Tag: KJV only

The Big Lie (The “Original” Greek)

by: Lacy Evans

2 Timothy 3:

  1. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
  2. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them:
  3. And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
  4. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness:
  5. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

One only has to walk a few paces outside of the protective walls of his Bible Believing church to hear the Lie.  Walk into nearly any Christian assembly and the Lie is being repeated there with vigorous emotion and “authority”.  And sometimes (like today) I am ashamed that I have not continued to contend with the lie with the same zeal as I have in the past.  My sword was so sharp once (by reason of use), so I write this little article to encourage those who once stood so boldly and confidently against the Lie to stir up the gift and contend again for the true Word of God.

The Lie to which I am referring  deals with inspiration of Scripture.  Most are not even aware of the issue; in fact the average proponent of this gross untruth has no idea what the implications of what he is saying are.  Most simply parrot the popular catch phrases of the day without ever examining them critically. Here is the lie, the foundational issue of the whole debate over the inspiration of Scripture:

 

We believe the Holy Scriptures to be verbally inspired by God and are inerrant in the original writing, and that they are supreme and final authority in faith and life.

 

This innocent sounding little phrase (and others similar) is one of the most dangerous ideas ever to enter the house of God.  It is found in the doctrinal statements of churches around the world.  My Daddy used to ask me “if all your friends were jumping off a cliff, would you?”  I am afraid that too many churches are jumping off the cliff into the darkness and confusion of modern textual criticism not because they have actually reasoned about it but instead because “everyone else is doing it”

We hear clichés like “It is closer to the ‘Original Greek’”, or “Literally this word in ‘The Greek’ means…” and too often Christians just fail to think about what meaning and implication those words actually carry.

I’ll get to the point.

  • There is not now and never has there been such thing as the “Original Greek”. It is a fable.
  • There is no Biblical premise for God having inspired “scripture” in the “original writings”
  • The same Holy Ghost who gave the pure words to Moses, Paul, Luke, etc. certainly is not so impotent that he cannot preserve the words pure.

The Misleading Myth of the “Original Greek”

Almost everywhere I go, I hear amateur (and professional) scholars talking about the “Original Greek”.  It has become commonplace today (when discussing and studying the Bible) for folks to defer to their Strong’s concordance almost exclusively for “deeper insight” into the word.  The precept seems sound enough.  If we can go back to the “originals” we can get at the real truth of what the writer intended.

Aside from the fact that only a very few have really spent the years necessary to really understand an ancient dead language (I dare say no modern scholar on  earth is as skillful and learned as the KJV translators were.), there is another major problem.

There is not just one “original Greek”.  There are over 5000 existing manuscripts (copies) and no two agree.  Let that sink in for a moment.  (selah) Why would I bring this up?  Most people I talk to seem to assume that there is a Bible in Greek that is the “original.”   Not only is that not true.  It has never been true at any time in man’s history.

Scholars refer to the actual pen and paper of Moses, Paul, etc. as autographs. These were the true “originals.”  These originals are no longer extant (they no longer exist, having perished soon after their writing and subsequent repeated copings.)  No translator of any Bible version ever saw even one of these “originals”.  Years before the books were assembled into what we call canon (the closed list of books which we recognize to be scripture: Genesis-Revelation), long before they were put together within one cover and called “The Holy Bible”, the originals were gone. The autographs penned by Moses were gone before Jesus’ time and, the originals which Paul and Luke wrote were long gone before the final canon was settled upon.

The importance of this fact can be readily seen when a bit of “horse sense” is applied. The phrase “It is closer to the Original Greek” becomes either a very presumptuous statement or else an incredibly ignorant one.  Unless we have a time machine, we have absolutely no way of knowing for certain what the “originals” (autographs) said.  If therefore you believe that only the originals were inspired, perfect, and inerrant, then you have no inspired, perfect, and inerrant Bible on the earth, nor have you ever had. In case you think I’m building a straw man, let me quote a leading advocate of modern Bible versions and opponent of “King James only-ism” Mr. James R. White  (The King James Only Controversy p. 36)

 

All of these things [scribal copy errors] contributed to the simple fact that there is not a single handwritten manuscript of the Bible in Greek or Hebrew that does not contain , somewhere, an error, an oversight, a mistake. To err is human.

