Under what conditions would I use other Bible versions?
Recently I was asked if I would use any Bible other than the King James Version if it meant reaching someone for Christ. My response was that I would not. However, my answer was in the context of my pulpit ministry.
As pastor of Open Door, I always believed and used the King James Bible only. However, I never insisted that others agree with me to be my friend, or for fellowship.
Under what conditions would I use other versions? Let me give some hypothetical situations. Let’s suppose I was in the home of a Catholic and was given permission to present the gospel to them. However, they had a large Catholic Bible on the coffee table, and ask if I would use it. In that situation, I would have no problem showing the gospel to them in their Bible. It is there.
If I was a missionary in another country and they did not have a Bible in their language true to the King James, I would present the gospel from their Bible and attempt to win them to Christ. Where their version deviated, I would correct it as needed. “ For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;” 1 Corinthians 9:19-20.
Many, who will not bend to win a soul to Christ, think nothing about quoting or singing songs written by those who taught you can lose your salvation, sprinkled babies, and did not embrace the infallibility of the King James Bible themselves. Since we cannot be consistent, let’s hope God will cut us a little slack when trying to keep a lost person from going to hell.
Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.