I’m going to talk to you about Why I Believe the King James Bible is the Word of God. If you don’t believe that or don’t know why or wonder why, you’ll be very much upset before I get through, because in order to magnify the word of God, you have to put a lot of things down to their proper level. When you take all these false gods in the body of Christ and put them down to their proper level, you always get into trouble with somebody. So we’ll just go ahead and get into trouble.
The Psalmist says: “Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever” (Ps. 119:160). I believe that. I believe the word of God is true from the beginning (Gen. 1), and every one of God’s righteous judgements endures forever.
When you get to Jeremiah 23:36, you read, “For ye have perverted the words of the living God.” That’s a charge brought against somebody who perverted the words of the living God. So, the living God gave some living words; as Christ said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Someone took those living words from the living God and perverted those words.
Folks say about this subject, “Well, I believe it is a hobby horse.” No, there’s no “hobby horse” about what I’m going to talk about. The subject of final authority is a crucial subject—absolutely crucial to anything going on in America or the world today. If there’s one issue that’s important anywhere in the world today, it’s the issue of final authority—absolute truth.
We’re talking about a timeless subject, a subject that’s more important than almost any other subject in this world. There are only two religions besides Christianity that believe a book is the final authority. The Roman Catholic’s final authority is the Pope and the church and the Bible and anything else he wants to make up to get himself through. But the Jew professes to be in subjection to a book—the Old Testament. A Mohammedan professes to be in subjection to the Koran. So the Christians, the Jews, and the Mohammedans are the only people that profess to be in subjection to a final authority that is a written, printed authority that a man can get his hands on. A child of God professes to be in subjection to the Old Testament AND the New Testament. And Jeremiah said somebody took those words in that book and perverted them.
The first thing I want to say is this: I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because it’s the only book I have in my library that doesn’t have a copyright. You ask, “What about the ‘Crown Copyright’ back in 1611?” I’m not talking about 1611; I’m talking about right now. Folks are always hung-up on the originals, but I never worry about the original King James 1611. I worry about the one I’ve got in my hand. Have you got a Bible in your hand right now? If you have a plain King James Bible, you have a Book with no copyright on it. If you have some notes in your Bible, it may have a copyright. If you have a Scofield Bible, then there is a copyright connected with it, or if you have a Bible that has in it some maps, an index, and references, you may have a copyright on it. But anybody, anywhere in the world, can go down to the dime store and get a plain King James Bible with no notes, no references, no maps, no gazetteer, and no concordance, and there’s no copyright in it. That’s unexplainable.
How do you explain a book sitting here that has no copy-right on it, when there are fifteen million books in the Library of Congress, and every one of them printed in this century has a copyright on it? That’s a mess of books, man! And one of them doesn’t have a copyright. How do you explain that? New “Bibles’’ come out, a printer prints them, and there is a copyright on them. A fellow said, “Oh, well, that thing is just to guarantee that no one misrepresents it.” I don’t believe that. Copyrights are for making money. Copyrights are so that people have to write and ask, “Can I print that?” Yes, you can—for a tidy sum. I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because it has no copyright on it. It may have the Crown Copyright, but you don’t have to ask the Crown for the right to print it. In Ecclesiastes 8:4 it says, “Where the word of a king is, there is power.” If it had a Crown copyright, it was copyrighted under a king. If it was copyrighted under a king, it has the right copyright.
I don’t have any faith at all in these Bibles translated in America (RSVs, ASVs, New ASVs, Weymouth, Moffat, Living Bible, Goodspeed, and all that junk). You ask, “Why not?” They’re not translated under a king. The Bible says, “Where the word of A KING is, there is power.” Somebody asks, “What’s so good about the English? Why do they have a corner on the market?’’ They have a corner on the market because that’s the way God worked it out. What time is it right now? It’s 6:39. Some people’s watches may have 6:40, and some people’s watches may have 6:38. Well, “they’re all reliable; they’re all good,” that’s how people are. But there’s only one correct time on the face of this earth: English time. If you’ve got English time, you’ve got the right time, and if you haven’t got English time, you’ve got the wrong time. All time on this earth is settled by Greenwich, England; the zero line runs right down it.
