How extreme is the "king james only" Movement?
The so-called “King James Only” movement has some extremes that range from the dangerous to the blasphemous.
A KJV extremist has tasked himself and his committee with translating the KJV into Russian, without reference to the Hebrew and Greek texts from which the Bible originated.
So now, we’ll take an English Bible that was translated from a Greek text, and we’ll translate the Englishnot the original Greek, into other languages!
Too far, friends, too far. Let the scholars of the nations translate directly from the Greek manuscripts, without the “benefit” of the KJV errors… that aboundalthough they are minor and do not affect one’s salvation or growth.
Another extreme of KJV soloism is outright hatred of those other Bibles. and its readers.
Hating and burning non-KJV Bibles is all the rage in some places. Jonathan Shelley of Stedfast Baptist Church is recorded to have preached a sermon called “People I Hate”.
Says Jonathan: “Doesn’t your Bible have you and a thousand? Burn it! It’s Biblical BBQ.”
Burn a Bible? Why would no Christian do that, you say. Not in enlightened Western civilization. Only Muslims or Hindus, or Nazis, or Antifa, or…
No no. Not only in other lands. Not just in our Portland, Oregon.
This Shepherd Shelley has a annual burning of the Bible in his church, now called “Pure Words” Baptist Church. Yes, he invites everyone via internet video to gather all the fake Bibles and bring them to church on a certain Sunday. He will teach the “truth” about all of these Bibles, then the delighted people will sit back and watch God’s Word go up in flames as they sit and eat s’mores around the campfire provided by the Bible.
I’m not sure how many other churches condone such a practice. I’m not sure if there are others who can even do it themselves. But my heart is torn by the anguish of someone who calls himself a man of God who would dare such a despicable act.
This is exactly what happened with the Bibles of the Middle Ages, when Rome ruled over the hearts of men. What reigns over the hearts of these Independent Fundamentalist Baptists, I wonder? Fear? Tradition? Hate?
False teaching, sure. May God have mercy on “Pastor” Shelley on that Day, and on all who desecrate the Scriptures.
The KJV movement was not always based on “-only”. Large independent Baptists outlined the idea in the early years. Consider John R. Rice, no light fundamentalists:
Rice believed that “the various translations contain, together, the eternal and immutable Word of God…A perfect translation of the Bible is humanly impossible…there are no perfect translations. God does not inspire particular translations” (Our book inspired by God: the Bible1969, 376).
There were others.
Then Ruckman came. Peter Ruckman’s extreme teaching that the King James was not only an inspired translation, but also God’s translation. newly inspired word that could be used to correct the Greek text itself (!) was part of a package of bizarre views that catapulted the KJVO movement into unnecessary division and separation. The Cult had arrived.
Men like Ruckman and Jack Hyles were concerned with the idea that evangelicals still hold, that “only the autographs,” that is, the original writings of Scripture, are inspired.
In response to that, before I continue, I should add that if the doctrine of “original autographs are inspired” is not true, then all people from the second century to 1611 I didn’t have a Bible.
Hyles and company would have us believe that no true translation of the Bible existed from the days of the apostles to the days of the KJV translators. Why those poor 1,500 year old impoverished saints!
Even the Reformers and the English with their Coverdale and Genevan and Bishops Bibles were all hopelessly lost, reading a Bible that was the enemy of their soul and worthy of burning.
Ruckman, Hyles, Jack Chick (and his heir), are some of the few voices that have spawned a multitude of falsehoods and caused brother to take on brother needlessly. Let his tribe dwindle.
And how widespread is the KJVO phenomenon? There are nearly 7,000 congregations worldwide that are listed as “Independent Fundamentalist Baptist KJV” churches. More than 5,000 are in the United States.
But this “doctrine” is not limited to IFB people. Members of other brands of Baptist fellowships, along with older Pentecostal groups, Mormons, Episcopalians (because they are derived from the Church of England/Anglican), Presbyterian churches, Bible churches, and others scattered throughout Christendom , they will proudly display their KJV on your face and damn you if you can’t match their gesture.
We must repeat that not everyone who loves the KJV is only KJV, to whom this treatise is addressed. But there are too many…