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WHICH HOLY BOOK IS THE WORD OF GOD
CHAPTER 15
HAS THE BIBLE BEEN ALTERED
We have seen from fulfillment of numerous prophesied events in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible that its words are backed by the power of Almighty God. But does it mean that all its words are the true words of God so that we can believe what it offers us as salvation, and we can safely follow all its instructions on how to live our lives?
The scriptures of other religions do not mention the Bible or Christianity, but the scripture of one of them boldly dares to state that the words of the Bible were altered and the version we now have is not the original inspired word. And that religion is Islam and their holy book the Koran. However, we have already proved that the so-called holy books of all religions except the Bible are not backed by the power of Almighty God, because they fail our test of foretelling numerous great events in human affairs and bringing them to pass in precise detail. The holy books of all other religions are mere philosophies of men or they are outright lies inspired by wicked spirits.
What else can we expect from a religion that is based on lies? Simply more lies to cast doubts in the minds of the gullible about the true religion and the true holy book. Just as Hinduism, Sikhism, and all the other isms are philosophies of men, Islam is a colossal lie. But it is the worst of all lies because it dares to directly attack the Bible which we have proved to be backed by the power of Almighty God. Since the Koran was revealed to Mohammad by a spirit being, that spirit being, who is none other than Satan the devil, or a demon representing Satan, is a liar. Only a diabolical lying spirit would seek with all his cunning craftiness to discredit the Bible to turn humanity away from the Almighty God and His truth.
General Muslim Views and Disagreements with Christianity
Islam has certain beliefs about their prophet Mohammad and the Koran. They also have certain beliefs about God, Jesus Christ, the Trinity, other prophets in the Bible, Christianity, Judaism and the Bible itself. Some of these major beliefs include:
1) Muslims regard the Bible as a holy scripture. But they believe that the Bible as we have it today has been corrupted, but not completely. So it still contains some truth. Muslims are willing to accept parts of the Bible that do not contradict the Koran. They reject all other parts of the Bible that contradict the Koran.
2) Islam believes that there is only one God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Islam also holds the view that Christianity believes in a Triune God that exists as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, which Islam rejects. God’s Church rejects both these views.
3) Since Islam believes there is only one God, therefore Jesus Christ cannot be divine, meaning that Jesus Christ was not God. Islam believes that Jesus Christ was a mere human being though a great one, and miraculously born to Mary without a human father as Adam and Eve were miraculously created directly by God. But the divinity of Jesus Christ is central to Christianity, because He could not have been the Savior of the world if He was not divine.
4) Islam believes that Jesus did not die on the cross, but God made it appear that way to people. Furthermore, since Jesus did not die on the cross, He was not resurrected. The Koran instead says that Jesus ascended to Heaven and did not die on the cross.
But fundamental to Christianity is the belief that Jesus was crucified and died on the cross to bear the sins of all of humanity and was resurrected. Mainstream Christianity believes that Jesus died on the cross on Friday late afternoon, was placed in the tomb but was resurrected on Sunday morning at sunrise. Islam finds that this view contradicts the Bible as Jesus said He would be 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb. Three days and three nights cannot be fitted between a Friday crucifixion and death and Sunday resurrection at sunrise. Islam is right on this one. But mainstream Christianity’s belief in a Friday afternoon crucifixion and Sunday morning resurrection is not based on the Bible but has been incorporated into Christianity from pagan customs and traditions foisted on Christianity by the false Roman Church.
5) Islam believes that God sent prophets of the Old Testament in the Bible, and Jesus Christ and the prophet Mohammad. But Christianity rejects Mohammad as a prophet of God. Since we have proved that the words of the Koran are not backed by the power of Almighty God as it has utterly failed to provide proof of many prophetic predictions in the affairs of mankind and then bringing them to pass, Mohammad therefore cannot be a prophet of God. He was simply a deceived human being, deceived by a demon masquerading around as the archangel Gabriel.
Prophets either foretell the future or interpret prophecies of the future. Mohammad did no such thing. That’s why Christians and Jews are right in rejecting Mohammad as a prophet of the true God.
Muslim writers provide evidence for their beliefs about Christianity and the Bible by taking a scripture here and there (often out of context) to prove a point while totally ignoring all other scriptures related to that topic.