 

Mr. White is at least man enough to admit that he believes this.  Look long and hard at what he is saying.  The next logical step when you surrender your Biblical definition of “scripture” is to deny that we have a perfect word.

(Hold fast the form of sound words) To err is human, according to White and all the others, but there is Someone else at work here. The sovereign Holy Spirit of God Almighty is able to preserve and keep his word pure.

 

Psalm12: 6.  The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.7.Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Proverbs 22:20 Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,

Isaiah 40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

1 Peter 1:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

When you use the phrase “Original Greek”, know that it is (for all practical purposes) a useless cliché. I personally believe that the current worship of these “originals”(like a modern day bronze serpent) borders on Bibliolatry,  (In case you missed it, that was sarcasm.)

 

The Biblical Definition of “Scripture”

The theory goes that when Paul, Mark, John, Moses etc, wrote their books that they were inspired, perfect, and inerrant.  But then over the years, as man (weren’t Paul and Luke men?) got his grubby, mistake-prone hands in there, the scriptures were corrupted.  So therefore the only place that the scriptures were ever inspired, perfect, and inerrant were right as they came off the writer’s pen.

This theory is not supported by one Bible verse. It’s just not!

Moses’ first “original” Ten Commandments were inspired, but so were the second “originals” written after he smashed the first against the mountain.  Likewise the copies were inspired which Jesus quoted long after the stone tablets were destroyed. Common sense dictates that the originals were inspired.  But read Jeremiah 36 and you will get a Biblical view of how God regards those “originals” God historically has allowed the original autographs to be destroyed and restored. This is a Biblical view of Preservation. {For a detailed discussion of this issue, see resurrection-the-biblical-method-of-preservation/}

We must return to a Biblical definition of the word “Scripture”.  While various “scholars” have redefined the word to mean, “inspired in the original,” the Bible never even once calls an original autograph a scripture. When the Bible says “scripture”, it is always referring to copies.  Notice again Paul’s words in 2 Timothy.

 

2 Timothy 3: 16.  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

  1. 18. That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

 

Can anyone even conceive that Paul was referring to original autographs here? Did Timothy, from the time he was a child, study ancient autographs penned by Moses himself?  Of course not! The scriptures “given by inspiration” in v.16 were the same copies of copies of copies which young Timothy studied as a child.

The doctrine that states, “the Holy Scriptures are verbally inspired by God and are inerrant in the original writing” is a dangerous extra-Biblical doctrine. Just browse through a few church doctrinal statements on the inter-net or pick up one from the back of a church.  “We believe in the virgin birth” will be supported by scripture verses.  “We believe in the death, burial and resurrection bodily of the Lord Jesus Christ”  is also followed by a Bible verse or two.  Then when you get to “We believe the Bible was inspired in the originals”, there is no verse.  Can you honestly think of one?  It is the Big Lie.  Yea hath God said?

Timothy studied translations and copies.  Jesus quoted from translations and copies.  Many verses in the New Testament, penned in Greek, were translations in “the original” because the Old Testament from which the writers were quoting was a Hebrew book.  In fact, the conversations between Moses and Pharaoh recorded in Exodus were translations in “the original.”  Do you suspect that Pharaoh learned Hebrew to “accommodate” Moses? The conversation was no doubt in the language of Egypt but recorded in the “original” Exodus in Hebrew.  In the Bible, the word scripture always refers to copies and translations.  We don’t need originals. We need scripture.

 

The God Who Is There – Modern Textual Criticism is Deism

 

Psalms 138.2.  I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

 

In high school, we learned about Deism.  Deists believe that “God” created the universe then just left it to run on its own like a giant clock.  Of course Christians who have known the loving hand of God in every detail of their life easily reject Deism as unbiblical.  However to believe that God created the clock of his Word in the originals, and then just let it wind down throughout history, is very kin to classic Deism. God is the Author and Finisher.  He has always inspired copies.  He has always communicated to man.  He can preserve his words as easily as he can speak a universe into existence. His arms are not so short that he cannot reach his people. Just a casual study of the Bible on the subject of God’s word reveals that He esteems and expects us to esteem) His word highly.

