The King James Version

Just a word about the speaker that was announced for next Sunday in the morning and evening service. Mr. James Booker is a Canadian. If you have anything against Canadians, you better stay at home.

He is a conference speaker, is busy in camp work, and is one who has traveled extensively, and I'm sure that you'll enjoy the ministry from a new voice. He's never been here before, and I think you will enjoy my part in this a number of times, and I can recommend him, so I hope you will overcome the prejudice that you might have against our neighbors, the Canadians. You must remember, they can't help that they're Canadians.

They were born there and weren't responsible for that. There is a possibility that the Canadians have the same feelings against you Southerners below the Canadian border. If you read the Earl's Son, you may have noticed that my subject this morning is, is the King James Version always the best? And that is the result of a letter that we received, and I want to answer that letter, which I will read in a moment.

First of all, let's ask the Lord's blessing. We thank thee, our gracious Father, for the privilege we have of thus gathering with an open Bible to hear thy voice speak to our hearts, and we pray thy blessing on this service that thou wilt meet the need of every heart. There may be some very despondent hearts here this morning, and from the abundance of thy holy word, thou canst meet that exact need.

There may be some who are living in difficulties, and some who need encouragement, and we pray, our Father, that thou wilt meet that need. Some may be bereaved, some may have health problems, and we pray for these. Some have relatives and friends that have health problems, and we pray for those who could not be with us this morning.

Bless them where they are. In thy good will, thou wilt restore them again to good health and strength. We thank thee again for the privilege of this wonderful land in which we are living, for the freedoms that still remain, and we ask thy blessing on all who are responsible for keeping this land a free land.

We remember, too, those places where there is fear, where there are bullets flying continually. We pray for the believers in Beirut and in Lebanon, and ask, our Father, thou wilt be gracious to them, and we pray that thou wilt bless, and may the gospel go forth as never before because of the fear that those unsaved people may have in that country. In other places where there is turmoil, we ask, our Father, thou wilt graciously act and put it into the hearts of those who are responsible to cease all the problems.

We thank thee again for the freedom of our land, and ask thy blessing on all who rejoice in the knowledge of thy word going forth from day to day. Bless those who have wider ministries, who have worldwide radio programs, and we ask thy blessing on all who are exalting thy Son as Lord and Savior. Blessed our service here, we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

This letter is an anonymous letter, and for that reason I was not able to answer it without bringing it to the attention of the elders, and they have asked that I set aside the studies in Luke this morning and answer this letter. I don't know who is responsible, but I am so deeply disappointed in some of our visiting speakers using these other Bibles. I am truly confused when I can't follow the scripture reading in my King James Version.

This is frightening to me and others because I believe it is the devil's way of sneaking in many untruths. Can this possibly be stopped before this church gets, like about all the others, away from the truth? If the truth from the King James Version was good enough to save us, why change it now? Please bring this to somebody's attention. If all of this is right, to use all these new translations, please explain it to all of us dumb, ignorant people.

Please help the rest of us to understand. This comes from a sincere person, and perhaps the Lord has prompted her or him, young or old, whoever it is. I have no idea.

I'm not sure if the person is here this morning, but at least we have an obligation to answer this question regarding the different versions that are available today. It might be well if we started, first of all, to remind ourselves from the Word of God how we got our Bible. And perhaps the two simplest verses are 1 Peter 1 and the last three verses, and then 2 Peter 1 and the last three verses.

That will help you to remember it. 1 Peter 1 and verse 23. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Now, 2 Peter 1 and again the last three verses, starting at verse 19. 2 Peter 1 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.

Knowing this, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In the first portion that I read, there is a contrast between changing things and the durability of the Word of God.

The contrast. But the word of the Lord abideth forever. Regarding the various translations that are available today regarding the Holy Scriptures, I think I ought to take you back to your childhood days, or perhaps better just to take you back to my childhood days, because maybe yours were different.

But in my childhood days, the earliest things that I found out is this is a holy book. This was written by God. God wants us to read it, and he wants us to believe what it says.

