Declaring Doctrine | Part 7 | Comparing the KJV to other Bible Versions
We’re in Hebrews 4 tonight and we are continuing through our Declaring Doctrine Series. If you remember, we started with a sermon on the importance of doctrine. Then we talked about the doctrine of revelation. We’ve now spent several weeks on the doctrine of the Word of God. And if you remember, we started with a sermon about the doctrine of the Word of God. We talked about inspiration and preservation. Then we talked about what the Bible is. We kind of just broke the Bible down for you and showed you how it’s divided, how it’s organized and where it came from. We spent a sermon on “Is the Bible reliable?”. We talked about the reliability of the Bible as a historic book and as an ancient document and all of those things. And then last week I laid a foundation for the doctrine of the King James Bible and mainly what we want you to take away from that is that there is a need for an “every word Bible”. There is a need to have a Bible that is perfect, that is preserved, that is infallible.
Now here at Verity Baptist Church, we believe that the King James Bible is the inspired, preserved, infallible and inerrant Word of God. And we’re going to spend the night tonight just comparing the King James Bible to other versions. Now before we get into that, I’m going to give you some an introduction. And I want to give you some information about the King James Bible. But I hope you’ll get excited about this. And I know some of you have already heard me preached this before. And we’ve done it when I was growing up, we went to church where every November they called it Bible month. And every Sunday night in the month of November, the Pastor would go through and kind of do what we’re doing tonight. I was always super excited about it. Every November. Even though I’d heard it several times, I was always excited. So, it’s good for you to hear it again, to learn it, to be refreshed. I’d encourage you to take some notes down and this will help you when you’re talking to family members and co-workers and things like that.
But let’s begin there in Hebrews 4:12. This is a very well-known verse regarding the Word of God. The Bible says “12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”. The Bible tells us that the Bible is powerful. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And I want to lay this foundation. Because tonight what we’re going to do is we’re just going to take modern Bible versions and we’re just going to set them side by side with the King James Bible and just compare back and forth between the two. And you know, we’re really not going to do much in defending the Word of God tonight because the Word of God doesn’t need you and I to defend it. The Word of God will defend itself. And it is quick and it is powerful.
Jeremiah 23:29 “29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?”. Someone said this, “The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t need to defend the lion. You just let it loose to defend itself.”. And that’s really what we’re going to do tonight. We’re going to just let the lion of the word of God loose and let it defend itself as we compare it to these other modern Bible versions or modern perversions of the Bible. The first thing we’re going to do tonight is we’re going to compare version by examining the source text. And I’ll go through that as quickly as I can. I do want to give you some thoughts in regards to the source text. And we’ll talk about that here in a minute. And then we’re going to spend most of our time tonight examining the different passages in the text itself. And so we’re going to look at the source text. We’re going to look at the text itself. And when we’re talking about the source text, what we’re talking about is the fact the Bible that you and I hold obviously was not written in English. What you hold in your hand and what I hold in my hand is a translation of the Word of God. And for example, specifically speaking in regards to the New Testament, the New Testament was primarily written in Greek. Any other Bible version such as the NIV, the ESV or whatever, they all are translated from a Greek text.
Psalm 68:11 “11 The Lord gave the word:” That’s the inspiration. By the way, that’s where the Word of God came from. “The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it.”. God gives us his word and people are interested in his word and great, meaning huge, is the number of people that published his word. And that’s not only true of the Old Testament. It’s also true of the New Testament. Now here’s what I want you to understand, and I won’t spend a lot of time on this tonight, we’re going to spend most of our time just comparing the different Bible versions. But whatever Bible version you’re talking about, whether you’re holding a King James Bible in your hand or you’ve got a New International Version or an English standard version or the New King James Version or the new American Standard Version, those are translations from a Greek text.
And here’s what most people don’t understand and I really want to make sure that you guys get this, when we’re talking about modern Bible versions, we’re talking about different underlying Greek texts. Your King James Bible was translated from a different under lying Greek text then the NIV, ESV, NASV, etc…People get this idea that it was written in Greek and then the translators changed it and that they’re all different. No, we’re actually talking about two different Greek texts. There is a Greek text that our King James Bible was translated from and then there is a Greek text that every modern Bible version is translated from. And I want to just give you some quick facts about those texts. Now the King James Bible was translated from the Greek text that is called the Textus Receptus. And again, the New Testament was primarily written in Greek. The originals we’ve talked about as we’ve been studying these doctrines on Sunday nights, the originals are gone. They don’t exist. Nobody has them. Nobody has the original parchments that Paul wrote, that Peter penned down, that Luke wrote. Those are gone. All we have are translations. We have copies of the original. And we’ve talked about this in other sermons. We’ve got manuscripts that go back 30 to 50 years from the original as opposed to other ancient documents that are a thousand years after the original.
