1. <402403>MATTHEW 24:3
KING JAMES: “What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
REVISED: “What shall be the sign of Thy presence (margin) and of the consummation of the age.” (Margin.)
“The consummation of the age” in no sense means the same thing as “the end of the world.” “The end of the world” is the appointed time for human history, under the reign of sin, to close. The earth must be purified by fire before being again inhabited by man. “The consummation of the age” might mean only some change from one epoch to another, — national, scientific, educational, or dispensational. How systematically this substitution is thrust forward in the margin by the Revisers is shown by its recurrence in the other passages in which the phrase “end of the world” occurs, namely,
— <401339>Matthew 13:39, 40,49, 24:3; 28:20. A similar substitution is found
in <581321>Hebrews 13:21.
Another depravation in the doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ is the substitution of “presence” for “coming” in the margin of the text under consideration.
“Presence does not mean return; it rather signifies continuous nearness.
But “coming” refers to Christ’s Second Advent in glory, at the end of the world, to raise the righteous dead and confer immortality on all righteous living or resurrected. How systematically the Revisers have gone about this, displacing the true idea of the Advent, may be seen in the twenty other verses where “coming” as it refers to Christ’s Second Advent is changed into “presence,” namely, — <402427>Matthew 24:27,37,39; <461523>1 Corinthians 15:23; <470707>
2 Corinthians 7:7; <500126>
Philippians 1:26; 2:12; 1 Thess. 2:19; 3:13;
4:15; 5:23; <530201>2 Thessalonians 2:1,8,9; Jas. 5:7,8; <610116>2 Peter 1:16; 3:4,12;
1 Jno. 2:28. These marginal changes give notice that the ordinary orthodox interpretation of these verses is not a sure one. Westcott, one of the
Revisers, says:
“His advent, if it is in one sense future, is in another sense continuous.”f384
According to Westcott, Christ came at the time of Genesis, first chapter, at the fall of Jerusalem, and many times in the past: in fact, is “coming” to us now.f385
2. <500320>PHILIPPIANS 3:20,21
KING JAMES: “Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.”
REVISED: ‘Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory.”
The change in us indicated by the King James according to this and other Scriptures, is a change that occurs only at the Second Coming of Christ; it is a physical change of tangible reality. but the change called for by the Revised may occur at any time before His Coming, or be continuous; it may be a change from abstract vices to abstract virtues.
3. <530202>2 THESSALONIANS 2:2
KING JAMES: “That you be not soon shaken in mind... as that the day of Christ is at hand.”
REVISED: “That ye be not quickly shaken from your mind... as that the day of the Lord is now present.”
When an event is “at hand” it has not yet come; but when it is “now present” it is here. Without offering an opinion which is the correct rendering, there is certainly here a change of doctrine. If the day of the Lord “is now present,” it is in no sense, “at hand.”
4. <560213>TITUS 2:13
KING JAMES: “Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
REVISED: “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
By changing the adjective “glorious” to the noun “glory,” the Revisers have removed the Second Coming of Christ from this text. In the King James Version the object of our hope is the appearing of Christ, which is a personal and a future and an epochal event. In the Revised Version, the object of our hope is changed to be the appearing of the glory of Christ, which may be the manifestation among men, or in us, of abstract virtues, which may appear at any time and repeatedly in this present life.
5. <660107>REVELATION 1:7
KING JAMES: “He cometh with clouds... and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”
REVISED: “He cometh with the clouds... and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him.”
How great is the change intended here, let the Reviser, Bishop Westcott himself state:
“All the tribes of the earth shall mourn over Him in penitential sorrow, and not, as the Authorized Version, shall wail because of Him, in the present expectation of terrible vengeance.”f386
It is well known that many of the Revisers believed in what they called, The Larger Hope, or Universal Salvation, which the translators of the King James did not believe. Westcott admits the Revisers made the change, in order to make the change of doctrine.
6. <440319>ACTS 3:19
Here again the Revisers plead guilty to changing doctrine. That the reading
of <440319>Acts 3:19, 20 was changed because the Revisers held different views
on the Second Coming of Christ from the men of 1611, a member of the English New Testament Committee, Dr. Alexander Roberts, testifies:
“<440319>Acts 3:19,20. An impossible translation here occurs in the
Authorized Version, in which we read: ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall
send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.’ For eschatological reasons, it is most important that the true rendering of this passage should be presented. It is thus given in the Revised Version: ‘Repent ye, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, (even) Jesus.’“f387 (Italics mine.)
“For eschatological reasons” he says, that is, for reasons springing from their view on last things, not for textual reasons, it was “most important” to change the rendering. Most of the Revisers did not believe there would be a personal return of Jesus before the restitution of all things, which the Authorized rendering of this passage teaches.
Hort, another Reviser, says:
“There is a present unveiling of Him simply as He is, without reference to any special action of His, such as came to St. Paul on his conversion. There are apparently successive unveilings of Him, successive Days of the Lord. There is clearly indicated, a supreme unveiling, in which glory and judgment are combined.”f388
G. Vance Smith, another Reviser, says: “This idea of the Second Coming ought now to be passed by as a merely temporary incident of early Christian belief. Like many another error, it has answered a transitory purpose in the providential plan, and may well, at length, be left to rest in peace.”f389
Thus this Reviser dismisses the Second Coming of Christ as a temporary, erroneous idea among the early Christians.