by Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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Question:
What is your response to those who say that you can only be saved through the King James Version? Also, I recently saw a video where men from Detroit Seminary, Bob Jones, Northland, and other schools said that the King James should not be an issue, and those who make it an issue are dividing fundamentalism. Any comments?
Response:
I think those who say that you has to be saved through the KJV are mistaken. Obviously, there are folks who don’t speak English who can be saved. Bro. Rick Simonsen (missionary to Kenya) tells me that the only Swahili Bible is a very poor translation of the W/H text. Does that mean no African can get saved? He doesn’t think so. He hopes to someday do a translation himself based on better texts. But until then, he uses what he has. And folks get saved. Does this mean that, if you are witnessing to someone without a Bible, and you happen to misquote a verse, that the other person can’t get saved because your quote was not perfect from the KJV? I don’t think so.
Pensacola did a couple videos on why the TR is the proper text. The video you saw is the response to it. My concern is that some are saying that whether or not we have the Word of God preserved for us in ANY language today is something that “God has not revealed.” He certainly has revealed that! I know that when ___________ sent out his letter, he questioned whether or not the Bible promised preservation. He is echoing what other “scholars” have said. You see, when you say that all Bibles, even though they say different and contradictory things, are still the Word of God, then you must say either that God did not preserve His Word, or that God did not inspire the words, only the thoughts. Both of those are scary, and unscriptural, positions, yet they are the only logical ones we can come to.
Let me give an illustration. Bro. __________ came to me after I preached on this subject, and said that if he believed like I believed about inspiration, he would HAVE to use the KJV. See, I taught that God inspired and preserved the very words of the Bible. ______ didn’t believe that. He told me that he believed that God had only inspired the thoughts, and so therefore he could use any Bible he wanted. He was correct. If God only inspired and preserved thoughts, then all the Bibles are ok. However, if God inspired and preserved words, which is clearly taught throughout the Scripture, then you can only use one Bible.
Do you see why this becomes important? In the rush to defend the use of various texts and translations, many are trampling underfoot the doctrines of Bibliology that Fundamentalists have held forever. It was standard in conservative seminaries and Bible colleges to teach that “the Fundamentalist says that the Bible IS the Word of God, and the Modernist says that the Bible CONTAINS the Word of God”. Maranatha taught it. Northland taught it. Bob Jones taught it. I heard them with my own ears. However, today we are told by these same schools that ALL these varying Bibles are the Word of God. Since they are not the same, we are forced to assume that all these Bibles CONTAIN the Word of God. Are the last 12 verses of Mark the Word of God? If they are, then the NASV IS not the Word of God, but rather CONTAINS the Word of God. If they are not, then the KJV IS not the Word of God, but CONTAINS the Word of God. If we say it doesn’t matter which one we use, then we are saying that the Bible only contains the Word of God, and by definition we become modernists. That is what I fear– a Fundamentalism taken over by modernists. They won’t call themselves that, but they must be by their own definition.
You know, 150 years ago, no one questioned that the TR and the English translation known as the KJV were the Word of God. Now much time and effort is being spent to show why people who still believe that way are foolish. We didn’t change, they did. Inter City Baptist Church (Detroit Baptist Seminary) used to use only the KJV. Now they don’t use it at all. They changed their position, but we who stand where they used to are heretics. My former church was historically a TR/KJV church. It was founded on that belief. Some in the church changed, then labeled me a heretic for holding to the very position that the church had been founded on. I didn’t move. They did. I’m not dividing Fundamentalism. They are. Thankfully, the church determined to stand for the truth, and those who wanted to change had to leave.
Hope this helps.