Scriptures taken in isolation, out of their context can be used to prove many different things. But that is not truth as that belief would directly contradict many other plain scriptures. And citing the writings of so-called Christian writers is not necessarily proof because such authorities may not believe true Christianity. They may be believers and practitioners of the lies and paganism originated and propagated by the great false Church based in Rome and its protesting daughters.
The correct way to research a topic is to study all the scriptures on the topic and then form one’s belief that is compatible with all the scriptures. We would counsel Muslims to do a diligent study of various subjects rather than simply accepting conclusions that a writer may have drawn based on twisting of select scriptures considered in isolation. A seeker after the truth must prove all things, for these are issues that concern his or her eternal life. Keep an open mind and ask the only true God to guide your understanding to enable you to prove all things for yourself.
Let’s now examine each of the beliefs that Muslims hold about Christianity, Judaism and the Bible.
Was the Bible Altered
The Koran states that the Jews altered the scriptures.
[2.75]: Do you then hope that they [the Jews] would believe in you, and a party from among them indeed used to hear the Word of Allah, then altered it after they had understood it, and they know (this).
[3.78]: Most surely there is a party amongst those who distort the Book with their tongue that you may consider it to be (a part) of the Book, and they say, It is from Allah, while it is not from Allah, and they tell a lie against Allah whilst they know.
Both verses allude to the Jews having altered the Scriptures, and many in Islam interpret these verses this way to justify their beliefs that are contrary to the Bible.
Again, why should we believe these verses in the Koran? We have proved that the words of the Koran have not been inspired or backed by the power of Almighty God. Since the salvation offered by Islam differs from the salvation offered in the Bible, and we have proved the words of the Bible to be backed by the power of Almighty God, the words in the Koran therefore stand proved as lies. The charge that the Jews altered their scriptures is just another pack of lies written in the Koran. The lies in Koran are designed to turn Islamic nations into enemies of Israelite nations of America, British Commonwealth nations and the Jews by portraying them as liars, hence inferior humans.
Allah Claims He Deceived the Jews
In Sura 4:157-158 in the Koran Allah of Islam said: “…they [the Jews] did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them so they killed him not for sure. 158 Nay! Allah took him up to Himself”.
Yusuf Ali’s translation renders the words “but it appeared to them so” as “so it was made to appear to them.” This is also how Muslims interpret this passage. They say that Allah made it appear to the Jews and others who witnessed the event that Jesus was crucified and died on the cross. But He was not actually crucified and did not die because Allah made Him ascend to himself.
Why would Allah feel the need to deceive the Jews into seeing Jesus crucified and dying on the cross, but actually take Him off to ascend to himself? Why would Allah need to deceive anybody? Allah in this verse in the Koran thus claims he is a deceiver. That actually is the truth. In contrast to the God of the Bible who cannot lie, the Allah of Islam actually claims in Sura 4:157-158 that he deceived the Jews [this is how Muslims interpret these verses] into believing that Jesus was crucified and died on the cross when he actually made Him ascend to himself. The Allah of Islam thus stands exposed as a deceiver. In truth he is deceiving his Muslim followers with his lies in the Koran.
It is tragic that Muslims are willing to accept one mere statement in the Koran in Sura 4:157-158 that Jesus was not crucified and did not die on the cross. They need to critically examine the evidence for the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ and reject the lies in the Koran as told to Mohammed by a lying demon masquerading as the archangel Gabriel. The one who masquerades around as the Allah of Islam is none other than Satan the devil.
How can we prove that the entire Bible as we have it today is indeed inspired by the great Creator God? Whose words can we accept as truth? Certainly, we can accept the words of the true prophets of God which Islam acknowledges as prophets. Islam acknowledges Jesus Christ as a true prophet of God. We should certainly be able to accept the words of Jesus Christ about the Old Testament as truth. They know that Jesus Christ would not lie.
As already discussed earlier, Jesus said in John 17:17: “…your word is truth.” So, Jesus emphatically said that God’s word, the Old Testament in the Bible (which is what was available as scripture when Jesus Christ was alive) is the truth.
Jesus also said in Matthew 5:17-18: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily [or assuredly] I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle [the equivalent of a fullstop or a coma as punctuation marks] shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Here Jesus was saying that everything written in the Old Testament, including punctuation marks, will be fulfilled. Therefore, it is the truth backed by Almighty God.
