“THE state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth,
for kings are not only God’s lieutenants upon earth and set upon
God’s throne, but even by God himself they are called gods.”
The quote above is an idolatrous, false statement – which by the way, happened to be made by an individual in the 17th century. We will get to the identity of that “individual” shortly. But we have to ask – do you believe our Heavenly Father would call mere man gods? Do you believe Jesus Christ view those in this monarchy as fellow colleagues? Or that they will sit upon the throne of God as deities? If you say yes to the above questions, than you are just as much an idolater as the person who said this. That quote is not just some flippant statement about the authority of one’s government – it is far more egregious than something that simple. “That someone” by the way – is none other than King James, who decreed and orchestrated the King James Bible. Make no mistake – the quote above personifies his entire approach and mentality towards the translation of the King James Bible.
Many believers have an idolatrous relationship with the King James Bible. They think the KJV is the only correct translation. Most KJV idolaters believe it is the first Bible – and the perfect translation of all time. They idolize the actual book, and believe it preserved Scripture for all eternity. All of this is completely false. KJV idolaters believe this solely because King James declared it as the “authorized version,” – as oppose to it not being declared authorized by him. They really don’t know why they believe it is the authorized version, other than the simple fact that King James declared it as such – God Almighty certainly did not declare it. They enjoy the Old English; the thees and thous – and many garner a great sense of pride quoting the poetic nature of them. Indeed, the prose used to describe God’s Word in the KJV can be quite eloquent and impressive in its’ literary style.
If the King James Bible was the perfect and only translation, it would had never been revised. Not once, or twice, but 5 times. The voice of God need not be revised, it is perfect – only the voice of man requires revision. The first KJV came out in 1611. The translation of today, is for the most part based in the major 1769 revision, which occurred 158 years after the first edition. The original translation also contained the Apocrypha books, which many Protestants do not believe were uniquely inspired, and were part of the Catholic bibles. In 1546, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent approved the Apocrypha books for all Roman Catholic Bibles. The Apocrypha books remained in the King James Bible until the year 1666.
How do we know it was solely King James who authorized the KJV? Well, it really is quite simple – we have both his decree – and we have the the original Scriptures. The only – and I mean the absolutely only reason why the King James Bible is declared as the authorized version is – because James declared it so. He decreed it officially, and set into the law that it was the official Bible for believers. His declaration that his Bible was “authorized” in effect, made all other Bibles – “unauthorized.” That’s it.
Because people do not like to exercise their brains, they simply accept this and give no further cognition towards this false assumption. The King James Bible is not God, nor is it His equal – it is a book translated by humans who are fallible, pliable, and obedient to the instructions of their King. It is a book that drew most heavily from the Bishops Bible, and some of its’ predecessors. It is not the perfect Word of God – if it were, it would not have been both edited and revised over and over again.
Now don’t get me wrong – overall, the majority of the KJV is a good translation, but areas touching on King James authority or anything that threatened the idea of the Church of England, was intentionally mistranslated or distorted. Translators did this by by altering the true meaning behind the original Scriptures. Of paramount importance to King James, was that his Bible reflect the authority of the hierarchical structure of the “church,” and that it distinguish the line between clergy and laity. In other words, the KJV reinstates an authority akin to the Levitical Priesthood in the Old Testament – the very priesthood Jesus Christ did away with through His death.
The KJV is not perfect, and it does indeed hold many errors and a good number of misrepresentations. There are words that were incorrectly mistranslated from Greek and Hebrew, into English. This is significant. In some cases, it was intentional, like translating “the Ecclesia”, or “congregation” into the word “church.” Or the word “office”, which was not mistranslated at all because it was not in the original Scriptures, but was inserted in the KJV by translators. Even yet another example is the word “preach.” The greek word for “preach” is dialegomai, which means dialogue, ” not a “monologue.” Dialegomai means “to converse, discourse with one, argue, discuss.” There are a good number of other words, which we intend to write about at some point and time.
The KJV relied on a good number of its’ texts centuries later, as oppose to other translations and texts that have been completed with dates closer to the death of Christ. There are also passages in the KJV, which are not part of the older manuscripts, or the original Scriptures at all. Nevertheless, it is one of church leadership’s favorite, because King James shared the same carnal desires that those in church leadership espouse.
