This year marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Version. Without controversy for most of those years, this Authorized Version has been the Bible of the English-speaking Protestant church. Although not on the Mayflower as the version of choice, it soon became the Bible that accompanied the advance of the church throughout the English-speaking world, and God has blessed its use for generations to the good of the church.
In recent years, however, the King James Version has generated controversy, and its use or nonuse has become a divisive issue within the church. With a plethora of more modern versions available, some mark the KJV as a relic that after 400 years has become too old to relate to the current generation. Others have elevated the KJV to such a position that essentially limits the preservation of God's Word to its pages. Unfortunately, many defenders of the KJV employ arguments loaded with emotionally charged rhetoric that is factually misleading and often wrong. This kind of rhetoric does more harm than good to the case for maintaining the use of the KJV. These kinds of arguments may appeal to some who want easy answers but are unacceptable to those who are aware of the facts and are looking for reasonable explanations.
- The Bible did not fall to earth from heaven complete and leather-bound. The Old Testament alone was written over a period of a thousand years by different men, all of whom were inspired by the Holy Spirit. But each one lived in his own time and place; each one reflected and addressed the specific issues of his own history. The truths of the Bible are universally and timelessly relevant, but they were given to a specific people at specific times to meet specific needs.
The ultimate objective of our study of the Bible is to understand those timeless and universal truths and to apply them to our own specific times and needs. The distance between the “then” of the Old Testament and the “now” of today sometimes obscures the meaning and relevance of the text. An important part of Bible study is to learn what we can about the author, his times, and his particular circumstances.
In this special lecture series we will survey the world of the Old Testament. We will highlight significant contributions of archaeology and contemporary secular historical records that will help us discover the background of the Old Testament and narrow the distance between the “then” and “now.” The Old Testament is an ancient text with a timeless message.
