“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.” – Matthew 24:4
THE TITLE “NEW KING JAMES BIBLE” is a misnomer. Such a name would have readers to believe it is the King James Bible in modern parlance. This is false. Contrary to popular belief, the “New King James” translation is NOT merely the King James Bible downgraded to modern English. The NKJB’s Old Testament is not the Masoretic Text of the King James Old Testament, but the Biblia Hebraica, a modern “critical” text birthed through the same unscholarly, ungodly protocols which supplied the perverted manuscripts of its modern perversion cohorts. And while the New King James does employ the Textus Receptus of the King James New Testament, it butchers these manuscripts so mercilessly that the final product is utterly unrecognizable.
Hitherto in this series of rebuking modern Bible perversions, I have confined my focus to the text alterations themselves. While this remains the primary purpose of this article, I would first like to draw your attention to the New King James Bible’s cover, before I examine what lies within that cover. What is this logo of three interlocking sixes?
“Oh, that’s easy,” you reply. “That’s the symbol of the Trinity.” This would be a noble explanation, if there were a symbol of the Trinity. But there exists no such creature. The logo above pictured is featured on The Aquarian Conspiracy – a New Age bestseller – and the album covers of Led Zepplin, a notoriously Satanic “music” group. It is not a “Christian” symbol by any means, because there is no such thing as “Christian” symbols. The Bible clearly condemns graven images, even if they claim to portray God (Exodus 20:3), and forbids all attempts to depict the Godhead through art and man’s device (Acts 17:29). Whether that symbol is used by Christians to represent the Trinity or not is irrelevant and does not change where the symbol originated, or what it truly represents.
Compare this logo to that on the New King James cover – look familiar?
For a more thorough breakdown of this fascinating subject, I recommend you go to this link: https://www.av1611.org/crock/pod_sym.html. Now, I will discuss some of the many corrupt verses within the “New King James” translation.
#1: 2 CORINTHIANS 2:15
2 Corinthians 2:15 (King James Bible): “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:”
2 Corinthians 2:15 (New King James Bible): “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
While changing “sweet savour” to “fragrance” is unnecessary, it is trivial when measured against the drastic doctrinal change set forth later in the verse. This Scripture, if it be taken from the King James Bible, is in perfect harmony with the rest of the King James Bible, in teaching that salvation is something which is permanent, and not a “state” or “process”. The New King James Bible, though, following in the footsteps of the modern perversions it pretends to differ from, instead presents salvation and damnation as continual states which are subject to change, presumably in accordance with how each individual lives.
Nothing could be further from the truth. How we live has no part in whether we are saved, or whether we are damned. It is what we are trusting to take us to heaven – this is the only thing that matters for salvation. Are we trusting our good works, and reformation, and living our lives in a way that (we think) pleases God? Or are we trusting only what Jesus Christ did for us at Calvary, and looking only to him as Savior, apart from all our works and deeds? Be not deceived, dear reader. This question of what you trust for salvation cannot be over emphasized. What you decide to trust will determine where you spend eternity. If you believe the King James Bible, then you will trust Christ alone for salvation, and be saved. If you believe the New King James Bible, you will not trust Christ alone for salvation, but will lump some odious combination of grace and works together with faith, and will perish.
#2: MATTHEW 7:14
Matthew 7:14 (KJB): “Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Matthew 7:14 (NKJV): “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
There is nothing “difficult” about salvation. How can there be, when everything to do with it was taken care of by Jesus Christ upon Calvary’s cross? The difficulty lies only in the need for men to stop trusting whatever they hitherto have been trusting on this matter of salvation, and instead, as guilty sinners, trust Christ as their Savior, believing he died for their sins, was buried, and bodily resurrected three days later. Using the very term “difficult” implies some onerous effort required to overcome a challenge or receive a particular object. In the case of the New King James Bible, as highlighted above, the “difficulty” is that salvation cannot simply come through faith in Christ, but must be accompanied by a lifetime of diligent obedience. This flies in the face of the plain Scriptural teaching that salvation is “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9). The way is narrow, not because it is “difficult”, but because many have been deceived by false prophets and devilish Bible translators into thinking salvation is dependent upon how they live and what they do.
