Thursday, May 31, 2012

King James Onlyism -
A False Doctrine Destroying The Church From Within

By Helena Lehman of the
Pillar of Enoch Ministry


In the last 20 years, a new heresy has gripped the Church so strongly that it is causing a great deal of unnecessary fighting and division among believers. This false doctrine has been promulgated by several authors and speakers, one of which is Gail Riplinger, who wrote the 1993 book, “New Age Bible Versions.” Riplinger’s basic premise is that all the newer Bible versions worded in modern English are not the true Word of God because they omit or change many key Scriptures in the Bible that define Western Christianity.

Though this assertion by King James Only adherents may appear to be correct when examining lists of variations between the King James Bible and the modern, so called “New Age Bible” versions, the main trouble is that these textual variations in no way change the basic tenants of the faith that are found in numerous other passages in the Old and New Testaments. In addition, King James Only adherents ignore the fact that the translators of the King James Bible did not have access to the earlier and better manuscripts available today. As a result, they included later corruptions to the text that were inserted into handwritten copies of the original scriptural documents.

Indeed, many of the variations cited between the King James Bible and other versions are due to the fact that the translators of the King James Version or KJV made the mistake of including what once were only marginal notes in the main body of the biblical texts. Instead of rightfully consigning these scribal remarks or comparisons to other similar Scriptures to the footnotes used in every modern Bible translation, the King James Bible translators added them to the text just as past scribes had done to the Greek translations that the King James Bible translators used to create their Bible in English! Therefore, King James Only adherents are unfortunately and heretically supporting the practice of adding to the Word of God, while they ludicrously claim that the so-called New Age Bibles such as the New International Version (NIV) and New American Standard Bible (NASB) are subtracting from the Word of God for leaving these scribal additions out, or for relegating them to the footnotes - where they rightfully belong.

In addition to this ridiculous fighting over the wording of various translations, I find something even more sinister about this debate over which Bible is the correct one to use. This is the fact that King James Only adherents are basically consigning all foreign language Bible translations to the realm of evil falsehoods because they necessarily cannot be worded the same way as the King James Bible. This means that anyone reading a Bible translated from the Greek or from an English translation other than the King James Version into Chinese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, or any other language can be viewed as NOT reading the true Word of God by King James Only adherents.

By association, King James Only adherents may also view all foreigners who read a Bible that is worded in any other way than with the King James English as potentially false “New Age” Christians that don’t worship the same Messiah. In the eyes of hard-core King James Only adherents, the many devout believers in Yahshua that are risking their lives to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom of God in their nations, and that are increasingly dying as martyrs for their faith, are doing so in vain because their Bibles are not the authorized King James Version! Due to this supposed offense, some King James Only adherents have come to view all non-English-speaking believers as worshiping a different Messiah, and preaching a different Gospel, although this is a completely false assumption.

This heresy that rejects dozens of versions of the Bible as heretical has not only falsely called foreign language Bibles into question, but stigmatized the work of large groups of Bible-believing, born-again Christians and Messianic Jews that have written and published books and articles containing quotations from the so-called New Age Bibles. In fact, I have found my own Language of God Series books listed as unacceptable reading material because I dared to quote from Bible translations other than the King James Bible! Even though most of my quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible, which has very few real variations from the original King James Version, I have had people literally return an entire set of my books when they realized that I did not quote from the original KJV Bible in Old English.

Sadly, King James Onlyism has swept through the Church like a virus, and it is so divisive a doctrine that it is destroying what little unity remains in the otherwise doctrinally sound Protestant Churches of the world - and that is exactly what Satan wants! He wants to weaken and destroy the true Church until it can no longer spread the Good News of our salvation through the blood sacrifice of Yahshua Ha Mashiach effectively!

For these reasons, I believe that anyone participating in promoting this King James Only heresy is unwittingly joining the Devil in his plans to wipe out every last vestige of true Christianity on this planet in the very near future. This brings me great sadness, and has stirred my righteous anger. Therefore, I will condemn this false doctrine with all my might until Yahshua comes. To that affect, I have included a list of web sites below my closing with resources that show the discrepancies, inconsistencies and fallacies found in the King James Only doctrinal position.

In closing, I’d like to say that I have seen much in the way of the differences in the various Bible translations, and I know that some translations are really terribly off the mark as far as being doctrinally sound. I’m not advocating that paraphrased Bibles be relied upon for doctrinal decisions, for example. But there are many fine English translations of the Bible out there, and I often refer to two or more different Bibles other than my preferred New King James when doing Bible Study research in order to explore their alternative - and at times superior - interpretations for various words, phrases, and even whole paragraphs.

Though this subject could stand with a more thorough review, I don’t have time for further discussion of this topic right now. I only wanted to share my opinion on it because a close friend in Christ wanted my official position on this doctrine, and so I took some of my valuable time to give it. This brief response is based on common sense reasoning, the guidance I’ve been given by the Holy Spirit, and the resources that I’ve linked to below. In the meantime, I hope this article will be a blessing to many.

Your Sister in Yahshua,
Helena Lehman of the
Pillar of Enoch Ministry


Resources For Further Study About King James Onlyism:

The King James Only Movement -
Links To Many Resources:

The Truth About The King James Only Controversy

CARM Forum Discussion of King James Only Debate:

King James Version Onlyism –
The Paper what will Change the Course of History

List of major textual variants in the New Testament

List of Bible verses not included in modern translations:

4 comments:

  1. I agree. I use a wonderful tool that enables me to study many different English versions, along with the Latin Vulgate and several Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic bibles side-by-side. I enjoy the KJV style, but I can say based on what I have found in my research that there is no one single English translation that is 100 % accurate. There are many words, phrases, and idioms contained in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic that simply do not translate directly into English without a note of explanation.

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  2. Something More To Ponder:

    In John 1:18, the NIV used a source text that declares the Son of God as God, whereas the KJV used a source manuscript that does NOT:

    John 1:18 (NIV) - No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

    John 1:18 (KJV) - No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

    If the KJV is supposed to be superior to the NIV in every case, then why is it patently inferior to the NIV in this very important case?

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  3. I too have has ppl critize me for not using the KVJ...I myself use the Jewish bible by Daniel Stern but also use NIV & others. My comment to those who have tried to push this onto me is..The Holy Spirit is my teacher. I trust him to keep me from all deceptions no matter what version I am reading from. I also pray this before I even open any bible to study

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your own testimony concerning the King James Only debate. It is appreciated. I personally prefer the New King James Version as a commonly available translation. But I also use two different Messianic Jewish Bibles including the one by Daniel Stern that you mentioned, as well as the NIV, the KJV, the Jerusalem Bible, an Interlinear Bible Translation, and others.

      If you would like to contact me directly to discuss more, go to my POEM web site contact page: http://pillar-of-enoch.com/contact.html.

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Shalom! Feel free to comment, but please be respectful. God bless!