I love my Bible. My perfect, preserved copy of God's Holy Word for the English speaking people, the Authorized 1611 King James Bible. The New Age Bible versions that have infiltrated the churches in the last 100 years have lead to the absolute chaos and crisis of doctrine we have today. It's paved the way for the heretical Emergent Church movement, led by universalists like Rob Bell and others. While this is true, the saddest thing to me on a personal level that has come from everyone owning their own personalized, preferred Bible translation, is the obvious difficulty it presents in memorizing and familiarizing ourselves with Scripture. Before, the preacher read and preached the KJB, the people read along in their KJ Bibles, the children studied from the KJB in Sunday School, greeting cards and Bible literature all quoted from the Authorized text, and even those who did not make a concerted effort to memorize Scripture had it written on their hearts just by sheer repetition. Satan would have none of this! So, he pulled out his oldest trick (literally) and began to question once again, as he did in the garden, "Hath God said....?"
And so, the heretical compromised texts that had been altered by the gnostics of Alexandria, which had made their way into the Latin Vulgate and other corrupt translations, began to weave their way into the English language, the language spoken by the most definitively Christian nation in history, the U.S.
I have never read from anything other than the King James Bible, other than when I had to purchase required texts for college (The Jerusalem Bible and the New Revised Standard Bible). However, I used to hold to the position that this was my preference, and that if one was going to read from another version, he should choose a scholarly "objective" version (like the NRSV) and not an interpretive "subjective" version like the NIV. After much study on this subject, however, I realized that the "objective vs. subjective" issue has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Bible version debate. The truth is, you could have a very scholarly, completely unbiased translation, but IF IT'S FROM THE WRONG SOURCE, it's HERESY!
The issue is not about the translation, it's about the manuscripts! The King James Bible was carefully translated from the original received texts, the Textus Receptus, or the Majority texts. These were carefully preserved and copied by the early church. Some manuscripts were taken to Alexandria and changed by the gnostics. These, through a series of events, have now become known as the Westcott-Hort Greek text, from which almost all modern Bible translations are taken. The King James Bible tells us that Satan was "subtil" in his deception, hard to recognize, and it's no wonder that many sincere Christians aren't aware of this deception.
The Lord is jealous of His Word. In closing the Holy Book, He left us a warning, "...If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life..." Rev. 22:18, 19
Here is a link to ENTIRE VERSES that are deleted from the NIV Bible. This list doesn't include deleted or changed words here and there, such as references to Christ's divinity and Hell, etc.
Here's a link to one of my favorite "watchers on the wall" for modern times, John McTernan. He is a defender of life, a defender of Israel, a defender of Biblical prophecy, a defender of family and marrige, and a defender of the King James Bible. He isn't a stuffy academic, but a very humble and knowledgeable child of God who knows how to get his point across. There are several useful links on the page below, including his personal testimony about the King James Bible.
John McTernan, 400 Years of the KJB
If you'll look on the right sidebar of my blog, you'll find a link to a position paper by my all-time favorite Bible scholar, Dr. Henry Morris, on the King James Bible.
If you aren't sure about this issue, I urge you to study up on it yourself! David Cloud from Way of Life Ministries (http://www.wayoflife.org/) is another great resource, as well as Dr. Samuel Gipp ("The Answer Book" among others).
Praise God for His kind provision for us, in giving us a Book from which we can know that we have eternal life! Happy 400 Years, King James Bible!
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