Sermon Tone Analysis

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This coming Sunday, Bro.

Ken Walters, previous pastor of Southside Baptist Church in Rock Hill will be preaching in the morning service.

Our missions revival is coming up beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 23 and going through Sunday, Feb. 27.

Why Do I Personally Use the KJV?

This series of messages is designed to answer the question, “Why do I, personally, only use the KJV and why do I, as pastor, continue to lead SCBC to use only the KJV?”

Point out the stack of books (and other media) that I have collected, read, and studied through the years regarding this issue.

(I have access to other books, on my iPad, via Kindle.)

One of the things that I would encourage anyone to do is this: Do your own studying and research.

I’m mean really dig into this issue for yourself.

In fact, I just ordered two additional books to assist me.

I have purchased the Life and Letters for both Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Hort, the editors of the Critical Text, the foundation of the modern versions.

Their letters have been referenced in other materials that I have come in contact with and I want to see these things with my own eyes.

My personal stated position and the stated position of SCBC is

We believe that God inspired His Word in the original languages.

We believe that God has preserved His Word through the ages so that we can confidently say, “Thus saith the Lord.”

We believe that God has preserved His Word, for English speaking people, in the KJV.

Dr. David Sorenson, in his book, God’s Perfect Book, wrote:

Amongst fundamentalists of this generation, it is the observation of this author that the vast majority use the King James Version...

Those who are the strongest separatists from the world as well as from spiritual compromise use the KJV...

Those who have the greatest fervor in fulfilling the Great Commission, without question, advocate the KJV...

Amongst separatist, biblically-sound, soul-winning, New Testament church pastors, the overwhelming Bible of use, even at this hour, is the King James Version.

We must also remember:

The Devil hates God’s Word!

The Devil knows that he cannot defeat God’s Word.

Therefore...

The Devil seeks to cause people to doubt God’s Word!

I also stated that the real issue is not the translation but rather the underlying text upon which the translation is built.

However, as I have already stated, though, words still do matter.

Allow me to give you another example of what I mean.

Turn to and read John 7:6-10.

Another version - the ESV, the English Standard Version - reads, in vs. 8:

You go up to the feast.

I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”

Then two verses later the ESV reads:

But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.

So what does that make Jesus Christ?

A liar.

While some scholars may say that the various translations do not affect doctrine, I would beg to differ on that point and John chapter 7 contains one such example!

Now allow me to once again introduce you to:

Constantine Von Tischendorf

In a nutshell, Tischendorf was the individual credited with, in 1844, discovering the Codex Sinaiticus in St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mt.

Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula.

Which leads me to the first “reason” I will give to you for why I only use the KJV.

(The KJV does not need, in my opinion, to be defended.

It is the Westcott-Hort Text that you need to try and defend and convince me of.)

Reason 1: Why did Tischendorf go looking to begin with?

Tischendorf was born in German and lived from 1815-1874.

He lived during the time when “Higher Criticism” was gaining popularity among Christians.

(Germany was a “hot bed” for Higher Criticism.)

Higher Critics denied God’s Word and they denied God.

During Tischendorf’s day, the KJV was the accepted version of the Bible for use by English speaking people.

In one place, Tischendorf wrote that his desire to search for and discover early Greek manuscripts of the New Testament was

“..to clear up in this way the history of the sacred text, and to recover if possible the genuine apostolic text which is the foundation of our faith.”

In another place I found this:

“While studying theology at Leipzig, 1834-1838, he was moved by his teacher Johann Winer to take on what in a letter to his fiancee he called a ‘sacred task: the struggle to regain the original form of the New Testament.’”

In other words,

Tischendorf did not believe that he had the Word of God.

You could say, then, that Tischendorf did not believe in God’s miraculous preservation of His Word!

I would argue that Tischendorf did not need to go looking for God’s Word.

God had preserved it so that people, even in the 19th century, far removed from the originals manuscripts could confidently say,

“Thus saith the Lord!”

Reason 2: The Catholic Connection

We will not go deep because I believe that everyone here understands the truth that Catholicism is a false religion.

Many might even call it a cult.

We understand that Catholicism is the “the great whore” of Revelation chapter 17.

While much attention, in our world today, is given to the Muslim religion, we need to always keep in mind that the Church of Rome is what will be used, in the end times, to unite all the religions of the world to follow and support the antichrist.

So, what does all of this have to do with Greek Texts and Bible translations?

William Tyndale, who lived from 1494 to 1536, was the first person to translate the Bible into the English language.

He is quoted as having said to one of his critics:

If God spare my life ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou doest.

In 1536 William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church for his work in translating the Bible in the English language.

English historian John Foxe said he cried out:

"Lord, open the King of England's eyes!"

The Lord answered that prayer for less than 100 years later, the King James Version was given to the English speaking world.

Now compare that to the treatment of Constantine Tischendorf:

In May, 1843, Tischendorf had a private audience with Pope Gregory XVI.

We do not know what transpired at that meeting nor do we know what they talked about or discussed.

However Tischendorf’s meeting with the pope certainly ended much better than William Tyndale’s and, in a sense, both Tyndale and Tischendorf had the same stated desire.

In 1844, Tischendorf “found” the Codex Sinaiticus rescuing 21 1/2 sheets from being burned.

Then, Tischendorf was invited, by the pope, to see the Codex Vaticanus.

Have you heard the old saying, “If you can’t beat ‘em; join ‘em?” Could that be the change of attitude that took place in the intervening time between William Tyndale and Constantine Tischendorf?

I believe so.

Satan’s first strategy had been to kill the Christians and destroy their Bible…Satan’s second strategy was to substitute a fake Bible for the real one.

Jump ahead to the 21st century and the Common English Bible.

Of review of the Common English Bible states:

“The Common English Bible, likely the largest cross-denominational translation project in recent memory, unites Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, United Methodist, and numerous other faith traditions in a joint effort to create a complete but broadly accessible Bible for the 21st century.”

https://www.commonenglishbible.com/explore/our-scholars

“…unites Baptist, Catholic, Evangelical, United Methodist, and numerous other faith traditions!”

God’s Word says:

I’d also like to point out how the Common English Bible begins.

Genesis 1:1 in the Common English Bible states:

When God began to create the heavens and the earth—the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters.

God began to create?

What does that allow for?

That allows for those who seek to make Creation and Evolution compatible.

God created the world but then has continued to use evolution!

I again would argue that doctrine has been affected by the modern translations that have been produced based upon Westcott-Hort’s text of 1881.

There is much, much more.

I will do my best to wrap up this series next week.