Why the King James
Bible, also known as the Authorized
Version, as opposed to more modern versions?
God gave the Scriptures by
inspiration.
2Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness:
Inspiration gave the men who wrote the Bible understanding,
which is wisdom to write what God wanted written but to include their own
style, some of their own opinions, and even things that aren’t God’s specific
commands but kept in for us to learn from. This is not always word for word
dictation.
Job 32:8 But there is a spirit in man: and the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
2Peter 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our
Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the
wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the
scriptures might have hope.
God’s hand of inspiration extends not just to the original
autographs but translations and copies and as Jesus clarifies God’s commands so
can a translation make clearer what He wanted.
Jeremiah 36:32 Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it
to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of
Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in
the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.
From the previous passage you would realize that you do not
know nor is it important what the originals said because God wanted us to have
the final result. It took about 1500 years with dozens of authors, their
secretaries, copyists, and even translators to give us the Bible we have. It
took about the same amount of time to perfect and complete that work using
copyists, translators, and those faithful to it to give us a perfect and
complete Bible to use even though in each generation mankind had the Scripture
they needed to sustain them and give them understanding. God’s hand of
inspiration is evident throughout. This is because of our sin nature and God
working with man’s disposition and with man’s finite understanding to produce
what He wanted.The doctrine that God only gave by inspiration the original
autographs is as vain and blasphemous a doctrine as the one that insists that
your church tradition is equal to the authority of the Scriptures.
Two important events in the history of human thought took
place around the time of the publication of the King James Bible. One began in the previous century and was called
the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, an attempt to overthrow the authority of
the Bible in principle, the ones those people had and used before the Authorized Version, which was the
foundation of Protestant and other Nonconforming Christian’s worship. The other
flowed from it in the following century and was called The Enlightenment, a
vain exaltation of man’s reason over God as an ideal. It can be proven, and I
have done so to my own satisfaction, that all modern Bible translations flow
from these movements. The King James
Bible, also known as the Authorized
Version, was the last major Bible translation done before these two
movements resulted in German theology and rationalism that led to the modern
apostasy of the exaltation of reason over revelation and a general Bible
illiteracy among Protestant Christians.
God preserved His word through the ages using the mind and
hands of fallible men. We should be so grateful that we have more of a
revelation, a more complete revelation of God’s will than Job or Moses or
Ezekiel had.
Psalm 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as
silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt
preserve them from this generation for ever.
Psalm 119:89 LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled
in heaven.
Most fundamentalists believe that God’s word was found only
in the original autographs, inerrant and infallible, something which they have
never seen and which we cannot examine.
The King James Bible
is the true Bible of God and our final authority in all matters of faith,
practice, and doctrine. It is there
for us to see, to examine, to question, and to study; and like Christ was
physically touched by the Apostles we have God’s words to handle and He speaks
to us through them. It is the last Bible translation before the victory of the
Counter-Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the assault on faith by German
rationalism. The final nail in the coffin of understanding was the consequence
of scientists like Isaac Newton reducing the God of all reality to simply the
God of the First Cause. It was a short step from there to not needing God at
all.
One other thing to note is that modern, scientific man is so
intent on breaking reality down into its component parts that he has a hard
time seeing the beauty of the forest for the trees and even the individual
twigs. Let us look at the verses in context and understand metaphors for what
they are without creating an entire edifice of meaninglessness that the Holy
Spirit never intended.
There are several ways of interpreting The Revelation of Jesus Christ, written under the traditional title
of The Revelation of St. John the Divine.
But, there are four main views that have been expressed throughout history.
They are the idealist where the events here are all just metaphorical
referencing some conflict between God and Satan throughout history and are not
factual historical or future events. They include the historicist where the
events begin at Jerusalem’s fall and chronicle church history. They include the
preterist where all of the events of the book happened around AD70. And they
include the futurist where these are future events. There is a little bit of
all, plus some others, in a proper take on this grand book of the Bible, I
believe.
It is possible to take the text of Revelation and divide it
into two parts regarding the time of trouble and anguish on the earth. I will
look at the events before the translation of the church, commonly called the
Rapture, and the events after, as clearly shown in the text and by
cross-referencing. What I show you may not necessarily line up with what you
and I have been taught. It might but I am sticking as much as I can with the
text and cross-referencing. In other words, it says what it says, not what I
want it to say.
Before I get into the book let me insert here that Modernism
is a heresy that, among its many faults, involves reading the Bible like a
textbook or the owner’s manual for your car, cellphone, or computer. It results
in a hyper-literalist interpretation of the Bible that clouds much meaning and
understanding and the hyper-literalist often takes verses as standalone, out of
context, to mean things they were never meant to mean. The Bible is God’s
revelation of His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself. It mentions
science, history, geography, and politics but is not a book or collection of
books specifically about any of those subjects. In fact, the Holy Spirit often
just mentions an important event like Genesis 10:25 in passing. Was it a
reference to God dispersing human families across the earth at Babel? Was it
the creation of human races from the early human population? Could it have
referred to the dividing of the continents?
In the same respect, Alexander the Great, who had such an
impact on ancient history, is mentioned perhaps once in Daniel 8:21 with Roman
emperors Augustus and Tiberius mentioned in Luke 2:1 & 3:1 respectively.
