Madisonville Church of Christ

 by Russell M. Kline

 

In 1992, when I began preaching for the Chandlersville Church of Christ, in Chandlersville, Ohio, I found that the congregation there was awash in modern versions of the Bible. Many of the men who had preached there previously used different versions of the Scriptures, and most of the members carried different translations, from the New International Version to the New American Standard Bible to Today's English Version. I decided that the best way to approach the problem was not to make a "big deal" out of it, but simply to do all of my preaching and teaching from the King James Version, without even mentioning other versions of the Bible. It was not long before people began to notice the difference between the readings in the KJV and those in their own Bibles. This led to some discussions in our Bible classes about the differences, and I knew I was finally getting through to the people there when I began to receive calls from members who were thinking about buying new Bibles, asking me which version I would recommend. If I accomplished nothing else in the three years I spent in Chandlersville, I think I was able to help people understand some of the dangers of modern translations of the Bible.

 

Even here in Madisonville, I still get questions from people about which Bible I would recommend. Of course, everyone here knows that I will always recommend the KJV as the best and most reliable translation of the Word of God into the English language, but some folks want to know which publishers and which study Bibles I think are the best. I had never really thought about writing an article on the subject, until I saw an item in the weekly bulletin of the Family of God at Woodmont Hills, in Nashville, Tennessee (Vol. 30 / No. 46; November 17, 2004). It was an article written by Rubel Shelly, which was titled, "'Tis the Bible-Buying Season." What moved me to write were some statements made by Mr. Shelly about the KJV and some modern versions of the Bible, which I found to be entirely inaccurate.

 

Concerning the KJV, he wrote: "If you are buying for a young person, you likely should stay away from older versions such as the King James (KJV) and American Standard (ASV) Versions. They aren't very readable and simply don't communicate the Word of God clearly to this generation." While I have known and read the works of many critics of the KJV, who have become increasingly vocal in recent years, I was shocked to read this assessment, which was written by a man who purports himself to be a Christian and a Bible scholar. I have been studying and preaching from the KJV for almost two decades, and I have never found it to be unreadable, or ineffective in communicating the Word of God clearly to this generation. As a matter of fact, I have personally witnessed many young people using the KJV to achieve great spiritual achievements. The KJV has communicated the Word of God effectively to generation after generation of English-speaking people for almost 400 years! It remains the most reliable and accurate translation of the Bible into English, on the market, today.

 

People like Mr. Shelly criticize the age and reliability of the KJV because they cannot impeach its accuracy. More than once in his article, Mr. Shelly wrote, "There is no perfect translation." While I would not assume the position that the KJV is free from errors in translation, I would argue that it is free from fatal errors in translation (for example: while the use of the word "Easter," in Acts 12:4 is not literally accurate, it does not harm the meaning of the text, or<