"I Am The LORD, I Change Not."
Malachi 3:6
Why I read the King James Version
God is unchangeable. God’s word is unchangeable too. In Matthew 24:35, the Lord Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
Why then are we so ready to accept changes to God’s word in the form of different Bible versions? The King James text has faithfully served the body of Christ for almost 400 years. During this time, and during its translation, Satan has viciously and relentlessly attacked it. I now hear Christians attacking it too! I’ve heard preachers and lay people say things like, “it’s too hard to read” or “it doesn’t properly reflect the true meaning of the original Greek”. The issue about the original Greek sets my teeth on edge – which Greek? There are Greek manuscripts galore, including the corrupted manuscripts that the Roman Catholic religion uses. The snide remarks and attacks against this utterly reliable text are unfounded.
We must remember that the Bible is a spiritual book and is understandable to those who are led by God’s Spirit. It is not possible for the natural man to understand it [I Corinthians 2:14], hence paraphrasing or simplifying it will do no good. The Bible is not supposed to read like a fairy tale–Peter said, “for we have not followed cunningly devised fables” [II Peter 1:16]. The words of the Authorized King James are not laborious to me, they are beautiful and full of God’s power. Even the world knows it – the King James has been listed on Norton Anthology’s list of “the world’s best literature” for decades.
The new versions have come up with some dangerous changes to the scriptures. The Lord God gives us stern warnings about changing His Word:
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.
For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son...
The authorized King James says,
For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.
In this instance, the NIV changes the scriptures by saying that Jesus is God’s “one and only” Son instead of His only begotten Son. This change causes a contradiction in the word of God because God has more than one son according to both the King James (Genesis 6:2, Job 1:6, John 1:12) and NIV (Genesis 6:2).
I do not buy the line that the inerrant word of God is found only in the originals – which nobody has. I know that God has the power to preserve His word and that he wouldn’t leave us out in the dark with an “imperfect” translation. In the King James Version God assembled, and moved with His Spirit, a team of some of the world’s best scholars to translate His word into the world’s most popular language, English.
The complete translator’s notes of the King James scholars are not included in today’s publishing’s. This is unfortunate because these notes say a lot about these men – they were humble, loved the word of God, loved the King, were berated by the Catholic religion, and they desired a translation for the common man who was kept in darkness. Some of the translators where killed for their faith. This book was forged in blood, sweat, and tears.
I’ve heard folks make a big to-do about the italics in the KJV. Well, unlike many of today’s translators, the KJV translators let us know which words they had to add in translating in order to give the full meaning of the original text (these are the words in italics in the KJV). Other translators have added words too – but they don’t tell you what they’ve added. I speak a little Spanish and know that it is oftentimes necessary to rearrange or add words so that the translation makes sense. These men went through the extra trouble of identifying which words they added. That’s real scholarship and integrity.
Let’s fall in love with the KJV again and stand on it. Let’s get down to business and read the Word and stop spending so much time reading what others have to say about the Word in commentaries, Greek lexicons, study bibles, etc. We want the Holy Ghost to talk to us.
How many classes have you been in where every student has a different textbook? None. It just doesn’t make good sense on a very practical level. We all need to be on the same sheet of music so that we are in harmony. Let’s not confuse our children by teaching/preaching from the NKJV, NIV, NASV, The Message, etc.
Let’s not accept the premise that the tried and true King James is somehow outdated and is to be replaced by dozens of new translations. A standard test determined the KJV reading level to be 5th grade because it contains mostly one and two-syllabic words making it one of the easiest to read. People have been getting saved by reading it for a long, long time. We know that it contains the Word of Life whereby we live and grow.
Satan knows that in a generation we won’t uniformly quote the scriptures. Imagine ten people with ten different translations trying to recite a psalm together. Confusion. Satan knows that many newborn babes in Christ will not have the real milk that they need in order to grow because they’ll have a watered down version of the truth. He figures that if he can’t kill the babes, he’ll do the next best thing – stunt their growth. At the same time the world will point to Christianity and say, “They don’t even have a definitive word of God. Anybody can write a Bible.” They already say that the Bible was “just written by men”.
