Mark Ward wrote, Authorized: The Use and Misuse of the King James Bible, which I read.  He’s taken on a goal of dissuading people from the King James Version to use a modern version of the Bible.  He also has a podcast to which someone alerted me when he mentioned Thomas Ross and me.  I checked back again there this last week and he did one called, “Is My Work Working?”  In it, he said he received three types of reactions to his work.

KJV “SINFUL ANGER”

Ward said he received more than 100 times praise than anything else.  The next most reaction he said was “sinful anger” from KJV Onlyists.  Last, he received the least, helpful criticism from opposition.

Critical text proponents very often use KJVO behavior as an argument.  It does not add or take away from Ward’s position.  Ward reads his examples of “sinful anger,” and well more than half didn’t sound angry to me.  They disagreed with him.

My observation is that critical text advocates do not have better conduct.  They disagree in a harsh manner and with ridicule.  Ward himself uses more subtle mockery, sometimes in sarcastic tones.  It just shouldn’t come as a point of argument.  Many in the comment section of his podcast use sinful anger.  Ward does not correct them or point out their sinful anger.  It seems like Ward likes it when it points the other direction.

In these moments, Ward talks about his own anger.  He finds it difficult not to be angry with these men.  Why even mention it?  Just don’t talk about it at all.  Deal with the issue at hand.  I’m not justifying actions of Ruckmanite types.  They’re wrong too.  Both sides are wrong.  This is an actual argument though of critical text supporters — how they are treated.  It comes up again and again, because they bring it up.

“EVASION” OF THE CONFESSIONAL BIBLIOLOGIANS

Ward says that few to almost none answer a main argument of his book, which he’s developed further since it’s publication.  They don’t concede to his “false friends” with appropriate seriousness.  He says they don’t think about false friends.  He provides now 50 examples of these that appear many times in the King James Version.  He includes the confessional bibliologians in this, which would be someone who believes in the superiority of the Textus Receptus of the New Testament.  Their position might be perfect preservationism, Textus Receptus, confessional bibliology, or ecclesiastical text.  He used the confessional title, referring to men like Jeff Riddle.

I’ve answered him in depth.  Ward is just wrong.  Hopefully calling him wrong isn’t considered sinful anger.  “He said I was wrong!!”  King James Version supporters all over buy Bible For Today’s Defined King James Version.  It provides the meaning of those words in the margin.  Lists of these from King James Version proponents are all over the internet, and books have been written by KJV authors (the one linked published in 1994) on the subject.

Ward says that every time he brings that up to Textus Receptus men, they sweep it away like it doesn’t matter, then turn the conversation to textual criticism.  That’s a very simplistic way of himself swatting away the Textus Receptus advocate.  They turn to textual criticism because the critical text and the  Textus Receptus are 7% different.  Many words differ.  That matters more.  It also denies the biblical doctrine of preservation.

The members of churches where men preach the KJV hear words explained.  Sure, some KJV churches rarely preach the Bible. Talk about that.  Where men preach expositional sermons from the KJV, relying on study of the original languages, they explain words to their people.  They care.  I have been one of those and the KJV doesn’t hurt our church in any way.  Personally I read the KJV Bible twice last year and this year I’m on pace for one Old Testament and two New Testament.

SUCCESS

Is success how much praise one receives for what he does?  Is that the measurement?  That is a very dangerous standard of success.   That is what Ward uses as his standard in his video.  In Jeremiah 45:5, God told Baruch:  “And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.”  We don’t succeed when we receive praise.  We succeed when we are faithful to what God said, whether we’re praised or not.  Seeking for praise is discouraged in scripture.  Many faithful Bible preachers received far more harsh treatment than Ward.  It’s not even close.

True success is finding what God says and doing it.  It’s not success to turn a church away from the King James Version to a modern version, even if Ward supports that outcome.