How God Has Given Us the Bible

Bible Conference: The Manuscripts Behind the Translations - Part 2

Date
Sept. 30, 2024
Time
19:00
00:00
00:00

Transcription

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.

[0:00] and have Brother Sorensen come and share with us tonight some more truths that we can grab a hold of here about the scripture. And so Brother Sorensen.

[0:11] And amen. Good to be here again tonight at the Plains Baptist Church and our state in Lincoln, Nebraska thus far. And we're from Duluth, Minnesota. Now the Chamber of Commerce doesn't advertise this, but in Duluth we are the coldest city in the lower 48.

[0:26] And therefore in Duluth many are cold, but few are frozen. A couple of comments on the books now. The table is getting picked over, but if there is something there you would like and it's already off the table, see my wife and she'll give you a little yellow slip and fill it out and we'll get that sent to you directly.

[0:48] Probably first thing next week, maybe before. And so don't let that deter you. I forgot to mention yesterday, I think probably you've mostly already figured it out, but we do accept credit cards also.

[1:00] Now a book here on, still on the table, it's called The Faithful Word. We're going to get into this in considerable detail on Wednesday night. But it's the history of the received text, the traditional text, and particularly those that were instrumental, the forerunners, such as William Tyndale.

[1:23] There's a picture of him being burned at the stake. William Tyndale was the first to put the New Testament, in fact, most of the Bible into the English language in print. And he was martyred for his effort.

[1:37] But stories of him and stories of King James and who he was and his involvement. So I would encourage you to check that out. I think you'd find it very interesting. One other book back there that's already gone off the table that I want to tell you about it and you may want to order it.

[1:51] It's called Touch Not the Unclean Thing. And it was a book that actually was based on my doctoral dissertation years ago. And after the book came out, we were allowed to print it.

[2:06] Usually the institution, in this case Pensacola Theological Seminary, owns the dissertation, but they allowed me to put it into print. And after it had come out for just a short time, I got a phone call one day.

[2:19] And on the other end, a party who asked to remain anonymous said, we've read your book, Touch Not the Unclean Thing, and we'd like to send it all over America. Wow.

[2:31] And they said the only requirement, the thing we'd ask is that your fingerprints be on it and not ours. And so our phone number and our address and North Star Ministries, which is the publishing department of North Star Baptist Church, our church there back home, is on the cover.

[2:51] So the day came, they said, we have the wherewithal to print it, and we have mailing lists, we know postal regulations. And the day came in October of 2001, when a 53-foot semi, ladies, that's as big as they come, a 53-foot semi backed up to the freight dock at the Duluth, Minnesota Post Office.

[3:12] And that truck was loaded from front to back with those books, Touch Not the Unclean Thing. They are all addressed and packaged according to zip code and postal regulations. And in the mail, they went.

[3:24] Well, about a week later, my phone starts to ring. And I went to independent Baptist churches all across America. Folks, not all fundamental churches hold the same conviction that you and I do.

[3:37] My phone started to ring and there were unhappy campers across the Fruited Plain. And we were getting angry phone calls. I mean, they were unhappy. They were pointing out the problems in the NIV and the New American Standard and all the apostasy connected to the critical text.

[3:54] And one preacher out in California even challenged me to a fight. Believe that or not. All in Christian love, of course. But, so we let our phone calls, incoming phone calls for about a month just go to voicemail.

[4:11] It's kind of hard to get anything done when every time the phone rings or somebody there yelling at you. And, well, about a year passed. And the next summer, I went to the Sword of the Lord conference down in Walkertown, North Carolina.

[4:24] And we had a book table there. And came home, this was before I had a cell phone. And I got home, my wife said, there's a guy who's been trying to get a hold of you and he wants to talk to you now. I thought, oh boy, here we go again.

[4:37] So I dialed the number. And on the other end was, it was obviously an elderly man. It turned out he was in his 90s. And a high, scratchy, tender voice.

[4:47] But he said, you don't know me, but I've read your book, Touch Not the Unclean Thing. He kind of talked like that. He said, I've read your book, Touch Not the Unclean Thing, and I want to help you advertise it.

[4:59] Oh, interesting. He said, let me tell you about myself. I am a man of means. I am the founder of Napa Auto Parts.

[5:12] And his name was Robert Turner. He got saved mid-life. And along the way, it became a strong conviction of the King James Bible. And he said, now, when I do business with somebody, I always like to do it face-to-face.

[5:25] So I'm going to fly you down here to Palm Beach, Florida. And I flew down to Florida. And he was living with his wife in a senior high-rise building, very swank. High-rise building.

[5:36] Not far from Mar-a-Lago, you know, that cheap little real estate. And so I went to the place and walked in the lobby. And immediately I'm accosted by this butler type who says, please state your business.

[5:52] And I said, well, I'm here to see Mr. Turner. Does he know you're coming? I said, yes, I have an appointment. Oh, step right this way. And I went up to the penthouse where he lived. And long story short, he said, I want to pay for as many full-page, full-color advertisements as you can get in as many Christian periodicals.

