Battle of the Bibles - Present Truth

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various Protestant denominations in both Old and New Worlds were convinced by the signs given in Matthew 24 and other parts of the Bible, that Christ's promised return was close at hand. Among such people were members of the Methodist and Baptist Churches who decided that they should lay aside all preconceived beliefs and creeds and turn prayerfully to a thorough study of the Bible and the Bible only. Naturally, the Bible which they studied was the Protestant King James Version. Having determined to follow only those things revealed in God's Word and to let the Bible be its own interpreter, they soon found themselves in a dilemma. For one thing, they found that the "law of the LORD is perfect" (Psalm 19:7), and that Christ has said that he had not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it and that it would remain as long as heaven and earth should last (Matthew 5:17, 18). Why had they then, along with other Christian churches, ignored one of God's Commandments - the fourth - by keeping holy the first day of the week instead of the seventh? (Exodus 20:8-12). Why had Jesus closed His Revelation to John with the words: "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they might have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city"? (Revelation 22:14). As these inquiring people continued in prayer and study, they were greatly impressed by the message of the three angels found in Revelation 14:6-11, followed by verse twelve which says: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus". In the first angel's message (Verses six and seven), they came to see that at the time of the end "the everlasting gospel" was to include a call to prepare the world for Christ's imminent second advent and its attendant judgment. This was to be accomplished by emphasising the importance of returning to the true way of worshipping the Creator by keeping holy the day on which God rested from His creative work - the seventh day of the fourth Commandment. In keeping with their earlier resolve to follow the Bible only, they decided to keep holy the Biblical day of rest (Saturday) and eventually, in the year 1860 the name Seventh-day Adventist was formally adopted, the name being expressive of their beliefs. How then, some seventy years later, could the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church reject the work of B. G. Wilkinson, one of their own educationalists who upheld the purity of the very Bible from which SDA pioneers had discerned their beliefs? In fact, his church had already smeared the integrity of the King James Version, at least within its own theological curricula. In 1926, the SDA's Berrien Springs College Press published a booklet, "Doctrines for use in Seventh-day Adventist Colleges", in which it claimed the American Revised Version to be "more accurate, more scholarly, more valuable" than the Authorised Bible (p 59). The author has had the opportunity of examining the SDA General Conference's review of Wilkinson's book. He has to agree with Wilkinson that it is more of an attack than a review, for his unnamed reviewers entirely ignored the historical aspect which involved the papal led intrigue, conceived at the Council of Trent, to replace the Protestant Bible with Rome's counterfeit, the 1881 Revised Version. So patently devoid of common logic and scholarship is this so-called "Review", that the main reason for rejecting Wilkinson's book is adequately summed up by the fear expressed therein by the reviewers themselves: "We would become the laughing stock of the reverent Christian scholarship of the world" ("Committees Review", Section I p 39). 2
So, the leaders of the SDA Church that had proudly proclaimed themselves as "The people of the Bible", succumbed to the pressure of their peers in a system of Protestantism that scarcely regarded them as anything more than leaders of a cult! What a contrast to the unwavering resolve of the brave army of martyrs in the mould of Tyndale and others who sacrificed their lives in order that the world might be given the very Bible which had been responsible for bringing Protestantism in general, and Adventism in particular into existence! Apparently Wilkinson's book had stirred up a hornet’s nest. Within a year the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists decided to cool the debate by issuing a directive saying "That the controversy over the use of versions should be avoided". Then they threw a sop to both sides by stating that "the 1611 King James Version and the 1901 American Revised Version shall serve us without discrimination". Their chief motivation for concern was made known when they appealed for unity by "Leaving all free to use the version of their choice" (see "Problems in Translation", pp 74, 75, a General Conference Publication, authors undeclared). In consideration of the fact that we have seen that the King James Version is a Protestant Bible (Received Text), while the Revised Version and the American Revised Version contain Roman Vulgate