The contradiction of Libertarianism

INTRODUCTION

As inheritors of Anglo-Saxon freedoms, Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and evangelical-influence, we understand that there is rightly an opportunity for Christians to engage in free enterprise. What this does not mean is every man doing what is right in his own eyes.

Limited toleration on expression is vitally important for both the preservation of Christian culture and also the curtailing of dangerous ideas.

Since the Enlightenment, a dangerous trend has come into the English-speaking world, of French and Communistic ideas, which strangely have been associated with the reign of terror, the guillotine, secret police, gulags and forced conformity.

The liberal way has become an enforced global order of world socialism, with man set up as having universal rights, human and associated rights, United Nations dictates and of course the promotion of all kinds of ideas which are against conservative, right-leaning, authority-based Christian morality.

The problem is that these anti-authoritarian notions have infiltrated Christianity. One area where these ideas are noticed are in the King James Bible-supporting Free Grace circle, where there are obvious Libertarian promoters.

A particular circle of these sorts revolve around Bryan Ross. Another author who Ross promotes, whose scholarship in the King James Bible area is quite respectable, is also heavily into Libertarianism. Underlying the Bryan Ross’ differing views to those undergirding the Pure Cambridge Edition is this tension between Libertarianism and Biblical authoritarianism. This also explains the heart behind the “verbal equivalency” ideas.

THE GENERAL PROBLEM

Mixing Libertarianism with Christianity creates a political theology that quietly denies the authority, including political authority, that the Bible requires.

Libertarianism presents itself as harmless with a preference for “liberty”, “non-coercion” and “limited government.” Smaller government and lower taxes are quite fine. Yet beneath this surface lies a full moral system that competes directly with the Bible’s teaching on law, rule, judgment and obedience. Libertarianism is not merely a political opinion, it is a rival doctrine of authority.

This contradiction becomes especially stark when Libertarianism is embraced by those who profess unwavering fidelity to the King James Bible. And yet this Bible is completely linked unapologetically with kings, magistrates, fear, punishment, command and submission.

The question must therefore be asked plainly: Can a Christian affirm the absolute authority of Scripture while rejecting the authority structures Scripture commands? The answer is, No.

AUTHORITY NECESSARY

Scripture does not treat civil authority as a regrettable concession to human frailty. It treats it as a positive good, ordained by God Himself.

“There is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” (Romans 13:1).

Christ Himself is destined to rule with a rod of iron. The minister in the church is the minister of God, bearing a sword as an instrument … and likewise the same passage can be seen to apply to the divinely-ordained civil power in a Christian government.

“For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” (Romans 13:4).

Libertarianism, by contrast, begins with the presupposition that authority must justify itself to the individual, that coercion is inherently suspect, and that force is immoral except in the narrowest case of personal self-defence. It puts each individual man as a judge of his own destiny without any regard to the sovereignty of God. I’m no Calvinist, but obviously God’s will is being done. Therefore, Libertarianism is not a biblical presupposition but, really, a humanistic one.

Scripture never asks whether authority is consensual. It commands submission.

“Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God.” (Romans 13:2).

THE NON-AGGRESSION PRINCIPLE

At the centre of Libertarian political theory lies the so-called Non-Aggression Principle: the idea that force is immoral unless used in direct response to aggression.

Scripture knows nothing of this principle.

God commands:

  • Punishment before consent
  • Judgment before appeal
  • Discipline without negotiation

The law is coercive by definition. Judgment is coercive by nature. Government without coercion is not government at all, it would be mere suggestion.

“If thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain.” (Romans 13:4).

The sword is not metaphorical. It is not voluntary. It is not symbolic. It is real, physical and to be feared. Scripture presents this fear as righteous.

Libertarianism recoils at this.

VOLUNTARISM IS NOT OBEDIENCE

Libertarianism redefines obedience as voluntary association. One obeys only insofar as one consents.

Scripture rejects this outright.

Children do not consent to parents. Subjects do not negotiate with kings. The church does not vote Christ into authority.

“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.” (1 Peter 2:13).

Submission is commanded precisely because it is not optional.

A Christianity that teaches obedience only when authority is agreeable has already abandoned obedience altogether.

A PERFECT STORM OF LAWLESSNESS

When Libertarianism attaches itself to Free Grace theology, the result is a Christianity stripped of both external authority and internal restraint.

  • Christian grace severed from discipline
  • Christian liberty severed from law
  • Christian living severed from fear

What remains is a gospel with no teeth, no terror and no throne.

“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power?” (Romans 13:3).

This is not the gospel preached by prophets, apostles or Christ Himself.

Libertarian Christianity cannot account for divine wrath exercised through earthly rulers, because it denies that rulers have moral authority to act coercively at all.

THE BIBLE IS NOT LIBERTARIAN

The King James Bible was not made nor supplied under Libertarianism. It seems to be absurdity to use the King James Bible as a banner for Libertarian thought.

The King James Bible is a monarchical Bible:

  • Translated under a king
  • Addressed to subjects
  • Filled with kings, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers

It assumes hierarchy as natural and authority as normal.

The language of Scripture is that of rights under duty, not of autonomy, but of obedience and not ofself-determination but divine Lordship (and human lordship).

The master is over the servant, yet should serve; the husband is head over the wife, yet should give himself for her and God is the Father of His children, yet he gave His Son for them.

Libertarianism must constantly reinterpret or soften these terms like “rule”, “bishop”, “command”, “judge”, “obey”, “submit”. Scripture never does.

ANARCHY NOT THE BIBLICAL PATTERN

From Genesis to Revelation, authority flows downward from God, not upward from the individual.

  • God rules kings
  • Kings rule nations
  • Fathers rule households

This is not tyranny. It is order.

Monarchy, as rightly understood, is not the deification of man but the delegation of rule. Even Christ reigns as King, not chairman.

The Bible does not speak against concentrated authority, it speaks against rebellious hearts.

Libertarianism is therefore a political religion that defies proper doctrine.

The issue is not whether Christians should love liberty. The issue is which authority defines liberty.

Libertarianism enthrones the individual. Scripture enthrones God.

The King James Bible leaves no room for a Christianity that rejects the sword, fears authority, or treats obedience as optional. A gospel without authority is not good news. A kingdom without a king is not biblical. And a Christianity reshaped to fit Libertarian ideology is no Christianity at all.

Dealing with confusion

BACKGROUND

A spiritual confusion seems to hang like a fog over some people’s attempted understanding of the PCE. It’s not as if they are wholly wrong, but that they don’t seem to be thinking clearly. I write therefore to help clarify in case anyone is being confused. Surely we shall be all better for clarity.

Pastor Bryan Ross has recently been making a series of videos, which discuss me and the PCE. His attempted analysis is often mistaken, while in part quoting me accurately, he too often misinterprets what I have written and ascribes things to me and my views which are simply wrong.

I stand for the correctness of the King James Bible, leading me to the correctness of a specific Edition. The editing for this Edition was made in the early 20th century, and has been evident through a following body of printings of the KJB from Cambridge University Press. Then, in 2007, I published an electronic file of that same Edition.

Part of Ross’ problem is because he is trying to make a case about some sort of Pentecostal motives behind promoting this Edition, which is clearly not as directly or as overwhelming as he makes out. Also, while Ross believes that the King James Bible is good and right, he does not state overtly that it is a perfect text or a perfect translation, but rather seems to think it is the best or most acceptable Bible in English. Because he doesn’t recognise the providences that brought about the KJB’s perfect Text (set of readings) or perfect translation, he further certainly does not accept a perfect Edition (set of editorial choices), nor a perfect edition (a specific setting of typesetting with associated copy-editing).