I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because of the time in which it first appeared on the scene of this world. When the King James Bible first showed up in history, there were a number of things that weren’t around that are around today. When those King James translators sat down to translate that Book, French atheism was not in vogue; German Rationalism was not in vogue; English Deism was not in vogue. All the objections to the word of God came up AFTER the King James Bible came out. The French Revolution hadn’t taken place yet. The German Rationalists hadn’t taken over yet. They were still going by Martin Luther’s Heilige Schrift. The English Deists, Lord Hubert, Holmes, Hobbes, and that bunch, hadn’t showed up yet. The King James was translated at a time in history when God the Holy Spirit could work and get some men to produce a work that they believed in, because all that stuff wasn’t going on.
When these new bibles are printed (ASV, RSV, New ASV), the fellows who are on those committees are literally INFECTED and DISEASED with infidelity!
Jack Hyles preached once up at Jerry Falwell’s school, and when he got through preaching up there, they talked about it back in the classroom. One student said to his teacher, “Brother Hyles implied that the King James Bible was inspired,” and the teacher said, “You know what the Bible says, ‘He knew not whereof he spoke.’” Then he told that young man in the class, “After all, here’s a contradiction: it says here that Jehoiakim was eight years old when he began to reign. There’s a contradiction right there.” There’s a fellow in the classroom in a fundamental school creating an infidel in the classroom. You say, “Where’s that?’’ Liberty University, that advertises the greatest Bible Institute course in the world and says their Bible Institute course is absolutely unequalled when it comes to learning the word of God! To sit there in the classroom and tell the kid that there is a contradiction: that isn’t creating a Bible believer; that’s creating infidels.
I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because of the promise God made of preserving His word. He said, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever” (Psalm 12:6-7). God Almighty said He’d preserve that Book, and He’d preserve that Book forever. I don’t think a bunch of infidels are going to take it away from me. If I want to find it, there must be someplace that I can find it.
The fellows at Bob Jones University say, “God Almighty couldn’t inspire a translation.” I’ve never said that the King James Bible was inspired, although I’ve broadly intimated it sometimes. At Bob Jones they say, “Why, Ruckman teaches the heresy of double inspiration. A translation can’t be inspired.” Why, in the New Testament there are more than forty quotations from the Old Testament. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew; the New Testament was written in Greek. When Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James, Jude, and Paul sat down to write and quoted the Old Testament, they had to translate from Hebrew to Greek and write down the translation. When Matthew said, “It might be fulfilled which was spoken” (Matt. 2:15), he’s quoting Hebrew, and he’s writing the Hebrew down in Greek. If no translation is inspired, then the original of Matthew wasn’t inspired because what he wrote down was a translation of Hebrew.
Matthew said, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel” (Matt. 1:22-23). He’s quoting Isaiah. What’s Isaiah written in? Hebrew. What’s Matthew written in? Greek. He’s translating. If you can’t inspire a translation, you can’t even count on the New Testament in Greek because it’s a translation from the Old Testament in Hebrew.
I believe the Bible is the word of God because of it’s promise of preservation. The scholars tell me that I can’t get ahold of the word of God. They tell me I can’t get ahold of the words of God. If I can’t get ahold of the word and the words of God, I’m sure in one flat-footed mess, aren’t I? Christ said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23). Do you love him? How do you keep His words if you don’t have them? Christ said, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). How do you get a prayer promise if you don’t keep His words? Christ said, “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God” (John 8:47). How do you hear them, if you don’t have them? The Bible says to the preacher, “Preach the word” (2 Tim. 4:2). What? Preach something you don’t have? The Lord said preach the word, and if you’re of God you’ll listen to it. And then He lost it? Rather careless, don’t you think, for God to verbally inspire this Book and then forget the thing and lose it? It’s a good thing He doesn’t treat your salvation like that, isn’t it? Did He give you the new birth? Are you still born again? How do you know? Maybe it got lost somewhere; who knows? If God can preserve you, then He can preserve what He wrote.
I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because of the instruments of its preservation. You ask, “Who’s that? That silly vassal, King James?’’ King James may have been “God’s silly vassal,” but he had better sense than to have somebody bow down and call him “Holy Father;” and that’s more than you can say for some pot-bellied liquorheads. Maybe he fell off horseback and played tennis on Sunday, but at least he didn’t have somebody call him the Vicar of Christ. You’ve got to admit he had more sense than that.
