The author of The King James Only Controversy, Dr. James White said in his debate with Dr. Thomas Ross on the topic of the Legacy Standard Bible (formerly known as the New American Standard),
“No one is sitting around trying to change the Bible and trying to change the message.” Just the Jehovah’s Witnesses (at 2:13:53 )
James White says this quite often if you listen to his debates or have read his book. He does not believe there has been wide spread corruption of the word of God. He believes that textual differences are merely accidental errors of copyists. He does not believe that Satan has made an effort to tamper with the word of God.
It is hard to imagine what his definition of “corruption” is. James White does not believe the following verses of scripture are the word of God; he believes they were added to the text at a later time.
Mark 16:9-20
John 7:53-8:11
Matt 18:11
Matt 23:14
So James White thinks that these verses have been added to the text of scripture, probably mistakenly or with good intention, but he does not believe anyone has sat down and purposefully tried to corrupt the word of God. He bases this belief on his naturalistic view of the preservation (or lack thereof) of scripture.
James White’s belief is contrary to both common sense and the word of God.
Common sense: If James White’s “word of God” is missing all those verses, then his Bible is corrupt. If my Bible, the KJB, has added all those verses when they do not belong, then my Bible is corrupt. Things that are different are not the same. There has to be corruption in one or the other. In fact, there are obvious corruptions in modern versions that cannot be denied. For example, look at the New English Bible’s translation of Judges 1:14.
King James Bible Judges 1:14 And it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field: and she lighted from off her ass; and Caleb said unto her, What wilt thou?
New English Bible (1970 edition, later revised in 1989) Judges 1:14 "As she sat on the ass, she broke wind, and Caleb asked her, What did you mean by that?"
This is an obvious corruption, no other Bible has those words and the NEB itself has since changed its wording. If we were not dealing with the word of God, this corruption would be comical! It is so obvious that people are tampering with the word of God purposefully, but James White wants to hide this.
Biblical references to the word of God being corrupted: 2. Corinthians 2:17 “we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God” and Jer. 23:36 “ ye have perverted the words of the living God”. What would be the point of God warning people not to add or take away from His word if this was not something that happens? (Deut. 4:2, Prov. 30:5-6, 2 Cor. 2:17, 4:2, 2 Thes. 2:2, Rev. 22:18-19) Satan has been attacking the word of God since the beginning of creation (Gen. 3:1 “Yea, hath God said…?”)
So with the word of God and common sense on our side, we can easily see that James White is very wrong on this issue. Further, James White must admit that there is no perfect Bible. For even though most modern versions omit those single verses listed above, they still include the larger passages from John 7:53-8:11 and Mark 16:9-20, though they bracket them and put a foot note on them. The translators and editors of the modern versions do not believe that these passages are part of scripture, so why do they include them at all? They omitted the single stand alone verses, but not the long passages of scripture. James White says that they are simply being “honest” by including the “textual variants” (not corruptions) and footnotes so that the reader can decide for his or her self (making man the authority rather than the word of God) if the verses belong. This cannot be the case, because there are many verses and phrases that the modern versions do omit entirely instead of just putting them in brackets. I allege that the reason they are not omitting the long passages of scripture and only the single, stand alone verses is because people would notice a large portion of scripture missing from the text where as just one single verse is easy to overlook. Most Christians, even with no knowledge of the Bible version issue, would have a problem with large chunks of the Bible being taken out such as John 7:53-8:11 and Mark 16:9-20. I say that rather than being honest, as James White purports, the translators of the modern versions are being dishonest. If they believe those passages are corrupt, they should take them out completely.
If you listen to James White, there is no perfect Bible on earth anywhere. There is no “all authority” (Titus 2:15) whereby we can know what the truth is (John 17:17). Each individual must look to “scholars” of ancient languages and new discoveries of ancient manuscripts to discern where the word of God is and what the word of God says. James White will have your faith be in the wisdom of men, not the power of God (1 Cor. 2:5). You must put confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3) and science falsely so called (1 Tim. 6:20).
Or, you can listen to what the Bible says about itself, that God has kept and preserved His word and have confidence in it. If you compare the versions, you can see that the word of God is found in the King James Bible. There is no other book like it and it has proven itself to be the word God time and again. It does not need man to defend it (Heb. 4:12).
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