I recently mentioned in And the Wind Doth Blow that we are to be very careful about the things we are reading in the 21st century. This includes Bibles too. If people say that it doesn't say that in their Bible...it might be true! And for clarification, I am mainly talking about Bibles such as The Message that is a complete man-made version of the word of God. However, I do think some things regarding other versions are worth mentioning.
Let me give you some examples:
"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:5-6)
Here's what Robert Baker said in a booklet he wrote on this topic in 1997.
"Jesus Christ said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63) Removing or adding to Jesus’ words results in preaching "another gospel," which is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul implies that preaching another gospel leads people to receive "another Jesus" and "another spirit." (II Corinthians 11:4) I Peter 1:23,25 shows that there is a direct correlation between the preaching of the pure Word of God and spiritual regeneration: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, but by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever…and this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you.
The prophet Amos spoke of a day in which there would be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. (Amos 8:11) Today, man-centered messages and experiences have largely replaced the expository teaching of the Word of God. Often missing from the Gospel presentation are vital doctrines of the Christian faith, such as the cross, the blood atonement, genuine faith, repentance, sanctification and judgment. Many in the church are busy serving, like Martha, but few are hearing Jesus’ words, as Mary did. (Luke 10:38-42) Deprived of the Bread of Life, many who profess to be Christians have an outward form of godliness but, perhaps unknowingly, do not possess true spiritual life."
I for one do not want to be receiving somebody else's gospel or interpretation of the gospel. God's Word is being more and more destroyed and changed. We must fight to be keepers of the truth of His word. The lovers of sin are changing the words of the Bible so that it will fit their lifestyle.
I am not advocating that we don't use these versions as God's word just cross-reference when possible in your studies.
"The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever." (Psalms 12:6-7)
6 comments:
Dearest EvangeWoman,
Please consider:
How should any of us respond if it was that, in the course of time, with the hand-copy transmission of the Inspired Biblical text (throughout some 1400 years), we were to discover that certain corruptions and taken place (sometimes simply as honest mistakes by well meaning scribes, sometimes not), and that these had found their way into God's Holy Word which, in reality, did not initially belong there?
Certainly, as lovers of God's Truth would we not see the need to refine the text, that is, in order to bring it back, closest to the origina? Of course we would.
And yet, if this was to affect whether certain time honored words or phrases, loved or not, would remain where they didn't belong, certainly, as lovers of 'Truth,' we wouldn't want to keep that which doesn't belong within God's Holy Word, the Bible.
In fact, knowing what we do about how God feels about any attempted corruption of His Word (Rev. 22:18, 19; Deut. 4:2; 12:23; Prov. 30:6) should cause us to feel the same way, especially when it is that we later discover how some, in the past, had attempted to alter God's Word to their own theological liking. But, thanks to those who study the ancient, often, more correct ancient texts, these later alterations to God's Word can now be discovered and corrected; hence, part of the reason why we may find the rusults of those efforts to refine His Word back to what it originally was as meaning that, in some verses, words will be deleted (which didn't belong there in the first place) or changed (back to what they originally said).
Agape, Alan.
john1one@earthlink.net
Wow, that was great. I've done research about the different translations and you summed it up great. We do need to read and know the right Bible. I think it is also important to know who writes them. I would not read anything a gay person would write about the Bible. Not in anger but I don't believe they have the right understanding.
Blessings,
Alisha
hello, actually 1 john 5:7-8 is indeed a made up passage that dates to the 14th century or so, nevertheless this is not the only passage that speaks about the triunity of God. I was puzzled at first as well about the different bible translations and versions, but i recommend reading some books about textual criticism of New testament, it helped me out very much in understanding this issues, and moreover it really proved, though in a bit complicated way, that actually the new testament preserved to 99%.
God bless, nice blog :)
Great post! Yes, I have been learning alot about this lately. I read one bible only and that's my good ole KJV I've had for over 30 years!
Hmmmm, I didn't have any problem finding the word "homosexual" in the NIV. 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10 have it. I think a lot of the criticism of modern day translations is unfounded and boils down to a prejudice based on stubborn ignorance. My personal favorite translation is still the Amplified Bible followed by the NASB. You can have the KJV with all it's many known errors in translation and poor rendering of many words. It's no wonder than the newer translations had to change 100,000 words. They had to correct all the errors in the KJV! The fact that it is writen in a "foreign language" is a real turn off. I might as well be trying to read the bible in Vietnamese or Swedish. I can remember a certain well known and popular preacher who had a 15 minute radio program on daily thru the week. His radio program was a "walk thru the bible" where he read and then explained each passage. He was a devout KJV man and really put down all other translations claiming they were no good, dangerous and of the devil. Every single radio broadcast he took about half of his time putting down the newer translations. Finally when he got started teaching the Word he would explain what he just read in the KJV and the very words he used to explain it were the exact words found in the newer translations he was putting down. How ridiculous ... yet he didn't get it. And he never did throut his life here on earth. Now that is blind stubborness!
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