After you get a little older, you raise some questions. How did God write this Bible? Did he have a pen? Did he have a pencil? Did he have chalk? What did he use to write the Bible? And as we get a little older, we find these answers and discover that God did not, with a pen or a pencil, write the Holy Scriptures. But rather, he by the Holy Spirit instructed men that he picked out, and perhaps by visions or dreams or whatever means, he directed those men to write things that they perhaps didn't know themselves what they were writing.

And we learn that these men who got these messages put them down and they were put into writing. One of the questions that will arise is, in what language did God first of all have these men selected to write them? And we discover from the Old Testament that all of this was in the Hebrew language, that all of the New Testament was written in Hebrew. As to the New Testament, that was written in Greek, and it was necessary eventually to translate this into German, into Spanish, into French, into English, and all the various languages that are upon the face of the earth.

It's interesting to notice that God selected approximately 40 men to write the Holy Scriptures, eight in the New Testament and the rest of the Old Testament. You may raise the question, I say perhaps eight in the New Testament, and they are easy to remember, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, two Ps and two Js, Peter, Paul, Jude, and James. However, there is one book about which we are not positive, and that is the book of Hebrews, and if Paul also wrote that book with the other 13, then we only have eight writers in the New Testament.

If he didn't, and the name is not mentioned, then we're not sure about that. From the time that the first men started writing the Holy Scriptures and the last man took up his pen to write the Holy Scriptures, you have a space of 1600 years. And during that time, men with different backgrounds, kings, farmers, fishermen, highly educated men, very ignorant men so far as languages were concerned, shepherds, God used all of these.

And the wonderful thing about this book is those men whom God selected and were under the power of the Holy Spirit, all that they wrote, even though they didn't understand what they were writing, has formed a tremendous harmony so that this book that we hold with these 66 books bring to us a tremendous harmony of the mind and will of God. There are some difficult portions in the word of God. Some of them have come about because of translation.

Now it was necessary, eventually, to have this book in our own language. Again, back to my childhood days, when I raised the question, I wonder how the Bible came to us. God lives way up there, up above the clouds.

I was taught that. And how did this come down? Did it come down with maybe an umbrella underneath it, or a parachute, and it just slowly came down? Or how did it come down? All of these questions arrive in the child's mind. And we shouldn't be surprised because in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, when I was a child, I speak as a child, I understood as a child, and I thought as a child.

Which means that the child mind has a lot of questions that come up, and they are not answered immediately. The child probably puts us to shame so far as faith is concerned. Until I understood how all of this came about.

If they told me this is the word of God, I believe it. The child has faith in his parents, in his Sunday school teachers, in his preachers. Whatever they say, I believe is true.

But then a little later, when the mind develops, we raise the question, now what about this? Did God write it in English, and so on? Then we have to answer these questions, as we learn from the word of God and from other sources, that it had to be translated into our language. When you go back to the 1500s, in 1525, William Tyndale translated the scriptures from Hebrew into English. A few years later, a man by the name of Coverdale translated the scriptures.

A few years after that, a Bible was brought into being, an English Bible called the Great Bible. Again in 1560, the Geneva Bible. And then in 1568, the Bishop's Bible.

So that during those 1500s, you had five English translations of the word of God. That would be rather confusing. When Christians get together, one man has this Bible, the other one this one, this one, this one, this and eventually it seemed wise that all of these should come together and examine these five translations and see if we can't arrive at a standard translation that can be brought about that will perhaps avoid some of the confusion of the different translations.

In 1611, that's 373 years ago, a group of men came together and translated this King James Version. Again, when I heard that this was the King James Version, I said most likely King James was a very holy man and had plenty of time, had a number of good men under him, vice presidents or vice kings, and in his spare time, he sat in a room and translated the Bible. Well, I found later on that he had nothing to do with translating the Bible, but it received his name because he happened to be in power during the time that this Bible was written.

I suppose if a Bible was written today and they had difficulty in finding a name, they might even say, let's call it the Reagan Administration Bible, because it was done during the time that he was president. This version, the King James Version, became a standard version, the most popular of all the versions, and most people, eventually, who didn't know the details of it, probably arrived at the same conclusion that I did, and that is, this is the true Bible, and any translation that you will get after that will be of the devil. Since this translation, we have many others, many different ones, and I brought a stack of Bibles along this morning, different translations.

