KJV Onlyism

When I lived in NH, I had the pleasure of meeting a King James Only Baptist. He truly believed that the newer translations like the NIV were taking verses out of the Scripture. After some discussion it was very apparent that his reasoning was circular. If the King James had it, and the NIV didn't, then the NIV took it out. Nevermind the manuscripts that they were based on.

The King James is the Word of God. Why? Because it is. It was the translation America was founded upon. Nevermind the fact that the Puritans did not use it at Plymouth Plantation.

Here is a quote from the translators at beginning of the King James Bible:

Translation it is that openeth the window, to let in the light; that breaketh the shell, that we may eat the kernel; that putteth aside the curtain, that we may look into the most Holy place; that removeth the cover of the well, that we may come by the water, even as Jacob rolled away the stone from the mouth of the well, by which means the flocks of Laban were watered [Gen 29:10]. Indeed without translation into the vulgar tongue, the unlearned are but like children at Jacob's well (which was deep) [John 4:11] without a bucket or something to draw with; or as that person mentioned by Isaiah, to whom when a sealed book was delivered, with this motion, Read this, I pray thee, he was fain to make this answer, I cannot, for it is sealed. [Isa 29:11]

They also firmly believed the original manuscripts were where the translators should always go:

If you ask what they had before them, truly it was the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, the Greek of the New. These are the two golden pipes, or rather conduits, where-through the olive branches empty themselves into the gold. Saint Augustine calleth them precedent, or original tongues; Saint Jerome, fountains.

Here the Translators themselves believed a comparison of translations and commentators of the original languages was a good thing for the man of God to get the "sense" of the original text:

Therefore as S. Augustine saith, that variety of Translations is profitable for the finding out of the sense of the Scriptures: so diversity of signification and sense in the margin, where the text is no so clear, must needs do good, yea, is necessary, as we are persuaded.

I have never read Hip&Thigh blog before, but his discussion of the subject seems helpful. Read here.

If you want to see a good video clip of the John Ankerberg show explaining the circularity of the KJV Only position, then check this out. I had the pleasure of seeing the unedited version. The KJV only guys were simply outmatched.