Ross wrongly applies the variation found within Scripture, where the Scripture quotes itself, to also apply to the doctrine of sufficiency or gracious sufficiency, which is the leeway we observe in the valid history of Texts/readings/versions, translations, Editions and edition-setting.

Variation in inspiration is not the same as variation in Text and translation. The variations in inspiration are all true, the variations in Text and translation can be true, less true or erroneous.

Ross misunderstands the nature of various works I have written, specifically, my Guide to the PCE (which is still in its draft form), Multiple Fulfilments of Bible Prophecy (and further refinements), A Century of the PCE (which itself went through significant editing over a period of months) and Vintage Bibles.

Consider that I have been up front, open, candid and provided my documentary information (free of charge) of the historical record around how the PCE was made and promoted. Yet Ross has tried in vain to make out some sort of Pentecostal (what he almost implies as self-delusionary) and arbitrary (what he almost applies is self-aggrandising) motives in the process or promotion of the PCE by Bible Protector (me).

At the same time, Ross is trying to sell his own work, including promoting his attempted novel doctrine of “verbal equivalency”, let alone his questionable perspective on interpreting the New Testament which forces only Romans to Philemon to be of special weight beyond the Gospels, General Epistles and Revelation.

Ross has been making a series of teaching videos about the Pure Cambridge Edition which are so often factually off. I will address a few things, but first a timeline:

  • Early 20th century, Pure Cambridge Edition begun with a concerted edit at Cambridge
  • 2000 Cambridge no longer prints the PCE
  • 2000 Matthew Verschuur begins investigating editions
  • 2001–2006 Matthew Verschuur, with the Elders of his church, identify and study the PCE
  • 2007 Bible Protector website launched, numerous booklets released
  • 2009 Monograph Glistering Truths written (several editions over the years)
  • 2013 Sixth draft of the Guide to the PCE encompasses 10 years of research, which lays out a Providentialist framework
  • 2014/5 Multiple Fulfilments of Bible Prophecy book (other books written and materials build/refine) which lays out a Historicist prophecy framework
  • 2024 A Century of the Pure Cambridge Edition gives a summary of the history of the PCE (numerous editions made in 2024), which lays out a promotional documentary history framework
  • 2025 Vintage Bibles, which emphasises a documentary history framework as well as Historicist prophecy framework

NOTE

Please note the use of capital letters which indicate differences in meaning, where Text means version, text means print/words; Edition means editorial choices, edition means any print run/style/size/variety of a Bible.

ANSWERING ROSS ON NUMEROUS ACCUSATIONS

Ross purports to be doing a study/review (an “exposé”) on the PCE and Bible Protector (materials) but much of the content of his review is coloured by his own biases and is more designed to either ridicule or misrepresent (often unwittingly) in a propagandistic framework which is unfair and misleading.

While Ross does tend to quote me fairly accurately, he too often does not interpret me correctly, and often selects quotes and marshals them in such a way as to give an unreasonable perspective.

One case is where I wrote once in the draft of my Guide to the PCE that a certain (way of) reading about the “spirit” instead of “Spirit” leading Jesus into the wilderness could be blasphemous. Ross took that one statement and said, in effect, Look, he is calling all these editions, all these historical KJBs, blasphemous. I concede that I have to revise that one statement for clarity, and that I am talking about anyone who, especially in the future, would insist that Jesus was not led by the Holy Ghost but something else, would be a blasphemy, and that ensuring “Spirit” (which most editions of the KJB have now any way) in Matthew 4:1 and Mark 1:12 would be correct, and would ensure no one would insist on a blasphemous statement.

Ross does this sort of thing a number of times. Like perhaps once in passing I might have mentioned that the Pentecostal revival began in the early 20th century just when the PCE also appeared, which is a Providentialist argument (not specifically a Historicist one). But Ross has taken that like it is a central main stay of my world view, which has not been in my thinking as a point.

ANSWERING THE ACCUSATION ABOUT THE KNOWN EDITIO PRINCEPS

Ross tries to argue that because there is not a known first edition of the PCE, that therefore something is to be questioned. (Because Cambridge University Press does not use that terminology.) Now, logically, one Edition does exist, known as the Pure Cambridge Edition, because of agreement in editorial readings in all those editions that have the PCE. Such agreement is detectable by an easy application of test passages.

If this is consistently true, then something like “Geba” at Ezra 2:26 or “Sara” at Romans 9:9 (for NTs) would also be consistent. Obviously, there is a real consistency with these editions. (See bibleprotector.com/editions).

In relation to newly printed KJB editions from that era, we find consistency in these sorts of things. In the editorial text of existing editions, we find consistency in these matters too, but because Matthew 4:1 and Mark 1:12 were not strictly part of the PCE changes, but had already been made previously in some editions (e.g. the Interlinear Bible and I have a copy of a Clay 1910 Small Pica Bible from Cambridge, for BFBS, which has Victorian readings but these changes), then it came through that process.

In fact, so far, the most early PCE I have found, which may well be the editio princeps is a Quarto (Lectern) edition from 1911.

This is where Ross is thinking like original languages people, where they want to point to autographs. He would want to point to the lectern edition, if it were the first, and say, look, it may have a typo in this or that place (it is not impossible), it may be questioned to disagree with the Bible Protector text file in places like Song of Solomon 6:12 or Joshua 17:11.

Taking this logic even further, are we to falsely be locked to say that only the typographical exactness with the lectern printing is, to the very impression of the ink onto the paper? This is exactly the view of Ross and his friends about the PCE, because they want to create a false wedge. They don’t want to accept the correct copy-editing I did in the electronic text file of the PCE, because they want to set up a false method of measurement.

But their points are not sound, and I’ve answered these sorts of things for years, e.g. this 2015 document: https://www.bibleprotector.com/norris.pdf And besides booklets I have on my website from 2006 and other writings also explained the same thing.

ANSWERING THE ACCUSATION ABOUT DATES

Bryan Ross is playing a game. Watch how it unfolds. I started off with no information really about the PCE, so I had to construct from investigation and research everything. The facts were, from David Norton and from known sources, that the PCE came about around the start of the twentieth century. Generally I stated circa 1900s, which means around or near to the first decade of the 20th century. That means we didn’t know, but could guess that it came from the late 19th century to perhaps World War I.

The earliest physical evidence I had was the early 1930s, then the late 1920s, then the early 1920s, then the early to mid 1910s (World War I), then 1911 being the earliest known copy. Here is what I knew:

  • 2001 to 2020s — late 1920s
  • 2020s — early 1920s
  • 2024 — mid 1910s
  • 2025 — at least 1911

Now, Ross has this whole misinterpretation about my Guide to the PCE, which has led him to incorrectly invent this whole scenario about it, suggesting that the first edition of the PCE was linked specifically to his misunderstanding of my Historicism and his attempt to make an overly-avid case about my Pentecostalism, as though I was arguing for some sort of “verbatim identicality” for some mystical “first PCE edition”, and then later not. This is not the case, because:

  1. When I made the text file of the PCE over the years, particularly in 2006 and formatting it as late as 2011, I was fully aware of places where printed copies differed where I had to make a choice.
  2. I was never trying to “reconstruct” a first editing, or place some sort of emphasis as though the first printing of the first printed copy of the editing was of “verbatim identicality” quality.
  3. We don’t need a first edition when we are dealing with a range of differences in printed copies, and have a very good view of all of them. The concord and harmony of the range of printed editions is so universal, that the differences are something like a hyphen here, the case of the letter “A” on “And” there.

