Introduction to an Important Issue: the Spanish Bible

The Authorised King James Bible of 1611 - The Standard for All Other Bibles

I Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is you with meekness and fear: 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ 17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, that just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

Broken Arrow Baptist church has a burden for the lost and dying world. Not just the English speaking world, but the entire world. This includes the 22 Spanish speaking countries of the World. God has no borders or boundaries on his love; however, this couldn't possibly be the belief of so many that claim to be King James bible believers, because I've read their mission statements and they only believe the King James bible as far as the border. Our objective cannot even really be defined, until our stand on God's Holy Word is put forth to you the reader. It is our belief that the King James bible is the inspired and preserved word of God. Upon this standard and foundation are our beliefs culminated.

Our number one goal is to win souls and exalt Jesus Christ as Lord and king. Along with that number one goal is our desire to provide God's word in every tongue and language. The bible says in Romans 10:17 that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Hebrews 11:6 says Without faith it is impossible to please him. It should go without saying that it is of the utmost importance that we have the very word of God. I know personally what this means to me when many would attack my faith and they fail because of the sharp sharp sword that God has left us to defend ourselves against attacks. I personally have been attacked many times, over and over concerning the validity of my bible by cults and non believers and praise be to God that I have the assurance of his promises in his blessed word and no one can harm me. A missionary to Mexico once told me the work that I was involved with regarding the Spanish bible was destroying the faith of many young men and women in Mexico, and that I should stop telling them that they have problems with their bible. This particular missionary has been on the field since 1960 and is highly respected for the work he has been doing there. At first I was taken aback and I was at a loss for words. The last thing in the world I or my church (Broken Arrow Baptist church) wants to be involved with is destroying the faith of anyone! It was by no accident that when I finally composed myself I was face to face with my King James bible. I began to think that if they had a bible like mine they wouldn't be so easily discouraged and question their beliefs to the point of giving up on it. If there bible wasn't so full of contradictions, they certainly would have more of a chance to grow stronger in their assurance and faith. Our wish is to give the world a sharp sword like we have in the King James bible.

There have been numerous accusations against the work that we are attempting to do and also questions by thise that share the same burden that we have, knowing that there are problems, but aren't sure what to do about them. At this time I will attempt to clear up some of the misconceptions as to our work on the Spanish and Japanese bibles. One of the greatest misconceptions is that there isn't any room for improvement or purification in the Spanish bible (Reina Valera). If you believe that the King James bible is God's word then this is absolutely absurd! First of all you can't get anyone to agree on which one of the Reina Valera's is God's word for the Spanish speaking people. Is it the 1569. 1602, 1858, 1862, 1865, 1909, 1914, 1963, 1977, 1990 the VHA 1953, Scio 1817, or is it the ABS 1851? Every one of these versions go by the name Reina-Valera and or Reina or Valera. All differ greatly. The main thing is that none of the above line up with the King James bible. In all fairness some of these are closer to the AV 1611 than others; however, starting from the first complete Spanish bible, the 1569 OSO, there were ommisions and additions present. Here are a few examples, starting with Gen. 1:1 Cielos is used instead of Cielo or heavens instead of heaven. II Sam. 21:19 the brother of Goliath the Gittite is left out making Elhanan the one who killed Goliath instead of David a direct contradiction to I Chron. 20:5 where it is recorded that it was the brother of Goliath. Exodus 6:3 says that God was not known unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as Jehovah, but every account in the Spanish bibles say that they knew his as Jehovah instead of Senor. Matt. 24:2 Jesus is omitted from the verse. Rom. 1:16 of Christ is left out. I Peter 2:2 says you may grow unto salvaltion make no mistake about it. Some may say that these verses really don't present a problem but they are those that would agree with a translation called the NIV, because these are all identical to the NIV. Please note that these changes are not unique to the Reina-Valera, but are in fact identical to the corruption in the greatly denounced NIV, NASB, RSV, and even the Jehovah Witnesses' New World Translation. Don't let anyone fool with cheap magicians tricks such as Pharaoh did with Aaron's rod. These are but a few of many, many problems within all of the Reina Valera bibles. God is not the author of confusion. The same arguments apply for the Spanish bibles as with the new modern perversions. Things that aren't the same are different it is quite simple and facts are stubborn things. Ther first Spanish bible has the apocrypha intermingled (not separated between) the old and new testaments.

