Introduction

On the first Sunday in January 2026, Pastor Bryan Ross gave another presentation, number 272 in his series, on looking at the history of the King James Bible (KJB) text. (Which has a spelling mistake in the title, he turned “tenets” into “tenants”, a mistake I’ve also made in the past.)

In his presentation, he has attempted to present himself as neutral, historical, logical, etc., in his dealing with (i.e. against) a position that upholds one particular edition of the KJB as best, right and good.

Interestingly he has moved from dealing with an edition itself on its own merits, to the promotion of that edition and the character of its chief promoter, Matthew Verschuur of bibleprotector.com (the author of this response).

Ross is motivated against an exclusive use or upholding of a particular edition for various reasons.

His motivations have resulted in him being driven therefore to selectively marshal quotes, interpret writings and ignore or collapse distinctions held by Bible Protector in order to have rhetorical propagandist effect.

In this, we can show that Ross’ critiques are not fair, somewhat misframing ideas, misapplying an onus of correction for clarity onto Bible Protector (i.e. gaslighting me for being misinterpretable) and filtering comments through his own doctrinal, philosophical, etc. bias.

Basically, Ross is trying to make out that to hold a particular edition as “exclusive” is extreme, and that this ties into his personal problems with my other foundational views. I can understand how Ross would be uncomfortable with someone like me having different doctrinal views than him presenting something which, in its own self, is there for Ross.

By this, I mean that having a correct, standard and pure edition of the King James Bible is itself an end and a concept which could be adhered to, regardless of specifics of denominational affiliation.

I guess Ross should learn from the analogy of King James the First, who held vastly different doctrines and views to Ross, yet Ross can accept the Version made under his name. In fact, he holds to it quite strongly! Now, since the PCE already was edited in the early 1900s, surely Ross should be able to at least accept the concept of having a general terms-of-reference standard, to have an edition as a editorial representative in a definitive way of what is an accurately printed and orthographically exact presentation of the version/translation he uses.

Framing by selective quotation emphasis

Ross mines quotes from my materials, and then he asserts what he thinks those statements “must logically imply”.

Selective quotation can be accurate and still misleading. When he takes various short portions of what I wrote in my draft, he marshals them together in such a way so as to more reconstruct than analyse.

In doing so, Ross constructs a picture of the PCE position that is stricter, flatter and more exclusivist than what it actually is. (For example, when I say that specifically the PCE should be used as “the” Bible, I don’t mean to deny that the Scripture exists elsewhere, or that foreign translations are corrupt or that the Greek and Hebrew are evil.)

He is therefore engaging in contextual reframing in how he editorialises commentary on what I wrote, reading in and implying things I did not state.

The onus and misunderstanding early development

Ross went (selectively) through some of the background of how I was first looking into editions. Even though I had began from a place of uncertainty, I was using the logic of Edward Hills, Dean Burgon, Oliver Cromwell and Church history. The approach therefore was providentialist not Pentecostalist (which I am sure Ross also misunderstands, not knowing of the farflung spectrum of Pentecostal beliefs exceeding the spectrum of different Baptists).

Ross also tries to put the onus on me. He reads something I wrote and then tries to drive things beyond or even opposite of what I have said or meant. He then says that it is up to me to essentially rewrite something so that he doesn’t misinterpret it. That is completely uncharitably holding a person to ransom by essentially knowingly saying that they are meaning something they do not mean, and then saying that I would have to change my writings so he doesn’t misinterpret them.

Levels of purity: Ross’ central category error

The most consequential flaw in Ross’ critique is his refusal to engage in my multi-level framework of purity, despite clear evidence that Ross understands such distinctions exist. At the heart of a lot of Ross’ misunderstanding is a refusal to engage a layered bibliology, one that distinguishes where and how Scripture exists in purity in different levels. The PCE position is not a flat ontology in which Scripture can exist in only one form at one time. Rather, it recognises levels of purity and representation:

1. Scripture itself
   • In the mind of God — pure and perfect
   • In Heaven — pure and perfect
   • In the autographs — pure and perfect
   • In faithful copies and translations
2. Text/Version/Readings
   • The Textus Receptus tradition
   • Foreign and English Protestant translation versions
   • The King James Bible (1611) — pure and perfect
3. Translation
   • Protestant English translations from Tyndale through the KJB
   • The KJB itself — pure and perfect
4. Edition
   • Specific editorial forms (e.g., 1769, later Cambridge editions)
   • The Pure Cambridge Edition (PCE) itself — pure and perfect
5. Setting
   • A particular, editorially stable instantiation of the PCE by having a text file with no typographical error — pure and perfect

Ross repeatedly collapses these levels into one flat category, then accuses the PCE position of denying or being made “more” Scripture than elsewhere. That conclusion only follows because Ross deliberately ignores the framework altogether, and he does so from his biased viewpoint rather than fair dealing.