Here is one, 1881. Here is one, 1946. I don't know the date of that one.

Here is one, the J. M. Darby, this would not translate by a group of men, but by a number of men. There are a number of them, and one that I prize very highly here has four translations all on one page. The King James, the Revised Version, the Phillips Translation, and the New English Bible.

I use this as a study Bible, a very important one. When I am reading the Scripture just as I would find it in the King James, I glance over here and read it here and say, that's interesting. He brought out a little thought here that I didn't get over here, and I get another thought here and another thought here, and all of these are a part of the Word of God.

Now, to answer L. W., that letter writer, I have to say that he or she is wrong when she gets the impression that I had all of these other versions are of the devil. You wouldn't be a bit surprised that the devil was interested in translations, if he could write a Bible that would tell people that the way of salvation is entirely different from what it was received by those men who wrote the Scriptures. In the early part of your Bible, you have Satan coming into the Garden of Eden, and he immediately revised what God said.

God said in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. The devil's version was, thou shalt not surely die. From that we know that the devil is interested by whatever means, confusing people and telling them that there are different ways of salvation and that the original one probably is wrong.

Now, L. W. is right. There are some translations that I believe are energized by the devil, and I don't mind mentioning them. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a Bible, and I'm not sure of the title of that Bible, but in case you have one in your home, you will find in the index right in the front, published by the Watchtower Society.

And if you have that Bible in your home, there's a possibility you have, because a very friendly salesman stopped at your door, perhaps, and told you that he had something wonderful. And if you have that Bible, you will do well, if you have a wood stove, to use it as kindling. It may or may not start the fire, because that particular translation has been tampered with.

The ideas that are in the King James Version are opposed there. And, of course, you have to be saved by your works and many things, so you can disregard that one. You can't accuse the Mormons of that, because they don't bother carrying a Bible.

They have the Book of Mormons to replace the Bible. And the reason for that is, they claim that these 40 men who wrote this a long time ago, they presumed that we had everything that was needed. But Joseph Smith also received the revelation from the Lord, and when he received it, he wrote it down, and the Book of Mormons is written because of that.

If you happen to have the Book of the Mormons, that also may be good kindling to start your fire. That is entirely opposed to the Word of God, and is the work of the devil. There may be some other translations that are available today in which the devil had a part.

However, in these ten versions that I have, and I think that would include the one that was read from this pulpit about three weeks ago, the translations are absolutely not written for that reason. They will never deceive a person. They are written for various reasons.

I mentioned already one is to deceive people. Another one is that it might be more interesting. This one that was published in 1946 may be a profitable translation because of a person who has never seen a Bible before.

His parents never took him to church, and they opened the King James and they read thou, thine, thus, and so on, and they said, what are these strange words in there, old English words? So this one comes out and uses the word you and different words that are more common today. I cannot condemn this Bible because it has simply changed it so that that person who would lay this Bible down and say, I don't understand it, this may be just a little more readable, and it does not deceive anyone. It will not tell you that salvation is by any other means.

If you want to read John 3 16 in this Bible, any of these Bibles that I have, you will find that it reads exactly the same. Another reason, perhaps, for the number of translations is that it makes some employment, and if you can get a group of men together and they can translate a Bible and sell it to the gullible public, well, they have some income, and there is a possibility that the motives of some of the translators could have been, I'm not saying it was, but could have been, that we want some outlet. We love to translate.

We are linguists, and we enjoy it, and we'd like to put one on the market, and we'll have our way paid. There's another reason, and one is that words change over a period of time. Just to give you an illustration, a few years ago I heard high school students say, that's cool, or he's cool, and the first time I said, why don't you give him a sweater? And I found out that they coined a new word, and new dictionaries have to come out occasionally, just to explain what these new words mean.

Now, I'm going to suggest that not in every case is the King James Version the best, and that's the reason I own these. Now, if you would rather listen to a preacher that has nothing in his house except the King James, and will not allow these other translations, then you will be disappointed, because I don't think you can convince me to get rid of all these translations. I don't have a good reason.

