I posted a new Word Magazine today that offers a review of part of the rebuttal segment from apologist James White's debate with Bart Ehrman on the the reliability of the NT text ("Does the Bible Misquote Jesus?"). Though I'm sympathetic with White's efforts to affirm the reliability of the NT, I argue that he and Ehrman are actually more alike than different in that they both embrace the modern critical text rather than the traditional text. You can listen to the entire White-Ehrman debate here on youtube.com. At the close, I shared this quote from Theodore Letis's The Ecclesiastical Text:
"Science never has come to the rescue of the Faith. Criticism certainly has its own indispensable place in the Academy, but to view it as an auxiliary support in defense of
Christianity’s truth claims is to give it expectations outwith its intended
design. It would be like asking a
physician performing a post-mortem examination why he has spent all his time
dissecting the corpse rather than resuscitating it. Resuscitation is not the goal of autopsy" (p. 73).
JTR
4 comments:
Pastor Riddle,
Forgive me going slightly off topic here, but I wanted to let you know that the Gideons International has moved away from using the NKJV for their modern translation Bibles and New Testaments:
http://reformedvirginian1689.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/the-gideons-and-the-esv/
Unfortunately, they switched to the ESV. I hope you don't mind, but I sent an email to the Gideons with a link to your article on the ESV. I greatly appreciate your writings on the issue of textual criticism--they have been most helpful!
Lord willing, we'll see each other at the Keach Conference next month. Looking forward to it!
In Christ,
-Josh
Josh,
Thanks for your comment. Very interesting info on the Gideons. Look forward to seeing you at Keach.
JTR
I think the reason that the ESV has become so popular other than Crossway's Marketing scheme, is the fact that Zondervan killed the old NIV and have replaced it with the NIV 2011. Many conservatives who embraced the NIV had nowhere else to go but the ESV. I agree with your comments pastor. I pray that others would reason through the eyes of faith. I am reading E.F. Hills book "The King James Version Defended." It is an excellent testimony of evidence and faith in the Traditional text.
I, too, am sorry to hear of the Gideon's switch to the ESV.
2 other links that might be helpful to some unfamiliar with some of the
problems with the ESV are:
1. An 8-page article The English
Standard Version: What today’s Christian needs to know about the
ENGLISH STANDARD VERSION, by the Trinitarian Bible Society.
2. A 36-minute audio message The
So-Called English Standard Version and Bible Manuscripts, Texts,...,
by Theodore Letis, Ph.D.
(It's part of Still
Waters Revival Books' Contemporary Issues Series on SermonAudio.)
- By His grace,
Russell
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