Credulity is one’s foible. Be ye wary of adulation and cajolery, in a world wherewith sycophants abound. This is an attempt at mimicking the KJV structure. It is a general statement not directed to anyone in particular.
Imagine those who speak English as their second language who may not know 20% of the words within the sentence. Since we have Google at our fingertips, people just cut and paste the word and voilà! We get an answer without having to flip pages on a dictionary. Imagine having to do that every single time one is reading the KJV Bible. A person’s time is divided from having to learn some archaic vocabulary and expressions rather than understand the message plainly. I do not doubt some can understand the KJV language style and expression entirely, but if we are truly honest with ourselves, it is the very structure and archaic vocabulary that prevent some from reading and understanding God’s Word especially if that is the only translation they have in their possession.
Someone dear to me gave me 2 Corinthians 6:12 as an example. Apart from being excited to read God’s Word, that person dreaded to read besides wanting to fall asleep (true story). For this reason, he is no longer a KJV only reader. He prayed to the Lord, did extensive research regarding the movement and found joy in reading from God’s Word in a structure he could fully understand.
“Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.”
If you are not well versed with Old/Middle English, you look at the word “bowels” and immediately, you’re thinking bowel movement. Now, compare it to the clarity that the NKJV provides,
“You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”
God knows the end from the beginning and surely, He saw what was going to happen, that His Word was going to be translated translations upon translations in order to reach every man and woman from every nation and tongue.
“yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.”
1 Corinthians 14:19
Coming from a person who speaks English as a secondary language, the King James rendering may as well be in another tongue besides conversational English. This is why God allowed people to translate The Word into modern language, and yes, even the KJV was the modern language during the time of its translation. Otherwise, we would have been left with God’s message in a tongue we could not understand; some Catholics conduct a mass and read something in Latin and some people are saying “Amen” to something they do not understand. That IS a problem. I liken that scenario to some expressions in the KJV and God knows my intent to prefer to read His Word in a format I could easily understand. I do own a KJV Bible and I have no issues with those who prefer to read the King James as long as they don’t impose it on everyone else and question my salvation for reading from the NKJV, which happens to be my main translation. I also read from the NIV.
God has this passage for us to remember in Isaiah 40:8,
“The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.“
Either we believe in God’s sovereignty to preserve His message, or we don’t. If you happen to be a KJV onlyist, I did not write this post to criticize or to argue, but to show that other translations are as accurate and should not be condemned. Doing so is indirectly condemning the KJV which happens to also be a translation.
Great post. Another thing to notice is that the only inspired writers were those who penned the original manuscript. The KJV translators were not inspired since it was copied from the copies of the inspired manuscripts, which by the way goes back to as close as 150 years of its writers. Saying that, if a translation is copied correctly from the Hebrew and Greek text, then that English translation is the inspired Word of God.
I agree, if you try to be a purist you would have to learn Hebrew and Greek. We have many options to read His Word
People are already having problems reading their Bibles consistently so I can imagine it becoming a dreaded thing if they have to do that.