My purpose for posting this thread is to explain my position on the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. I believe there are going to be areas where some of you don't agree with me, where that is the case I hope you will explain why you believe I am wrong with Christian charity and kindness, I have no desire to argue with anyone here.

I have used an Authorized Version of the Bible since I was saved as a child about 33 years ago. I have only attended churches that adhear to an AVO/KJVO position and I would not be a member of any church that does not have a strict policy of only using the AV in all church related functions.

Several years ago I bought a NASB Bible, but I never felt comfortable using it or reading it, so I got rid of it after a few weeks. I do have a copy of the "Archaeological Study Bible" which only comes in the NIV Version, but I only use that for the historic and Archaeological notes and articles. All of my Bible study is done with an AV Bible.

I believe that the AV translation was blessed in a special way by God, I believe that it's popularity for the last 398 years amongst English speaking Christians of all types proves that it is special in a way that no other English translation can claim. In addition to that it was translated at a time when English as a language was at it's very height both in terms of technical precision and in terms of style. Because of that no translation of our era could hope to reach the heights of form and style that was achieved in the AV translation.

I believe that the team of scholars who were selected to translate the AV were amongst the very best Hebrew and Greek scholars who have ever lived and I find it amazing that God placed them all in the same small island nation at the same period in history.

I believe that the Majority Text manuscripts used as the basis for the translation are the perfectly and miraculously preserved Word of God. I also believe that the Minority Text manuscripts used to translate most modern versions, although older than any Majority Text manuscript, have been edited by Gnostic Christians centered in Alexandria, Egypt and as such are less trustworthy. I could spill a lot of words on why this is the case, but for the sake of this post I think it is enough to say that almost all of the Scripture quotes from the early Church Fathers adhear to the Majority text and almost all of the early fragments of Scripture that we have are Majority Text. Every Bible for the first 1850 years of Church historty was based on the Majority Text and it is only during the last 100 or so years that we have seen Minority Text Bibles embraced by Christians. If it is what the early church was using, I believe it is what we should be using now in these latter days.

I believe that the AV is the most accurate English translation of the Bible that we have and that we are unlikely to see a better translation in the future. The AV is very dear to me and I am very thankful to God for providing such an accurate (and elegant) version of His Word in my native language. Having said that, I do not believe that the AV is perfect, there are a few (very few as the case may be) things that I believe could have been translated better. There are also a few errors in translation (such as Matthew 23:24 which should read "strain out" as in "filter out" but not "strain at"). I believe that the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are the Perfect Word of God and that they always correct the English. However, none of the errors that I have seen in any way changes the meaning. In other words while the AV is not perfect in word for word transmission, it is perfect as far I can tell in conveying the original intended meaning. The same can not be said for any modern version based on the Minority Text manuscripts.

I do believe that the modern versions contain the Word of God, I believe that you can lead a person to Christ with even a poor modern translation. I also believe that a Christian can grow and mature in their faith using a modern version. However, I have no doubt that these modern versions are suspect at best and in my opinion have clearly been altered by human editing of the Minority Text manuscripts. I deeply and sincerely wish that Christians would educate themselves on this issue before selecting a modern version as their primary or only Bible.

I think that many Christians have been very caviler in trading the time tested AV for one of the modern versions and I believe that the Church and the cause of Christ have suffered as a result.