How Petty Are the Un-persecuted
Growing up, I would say that I only read the King James Version of the Bible. Now, to clarify, it is not that my parents believed the KJV to be the only good translation, but it was their favorite and the one they had grown up with. This made it the most comfortable Bible for them to use.
The churches we went to usually used the KJV. But, during my early years, my parents always made it clear that the KJV was not the only source of God’s revelation to man, it was just a good one. They preferred the KJV, but they were not KJV only.
Why is this distinction important? That is a great question. The difference is that many pastors and Christians who believe the KJV is the only correct English translation of the Bible believe the KJV to actually be inspired. That is a real issue in terms of the history of the Bible.
God did not breathe the Holy Scriptures into the King’s English. God used men over a period of hundreds of years, and the scrolls that they wrote God’s Words down on, were inspired. God breathed. But, they were “breathed” in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.
English wasn’t even a language yet. It wouldn’t come along until about 500 years after Christ died on the cross. So, the KJV is simply not the only translation of the Bible that teaches God’s Word.
In fact, the KJV is a wonderful example of using pieces from the past to create an improvement on past editions. Which is one of the reasons I find it ironic that KJV-only Christians are so hard on this subject.
In 1536, William Tyndale was burned at the stake for translating the Bible into the common language of the people of England. He believed it his God-given mission to do so and gave the ultimate sacrifice in order to carry forth the cause of Christ.
The scribes that worked on the KJV called upon his translation when working on their edition as well as several other translations. They said that previous translations were the Word of God and that their own translation was faithful but not perfect. If you want to know exactly what they thought about it, go look up their preface to the 1611 edition! It is a treasure trove of information. It’s a wonder to me that it is no longer included in the KJV editions that are out now. Perhaps the reason is because it undermines many of the arguments Christians, who are KJV-only, use. It is easy to find online, but have fun with the spelling! Still, it is a wonderful preface and worth a read.
In addition, the KJV has been updated multiple times in the last 400 years and it is not exactly like it was then, though no doctrine has been changed, it is not the same.
I use this particular phraseology because there is a well known pastor in my county named Mickey Carter that has a book entitled “Things That Are Different Are Not the Same.” As you might imagine, he is a KJV-only pastor and I find his title amusing because the KJV is not the same as it was 400 years ago.
One of my all time favorite changes is the removal of the Apocrypha in 1885. That’s right. For well over 200 years the KJV had the Apocrypha in it! Bet you never heard that in a KJV only church.
Spelling, font and wording have also changed. Again, the KJV is a wonderful translation. But, it is just a translation.
The Bible has a whole commandment dedicated to worshiping something other than God, and it is called idolatry.
I personally believe that those who go down this road of believing the KJV to be the only correct translation are elevating the KJV to the level of idolatry.
The English Standard Version (ESV), the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the New King James Version (NKJV), and my personal favorite, the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), are all word for word translations and they are excellent.
This means that they are not interpreting the meaning of Scripture they are simply translating one word to is most equivalent word in English. They also sometimes add an English word for clarification that was not in the original text and italicize it to denote what they did. (The KJV does this as well, haven’t you ever wondered why some words are italicized?)
I have known many people over the years who use the New International Version (NIV). I believe it to be a fair translation and I certainly believe that people can be saved through this version but it is low, low on my list because it is a “thought for thought” translation and I take issue with that approach.
There are versions that are lower that are just nonsense, but there is no need to go into every kind.
God promised He would preserve His Word and I believe Him.
Now, I will say concerning the ESV and the NASB as well as some other modern translations, that they do remove 16 verses from the New Testament. These verses have been removed because older reference materials have been found that do not include them.
I will admit, that bothers me. Older doesn’t mean better, but newer doesn’t mean better either. None of these removed verses effect doctrine and they do not alter the power of the Word of God by their absence.
But, still, it kind of annoys me for them to be taken out. That is one reason why the Legacy Standard Bible actually put them back in with brackets with an explanation that some older manuscripts do not include those verses. Ta-dah! Perfect, give me the information and let me decide whether those verses matter to doctrine.
And guess what? With the ESV, NASB and the LSB I do not have to get out my Middle English to Modern English dictionary to find out how old Abraham was when he had Isaac because they just say it in my language! Imagine that.
All people deserve such a gift, don’t you think?
If missionaries are handing out Bibles to people who do not speak English and the Bibles they are handing out are not the KJV, are you insulted? Of course not. Are they less of a Christian because they are reading the Bible in Spanish, Chinese, or Arabic? Of course not. Then this is a senseless debate.
In fact, the nations that have had the most and longest access to the KJV are the nations moving as far away from any kind of Christianity as possible. America. England. Australia.
These nations are apostate. They reject God. And before you start to say it is because they changed to a different version of the Bible, be careful what you say. Because the Supreme Court Justices that took prayer out of schools in 1962 grew up under the KJV.
None of the other versions I have listed above had even been published yet! So, clearly, it was not the fault of moving to another translation.
Guess none of these three things worked out too well, did they? We have given our nation over to reprobates because we stopped doing what the Bible commanded us to do in the first place. Not because we started reading a Bible that was translated into our common tongue.
To use the example first notably given by Jonathan Edwards in the 1700s, imagine you are sitting at the Lord’s table up in heaven after the saints have been raptured, you are looking around and you do not see your own children or grandchildren there. How would you feel?
What matters is that your children are sitting at the Lord’s heavenly table with you, not that you lead them to Christ with a KJV.
Moving on from this particular struck nerve, I am writing this article because I believe it to be a truly petty squabble.
There are thousands of Christians around the world without access to the Bible in their own language and they do not have the luxury of raising a ruckus over which translation they prefer or idolize over another.
In many Muslim dominated nations, family members take it upon themselves to kill members of their own family that have converted to Christianity. The government does not even have to get involved because the indoctrination of Islam is so rooted in their people that the people are willing to kill them without getting the police involved at all!
Imagine you are an African pastor who only has one small, red New Testament Bible for your entire congregation of 400! Just after their delivery, armed Islamic militants, that have ravaged your nation for years, intercepted a shipment of Bibles intended for the families in your church, burned them, kidnapped 20 people from your village, and shot you in the head!
Take a look at the Voice of the Martyrs ministry, it gives a lot of perspective that Americans have completely lost.
How do you feel now about this argument over English versions? I think Satan is pleased with himself. He has us arguing over nearly every thing other than the truth. He has us fist fighting over TRADITIONS rather than DOCTRINE!
Man, he is so good at his job. That job being keeping people from the kingdom of God, and we are his unwitting accomplices.
We need to take a look at where our priorities are while sitting in our comfy pews and reading our Bibles that are printed cheaply in China. (A nation where it is illegal to practice religion. A nation where Christians, muslims and other religious people are kidnapped, imprisoned and their organs harvested while they are still alive and sold to Americans and Canadians. Their bodies are eventually given back to their families full of stitches and missing parts.)
What are we doing arguing about which English translation is best? Why aren’t we just thanking God for the richness of choices and advantages we have in this nation?
As a warning, please remember, that those times of persecution that we have lived free of, may not be far away from our own nation.
If our nation continues down its dark path, and if churches continue to hide the light of the truth and freedom of Jesus Christ beneath the squabbles of petty preferences, we may soon find ourselves released of this debate of which translation is best because all translations will be banned and we will have to settle for what pieces and parts of the Word of God we can get.
Resources for further study:
Raising Kids to Follow Christ by Leah Ann Mancini
When Faith is Forbidden by Todd Nettleton
Persecution.com
A Weed In the Church by Scott Brown
http://www.togetherweteach.com/TCB/kjvpreface.htm