I am thankful for everyone who prayed for me in the debate with James White over the topic:

“The Legacy Standard Bible, as a representative of modern English translations based upon the UBS/NA text, is superior to the KJV, as a representative of TR-based Bible translations.”

 

Thank you!

 

I believe that, for His glory and by His grace, the Lord answered the prayers of His people and the debate went well.  God is concerned that His pure Word be in use among His people, and I believe He blessed the debate towards the furtherance of that cause.

 

Thank you as well to everyone who helped with all kinds of details, small and great, with the debate.  Without you it would the case for the truth of the perfect preservation of Scripture would have been much less effectively presented.  Thank you very much!

 

We arrived in Tennessee the day before the debate.  Our flights were fine on the way out, and on the way back (although THE PLANE WENT DOWN!!!   -but only when it got to the runway at the airport).  My wife and I had dinner with James White the night before the debate and had a cordial conversation.

 

We are thankful for the help of a godly KJVO Baptist in the area who helped us with things from making sure that we would be able to project slides (something was worked out with the pastor at the Reformed Baptist congregation where the debate was being held) to a way to print our notes (the church had no printer available, nor any WiFi there for me to even have my notes on an IPad–that is why it was not livestreamed.) It was recorded by a professional videographer, so it should be high quality once it comes out, Lord willing.  Please pray for the production of the video, as there have been some issues there that are quite important and could seriously impact its effectiveness.

 

The people at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church of Tullahoma, TN were kind to us.  The pastor, who makes a living rebinding Bibles, presented us with a beautifully bound KJV Bible (he gave a similarly beautifully bound LSB to James White).  So if you need you need a Bible rebound, he may be worth considering for you.

 

James White was not quite as cordial in the debate as he had been at dinner the night before, in my opinion, but I suppose I will let you decide that when you watch the debate video.  I was particularly struck by the fact that, despite pressing him on it, and the obvious fact that Biblical promises of perfect preservation, and the recognition of the canonical words of Scripture by the church were crucial to my case, he still did very little to dispute my case from Scripture, nor to present a Biblical basis for his own position.  I am still not sure if he thinks there are any promises from the Bible that indicate that God would preserve every Word He inspired, or if he just thinks that we have them, or almost all of them, somewhere, because of what textual critics like Kurt Aland say, or at least according to him they say, although his view of Kurt Aland may not be Kurt Aland’s view of Kurt Aland.

 

Overall, I think that the debate went well, and that the case for perfect preservation, and its necessary consequence of the superiority of the TR/KJV to the UBS/LSB, was clear. However, I am also well aware that I am biased in favor of my position, so you will have to watch the debate yourself to see if you agree.

 

The slides we had prepared–many of which were used in the debate, while others were not–are available at the main debate page here if you want to get a sense of what my argument was or what is going to be on the debate video, Lord willing.  I asked Dr. White if he wished to put his slides up there as well so that both of our presentations had an equal representation, but he has not responded to me as of now, whether because he is very busy or for some other reason.

 

There is much more that can be said about the debate, but that will be enough for now.  Thank you again for your prayers, and all the glory to the one God, the Father who gave the canonical words of Scripture to the Son, so that He could give them to the assembly of His saints by His Spirit.

 

–TDR