On Being a KJV Mid-Acts Dispensationalist

Yes, I am a King James Version dispensationalist, and I hold that position quite deliberately. That has not always been my position, but it is where I have landed after years of study, preaching, and engaging the text.

For many years I preached from the NASB and other modern translations. If you look back far enough in my recorded teaching, you will find material where I am not using the King James Bible, though you will rarely find anything where I am not already some form of dispensationalist. My move to dispensationalism preceded my move to exclusive use of the KJV by a few years. My full transition to the King James Version in English came roughly a decade or so after I had already embraced dispensational theology.

subsection*Why I Use the King James Version

Today I use the King James Version exclusively in English. I am convinced the translators did their work faithfully and accurately, and I no longer use the original languages as a means to correct or overturn the King James text. I have gone down that road enough to be persuaded that the King James translators essentially got it right.

I do, however, study Greek and Hebrew. The reason is not to sit in judgment over the English text, but to appreciate the nuance of linguistic detail. Languages have ranges of meaning and subtle distinctions that do not always carry perfectly into another language. At times, one English word in the King James will render two or more slightly distinct Greek or Hebrew terms. The translation is not wrong, but some of the nuance can be more visible when you look at the underlying words.

Similarly, there are elements of grammar in Hebrew or Greek that do not map cleanly into English syntax. When I refer to the Greek or Hebrew in teaching, it is for this sort of illumination, not to chip away at confidence in the King James Bible. Many King James only advocates grow suspicious as soon as someone says, “In the Greek it says…,” because such phrases have often been used to undermine the English Bible. I share the concern about that misuse, but I am not using the languages in that way.

subsection*My Dispensational Position

I am not only dispensational; I am what would commonly be called a mid-Acts dispensationalist or a right-dividing dispensationalist. That is somewhat distinct from what is often termed “standard” or “Acts 2” dispensationalism.

I read and benefit from standard dispensational works. For example, materials that place the birth of the church at Acts 2 and argue consistently for premillennialism can still be quite valuable. Yet in my own theology I strive to be a biblical literalist, and that has consequences for where I locate the start of the present age.

I hold that the dispensation of the grace of God in which we live did not begin at Pentecost simply because tradition says so, but began when Scripture itself indicates a new, previously unrevealed administration was entrusted to the Apostle Paul. The unique revelation of the mystery to Paul, and his role as the apostle of the Gentiles, marks the formal beginning of this present dispensation.

Thus, I would summarize my stance this way:

I use the King James Version exclusively in English. I am dispensational, and specifically mid-Acts or right-dividing. I see the present age of grace as beginning with the apostolic ministry and revelation given to Paul, not at Acts 2.

This combination—King James usage and mid-Acts dispensational theology—is the framework from which I preach and teach.