What are the carnal desires of church leadership for the few who care to ask? It is the desire is to exercise authority over others – and the desire to protect one’s position by distorting the Scriptures in God’s Word. The desire of church leadership is to keep their followers in bondage, by misconstruing God’s Word to mean something that is not true, but is advantageous to their positions. If they fail to do so, and choose to go by what is truly God’s Word, they would be out of a job. Most have rationalized this away in an effort to live with themselves, and many absolutely know they do not have any biblical authority. No one who truly is following Jesus Christ, would ever place him or herself in authority over another believer. It is next to impossible; however, to convince any church leaders that they are wrong, because their salaries depend on it. Most are fully aware of this, but I do believe there are a few don’t – and a mean a few. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money (Matthew 6:24).
Many enamored by the King James Bible, falsely assert it is the first translation of the Bible into English. That is not true. John Wycliffe’s Bible was translated from Latin into English in the 1400’s. William Tyndale translated the New Testament before he was put to death for correctly translating Scriptures the Church of England viewed as undermining their authority. Scriptures such as using the word “congregation” instead of “church.” In addition, the Great Bible, the Geneva Bible, the Coverdale Bible, the Bishops Bible, and the Douay English Bible, by the Catholic Church, were translated into English before the first KJV. Again, the King James Bible primarily was translated from the Bishops Bible.
All of this begs the question as to what actually led to the KJV translation. King James had political motives for putting into fruition the King James Bible. He was threatened by the conflict between the Church of England (the Anglican Church), and the Puritans. King James ire was also directed at the Geneva Bible (the Puritans Bible of choice), which prior to his orchestration of the KJV translation in 1611, was the primary Bible of Protestants. King James did not like the fact that the Geneva Bible recognized the priesthood of all believers. He also did not want any possibility of anything dissolving the inter-connectivity between “church” and state.
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. Hebrews 7:12
James was threatened by this position. He felt it undermined his authority over the Church of England – now you know why “church leadership” rarely, if ever, talk about the priesthood of all believers. The KJV would reiterate the authority of kings and bishops over the Body of Christ; a stance directly opposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ. Any man-made church government is a violation of Scripture; which is one reason of many, as to why the institutional church is not biblical. In addition, which was of prime importance to James, was to establish legitimacy in his power in direct opposition to the pope and the Catholic Church. These are the reasons behind the so-called “authorized” version of the King James Bible. It was motivated by both political and social reasons only – not spiritual.
Great care was given to hide the more original Scriptures from the masses. Why? Because if the people were to study them, they would know the KJV was not always a true translation. The priesthood of all believers as Christ intended was too much for King James stand by idly, while allowing the Geneva Bible go unabated. He also viewed the marginal notes in the Geneva Bible as a political threat, because he believed many of the notes undermined his authority.
So, King James turned his attention to Richard Bancroft, who was soon to be the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. Bancroft was to lead a team of translators to produce – tada… the “Authorized Version” of the King James Bible. The foundational base of the KJV was taken from the Bishops Bible first produced in 1568, and revised in 1572 and 1602. Much to James delight, the Geneva Bible, in his mind and the world’s, would now become “unauthorized.” Such a superficial man-made ploy worked, with help of course from the master of deception. The people in their ignorance obliged King James, as do many of the people in their ignorance oblige him today. Who would know, that someone could snap their fingers, and say, I decree this to be the” authorized version,” that there would only be a few walking in God’s true Spirit to question it.
Bancroft in total, over saw 47 translators. For the translators, it was not hard to misconstrue and misrepresent what God truly calls His Church ( the Ecclesia). By the time the King James version was completed, the Catholic Church had already been in power for over 1,300 years. The idea of what we call “church” was already captive in the minds of men – courtesy of the Roman Catholic Church. Translators came indoctrinated with over 1,300 years of man-made traditions and false teachings, as they sat down to the task of translating. All of the man-made traditions and works of the law were so ingrained in the masses, that people no longer questioned that this thing we call “church,” was unequivocally not the Church in the New Testament. The original KJV even contained the Apocrypha, which remains in Catholic Bibles of today. In the 1666 revised KJV; 55 years after the original KJV translation, the Apocrypha was taken out.
It was critical to King James that the erroneous, manufactured idea of what we call “church,” be emphasized in his translation. Translators were given specific commands to keep the old ecclesiastical terms intact from what was already in the Bishops Bible, and the Catholic bibles. King James gave translators instructions that they were not to change the word “church,” in order to conceal the true meaning of God’s Ecclesia. He demanded the word “church” was to replace words like congregation, Ecclesia, etc. The actual instructions King James gave to translators exist to this very day. By the way, many words in the KJV were derived and heavily influenced by Roman Catholicism.
