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Question #10
QUESTION: What
does this statement mean? "The King James Bible was good enough for the
Apostle Paul, so it's good enough for me."
ANSWER: This statement
is usually made in a sarcastic manner in order to embarrass Bible
believers in their belief. The FACT is, the King James
Bible WAS good enough for Paul. (See Question #11) But
for now I'd like you to see that it was the only Bible that Luke
would use.
EXPLANATION: In Acts 1:
1,2 Luke makes the following statement: "The former treatise have I
made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy
Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:"
"The former treatise" is of course the Gospel of Luke which Luke wrote
to a believer named Theophilus. Theophilus was apparently an early
Christian who had never personally met the Lord while He was on this
earth. Considering, though, that he was the recipient of both the Gospel
of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, he was most certainly one of the
best informed.
Luke, in what may have been a passing comment, in the second verse of
Acts chapter one, rings the death blow to the famous Nestle's Greek New
Testament and also the New American Standard Version. Luke states that his
"former treatise" told of all that Jesus began to do, and continued,
"until the day in which he was taken up." The things which Jesus began to
do are first recorded in Luke 2:41-52 in which He was left behind in
Jerusalem when Joseph and His mother left to return to Nazareth. This
correlates with Acts 1:1. Luke's gospel is the only one of the four
gospels which records any of Christ's actions prior to His baptism at the
age of thirty years old. (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:9 and John 1:29-34)
Luke's gospel ends with Christ being "carried up into heaven " in Luke
24:51. This correlates with Acts 1:2 "Until the day in which he was taken
up."
Thus, Luke states that his gospel begins with the earliest acts of
Christ and ends with His ascension. Therefore, any Greek manuscript or
manuscripts, no matter what their age, containing the Gospel of Luke which
omits either of these accounts is not authentic. In an
examination of the 23rd Edition of Nestle's Greek Text we find that the
Greek words, "Kai anepheroto eis ton huranon," "and was carried up into
the heaven" are not found in this text.
The footnote in the critical apparatus indicates that the authority
for removing this phrase is no more than manuscript (MS) Sinaiticus, D,
one majuscule MS known as number 52 and one 5th century
palimpsect (a MS which has been erased and written over top of). The
phrase "and carried up into heaven" is found in B, C, E,
F, G, H, L, S, T, V, Y, Z, Delta, Theta, Psi, and Omega plus papyrus p75,
and most remaining witnesses. Yet on the basis of only two MSS the
conservative scholars of the secret Lockman Foundation have omitted this
phrase from Luke 24:51 in the New American Standard Version (NASV). Hence,
the NASV is not truly a reliable translation. In fact, of most modern
versions, only the "liberal" scholars of the Revised Standard Version
(RSV) agreed with the "conservative" scholars of the NASV in omitting the
phrase. Thus the known Communistic liberals of the RSV and the
conservatives of the NASV are in full agreement that Christ did not ascend
bodily into heaven.
So we see that if Luke, the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the book
of the Acts of the Apostles, could examine a King James Bible and a New
American Standard Version he would declare the New American Standard
Version a fraud and promptly proclaim the King James Bible as authentic.
Well, quite frankly, if it's good enough for Luke,
it's good enough for me.
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