My Debate with James White - 12.12.13

THE DEBATE SUMMARY

By Christian J. Pinto

Well, the debate between myself and James White took place last night on the Fighting for the Faith radio program with Chris Rosebrough.  Planned months in advance, and preceded by controversy every step of the way (as everyone knows who has kept up with this issue), it all came down to just 90 minutes where we discussed Sinaiticus, Simonides, Tischendorf … and Jesuits.  For the record, I wish to say that Mr. Rosebrough was, overall, very considerate and handled the debate fairly.

In the immediate aftermath, it is interesting that most of White’s followers have been very reluctant to claim “victory” on his behalf – something they are known for doing.  While supportive of his effort, they seem to have generally cooled their typical insults against us.   Well, most of them anyway.  But we discovered the following Twitter exchange where Jim De Arras tweeted James White:

Jim De Arras@jmdearras2h: “I think you did yourself a disservice arguing with that moron.  He will declare victory and gain followers.”

It is important to acknowledge that Dr. White wrote back:

JamesWhite@DrOakley16892h: “Brethren, brother Pinto is no more of a moron than I am a Jesuit.  Let’s hold ourselves to a proper standard, shall we?”

I am certainly glad to see Dr. White make the effort to compel his supporters towards greater civility, but I can honestly say that after dealing with the Critical Text proponents for the past six months, they can be every bit as fanatical and unreasonable as any extremist on the Bible version issue.  Yet the above tweeter was concerned that our side would “declare victory and gain followers.”  Why?  Most likely because he realized that Dr. White simply had no salient arguments against the central issue, which was whether or not Constantine Simonides was telling the truth when he claimed to have authored Codex Sinaiticus in 1840.  

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Reformation Day, October 31, 1517

REMEMBERING THE REFORMATION

Every year in America, our country (sadly) celebrates Halloween on October 31st, as children dress up like witches, monsters and ghouls, to go about getting candy with the familiar phrase, "Trick or treat."  But in parts of Europe this very day is better known as Reformation Day.  It was this day on October 31st of the year 1517 that Dr. Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany proclaiming his objections to the Pope's usage and sale of indulgences for the sins of men.  The debates that followed this single event mark what many consider to be the beginning of the Great Reformation that swept across Europe, a movement that forever changed the world.  The Bible began to be published in unprecedented numbers in languages that all people could understand, and the everlasting Gospel was proclaimed fearlessly bringing countless souls to salvation.  It was the Reformation that ushered in the many God-given blessings that have come to define the modern world.

In commemoration of this day, we present the following article by Robert Rothwell.

What is Reformation Day All About?

by Robert Rothwell & Ligonier Ministries

Tomorrow, much of the culture will be focused on candy and things that go bump in the night. Protestants, however, have something far more significant to celebrate on October 31. Tomorrow is Reformation day, which commemorates what was perhaps the greatest move of God’s Spirit since the days of the Apostles. But what is the significance of Reformation Day, and how should we consider the events it commemorates?

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Answering Dr. Daniel Wallace on Codex Sinaiticus & the Simonides Affair

ANSWERING DR. DANIEL WALLACE

“The history of this manuscript is wrought with mystery, politics, and perhaps even some deception …” 

Source: The Friends of CSNTM (Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts) website, featuring Dr. Daniel Wallace 

This is our second and more detailed response to a video that was posted concerning our film, Tares Among the Wheat.  The video in question features a presentation given by Dr. Daniel Wallace, who is a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, speaking on the subject of Constantine Simonides and his claim to have authored the Codex Sinaiticus in 1840 (a manuscript ordinarily dated to the fourth century).  Our film presents evidence from the 19^th century that strongly suggests Simonides may very well have been the true author of the codex, and indeed, he went to his grave defending this claim.  However, Dr. Wallace supports the predominantly held view that his story was false, and presents a number of reasons for this belief.

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Wisdom from Charles Spurgeon on Critics & the Bible

 “Believe in the inspiration of Scripture, and believe it in the most intense sense…. If you adopt theories which pare off a portion here, and deny authority to a passage there, you will at last have no inspiration left, worthy of the name.

“If this book be not infallible, where shall we find infallibility? We have given up the Pope, for he has blundered often and terribly; but we shall not set up instead of him a horde of little popelings fresh from college. Are these correctors of Scripture infallible? Is it certain that our Bibles are not right, but that the critics must be so?

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The Cris Putnam Review

A review of our film, Tares Among the Wheat was posted on LogosApologia.org by author, Cris Putnam.  He refers to the thesis of the film as A Conspiracy Without a Goal.   While we are not at all offended by the disagreement, we find a number of considerable problems with his arguments, which we present below.  Mr. Putnam writes that:

“The film is centered on the idea that Codex Sinaticus or ‘Sinai Bible’ was actually created as part of a Vatican conspiracy to undermine biblical inerrancy.”

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