A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with three students from Virginia Tech. These students attend my Church. They are reformed in theology and presuppositional in their evangelism. Somehow they came across the debate I had with Dr. White and having listened to the debate they had a series of questions.
So one Sunday afternoon the four of us sat down and worked through their questions. By the end of our conversation, the three of them were staunch defenders of the TR and the KJV, bought Westminster Reference Bibles, and apologized to their Muslim friends for conceding that the Bible had scribal errors. As I reflect on that conversation and the fruit of it I came to some observations which I wanted to share here.
1.) The Bible Compels: I believe it is imperative when speaking with other Christians regarding belief in a standard sacred text that the Bible speaks and compels us to believe something. In this case, I reminded these students that the Bible teaches us that God made man and woman, that Jesus rose from the dead, and that one day Jesus will return. And because the Bible teaches these things, and given that the Bible is the word of God, the Bible therefore compels the Christian to believe something about what it is to be man and woman, who Jesus was/is, and what the future looks like. In like manner, the Bible says things about itself and so the Bible compels us to believe things about the Bible.
2.) Your Bible: After it is agreed that the Bible compels us to believe something about the Bible, it is important to prioritize the fact that when the Bible says something about the Bible, it is talking about your Bible and my Bible. It must be clear to your interlocutor that when the Bible says that God’s word is inspired, preserved, pure, trustworthy, etc. that the Bible in your hand is saying those things about the Bible in your hand.
3.) What the Bible Says: After #1 and #2 do not turn to theology first or manuscript evidence. Take them to the living, inspired, and compelling words of God and exegete those passages for them. Answer their questions not with erudite theology first, but with sound exegesis of what his/her Bible says about his/her Bible. Allow the Spirit of God to speak through His words to His people to sanctify his/her belief and in so doing receive the truth of those words by faith.
4.) Theological Statements: When the Bible says something about your Bible that “saying” is a theological statement. The Bible is the ground and foundation of theological belief and knowledge because my Bible says my Bible is the revelation of Jesus (Revelation 1) and Jesus (the Ground and Foundation of being [John 1]) is Truth (John 14:6) and so His word is truth (John 17:17). As a result, claims about what is God’s word (Long Ending in Mark, John 3:16, and John 1) as well as claims about what is not God’s word (Long Ending of Mark, Woman Caught in Adultery, 1 John 5:7) are all theological claims and as such must have their epistemological anchor first in what the Bible says about itself. Indeed, what your Bible says about your Bible. Thus to say the Long Ending of Mark is Scripture or to say the Long Ending of Mark is NOT Scripture is to make a theological statement and as such the speaker must have an exegetical grounding derived from Scripture to make that claim. We argue that God promised to preserve His words (Psalm 12:6-7; Isaiah 59:21) and that the same Spirit that gave God’s words by inspiration (II Timothy 3:16) now indwells the believer who accepts those words by faith (Romans 10:17). Our opponents on the other hand offer manuscript evidence and probabilities regarding their theological claims in this regard. Our opponents currently prevail not because of their exegesis but because they have the bully pulpit.
This has been our argument here at Standard Sacred Text, that belief in the Bible is a work of the Spirit to sanctify the believer by means of the Spirit of God speaking through the word of God to the people of God who accept those words by faith. Only from this vantage point can theology, philosophy, and evidence find their proper place as servants to the primary and kingly role of the King speaking to His people through His words by His Spirit.
Standard Sacred Text.com 
One of my elders at the beginning of each of his sermon, says, “People of God, hear the holy, inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God.” This same elder is also preaching through Mark and believes it ends at 16:8. I don’t know his exact rationale for believing that, since I haven’t (yet) had that conversation with him; but I do know he’s an aficionado of James White. I do plan on having that conversation with him at some point. Pray that God gives me clarity of thought and speech, and that the Spirit of God would expose his cognitive dissonance and bring him to a greater knowledge of the truth. That’s awesome that it only took one conversation with those college students for you. May God do the same with me.
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May the Lord bless your efforts.
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He did! We were involved in a discussion with others this past Saturday morning, and thank God I was able to make a grounded, theological, non-emotional, defense of the ending of Mark specifically (and other textual variants) and the KJV in general. It got him thinking. He had been wondering how he was going to preach it, and because of our discussion, he changed his message. He was going to give text critical information, but after praying about it after our discussion (and another phone call between just the two of us), he preached it as it is, the Word of God. He still uses the ESV (for now), but I appreciated his reasoning for preaching it as he did: that God allowed it to be there. He rejected the belief of James White that Mark 16:9-20 is apocryphal. He said if God allowed it to be there, then it must be His Word, whether Mark actually wrote it or not. Baby steps LOL. I’ll take it! Thank God!
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