The King James Bible - infallible, inspired
and totally without error.
That's a bit of an assumption isn't
it?
Absolutely not. You see God is a liar if he
couldn't do what he said he would.
What's that?
To preserve his
words for ever!
The words of the
LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times.
Thou shalt keep
them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. (Psalm 12:6-7)
Surely these would be valuable to
have today?
Of no use
whatsoever.
What !!!???
That's right we
have the King James Bible. The "originals are valuable" mantra, is a
lie put out by the “the originals crowd”.
Why?
So they can
interpret the Bible the way they want to.
Why?
Only God knows,
but we can only guess that their reasons involve ignorance, money, reputation
and pride.
How close to the actual original
manuscripts can we get today?
Who knows and who
cares. These manuscripts were copied and re-copied an endless number of times.
But as Paul says to Timothy that he has known the holy scriptures from a child
(2 Timothy 3:15). Timothy
never had the originals - what he had was the copy of a copy of a copy of a
copy etc. Yet he knew the scriptures.
So where do the
‘original crowd’’ get the word ‘original’ from?
Their own minds.
Why?
As I said - so
that they can interpret the scriptures the way they want. This would enable
them to gather unto themselves a following for money, reputation or pride
purposes. You see vast sums of money are poured into Bible colleges by students
who want to find out what the Bible says. Bible college professors, lecturers,
teachers and tutors make their money from correcting the Bible.
Does the Bible
ever refer to the originals?
Never. When the
Bible talks about the scriptures, this is never in reference to ‘original’
manuscripts.
Where has the heresy about the
originals come from?
You guessed it -
Rome.
There is only one
Bible they refuse to let their people read and that is the King James Bible.
What other lies have been spread?
Stuff like King
James was a homosexual; only the Greek and Hebrew can reveal the true meaning
of scripture; There are mistakes in the King James Bible; Christians are under
the New Covenant; God only spoke in Greek and Hebrew and so on.
Shouldn't we treat the `so-called
originals' with respect?
We should treat
the 'originals' with as much respect as God did.
Could you give me an example?
In Jeremiah 36:4, Baruch writes down all the words that
come from Jeremiah’s mouth and puts them upon a roll of a book. We will call
this Original Number One. Now in Jeremiah 36:21-23, this
roll is read by Jehudi in the
presence of King Jehoiakim who gets very upset with what he hears. So he takes
out a penknife, cuts up the roll and destroys it by throwing it into the fire. Oops!
Original Number One disappears up in smoke!
What happens then?
God gets Jeremiah
to rewrite the roll (Jeremiah 36:32) and also
gets him to add many more words to it. How do we know this? Turn to Jeremiah
chapters 45-51. We will call this Original Number Two. Now in Jeremiah 51:59-61, we are
told that Jeremiah tells Seraiah to read this roll when he is taken to Babylon.
He further instructs Seraiah to tie a stone to this roll after he has finished
reading it and throw it into the Euphrates (Jeremiah 51:63). Oops!
Original number two disappears down the gurgler!
Well how come we have Jeremiah chapters 45-51 in
our Bibles, if original
number two was destroyed?
Good question.
There must have been a copy taken from the original number two before it
`drowned' in the river. This would then have to be called Original Number
Three!
Mmmm! What's God
showing us about all this?
Maybe God doesn't have a shred of interest in
hanging onto any `originals' once their job is done and their message has been delivered?
Let's follow God's example.
If
God has given us the error free King James Bible why should we be even
concerned about the `original' manuscripts? Clearly their job has been done,
and now we can be assured that we have something even better than them.
Why do people want to find the originals?
Only
God knows. We can only guess at their reasons. We know that the King James
Bible `cuts to the quick'. Maybe they are hoping to find a loop-hole somewhere
in the `originals' that will let them off the hook?
So then, the King James Bible is a Rolls Royce
compared to the Mini Minor 'originals'?
Not
my words but God says so.
So, it's as if God knew that this ‘originals
question' would come up in the end times?
Absolutely. He's ambushed the critics before they
even thought about the `originals'.
So, you don't need many brains to pull down the
King James Bible?
It wouldn't appear so. It would seem that the modern Bible Corrector is unaware that at the judgment seat of Christ and the great white throne, there'll be much weeping and screaming.
By Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
