For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Hebrews 4:12.
For a person measuring a great land mass, millimeters or inches don't mean much. Miles or Kilometers are probably the smallest unit of measure needed. I've never seen the continent of North America measured in any lesser amount. When I calculate a trip that I am about to make, the distance is always given to me in miles even though the two locales are fixed points and it would be entirely possible for a good GPS to render that measurement in miles, feet and inches.
When I calculate the distance to my daughter's house from my house, my GPS tells me that it is a 652 mile journey. I doubt that. I'm very doubtful that the distance is exactly 652 miles. I highly suspect that that is a a rounded off figure. God could easily measure it in Miles, feet, inches and even thousandths of an inch. Do I need that? No, I don't. It won't make one bit of difference in my calculations of when I leave to get to her house.
For the adherents of the new versions, doctrine works the same way. They generally believe certain things and they are comforted to find those generalities stated in one form or another in their ersatz bibles. If someone points out to them that the very same version could cast doubt on what they believe, they are not troubled. They have been conditioned to think that the only true measurement that matters for any doctrine is locked away in ancient tongues and probably never quite attainable due to the eroding effects of time.
When Jesus Christ spoke with the Pharisees, he counted on them accepting the scriptures as accurate even though the scriptures were almost 2000 years old. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions, Matthew 22:41-46.
As far as I can see, that quotation from Psalms 110 is the only place where David calls the Messiah his Lord. I can just imagine the response that such a query would engender today. The modern scholars would never be willing to change their theologies based on the use of one quotation from a 1500 year old scripture. Jesus held them to such a standard.
I have used the example of the Sadducees before when Jesus Christ used the tense of one verb to utterly refute their pet doctrine. To disprove their doctrine which stated that their is no resurrection, he quoted Exodus 3:6, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham. God was currently Abraham's God even as Jesus and the Sadducees spoke.
Certainly Jesus Christ counted on having an exact scripture and with good reason. God had promised that. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever, Isaiah 59:21. Why wouldn't he expect a perfect bible? I didn't notice any expiration date on that. The same promise that Jesus Christ relied upon while on this earth, is the same promise upon which I rely.
To summarize where we are so far, people with new versions are like people who don't know that anything can be measured in finer more accurate measurements than miles. They are used to everything being rounded off into inexact but close statements. Adherents of the King James bible are people who believe that their bible can speak far more exactly. If I was contemplating a trip to my daughter's house, miles would suffice. If I am measuring my living room I would want more precise measurements. If I was comparing blood cells, I would want even more precise measurements. Those using the new bibles are simply unaware that the bible can be precise. It can. This exasperates people who think that we strain at gnats. Was Jesus straining at gnats when he used the tense of one verb written almost two millennia earlier to refute a popular doctrine?
There are two types of King James Bible Believers. There are those who believe that the underlying Greek and Hebrew texts which are the basis of the King James Bible are the true word of God and that the King James Bible is accurate to the extent that the reader believes and knows those two languages. I am unimpressed with this group. There is not 3 in a 1000 of them who could speak and read comfortably in either language. Their belief in that doctrine is utterly composed of the doctrines of men.
Since they themselves are incapable of reading through, meditating upon and understanding the bible in its original tongues, they must rely upon the witness of men who claim that they can. More often than not, the men claiming to do so are as ignorant as their followers. If you arm me with a Spanish/English dictionary and give me sufficient time to look up words, I might fool some unsuspecting person who is ignorant of the Spanish Language that I know the language. Greek and Hebrew use entirely different alphabets than English and so the parlor tricks that these men use to impress these unsuspecting men seems to work generation after generation.
In the next post, if the Lord will so guide, we will look at why our English Bible can be trusted. A true bible believer knows that his bible is infallible not only throughout time, but in his own language.