Vancouver Province, Saturday, June 6, 1953

BIBLE HISTORY

Tabernacle Pastor

Discusses Theories

Rev. Mark Buch, pastor of the People’s Fellowship Tabernacle, Vancouver, has forwarded a series of three articles on his pinions as to the true Bible and its origin. The Province prints these articles in the hope that they, along with the recent series on “The Revised Standard Version,” by Ernest Marshall Howse of the United Church, will help its readers to draw their own conclusions.

By Mark Buch

The transmission to man of the revelation of God, the Holy Bible is sacred. Upon these autographs are based the whole structure of Bible inspiration and ensuing doctrines of salvation.

The Old Testament written chiefly in Hebrew was canonized in its present form as early as the fourth century before Christ. Some parts were written 3500 years ago.

The New Testament was written in Greek and was completed in its present form by the end of the first century A.D.

Three Theories

Let us consider the method of communication and the final product on which we base verbal inspiration. There are three general theories.

The potential or ordinary theory places the Bible on the level of ordinary books of men.

The second known as the Concept Theory grants the inspiration of men’s thoughts only.

The putting into writing of these thoughts is left to the discretion of man.

Thirdly, the Plenary or Verbal theory teaches that God gave each word faultlessly to the writer. The method of verbal inspiration is not just one of mechanical dictation into the ear but the very word was placed in the mouth (Luke 1:70). The writers, then moved by the Holy Spirit wrote the exact words given. 2 Peter 1:21.

Not Originals

We are now at a great juncture in the story of Bible Inspiration namely the preservation of God’s Word. It is common knowledge that none of the original manuscripts are in existence today. The wear and tear of usage and the corrosion of time have long since destroyed them. To say then that one believes in the verbal inspiration of the originals only, holds little encouragement today for those who grope for the truth, for what good are inspired original which are lost?

Have we then lost the faultless Word of God? No! The promise of Christ is: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Matthew 24:35

Where may the preserved inerrant verbally inspired Word of God be found today among the thousands of copies of originals and translations of originals all clamouring and disagreeing to a lesser of greater degree? This is the crucial problem of twentieth century Christianity. We need not become discouraged for God HAS PRESERVED HIS WORD intact as He said He would.

Great Divide

Let us first face the great divide between the pure and the impure stream of the Holy Scriptures. We shall follow the imperfect or muddy stream to its source after which with great pleasure we shall trace the pure line of its original source.

We shall consider the leading ones only beginning with the Septuagint, the oldest translation in the world into Greek from the Hebrew. It is highly esteemed by the Modernists and the mother of origin of many, many other copies and translations. We therefore want to know about it.

As its name indicates, it was the work of 27 Hebrews, six from each of the 12 tribes, who translated this famous manuscript by command of King Ptolemy, Greek ruler of Egypt. The king had heard that the Word of God was found in the Hebrew tongue and desired to have it in his mother tongue. The work was begun in the first half of the third century B.C.

Some Doubt

Certain facts immediately cast doubt upon this manuscript. No orthodox Jew would translate the sacred Hebrew text into a Gentile language. Enc. Brit. says “In some books the translators made considerable additions to the originals. The Septuagint translators made some palatable mistakes. Blunders in translation are not uncommon.”

We are not surprised to find that Christ and His apostles completely ignored it. From this imperfect Septuagint have sprung some 50 alleged copies.

Chief among these are the Vatican and the Sinaitic Manuscripts. These form a leading basis for the numerous revisions and translations including the Revised Version.

As for the Old Testament of the Vaticanus, suffice it to know that it is a copy of the Septuagint.

Of the Sinaitic Manuscripts, Dr. Scrivener asserts: “the Codex is covered with corrections brought in by at least 10 different revisers.”

Dean Bergen says; In Codex Sinaius on many occasions 10, 20, 30 or 40 words are dropped through carelessness.”

Used As Basis

Yet these spurious manuscripts are held in all reverence as basis and guide by modernists and reviewers who would correct the Christian’s Bible.

Let me here refer to the Revised Standard Version. Its sponsors claim “It is in a real sense the authorized translation for Protestant churches, true to the original test.”

We have already considered part of that original text, the best known being the Septuagint and her daughters. However, the sponsors of the RSV claim that new, more ancient and better manuscripts, recently discovered, shed new light on the Scriptures. Then state these manuscripts are the one recently found near the Dead Sea by a goat herder. I have called them the Goat Herd Manuscripts.

Facts to hand concerning these are such as this one from Reuters, London: “The Old Testament was taken from what is known as Hebrew Massoretic Text, generally ascribed by scholars to the tenth century A.D.”

Chicago Opinion

James Mundis of the Chicago Daily News states: “Facts learned so far from these scrolls indicate to experts that they are the word of some sect which considered itself the real people of Israel.”

From such confusion has sprung an almost endless disconcertion of translations, revisions - - adinfinitum!

It is a wonder that our Lord said: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8). Again in Romans 10:17 we read “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” I Peter 1:25b “And this is the word which by the gospel ispreached unto you.”

In my next article we shall discuss the pure line of original manuscripts, their copies and translations.

Article from

“In Defence of the Authorized Version”

~~ One Pastor’s Battle

Mark Buch

This is one of four, each one first appeared in the Vancouver Province in June of 1953.

AIN'T

He was just a little boy,

on a week's first day.

He was wandering home from Sunday School,

and dawdling on the way.

He scuffed his shoes into the grass;

he even found a caterpillar.