Jesus also said in John 10:35: “If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken.” Here Jesus was saying that the scriptures cannot be broken, meaning that the scriptures are infallible. By the time of Jesus, the Old Testament scriptures had been written and preserved for a time period varying from more than 1450 years when Moses delivered his first 5 books of the Bible to about 450 years since Malachi the prophet wrote his book. Jesus thus confirmed that the Old Testament had been faithfully preserved by the Jews till His time. Thus, Allah of Islam stands exposed as a liar by contradicting the words of Jesus about the Bible.
How Was the Bible Written and Preserved
Another important question for us to consider is: How was the Bible written and preserved for us through thousands of years?
Romans 3:1-2 states: “1 What advantage then has the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? 2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”
These verses say that God gave the Jews the responsibility of preserving the oracles of God. Oracles means “all the written utterances of God through the Old Testament writers.” Note that God said the Jews were responsible for the preservation of the Bible, not the interpretation of it. In the New Testament, Christ often rejected the Jews’ interpretations. After His death, the elders met together and used God’s Holy Spirit to make judgments as described in the apostles’ conference in Acts 15 to discuss the circumcision question.
Did the Jews faithfully preserve the Old Testament? Matthew 5:18 says so. It says: “For verily [or truly] I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Jesus said even the equivalent of every comma and full stop in the Bible shall stand. That means the Jews did faithfully preserve the Old Testament.
The Jewish scribes were extremely careful and reverent in preserving the Bible. If they found even one error in a copy from the original, the copy was burnt rather than corrections being made to it. They also kept statistics such as identifying the total number of words in various books, the middle words, and the total words in the whole Old Testament and the middle words etc. so as to provide another way to verify no changes crept in from the original text.
Old Testament Canonization
Now let us take a brief look at how the Old Testament of the Bible was canonized.
Moses wrote the first five books, called the Law in Deuteronomy 31:9. 24-26. Kings of Israel and Judah were to write personal copies of the law as stated in Deuteronomy 17:14, 18. So kings were involved in the preservation of the Scriptures.
Prophets, including Samuel, Nathan, and Gad also wrote parts of the Old Testament, as I Samuel 10:25 and I Chronicles 29:29 mention. King David wrote many of the psalms, specially the first 72 of them. King Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes (Ecclesiastes 1:1), the Song of Solomon (1.1) and most of the book of Proverbs (1.1; Ecclesiastes 12:9-11). King Hezekiah appears to have overseen the collection and preservation of some of the books as Proverbs 25:1states.
Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations on the death of Josiah as 2 Chronicles 35:24-25 mentions.
Ezra and Nehemiah probably did the final editing, adding observations such as Deuteronomy 34:10 which says that a prophet like Moses had not arisen in Israel. Names of towns and cities change over time. So more modern names were used by the editors than what the original authors wrote.
New Testament Canonization
In Matthew 24:35 Jesus Christ said, “My words will by no means pass away.” If Jesus Christ’s words were not to pass away, how could they be preserved? There are limitations to passing His words on orally. They get distorted. The best way to preserve Jesus’ words was to write them down.
Matthew 28:19-20 says converts to Christianity were to be taught to observe ALL THINGS Jesus had commanded. Some say that Paul’s doctrine superseded all other apostles’ doctrine. But Acts 2:42 refutes this idea. It says the Church “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship. The apostles here include the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ who became apostles
The gospels were written in the mid-60s but were already considered scripture by Paul. For proof, see Luke 10:7. It states: “And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire.” Now compare with I Timothy 5:18: “For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. And, the laborer is worthy of his hire [or reward.] The phrase ‘the laborer is worthy of his hire’ is not written in the Old Testament. It is found in Luke 10:7, but Paul is already considering and quoting the gospel of Luke in I Timothy 5:18 as scripture. This proves that the gospels were considered scripture.
In 2 Peter 1:12, 15, Peter said he wrote his epistles so that people would have a “reminder” of things after his death. He knew that he was writing scripture and that it would be preserved as such for all Christians afterwards. The reminder of things comes to us from Peter’s writings.
2 Peter 3:15-16 says people twisted Paul’s writings as they did the rest of the scriptures. Here Peter is already equating Paul’s writings with Scripture.
In 2 Timothy 4:11-13 Paul asked timothy to bring the “books”, especially the “parchments”, indicating that he was compiling Scripture. So Paul and Peter were involved in writing the Scriptures and Paul compiled, or canonized them. The final book of the Bible was written by the apostle John. So, the final canonization of the New Testament was done by the apostle John. The canonization of the Old and New Testaments was not done by committees of scholars as critics claim.
