Blog on the Lillypad
Thursday, January 01, 2004
 | So what is "KJV-Only?
Without going too deeply into the history of this movement within fundamentalism, "KJV-Only" is a belief that the King James Version of the Bible is the single best (or only acceptable) text to use in the preaching and study of God's Word. There are differentiations within the group: |
1. Some people believe that the KJV, for a variety of reasons, is the most reliable text to use, surpassing the NIV, new KJV, NASB, and others. There's nothing supernatural about the translation; it's just the most careful and painstaking translation, so they rely on it as their primary translation. I use the KJV for hard copy reading, but with the advent of electronic Bibles, I use multiple translations and also look at the Greek and Hebrew and the notes that explain them and show the recurring use of Greek and Hebrew words in the Bible. I like the KJV, but I do bear in mind that the KJV is largely rendered in blank verse and uses a high, formal language of grandeur, whereas most of the original Bible was written simply and directly in trade language versions of the early language. There are books of poetry in the Old Testament. But the "flavor" or "feel" or the original upon contemporary readers of the prophets and apostles is quite different from what we get in the KJV. The original, overall, was a lot more direct, simple, and in the vernacular.
2. Others believe that the KJV comes from what is called the "Received Text," a Greek translation created by Erasmus that (according to adherents to the "Received Text" idea) is the single best Greek text that can be used to create any English translation. The fact that Erasmus admittedly had to go back to the vulgate on some passages and render them in Greek to make a complete Greek text casts a lot of doubt on this view. Latin (especially Jerome's Latin) is a poor receptacle for Greek. Going from original Greek to Jerome's Latin and then to Erasmus's Greek guarantees some degree of imprecision.
| Erasmus himself, though a pioneer in bringing Greek into university studies at the dawn of the English Reformation, admitted that he was far better at Latin. Indeed, Erasmus was a master of Latin and was one of the few men who brought that language to its height in early Renaissance writing. His Greek text definitely marked the end of the domination of the Vulgate, and Erasmus championed translating the Greek text into common languages so that all people could read the Bible. But he knew that his Greek text had some holes in it, because questions about his translation and word choices dogged him, and he produced revisions. Erasmus's Greek text was a cornerstone of the English Reformation, and Tyndale used a later version that Erasmus produced for his great work of English translation. |  |
3. The final version of this belief (also called "KJB" for King James Bible") is that the King James Version is an inspired version, and the Greek texts are corrected from the King James. OK, you can stop laughing now, and yes, there are people---preachers even---who believe this. Some include the Received Text idea into this idea, a tracing of an inspired translation all the way back (or so they think).
Here's a thumb nail of the problems with the Received Text and especially the KJB position:
1. A mandate that an English Bible must be the supreme translation of all languages shows an incredible provincialism (that the English language is destined to be the ultimate language of the Bible, when the Bible was completed and the canon closed well before the English language ever existed as a distinct language);
2. The idea that any English translation can equivalently hold the ideas conveyed in Hebrew and/or Greek shows a lack of knowledge of languages. Plain and simple, English is not an equal receptacle for the ideas presented in the Hebrew and Greek. Every English translation---any English translation---will fail to capture the exact meaning word for word from the original languages because English lacks the semantic distinctions of Hebrew and Greek and lacks the verb tense forms to convey an equivalent meaning
3. Positing that a Bible translation promoted by the homosexual and papist-leaning King James, who believed himself the Head of the Church in England and persecuted anybody who disputed that claim effectively, shows a lack of the knowledge of history. King James wanted a Bible that would undercut the Geneva Bible and its copious notes on salvation, because he wanted to be the undisputed head of the Church of England. He wanted one Bible, one English Church (something that encompassed both Protestants and Papists and allowed them a measure of latitude), and he wanted no Puritans to disrupt the England that he envisioned. When KJB-ers grovel and fawn on the image of King James, they are off in their la-la land of gross ignorance of history.