There are those that have said the Spanish speaking people don't have a problem with the Spanish bibles. It was partly because of a Spanish bilingual pastor from Mexicali with a great burden for his people, that Broken Arrow Baptist Church became involved in the Spanish bible project. There are also pastors from Chihuahua and Sonora Mexico that see the need for a great change to be made with their bible as well as the bilingual pastors here in the United States who are residents but not citizens of the United States. The opposition we face in the work that we are attempting to do, it from American missionaries and folks from the good 'ole U.S.A. and not from the Spanish speaking people with the exception of those that don't have a problem with many inconsistencies in comparision the the KJV. Other accusations have been made by thsie that have taken the Baptist name from their "churches". These we don't really even consider because they are way off doctrinally to begin with and it has proven to be a waste of time and energy. We have taken much flack for using, for a base text in the new testament the text of Francisco Enzinas 1543. It was after much prayer and consideration that Broken Arrow Baptist Church decided on using the Enzinas new testament for our base text. First of all we realized that Enzinas' work was incomplete in that he only translated the new testament, and the book of Psalms and some of the proverbs in the old testament. Secondly we know that Francisco Enzias used only one Greek text to translate into the Spanish tongue. By his own admission, he stated that he used the Greek text of Erasmus and that was all he had access to at that time (this was the first complete Spanish new testament). Many have unfairly compared Enzinas' work with that of the 1569, 1602, and 1909 Valera versions. You must consider that Reina-Valera had access to all of the same manuscripts that the King James translators had access to but, obviously didn't rely on the T.R. or the majority text due to the massice amounts of differences between them and the K.J.V. Some tout that the Spanish language is not capable of expressing itself as well as English and that is supposed to account for the omissions and additions in the Reina-Valera's. That is an absolutely ridiculous explaination for leaving Christ out of Romans 1:16. In short, even though, we believe, we the believer priest, have the authority to take the K.J.B. and translate it into any language such as William Carey did for the Indians of India, We decided to use the translation work of Francisco Enzias and we the church at Pearce, Arizona (along with some other independent fundamental King James bible believing Baptist churches) to line it up with the King James Bible. We believe that the continuation of God's preservation of his word, has been through the English language and the King James Bible. A great song writer once wrote a song entitled God bless America, and he certainly has, as the major carrier of his written word since the inception of the constitution stating a belief in that all men were created equal. There are many other English speaking nations, but none that the world has looked to send missionaries like the U.S. There isn't another nation that has attempted to evangelize the world toward Christianity like the United States of America. I do not believe it is an accident that English is the second language of the world. We believe just as the world once had to go to the Jew for the world now the world must come to the English for the "pure" word of God. Rom. 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision? 2 Much in every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. When the Jews failed the baton was passed to the Gentiles and there is no doubt as to the "World wide fruit in the KJV".

Make no mistake about it, God has called us into this good work and unless God calls us home there are no Sanbalet's going to call us down from this wall. This letter comes after several years of criticism and of the writing of books there is no end (Ecclesiastes 12:12). The reason we are working on the Spanish bible is because it doen't line up with our precious KJV. If you or anyone else would like to get involved in this great endeavor we would like to hear from you. If you are interested in arguing please just continue using the corrupted Valera text, or whatever corrupt text you prefer other than the KJV. The very same problems occur in the Japanese and Chinese bibles, but praise be to God there are faithful churches working on both of these languages as well. If you would like to contact us just click the E-mail icon. Remember that we need your prayers as Satan is fighting us all the way.

In Christ, Pastor Tim Thacker, Broken Arrow Baptist Church

It is our desire to produce and provide for the twenty-two Spanish speaking nations an "authorized version" of the Spanish Bible.