Where was the word of
God before 1611 and where is it today?
Those who promote the
modern bible versions do not believe any Bible is the inspired,
infallible, preserved, and pure words of the living God. They tell us
"the original Hebrew and Greek" is their final authority, hoping no one
will notice that there is no such animal on the face of this earth. They
don't have it, have never seen it, and wouldn't recognize it if it fell
on their heads.
There are no original
Hebrew and Greek manuscripts anywhere. There are several different
Hebrew texts plus the conflicting Dead Sea Scrolls. There are over 25
different conflicting Greek texts. The multitude of modern versions,
like the NASB, NIV, RSV, ESV, depart scores of times from the Hebrew
Masoretic texts, and often not in the same places. They are also based
on very different Greek texts than that of the King James Bible, though
none of them always follows the same Greek text as the others. The NKJV
does not always follow the same Greek text as the KJB and the meaning
has been radically changed in scores of verses. They often differ among
themselves in both text and meaning, and contain several proveable
theological errors.
We who believe God
meant what He said about preserving His words are ridiculed as ignorant,
backwater fanatics. We believe God is the sovereign ruler of history and
has preserved for us today all His pure words in the King James Bible.
God knew what would become of the English language and how the great
modern missionary movement of the late 1700's through the 1950's would
be carried out by American and English missionaries carrying one Bible
and translating it into hundreds of foreign languages and dialects. No
Bible in history has been used, honored and hated as much as the King
James Bible. The King James Bible was even read outloud from space as
the astronauts orbited the moon.
God also knew the great
battle concerning the preservation of His words would take place during
the times of the falling away from the faith before the glorious return
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it quite possible that we are living
in those times now. Never before has the Holy Bible itself been under
such fierce attack. The supreme irony is that those who now attack the
Bible are those who bear the name of Christians.
They refuse to believe
that God has in fact preserved His words in the one Book that has been
used and blessed by God a hundred times more than any other. History and
the sovereignty of God bear witness that the King James Bible is that
one Book, without proven error.
Many Whateverists of
the "No Bible is inerrant" crowd ask the following questions: (These are
actual quotes from one of the Bible clubs) "Why are you hung up on a
translation since no translation is perfect? What about the other
translations of the other nations of the world? Do you have an answer
for them?
You King James Bible
only people limit yourselves to just one language - English. Why are you
so afraid to talk about other languages. What about the aboriginals of
our nation? Do they have a Bible? If they do, would their translation be
just as "perfect" as the KJV? Why or why not? Is your God so
narrow-minded and bigoted that He only speaks to 10% or the world--the
English part, and consigns 90% of the world to Hell because they cannot
read and understand English, particularly Shakespearean English? My God
is not that narrow-minded. The Bible says that God so loved the world,
not just the KJV understanding crowd. He loves the Crees, the Punjabis,
the Hindis, the Maoris, the Inuits, those that speak Urdu and Arabic,
etc. But all of these are condemned to Hell because they have not the
KJV, right?"
First of all, God does
not condemn people to hell because they are not King James Bible only.
God can and does save His people using a multitude of translations in
hundreds of foreign languages. The gospel of salvation through the
death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is found in any
bible version out there, no matter how incompletely or poorly translated
it may be. Christ only promised that the gospel would be preached
throughout all the world.
Secondly, God never
promised that every nation or individual would have a perfect Bible, but
He did promise to preserve His pure, complete and 100% true words in a
Book somewhere on this earth.
"Seek ye out of the Book
of the LORD and read..." Isaiah 34:16.
God is under no
obligation to give equal light or gifts to all people. There was a
period of time when for about 2000 years only one small nation had the
true and pure words of God.
Psalm 147:19,20 says: "He
sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation; and as for his judgments, they
have not known them. Praise ye the LORD."
God's ways are not our
ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. God will hold us
accountable for the light He has been pleased to give us. We who have
the preserved and inerrant words of God in the English language of the
King James Bible will be held far more accountable for what we have done
with this book than those who cannot read English. "For unto whomsoever
much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom men have
committed much, of him they will ask the more." Luke 12:48
And thirdly, the people
who pose such questions as this individual asks are actually promoting
the idea that there is no complete, inerrant and 100% true Bible in ANY
language on this earth today. Not the Hebrew or the Greek, nor in any
language. This is what they are being taught in most seminaries today. A
recent poll shows that 85% of the students in America's largest
Evangelical seminary openly admit that they do not believe in the
Inerrancy of Scripture, and the percentages are getting higher each
year.
God has promised to
preserve His words, not in every language or to every people, but in
such a way as they would be known by many of God's believing people. The
Lord Jesus said:
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
Matthew 24:35
God testifies through
Isaiah in chapter 59:21
"As for me, this is my
covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my
words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth,
nor out of the mouth thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed,
saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever."
"For
the LORD is good: his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to
all generations." Psalm 100:5
"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." Psalm 12:6-7
"The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth
for ever." 1 Peter 1:25
We who believe the King
James Bible to be the inerrant word of God do not place our trust in the
King James translators. We do not defend their comments in the Preface,
nor their theology, though I agree with much of it. We trust in God
alone Who has fulfilled His promises to preserve His inspired words. He
just happened to use the believing men of the 1611 Holy Bible as His
instruments to continue this preservation.
