the words of the Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever we believe Bible teaches here that God has preserved his word I feel like it's a little strong David might just be the monitors I'm not sure but we believe that God has preserved his word for every generation that's what the Bible teaches And so we're going to look, and our church's position has been that God has preserved his word for the English people in the King James Bible. Now I'm going to explain to you tonight as best I can, simply as can, why we use only the King James Version. Let's pray and let's ask the Lord to help us. Father, My prayer tonight as I approach this is that this would be helpful to all of us. God, I ask that you'd help me, help this message not just to be some academic exercise, but it would be something where we understand And God, I'm not a scholar in this. I'm not a deep thinker on this, but I know what your word teaches. And Lord, we know what we believe. So I ask you to help me to communicate effectively, clearly, simply what we what this situation, what this issue is and what your word teaches on it. Please bless and help us. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. This September will be 18 years ago that God called my family and I here to Mountain Lake Independent Baptist Church. I had been assistant pastor before and I had been a youth evangelist before and I worked in the various ministries while I was in Bible college, but I had never pastored before. And I don't know if it was if it was because I was now a pastor and I saw the church and our relationship with the community in a little bit different light, or if it was perhaps unique for me in this community and it wasn't the case in other communities. When we came here, there was two criticisms I ran into in our community about our church the most. These two criticisms are what I ran into the most. First one was our belief in the eternal security of the believer. I would get out and get talk to people and they would say, oh, you guys believe once saved, always saved. And we would take criticism for that. And my response is, yes, we do believe once saved, always saved because that's what the Bible teaches. and we try to defend that and maintain that position. That was one thing. The other thing that I found that we were criticized for the most, or a teaching we held to that was rejected the most, and that was our position on the King James Version of the Bible. And there's a number of people that I could name you right now. I wouldn't do it for $1,000. I might do it for $2,000, but for $1,000 I wouldn't do it. I could name them to you, folks, that will not come to this church because we use only the King James Version of the Bible. and they feel strongly on their position and we, of course, hold to our position. And so, interesting enough, I had gotten criticism years ago, haven't for a long time, but years ago, said we didn't hold to the King James Bible. A Virgin Bible guy wrote a letter and was saying that we didn't believe the King James Bible. And interesting enough, he'd never been to our church or read any of our literature and knew nothing about us, obviously. So anyway, those are the two criticisms we've taken. Eternal security of the believer and our use of the King James Version of the Bible. Now, I want to give you tonight, as quickly as I can, as simply as I can, I'm going to try and probably oversimplify it, maybe, five reasons why we use only the King James Version of the Bible. I want to encourage you to jot these down. I think they'll be helpful. Might be something you might want to put in a flyleaf of your Bible you can reference. Maybe you can explain it. Now, here's the thing. I was telling, I forget who I was talking to, But I think some folks think that we use only the King James Bible just because we're ignorant. We just don't know much, we're uneducated, and we're just archaic, and we just stick to that. My experience is, and the people I've dealt with, at least locally here, we have a better understanding of why we use the Bible we do than they do in the version they do. They just use it. They don't know why. And we actually have reasons and scriptural, I believe, scriptural support for why we use only the King James Version. Now, let me say this. I heard a preacher years ago make this statement. He was preaching, a good preacher. I'm, I'm, support him, he's with the Lord now. But 100% had tremendous influence. Great guy, I have nothing against him. But he made this statement. He was preaching, defending the King James Bible. He says, the King James Bible was good enough for Mama, and it's good enough for me. Now that makes good preaching, that gets a bunch of amens, but that's not good enough. What if mama used a New World Translation? If he can stand up and say, I'm using the King James because my mama used the King James, what are you going to do with somebody that's mama used a different version? They have just as much right in that logic to make that claim as I would. So simply, just because mama used it doesn't make it, isn't good enough argument. I've heard preachers, and maybe you have, I've heard preachers make this statement. And I think these are good guys. I'm not criticizing the preachers. I think they mean well, very sincere, but I'm saying their arguments are flawed. I heard preachers say this years ago. I haven't heard this recently. They say it was good enough. The King James Bible was good enough for Paul. It's good enough for me. Well, that's just ignorant. Paul didn't speak English. All right. So