[6:13] And so I went home and went to a professional advertising agency. And they drew up these nice, professional-looking ads. And he had said, now, you're the brains and I'm the money.

[6:24] You drop those ads and I'll pay for them. And so he found out the ads were done. He said, I want to see them. So this was before you could do it by email, or at least that I could do it by email.

[6:36] And sent them down to him. And he calls me back and says, oh, no, no, no. We need to change this, this, and this. And folks, when it was done, it looked like a Napa Auto Parts ad. But that book has some notoriety.

[6:47] Well, take your Bible tonight and turn to Psalm 119. We're going to read one verse, Psalm 119, verse 160. By the way, those books are not on the table, but you can order that. Psalm 119, verse 160.

[7:00] There we read, thy word is true from the beginning, and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Father, this evening, as we would look at the greater issue of your word, and how you've given it to us, and preserved it, and transmitted it to us to this day.

[7:22] Help us now to understand these issues and these matters, and I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, the year 16, I should say, 2011, just not too many years ago, the year 2011 was the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the King James Bible.

[7:37] As you no doubt know, it was released in 1611. But in the year 1604, King James I of England authorized a new translation of the Bible into the English language.

[7:50] We are going to get into that in some considerable detail on Wednesday night, and much will come from this book. But that Bible, which also was called the Authorized Version, more commonly called the King James Version, was released on May 2nd of 1611.

[8:07] And over the 400 and some ensuing years, over 6 billion copies of the King James Bible have been published and distributed around the world.

[8:23] Folks, that is more than any other Bible translation. That is more than all the rest put together. Now try and get your mind around that.

[8:34] It is the most widely published edition version of the Word of God in human history. Over 6 billion copies. It's had a greater impact on the Christian faith than any other one thing.

[8:49] In fact, it is the Word of God in English. And so tonight, I'd like just to share with you an overview of how God has given us the Bible, and we're going to get into the problems of the modern versions here before long.

[9:02] But five key words tonight. Number one is the key word inspiration. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16, we read, All scripture is given by, what's the word?

[9:14] Inspiration. Inspiration of God. Now, that word inspiration, or inspiration of God, is actually two Greek words. By the way, I know a little Greek.

[9:26] You run the sandwich shop in Duluth. But two words there, theonoustos. It means God breathed. We have a God breathed book.

[9:38] But what does that mean? Well, I would submit to you this. When what I'm doing to you right now, or with you right now, is breathing out words. God has so created us that when we speak, we literally breathe out words.

[9:53] And all through the Bible, we find where we read in the Old Testament, Thus saith the Lord, or saith the Lord. Almost 800 times, saith the Lord, or thus saith the Lord.

[10:06] This is a God-spoken book. In Jeremiah chapter 30 and verse 2, we read, Thus saith, speaketh, or thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.

[10:22] Book. That pretty well defines inspiration. God spoke to Jeremiah and said, Write the words that I have spoken to thee in a book. Now, that is direct dictation, and God, in some cases, directly dictated his word.

[10:36] He certainly did there on Mount Sinai to Moses. But in other cases, for example, in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 21, we read, For the prophets who came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

[10:51] And God so superintended the minds of, whether it was David or Isaiah, or Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Paul, so superintended their minds that what came forth out of the tip of their pens were, in fact, the very words of God.

[11:06] Think of a sailboat on the sea where the wind carries that sailboat along. The Holy Spirit so superintended the minds of those scriptural writers that what they wrote were the words of God.

[11:17] And so we have a God-spoken book. And by the way, that is an important distinction to understand that definition because some folks get all twisted and confused in the matter of inspiration when it comes to translations.

[11:31] But God worked through Moses and Ezra and David and Samuel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and the various New Testament writers. He spoke through them.

[11:41] And they wrote. God did not speak directly through the 47 different King James translators, most of whom you've never heard of. But because it's a God-spoken book, therefore the Bible is inerrant and it is infallible.

[11:58] And as we just touched briefly yesterday, God's word is truth. And so, number one tonight, the word of God is inspired. It's a God-spoken book. Number two tonight is the key word preservation.

[12:10] God has preserved his word in general. And here is where we get right down to the nub of the issue. God has preserved his very words.

[12:21] I believe in verbal inspiration, and I also believe in verbal preservation. You say, where did you get that, Sorensen? Well, in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 35, Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words, notice plural, my words shall not pass away.

[12:39] Now, the problem with the critical text people, the Westcott and Hort here, and Vanessa Lalonde, the United Bible Society, we'll get into that tomorrow night, that have produced all these modern language translations, they do not believe that God has preserved his words.

[12:56] Their philosophy is that the original New Testament documents have been lost to history, and that's a true statement. And therefore, they have set out from Tischendorf down to this day to try and rediscover what the New Testament really said.