The translators might have been silly vassals, but at least they used the right manuscripts. When they saw a bunch of manuscripts that had the Apocrypha in the Old Testament, they said, “That’s wrong: put it between the Testaments. They are not supposed to be part of the Old Testament.” They had more sense than the faculty at Bob Jones, who recommend the Westcott and Hort Greek text in their literature. The Westcott and Hort Greek text is Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, and Sinaiticus and Vaticanus have the Apocrypha as part of the Old Testament. Somebody said, “I just don’t like the way they bragged about King James and that Bible.” Why not? Doesn’t that Bible tell you to be in subjection to the powers that be? Doesn’t the Bible say that the powers that be are ordained of God (Rom. 13:1)? Little articles written by Moody magazine, Faith Magazine, and The Fundamentalist Journal say that the King James translators boot-licked King James and made a fuss over him when he was such a sorry character. They say the translators were afraid of him and buttered him up and called him all these high and mighty titles. Well, that Bible says, “Fear God. Honour the king” (1 Pet. 2:17). When Peter said that, he was talking about Nero, a half-mad murderer! There’s nothing wrong when the King James translators honor their king; they’re obeying God because the powers that be are ordained of God.
I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because of the honesty of its preservation. When the King James translators came to a word that wasn’t in Greek or Hebrew and they had to add an English word to make sense, they put it in italics. Somebody says, “What do you think about the italics in the King James Bible?” The italics in the King James Bible are marks that the man who did the translating was an honest man. When he knew he had to add something to make sense, he put it in italics so you could know it wasn’t in the Hebrew or the Greek. That means it’s an honest translation, and the bibles that don’t have italics in them are from fellows who have added to the word of God without letting you know where. The King James Bible is an honest translation.
Sometimes you have to add words—anybody knows that. You can pick up ANY Bible on this earth and look through it, and you’ll find places where if you didn’t add a word it wouldn’t make any sense at all. The idioms change in translation. You ask, “Do you believe God led them and guided them in that?’’ Yes, I sure do. As a matter of fact, I know He did. You ask. “How do you know that?’’ Read 1 John 2:23, “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: [but] he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” Notice that half the verse is in italics. When the King James translators came to that verse, they couldn’t find half the verse in the Greek manuscripts, but they said, “It seems like it belongs there,” so they wrote it in italics. Do you know what happened two hundred years afterwards? Greek manuscripts were found that had the half of the verse that was put in italics. You had better watch that Book!
I believe that Bible is the word of God because of the dis-honesty of its critics. I’ve made a life-long habit of studying its critics, which has probably soured my preaching a good bit. I would probably be more practical and spiritual in my preaching if I hadn’t spent so much time studying these fellows. When you study them, you get a burr under your saddle that makes the horse buck. One reason I believe the King James Bible is the word of God is the pride and inconsistency of its critics. In studying the Mafia, the Cosa Nostra, and the Syndicate, I have never in my life studied a more crooked bunch of dishonest, unethical people than the people who put out and recommend new translations. They’re the biggest crooks on the face of this earth.
I believe the King James Bible is the word of God, if for no other reason than the pride and inconsistency of its critics. You can tell as much by its enemies as you can by its friends. If I want to find out what a fellow is like, I find out who his friends are; then I find out who his enemies are. When I know the man’s friends and I know his enemies, I know the man. A man that doesn’t have any enemies is not a man. You ought to have friends, and you ought to have enemies. People ought to be able to tell you by your friends, and people ought to be able to tell you by your enemies.
There is a bridge that goes to absolute truth. Christ says, “Thy word is truth.” (John 17:17). Not A truth, not TRUTHS; but “Thy word is truth.” But you have to cross the bridge, and if you don’t go over the bridge, you break your neck and fall down in the gully. This bridge is being condemned; people don’t want you walking over this bridge, but that’s the way.
I have ads piled up from the Sword of the Lord: “Learn the original Greek text… See what the Original Greek text says”! There isn’t a man on this earth that ever saw the original Greek text. And if you saw the original Greek text, you couldn’t tell what it said anyway. If you can’t get it in your own language, how are you going to get it in Greek? Tell me what this means, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:13). That’s in your language. Do you believe that? Can you explain it? Do you still sin? Why do you sin if you can do all things through Christ? Do you think the Greek can help you out?
