It's not often that I've run into books that aren't even worth the paper they are printed on. In this case, I almost think the paper is ashamed off what it has to contain.
Growing up in conservative IFB churches, I was taught the belief of KJVonlyism. In short, the KJV, and only the KJV, is the Word of God in English and the KJV, and only the KJV, should ever be read for referenced. Anyone who ever uses any other translation is not only a heretic, but rejected by God. Regardless of your view on that subject, we can all agree this book is a terrible defense of KJVonly-ism.
William Grady represents those on the far extreme end of the spectrum of KJVO adherents. His final views largely echo those of Matthew Verschuur and the infamous Peter Ruckman, but with quirks and craziness all his own.
Some of Grady's quirks are as follows:
Repeatedly throughout the book, he compares "Bible Colleges" (Those being nasty, nasty places that "only teach you about the Bible") and "Bible Institutes" (Those being wonderful places that "teach you the Bible" as well as the glories of intense numerology.) While that begins in Chapter 1, it continues over and over until Page 193. This is doubly ironic as he proudly claims his "Dr." title from "the former Baptist International Seminary, Oxon Hill, Maryland."
His rampages against "Psuedo-King James People." These guys, it seems, are TRonly, or even "KJV is the best (Even perfect) translation into English of preserved Text, just not inspired." However, they are accused of heresy, are denounced as only doing it for the money, and it's said they are taught that all ages are the same and there are no dispensations. (P. 197)
On page 245 Grady writes: "The greatest fruit of Westcott and Hort's Revised Version would have to be the 2000 presidential election."
On page 187 he claims the Holocaust was God's punishing the nation of Israel.
On Page 158 he dove headlong into a rant about palm trees, not only noting how evil they are, but how compromised some Christian organization was for advertising that their college campus has palm trees on it.
On Page 196 he claims that the City of Detroit's economic woes are to be blamed squarely on Henry Ford's antisemitism.
His comments on pages 154-155 are incredibly racist, and end by using the term "African American Bible" as a scathing insult on those that use the Alexandrian texts.
On page 144 he seems to deny the Eternal Security of the Believer.
His intense focus on America lead to other oddities. On page 210 he claims that "Isaiah 26:5 predicted 9/11." On Page 177 he accused a man of being evil just because he didn't like the USA, and he claims that different Bible versions were never a problem until we entered the " Laodicean Church Age" with the death of J. Frank Norris.
In the introduction (Page xii) he brags that his book was rejected by Christians of nearly every stripe and belief, yet rejoices when he claims it was "embraced by the world" through his getting special advertising for free. Embrace by the ignorant world, and rejection by almost every believer, no matter how pious, isn't something I'd be bragging about.
Even as early as the very first chapter, he claims that the Book of Revelation is usually neglected because it is prophetic for for the future. However, if nothing else, I've seen a huge fascination with it simply because it's prophetic.
Some of the worst interpretation flaws of the book.
By far the worst of the book's many offences is the deplorable excuse for hermenutics. Rather than do take even the slightest glance at the Biblical context or (especially) the biblical author's intent, Grady cavalierly imports his numerology-filled allegorical nonsense into wherever he feels like stuffing it.
On page 104 he links a verse that happens to be 9:11 with the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US. On Page 193 he writes an aside condemning Bible Colleges for teaching that 5 is the number of grace, not the number of death. One of his proofs? The phrase "mayday" means danger. May is the 5th month. So 5 is linked with death even today, so it must be in the Bible too.
On page 150, he claims that "Amen" at the end of I Timothy 6 is the 1,666th word, and draws links to the Devil trying to remove it thanks to the 666 number. (However, an easier train of thought would be the Devil tried to add his word.)
On page 157 he slanders the ASV by mentioning the American Standard toilet company.
His entire argument stems from the use of the English "Inspiration." While referencing the usual II Timothy 3:16, he then blasts others for jumping to II Peter 1:20-21, and instead insists that the only other verse that speaks to the subject is Job 32:8. He then builds a case (I'd argue he farts out a case) that "Inspiration" must then mean the same thing, and anything that gives proper understanding must be inspired. From there, he makes the giant leap that the KJV is inspired. While he recognizes that the Bible NOWHERE says any translation is inspired, he then retorts that nowhere does it say the KJV isn't inspired, and ignorantly barges forward from there.
Later, he relies heavily upon an allegorical interpretation of the Seven Churches of Revelation, claiming, as I mentioned before, that the Laodaciean Age began at J. Frank Norris' death.
He draws parallels between those seven churchs and the first seven books of the Bible, noting that the 6th book is the first named after a man, where that evil (of other translations) really began, and the 7th details horrible apostasy and failure.
While grossly misusing Psalm 12:7-8 is a staple of KJVonly advocates, Grady does one better. He claims 1 Thess 2:13 is speaking of God hiding his holy word from other Christians, he claims I Cor 11:19 is speaking of false translations arising before the KJV could be recognized as perfectly inspired, and uses Eccl 1:9 to defend the age of the KJV and it's enduring perfection.
