A pastor from Florida recalled that I wrote an article about “Why I Am KJV Only” and he mentioned that on Facebook. I was surprised anyone read that and found it interesting that he would bring it up. Here is my reply:
Yes, I did write an article like that based on a sermon I preached, and shared articles from others at one time. In fact, in my younger days I was more zealous for the KJV than I was for Christ. I remember shaming other Christians for not using a “real Bible” when they didn’t have the same three letters on the front cover. I remember one year in particular spending more time reading Gail Riplinger and others like her than I did anything else. But I have since repented of that evil because it was in my own arrogance. No doubt I ran people off from the places I preached when they should have had liberty to use whatever good translation they wanted. In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul met people where they were. I believe we can too. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the King James Version but I am not King James Only, and I do not believe this was the Baptist position historically. I don’t believe it was intended that we use it to divide the saints of God. It is a good translation, but it was never intended to be the only, or the final translation. For one, there are places where the translators could have done a better job. Even the brethren whose quotes I gathered from past issues of the Baptist Examiner admitted that. Furthermore, English has changed over the years. And it is continuing to change. Case in point: We just had our Bible Conference. Our theme was “The Greatest of these is Love.” All the preachers used the King James, but why didn’t I advertise it as “The Greatest of these is Charity”? The reason is because when we posted that in the community, there would have been confusion, and false expectations as people came looking for a handout. Nobody uses charity for love in English anymore and hasn’t for a very long time. To borrow something I learned from Brother Mark Ward, “without good translation, there can be no edification.” Taking the principle from 1 Corinthians 14:8-12; 23-25, we ought to desire that there be understandable speech for the believer and the unbeliever too…even and especially when we read from the Bible.
