Of Morsels and Platefulls

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2Timothy 3:16, 17)

Several people have been asking me about the doctoring of the Bible lately. They have a real concern. Which Bible is the best to read? Which one should we avoid?

I will state at the forefront that I believe this is a strategy of the devil to discourage God’s people from reading the Bible. And I will explain.

Once we start debating on the best, or worst, we will of course divert our attention from the Bible to the discussions. All this time the Bibles are not being read as I am afraid of reading the wrong translation. Then we will become experts in defending the one we think is best instead of reading it, looking for the mistakes in the others to defend our position. We become prosecutor against ‘corrupted’ versions and defendant of our preferred version. The only time we will be reading the Bible is when gathering the evidence we require to win our case. All this time the devil is laughing his head off as none of us is reading the Bible to hear from God.

Yet what is the Bible to us? To me it is the word of God.

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (2Timothy 3:15)

We can never be made wise by arguments and counter arguments about the Bible. Only a proper and complete intake of the Bible can do that.

In other words, it is vain to argue about a Bible we are not sufficiently reading. A corrupted Bible that is read is more useful than the best and most accurately translated Bible that is not being read. I would rather that you read the most corrupt Bible than be in possession of the best that you are not reading.

Compare this to a balanced diet nutritionists talk about. A hungry person is in greater need of dealing with his hunger than with the nutritional value of the food. A caplet of food with the best nutritional value can’t be compared to a full plate of junk food to the starving.

It is vain to discuss nutrition with a hungry person. Only the well fed has the capacity to discuss and understand nutrition.

It is more foolish and evil to discuss Bible corruption with people who do not read the Bible than it is to discuss nutrition with the starving. Yet that is what we are doing. We should leave those arguments with the well fed (consistent readers).

Another thing we do in our arguments is deprive the Bible of its power, or the power of God to use it. We are limiting God to the perfect, yet He alone is perfect. We assume that God must have the perfect version to be able to function. We forget that God is able, and does, use anything to perform His purpose. Remember this

And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)

And

Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (Luke 3:8)

Remember Him using a donkey to deliver a message to a rebellious prophet?

God does not need perfection to deliver. Also note

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. (Psalm 19: 1 – 3)

God can and does use anything. Our problem is that we are limiting Him to a perfect translation, a translation we have no capacity to access or even know with surety. Then we can hide under we don’t know the perfect translation and therefore will not read whichever Bible. Forgetting that

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. (Joshua 1:8)

We can never be able to meditate on a word we have not read. We have no capacity of discussing the accuracy or absence of it in any version if we are not diligent readers of the Bible. Just like the one able to detect fake currency is one who has handled the legal one long enough, it is the one who has read the Bible consistently for a long time is able to notice such corruption.

Interestingly, even reading a ‘corrupt’ version consistently will enable one to notice the corruption without the guidance of any expert as happened to a friend. But one must read the Bible with a commitment to hear from God for that to happen. It is not the casual reader of the scriptures who will be given such revelation. Let me explain

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6)

Is it possible to search for God and not find Him?  Is there a possibility of searching for God or His message and find someone or something else? Would He be God if that is barely possible?

Why do I ask that? It is because there are many Muslims who have come to faith in Christ without any Christian witness or Bible. They simply read the Quran and pursued their rites with sincerity. And God will never allow someone seeking Him or His knowledge get into something else.

If He can use the Quran, which was written to refute every Christian and Biblical doctrine, and especially the person and work of Jesus Christ, how much easier is it for Him to use a corrupted translation of His word to guide a believer?

For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:24)

I would repeat that someone who reads a corrupted Bible is better than the one who has the perfect translation and barely reads it.

Let me explain. I did Chemistry up to the A levels but never really caught it. The reason I took it for A levels was because the subject was combined with Physics in the O level exams. It reached a point I decided to accept failure and stopped attending classes because I saw no hope of ever passing it.

But the problem started much earlier, in Form 1. Coming from a rural area, the English I was exposed was the absolutely necessary. And of course it had the same accent and intonations. My challenge was that my chemistry teacher was a young girl fresh from India. For the most part I could not get head or tail of what she was saying; meaning my introduction to Chemistry was a complete failure.

