Bible Inspiration and Preservation – Part 15

The lesson on November 7. 2021 was part 15 of the “Bible Inspiration and Preservation” study. As Wayne is winding down this study, we reviewed what we learned in our previous lesson regarding the Genealogical theory that Westcott and Hort put forth as the foundation for their critical review of the Textus Receptus or majority Greek manuscripts of the New Testament as one that falls apart when you try to verify against the data. When you have texts that are a mixture of previous texts, it nullifies the theory. “When there is mixture, and Westcott and Hort state that it is common, in fact almost universal in some degree, then the genealogical method as applied to manuscripts is useless.” Further, they didn’t even use this theory in their criticism of the majority text making all the modern bibles based on their work in error and have led to Christians being deceived. Wayne gives high praise to Wilbur Pickering’s book “The Identity of the New Testament Text”. Although Wayne has looked at many other sources, he liked what was said at the end of the book: “Anyone who wishes to be one should absolutely stop representing his presuppositions as being part of the evidence. Since the original was never lost, there is no legitimate textual criticism of the NT, and therefore no science of such. Since NT textual criticism (as practiced by the academic community during the past 130 years) depends on a false presupposition, it cannot be a science. Those who reject the primary evidence can, and probably will, continue to propound a theory of textual criticism. I suppose they have a right to their theory, but I cannot wish them well.” Pickering, Wilbur. The Identity of the New Testament Text IV (pp. 374-375). Kindle Edition. We were challenged to consider those that are so called “experts” to be mindful before you just accept their guidance. We went through a couple more examples by looking at Mark 1:2-3 KJV. We also learned of the martyrdom of Ignatius, a church father, who was killed in 107 A.D at Rome. On the way to Rome to receive his sentence, he wrote 6 epistles to churches, one of which was to the Ephesian church. In this letter he mentions the teaching contained in 1 Timothy 3:16 KJV. The scripture reading was from Mark 1:1-3 KJV

“1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. 3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”