A position within American fundamentalist Christianity holding that the 1611 King James Version (more precisely the 1769 Blayney revision) is the only trustworthy English Bible translation — some versions claim it is re-inspired by God, others hold it as uniquely accurate without claiming new inspiration. Varieties range from moderate (the KJV is the best English translation) to extreme (the KJV is re-inspired; modern translations are satanic corruptions). Popularizers: Peter Ruckman (extreme), Gail Riplinger (New Age Bible Versions), David Otis Fuller (moderate). The movement remains concentrated in Independent Fundamental Baptist circles.
KJV-onlyism is historically, textually, and theologically indefensible in its strong forms. Six problems. (1) The KJV translators did not claim what KJV-onlyists claim. The 1611 preface "The Translators to the Reader" explicitly acknowledges that their translation was imperfect and would need future revision. (2) The KJV was itself a revision of earlier English Bibles (Tyndale, Coverdale, Geneva, Bishops'), drawing heavily on Tyndale. The argument "the church used the KJV for 400 years, therefore it is uniquely authoritative" ignores that before the KJV the English-speaking church used other translations. (3) The Greek textual base (Textus Receptus) is demonstrably inferior to the critical text (NA28/UBS5) on many points. Erasmus had to retro-translate parts of Revelation from Latin back into Greek because his Greek manuscripts lacked the last few verses; the Comma Johanneum (1 John 5:7's trinitarian formula) in the TR is a late medieval addition. (4) The "inspiration of the KJV" thesis contradicts the doctrine of inspiration as applied to the original autographs (see inspiration-doctrine). Scripture inspires the originals, not the translations. (5) Christians before 1611 had no "authoritative" English Bible under this theory — a conclusion no serious Christian can accept. (6) The movement has produced spiritual harm — dividing churches, despising godly modern Bible scholars, and making young believers feel their modern-version Bible is somehow inferior. Honor the KJV as a magnificent work of its time; do not elevate it to a quasi-inspired status it never claimed.