Text: "...it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 3)

J.C. Ryle-- "Controversy and religious strife no doubt are odious things; but there are times when they are a positive necessity. Unity and peace are very delightful; but they are bought too dear if they are bought at the expense of truth. There is a vast amount of maundering, childish, weak talk nowadays in some quarters about unity and peace, which I cannot reconcile with the language of Paul.

"It is a pity, no doubt, that there should be so much controversy; but it is also a pity that human nature should be so bad as it is, and that the Devil should be loose in the world.

"It was a pity that Arius taught error about Christ’s person, but it would have been a greater pity if Athanasius had not opposed him.

"It was a pity that Tetzel went about preaching up the Pope’s indulgences; it would have been a far greater pity if Luther had not withstood him.

"Controversy, in fact, is one of the conditions under which truth is every age has to be defended, and maintained, and it is nonsense to ignore it."

J. Gresham Machen – "God has always saved His Church, not by theological pacifists, but by sturdy contenders for the Truth... A Christianity that avoids argument is not the Christianity of the New Testament."

A group calling themselves "Moderate Baptists" has formed the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. In their Address To The Public they declare they believe the Bible to be "inspired and authoritative" but deny the Bible claims to be inerrant. To teach that the Bible is not God’s Word but only "contains" God’s Word is New-Orthodoxy.

It is by God’s ordination that Truth, not error, is the basis of authority. The Bible is therefore only "inspired and authoritative" to the degree it is inerrant. What percent of the Bible is to be trusted? 30%? 5%? Every other word? Martin Luther said, "Whom God intends to destroy, He gives leave to play with Scripture."

The Cooperative Baptists say, "Fundamentalists educate by indoctrination... (while Moderates) do not claim a monopoly on truth." This is true because Moderates having rejected the truth of God are condemned to wander in a maze of uncertainties "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth." (II Tim. 3:7) (See: Ps. 19:7; Matt. 22: 29; Jn. 8:14)

Regarding education, A.A. Hodge of Princeton said the purpose of a professor is not simply to enunciate truth, but that he is to do all he can to persuade his students to receive truth.

In their zeal to prepare the church for the 21^st century, Cooperative Baptists have announced they will treat women as "equally capable of dealing with sacred issues." To do so, they have had to trash the faith "once delivered to the saints" for nowhere in history of the church have women been accepted into the pastorate. Today they will ordain women, and tomorrow, sodomites.

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a confederacy in evil. Their name "Moderate Baptists" is well chosen, for water that is "moderate" is lukewarm; and the Son of God says I He will spew out of His mouth all who are lukewarm. (Rev. 3:16)

Jan. 29, 1991--Dear Brother Timothy, This is to commend you on the recent issue of THE ANGELUS in which you bravely confront paedobaptism (and its logical fruit, baptismal regeneration, which continues to saturate even evangelical Presbyterians to lifts day; -see enclosed editorial from Jan/91 issue of CHALCEDON) I enclose an article of mine from BAPTIST REFORMATION REVIEW in which I addressed the issue in "Parable Form."

Thank you also for your booklet GOD HATH SPOKEN, which is very good as far as it goes. However I was disappointed to note that it did not address two obvious and fundamental questions often asked by thoughtful students but never (to my knowledge) dealt with by pastors today:

1. Since only the original autographs (and perfect copies) were inerrant, and no longer exist, and in their, place we have hundreds of "Bibles" generated from centuries of independent copiers and self-appointed "translators" (of which English versions like KJV, RSV, NASB, NIV, are only a small fraction) on that basis can a student trust as inerrant a given "Bible", or even the Greek or Hebrew text said to underlie it?

1. I.e. In II Timothy 3:16 Paul speaks to young Timothy of the LXX version (note vs. 15) which Paul cited consistently against the Majority Text, disclosing some significant changes, e.g. Heb 10:5 vs. Ps. 40:6, et. al.
2. In addition, as you very well know, there are some large numerical discrepancies in our MT (which rests on a 916 AD Codex as to pop’n of Israel at the exodus, army sizes, ages of kings, etc. which any diligent high school student can find, but are never addressed in "Inerrancy" sermons.

If you wish more amplification I will provide it.

With personal regards,

(s) Robert Whitelaw.