 

Isaiah 34:16 Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

 

If the subject were Shakespeare, Josephus, Plato, or the book of II Maccabees, then it would stand to reason that some mistakes are possible.  I (for one) could care a less whether Juliet says to Romeo, “Wherefore art thou?” or “Why are you?” She could even say, “Yo whazzup?”  My point is that the Holy Bible is not just another book that we can play with.   Did God promise to preserve it or not?  It is a miraculous, living, holy book.

 

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Luke 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

 

 

 

A Challenge To All Who Would Be As Men and Not As Children.

 

 

This is by no means an exhaustive treatise on this subject.  Hundreds of men and women infinitely more qualified than myself have written extensively on the topic of Bible preservation.  Please, I exhort you, read up on the KJV translators.  Read about the significance of Westcot and Hort and their damnable heresies.   Read the many Biblical challenges to the false science of modern textual criticism.  Study about the fruit of the various Bible versions. Investigate for yourself just who is making money off of copyrighted Bible versions. Don’t be intimidated by men such as James White into hiding your head in the sand all in the name of “not being divisive.”  God’s Word will divide. It is a sword!  This issue is of such foundational significance that it cannot just be swept aside.  We either have a 100% perfect, inerrant, inspired scripture or we don’t.  Either we can trust a Book which the common man can hold in his hand and study, or we must trust the scribes, priests and scholars.  Which is the Biblical view? (Jeremiah 8:7-9; Matthew 7:28-29; Matthew 23;13)

The biggest lie ever told was “Ye shall not surely die.”  It was set up with the crafty question “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”  If the Devil can just get you to entertain doubt about God’s words, then his day’s work is practically over. When a preacher tells you that the Bible was only perfect in “the originals,” he is doing the Devil’s work.  It inspires nothing but doubt, confusion and despondency.  God’s pure, perfect, resurrected, holy words are found in one Book.  The King James Bible.

I close with the last five verses of the King James Bible.

 

Revelation 22:

  1. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
  2. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
  3. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
  4. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
  5.   The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

RESURRECTION! – The biblical method of preservation.

RESURRECTION! – The Biblical Method of Preservation
by: Lacy Evans (Nov.1996)

Luke 21:
17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.
18 But there shall not an hair of your head perish.

Without the hope of resurrection, this promise to Christians would be a boldfaced lie to men like Mark the Evangelist (who according to John Foxe was burned by Trajan in Egypt) and John Huss (who was burned at the stake for the sake of the gospel in 1415). Every hair on his head was destroyed. The very last one did indeed perish. But God seems to have a special way to preserve what He wishes to be preserved. When the final trump sounds, Mark the Evangelist and Brother Huss are going to come bursting forth from the Earth each with a full head of hair, not a single one having perished.

Scholars and researchers have written volumes on the preservation of Scripture and more specifically the issue of the King James Bible. I have done my best to examine arguments from both sides of the issue. I have diligently studied White, Carson, Metzger, Barnard, Gipp, Riplinger, Burton and Grady (among others.) Based upon the evidences and arguments put forth, I conclude that the “King James Only” people are absolutely correct. In this article I do not intend to retrace the steps of the decades-old debate. (Indeed, most of the best questions were answered over twenty-five years ago by mean old Brother Ruckman.) Instead I wish to add to the discussion an argument from Scripture that in many ways underlies the whole “King James Only” position. In Psalms 12:6,7, God promises to preserve His words. My Question to the reader is, “According to the Bible, how does God go about preserving things?” It will be found that throughout Scripture, God allows things to disappear or be scattered then He simply raises them up again (usually in better shape than before.)

