ambassadors for the risen Christ ministries

by Shawn Brasseaux
2008 Update

Ever since the Bible was completed in the first century A.D., Satan has viciously attacked it. He has attempted to water it down, to burn it, to discredit it, and to ultimately destroy it. After all, the Bible is God’s Word, and it stands against everything deceptive and wicked/sinful (the very things that Satan promotes). In this Bible study, let us take the time to appreciate the authority of the King James Bible!

Today, there are multitudes of people claiming that there are “missing books” that belong in the Bible. The recent discovery of the “Gospel of Judas” has generated much confusion as to whether Judas deliberately betrayed Jesus Christ. Do “the Gospel of Mary Magdalene,” “the Gospel of Judas,” and “the Gospel of Thomas” really belong in the Bible? Did Mary Magdalene and Judas—of all people—really write Scripture? Could the Bible really be incomplete as much of Christendom wants us to believe? For those of us who have the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are not gullible: we know the truth, and we will make it known!

God the Holy Spirit is the author of the Bible. “Holy men of God” were moved by the Holy Spirit to record the Bible into written human language (2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:20,21). [Notice that every book of the Bible was written by a man who was moved by the Holy Spirit, making no reference to women such as Mary Magdalene writing anything.] Remember, the Bible is not a book of men’s ideas; the Bible is the very mind of God, and God entrusted His Word to mankind.

Originally, God caused His Word to be penned in Aramaic and Hebrew (Old Testament); the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. The entire Bible was written over a period of some 1,500 years, and God used 40 authors to write down His Word. If God could have framed the worlds from nothing by His spoken Word, surely He could perfectly preserve His Word for us to read over 2,000 years after its completion (Hebrews 11:3).

God had His Word written down (inspiration), and He is preserving it even to this day, and He has had it translated even to this present day. Even today, God is overseeing His Word remains intact and that it is being spread via the languages of the world.

In fact, God promised that He would preserve His Word forever. Consider Psalm 12:6,7 KJV: “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” Psalm 119:89 KJV says: “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.” Our Lord Jesus claimed, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33).

Although God has preserved His Word, you can be sure that the devil has created his own false versions of the Bible to deceive people (see 2 Thessalonians 2:2). Today, we have over 100 English translations all claiming to be “God’s Word,” and yet none of them agree with one another—over 200 if we consider the partial translations! The King James Bible and modern English Bibles come from two separate Greek source texts. The underlying Greek for the King James Bible, the Antiochian text (the Majority Text), is the text that early Christians accepted as God’s Word: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). The Majority Text (Textus Receptus) is the greatest number of surviving Greek New Testament manuscripts that agree with one another. They are from Antioch, Syria.

Let me say that it does matter which Bible version you use. The NIV, NASB, NKJV footnotes, NRSV, ESV, GNB/TEV, et cetera are based on a few corrupted manuscripts that disagree with the Majority Text. The King James Bible and modern English versions have two separate Greek sources; hence, they each read vastly different and disagree with each other. If you have an Authorized Version King James Bible, you have God’s Word preserved for you in English! Praise the Lord He kept His promise of preservation!

The Bible is very reliable because it alone is God’s Word. It alone is infallible and inerrant. It is superior to the Quran, the Book of Mormon, the writings of Confucius, and all other religious texts. Read 2 Timothy 3:16,17 KJV: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

Hebrews 4:12 KJV says: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 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.”  “Quick” (living) and “powerful” refer to the fact that the Bible is not just an “old book” as the scoffers claim. The Bible alone contains God’s truth and wisdom—it alone has the power to judge what the heart “thinks” and does. The Bible alone contains the power of God, and it alone will last forever.

Jesus Christ told God His Father in John 17:17 KJV: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” God’s Word is God’s truth—God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Why must we take a firm stance against the idea that there could possibly be more books that need to be added to the Bible? People would then be allowed to interject their own interpretations and philosophies in genuine Scripture, tainting the Word of God with deception and misleading the masses. People would be claiming multiple “plans of salvation,” apart from Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary.

Churches could then place their denominational doctrine right alongside the God-breathed Scripture, promoting heretical, blasphemous ideas that the righteous God would never support. Mark 4:19 shows us that evil chokes God’s Word, so that it cannot lead lost people to a knowledge of salvation and a clear understanding of what God has to say to them regarding salvation (2 Corinthians 4:3,4). Revelation 20:18,19 gives a clear, definite warning to anyone who chooses to add to the Bible, or take away from it (cf. Deuteronomy 4:1,2).

Those people who do not like what the Bible says are guilty of altering the Bible so it fits their opinions. This is what the Bible calls, “handling the word of God deceitfully” (2 Corinthians 4:2). The Bible says, “Many corrupt the word of God” (2 Corinthians 2:17). It is only because of God’s grace that He has not retaliated in righteous anger and judgment… yet. Hundreds of years ago, the Roman Catholic Church was guilty of trying to insert what we now call “apocryphal” books into the Bible—false books that are not God’s Word.

Even to this day, there are more people who are trying to convince Bible believers and the rest of the world that there are other books missing from the Bible, and that the King Bible is not infallible (errorless)—attacking the “archaic” King James helps them sell their “improved” modern Bibles! I would hate to be in the shoes of those who deliberately corrupted the Bible, and those who are still trying to question its superiority in judging all spiritual matters. Anyone who alters God’s Word does so to his or her own detriment!

God is perfect, so why would His book be imperfect? Why would God create perfect original manuscripts, only to have them disappear forever? That makes no sense. God obviously preserved those perfect words, so that we can have them today. We have them in the King James Bible!

How could the God who synchronized the most minute and delicate movements of the planets manage to make a mistake in His Word? God’s Word is perfect, with 66 books, Genesis through Revelation. Nothing is missing; nothing needs to be added. Never are we to add to God’s Word, because that is a sin. In fact, when we add to the truth, we become liars: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:6). God’s Word, preserved in the King James Bible in English, is perfect as is. It has no mistakes whatsoever. You can trust it, like so many Christians have done these past 400 years.

Let us never forget:

“23 … the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” (1 Peter 1:23-25 KJV).

 

“7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” (Isaiah 40:7,8 KJV).