#3: 1 JOHN 5:13
1 John 5:13 (KJB): “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
1 John 5:13 (NKJV): “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”
Once more, the lie of salvation being a “process” is promoted by the New King James translation. In this verse the New King James, while at first seemingly teaching eternal security, then makes it seem that only those who preserve in their faith will have eternal life. In other words, if their lives do not mirror what is expected of a Christian, it is concluded they are no longer saved. I repeat myself in stating that how we live has nothing to do with whether or not we are saved. It is our faith in Christ’s death, burial, and bodily resurrection which saves us, and not our habits or character. The very concept of a “salvation” which can be lost is repugnant to the character of God and the truth of his word, yet that is what we see taught time and again both by the modern Bible perversions, and the swarms of false prophets who mine their doctrines of devils from those same modern Bible perversions.
Simple logic will tell us that two contradictory statements cannot both be true. Either we can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved (Acts 16:31), or we must continue to believe, and risk plunging into hell if we backslide at any point between now and eternity. I will gladly subscribe to the truth of the King James Bible, and reject this farcical modern perversion which clearly contradicts itself in the same sentence.
#4: PHILIPPIANS 3:21
Philippians 3:21 (KJB): “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
Philippians 3:21 (NKJV): “who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
At first glance, this perversion may seem trifling. After all, don’t “vile” and “lowly” kind of mean the same thing? No, they do not. The word of God is not a “kind of” book; it is an authoritative book with authoritative terms. As guilty sinners, we are not just “lowly”; we are vile. Our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). In our flesh dwelleth no good thing (Romans 7:18). The word “vile” gets this point across; the word “lowly” provides a cowardly euphemism for a crucial doctrine.
But the issue goes beyond watering down the uncompromising truth that mankind is wicked and unable to deliver himself from his wickedness. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus Christ says that he is “meek and lowly in heart.” If the New King James translation is to be believed, that would put Jesus in the same category as ourselves – an imperfect, sinful man. I do not believe in a sinful Redeemer, because no sinner can take away another sinner’s sins. I believe in a Redeemer who was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). We are vile; he is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).
#5: TITUS 3:10
Titus 3:10 (KJB): “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;”
Titus 3:10 (NKJV): “Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition,”
There is a great deal of difference between heresy and divisiveness. Heresy refers to false doctrine; divisiveness refers to the nature and tone of an individual, without any regards to the truth, or falsehood, of his doctrine. A heretic and a divisive man are not necessarily the same thing. One can be a heretic without being divisive, and one can be divisive without being a heretic. In addition to being a completely subjective description, the term “divisive” is wholly unrelated to whether a doctrine is true or false.
This perverted rendering of Titus 3:10 mirrors a familiar concept propounded by the ecumenical and doctrinally-deficient churches of our present day. This idea revolves around holding flimsy and wavering “belief” in the Bible, diminishing the importance of doctrine, and rebuking those who boldly proclaim the truths of God’s word for being too “dogmatic” and “judgmental.” This is stupidity. No Christian should apologize for believing the Bible and obeying what it says to do. Paul was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Romans 1:16), and neither should we be. “Dogmatism” is the pathetic cry which flows from cowardly lips who refuse to take an uncompromising stand for the Scriptures. Perhaps it is because they love the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:43). Perhaps it is because their financial support and popularity would disappear if they obeyed God in earnest. Perhaps it is because they fear the retribution this wicked world will inflict upon those who are instant in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2). But whatever the reason, it is these spineless wimps – and not the men of God they scornfully rebuke – who are deserving of shame and contempt.
Every man of God in the Bible – from the Old Testament prophets to the apostles – and especially Jesus Christ, would be classified as “divisive” by our hypocritical modern society. There is no shame in being labeled “divisive”, if you are keeping God’s commandments. If you find this website and this article “dogmatic”, or “opinionated”, or “offensive”, I will not apologize to you for it. I will never preface my remarks with some pitiful concession that “this is just what I believe”, or that “this may be wrong.” Nonsense! The Bible is never wrong, and anything which agrees with the Bible must subsequently be true. If you find yourself disagreeing with this, the issue is not with my tone or my unapologetic confidence in the truth of the Bible, but in your cowardice and unbelief.
CONCLUSION
This article only scratches the surface of the many perversions within the “New King James” translation of the Bible. Yet, it should be sufficient to convey that the New King James Bible is no King James Bible at all, but rather another modern perversion which teaches the same despicable lies as all the other modern perversions teach. We see salvation presented as a process, sin diminished, and confidence in the word of God ridiculed. In short, we see so many corruptions, deletions, and perversions, that we cannot, in good faith, believe the only difference between the King James Bible and its modern counterfeit counterpart is moving from the sublime heights of Elizabethean English to the gutters of modern English. If you have copies of this infernal trash in your possession, burn every last one. You will be doing yourself and mankind a great service, in ridding the world of this devilish corruption which poses as the “modern version” of the King James Bible.