TYPES ABOUND:
The first question out of the opposition’s mouth is usually this. “Which KJV do you believe is the real Word of God?” Perhaps people who are new to the debate think that the knowledge of the existence of several editions of the KJV will totally demoralize the King James Only position. On the contrary, it follows type perfectly (not to mention that it is a shallow, deceitful argument to compare the revisions of the King James, up until 1769, with the complete departures by modern versions from the common texts). In this segment then, let us examine, in type, God’s method of preservation:

Isa 49:6
And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel:

The story of the nation of Israel is a perpetual stumblingblock to those who refuse to believe in God’s power of resurrection and preservation. For centuries, scholars scoffed at the promises to Israel in the Bible’s two Testaments. Men made a science of redirecting those promises to the Church. “How could Israel,” they asked, “ever be found again as a nation on the earth?” Only a few dared to believe that somehow God would raise Israel from the ashes of captivity and dispersion. In 1948, a miracle began! God pulled the “dry bones” of Ezekiel 37 together and has now begun to cover them with flesh. Ezekiel 37 illustrates beautifully how resurrection can be a process, and we are living witnesses of the fulfillment of this prophecy. Which Israel is God preserving before our very eyes? Which Israel is He about to breathe life into by His Spirit? Which Israel will soon pop out of her grave? Where was Israel before 1948? I don’t know but I’m fairly sure that if one examines the evidence, he will conclude that Israel is there now. I believe that all of this is applicable to God’s method of Bible preservation. Jesus Christ is the Word of God incarnate and yet the Father allowed Him to die upon a cross. Once again, God used resurrection to preserve both the Word Himself and all who would believe on that Word.

Where was Jesus before the virgin birth? (Where was the word before 1611?) He was in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He was staying Abram’s hand as he offered up Isaac. He was in the burning bush of Moses. But it wasn’t until Mary and Joseph made their way to Bethlehem that He appeared and was revealed as the Savior of man. Again, where was the “Word” of God when Jesus was in the belly of the Earth? The tangible Word was gone from the face of the Earth and it wasn’t until resurrection morning that it (He) reappeared. Then note carefully the process of restoration. Mary Magdalene was forbidden to touch Him before He was ascended, but afterwards He allowed His followers to handle His scars and see for themselves that it was indeed Jesus. Which Jesus do you believe in for salvation? (Which KJV do you believe?) Is it the mysterious Son of God in the fiery furnace of Daniel’s day, or is it perhaps the helpless babe suckling the virgin Mary’s breast? Maybe it is the Jesus who bled when pierced with nails and thorns. Is your Jesus the one who lay dead in a tomb for three days and nights? Is it the risen Jesus who still can’t be touched? Perhaps the ascended, glorified Jesus is the one you like best. What about the terrible, vengeful conqueror who is to come? Pick one! But watch out because there is an impostor coming who looks so much like the real thing that, if it were possible, even the elect might be deceived. The steady stream of Biblical types is almost overwhelming. God said he could preserve the lineage of Abraham by raising up stones to be “sons of Abraham.” (Mt. 3:9,10) I wonder what would have become of the “originals.” In the wilderness, the Lord provided His people with manna, which the New Testament identifies with Christ, the Word. But not only was God able to provide His people with manna, He was also able to provide the dew to preserve it. God didn’t worry too much when the manna melted away in the sun (Ex 16:21). He just restored it again the next day. The types teach us that God preserves by resurrection and then provides tangible, verifiable proof of His work. There are also several examples where God speaks to us plainly, not in types concerning the restoration of scripture. In the next segment, I will discuss these examples.

TABLETS, ROLLS, PROPHETS AND THE LAW:
Throughout the centuries Christian men have turned away from the plain teaching of Scripture to their so-called sciences and arts. Priests have devised elaborate schemes of works-based rituals to “help” God apply His grace to the hearts of men. Scholars have insisted on the “usefulness” of modern psychology in counseling converts when the whole “science” was fashioned by ungodly men and atheists who believed that we could understand the heart of man without any revelation from God.

Unfortunately, modern textual criticism as defined by scholars like Westcott and Hort tends to fall into this same category when it is offered as a substitute for the miraculous resurrection power of God. I challenge the reader to right now go to your Bible and find some Biblical precedents for the method of preservation espoused by proponents of textual criticism. Meanwhile, suffer me to suggest further Scriptural examples of preservation by resurrection (this time by examining times when God actually preserved His Word in this manner.)

The most famous example occurred at mount Sinai when Moses received the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 32:19, Moses took an inspired, original and smashed it against the side of the mountain. Was God taken by surprise? Did the Word disappear? It most certainly did, until after Moses purified the camp and the people decided to follow God. Then in Chapter 34, God resurrected the tablets by giving them to Moses again. Notice in the first verse what God tells Moses:

Ex 34:1
And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

Ex 34:27
And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.

