Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The King James Bible
Oct 10th, 2012
CommentaryMajestic Legacy (Excerpts)
Categories: Exhortation

Those who use the King James Bible are accustomed to hearing it criticized. Self-proclaimed rationalists, modernists, evangelicals, and even some fundamentalists delight in belittling and criticizing the King James Bible. Cults, representatives of major world religions, and secularists alike commonly attack the King James Bible and look down upon those who respect it as the Word of God in English.

President Ronald Reagan described his feelings about the beauty of the King James Bible:

“What would you say if someone decided Shakespeare’s plays, Charles Dicken’s novels, or the music of Beethoven could be rewritten and improved?. . . Writing in the journal The Alternative, Richard Hanser, author of The Law and the Prophets and Jesus: What Manner of Man is This? Has called attention to something that is more than a little mind boggling. It is my understanding that the Bible (both the Old and the New Testaments) has been the best-selling book in the entire history of printing.

Now another attempt has been made to improve it. I say another because there have been several fairly recent efforts to ‘make the Bible more readable and understandable’. But as Mr. Hanser so eloquently says ‘For more than three and a half centuries, its language and its images have penetrated more deeply into the general culture of the English-speaking world, and been more deeply treasured, than anything ever put on paper.’ He then quotes the irreverent H. L. Mencken, who spoke of it as purely a literary work and said it was, ‘probably the most beautiful piece of writing in any language’.

They were, of course, speaking of the Authorized Version, the one that came into being when the England of King James was scoured for translators and scholars. It was a time when the English language had reached its peak of richness and beauty.

Now we are to have The Good News Bible which will be in ‘the natural English of everyday adult conversation’. I’m sure the scholars and clergymen supervised by the American Bible Society were sincerely imbued with the thought that they were taking religion to the people with their Good News Bible, but I can’t help feeling we should instead be taking the people to religion and lifting them with the beauty of language that has outlived the centuries.”

(Radio address aired on September 6, 1977)

Professor Russell Kirk wrote: “The book that was to exert a stronger influence than any other in America was not published until 1611, a few years after the first Virginian settlement: the ‘King James’ translation of the Bible, the Authorized Version prepared by English scholars for King James I. Read from American pulpits and in the great majority of American households during colonial times, the Authorized Version shaped the style, informed the intellect, affected the laws, and decreed the morals of the North American colonies.”

William Lyon Phelps wrote: “The Bible is not only the foundation of modern English; it is the foundation of Anglo-Saxon civilization.

Pastor Dave Sorenson says it well,

“Now the question must be asked, is the supremacy of the King James Bible a fluke of history or has God had something to do with it? Only a secularist can allege that the flourishing of the KJB over the past 400 years was a coincidence. Who wins the Super Bowl may be a fluke of history. Who is hired as dogcatcher in Dubuque, Iowa, may be a coincidence. Who wins a junior high girls basketball game may be of no concern to God. But to suggest that the preparation, purification, and distribution of the most widely published version of God’s Word in history is a coincidence is folly. In the greater perspective of history, it should be apparent that God was involved in every step of the preparation, purifying, and publishing of the King James Bible.

God certainly knew in advance the wide-spread distribution and influence the KJV would have. To the contrary, it would seem that God so-ordained it. Can we assume therefore that He had nothing to do with its historic usage and popularity? There was no such thing as double inspiration or advanced revelation to the KJV translators. However, having said that, it would seem apparent that God has providentially worked behind the scenes in not only purifying and preparing the underlying Hebrew and Greek texts, but also in this dispensation, God has ordained the local church of the New Testament. He has ordained a greater ministry of the Holy Spirit. And, He has exalted His Word. There can be no other conclusion except that God has had a direct and providential hand in the development and propagation of the most widely used version of His Word in human history.”

Theologians will debate what terms should be used to define the nature of the divine influence upon the King James Bible. While the theologians are debating, people all over the world will be allowing the King James Bible to speak to their hearts.

While some religious leaders dream of finally producing the English Bible that will finally replace the KJB, little children will be memorizing its rhythmic words.

While university professors in England and the United States complain that the King James Bible cannot be understood, new Christians around the world will be rejoicing in the enlightenment they find in their daily devotions.

The hand of God is the only possible explanation for the majestic four-hundred year legacy of the King James Bible.