When we talk about those manuscripts, I want you to understand some things. There are 5,309 existing Greek manuscripts of the New Testament available today. So, in the entire world, if you were to round up all of the Green Manuscripts that are out there in existence today, the number you would get would be 5,309. These are fragments of different passages in the New Testament. Sometimes they’re longer and sometimes they’re shorter. But we’ve got 5,309 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament available today. Of those, 5,309 and 95 to 97% of them agree with each other. And what that means is this, that if you’ve got multiple books of John, multiple books of Matthew, multiple books of the same passage or the same chapter of Corinthians or Galatians, when you compare them, they say the same thing. They say exactly the same thing. 95 to 97% of the 5,309 existing Greek manuscripts all agree together. Those are called the majority texts. And they’re called the majority text because of the fact that they’re the majority of the available texts out there. And they all agree together. That majority text is what became the Textus Receptus which is where your King James Bible was translated from.
Now let me just give you some real quick history. A man named Erasmus who was a brilliant scholar basically examined a collection of the majority text Greek manuscripts. And he compiled them meaning he put them in order. There weren’t verses at the time that he did this. But he put what we would call verses and chapters into the order that they go together. And he basically compiled the Greek New Testament. So, he took the 95 to 97% of Greek manuscripts that were available. He put them all in order, made sure they all agreed, and found the ones that agreed. And then he compiled them into what’s known as the Textus Receptus. That Textus Receptus is the underlying Greek text that our King James Bibles are translate from. So, I want you to know these terms. It’s called the majority text because it was taken from the majority of manuscripts. 95 to 97% of the manuscripts agree together. It’s called the Texas Receptus or the received text. That’s what the word Receptus means. Because it is the text that has been agreed upon by all of Christianity that this is the Word of God. Erasmus compiled it together. And for hundreds of years, that was the Bible. That’s what was considered the Bible.
And here’s what you need to understand. Not only was our King James Bible based on the Greek Texas Receptus but every ancient Bible version basically all came from the same Texas Receptus. And I’ll give you some examples if you want to write this down. The other ancient Bibles that were translated that are even older than the King James Bible, they all agree with the Texas Receptus. They were translated from the Textus Receptus. They use that as their Greek underlying text. Even if it wasn’t called the Textus Receptus, that majority text is what they use. Here’s some examples. The Peshitta version which was translated in AD 150. The Italic Bible that was translated in AD 157. The Waldensian Bible translated in AD 120 and onward. The Gaelic Bible translated in AD 177. That’s from southern France. The Gothic Bible translated in AD 330 to 350. The old Syriac Bible translated in AD 400. The Armenian Bible translated in AD 400. There are still 1,244 copies of this version in existence today. The Palestinian Syriac Bible translated in AD 450. The French Bible of Olive translated in 1535. The Czech Bible translated in 1602. And the Italian Bible of dialed IIT translated in 1602. These were all translated using this Greek Textus Receptus.
And here’s why I’m bringing that up. Because if you were to take our King James Bible and translate to the majority of the Greek Text, it would agree. If you would take our King James Bible and compare it to the majority of ancient Bibles out there, I mean we’re talking about books that were 80 AD to AD 33, these are ancient books and they would agree with the King James Bible. Obviously, they’re in different languages. But if you were to look at what they’re saying, they’re saying the same thing. Not only that, but before our King James Bible, there were other English Bible versions that were translated from the Textus Receptus. In fact from Tyndale’s New Testament, and Tyndale was of course the person who first translated the Greek New Testament, he took Erasmus text of the Textus Receptus and he translated it into English. From Tyndale’s New Testament to the late 1800s, Early 1900s, prior to the 20th century, there were 7 major English Bible translations and they were all taken from the Textus Receptus. They all agreed with each other. The first one was of course Tyndale’s first New Testament translated in 1526. Myles Coverdale’s Bible in 1535. The Matthews Bible in 1555. The great Bible in 1539. The Geneva Version in 1560. The Bishops Bible in 1568. And the King James Version in 1611.
The interesting thing about this is all of those seven Bible versions were really just a revision of the prior Tyndale Version which was the first English New Testament. Then the Myles Coverdale Bible was just finishing up his work. Then the Matthews Bible is really just a revision of the Myles Coverdale. And the Great Bible was a revision of the Matthews Bible. The Geneva Version just added chapter references and verse references to the Great Bible. And the Bishop’s Bible was just a revision. And the King James Version was really honestly just a revision of the Bishop’s Bible. Here’s what I want you to know. Those other Bibles had mistakes in them. They weren’t perfect but they were taken from a proper text. They weren’t complete but they weren’t corrupt. They weren’t complete but they agreed with each other. Here’s what is super interesting. You had 7 English Bibles that brought us to the King James Bible which we can say is perfect. It’s inspired. It’s preserved. It’s inerrant. Tt’s infallible. It’s without any problems.
