3 Problems With The King James Bible

3 Problems With The
King James Bible

Saturday, July 23rd, 202
7:22 a.m.
73º right about now.
97º to come, supposedly.

  As I see it, there are three problems with the King James Bible, dear one, 

I know that a lot of folks have settled on that translation is “the one”… but it is, after all “a translation”. 
I’m sure you’ve seen talks given to an audience where the speaker and the audience spoke two different languages, right? 
For example: Political talks, or a foreign speaker at a church… 
In either case, the speaker needed a translator. And the translator did the best job he could… but it’s not hard to imagine that somethings were “lost” in translation. 

So, my thoughts this morning are about the King James Bible and folks’ attitude toward it.
1. Important nouns are terribly mistranslated in the KJV.
2. Verb tenses are messed up in the KJV.
3. Witches were burned with the attitudes ginned up by the KJV.
First of all, some nouns in the Bible are really screwed… in the KJV. Most importantly is the noun AION… !!!
The closest English word we have for AION is the English word EON.
The word “age” almost does the trick… but EON has a perfectly good adjective form: EONIAN. And “age” does not have a good correspondent adjective form. The best we can do with “age” is to say “age-lasting” or “age-during”.
But EON and EONIAN fit perfectly in every place where the words AION and AIONIOUS show up.
The reason, I pick out this word is my own laziness—it’s just so obvious—and it’s also so very important to get this word right, when considering matters of faith and God’s purpose.
You see, if you use the KJV, you’ll find they often stick the word ETERNAL or FOREVER in there, to represent AION and its adjective form.
And this translation hack, by the King James people… lead to all kinds of crazy thoughts about God and His nature.
Again, imagine for a moment, a foreign speaker standing before an audience… and the translator doing his best, but you’ve got to know, a hack-job is incoming.
So, God does not have this “eternal torment” thing going on. If it’s anything, it’s an “eonian chastening” — an entirely different concept and revelation about God’s divine purpose.
My point here is not to explain the meaning and proper uses of the Greek word AION… but to point out that “words mean things”… and if we’re not careful, we can run down the wrong track, with a slight error — kind of like a plane or a ship at sea, one degree off can lead to a wildly different direction than intended.
In Romans 16, we are told something about the EONIAN GOD… but the KJV would have you believe something was mentioned about the ETERNAL GOD.
And so, endless arguments have ensued about whether or not God is “eternal”.
Of course God is eternal. For, God created time itself (Hebrews 1:2, Eph 3:11). But how much better for us to understand that God is “eonian”… it’s a very intimate notion. Like saying “daily God” or “God of the century”… There is a difference in tone and tenor between “eonian God” and “eternal God”… but we’d never know it if we just stuck to KJV.
Consistency !!! That’s what you’ll miss if you insist that KJV is the cat’s meow.
The KJV translates the word AION (and it’s adjective) by: eternal, ever, forever, world, world without end, end of the world, never, course, etc.
So, what is God’s purpose?
Note: Eph 3:11 reveals that His purpose is— among other things— an eonian purpose. But the KJV says it’s an “eternal purpose”
So, if you use the King James… and try really hard to make sense out of it all… you’re surely going to get all whacked out… as it’s like a road map where many of the road names have been changed, or smudged by coffee stains, or worn out by carrying around that map in your back pocket through the river and dried out by a hot camp fire.
The problem I’ve had with “MYSTICS” over the years, is that no two mystics use the same lingo… so you can never verify what they are saying with other mystics.
And if you use a bible translation that also is inconsistent in its translation practices… you’re going to INVENT notions out of thin air… based on an inference here and a conjecture there and a screwed up translation back over here.
Thus we get the threat of ENDLESS CONSCIOUS PUNISHMENT for all who don’t get with OUR program.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re going to hell”.

 8:05 a.m. 
Coffee, hang on. 
  8:10… a.m. 

