In our last article we discussed the matter of apostasy
and its roots or sources. We pointed out that the modern
approach taken by Christian colleges and universities (and
many fundamental churches and Bible institutes) is that
apostasy is HERE, but no one can find out HOW IT GOT HERE.
Various straw dummies are erected and attacked as though they
were the cause of the devilment. The most common of these
straw men is the teaching that apostates deny the Deity of
Christ or the Virgin Birth or the "verbal plenary inspiration
of the ORIGINALS." This fails to deal with the problem on a
Biblical basis: That is, the modern method of "taking a
stand" and "defending the faith" begins by AVOIDING THE
BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF THE PROBLEM. (See any apologetic work
by any faculty member at Bob Jones University, Tennessee
Temple, Pensacola Christian College, Hyles-Anderson, etc.)
The problem is defined in the Bible in Genesis 3:1-4.
No analysis of apostasy is scriptural or even reasonable
if it does not begin by presenting three terrible truths:
1. Infidelity and apostasy begin with a man made in the
image of God and a woman made from that man. They are
separted from every type of "worldliness," and they are in
fellowship with God DAILY. That is, they are more "godly"
than R.A. Torrey, J.G. Machen, Robert Dick Wilson, Kenneth
Wuest, A.T. Robertson, Nestle, Aland, Metzger, Westcott, and
Hort, or any 4,000 other Greek scholars or fundamentalists.
2. Infidelity and apostasy are never conceived (or
"hatched") by denying the "faith" or the "fundamentals of the
faith." They are hatched by QUESTIONING WHAT GOD SAID
(Genesis 3:1-3).
3. This questioning begins with subtracting from the
word of God (Genesis 2, 3). Eve omitted "freely" because she
believed that the "original" was an expanded or a "conflate"
text, smoothed out by combining a "number of sources," etc.
That is, she approached what God said, as the revision
committees of 1881, 1884, 1901, 1953, 1959, 1970, 1973, and
1978 approach the problem of TRUTH.
Now the Devil didn't LIE (Genesis 3) until he had first
QUESTIONED. No apostate lies about the "fundamentals of the
faith" until he first questions the SOURCE that these
"fundamentals" came from. That is, the liberal or the
modernist is at the END of the line of apostasy, not at the
beginning. Whart we are concerned with is "How does it
START?" There is nothing in George Dollar's A HISTORY OF
FUNDAMENTALISM IN AMERICA that sheds any light on this
important question. Why is this?
The reason is that every "recognized" church historian
and Christian "scholar" is a member of a CULT. This cult is
the Alexandrian Cult of North Africa, and its tentacles
stretch from Origen (184-254 A.D.) to John R. Rice and the
faculty members of every "recognized" Christian school in the
world.
Now returning to the means for identifying the cult.
There are seven lies to which the cult members resort in
order to deceive the seeker of truth. We shall list them
again and trust the reader will memorize them so that he can
spot the cultist when he begins the "party line."
1. "THE ORIGINAL GREEK TEXT says..." This is an "out
and out" lie. No one has ever seen the original Greek text,
and not even a member of the Alexandrian Cult could know what
it said.
2. "THE GREEK TEXT says..." Out and out lying again.
There is no such thing as "THE" Greek text. The cult members
who use this cliche are always upset about the use or non-use
of the "article" in the TEXTUS RECEPTUS. That is, they are
inconsistent hypocrites.
3. "THE BEST MANUSCRIPTS read..." A lie. The two
manuscripts which the cult members cite are Sinaiticus and
Vaticanus, which contain New Testament Apocrypha and Old
Testament Apocrypha and have more erros, variations and
scribal blunders per page than any other manuscripts known to
textual criticism. (See Zane Hodges, cited in WHICH BIBLE?
by D.O. Fuller and BELIEVING BIBLE STUDY by Dr. Edward
Hills.)
4. "Only the original manuscripts are inspired." A
gross falsehood. The verse used for a proof text is II
Timothy 3:16, and the context of II Timothy 3:16 is II
Timothy 3:15. The word "scripture" is not used even once in
Acts 8, II Timothy, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John as referring
to "original manuscripts." The "scriptures" in the New
Testament are things that people SEE, READ, and ACT ON.
5. "Erasmus' Greek text is a Roman Cahtolic text."
Gross lying. No Catholic scholar would dare recommend any
edition of the Textus Receptus in Greek, or in any
translation. All Catholic scholars in the twentieth century
recommend the Vatican Greek text of the New ASV and the old
ASV. The Roman Catholic text of the Jesuit Bible (1582) is a
Greek text used by scholars at Tennessee Temple and Bob Jones
University to altar the AV in 5,000 places in the New
Testament. (You understand, however, that for MONETARY
purposes--enrollment and endowment--both schools "USE" the AV
because they "PREFER" it. You have to "prefer" your income
even if you would like to alter your "life style.")
6. "Westcott and Hort were brilliant Biblical
scholars." There is no evidence that either man was saved;
there is no evidence that either man believed that the Bible
was inspired at any time--past, present, or future. There is
no evidence that either man knew any more about BIBLE
scholarship than did any Pope before 1850. (See TRUE OR
FALSE? by D.O. Fuller and THE REVISION REVISED, by Dean
Burgon.)
7. "If `good men' (Torrey, Rice, Spurgeon, etc.)
correct the Bible, you may correct it too." All "good" men
have an odd nature. One must not follow the machinations of
the old nature in any "good" man nomatter how "good" he is
(Mark 10:18). David was an ultra fundamentalist and a godly
man after God's own heart, but would you trust him with your
wife? Why?
Now, having observed that the Alexandrian Cult members
are professional liars--that is, THEY GET PAID A SALARY FOR
TEACHING THE THINGS LISTED ABOVE--we shall pinpoint the exact
starting point for apostasy in any age, where it clearly can
be identified from a BIBLICAL standpoint, by the Scriptures,
with clear cut statements in regard to the matter. That is,
all APOSTASY within or without the Body of Christ begins with
ONE SIMPLE OPERATION WHICH ANYONE CAN SPOT WITHOUT THE
BENEFIT OF A HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION.
Are you ready? (This will be the great issue which is
avoided in all of the history books and all of the apologetic
works by every Fundamentalist and Conservative from Augustine
to Reuben Olson.)
All apostasy begins, after questioning the word of God,
with the elevation or recommendation of more than ONE final
authority.
Now, it is as simple as that. Every apostate began by
recommending TWO authorities that CONFLICTED. In Genesis
3:1-3 the two authorities are clearly presented and clearly
in conflict. This operation has not ceased once since that
day, and it is just as clear in America in 1978 as it was in
3,000 B.C. There is no way that a Christian can go into
apostasy as long as he submits to the Holy Bible as the ONE
FINAL AUTHORITY and refuses to accept any other in its place
or on an equal level with it.
We shall deal with this at great length in our next
article on the Alexandrian Cult. Suffice it to say here that
if PHILOSOPHY (Colossians 2:8) is an equal authority with the
Bible, the student will eventually abandon the Bible. The
Bible is a Holy Book: Men are UNHOLY, and even SAVED men
have an UNHOLY OLD NATURE. No man has to "work at it" to
doubt the Bible. Everything in his old nature tends in that
direction; all he needs is "helps." The "helps" come from
Christian scholarship and Christian education, and they form
an unbroken chain of infidelity from the first Christian
University at Alexandria (Pantaenus, Clement, Origen, etc.)
to the last monument built in America at the expense of the
foreign mission field.