I have been asked, and challenged, repeatedly as to why I
only use the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible on
my homepage and in my books. I have been questioned by pastors, evangelists,
Christians of all walks of life. I am told that the King James
Version and its "thees" and "thous" and "shalts" and "shalt
nots" are too confusing. I am told that far more intelligent
men and women than I could ever hope to be have found errors
in the King James Version. I have been told that I am old
fashioned for memorizing the old English verses....
When I began my site in the autumn of 1997, I included Bible
verses. Because my training had been in conservative Baptist
churches and schools, all the memorizing I'd done in my
thirty-something years was using the King James Version. I was
told that the New King James Version, credited to Thomas Nelson
Publishers, took care of the ancient language problems.
Ummm...I had been learning verses, whole chapters even, since
grade school; yet I was told that the average 21 year old
couldn't understand "Thou shalt not--" ??
I had some serious question marks in my mind at this point. It
was not difficult to understand the language of Shakespeare. It
was beautiful! If I had a question about meaning, I looked up
the term in question in a Strong's Concordance, finding
beautiful facets to the terms, learning, growing, changing....
Then came the day when someone asked me why I wasn't quoting
from Mr. Nelson's version of the Bible. Well, the best reason
I could give was that it was Thomas Nelson's version!
I had to give credit to a man &/or his publishing company for
GOD'S WORD!!!!! There is something inherently wrong with that.
I hold the copyright on the books I have made up, written,
and had published. If you write a book, a song, or an article,
you can obtain the copyright. But God's Word--not the notes about
the Bible, but the text itself--in every
other version besides the KJV is copyrighted by a man.
When I had my first book, No Accident, published,
I was required by law to include the version of the Bible I quoted from in my book...unless it was the Authorized KJV. Why is that? Copyright infringement!!! Mind you, I credited the KJV, saying on the copyright page:
"All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Holy Bible."
No credit was given to any man...all the glory goes to God, and Him alone.
Now, I could get into the arguments of the wisdom of using the
Textus Receptus to interpret God's Word into the
English language. I could discuss
that the meaning of Scripture is literally changed--words and phrases omitted or added--in the other
versions. There are many sites available that are created by
far wiser and more knowledgeable to this subject than I. But
the reason I do not use any other version of the
Bible is that I refuse to give credit to any man or company for
the written Word of God.
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