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Question #60
QUESTION: What about a contradiction
that can't be successfully explained?
ANSWER: You will have to accept the
perfection of the Authorized Version by faith.
EXPLANATION: Many years ago the phone
in my kitchen rang. On the line was a young man who was a student in
a class I was teaching in a nearby Bible College.
He said that his pastor had showed him a contradiction
in the King James Bible. (Great "man of faith.") He asked
if I could explain it. As he began to tell me the contradiction, I ,
being familiar with the argument, finished quoting it.
"Oh, you know about it then?" he asked.
"Sure," I replied.
"What's the answer?" he urged expectantly.
"I don't know," I answered, knowing what I had
just done to his faith in me. (In me, that is.)
I explained my reply to him as I will now explain it to
you.
NO ONE can have ALL
of the answers. There are two reasons for this.
First, if I or any other defender of the Authorized Version
had ALL of the answers, we would be GOD. But there
are innumerable differences between our infinite GOD and His finite
creatures. Thus, although some can have many answers, and a few can
have a great many answers, no one can have ALL
of the answers.
Second, and most importantly, if we could get ALL of our
questions answered then concerning the Bible issue, we would be walking
by sight not by faith. (Hebrews 11:6,
II Corinthians 5:7)
I believe there will always have to be
some questions which remain unexplainable by our human
reason. This would make our FINAL judgment on the infallibility
of the Bible contingent on the reliability of God's statements such
as Psalm 12:6,7 and Matthew 24:35 instead of the education and intellect
of our favorite "defenders of the faith."
Of course, the proponent of the Authorized Version feels
a little vulnerable with this conclusion. Knowing that our antagonists
will be quick to exploit what they perceive as a hole in our armor.
BUT a resort to "faith" as our final and
"last ditch" defense is not as inconsistent
or precarious as it first might seem.
Not inconsistent, because, as previously stated, God would
rather we have faith in Him in the face of the unexplainable, as so
many of the Old and New Testament saints have exhibited, than to have
faith in our own human ability to "find an answer"
concerning difficult passages.
It is certainly not precarious in that it does
not leave us at the mercy of our vindictive opponents. For
believing in the perfection of a Book which we can hold in our
hands is surely not as vulnerable as a professed faith
in the perfection of some lost originals.
The reason most critics are so vehement about the infallibility
of the originals is because they know that the originals can NEVER be
produced, so their faith can never be tried or upended.
We are willing, on the other hand, to take the abuse from
our "self conceited brethren" and give answers for our reasonable
faith in a tangible Book rather than in an idealistic
original. We need not apologize.
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