Friday, January 18, 2013

Higher Criticism


Higher Criticism


Higher Criticism of the Bible is a frontal assault upon God’s Words! Ever since this diabolical theory of dealing with God’s Word(s) was introduced in Germany in the 18th century, the Traditional Text of the Bible, which underlies our King James Bible, has been under attack.

Higher criticism treats the Bible as a text created by men. Their presupposition is that the Bible is a conglomeration of works by unknown authors and editors which was assembled and modified at the authors desired. They assert that the Bible has not been carefully preserved and therefore the Bible cannot be entirely authoritative. In particular they reject the texts that underlie the King James Version of the Bible, claiming that those texts are of a much later date, an editorial “recension” or revision of the earlier true text. They promoted that lie that there were NO early manuscripts from the Traditional Text. The so called Alexandrian and Western texts were older and better.  ̶  Dr. David L Brown; KJB Research Council.Com
The claim that the Bible is a man-made text and has not been preserved is confirmed in the book Textual Scholarship and the Making of the New Testament by David C Parker; OUP; 2012. The book was originally delivered as the Lyall Lectures in Bibliography given by the author in Trinity Term, 2011, Oxford.
Parker is Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology in the University of Birmingham, Uk and Director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing. He is Executive Editor of the International Greek New Testament Project, He is also on the editorial committee of the Nestle-Aland (29th edition) and United Bible Societies (sixth edition) Greek New Testaments.
The first thing I noted in this book was there is no reference to God. There is probably no need, therefore, to make further comment. However, we wish to expose this apostasy of modern textual criticism and its effect today on many of our bible teachers.
The title, Textual Scholarship and the Making of the New Testament, indicates the view  that these Textual “Scholars” are themselves responsible for the making of the New Testament. After some 2000 years the New Testament is still not yet made because they are still working at it.
Parker believes the first Christians were the first textual critics when they began to modify the text to accommodate how they thought it should read. He wrote. ̶ 

With regard to the Gospels….in the earliest period of their transmission the individuals  and communities who read them and passed them on considered themselves free to adapt the the wording, the meaning, the letter, to bring out the spirit.
The evidence for this, Parker claims, is the existence of the many variant readings which alter the sense of the Gospels, especially the words of Jesus.
In fact, the variant readings found in a limited number of manuscripts are few in contrast to the majority of manuscripts which carry what we regard as the Received Text.
Parker doesn’t understand the nature of the born again Bible believer. We believe the mutilations of a few early manuscripts was done by a handful of mischievous  men and ignorant monks.

The cancer of false scholarship now permeates the whole of Christendom, including the branch  once regarded as conservative, fundamentalist, and evangelical.
Conversational Bible Readings, once popular among the Brethren, are now reduced to dissecting the texts. I asked a prominent Brethren teacher what bible could he hold up and declare to be the word of God from cover to cover. He informed me there was no such book.  That man is currently on the sex offenders register.
Another Bible teacher assured us that false teaching leads to immorality. There is a co-relationship. 

I know of no Bible teacher in the Brethren Movement who still believes in the infallibility of Scripture. They all follow the line shown up in Dr. David L Brown’s article. Read his article on the KJB Research Council website.