More than that, in the introduction, Grady rebukes Christians for merely peaking into the Word of God, just as the inhabitants of Bethshemesh peaked into the Ark, rather than the need for Christians to jump wholeheartedly in. Apparently Grady doesn't realize that their even touching the ark was a gigantic no-no that they were slaughtered for, and following his advice of "jumping in" (to continue with his own analogy) would have been blasphemous to an incredible degree. On Page xiv of the introduction, he includes a letter penned by Jack Hyles, but in his comments, completely misses the entire point and seems unable to even understand the main point of even that short letter.
On page 29 he claims that God's blessing upon Japheth isn't actually God's blessing of enlargement, but a pronouncement of their future selfishness and greed and that intense greed is passed down to every one of his descendants.
Overall, the level of allegorical nonsense and numerology is sickening. His "interpretation" relies so heavily on tiny details, verse reference numbers, the number of words in a book, or a single share English word it's horrifying.
Historical Problems also abound to the point of it being impossible to document them all.
On page 170 he calls Greek and Hebrew "So-called Biblical Languages," when those were without a doubt the languages the Books of the Bible were written in.
On page xii he calls the "TR" a "manuscript." It's not.
On Page 63 he claims Jesus used the Masoretic Text.
On page 157 he claims the KJV readings are all majority text readings.
On page xiv he makes it sound like Dean Burgon shared his views, yet Burgon himself admitted the KJV was flawed and needed revising, nor did he think the TR was perfect.
He also seems wholly unaware of the extensive revisions and host of changes made to the KJV since 1611, instead brushing them off as nothing.
On Page 181, he claims the Revised Version was evil for being down in secret, with influence from new Greek text, and went beyond the rules of just being small revision. Ironically, he seems ignorant of the fact that the KJV was a revision of the Bishop's Bible, the translators made text critical choices that were not reflected in any version before or since, whose textual basis has never been released in the original languages. They worked in secret too, and the result was far more different from the Bishop's Bible than their rules allowed. To condemn the RV team for that is blatant hypocrisy.
Logical Inconsistency/Errors also abound.
On Page 36 he goes on an extended rant, drawn from the account in Judges 12, where even mispronouncing a word was worthy of death. Rather than see this as tragic, he sees it as a valiant stand for even the tiniest nuances of what he claims is right and uses the occasion to once again blast "Bible Colleges" for some unspecified error.
On page 33 he claims a person is a valiant man, not for his actions, but because he shares the name with a different guy.
On page 104 he claims the Bible can have typos and still be infallible, yet that typo is obvious evidence of a (albeit small) flaw and either proves God isn't involved in protecting the printings, or he is unable to protect the printing.
On Page 151, continuing in an extended allegory of Paul's travels in Acts 27, he makes a point to berate A ship of Alexandria, being one of many evil things, like the many evil translations, yet deliberately quotes the previous "a ship of Adramyttium" from V. 2 without the "A" and casts it in a positive light. There is no consistency, and that entire section is a masterclass in insane interpretation theory, as he misses the entire point that it was God's will that Paul go to Rome, yet he casts the entire journey as some great, overpowering evil dragging along the poor, unwilling apostle. (As poor KJVonly believers are being drug along now.)
On page 181 He repeats the tired argument that the KJV is easier to read, as it scores low on computer readability tests, an argument long since put to rest by Mark Ward's Authorized. He also makes the unsupported claim that the KJV isn't copyrighted, and the fact that others are is evil.
On page 184, He lambastes Critical Text advocates because of their other beliefs, using those to say the CT is corrupt, but then waves off the admitted flaws of Moody because he used KJV. He also conveniently neglected to mention how many cults use the KJV, showing translation preference doesn't equate to orthodoxy.
Are they any benefits?
In short, no.
If you are convinced that the KJV is inspired, please consult Matthew Verschuur's book instead. His arguments are far more coherent and he acknowledges the need for consistency by saying we should immediately cease production of Bible translations and insists that any converts learn English. He also rightly believes that if God inspired the KJV, one must then find which of the many, many variants of the KJV God supposedly inspired. (Unlike Grady, who handwaves the issue on Pages 277-279.)
If you're looking for an actually intelligent and actually more even-handed and somewhat contextually sensitive approach to defending KJVonlism, check out R.B. Ouelette's A More Sure Word: Which Bible Can You Trust?
If, however, you want a book that actually understands Scriptural and historical context, one that takes an even handed approach and rightly comes to a reasoned, biblical, and historical view of the King James Version Debate, I'd suggest One Bible Only?: Examining Exclusive Claims for the King James Bible. I wish I'd have read that book years ago.
Conclusion
In short, Grady's book utterly fails in it's absurd abuse of history, logic, and the Bible. His rampant ignorance of every single subject, astonishingly terrible reasoning, and horrifying abandonment of anything in the realm of decent Biblical interpretation leaves me ashamed of any who would be so deceived and/or foolish as to seriously recommend this book.
0/5
Here's a link: Amazon.
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