FBFI and the KJV

Next year’s annual meeting with be at Red Rocks Baptist Church in Colorado. Pastor Les Heinz uses the NKJV as his official pulpit Bible. The following year we had planned to have the annual meeting at Mount Calvary Baptist Church (Mark told us recently that they will not be able to host that meeting). Mark Minnick’s official pulpit Bible is the 1995 updated edition of the NASB, as is ours at FBC Troy. Two years ago we had our annual meeting at Tri-City Baptist Church in Arizona — Mike Sproul’s church. To the best of my knowledge, they use the NKJV as their official church translation. I have personally preached for decades at FBFI meetings. I have regularly and freely quoted from the NASB in my sermons during those meetings. As I said before, for decades I have used the NASB in our own church.

It is clear that the FBFI is not KJVO. I wouldn’t be a part of it if that were the case. We see this in all of our resolutions on the subject. True KJVO advocates pulled away from the FBFI long ago. Men at our most recent annual meeting held at FBC Troy openly preached from NASB (as I did on the opening night) and the NKJV. The meeting was well-attended. I did not receive one complaint from anyone that we used those other translations. I had planned on two men to address the translation topic from two different vantage points: Mark Ward and Kevin Bauder. My approach demonstrated respect and appreciation for the KJV, but also addressed the practical necessity of using an updated, conservative, literal, and more accurate English translation.

These are not the “Rod Bell” days of the FBFI. Mark Minnick and I took a stand from the pulpit against KJV Onlyism at the FBFI annual meeting held at FBC Troy nearly 18 years ago. The FBFI openly promoted books against KJV Onlyism such as “God’s Word In Our Hands”. Minnick and I both contributed chapters to that book. At the same time, we shouldn’t pick a fight with men who, though practically being KJVO, are not viewing it as a test of fellowship or orthodoxy, nor are they attempting to be divisive with it. I don’t want to have the same nasty attitude that much of the KJV Only crowd has had for years. Separate from the heretics for sure. Not all of them are heretics and/or divisive. Forty years of pastoral experience has taught me that.

The FBFI’s follow-up article is here.

John Vaughn wrote this in the September/October 2014 issue of Frontline:

”Acknowledging that FBFI uses the King James Version as its standard for its meetings and magazine, we remind our readers that we do not prohibit the mention of other translations nor prescribe a particular translation to individuals or churches.”

https://fbfi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/2014.10.FrontLine.pdf (top left of page 3)

Larry,

It means exactly what all of that statement says. It was the FBFI position to use the KJV as its standard text. However, speakers such as myself could regularly quote from other translations, as I previously noted. Now the FBFI is going to the position that the host church can recommend and use the official translation of that particular host church. Again, the FBFI does not “prescribe a particular translation to individuals or churches.” The expansion of the latter statement is what you are seeing in our meeting and hopefully in the meetings to come.