God used Moses as an instrument. God wrote it through Moses. But Didn’t God know that Moses was a man? What if Moses might commit “scribal error” or “harmonization.” After all surely Moses played “telephone” in kindergarten (you remember . . . when you send a message around the room by whispering and it ends up garbled.) And besides, why should God write it again? Wasn’t there any “tenacity” to the original? (Sorry Mr. White) Oh and by the way, where was the written Word of God for twenty-five hundred years from Adam to Moses. (Just curious.)

God shows us how He deals with “originals” again in Jeremiah 36:21-23. Jeremiah was instructed by God to write in a roll of a book the words that God had spoken to him against Israel and Judah. (Note that Jeremiah wrote it by another man, Baruch. He didn’t seem too concerned about “scribal error.”) King Jehoiakim obviously didn’t like what Jeremiah (Baruch) wrote so he cut it up with a penknife and called it the NIV (just kidding). Then he threw it into the fire. (Sounds like Jesus). The original perished (just like John Huss’ hair.) But in verses 28-32 God writes it all again. Look at verse 32:

Jer 36:32
Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book; which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

Hmmmmm! Original number two is new and improved! Surely God will keep it around. NOT! No, in fact this second “original” winds up at the bottom of the Euphrates wearing cement shoes (Jer. 51:61-63). One final thought . . . Jeremiah had to keep some other copy of this account in order for it to have found its way into our Scripture. Which original do you like the best, the first one or one of the two resurrected ones? Go ahead pick one!

The question arises in my mind, “What would cause the word of God to be lost and thus need to be resurrected?” When we turn to the Scriptures we find that God takes away His word when His people are disobedient and He restores it when they return and seek Him:

Lam 2:9
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

Jeremiah here is lamenting a terrible judgment that has come upon the nation of Israel because of their disobedience. Not only does Jeremiah see the carefully planned out destruction of Israel, but also he sees a removal of the divine revelation (the law and the prophets.)

We see just the opposite in II Kings 22. After the wicked reigns of Manasseh and Amon, Josiah took over as king. The Bible speaks well of Josiah (2Kings 22:2) Josiah provided for the repair of the temple of God.

During the repairs, the book of the law was found. (It was found in the broken down neglected temple of God, not in a pristine Babylonian temple like the Vatican). As a result of having a good king who followed in the steps of David, the law was restored to Israel. Where was it before? It was hidden in the ruins of the temple buried perhaps in mounds of earth awaiting resurrection. How do we know that it was the perfect word of God? Read the chapter! It started a revival:

2 Ki 22:13
Go ye, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

The resurrection of the word sparked the fear of God (the beginning of wisdom) in the hearts of the Israelites. Is this what we see in History? Does the word of God seem to disappear during the dark ages of the Roman Catholic millennium and then mysteriously reappear when reformers begin to seek God and just in time for the greatest awakening in the history of humanity? Be honest now. If you don’t, God’ll get you. Hmmm!

LOOSE CANON:
So the doctrine I’m discussing is the restoration of lost truth by the process of resurrection. James White called it “a dangerous idea” during a recent E-mail debate with my pastor, Joey Faust. Did Mr. White miss the Dark Ages and subsequent Protestant reformation? Mr. White (and every other one of those fellas that he drinks coffee with) does however believe in an absolute closed canon composed of the sixty-six books found in my KJV (and his version[s].) He hasn’t admitted it yet, but he knows that it wasn’t until around the 17th century that the exact canon now recognized by Fundamentalists was established perfectly in the mainstream (i.e. with no hidden apocryphal books in Daniel or Jeremiah.)

What are the reasons that Christianity rejected the Apocrypha and accepted the book of Revelation? How do you as a Christian, before God, know that the 66 books in your Bible are the Exact ones God intended to be there? Believe me there are plenty of books that didn’t make the cut and several that barely got in, so how can you be sure? Well, as in the cases from the Scriptures (both in type and in clear view) discussed above, God gives us evidence.

