Let’s do. The greatest world revival took place using the KJV. The greatest preachers of the past four centuries have been King James Bible believers. Billy Sunday is said to have led over one million people to Christ, and he was a KJV believer. Spurgeon, Moody, Whitfield, and Wesley were all KJV men, and the list goes on.
What fruit do the new versions have? They are responsible for the Laodicean church of today.
The greatest revival? That's an opinion.
So what was Mr. Spurgeon's view of the KJV?
Spurgeon loved the King James Version of the Bible — it was the version he used the most. But Charles Spurgeon was not King James onlyist.
On occasion, Spurgeon mentioned textual variants from the pulpit. Sometimes he even rejected the reading of the KJV in favor of the reading in the critical Greek text, represented in the Revised Version.
Here are three times that Spurgeon rejected the reading of the Scripture found in the King James Version.
1. Romans 8:1
KJV: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
ESV: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
In 1886, Spurgeon said that the phrase at the end of Romans 8:1 was not part of sacred scripture. He acknowledged, “The Holy Ghost meant to say this very thing a little further on, in its proper place [in v. 4].” Justification must come first, and only after that may good works follow. Spurgeon added, “The more nearly the text of Scripture is restored to its original purity, the more clearly will the doctrines of grace be set forth in it. The more we get back to true Scripture, the more we shall escape all interference with the complete and perfect salvation which comes of our being in Christ.”
2. 1 John 3:1
KJV: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
ESV: "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."
Spurgeon’s most famous break from the KJV happened in July 1885, when he preached a sermon titled “'And We Are' – A Jewel from the Revised Version.” The great preacher trusted the judgments of textual critics and based his sermon on a phrase not found in the KJV. He began by saying,
"A genuine fragment of inspired Scripture has been dropped by our older translators, and it is far too precious to be lost. Did not our Lord say, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost?' The half lost portion of our text is restored to us in the Revised Version. ... They ought never to have dropped out. In the judgment of the most learned, and those best to be relied on, these are veritable words of inspiration."
3. Luke 4:18
KJV: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."
ESV: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed."
Spurgeon himself admitted to being startled when he opened up to Luke 4:18 and saw these words were missing.
In the case of Luke 4:18, scribes added the extra phrase to some manuscripts because the verse is a quotation from Isaiah 61:1. Well-intentioned scribes intended to make the quotation complete, even though Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, chose not to keep the phrase when he wrote his Gospel.
Spurgeon, "I intended to have preached from these words in Luke 4:18, but when I looked at the Revised Version and found that the words were not there at all I was somewhat startled.”
“It is a pity that the unknown brother ventured to improve that which was perfect from the beginning.”
Some more words from Mr. Spurgeon, "Concerning the fact of difference between the Revised and the Authorized Versions, I would say that no Baptist should ever fear any honest attempt to pro- duce the correct text, and an accurate interpretation of the Old and New Testaments. ... We have nothing but the Bible; and we would have that as pure as ever we can get it. By the best and most honest scholarship that can be found, we desire that the common version may be purged of every blunder of transcribers, or addition of human ignorance, or human knowledge, that so the word of God may come to us as it came from his own hand."
Looks like Mr. Spurgeon was pretty keen on the revised version.
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