The final editing of the Old Testament was done by Ezra and Nehemiah. Compilation of the New Testament was done by the Apostle Paul, with the final compilation being done by the apostle John.
God’s true Church does not recognize the Apocrypha as part of the canon for the following reasons. Firstly, Jesus and the writers of the New Testament never quoted from any of these books but did from almost all the other Old Testament books.
Secondly, the Jewish historian Josephus who lived from about 30 A.D. to 100 A.D. explicitly excludes them and says there were 22 books in the Old Testament. In the Jewish Old Testament count of 22 books all minor prophets are included as one book and the books of Samuel and Kings are included as one book. Thirdly, Jewish scholars of Jamnia in 90 A.D. did not recognize the Apocrypha. Finally, it wasn’t until A.D. 1546, in a polemical action at the Counter Reformation Council of Trent, that these books received full canonical status by the Catholic Church. Again, this was in 1546 A.D.
Jesus and the original apostles did not recognize the Apocrypha as scripture. God’s Church also does not consider any additional books such as the Koran or the Book of Mormon to be Scripture and equal with the Bible because: First, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says that the Scriptures given by God in the bible are sufficient that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Secondly, Revelation 22:18 says, “…If any man shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.’ And finally, the books of Genesis and Revelation seem to be bookends for the rest of the Bible. According to the Companion Bible Appendix # 3, there are 30 parallels between these two books showing that the Bible is a whole, complete book.
In summary then according to Sidney Collett’s “All About the Bible”, 20th Edition, p. 11, “Altogether about 40 persons, in all stations of life, were engaged in the writing of these oracles, the work of which was spread over a period of about 1,600 years.” In spite of all these writers over hundreds of years, the Bible has a consistent plan throughout. Many have written against the Bible as God’s word. These types of arguments usually falsely claim that the Bible contradicts itself, that the people in the Bible didn’t really exist, and that the Jews wrote the book to enhance their national reputation.
Josh McDowell’s "Evidence that Demands a Verdict" has some quotes refuting this kind of thinking:
On p. 55-56 he says that 40 different kings are listed in correct order in the Old Testament. He says that the odds of that being right are incredible if the Bible were fraudulent. The chances are I in 75 followed by 22 zeros.
On page 58 he talks about the Dead Sea Scrolls. In these scrolls the Book of the prophet Isaiah is intact and dates to 125 B.C. Out of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, only 3 letters (one word) differ from the Masoretic text of A.D. 916. And he says on page 141 that Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament number in the 100s, showing the great need for a New Testament.
Reliability of the Old Testament - importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls provide a glimpse of the amazing accuracy of the transmission of the text of the Old Testament through the millennia. The Dead Sea Scrolls are collectively composed of some 900 documents that contain, besides other religious literature, sections of the entire Hebrew Bible except for the book of Esther. The scrolls range in date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.
When these manuscripts were discovered in various caves of the northwestern region of the Dead Sea close to Qumran, a site most archaeologists believe was a community of Essene Jews, scholars wondered how many discrepancies would be found between them and the Old Testament text used for the translation of our modern Bibles, a text whose oldest copies date to the 10th century A.D. More than 1,000 years elapsed between the two versions. How well would they conform?
Incredibly, when the two versions were compared, researchers found that they uncannily matched—virtually word for word. For example, the Dead Sea Scroll containing the entire book of Isaiah, some 26 feet long, was compared to the 10th-century version of the Masoretic Text, which is the basis for our modern Old Testament. The researchers found it to match in virtually every instance.
Notes Bible scholar Gleason Archer: "Even though the two copies of Isaiah discovered in Qumran Cave 1 near the Dead Sea in 1947 were a thousand years earlier than the oldest dated manuscript previously known (A.D. 980), they proved to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent of variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips on the pen and variations in spelling…They do not affect the message of revelation in the slightest" (A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 1974, p. 25).
This is the greatest contribution the Dead Sea Scrolls have made to biblical scholarship. They have confirmed the reliability of the Old Testament text we now possess in our Bibles. "Critical scholars," states Garry Brantley, "questioned the accuracy of the MT [Masoretic Text], which formed the basis of our English versions of the Old Testament, since there was such a large chronological gap between it and the autographs [original documents]. Because of this uncertainty, scholars often 'corrected' the text with considerable freedom.
