Is King James Only-ism Heresy? Part 1

This accusation is often leveled against those who hold the conviction that God's written revelation to mankind is not just inspired somewhere in the nebulous sea of biblical manuscript fragments, but in a book that we can hold in our hands (Ezra 7:14, 25). This is because the Lord commanded Moses to write God's words in a book (Exod. 34:27; Deut. 31:9, 24).

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.” (Exodus 34:27)

The true book, which we call the Bible, carries certain divine characteristics because God is its author.

• It is inerrant (meaning without error), because God himself is without error and therefore perfect.
• It is infallible (meaning incapable of containing error), because God himself is infallible.
• It is true, because God cannot lie (Num. 23:19; Titus 1:2).
• It is light (Psalm 119:105; Prov. 6:23; 2 Pet. 1:19), because God himself is light (Isaiah 60:19; John 8:12; 1 John 1:5; Rev. 21:23).

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These divine words can be identified by other means as well.

1. God's true words come from the proper Source.

“And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and unto all the elders of Israel."  (Deuteronomy 31:9)

When Moses finished writing the words of the law, he gave the book to the Levites for safe-keeping.

“And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God...” (Deuteronomy 31:24-26).

Then, in Deuteronomy 17:18, kings were required to write their own copy of the law. But they had to have the proper source from which to make their copy.

“And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites” (Deuteronomy 17:18).

It could only be a copy from, "...that which is before the priests the Levites." They had to have the proper source.

This shows the process of textual transmission: God inspired holy men of God to record His words, they did so, and then faithful scribes, kings and others copied what was written. Notice that both the original writing, as well as the faithful copies, were authoritative.

God promised to preserve his words and they have been providentially preserved for thousands of years.

Although Satan has attempted in every generation to corrupt and counterfeit God's true words, the real biblical manuscripts were received, read, and re-copied again and again by God's people.

“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.” (Psalms 12:6-7).

As these texts multiplied, and were searched and studied by God's people for centuries, they eventually formed the archetype for purity and the standard for comparison among remnant believers and churches. This categorization, or Family, of manuscripts became known as the Traditional Text Family, from which was derived the Received Text, or in Latin, the Textus Receptus.

“Beginning from Jerusalem and then Antioch, missionaries went abroad into Europe. Over the successive centuries, especially after the fall of Constantinople (1453), the copies of the Traditional Text family were to be found in Europe, and so could be examined and collated in the age of printing. The printed Textus Receptus then became the foundation for Protestantism in the Reformation, and the tradition on which true Christianity is built. The tradition is not based on stubborn ignorance - as some impute of King James Bible supporters - but on a myriad of facts and blessings of God's gracious providence.”

(Verschuur, Matthew, Guide to the Pure Cambridge Edition of the King James Bible, 81).

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“The Textus Receptus was the standard Greek text for centuries. It was used by Protestant translators during the Reformation, and is responsible for the Authorized Version and its English forerunners.”

(Holland, Thomas, Crowned with Glory, pg. 7).

From England (and then from Germany while in exile), a man named William Tyndale translated the Textus Receptus into English, and the vast majority of his translation work went directly into the King James Bible, which Matthew Verschuur further identifies as "the English Received Text."

(Verschuur, M, Guide to the Pure Cambridge Edition of the King James Bible, 81).

God's true words have the proper Spirit.

“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6).

There is a stark difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Many examples could be cited demonstrating that modern versions actually introduce glaring errors into their texts.

For one example of many, notice the difference between the King James and that of almost every modern version in Hebrews 2:16:

“For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16).

Yet, almost all modern versions including the NKJV have something similar to the following: "For indeed He does not give aid to angels but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham."

The context surrounding the verse (particularly verses 5, 14, and 17) indicate the passage is referring to the nature of Jesus contrasted against the nature of angels, but shown in solidarity with the brotherhood of mankind in suffering and in death.

“...the reading as found in the NKJV et al. introduces a conspicuous error into the Word of God - namely, that God does not give aid to angels. This contradicts Daniel 10 wherein the prophet for whom the Book is named was told by an angel that he had been dispatched from the throne of Heaven to come to strengthen him. Nevertheless, the heavenly messenger had been withstood for a period of 21 days by the demon prince who oversaw the kingdom of Persia. It was not until God dispatched the archangel Michael to come to the aid of the angelic messenger that he was able to successfully battle through and reach Daniel.”  (Jones, Floyd Nolen, Which Version is the Bible? 44).

One Bible is consistent with both the close and distant context, while all others actually cause errors and discrepancies.

From this one example (and there are many), which Bible is backed by the spirit of truth as opposed to the spirit of error?

God's true words produce Certainty.

Because modern versions are produced using an entirely different Text Family than the Textus Receptus, they often engender confusion and doubt, rather than faith and confidence in God's words. This is because many phrases, verses, and whole passages are absent from the grouping (Family) of Greek manuscripts which undergird all modern versions.

“It is not simply differences between word choices in a translation, or readability, or even understanding the text which are at stake in the Bible version issue.”

“Instead of making the text easier to read, modern versions are muddying the clear waters of textual integrity by calling large portions of Scripture into question. This in turn is crippling faith in the Bible's reliability and authority.” (Pennington, Patrick, The Word of Truth).

God wants us to know his words with certainty.

“Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?” (Proverbs 22:20-21).

Are you confident that you, "...know the certainty of the words of truth..."? Can you boldly, "...answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?"

There is only one Bible that produces faith, confidence, and certainty.

“That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” (Luke 1:4).

 Is your faith in the Bible that you can hold in your hands, which God has preserved through the ages from the proper source, which has been received by God's people from the beginning; or has Satan tricked you into thinking we still have to search for God's words amidst the artifacts of archaeology or the mass of manuscript fragments?

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8:11-12).

Those who hold fast to the form of sound words found in the King James Bible are not just continuing blindly in church tradition. Nor are they always or in every way stirring up strife by focusing on a secondary issue.

Rather, they are standing in the long line of textual witness which traces its roots back to the founding of our faith. They are reading, and studying, and believing the Bible which is based on the overwhelming majority of Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. Many are Bible-believers in the truest sense who hold in their hands the Book of God and who depend on it with certainty.

In Part 2, we will continue our response in answer to the question, "Is King James Only-ism Heresy?"

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”— John 17:17