Go to Psalm 12:6. This is a famous passage in regards to the Word of God. What’s interesting is you have Erasmus compiling the Greek Texts into the Textus Receptus. He takes the majority text and he compiles it into the Textus Receptus. Then you have 7 English translations that bring us revisions and really bring us to the King James Bible which is perfect. Thousands of years ago the Psalmist said in Psalm 12:6 “6 The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.”. What’s interesting is that from our Textus Receptus to the King James, you have 7 revisions that brought us to the King James Bible. And the Book of Psalms says “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.”.
So, when it comes to our King James Bible, you need to understand there’s 5,309 manuscripts and 95 to 97% of them agree with each other. They’re the majority text. A man named Erasmus took the majority text and compiled it into one Greek New Testament which became the Greek New Testament that everyone believed. That became known as the Textus Receptus or the received text. This is the text that we have received from prior Christians for our generations. Every ancient translation used the Texas Receptus as its base and every English translation from Erasmus to the King James Bible used the Textus Receptus as its base.
You say well what about the other modern Bible versions? Since the modern versions are translated from a different underlying Greek Text, what is that text? It was basically the Greek text that was compiled by two men named Westcott and Hort. Now I don’t have the time to go into the history of these guys but they were wicked man. They were false prophets. They were not of God. What Westcott and Hort did is they took the 3 to 5 percent of manuscripts that contradicted the majority text and they used that to create their own Westcott and Hort Greek texts. It’s called the Westcott and Hort Greek text. It’s referred to as the minority text because obviously it’s using 3 to 5 percent of the 5,309 manuscripts available out there. And it’s based primarily on two texts. One is called the Sinaiticus and the other one called the Vaticanus. Now look, right off the bat as a Baptist when you’re taking a Bible translation that’s translated from an ancient Greek text called the Vaticanus, that ought to raise red flags. It was called the Vaticanus because it was found in a trash can in the basement of the Vatican. The headquarters of the Roman Catholic Babylon mother harlot Church is where this text came from. But these men took the three to five percent of manuscripts that disagree with the majority text and they compiled it. They call it the minority. They made a Greek New Testament and then they use that Greek New Testament in order to translate these new modern Bible versions.
So, here’s what you need to understand. When you’re looking at the NIV verses and the King James, you’re not looking at two translations from the same Greek text. You’re looking at two translations from two different Greek texts. Now just a couple of facts about the Westcott and Hort Sinaiticus-Vaticanus. When you take these 2 Greek documents, these two on their own contradict each other over 3,000 times in the gospels alone. In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you can find 3,000 times when they have information that is contradicting each other. The Codex Sinaiticus was put in a trash heap by the monks of St. Catherine’s monastery and nearly every page of the manuscript there are Corrections and revisions done by 10 different people where they are scratching things out of the text itself. The Codex Vaticanus, kept by the Roman Catholic Church of course, from the Vatican, in the Gospels alone it leaves out 237 words, 452 clauses and 748 whole sentences.
Now here’s what you need understand. Why in the world would they use this minority text? There are 5,309 majority texts out there that were compiled into the Textus Receptus and used by every English translation from Erasmus to the late 1800s. They were used by every other language out there. Why would someone then take 3 to 5 of the minority text that contradicts itself three thousand times in the Gospels and use that to translate out of? Well, they’re big reasoning is that even though there are lots of problems with this text, it is older than the majority text. So, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they began to push this agenda and say well these are older so therefore they are more reliable and more accurate.
Here’s the problem with that. In 2 Corinthians 2:17, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth in the 1st century before the New Testament has even been compiled or finished. And he says this to the church at Corinth. “17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.”. Now here’s what I want you to understand. Paul while penning the book of 2nd Corinthians in the 1st century before the New Testament was even finished tells us that there were already people during his lifetime that were corrupting the Word of God. In fact, he said there were many which corrupt the Word of God. So, the fact that you can find old manuscripts that are corrupt shouldn’t surprise any of us. Paul told us about it. And we should learn that older doesn’t mean reliable.
I mean think about this just in a very practical sense. If you go in to my office, you’ll find many Bibles. Several are King James Bibles that I have in there. But you know what, you’ll also find a bunch of modern Bible versions. In a few minutes, we’re going to have 4 guys come up and they’re going to be reading out of my modern Bible versions that I own. I’ve got an NIV. I’ve got a New King James. I’ve got an ESV. I’ve got a New American Standard. Some of you have given me those Bibles. I’ve had some of you give me a Book of Mormon and tell me that maybe I can use this to preach against one day. I’ve had people give me the Jehovah’s Witness Bible. You say well why do you have those Bibles in your office? Well, I have them so that I can preach sermons like this. I can show people the differences. I don’t have them to study out of but I have them there for reference to show people. Here’s what’s interesting. If you were to look at this King James Bible that I have in my hand right now, the one that I read the one, the one that I use, if you were to look at it and compare it to the modern versions that are in my office, which is going to look more used? Which one’s going to look a little more deteriorated? It’s going to be the King James.
