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Q: Is it correct to say that
the London Baptist Confession of 1677 and 1689 state that the Bible is
preserved in only the Hebrew and the Greek?
A: There are numerous Baptist
confessions of faith. I have a book of 368 pages called "Baptist
Confessions of Faith" that is full of them. Most of the confessions seem
to say something about the scriptures being made of the Old and New
Testaments and being the sole rule for faith and practice. Some say a
bit about the scriptures in translation, mostly that they are a good and
profitable thing. But they usually do not say much or anything of a
particular translation. The following one makes some interesting
statements.
Article 27 of the London Baptist Confession the General Baptists of 1679
makes this statement concerning the scriptures: "And we do believe, that
all people ought to have them in their mother tongue, and diligently,
and constantly to read them in their particular places and families, for
their edification, and comfort; and endeavour to frame their lives,
according to the direction of God's word, both in faith and practice,
the holy scriptures being of no private interpretation, but ought to be
interpreted according to the analogy of faith, and is the best
interpreter of itself, and is sole judge in controversy. And no decrees
of popes, or councils, or writings of any person whatsoever, are of
equal authority with the sacred scriptures. And by the holy scriptures
we understand, the canonical books of the old and new testament, as they
are now translated into our English mother-tongue, of which there hath
never been any doubt of their verity, and authority, in the protestant
church of Christ to this day."
If you consider the last sentence, you will find that it
does come close
to an absolute recommendation of the King James Bible of
1611, since that
would be the one referred to in 1679.
It was also thought of by others at a later date. In the
"Articles of
Faith of the Barren River Association," a Baptist
association of churches
in Kentucky, written in 1830, we read this article: "We
believe that the
scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as translated by
the authority
of King James, to be the words of God, and is the only true
rule of faith
and practice." --taken from "Pioneer Baptist Church
Records" by C. P.
Cawthorn and N. L. Warnell (p.23).
Till He comes,
Pastor David Reagan