And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, Isaiah 35:8.
Whenever I happen to come across this verse in my daily reading, I am reminded again of the grace of our God who has not only chosen to reveal himself and his truths to man, but he has built in a failsafe wherein fools such as myself can free ourselves from error. In the last blog post I dismantled the rather naive assumption that King James Bible believers are some monolithic cult engaged in group-think. Instead, King James Bible believers are those who have entered onto a highway whereon they have a true and valid hope of God straightening out their doctrine.
What we fight for as King James Bible believers is to remove the shackles of man from those seeking the truth. We seek to remove those shackles of inaccurate history, false science, faux translating and just plain ignorance that have kept so many from entering into this liberty that we have found. When I was first introduced to the whole King James Bible issue, I immediately saw it as something seeking to constrict me. When those aforementioned shackles were removed, I took my first tentative steps onto that great highway.
I have had a few guides. I have had the Holy Ghost who has pledged to lead me into all truth. I know that for many that should seem sufficient. It has not been for me. God has placed men in my life who have boosted me. Early on, those men explained that whenever I perceived that they were speaking in accordance with the King James Bible, that I could trust them. They also solemnly warned that wherein they deviated I was to distrust them. I have always thanked God for those men. Thirdly, I have had my own conscience.
That may seem strange to some, but I am sure that many will understand. Holding a King James Bible in my hand and having the Holy Ghost has not kept me free from error. I have had to learn to listen to my own inner voice. In my early days, when I had a preformatted opinion of a verse, the Spirit of God would try to nudge me that something was wrong. I would read a verse, my conscience would be slightly troubled and like the child Samuel, I didn't recognize the voice of God. I had to be trained that the Holy Ghost who wrote the book in front of me now lived within me and that it was a grief to him whenever I glossed over a verse. I needed men as fallible as Eli to teach me how to respond to God's voice.
I thank God for my own mentor who taught us that it was impossible for the King James Bible to disagree with God in any point. It is as holy and as accurate at God. There is nothing that God wants men to know that is not contained in its pages. There is simply nothing of the revelation of God that can ever be made more clear than how a King James Bible states it. When God teaches individual men through the experiences of their life both through chastisement or through blessings, it is only by the words of a King James Bible that they can understand and appropriate those lessons.
I know that some of my readers are not there yet. Those above statements made them a little nervous and a little worried that perhaps we are carrying this thing too far. Nevertheless, I'm glad that you have taken steps that should inevitably bring you there. If by some means, the Lord could gather each and every original manuscript just as they were when they left the authors' hands, and the Lord himself gave you the ability to read and converse in those languages as well as you can read and converse in English, would you be troubled by those statements? After all, it is God's word.
Eventually, the Lord seeks to bring every believer past those barriers of doubt that men have erected and to bring those same believers to understand that every single characteristic attributed to scripture is perfectly fulfilled with a King James Bible. There is simply nothing that a reconstruction of all the originals in a perfect manner could offer that the King James Bible does not offer.
Imagine praising a friend or an old teacher but when you are done, you warn people to take their word with a grain of salt. Why praise that person at all? A man is no better than his word. That is the great irony to the mega churches of fervently swaying and hand waving worshipers who feel so uplifted as they praise God. What praise is it to God to call him great but cast doubt on his word? You wouldn't praise anyone you know that way. What fools the devil has made out of so much of professing Christianity!
The riches of Christ are unsearchable (Ephesians 3:8). That doesn't mean that men cannot search the riches of Christ. It means that men will never exhaust them. There will not be a time even in the ages to come where a man will finally say, "I now know it all." As infinite as eternity, as infinite as endless space, and as infinite as Jesus Christ saying, I am alive for evermore, Revelation 1:18; so will be the knowledge of Christ. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know, I Corinthians 8:2. As long as eternity lasts, a person with salvation will search those unsearchable riches of Christ. That is true joy.
That is meant to start on this earth. In a believer's early days, he needs to build a basic structure of doctrine. God in his grace has given the believer men who can help in this process. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein, Hebrews 13:9. Seek out those men who understand the bible structure of the New Testament Church. Watch their lives. Have they profited by what they teach? Obviously I'm not speaking of large bank accounts. Has the grace of God been obvious in this person's life, in family, in church, in public behavior, and has it proven capable of bringing them through tragedy?
Find such men and make sure that their words are the words of a King James Bible. If they build a doctrinal structure that contradicts the plain sense of bible, find someone else. Like an old house still being inhabited by men, your doctrinal structure will need constant work. Periodically, I am ashamed when I finally understand a verse that has long puzzled me. I realize that my doctrine needs tweaking. I'm not talking about abandoning things like the deity of Jesus Christ, but many times I have sat back in awe as I realized that the deity of Jesus Christ is far greater and more majestic than anything that I had ever thought before.
I never want that process to stop. I want to read a verse, examine it its context, and then see how it applies to my overall understanding of God and his works. I do not want to settle on what I think until my conscience is completely settled that I have taken the verse exactly as written, and that I have been obedient to any prick from the Spirit of God as to how I have applied that verse.
I am in complete harmony with the great bulk of King James Bible defenders who seek to make the truth known and who endlessly battle the lies and misunderstandings about it. I know that many of these people are not at the same place that I am in my work of understanding God. I should hope that many are far past me. What each defender wants is to create a playing field where any man woman or child can have perfect access to the truth, and then in the liberty of their conscience, discover what God wants them to know. In this we are united. The King James Bible is the word of God.
I truly sorrow for any man who has his doctrine all worked out because someone gave him a catechism with bible verses to back up each major point. There are some among the King James Bible believers who have little more than that. Nevertheless, they hold in their hands the absolute truth. I rejoice in that. As a Baptist, I will lay down my life for that man's right to interpret that bible however he sees fit. As a Baptist, I will also exhort men to leave the worn out theologies of Protestantism and their preconceived doctrines and to step into the glorious liberty of a true bible believer. Become a doctrinal bible believer, not just an historical bible believer.