So, if you’re going to screw up a noun, or nouns plural… you couldn’t pick a better noun to screw up on than AION=eon. 
 Now, what about these verb tenses I mentioned earlier ??? 
 Well… in quite a few cases, the right or wrong VERB TENSES can really mislead a fella. 
As our example… let’s take something everyone knows… John 3:16. 
 “For God so loved the world…” 
  If you’re going to insist that the Bible is rock-solid… and means what is says and says what it means… then, we’ve got THE PAST TENSE right here… so does that mean God LOVED the world in the past ??? And that God does not love the world so much right now ??? 
But what if the verse tense in the KJV of John 3:16 was WRONG ??? 
 What if the correct verb tense were more of a timeless thing… like this: 
“For thus God loves the world…” 
 There is a bible translation that has done a lot of work to get the verb tenses right. The quote above is from that translation. 
 “For thus God loves the world…” is so much more powerful than “God so loved the world”. 
  And again, I’m pointing these things out because the wrong message, the wrong “map markings” can lead one way down wrong path. 
 Nouns matter. 
 Verb tenses matter. 
Burning witches matter — at least to the witches. 
  Maybe we don’t “burn witches” today, but plenty of people have been kicked out of churches, dis-fellowship, cut off friendships, etc. over nouns, verb tenses, and a different view of the nature and character of God. 
  The King James Bible is the mystic’s gold mine. It has enough “truth” in its translation to make it handy and valuable. But it has enough whacked out, mistranslations, to make it a weasels’ arsenal of false indictments against anyone who gets in their way. 
 Now here’s a truth you won’t find everywhere: It is God’s responsibility to introduce Himself to you. After all, His is the Creator of all. 
 And God might introduce Himself to you by any number of means. 
 He might grant you faith, without you hearing much about the evangel. 
 He might introduce Himself to you like He did to Saul, who was a murderous asshole. 
 He might grant that you be rather studious, inquisitive, peering into the Bible on a regular basis… to see what you can see. 
  He might give you the ability to see beyond the B.S. in most bible translations… The “universalists” did in the 1800’s when all they had was a KJV. 
   But, it seems, from the prophecies of Paul, that God will eventually introduce Himself to most folks at the consummation of the eons. And at that time, all will be so impressed, with the realization of it all… that their knees will bow to Him… and their tongues will acclaim Him… and hearts will melt. After all, God, the Creator of all, is also the Savior of all. 
  So, witch-burning (in all it’s forms) seems to be a favorite hobby of King James people. 
  One of the great revelations of God, is that God Himself locks up all, together, in stubbornness, that He might have mercy upon all. — (Romans 11:32) 
 If nothing else, this verse suggests that God is in no hurry to bring all to the point of His introducing Himself. 
 And why should He be in a hurry? After all, He created the eons in His Son - Hebrews 1:2
  And if God created the eons, and most assuredly the words “TOO LATE” are not even in the King James Bible… Then, we have every reason in the world to TRUST GOD about these matters. 
  What if we “trusted God” about the salvation of our loved ones ??? Indeed, trusted God about the salvation of His whole creation ??? 
 After all, Abraham “believed God”… and if God promises to vivify all, redeem all, justify all, conciliate all, and reconcile all… can’t just just “believe God” ???? 
   Because the KJV and other translations of the Bible severely abuse the TIME words of the Bible, like AION=eon, the majority have no-idea what God’s purpose is. But somehow, they’re sure that God’s goodness and kindness extends to them… it’s just YOU they’re not sure about.
  One more thing about the KJV… it does contain verses that were just made up out of whole cloth. Verses that were NOT in the oldest Greek manuscripts.. And those made-up verses tended to be lingo used to support the “trinity” doctrine. So, it’s no wonder, that KJV 

people will beat you up (witch-burning) and kick you out of fellowship, if you don’t cotton to “trinity” lingo.
Again, it is God responsibility to introduce Himself to you. And from my view point, He’s actually done it through the cross of Christ.
In the cross… God is kind of saying “Hey, I know you think death is a problem… but behold… I’ve got this.”
And indeed, death is a problem. It’s the one thing we all have to deal with in this life. Sin, death and condemnation, are more or less automatic… when we’re born… they are born too. But there is something else that is “automatic”… God’s love. God’s purpose. God’s redemption in His Son.
God’s creative effort, of course, includes God’s redemptive effort.
I came into the faith in 1967.
I became a serious bible student in 1980.
And I can certainly understand WHY most christians are not serious bible students. It’s because they are all stuck on the KJV. And to a great degree the KJV is NOT understandable.
It’s full of boo-boos in translation. It’s full of flat-out wrong translation. And it’s full of contradictions.
And don’t go running to the Christian book store and buy one of those “easy-to-understand” bibles like the so-called “Living Bible”.
That’s not a help to the serious student of the scriptures. The so-called “Living Bible” and others like it, is more or less a cartoon version of God’s revelation.
Words mean things.
And if I say “GOD LOVED THE WORLD”…
…when I should have said “GOD LOVES THE WORLD”… it’s just a degree off… but it will lead you WAY OFF COURSE down the road.
Verb tenses have meanings too.
Witch burning is a thing.
And really…. It’s up to God and God’s timing to straighten this whole mess out.
Is the KJV “of God”… Yes, it is “of God” as all is actually “of God”… Romans 11:36.
So, as I see the purpose of God, the KJV is a problem, but only a minor problem.
Just like “sin” is only a minor problem.
The “witch-burning” boys and girls portray SIN as an impossible obstacle, over which, God cannot conquer… instead, God must punish SIN eternally.
But, as I see it, SIN is a set-up… a necessary prerequisite, to make “salvation” shine.
Sin is all about death.
Salvation is all about life.
And the plan and purpose of God is to abolish death at the consummation of the eons. And when death is abolished, all will have life— beyond the reach of death… which has then been abolished. (I COR 15:20-28)
So, if I’m right… that there are 3 problems with the KJV, then still, it’s not much of a problem to the great God of the heavens, the Owner of all.
The solution to these three problems would be…
1. Find yourself a more consistent bible translation… one that does not abuse important nouns like AION=eon.
2. Take a peek into the original languages of Greek and Hebrew — to confirm your current notions about God. You don’t have to do any of this, however, to understand that God’s plan, purpose and intention IS bigger than anyone of us can know.
3. Don’t go around burning witches.

Grace to you. 
Ace. 
Come on in, if you can.