James White writes concerning the canon (King James Only Controversy p.47) “God worked with his people over time, leading them to recognize what he had already done through the act of inspiration.”

If God can restore the absolute canon, and it can be proven by the witness of history and the testimony of the church, then He can do the same thing with the actual words that make up the 66 books in 1611 and we offer the same evidence for the establishment thereof. Is that dangerous to you? It is if you make a living teaching Greek and the fine art of textual criticism.

If God can’t restore something that was lost then every life martyred for any major Protestant doctrine has been in vain. Men didn’t trust in the doctrine enough to die for it until they were sure that it was the Word of God from which they learned the doctrine.

CONCLUSION:
I commend James White for actually saying (King James Only Controversy p. 36) what every one of his contemporaries believes:

“All of these things [scribal errors] contributed to the simple fact that there is not a single handwritten manuscript of the Bible, in Greek or Hebrew, that does not contain, somewhere, an error, an oversight, a mistake. To err is human.”

If human error is your main stumblingblock, then I can’t see how you can believe that any manuscript ever was inspired, including the originals. I read page after page of conjecture and assumption concerning scribal error. (“We can’t even write today on a computer using spell-check without making mistakes. What if the scribe’s pet python swallowed the papyrus for a few days and the poor little snake had to wait for it to pass? What if a Klingon spilled a flask of bloodwine on the manuscript? Blah! Blah! Blah!) In all this, I never hear one mention of the power of God. Hey fellas! You forgot your shoes! What happened in the Bible when bad things happened to the written Word? God resurrected it!

I cannot for the life of me understand why a person couldn’t take a standard textbook for Textual Criticism 101, go down the list of possible ways that a manuscript can get mutilated (due to human error), and not be able to apply each one of those possibilities to the autographs. How do we know Jeremiah or Moses didn’t commit “harmonization?” How can we be sure Paul, because of his poor eyesight didn’t misspell a word? Perhaps, after one of his shipwrecks, he might have had water in his ears and heard God wrong. My point is that you must either believe in God’s power or not believe.

Deu 17:
15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose…
18 And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him
a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

There is absolutely no Biblical precedent for God’s inspiration being applied exclusively to the autographs. When the Bible says “scripture” it is always referring to copies. Despite the fact that those copies are subject (or would seem subject) to human error, God calls them inspired:

2 Tim 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God…

Now unless you attempt to redefine “inspired” to mean “you can kind of get the gist of what God intended to say through the original author,” then I would say your sailboat’s just about sunk. Do you believe the originals were inspired? On what Biblical grounds? What proof can you offer that doesn’t equally apply to the canon and the KJV? I don’t think that opponents of the KJV Only position are really sure that there ever were any perfect manuscripts.

Of course, the originals were inspired and so are some copies. The question is which one(s). Is God able? Is he willing? Has He revealed it as part of his nature to resurrect dead things? If not, then we are of all men most miserable (1 Cor 15:19).

If it is any consolation to my opponents in this debate, indeed if it will avoid division, then let me admit possible defeat. I agree with you at least for a while: For one thousand years when the Roman whore ruled with an iron fist, there was not one copy inspired to absolute perfection on the planet. The only source of truth was the “witness of the multitude of copies.” During the darkest age of human history, men clung to the “tenacity of the texts.” True seekers of God poured over “relatively reliable” texts praying to be able to discern the errors. But when men like Walter Brute, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, etc. began to search through the rubble, soon The Book was found!:

2 Chr 34:
14 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.
15 And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
16 And Shaphan carried the book to the king, …

Concerning the resurrected perfect Word: first God gathered the bones, then He put flesh on them, and finally He breathed life into them. God saw fit to allow Christ to die, then raised Him from the dead to appear before Mary Magdalene, and finally took Him up to heaven to complete the resurrection process after which He appeared to His disciples and was touched with human hands. It took some of them a while to recognize Jesus, especially those who had forgotten His promise of resurrection. I pray friend that you remember the promise and recognize the living Word. How will you know it’s him? Look for the scars. If you saw them in the restored canon, or in restored Protestant truth, then you’ll see them in the restored Holy Authorized King James Bible 1769 Oxford Edition.