In fact, Ross himself half understands that of course no printed copy of the PCE was immaculate from 1911 or before, until I made an electronic copy. Printing is well understood to be subject to human infirmity unless we have computers, manpower and hours involved. That’s how dealing with an electronic text has made this possible, and word processing computing is part of God’s providence.

Here I talk about relevant information in 2006! https://www.bibleprotector.com/God’s_chosen_edition_of_the_King_James_Bible.pdf

And also here in 2006! https://www.bibleprotector.com/revelation_pure_word.pdf

So Ross is playing a game when he claims that I am allegedly said some editio princeps was the ultimate authority, when I never said such a thing, and in fact show some information in my Guide, pdf pages 174, 178, 546-549, etc.

Ross therefore misleading where I show World War I info as documentary evidence about the making of the PCE in my PCE Century book, that the documentary evidence does not contradict my view as based on Norton and other information stated in the Guide. Norton also shows that in 1931 the PCE did exist as well, but explains that this is not when those changes happened.

So Ross is wrong and foolish to try to say, as he does, that there is some contradiction between my Guide and my Century book.

The thing is, I think he knows what is in my next book, which at the time of writing he has not yet discussed, which is called Vintage Bibles. And that book explains even further, and undermines Ross’ entire mischaracterisation of the situation. I think the fact that he knows it and hasn’t let on could circumstantially mean that he knows he has been saying wrong things, that is, being deliberately not robustly correct.

ROSS CONFUSED

Further, what Ross has done is mix together two different concepts in the hierarchy of different levels or kinds of purity.

Here’s a chart that explains different kinds of purity:

  • Purity of Scripture
  • Purity of Text/readings/version
  • Purity of translation
  • Purity of editing/Edition
  • Purity of setting

Each level is measured in different ways. Ross already has tried to refute this concept with nonsensical arguments and vain philosophy, where he basically ended up saying that editorial changes are translation changes.

I challenged the view (which he says is an unnuanced representation of his view) that different editorial changes are changes in translation. It seems to me that my assessment of his view is accurate.

But then he has tried to explain something about it with a long convoluted mixture of writing, and honestly it’s very hard for me to understand what he is trying to say there.

I am thinking that my straightforward understanding of what he thinks is correct, since he does hold the view that since editing includes checking the Hebrew and Greek, that editing is a translation level enterprise. This of course is a false standard, in that editing (except for italics) is to do with English, not Hebrew and Greek.

I am not trying to misrepresent or be dishonest about what he thinks. But when it comes to levels of purity, I suspect that a mixture of his assistant’s input and potential use of AI is creating convolution.

Well, talking about confusion, he has mistakenly confused the purity of an Edition with the purity of a setting. There can be many editions of an Edition. An Edition is a set of choices of an editor. We can see that the many editions of the Pure Cambridge Edition throughout the 20th century exhibit the same set of editorial choices. Thus, the designation (of or as), Pure Cambridge Edition.

Now, if we go to the 1769, there’s typos in Blayney’s “more perfect” folio copy. We could undertake to correct any such typos and make a critically correct 1769. Of course, no such thing exists, and such a thing shouldn’t exist, because there have been the years of editorial work which has progressively dealt with that situation. The 1769 stands literally as it does, but no one should be foolish enough to think that the typos of 1769 are God’s perfect and purely intended truth. (Nor that it was free of all typos.)

The answer is not only to have the Pure Cambridge Edition, but to have the Pure Cambridge Edition presented in a standard form (i.e. a setting). Well, computer checking and computer files and the internet and modern technology all mean that it was possible after the year 2000. So, that’s what Bible Protector specifically is responsible for: having actually a typographically correct copy of a book, and not just any book, but the King James Bible. That is to say, scrupulous correctness of God’s very words down to the punctuation.

I’m sure I’ve seen typos in an NIV copy I’ve had back in the early 1990s. And, in fact, my family found differences between my mother’s NIV printed in the UK versus ours printed by Zondervan. I don’t know how much it is a Dutch thing in particular that we picked up such things, but there you have some foreshadowing. (I mention this in particular because I suspect there’s a few people of Dutch descent connected to Bryan Ross.)

So, to be clear, an Edition is different to copy-editing editions of an Edition. And specific copy-editing to make a specific edition of an Edition is what I do claim to have undertaken.

So what I did is different but just as necessary as what editors like Blayney or Mede did.

ROSS ALL OVER THE SHOP

Ross tries to focus on my “editorial interventions” in making an electronic text. I mean, if we start from an edition of the PCE and compare to a different edition of the PCE, we still have the PCE because they are all editions of the PCE. So, there are no “editorial interventions”. There would be copy-editing.

Ross says I made “actual changes”. Of course, he is confused. I made no “actual changes”, except I made “LORD’s” [small cap “ORD”] throughout (throughly?) instead of “LORD’S” [small cap “ORD’S”] . So Ross is wrong to say I made “actual changes”, when we have 100 years of anything that is in the electronic text file. Literally, 100 years ago you would see in printed Bibles what it is in the text file in printed copies. Of course I just amalgamated those printed Bibles. I am saying, as a hypothetical experiment, if you had a Cambridge Lectern Bible and a Cameo Bible in 1926, there is nothing in the electronic file from Bible Protector that could not be found in those two together (except for “LORD’s” with a lower case not small capital “s”).

Ross makes up a whole story. He says that I made interventions, or claimed interventions to create a reconstruction of the PCE. Actually, I just presented in one exactly correct form the PCE that already existed in myriads of copies, but Ross wants to create fog around this.

Ross tries to say that I chose editorial readings when Cambridge printings differed to one another. But these are copy-editorial choices, not editorial choices. Because it is a matter of choosing what already literally existed in many different copies of PCEs.

And these differences between PCE copies might be something like a hyphen in a place, so the copy-editing here is literally looking at jots and tittles.

Ross says that I standardised out of many Cambridge and Collins printings. Well, it suddenly becomes a whole different picture when you understand that it might have been one or two things in this printing and one or two in that. We are talking about something like a hyphen here or there.

But by far the more was comparing computer text files which could be riddled with typographical errors.

And what Ross is saying is confusing because I didn’t pick something from Collins over Cambridge. The main focus in copy editing was and is to eliminate typos out of electronic texts, typos like a missing full stop. Typos that also can exist in any printed copy from Bible publishers.

And Ross gets even more confused, saying that I picked between “Geba” and “Gaba” at Ezra 2:26. Except, all PCEs have “Geba”, so he is misrepresenting the case.

Again, he mentions “Hammath” versus “Hemath”, which is actually a change made in the late 1940s, and not in the many PCEs printed between 1911 and the Second World War. All KJB editions and decades of early PCE printings have “Hemath”, and so did all Collins editions.

Even stranger, Ross says that choices were made around the twelve tests, e.g. “bewrayeth” versus “betrayeth”. This is complete nonsense. Ross has completely got this wrong, no Cambridge had “betrayeth”. Again, to compare “spirit” and “Spirit” criteria of the PCE, it can never be said that choices were made between PCEs on this, since no PCE contains anything that the tests find negatory. The tests are not differences in PCEs, they are differences between Cambridge PCE printings and various other editions around the place, and these are things I did not edit or copy-edit, since they were already all correct in PCE copies.

