The reasons for translating the Authorised Version The English Bible of 1611 was called the Authorised Version because it was translated by the authority of both King and National Church. Objectors to the AV have challenged this truth but the facts speak for themselves. This was undertaken by three major teams of great scholars and churchmen who had worked on it interactively for over five years at England’s three major think- tanks at Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge. The translators’ aim was for accuracy and clarity conveyed in a high literary style. This new style was nevertheless thought by the godly scholars to be attainable by all English-speaking people through good teaching and preaching. It was a style highly… Full Article
Posts Tagged Dr Alan Clifford
Part One: How things began The gospel of transforming grace versus the gospel of unchanging law There is much confusion concerning the alleged ‘puritanism’ of the 16th century non-Roman Catholic opposition to the Reformed Church of England and the Puritan Movement of the post-1640s and much has been written in recent years which has totally redefined, modified and radicalised what Puritanism is. Instead of describing those who campaigned for the Biblical doctrine of free grace, the term is now used of those who would curb true Puritanism and replace it by denominational legalism and external orders and disciplines set up as equally saving doctrines. Indeed, the term was widely used in the 17 century to… Full Article
Clifford’s New Reformation
Dec 11
Sir: Dr Allan Clifford (Issue 7780) wants a New Reformation, built on his own mixture of Amyraldism, legal, fictive justification and works-righteousness, arguing that the old Biblical Reformation was wrong. I am suspicious of Clifford’s lip-rejection of Rome and denounce his false Protestantism. Clifford’s atonement is not the Biblical-Reformed doctrine on which our reconciliation, redemption, justification and sanctification are built. The Bride for whom Christ died is redeemed, justified and sanctified in one synergistic action, impossible to be divided. The corollary to Clifford’s Hyper-Amyraldian idea of atonement is thus his faulty view of justification and sanctification. Clifford rejects our Reformers’ doctrine of… Full Article
Clifford on Schism
Oct 24
This letter was sent to the English Churchman after reading an ill-informed letter of Dr. Alan Clifford defending certain sixteenth and seventeenth century schisms from the English Reformed Church. Sir: Dr Clifford’s habit of ridiculing sound arguments (see Issue 7710) as ‘vendettas’ and ‘pompous’ and contradicting them with fiction, half-truths and wishful-thinking merely fosters division. His astonishment at Robert Law’s views concerning Seceders arises from his insufficient knowledge of our Reformers and pre-Commonwealth Puritans who were strictly against Secession. The Dutch, Swiss, German, Italian, French, Hungarian and Polish Reformed churches viewed the English Church as exemplary as witnessed… Full Article
