the Revisionists' Maxim

      The mundane practice of flipping a coin invokes chance as the arbiter in decision-making, with the outcome being determined relative to the question: "Heads, or tails?"  But who ever asks, "Heads, or tails, or edgewise"?  It just isn't done, because the probability that a flipped coin may come to rest on its edge is so uncommon that it is 'outside the game', so to speak.  Yet, it is possible.

   Coin-flipping thus represents a probability scenario that is limited to an 'either-or' proposition; as opposed to rolling a pair of dice, which involves many more possible outcomes. The very real possibility that a flipped coin could come to rest on its edge, however, reveals a flaw in the presupposition, that is to say, in the idea that a flipped coin invariably comes to rest in a horizontal plane: it ain't necessarily so.

      Of course, games of chance, in certain contexts, may be thought to involve risk, which, in turn, risk-based 'investment' may be turned into profit by 'knowledgeable' (but not necessarily scrupulous) persons; especially that may be the case where such 'knowledgeable persons' have the advantage of running the game.  In a word, it is called cheating.

   Since around the mid- to late-nineteenth-century, a loosely associated cadre of 'knowledgeable persons' have been running a profoundly sinister (and highly profitable) 'game of chance'.  This particular game is controlled by, and continues to enrich, a relatively small group of persons including certain scholars, authors and book publishers--whom I shall call the 'Revisionists' (Revisionists all have a vested interest, and participate in the production and/or $ALE of Bible 'versions', so-called).  The game involves the Holy Bible.  Here's how it works:

1. the game piece, as it were, is the text of Scripture
2. the game begins by asking the question: "Does the Bible contain error?"
3. The answer to the above question suggests the element of chance, by reason of human involvement in the production and transmission of the text of Scripture
4. The cadre of 'knowledgeable persons' who are running the game, however, have given themselves an advantage: firstly, by suggesting--as a presupposition--that the Bible must contain error because the text of Scripture is the product of human effort; and, secondly, by emphasizing the fallibility of humankind.  This is what I have called the Revisionists' Maxim, which states that: The probability that the text of Scripture contains error increases in proportion to the number of times that the text is (has been) manipulated.
5. The coin is flipped, so to speak, and it comes to rest, as everyone expects, in a horizontal plane, as it were: meaning that, of course, the Bible must contain error; the Revisionists' Maxim is true! 
6. Revisionists thus win the game every time, and collect their winnings: a) elevated social status as Bible 'scholars' and textual experts; b) consulting fees; c) increased book sales--of Bible 'versions' as well as of other, genre-related books.

      Yet, games of chance also involve losers.  Who are the losers in this game involving the incessant production, dissemination, and use of Bible 'versions' (what I call Bible-substitutes)? The losers are countless millions of professing Christians who unwittingly accept the outcome of the game.  They are first led to believe (by reason of the Revisionists' Maxim) that the Bible must contain error; after which, they are then led to believe--by those same Revisionists--that 'better' (that is, 'less-error-containing') 'versions' are now available for purchase.  And the game goes on ad infinitum: for, Revisionists do not even suggest that they are at all capable ever to produce a perfect text of Scripture, only, better and better 'approximations' of that.

      But what if it is possible that the Revisionists' coin, so to speak, may in fact come to rest on its edge?  Which is to ask: What if, somehow, it is possible that the Bible does not contain error?  Is it possible?

      It is not only possible that the Bible is infallible (not capable of error) and inerrant (it contains no error); but in fact the Bible is both infallible and inerrant.  And the reason that is the case, has nothing to do with the weakness (fallibility) of humankind, but it has everything to do with the power of God--whose Word it is.  That same, supernatural and omnipotent God who first delivered his Word unto man, both promised (Psalm 12:6,7 KJB) as well as he has kept that promise, to "keep" and to "preserve" the very "words", that is, the text of Scripture, unto "every generation".

      Game over.  The presupposition of the Revisionists' Maxim is false, because, it does not so much as acknowledge God's interest and intervention, with regard to the preservation of his own Word.

      

post script: Let the thoughtful Reader consider the implications of Revisionists' own manipulation of the text of Scripture, in view of the Revisionists' Maxim....