the King James Bible didn't exist when Paul was around. So that's not a good argument either. So we're going to give you five reasons why we use the King James. We already prayed, right? All right. Well, I'm already into the points already. How about that? Number one, jot this down. We only use the King James Bible for documental reasons. Documental reasons. Now, that's a word. I looked it up. It has to do with the use of documents. And so, because of the documents that are behind the King James Bible, that is why we use it. Now, this may be new for some folks. I don't know. But the modern versions of the Bible do not come from the same documents that the King James Bible comes from. They come from a completely separate set of documents. Most people don't know that. If I'm out visiting and knock on the door and get talking and they say, you guys use the King James Bible, you're just ignorant. If I would ask them, well, why do you use your New American Standard Version? They would say something like, well, it's more accurate. It's more contemporary. It's more current. They would have no idea that the New American Standard Version is from a completely different set of documents than what the King James Bible is from. And that never enters their mind. They assume it all comes from the same source. It doesn't. There's two completely different sets of documents. Now, last week, where is my Bible penman? Andy, would you come on up here? Here we have Andy Moses, and he's back to writing scripture. Now, if you remember, go ahead, have a seat there and get your stuff out. Now, if you remember, we the Bible teaches that God has given us his word by inspiration. How many folks remember that? All right, that's the majority. Good. And by that we noted that the Bible teaches, and Peter says that God moved the men of God that penned the Bible what words to write. God breathed into their mind the thoughts, the words to write it down. Sometimes it came through visions, sometimes it was dreams, sometimes it was an audible voice God dictated to them, sometimes I think He just affected their thinking. Take a lot to affect this guy's thinking, but he affected their thinking and they wrote down the very words that God wanted them to write down. So the original manuscripts, the paper that Paul wrote on, that very first sheet of papyrus or whatever it was that he wrote on when he wrote the book of Philippians or Colossians or any of those, that's the original manuscript, the very paper they wrote on. Go ahead and write down Philippians there. Very good. That paper that he wrote, that God moved in his thinking, he wrote it down. That very first paper was the original manuscript, all right? And it was given to us through the process of inspiration. God moved on his heart and mind. He wrote down, whether he's aware of it or not, wrote down the very words that God wanted written down, and the paper he wrote it on that he sent to the church at Philippi was the original manuscript. The question, do those original manuscripts still exist today? No, they were written on paper, ink and paper. They deteriorated over time. So the question comes up, when they deteriorated and people made a copy of that to spread it around, did God preserve His word in those copies so that they were copied correctly? Yes, that's what Psalms 12 teaches us. Look at verse 7. Thou shalt keep them, the words of the Lord, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation when they were given forever. So God, see here's the thing, inspiration, God leading him to write down the very words that he's supposed to is meaningless if God doesn't preserve it. If it just deteriorates and goes away over time, what good does that do us a hundred years later when there's mistakes in it and it's changed and altered? What good does that do us? So if you're going to have inspiration, logic tells you there would be preservation. So God has preserved his word as these copies were made. Paul wrote these. John, write those down there. Revelation. He's writing all these down. And time goes by and Andy gets older and older and soon he croaks. All right. He's dead and gone. You can go. Buried. Gone. Out of here. Very good. Boy, he fits that character perfectly. So, he's copied these, our apostles, the authors, the penman, original, are dead, time goes by, they pass away, they go on to glory. The copies, their manuscripts are out there, they're getting old, they're being passed around from Philippi to Thessalonica and over to Colossia, and they're being sent around back to Jerusalem, up to Antioch, and maybe Paul has some, he's carrying with him. over to different places, and he's saying, here's this portion of Scripture, and they're getting used more and more and more, and people are writing them, and ten years go by, and twenty years go by, and a hundred years go by, and you can't even hardly read them. And someone says, man, this paper is wearing out, you can't hardly read it anymore, we need to make some copies of it. So they get some scribes. James, you'd be a scribe. He was hoping I would call on him. James comes up here. So he takes the old beat-up ones that have been around forever, can't hardly read it, and he copies them over, word for word, very carefully. Now, don't pay attention to that. Right from here to here. And he's already corrupting the manuscripts. So he copies it over very, very carefully and all that, and we believe the Bible teaches that God is preserving His Word. And he's copying it very accurately. Alright, aren't you done yet? And so finally, he gets