[13:12] And so they are continually scrounging around and finding a fragment of a manuscript here and a page of a manuscript there and a paragraph from a manuscript there and integrating that into their critical text, and it's continuing to evolve.

[13:26] We're going to get into that tomorrow night. The Vanessa Lalonde Greek New Testament, which is one flavor of the critical text, is in its 28th edition. That means it's changed 28 times in about the last 100 years.

[13:40] I'm going to loosen up the old medicine here tonight. But Jesus said, My words, plural, shall not pass away. That is preservation. But not only that, in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 18, Jesus said, For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, Not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled.

[14:06] Now you say, What in the world is a jot and what in the world is a tittle? I'm glad you asked. A jot, well, it's a letter, or they call them characters in Hebrew.

[14:18] We call them letters in English. But a jot is the smallest character in the Hebrew alphabet. Now, you recall when you were in first grade long ago, the teacher taught you to write the letters on the line and you wrote from left to right.

[14:30] That's just standard writing in our culture. In Hebrew, the letters or the characters are hung from the line and the text goes from right to left. But anyway, the smallest character or the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the jot, sometimes called a yod, depending on how you pronounce it with European, Hebrew, or modern English.

[14:55] But whatever. It's a little right-angled mark. Smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And Jesus said, Not one jot will pass till all be fulfilled.

[15:08] Now, a jot is a part of a word. It's a letter. And letters, by the way, are the building block of Scripture. Or words, I should say. But you say, What in the world is a tittle?

[15:20] Well, a tittle is a part of a letter. Think with me tonight, oh, for example, in English, of a capital L, an uppercase L. There's a foot on the bottom of it. Or think of a, perhaps a lowercase t.

[15:33] There's a cross in the middle of it. A crossbar. And that would be analogous to what a tittle is in Hebrew. It's a little mark or parts of a letter. And Jesus said, Not one jot or one tittle shall pass till all be fulfilled.

[15:50] Now, think about that. Not only are the words preserved and the letters are preserved, but even the parts of the letters are preserved. Folks, that's verbal preservation. And I believe that God has preserved His Word through the traditional received text.

[16:10] We're going to get into this in considerable detail on Wednesday night. God has preserved His words. And there are some very substantial reasons why that is true.

[16:21] We'll get into that Wednesday night. And so, preservation. Down through the centuries, God has preserved His Word in the New Testament, in the received or traditional received text, and in the Old Testament, in the Ben-Kaim Masoretic text.

[16:37] I'm not going to get into the several Old Testament texts. We're going to focus mainly in the New Testament here, in these messages. But there are over 6,000 manuscripts that are existing of the Greek New Testament.

[16:55] That's more than any other piece of literature in the world. 6,000 Greek manuscripts. And of those 6,000, about 99% support or are of the traditional text.

[17:10] And by the way, in talking about terminology or nomenclature here tonight, some like to use the word received text, and the Latin for that is textus receptus, which gets abbreviated to TR.

[17:21] I prefer myself the word traditional text because the term received text was not coined until the year 1633 by two Dutch printers in Holland, the Elzevier brothers.

[17:34] But the New Testament text was long before 1633, we call it the traditional text. And as we'll see on Wednesday night, we can trace that back to the years right after the Apostle John.

[17:48] It's been the New Testament. Well, in the year 1516, a Dutch scholar, and he was truly a scholar, a man by the name of Erasmus, did something that had never been done before in human history, and particularly in biblical history.

[18:03] And that is in the year 1516, Erasmus took the New Testament, the traditional text, and he printed it, put it into printed form, and it began to be mass produced.

[18:19] Prior to that time, copies of the New Testament were all hand-copied, manual script, or manuscript. But now they're being, and letterpress printing was not like the modern, folks, I've been to the print shops where they print some of my books, and in goes the paper in one end, and out comes the book at the other end, and it's just like a chunk, a chunk, a chunk, a chunk.

[18:40] That's not the way the printing was on that day. Letterpress printing was slow, but still it was far, far faster than hand-copying a manuscript. And so, Erasmus put the New Testament into print.

[18:54] Now, I'm going to be dropping a lot of names in these next several nights, and I don't expect you to remember all of them, but Erasmus is a name that you should remember, and we'll get into him on Wednesday night.

[19:06] He put the New Testament into print in Greek, and he did five editions, that is five reprintings of it. The word edition then means a little something different than the word edition means today, and we'll get into that on Wednesday night.

[19:23] He died, and another man by the name of Robert Stevens, or Robert Stephanas, a Frenchman, continued to print the text of the New Testament. He died, and another French printer, and by the way, these guys both got saved from studying the New Testament.

[19:38] They both fled the Catholic Church and moved to Geneva, Switzerland, but Robert Beza continued the work that Erasmus had begun, and the King James translators worked primarily from Beza's fifth edition.

[19:52] God has preserved his word down through the centuries. And so key word number one tonight is inspiration. Key word number two tonight is preservation.

