From "The Answer Book" ©1989 Samuel C. Gipp. Reproduced by permission

QUESTION: What if there really ARE mistakes in the King James Bible?

ANSWER: Then it's up to YOU to find the Book that God was talking about in Psalm 12:6,7 and Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24:35.

EXPLANATION: I learned a great lesson in the late 1960's. I watched on television as riotous hippies burned down the Bank of America offices. Other rioters razed entire neighborhoods to the chant of "Burn, Baby, Burn." The hippies' claim was that they had to burn this country to the ground in order to build a new one. And THAT is what I learned: ANY hippie can burn down a building, but I've NEVER seen even one building that a hippie built.

The cruel truth is that when you become a rebel against authority, such as the hippies were, you become an EXPERT in the art of destruction (II Peter 2:9-15). A life committed to destroying is difficult to reverse. Thus, hippies know how to destroy buildings which were built by others. But they cannot build anything in a productive manner that improves on what they destroyed.

This rebellious hatred for AUTHORITY is also manifested in the rabid attacks on the Holy Bible by self-proclaimed scholars. They can wax eloquent in their destructive criticism of God's perfect Book. Then after reducing it to ashes in the hearts and minds of students and church members, are unable to replace it with anything that even compares with the divine writings they have so viciously attacked.

If you have been convinced by some spiritual hippie that the King James Bible has mistakes in it, then I suggest you ask them to REPLACE it with a Bible that is perfect.

They may point to the New International Version, or New American Standard Version, or New King James Version as a "better translation." But no one will DARE to claim that any of these are the Bible referred to in Psalm 12:6,7 or Matthew 24:35.

If you press the issue they will most likely run you through the brambles and briers of the claim that God's Word is found only in "the Greek." But the fact is that their very limited knowledge of the original languages leaves them unable to read, study or preach from either Hebrew or Greek. Even if they COULD translate either the Textus Receptus or the local Egyptian text of Alexandria literally, they would be forced to admit that there are readings in both that they cannot accept as infallible.

The FACT is, that, like their hippie counterparts of the late 1960's they find themselves standing on a pile of smoldering ruins, without any ability whatsoever to rebuild even an outhouse, let alone render a perfect Bible.

No, if you have been convinced by someone that the King James Bible has errors IN SPITE of the facts, then you have accepted that thesis for only one reason; your love for and loyalty to the Bible's antagonist. The critic is your father, brother, pastor, youth director, college professor, or just someone you love too much to confront or withstand on the Bible issue.

So, if you have been convinced by someone that the Authorized Version has mistakes in it, you should toss your King James Bible into the wastebasket on top of your NIV, NASV, NKJV and both of the Greek texts. Then go to that person, fall on your knees, kiss their ring and say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

But remember one thing: Your God is a REBELLIOUS HIPPIE!