Welcome to Authorized Sword Ministries. This is a special lesson called Why We Use the King James Bible.

We're so glad you're here.

If you've spent any time with us, you've noticed that every verse we read comes from the King James Bible. Some folks ask us, "Why that one? Isn't it old? Aren't all the versions basically the same?" Those are fair questions, and they deserve an honest answer. So today we want to show you where the King James came from, why we hold it as the Word of God in English, and what has been changed in many of the newer versions.

A Word Before We Begin

If you read a different version, please hear our heart. We're not here to look down on you. Many dear people who love the Lord Jesus read other Bibles, and God has used His Word in all kinds of ways. We simply want to lay the evidence on the table and let you see it for yourself. Then you can open your own Bible, check every example, and decide.

Our Key Verse

Today's key verse is Psalm 12:6-7.

"The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." — Psalm 12:6-7 (KJV)

God didn't just give His words. He promised to keep them and preserve them, for ever. That promise is where this whole lesson begins.

Where the King James Came From

The story starts with a man named William Tyndale. In the 1520s it was against the law in England to have the Bible in English. Tyndale translated the New Testament from the Greek anyway, and it was printed in 1526. Copies were smuggled into England in bales of cloth, and church leaders burned every copy they could find. In 1536 Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake. His last prayer is remembered as, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes."

God answered that prayer. In January of 1604, King James the First called a meeting of church leaders at Hampton Court Palace. A Puritan scholar named John Reynolds asked for a new translation of the whole Bible, and the king agreed.

About forty-seven of the finest scholars in England were put to work. They were divided into six companies, two each at Westminster, Oxford, and Cambridge. These men knew Hebrew, Greek, and the ancient languages better than most people today know English. Every book was checked and then checked again by the other companies. They built on Tyndale's faithful work, and much of the New Testament wording still traces back to him.

In 1611 the Authorized Version was published. That's where our ministry's name comes from. Authorized Sword. For over four hundred years, this Book has been preached in churches, carried by missionaries, and read in homes all over the world.

Two Streams of Manuscripts

Here's the part most people have never been told. Not all Bibles are translated from the same Hebrew and Greek texts.

For the Old Testament, the King James translators used the Hebrew Masoretic Text, carefully copied by Jewish scribes for centuries.

For the New Testament, they used what's called the Received Text, or in Latin, the Textus Receptus. It comes from the great family of Greek manuscripts that the churches read and copied generation after generation. That family makes up the large majority of the Greek manuscripts we have today.

Most modern versions come from a different place. In 1881, two English scholars, Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort, published a new Greek New Testament. They leaned heavily on two old manuscripts. One is Codex Vaticanus, which sat in the Vatican library. The other is Codex Sinaiticus, which was found in a monastery at Mount Sinai in the 1800s. Today's Greek editions, called Nestle-Aland and the United Bible Societies text, carry on that same approach. It's often called the Critical Text. The NIV, the ESV, and most other modern versions are translated from it.

The argument is that older must be better. But older is not always better. These two manuscripts disagree with each other in many places. And we believe a manuscript that survived because it sat unused on a shelf is not more trustworthy than the text God's people were actually reading, copying, and preaching for centuries.

Why We Trust It

Our trust doesn't rest on scholars or kings. It rests on what God said about His own Word. Jesus said:

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." — Matthew 24:35 (KJV)

Peter tells us we're born again by that same Word:

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you." — 1 Peter 1:23-25 (KJV)

If God promised to preserve His words, then His words are somewhere we can hold them. We believe that in English, that place is the King James Bible.

And God gave a serious warning about changing His words:

"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: 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." — Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV)

Side by Side: What Was Taken Out

Now let's look at real examples. Open your own Bible and check these. We checked every one against the current NIV and ESV.

Start in the book of Acts. An Ethiopian man has just heard the gospel and asks Philip, "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" Here is Philip's answer, and the man's confession of faith.

The King James reads:

"And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." — Acts 8:37 (KJV)

The NIV goes from verse 36 to verse 38. It shows the number 37 in brackets with nothing after it, and puts the words in a footnote. The ESV skips the number completely and moves the verse to a footnote. That is a confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and it has been taken out of the main text.

It happens three more times in Acts alone. Acts 15:34, Acts 24:7, and Acts 28:29 are all moved to footnotes in both the NIV and the ESV.