[20:03] Key word number three tonight is translation. God has seen to it that his word has been translated into the common languages, the everyday languages.

[20:14] The technical term is vernacular. Our vernacular is English. You most likely do not know Greek or Hebrew, and God doesn't expect you to know Greek or Hebrew, Hebrew.

[20:25] But he has seen to it that his word has been translated, in our case, into English, which is the dominant language in the world today, by the way. It is the lingua franca of the world today, the trade language of the world.

[20:38] Everywhere we go in the world, you usually see subtext in English in other countries. It's a major language. But anyway, in the year 1526, an Englishman who, by the way, had been a Catholic priest, but he began reading Erasmus printed New Testament, and as a result, he got saved, and got a burden to put the New Testament, in fact, the entire Bible, but particularly the New Testament, into his native tongue, English, and he did so.

[21:09] He translated, he was a brilliant scholar, translated the New Testament, and got started on the Old Testament before he was martyred, but he put the New Testament into print, and for his effort and for his trouble, he was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church.

[21:25] But his work is based upon the traditional received text. And 85% of your King James Bible tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is the work of William Tyndale.

[21:37] That is the translational work, the words and the sentence structure, 85%. Another very key person to remember in the history of the Bible. Well, after Tyndale was put to death, there was a succession of six other English Bibles in relatively quick succession.

[21:57] After he died, his associate, a man by the name of Miles Coverdale, finished Tyndale's work. Tyndale only translated the Pentateuch, of course the New Testament, but the Pentateuch, 2nd Chronicles.

[22:09] He did translate Jonah, though it was never published. And Miles Coverdale completed the work that Tyndale started, though Coverdale did not know Hebrew well enough to translate the Old Testament, so he translated from Latin and German, which he did know.

[22:25] That's not the best way, but that's what he did. And then, in the meantime, King James, I'm sorry, King Henry, had left the Catholic Church, and though it was under King Henry, Henry VIII, that William Tyndale was burned at the stake, now he's a Protestant, quote unquote.

[22:45] I don't think Henry was a born-again man, but at least he now had an openness to the New Testament, and he allowed the printing of the Matthew Bible. We'll get into that on Wednesday night.

[22:57] And then there was the Great Bible he commissioned, Coverdale to, it's called the Great Bible, it's a great big one, like a pulpit Bible or a family Bible. The Great Bible.

[23:08] And then came the Geneva Bible in 1560. Many Englishmen have been forced to flee England from the wrath of Queen Mary, known as Bloody Mary. She put to death, burned at the stake about 300 Puritan Christians, born again Christians in England, and about 800 Englishmen fled, and their families fled to Geneva, Switzerland, to escape the persecution of Mary.

[23:34] She was trying to take England back and to be a Catholic nation. And while in Geneva they translated the New Testament and the Old Testament, it's called the Geneva Bible. It's still in print to this day.

[23:45] We'll talk more about that Wednesday night. That was followed in 1568, just eight years later, by the Bishop's Bible. The bishops of the Church of England did not like the Geneva Bible because it was critical of the church hierarchy, and it was also critical of the throne.

[24:05] And so they commissioned their own Bible, the Bishop's Bible. Nobody liked it. Nobody read it. And to make a long story short, in the year 1604, James I of England authorized a new translation.

[24:19] And again, we'll get into that detail on Wednesday night. But the King James is the seventh of those seven Bibles. We touched on yesterday that the words of the Lord are pure words, purified in a furnace of earth seven times.

[24:35] So the King James is the seventh. From Tyndale to Coverdale to the Matthew Bible to the Great Bible to the Geneva Bible to the Bishop's Bible, number seven is the King James Bible.

[24:46] Interesting coincidence, or is it a coincidence? Subsequently, the King James has become the most widely produced Bible in history. Over six billion copies.

[25:01] Now, the Reina Valera is the Spanish Bible. It actually was translated in 1569 by Cassiodoro de Lorena. And he later was joined by Signor Valera, I can't remember his first name.

[25:16] But that work began in 1569. And though it is older in time than the King James Bible, it by no means has had the circulation and the distribution that the King James Bible has had down through the years.

[25:32] The Latin Vulgate Bible was translated by Jerome, the Catholics call him Saint Jerome. In the year 382, it was the Bible in Latin. And it remained the official Catholic Bible well up into the Middle Ages.

[25:47] And though later they allowed some translations such as the Douai version and several others. In recent years, the NIV has been popular. The NIV, at the last I looked, had published about 110 million copies.

[26:02] Folks, you do the arithmetic, 110 million is just a tiny fraction of 6 billion. And it is fading, it is waning. Most modern language translations have a shelf life of about 30 years.

[26:14] And then along comes a new and better and improved version. And the publishers know that and they make money off it and gullible people rush out and buy the latest and greatest new Bible. But they are all based on the critical text.

