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testing confession of faith to chapter one if you don't have one there are some in that blue basket on top of the refrigerator there so i want to look at uh some principles of hermeneutics i'll define that and as we move along in chapters 5 to 10. so i want to read beginning in paragraph uh five we'll read to the end of the confession chapter one so we may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of god to end high and reverent esteem of the holy scriptures and the heavenliness of the matter the efficacy of the doctrine and the majesty of the style the consent of all the parts the scope of the whole which is to give all glory to god the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation and many other incomparable excellencies and entire perfections thereof are arguments whereby it does abundantly evidence itself to be the word of god yet notwithstanding our full persuasion and ensure and assurance of the infallible truth and divine authority thereof is from the inward work of the holy spirit bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts the whole counsel of god concerning all things necessary for his own glory man's salvation faith and life is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the holy scripture unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelation of the spirit or traditions of men nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the spirit of god to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the word and that there are some some circumstances concerning the worship of god and government of the church common to human actions in societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature in christian prudence according to the general rules of the word which are always to be observed all things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor a light clear unto all yet those things which are necessary to be known believed and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of scripture or other that not only the learned but the unlearned and a due use of ordinary means may attain to a sufficient understanding of them the old testament in hebrew which was the native language of the people of god of old and the new testament in greek which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations being immediately inspired by god and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages are therefore authentic so as in all controversies of religion the church is finally to appeal to them but because these original tongues are not known to all the people of god who have a right unto and interest in the scriptures and are commanded in the fear of god to read and search them therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come that the word of god dwelling plentifully in all they may worship him in an acceptable manner and through patience and comfort of the scriptures may have hope the infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself and therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture which is not manifold but one it must be searched by other places that speak more clearly the supreme judge by which all controversies of religion are to be determined and all decrees of counsels opinions of ancient writers doctrines of men and private spirits are to be examined and in whose sentence we are to rest can be no other but the holy scripture delivered by the spirit into which scripture is so delivered our faith is finally resolved amen well as we look at this particular section the chap the paragraph that deals specifically with the interpretation of scripture is paragraph nine in chapter one notice the infallible rule of script of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself but there are other principles in paragraphs five to ten that i think are important for us as we put together a hermeneutic or a way of interpreting the bible so i want to look at first the definition of hermeneutics and then look at the particular instances that we find here in para chapter one uh the word hermeneutics is the science that uses or teaches us the principles laws and methods of interpretation that comes from burkhoff's little and helpful book the principles of biblical interpretation so it's the science that teaches us the principles laws and methods of interpretation now there is a general hermeneutic shakespeare demands a particular way of interpretation so hermeneutics is not applied simply to the understanding of scripture the word was first used by plato as a technical term but with reference to special hermeneutics that applies to certain definite kinds of writing so again plato for instance or or uh shakespeare has some rules of interpretation that persons bring to it when they read and try to understand but when we talk about sacred or biblical hermeneutics that applies to the word of god written as the inspired infallible and inerrant word of god now when we talk about hermeneutics there's a relationship between hermeneutics and exegesis and it's the relationship between theory and application so what we have in hermeneutics is the scientific principles that we apply in the interpretation of scripture exegesis is the actual application of those principles in order to draw out from the tax the meaning that the holy spirit put into the text and then as well with reference to the importance of hermeneutics there's basically four sort of major categories in terms of theological education if we were to look at the theological encyclopedia you have first exegetical theology or biblical theology uh biblical theology is also used in a way that is more narrowly defined so exegetical theology has to deal with the interpretation and understanding of the bible and then you have historical theology and what historical theology does is it surveys how