A listener wrote, "I was wondering if you could please help me in my search to find which church has the same faith that I do." He believes, among other things, that the Bible is the Word of God, King James Onlyism is wrong, Mary did not remain a virgin, infant baptism is wrong, the church should evangelize the lost, Charismatics of today, especially those on TBN, are modern heretics, women should not be allowed to be pastors, the believer is permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the church should not be anti-Jewish, etc. As you can see, he is nearly Baptist in his doctrine, but doesn’t want to go to a King James Bible believing Baptist church. So, this is, in essence, what we replied.

My first answer is that the Holy Spirit needs to lead you to the place he wants you to grow and serve.  And you need to follow him [Rom 8:14; Jn 16:13]. A man can't really guide you in that decision.  However, my second answer is that a man can make some recommendations.

Forget for a minute that you ever heard the expression "King James Onlyism."  That's a label attached to Bible believers by those who believe that it is impossible for God to preserve his words in writing and in a language other than Greek or Hebrew.  It is also a phrase used to circumvent the authority of God's words in writing.

God spoke his words [Job 23:12; Matt 4:4], prophets spoke them [2 Pet 1:19-21], a great company published them [Ps 68:11], God promised to preserve them [Ps 12:6-7], they are found in a book [Is 34:16; 2 Ki 22:8], and he promised to inspire them so that you could understand them [2 Tim 3:16-17; Job 32:8]. Therefore, they have to be in writing around here somewhere. Today they are found in the King James Bible.

We have a number of members who came here with no appreciation for the King James Bible and no convictions one way or the other about whether the words in that Bible are God's words.  All we did is simply preach and teach the words of God, with very little comment about the King James Bible.  In time the folks have come to very strong conviction that they have God's words in writing and that their doctrine comes from God's words and not from some scholar's opinion about what he thinks God's words ought to be.

In other words, if they had made the King James Bible a subject of contention from the beginning, they never would have attended the services and grown to serve the Lord in this church.  Today, they profess that they are very glad "the Lord" led them to this church.

So, with that said, don't restrict the leadership of the Holy Spirit by excluding churches from the list where the man behind the pulpit believes that the King James Bible is the word of God.  He may actually be the pastor that God has for you.

If I were you, I'd pray diligently for God to lead me to the right church and I would pray for the grace to be teachable.  I would check everything on the authority of God's words.  If the man preaching didn't believe that he had God's words in his hands and on the pulpit when he preached, I'd be hard pressed to stick around and listen to him jabber about his understanding, interpretation or rendering of God's words. 

For a short time, my family and I drove 2 1/2 hours one-way to attend Capitol City Baptist Church in Austin.  Within an hour of our church here, there are at least two other churches that we would attend if we weren't serving the Lord here.  So, you can find them if you are willing to travel a little distance to go where God wants you.  Our people drive an average of 25-30 minutes one-way to attend this church.

If you would like, I would be glad to send you a book called An Understandable History of the Bible, by Dr. Sam Gipp.  It will help you see why we believe the KJV is the word of God.  If you are interested, email me with your mailing address and I will gladly send it to you.

Hope this helps,