G3 CONFERENCE~CONTRADICTION AND CONFUSION EXPOSED

PASTOR RALPH OVADAL

PILGRIMS COVENANT CHURCH

MONROE, WISCONSIN

http://www.pccmonroe.org/2015/01.22.htm

January 22, 2015
A Conference of Contradiction and Confusion

 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
2 Corinthians 11:3

This is the age of the celebrity conference. The conferences I am speaking of feature celebrity ministers full of good words and fair speeches (Romans 16:17-18) but are compromised in doctrine or practice or often in both. These events feature multiple vendors and generally large amounts of cash changing hands in various ways. Although the celebrity conferences are touted as being all about faithfulness to the word of God and building up the body of Christ, the events are in reality cauldrons of compromise, confusion, and contradiction. In recent years, the celebrity conferences have multiplied like rabbits, and so the damage of such events has likewise multiplied. The purpose of this article is to set before the reader a prime example of the leaven of confusion and deception which is being planted throughout the church of Jesus Christ, including by the sort of conferences I just mentioned.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17

Now, how important is the word of God, the Scriptures, the Bible? How important is it that we cleave to and defend the true doctrines of the verbal and plenary inspiration of the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit and, by the Spirit, the Scriptures set down by the prophets and apostles word-for-word without error in writing and then every word of the Scriptures perfectly, purely preserved in the original languages all through the ages and to this day? There is nothing more important, is there? Is it not in the devil’s best interest and of his never-tiring labor to undermine those doctrines I just mentioned and so erode confidence in the trustworthiness of the Scriptures and the authority of the Scriptures? Of course it is; and one of Satan’s greatest victories in that regard has been the proliferation of unfaithful English Bible versions, beginning near the end of the nineteenth century.

The 22nd through the 24th of this month, the 2015 G3 Conference will be held at the Pray’s Mill Baptist Church, Douglasville, Georgia (www.g3conference.com). The theme of the conference is “The Bible is the Word of God.” On a recent “Heart of the Matter” program, I provided excerpts from two audio promotions of the G3 Conference. At the start of the first promo, the words “Battle for the Bible” are displayed on the screen (http://vimeo.com/109229804). Then the pictures of two of the speakers at the upcoming G3 Conference are shown in turn, along with a short audio message from each. The first G3 speaker is Steven Lawson. Here is what Lawson declares in the audio promotion: “To be sure, the principal attack of Satan against the holiness of God is against the authority and the inerrancy and the infallibility of the word of God.” Every faithful Christian would give a hearty amen to that! The second G3 speaker is Paul Washer; and here is what he had to say in the audio promotion: “A battle for the Bible, but there’s only one problem. When you come to believe as a people that the Bible is inspired, you’ve only fought half the battle. The major question following that that must be answered: Is the Bible sufficient?” Washer is right: there is a great, ongoing battle for the Bible, including over the inspiration and the sufficiency of the Bible.

Those two statements sound pretty good, don’t they? But here is where the compromise, confusion, and contradiction I mentioned earlier come into view. I suppose we ought also to add downright deception as well. The reality is, Lawson and Washer use modern Bible translations—or put another way, perversions of the Scriptures.

“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Psalm 12:6-7

I write this article first to faithful brethren who well understand the issue of Bible translation and translations. To all others, I would recommend a visit to the Trinitarian Bible Society (www.tbsbibles.org)—in fact, many visits. This issue of Bible translations is fundamental and could not be more crucial, though the nature of this article is that of a factual report rather than a teaching on Bible translations, including what God Himself reveals, declares, and promises in the Scriptures concerning the inspiration, inerrancy, and preservation of His word. Yes, as any minister should, I have preached messages on the issue of Bible translation and those doctrines just mentioned and, in the process of those messages, used much Scripture. However, it is not in the scope of this article to do much more than set some plain facts before the Lord’s people and pray that eyes will be opened to the depth of confusion, deception, and contradiction which is now being openly spread among Christ’s blood-bought flock by men lauded as faithful ministers and teachers, men who have certainly been preaching long enough to have been well exposed to the truth concerning translation and various translations.

Now, imagine this: a conference with the theme “The Bible is the Word of God” and promoted with the sort of stirring declarations I quoted above; yet of the nine speakers at that G3 Conference, at least eight use modern Bible translations! But wait: it gets even worse. One of the speakers at the conference is James R. White who is well-known for his defense and support of the modern Bible translations. White has invested much time and effort into attacking the KJV and promoting as trustworthy and sound modern, unfaithful, perverted translations of the Bible. The G3 people—and I would think all involved in this conference, including speakers and sponsors—know all about White; in fact, the G3 promo of the conference which is posted online mentions one of White’s books on the subject. But, this very week, James White will be preaching and speaking at the G3 Conference which has the general theme of “The Bible is the Word of God.”

