The Spanish Gunpowder Plot
by Jonathan Everhart
"Remember, remember the 5th of November, gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
It's a traditional English children's rhyme, recited for generations on November 5th celebrations with bonfires and fireworks. It is a warning that is half rhyme and half remembrance, tied to a night when someone tried to blow up the most powerful people in England, including King James I. That someone was a man named Guy Fawkes. He was caught and arrested on the very morning of the plot, November 5th, with slow matches in hand and 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden in a cellar directly beneath the House of Lords at the Palace of Westminster in London.
This plan came within hours of being carried out and would have reduced the English leadership to rubble in only a moment. This conspiracy was so audacious that it nearly rewrote the course of a nation. Before the fuse was lit, before the barrels were stacked in the dark beneath London's halls of power, there were men with a grudge, a cause, and nothing but a corrupted belief to defend.
Guy Fawkes was a Catholic, and he and his fellow conspirators had a plan that was nothing short of explosive. Their aim was to assassinate the Protestant King James I and the assembled members of Parliament, blow the House of Lords to pieces, overthrow England’s Protestant government, and restore Catholic power. In the chaos that would follow, they intended to seize the king’s young daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and use her as a puppet monarch while they established a new Catholic government.
The nation felt such vast relief from the narrow escape that Parliament passed the Thanksgiving Act in 1606, establishing November 5th as an annual day of thanksgiving to God, so that the divine deliverance from the plot would be remembered. It is still celebrated to this day.
The Gunpowder Plot took place in 1605, right in the middle of the work that would produce the King James Bible of 1611. Clearly, this plot was the Devil’s work and Heaven only knows what affect this would have had on the King James Bible. If the Catholics were to gain power, they surely would have stopped the process as history has proven their desired control of the Bible and to keep it out of the people’s hands.
But divine providence worked a miracle. The plot failed, King James survived, Parliament survived, and Protestant England survived. The fuse was never lit. The barrels were never ignited. And six years later, the King James Bible appeared in print. The gunpowder never exploded beneath Parliament, but the Word of God would soon explode across the English-speaking world.
The Gunpowder Plot was a plot against the government of England. However, there is another plot, centuries later, that concerns something even more precious, the pure Word of God in the Spanish language. And just as the English plot involved men willing to destroy lives to preserve their old Catholic ways, the controversy surrounding the Spanish Bible has involved men who will attack the character of those who challenge their position and hide the truth, rather than answer the evidence.
There may be no gunpowder beneath Parliament this time, but there is a desire to destroy a pure Spanish Bible. There are things hidden beneath the surface of the Spanish Bible controversy that need to be brought into the light. There is an attempt to destroy and stop the truth of perfect preservation that is now being brought to our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters. It is an attempt to knock down faith and certainty only to replace it with the chaos and rubble of doubt. This is the Spanish Gunpowder Plot.
Years ago, when I first began getting involved in Spanish ministry, I decided I needed to get a Spanish Bible. So, I began reading about which Bible to get and also asking some missionaries I knew. Almost immediately, I realized there was a problem. I had just uncovered something that was shocking to me. The Spanish Bible commonly used by Independent Baptists was not an equivalent to the King James Version. It contained Critical Text and translational errors. This was an issue in and of itself, but what truly blew me away was the struggle and tension that existed within this issue.
Now, I understand if there is no better option in a language, you use what is the best available. But I will never understand settling for a corrupted Bible, as in being content with it and having no desire to ever correct its issues. I will never understand the King James Only pastors that are very solid on the issue in English but defend what is equivalent to an American Standard Version in Spanish on the mission field. They even go so far as to attack and spread falsehoods about the men involved and their attempts to purify the Spanish Bible. On the surface they defend the King James Version (honestly easy to do when that is what is expected in your circle) but beneath the surface, hidden behind a foreign language, they promote something very different. I will never understand compromising the Word of God and settling for a Bible so tainted with Critical Text, calling it “adequate”.
