#6 “THE ‘ORIGINALS’ ” 
Q: What do the Baptists have in common with the Mormons?
A: “The Bible is the word of God as far as it is translated correctly.”
(The 8^th tenet of the Mormon Church)  
“Shock! Horror! Wheeze! Gasp!” you may be saying.
But hang on Dear Reader, but that’s true isn’t it! 

You’ve heard of the game called Chinese whispers … a game in which a message is passed around in a whisper … with the final whisper not being the same as the first one.

And so it might be with the ‘Originals’?

Let’s suppose they are perfect, inerrant, inspired and infallible … and along the way, a writers’ form of The Chinese Whispers Translation Syndrome has taken place … although the King James Bible does not say this … the King James Bible says the opposite … the word of God has been purified (Psalm 12:6).

Anyhow, let’s assume the worst, that the ‘Originals’ have not been translated perfectly … and the ‘Chinese’ have got in on the act.

Look, the Bible says that “… holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost… (2 Peter 1:21) … the Bible never says that what was written down was perfect and inerrant … but what was spoken by holy men of God.

But let’s go back even further, and just suppose, for the argument, that what holy men of God spake was not perfect either!

So that means, at worse, we have holy men of God speaking errors, and the writing down of their speeches had errors as well. A double whammy!

Imagine that! God has been blocked, snookered and thwarted in getting us the inerrant, infallible and inspired truth by men … first by holy men of God and then by the writers of the ‘originals’.

What is God to do?

Maybe God is only sovereign and not Almighty?

Maybe God can’t get us his perfect words today?

Maybe we don’t have the words of God?

Maybe the Mormons are right?

Maybe we have to depend on man’s interpretation of what God said to these holy men?

Maybe we have to struggle along with all the different versions of the Bible as being correct?

Who can then say what is right and what is wrong?

Is the Roman Catholic Church, being one of the oldest religious institutions … are they right?

Is it the NIV? NASV? Good News? Douay Rheims?

Where do we start?

Do we have the perfect Bible in English today?

Where can I find God’s final, written and perfect authority to man?

I mean surely these are all natural questions that come to every Christian at some time in their life?
 

And let’s say we have the newborn Christian trusting his Pastor for answers to these questions.

And the Pastor comes back saying “We don’t know where the perfect scriptures are … we just have to make do with what we got!”

Imagine the jolt that has on a newby! Imagine the deflation that occurs in the new Christian!

“What! Even my Pastor doesn’t know! What chance do I have?”

So having been washed clean (Revelation 1:5), he has to make do with some sort of Bible that has been cobbled together by men over few thousand years.

He feels let down … I mean it’s the equivalent of getting a Driver’s licence and looking forward to a Rolls Royce … only to be given 1963 clapped out Ford.

But here’s the thing Dear Reader, NOTHING SCARES A PASTOR MORE THAN ANYTHING, THAN THE THOUGHT THAT THE BIBLE HE HAS IN HIS HAND … JUST MIGHT BE PERFECT, INERRANT, INFALLIBLE AND INSPIRED.

It’s called the mystery of iniquity … and it is this … that UNBELIEF IS ITS OWN AUTHORITY!

A MAN BELIEVES THAT WHAT HE BELIEVES IS TRUE … BECAUSE HE BELIEVES IT! 

Now you can dump a truck load of information on his front lawn to the contrary … but he will not believe it! Why? Because he will not.

And of course Dear Reader, this is why people go to hell of their own free will … they won’t believe on the Lord Jesus Christ … despite all the evidence that points to the contrary … they won’t believe it!

No, the Pastor believes that what he believes is the truth … because he believes it!

Do you see what we are saying Dear Reader?

So you can ask a Pastor to tell you where the word of God is today and he’ll say “It’s in the Bible.”

So then you might say to him “I’ve got 50 different Bibles here … which is the right one? Where is the absolute, inerrant, infallible, perfect and inspired truth?”

He’ll have to say “None of them … there’s no perfect Bible on the earth today.”

But being the hypocrite he is, he will stand before his flock waving a version and saying “These are the words of God!” 

Mmmmm! I wonder why? Could it be his salary is at stake?

Pastors do not realise the terrible and grave responsibility they have to feed their flock the truth.

He does not see himself as God sees him as offending little ones (Mark 9:42).

He does not see that he’s in for a massive whacking when he gets home … his wife? … no heaven. 

No, his love of money, his salary, is far more important that telling God’s children the truth.

His congregation believes in Jesus … but he’s offended them … for his love of money reigns supreme … “But God, I had a family and bills to pay … I couldn’t afford to tell my people the truth!”

And God says “You should have been a truck driver, a labourer … beggar on the streets … if that was your concern … but you fed my flock rocks, stones, donut holes and egg shells!”

They’ll fire him …

You see standing before God is much easier for the ‘originals’ Pastor than facing his congregation..

But here’s the real thing Dear Reader, the Pastor considers it a mere trifle … a doddle as it were … that he would stand before the Lord one day to give his account of not feeding the sheep.

The ‘here and now’ is far more important than the ‘there and then’.

Ah! the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10) … the Pastor at the judgment seat … “That verse was a wrong translation … because the Greek root says this and that!”

Ah! The hypocrisy … an ‘Originals’ Pastor, he has been standing up before his people saying “These are the words of God” … but all the while not believing it … he’s been lying.  

No, the Board will fire him … er … suggest he ‘may be more effective elsewhere’.

The ‘originals’ Pastor has forgotten there’s the heavenly ‘piper’ that has to be paid, for “… whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” (Mark 9:42).

Dear Reader, let me sum up … the Pastor who believes ‘the originals as they have been correctly translated’ … resolutely stands on FOUR things …

1. He cannot point to a copy of Scripture anywhere on earth and say “That Bible is perfect.” 

2. The last thing he wants anyone else to do is to believe … that they would say “I have a copy of the Bible that is perfect!”

3. He will stop at nothing to destroy the faith of any Christian he meets who thinks they have the perfect, infallible, inerrant and inspired Scriptures … this is like hot acid on metal to the poor Pastor.  

4. There is no final authority but himself.

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#7 “THE ‘ORIGINALS’ ”
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