These men occupy important places in human history but in God’s Book are of not
much more regard than the common, “a certain man,” or, “a certain woman,” of many
verses.
But, while the Bible doesn’t answer all of our questions
about these topics it does answer what God wanted us to have about His ministry
of reconciliation. Think of the Bible as a conversation between your Creator
and yourself. There are things He wants you to know and understand and there
are things He could not care less about and there are things we could not
possibly understand in our finite wisdom. Who knows? There are some things we
want to know that might drive us mad to find out.
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but
those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for
ever, that we may do all the
words of this law.
I want my Creator to speak to me through this book. I do not
want to come to it with preconceived notions forcing it to mean things it was
never meant to mean damaging my faith when overwhelming evidence shows those
preconceived notions are not true. That being said, Revelation, which I will
call it, cannot be interpreted, here at the end of the Bible, properly without
cross-referencing and considering the entire Bible. So, now, let’s begin our
journey understanding that I am just a common, ordinary Christian who happens
to find great value in studying and reading the Bible. I am not a Doctor of
Divinity, a Doctor of Theology, a seminary trained pastor, nor am I an
authority on Greek and Hebrew. I simply can read and understand English and am
proficient in using the cross-referencing tab on my computer Bible. I have also
read the Bible through over sixty times. I prayerfully ask God to give me
understanding and to be able to help others understand what He has given us. I
encourage you all to write your own commentary.
1:1 ¶
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto
his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John: 2
Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus
Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Who was and is Jesus Christ physically? Briefly, I
will try to explain.
God is composed of three parts, as man and woman are; a
body, a soul, and a spirit.
1Thessalonians
5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God has a soul, the seat of self-identity and will.
Psalm 11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked
and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
This is God the Father, sometimes referred to just as God in
the New Testament. He is invisible to us. As John says in John 1:18 and in
1John 4:12 no one has seen God, presumably God the Father, at any time. Every act
of God’s will originates with Him.
God has a Spirit, how He moves throughout creation and acts
on it and in it.
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and
darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
This Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
1Corinthians 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no
man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can
say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you…26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
The Holy Spirit in its function, the Holy Ghost in His
identity, is the mind of God and also God.
For
contexts where the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be synonymous with
mind please see the following;
Romans 8:27
And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints
according to the will of God.
1Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh
the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may
hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in
one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel;
2Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind.
God not only has a soul and a mind but has a body, His
person, whom man can see, and has even touched, as God in the flesh, called the
Son of God.
Hebrews 1:1 ¶ God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of
his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Colossians 1: 13
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of his dear Son:14 In
whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:15 Who is the image of the invisible God…
Of course, an image is the likeness of someone, what he
looks like.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,
and begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image; and called his name
Seth:
Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the
earth:
(Refer back to these verses when someone insists that the
image of God is man’s ability to discern between good and evil, which is nonsense,
as Adam was made in the image of God but did not taste of the fruit of the
knowledge of good and evil until he fell).
Jesus Christ is also the Word by which all things were
created. Read the first 18 verses of the Gospel According to John. God’s mind
formed creation and God’s Word spoke it into existence, bringing forth the
light, which He is.
Genesis 1:3 ¶ And
God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
One stark difference between man and God is that God’s three
parts can act independently of each other and still be one God.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the
commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost:
2Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
God reveals Himself to special select people under the Law
and to all believers under Grace.
Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he
revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
(To deny this is to say that the so-called ‘Great
Commission’ of the end of Matthew does not apply to every believer but only the
Apostles).
What is an angel?
An angel is an appearance of someone or some group of
individuals who are somewhere else. It is that person or group’s presence.
Isaiah 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and
the angel of his presence saved
them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and
carried them all the days of old.
Matthew 18:10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these
little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold
the face of my Father which is in heaven.
Acts 12:13 And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate,
a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 14
And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness,
but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. 15 And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she
constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.
16 But Peter continued knocking: and
when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.
For all intents and purposes it is that individual.
Judges 2:1 ¶ And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal
to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you
unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break
my covenant with you.
Judges 13:21 But the angel of the LORD did no more appear
to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD. 22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall
surely die, because we have seen God.
Daniel 9:21 Yea,
whiles I was speaking in
prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision
at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the
evening oblation.
Luke 1:26 And in the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city
of Galilee, named Nazareth,
Galatians 4:14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye
despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ
Jesus.
Revelation 21:17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred
and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the
angel.
Angels are also the spirits of people made perfect and
complete by the Lord Jesus Christ, through faith in Him in a spiritual body
that can never die.
Hebrews 12:23
To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect, 24 And to Jesus the mediator of
the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things
than that of Abel.
At the end of this chapter angels are the appearance of
seven churches.
Verse 2 - John is called to relate all of the things he is
about to be told and to see, which he does. You may not understand it all yet
and perhaps he didn’t understand everything he saw. But, you are told about it
so that when you see it you will know. See Jesus’ talk with his disciples in John
14:29 and 16:25. A prophecy can be given so that when it comes about you will
understand it, even if you don’t beforehand.
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