finished and these finally decay away and they're gone. Now understand, each place in Thessalonica, in Colosia, they're making their own copies. So this thing is multiplying. There's there's original manuscripts. Then you have double of them and you have triple of them. Then you have a multiplied. Soon you have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of copies of scripture out there, and they're reproducing them and they're getting out there to the people the way it's supposed to be to the churches. Now. Ideally. There would be. All right, you're done copying things. Just stay right there. Ideally, there would be a set of copies. They would wear out. You would have exact duplicates of those set of copies. They may last several hundred years and then they would wear out and you would have another exact duplicate set of copies and they would wear out all the way till you get to today. we deal with human beings, and human beings are fallen. So sometimes, when they were making copies of the previous one, go ahead and make a copy there, they would inadvertently, instead of writing, they didn't do it on purpose, I don't think, sometimes, instead of copying down Holy Scriptures, they would write down Holy Bible. Now, question, are these two the same? No. Are they talking about the same book? Sure. They're same in their meaning. They're same in what they're referring to, but they're worded differently. Now, that's significant. And what happened was that, oh, you're taking notes from the message. I was wondering what he was writing there. Good guy. It said, Dear Mary, and I didn't know who that was he was writing to. No, I'm kidding. So the church is being passed around, and they get one that says, Holy Bible, instead of Holy Scriptures. And they say, wait a minute, this isn't the same as what we had before in the Bible. And they got looking and got comparing, and the church, different various local churches says, you know, that's not right. That's not the same. So they'd throw them away or they'd put them up. And so then he's making more copies and making more copies and these are going out. And the interesting thing is, Colossian tells us that even back before the Bible was finished, there were malicious folks who were deliberately altering scripture. to fit their specific doctrine, what they believed and what they wanted the Bible to say, so they would change it. So let's say there was a group of folks that says, we don't think the Bible should be called the Holy Scriptures, we think it should be called God's Word. Now, that's fine and dandy, except that's not what God moved on the hearts and minds of these people to record down. You follow what I'm saying? It's different wording. It's different thing. They changed it to what they wanted it to be. And so this, so you have this false prophet, this false teacher, Bible makes reference to him. He deliberately alters it. All right. He changes it and he sends it out as if it's scripture. Well, the churches already have a bunch of these and I'm super oversimplifying this, but they already have a bunch of the correct ones and they get it and they say, wait a minute, this is different. This isn't the same. Somebody has changed God's word. They wrote it in different words. We reject that. And they would either throw it away or they put it up somewhere and they won't pass it around. Meanwhile, the accurate scriptures are being translated, are being recopied and recopied and recopied. They're getting translated into other languages. And we come down here now. Throughout their years, this line of... Hold those there up. Throughout the years, this line of manuscripts that were true to that, the ones that had mistakes or were deliberately changed, was picked up by the church and was put aside. The Bible says the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. So the church is what God's going to use to preserve his word. Keep it straight. Keep it true. Not a publishing company. All right. Let me just throw this out. Most of your Bible versions are not being produced by churches. They're being produced by publishing companies that are in it to make money. So God has given the church a responsibility. Through the ages, you have this, what's called the received text. Go ahead and spread it out through the timeline here, James. No, just stand here like I am, right over there. There you go. So through the ages, you have this set of manuscripts that was received by the churches. They recognize it as being correct, as being in line with what was originally given. So it became known as the received text or the term, technical term is the Textus Receptus. You got this in school. The TR it's referred to. That is the set of manuscripts or documents for sake of our alliteration here, the documents that have been received by the church throughout the years. All right, everybody, I'm really trying to oversimplify this. Everybody's with me on that. Now, here's the thing in the eighteen. Thank you, James. I think I'm good now. In the eighteen hundreds. Scholars put together at a new set of documents or manuscripts. Two prominent scholars that did that were their last names were Westcott and Hort. That's two different men. That was their last names. They put together, they said we're going to put together a new set of documents, a new set of manuscripts to a Greek thing. What they did was they got digging around, archaeologists, and it had been happening over a period of time as they dug around different things. They were unearthing some manuscripts that had not been around for a