Christ’s Holy War with Satan

Reference to Satan’s influence on the text of the Bible is not limited to Dwayne Green and Wilbur Pickering. Much earlier Edward Freer Hills said so.

“…the history of the New Testament text is the history of a conflict between God and Satan. Soon after the New Testament books were written Satan corrupted their texts by means of heretics and misguided critics whom he had raised up…But Satan was not defeated. Instead he staged a clever come-back by means of naturalistic New Testament textual criticism. Old corrupt manuscripts, which had been discarded by the God-guided usage of the believing Church, were brought out of their hiding places and re-instated. Through naturalistic textual criticism also the fatal logic of unbelief was set in motion. Not only the text but every aspect of the Bible and of Christianity came to be regarded as a purely natural phenomenon. And today thousands of Bible-believing Christians are falling into this devil's trap through their use of modern-speech versions which are based on naturalistic textual criticism and so introduce the reader to the naturalistic point of view. By means of these modern-speech versions Satan deprives his victims of both the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit and leaves them unarmed and helpless before the terrors and temptations of this modern, apostate world. What a clever come-back! How Satan must be hugging himself with glee over the seeming success of his devilish strategy.”

Edward F. Hills, The King James Bible Defended, chapter 9, “Christ’s Holy War with Satan”

And we might add John William Burgon in The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels:

“But then further, the Scriptures for the very reason because they were known to be the Word of God became a mark for the shafts of Satan from the beginning.”