I got saved at age 18 (1958) while in the Navy. I had never read the Bible before, and out of "curiosity" I bought a King James Bible on board ship from a Bible "salesman" that would come on board very so often.
I read Genesis and Exodus, but got "bogged down" in Leviticus & Numbers so I went to the Psalms {everyone has heard of the Psalms
}. After reading the Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes I knew there was a God, and that the God of the Bible was the one true God (up until then I was "Agnostic" - ignorant). Shortly thereafter the Lord brought a group of young servicemen called "Navigators" and they told me how to get saved, and I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour in October of 1958.
From 1958 -1968 I attended Brethren, Independent Bible, Congregational, Assemblies of God. Southern Baptist, and an Independent Baptist churches and never once ever heard anything about the "Bible Issue" (as a matter of fact I was handed a couple of versions ("Phillip's" and the "Amplified") in the Brethren church that I attended - but I never used them).
In 1968, the Baptist Pastor of the Anahola Baptist church handed me a couple of Dr. Peter Ruckman's books (Rome, the Private Interpretor and The Mark of the Beast) and I heard about "Which Bible" for the first time.
Shortly thereafter, I read the Kingdom of God vs. "the Kingdom of Heaven" (today - "The Sure Word of Prophecy") and decided to check Ruckman out on the "Which Bible" issue. I learned to read the "
Critical Apparatus" for the "Nestles Text", and the "
Critical Apparatus" for the "American Bible Society Text", and initially spent over 500 hours checking out the manuscript evidence and the "scholars" inconsistent support for "readings" from any manuscript that corrected the King James Bible and became convinced that there was "
Something Rotten in Denmark" (the "scholars" personal bias for corrupt manuscripts & their sheeted hatred for the Textus Receptus and the King James Bible especially).
I find it instructive that for the first 10 years of my Christian life, not one pastor, assistant pastor, deacon, or "official" church worker ever once mentioned the Bible "Issue" (not even the pastor that handed me brother Ruckman's books).
From 1968 - 1988 I wasted a whole lot of time researching the "Which Bible Issue" {Somewheres between 12,000 hours and 15,000 hours} only to come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with the "issue" is to show believers the "
difference" between the King James Bible and all of the "
per-versions" and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. [
John 16:13; 1 John 2:20, 1 John 2:27]
Over the years since 1968 I may have influenced perhaps a dozen people on the "Which Bible Issue", but I have never convinced anyone to believe in the King James Bible through the knowledge that I had obtained about the Manscript evidence; the history of the "transmission of the text of the Bible; the so-called "Text Types"; etc; etc.
I have found that the most effective tool is a comparison of per-versions with the King James Bible and I would advise most of the brethren to skip most of the "
technical stuff", because no matter how much you may learn - you cannot "convince" the brethren on this issue through the "intellect" (It is practically impossible to convince "Christian" School (University & Seminary graduates - Humanistic "skeptics" and "sophists"), no matter "how much" you may know.)
In the end, believing in the King James Bible comes down to whether you will accept what God says about "preserving" His Holy word; and whether you will
believe {in your "
heart" - not your "
mind"} that He has kept it. And of course the final step is whether you are willing to accept the King James Bible as your "Final Authority" - in all matters of faith and practice.