[26:27] We're going to get into that in much detail tomorrow night. But nevertheless, the Bible has been translated. So, number one tonight, key word is inspiration. Key word number two tonight is preservation.

[26:41] Key word number three tonight is translation. Key word number four tonight is domination. Domination. And by the way, getting back to translation, I passed over early translations such as the Peshitta translation.

[26:57] Translated in the year 150 A.D. That's about 60 years after the death of the apostle John. More like 50 years. The Peshitta translation is a Syrian translation.

[27:09] What's significant about that? It follows the traditional text. It does not follow the critical text. Now, folks, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a Bible translated in the year 150, if it follows the traditional text, it's based on the traditional text.

[27:27] And the so-called debate today of which is the right text, the traditional text, or the critical text, that pretty well settles it right there. Year 157, churches in northern Italy, they were called the Italic churches, had nothing to do with Rome.

[27:42] The Catholic church wasn't invented until about 350 A.D. Don't let them tell you it started with the apostle Peter. That is not true. But there were early translations.

[27:52] We'll go into that more on Wednesday night. Well, number four tonight, key word number four tonight, domination. Not only is the King James Bible the most widely translated Bible in history, it has dominated the culture of the English-speaking world.

[28:09] According to the Thomas Nelson Publishing House, the King James Bible is the most frequently quoted document in existence in all of history.

[28:21] That's quite a statement, but I believe it's true. British historian Robert McCrum said, the King James Bible is probably the single most influential book ever published in the English language.

[28:36] Ronald Reagan said, the King James Bible has been the best-selling book in the entire history of printing, and that's true. H.L. Mencken, who I don't think was even a born-again man.

[28:48] He was a journalist with a Baltimore Sun newspaper, paper, but he was well known as a literary expert. H.L. Mencken said of the King James Bible, it is the most beautiful of all the translations of the Bible.

[29:02] Indeed, it is probably the most beautiful piece of writing in all the literature of the world. That's from an unsaved man. But he saw the beauty of the King James Bible. I was having a little discussion online with a friend here not too long ago who was not quite convinced on the issue, but he said, Brother Dave, I will conceive this.

[29:21] When I need to sit down and just get alone with the Lord, I would much rather go to the King James than the NIV. There's just something beautiful that flows in the translation. Pardon me.

[29:32] If you weren't here yesterday, you didn't hear the story, but doctors have tried to help my throat. This works. Not permanently, but for about ten minutes.

[29:42] The King James Bible has shaped the English language. Historian Paul Cross wrote, whether we live in England or in America, Australia or Africa, Canada or the Caribbean, the English language was largely shaped by one book, the King James Version of the Bible.

[30:03] It has influenced Western culture. Professor Russell Kirk said that a few years after the first Virginian settlement, he's talking about Jamestown in Virginia, I've been there and seen the place, but a few years after the first Virginian settlement, the King James translation of the Bible was read from American pulpits, and in the great majority of American households during colonial times, the authorized version shaped the style, informed the intellect, affected the laws, and decreed the morals of the North American colonies.

[30:37] This nation, folks, was built on the word of God. And that translation was the King James Bible. Let me say this tonight. Do you know what's wrong in America tonight? I mean, we see the riots and we see all the shootings and the moral confusion of girls being called boys and boys being called men in homosexual marriage, and I could go on and on about that.

[31:00] Do you know what's wrong in America tonight? As a nation, we have departed from the word of God. Like I said yesterday, I am old enough to remember when there was Bible reading in the public schools.

[31:11] And the Supreme Court kicked it out in 1963. And things have gone downhill ever since. Professing themselves be wise, they became fools. But this nation was founded by people, they may not have been fundamental Baptists, but they had a reverence to the word of God.

[31:31] And they read it. And it shaped the culture and the character of this nation. Historian Marion Sims wrote, No nation in all history was ever founded by people so dominated by the Bible as America.

[31:46] And that Bible primarily was the King James Bible. Not only that, the King James Bible has influenced literature. Historian Alistair McGrath wrote, The two greatest influences on the shaping of the English language are the works of William Shakespeare and the English translation of the Bible that appeared in 1611.

[32:08] And you know what that is. Now, many of these modern versions purport to be easier to read. And what they really mean is it's watered down.

[32:20] It's dumbed down. And imagine if they did to Shakespeare what they've done to the Bible.

[32:32] recall in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet where Romeo cried out, What light through yonder window breaks? It would be who turned the light on.

[32:44] Historian McAllister McGrath said that the King James Bible was the very greatest literary achievement in the English language. That's interesting. The King James Bible has influence spiritually.

[32:57] England's common Christian culture was largely shaped by the King James Bible. And by the way, today England's even worse shape than America. Because they have departed from the Bible that they publish.

[33:09] The King James Bible in England is in America we'd call it copyrighted. In England it's called patent. And in England the king or the crown holds the patent on the King James Bible.

