FEBC

God’s Word Assailed by the Father of Lies

S H Tow

  1. THE FORMER ATTACK

God's Word is under attack, today as never before. The conflict allows no neutrality: God or Satan, you must take your stand.

God has one Plan for man's eternal redemption, revealed to us, complete and perfect, through one Bible, the King James Bible (KJB) or Authorized Version.

The King James Bible preserves God's Salvation Plan perfectly, to the exclusion of any corrupting doctrine or rival plan which detracts from, or, dishonours the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

By the King James Bible, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ revived, great Church and Missionary movements flourished, the Kingdom of God and His Christ extended far and wide, to the pulling down of Satan's strongholds (2 Cor 10:4).

Satan hates the King James Bible. His diabolical genius conceived a dark scheme: the King James Bible must be replaced! False teachers will bring forth corrupted Modern English Versions harbouring another message, “preaching another Jesus … another spirit … another gospel …” (2 Cor 11:4), “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light … his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Cor 11:14–15). (from “Beyond Versions”, 1998, pages 21,22)

  1. OUR STEADFAST DEFENCE – THE KJV

Calvary Bible-Presbyterian Church has taken the necessary steps to safeguard our stand on the Word of God by writing it into our Constitution and in addition also declaring our exclusive use of the KJV.

a) Constitution 4.2.1(… has been our foundational doctrine from the beginning.) It states: “We believe in the divine, verbal and plenary inspiration of the Scriptures in the original languages, their consequent inerrancy and infallibility, and, as the Word of God, the Supreme and final authority in faith and life.”

b) The KJV (Authorised Version Holy Bible)is the only Bible for us in Calvary at ALL meetings and worship services, being derived from the best TEXTS, translated by the most trustworthy TRANSLATORS, using the most accurate and faithful TECHNIQUE, “verbal equivalence,” meaning “word for word,” and the best godly THEOLOGY, uncontaminated by modern thought, by liberalism, evolutionism and higher criticism.

  1. A NEW ATTACK

The adversary's wiles knows no bounds. Lately he has contrived a new assault on the Word of God by attacking the source texts (manuscripts or MSS), that “the MSS were not perfectly preserved. Therefore translations derived from them are flawed, including all Bible versions, and the KJV.”

Conclusion: the KJV has mistakes.

What do we say to this?

We refute Satan's accusation, that God did not preserve His Word in the MSS. Our reasons are these:

* God is truth and cannot lie. All His Words are verity and judgment.

* Therefore Constitution 4.2.1. affirms with absolute confidence that “… the Scriptures in the original languages (possess) inerrancy and infallibility …”

* We believe the only Bible translation which answer to the criteria of “inerrancy and infallibility” is the KJV, because God has preserved the source texts (MSS).

  1. OUR STEADFAST DEFENCE – THE VPP

“VPP” simply means “Verbal Plenary Preservation” of the MSS from which our KJV was translated.

V stands for Verbal, meaning to say, “all the words.”

P stands for Plenary, which simply means “all, and complete.”

P stands for Preservation, meaning to say God the Author had providentially preserved His Word through the ages, keeping out all error or untruth, until today (while the original autographs have decayed with time.)

  1. WHAT ABOUT THOSE WHO HAVE NOT HEARD OF VPP?

The answer is simple. Use an evangelistic approach: friendly, gentle, cordial, persuasive. Use no other method. The first rule in personal evangelism is: never pressurize, never argue, never confront.

If you believe VPP is a good thing, introduce it gently, explain it patiently, convincingly — like introducing the Gospel to a friend. If your listener is receptive, thank God. If not, also thank God, and continue to pray. Do not be impatient or aggressive. That is the surest way of losing a friend or convert.

Let us press on with vigour. With or without VPP, we can continue with what we have been doing these past fifty years in our BP Church: preach the Word, save souls, defend the gospel, build up the faith of the believers, and earnestly contend for the faith once delivered (Jude 3).

– Dr S H Tow is senior pastor of Calvary Pandan B-P Church. The above message was published in the Church Weekly on Reformation Sunday, 30 October 2005.