"Every tongue" MEANS every tongue

"He's our God too", read one ad I saw on YouVersion one day. It was an appeal for funds to help translate the Bible into more obscure African languages so that tribal people, who had converted to Christianity, could read the word of God as efficiently as any English speaker. Most Christians would agree this is a worthy cause, but there is at least one frankly radical group who would say otherwise: KJVOnlyists.

KJVOnlyism comes in many forms, with the most extreme being if you don't have a KJV, you don't have a Bible. I have been personally told that those who do not speak English should be encouraged to learn it, all so they can read the inspired, perfectly preserved word of God from the KJV.

But when we read the KJV, we find it teaches the same message as did all Bibles for nearly 1600 years before the KJV was published: "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" (Revelation 5:9).

From this, which is but one example in Revelation alone, we see that God does not limit salvation to those who are so fluent in English that they couldn't be tripped up by its archaic forms. He desires people from every tongue. It is sheer arrogance to expect people from every other tongue to learn one specific tongue all so they can read the word of God.

In fact, while I cannot verify this, to the best of my knowledge, there is no equivalent of KJVOnlyism in other languages, nor are there KJVOnlyists who don't speak fluent English. KJVOnlyism is a minority in itself, and for good reason, but for those who do not speak fluent English, it's unimaginable. The KJVOnly position is divisive, setting English speaking Christians against the rest of the Church, and is therefore repugnant to scripture, repugnant to the Church, and repugnant to God, who gave us His word, and by His grace, has allowed it to be translated in many languages.