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Bill

Thanks again Chris. I wanted to add a bit more to your comments when I made my last post but was a bit pressed for time.

Your sharing about those translation efforts you asked your family to undertake and the differences between the two was insightful in my opinion.

You also wrote,

/I think that we should obviously do our due diligence when studying these matters. However, I also fear that we miss the mark when it comes to the inerrancy of God's Word. I think that the biggest problem isn't trying to figure out which version, translation or sets of source texts is the most accurate -- but in what we do with what is indisputable truth regardless of the translation.

I think back to the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). We have been given more today than most believers before us. Most of us don't suffer for our faith. We have Bibles available at a click of a button. We have concordances, Bible dictionaries, books, commentary, worship music, etc. What are we doing with this "talent?"/

In particular,

/but in what we do with what is indisputable truth regardless of the translation./

and,

/We have Bibles available at a click of a button. We have concordances, Bible dictionaries, books, commentary, worship music, etc. What are we doing with this "talent?"/

One good reminder I have tried to take away from your comments might be expressed by the following someone wrote,

"Discussion of inerrancy is merely an academic exercise unless it concerned the Christian on the level of growth in God. But this is precisely what it does. Confession to the full authority and inerrancy of Scripture should lead us to increasing conformity to the image of Christ, which is the God-ordained goal of every Christian. A strong belief in the authority of Scripture should, when properly implemented, lead a person to a greater degree of conformity to that Word he espouses as true."

That isn't preaching at you but more myself than anyone. Thanks again bro.

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David Winter

//Confession to the full authority and inerrancy of Scripture should lead us to increasing conformity to the image of Christ, which is the God-ordained goal of every Christian. A strong belief in the authority of Scripture should, when properly implemented, lead a person to a greater degree of conformity to that Word he espouses as true."//

There is a slight but important distinction between inerrancy and authority of scripture. Just because the scriptures we have today likely have minor copyist errors, it does not undermine the AUTHORITY or even the confidence of scripture.

Today in my daily Bible reading I was in I Samuel 13, and came across this verse:

"Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen"

The 30,000 number struck me as odd; I did some quick checking and found that chariots were around 4.6 ft wide, which when multiplied out by 30,000 chariots and converted to miles comes to 26.5 miles of chariots if they were side by side.

Of course other versions than the NKJV read **3000** chariots which makes a lot more sense- to me at least.

So while the NKJV may have a copyist error in the number (i.e. it's not inerrant) this has nothing to do with the fact that scripture is the final authority regarding the truths it teaches. For example, in that same chapter, Saul was disobedient for not following Samuel's instruction to wait for him to offer the sacrifice. It seemed pragmatic for Saul to do so- Samuel was late, the enemy was set to attack, Saul's men were deserting, etc. However the truth is that obedience to God always trumps pragmatism.

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Todd

Then, there are differences in the interpretation and understanding of scripture.

For example, Todd wrote:

_________________
Jade

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Jade

Not only are there copyist errors. There are also translation errors.


For example, both the KJV and Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) were based on the Textus Receptus.


KJV translates Heb. 1:2 as:

“Hath in these last days spoken unto us *** BY *** his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”


YLT translates the same verse as:

“in these last days did speak to us *** IN *** a Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He did make the ages;”

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Jade

/Scripture tells of a different way:/

"SCRIPTURE tells of..."

That is what strikes me.

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David Winter

Please explain?

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Jade

God Himself will lead us into all Truth.

The Lord Jesus says:

John 16:13-15 –
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.


The Truth the Holy Spirit leads us to is JESUS HIMSELF.

JESUS HIMSELF is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE (John 14:6).

JESUS HIMSELF is the yardstick for all Divine Truth



1 Cor. 2:9-11 –
but just as it is written,
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.




ADD:
====

“………great, good, and divine is he, who is always teaching within you, ever standing and knocking at the door of your heart, with the words of eternal life.

“You perhaps may ask, why I go on writing books myself, if there is but one true, and divine teacher? I answer, though there is but one bridegroom, that can furnish the blessing of the marriage feast, yet his servants are sent out to invite the guests. This is the unalterable difference between Christ's teaching, and the teaching of those, who only publish the glad tidings of him. They are not the bridegroom, and therefore have not the bridegroom's voice. They are not the light, but only sent to bear witness of it. And as the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease"; so every faithful teacher saith of his doctrine, it must decrease, and end, as soon as it has led to the true teacher.

“All that I have written for near thirty years, has been only to show, that we have no master but Christ, nor can have any living divine knowledge, but from his holy nature born and revealed in us.”

----- William Law, 1753

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Jade

/God Himself will lead us into all Truth.

The Lord Jesus says:

John 16:13-15 –
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.

The Truth the Holy Spirit leads us to is JESUS HIMSELF.

JESUS HIMSELF is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE (John 14:6).

JESUS HIMSELF is the yardstick for all Divine Truth

1 Cor. 2:9-11 –
but just as it is written,
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God./

I assume you believe all those things because of what you have read and believed in SCRIPTURE. What have you stated that scripture does not state?

Creeds and confessions and statements are not part of or equal to the authority of scripture but committed and concerned brethren did come together and try and address some of the issues attached to and surrounding the belief in inerrancy and released their Chicago Statement part of which follows.

Article XVII Witness of the Spirit
We affirm that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers of the truthfulness of God's written Word.
We deny that this witness of the Holy Spirit operates in isolation from or against Scripture.

"Article XVII attests to the doctrine of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, our personal conviction of the truth of Scripture rests not on the external evidences to the Scriptures truthfulness in and of themselves, but those evidences are confirmed in our hearts by the special work of God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit bears witness to our human spirit that the Scriptures are indeed the Word of God."

"The denial guards against substituting a reliance upon the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit for the content of Scripture itself. The thought behind the denial is that the Holy Spirit normally works in conjunction with the Scripture and speaks to us through the Scripture, not against the Scripture or apart from the Scripture. Word and Spirit are to be viewed together. Word bearing witness to the Spirit and being the means by which we test the spirits to see if they be of God (I John 4:1)and the Spirit working within our hearts to confirm the Word of God to ourselves. Thus, there is reciprocity between Word and Spirit, and they are never to be set over against each other."(END)

I find that to be sound wisdom and advice.

Thank you.

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David Winter