[33:20] In America it's not copyrighted. But my point is this that nation which holds the copyright which holds the patent on the word of God they departed from it. And England today is in sad shape.

[33:34] But it's common culture centuries ago was shaped by the word of God. One common denominator in the great awakening both in England and in America was using the same Bible the King James Bible.

[33:47] The aftermath of the first great awakening was the modern missions movement where churches sent missionaries all across the globe. And the vast majority of missionary translations on the field they work from the King James Bible.

[34:06] I think technically the best way is to go to the Greek and Hebrew but most missionaries aren't proficient to do that. And so they translated from the Bible they knew and that was the King James Bible. And my point is its influence on a secondary level is all over the world.

[34:21] It was said not that long ago that the sun never sets on the British Empire and that was true in the era prior to World War II and further backward in history.

[34:35] I mean the British had colonies in South America they had colonies in Africa in South Africa in oh goodness I can't think of but anyway there's several colonies in Africa there was India and what was now called Pakistan were British colonies Singapore Hong Kong were British colonies North America of course the United States and Canada British colonies colonies and there was a time when the sun never set on the British language but folks when the Brits went around the world they took their Bible with them and it was the King James Bible I'm not sure that was a coincidence I think God may have so ordained it that the influence of his word of God spread through an empire that at that time gave credence to the word of God but the Bible has been the King James Bible has been the Bible of modern translations now the question must be asked is the supremacy of the Bible that is the supremacy of the King James Bible is it a fluke of history and a coincidence or has God had something to do with it well I would submit to you

[35:45] I think God has had something to do with it he knew in advance what the most widely published translation of his word would be and to the contrary rather I think he so ordained that now the King James translators themselves were not inspired but I think God providentially helped them and guided them and worked through them and his word has gone all over the world I mean who wins the Super Bowl may be a fluke of history I don't think God cares who wins the Super Bowl to be honest with you World Series are coming up I don't think I have no idea who's going to be in the World Series this year I guarantee it won't be the Minnesota Twins but I don't think God cares who wins the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup or a major sporting event but I do believe he cares about his word and the critical text crowd that says that God's words have been lost to history has the philosopher the idea that though God may have inspired his word and many of them don't even believe that but we'll give them we'll grant them that though God may have inspired his word he just cast it upon the oceans of time to fend for itself

[36:53] I don't believe that he has providentially preserved his word down through the centuries I mean who wins a junior high school basketball game in Dubuque Iowa I don't think is much concern to God but I believe the publication and distribution of the most widely printed copy of scripture in history I think that is important to God and he's blessed and used his word and so number one tonight is inspiration number two is preservation number three is translation number four is domination number five tonight is alteration by the way people sometimes say to me well brother Sorensen don't you know that there are mistakes in the King James Bible to which I say show me one well well don't you know there in Acts chapter 12 where it says it's translated Easter should be translated Passover folks if you study that it's very clear that they did it right Easter had already

[37:53] Passover had already passed it was the days of unleavened bread that comes after Passover and Easter was a Roman holiday that was coming shortly thereafter but people pick at things like that and they don't know what they're talking about and when someone says to me don't you know there's mistakes I say just say show me one show me one and they can't do it well let's talk about alteration tonight and this is where we're going to go particularly tomorrow night some will say well the King James Bible is in older English and the newer translations are simply more modern English that sounds plausible doesn't it but as we said yesterday thinking if you're in NIV and there's a bunch of others there on the stack and as I said yesterday we could have scores of different translations here what the salesman at the religious bookstore doesn't tell people and he probably doesn't even know it himself is that whether it's the NIV or the ESV or the new

[38:54] American standard or all the multiplicity of modern translations they're based on a different text than the old King James Bible it's the critical text we're going to go into it in much detail tomorrow night and it is different than the traditional text as we're going to see here in just a moment there have been numerous alterations and deletions and changes in the modern Bibles because that's where the critical text is at for example let's just look at a few things here tonight take your Bible and turn with me to Luke chapter 2 and verse 33 Luke chapter 2 and verse 33 notice here I guess I ought to find it in my own Bible first alright here we go Luke chapter 2 and verse 33 and Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him now it's in the greater context of the Christmas story here

[39:59] Joseph and his mother marveled at the things which were spoken of him that is of Jesus now I won't take the time to open up the NIV but it'll read something like this and his father and his mother wondered at the things written about him now I ask you tonight was Joseph the father of Jesus he was not and what we have here is a diminishing of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and you say what's the big deal about the virgin birth folks if Jesus had not been virgin born born he could not have died for anyone's sin if he had not been virgin born he would have had a sinful human nature just like you and I have and he couldn't pay for anybody's sin but in the critical text and we're going to just touch a little of it on here tonight there is a systemic and systematic diminishing of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ here we see a diminishing of his virgin birth come with me to

