James White & Thomas Ross Bible Texts & Versions Debate (LSB & UBS / NA vs. KJV / TR) Review part 1

James White & Thomas Ross debated the topic: “The Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), as a representative of modern English translations based upon the UBS/NA text (the Greek New Testament printed by the United Bible Society, which is also the text of the Nestle-Aland), is superior to the KJV (King James Version), as a representative of TR-based (Textus Receptus or Received Text based) Bible translations.” This King James Only or King James Version Only (KJVO) debate took place on February 18, 2023.

This video is part one of a series of debate review videos by Thomas Ross of the arguments made by both sides of the debate. The introductory video explains Bro Ross' initial analysis of how the debate went and examines James White's initial post-debate comments in White's Dividing Line program for Tuesday, February 21, 2023 (James White discusses the Bible text and version debate in c. minutes 5-18; the video is entitled "Road Trip Dividing Line: Gay Mirage, Mass, Biblicism," and comments start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR4do1nfFr4&t=517s).

By God's grace and for His glory, the Lord answered the prayers of His people and the debate went well. God is concerned that His pure Word be in use among His people, and He blessed the debate towards the furtherance of that cause. The case for perfect preservation, and its good and necessary consequence, the superiority of the TR/KJV to the UBS/LSB, was clear. All glory to the one God, the Father who gave the canonical words of Scripture to the Son, so that He could give them to the assembly of His saints by His Spirit!

Despite pressing James White on the obvious fact that the Bible promises perfect preservation, and that the original language texts behind the Legacy Standard Bible and similar modern versions are built around a rejection of these promises, and that the recognition of the canonical words of Scripture by the church were crucial to Thomas Ross' case, James still did very little to dispute Ross's case from Scripture, nor to present a Biblical basis for his own position.
James White reviewed the debate on his Dividing Line program. In his review he made very few comments about the substance of the debate. He did not talk about what Scripture taught about its own preservation. He did not talk about what Baptist confessions say about preservation. He did not talk about the case made for the Textus Receptus from history, validating how God kept His promises and the Baptist confessions are right. Instead, unfortunately, James made regular affirmations about Thomas' character that he was not able to substantiate.

James White claimed he “knew” Thomas Ross was “not intending to” bring the audience along with him. James claimed Thomas had a “really, really deep disrespect for the audience.” James said: “Ross didn’t care. He wasn’t debating for us.” James claimed this was what Thomas was doing: “I don’t care if anyone understands what I’m saying, I’m just showing off.” James claimed Thomas did not understand the concept of text types, or even “anything like that at all,” and said that Thomas “misuse[d] scholarly information.” James used his debate review to make such allegations against the character of Thomas Ross, but James was not able to substantiate any of these accusations. Similarly, in James White's book The King James Only Controversy James claims that there are KJVO people who think Abraham and Moses spoke English, but here again James provides no documentation for his claims.

Thomas Ross discusses the use of Athanasius' TR reading "only-begotten Son" in John 1:18 versus the Arian reading defended by James White, "only begotten god," which is followed by the Nestle-Aland Greek text, the New World Translation of the Watchtower Society or the Jehovah's Witnesses cult, and the Legacy Standard Bible. Athanasius seven times quotes “only begotten Son,” the TR and KJV reading of John 1:18 in the patristic writer's Defense of the Nicene Definition and his Discourses Against the Arians. The corruption “only begotten god” is first attested by the Gnostic Valentinians and is also quoted by Arius. The corruption in the NA/UBS Greek text appears in 0.3% of the Greek manuscripts, while the TR “only begotten Son” appears in 99%. It is astonishing that White’s King James Only Controversy actually employs the pro-Arian corruption of John 1:18 as evidence of the superiority of modern Bible versions on the Deity of Christ! The Nestle-Aland text encourages the Arian heresy that Christ is begotten in the sense of “created” at a point in time as a secondary god, rather than the Biblical fact that Christ is begotten eternally as Son (and “beget” does not mean “create”; the Son is begotten, not created).

Thomas also discusses the fact that there are hundreds of lines of text in the NA text—mere handfuls of words—where the NA/UBS text looks like no Greek manuscript that actually is known on the face of the earth.

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