I recently preached through the Book of Ezekiel. If you just look at my Bible from the Book of Ezekiel, you know what you see? You see a bunch of arrows and notes and underlining and cross-references just page after page after page of my notes and my thoughts and my ideas in regards to this. You open that NIV and it’s going to look brand new. You know why? Because I’m not reading out of the NIV. It’s in there for reference but I’m not studying out of that. I’m not underlining anything in that. I’m not memorizing anything out of that. And here’s all I’m telling you, the Bible you use is probably going to fall apart first before any that you don’t use. And I’ll buy another one and I’ll write notes in that one and I’ll underline things in that one and put and cross references. And that one will fall apart before any of those. And if coronavirus kills all of us and 100 or 200 years from now people dig into my office and look through there, they will notice that the majority of Bibles that I had were King James. However, they’re all deteriorated, underlined, messed up. But the 4 other Bibles are older and pristine. Does that mean they are better? The fact that you don’t have the actual manuscripts that Christians put their faith in shows they were using those. They were preaching out of it. They had them with them when they were soul-winning. That’s more evidence that they received those. The others were in a trash can in a basement of the Vatican for a thousand years for a reason. It wasn’t used for a reason.
So, the fact that a version is old doesn’t make it better. Paul even told us during his lifetime that there were those who were corrupting the Word of God. So, how do we tell the difference between the King James and all the other Bibles? We begin with the source text. We realize that there are two different texts. 5,003 manuscripts with 95 to 97% agreeing with each other. The majority text were compiled into the Textus Receptus that every ancient Bible was translated from and that every English Bible was translated from. This is true through the King James Bible, through the 1800s. And then you got the minority text of 3 to 5% in the trash that contradicts itself and contradicts the majority text. It was compiled by two wicked men named Westcott and Hort into a New Testament. And then every modern Bible version today is translated from that text. You say but it’s older. Look, that means nothing. It means nothing that it’s older. Just because it’s old, it could still be corrupt. Look, Satan was corrupting the Word of God from the Garden of Eden. So, we can tell the difference by just thinking logically through the text, the source text. You should already kind of have an idea which one’s the right Bible.
But the other thing that we can do is we can just examine the different texts themselves and we’re going to do for the rest of the night. We’re going to spend time examining the text themselves. I’m going to ask these guys to come up here. I asked them to help me. So, guys come on up and make your way up here. And here’s what we’re basically going to do tonight. We’re just going to compare. We’re going to compare the King James to these modern Bible translations. And here’s the truth and I’ve used this illustration before. If you have a diamond and a cubic zirconium and you’re looking at the zirconium all by itself, you’re probably not going to be able to notice the problems unless you have a trained eye and know what to look for. You’re probably not going to be able to tell that it’s a fake. But you put that thing right next to a real diamond and it becomes real evident which one’s real and which one’s not. That’s why some of you guys avoid jewelry stores with your wives so she doesn’t have to see what a real diamond looks like. I used to work at a bank when I was younger and we dealt with a lot of money. You know what they would tell us? They would tell us that in order to be able to tell what counterfeit money is, study the real money. The problem with studying counterfeit money is that counterfeit money is always changing so it’s hard to study. What they would have you do is they would have you just count, feel and touch real money. You count lots of real money. Because if you got used to the feel and look of real money and then you put a counterfeit dollar in your fingers, you could tell this isn’t like the others. To tell if someone is real or fake, you compare it to the real thing.
So, here’s what we’re going to do tonight, we’re just going to compare the Word of God with these modern Bible versions. And I think it should be clear which one is the Word of God as we compare the diamond with the fake. I’m going to have these guys go ahead and introduce themselves and tell you what Bible perversion they are reading from. “I’m Aidan and I’m going to read from the NIV”. “I’m Eli and this is the ESV”. “Luke, the New American Standard Bible”. “RJ and I’ll be reading from the New King James”.
Matthew 7:14. I’m not going to have them read all of them. I’m just going to give you some examples tonight. I encourage you to write these down and take notes.
Maybe you’re here tonight and you’ve got an NIV in your hand or a New King James in your hand or an American Standard. That’s alright. We’re not mad at you. But you ought to follow along and look at it and look honestly at what the Bible says and what your Bible is saying.
King James – Matthew 7:14 “14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”. This is Jesus speaking about people who go to heaven. Earlier he talked about broad is the way and wide is the gate that leadeth to destruction. For those going to heaven, he says “strait”. The word “strait” is an older word that means narrow. A narrow passage. Strait as a gate and narrow is the way are synonyms. Sometimes people think the word straight is not crooked but it’s spelled “strait” not “straight”. He says look, the way to hell is broad. Many people are going there. He says the way to heaven is narrow and few find it. And look, when you go soul-winning with us and start knocking doors and asking people the question “Do you know for sure that if you died today that you would go to heaven?”. You know it’s true that most people in this world are going to hell. It’s few that are taking the narrow road of going to heaven. So, let’s begin with the English Standard Version.
