WHY CRITICAL SCHOLARSHIP DISDAINS THE KING JAMES BIBLE (AND FISHERMEN)

The Church gets along just fine without an intellectually intimidating Academy. The Church can easily do without being told they cannot read their Bible without some scholar or scholar wannabe’s pontification. The Church serves and pleases God without knowing a stich of Greek or Hebrew diction, syntax, or grammar. Do we really need to know the ridiculous opinions of Ward, White, and Wallace for the Church to move forward for the Gospel’s sake? I think not.

Scholarship is plagued by the sin of envy, a particularly ecclesiastical and academic sin – the sin of the Pharisees that drove the death of Christ. When the Bible says that knowledge makes one proud and arrogant, every saint should take that to heart. The modern scholar is envious of the of the same thing the Pharisees envied – the popularity of Christ by the masses. The Triumphal Entry when a young Rabbi, the God-man, Jesus Christ was received into Jerusalem as the King after having just raised Lazarus from the dead. When the stupid, untrained fishermen spoke eloquently and powerfully to the Sanhedrin, the scholars concluding that these men had been with Jesus. Who needs scholarship when you have Jesus? You see, modern theological scholarship is envious of what makes fishermen bold, confident, theologically erudite, and eloquent without formal training. That is, internalizing the Word of God, the teaching of their Master, Jesus Christ. It is the Bible, properly understood and practiced, the goal of every believer that makes scholarship look puny and feckless. It is the Church’s dedication to the Bible that the scholar envies. You “back-woods” fundamentalists, with your King James Bibles, you “basket of spiritual deplorables.” Don’t you know that the academy of Pharisees is where you get your theological training and not the Scripture. Scholars envy the Church’s faith in the Bible and the fact we ignore them. The Church does not need them. And for our forthright disregard for the intellectually intimidating Academy, they disdain and envy the Bible. If only they could have then ecclesiastical following the Bible does.

Scholars create problems so they can remain relevant. Can you imagine for one second how the publishing business would contract if there was only one standard sacred text? One Bible, commentaries, lexicons, grammars, software all tied to that one Bible? No more novel ideas about textual readings, collectives discussing perpetual changes, journals and lectures presenting the minutiae of textual questions? The Church could almost enjoy reading and obeying the Bible without the spiritual tinnitus of white noise constantly ringing in their ears. To be a true Bible scholar you must begin with submission to the God of the Bible and to His Word. True Bible scholars do not create problems, they resolve problems, create peace in the Church by sound scholarship that is not at odds with the Scripture. True scholarship edifies and asserts only those things God has already said about Himself in His Word. There has been and will always be a place in the body of Christ for this “begging for forgiveness” expression of “worshipping God with your entire mind” scholarship. And while many Pharisees took the route of Nicodemus and believed that Jesus was the Son of God, even while cowering fearful of being put out of the synagogue, many others were enemies of the Lord. Of modern Pharisaical theological scholarship advocating multiple version onlyism, splintering the Church has given them a platform to fulfill their goal to satisfy their envy by drawing the Church away from the Bible, from being fishermen, to be part of the “prestigious” 2025 Sanhedrin. You too can sit with Gamaliel and discuss the unjust, undeserved penalty due the fishermen that had been with Christ.

The King James Bible is not in need of scholarly assistance. The King James Bible exists as the English canon of Scripture and has for many centuries. It does not require academic tampering. This has long been established as a fact by the Spirit to the Church through the Word, all foolish, fishermen jargon for the academic elite but to those who believe it is the bedrock truth of God. And because fishermen are not trained theologians, the Academy believes it is prudent for the Church to turn the Bible over to them so it can be properly modified according to the highest modern standards. That the King James Bible is the Bible is a fact. To illustrate, King James Bible believers are theological botanists to use Gaussen’s terminology. Once the fact that cherries grow on cherry trees was known, no additional study was made of the cherry tree to see if peaches grew on the tree, or if the root system turned into the root system of an Oak, or if the bark changed into the white bark of a Poplar, or seeped sap like a White Pine. Once the common man, using common sense, understood the botanical facts, no more scholarship is necessary to say without doubt, confidently, that a cherry tree is a cherry tree. But for scholars, they are perpetually recreating the cherry tree. You see, the fact that cherry trees can be known to be such without a botanist, in the same manner that the believer by the common faith knows the fact that the King James Bible is the Bible. This fact is the grounds for contemporary orthodox, theological formulation.

The Church should care far more about the Bible says about them than what the Academy thinks and intimidates. Forsake any passion to be accepted by the Sanhedrin and join the ranks of Jesus’ fishermen. The Sanhedrin came to its end in 70AD – the fishermen are still here, fishing.

Blessings!