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Question #10
QUESTION: What does this
statement mean? "The King James Bible was good enough for the Apostle
Paul, so it's good enough for me."
ANSWER: This statement is usually made
in a sarcastic manner in order to embarrass Bible believers in their
belief. The FACT is, the King James Bible WAS
good enough for Paul. (See Question #11) But for now I'd like you to
see that it was the only Bible that Luke would use.
EXPLANATION: In Acts 1: 1,2 Luke makes
the following statement: "The former treatise have I made,
0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy
Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:"
"The former treatise" is of course the Gospel
of Luke which Luke wrote to a believer named Theophilus. Theophilus
was apparently an early Christian who had never personally met the Lord
while He was on this earth. Considering, though, that he was the recipient
of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, he was most
certainly one of the best informed.
Luke, in what may have been a passing comment, in the
second verse of Acts chapter one, rings the death blow to the famous
Nestle's Greek New Testament and also the New American Standard Version.
Luke states that his "former treatise" told of all that Jesus
began to do, and continued, "until the day in which he was taken
up." The things which Jesus began to do are first recorded in Luke
2:41-52 in which He was left behind in Jerusalem when Joseph and His
mother left to return to Nazareth. This correlates with Acts 1:1. Luke's
gospel is the only one of the four gospels which records any of Christ's
actions prior to His baptism at the age of thirty years old. (Matthew
3:16, Mark 1:9 and John 1:29-34)
Luke's gospel ends with Christ being "carried up
into heaven " in Luke 24:51. This correlates with Acts 1:2 "Until
the day in which he was taken up."
Thus, Luke states that his gospel begins with the earliest
acts of Christ and ends with His ascension. Therefore, any Greek manuscript
or manuscripts, no matter what their age, containing the Gospel of Luke
which omits either of these accounts is not authentic.
In an examination of the 23rd Edition of Nestle's Greek Text we find
that the Greek words, "Kai anepheroto eis ton huranon," "and
was carried up into the heaven" are not found
in this text.
The footnote in the critical apparatus indicates that
the authority for removing this phrase is no more than manuscript (MS)
Sinaiticus, D, one majuscule MS known as number 52 and one 5th
century palimpsect (a MS which has been erased and written over top
of). The phrase "and carried up into heaven" is found in
B, C, E, F, G, H, L, S, T, V, Y, Z, Delta, Theta, Psi, and Omega plus
papyrus p75, and most remaining witnesses. Yet on the basis of only
two MSS the conservative scholars of the secret Lockman Foundation have
omitted this phrase from Luke 24:51 in the New American Standard Version
(NASV). Hence, the NASV is not truly a reliable translation. In fact,
of most modern versions, only the "liberal" scholars of the
Revised Standard Version (RSV) agreed with the "conservative"
scholars of the NASV in omitting the phrase. Thus the known Communistic
liberals of the RSV and the conservatives of the NASV are in full agreement
that Christ did not ascend bodily into heaven.
So we see that if Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke
and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, could examine a King James
Bible and a New American Standard Version he would declare the New American
Standard Version a fraud and promptly proclaim the King James Bible
as authentic.
Well, quite frankly, if it's good enough for Luke,
it's good enough for me.
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