All of them say the same thing so far as the meaning of the text is concerned. However, there may be some variation, but I come back to the place where a publican, what is a publican? In the 18th chapter, we heard of two men that went up in the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, well, we found out what they are.

The other one was a publican. Who is, what is a publican? In the 19th chapter, the last time I spoke here, we were talking about little Zacchaeus, who was chief of the publicans. Now, what is a publican? These later translations will tell me that he is a tax collector.

Oh, I understand that. He's a tax collector, and we know some of the details about the tax collectors in that day. And we say, why didn't the King James Version tell us he was a tax collector? In 1611, if you had asked a man, what is a tax collector? That's the fellow that I go to see and pay my taxes.

They knew what it was. In 2 Thessalonians, and maybe you'll want to turn to this. 2 Thessalonians 2, and verse 7. See if we can find some words here that you wouldn't understand the first time you read it.

2 Thessalonians 2, and verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now let us will let, until he be taken out of the way. Now, what does that mean? Only he who now let us. Does it mean he leased some property, will continue to lease some property until he is dead? That doesn't make sense, does it? I check all these other translations, and one will read like this, only he who now holds back.

Another one will say, only he who now hinders. Another one will say, the person who is standing in the way and is removed. These hindrances, or holding back, are some of the changes that I find in later, and then I'll understand what this verse means.

Now if you want to turn for one more, in the book of Exodus chapter 28. And this came to my attention just a week or so ago. I was driving and I heard Alexander Scorby reading the scriptures at 3 o'clock from the Christian station, and this is what I heard him read.

Verse 11, Exodus chapter 28. And this is speaking of the garments of the high priest. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engraving of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel.

Thou shalt make them to be set in ouchers of gold. Verse 13. And thou shalt make ouchers of gold, and the two chains of pure gold at the end of the recent work shalt thou make them, and fasten the recent chains in the ouchers.

What are ouchers? All you folks who have versitis, you will say, I know what they are. I have them continually. Well what about those of us who have never been sick and never had any ouchers? And I have to ask the question, what are these ouchers? And I turn to these books that some people think were written by the devil, and he helps me in case he wrote it, and he says they are settings, they are enclosures, or they will say sockets.

Oh I understand what a socket is. There it is, a socket, and you fasten them into those sockets. But I didn't understand what ouchers were.

After I have and compare all of these things, these help me. Now the thought of the verse is never changed. There's probably another word, and that is the word conversation, used in the King James Version, and you can turn back again to 1 Peter chapter 2, and verse 12.

I don't think that's the verse. Anyway the word conversation is used, and it's used a number of times in the New Testament. Now my understanding of conversation is two or three or more people are talking together.

One speaks, the other answers. They interchange some discussion. But when the King James was written, this would have reference to your conduct or your behavior.

You would say to your child who came home from school, how was your conversation today? Well he didn't mean how did you talk, but he said did you behave today? How was your deportment? Now when we come to these other translations, they will help us to tell us that instead of conversation, it doesn't mean people talking, but it means how I behave myself, my conduct. Now one of the serious things about being afraid of translations, and this was my difficult, most difficult one, I was raised to believe that the Roman Catholic Church has some kind of a warp bible that tells them that they need to pray to Mary, that tells them that the priest, the pope never sins, and a number of other things. And I don't want to touch, I don't want to be near one of those ugly bibles.

I found out that that isn't true. I found out that there are versions, and I happen to have a Roman Catholic translation right here. There are a number of them.

They have the same problem that we have in the King James version. They have what they call the Douay version. This happens to be the confraternity version, and the reason I have it is because I have to deal with Catholics on a person-to-person basis, and I have had the privilege of leading a number of Roman Catholics to the Lord by using this.

Now the Douay version does add 15 extra books, which are called the Apocrypha, and those books are mostly history books, and add nothing to the scriptures, and in some instances do not take anything away. Now it appears that the only difference between the two bibles is just that. Now this one does not add those 15 books.

This is a later tradition and is accepted by the pope, and the pope Leo, I think it was, endorsed this translation. In Connecticut a few years ago, I had the privilege of leading a lady to the Lord with her Roman Catholic bible. I read a few scriptures to her and she said, let me see that, and I showed it to her.

