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IS THE
KJV INSPIRED?
Read what J. G. Machen has to say about this matter. (Pastor)
"Perhaps I can perform
a service by clearing away one or two of those misconceptions
now.
In the first place, then, let it be said that we believers in
the plenary inspiration of the Bible do not hold that the Authorized
Version or any other form of the English Bible is inspired. I
beg your pardon for saying anything so obvious as that, but, do
you know, my friends, it is necessary to say it. There are scarcely
any limits to the ignorance which is attributed to us today by
people who have never given themselves the trouble to discover
what our view really is. Let it be said then very plainly that
we do not hold that the Authorized Version or any other form of
the English Bible is inspired. We are really quite well aware
of the fact that the Bible was written in Hebrew and in Greek.
The Authorized Version is a translation from the Hebrew and the
Greek. It is a marvelously good translation, but it is not a perfect
translation. There are errors in it. The translators were not
supernaturally preserved from making mistakes. It is not inspired."
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John Gresham Machen (1881-1937),
was an American Presbyterian scholar and apologist. Born in Baltimore,
he was educated at Johns Hopkins, Princeton University and Theological
Seminary, Marburg, and Gottingen. He was ordained in 1914. He
taught NT at Princeton Seminary from 1906 to 1929, apart from
a brief period of YMCA service in France. As a defender of the
classic Reformed position, he was influenced by his teacher B.B.
Warfield. When Warfield died in 1921, the mantle of leadership
for the "Princeton Theology" fell upon Machen. He resigned
in 1929 due to the Liberal realignment of the seminary. Machen
was a principal founder of Westminster Theological Seminary (1929)
and what is now the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (1936). He served
as president and professor of NT at Westminster Theological Seminary
in Philadelphia, PA from 1929 to 1937.
In 1935 he was tried and found guilty of insubordination by a
presbytery convened at Trenton, New Jersey, on charges brought
by the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA.
It condemned him for activities in connection with an independent
mission board. He was forbidden to defend himself and was suspended
from the Presbyterian (PCUSA) ministry. Machen is regarded by
friend and foe as a leading conservative apologist in the modernist-fundamentalist
era. Among his most significant publications are The Origin of
Paul's Religion (1927); Christianity and Liberalism (1923): most
definitive of his thought; New Testament for Beginners (1923);
The Virgin Birth of Christ (1930) and What is Faith? (1925).
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Contact Pastor if you
wish to read the full article by J. G. Machen. By the way, Machen
has been highly regarded by the late Rev. Timothy Tow and the
B-P Church when he stood for the truth.
Be careful of people who tell you that they have the "perfect
Bible" or the "inspired Bible", which is the KJV.
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