EARLY HERESIES

(2 Corinthians 2:17)

(2 Corinthians 4:2)

(2 Thessalonians 2:2)

(2 Peter 2:1-3)

Galatians 1:6-8; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7; and Jude 1:3-4.

These false doctrines influenced the transmission of scripture and account for some of the differences in the line of manuscripts.

WESTCOTT AND HORT

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828-1892) produced a

In short, the Westcott and Hort theory states that the Bible is to be treated as any other book would be.

Hort called the Textus Receptus "vile and villainous" (Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, Vol. I, p.211).

If Westcott and Hort are the fathers of modern textual criticism and the 'restorers of the true text', should we not know something of their beliefs to see if they are consistent with Scripture? This would be harmonious with the teaching found in Matthew 7:17 .

What they said about............

The Scriptures:

"I reject the word infallibility of Holy Scriptures overwhelmingly."

"Our Bible as well as our Faith is a mere compromise."

"Evangelicals seem to me perverted. . .There are, I fear, still more serious differences between us on the subject of authority, especially the authority of the Bible."

Dr. Wilbur Pickering writes that, "Hort did not hold to a high view of inspiration." (The Identity of the New Testament Text, p.212)

Perhaps this is why both the RV (which Westcott and Hort helped to translate) and the American edition of it, the ASV, translated 2 Timothy 3:16 as, "Every scripture inspired of God" instead of "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," (KJV).

The Deity of Christ:

"He never speaks of Himself directly as God, but the aim of His revelation was to lead men to see God in Him."

"(John) does not expressly affirm the identification of the Word with Jesus Christ."

"(Rev. 3:15) might no doubt bear the Arian meaning, the first thing created."

(John 1:18)

John 9:38

"And he said, Lord I believe and he worshipped him."

"The Greek word denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature, as here, or to the Creator." (thus calling Christ "a creature.")

Salvation:

"The thought (of John 10:29 ) is here traced back to its most absolute form as resting on the essential power of God in His relation of Universal Fatherhood."

"I confess I have no repugnance to the primitive doctrine of a ransom paid to Satan. I can see no other possible form in which the doctrine of a ransom is at all tenable; anything is better than the doctrine of a ransom to the father."

1 Peter 2:2.

Titus 2:11

Hell:

"(Hell is) not the place of punishment of the guilty, (it is) the common abode of departed spirits."

"We have no sure knowledge of future punishment, and the word eternal has a far higher meaning."

Mark 9:44

[Matt. 18:8]

Creation:

"No one now, I suppose, holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a literal history. I could never understand how anyone reading them with open eyes could think they did."

"But the book which has most engaged me is Darwin. Whatever may be thought of it, it is a book that one is proud to be contemporary with..... My feeling is strong that the theory is unanswerable."

Romanism:

"I wish I could see to what forgotten truth Mariolatry

(the worship of the Virgin Mary)

bears witness."

"The pure Romanish view seems to be nearer, and more likely to lead to the truth than the Evangelical."