To make it clear: I copy-edited, not edited. I made one innovation, in line with copy-editing, though in the area of formatting, which is to make “LORD’s” [small caps ORD] with a lower case “s”.

And Ross gets everything wrong, he says, “Bible Protector enforced the PCE’s key criteria, in cases where historical PCEs occasionally violated them. Historical PCEs sometimes contained lower case ‘spirit’ where he requires capital ‘Spirit’, or ‘betrayeth’ where he requires ‘bewrayeth’. But Verschuur’s electronic text enforces the 12 point test absolutely. Whenever a printed PCE disagreed with the 12 tests even once he fixed the reading in the electronic text. Verschuur introduced one unique typographical convention, LORD’s, using small cap s.”

Everything is wrong there. Everything. There’s no PCE with variants on the 12 points. Many copies of the KJB use small caps for the “ORD’S” lettering on LORD’S. I made the “s” lower case not small cap. Or, as young people say, “no cap”.

This one paragraph of complete nonsense from Ross should be illustrative of how bad, wrong and confused his “review” is of my position or of the PCE.

The reality is that the electronic text does represent printed Bibles from Cambridge, and specifically, those designated PCE by the twelve tests.

Ross is now either highly confused because what he is saying is just not factual. He refers to pages 11 and 12 of my Century book, which says the opposite of what he is saying.

CONCLUSION

Ross has tried to use AI in his work, and also his pals to help look into the matter, but it just isn’t what they think. The so-called logical issues they have come up with are based on misinterpretations.

Now, obviously, on the best intentions and best information, the question about who edited the PCE to start with, and when, has become more clear. But it is not certain. What is important is that I have been honest and public in what I have done.

By this time in 2026, having written Vintage Bibles and A Century of the PCE, my knowledge on the history of the PCE and Cambridge has become a lot more than what I knew in 2023. But everything learned has not undermined the PCE in any way.

I understand that Ross could wish to say that I, in fact, made the PCE itself, which I didn’t since it already existed more than 100 years ago. So, he could, if he was going to honestly appraise the situation, say:

I recognise that Bible Protector drew on a plethora of agreeing editions of the KJB from the 20th century and was wholly in line with normal and capable copy-editing techniques, that he weighed correctly based on Cambridge printed KJBs themselves, and only then other relevant sources, such as the 1769 and 1611, that he also showed in line with a wider lens the Geneva, Bishops’, Scrivener, Revised, 1911 Wright 1611 and Norton for comparison, and that his one innovation appears to have been already done by David Norton himself. Therefore, what is called the PCE (as in the electronic text) is fairly a representation as a standard edition of the 20th century Cambridge KJV Bibles, and it is perfectly legitimate.

He could also honestly say, Taking the PCE on its own, I am fine if we agree to use it as a point of standard reference in an ordinary sense, especially going forward into the future. I personally disagree with Verschuur on some aspects of his theology, view of Bible prophecy, but that is no more relevant than as much as my views differ to Dr Blayney’s, Dr Mede’s, Lancelot Andrews’, Miles Smith’s or King James Stuart I of Great Britain’s as well.

“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Cor. 14:33.

Throughly and thoroughly looked at

UPDATED ARTICLE

Both “throughly” and “thoroughly” appear in the Bible.

The words cannot be synonyms, because if they just mean the same thing, then why use two different “spellings”? But clearly there is some distinction in meaning. Following a simple process, we find distinction of meanings of words by a two step method:
1. Examining all the places each word is printed using a standardised, pure edition.
2. Then examining dictionaries/records.

In fact, a full examination of this topic needs to be made, because when I wrote a book mentioning this in passing, I didn’t really look into it.

Looking into it tentatively, from the Scripture it could be suggested that THROUGHLY means fully/completely, and that THOROUGHLY means to have gone through, like as a process that penetrates or accomplishes an exacting going right through. However, I think a fuller examination has to be made of the topic.

Also, for assistance, here is the information from the Oxford English Dictionary.

OED -> Throughly. 1. Fully; completely; perfectly. 2. Through the whole thickness, substance or extant; through, throughout, all through, quite through. And a subcategory meaning to that, Through, from beginning to end; for the whole length or time; all through.

OED -> Thoroughly. 1. In a way that penetrates or goes through; right through, quite through. 2. In thorough manner of degree; in every part of detail; in all respects; with nothing left undone; fully, completely wholly, entirely, perfectly.

It used to be said by some KJBO advocates many years ago that “throughly” meant “fully through the inside as well as the outside” while “thoroughly” just meant on the outside. So this implied that the meaning dichotomy was on whether the description was to do with the inside of something. I expect that those old definitions were not based upon a full examination nor were rigorously correct. Moreover, some people have looked into this area since to study further the distinctions.

Someone could just take the first definitions from both entries of the words from the OED, and this already shows, by the differences between them, that these are two separate words with separate meanings.

Simplistic definitions as given by others abound, and the internet is full of all kinds of possibilities of meaning. Rather than confuse the issue, I will make a more comprehensive study, because it is evident that

There are people who try and say that these two words mean the same thing. They do this because they are taking simplistic looks at dictionaries and also trying to make out that 1611 spelling is authoritative over current editions.

While it is true there are very close similarities in both spelling and meaning, they are not the same thing. I also think that definitions given in the past, when the issue had not yet been looked at properly, could give rise to people saying that such things are wrong or unclear, leading some to claim that there is no difference meaning.

Just because spellings in old KJB editions have varied, this does not mean that spelling doesn’t matter or that the words are identical after all. Lack of standardised English orthography, typographical errors, etc. are all possible factors.

We know that the way it is now in our current edition is correct, and that typography and orthography were not always so precise, when we begin from 1611 or from Tyndale.

Thus, the need to better understand and define words or differences, where study needs to be done. So far, in my preparation for a more concerted examination, it is obvious that there is a distinction between “throughly” and “thoroughly”, that they are not just the same thing or a meaningless spelling variation of the same word.

The little foxes

WRONG ASSUMPTIONS

Sometimes people have the wrong ideas, and little wrong ideas can lead to big wrong ideas.

The other day, I saw Bryan Ross (in his attempt to cast doubt on some of my views) try to say that basically the twelve passages that are used to identify the Pure Cambridge Edition were somehow something to do with Pentecostalism, as though the list had been compiled with largely or somewhat Pentecostal intentions.

The idea he has mistakenly thought is that as if I made a list that specifically or secretly is connected to passages about Pentecostalism, and so that allegedly I could say that if a Bible doesn’t match up with it, it isn’t pure. This is nonsense, and is so nonsense that I didn’t immediately realise that Bryan Ross was trying to make this point.

It’s a made up point, of course, because the twelves places to test whether an edition of the Pure Cambridge Edition were made not with reference to or because of Pentecostalism really at all.

It happens that there was a passing reference in the context of one of the places, 1 John 5:8, or rather, why a lower case s “spirit” would even be in the Bible, with a question to its relation to Pentecostalism among other things. But Ross takes that and builds a whole narrative out of it.