Of course the PCE cannot be more pure than Scripture in Heaven or the autographs. Of course the PCE can be completely correct without denying or being against other levels of manifestations of Scripture.

It is completely unfair, like comparing apples and oranges, to mix the purity of an edition with the purity of a version. What needs to be understood is that a version needs a pure edition to represent it. The purity of a version is presented correct in an edition. Yet the concepts remain separate, dealing with a version in a textual critical way is entirely different to dealing with typesetting in a orthographic and copy-editorial way. These separate classes or levels of purity relate in both being able to be present in any copy of Scripture or not.

(Think about having a typographically correct ESV. That might be an accurately presented form of the ESV, but its Readings and Translation are still wrong. However, when we say the ESV, we would really want to be saying the typographically accurate form, because that is just common sense. It is not as if inaccurately printed copies are not the ESV.)

Purity as a continuum

Ross seems to insist that terms like “final purification” and “perfect” must mean something like as if this was the first time God’s Word was pure on earth, as though God’s Word was previously impure or unavailable. This is a category error.

Yet there are all kinds of I have said which contradict the way Ross tries to frame me, for example, I say that God’s Word is always pure in Heaven, Scripture was available and effective in the distant past.

The purified seven times in Earth (see Psalm 12) does not deny the purity that “just is” in Heaven. The purified seven times in Earth is most properly in a prophetic way can be seen in the English Bible version/translations. Is Tyndale actually impure Scripture? No. But is the KJB built upon it in a seven fold kind of way? Yes.

The finality of major editions of the KJB with the PCE is to do with editorial culmination, not to the first appearance of purity. To read it otherwise is to collapse editorial history into an ideological absolutism as if no one had the “really real” Scripture until now.

Also, just because the KJB has gone through many editions does not deny the specific important major iterations (folio editions) of editorial importance of the KJB. This means that specifically the 1611s, 1613, 1629, 1638 and 1769 are important milestones. But yes, a smaller Bible from 1612, or Scattergood or F. S. Parris and Thomas Paris’ work is not without contribution. Doubtless Ross might try to make some sort of anti-Newtonian Indigo argument.

Ross knows a lot of what I have said and explained, yet he persists with his narrative, claiming that I will produce materials complaining about him. He anticipates this because he knows he is doing things that deserve censure.

Ross should be careful about becoming another Justin Peters, and also consider about the danger of fighting divine providence.

Doctrine, language and bias

Ross’ critique is not doctrinally neutral. His resistance to the PCE position is shaped by identifiable commitments:

• Mid-Acts Dispensationalism (and Pauline emphasis)
• Cessationism and anti-Pentecostalism
• A specific and restrictive Historical-grammatical hermeneutic
• A low view of providential editorial history
• A philosophy of language that resists letter-level theological significance
• Opposition to forms of authoritarianism and absolutism

Underlying much of Ross’ opposition is a philosophy of language that resists precision. If spelling, capitalisation and punctuation are assumed to be conceptually indifferent, then any claim to letter-level exactness will appear unnecessary or even dangerous.

Ross seems to think that doctrine, meaning or sense is not affected by the small parts of language.

I affirm that doctrinal nuance, conceptual association and sense are communicated by construction, syntax, vocabulary and that words and grammar form are important, meaning that there is significance tied to spelling, capitalisation and punctuation.

Legality requires precision of language. Christianity itself, and the nature of God, is doctrinal and describable. Language is a necessity, and precision thereof an absolute requirement. Ross rejects this premise a priori, then criticises the conclusions that follow from it.

“Glistering Truths” and Relative Precision

Ross seems to portray as if I am claiming that correct doctrine only exists in the PCE. This is wrong. Correct doctrine is communicated in all levels or layers of what Scripture is, but obviously text and translation do affect the understanding of it.

