Refuting Verbal Plenary Preservation, Perfect TR, and KJV-Onlyism

By faith in Jesus Christ for eternal life believers are placed in union with Christ, making up His body, which is the Church. Believers have both blessings and responsibilities.^[1]

This truth strikes at the root of the false teachings of Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP), Perfect TR, and KJV-Onlyism in several ways:

1. Union with Christ, not with a Manuscript or Translation

   • Scripture teaches that salvation and eternal life come through faith in Jesus Christ, not through allegiance to a particular version of the Bible (John 3:16; Gal. 2:16).

   • To insist that only the “perfect TR” or the “only KJV” grants access to the pure Word of God shifts the focus from Christ Himself to a human product of textual history.

   • Believers are united to Christ the Living Word (John 1:14), not bound to a single printed text of the written word.

2. The Church is Christ’s Body, Not a Sect Around a Translation

   • The statement emphasizes that believers together make up the Church, the body of Christ.

   • VPP and KJV-Onlyism fracture the unity of that body, creating elitist divisions where some claim to have the “real Bible” while others supposedly do not.

   • This spirit contradicts Paul’s teaching that in Christ there is no division, but all are one (1 Cor. 12:12–13; Eph. 4:4–6).

3. Blessings and Responsibilities Flow from Christ, Not from a Perfect Edition

   • Our blessings (Eph. 1:3) and responsibilities (Rom. 12:1–2) are given in union with Christ, not through subscribing to one preserved edition of Scripture.

   • The responsibility of believers is to live out the gospel, to love one another, and to proclaim Christ to the nations (Matt. 28:19–20).

   • Making preservation theories or KJV loyalty the measure of faithfulness distracts from the true responsibility of the Church.

4. Historical and Biblical Reality

   • Nowhere in the New Testament do the apostles teach that a perfect edition of Scripture would be preserved in one text family or translation.

   • Instead, Paul reminded Timothy that the “sacred writings” he had were sufficient to make him “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15), even though Timothy’s copies were not “perfect TR.”

   • The sufficiency of Scripture is grounded in God’s inspiration and the Spirit’s work (2 Tim. 3:16–17), not in an unbroken chain of “perfect” textual preservation.

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Conclusion:
VPP, Perfect TR, and KJV-Onlyism exalt a particular text or translation above the reality that believers are united to Christ by faith. The true mark of the Church is not which edition of the Bible it holds, but that it abides in Christ, lives out His mission, and loves one another. Our security is in Jesus, not in a man-made claim of textual perfection.

[1] J. B. Bond, “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 861.