"Qumran, however, has provided remains of an early Masoretic edition predating the Christian era on which the traditional MT [Masoretic Text] is based. A comparison of the [Masoretic Text] to this earlier text revealed the remarkable accuracy with which scribes copied the sacred texts. Accordingly, the integrity of the Hebrew Bible was confirmed, which generally has heightened its respect among scholars and drastically reduced textual alteration" ("The Dead Sea Scrolls and Biblical Integrity," Reason & Revelation online journal, April 1995, ApologeticsPress.org).
In fact, the Masoretic Text we possess today has been found to be more carefully transmitted than the Dead Sea Scrolls version! When compared, the largest Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll was found to have more spelling errors—and this is generally the case when comparing the Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Reliability of the New Testament
What about the New Testament text? How accurate is it?
First consider the number of New Testament manuscripts available today in whole or in part as compared to the number of manuscripts of the classical Greek and Roman writers. The late F. F. Bruce, professor of theology at the University of Manchester, stated about the number of manuscripts available for ancient historical works:
For Caesar’s Gallic War (composed between 58 and 50 BC) there are several extant MSS [manuscripts], but only nine or ten are good, and the oldest is some 900 years later than Caesar’s day. Of the 142 books of the Roman History of Livy (59 BC – AD 17) only thirty-five survive, these are known to us from not more than twenty MSS of any consequence, only one of which, and that containing fragments of Books iii-vi, is as old as the fourth century. Of the fourteen books of the Histories of Tacitus (c. AD 100) only four and a half survive; of the sixteen books of his Annals, ten survive in full and two in part. The text of these extant portions of his two great historical works depend entirely on two MSS, one of the ninth century and one of the eleventh. The extant MSS of his minor works Dialogus de Oratoribus, Agricola, Germania all descend from a codex of the tenth century. The History of Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) is known to us from eight MSS, the earliest belonging to AD 900, and a few papyrus scraps, belonging to about the beginning of the Christian era. The same is true of the History of Herodotus (c. 480-425 BC).
We are talking here about no more than 2 to 20 manuscripts surviving today of all these classical works, the earliest being dated more than 1,300 years after the original manuscripts were penned. Yet no classical scholar would listen to an argument that the authenticity of Herodotus or Thucydides is in doubt because the earliest MSS of their works which are of any use to us are over 1,300 years later than the originals (1960, 15-17).
Compare the number of manuscripts of these classical works surviving to the available surviving manuscripts, whole or in fragments of the New Testament. More than 5,300 Greek manuscripts survive today. Some of these ancient manuscripts date from just decades or just a century from the end of the New Testament canon by John the Apostle in the early to mid-90s A.D. Then besides the 5,300 Greek manuscripts there are tens of thousands of manuscripts of the earliest translations of the Bible. With all this mountain of evidence for the New Testament writings, in the words of Professor F.F. Bruce: “…if the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt.”
But there has been no book or writing whose authenticity has been more questioned and critically examined than the Bible. With the mountain of evidence supporting the authenticity of the New Testament as compared to the classical ancient Greek and Roman works, secular historians, not theologians, but historians have been much more willing to accept the authenticity of the New Testament. Most of those less ready to accept the authenticity of the New Testament have been theologians. That should give us a clue. These theologians have an agenda, which is to turn people away from the only true God and His instructional manual for mankind, the Holy Bible. That is their main business: to endlessly invent arguments in order to deceive people into believing that the Bible is inaccurate, and hence not God’s word; just as the theory of evolution has been beaten to dust, but its advocates still continue to spew forth trash on a daily basis in order to deceive humans.
Because of the never-ending criticism of these masquerading [people of German origin living in different countries and assuming the names of the native citizens of the countries] theologians, genuine Bible scholars have been forced to examine the evidence for the authenticity of the New Testament over the past century or so. They have done a stellar job of nailing the lies and accusations of these masquerading theologians. In the process our understanding of God’s word and the mind of God have been immensely enriched.
Here then is the opinion of genuine honest scholars of the New Testament. From the thousands of ancient copies or portions of copies known, 98 percent of the New Testament texts agree. The variations that do exist are mostly spelling errors or scribal additions that are easily discarded.
Here is how Wayne Jackson writing for the Christian Courier summarizes this evidence:
“The accumulation of manuscript evidence has been so vast and the work of the scientific textual critic so precise, that we may express complete confidence in the reliability of the New Testament text. While it is true that some minor manuscript variations exist, they are negligible.
