ENDTIME ISSUES NEWSLETTER No. 181

“The Nature of the Bible:

Free from Errors or Full of Errors?

Samuele Bacchiocchi

Retired Professor of Theology, Andrews University

INDEX OF TOPICS OF THIS NEWSLETTER

* How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe

* A New Outreach Book: Popular Beliefs:

Are they Biblical?

* A New DVD Album: Abundant Life Seminar

“The Nature of the Bible: Free from Errors or Full of Errors?

(The Essay of this Newsletter)

ANNOUNCEMENT OF SERVICES & PRODUCTS

* Special offer on the Package of 10 DVD/CD albums,

containing all the recordings of Prof. Jon Paulien,

Prof, Graeme Bradford, and Prof. Bacchiocchi.

The package includes also the newly released DVD

Abundant Life Seminar.

* Introductory offer on Prof. Jon Paulien’s DVD album

on Simply Revelation

* Special offer on the new edition of Prof. Bradford

More than a Prophet, together with a free DVD album.

* Upcoming seminars for August, and September

* Incredible Offer on the new Hitachi 3000 Lumens Projector

Only $1395.00

* The Smallest and most Powerful Remote Presenter

* Does your church or School Need a Screen?

* Bed and Breakfast in London, England

* TAGNET new Web-hosting offer

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE

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NEW OUTREACH BOOK:

POPULAR BELIEFS: ARE THEY BIBLICAL?

GOOD NEWS! The newsletter you are about to read contains the first draft of chapter 1 of the new book POPULAR BELIEFS: ARE THEY BIBLICAL?

You will soon discover that it is a long but important chapter that lays the foundation for our examination of popular unbiblical beliefs. It is designed to help the reader understand the past and present attacks against the Bible by friends and foes.

A PLEA FOR HELP! If you have been gifted with literary skills, would you be willing to help me to clean up this first draft of chapter I. Specifically I am looking for people who can help me in two ways:

(1) To eliminate spelling mistakes and restructure sentences so that they sound more English than Italian.

(2) Ways to shorten this chapter. I have already deleted 15 pages from the original draft, but I need to shorten it more, without weakening too much the strength of the chapter. If you have time and competence to help me in this project, I would be glad to email you the chapter on a MW file, which is easier to correct. Feel free to contact me at sbacchiocchi@biblicalperspectives.com

Remember me in your prayers on this project as you did for my healing from cancer. I believe that the Lord have restored me to greater health and strength than I had before, because He wants me to accomplish greater things for Him in this Endtime. Pray that the Lord may give me the wisdom to expose errors and present the truth in a clear and loving way.

The ultimate goat of the book is not merely to expose the flaws of some popular beliefs, but to help people appreciate the biblical validity and timeliness of our Adventist beliefs. You will see a sample in this first chapter. After exposing the deceptive teachings of liberal scholars, conservative evangelicals, and Catholics regarding the nature of the Bible, I proceed to present the sound, biblical view of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

To my knowledge our Adventist church has never published a substantive book that helps people to understand the difference between our Adventist beliefs and those Catholic/Protestant churches. We can hardly expect people to accept our Adventist beliefs, if we do not show them first why their beliefs are unbiblical.

The book Seventh-day Adventist Believe . . . was warmly received by our church at large. I was invited to contribute to a chapter to the book. In my view the book makes a significant contribution, but it is too limited in scope. It simply presents the Adventist beliefs, without comparing or contrasting them with the beliefs of other churches. Uninformed readers may feel that Adventists beliefs are not much different from their own beliefs. The new book Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? will leave no room for this uncertainty. It will clearly show the difference between the Adventists beliefs and some popular Catholic and Protestant beliefs. In other words, it will give to people a choice between biblical and unbiblical beliefs. You will see a clear example in this chapter that you are about to read.

The sponsors of this project are hoping to cover most of the expenses for researching and printing 100,000 copies of Popular Beliefs: Are they Biblical? The idea is to offer the book to churches at a minimum cost of only $2.00 or 3.00 a copy, primarily to cover the mailing expenses. The regular price for this 320 pages book would be $25.00.

What do you think of this project? Do you feel that we badly need such a book for our witnessing outreach? Are you willing to pass out this book to your friends? Would you consider contributing financially to the realization of this project? Your input is greatly appreciated. Let me know what you think.

In order to complete this project by the end of February 2008, I need to re-prioritize my schedule. This will entail cutting down on speaking-engagements, posting the Endtime Issues Newsletters only once a month, and spending less time answering messages and speaking on the phone.

To benefit from the constructive criticism of our subscribers, I plan to post most of the chapters as soon as the first draft is completed. An example, is this chapter which examines the major false views of the nature of the Bible. I look forward to receive your constructive criticism. Do not hesitate to be frank. Rest assured that I will not be offended.