long time. Some manuscripts that The received text, the churches did not have available. They were put up and they got digging around and they did some testing on and they said, you know what? These here manuscripts that we found are actually, I mean, the paper itself, the actual manuscript that it's on is older. than the copies that we have had that have been available through the years, because they got wore out and they made a copy. And so they would say these are actually older than the received text manuscripts. How many folks are still with me? Everybody still follow me? These are much, much older. Now why would these manuscripts still be in existence and be much older than the received text? What would be a reason they would still be not worn out and not destroyed? They weren't used. The church rejected them, put them up. The ones that were used, of course, they got worn out, they would wear out. Now here is their situation, they found themselves. There was a thousand, and I'm just using figures, these aren't accurate, but there's a thousand times more All newer copies of the received text. There's tons and tons and tons of this set of manuscripts copies of them. Now, they're not as old as this set, but there's way, way, way, way more of these than there is of these. So they got thinking. These are older. Therefore, they must be better. They're older, they must be more accurate. They're closer to the originals than what all these have that has been available down through the years. And because they're closer to the originals, they must be more accurate. Now that may sound good, but there's a flaw with that. just because they're older does not necessarily mean they're more accurate. We contend that the reason they're older is they were not used and they were rejected because there's a difference. And they did find that, so I got a little ahead of myself, they did find that the receipt, this became known as the critical text. And so they found lots and lots of the received documents. There was a few of the critical documents. These were much older than these, and there was discrepancy between the two. And so Westcott and Hort and others in their line of thinking said, this is what we will translate from rather than this, because this is older and must be more accurate. And so where there was a discrepancy between the two, Westcott and Hort would choose this over this. Now, here's the thing. Every version of the Bible that you go to your bookstore, every version of the Bible besides the King James Version is translated from the critical text. Every single one of them has gone to these. Scholars assembled this new line of older manuscripts, and there was significant changes. So you have the King James. Come up here again, James. Hold your King James Bible up. You come over there. And so the King James Bible has behind it. Go stand over there and hold off to your left the manuscripts. Other way around your other left. There you go. The manuscript. So the King James Bible has behind it these line of manuscripts that have been available to every generation that have been through the churches. They are the received text. They've been received by the churches. You have your other versions. I have here a new new international version. They came out much later. And this is translated from the critical text. The Bible doesn't these two Bibles don't come from the same source. They come from two different sets of manuscripts. Now, in a lot of ways, they were the same, they match, but in some places there was difference. And where there was a difference between these two, the translators went with this and said, that has to be wrong because these are older. And so every set. Go ahead. Thank you, James. You put that here. So they all have that. Now, here's what I stay up here, James. Andy, would you come on back up here? I'm trying to get them to lose weight. Come on up here. Grab one of those versions of the Bible there. Tell you what, Andy, you have the NIV and you have the New American Standard. Andy, you stand there. James, you stand over there. Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles with me, if you would, to John chapter 7. I'm going to illustrate what I'm saying here. John chapter 7. You turn in yours to John chapter 7. That's in the New Testament, James. John chapter 7. And let me get there. John 7 and verse 53. I hope this works. John 7 verse 3. Everybody out there? At John chapter 7 and verse number 53. And James, I want you to read John 7, 53, and I want you to read down through chapter 8, verse 11. And everyone went to his home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Wait a minute, don't do that. All right, Andy, you read that. And each went to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives at dawn. All right, you guys are ruining my illustration. Read that part up there, right above it. It says the earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not have John 7.53 through 8.11. All right, you read the note on verse 53 there. John 7.53, 8 through 11 is not found in most of the old manuscripts. Okay, and read yours again. The earliest and most reliable manuscripts do not have John 7, 53 through 8, 11. When they say the earliest and most reliable manuscripts, what are they referring to? Are they referring to... The received text or the critical text? Critical text. These Bibles here are based... Now, to give these guys credit, they did include that in there. A lot of these versions will not include into the text of the Bible that. If you have a... How many folks