the church has dealt with tax in the interpretation in the history of interpretation from there there is what's called systematic theology and as the name suggests it's a systematic approach to concern to the consideration of doctrine we ask the question what does the bible say about the bible what does the bible say about god what does the bible say about man what does the bible say about christ and redemption and so we have a systematic approach and then the final aspect is what's called practical theology where we take the fruit of that exegetical theology historical theology systematic theology and then we construct the rules on how to live in accordance with the word of god now i realize that we don't always do that every time we read the bible but that's the larger sort of framework that persons should have when it comes to understanding texts of scripture so if your hermeneutic is wrong so is going to be your exegetical theology your read on historical theology will be tainted your systematic theology will ultimately collapse and practically you're going to be a mess so it is act absolutely crucial that we have a sound hermeneutic that we bring to the bible and you've heard the old adage give a man a fish you feed him for the day teach a man to fish you feed him for his life so hermeneutics are crucial so that the people of god when they're reading their bible on tuesday morning or at family worship on thursday night they know how to deal with texts and they know how to present those texts and how to live in light of those texts so it's good to have a proper understanding of how to interpret the bible so as i said there are implied principles of hermeneutics and then the explicit reference is here in paragraph nine but first i want to look at the scope of scripture in paragraph five we've looked at that particular paragraph over the last couple of sessions and it's strictly detailing the authority of scripture but there is a hermeneutical principle that is in paragraph 5 that we need to get and we need to understand it's about in the middle or just about in the middle of paragraph 5 where it says the scope of the whole which is to give all glory to god so the scope of scripture is a most important hermeneutical principle the scope of scripture is not me the scope of scripture is not you the scope of scripture is not the civil government the scope of scripture is all glory given to god almighty now there are a couple of ways that the church has used this terminology of the scope of scripture in the narrow sense it has to do with the scope of a given text or a given passage it's basic thrust but in the wider sense it has to do with what the bible as a whole tends toward it is the target or bullseye to which all scripture tends and again as we see it here the scope of the whole and then parenthetically which is to give all glory to god richard barcelos defines it this way for the 17th century reformed orthodox and their reformed predecessors christ was the scope of scripture being the primary means through which god gets glory for himself so that's not contradictory to what is found there in the paragraph the scope of the whole which is to give all glory to god and that glory is given to god through the work of the savior on behalf of sinners in terms of salvation that redounds to the praise and glory of god william ames in a very helpful book it's a small or brief sort of a systematic theology it's called the marrow of it's the marrow of divinity is it marrow of modern or marrow of divinity modern is the fish or one yeah mayor of divinity anyways william ames it's a very readable very accessible very brief treatment of the various disciplines in systematic theology but he says it this way the old and new testaments are reducible to these two primary heads the old promises christ to come and the new testifies that he has come again reflecting that conviction on the part of the reformed orthodox that christ is the scope of the whole now i have a real life concrete illustration of this from the commentary of john gill john gill makes this observation in the introduction to the book of ruth typically when modern believers hear about the book of ruth they think love story they think romance they think what a great girl and what a great guy but that's not the scope of the book of ruth john gill is far more accurate than the modern commentaries or the modern uh sort of handlers of the book of ruth he says the principal design of it is to give the genealogy of david that's where the book of ruth ends that's the meat and potatoes not that we shouldn't see ruth as a virtuous woman i think i've told you before that the hebrew canon it's the same in terms of content as our as our protestant canon but the the the listing or the order of the books is different ruth follows the book of proverbs ruth is a vivid example of the virtuous woman of proverbs 31. that's really cool stuff but going back to gil the principal design of it is to give the genealogy of david whom samuel had anointed to be king of israel and from whom the messiah was to come and who therefore may be said to be the aim and scope of it the book of ruth as he is all of scripture of all scripture and whereby it appears that he sprung both from jews and gentiles and is the savior of both and there is a good foundation for both to hope in him and the call and conversion of ruth the moabitus may be considered as a shadow emblem and pledge of the conversion of the gentiles so why is the scope of the whole important for interpretation simply this if you read the book of ruth and your only take away is what a great romance story you have not appreciated a fundamental hermeneutical principle that the book of ruth is about jesus if you read texts of scripture and you only ever come out thinking about how they all speak specifically to you as the delicate