Battle for the Bible indeed, but the G3 speakers are on the wrong side of the battle line! And that includes the one speaker who apparently uses the King James Bible since, by his presence, he is endorsing the modern translations used by his fellow speakers and only adding to the confusion and contradiction of the conference. Eight out of nine of the G3 Conference speakers use perversions of the word of God—modern Bible translations—yet the G3 Conference theme is “The Bible is the Word of God.”

Moving now to the second video promotion of the G3 Conference (http://vimeo.com/108789098), I want to provide just two quotations from that video which begins with Isaiah 40, verse 8 appearing on the screen: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” At least, that is Isaiah chapter 40, verse 8 from the faithful King James Bible. What appears on the screen of this promo is—you guessed it—from an unfaithful, modern translation!

“And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Luke 4:4

Here are those two quotations. The first is from Martin Luther: “God’s word is my rock and anchor. Heaven and earth must go to ruins before the most insignificant letter of His word remains unfulfilled.” This next quotation is from John Calvin: “The full authority which the Scriptures ought to possess with the faithful is as if God had been heard giving utterance to them.”Now, there are two good quotations with which all true Christians would agree.

“God’s word is my rock and anchor. Heaven and earth must go to ruins before the most insignificant letter of His word remains unfulfilled”—absolutely true concerning the fulfillment of God’s word, including “the most insignificant letter.” By using this quotation from Martin Luther, the G3 people are also declaring that “the most insignificant letter” of the Bible is inspired of the Holy Spirit and has been preserved by Him, pure and without error, just as the Scriptures themselves testify over and over in various places. The translators of the modern Bible versions clearly did not have that same conviction, did they? For instance, every one of the modern versions is either translated from the deeply corrupted Critical Greek Text in whole or part or translated by a faulty translation technique; and many modern Bible translations are both translated from the corrupted Critical Greek Text and translated by dynamic equivalence or by paraphrase, even free paraphrase. Yes, the most insignificant letter of the Scriptures is important but apparently not to those involved in the G3 Conference since the modern Bible translations mistranslate not only the more “insignificant” things of the Bible but also words and verses bearing on essential doctrines of our faith; and in fact, the modern Bible translations omit whole Scripture verses, in some cases, a great many Scripture verses.  

Then there was this from John Calvin: “The full authority which the Scriptures ought to possess with the faithful is as if God had been heard giving utterance to them.” We would give a hearty amen to that. We must treat the word of God, inspired and preserved without error by the Holy Spirit, as the word of God, every word; but the modern Bible translations do just the opposite. The modern translations are the spawn of higher criticism which treats the Scriptures as if they are nothing but the writings of ancient men which contain error and over the years have changed, even to some extent been lost, rather than holding the Scriptures to be the inspired, preserved word, and words, of God. A host of such unfaithful translations have, in the eyes of the world and for many Christians, turned the Scriptures, to some extent, into a confusing, contradictory babble. No wonder so many professing Christ say with their lips that the Bible is God’s word but then say with their lives that it is not.

But never mind all of that. Listen to the good words and fair speeches of the G3 Conference folks, and come sit at the feet of men who are busily undermining the word of God and seducing the Lord’s people to read unfaithful translations. What a masterpiece of confusion, contradiction, and deception! It makes no difference the motives of the men staging the G3 Conference or speaking at it. The reality is, they are literally undermining, even attacking, the Scriptures they will say they are defending.

“Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Proverbs 30:6

If I preach on the vital importance and non-negotiable truth of the inspiration, sufficiency, and authority of the word of God but do so from a Bible which is not a faithful translation and then seduce my hearers to read that perversion of the word of God, the end result is that I have led those individuals into grievous error and have struck a blow against the inspiration, the preservation, the inerrancy—and so the trustworthiness and authority—of the word of God. If the next man stands up and preaches from yet another perversion of the word of God, he only makes matters worse.

I mentioned there will be nine speakers at the 2015 G3 Conference. Those speakers are Paul Washer; Josh Buice; Voddie Baucham; James White; Steven Lawson; H.B. Charles, Jr.; and David Miller. Mr. Miller, at least from one video I saw, preaches from the King James Bible. Rounding out the list of G3 speakers are Tim Challies and Richard Owen Roberts. Roberts seems to use both the KJV and modern translations. Obviously, the list I just cited includes big name New Evangelicals; but in this article, we will stick to the one issue of Bible translations.

As is usually the case with these sort of conferences, there will be plenty of exhibitors on hand at the G3 Conference, from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary to John MacArthur’s The Master’s College to Joel Beeke’s Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and many more, including the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Books, which a quick check showed to be selling at least the following translations of the Bible: NASB, ESV, KJV, NKJV, HCSB, NIV, GW, NLT.

But, here is where I close with encouraging the reader to also listen to this closely related “Heart of the Matter” program titled “The Continuing Assault upon the Authority and Trustworthiness of the Scriptures.”

“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:1-2

Pastor Ralph Ovadal