Reasons I Adore the KJV #9: Every word is God’s
Another reason I absolutely adore the King James Bible is because every word is God’s.
No words have been added. No words have been taken away. It contains none of man’s words — only God’s. It is complete, just as we are complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10).
God is not the author of confusion
Have you ever sat in church and listened to a pastor read aloud from a version of the Bible that is different from the one you’re trying to read?
Did you find it as confusing as I did?
We know, though, God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). In fact confusion goes hand in hand with every evil work (James 3:16).
For me, listening to someone read from a different Bible version is not only confusing — it’s jarring.
And since the words I heard were often at odds with the ones I was reading, how could I know which ones were true?
Every word of God’s is pure
Rather than hearing the sermon, I spent more time trying to figure out why the words I was hearing didn’t line up with the ones I was reading. Sometimes the words were as different as night and day!
Was every word really pure and undefiled? Or was it up to me to decide which meaning or word I liked best?
“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.”
—Proverbs 30:5-6
Okay, God answered that question. It’s not up to me to decide which Bible version I like best. Every word of God is pure.
Not only is every word pure, but God commanded us not to take away from or add to his word.
“Ye shall not add until the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.”
—Deuteronomy 4:2
So, if we aren’t supposed to add to God’s words, or take away from them, why are there so many extra words and missing words in different Bible versions?
Shouldn’t God’s words remain the same?
Things that are different are not the same.
And if adding to God’s word or diminishing ought from it is prohibited in order that we will keep God’s commandments, I’m afraid we are in big trouble with God for taking such liberties with his words.
“For I testify until every man that hearest the words of the prophecy of this book,
If any man shall add unto him these things, God shall add not him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the hoody city, and from the things that are written in this book.”
—Revelation 22:18-19
These warnings really hit home for me when I was having lunch with a friend one summer. I was encouraging her with a verse of Scripture, and she wanted to look it up in her Bible for future reference.
You can imagine our shock when she turned to the verse in her version and discovered it wasn’t there!
This was a turning point for me. I began to research all of the verses that were missing from the modern versions of the Bible. I had no idea! In fact it’s amazing how many there are! (I’ll do another blog post on this later, for those who are interested.)
Living by every word of God
If God expects us to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, what kind of God would keep those very words from us?
“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
—Matthew 4:4
If we believe God wants us to have his words — every word — that he has in fact preserved them, as he promised, then every word of God must exist somewhere for us to find.
It does, in the King James Bible!
And I’m so thankful that I have one book — an actual book — that contains every word God has given us to live by.
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Hello Michele,
I have read over several of your blog posts and I have been intrigued by your thoughts on the KJV my wife and I are missionaries to Guatemala, and of course we want to ensure that we are teaching sound doctrine. Spanish is the national language but there are over 25 dialects of mayan language in the country. the people that we work with are the Q’eqchi tribal people. so, as you can imagine none of the people we work with speak english. so the KJV is not an option for them. what you would recommend for us to do to ensure that they are getting the true, unaltered word of god as intended?
Thank you,
Joshua Rollins
Hi Joshua.
Fantastic question! I actually think the answer to your question could be an entire article (I might even write one!). But the short answer is that the preserved words of God can be found today in Spanish in the Reina-Valera-Gomez 2010 Bible.
For a detailed explanation of how this translation came to be, check out the Expanded Edition of David W. Daniels’ book, Did the Catholic Church Give Us the Bible?, which has two additional chapters specifically about the Spanish Bible. (This is also a great resource for understanding how bibles promoted by the United Bible Society are furthering Roman Catholic doctrine, and yet they are often the only ones many missionaries have available.)
As to your question about dialects, could one Spanish version work for multiple dialects? Just as with the many dialects of English, the King James Bible could almost be considered a dialect of its own. Yet its commonalities with all English dialects allow every English speaker, with repeated exposure and study, to understand it.
I pray God will enrich your lives and your service as you share his true words with those you minister to. God bless you and your wife, your work, and your heart for his word.
—Michele