Albie's Note: It has often been noted-- and rightly by the way-- that those who claim the great English Baptist pastor Charles H. Spurgeon as an early advocate of some sort of a "King James Only" position in the debate over Bible Versions, do so deceptively, as there are some quotes in his writings that clearly show he was open to marginal readings and-- at admittedly rare times-- he even can be shown to have favored some alternate translations from the English Revision of 1881. OK, not that shocking, right?
However, most of those quotes do come from earlier in his career. Indeed, a famous and oft-quoted example-- which you readily can find on-line if you look for it-- was written in the year 1859, when Spurgeon was a mere 25 years of age!
I therefore find this quote, penned when the old Baptist Battler was 50, and only a scant 8 years before his untimely death, to be VERY interesting, and perhaps to supply some serious-- maybe even irrefutable-- indication of an actual "re-thinking" of the matter on his part:
“For our own part, we are always grateful for good marginal readings; but we are less and less disposed to countenance any tampering with the text. The older we grow the more conservative we become. We have had ten thousand messages from God to our soul in the very words of our English Bible; and we have prayed over and preached about the precepts and promises it enshrines, till we feel a vested interest in the volume as it is.”
-- Found on page 39 of the collected SWORD AND THE TROWEL magazine for 1884.
Interesting, eh?
PEACE
2 comments:
Can't say that I disagree with him. People become accustomed to something familiar.
OSCAR: Yup, human nature to some extent I reckon...
Also, if it ain't broke... you know the rest! :)
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