Much later, when I did analysis on what the implications would be between different editions on possible doctrinal understandings based on differences, I referenced the work of the Holy Ghost. For example, the fact of Jesus being led into the wilderness to be tempted is not specifically a Pentecostal doctrine, but I might consider a reason about it from a Pentecostal perspective. However, there are many other reasons and issues and facts to consider with that kind of example at Matthew 4:1 and Mark 1:12 which have nothing to do with Pentecostalism.

But then, if I mention Pentecostal once somewhere, that’s a trigger, an alert. This leads to incorrectly framing a case.

MISUNDERSTANDING AND FRAMING

Another of Bryan Ross’ wrong assumptions about me and what I have said is about Historicism. He has hinted that there is a claim that I am apparently making that there was something special in Historicism about the early 1900s, in relation to the rise of Pentecostalism and the making of the PCE and something special about 100 years later, with the discovery of the PCE.

The only thing is that both of these things are not overtly part of any Historicist framework. I mean, they could be connected in the big picture in passing, but these events are not pointed to in a vivid way in Bible prophecy. This wrong assumption is probably in part because he does not understand Historicism, but also is actively framing rather than examining the information.

When someone looks at information, not to understand it, but with bias and prejudice to confirm some accusation, then it is likely to get these sorts of strange assumptions and erroneous judgment.

Such a view can of course go wild.

“Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth,” (James 3:5b).

SANDY FOUNDATIONS

A lot of the reasons why Bryan Ross does not like what I stand for in these particular matters is because he has an incorrect doctrinal and interpretive framework.

Not only does he reject Pentecostalism, which really isn’t the issue in these matters he makes it out to be. He is, it seems, ideologically committed to a libertarian style approach which is really anti-authoritarian, which is to say, trying not to have a rigid imposition of the New Testament yoke upon believers.

For example, take “he” and “she” from the two 1611 Editions of the KJB, and then tell us whether God’s truth is singular or multiple. Ross pushes a view called “verbal equivalence”, which means he tries to make various differences in the KJB editions as tolerable.

Except Ross knows that only one reading is correct, which is also the truth-based approach that I take. So, obviously his “freedom” to accept different variations as if they don’t matter now doesn’t count because he thinks that “he” was incorrect, which of course is also my view.

In fact, surprisingly, Ross does some correct method in how he finds “he” to be incorrect, he uses logic like, conference of scripture, context of the place, English grammar, editorial processes, historical Protestant Bible testimony and textual criticism/causes of corruption logic.

However, Ross goes further, and mentions other arguments which should be considered secondary, but the big one he puts as his probably most primary, is he goes to the Hebrew, listens to the commentators (in this case Norton), goes to the alleged draft of the 1611, looks at modern versions/translations and applies the general error of modernist-influenced reasoning methodology.

I described all of this because there are so many opportunities for Ross to get things wrong, really, because his foundation is not the Word and Spirit authoritative approach.

Because he doesn’t accept the Providentially supplied authority of the Pure Cambridge Edition and using it for an (obviously) English-first analysis, he will be subject to relatively greater error in his judgments when examining places of the Scripture in regards both to editions questions or to Bible interpretation.

What he is not doing, which I think is vital, is beginning Bible analysis, study and editions examination, all of that, from an KJB-first, English-first and PCE-first perspective. To accept that as a foundation would be to adhere to a good and proper authority.

A pure word leads to pure doctrine

SECTION ONE

The Pure Cambridge Edition of the King James Bible has existed a long time, for many decades, and is therefore very fitting to be considered as a genuine and standard representation of the King James Bible.

In his lesson #273 on the history of the King James Bible text, Bryan Ross continued ignoring the actual history of the Pure Cambridge Edition, but rather just concentrated his study on my beliefs. He obviously has very different views in relation to Pentecostalism, so I think that’s a lot of the reason why he is pushing so far into this area.

Remember, that I am clear that I have beliefs, and am upfront about them. Remember also that the King James Bible is in the hands of the Body of Christ, so this is not my property. And also, the Pure Cambridge Edition existed for a long time before I was ever born, so again, it is commendable as a standard, even if Ross has real problems with my Pentecostal beliefs. (One Pentecostal can have issues with other Pentecostals because there’s a variety of them!)

I have brought up a variety of reasons for the King James Bible and the Pure Cambridge Edition, which I have made from my perspective of history, doctrine, etc. These are to make sure there is consistency from my view, but there are specific points that I’ve made which are like passing facts but not that I major on.

While I believe that Pentecostalism is correct, my point is for people to have the King James Bible, and that’s the emphasis I’ve taken, which is evident in everything I’ve written. However, for obvious reasons Bryan Ross has concentrated on those areas (e.g. a comet), and it seems he is trying to make out things too far.

Now, since the Scripture is the basis for doctrine, from my point of view, I would want to see how the Scripture would relate to it, and specifically, being Pentecostal, I’d want to make sure that proper Pentecostal doctrines match the King James Bible.

To be clear, if the Bible itself is the basis of doctrine, and the PCE an “instance” of the Bible, then it has not been Pentecostal doctrine that made me select the PCE. If, in any way, Ross tries to say this, he would be completely wrong. I am actually arguing that if we start from the KJB, and a proper presentation of it, that we should align our doctrine to it. I have sought to understand right doctrine from a right presentation of Scripture.

The problem for Bryan Ross is that I don’t think he is starting from the KJB as the actual foundation to his doctrine. I suspect in some areas he is misinterpreting Scripture by applying certain beliefs onto Scripture, but I don’t want to talk about that, because that’s something that can be argued in general for a lot of Christians. Instead, I want to ask whether or not Bryan Ross is actually appealing ultimately to the KJB as its own authority as the basis of his doctrines, or whether he is really going to the original languages as his ultimate appeal. (That’s also an issue with his grammatical-historical interpretative method.)

So, it is only since the PCE that I have sought this idea of saying that pure doctrines are going to be built on having the pure word in practice. I did not arbitrarily select the PCE because it somehow was going to give me a biased outcome, I look to it on the basis of Providence, etc. The outcome is whether or not the Body of Christ can come to the KJB and to the PCE, and that we all build our doctrine on the same thing. I’m saying it is the work of God, if we judge doctrine by the PCE, we will see whether Pentecostalism, Trinitarianism, etc. is right. I think they are, but I think the issue now will be upon accepting the PCE as the basis, whether people will keep to the grammatical-historical interpretation method that is not even KJB-centric, or whether we actually have an English-scripture-exclusivity in our doctrine, and then interpret with one mind to have a unified body of Christ with correct doctrine.

My “real” belief is not merely about the PCE, but is about this verse:

“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Eph. 4:13, 14).

Logically, if Christians have the same set of words, and interpret by the true Holy Ghost, then we will come to the unified Body of Christ.

I believe in moving towards that. And with ancillary doctrines being Wesley’s and Finney’s Christian Perfection, and Word of Faith’s controversial doctrine about being sons of God, then just how far could things go before the rapture?

It is a faith position because sight says, “people are squabbling about whether there even is a correct edition of the KJB” let alone the millions of other squabbles that a person might regard. I know what I am saying may seem very extreme now but I think it is a good extreme for us all: basically we have to ignore everything and believe Ephesians 4:13, 14.

“Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” (Isaiah 42:19–21).

SECTION TWO

In my original longwinded analytical approach on several editorial differences between the Pure Cambridge Edition and other editions, one of the fields of study I suggest is to measure editorial differences on doctrinal bases.

Now, remember, this is long after looking at the 1611 Edition, and at various historical editorial editions, like 1769, and the context, and so on. After all that, then to think about doctrinal implications of editorial differences.