snowflake upon whom the world revolves then you're missing the scope of scripture it's about jesus and his redemptive work and the bringing of glory to god almighty in other words you need to understand what the bible is about certainly it involves man but it's not man-centered it is god-centered and that's a principle of interpretation that persons need to imbibe as they come to the sacred text you see this in the testimony of christ in luke's gospel he talks about all of the scriptures pointing to him in john's gospel he says you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are that uh and these are that which uh points to me in other words they're discussing christ in terms of the law of moses and then as well you see that in the book of acts to him all the prophets give witness in acts 10 43 peter to cornelius so the scope of scripture is not us the scope of scripture is the glory of god through our lord jesus christ so that is a fundamental hermeneutical principle now notice secondly the sufficiency of scripture in paragraph six the sufficiency of scripture in paragraph six notice the extent of scripture sufficiency with reference to god for his own glory with reference to man man's salvation faith and life when we talk about the sufficiency of scripture we're not suggesting that it's a manual for quantum physics we're not suggesting that you can read the bible and build a refrigerator the scope or rather the sufficiency of scripture is narrowly narrowly applied by the divines here and what we expect when we understand scripture the whole council of god concerning all things necessary for his own glory man's salvation faith and life that's what the bible contains so if you're looking at the bible as an auto repair you know manual you're going to be sorely upset that's not the design that's not the focus the focus is on the glory of god and the instruction of man relative to salvation now what the bible does say concerning history science doctrine ethics religious practice or any other topic is infallible it is inerrant it is given by inspiration of god but the sufficiency of scripture does not extend to every jot and tittle of our lives in terms of the practical implementation of how to function in this world in fact this paragraph observes that very reality look at the at the end of paragraph six when it says and that there are some circumstances concerning the worship of god and government of the church common to human actions and societies which are to be ordered by the light of nature and christian prudence according to the general rules of the word which are always to be observed in other words do we meet at 11 or at noon for our church services you go to the scriptures they don't tell you specifically that is a light of nature christian prudence sort of a judgment call sanctified common sense within the boundaries of scripture we're not sinning we're not violating a principle but at the same time knowing that the bible doesn't tell us that thou must meet at 11 am thou must meet at 5 pm thou must have a wednesday night bible study the confession understands that the reference to sufficiency applies to what god has determined is its sufficiency man god's glory man's salvation now notice a very important interpretative rule or sort of principle is found in paragraph six it says the whole counsel of god concerning all things necessary for his own glory man's salvation faith and life now here it comes is either expressly set down or necessarily contained in the holy scripture so expressly set down means an explicit text you shall not murder but as well we can derive by way of implication by way of necessary inference something that carries the same authority so the bible for instance doesn't say that a licensed medical doctor is prohibited from putting instruments into a woman's womb and murdering the baby in that womb but we have the sixth commandment and we have the recognition that man is made in the image of god and that extends to the baby in the womb so therefore by good and necessary consequence we know that the scriptures speak with authority against the crime and sin of abortion now when you look at the language that is used here it says it's either expressly sat down again that's an explicit statement you shall not murder but then the next statement deals with implicit or with logic or with deduction or with consequence it says or necessarily contained in the holy scripture i like the westminster better here in the savoy declaration the westminster and the savoy say or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced so they recognize that reality that logical deduction in terms of biblical interpretation if it is a sound deduction then it carries the very authority of god himself in fact david dixon in his commentary on the confession says is not that which necessarily follows from scripture contained in it implicitly and implicitly revealed by god infallibly true he answers of course yes now why did the baptist change there's a whole lot of sort of rationale on the part of the pedo baptist that would suggest that the baptists are against necessary deduction or logical you know deduction from from premises and conclusions and that sort of thing but that's simply not the case when you compare chapter two in the westminster and chapter two in the second london it's the same and a lot of that is come to by implicit tax being interpreted properly and understanding that they carry authority probably it did have to do something with the exclusion of pedo baptist but it's outside my pay grade to know the exp specific reasons but i just prefer the language of good and necessary consequence may be deduced so it's logic it's the application of reason to scripture and to see that if the bible forbids the sin or crime of murder and that we have texts that tell us that the baby in the