THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS

GOD'S PRESERVED WORD

Psalm 12:6-7 "The words of the Lord are pure words: As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thous shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shal preserve them from this generation forever."

God has made many promises in the Bible. We know that God can not lie, so all his promises must be true. Here in Psalm 12:6-7 we have a promise that God would preserve His Word forever. That means that today we have the Word of God at our disposal, the preserved Word of God!

THE CONFUSION

Look at the Christian book store and count the number of translations of the Bible. There are comic versions, condensed version, revised versions, expanded versions and the popular paraphrase perversions. What is God's Word?

THE CAUSE

For years the Devil and his crowd have have done their best to destroy the Bible. It has been outlawed, readers have been killed, printers and their equipment have been destroyed. The Devil learned that he could not destroy God's Word, so he now is trying to corrupt and confuse it to the point that people doubt the Bible when they read it.

Some people say the King James Version is too hard to understand, and that it must be changed. Others say that it is no longer accurate because better Greek texts are now available. Other men claim to have older texts than those used to do the translation work for the King James Version.

The National Organization of Women is pushing a version of the Bible that will take out all "He" references to God. They feel that this is a sexist word that should not be used in reference to our Creator.

Martin Luther said: "My conscience is subject to the Word of God," Satan is not able to ruin a person who will accept the Bible at face value and seek to live by its principles, so Satan's goal then is to shake a person's faith in God's written Word. If a person begins to look at the Bible as a fallible book that only "contains" some truth, then he will begin to look for truth in alternative areas, such as "socially accepted ideas."

Psalm 11:3 says: "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Will the righteous stand up and be counted, burned at the stake, go to jail for their faith? Not if they doubt the very Book for which they suffer.

THE CURE

Did God write a Book? If so, where is it? Modern scholars would say that we have something very close to God's Word in the most recent translations. But where is God's Word? Didn't God promise that He would preserve it?

I Peter 1:25 "But the Word of the Lord ENDURETH forever..."

Luke 21:33 "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words SHALL NOT PASS AWAY."

What was promised to be preserved? The ideas? The paragraphs? THE WORDS! We have the Bible as it was written in the Textus Receptus. We have the Bible in any other language as long as it is faithfully translated from the Textus Receptus. The King James Version is the only Bible in the English language today that has been translated from the Textus Receptus.

WHAT IS THE TEXTUS RECEPTUS?

We must start with the Word of God as it was first written down under the leading of the Holy Spirit (I Peter 1:19-21). The first written words we will call the Autograph. Paul wrote the book of Romans and sent it to the church that was in Rome. They read it and said: "This isn't of Paul, this is of God. Let's make copies and send them to our friends." Each of these copies were then copied again and again as time progressed and the churches grew. Everyone wanted to have copies of God's Word.

Remember that God promised to preserve His Word. Some of the men making the copies may have mistaken a word or two as they copied. This would produce a corrupt copy in that one place. Other men, who didn't like the hard preaching of some of the apostles, might have left out some parts on purpose, as spoken of in I Peter 3:16. These men on purpose corrupted the Word of God in writing. Today we have over 5,000 copies of manuscripts of the Bible copied in the first to the twelfth centuries after Christ. Each of these copies may contain words or phrases that are different. Which text is the real preserved Word of God?

THE MAJORITY TEXT PRINCIPLE

If one will place all the texts along side each other and then see the most common words, he will see the truth through the error. One error by one man can never outnumber the truth presented by the majority. Remember that God promised that He would preserve His Word. This is a Biblical principle, as shown in Deuteronomy 19:15, Matthew 18:16 and II Corinthians 13:1.

The Bible way to determine truth is to collect all the witnesses and examine the facts that each one has and trust the things that the majority agree upon. All men at the beginning had the truth. As error began to creep in, a need appeared to find the truth again. As far back as the Syriac text in A. D. 150, this majority text principle was used as the common way to find the truth.

All of the texts were put together and the agreeing words were recorded, and God's Word was considered complete. Textus Receptus is a Latin term meaning: "Text Received", or "Text Approved", or "Text Accepted". This name was placed on the text in 1624 by the first men who put it into print in one volume. In 1624 this was the text that had long been accepted. Prior to that time it was called: The Majority Text. In the preface to the Greek text the publishers wrote: "The text which is now received by all, in which we give nothing altered or corrupt."

WHICH IS THE BEST TEXT?

What does it mean in modern versions when someone says: "based on the oldest texts," or "based on the best texts"? Men who say that have used as their sole reference for a Bible translation a Greek text that is very well preserved, or that is very old. These men have chosen to ignore the majority of texts available. The texts they focus on often teach great heresy. The quality of these ancient texts shows that they were not used very often, indicating that people did not trust them. Why would these texts be so different from the rest? One of the most popular of the "ancient texts" was found in a trash can of a monastery. The good condition it was in proved that few people trusted it enough to read it. Good books get read!

If 5,000 texts are available and they differ from each other, how has God preserved His Word?

DOING IT GOD'S WAY

As you examine the exercise below concerning the majority text principle, you will note that none of the fifteen examples is exactly right. Many of them make glaring errors that change doctrine. You will find, however, that as you faithfully work the Majority Text Principle, the original will be produced. The real text is preserved in all of the available texts. The real words will be established by the majority of witnesses.

This exercise uses fifteen examples that vary by 20%, and yet you will easily come up with the truth. In the 5,000 texts of the Bible, there is only a 3% deviation. The truth is easy to find through the Majority Text Principle. God does not break His promises! He has preserved His Word! No one man can take credit for the discovery, it is everywhere. God has reserved for Himself the glory, not for the discovery, but for the preservation. The oldest may be corrupt, but in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established.

.EXERCISE IN FINDING THE ORIGINAL BY COMPARING COPIES

(MAJORITY TEXT PRINCIPLE)

(CLICK THE F11 KEY TO MAXIMIZE SCREEN SIZE FOR THIS EXERCISE)

Now, please complete by comparing each one, word by word, and putting the word used by the majority at the bottom. The first word is done for you.

None of these copies represent an exact copy of the "Autograph". After copying each word that appears the majority of times, refer to Jeremiah 23:23 (the Autograph).

(copied)

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