Is the recommendation of, usage of, or belief in modern versions of the Bible, which translate the modern critical text, compatible with or representative of conservative Christianity?   Religious Affections Ministries (RAM) board member Michael Riley writes at their blog site in essence an answer to that question in a series entitled, “Conservative Christianity and the Authorized Version,” of which he completed the introduction in a post on October 8, 2019.

Riley explains that a primary motivation for starting the series was a consequence of a sabbatical that RAM executive director, Scott Aniol, took in the UK and found that the conservative pastors with which he found the greatest unanimity also use the King James Version.  These British conservative evangelical church leaders see modern versions clashing or contradicting with conservative Christianity.  RAM uses modern versions.

I have already written here that the modern versions are at variance with true conservatism.  In the most fundamental way modern versions undermine a conservative view.  Riley represents the criticism:

The argument that conservatives should also embrace the AV is not one that is entirely new to us; others have poked at the apparent inconsistency between using old hymns and new translations. 

That sentence, I contend, misses the point.  I can’t imagine that the conservative pastors of Britain think this is the issue.  I will explain.

I’ve linked to the post above, but Riley lists what he sees as three different positions of criticism.  The first he says comes from contemporary worship advocates who criticize RAM for conservative music inconsistent with their modern version usage.  The second he says comes from those who say that RAM loses their natural audience that overlaps on the authorized version and traditional worship.  The third he says are the TR/AV proponents, who also believe in traditional worship and see the RAM position as inconsistent.  Riley is targeting this last group, even as that represents the British conservative pastors Aniol met.

Riley introduces the series by telling us where he will head.  He’s going to deal with the argument of the ecclesiastical text view and its relationship then to worship out of a high view of God, apparently showing a disconnection between those two things.  The second aspect hearkens to the sentence at the beginning of his piece, regarding the clash of modern language with conservatism.  Third, he’ll address the proposition that the Authorized Version is more reverent.   All of these are interesting, but they do not lay at the foundation of the clash between modern versions and conservative Christianity.  The first one comes the closet, but it still doesn’t get it.  Maybe these are what Aniol heard.  I can’t imagine that, but I haven’t talked to pastors in the UK about their support of the KJV.

The essay ends with this sentence:

I want to make the case that there is no necessary connection between conservative principles of worship and the use of the TR/AV as one’s Bible.

And I’m going to follow along with this series and give it a critique and analysis.  I want to start now though, because I’ve written that I don’t see these as the fundamental arguments.  I agree with the parallel between the AV and traditional worship that Aniol and Riley propose, but they miss the connection to conservatism.  I could incorporate the three they gave to an overall presentation, but they don’t buttress the point.  What does?  Not necessarily in this order, at least these do:

First, both the text of scripture and true worship of God proceed from objective truth or beauty, which are inseparably related.
Two, how we know what we know must be presuppositional, assuming that we can apply and are to apply scripture.  Since no one is neutral, knowledge comes from the pure mother’s milk of God’s Word, where there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning.
Three, there is one God, one truth, and one beauty.
Four, the Holy Spirit guides to truth and beauty, so neither will or should change.  This relates to no total apostasy.

As Riley moves along, I’ll deal with what he writes, Lord-willing, but I’ll also bring in those four and more.