womb is in fact an image bearer of god ergo the bible forbids the sin or crime of murder that's what we mean by expressly set down this the the demand to not murder or necessarily contained in the holy scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced so that is valuable that is valid and that if done properly carries the authority and weight of god take the ten commandments for instance the sort of hallmark of reformed interpretation takes the prohibitions and as well implies a positive implication so the commandment that says you shall not murder they then understand not only in terms of prohibition but in terms of the positive we should promote life we should eat properly we should get rest we shouldn't ingest things that are dangerous to us we should seek to preserve our own lives and our own life and the lives of those around us so there is that explicit you shall not murder but implicitly we glean from that we should seek to promote life we should defend the innocent we should be there in terms of trying to to advance god's image bearers in terms of health and safety so with reference to this particular paragraph we have the finality of scripture sufficiency notice it says unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelation of the spirit or traditions of man i'm reminded of a quote by uh john owen on this whole idea of private revelation he says if private revelation that basically means if you're charismatic or a pentecostal you have a direct line well it happens in the reform too we think god talks to us just as much as the pentecostals do apart from scripture but but the idea being as john owen says if private revelations agree with scripture they're useless if private revelations disagree with scripture they're heretical and to paraphrase but something to that effect and so both at this place and as well in paragraph one we have that final statement that says those former ways of gods revealing his will unto his people being now ceased there's a debate an argument ongoing in the church between what's called or what used to be called cessationism and non-cessationism now the language is continuationism and non-continuationism basically what that means is that we as reformed people with reference to not only the scripture but our confession we are cessationists or non-continuationists that means we don't believe that the revelatory gifts are operative we don't believe that tongue speaking and prophesying in terms of god's communication authoritatively to his church continues the bible the canon of scripture as we saw last time is closed there's no new additions there no new sort of benefits that some guy out there who's never read the prophet hosea is going to get a word from the lord and somehow that's on par with what paul says in titus that's not going to happen and the confession acknowledges that and you'll probably read or you'll hear at times that this was not unanimous that there were divines say for instance at westminster that had a concept of ongoing revelation not the way the pentecostals do and not the way the charismatics do but they were certainly open to that yes there were also divergences at the westminster assembly in terms of the imputation of the righteousness of jesus christ but what makes it into the confession one of the things that you need to understand about confessions is that they're consensus documents it doesn't mean that everybody at that time saw everything in the exact same way but they did recognize that together as a consensus of believers this is what's going to make it into the confession of faith so if there were disagreements if there were you know misunderstandings if there were sort of private opinions we nevertheless look at what the confession actually imbibes in terms of being the consensus of the people of god at that particular time so the finality of scripture sufficiency under that unto which nothing at any time is to be added whether by new revelation of the spirit or traditions of men notice as well another fundamental principle in terms of the interpretation of scripture it says nevertheless we acknowledge the inward illumination of the spirit of god to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the word in other words foundational to understanding scripture is to have the spirit himself illumine your understanding to get what scripture says and means in other words we don't come to this task unaided we don't come to this task by ourselves we come to this task begging and imploring god the spirit to guide lead and direct us as we interpret scripture and then notice the necessity of sanctified common sense already spoke to that there are some circumstances remember that distinction the elements of worship and the circumstances of worship elements are those things commanded by god circumstances are those things not commanded by god we have no direct tax but it's here we use what the confession says uh um the light of nature and christian prudence according to the general rules of of the word which are always to be observed and so we need that sanctified common sense in things not directly addressed by scripture so we've got the scope paragraph five sufficiency paragraph six notice in paragraph three seven we have what's called technically the perspicuity of scripture the simpler word is the clarity of scripture notice it says all things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor a light clear unto all has anybody ever observed that every hand should be raised everybody has that challenge from time to time all things in scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor a light clear unto all the famous passages ii timothy ii peter rather second peter chapter three where peter comments on the writings of the apostle paul and in second peter chapter three he says in verse 15 and consider the longsuffering