The so-called “King James Only” movement has some extremes that range from the dangerous to the blasphemous.

A KJV extremist has tasked himself and his committee with translating the KJV into Russian, without reference to the Hebrew and Greek texts from which the Bible originated.

So now, we’re going to take an English Bible that was translated from a Greek text, and we’re going to translate the Englishnot the original Greek, into other languages!

Too far, friends, too far. Let the scholars of the nations translate directly from the Greek manuscripts, without the “benefit” of the KJV’s errors… that aboundalthough they are minor and do not affect one’s salvation or growth.

Another extreme of KJV soloism is outright hatred of those other Bibles. and your readers.

Hating and burning non-KJV Bibles is all the rage in some places. Jonathan Shelley of the Stedfast Baptist Church is recorded as having preached a sermon called “People I Hate”.

Says Jonathan: “Your Bible doesn’t have you and a thousand? Burn it! It’s a biblical barbecue.”

Burn a Bible? Why would no Christian do that, you say. Not in enlightened western civilization. Just Muslims, or Hindus, or Nazis, or Antifa, or…

Nerd. Not only in other lands. Not just in our Portland, Oregon.

This Pastor Shelley has a annual bible burning in his church, now called “Pure Words” Baptist Church. Yes, he invites everyone through an internet video to gather all the fake Bibles and bring them to church on a certain Sunday. He will teach the “truth” about all these Bibles, then the delighted people will sit back and watch God’s Word go up in flames as they sit and eat s’mores around the Bible-provided fire pit.

I’m not sure how many other churches approve of such a practice. I’m not sure if there are others who can even do it themselves. But my heart is torn with anguish for someone who calls himself a man of God who would dare such a despicable act.

This is exactly what happened to the Bibles of the Middle Ages, when Rome ruled over the hearts of men. What reigns over the hearts of these Independent Fundamentalist Baptists, I wonder? Fear? Tradition? Hatred?

False teaching, sure. May God have mercy on “Pastor” Shelley on that Day, and on all who profane the Scriptures.

The KJV movement was not always based on “-only”. Large Independent Baptists outlined the idea in the early years. Consider John R. Rice, no light fundamentalists:

Rice believed that “the various translations contain, together, the eternal and unchanging Word of God…A perfect translation of the Bible is humanly impossible…there are no perfect translations. God does not inspire particular translations” (Our God-Inspired Book: The Bible1969, 376).

There were others.

Then came Ruckman. Peter Ruckman’s extreme teaching that the King James was not only an inspired translation, but also God’s translation. newly inspired word that could be used to correct the Greek text itself (!) was part of a package of bizarre views that catapulted the KJVO movement into unnecessary division and separation. The Cult had arrived.

Men like Ruckman and Jack Hyles were preoccupied with the idea, still espoused by evangelicals, that “only the autographs,” that is, the original writings of Scripture, are inspired.

In response to that, before I go any further, I should add that if the “original autographs are inspired” doctrine is not true, then all people from the 2nd century to 1611 I didn’t have a Bible.

Hyles and company would have us believe that no true translation of the Bible existed from the days of the apostles to the days of the KJV translators. Why those poor 1,500 year old impoverished saints!

Even the Reformers and the English with their Coverdale and Genevan and Bishops Bibles were all hopelessly lost, reading a Bible that was from the enemy of their souls and worth burning.

Ruckman, Hyles, Jack Chick (and his heir), are some of the few voices that have fired off a multitude of untruths and caused brother to confront brother unnecessarily. May his tribe decrease.

And how widespread is the KJVO phenomenon? There are nearly 7,000 congregations worldwide that are listed as “KJV Independent Fundamentalist Baptist” churches. More than 5,000 are in the United States.

But this “doctrine” is not limited to the IFB people. Members of other brands of Baptist fellowships, along with older Pentecostal groups, Mormons, Episcopalians (because they derive from the Church of England/Anglican), Presbyterian churches, Bible churches, and others scattered throughout Christendom They will proudly display their KJV in your face and damn you if you can’t match their gesture.

We must repeat that not everyone who loves the KJV is just KJV, to whom this treatise is addressed. But there are too many…