NEWLY RELEASED DVD ALBUM CALLED

ABUNDANT LIFE SEMINAR

At the request of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, a special video taping was professionally done at Andrews University last August 8, 2007, of my powerpoint lecture on The Christian and Alcoholic Beverages. The lecture summarizes the highlights of my book Wine in the Bible. With the help of 125 powerpoint slides, I share the findings of my research which shows that the Bible clearly teaches total abstinence, and not moderation.

This lecture will be delivered live at the International Convention of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU)–an organization which Ellen White actively supported. The President, Sarah Ward, has already invited me on two previous occasions. This year the International WWCTU is held in Indianapolis from September 14-16, 2007, and brings together Temperance Leaders from different parts of the world.

The delegates are eager to obtain the live video recording of my lecture on The Christian and Alcoholic Beverages, in order for them to share it with their congregations back home. For the benefit of our subscribers who will not be able to attend the convention, I posted in the last newsletter No. 179, a transcript of the lecture.

If you live in Indianapolis, you are welcomed to attend the convention. I am scheduled to deliver my lecture The Christian and Alcoholic Beverages on Sabbath morning, September 15, at 10:00 a. m. The convention is held at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, 2544 Executive Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46241. The hotel phone number is: (317) 248-2481. For directions and further detailed information, contact Sarah R. Ward, WWCTU President, at (765) 345-2306

In order to make full use of the DVD disk, we video taped on the same evening also a second powerpoint lecture entitled How to Build a Happy and Lasting Marriage. This is one of my favorite sermon where I share the highlights of my book The Marriage Covenant, by presenting 10 biblical principles for building a happy and lasting marriage. I use 100 powerpoint slides to deliver this practical lecture, which has been warmly received by congregations in different parts of the world.

At this time you can order this DVD album, called ABUNDANT LIFE SEMINAR, at the special introductory offer of only $50.00, instead of the regular price of $100.00. The price includes the AIRMAILING to any foreign country.

You can order the ABUNDANT LIFE DVD album online or by phone. To order online simply click at this link: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/cart/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=102 To order by phone, call us at (269) 471-2915.

THE NATURE OF THE BIBLE:

Free from Errors or Full of Errors?

Samuele Bacchiocchi

Retired Professor of Theology, Andrews University

Chapter 1 of the forthcoming book

POPULAR BELIEFS: ARE THEY BIBLICAL?

The logical starting point of our examination of the biblical validity of some popular beliefs, is a study of the prevailing views of the nature of the Bible itself. This is an important starting point, because what people believe about the nature of the Bible, ultimately determines how they define and test their beliefs.

There are two major views of the nature of the Bible. They are known as “biblical errancy,” that is, “the Bible is full of errors,” and “biblical inerrancy,” that is, “the Bible is free from errors.” Each of these views is subject to a variety of interpretations. For the purpose of our study, we will limit our analysis to the main teachings of each view.

Biblical errancy is the view of liberal critics who maintain that the Bible is a strictly human, error-ridden book, devoid of supernatural revelations and miraculous manifestations. Consequently, the Old and New Testaments are strictly human literary productions that partake of the shortcomings of their human authors.

By contrast, conservative evangelicals believe in the total inerrancy of the Bible. They affirm that the Bible is absolutely inerrant, that is, without error in its original manuscripts. For some, the inerrancy of the Bible extends to every reference to history, geography, chronology, cosmology, and science.

This chapter endeavors to show that both the errancy and inerrancy beliefs undermine the authority of the Bible by making it either too-human or too-divine. This reminds us that heresies come in different forms. Sometimes they openly reject biblical authority and teachings, while at other times they subtly distort scriptural authority and teachings.

Objectives of the Chapter

This chapter examines the controversy over the errancy/inerrancy of the Bible. These opposing popular beliefs are championed by liberal critics on the one hand and by conservative evangelicals on the other. Our procedure will be first to trace briefly the historical origin of each movement and then to evaluate their teachings from a biblical perspective.

To place the current controversy in a historical perspective, brief mention will be made of how the circulation of the Bible has been opposed outside and inside the church. This will help us to understand the relentless efforts of the Evil One to prevent the message of God’s revelation from reaching sincere people.

The chapter is divided in four parts. The first mentions briefly some past attempts to prevent the circulation of the Bible by Roman Emperors, the Catholic Church, English kings, Protestant church leaders, and communists governments.

The second part examines Biblical Criticism—commonly known as Higher Criticism. This movement has been largely responsible during the past three centuries for undermining biblical authority.

The third part looks at the popular belief in biblical inerrancy as taught by a large number of evangelicals who maintain that God guided the minds of the Bible writers in such a way that they were prevented from making any error. For many the Bible is supposed to be without error, not only with respect to religious teachings, but also in such areas as geography, astronomy, history, chronology, and the natural sciences. We will show that this teaching overlooks the human dimension of Scripture.