[41:05] Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 9 and by the way I'm picking on the NIV but the reason that the NIV has these alterations is that it's there in the critical text they're just translating what is in the text Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 9 a long verse but I'll read it and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ now what the NIV will say and then the ASV and the new ASV and the ESV and all these modern Bibles here's what they'll read something like this I'll just pick up the last part of the verse because it's the salient part which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things period what's been left out by Jesus Christ now you say what's the big deal about that folks this is a diminishing of the creative work of our Lord the Bible teaches that God delegated if I could use that word the actual creative work of the Son in John 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with

[42:16] God and the Word was God and it goes on to say all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made talking about Jesus the Word but there are several places in the critical text where our Lord's creative work has been deleted and there's a reason for that I'll get to it here in just a second let's go to Revelation chapter 1 and verse 11 another long verse all right Revelation chapter 1 and verse 11 saying I am Alpha and Omega this is Jesus speaking I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches I won't read all of them but notice I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou seest write in a book in the modern language Bibles because they're based on the critical text it reads something like this I am well let me start over again it reads what thou seest write in a book you notice what's been left out I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the last or the first and the last and we're touching here on the eternality of Jesus Christ again his his divine character is diminished in the modern critical text come with me to

[43:35] Revelation chapter 11 and verse 17 Revelation 11 verse 17 saying we give thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and are to come because thou hast taken unto thy great power and has reigned modern language Bible says read something like this we give thee thanks because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and they leave out that whole section there who art and wast and are to come again the eternality of our Lord is diminished maybe not eliminated in the greater sense of scripture but it certainly has been diminished and the reason is this and we'll get into this tomorrow night in greater detail the reason is that the Alexandrian family of manuscripts which were the precursors to Sinaiticus and Vaticanus we went into great detail on that yesterday morning they were rooted in the Alexandrian text family and

[44:37] Alexandria in the third second third and fourth centuries in fact even going back to the first century Alexandria Egypt was the hotbed of the seat of Gnosticism in the Roman Empire now that sounds like an esoteric ancient philosophy and in some cases that's true but folks its tentacles reach right to this day you remember oh about 10 years ago 15 years ago the popularity of the book The Da Vinci Code it was a book and it was a movie and because there was so much noise about it when I was on the line to the west coast one day on an airplane I read it and it's based on the gospel of Thomas which is a Gnostic gospel a false gospel but here is what the Gnostics believed and there are quite a number of things but as it pertained to our Lord they believed that anything that was material knock on wood flesh and blood anything that was physical or material was evil and only that which was spiritual was good therefore now catch this therefore the Gnostics believed that

[45:56] Jesus of Nazareth was not the Christ because he had a physical body and that is heresy but it was that philosophy in Alexandria Egypt that influenced the Alexandrian manuscripts which wound up coming up to Sinaiticus and Vaticanus now let me read to you here in 1st John chapter 4 beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world hereby know ye the spirit of God every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist now John is dealing with the problem of Gnosticism right here everyone that saith that Jesus confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of

[46:57] God and that's exactly what the Gnostics did they denied Jesus was the Christ and so there has been alteration there have been we don't have the time to go through this tonight but in the book Touch Not what I've mentioned to you it enumerates it in some detail how that for example where in the King James Bible the traditional text it'll talk about the Lord Jesus Christ in the critical text it may have just Jesus Christ but not Lord Jesus Christ or where we would say Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ oftentimes just the Christ or the Jesus will be left off and there is a diminishing of the Lordship of Christ and a diminishing of Jesus as the Christ and it's all over when you know what to look for it in these modern Bibles because they're based on the critical text okay now I need a volunteer to come up here tonight someone who can read pretty well who would like to volunteer seriously

[47:58] I need someone all right come on up brother I am going to hand him an NIV and all together we're going to look up several verses let's turn to Matthew chapter 17 and verse 31 Matthew chapter 17 and verse 31 yeah I've got to find it here wait a minute you're right Matthew 17 21 can't read my own writing Matthew 17 21 turn to the right page too all right Matthew 17 21 how be it this kind goeth not out by but by prayer and fasting will you read that in the NIV my brother I'm sorry what what did you say nothing say it again nothing it's not there all right let's turn over to Matthew 18 11 Matthew chapter 18 and verse 11 and there we read for the son of man has come to seek or to save that which was lost read that in the

[49:07] NIV please it's absent it's not there all right let's turn over to Matthew 23 14 Matthew chapter 23 and verse 14 and there we read woe unto you scribes Pharisees hypocrites for you devour widows houses and for a pretense make long prayer therefore you shall receive the greater damnation what's that say in the NIV I'm sorry they forgot to put it in it's not there all right let's look at Mark chapter 9 and verse 44 44 I get my pages to turn here all right Mark 9 and verse 44 says where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched what's the NIV say verse 43 44 48 or 47 are all gone all right they're all gone wow let's go to