of our lord is salvation as also our beloved brother paul according to the wisdom given to him has written to you as also in all his epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scriptures so there are those things that are difficult to understand and that should serve as a good chastening tool for us that we don't have pride or arrogance when we set out on the exegetical task we ought to be disciplined by this particular chapter in understanding or paragraph and understanding there's some tough nuts to crack when it comes to holy scripture and that person who says he has it all figured out is probably not right but then notice it goes on to make this qualification all things in scripture are not alike plain and themselves nor a light clear unto all yet those things which are necessary to be known believed and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of scripture or other in other words when it comes to the doctrine of eschatology you may end up with some melon scratchers you may end up with some challenges you may end up with some conundrums or enigmas but when it comes to the way of access to a holy god through the blood atonement wrought by the son of god that's clear that's plain there's no misinterpretation involved behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world that's not esoteric that's not enigmatic that's not a conundrum and that's what this particular paragraph recognizes there are some things that are difficult yet those things which are necessary to be known believed and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of scripture or other now notice what it goes on to say not only the learned not just john owen or c.h spurgeon but also the unlearned and there are two passages in scripture that speak to this reality psalm 19 is very clear and then again in psalm 119 both of which have as its subject matter the word of god and in psalm 19 7 the law of the lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the lord is sure making wise the simple and then in psalm 119 at verse 1 129 your testimonies are wonderful therefore my soul keeps them the entrance of your words gives light it gives understanding to the simple there are oftentimes persons who say well you know it's just above me i i can't read that i can't understand that and they try to just sort of in a lazy way get out of their responsibility or they say well there's so much in there that's so tough to understand again that's just propaganda that's an idea of of somebody that doesn't want to actually invest the time to put nose to book and learn what god has to say so that's no argument well everything's so hard to understand there's a lot of stuff that may be outside of our our capability or our competence level but again we try to crack that nut we spend time with it we ask the spirit for aid and guidance and strength but when it comes to the way of salvation nobody can say that oh it's just so hard to understand what's hard to understand about believe on the lord jesus christ and you shall be saved now i understand at some level at least psychologically that's a bit of a difficulty but the proposition is simple the proposition that david was the king of israel is simple the proposition you shall not murder is simple so when persons say well it's so confusing and it's so difficulty basically they're saying i'm too lazy to do the very basic and bare necessity of opening the book and examining it for myself that is absolutely unconscionable so not only the learned but the unlearning if you're not the brightest bulb in the chandelier don't fret god in his mercy reaches out even to you and then notice in a due use of ordinary means a due use of ordinary means not you've got to climb up to mount sham and spend two weeks and hope that god the spirit tells you what he means when he says believe on the lord jesus christ no it's a due use of ordinary means what are the means that god has given chapter 14 speaks to that you look at chapter 14 and paragraph one very clear what the means are the grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the spirit of christ in their hearts and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the word by which also and by the administration of baptism and the lord's supper prayer and other means appointed of god it is increased and strengthened the best counsel you can give to seekers is to read their bible get into the word of god romans 10 17 makes that clear faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by reading c.h spurgeon no it comes by reading the word of god c.h spurgeon can certainly help them c.h spurgeon can certainly point them to the right direction but john's gospel mark's gospel matthew's gospel luke's gospel those set forth in great detail the the the person and the work of the lord jesus christ so if somebody says oh i really want to be saved i want to know the lord i want to i want to understand the truth but they're not going to read the bible they're fakes they just want to blow you off if persons are serious about meeting god they will be persons of the book and the same obtains with reference to christians who want to grow in their understanding of who jesus is but persons say that and they're too lazy to read the bible it betrays your confession that you want to grow in your understanding of who jesus is or persons say i really want to know more about the church i got a great idea then come to church show up at the confession study show up at the worship services show up and avail yourself of the things that are available to you that's what it means in a due use of ordinary means may attain to a sufficient understanding of them not exhaustive you're not going to grow up and be john owen i hate to burst or bubble you're not going to grow up in bch spurgeon women you're not going to grow up to be amy carmichael that's just