Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
I am not even convinced that you understand the Hebrew scholar correctly. Is he really stating that men have taken the liberty to add things to God’s word and God was fine with that? The first consideration that I would have is that you have misunderstood Robin Routledge. The quote you gave doesn’t really say that there was a change in the manuscripts although if he is saying that men actually changed things in the Hebrew Scriptures there are more than enough liberal Hebrew scholars who will pat him on the back. Who else that is not a liberal has dared to say that God’s Word has been changed by men and that this is a good thing?

One day we will all stand before our God and give an account of ourselves to Him. I choose to believe God and thus it fits my world view (belief in the absolute Sovereignty of God) to find solutions to the difficulties in a way that honors Him and doesn’t make Him a liar. If someone wants to believe that even though God said that we are not allowed to add or remove from His Word but that this doesn’t count if one has a good motive, then they are showing that they don’t really trust God to be Sovereign over His word. God’s word is holy and if some believe that they can change the original text without having to answer to God, then what else will these people freely allow to be added to the Scriptures? And how does one answer a Mormon who believes that men had the power to remove important doctrines from the Bible? One who accepts that God’s Word can be changed at will should consider it also possible that men removed Mormon “truths”.

We are filled with liberals here in Canada. Parishioners, pastors, bible scholars, so many no longer believe that God’s word is the standard for faith and practice since their own interpretation becomes the thing that they measure everything else by. It started with liberal thought. Did Jesus really say the words in the Bible? Many have “voted” that yes He said some things and no He didn’t say other sayings. Apparently the apostles got lots of things wrong as they were inaccurate about their memory of what Jesus said and so we don’t really need to listen to these words. Let’s just love one another and carry on with our lives with our own moral standard, is the theme of the liberal church here in Canada. Why should I listen to any more “scholars” who want to treat God’s Word as less than a Sovereign act of God? For if a mere human is needed to correct an error that God inspired in the original then this “God” is to be pitied. He gets it wrong just like we all do. He is fallible and makes mistakes and then hopes that no one will notice when he flubs it. Maybe he is just the Mormon God who had to learn to become God and he is still learning.

As you can see, I get my dander up anytime the Word of God is dismissed in a way that makes it merely human in origin as a word that needs correcting would obviously be. End of rant.