ESV – Matthew 7:14 “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”.
So both the King James and ESV say the gate is strait or narrow. But the ESV says the way is hard. The King James says the way is narrow. Let me ask you this, are those two verses saying the same thing? I mean the King James says it’s narrow. And because it is written in an eloquent way, it says Strait is the gate and narrow is the way. The English Standard Version says narrow is the way and hard. Now look, here’s what Jesus said and what I was taught when we were growing up, “things that are different are not the same”. These 2 Bible versions in Matthew 7:14 are not saying the same thing. One is saying few people are going to heaven because most people are going to hell in the King James. In the ESV, Jesus is saying the way to heaven is hard.
How about the New King James? Let’s look at the New King James? Now a lot of times the New King James people will get confused and people think it’s like the King James but it’s just updated. Now look, that’s not true. They’ve messed with the New King James as well.
New King James – Matthew 7:14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
The New King James says difficult is the way. The King James just says narrow is the way. How does somebody get saved? By believing, right? The Philippine jailer asked Paul what must I do to be saved. Did Paul say “It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be difficult”. No, he says “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved”. You know that getting saved is easy. People criticize “easy believism” and saying we are making the gospel cheap. Actually, they are the ones making it cheap. Because you know what, it’s easy for me to get saved because the precious blood of my Savior did the hard part. Your gospel is cheap when you’re telling people it’s difficult. You know why they’re saying it’s difficult? Because then a false prophet can stand up and say you got to repent of your sins, you got to go to the confessional booth, you got to give money, you got to quit drinking. Look, if you had to quit sinning to be saved that would be difficult, that would be hard. But you know, Jesus said in Matthew 18:3 “3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”. Jesus says that in order to get saved you have to humble yourself like a little child. Look, salvation is easy enough that a child can do it. Because all you have to do is believe. That’s what the King James Bible says. The modern perversions say it’s hard, it’s difficult. Now look, they’re saying two different things because they have two different underlying Greek texts. And you have to look at it and say well which one’s right? The one that says it’s narrow or the one that says it’s difficult?
In Luke 2, we have a narrative. What does that mean? It’s a story. And in the Bible, you will have these books that are telling you a story and you have a narrator that is kind of telling you the story. Now in the Book of Luke, the narrator is Luke. But really, it’s the Holy Spirit. Because holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And I want you to notice in Luke 2:33, the Bible says “33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.”. This is when Joseph and Mary lost Jesus for three days. That story is there to make you feel better about your child-rearing. They lost Jesus and they have to go back and find him.
But the New International Version says “33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.”. See, the King James says Joseph and Mary but the NIV says “father and mother”. Now let me ask you a question, was Joseph the father of Jesus? Who was the Father of Jesus? God. Right, Jesus was the Son of God. You say oh well what’s the big deal? The big deal is that you just attacked the deity of Christ. If Joseph was the father of Jesus and Mary was the mother of Jesus, that would make Jesus a sinful human with Adam’s sinful blood in him like you and like me. The King James Bible is sure to say Joseph and his mother. Because Joseph was his stepfather and only acting as his father here on earth and providing for him and all those things. But Joseph was not his father. Jesus did not get his blood from Joseph. Jesus was not begotten of Joseph. Jesus was begotten of God the Father. The King James is sure to make that distinction. The NIV says the child’s father and mother.
How about the English Standard Version? Luke 2:33 “33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him.”. That sounds just like the NIV, right? The New American Standard Bible says “33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.”. By the way, the reason we chose these modern Bible versions is because these are the most popular modern Bible versions today. The New International Version, the English Standard Version, the New King James, the New American Standard are versions that most churches are going to be using. There are a lot of other versions out there that are more corrupt than these ones. However, these are the most popular. We looked at two passages. One saying salvation is difficult and Jesus had a father named Joseph. And then the King James is saying no, salvation is just narrow and Joseph was not his father. God is his father. It’s an attack on the deity of Christ. It’s an attack on the doctrine of the deity of Christ.
Let’s look at John 3:36. Because you may be thinking it’s not that big of a deal to you. Look, every word of God is pure. Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word. We need an “every word Bible”. Look, either he said strait is the gate and narrow are the way or he said that difficult is the way and hard is the way. But he didn’t say both. Somebody’s lying here. Either the King James is true and these modern Bible versions are lying or these modern versions are true and the King James is lying. Let’s look at John 3:36. Here’s what the King James. “36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”. Now, does that make sense? I mean he says if you believe you have everlasting life and if you do the opposite of believing it says you do not have everlasting life. “He that believeth not the son shall not see life”. That makes logical sense. He’s saying if you believe you’ll be saved but if you don’t believe you’re not going to see life but the wrath of God abideth on you.