I never knew that was in my bible. Right there in her Roman Catholic bible. John 3 16 is just as good in this bible as in other bibles.

Now the Roman Catholic has also been taught, don't you have a thing to do with a Protestant bible? The Protestants wrote that bible to suit themselves, and it will lead you astray. Just as I had that thought about this bible, the Roman Catholic has the thought about my bible, and we have a barrier there. That should not exist, and does not need to exist.

I can take any one of these translations and show a person the way of salvation. There are certain things that make difficulties in translating, and I only know two languages, that is Pennsylvania Dutch and English, and if I were to translate John 3 16 in Pennsylvania Dutch, it would sound a little different, because in German, and really it is German, the verb is always at the end, and it would sound like this, although hath God developed belief, or for so did God the world love, that he is only unique some day, that all who on him believe should not lost be, but eternal life have. Now I don't think there is a word in the German language for whosoever, and we say that is very important, but they do use this, that all who on him believe.

What does whosoever mean? It means all. You, me, and anybody else. So they haven't changed it one bit, and yet it sounds different.

And some would say, if they don't use whosoever, it's the devil's bible. You're wrong. As long as the thought isn't changed, there is nothing wrong.

Now you will ask the question, why do you use the King James bible? Because most people that come to the services use it, and I want to use that one, since it is just as good as these, except for those few words, I would rather suggest that all of you carry your King James bible, since the rest do, but if you have another version at home, God will bless that version. You can probably find some help from some words that you may not understand otherwise, if you will turn to those. So, I can say, in most, in some cases, the King James version is better, alongside of the Mormon bible and the Jehovah's Witnesses, this is better.

In most cases, it is equal to all the rest of the translations. In a few cases, it may not be quite as good, because I have pointed out some words that were in use in 1611, that are no longer in use. All of these bibles will tell me that I was born a sinner, that I need to be saved, that heaven is a holy place, and that I am not fit to enter.

All of these versions will tell me that I can't save myself. All of these translations will tell me, if I ever expect to be in heaven, I will have to come to Jesus Christ and recognize that he died for me on Calvary's cross, and on a certain day in my life, I will have to accept him as my own personal savior. And all of these translations will tell me that if I don't accept him in my lifetime, I will have to be sent to hell and be punished for all eternity.

Now, I hope that will answer the letter for LW and for any of the rest of you who may have had some problem regarding this. This morning would be an ideal time for you to be saved, because this morning when you come to me and say, I would like to show you how to be saved, I can say, which version would you prefer? And I've got them all here. I don't usually bring the ten versions along, but there is a possibility that someone's in the service this morning and you are saying, I believe that I'm a sinner, and I've been made aware of it recently, and I would like this thing to be settled once and for all.

There is no reason for you waiting any longer. The Savior is more anxious to save you than you are to be saved. And while we close this meeting in prayer, I would like for you to do what your heart tells you to do.

Admit, I do need to be saved. If I died in my present condition, I would go to hell, and I don't want to go to hell. Since the Savior has done so much for me, and I can be saved like all the rest that are enjoying that salvation, I'm going to settle it today.

I hope you will make that determination. And I will be waiting at the front to point you to the Savior. Let's bow in prayer, and while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, I would like that person who is convicted, not sure, and would like to be sure, you step out even while I'm closing the meeting in prayer.

You walk down the aisle and give me the opportunity after we're through praying, just to sit down and take the Word of God and show you how this could be the greatest day in your whole life experience when you receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Our blessed Father, we thank Thee that hast made known Thy mind and Thy will, and we thank Thee that we have Thy Word in our mother tongue. We thank Thee that hast told us all these important things regarding the way of salvation.

We ask, our Father, Thy blessing on those who are still outside. We thank Thee besides telling us the way of salvation. Thou hast told us what Thou didst expect of us after we're saved.

Thou hast also told us if we want to be happy, what we have to do in order to remain happy all of the days of our life. And we thank Thee for Thy Word that brings this to our attention. We ask that Thou wilt give courage to that person who needs to be saved this morning, and we commit Thy Word to Thee and thank Thee again that Thou hast revealed Thyself to us through Thy holy Word.

We give Thee thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.