King James wanted to make certain that any hint of the words “Ecclesia” and “congregation” instead of “church” – would not be found in his translation. William Tyndale’s goal was to remove this false, ungodly focus off a building, and unto a people who belong to Jesus Christ 24/7. For where two or three are gathered together in my Name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). It truly is just that simple. There were a few times Tyndale referred to a large group of believers as the congregation, but they were not gathering for a mandatory, planned service called “church.” In another example, he used the word “congregation” in Acts:17, to refer to a riotous crowd in Ephesus. Most of the times believers met with a few others, or in small groups, but occasionally larger crowds met in various circumstances. But none – not once in all in the New Testament ever met for “church” – the were all The Church 24/7. Going to “church” or the mandate one must attend “church” is contrivance of man.
William Tyndale knew the word “church” was not a true translation of the word “Ecclesia.” Ecclesia has nothing to do with a physical place, it is a spiritual assembly comprised of every believer in Christ. He was deemed a serious threat to powerful system of the clergy and monarchy. And because Tyndale put the true word denoting God’s people and other biblical truths; his translation costed him his life in 1536. He was a fugitive for many years, but ultimately he was hung – not by King James, but his predecessor, Henry VIII.
In the original Scriptures of the New Testament, the word “Ecclesia” appeared 115 times. The word “church” did not exist in the original New Testament Scriptures – it is a term birthed several centuries later. King James instructed Bancroft and the translators to substitute the word “church” in every instance except for three places. Translators knew that the word “church” simply would not fit in place of the word “Ecclesia,” as in the original scriptures. The translators ultimately were forced to abandon their false translation in these three instances. They applied their deceptive translation, however, in the next 112 instances, replacing the word “Ecclessia” for “church.” But, the Greek word Ecclesia is exactly the same as the other 112 entries where it was changed to “church” wrongly. “Ecclesia” was the correct word to use in all 115 instances – not the word “church.” The Greek word Ecclesia means “the called out ones.”
King James ordered additional changes in scriptures, which supported his rule over the Church of England (the Anglican Church). Other ecclesiastical terms were ordered to be left to their traditional definitions, and not according to their actual text meanings. Ironically, although the KJV is widely touted among Protestants, it is in actuality an Anglican/Catholic Bible.
King James shared the same desires and motives for exercising authority over believers as do church leaders of today. What authority? An authority as of then, and now – that always and only belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, King James intentionally orchestrated God’s Word in ways to support his position as head of the Anglican Church. As we said before, it is not surprising that most mistranslated verses of the Bible have to do with authority. How do we know they were mistranslated? We have the original scriptures, as well the origin of the words in their original languages.
Many advocates of the KJV believe that the first edition of the New Testament books were based on, and comprised from the Greek text Textus Receptus (TR) which is considered to be divinely inspired. However, the Textus Receptus (TR) was written in 1633, 22 years after the first edition of the King James Bible published in 1611. In truth, most of the transcription in the KJV, origin was based on Greek text, some 1,200 years after the death of Jesus. Other bibles that have been translated from Greek text and manuscripts, have much closer dates to the death of Christ than the KJV.
For those who idolize the King James Bible, and consider it the perfect Word of God, I have a few questions. Did God botched the first time it was translated, because some 50 years later, the Apocrypha was taken out? You know, the books that are included in the Catholic Bibles still to this very day. Again, Protestants prior to the KJV, did not believe the Apocrypha Books were spiritually inspired; nevertheless it was part of the KJV for 55 years. If the KJV is worthy of worship, one would surmise it would be error free. It’s not. How could something that is perfect, be improved? How can something that 100% perfect be altered, revised or have over 75,000 errors corrected throughout time? A good deal of the 75,000 errors were semantics and punctuation, but not all. Consider just a few examples below that were pointed out by the website thepathoftruth.com, that are either flat out contradictions, or in some way, change the meaning of God’s Word.
Please note that we do not agree with everything on this site, but found some important points we feel lends to this article. Their website grants permission to reproduce materials, as long as the wording is not altered. We have touched on key excerpts from the article they posted.