What does the English Standard Version say? John 3:36 “36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;”. Right now it’s pretty good. I mean pretty similar to the King James. But notice what the ESV says the rest of the verse “whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”. Now are those two things the same thing? One says if you believe you’re saved and if you don’t believe you’re not saved. The other one says if you believe you’re saved and if you don’t obey, you’re going to go to hell. Now look, why would it say that? Well again, if a preacher wants to get up and say “Hey you better obey. You better do what the Bible says. You better keep the commandments.”. Do you see how it’s messing with the doctrine of salvation? It’s teaching a works salvation. It says that you have to obey in order to be saved.
What about the New American Standard Version? Let’s see what that one says. “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not [a]obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”. I think it should be becoming pretty clear. It’s not a different translation of the same Bible. These are two different Bibles. In one of them Jesus was God and the other one Jesus is a simple human like you and I. In one of them narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few find it. But in the other versions, it’s difficult. Why is it difficult according to other versions? Well, because you got to obey apparently. The King James says believe and you’ll be saved. “He that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him”. These modern Bible perversions say “Hey, whoever does not obey the Son, will not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him”. Look, these Bible versions are not saying the same thing.
You might walk out of here and say “That guy’s crazy. He’s a cult leader. I can’t believe he attacked other Bibles”. You can walk out of here and say whatever you want but you can’t walk out of here saying that those Bibles are saying the same thing because they’re not. Things that are different are not the same. So, which was lying? The one that affirms the deity of Christ or the one that makes Jesus a human? The one that keeps salvation as believing and not believing or the one that makes it difficult, that makes it based on your obedience, that makes it?
How about Acts 8:36. Here we have a story of Philip the Evangelist. We talked about him on Wednesday night. He’s preaching the gospel and I’ll read to you from the King James. Acts 8:36 “36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”. So, the eunuch asked this question. He says hey, there’s some water here. And he has the very specific question. What is hindering me from getting baptized? What is stopping me from getting baptized? Verse 37 “37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”. Now that makes perfect sense. Verse 36 asked the question of what is stopping him from getting baptized. Verse 37 he says he believes. Verse 38 he gets baptized. I mean that sounds great and makes perfect sense.
What about the New International Version? Acts 8:36 “36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [c] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.”. There is no verse 37 at all. It’s just gone. The numbers go from 36 to 38. Now look, isn’t that interesting to you? I mean not only is it not scriptural, it can’t even count. I mean it goes from verse 36 to verse 38 and just removes verse 37. They don’t even change the numbers to cover it up. They’re so lazy they just remove the verse and hope you won’t notice. And you know they put it in a paragraph form so that the verses start in the middle. So, they hope you don’t notice literally. They removed the entire verse. It just goes verse 36 and then verse 38. Maybe that’s a misprint. Ok, what about the English Standard Version?
“36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”[a] 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.”. The ESV removes verse 37 also. In the King James, you have verse 36 asking what is stopping him from getting baptized. Verse 37 says if you believe. Verse 38, they go down into the water and he baptized him. But the NIV says in verse 36 what does he have to do to be baptized and apparently nothing because in verse 38 he’s getting baptized. The ESV says what’s preventing me from getting baptized and apparently nothing. They just removed verse 37. And in verse 38, they’re getting baptized. Now notice, they removed verse 37 that says if thou believest with all
thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Why would they remove that verse? It makes you kind of think that someone wanted it gone. Look, Catholics would love this Bible. Because if you don’t have to believe to be baptized then you can justify infant baptism. They can use the NIV to justify all sorts of things. Because apparently when somebody asks the question about what they have to be baptized, there’s no requirement. We just baptize you. No, there is a requirement. It says if you believe with thine heart.
By the way, there are 16 entire verses missing out of modern Bible versions. They removed those verses because they didn’t like it. Look, these Bibles are not just a different of the “thees” and the “thous”. It’s not just modernized. No, they corrupt it. They change it. They mess with the doctrine. Look, we could do this all night. I’m not going to do it all night. I’m going to do it enough though to make sure that you don’t walk out of here thinking like “Oh, he just found a few extreme examples.”. I’m going to beat the horse long enough until it’s dead.
In the King James, 1 Corinthians 1:18 “18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;”. Isn’t that true? I mean the unsaved hear the preaching of the cross and they think it’s foolish. But then he says this, “1 Corinthians 1:18 “but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”. Now look, unto us that are saved, the preaching of the cross makes perfect sense because we have the Holy Spirit. We believe it because we love it. What does the New International Version say in 1st Corinthians 1:18? The NIV says “18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”. In the New International Version, read that last part again. “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”. In the King James it says “but unto us which are saved it is the power of God”. Now let me ask you, are those two statements saying the same thing? Unto us which are saved and to us which are being saved are not saying the same thing. Unto us which are saved means it’s done. I am saved. It’s not open for debate. It’s finished. But the NIV turn salvation into a process. Look, you’re not in the process of being saved. You’re either saved or you’re not. You’re either a believer or not.