June 13, 1991--Dear Brother Whitelaw, your friendship over the years is much appreciated; and more recently, I thank you for your letter, and for the spirit in which it is written. Over the next several months I want to comment on your letter, as well as address your "Ten Facts Rarely Heard From Any Pulpit Today!"

The matters of which you write are very important and have formed the basis of volumes. On account of limited space, it will be necessary to be brief.

I. If only the original autographs were inerrant, or as you concede "perfect copies", and since for centuries no original autographs have existed, can we believe we have the very Word of God in 1991? And, if we can, how much of the Bible can be trusted? 70%? 10%? Are we to believe only every other Word in the Bible? Or, is it worthy our trust en toto?

One thing is certain: if we must submit the Bible to the scrutiny of the scholar, we are in bondage to a priesthood every bit as oppressive as that of Rome.

You state that problems "can be solved by diligent study to find what was in the original autograph," but in all honesty there is absolutely no way you can "find what was in the original autograph" with no original autographs extant. As Christians it is "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God" (Heb. 11:3), and it is by faith alone that believe the Bible is the Word of God.

You ask, On what basis can a student trust as inerrant a given Bible, -or even the Greek and Hebrew text said to underlie it?" The answer is "Faith in God" --not faith in the scholarship of man: Faith --that God has not deprived this generation of His Word; Faith --that God has preserved His Word unto this generation and will until time shall be no more. (Ps. 12:6,7) If we believe in the inspiration of Scripture, can we think it any more difficult for God to preserve Scripture?

But which "Bible" is the Word of God? Since no man can lay claim to the Word of God, one way of discerning which Bibles are not God’s Word is to see which ones are copyrighted.

As with all books, a person needs to know the author, and in the case of books written in another language, a person needs to know something about its translators. In the case of spiritual writings, godliness is of greater importance than scholarship for as Solomon wrote, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge". It should be evident, then, that one cannot be a scholar who does not fear, i.e. reverence, the Lord. "The instruction of fools is folly." (Prov. 16:22b)

Take, for example, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible which is the 1952 copyrighted version of the neo-orthodox National Council of Churches. In its "Preface" we read,

"Yet the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation....

"Departures from the consonantal text of the best manuscripts have been made only where it seems clear that errors in copying had been made before the text was standardized....

"Sometimes it is evident that the text has suffered in transmission, but none of the versions provides a satisfactory restoration. Here we can only follow the best judgment of competent scholars as to the most probable reconstruction of the original text....

"The King James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek text that was marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries of manuscript copying....

"We now possess many more ancient manuscripts of the New Testament, and are far better equipped to seek to recover the original wording of the Greek text....

"...the most ancient of all extant manuscripts of the Greek New Testament were not discovered until 1931...."

Oh, me! What are we to do! With so many "serious" and "grave" errors in the King James Version, it is certain the martyrs of old could not possibly have been saved! and the Westminster theologians along with men like John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, John Bunyan, etc. must have been a stupid lot since they did not know any better than to trust it.

It would be a mistake to accept the Revised Standard Version as a faithful edition of God’s Word.

A. You state "significant changes" between what David said in Ps. 40:6 and how Paul stated it in Heb. 10:5. Note the verses-- "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required." (Ps. 40:6)

"Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, ‘Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me...’" (Heb. 10:6)

The only noteworthy distinction in the passages is the phrase "mine ears hast thou opened" and "a body hast thou prepared me." There is no problem here but as John Gill points out the significance of Ps. 40:6 --the grand meaning, is the incarnation of the Son of God; or as Gill puts it, "a real, natural body" was prepared for the Lord. - To Be Continued

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"Thank you so much ...I’ve read it almost constantly since yesterday afternoon..." -Lt. Col. (Ret.) A.B. Nichols

"Thank you for your book.... You do honor and glorify the Lord in all your writings..." -Mrs. Delores Knie

"You have honored the Lord on every page." - Mr. Gordon Crompton

" ...I have great confidence in what you have written, and oh, so many things you wrote came home to my heart as I read. It has been such a blessing to me...." -Mrs. Amy Nelson

Last month, it was impossible for us to mail "The Angelus". My oldest son, Timothy, insisted we allow him to pay for the mailing.

Then, last week, within the space of 2 days, my computer shut down; our 1970 Oldsmobile ceased to operate, and the brakes on our 1970 truck went out.

Some who are reading this have helped us in the past. Would the Lord have you help us again?