Gethsamane Bible-Presbyterian Church published an article in her magazine - Bible Witness, click the link to download: https://biblewitness.com/resources/magazines/Vol24_Iss04.pdf
The writer says, "All the words of God’s inspired Scripture are preserved forever. We believe with good reason that the King James Version provides us with the best translation of the inspired Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words, which God has kept pure in all ages by His singular care and providence. Our belief in a perfectly preserved Bible is not a heresy—it is the bedrock of our most holy faith!"
My response:
This statement conflates two distinct theological claims that require careful separation. The belief that God’s Word endures eternally differs fundamentally from the claim that a particular translation or textual tradition perfectly preserves the original languages.
Inspiration—the doctrine that God guided the original authors—does not logically demand preservation[1]. God could have inspired Scripture without being obligated to protect every subsequent copy from error. Any ancient document surviving today, whether biblical or secular, owes its existence to God’s sovereignty over history[1], but this general providence differs from a doctrine requiring perfect textual preservation.
The King James Version presents a specific problem for this argument. The King James New Testament is based on the Textus Receptus[2], which relies on only about seven manuscripts out of thousands[2]. The Greek New Testament manuscripts contain over 400,000 textual variants[2]—a reality incompatible with claiming that one translation or text-type perfectly preserves the originals. If God preserved Scripture perfectly, why does every manuscript read differently?[2]
A more defensible position recognizes preservation through restoration—where centuries of textual scholarship have reconstructed a text mirroring the original authors’ words[2]. This acknowledges both God’s care for Scripture and the messy historical reality of transmission.
The statement’s real weakness lies in equating doctrinal confidence in Scripture’s reliability with historical claims about a particular translation. Trusting God’s Word and trusting the King James Version are not identical propositions. Many evangelical Christians affirm Scripture’s authority while using multiple translations based on earlier manuscripts, finding no contradiction between faith in God’s Word and scholarly textual work.
[1] William W. Combs, “The Preservation of Scripture,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 5 (2000), 5:8.
[2] Edward D. Andrews, Introduction to the Text of the New Testament: From the Authors and Scribe to the Modern Critical Text (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2019). [See here, here, here, here, here.]
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