They were not perfect
nor without error in themselves. Just as God used Peter, though he
denied the Lord and later separated himself from the Gentile believers
and was to be blamed for his actions, (See Galatians 2:12-14) or Paul
who was about to offer another blood sacrifice to appease the Jewish
law-keepers in Acts 21:26, or John who twice fell down to worship an
angel and was rebuked for it (See Rev. 19:10 and 22:8-9). God always
uses imperfect vessels for His glory; if He didn't, nothing would ever
get done.
Those who promote
today's multiple, conflicting versions of God's words think they finally
have the question that will stump the Bible believer and finally rob him
of his faith in God's inerrant word. They ask us, "Well, where was the
pure word of God BEFORE 1611?"
It will greatly
enlighten your mind if you ask them the same question. They don't know
where it was before 1611 either, or more importantly, where it is now. A
very good educated guess would be that God preserved His perfect words
in the Old Latin Bibles and then in the Waldensian latinized Bibles till
the time of the Reformation. Theodore Beza, whose Greek text was used by
the KJB translators, traces the Waldensian believers from around 120
A.D. to the Reformation. They were killed off by the thousands and their
Bibles were burned by the Catholic persecutors. The Waldensians believed
in the priesthood of every believer and the doctrines of grace. Then
God's perfect words passed over to what was named simply The Holy Bible,
later to be known as the King James Version. That is where they remain
today in all their purity.
Regarding the Old
Latin, which is not the same thing as the Catholic Vulgate, Agustine and
Tertullian both speak of this ancient version as existing since 157-190
A.D. Some like Doug Kutilek try to discredit the testimony of the Old
Latin bearing witness to the readings found in the KJB but not in
versions like the NASB, NIV, RSV, and they cherry-pick a few verses to
show divergent readings. There are only about 35 remaining portions or
fragments of the Old Latin around today, but these bear ample witness to
every one of the disputed verses that are omitted by most modern
versions.
I have studied the
issue myself and can prove that the following whole verses are included
in all, most, or at least some of the Old Latin copies. This information
is confirmed by using the Nestle-Aland Greek text critical notes -
certainly no friend to the KJB.
The following verses
which are omitted in the NIV, NASB, RSV, ESV, etc. are all found in
copies of the Old Latin texts. Matthew 17:21; 18:11; 23:14; Mark 7:16;
9:44, 46; 11:26; 15:28; Luke 9:55.56; 17:36; 23:17; John 5:4; Acts 8:37;
15:34; 24:7; 28:29; Romans 16:24, and 1 John 5:7.
I have compiled a study
of the major disputed readings found in the King James Bible as opposed
to the modern versions like the NASB, NIV, ESV, Holman versions, and
what the Old Latin texts say. You can see this study at this link on my
website:
http://www.geocities.com/brandplucked/Old
Latin.html
We have only a very
small portion remaining of all the Bibles and manuscripts that ever
existed. Perhaps as little as one one hundreth, so there is no sure way
of knowing what the other manuscripts and Bibles said - just as we do
not have the "originals" and can't prove what they said. Of those that
remain, no two are exactly alike in every detail, but of the
approximately 5,000 portions and fragments that we have today, about 95%
agree about 99% of the time with the King James Bible readings. The
other 5% differs a great deal even among themselves, and it is this 5%
that is used in most of today's "bibles".
Even the editors of the
UBS Critical Greek text admit that multitudes of Greek manuscripts that
once exited are no longer accessible.
Consider this statement
by Kurt and Barbara Aland: "INNUMERABLE MANUSCRIPTS WERE DESTROYED
during the persecutions and had to be replaced. The result was a
widespread scarcity of New Testament manuscripts which became all the
more acute when the persecution ceased... There also followed a sudden
demand for large numbers of New Testament manuscripts in all provinces
of the empire" (Aland, The Text of the New Testament, p. 65)
It is supremely
important to have faith in God, both for our salvation and for believing
that He has kept and preserved His words throughout every generation as
He promised to do. If you cannot believe God has kept His promise to
preserve His words, then how can you believe He will keep His promise to
preserve your soul?
Ask any modern version
promoter if he believes the originals were given by inspiration of God.
He will enthusiastically respond in the affirmative. Yes, they were
inspired. Then ask him how he knows this to be true. He has never seen
them because they don't exist. He believes it by faith. In the same way
we too have faith that God both inspired His original words and that He
has preserved them through history and today they are found in the King
James Bible.
The new version
promoter and King James critic has no final authority but his own mind
or his favorite scholar to tell him what God probably said. He has no
infallible Bible and doesn't want you to have one either. He can't tell
you where you can get a copy of God's pure words today, let alone where
they were before 1611. "Thus saith the LORD" has been replaced with
"Well, how does this version render it?"
"Thus
saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein." Jeremiah 6:16
Will Kinney
Where was the word of
God before 1611?
John 10:9 I am the door: by me if
any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find
pasture.
