KING
JAMES ONLY POSITION IS VERY OLD By
Bobby Mitchell
Editor:
Thanks to a reader for this contribution.Dr. Otis Fuller certainly must have been
there in 1875 telling these men what to believe. Ah, I know, Theodore Letis did
it-- that old Lutheran sneak. * * * * * Feel free to
pass this along if you wish, but I ask that you only forward this entire email
or print this entire article (including this first paragraph) if you choose to
distribute it. I would appreciate hearing any reaction concerning what these men
wrote. My name is Bobby Mitchell,
my email is bobbym@portalsmith.net
and my address is
P.O. Box 6065
Brunswick, ME 04011
The following quotes are from the introduction of a family Bible (AV) that my
dad owns. It was originally owned by James Garrison, my great-great-great-great
grandfather. It was printed sometime between 1873 and 1877 as The New Devotional
and Explanatory Pictorial Family Bible published by The National Publishing Company,
Philadelphia, PA; Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO, and Atlanta, GA. The quotes concerning
the Authorized Version (KJV) from pages 10 and 11 of the aforementioned family
Bible are as follows: "We are very sure that the results
of all such investigations will be to heighten confidence in the present version,
and fill the heart with unfeigned gratitude to God, for that blessed book which
we now enjoy, and which, for nearly two centuries and a half, has been pouring
its light and consolation wherever the English tongue is spoken. Let science toil,
and diligence labor . . . let literature hold up her torch, and cast all possible
light upon the sacred text, but we must and ever shall deprecate any wanton attacks
upon our received version-- any gratuitous attempts to supersede it by a new and
different translation. "It is the Bible which our godly fathers
have read, and over which they have wept and prayed. It is the good old English
Bible, with which are associated all our earliest recollections of religion. As
such let it go down unchanged to the latest posterity. Let us give it in charge
to coming generations, and bid them welcome to all the blessings it has conveyed
to us. Let it be our fervent prayer, that the light of the resurrection morning
may shine on the very book which we now read,-- that we may then behold again
the familiar face of our own Bible, the very same which we read in our childhood."
"There is no book, says the illustrious Seldon, so translated as
the Bible for the purpose. If I translate a French book into English, I turn it
into English phrase, not French English . . . But the Bible is rather translated
into English words than into English phrase. The Hebraisms are kept, and the phrase
of that language is kept. The style of our present version, says Bishop Middleton,
is incomparably superior to anything which might be expected from the finical
and perverted taste of our own age." *Note-- Any indentation
or underlining in the above quotes was done by Bobby Mitchell Summary
by Bobby Mitchell: Without a doubt the King James Only position (for English-
speaking people) was in existence among Bible-believing Christians before 1900.
To say that the King James Only position is a new or modern idea that has its
roots in Seventh-Day Adventism, or to assert that it began with the ministry of
a modern Bible defender, is to ignore documented, historical facts. BACK
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