are using a Schofield Bible right now? I like Schofield. I've used that Bible for years. Is there a note besides chapter 7, verse 53? Somebody read what that note says. Tom, read that out loud, what that note says. Okay, so the manuscript, now Schofield, King James Version of the Schofield, the Bible itself is straight, but Schofield held that these should not be included. in the Bible. And so you have and let's try Mark 16. Go there. See if that's in there. Try Mark 16. Everyone else turn to Mark chapter 16 and verse nine. Is that in there? Aha. Is that in there? Does it have a note? All right, tell me what the new, the NIV says about Mark 16, verse 9. The two most reliable early manuscripts do not have Mark 16, 9 through 20. Okay, what does New American Standard version say? The oldest manuscripts have been from verse 9 through 20. Okay? So they are based, these two versions are based on the critical text, which those portions of Scripture were not found, are not in the critical text. Now, these copies right here, which are pretty old, they included the text in itself, but a lot of your versions won't even have that in the text. They'll say it's not part of God's Word, and they just completely strike it out. All right? Let's see. All right, go ahead. You guys can sit down. So you have the NIV, you have the New American Standard, you have the Living Bible, and any other version of the Bible you want, but apart from the King James, is based on these critical text manuscripts. Now, somebody says somebody was asking Ed was asking before the claim new American standards claim to fame is that it's the most accurate translation there is. You'll go say you say if you're going to store and you say, I want the most accurate translation of the Bible, there is they'll say you need to go to the American standard. That is true. It is the most accurate translation of the critical text. That's available. It is a very good translation of a bad manuscript. Follow what I'm saying? The NIV, and we're going to bring this up here in a minute, the NIV is a poor translation of a bad manuscript. They're both based on the wrong manuscript. That's our position. Good translation of a bad manuscript, bad translation of a bad manuscript. It's on a set of documents that was not available through the ages. So, Matthew 24-25, Bible says, Jesus said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Now, if this is the case, if in the 1800s, They found these other documents and they come up with a manuscript that is different than the received text. I want to see if you're thinking with me. How does that violate Psalm 12, verses 6 and 7? If these other versions are more accurate and they're based upon this critical text that was not available for all these 1800 years, then Psalms 12 would not be true. Because the Bible says in Psalm 12, every generation, God will preserve his word from the time it's given to every generation following that time it's given. And that means for 1800 years, The church did not have an accurate translation of the original manuscripts. And so we reject these other versions and we hold to the King James Bible for documental reasons, because of the manuscripts it is translated from. Alright, let me go on. Number two, second reason, that's the longest of them all. Number two, for doctrinal reasons. The first one was documental, because of the documents behind it. This one is for doctrine, for the teaching. In the early days, we pointed this out, some false teachers would deliberately change what the Bible said. Galatians makes reference to the folks that are... In fact, do you know what Paul said? He said, any letter you get from me, I'm going to put a secret code in it so that you know it's from me and it's the Word of God and it's not some imposter. And his secret code was this. How many people want to know? Come back next week, I'll tell you what the secret code was. Actually, the secret code was he would sign them with his own name. Paul was nearly blind, we believe. He had other people record down, he would dictate it, they would record it down. God's moving on his mind, and he said, if it's from me, you're going to see my signature on there. If you get something that claims to be the Word of God, doesn't have my signature on it, it's not from me. Not the word of God. So there was people who were deliberately putting out phony baloney portions of scripture. They were malicious. They were dishonest. And they were trying to change scripture. I want to suggest to you that man hasn't gotten any better. In the year 2011, there are people who will deliberately change scripture for their own motives, for their own reasons. And I believe we have that in many of our modern versions. How many people recognize the Revised Standard Version? The old timers ought to recognize that. That came out in 1952, I believe, somewhere around there, 1951. The National Council of the Churches. supported and financially supported the revised standard version of the Bible. What do we know about the National Council of the Churches? They are as liberal as you can get. They are apostate. They are ungodly. They reject everything that we hold dear. They're very extremely liberal, radically liberal. They promoted the Revised Standard Version. Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14, the Revised Standard Version, will not translate the reference to the virgin that brings a child. It will translate it as a young mate, a young woman, deliberately changing what Scripture said. It was deliberately put in there so that Scripture would be changed. The good news for modern man. How many folks have ever heard of that version of the Bible? Good news for modern man. It should be named bad news for everybody. The good news for modern man does not use the word blood. Instead, it puts the word death. They felt like blood was too gruesome, that we're in a modern man, we shouldn't be referring to that. We're just going to talk about the death of Christ. The Living Bible. I believe I'm correct on this. The Living Bible. This is not a translation by Kenneth Taylor. This is a paraphrase. What is a paraphrase? It is somebody putting it in their own words. Sometimes you'll hear a preacher say, well, let me just paraphrase what the Lord said here. He's saying, I'm going to put it in my own words. That's what he did. You cannot honestly call the living Bible a Bible. That's a dishonest name. It's his version. It's his understanding, putting it in his own words. And there are a number of places in here where he deliberately changed words. Some places he actually used filthy language to put in there to describe different things, things that I would be ashamed to read publicly. And so, for doctrinal reasons, we hold to the King James Version. Many, not all, many of these other versions will inject false doctrine deliberately. And you could go on. Let me give you a third reason we hold to the King James Bible. For dispositional reasons. I'll explain what I mean by that. Dispositional reasons. In other words, their disposition about the Word of God, their approach to the Word of God. The King James Version is what is called a formal equivalence version. Formal equivalence. Now think about that word. It means it is an actual, very specific, translating words that match. In other words, translating from the manuscripts we had into English, words that match literally. that are equal, formally match. The NIV, the Living Bible and others are what are called dynamic equivalents. Why that they mean? Well, we're not worried about translating word for word from the original language into the English. We're just going to get the idea. Of what's being said, and we're going to try and communicate that in English. So the words in this Bible don't necessarily match up to the Greek that was given. They just kind of gave what they thought it was. It would be kind of like if I had a letter I was going to mail out, Paul was working in the office, and I said, I'm going to mail this to brother Bill Behrens, and I've got this letter talking about our summer revival, different things, you take that. And she gets reading it, she says, you know, Bill's a Marine, he probably can't understand all these words that Pastor Leatherman's using. And so she says, I'll just put this kind of what I think he means and write it down and send it to him. Should a secretary do that? No. She should write down what I want to say. But that is where the NIV translators have done. It's a dynamic equivalence. Well, it's basically the same. So we use the King James Version for, Documental reasons, because of the line of documents that's behind it, it's based on. We're using it for doctrinal reasons, there was no doctrinal bias put into this. And we could do a whole series of messages on the translators, 54 different translators that went and went through an elaborate series of process to translate these scriptures. By the way, how many people ever noticed in your King James Bible there's italicized words? Anybody notice that? Anybody wonder why in the world is that italicized? You know why? Because the integrity of the translator said there's no equivalent English word that matches that Greek word. So we're going to make it clear this is what the Greek word means, but we got to have to add an English word to bring the meaning into the English. And they were honest enough to put it in italicized so that we know that that's what they're doing. That's integrity. You won't find that in any of these other versions. They won't do it. So, for doctor's dispositional reasons, and actually, what's the big argument why people don't want to use the King James and they want to use another version? What's the big argument they say? What do they say? It's too hard to understand. Did you know that various, not Christian, state colleges did studies on the versions of the Bible in the King James? Guess which version of the Bible they determined is the easiest to memorize? King James Version. Try it sometime. You try and measure, you try and memorize from one of these languages and one of these versions and memorize from the King James. The King James is actually written on a lower understanding level than these and is easier to memorize. So the dispense, the dispositional reasons, let me give you a fourth reason. We use the King James duration reasons. No other version of the Bible has had the impact on the world that the King James version has had. None of them. For 400 years, this book has been the basis of every revival that has hit America and England, Wales and other parts of the English-speaking world. It has been the King James Bible that was the basis of that. No other version has endured 400 years as the King James Version has. It seems like anymore every other week some publisher is coming out with a new version. Years ago, I got a Christian book distributor catalog, and I went through and I counted all the different versions of Bibles available. At that point, I counted 128 different versions of the Bible. King James has stood for 400 years. No other Bible has had the impact, has had the duration that this book has, as