not gonna happen but will you get a sufficient understanding bless god most high he gives sufficient understanding to the most simple among us such that we know of his of his way of salvation and we see his provision in and through the person and work of our lord jesus christ so the perspicuity or clarity of scripture is another very helpful hermeneutical principle notice in the next place the availability or the translation of scripture now this could take us a whole series of of sort of sunday morning you know attempts to get at what's going on here in paragraph eight but let's just do a a fly over notice that it says the old testament in hebrew so the old testament was written in hebrew there are certain sections that are written in aramaic but for the most part it's written in hebrew which was the native language of the people of god and the new testament in greek which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations at one point in the history of the church they thought it was a special holy holy ghost greek that's not what it was it was what's called koine greek or common greek uh archaeological finds have found you know words that that we see in the bible on receipts and and in you know accounting books and various things like that it wasn't a special class of holy spirit greek it was common everyday normal greek and it even shares affinity with modern greek to some degree a bit different than classical greek but still in that that genus but in terms of the writing of scripture god by the spirit the father by the spirit uses hebrew and uses greek now notice what it goes on to say speaks of its inspiration being immediately inspired by god so in other words when paul wrote romans and he was looking at the manuscript that was immediately inspired by god i think that word immediate is important because once romans starts to get trans uh translated during that uh transmission process there were errors and introduced not to the doctrine or to the contents of the book of romans but it's kind of like that old game telephone i don't know if they still play that today but you say something and by the time the message gets over here it's completely different well in the history of transmission at times scribes would make mistakes but with reference to the immediate inspiration of the autographs of scripture that means what paul wrote notice being immediately inspired by god then then notice even though there is some error in transmission in terms of scribal sort of mess-ups along the way look at what we fall back on so it's immediately inspired by god and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages are therefore authentic so that transmission process and the few errors along the way that come to pass as a result of a scribal mess up doesn't affect the content of scripture it doesn't invalidate it as the word of god sometimes the errors or sometimes these issues is the difference between say in chapter 1 of john's gospel in verse 28. the older the king james and the new king james has bethabara the newer translations have bethany that's not a huge thing there was most likely a place on the east side of the river jordan that could have possibly been called bethany as well sometimes it might just be the absence of an article the word the might not be there there are times where there are additions but typically those editions aren't out of thin air the idea being is that when a scribe is interpreting or rather translating and he sees a passage and he's working from memory from another gospel he might add something or there might be omissions but again nothing is significantly affected in terms of doctrine or content it doesn't take away from the god-breathedness of even the new king james uh the niv and the esv are out of luck i'm kidding uh that was really a joke please don't go burn your nivs or your esv's uh there are some more significant we call these textual variants when there's a variant reading in the manuscript transmission there are more significant ones i mentioned one the other day in john 1 18. no one has seen god at any time but the only begotten son or the only begotten god who is in the bosom of the father has revealed him that's a bigger issue in terms of the reading so how do scholars approach that it's the discipline called textual criticism textual criticism doesn't mean we pick on the text of the bible textual criticism is about seeking as far as we are able to restore the the new testament uh text to its original pristine place that means without these variants but again even with the variance even with the the the issues that have arisen in the transmission between say the new king james and the the esv for instance in the underlying greek manuscripts there's about 3 000. again that sounds like a lot but when you take things like articles or you take spellings you know uh is it pergamos or is it pergamum the church in revelation chapter two that's not a big issue brethren we ought to expect that in what we see was actually the case it was a pretty normal situation paul writes romans he gives it to the roman christians he tells the people of god to read it in their churches to copy it to send it to other churches to exchange those letters we expect that in the transmission history we don't expect this you know bible that fell out of heaven in 1611 and was it there's no sort of you know odd things about it just fell out of heaven we call it the king james bible and it settles everything for us no the transmission history is exactly what we would expect based on what we have in terms of the new testament so back to our confession here so being immediately inspired by god and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages are therefore authentic so as in all controversies of religion the church is finally to appeal to them but because these original tongues