In my draftings of my “Guide to the PCE”, I have an area (which being a draft is still subject to editing) which Bryan Ross quoted. It is where I make some comments about the lower case versus capital form of “Spirit” at Matthew 4:1 and Mark 1:12.

I acknowledge that area needs to be edited for clarity, but Bryan Ross is trying to make something more than what I am meaning.

First, that various older KJBs have the word “spirit” in lower case at Matthew 4:1 and/or Mark 1:12 when the parallel passage in Luke shows it is the Holy Ghost, meaning that we know it should be the “Spirit”.

Second, let me say that this has been perfectly legitimate historically as far as plenty of Christians using Bibles that have had that variation, but only when pressed on very exacting doctrinal grounds could we say that this is inaccurate. I do not think anyone has been seriously or doctrinally led astray because Bibles got it wrong back in the 18th and 19th centuries on this point.

Third, because of the potential to lead people astray, especially in context of the Pure Cambridge Edition being known and established, but in general, then obviously it would start to become problematic in a real sense to reject the “Spirit” capital rendering. Only upon insisting upon rejecting that the Holy Ghost actually is being meant would amount to blasphemy.

Rhetorically, one can ask the question, are you insisting on a lower case “spirit” at Matthew and Mark there to deny the Holy Ghost specifically? If so, such a motivation would lead into error or even blasphemy, surely. That is, as this issue becomes more aware, and people begin to take the printing of the KJB seriously, and editorially people refuse to conform to “Spirit” there, or start to argue and support “spirit” in Matthew and Mark there, then I think they would have to be pushing for something erroneous.

Further, if by accident, based on the historical times of wrong printings in some editions, people concluded that it meant something other than or against the Holy Ghost, I would think this a problem to be avoided by having a standard edition.

After all, both Cambridge in other editions and some Oxford editions themselves have moved to “Spirit” in Matthew and Mark, so obviously there has been a fair bit of agreement on this point. It is therefore not a singular opinion of mine, but it was such an issue that even other publishers have made the change before I was born!

So it’s pretty clear that Bryan Ross is making too much of the matter, though I can say that I hope to clarify the issue by finishing the draft one day, so as to better express the information, and also so that people like Bryan Ross don’t try to say that I am saying “spirit” historically was a specific blasphemy, when we know that variation has existed in how the word “spirit” or “Spirit” has been capitalised or not.

Bryan Ross is trying to peg me into a “verbatim identicality” corner for his own rhetorical interests, when I clearly have already explained that having the PURE text and translation of 1611 is a separate matter to having pure editing, orthography and printing/typesetting. Ross is unfairly conflating these matters.

So, Ross cannot be trusted to present my Pentecostal views quite fairly as he has a bias against those views, though he did have plenty of quotes from me, if when taken themselves, do indicate my views.

I do believe in a range of views outside of the usual label of “Pentecostal”. I personally can get along with people from a variety of denominations which might be usually “non-Pentecostal”. I think the KJB is for all Christians, and believe that there is a conformity to proper doctrine that would be happening only by God, because with man that would seem impossible.

Finally, I want to make it very clear that everyone who is born again has the Holy Ghost, which is the Spirit of God. I’d like all believers to use the KJB, and specifically, to use the PCE.

Proper Pentecostalism teaches that beyond being born again is the invitation (really the command) that Christians should have a full baptism in the Holy Ghost which does have a specific evidence of speaking in tongues.

And you know, I could use an Oxford Edition to teach that. I could use an Oxford Edition the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, etc. So, I think Bryan Ross’ stretched conclusions need to be brought into check.

SECTION THREE

I want to continue to clarify some things so as to answer Ross’ critiques that have been raised regarding Pentecostal theology, doctrinal reasoning and the PCE.

First, to answer Ross’ claim that my acceptance of the PCE was driven by Pentecostal theology. This is not the case. My initial recognition of the PCE as a standard representation of the King James Bible came by Providential reasoning and historical examination, not from doctrinal presuppositions. The PCE existed for many decades before I was born, and its existence, editorial consistency and alignment with historical printings were primary factors in my evaluation. Sound theology is relevant only after this assessment, as a confirmatory lens, helping to understand how certain editorial readings — like “spirit” or “Spirit” — relate to broader Christian doctrine. Yes, my theology includes Pentecostalism, but it did not dictate my acceptance of the PCE.

Second, regarding doctrine’s role: yes, doctrinal reasoning functions normatively at decisive points, but always after historical, textual and providential analysis. For me personally, Pentecostal theology is a presupposed truth, but my concern is not to impose a theological outcome on the text. In fact, the opposite is the case. I have approached the PCE as dictating doctrine, and in a consequential way explored how the PCE naturally aligns with proper doctrine as a whole. (And, yes, I think there is proper Pentecostal doctrine as part of full proper doctrine.) My approach remains consistent: Providence and textual reality come first, doctrinal observations came second.

Third, about the finality of God’s words being manifested definitively: the authority and correctness of the PCE are both theologically and historically grounded. Theology provides the presuppositional lens of God’s providence, while history and the observable reality of PCE printings available to the early 2000s provide the factual substrate. This creates a self-authenticating standard: the PCE demonstrates internal consistency, historical continuity and practical usability in the Body of Christ. Authority to treat the PCE as final is exercised through discernment informed by these factors, not by a reproducible or mechanical method alone. The modern world and Enlightenment philosophy tend toward revision because of uniformitarian tendencies (all things continue as they have) which is something which the PCE’s stability and finality answers, based on a view that God is outworking to very specific ends.

In regards to the “Spirit/spirit” issues in Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12, Acts 11:12, Acts 11:28 and 1 John 5:8, these cases illustrate how textual variation interacts with downstream doctrine. Historically, earlier editions quite often printed “spirit” in lowercase, and legitimate practice survives in many places where simplistic assumptions might demand “Spirit” capital. In places the “Spirit” capital was made, it was obviously for good reasons.

In fact, I think that the reasons for the 1769’s “spirit” at Matthew 4:1 to the modern day “Spirit” capital are entirely legitimate, and can easily be, by common sense, demonstrated on conference and doctrinal grounds. And to fight that change by strong resistance and so on would be a most grave error, because at some point it would become a blasphemous reason why it is being resisted I would think.

So, it would seem strange for Cambridge to, on no doctrinal or other good grounds, make the decision to make 1 John 5:8 “Spirit” capital when it has stood as “spirit” lower case since 1629 in normal Cambridge printings. Blayney had “spirit” too, and do many other sources. So then why was this suddenly an “embarrassment”? On what grounds exactly is it an embarrassment?

Weirdly, Bryan Ross, who basically tries to argue that there is only “verbal equivalence” yet hypocritically is ready to wave about an 1985 letter from Cambridge as some sort of victory … I though he was prepared to accept all normal editorial variations in his libertarian approach?

Yes, I say “normal” in a contemporary sense, but the are not all right.

Anyway, my investigation into these readings was first historical and textual, noting how older Cambridge and Oxford editions rendered the words. Only later, as a clarifying measure, did I explore what the doctrinal implications could be of these in different editions, and obviously my doctrinal reasoning includes a Pentecostal understanding. This demonstrates that textual reality is primary, and doctrinal interpretation comes as a secondary lens to confirm or clarify meaning, not to create the standard itself.

