I received this heartbreaking note:
“I came across your website this morning while conducting research into Bible versions. This issue has become very distressing to me as a simple disciple of Jesus Christ as I don’t know the original languages and I am being influenced by the King James Only position. I have read refutations of Gail Riplinger, and my only desire is to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and grow to be more Christ-like in all areas of my life. Why is there such confusion about Bible versions? What sound advice and godly counsel could you provide in this matter.”
Gary: what follows is my original answer, combined with a few added thoughts.
Dear brother, thanks for writing in! This is a topic that interests me, first as a Bible student, second as a professor of the Greek New Testament, third as a Bible translator, and fourth, perhaps most importantly – a person grieved to see the Word of God in “non-approved versions” attacked, and the Lord’s servants besmirched.
Back in 1993 I was listening to a Christian radio station, and they were interviewing this same Gail Riplinger, who assured the listeners that the New International Version and other “modern” Bible versions were the work of the devil! That these translators were part of a New Age conspiracy! That they were producing New Age Bibles! That this was to bring the church into apostasy! (I have read the NIV cover to cover, by the way, and no rational person could take it to promote the New Age, apostasy, or obeying the antichrist!).
There is a long and devastating article about her here (Why Respond to Gail Riplinger? | Bible.org), who sadly, still seems to be quoted as an authority in the field of Bible translation, 30 years after her book came out. She owns a Bible, to be sure, but has a poor grasp on history, basic logic, research methods, Bible doctrine; she cannot read the biblical languages, and has never gone over a Greek manuscript. Unfortunately, some Christians find it a powerful argument that, “Those liberal scholars hate the Bible, but here is an untrained brave lady who stands up for the Word!” This is called the “democratization of expertise”, and since the invention of the internet and the pandemic a phenomenon that has exploded around the world. She is attempting to teach the church about highly technical fields without having learned even their basics. It would be like me saying, “My common-sense thoughts on how to build a suspension bridge are just as valid as some so-called ‘engineer’s.” Her education is in home economics (specifically, interior design) and has taught that topic on the college level, which lets her get away with saying she is a professor. I read Riplinger’s book many years ago and found it either incoherent, or if it made any sense, it was because she quoted the more gossipy tidbits from a man named Dean Burgon, who attached the critical New Testament in the late 1800s.
I might say that, there is “such confusion about Bible versions” only since Dean Burgon, it is not as if this has been going on for 2000 years. It comes up once in a while: there was a great deal of debate in the AD 400s, over which Latin version of the Bible was best. Ironically enough, some evangelicals found the King James Version to be objectionable when it came out in 1611, because they thought it was influenced by the Church of England – why else would overseers be called “bishops”? they asked.
Another group that takes a similar tack to Riplinger are the Ruckmanites, named after Peter Ruckman. If you are familiar with Chick Publications, they have accepted wholesale his idea that any non-KJV Bible is of the devil, liberals, the Catholic Church, the Illuminati, and the antichrist. They, with Ruckman, believed that God inspired only one Bible, the 1611 KJV. So God’s Word in any language today is the KJV. That explains why a man named Humberto Gómez in Mexico has the same idea – his version of the Bible in Spanish is wholly the English Bible, KJV, rendered into Spanish.
There are so many new false teachings! The Prosperity Gospel. The Book of Mormon. “Mapping” of evil spirits. Do we really need a doctrine that was invented about a hundred years ago, that God inspired the Bible in 1611?
Chick’s website has a page on, “So where was the Bible before 1611?” “Under preparation!” was the (wholly laughably unhelpful) answer. According to this theory, it must be that in the year 300, in 922, in 1111, in 1354, even in 1610 nobody, not one person around the world, not one person, had access to God’s Word. (A side note: my 11-times great grandfather-preacher was twice imprisoned because of his insistence on all Christians hearing the sound preaching of the Bible. Imagine my astonishment upon hearing this novel doctrine, according to which he HAD no Bible! He was arrested for his preaching in the 1500s and died just before the King James was published! The Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, but did not carry the KJV. Tyndale was executed for first translating the Bible into English – but oops, he couldn’t have died for God’s Word, which supposedly came out 75 years after his death!). Can you see why I find this a contradiction of their doctrine of the “divine preservation” of the Bible? If God did not preserve it until 1611?
I have written a number of articles in Spanish, fewer in English, but these are the ones you can access. Although I should say this is not my main field of interest, I have taught the Greek New Testament and “textual criticism” for 35 years; and I have been involved with Bible translation for 8 years. And I read Hebrew as well.
This article mentions briefly Ruckman and Riplinger, who believe that anyone who doesn’t believe solely in the KJV (note, anyone who doesn’t believe the KJV is THE inspired Bible) in some fashion manage to somehow meet together in a cabal, laying out plans to destroy God’s Word and paving the way for the antichrist.
The Eclectic Text of the New Testament – a conspiracy against the Word?
The NIV and six degrees of Rupert Murdoch
The Critical Text and the Textus Receptus in 2 Thessalonians [Studies in Thessalonians]
Which Bible version is the most “literal”? (updated)
Is the NIV 2011 a Satanic, Homosexual, PC Bible? Part I
Is the NIV 2011 a Satanic, Homosexual, PC Bible? Part II
Me, a hater of the King James Bible? Who in the world told you that?!
Is the Nestle-Aland Bible against the deity of Christ? No!
Thou Shalt Not Bully Those who use a Different Bible Translation!
Is the KJV a perfect translation? According to its translators, no
Review of David Daniels, Is the ‘World’s Oldest Bible’ a Fake?
Are Modern Versions based on “Gnosticized” Greek Manuscripts? My goodness, NO!
Is the Textus receptus a conspiracy against God’s Word? A tongue-in-cheek experiment!
I concluded my letter to my brother: “I am so sorry you have been distressed by this topic – we should put our energies into giving Christ’s disciples the tools they need to grow in him, but people get us distracted us by this non-issue. It is a judgment call on my part, but I am constantly impressed that the sectarian KJO crowd is notable for operating from the flesh: from Galatians 5, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” And particularly, “hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy.” If you engage with people who bite and devour, you will inevitably be pulled into their mentality. I’m sad to say I have met only a very few people who have walked away from the rigid form of the KJO narrative: it is one of those self-reinforcing narratives, where any objection you might offer will bring 20 rejoinders on your head.”
Here are a couple of books you might enjoy. Amazon.com: How to Choose a Translation for All Its Worth: A Guide to Understanding and Using Bible Versions (Audible Audio Edition): Gordon D. Fee, Mark L. Strauss, Don Reed, Zondervan Academic: Books, co-written by my friend Mark Strauss. And an older book: The King James Version Debate: A Plea for Realism: D. A. Carson: 9780801024276: Amazon.com: Books.
Hope this helps just a bit! I will sign off and then pray for you! Gary
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 
What do you think?