From the KJV, first let’s compare what Mark and Matthew stated regarding what Jesus told two of His disciples before Passover:
Matthew 21:1-2
And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto Me.
How many animals was it? In Matthew 21:7, we are told the disciples set Him on both the ass and the colt.
Mark 11:1-2
And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, He sendeth forth two of His disciples, And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.
Now here is an example from the Old Testament:
“The children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty and two” (Nehemiah 7:17).
“The children of Azgad, a thousand two hundred twenty and two” (Ezra 2:12).
Now here is a very disconcerting fact regarding the altering of Scripture from the KJV, pointed out on their website.
The Angel at the Bethesda Pool
In the gospel of John, it is recorded:
“In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had” (John 5:3-4).
Let me ask the ardent KJV fans some questions regarding this passage. Do you believe the story here? Have you never wondered about the strangeness of it? Does God dangle the carrot or play ‘cat-and-mouse’ or tease the weak and helpless? Does He take pleasure in watching physically handicapped people awkwardly trying to jostle their way to the pool to get healed, where only the fastest one wins?
Did you know that the words from “waiting for the moving” in verse 3, and all of verse 4 are not found in the more original manuscripts? This was a piece of superstition inserted by some unbelieving scoundrel. It is the stuff of a carnal perception of Jesus Christ. It is the stuff of Lourdes, Fatima, and Catholic occultish heresy.
Consider God’s character, if you know anything of Him. Would He do such a thing? Does He display similar cruelty and callousness anywhere else in Scripture? This is a contradiction of the basic testimony of the Scriptures concerning the character of God.
Yes, He judges; yes, He destroys; but He does not toy with men, He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and He is no sadist. Several translations omit the portion of verses 3 to 4. The NIV commentary says, “Verse 4 was doubtless inserted by a later copyist to explain why people waited by the pool in large numbers.”
The copyist did not heed this admonition found in both Old and New Testaments:
“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 30:5-6).
“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2).
I agree with this assessment – part of verse 3, and all of verse 4 is absent in the original scriptures.
Conclusion:
Again, by the time the King James Bible was translated, the Catholic Church had already been in power for over 1,300 years. The translators came armed with their own beliefs about the institutional church, its’ traditions, and the idea of a hierarchical structure between clergy and laity. Their beliefs and ideas are reflected within the translation of the KJV. The King James Bible was not made to be idolized or worship. It contains the Word of God – put into writing by men who were not perfect, and that indeed made errors. Some intentionally, some not. The translators under King James and Bancroft believed in the institutional church, and the Church of England, known as the Anglican Church today. They were not allowed to translate anything in a way that would undermine the king’s authority – even when it required misrepresenting, or omitting the truth. Most popular Bibles today, such as ASV, NIV, Scofield, relied heavily on the KJV, as the KJV did so with the Bishops Bible.
In God’s Word, it says that no one should add to the Word of God, or detract from it.
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).
How is it then,that with the KJV words and entire books (the Apocrypha), have been, added and remove? How is that some Scriptures were altered, by adding additional words derived from the Catholic Vulgate? If it is the perfect Word of God, it would have never changed after the first edition. If it is, in today’s vernacular, “the mother of all Bibles” there should be only one edition ever printed – the 1611 edition.
Most of the KJV version, however; today remains the same, which is actually sobering considering the deliberate misrepresentations King James and Richard Bancroft commissioned the translators. But in truth, for the most part the KJV is an accurate translation; except for the crucial misrepresentations that were made deliberately, or out of the religious mindset of men. These distortions of God’s Word have played a role in keeping believers in bondage for all these centuries – but such believers, as well as those who who exercise authority over others are without excuse.
But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. (Matt. 23:8-11).
Any believer who is truly following God, hears the voice of the Holy Spirit, and knows that it is He who is speaking to him or her. Despite these deliberate attempts by King James to reinforce his authority through the KJV, even reading it word for word does not collaborate the bondage and works of the law church leadership command over believers. Instead of believers taking their bibles to church leaders for interpretation; they should read the Scriptures themselves, and see if their church leaders are in alignment with God’s Word.
If they do so, they would be faced with two choices:
- Stay in the institutional church system and advance man’s kingdom by making excuses and ignoring the truth in God’s Word – OR –
- leave this idolatrous thing we call “church,” and remain true to the one and only “Church” Jesus ever intended for us – His Ecclesia.
Satan is the master of deception. Leave these idolatrous institutions before it is too late.