implants, and that they disagree with the KJV in numerous places in matters of importance (see Chapter Twenty-Seven), we can only conclude that at least some Seventh-day Adventist leaders have absolutely no idea as to which book is God's Word! Hence, seeing their beliefs are claimed to be Biblicallybased, they have a problem of gargantuan proportions. They should expect massive doctrinal confusion to follow! For instance, having noticed the importance which the pioneers of the SDA Church attached to the judgment-hour message of the first angel of Revelation chapter fourteen, we can only wonder why today they should be interested in warning people of a judgment that, in the Revised Version, American Revised Version and New International Version, is placed after a period of punishment! How nicely such a rendition fits with papal dogma of purgatory! (2 Peter 2:9, RSV etc). On the other hand, the King James Version portrays the judgment correctly as a means of determining who are to be punished and who are not. If both versions of the text are equally inspired, we have to ask the question, "Inspired by whom?" Surely we are not expected to believe that our God is a God of confusion! If so, we would have to reject 1 Corinthians 14:33: "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints" (KJV). Fortunately, for Seventh-day Adventism, the laity took absolutely no notice of the General Conference's dualism. As with Protestant churches generally, the King James Bible continued to reign supreme in their homes, their churches and to a large extent, in their primary and high schools. Their young people grew up like other Protestants, learning to give an answer for their faith by memorising and repeating Bible texts in uniformity. Chapter Twenty-Three The Romanising of the Bible Societies In spite of an increasing stream of new versions, the Protestant nature of the Bible Societies in the English-speaking world dominated well into the second half of the twentieth century. A case in point is the history of the British and Foreign Bible Society in New South Wales, Australia. In a graph analysing types of Bibles sales from the year 1961 to 1989 (supplied by the New South Wales Bible Society to the author in May 3
Page 1 and 2:
Table of Contents By way of introdu
Page 3 and 4:
Section One Chapters One to Eleven
Page 5 and 6:
Wycliffe's unpretentious priests gl
Page 7 and 8:
Chapter Two Colet and Erasmus Desid
Page 9 and 10:
friends rallied around him and with
Page 11 and 12:
day but they have taken on a more v
Page 13 and 14: With Erasmus's translation, Tyndale
Page 15 and 16: Jane Seymour, the third of Henry's
Page 17 and 18: On March 27, 1555, at the tender ag
Page 19 and 20: attacked and destroyed monasteries
Page 21 and 22: convenient to quit his position as
Page 23 and 24: This was the apogee of Philip's rei
Page 25 and 26: • That Scripture can only be inte
Page 27 and 28: Finisterre in North Western Spain t
Page 29 and 30: negotiated with winds not always fa
Page 31 and 32: for Protestantism to bring forth a
Page 33 and 34: Section Two Chapters Twelve to Fift
Page 35 and 36: which they themselves have shortene
Page 37 and 38: Perhaps more importantly, it had, b
Page 39 and 40: Wilkinson sees this as proof that e
Page 41 and 42: "Having continued his labours in Sc
Page 43 and 44: John, in his final years, assisted
Page 45 and 46: (By the late nineteenth century, th
Page 47 and 48: they not the fathers of the Roman C
Page 49 and 50: It is very important that the signi
Page 51 and 52: Hort's friend, Westcott, had no pro
Page 53 and 54: family, the original of which is re
Page 55 and 56: A relatively small minority, repres
Page 57 and 58: sales were very good, this was enti
Page 59 and 60: 17 Dr Schaff's attitude to Matthew
Page 61 and 62: was formed, known as the Trinitaria
Page 63: BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2C H. H. MEYER
Page 67 and 68: It was not long before wishful-thin
Page 69 and 70: "One of the important advancements
Page 71 and 72: BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2D H. H. MEYER
Page 73 and 74: the Bible and the Bible only. Inexp
Page 75 and 76: "When the Western world was flounde
Page 77 and 78: The following year an editorial in
Page 79 and 80: many young seminarians trained by t
Page 81 and 82: The laity were still not impressed.
Page 83 and 84: BATTLE OF THE BIBLES 2E Chapter Twe
Page 85 and 86: Isaiah 7:14 "Behold a virgin shall
Page 87 and 88: "A son of God" does not equate with
Page 89 and 90: him". Luke 2:33 "And Joseph and his
Page 91 and 92: Here we have further evidence of Ro
Page 93 and 94: JB "Christ, our, passover, has been
Page 95 and 96: Here, and in most other passages of
Page 97 and 98: handed to the revisers stipulated t
Page 99 and 100: the Protestant Bible. Having achiev
Page 101 and 102: So, once more, as in the days of Co
Page 103 and 104: while making a futile attempt to ga
Page 105 and 106: 1560. Goa (Indian) Inquisition esta
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Battle of the Bibles - Present Truth

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