These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out, Proverbs 25:1.
In the last post we looked at the rather infantile charge often leveled against adherents of the King James Bible when terms like "double inspiration" are brought up. To call God's preservation and nurturing of his words throughout history "double inspiration" would be like accusing a woman of "double birth" who diligently cared for her child for 18 years. The very process of birth requires a long term commitment to the child.
To suspect that God would just drop off his word at some juncture of history and walk away from it is beyond ignorant. If God does still care for his word after its initial writing, why would anyone ever suppose that his care for it would be anything less than perfect? John Word, a true defender of the King James Bible wrote this simple statement after the post on double inspiration. "It is very simple. Preservation keeps the inspiration and as such is not double inspiration."
Who are the men of Hezekiah who copied out the missing proverbs of King Solomon? They didn't write those proverbs. At some point Hezekiah directed his men to comb through Solomon's 3000 proverbs (1st Kings 4:32) and identify which ones were truly given by inspiration of God. Hezekiah's men had to unlock a 300 year old puzzle. Solomon had received those proverbs by the inspiration of God. Are we saying that the job of identifying Proverbs 25-31 from among the 3000 written proverbs of Solomon was done by any agency less than inspiration? If so, can we be sure that we have the right ones?
For that matter, who wrote Proverbs 25:1? These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out. The clue is in the next verse. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter, Proverbs 25:2. It was to God's glory that 7 chapters of the word of God were concealed among lessor writings until King Hezekiah was stirred to search out the matter. That is the exact process that John Word described. "Preservation keeps the inspiration and as such is not double inspiration."
People often ask, "Where was the word of God before the King James Bible?" Does it matter? If God for his own honor and glory chose to leave the word of God in a partial or imperfect manner in Europe or other parts of the world and then honored King James to have his men copy out the word of God and give us "one more perfect translation" as they claimed in the dedicatory of their work, why should that be suspect? Has God ever abandoned his work?
When the Philistines sent back the ark of God, those who mishandled it were cursed. Those who treated it with honor were blessed. And it was told king David, saying, The LORD hath blessed the house of Obededom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness, 2nd Samuel 6:12. Imagine the folly of those who tried to cast doubt on the ark of God in Obededom's field all the time ignoring the obvious blessings of God!
Anyone who cannot see that God transformed backwater England and the English-Speaking world into a great and mighty nation since such time as the King of England decreed that the word of God should be in English, is just plain blind. Men such as those of us who labor in this work uncover the historical and doctrinal truths supporting the King James Bible not to convince ourselves, but to silence the naysayers. In doing so we hope to remove stumbling blocks from those who are new to this.
If the example of Hezekiah's men does not move my reader, what can we say of the canon of scripture itself. Is there any place in the bible where the exact books are delineated? Can we turn in our bibles to find out which books should be in the bible? Who was it that said the Catholic and Orthodox churches were wrong in including the Apocrypha? It was men who made those decisions long after the Apostles were dead. Did God guide those men? Did his spirit give them understanding? If he did not, then you cannot be sure if you even have the right books in your bible.
God is not dead. His word is not dead. The King James Bible is sufficient proof of that. Whoever said, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth", must have had critics of the King James Bible in mind.