this Bible has. By the way, all other versions of the Bible are copyrighted. Now, you go to the front of your Schofield Bible and you will find a copyright, but that copyright has to do with the notes of Schofield, not with the text of Scripture. I have here a Bible. It's just a Bible. It has no notes in, no cross-references, nothing. It's just the text of Scripture. In the front of it here, there is no copyright. I could go back to the Xerox machine, lay it on there, and run off as many copies as I want. I could sell them. I could give them away. I can do whatever we want. I want it because it's not copyrighted. Every other version is copyrighted. Now, what's the significance of that? If I want to get a copyright, if I go to the copyright borough of copyrightedness, and I say, you know, I've got this version of the Bible, I want to copyright it. One of the things, the primary thing I would have to do would be to prove that it is different than any other version that's already out there. And it has to be significantly different. I can't take the NIV and come in and change a few words and say, hey, I want this, the DLV, Dennis Leatherman version. And they get looking at it and say, this is identical to the new international version. No, it isn't. I changed that word there and I changed that word over there. And they would say, sorry, we can't give you a copyright on it. It's not significantly different. Now, think about that. If all these Bibles are coming out, and they're getting a copyright for it, that means they are all significantly different than all the others. Which means that we are continually getting farther away from what? From God's Word. It has to be different. So another company is going to come out. It has to be more different than the INV. Another one comes out. It has to be more different than that. Another one comes out. It has to be more different than all of these. And after a while, you get to the point the NIV is coming out with a version that is gender neutral. You know what that means? They don't refer to God as he or she. They don't they change it completely, and it has to become so different. And you don't even know what you're getting. And so the very fact that it's copyrighted is a testament to the fact that it is different. There's changes made. There's variations given. The emphasis of the new versions is it's different. It's easier to read. It's a different perspective. It's new and improved. It's better and bigger and better. It's this, that, and the other. And all they're doing is getting farther and farther and farther away. Let me throw this out. Contemporary Christianity and new versions go hand in hand. Go hand in hand. You're going to start bringing in rock and roll music, you're going to start bringing in contemporary thinking, you're going to start bringing in surveys of what the people think, and you know what you're going to find out? You're going to find other versions being used. I have dear friends, men that I went to Bible college with that loved the Lord, We were on the same page today. They are using other versions. Whenever I hear that they started using another version in the church, it's not very long till the music starts changing. The standards start changing. The world starts coming in. They go hand in hand. And so for the duration reasons, let me give you a fifth reason and I need to end and I'm trying to rush and I'm trying to be oversimplified here, but direct reasons. why we use the King James Version. As we said, the big argument is the King James Version is too hard to read. Well, I just can't understand it. You know what I think one of the big problems is when people say they can't understand the Bible? I think one of the big problems is they need to get saved. Corinthians tells us that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit. They're foolishness to him. It doesn't make any sense. Too hard to read. The fact of the matter is, who will tell me, what year was King James Bible translated? 1611. Now, if you got a 1611 copy of the Bible that was printed in 1611, you wouldn't be able to read it. Because the letters and everything are completely different. But, the King James Version, when it was translated in 1611, was not translated into the street language of England. Even when they originally translated it, they didn't go to how people talked in the street. They used a very precise form of the English language. It's called High English. It is very detailed. It is very specific. And they did that deliberately. Greek was the most specific language. They had words for every variation of a thought. They would have its very own word. Now, English today, you can have heard mean five different things. You can have five different words refer to the same thing. The word to I'm going to a place. I have two toes. I have I've actually have more than two. But you have all these words. But the high English wasn't that way. How many people ever thought, you know, if they just change the these and nows, if you just change that over to you and then it would be easier. But the fact of the matter is they used these and nows for a very specific reason. The word you is in the Bible, Y-O-U. They could have used that in all these places. They had the word. It's not like it wasn't in existence. But they use these and now's for very specific reasons. I can give this to you. And I'm not an English scholar. Let me just throw these out to you here. The word thou designates the subject of a verb. The word the designates the object of the verb. If you just were to