Many people are blind to the undermining that is happening. If we are not consistent in our belief of perfect preservation and apply that to any Bible of any language, then we are imploding our very own defense of the King James Version. Ultimately, the Spanish Bible issue becomes the King James Bible issue, because it is all about a Final Authority and Final Text. Have we failed on the mission field when it comes to teaching the doctrine of perfect preservation? Where are the Spanish speaking churches that rally behind a pure Bible? How many say “Amen!” to purity? Sadly, the position many hold is that no Bible can be perfect and that their Bible is simply just adequate. The idea to have a Bible that is without error and completely pure has been treated like it is an abomination. And so it is that any attempt to purify the Spanish Bible is truly an abomination to those that oppose purity. Some act accordingly and in the most un–Christ like manner.
So, I made my choice. I had to navigate all the falsehoods and find the truth. I found the Book! I found the pure Spanish Bible, the Reina Valera Gómez. There were so many lies spread but when I did my research, I found that the opposite was true. Still to this day, I encounter people that think the RVG was translated directly from the English-not true. It is a very thorough revision done that consulted the Greek and Hebrew with some of the most qualified scholars and is arguably the most scrutinized Spanish Bible revision that exists to date.
“The RVG Bible Society has been infiltrated with extremists”- not true. “Those guys all believe in double inspiration”-not true. “Dr Gómez is a proud and arrogant man”-not true. What is interesting is those that I have heard make this claim have never even met him personally. Now, is that how we are to treat a brother in Christ? Spread lies about his character? Falsehood after falsehood proved to be, you guessed it, false. And I found that what I was holding was a pure Bible in the Spanish language and the men involved were men of great character and conviction. These men are cut out of a Tyndale type of cloth. Indeed, it takes a special, courage and dedication to take a stand for Bible purity, when it costs you. Some have been slandered, publicly called racists, mocked at conferences, have had books and articles written against them, have had their entire ministries destroyed, and have even lost financial support as missionaries over this issue. From my perspective, these men are worth double support. But if we have to be the sacrificial lambs then so be it. The Bible is non-negotiable. The church better wake up and realize the undermining of Bible purity that has been happening. Mission dollars literally support those that teach and oppose the doctrine of perfect preservation and makes room for corrupt text in the Bible. Do we believe in an every word Bible or not? Do we allow for Critical text or not?
What is obvious is that all these accusations do not attempt to answer, but like gun powder attempt to destroy. Their intent is to destroy the character of men in the minds of the brethren. Their intent is to smear the RVG Spanish Bible, so it looks like it is a horrible revision. One pastor I spoke with once told me after refusing to hear any truths I offered, “I just think it’s a bad translation”. Of course, he could not give me one verse as an example where it was bad. He also didn’t even speak any Spanish. Although, simply knowing the RVG is based on a completely pure text should have been easy enough to understand! There was no desire to talk about the text, only a desire to twist and hide the truth. Just as the 36 barrels of gunpowder used in the plot was sure to have a distinct sulfuric odor in that cellar below, there are those who also have a distinct foul odor when it comes to their spirit and the words they say.
But as I have said many times, and I will always say that some of God’s greatest servants whom I hold in the highest respect use the common Spanish Bible, the Reina Valera 1960, which contains Critical Text. I would not even be involved in the Spanish ministry if it were not for those men. I am so grateful for them. There are so many great Spanish speaking pastors that are humble and open minded. I think no less of them because of the Bible they use. This is not a personal matter. This is a doctrinal matter- specifically the doctrine of complete preservation. We love all our Spanish speaking brothers, even those who oppose and plot and tell half-truths and seek to destroy a pure Bible in the minds of our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters.
During the Gunpowder plot, there was an effort to destroy England’s crown. Now, a different kind of crown is being defended, When the Reina Valera Gomez arose as the Spanish counterpart to the KJV, built on that same precise Textus Receptus text and carrying that same doctrine of complete preservation, it threatened to become a new seat of authority in the Spanish speaking fundamental world. And so, critics gathered, not with gunpowder, but with words, seeking to discredit the men involved and undermine the text's legitimacy, hoping that if they could plant enough doubt beneath its foundations, the whole structure would collapse before it ever took hold.
Let us not mistake contending for the truth with being argumentative or combative. The purity of the Bible is at stake. Apathy never leads to a solution. Action must be taken! The RVG Spanish Bible should be exclusively printed and distributed by King James Version loving Independent Baptists. Let us practice what we preach! Our Spanish speaking brothers and sisters deserve a pure Word of God.