are not known to all the people of god who have a right unto and interest in the scriptures and are commanded in the fear of god to read and search them therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar that doesn't mean with curse words and all that sort of thing it's holding the older english version or the older english sort of meaning it means the vernacular the common tongues the common languages of people so in other words in order to be a christian you don't have to first go to school and learn hebrew you'd have to first go to school and learn greek you can have a translation of scripture that's what we're seeing in this particular paragraph so it says of every nation unto which they come that the word of god dwelling plentifully in all they may worship him in an acceptable manner and through patience and comfort of the scriptures may have hope now there's two big things going on in this paragraph with reference to our english bibles one it's the greek manuscript evidence and two it's the translation okay those things are related those things are connected but they are two separate issues you could have the right greek manuscripts and a terrible english translation you could have a good english translation of terrible greek manuscripts not terrible but there's a way that scholars have gone about this whole idea of textual criticism they have seen that certain they call them families bear certain characteristics so there's basically three approaches with reference to the greek new testament there's what's called the tr or textist receptus transition tradition that's what the king james bible and the new king james is founded on then there's what's called the majority text position and basically the majority text position simply says we go with the most reading so out of the 5 000 plus extant manuscripts you know if uh 90 of them have only begotten son then we're going to go with only begotten son it's a majority tax position and then there's what's called the eclectic approach and the eclectic approach weighs texts based on at times subjective principles this is not my favorite approach but with reference to the eclectic text that's what the modern versions for the most part are founded upon so for instance you might have a majority text reading you might have a tax that has 80 90 percent sort of confirmation by the manuscript tradition but the eclectic text guys put a lot of weight into the oldest manuscripts there's two old manuscripts or a handful of old manuscripts and their primary maximus is that the oldest is the best in fact if you use the new american standard you will see them basically dismiss things that way the oldest and best manuscripts do not contain this particular reading which i don't like that way of doing tax criticism one of the reasons why i really like the new king james bible it's a good translation and for people that say well it's so hard to understand guess what grade level the new king james is written at grade 7. so brethren when you hear that the the only english translation i think that's at a 12th grade level is probably the king james bible and that just takes some effort to learn the old language possibly the new american standard new american standard i quote i point at shane not because he's the new american i just know he uses the new american standard um it's the most literal as far as as as translation goes it's you know they've said it's woodly uh woodenly literal it's a good literal translation but anyway so you've got for the most part the modern english versions go on the great manuscript evidence of what's called the eclectic text so the oldest is best principle usually dictates another principle that they use is that the harder reading is to be preferred again we could debate this until the cows come home but to me that's an odd one the harder reading is to be preferred even if the harder reading introduces heterodoxy well sure no i don't think so i personally i disagree with some of those principles but back to the new king james the way they indicate any differences in the taxed tradition is far more preferable they basically say you know the reading here and the m which means the majority text or the reading here in nu which is nestle on slash united bible societies which do print the eclectic version or the eclectic text so they'll highlight you to differences in the history of transmission i think in a responsible way now of course the king james only people say well don't do that because it undermines the word of god no it doesn't undermine the word of god one bit this whole idea and and i love the king james i told my brother yesterday i think everybody every christian should read the king james bible through at least once i mean just don't deprive yourself of the the richness and the beauty that is the king james bible it's wonderful but the king james bible didn't fall out of heaven in 1611. the the preface the the the editors the the translators of the king james bible did not see themselves the way that modern proponents of king james only islam see the king james bible they themselves knew that they hadn't fallen out of heaven and they hadn't been given this you know special you know gift to to translate perfectly there's odd duck readings in the king james bible that they translate you know passover as easter in in acts 12 is just odd we don't have to try and defend that we can just say that was odd that's okay as long as we know what we're doing and thinking through these things so to acknowledge there are variant readings in the transmission history is not to betray the bible it's not to sacrifice inspiration or infallibility or inerrancy it's not any of that god gave the spirit to the apostle he writes romans he sends romans to the romans they read it they exchange it with others people start copying these letters and they