Accepting the standard is a doctrine in itself, not Pentecostal in a traditional sense, but a Fundamentalist, Providentialist and Puritan-derived.

And since my idea of the authority of theology flows from starting from the PCE as a standard, I can say that specific textual questions, such as “Spirit” versus “spirit,” were assessed first by historical and textual reality, and secondarily by doctrinal clarity, ensuring the PCE both reflects the historic text and aligns with proper theological understanding. I think a lot more theological study needs to be done, and it’s there for the entire Body of Christ to look at and study.

The PCE is not some textual curiosity but is a practical, providential and spiritually validated standard for the King James Bible in English, available to all believers, and a basis upon which Christians may rightly interpret doctrine and pursue unity.

And for the record, I did not have a checklist of Pentecostal doctrines and then check editions to make sure I could find a most confirmatory edition of all edition options.

I did not know in 2001 or 2002 that the 1769 Edition had “spirit” lower case at 1 John 5:8.

I really hope that the disagreement that Ross has with me is not my faith-based providential finality versus a historically open-ended textual stewardship position, because I know exactly where the modernists sit on that spectrum.

Reclaiming the name of Tyndale

Opening thoughts

During the Reformation some 500 years ago, William Tyndale laboured to bring the word of God into English. What he began ended with the King James Bible.

Tyndale was not a modern textual critic, neutral academic or unbelieving liberal student of Scripture. He was a professing Christian whose translation work was guided by the strong conviction that the word of God is clear, authoritative and binding because it is God’s word, not because scholars approve it.

Tyndale’s opposition was not merely to Rome’s control of Scripture, but to any system — clerical, institutional or intellectual — that places human mediation between God’s word and the believer. His insistence that Scripture be placed directly into the hands of ordinary Christians was grounded in faith. He believed God was the author and that what God had spoken could be known, trusted and obeyed.

From this starting point, it is historically and theologically coherent to argue that Tyndale himself would have stood opposed to modern approaches that treat the biblical text as unstable, perpetually reconstructible or dependent upon scholarly consensus for its authority. Such approaches do not rest on faith in divine preservation, but on scepticism, that is, naked unbelief.

This unbelief is built upon Enlightenment philosophy and permeates the organisations using Tyndale’s name today, being Tyndale House Cambridge (UK) and Tyndale House Publishers (USA).

Tyndale’s Theology of Scripture

Tyndale translated Scripture under persecution because he believed God had already given His word and that it could be faithfully received and rendered in good English. His confidence rested not in the recovery of an original autograph but in God’s providential preservation of His word for His people.

This is the fault line between Tyndale’s theology and modern textual criticism.

The modern critical approach as refined and institutionalised in places such as Tyndale House Cambridge operate on the assumption that:

  • the biblical text exists in a state of uncertainty,
  • preservation is partial and uneven and
  • authority must be reconstructed through scholarly comparison of manuscripts.

This approach, however sophisticated sounding, begins not with faith in God’s promise to preserve His word (see Psalm 12:6–7), but with methodological doubt. Such doubt is not neutral because it assumes a deistic posture that contradicts the doctrine of preservation.

This unbelief is a serious problem. Faith, according to Scripture, operates through confident hearing and speaking of the word (see Romans 10:17). A text surrounded by scholarly uncertainty cannot function as a stable object of faith. One cannot boldly confess what scholars themselves treat as tentative.

We are told that the word is nigh us (see Romans 10:8), but this is not what modern EVANGELICAL scholarship teaches. And this problem is permeating Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian and Reformed Churches.

This is a spiritual problem that continually injects uncertainty in the text and translation of Scripture.

Tyndale’s Provision of Scripture

It is well known that William Tyndale was making a profit out of providing the Scripture, but that profit was for funding the Scripture. He had to be paid for his labours.

While Tyndale House Cambridge represents scholarly mediation like the Catholic priests, Tyndale House Publishers represents editorial mediation. This is the other end of the same continuum.

The rise of paraphrases and dynamically equivalent translations, most notably The Living Bible, rests on the assumption that the biblical text, as historically received, is insufficiently clear or effective on its own.

The assumption of paraphrase, with all its doctrinal expansion and doctrinal smoothing, would have been foreign to William Tyndale. Such a concept undermines verbal authority and the accuracy of the communication. Scripture’s power is inseparable from its written form.

Since words are important, then altering the words of Scripture alters its expressive force. To change Mary from a virgin to a maiden is dangerous. A believer cannot “stand” on the legal language of God’s law and promises if the Scripture’s words have been dumbed down and altered.

The problem is that market forces and commercial interests are manipulating the provision of Bibles. There is no need for new translations or new versions but these are pushed as consumer products.

Sadly, Scripture is being treated as dependent on human expertise for its clarity, authority or usefulness.

William Tyndale rejected precisely this model because he actually believed:

  • God had spoken clearly,
  • God preserves His word and
  • believers could trust and obey it without institutional filtration.

Closing thoughts

Ironically, both institutions mentioned appeal to the legacy of William Tyndale, yet neither fully embodies his conviction.

Tyndale’s passion was not deistic scholarship or market consumerism, but people’s direct access to the word of God in a stable, authoritative form. His goal was not endless revision but final clarity so that even the ploughboy could know and declare Scripture.

At least Tyndale House Publishers provide Hendricksons KJVs, whereas figures associated with Tyndale House Cambridge have been openly against the King James Bible, such as, D. A. Carson (who wrote a whole book essentially attacking the KJV) and John Piper (who has preached against the KJV).

As such people lay claim to the Tyndale legacy while attacking, rejecting or otherwise trying to undermine the KJV they are sadly working in an opposite direction to what Tyndale stood for, and to what actually perpetuates his legacy, which is the King James Bible itself.

There are Roman Catholics who try to argue that Protestants should come back to the supposed real and original Church, but actually, Christians should be invited to come back to the authoritative English Bible.

This year we celebrate the 500th anniversary of Tyndale’s translation. This anniversary marks a turning point in the history of the English Bible. Because of the pioneering work of Tyndale, the word of God was able to come into the hands of the hands of ordinary people. It’s now time to make sure that all who use the banner of Tyndale are not working to undermine his legacy. The KJV is the Bible for the all people: prince or pleb.

Framing the PCE position — Part Two

This article continues

In Part One of this article, I addressed the overarching problem of framing in Bryan Ross’ treatment of the Pure Cambridge Edition (PCE) position. I demonstrated that his critique relies heavily on selective quotation, the collapsing of necessary bibliological distinctions and the imposition of his own doctrinal and philosophical presuppositions onto my position. The result is not a neutral assessment of the PCE, but a reconstructed version of it. He has produced a false narrative that presents my view far flatter than I have ever claimed, making it seem ridiculously exclusivist.

In this second article, I will move beyond general framing issues and deal directly with several specific instances where Ross misunderstands, misrepresents or reverses what I have actually said. The aim here is not merely to correct errors, but to show in some detail that Ross’ objections consistently fail because they are aimed at a position I do not hold.

Pentecostalism

“On April 4, 2001, I then stated to the Elders of Victory Faith Centre a case in favour of this, which was when I fully recognised the correct edition. I then came to understand the meaning of the word ‘spirit’ with a lowercase ‘s’, and its connection to proper Pentecostal doctrine, namely, that the Spirit is to work in the human spirit (such as Christian sanctification and the impartation of knowledge), as well as His Pentecostal filling of it.”

In 2001, I was trying to understand things. This is the very beginning of it all.