Being able to talk to a child of God and have our spirits commune on the parts of God’s word that we’ve memorized is great. I now find people who are quoting scriptures that I know, but they are worded so differently that I have to ask the reference. This is confusion, and we know the Devil is the author of confusion and the enemy of our souls. I believe that the emergence of these many different “Bible” versions is Satan’s most successful attempt to attack God’s word. The Bible says that in the last days there’s going to be a falling away of the church and I believe that these other versions are helping to usher it along.
| God’s Amazing Love Letter – The Bible | The Bible is the most incredible, miraculous, wonderful book ever written. It is actually a whole library of 66 books. It’s God’s love letter to us! It is the number one selling and read book of all times. It is full of thousands of controversial issues and all the authors agree upon them. – a miracle in itself. More manuscripts have been found proving its authenticity than any other book from antiquity. The Bible – you can read it, believe it, stake your life on it. |
| Why I read the King James Version | God is unchangeable. God’s word is unchangeable too. In Matthew 24:35, the Lord Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Why then are we so ready to accept changes to God’s word in the form of different Bible versions? The King James text has faithfully served the body of Christ for almost 400 years. During this time, and during its translation, Satan has viciously and relentlessly attacked it. I now hear Christians attacking it too! |
| What Ever Happened to our English Bible? | In our day, the Bible has been under attack on a number of fronts, including an unholy proliferation of modern day versions which have added to, taken away from, and changed the Word of God as we have known it, so faithfully preserved in our English Bible for nearly 400 years. If there is to be named among those most hideous of sins, a sin perhaps second only to that of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – which in the most practical sense in our day means to reject the Savior unto death – this most hideous of sins would be that of supplanting the Word of God. |
| Attack on the Bible | Never in history has such doubt and confusion over the Bible existed as is today. And nothing has flamed the fire of confusion and doubt over the Bible more than the scores of different translations flooding the scene. Time magazine (April 20, 1981 p.62) reports, “. . . there is an UNPRECEDENTED CONFUSION of choices in Bibles. Never have so many major new translations been on the market.” Since 1880, over 200 different translations have appeared. Every six months a new English version appears! |
| Has the King James Bible been Revised? | One of the last ditch defenses of a badly shaken critic of the Authorized version 1611 is the “revision hoax.” They run to this seeming fortress in an attempt to stave off ultimate defeat by their opponents who overwhelm their feeble arguments with historic facts, manuscript evidence and to obvious workings of the Holy Spirit. Once inside, they turn self-confidently to their foes and ask with a smug look, “Which King James do you use, the 1611 or the 1629 or perhaps the 1769?” The shock of this attack and the momentary confusion that results usually allows them time to make good their escape. |
| Reasons for Accepting the KJV as God's Preserved Word | The KJV was translated during the Philadelphia church period (Revelation 3:7-13). The modern versions begin to appear rather late on the scene as the lukewarm Laodicean period gets underway (Revelation 3:14-22), but the KJV was produced way back in 1611, just in time for the many great revivals (1700-1900). The Philadelphia church was the only church that did not receive a rebuke from the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was the only church that “kept” God’s word (Revelation 3:8). |
| Why We Use the King James Version | As a pastor, I write this for the people in our church. On occasion, I have been asked why we, in our church, use the outdated King James Version. To answer that, we must touch on some complex and technical subjects. I, accordingly, have attempted to simplify the manner to a degree that most can understand. In Proverbs 22:28 the Bible says to “Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set.” A landmark is a surveyor’s term and refers to a benchmark or property marker. |
| WHICH BIBLE IS PRESERVED OF GOD? | The Westcott and Hort text was based upon two of the oldest manuscripts extant, Codex Aleph and Codex Vaticanus. One was found in the wastepaper basket by the great scholar Tischendorf on Mt. Sinai. The other was found in an out of the way place in the Vatican museum with dust over it. The former was discovered around 1859; the later some centuries before that; I believe in the thirteenth century or thereabouts. These manuscripts are two of the worst in existence. |
| The Difference Between Translator and Teacher | Selecting a Bible version involves the same kind of choice. There are two basic approaches, formal equivalency and dynamic equivalency. Bibles translated by formal equivalency will take careful reading. At times, you will have to study history to learn the cultural background before you can fully understand the text. The translator is simply rendering the text in your language… nothing more. |
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