The KJV-only/KJB movement, as you probably realize, is a latecomer to theology. The Received Text idea is older and has been around a while, but KJV-only (especially KJB) is probably less than 50 years old. God's people have done very well without it. One problem about it is that it puts "God in the pocket." If the KJB is the ultimate in God's Word, then the Bible becomes a simple book and a simplistic book. The Bible is readable, certainly, but God commands the diligent study of His Word, and simplifying it by saying that a single translation is the ultimate and corrects the original manuscripts cuts away the complexities and intricacies that are supposed to occupy our time as we study God's Word. We are intended to dig deeply into God's word and find complexities in it that require meditation and concentration. Oversimplifying it is just a means of trivializing it.
A horrible corruption is growing in these churches, and though I have been pelted with rebukes by many preachers who hold the KJB or received text view of the Bible and loudly proclaim "Not in my church!" regarding child molestation and other gross sins, I have yet to see any of them stand up in a pulpit, address the corruption that is being tolerated in so many IFB pulpits, and thunder against it. They will preach against gays; they will preach against Bill Clinton; they will preach against the French. They will even preach against women wearing slacks. But when it comes to the topic of men in pulpits who molest children, (and other men who know this is going on and say nothing), then they are stone silent.
I continue to document and research the instances of gross sin in IFB-KJVO churches. The hardcore of KJB seems to be the center of the problem, (The poster named Pappa Bear from the FFF corrects this as being Hyles versin of KJB.) but I have yet to find any KJVO pulpit that openly and faithfully takes a stand opposing the corruption and holding up the standard for faithful church discipline.
Here is a list of people in the movement, many of them affiliated with Hyles-Anderson college, who have been charged, indicted, or found guilty of molestation, sodomizing young children, or rape:
Edward Quakenbush (KJVO-KJB, HAC affiliated), of New Testament Baptist Church, raping a 14 year old boy, convicted.
Andy Beith, principal of Liberty Baptist Academy in NW Indiana - sex with an 11 year old girl. Sentenced to 30 years, parole in 11.
Beith's father, also a graduate of HAC, was arrested His father was arrested a few years prior for soliciting an undercover officer in a local park. Made for interesting headlines. Imagine a Baptist pastor being arrested for such a thing. The media made the most of it, of course. [As they should have.]
Kerry was the name of the missionary who squabbled over the Spanish Bible and went to prison for molesting a little girl.
Calvin Stone, a HAC short timer sent to prison for molesting a little girl.
Overla, a HAC grad/pastor who pleaded guilty to molesting an 8 year old girl
Chester Mulligan, who is charged with molested a 14 year old girl. (Honrary doctorate from HAC)
Pastor Joe Combs, (found guilty) former HAC Bible teacher, molesting, raping adopted daughter
Evangeline Combs (assault, not sexual), torture and assault of adopted daughter
Associate Pastor Timothy Lee Leonard, (charged but acquitted because child-witnesses unable to testify)
Deacon Mark Foeller, (indicted but acquitted because witnesses refused to testify)
Deacon A.V. Ballenger, (found guilty) molesting a little girl
Youth Pastor Jeffrey Jerrell,
Administrator Joseph R. Strang
pastors Caleb Thompson (assault against a child, not sexual) ,
Joshua Thompson (assault against a child, not sexual).
All of those men have been charged with shameful crimes: an assortment of rape, child molestation, sodomy, and assault. And then, of course, there's Dave Hyles, elite adulterer and pornographer, also a product of that movement. He must have learned adultery at his father's knee, of course, because Jack was an old and experienced hand at it, and he also got off by bluster. Dave spent several years at Pinellas Park Baptist Church AFTER having been expelled from Miller Road Baptist Church. He declared that he had repented and exercised some deception, though the church leadership at PPBT failed to enforce Biblical discipline.
This failure to obey the Word of God that they claimed to follow is somewhat understandable in consideration of the fact that the leadership was at that time in the "hundred percenter" segment of IFB-KJVO that followed Jack Hyles, Dave's father. They looked for words from Dave, made him write a letter of apology (a single letter, though he had engaged in affairs with over a dozen women). There was no longterm discipling, no accountability, no continuing effort to keep him---a man who had engaged in rampant sexual perversions that were no secret---under the care of church leadership. Needless to say, Dave strung along the leadership of PPBT for as long as they stayed gullible, which amounted to several years. They then caught him in gross sin, expelled him, and he went to Berean Baptist Church in Orange Park, Florida (another hundred percenter church), a predator now loose again, where he was admitted into membership without church discipline being enforced. He was later expelled from that church.
