St. Peter's Anglican Church

WHY WE USE THE KING JAMES BIBLE ?

In Proverbs 22:28 the Bible says "Remove not the ancient landmarks which thy fathers have set." A landmark is a surveyor's term and refers to a benchmark or property marker. Today, in most jurisdictions, it is against the law to move or alter a survey landmark.

Christianity has its foundations in an authorizing a governing document. That document is the Bible. Any attorney will understand the critical nature of altering and authorizing a governing document. Because the Bible is in every sense the final and absolute foundation of what we as Christians believe and practice, it only is prudent that we be concerned that the foundation is sure and the benchmark has not been altered.

For almost two millennia the church of Jesus Christ accepted a set of Greek and Hebrew texts that were received by virtually all gospel preaching, Bible believing churches of whatever group. This text was called the Received Text (or Textus Receptus in Latin).  Down through the centuries biblical scholars and church leaders had assembled the existing Greek and Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible. From that compilation, the vast majority were in virtual agreement. These  formed the basis of the Received Text.

In the year 1611 A.D., King James I of England was influenced to provide a common Bible for the English speaking world. Hence, he authorized a translation of the Bible into English that came to be known as the Authorized Version or as it is more commonly known, the King James Version (KJV). King James selected a committee of Greek and Hebrew scholars from the Church of England. Some of these men were individuals with ties to the Puritans and later the Pilgrims who emigrated to America. They worked from the text of the Greek and Hebrew testaments that had been "received" or accepted by virtually all branches of gospel preaching, Bible believing Christianity from the apostolic era to that time. Their product, the King James Version of the Bible, has been until just recently the universal standard for Bible believing Christians of the English speaking world.

Why we use the 1928 Prayer Book?

Until the early 1500’s church services were conducted by priests using an awkward collection of large and unwieldy handwritten manuscripts. Each of these service books (written in Latin) contained different elements of the worship service: the Epistles in one book called the Epistolarium; the Gospels in another called the Evangelistarium; the Liturgy and Prayers formed a third volume called the Liber Sacramemtorum and in time a fourth volume was added containing the Introits, Graduals and Antiphons called the Antiphonarium.

During the Reformation, the Church in England worked hard to keep the best of the old ways and incorporate the best of the new “reforms”. Thomas Cranmer and other early church “reformers” sought to write the worship (liturgy) in the language of the people and involve them more in the worship thus creating a service of “common prayer”.

One of the ways in which this was accomplished was to combine elements from all the worship books currently in use and to keep only that which was clearly Biblical. In 1548 King Edward VI appointed a committee to “make one convenient and meet Order, having as well, eye and respect to the most sincere and pure Christian religion taught by the Scriptures as to the usages in the primitive Church.”

The Prayer Book went through several revisions until Charles II authorized the 1662 Prayer Book. Up until 1776 the American colonies used the 1662 Prayer Book. After American Independence the 1789 Prayer Book was issued and continued in use, with only minor changes, until the revision of 1892. This in turn was followed by another revision in 1928.

For over 450 years, the Book of Common Prayer (and its revisions up to 1928, and in Canada 1962) has shaped worship for the Church of England (Anglican Church), the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, (now called the Episcopal Church in America), Anglican branches throughout the world, the Methodist and Lutheran churches, and many other denominations.

The reason why this book endures, and is of such importance still to millions, is that the Bible and the Prayer Book are substantially the same book. The Prayer Book is the Bible in devotional form. More than two-thirds of the Prayer Book is Scripture quoted word for word and the remaining one-third is the Scripture paraphrased and put in devotional form.

The AOC also adheres to the 39 Articles of Religion found in the back of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.