So if we were to compare an Oxford or a Cambridge KJB, obviously there is going to be no difference on Creation, Sin, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, the Rapture, etc. The claim is not that the PCE uniquely teaches the Trinity or the deity of Christ.

In fact, even on very small points of meaning, the differences between a Cambridge and an Oxford are very tiny. Yet, at every last whit, at every last detail, on just a word or letter here or there, there is still something very small. It is a matter of having exactly the very words of God. There are conceptual accuracies in even the minor details.

Ross should understand that the PCE view is the maximal editorial precision that best preserves every nuance of doctrine, meaning, sense and conceptual precision.

The difference is one of degree. The PCE therefore is by design a preservation of doctrine with the greatest editorial fidelity.

Let’s be honest, but even a loose paraphrase may contain Scripture where it aligns with the highest standards. Modern versions are not always wrong, but we can recognise when they are right. Their foundational nature being of the spirit of modernist Infidelity is the reason we should reject them as a whole, but yet we can detect truth within them because we have a known standard of truth to measure by.

And on the editions question, it was, after all, the 1629, 1638, 1769, etc. which had “spirit” lower case in 1 John 5:8, so this should not be lightly rejected today. Some would do so on fairly whimsical grounds like their “feelings”. In fact, that is like a “Pentecostal” response in this present time of general Christian ignorance. But someone saying that the early Barker printings and now a Cambridge letter from 1985 are of greater authority, this would be a mistake. Why are Bible editors of the past hundreds of years all to be rejected because Cambridge University Press, in a time of their own obvious ignorance, said that they were embarrassed about 1 John 5:8?

Key criteria

In relation to the list of key criteria of 12 passages identifying the PCE, Ross has misunderstood, because it is possible to construct a complete and definitive list of differences between the PCE and the Oxford 1769 Folio, or between the PCE and the Concord or the PCE and an Oxford printing of the 20^th century.

That list of key criteria is just a checklist to discern the PCE, not definitively but sufficiently, and further, that list has become the way to define a PCE or not.

Ross asks, “How does Verschuur know this list is complete?” Answer: It is a definitive list to discern a PCE, it is not all the differences or checks for all editions as far as every single reading difference.

Ross asks, “Could there be other changes that could be significant according to his argument?” Answer: These aren’t necessarily all significant or even the most significant, they are just indicative places, which would be usual to find some levels of differences between Thomas Nelsons, Americanised Editions, Oxfords, Zondervan, etc.

Ross asks, “How can one be sure?” Answer: Sure that an edition is the PCE? The PCE has been published by Cambridge etc. since at least 1911 if not earlier and printings of the PCE, including from other publishers printing the PCE, show conformity to a particular editorial text, e.g. that will have “Geba” at Ezra 2:26. So it is empirically and objectively known, this is not a “Verschuur” claim, this is an objective reality that everyone can observe, e.g. David Norton observed the 20^th century/current text.

Therefore, the list is diagnostic not exhaustive.

Phenomena and Providence

Ross takes a mocking tone towards a few (passing) references to earthquakes, comets and historical events as if they are essential proof claims.

I am noting these historical facts as phenomena not as a basis of truth. It is normal to do this in recording history to help contextualise the time frame. But things do have meaning, of course, we live in a universe ruled by the Most High who is an interventionist Being.

After all, there is a lot to show how Kepler’s Star is associated with the inception of the King James Bible. Since God is in control of history, and there are convergencies between “signs and wonders” of Genesis 1 (for example) and God’s outworking in history, this is because God’s will really is done and because the Most High really does rule.

Ross’ labouring of the issue trying to insinuate or create sensationalism is a rhetorical distraction.

Public Articulation vs. Historical Reality

Ross seems to be implying that because the PCE position was publicly articulated only from 2007, it may lack legitimacy.

This confuses recognition with existence.

• The PCE text existed decades earlier
• Cambridge printings demonstrate editorial stability
• Public articulation itself does not create, it identifies

By this logic, many doctrines would be invalid until first formally systematised. I imagine people turning down Nicaean doctrines in 326 because they were a year old, or someone rejecting the KJB in 1612 because it was a year old.

Recent expression does not imply novelty of substance.

This article continues

In Part Two of this article, I’m going to show explicitly Bryan Ross misunderstanding me.