I was coming from a position of having a wide margin Cambridge KJV Bible that probably would have been a PCE except it had a capital “Spirit” at 1 John 5:8. That was the issue at that time. I knew very little about editions, really nothing of Cambridge’s print history, at that time.

History has vindicated all of this, for example the sharing online of a letter from 1985 from Cambridge University Press which exposes their view that indeed the lower case “s” on “spirit” at 1 John 5:8 was their normal editorial text.

Norton’s book wasn’t even published yet in 2001. Yet, in such times of ignorance, careful study and aligning to Providence is what would show this step to be correct. I only had access to things like D’Oyly and Mant’s 1817 Folio (or maybe more Quarto).

Now, when I said about the understanding of “spirit” lower case in “connection to proper Pentecostal doctrine”, I am talking about the set of doctrines that a Christian who happens to be Pentecostal holds. You can see that by my reference to sanctification which is not an exclusive Pentecostal doctrine at all. That is what I was meaning. So the logic goes:

  • Providential signs show “spirit”;
  • I use a “Full Counsel of God” doctrinal approach which includes Pentecostalism and
  • Make a logical, doctrinal and linguistic basic case for “spirit”

That was only to understand why or how it would be possible that the word “spirit” would be lower case. It is two logical steps: could it possibly correct and then why would it be correct?

It is not a statement of the actual meaning or doctrine of 1 John 5:8. I am not saying that anything I said was actually what 1 John 5:8 actually should be explicitly interpreted as. I am only talking about why the word “spirit” would appear in the KJB lowercase and what it might mean.

Now, remember this was a first look, my 2001 very initial thoughts about it. I did not even know fully how much all editions of the KJB had “spirit” in lower case in so many places throughout. (I was in fact using the primitive, analogue sources of an actual new Strongs Concordance in those days.)

So to say that “Pentecostalism” (doctrinally) guided me to say that 1 John 5:8 must have some special Pentecostal meaning, or that some sort of Pentecostal “experience” (like a vision or something) guided me to say that “spirit” must have a certain meaning would all be a wrong way of understanding what I said. Nothing like that really happened.

It’s a matter of recording what happened, for posterity. I did it all openly, there’s nothing being hidden. I am recording facts in the information I presented. It is a matter of historical reality that is what I stated in 2001 as recorded in 2013 as presented again here in 2026.

Ross misunderstands this by stating: “Interesting to note the stated reason he accepted the PCE as perfect because the lower case ‘s’ aligned with his Pentecostal theology, even though he vehemently rejects our stating that his position is founded on historicist interpretations of Revelation and Pentecostal theology.”

Historicist

Ross is further wrong by referring to “historicist interpretations”. Clearly I am Pentecostal and believe in Historicism, and as concerning the latter, I do point to a Historicist argument about Revelation 10 where it is pointing to the KJB, and where I use it to further point towards the PCE.

This is the same with the “purified seven times” view, it isn’t a central point, but it is a point. The issue is that Ross tries to make the Pentecostalism or the “purified seven times” parts bigger than what they are. Obviously Pentecostalism is in my thinking broadly as a Christian, and the pattern of Historicism and of “purified seven times” are part of a way of how I have understood the PCE’s place in history, but it’s not the most central tenet, it’s just a part of the view.

I can say I barely understood Historicism at that time, I’ve learned a lot more since. See this video to get a some Historicist information on Revelation 10.

Ross’ editorialising

Ross writes, “He did not say ‘I set out to study the history and doctrine and became convinced of this.’ Instead, he essentially said, ‘I became convinced of this by divine leading and Pentecostal doctrine then I set about to prove it and build a position.’”

Notice how Ross puts words into my mouth on the basis of his misinterpretation.

In fact, everything shows I was studying and looking at old Bibles. I was aligning to what could be seen in the providential signs pointing to why Cambridge was right with the KJB.

If there was any Pentecostalism, it was not like Ross imagines it. In Word of Faith doctrine we have the following:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5).

Notice this is about finding the truth, through looking at Scripture and studying phenomena, as in, actual science and general practice.

I was, in fact, using Hills’ method of the Logic of Faith, and was giving close regard to to what Burgon had written. That’s how it was being looked at, that’s how I was seeing why the PCE was right.

That’s pretty much the opposite of what Ross falsely accuses me of. I was in fact building a position by studying Scripture, examining providences in usage and information. This is very difficult when there is little basis and little actual studies available in that field (as at 2001 to 2003).

This is my stand

Divorced from me, the PCE is indeed commendable to be a standard edition. However, the reality (as I suppose Ross is now recognising) is that I am connected to it in some way.

However, I can understand Ross bucking against it because his identity and emotional commitment is challenged.

Unfortunately also Bryan’s friend Nate has also been bucking about, so there is a challenge for him as well.

The thing is that Ross does do good work, I am sure that there are challenges running a church, and his desire to promote the legacy of William Tyndale is a good thing.

Yet, “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.” (Proverbs 18:19).

The wisdom of Gamaliel would be good for Ross to consider, “And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” (Acts 5:38, 39).

Framing the PCE position — Part One

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 20th 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 20th 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.

Where now the horse and the rider?

Plato famously used the image of horses in his writings. In The Republic he divides society into three social classes, called three estates: rulers (philosopher-kings), warriors and primary producers (workers).

In the modern era, Russian political philosopher Alexander Dugin formulated his own ideas, drawing on sources of ancient philosophy, traditionalism, and civilisational theory. Dugin rejects the current Liberal Social Modern World Order with its structures, rules-basis and views on self-determination. In contradiction to the antichristian “Post War Human Dignity Absolutism” he wishes to return to hierarchy, faith and destiny.

Therefore, a society of civilisations led by philosopher kings, with of course one particular Russian civilisation being filled with ambition, it follows that the rise of both the metaphysical and martial forces of are to assert themselves again.

The power of forces enter the forge or crucible and are made great again.

Hence we see the Platonic connection to the horse and now we have a connection to the Russian military.

Unsurprisingly, Russia has been making use of horses in its “special military operation” against Ukraine. In early 2026 footage has been released showing Russians using horses, in what appears to be a cavalry fashion.

Why is this important?

The image of horses in a prophecy about warfare immediately recalls Scripture that many connect to Russia.

In Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, the Scripture speaks of a great northern power led by Gog, coming against the land of Israel in the latter days. The language seems to invoke a feeling that it is like World War Three:

“Thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army” (Ezekiel 38:15).

Again, Ezekiel writes:

“Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them” (Ezekiel 38:7).

The repeated mention of horses and horsemen is striking. While interpretations can include elements of symbolism (e.g. tanks and APCs being called “cavalry”), it is well attested that besides being a prophecy about the Assyrians in the distant past, it is a prophecy of Russia in the near future.

So we have the convergence: Dugin’s ideas on sacred war, Russia’s renewed use of old methods and the biblical description of a northern power marked by horsemen and military might.

The Word of God remains unchanged. Ezekiel’s prophecy stands, that the horsemen are coming. Other information on these events can be found in Daniel, which many have misinterpreted.

“And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.” (Daniel 11:40).

The king of the north can be tied to the power that put their claim on the north pole which is Russia.

Scripture comforts believers, that while “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7).

We find in Daniel that a great power is to arise, none other than the archangel Michael, who is AGAINST the horsemen. It is the power of the scripture of truth against erroneous philosophy.

Pure Cambridge Edition of the KJB!