He found a fluffy milkweed pod

and blew out all the "filler."

A bird's nest in a tree overhead,

so wisely placed up so high,

Was just another wonder

that caught his eager eye.

A neighbor watched his zig zag course

and hailed him from the lawn;

Asked him where he'd been that day

and what was going on.

"I've been to Bible School,"

he said and turned a piece of sod.

He picked up a wiggly worm replying,

"I've learned a lot about God."

"M'm very fine way," the neighbor said,

"for a boy to spend his time."

"If you'll tell me where God is,

I'll give you a brand new dime."

Quick as a flash the answer came

Nor were his accents faint.

"I'll give you a dollar, Mister,

if you can tell me where God ain't..

"New Bible" for the "New Age"

"In the beginning there was an infinite expanse composed of nothing. And it came to pass accidentally and then began to form chemical elements. Then, accidentally, it decided to compress itself into a ping-pong ball. Having done thusly, it verily chose to collapse in on itself to form a pinhead of compact atoms weighing more than 900,000,000,000,000 tons. And then, behold! It decided to blow up, so it did.

"Thereupon it accidentally blew out, evenly, in all directions for 10,000,000 light years and formed a perfect set of several million galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. All operating with enough precision to set your clock by. Fortunately, one set accidentally formed a solar system that had all of the necessary elements for producing the kind of life now writing this 'Bible.'

"And it came to pass, after several billion years (give or take several hundred million), the sun decided to accidentally throw out Uranus, Pluto, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, etc., in different sizes at different distances with different atmospheres. In thus doing, it also accidentally threw out an Earth, which (accidentally) formed water and plants out of molten lava. After a few billion years (give or take several hundred million, either way), an accidental combination of elements got together and accidentally formed a genetic code chain that could dictate what kind of life would be produced. Whereupon this accidentally produced a one-celled animal which couldn't produce a two-celled animal (or a three, or four, or five, or six celled, etc., animal).

"And thus it came to pass that over 20,000 species of animals were produced accidentally, to no purpose, and man was one of them. And evolution took the planaria that it had made from a paramecium, and created a jellyfish and brought it to a nonsexed, neuter, hermaphrodite and called it ~woman.~ (Or protozoa, coelenterata, platyhelminthes, or ctenophora: evolution only knows!) And evolution said, 'It is not good for the monkey to be alone. I will make a mate for him.' So it accidentally made 'Lucey' for 'Magic,' and he called her 'Baby' because she was taken out of a monkey.

"And after 6,000 years of killing, cannibalism, torture, murder, embezzlement, fraud, famine, Iying, swearing, cheating, stealing, and killing the monkey (or femur, or tarsier, or whatever) accidentally decided he had 'rights' that came from the spermatophytes, thallophytes, bryophytes, and ptendophytes, so he gave himself the right to cheat, abort, swear, lie, misrepresent, steal, pervert, extort, defraud, torture, and kill and called these rights, 'Civil Rights.'

"Today, at the very pinnacle of creation, the monkey (or 'great ape,' or 'hominoid,' or whatever) is 'the measure of all things.' He verily 'hash arrived.' He now knows why he came into being, accidentally; it was to please himself. At last he hath a goal: to make himself comfortable. In the next seven years, this will be done by perversion, extortion, rape, drug abuse, Iying, swearing, embezzlement, cheating, cannibalism, terrorism, perversion and killing, evolution willing!

"Even so, may the fittest survive! Amen! "

(The scholars who translated this new Bible version were: Albert Einstein, Max Plank, Heisenberg, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Dr. Libby, Harold Leakey, Medawar, Bergson, Lysenko, Mach, Max Born, and Stephen Hawking. Publishers: The National Education Association and the National Geographic Association, New York, 800 B.C.)

Unknown

Going Door to Door

Thanks to Billy

Classic Lateral Thinking Exercise #'s 1 - 3

Try these to loosen up the old brain cells.



1. There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half way up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless it's raining! Why?

This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying.



2. A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says, "I can't operate on this boy, he is my son!" How can this be?



3. A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves and balaclava. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?




Will be posting answers in comments later.

Terrorist Capture of the Week

No resistance was encountered other than a constant running off of the mouth.


Thanks Dean,

Friday Funnies - Smokes & Jokes

TOBACCO: THE FILTHY WEED

Tobacco is a filthy weed
That from the devil does proceed;
It drains your purse, it burns your clothes,
And makes a chimney of your nose.

--Benjamin Waterhouse M.D. (1754-1846)

Note - Bob Hawkins quoted this poem to me last week. jnh

HAROLD THE COMPUTER GUY

I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Harold,the computer guy to come over. Harold clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. He gave me a bill for a minimum service call. As he was walking away, I called after him, "So, what was wrong?"

He replied, "It was an ID ten T error."

I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired, "An ID ten T Error? What's that In case I need to fix it again?"

Harold grinned.... "Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?"

"No, " I replied.

"Write it down," he said, "and I think you'll figure it out."

So I wrote it down.

I D 1 0 T

I used to like Harold...

Thanks Bro. Dean,

Noah opens up the ark and let all the animals out, telling them to "Go forth and multiply!"

He's closing the great doors of the ark when he notices that there are two snakes sitting in a dark corner.

So he says to them, "Didn't you hear me? You can go now. Go forth and multiply."

"We can't," said the snakes. "We're adders."

============================

By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere. 

Thanks to Mikey's Funnies