The KJV is not the best (or ONLY) version of the Christian Bible

Well, I’m not sure what happened to Con, but it seems like this debate’s something of a dud. I guess I’ll continue without him, then. I understand that no translation is perfect, and even the ones I like best are marred with serious issues. The NIV, for example, borders on being a paraphrase translation in some places, which tends to blur what the writers were actually saying. The NRSV is so focused on being progressive that it makes little tweaks to the text in order to sound modern, such as using “brothers and sisters” when Paul addresses the church, instead of “brothers”, which the word actually means. (The NRSV footnotes are really good, however.) I once read through an issue of Sword of the Lord, a fundamentalist newspaper, that dealt with the superiority of the KJV. In it, they showed selected verses of the KJV side-by-side with those of other versions to point out what was wrong in them. One nasty trick I saw was that they would appeal to the Greek text only where these other translations were wrong, but where the KJV was a poor translation, they instead argued against the English of the other versions. Here is an example: KJV: All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.—John 1:3 ESV: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.—John 1:3 The writer of this article goes on to say: “The ESV diminishes the causative effect with the use of ‘through him’.” The verse in question is talking about Jesus. So did Jesus make all things, or were all things made through him? The Greek word used here is DIA, a preposition that refers to the channel of an act; in other words, “through” or “because” are the correct renderings of this word. If the Greek was meant to reflect the idea of all things being made by Jesus, it might have used the word HUPO, such as is used when the Bible refers to God creating all things. (By the way, the KJV render DIA as “through” 92 times, while incorrectly rendering EN—mostly “in” or “at”—as “through” 37 times.) What does the Bible mean by all things being made through Jesus? That’s within a future debate. I will here say that the Greek of the New Testament never says that Jesus created us or anything in this universe (as applies to Creation). Why is it that people are so willing to ignore the last few centuries of Biblical scholarship to instead stick to such a poor translation of an even more pitiful compilation of manuscripts? Ignorance. Ignorance drives decent folks to sometimes violently arguments in which they attempt to fight for something they believe in. Unfortunately, when it comes the King James Bible, their beliefs are not based on what they know, but on what they are convinced is true. And they are convinced by their pastors, men (or women) who went to college, so—gosh, darn—they must know more than the rest of us! But these pastors are not taught to objectively study the Bible; the colleges they go to (in most cases) urge them to look at the Bible through the filters of whatever doctrines agree with the college. Paul urged the people of God to be of one mind, one purpose, and one spirit, yet Christianity is plagued by division, an estimated 41,000 denominations around the world! How is this possible? Yes, ignorance, but also pride, and the two combined form arrogance. There’s also a third factor: the sad truth that many people choose to believe what they want to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, simply because their beliefs give them comfort. It’s not homosexuals, or terrorists, or pro-choicers, or CNN, or a political party, or even some spiritual devil that is destroying the church; it’s the church’s own people destroying themselves! It is comfort that we should be avoiding, as children of God. You yourself read what Jesus said about how to live. He did not by any means speak of a comfortable earthly life. I look at the church today, and it is morbidly obese with the riches and comforts of this world. Sickening, really. The King James Bible is a symbol to me, a symbol of how easily corrupted the church can get. The powers that we trust tell us something, and oh how many of us willingly go along without question! The Jews learn their Torah in Hebrew, and the Muslims learn their Koran in Arabic, yet many “Christian” pastors discourage their congregations from learning anything more than what they teach, which usually does not include the Greek of the Christian New Testament. When someone in my Baptist church went to the preacher with a different view, he would encourage them to leave. The KJV is a product of the Church of England. There in England, even to this day, the king’s printing press owns the rights to this version. It is a book that was made under strict guidelines laid out by James I to help ensure that his word was law. He was not holy, as a casual reading of his biography will show you, and he was not a man of God. My argument is not that the KJV shouldn’t be read. It isn’t about one version being better over another. It is that one should learn to study for one’s self instead of relying on another man to dictate what is true or not true. A very basic knowledge of the Greek behind the Bible is an excellent start toward learning the truth of what the Bible really says. Otherwise, your faith is based on what church you happen to either grow up in or chance upon. This particular argument is aimed toward those who believe in the KJV as the best and ONLY Bible, those who say that the other translations are of the devil. My response to such a claim is to ask if they know the history of the KJV and if they have ever studied the Greek manuscripts behind it. Most would have to admit their answer of “no” to both, if they aren’t too stubborn and arrogant to do so. I have had people get enraged with me over this topic, and mainly I feel it’s because they know I know more than them. I wish it weren’t so, because I feel that my knowledge is a burden to me, for it is a knowledge that isn’t easily spread to others who are already comfortable with their baseless religion. My own mother, in speaking with her on all of this, asked me why I just can’t let people believe what they want to believe if it makes them happy. My answer is that the devil wants us to be happy, as long as we’re happy in our blindness to the truth. I cannot settle for that. The famous line from the Spider-Man comics is that with great power, there must also come great responsibility. Am I being responsible if I know the truth and yet keep it from people just so that they are not offended? There are a lot of things I still do not know, but in the things I do know, I am proficient. How serious one is about studying the Bible is an indicator as to how strong their trust in God actually is. If their trust is shown to be weak, they have little respect from me when they try to speak of the things of God. As such, I don’t go to church, nor do I have plans to do so. I wish this could have been more of a debate, but I still am grateful that I have been allowed a place to share my view. I thank everyone who has been keeping up with this page, and I hope at least someone here has learned something from me. When the debate is over and voting opens up, I’ll be in the comments section for anyone who wants to discuss this further with me. My next debate will be a redo of my previous one, a discussion on the deity of Jesus. If you believe Jesus is Almighty God in the flesh, study up and prepare for when I start that debate in a couple of weeks. May YHWH bless you and protect you; may YHWH make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may YHWH lift up His face upon you and grant you peace. –Numbers 6:24-26