“Westcott and Hort felt that the significantly debatable portions of the New Testament text could hardly amount to more than a thousandth part of the whole—the equivalent of a little more than half a page in the Greek New Testament (as stated in Henry C. Thiessen in Introduction to the New Testament; 1955, 77).
“Let me emphasize how impressive this fact really is. The New Testament documents have been in existence almost nineteen hundred years. For fifteen of these centuries they were replicated solely by hand. In spite of this, there are only some twelve to twenty significant textual variations in the entire New Testament, and none of these affect an important doctrinal matter.
“On the other hand, consider the works of William Shakespeare. These writings have existed less than four centuries (and since the invention of the printing press) and yet: [I]n every one of Shakespeare’s thirty-seven plays there are probably a hundred readings still in dispute, a large number of which materially affect the meaning of the passages in which they occur” (H.L. Hastings in The Corruption of the New Testament. A Square Talk About the Inspiration of the Bible. Boston, MA: H. L. Hastings, 1890, 13).
As the great text scholar Sir Frederic Kenyon noted after examining both the Old and New Testament texts (and it holds true even more so today), "The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries" (Our Bible and Ancient Manuscripts, 1939, p. 23).
Two Types of Errors
Two types or errors in transmission of texts can occur. One is the errors of transmission in the original languages; and the second is the errors in translations. The errors in translations can be easily examined and discarded by referring to the reliable texts in the original languages. One example of such an error is in Acts 12:4: “4 And when he [Herod] had apprehended him [Peter], he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” In this verse the word translated Easter is pascha, which no scholar disputes that it should be translated Passover. So “Easter” is a mistranslation. Genuine scholars can easily identify such errors from the original Greek texts and discard them. Many modern translations have already corrected this error.
Second type of error is variations in the transmission of the text through the centuries in scribal errors or spelling mistakes. We have examined the evidence for these types of errors and the evidence shows that there are no material errors that affect doctrine. Spelling errors can be easily discarded.
One such error is found in 1 John 5:7-8: “7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” These verses are often cited in support of the Trinity doctrine.
The words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth…” are a spurious addition to the inspired text.
Here is what Dr. Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe state about these verses in The Big Book of Bible Difficulties (2008, pp.540-541): "This verse has virtually no support among the early Greek manuscripts…Its appearance in late Greek manuscripts is based on the fact that Erasmus was placed under ecclesiastical pressure to include it in his Greek NT of 1522, having omitted it in his two earlier editions of 1516 and 1519 because he could not find any Greek manuscripts which contained it."
Theology professors Anthony and Richard Hanson, in their book Reasonable Belief: A Survey of the Christian Faith, explain the unwarranted addition to the text this way: "It was added by some enterprising person or persons in the ancient Church who felt that the New Testament was sadly deficient in direct witness to the kind of doctrine of the Trinity which he favored and who determined to remedy that defect…It is a waste of time to attempt to read Trinitarian doctrine directly off the pages of the New Testament" (1980, p. 171).
The inspired words of 1 John 5:7-8 in hundreds of the oldest Greek texts and now correct in many modern translations should read: "In fact there are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are in agreement" (Revised English Bible). These words refer to the witness of Jesus Christ being the Son of God and salvation possibly only through water baptism, acceptance of the sacrifice and blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of one’s sins, and then receiving the gift of God’s holy spirit to live a Christian life of overcoming sin.
What is the lesson in all this for humanity! The masquerading theologians with all their Satan inspired diabolical cunning have questioned the authenticity of the Bible in every possible way. Genuine theologians have been led as a result to critically examine every aspect of the Bible themselves. They have compared the transmission of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts, and have critically examined the translated texts.
They have determined that most of the errors are obvious spelling errors and other slips of the pen which can be easily discarded. The remaining minor variations in the Old Testament texts do not affect the message at all. In the New Testament, after spelling and other obvious errors are discarded, the variations in question in the original Greek Texts amount to no more than half a page in the entire Bible. And these variations do not affect any doctrine at all. These mistranslations and spurious additions have been identified, critically examined and commented on. That is why genuine Bible scholars have concluded time and time again as quoted earlier: “The Christian can take the whole Bible in his hand and say without fear or hesitation that he holds in it the true word of God, handed down without essential loss from generation to generation throughout the centuries."
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