There are verses in there you’ll never understand until you live through them, and no amount of education in Greek can tell you anything. Many Christians are out of money and about to declare bankruptcy, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). You think the Greek will help? I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because of the pride and inconsistency of its critics.
Richard Taylor was the name of a fellow who got saved at Brent Baptist Church and got called to preach. We sent him off to Bob Jones University; in those days, we didn’t have a Bible Institute, and if a young fellow got called to preach, I would just send him off to Bob Jones or Tennessee Temple. When they all came back infidels, the Lord got me in a corner one day and said, “Aren’t you kind of stupid?” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Every time I call a young man to preach under you, you send him off to school, and he comes back denying the word of God.” We sent Rick Taylor off to Bob Jones, and he became a professor at Bob Jones. One day he came back to Pensacola, and he went down to the street corner on a Saturday afternoon and saw some of our men preaching down there, and it got him all shook up because he hadn’t been preaching on the street. He’d quit. He wasn’t winning souls; he’d quit. He came alongside one of our young men and said, “You’re a Ruckmanite.” Our young man said, “What’s a Ruckmanite?” He said, “You believe the King James Bible is the word of God.” And he said, “I sure do!” Taylor said, “That isn’t all, you don’t believe it has any mistakes in it.” The kid said, “That’s right, I don’t.” And he said, “Ruckman taught you that. You’re following a man.” This kid said to him, “You believe it does have mistakes?” Rick Taylor said, “Yes, I do.” And he said, “What man are you following? Who taught you that?” I know who taught him that. The faculty at Bob Jones taught him that.
Many a young man who believes the King James Bible is the word of God has almost been talked out of his belief in it, caused to backslide. What do you want me to do, talk nice about the fellows that did it? Tell you that I’m given to overstatement when I say they’re as bad as the Mafia and the Syndicate? They’re worse. The crooks rob you of your money and your life, but they wouldn’t take your Lord from you or your Book or your testimony. They wouldn’t take your conscience from you or wreck you spiritually for fifty years. If I didn’t have a burden for young men, I wouldn’t care, but I’m concerned about young men. You ask, “Why?” I sent enough to hell before I was saved; so I’m not going to stand around and see someone else do it if I’ve got a claw I can put in. I’m a little fellow, but I’ve got big feet. If I kick, it’ll hurt.
Last but not least, I believe the King James Bible is the word of God because of the preeminent place it gives the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve had plenty of time to study all kinds of translations, and I never saw a new translation of any kind that didn’t attack the deity of Jesus Christ somewhere. The ASV attacks the deity of Christ in Luke 2:33, 1 Timothy 3:16, and Acts 4:27. So do the New ASV, the RSV, and the New RSV. You ask, ‘“What about the New King James Bible?” The New King James Bible attacks the deity of Christ in Acts 4:27. It says that Jesus Christ was not God’s “child;” He was just God’s “servant.” I don’t believe that. I believe he was God’s child.
The bridge to absolute truth is a condemned bridge. Do you know who condemns it? It’s condemned by atheists and Catholics. Birds of a feather flock together. It’s condemned by Fundamentalists. That’s why they wanted a new translation. It’s condemned by agnostics and Communists. As a matter of fact, it’s condemned by just about everybody, but I find if you open that old Book and pray over that old Book, you get the answer you’re looking for. It’s the bridge to absolute truth!
Billy Graham, in 1949, at the end of his rope, in little old Trinity College down there in south Florida. After the professors tried to talk him out of the word of God, he went out into the bushes, knelt down, and prayed over his Bible and said, “Father, I cannot understand many things about this Book. I cannot come intellectually all the way, but I accept it by FAITH to be the AUTHORITATIVE, INSPIRED WORD of the Living God.” He had a King James Bible open there, kneeling with it. What happened to Billy? Somebody must have talked him out of it.
The King James Bible is the word of God, and those are the words of God. You say, “What am I to do with them?” You’re to read them; you’re to believe them; you’re to love them; you’re to put them in practice. Someday, if we have to die for what God said, we won’t be the first ones. There’s a long army ahead of us who died for it. If you have to die by it, die by it.
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Ecclesiastes 8:4 King James Version
Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?
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Hope this may be a blessing to the readers.
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