Look, a person gets born in a moment. The labor might have taken a long time but you were born in a moment. You came out and you were born. There was a moment in time when you were born. With salvation, there was a moment in time when you believe and you got saved. No one’s being saved. But according to the NIV, you’re being saved because it’s difficult. Do you understand how it’s changed the doctrine of salvation? It’s attacked the deity of Christ. How about other modern versions?
The ESV, what does that say in 1 Corinthians 1:18? “18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”. What about the New American Standard Bible? It says “18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who [u]are perishing, but to us who [v]are being saved it is the power of God. “. What about the New King James? “18 For the [g]message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. “. What a surprise. All of these versions are saying that you’re “being saved”. In the King James, you are saved. “unto us which are saved”. You say, “Well what’s the big deal? They only changed it a little.”. It changes the entire meaning. We’re not being saved. We are saved. This is not a process. Salvation is not hard or difficult. It says “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. So simple that a child could do it.
Let me just say this in case you are thinking “Well, the King James is the only one that’s different so it must be wrong. How can all of these be wrong and this one right.”. Keep in mind we’re not talking about 5 different Bibles. 4 of these were translated from the same Greek text of Westcott and Hort. The this one was translated from the Textus Receptus. If you go back and find all the ancient Bibles from 1,000 years ago from different languages, I read them all to you, you find all the ancient Bibles in different languages and you find all the English Bibles before the King James all agree with the King James. Why? Because they were all translated from the Textus Receptus and disagree with this garbage. The reason why many of them have these same corruptions is they are translated from the same Greek Minority Text. The 3 to 5% of manuscripts that contradict themselves. We’ve looked at some heavy doctrinal errors. The deity of Christ, that’s important to salvation. Now look at some silly errors in these versions. Let’s take these scholars back to elementary school and teach them that it’s 35, 36, 37, 38.
2 Samuel 21:19 “19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.”. This is after David has already killed Goliath. The famous story of David and Goliath. Remember that story? So, the King James says that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite. Let’s see what the English Standard Version says. “19 And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.[c]”. The King James says that Elhanan slew the brother of goliath. That makes sense. David killed Goliath in the ESV. And the English Standard Version is one of the most popular versions today in the United States of America. You go to any of these community churches and they have a rock concert and they’re going to be preaching out of the ESV. So, who killed Goliath? David or Elhanan. That is a contradiction in the English Standard Versions. Now, it’s not a contradiction in the King James Bible. Because in the King James it tells us that Elhanan slew the brother of Goliath. But these so-called scholars don’t know that David is the one who killed Goliath. They’re telling you Elhanan struck down Goliath.
You say maybe that was just a mess up. How about the New American Standard? “19 And there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite [o]killed [p]Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.”. Look, do you want to trust the Bible that doesn’t even know who killed Goliath? Do you want to trust the Bible that can’t even count 35, 36, 38. Do you want to trust the Bible that says salvation is difficult, that you have to believe and obey, that you’re being saved? I mean these are major issues in these modern Bible perversions. I think it should be pretty clear which one’s the actual Word of God. It should be clear which one is the Cubic Zirconium and which one is the real thing. Let me show you one last thing, one last comparison and we’ll finish up.
Go to Isaiah 14:12. This is famous verse, a very interesting verse for two reasons. It’s the only verse in the entire Bible that gives us the name of Satan. Satan is a title, the Devil is a title. All of those are titles. But he actually had a name when he was created. Isaiah 14:12 says “12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,”. So, we’re told the name of Satan is Lucifer. And then we’re also told his title that he had in heaven “son of the morning”. In the King James Bible it says “O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”.
Let’s look at this verse in the modern versions. Let’s start with the New International Version. The NIV reads in Isaiah 14:12 “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!”. I want you to notice a couple things. Number one, Lucifer is gone. Look, this ought to tell you who’s behind these modern versions. Who would benefit from removing his name from that verse? First of all they just removed the name Lucifer. But then they also changed the title. Because in the King James, he is called Lucifer son of the morning. In the New International Version, Lucifer is gone and he’s just called the morning star. You say “Well what’s the big deal? That kind of sounds the same. Son of the morning or morning star”.
Here’s the big deal. Go to Revelation 22:16. “16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”. Did you know that Jesus called himself the morning star? That’s a title of Jesus. He says “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And in the King James in Isaiah 14:12, we’re told “12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning”. Son of the morning is different than morning star. In the NIV, the name Lucifer is removed. And we get the title of Jesus, morning star. I mean do you understand what Satan is doing here? First, he removes his own name and then he gives himself the title of Jesus. And by the way, in the NIV, in Revelation 22:16 it calls Jesus the morning star. So, here we have Lucifer given the title of Jesus. He’s called the morning star. But the King James calls Lucifer the son of the morning. And the morning star title is given to Jesus Christ. Look, this is just blaspheming the name of Christ by giving the title of Jesus to Satan.
