“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” – Matthew 24:35
WHEN MEN SAY that the King James Bible and the manuscripts from which it was translated are filled with errors and mistakes, who are we to believe? Are we to believe God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2), or men, who can lie (Romans 3:4)? Because, if the Almighty’s words have passed away, that would not only nullify the above verse; it would make him a liar. And if God is a liar, who is to say the preservation of his words is then the only thing he has lied about? Who is to say he has not lied also about salvation, or condemnation, or Christ crucified? Who is to say he has not lied in describing a heaven with streets of gold and interminable joys, and describing a hell of flaming fire and ceaseless torment?
“No one” is who. We have no foundation that standeth sure, if God’s words have passed away. We have no recourse to soothe our despair, no rudder to steady our worries, no compass to chart our course. We are lost in a sea of speculation, where confusion thrives, and truth becomes a thing of private interpretation and personal judgement. And if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable (1 Corinthians 15:19).
My brethren, these things ought not so be. The God who raised Jesus from the dead, who stretched out the heavens as a curtain, who conquered sin and death and darkness at Calvary’s cross, is also the God who has preserved his very words. I give you Psalm 12:6-7:
“The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”
Jesus said that “the WORDS that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63), and that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The importance of words over mere ideas, thoughts, or reasoning need hardly be explained, since words offer a specificity and concreteness wanting in a mere paraphrase. And this is precisely why God has unmistakably promised to preserve the WORDS – not just the thoughts, not just the ideas, not just the general frame of reasoning, but the WORDS themselves.
This introduction brings me to my main point: do you believe God is a liar? If you do, you are not likely to mind the influx of modern “Bible” translations which have flooded the markets over the last century. If you do, you are not likely to mind self-appointed “experts”, “scholars”, and textual critics deriding the King James Bible as defective, corrupted, and faulty. If you do, you are not likely to mind the notion that God is incapable of preserving his words as he said he would, and therefore needs “help” from sinful, mortal men to weave together a perpetually revised resemblance of what they think the original manuscripts were like.
You see, my reader, the differences between the King James Bible and the modern translations cannot be classified merely in terms of modernized English and personal preference. Each reflects an entirely different literary style, an entirely different translation philosophy, and, most importantly, an entirely different set of manuscripts.
I will briefly expand upon these points, beginning with the contrast in literary styles. The King James Bible has long been acclaimed for the harmony and poetry of its prose, for the forceful simplicity of its expression, for the charming grace of its beauty. It is known as “the noblest monument of English prose”, because it is beautiful to read, and even more beautiful to hear read. I seriously question the literary tastes of one who reads Psalm 91, or Isaiah 53, or 1 Corinthians 13 from the King James Bible, and then concludes that modern renderings of said passages are somehow superior. The stark literary superiority the King James Bible boasts over its modern competitors should be evident to all, as should the uncompromising authority by which it speaks as easily trumping the pathetic, apologetic tone of modern versions.
I move next to the contrasting translation philosophies. The King James translators, as their preface to their work will attest, conducted their business, not as translating just another piece of literature, but as translating the very words of God. They acknowledged they were but poor instruments to carry out so great a work, though they were surely some of the greatest scholars England – and the world, for that matter – has ever known. They took care to see the manuscripts were translated word for word.
Compare this humility and veneration for the sacred words they handled, with the pitiful arrogance and self-promotion found in the prefaces to modern Bible translations. When the translators – likely not as brilliant as they would have you to think – are done with congratulating themselves for their “great work”, they will concede they used a “thought for thought” translation. This means, that rather than simply translating the text as it is written, these “great scholars” took it upon themselves to decide what the Bible should say, because they know God better than we do, and they are allowed to tamper with his word, in the face of the biblical commands against doing so (Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:5-6, Revelation 22:18-19). In short, they make themselves as gods (Genesis 3:5).
I move lastly to the different sets of manuscripts. Underlying the King James Bible are the pure, uncorrupted, undefiled, preserved words of God, in agreement with up to 95% of extant manuscripts. Underlying the modern translations – NIV, ESV, etc. – are the impure, corrupted, defiled butcheries of Bible which have – when they weren’t collecting dust in wastebaskets at Mt. Sinai – been themselves revised, redone, and written over to preposterous degrees. Unsurprisingly, these manuscripts contradict both the King James Bible, and themselves, in numerous places, as any reading of a modern Bible translation will attest. Even less unsurprisingly, despite these literal scraps of trash comprising as little as 5% of extant manuscripts, they are what the “scholars” and “experts” claim are more “reliable” than those manuscripts of the KJB. They are upheld and adored as the most accurate and most faithful to the original texts, the best product that farcical scholarship and pseudo-sciences as textual criticism can produce, and the best that avarice-driven textual creativity intended to secure lucrative copyrights can buy.
Often and often in these pages, I have compared verses from the KJB with verses from the modern translations to demonstrate just how perverse and foul the latter are. Consult John 3:16 in modern versions, and you will find that Jesus Christ is no longer the only begotten Son of God, but merely the “only son”, or “one and only son”, an absurd rendering which blatantly contradicts John 1:12, Galatians 3:26, and similar verses. Reference the modern versions’ rendering of Ephesians 1:7, and you will discover the crucial doctrine of Christ’s redeeming blood has been done away with entirely, and instead replaced with “his death”, which by itself could never wash away our sins. Refer to the modern translations of Acts 8:37, and you will learn that baptism is either necessary for salvation (which it is NOT – see Galatians 2:16, Romans 4:4-5, Ephesians 2:8-9, John 6:47, etc.), or to be done whether one believes or not, a strange doctrine more compatible with heretics like Martin Luther, than with the truths of God’s word.
Now, you may think that Scriptures as Matthew 24:35 are not necessarily violated if the King James Bible is as flawed as scholars say, but you are mistaken. Jesus did not say, “My words shall not pass away most of the time”; he said, “My words shall not pass away,” PERIOD. There are no conditions under which his words would temporarily pass off the scene, but this is exactly what has happened if we give ear to those who claim the manuscripts underlying the modern translations – manuscripts which went unknown to man for centuries before their rediscovery – are the most “reliable”. If the words of God passed away for but an hour, that would break his promise to preserve his words “for ever” (Psalm 12:7).
But the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35). Where does us then leave us? It leaves us at the same place we always are, when any subject as this is broached: what is the final authority? Is the final authority the King James Bible and the manuscripts from which it is derived? Is it wicked men who fancy themselves capable of correcting and changing the very words of God? And what is to be made of the Bible itself? Is it the pure (Psalm 119:140), inspired (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21), powerful (Hebrews 4:12) word of God, or is it merely a defective collection of archaic ancient manuscripts written by mortal man?
You must decide for yourself, dear reader, who will you believe? Will you believe the fruit of the King James Bible, which is holiness, godliness, soulwinning, contending for the faith, and speaking the truth in love? Or will you believe the rotten fruits of the modern Bible translations, which are false doctrine, apostasy, compromise, false gospels like “Lordship Salvation”, a false definition of “repentance” which wrongly requires sinners to “turn from their sins” to be saved, ecumenicism; pathetic, lukewarm, counterfeit “Christianity”; worldly churches, psychology-driven “theology”, and the repugnant practice of respecting and tolerating false doctrines, while railing against those who obey God by exposing them? The choice is yours to make, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).