[50:16] Acts 8 37 Acts chapter 8 and verse 37 all right okay Acts 8 37 we read and Philip said if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest and he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God what's it say in the NIV it's not there well we could go on and on but thank you brother folks when I say the Bible has been altered that is a graphic illustration as I pointed out yesterday 16 verses have been deleted 256 verses have had substantial changes at least of a key word or a key thought 8,000 words have been omitted between the traditional text and the critical text when I was in seminary years ago my seminary professor said students the difference between the modern critical text and the traditional text it would be just like the footnotes on the bottom of one page and he is wrong and

[51:22] I don't think he was trying to mislead us he was just repeating what somebody told him the folks there are profound differences and many of them pertain to our Lord Jesus Christ now I'm going to wind down with this circle the field here brother but the buzz going around today very loudly in some fundamental circles is that the King James Bible is too difficult to read and therefore we need an easier Bible and therefore the NIV or the emperor and particularly that crowd is pointing at the ESV but it's a critical text Bible incidentally I've had people come to me and say brother Sorensen I have read that the ESV is the most accurate translation well it's an accurate translation of a corrupt text and you see the issue is textual it's not translational and as I said yesterday there's about 750,000 words in the King James Bible of which about 750 are archaic yeah there's some old words in the

[52:25] King James Bible but do the arithmetic divide 750 by 750,000 it's about one for every thousand words we've become so lazy in America that if there is a word we don't understand oh I gotta go get a different Bible and like I said yesterday I mean you can pull the old phone out here and I just hit Google or whatever search engine you want to use and you can type the word in and right now I mean I read books all the time and just for kind of history and for fun and some authors like to throw in fancy words that I've never heard before and you know it takes about five seconds to look it up but let me close with this story back in the 1930s there was a man in Chicago by the name of George Mensick anybody ever hear George Mensick know where I'm going with the story it's basically from an earlier generation but George Mensick was part of the

[53:29] Al Capone mob and his part in the mob was that he was a chauffeur for Al Capone they lived on the southwest side of Chicago not far from Market Manor Baptist Church now Market Manor Baptist Church still exists but they've moved out into the suburbs not Schaumburg I can't think of the suburbs but anyway that's neither here nor there but anyway the Mensick and his wife lived near Market Manor Baptist Church one day somebody from Market Manor Baptist Church knocked on their door and through that contact and witness and invitation Mrs.

[54:08] Mensick went to Market Manor Baptist Church and she got saved and she came home and began witnessing to her gangster husband folks he was not a happy camper and they had a little I think four year old daughter and they fought vehemently and so one night George came home high on something or other and angry at his wife and pulled out of his shoulder holster a gun and pointed at the wife of his head and the little girl said daddy please don't hurt mommy and it pierced his heart the next day he wandered into Marquette Manor Baptist Church someone took him to the side and led George Mensick to Christ and it wasn't long before Mensick figured out you know I don't belong in the mob and so he resigned the mob and they let him go usually you left the mob in a fine box but they figured well old George has got religion and he's not going to rat on us and he didn't started a business ran a restaurant there in

[55:14] Chicago but he had done time in the Cook County jail he had done time at the old Statesville which has now closed but for many years it was the main prison in Illinois just outside of Chicago near Joliet he'd done time there and so he would go back to these prisons and ask the warden can I come in and preach and he'd give his testimony and try and win people to Christ and over the years I think the warden there at Statesville gave him a little introductory card which he could use basically to get into any prison in the United States and he'd go from prison to prison and preach well I heard him when I was a Bible college student back in the 1960s and he came to the old Pillsbury Baptist Bible College and he said no and he talked like this he had a gravelly voice like a gangster sounds like but he said students when I got saved I only had an eighth grade education but I sat down with my King James Bible and a dictionary and if I didn't understand a word I looked it up folks what's wrong with checking out a word you don't understand

[56:19] I mean you can take your Bible turn to almost any page in fact you can turn to any page and just start reading and you know 99.99% of the words you'll understand I have a preacher friend of mine he says bus kids don't have a problem with the King James Bible just seminary professors do and that's a true statement trust me I mean we see bus kids get saved at our church and we use the King James Bible and they don't have any problem with it my wife by the way is a bus kid and got saved and grew in the King James Bible I told you that story yesterday about Tyrone and Vince and you know deep into crime and sin and Satanism I mean they got saved and grew in the King James Bible don't let somebody tell you it's too hard to read that's just marketing advertisements to sell another Bible well tomorrow night we're going to look at the history of the critical text where it came from who has produced it its principal editors and you're going to see tomorrow night a who's who of apostasy liberalism heresy adultery and even the occult I mean these

[57:32] I mean these these are people that are involved in developing the critical text and it's all documentable history I call tomorrow's message the bad guys Wednesday night we're going to talk about the good guys the history of the traditional text editors and men who were martyred for the cause of the word of God and men who are soul winners and men who got saved from studying the text and printing it and it's a fascinating story that message is about the good guys so tomorrow night is the bad guys Wednesday night is the good guys don't miss either father this evening thank you for the privilege and the opportunity to talk about your word