By David W. Daniels

What do a ruler, a food scale and a Bible have in common?.

Let’s start with the ruler. It’s a standard 12 inches (one foot) long. But, just like the name, it used to be measured by a man’s foot. But whose foot? If we measure by my foot, mine might be bigger than yours. So if I’m buying stuff by my foot measure, I’ll get a lot more. Or if I sell using my foot as the measure, you’ll get a lot more. So no one would get in line to buy fabric from a person with small feet.

There has to be a common measurement.

Now look at a food scale. It is for measuring weight —in ounces or grams. In the Bible there was a weight called a “shekel.” They measured out food (of course), silver, gold, brass (that’s related to copper) and iron, in shekels.

Look at Exodus 30:13: “This they shall give, ...half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) ...”

“Shekel of the sanctuary” appears 25 times, in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. That means they had a standard. And it was God’s standard that He showed Moses.

And look at Proverbs 20:23: “Divers [diverse] weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good.” So let’s think this one out. “Divers weights” are any weights that disagree, whether more or less.

God declared three things about diverse weights: 1) Not good; 2) An abomination to the Lord; 3) Thou shalt not have them. It doesn’t get any clearer than that.

Follow with me here. We have a standard for weights. And we have a standard for measures. What about God’s words?

Let’s get real here. If we’re talking English alone, we’ve got the American Standard, the Revised Standard, the New American Standard, the New American Standard 1995 Update, the English Standard, the New Revised Standard, the Holman Christian Standard and even the International Standard.

Here’s the problem. They don’t say the same things. So how can they be “the standard” anything?

Most modern Bibles have two things in common. First, they all say different things. That means they are “divers measures.”

So, they are all like what? “abomination to the LORD.”

Second, most modern Bibles agree (read their Introductions) that there was a standard, but it’s now gone. That’s the doctrine of Original Autographs Only. “OAO.” The original writings written by men were (past tense) the scripture, but now, alas, they are gone.

Does God speak to that? Yes, Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33 all agree: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

But, if only the original autographs were (past tense) God’s words, and alas, they are no more, then God’s words (catch this) passed away!

So there really are two simple choices. There is one Bible in English made under the banner of God’s words being preserved and not passed away. And there are hundreds of Bibles in English made under the banner of “Original Autographs Only,” or “God’s words passed away.”

I believe God was big enough to keep His own promise to preserve His words. I believe God did keep His promise, and through history preserved His words, His way, through His people, whether they were aware of it or not.

But I want God’s measurement. I want God’s words. And I don’t want them added to or taken away from.

I don’t want “divers weights or divers measures.” I don’t want an abomination to the Lord. I want what God said.

And I believe I have it right here, in the King James Bible. You can pick what you want.