use the word you, it wouldn't have that designation. He designates the subject of a word verb. The personal. Listen to this. A personal program pronoun beginning with the letter T, thou, thee, thine is a singular pronoun. If a word ends with E.S.T. Believest. It indicates the second person singular, the one being spoken to. If it ends with an ETH, it's speaking to the third person singular, the one spoken about. Shall refers to the first person in the future tense. Will refers to the second or third person in the future tense. They all have very specific significance. Even the these and nows are there for a deliberate reason. Now, somebody comes along and says, yeah, you know, it's kind of hard, it's kind of awkward, I think we just ought to come up with a better version. We need to be very, very careful about that. This is God's Word. Revelation gives a very serious warning to anybody that adds to or takes away. Can I suggest to you, when the Bible says, you know, this verse really isn't in the Bible, that to me sounds like taking away. Huh? when a version of the Bible takes a portion of Scripture and just puts it in their own words, and well, this is the way we think it is, and we think it should say a young woman, not a virgin. I want to suggest to you that's adding to the Word of God. And so, the Bible, we have all, Mountlake Independent Baptist Church always has, and as far as under my administration, will continue to use only the King James Version. That is our position, and we hold that. Now, does that mean if someone uses another version of the Bible, they don't love God? No, it doesn't mean that at all. I think there's some people who use other versions of the Bible that love the Lord dearly, but I think they're wrong. I think they're mistaken. Maybe they were taught wrong. Maybe they really never gave it any thought. So don't go out to your friends and your co-workers and knock on doors. So winning or the bus kids and visit their family and they got another version of there. Don't tell them you're a bunch of heathen Bible correctors. Don't do that. I've got a cute story about someone in the church here, but I won't say it because I don't want to embarrass them. So see me afterward when we're alone and I'll tell you a very cute story about someone in the church here. Betty, I think, knows what I'm talking about. Maybe not. But anyway, just disregard what I just said. Everything just said there. Let's stick to the Word of God. Amen. Now, I'm very anxious. I want to get to another one, another subject we're going to look at, and that's called getting beyond the cover. I hope you carry a King James Bible. I hope you use it. But I'm more concerned that you do what's inside what it says. I want to make a statement. I'm getting way ahead, but I'm going to end with this. It's just burning in my heart. I want to make this statement. And if you want to criticize me, you can criticize me for this. You know what my position is. But I would rather have somebody use another version of the Bible and actually do what it says than have a King James Bible and not do what it says. Follow what I'm saying? We got to make sure we got the right one, but it doesn't do us any good if we're not doing what it says. I'd rather have somebody maybe using another version and they're actually witnessing the people and they're actually following the teachings of scripture than someone who has a King James Bible, throws it on the shelf, never does a thing, never pays any attention. You follow what I'm saying? Let's make sure we got the right one. There's reasons for it. I've given you a few very quickly, as quick as I could, as simply as I could. You jot them down. We can defend why we do this. I believe it's right. I'm convinced it's right. And we're going to go forward. Father, bless us, Lord. Help us. I don't know how to give an invitation, Lord, other than to ask God you to help us stay true to your word. God asks you to help us give some thought to this matter and understand the significance of it. It's not just a whim or a stubbornness. but Lord, actually a scriptural reason. So, bless us Lord. Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. How many would say this? Let me try and make some application here. How many would say, Preacher, I got my King James Bible, but I really need to start reading it like I should. I need to start treasuring it. Maybe some would say, Preacher, I never really gave this much thought, and I really need to pay attention and take this seriously. I don't know how God would speak to your heart this evening, But you'd say, Preacher, pray with me that God will help me make the decisions and do the things I need to do. Anybody like that? Is there anybody with an uplifted hand? God bless you. A few hands around. And let's hold to this. Let's stick strong to what we know is right. Father, bless our invitation, I pray, in Jesus' name. Let's stand together. Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. And Jennifer's going to play just a verse or two. I don't know, maybe you'd want to come and pray that God would keep our church straight, that God would help us stay true to the Word of God. Maybe you need to come and ask God to help you just get in the book and really read it and pray and study it and do what it says. Say, well, bless God, I got my King James Bible. That's wonderful, but let's do what it says. Let's obey it. So, Father in heaven, we thank you for speaking our hearts and God we pray you'd help us Lord to live by your word in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you