The last part sets forth the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the inspiration and authority of the Bible. We shall see that Adventists hold to a balanced view of the inspiration of the Bible, by acknowledging that its source is divine, the writers are human, and their writings contain divine thoughts in human language. Properly understood the humanity of the Bible enhances its divine origin and authority.

Part I

HISTORICAL ATTACKS AGAINST THE BIBLE

Roman Emperors Attempted to Destroy the Bible

During the first three centuries some Roman emperors sought to uproot Christianity by destroying the Bible. For example, on February 23, 303 A. D. emperor Diocletian decreed that every copy of the Bible was to be handed over to the Roman police to be burned. Thousands of valuable Biblical manuscripts were burned in public squares. Some Christians lost their lives for refusing to hand over their Bibles.

The aim of the imperial decree was to eliminate the presence of the Christian religion by suppressing its guiding light and normative authority. The reason given by leading philosophers and government officials was that Christianity was largely responsible for the socio-economic crises that were plaguing the empire at that time.

The Bible Outlawed in Moslem Countries

With the rise of Islam in the seventh century, the Bible has been consistently outlawed in strict Moslem countries. To this very day distribution of Bibles is strictly forbidden in Moslem countries. Countless Christians have lost their lives for attempting to distribute Bible and/or share its teachings to receptive Moslems.

The success of ruthless Moslem rulers to uproot the Bible and Christianity is evident in the countries they conquered. For example, prior to the Moslem conquest of the seventh century, the North African countries of Lybia, Tunisia, Marocco, Algeria, were flourishing Christian nations that produced such church leaders as Augustine and Tertullian. Today, Christians and the Bible are practically non-existent in these countries.

The circulation of the Bible has also suffered from within Christianity at the hands of the Catholic Church, English kings, and Protestant church leaders. More recently, communist regimes also have attempted to prevent the circulation of the Bible and to discredit its teachings. Each of the above powers in different ways have assailed the Bible by preventing its circulation among the laity.

Catholic Attempts to Prevent the Reading of the Bible

Historically the Catholic Church has been opposed to the translation of the Bible in the common languages of the people and to its circulation among the laity. The right to read and teach the Bible was reserved to the clergy.

For example, the Synod of Toulouse in 1229 A. D., presided over by a papal legate, celebrated the close of the Albigensian crusades by perfecting the code of the Inquisition and forbidding lay Christians to possess copies of the Bible. Canon 14 reads: “We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; unless anyone from motive of devotion should wish to have the Psalter [Psalms] or the Breviary for divine offices or the hours of the blessed Virgin; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.”¹

A similar decree was promulgated at the Council of Tarragona in A. D. 1234. The Second Canon rules that “No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after the promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned . . .”²

In its fourth session, the Council of Trent (8 April 1546) reiterated the unmistakable Catholic opposition to the distribution of Scriptures by Bible Societies because “It is manifest, from experience, that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue [common language], be indiscriminately allowed to everyone, the temerity of men will cause more evil than good to arise from it”³

In his two encyclicals Qui Pluribus and Nostis et Nobiscum, promulgated respectively on November 9, 1846 and December 8, 1848, Pope Pius IX warned the Italian Archibishops and Bishops against the Bible Societies, saying: “Under the protection of the Bible Societies which have long since been condemned by this Holy See, they distribute to the faithful under the pretext of religion, the Holy Bible in vernacular translations. Since these infringe the Church’s rules, they are consequently subverted and most daringly twisted to yield a vile meaning. So you realize very well what vigilant and careful efforts you must make to inspire in your faithful people an utter horror of reading these pestilential books. Remind them explicitly with regard to divine scripture that no man, relying on his own wisdom, is able to claim the privilege of rashly twisting the scriptures to his own meaning in opposition to the meaning which holy mother Church holds and has held.”⁴

By calling the Bibles distributed by Bible Societies “pestilential books” to be treated by faithful Catholics with “utter horror,” Pious IX clearly expresses the historic Catholic condemnation of the reading of the Bible by lay people. The reason is the reading of the Bible has led countless Catholics to discover that their fundamental beliefs are based on ecclesiastical tradition rather than biblical authority.

The Waldenses Persecuted for Distributing the Bible

For centuries the Waldenses faced physical, civil, and economic persecutions at the hand of the Catholic House of Savoy for translating and distributing portions of the Bible. The most cruel massacre of the innocent Waldenses took place in the Italian Piedmont valleys in 1655 by the army of Charles Emmanuel II, the Catholic Duke of Savoy. The whole Protestant world was shocked by this brutal massacre. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658), Lord Protector of England, protested vigoriously and John Milton, his foreign secretary and poet, dedicated this famous sonnet of Paradise Lost to the thousand of slaughtered Waldenses.

“Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold,

Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones.”

The Bible in the Experience of our Family in Italy

Incidentally, it was a Waldensian fellow carpenter who loaned a Bible to my father, while he was still a young devout Catholic. Reading that Bible proved to be a turning point in my father’s religious experience, as well as in the future of our family. When father sought the help of a priest to clarify Bible texts which contradicted Catholic teachings, the priest abruptly snatched away the Bible from my father’s hands, saying: “This book will breed only confusion and unrest to your soul. Leave it with me.” My father lost his Bible and had great difficulty in buying another copy, because the main supplier was the British and Foreign Bible Society which operated secretly out of a nameless apartment.

I experienced first hand the same Catholic opposition to the circulation of the Bible during the four Summers I spent in Italy (1952-1956) selling Bibles supplied to me by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Each Summer I earned a scholarship to attend our Academy in Florence by selling Bibles and religious books. On numerous occasions devout Catholics frantically sought me out to take back the Bibles they bought, because their priest told them that they were Protestant Bibles that would contaminate their home.

It is only since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) that the Catholic Church has encouraged its members to read annotated Catholic Bibles. This recent decision has not significantly increased the reading of the Bible by Catholic, because in Catholic countries the Bible is still perceived to be a book for priests to read. The result is that for the vast majority of Catholics are still biblically illiterate.

Protestants’ Attempts to Prevent the Circulation of the Bible

Surprisingly, even Protestant rulers and church leaders have attempted to prevent the translation and circulation of the Bible. For example, Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, strongly opposed the efforts of William Tyndale (1494-1536) to translate and publish the Bible in English.

Tyndale, a brilliant Bible scholar trained at Oxford and Cambridge, was greatly distressed by the ignorance of the clergy and laity about the Bible. He determined to educate the English people about the Word of God by translating it in their own language. But, he faced enormous opposition from both secular and religious powers in England. Consequently, he was forced to go to Germany to continue his English translation of the New Testament.

In 1526 the first 3000 copies of the octavo edition of Tyndale’s English New Testament were published in Worms, Germany. When copies reached England, Bishop Tunstall ordered them to be collected and burned at St. Paul’s Cross in London. Eventually, Tyndale’s New Testament became the basis for the King James translation.

Tyndale was relentlessy attacked for daring to translate the Bible into English. He was attacked not only by London Bishop Tunstall, but also by William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and by Thomas Moore, the Chancellor of the English Parliament. These men sent secret agents to trap him as he moved around from his Antwerp base. He was finally arrested and imprisoned in the Castle of Vilvorde, a few miles from Brussels. Early in October 1536 he was strangled in the courtyard of the castle. The effectiveness of the opposition to Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament was such, that of the 18,000 copies that were smuggled to England, only two known copies remain.

Communists Attacks Against the Bible

In the past 100 years Communist governments have attempted to discredit the Bible and to prevent its circulation in their countries. They have used both educational and legal measures. Educationally, people have been taught that the Bible is a superstitious fairy tale book to be rejected by enlightened communist minds. Legally, many people have been arrested and imprisoned for attempting to smuggle Bibles into communist countries.

Autocratic political and religious systems feel threatened by the Bible because its message summons people to give priority to God in their thinking and living. When people accept the God of biblical revelation, making Him first and supreme in their lives, they will not give in to the demands of autocratic political or religious rulers who want the absolute allegiance to their persons, teachings, or parties.

Conclusion. The past attempts to suppress the Bible by burning it or banning it, have proven to be futile. Christians have been willing to suffer torture and death, rather than denying its truths which made them free. The Bible remains unchallenged year after year as the world’s best seller. It is still the greatest force for the moral renewal of our human society.

Voltaire, the noted French infidel who died in 1778, predicted that within 100 years Christianity would be extinct. Instead, the irony of history is that twenty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society used his very house and printing presses to publish copies of the Bible! No other book in history has been so hated, burned, and banned. Yet it still survives today and reaches almost all the people of the world with its close to 2000 translations. Its moral principles still serve as the moral foundation of many societies.

Part 2

BIBLICAL ERRANCY

The failure of the past attempts to prevent the circulation of the Bible has not weakened the Devil’s determination to destroy its authority and influence. During the past three centuries he has adopted a new strategy which has almost destroyed the high view of the Bible previously held in the Christian world. The result has been a theological crisis of unprecedented proportions. This crisis has been precipitated by the introduction of a new method of investigating the Bible known as “Biblical Criticism,” or “Higher Criticism.”

Definition of Biblical Criticism

The term “Biblical Criticism” describes the application of the modern literary and historical-critical methods to the study of the Bible. It critically analyses the biblical text with the aim of identifying literary sources, the manner and date of composition, conjecturing the authorship, and the literary development of the text.