And it doesn't stop there. In the Gospels, the same thing happens to Matthew 17:21, Mark 9:44 and 46, Mark 11:26, Luke 17:36, and John 5:4, and in Romans to Romans 16:24. Here's one that touches the very heart of why Jesus came.

The King James reads:

"For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost." — Matthew 18:11 (KJV)

In both the NIV and the ESV, this verse is gone from the main text and found only in a footnote. Both versions also set off the end of Mark, chapter 16, verses 9 through 20, and the woman taken in adultery in John 7:53 through 8:11, with a note saying the earliest manuscripts do not have them.

Side by Side: What Was Changed

Some verses aren't removed. They're reworded, and the change touches who Jesus is.

The King James reads:

"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." — 1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV)

The NIV reads, "He appeared in the flesh." The ESV reads, "He was manifested in the flesh." The word God is gone from the text. The ESV mentions it only in a footnote, and the NIV not at all. One of the clearest verses in the Bible that God Himself came in the flesh no longer says so.

The King James reads:

"And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him." — Luke 2:33 (KJV)

The NIV reads, "The child's father and mother." The ESV reads, "his father and his mother." But Joseph was not the father of Jesus. Jesus was born of a virgin. Just sixteen verses later, Jesus Himself made it plain who His Father is:

"And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" — Luke 2:49 (KJV)

Micah foretold where Jesus would be born, and told us something about who He is:

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." — Micah 5:2 (KJV)

The NIV says His origins are "from ancient times." The ESV says "from ancient days." Something ancient had a beginning. Everlasting never did. Jesus is the eternal Son of God.

The King James reads:

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:" — Colossians 1:14 (KJV)

In both the NIV and the ESV, the words "through his blood" are missing from this verse, with no footnote.

The King James says Jesus is God's "only begotten Son" in John 3:16, and "the only begotten of the Father" in John 1:14. The NIV says "one and only Son." The ESV says "only Son." We believe "only begotten" says something precious about the unique, eternal relationship of the Son to the Father.

And then there's this one:

"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." — 1 John 5:7 (KJV)

It's the plainest statement of the Trinity in all of Scripture. The NIV moves it to a footnote that calls it late. In the ESV, it's simply gone, with no footnote at all. Modern editors say only a few late Greek manuscripts contain it. We believe God preserved it in the Bible His people received.

It's Not Just One or Two Versions

Maybe you're thinking, "Well, that's just the NIV and the ESV." So we checked five more popular versions on six of these verses. Here's what we found.

"Footnote only" means the verse is not in the main text; its words appear only in a footnote. Checked on BibleGateway.com, October 2026.

The pattern is the same in every one of those modern versions. The NASB, the CSB, the NLT, and the updated NRSV all move Acts 8:37, Matthew 18:11, and 1 John 5:7 out of the main text. None of them says "God was manifest in the flesh." None of them says "Joseph and his mother." And none of them has "through his blood" in Colossians 1:14. The one exception on our chart is the New King James, which keeps all six, because it was translated from the same Received Text as the King James.

What This Means

To be fair, these versions still teach that Jesus is God in other places, like John 1:1. And many people have come to Christ reading them. We rejoice in that.

But we believe it matters that, again and again, the changes fall on the same places. The confession that Jesus is the Son of God. The plainest verse on the Trinity. God manifest in the flesh. The virgin birth. His everlasting nature. His blood. When the changes keep landing on the person and work of Jesus Christ, we believe that's worth taking seriously.

That's why we stand on the King James Bible. Not because it's old, and not because of tradition. We believe it's the preserved Word of God in our language, and it never apologizes for who Jesus is.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." — John 1:1 (KJV)

A Simple Step for This Week

Here's our challenge. Take your own Bible, whatever version it is, and look up the verses in this lesson. Read the footnotes. Compare them with the King James. Ask the Lord to show you the truth. You don't have to take our word for it. Take His.

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

A Prayer

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for keeping Your promise to preserve it, and for the men and women who gave their lives so we could read it in our own language.

Lord, give every person listening a hunger for Your Word, and a love for the truth. Help us never to take away from what You have said, and never to be ashamed of Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh.

Open our eyes, as Tyndale prayed. And help us to read it, believe it, and live it.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for spending this time with us.

This is Authorized Sword Ministries. God bless you.