That was the reason I could not understand Chemistry. I lost out because I lost it at the introductory stage. I therefore understood things much later, and we know exams do not afford one that luxury.

That is what I am saying in connection with the Bible. Discussing a Bible without reading it is akin to seeking to understand something but choosing to forego the introduction. You will make a fool of yourself because it will demonstrate how shallow your grasp of the topic is.

By the way it is the same with Bible Study. Though I prepare them, I am under no illusions that knowing the topics, even memorizing all the verses is as transformational as one’s grasp of the whole Bible. We deceive ourselves when our spiritual trophies consist of the number of Bible Study books we have successfully completed. And it is not much different with some Theological instruction. People become experts of bits and pieces (many times doctrinal positions of the sponsoring denomination) as opposed to complete Biblical doctrine.

Let us read the Bible before we think of ascertaining which is best. A connoisseur must be exposed to whatever they are testing widely enough to be given that responsibility. Let us treat the Bible with more seriousness than them as we know that it deals with the issues of life as opposed to temporal, worldly issues.

What is my final take on this? I would like the discussions to start like this. Where is this verse I hear being quoted every time as I have never seen it as I have read through the Bible? It is from that point that we will get into the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus and Recepticus. We can even discuss Eusebius and Constantine and the Ecumenical Bible to find out where that verse disappeared to.

Let me give an example. As I grew up there was a verse often quoted to encourage people to give testimonies in fellowships. I assumed that it must have been in the Bible. It was, ‘he who has the Son has a testimony’.

One time I attended a fellowship where the verse was almost an anthem during testimony time that I decided I must know where it was as by then I had read through the Bible four times and had never seen the verse. I gathered courage and asked the chairman to show me where that verse was. When he showed me I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why?

The only thing they have in common are the words Son and testimony as 1 John 5: 10 will demonstrate. In other words I could not find that verse because not only is it quoted outside its context; it is also wrongly quoted. And that will be the same with very many verses. Some verses we love are completely out of their Biblical context and it is only by reading the whole Bible consistently that we can be able to get the actual Biblical context.

Yes, there are versions that have been corrupted. But read them anyway as there is enough of God’s message in them to lead one to salvation and victorious Christian living. If God can use a fragment of a torn page of the Bible to read atheists in the iron curtain to Christ, are we not worse than unbelievers to even imagine that He is unable to use a Bible with a few verses (even even if they are thousands) removed to lead people to Himself? Do you not remember that the discovery of a portion of the scriptures led to a great revival in the time of Josiah the king?

In fact the Bible I have issues with is one whose commentary and other study aids overshadow the Bible text. There is one I recently trashed because they had merged the commentary with the text so that it was impossible to read the Bible text on its own. Incidentally, the commentary was at times up to five times larger than the Bible text. That for me is the Bible I will call irredeemably corrupt, however good the commentator or translation was.

You see what is inspired is the Bible text as it is the one God watches over to fulfill (Jeremiah 1: 12)

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (Psalm 138:2)

The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable. (Isaiah 42:21)

I use commentaries and Study Bibles. But I need to emphasize that only the Biblical text is inspired. Again remember this

…  It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

Let us leave the arguments to the scholars as we read the Bible to hear from God. And do not think I do not know that there are corrupted Bibles. But I know God enough to realize that no amount of corruption can stop God from using even corrupted scriptures to reach His people. Let me remind you that there are enough testimonies of Muslims who connected with Christ by reading the Quran with hearts searching for God.

But this does not mean I agree with the corruption. I just don’t want us to use it to deprive ourselves the revelation that can come from God’s word faithfully read.

God is also not a disinterested party in this just because He can break through the corruption to minister to His people. Remember  

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. (Revelation 22: 18, 19)

And it is important to realize that the corruption did not start with our generation.

How is it that you say, We are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? But see, the false pen of the scribes has made it false. (Jeremiah 8:8, BBE)

But let us leave that to God, who says that vengeance belongs to Him. Let us faithfully do our part, faithfully.

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. (Revelation 1:3)

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 1: 1 – 3)

Let us do our part and read the Bible faithfully.

Contact me or the Bible Club House if you need a Bible Reading plan. I have even posted one on my blog.

God bless you.