What about the other versions? Let’s see what the English Standard Version says. Isaiah 14:12 ““How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!”. Go to 2nd Peter 1:19. And you say “Oh well that one’s better. That one didn’t say morning star.”. What I’m about to show you, there’s no way this is a coincidence in the King James Bible. Jesus has been given the title of a morning star in the King James Bible. In the Book of Isaiah we have Lucifer called the son of the morning. In the NIV the name Lucifer is removed and he’s given the title morning star. In the ESV the name Lucifer is removed and Jesus is given this title “day star”. Here’s a problem. Day Star is a title of Jesus also. 2nd Peter 1:19. “19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”. The King James calls Jesus a day star. The ESV decides to give that title to Satan. The King James called Jesus a morning star. The NIV decides to give that title to Satan. Is this a coincidence or is there an agenda? You have to be blind to not realize.
These modern versions have Satan behind them. In 2 different Bibles, Lucifer is removed and he gives himself 2 different titles that belong to Jesus. The morning star and the day star. And by the way, Jesus is given those titles because those are all a reference to the sun. And it’s a reference to the resurrection of Christ. Just like the Sun went down and it came up again, Jesus was buried and he rose up again. And then Lucifer gives himself that title. How about the New American Standard Version? What does that one say? “How you have fallen from heaven, You [g]star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who defeated the nations!”. They change the morning star to star of the morning. And here’s all I’m telling you, this is blasphemy. And you can look at the NIV and say “Well maybe they kind of sounded similar. When you get to the ESV, they do the exact same thing.”. They’re just trying to poke at Jesus. They’re just trying to blaspheme Jesus any way they possibly can.
Look, we could send all night just looking at example after example but we’re not going to do that. We’ve looked at several examples. I think it should be pretty clear. The King James Bible is the inspired, preserved, infallible, inerrant Word of God. And you say well what about the NIV? What about the NIV attacking the deity of Christ and giving Lucifer the titles of Christ, making salvation difficult, making salvation obeying the Son.
We’re going to look at a couple of things and we’re going to finish up. 2 Peter 1:19, we’re going to finish right here. This is the last sermon about the King James Bible. Next week we’re going to continue our doctrinal series but we’re going to get into something completely different from the Bible versions. I just want to end with these verses. It’s funny to me how they took the Daystar out of the verse. They corrupt the Word of God and they took a phrase out of a verse that’s about the Word of God. 2nd Peter 1:19 “19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy;”. You can leave here tonight looking at your King James Bible just confidently and knowing that we really do have a more sure word of prophecy. I mean which one is sure? It’s this one. There are no mistakes in it, no errors, no contradictions. “19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”.
And let me just go ahead and quickly explain that verse. Because sometimes you read those verses and people don’t understand it. Let me explain what the Bible is talking about here. In Romans we’re told that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. What the Bible teaches is that the way that we are able to grow our faith is that when we spend time hearing the Word of God, then we can receive faith from the Word of God. This is why we teach our soul winners to make sure they’re not just giving little illustrations and examples. I’m all for illustrations. I’m all for examples. But you better be preaching the Word of God to them. Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and that’s what this verse is saying. It’s saying look, “19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,”. Here’s what the word of prophecy is going to be. It’s going to be like a light that shines in a dark place and until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. Faith is going to arise in your heart. Jesus is going to rise in your heart and you’ll be able to be saved because faith comes by hearing. That’s what the verse is talking about.
Verse 20 “20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”. Our King James Bible clearly is the more sure word of prophecy. When you compare the source text of 5,309 manuscripts, 95 to 97% of them agree with each other. They’re the majority text. They were compiled into the Textus Receptus. Every ancient Bible was translated from that Greek text. Every English Bible from Erasmus to the King James to the early 1800s, they were translated from that Textus Receptus, received text. The Westcott and Hort minority with 3 to 5% of manuscripts that contradict each other 3,000 times in the gospels alone. We saw that it contradicts itself. It has errors. It becomes clear just looking at it, logically it becomes clear which one is correct. Do you think we went thousands of years without the Word of God to the 1800s and Westcott and Hort came and gave us the Bible? You think God’s word was just hidden in a monastery? That’s ridiculous. Just looking at that should tell you which one is true.
And just in case that doesn’t convince you or you’re like “I don’t know what that means”. Okay, well look, you should be able to just look at 2 verses side by side and realize “Wow, these are not saying the same thing”. One is attacking the Word of God and the other one is affirming the deity of Christ. One is affirming salvation by grace through faith not of works. The other one is making it difficult and hard. One is giving the titles of Jesus to Satan and one is honoring Jesus. It should be clear that we have a more sure word. And you know what, I hope this motivates you to get up tomorrow morning and read this Bible and open it up and realize “Wow, I literally have the words of God in my hands. I can trust him. I can rely on him. I can put my faith in it. God wants to guide me with this. I don’t have to worry about if it’s true. I don’t have to worry if the translators messed it up is. This is what God intended for you and for me. This is the more sure word of prophecy.”.
Let’s pray.