I believe that the King James Bible is the holy word of God for the English speaking people. I believe it is completely infallible. (though the early editions contained many printers errors, there have never been any true errors/contradictions in the text)
Here are some of the reasons why I hold to this belief:
1.) God promised to preserve His words. (Psalms 12:6-7)
2.) The King James Bible has been used by God incredibly. (Isaiah 55:10-11)
3.) Out of the 5,555 Greek manuscripts (of the NT), most of them agree with the King James Bible
4.) We live in the dispensation of grace where Israel has been set aside and God is now working with the Gentiles (Romans 11 and 16, Ephesians 3). English is the most important language for the Gentiles to learn and English is the language of most members of the body of Christ.
5.) The King James Bible has no true contradictions.
6.) The King James Bible gives more honor and glory to Jesus Christ than any other "bible".
7.) The King James Bible gives more honor to scriptures than any other "bible".
8.) The King James Bible has been despised by the Catholic church whereas modern versions have been published as "catholic editions" (such as NRSV).
9.) Most liberals and heretics ditched the King James Bible as soon as possible.
10.) The translators of the King James Bible clearly outshine modern translators in the realm of Biblical scholarship.
11.) The King James Bible warns against Bible-corrupters (2 Cor. 2:17).
12.) The King James Bible promotes dispensational Bible study (2 Tim. 2:15, Eph. 3:3).
13.) The ministries with the most fruit (producing spiritual Christians) use the King James Bible.
14.) The King James Bible says that Christ was God manifest in the flesh and that Joseph was not His father (Luke 2:33, 1 Tim. 3:16). Most "bibles" do not say that.
15.) The King James Bible exalts the Trinity (1 John 5:7).
16.) Those who stand for the authority of the King James Bible are independent ministries, street preachers, TRUE dispensationalists, and scripture distributors. Those who stand for modern versions do not seem be as evangelistic (gospel centered) and do not rightly divide the bible (any bible).
In response to the belief in the infallibility of the King James Bible, most people make these points.
1.) Only the "originals were inspired".
That statement is incorrect. Paul says that "ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God" and he said that right after telling Timothy that he had the "HOLY SCRIPTURES" (2 Timothy 3:15-17). If something is scripture than it is "given by inspiration of God". And guess what? NO reference in the New Testament to the word "scripture" is referring to any "originals". Peter said that the word of God "LIVETH and abideth forever" (1 Pet. 1:23-25).
2.) There is no such thing as "exact preservation" of the original autographs.
That statement is obviously false in light of Ps. 12:6-7, Isa. 40:8, Isa. 55:9-11, Matt. 5:18, Matt. 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, 1 Pet. 1:23-25, and 2 Tim. 3:15-17.
3.) The word of God is bound to the original languages of Hebrew and Greek.
That idea is never taught in the scriptures. One of the attributes of the word of God is that it is not bound. 2 Timothy 2:9, "Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound." The word of God is the "sword of the Spirit" (Eph. 6:17) and the Spirit is not bound.
Hebrews 4:12 describes the word of God.....and it is NOT a description of a book that nobody can read written in a practically dead language. "the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" The word of God "liveth and abideth forever", therefore it is NOT bound to any language because languages can become dead and extinct.
Clearly the word of God was designed to go to as many nation as possible (1 Cor. 15:1-4, Rom. 16:25-26, Rom. 10:17). The scriptures are to go to all nations for the obedience of faith and faith cometh by the word of God. God's method of getting "inspired originals" (tongues) was supplanted by the written word of God (1 Cor. 13:8-12).
4.) There is no such thing as an inspired translation.
That is a false statement. The ORIGINAL autographs included inspired translations, see Genesis 42:18-20, 42:23, Ezra 4:7-11, Ps. 110:1 with Luke 20:42-43, Mark 5:54, Acts 22, Acts 26:14, and Matthew 27:46 with Mark 15:34. Also see any NT saint quoting the Old Testament scriptures (that is going from Hebrew to Greek)
5.) Where was the word of God before 1611?
ANSWER:
" THE HOLY BIBLE
containing the old and new testaments
1611 Authorized King James Version
Translated out of the original tongues
and with former translations
diligently compared and revised
by his magesty's special command "
The word of God (prior to 1611) was in the former translations and the Hebrew and Greek languages. The KJB is a compilation of the correct (inspired) readings from those sources. The TR, Majority Text, Alexandrian Text, Old Latin, Old Syriac, early translations, etc. ALL have SOME inspired words and whole verses.
containing the old and new testaments
1611 Authorized King James Version
Translated out of the original tongues
and with former translations
diligently compared and revised
by his magesty's special command "
The word of God (prior to 1611) was in the former translations and the Hebrew and Greek languages. The KJB is a compilation of the correct (inspired) readings from those sources. The TR, Majority Text, Alexandrian Text, Old Latin, Old Syriac, early translations, etc. ALL have SOME inspired words and whole verses.
For example,
KJB Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
NKJV Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
When
the NKJV (or anything else) agrees with the KJB, those verses/words are
the inspired words of God. The KJB (to my knowledge) is the only
complete compilation of the inspired words of God without error, though
other texts do contain some inspired words and even verses.
Here is an excellent quote from Pastor David O'Steen, "
I agree. The only other reference to inspiration in the Bible explains how the AV translators were inspired:
Job 32:
8 But there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
I
know the words of God were available to man before 1611 because God
promised they would be, but that doesn't mean they were all in one
volume. People who have a problem with that should consider the
following facts:
1. There was no written scripture for the first 2500 years of human history
2. For the next 1500 years there was not a complete Bible
3. God waited 4,000 years to send the Word of God, Jesus Christ, into the world
Who
are we to question how God does things? He sent the Word of God into
the world when the "fullness of time was come" and He sent the word of
God in the universal language of the world when the "fullness of the
time was come" --Pastor David O'Steen
To be fair, no translation compares to the Koine Greek, because of what is not fully translated, such as all of the moods, tenses and voice of verbs, word-emphatic order, and subjunctives (confusion between "truisms" and "if-isms"). As for "formal" gender, English lacks that, but even when it exists in other languages, gender is learned by rote, and the reader is seldom aware of formal gender traits.
ReplyDeleteThat all said, the KJB is superior over all the rest in English, save the Jubilee 2000, that comes in as a close "tie". These are superior because of the underlying Greek text that has been in circulation for at least 1600 years as a collation, and another 300 years, in groupings, as opposed to Hort and Westcott's 45 years of circulation, when modern versions such as NIV came about in the 1970s.
Also, the underlying Greek has support from other ancient texts, that were translated out of the Greek, such as the "Old Latin", the Peshitta and others. Finally, the KJB and the Jubilee 2000 preserve the 2nd person, singular and plural pronouns, that without in modern versions create the potential for over 15,000 ambiguities (ye, thee, thou, thine, thy, etc) These pronouns exist in all other languages of the world, except English, except when used in the KJB or Jublilee 2000, or writings such as Shakespeare.
Finally, my 10-year study has concluded the Hort and Westcott Greek NT is nothing less than a Catholic, arian and gnostic text in over 1100 verses, and is also back-translated in part (2500+ verses) from the Latin, another indication of Catholic origin. So trusting a modern translation, save those purely based on the traditional TR, is foolish.