[bibleprotector]

Theopneustos is not a Greek "monstrosity".

A Trojan horse could be described as a "monstrosity". But I was meaning, a large, strange word which has no meaning to a normal English-speaker.

It is simply the Greek word that underlies "given by inspiration of God" in the KJV.

I am sure that God did not inspire with English letters, but Greek ones. Anyway, the issue is not the reality of the existence of the word. The issue is that Greek words are being used rather than the English ones in our Bible. You must agree that the word “Theopneustos” is not in the King James Bible. Since all the Word of God is there, we do not need say “Theopneustos” to teach a doctrine or interpret Scripture.

That you would refer to what God Himself preserved for us as a "monstrosity" is borderline blasphemous.

How could a large, strange Greek word be what God has preserved for us? God’s preservation power is enough to get His Word to us in English. God is not exercising His power to keep the Greek for any special reason. Not one Scripture indicates that either the Greek or Hebrew are needed today, or that God’s preservation is linked into those languages especially.

Look at Romans 16:26 as an example.

I don't see where Shelton Smith emphasized the Greek and Hebrew over the KJB as you imply.

By simply using the Greek to teach a doctrine is in some way rejecting the KJB as it stands. Why can’t he teach a sound view of inspiration and preservation without the Greek? The problem isn’t that he uses a Greek word as such, the problem is that the use of Greek is somehow obligatory, defended and required. It is as if it gives authority to the doctrine, or makes the speaker appear learned, or is the right thing to do.

But again, there is nothing anywhere that says that it is wrong for a person to recognize the Greek or Hebrew word that underlies the KJB.

Of course that is not wrong. The problem is that there is no single source in the original languages which is perfect today. And it becomes risky when a person starts to study their Bible with reference to the original languages, especially when they begin to interpret and give doctrines with reference to them, because inevitably this means departing from the KJB as it stands. Since the KJB is perfect, it would logically mean going away from perfection.

They do not expire. And so Shelton Smith is correct in recognizing the Received Texts as God's words in the original languages.

But to whom are they God’s words today? Since people do not use those languages, they cannot be the means by which God has chosen to communicate today.

You say that God has laid aside the Greek and Hebrew because they are "not used today as normal speech". But by that argument you would also invalidate the KJB because the KJB is not written in "normal speech" either. In fact, what a lot of Bible-believers don't even realize is that nobody EVER spoke the type of English that is used in the KJB, not even in the 1600s.

The KJB is in English. That is the language which we speak. Now, the form of English is Biblical English, and that is unique, but it is conducive to normal English. That means that English-speakers can understand the KJB. There is a huge gulf between an English-speaker hearing the KJB and an English-speaker hearing Bible Greek and Hebrew. It is so obvious that Greek and Hebrew have become redundant. Everything has been gathered out of them so that it is all in English now. Their usefulness as sources has been outlived, but this does not mean that the copies and manuscripts should disappear. What it means is that our receiving of Scripture and our studies of it must be today in something we hear and believe, something which we see that we hold in our hand. That has to be the English Bible, not a Greek Testament.

But to say that the Received Texts magically ceased from being God's inspired and preserved words is absurd.

Who said anything about magic? All I say is that the original languages are not God’s Word to us because they are not comprehensible to us. God is not keeping His Word mysterious.