Are you ESV-only?

The following was written by Christian McShaffrey, a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Textus Receptus advocate. He writes, “Most of my ministerial peers in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church use the English Standard Version in their public preaching and teaching. Some of them have asked me, ‘Are you KJV-only?’” In turn he asks, “Are you ESV-only?”

I will be honest enough to warn my readers that I have a few questions of my own for ESV-onlyists. You may wish to ponder them prior to our conversation:

– Did God inspire specific words and letters or just general ideas and doctrines?  If the latter, how is that different from the view of Karl Barth?
– Do you only apply the attributes of inspiration, infallibility, and inerrancy to the permanently lost autographa?
– If you believe God is providentially preserving scripture through the agency of textual critics today, when may we expect that work to be completed? Do the critics themselves believe that their work will ever be completed?
– Are you aware of the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method and the changes that will be appearing in the Greek New Testament when it is applied?
– Have you read what Francis Turretin, John Owen, Richard A. Muller, etc. have written about the authentic text of scripture?
– Were the Westminster Divines mistaken in their view that they were in possession of the “authentical” text of scripture in A.D. 1646 [WCF I.8]?
– What did the Divines mean by the phrase concerning God’s “singular care and providence” or “kept pure in all ages” [WCF I.8]?
– Do you know the difference between the autographa and apographa and, if so, are you aware that the WCF I.8 refers to the latter?
– What level of certainty do you have that the Bible you read daily and preach weekly is indeed the inspired and infallible word of God?

[Note: the question of the Westminister Divines view of possessing the “authentical” text of scripture also applies to London Baptist ministers. See Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.]