When I visit from place to place, I am often asked the question, “Which Bible version do I use?”  The questioner will listen patiently while I answer that I use the King James Bible, and have used it all my saved life.  I have never considered using any other version.  I try to explain to them why I believe the King James is the best version for English speaking people.  That is the topic for today’s radio broadcast.

I need to say first of all that I will not be able to cover all my reasons for using the King James Bible in this short 15 minute broadcast.  It would take many such 15 minute broadcasts to cover such a subject as broad and all encompassing as this. 

Point number one.  Many people say that the newer versions are easier to read and understand.

Have you ever heard of the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Indicator?  This is a system whereby a document is rated as to the difficulty of reading and understanding.  It is calculated using the average words per sentence, the average syllables per word, the average length of each sentence, and the length of paragraphs.  Many translations of the Bible has been subjected to the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Indicator.  The result of this analysis is quite remarkable.  The average grade level the King James Bible uses is 5.8.  In other words a student in the fifth grade, eighth month can understand what is being said. The NIV, which is the most popular of all newer versions, has a average grade level of 8.4.  So which is easier to read and understand - refutably the King James is easier to read and understand than any other version.  This is in black and white.

If it is true that the King James Bible is easier to read and understand, why do people have all this trouble understanding what it is saying?  Quite frankly, I don’t believe people have a lot of trouble understanding what the King James is saying, I think they have a lot of trouble fitting the King James Bible says into their lifestyle.  The King James Bible speaks clearly about Jesus being the only begotten son of God.  It speaks clearly about sin and death that is caused by sin, and how only Jesus Christ has the power to wash away sin, and make us whole and complete in the eyes of God.  I think sometimes people think the King James speaks too clearly about sin and total dedication to spiritual values.  Because people aren’t spiritually inclined, they want a Bible that will allow them to continue living they way they want to live, and still feel “religious.”

Second point.  All these newer translations are supposed to make the Bible easier to read and understand - Right?  Well, since all these newer versions have come on the market, are people understanding the Word of God more than they were or less than they were?  Since all these newer versions have been published, which are supposed to be so much better to read and understand, do people really understand the Bible better than they did?  Has society improved because people can now understand what God expects of them?  Have crime rates gone down because people understand God’s Word better?  Is it safer to walk down the streets than it was a hundred years ago.

What was society like when the only Bible we had that was commonly used was the King James? If you go back a hundred years, before all these “modern” translations came on the market and advertising convinced people they needed to buy the newer versions because they were easier to read than the old King James, what do you find?  Wickedness was present in this world a hundred years ago, but not nearly so open as it is today. 

God says in Jeremiah 6:16, “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.”  Proverbs 22:28 states, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.”  These passages are not talking about doing away with electricity or running water.  They are not speaking about walking everywhere you go instead of riding in an automobile.  These passages are not talking about doing away with your telephone, radio, or computer.  These passage are speaking about continuing in the principles of holiness as described in the Word of God.  Here is the whole story, these various and sundry versions of the Holy Word of God have not caused men to return to the principles of holy living.  Instead they have caused men to be more and more convinced that God (God’s Word) should be changed around to suit their everyday life.

Point Number three.  Most people will say there is little difference between the King James and the modern translations.  This is where they are terribly wrong.  There are so many differences it would be impossible to bring out even a tenth of them in an hour.  Some of the doctrinal changes are significant.

1.     God’s eternal plan of redemption is simply left out of some of the newer versions, or this great plan is so weakened as to be a shadow of its true strength.

2.     The eternal existence of Christ, and his deity are either wiped out of the newer versions or left with just a fragment remaining.

3.     Many of the newer versions refuse to admit that Christ is the creator of heaven and earth.

4.     Often Christ is referred to as the servant of God rather than His Son.

5.     The newer versions often cloud the description of Christ as the final judge of heaven and earth.

6.     The issue of the virgin birth of Christ becomes difficult to find in some of the new, modern versions.

Point number four.  The foundation of the modern translations is wrong.  This point involves some history, which I trust will be very interesting to you.  The history of these modern versions reads something like this.  Origen (185-254 A.D.) was one of the greatest apostate teachers that ever found a place in history.  He was a great influence on many, but his preference for Gnosticism, Platonism, Mysticism, and the early heresies made him anything but a safe guide or teacher.  His doctrines were repulsive. Though considered the greatest theologian of the third century, he taught that stars have souls, devils would be saved, that Jesus was created and did not eternally exist as God.  Little wonder why such a man would have said.- “The Scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they are written.”

Origen deliberately changed the Scriptures to suit his own confused philosophy and, in the process, made many of the deletions we now find in modern translations of the Bible. It was Origen who mightily influenced Jerome (about 340-420 A.D.) another historically significant apostate. It was Origen again who was to play such a large role in the affairs of twentieth century Protestantism, as we will see in the following.

When Constantine (280?-337 A.D.) became the Emperor of Rome, he endeavored to unite his kingdom closer together by forming a union between Christianity and paganism. Since Origen had successfully blended Christianity with pagan philosophy, Constantine commissioned Eusebius, (U-see-be-us) a great admirer of Origen, to prepare fifty Bibles based upon Origen's corrupted Scriptures for use in the churches.

Skipping past many centuries filled with attacks upon the true Word of God and persecution of its followers, we come to the year 1481 A.D. In this year a very old manuscript (Codex Vaticanus) was discovered lying dormant on a shelf of the Vatican library. Then in 1844, part of the Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in a wastebasket in St. Catherine's monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in its entirety in 1859.  Both of these manuscripts, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, date back to the time Eusebius produced those fifty Bibles for Constantine and are believed by many to be survivors of that lot.

Here is where the drama begins to really unfold. In the year 1853 two Cambridge professors, (better known as Westcott and Hort), began preparing a Greek text based primarily on the perverted manuscripts, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus.  It was through these two men that our long link to the apostate past was connected. Westcott and Hort, who might well be called the 'intellectual descendants of the ancient heretics,' with skill and great subtlety, has delivered to this present time, the pagan religion of their fathers.

 

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The following are some fairly recent versions of the Bible:

1.      English Revised Version of 1881-1885 (sometimes called the Revised Version).  The Church of England authorized this version using the King James Version, plus the Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus, and the Codex Alexandrinus, which “scholars” believed to be more accurate than the King James.  This version started out to be a replacement of the King James Version, but eventually became a version in its own right.

2.      American Standard Version of 1901.  This text incorporates the reading preferred by the American members of the Revision Committee of 1881-1885.  (WWR - It seems this version is a revision of the English Revised Version of 1881-1885.)  This version was supposed to replace the King James Version in the United States, but failed because the people wouldn’t be duped by the so called experts at this time.

3.      Revised Standard Version of 1952.  This is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version.