start multiplying through the empire it's a wonderful and a beautiful thing along the way scribe's messed up along the way ascribe and you see it sometimes you'll hear me read and i'll read a line and then i my eye catches the next line and i read that and then i have to stop myself that's a pretty common thing when you're copying and you're you're translating things and added to that you know they didn't have the the modern rules of ergonomics right today we're so delicate that if we work on a typewrite well not a typewriter anymore because that's just too hard but when we work on word processors for every hour we have to take 10 minutes off 15 minutes off to to not strain our eyes or hurt our wrists and we have to get up and walk around these scribes didn't have that man these guys are standing there for however long you know just going that there are not a billion transmission errors is an amazing thing and highlights what we have in the confession of faith so again this whole idea of text manuscript evidence and even among the three families the the the differences is is so huge or so small in terms of content of scripture and like i said some of the variants are are the difference between a letter the difference between an article sometimes people say well you know when this text has you know the one of the king james only arguments is oh they translate here and they don't use jesus they they must be you know antichrist well no jesus appears in other texts so so it's just an odd sort of an approach not just at the greek text level the the three families but at the translation level i think what we should have in terms of our understanding is that we need to understand that there is a discipline called textual criticism and again it's not making fun of the text it's seeking by god's grace to recover the text as it was originally given we need to recognize there are differences among persons regarding textual criticism and people get fired up about this they get hot they get you know intense i sure i can name a few names and you'd say oh yeah that's what those guys were talking about it happens within and among reformed baptists there is a distinction in terms of those three underlying text types and translations as i said you could take the if you're a tr proponent you could take the tr and end up with a terrible english translation you could have the eclectic text which is probably my least favorite but not that i would ever condemn it and and end up with a really good translation i think the nas is a fantastic translation i think it's wonderful i think it's you know great literal sort of understanding but we ought to appreciate the difficulty of making authoritative statements if king james only ism is bad so is new american standard only islam if you know there's not this humility among us wherein we can actually disagree and differ on things without writing each other out of the kingdom boy we should really try and achieve that we should really try to not disenfranchise entire groups of people because they have a different understanding of either a textual criticism or be the philosophy of translation now when it comes to translation brethren my suggestion my encouragement my my exhortation is to find a translation in other words you've got the hebrew text and you've got the greek text let's try to translate that into english okay i don't want you interpreting it for me i don't want you doing my job for me i don't want you making judgment calls for me i simply want you to translate it now we have to understand that translators don't come to the task without any assumptions without any presuppositions without any sort of commitments theologically but insofar as we're able we should want translations that do just that translate the text don't interpret it don't paraphrase it don't make it mean something i was just somebody my son is as witness to a fellow and this fellow is starting to starting to read the bible and and micah told me he's reading the message and i texted him i said friends don't let friends read the message bible it's horrible brethren i'm sorry there are some obvious examples of things people shouldn't use and the message really changes the meanings of passages but when it comes to the major translations that are in play now that our translations i think we should engage in in some humility it was a joke earlier uh he's not here so i can say it my thought is if everybody turned out like steve lawson from reading the niv i will buy nivs for everybody so i mean it's it's done him okay it's it's done him just fine um but with reference to some it doesn't mean we can't have our preferences it doesn't mean we can't have things that we we like over other things but we should be humble when it comes to this and not be arrogant people that think that you know our bible fell out of heaven and and it's the only thing ever that that's just not a a healthy way to go and then finally or two final thoughts real quick actually i shouldn't real quick this maybe we'll we'll save this for next time because i think this analogy of scripture and analogy of faith are two very crucial sections in terms of the hermeneutical process any well i'll pray and then if there's any questions or comments our father we thank you for this time that we can discuss the confession of faith we thank you for your kindness to us and giving us the bible by inspiration we thank you for your sovereignty and your providence and the preservation of it we thank you for the sure uh con confirmation that we have that what we're reading in terms of english translations is what was given by the apostle paul under inspiration and we give all glory and honor and praise unto you for this wonderful fact and we pray now that you would go with us and to worship and help us to glorify and honor you and we pray through christ our lord amen