Laurie,
You had written about a Scofield footnote that you had:
“It
says "Most early N.T. mss. omit "us" in v. 9 and read
"them" or "they" instead of "us" and "we" in v. 10"
I don't know how a thing like that could get changed
because it totally changes the picture, but it did.
I believe that the early church knew a lot more about what
was going on then the scholars of today, simply from the
"closer to the event" idea.”
To me, there are
three possibilities:
1)
The Holy Ghost
inspired the use of “us”, and the devil changed it to
“them”
2)
The Holy Ghost
inspired the use of “them”, and the devil changed it to
“us”
3)
Neither the Holy
Ghost or the devil were involved, but merely men
Well, I would
hope that no Christians would even considered the 3rd
point.
The “closer to
the event” idea applies to purely human endeavors.
When it comes to
the scriptures, they are both inspired & preserved by
the LORD.
The Holy Ghost
didn’t simply inspire the scriptures & then say, “Okay
guys, now it’s all up to you to try to preserve them &
keep them straight”.
Inspiration by
an eternal God, of a living book, is not a temporal thing,
that dies off with generations of men.
Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are
pure words:
as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times.
7
Thou shalt keep them, O
LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for
ever.
The same LORD
that inspired those pure words, promised to preserve those
pure words, forever.
Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my words shall not pass away.
The LORD has not
lost his Bible.
An omniscient,
eternal & omnipotent God, is not limited to only being
able to inspire in the original autographs, but then
unable to preserve his inspired word.
Then, even when
there are translations, is the LORD unable to preserve his
inspired words, or is that too hard, even for him?
Roman 9:17
For the scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth.
So in which
language is the inspiration?
In the Egyptian
that Moses spoke to Pharaoh?
In the Hebrew
account of this, in the old testament?
In the Greek
written letter of Paul to the Romans, containing 9:17.
In the
Authorized Version (King James Bible)?
In none of them?
In some of them? In all of them?
25 years ago, I
asked the man who had first witnessed to me when I got
saved, about this.
I asked that, if
the LORD promised to preserve his word, then where is it?
His answer was:
Psalm 119:89
For ever, O LORD, thy word
is settled in heaven.
Essentially that
the LORD didn’t preserve it for us here on earth.
A few years
later, I realized that he was off in his approach, because
of:
Deuteronomy 30:11 ¶ For this
commandment which I command thee this day, it
is not hidden from thee, neither is it far
off.
12 It is not in heaven,
that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven,
and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?
13 Neither is it beyond
the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea
for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do
it?
14
But the word
is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy
heart, that thou mayest do it.
When scholars
started, in the last few generations to ask the same
question about our AV, that the serpent asked Eve:
“Yea, hath God said”
Many people went
along with it. After all, they are scholars, don’t they
know better?
They are doctors
of ancient dead languages: Koine Greek, Aramaic, Chaldean,
Latin, etc.
All we have are
the scriptures in our laps and the Holy Ghost in our
hearts, how can that compare to knowing ancient Greek or
ancient Hebrew?
Well, I can only
think of the following:
Luke 10:21
¶ In that hour Jesus
rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes:
even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.
Gino