Bryan Ross and Dan Haifley discussed me (Matthew Verschuur / bibleprotector) in passing in a video.

Their argument for the transmission of the Text from inspiration to the King James Bible (KJB), which includes the Latin as a witness, is correct.

The “Verbal Equivalence” view, which says that God’s law does not seem to have a particular form in Heaven nor on Earth, is a weakened view, because it does not allow for the conceptual accuracy of God’s words, it allows for some conceptual variation, e.g. not detecting the difference between “ensample” and “example”.

The idea of there being standard editing and accurate printing should be common sense. But it is a misrepresentation to say that unless a Bible is standardly edited and perfectly printed it is “wrong”. The Word of God was in Hebrew and Greek, and that’s not even English. The Geneva Version was the Word of God and is a different Text and translation. Early editions of the KJB were badly printed and they are the Word of God. The Oxford Edition has some editorial differences and it is the Word of God.

So it is wrong to say that one person in Australia is saying that only one Edition of one Bible is the Word of God. Ross and Haifley are clearly misrepresenting me.

The whole idea of there being a standard edition of the KJB is so that we have an agreed standard (e.g. for comparing the 1611 to today), have a correct representation of the KJB (conceptually accurate as far as spellings goes) and having a standard for correct typography (the complete elimination of typos).

It has been well established and accepted that Cambridge editing and printing is the best, and also, as people make minute examination, they can see that the Pure Cambridge Edition (PCE) is representing the KJB properly, fully and as a standard. In other words, the PCE was already qualified as a standard before my website appeared in 2007.

In response to false claims, I have never claimed a vision, a dream or any such thing as to why the PCE is best or right. I have consistently stated and shown that I came to understand about it by study and by looking at providences.

It is not some arbitrary standard set up by me, which is what the modernists might imply, nor did I pronounce by some fervent prophetical means, which is what others might wish to say.

It is notable that I have refuted the false claims over and again and yet there is still a propensity for certain people to repeat them. Therefore, it is very bad that someone should go so far as to say again that I had some vision or whatever (the first misrepresentation) that the PCE is the only word (the second misrepresentation). The Bible did not appear on Earth in 2007 nor did I even make the PCE, which dates back to about 1910 or so.

And lots of people have and can look into the PCE, and into the issue, and come to their own view, and the fact that they understand that it is a good thing is of God. It is very wrong to then say that people should not have a standard and exact printing of God’s words because of some misrepresentation about the person who promoted the idea.

But because the PCE itself is verifiable, that is the point. Otherwise people will have to reject the KJB because King James I was not a Baptist or something, which would be a propagandistic approach. And people will then have to say, the KJB is just an arbitrary work, and why should we follow it and not make a new Geneva translation that might be better? In this, I detect the error of the “Verbal Equivalence” spirit which actually can lead away from the KJB itself as a standard.

The way to determine a correct Edition is like the same way to determine a correct Bible translation etc. It is on the basis of examination of the editorial history of the KJB, internal factors of editorial variations, external factors of providences and a reasoned desire for a standard and elimination of typographical errors. Most importantly it is based on Scripture statements.

These are all reasons we would want to make sure we have a correct representation of the King James Bible as based on standards of copy-editing and typographical exactness. If the PCE is not the “best one” then what is? The “Verbal Equivalence” view seems to be against the many Scriptural passages which indicate that God has an exact standard and concepts like (for example) “Shibboleth”, “seeds many”, “ought” and “jot”, i.e. it is consistent with the nature and work of God, and with other actual Scripture promises and prophecies themselves, that we should indeed have precise lettering and proper and full knowledge of the exact concepts of His very words.

I submit that I am not making that up, but that it’s a Biblical doctrine and consistent with the nature of truth. So it is not “aberrant” to have a correct edition, just as Cambridge editors in the 17th century corrected printings, or 18th century editors edited towards standardisation. It is not “leading to a falsification” just as leading 19th century publishers spoke about striving for printing textual purity, or that I put on a website files that printers, publishers, software developers and websites could use as a typographically correct file.

Also, I admit, I’m a traditional Pentecostal and I promote the (Reformed) idea of the actual perfection of God’s law and message, but that shouldn’t be an issue if we are talking about Anglican Cambridge University Press printing an Edition in many of its KJV printings from 1910 up to 1999 that is being taken as the standard; and that this Edition was also printed by the Presbyterian Collins publishers in the same era, and frankly, both Cambridge and Collins were getting quite secular in that period.

But if good Christians, whether Baptist, Calvinist, Pentecostal, etc. are able to recognise and use one Edition as the best and standard one of the KJB, that alone is surely a positive.

By the way, I don’t believe in “Verbatim Identicality” as such as that position is nonsense. I believe we should have exactly on Earth what is in the Heavenly Book (Psalm 40, etc.) and exactly in English what was in the original language Autographs. Yes, the Autographs took time to appear. Yes, the King James Bible took time to appear. So it is that we have the standard Edition of it now, the Pure Cambridge Edition. I unashamedly hope and pray all true Christians are coming to it in agreement. God Bless Bryan and Dan for the many good things they say and do.

[Editorial note: This was first a youtube comment and then a facebook comment, but in that process I was able to correct some spelling and typos in what I typed. What is here is “better” for those reasons, and because this is my “official” blog, obviously this would be the “standard” form of what I wrote.]

ADDITIONALLY, I sent a message as follows:

Dan thanks for letting me correct you if are wrong about me, and sadly, you are quite wrong about me.

I do not claim that only ONE edition of the KJB is the actual Word of God to the exclusion of anything/everything else. I have never claimed, nor believe that, God spoke to me in a vision or some other prophetical way, to confirm or tell me about Pure Cambridge Edition, nor to say it is the only pure Word.

I believe that the Autographs were pure, and all Scripture copies, manuscripts, texts, versions, editions, etc. of Scripture are pure, in that Scripture itself is pure.

Textually, while the Textus Receptus is pure broadly, and that the KJB’s readings are pure specifically.

Translation-wise, while Reformation Protestant translations were pure broadly, the KJB is pure English specifically.

Edition-wise, while Editions of the KJB, in and following the 1769 are pure, the PCE is pure specifically (as an Edition in its own right).

And setting-wise, while Cambridge KJVs with the PCE have been very accurately printed, the files on my websites were thoroughly checked so that there is no errata in the typesetting, and full “critical” standardisation, i.e. jot and tittle kind of purity.

And even after I have insisted for years that the accusation of me drawing on some sort of Pentecostal experience was the means of discovering or confirming the PCE was wrong, you have still repeated that.

You may disagree with things I say, believe or stand for, but I hope you will accept my correcting you regarding this matter.