During the second debate between Mr. White and Dr. Riddle, there was a question and answer section at the end for the audience. I asked a question directed at him, which was the following: “What is your objective, universal, and absolute standard by which you evaluate the Greek mss & their variants. Please be specific.”
There’s a very important reason for asking this. For any truth claim to escape arbitrariness, it must be consistent with a standard that is not derived by autonomous human reasoning. The reason should be obvious as to why. But in case it isn’t let us look at the example of murder. Why is murder wrong? Now as Christian’s we know it is wrong because God states it is wrong in Scripture. And passages like John 17:17 & 2 Cor 10:4, 5 make it clear that Scripture is our final authority in evaluating all truth claims.
But let’s behave as James White and ignore Scripture. Then why is murder wrong? Any argument that you, some people, the majority of people, come up with is inherently arbitrary. Why? Because all one has to do to refute that claim is say, I don’t think murder is wrong. No man’s opinion is any more authoritative than another’s. There is no refutation, apart from appealing to an ultimate epistemological authority. And this authority cannot originate with man, but must be revealed to man by an universal, absolute, and invariant mind. And we have that in Scripture. Scripture is our “objective, universal, and absolute standard” for determining whether or not something is true. So what did Mr. White say in answer to my question? *chcukles* “Well there is no such thing obviously.” The logical consequence of Mr. White’s answer is that he does not believe that Scripture exists. This is the second time he has affirmed his rejection of Scripture. The first time was in October 2015 in the Reformed Pub. Below is the video.
And for those who think he answered the question later on, here is the link and where you start: https://youtu.be/Q05oQTiTfe4 @ 2:01:50
“Heh, heh. Well, there is no such thing, obviously.”
“You have certain sets of standards that you utilize in looking at the date, the quality of the manuscript, its completeness, and then you look at each variant as a unit…”
And the basis for judging the accuracy & validity is…?
White & Co. want to “shine light back into the very earliest period of time – the transmission of the text of the New Testament, in light of what sources the scribe of P45 would have.”
What “light” shines on Scripture?! Again, by what standard? “Well, there is no such thing, obviously.”
I certainly agree with this: “this is difficult for those who don’t work in the field to understand.”