"The translators' manuscript [of the KJV] has been LOST."

"According to a pamphlet published in 1660, it was, five years previously, in the possession of the King's printers. It has not since been heard of. The Translator's Address to the Reader manuscript is said to be preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford." — [from McClintock-Strong Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Vol 1, pg. 562 (1871)].

          According to the above source, the original product of the 1611 KJV translators (their own pre-printed text) is as "lost" forever as the original autographs themselves. Without this "inspired original" translation, "KJV Only" advocates cannot possibly be 100% certain of every detail of the translator's "inerrant" product in 1611, since all printed copies from 1611 to the present contain numerous "errors" that called for six major revisions from 1611 to 1769 (which also means there was no "inerrant KJV" for at least 150 years!).

         Complicating the problem even more for "KJV ONLYS" is the fact that there are 700 known DIFFERENCES between KJV Bibles currently in print (see examples in "Questions for the KJV Cult" and "Revision Is No 'Myth'!"). How can Ruckman, Riplinger, Reese, Evans, Edwards, Waite, Vance, Chick, Marrs, Hyles, ETC., possibly be absolutely certain that they have the "restored inerrant original intent of the translators" in a printed edition of the 1769 KJV when the "inspired originals" of the KJV are forever lost?

          If we, who hold to the inerrancy of the original autographs alone, "have no Bible", then neither do "KJV Onlys" have a "Bible." So they have no "final authority"according to their own false logic!

Question:  If no copies or translations are "inerrant", why did God "infallibly" inspire His Word to begin with?

          The simple answer to this seemingly "unanswerable logic" of the KJV-Onlys came from that great Baptist preacher and scholar, Basil Manly, Jr., when the very SAME ARGUMENT was used by LIBERALS in objection to Biblical Inerrancy:

          "A truly divine original, even if copied with no more than ordinary care and fidelity, is vastly superior to an original, however accurately preserved, that NEVER had divine authority. And obviously the fact that it was recognized and accepted as from God would serve greatly to insure its being preserved with more than ordinary care." — from Basil Manly, Jr.'s THE BIBLE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION pg. 227 (1888).

          So, the obvious reason why "God infallibly inspired His word to begin with" is because if He had not, copies and translations, no matter how accurate, would be utterly worthless. But we have thousands of accurate copies of the Bible in the original languages & many outstanding translations into the languages of the world!

We HAVE the Inspired Word of God  [Psalm 68:11]   —   It is found in the KJV and many other translations all over the world!

Visit the site above & below for more EXCELLENT

Anti-KJV-Only Articles

written by  Gary R. Hudson  former co-editor of Baptist Biblical Heritage

published in Baptist Biblical Heritage, now called THE  PILGRIM  Magazine

(Issue #6, Vol 2, No. 2, Summer 1991)