The Holy Bible was given to man as God’s perfect mirror by which to measure the soul. It is impossible to know perfect truth or doctrines, to rightly divide those things taught by men, or to measure one’s own soul as to God’s will unless we have this mirror. Any cracks in the mirror create a distorted image. The more cracks there are in the mirror the more the image will distort and confuse the searching gaze of the human soul.

The Infallible Autographs
Clearly, God never intended that His Word would be less than infallible and pure so that man could stand before His God without doubt or confusion. The Holy Spirit breathed a perfect and infallible revelation. Even the creators of new versions and the new Evangelicals that champion them will argue for the perfect and inerrant original autographs. It would be dangerous indeed to question the perfect action of God’s Sovereign Spirit in delivering a clear undiluted message by His servants, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Peter 1:20-21). God is perfect and cannot act otherwise.

The argument begins at this point. Has God preserved His Word so that we now have an infallible mirror or must we trust in the image of a distorted reflection? Are 20th Century Christians cast upon a sea with varying compasses, each reflecting a different nuance of what the Scripture would instruct us? What did our God intend and teach us in Scripture itself concerning the future of an infallible original text?

Let’s Review What the Bible Says About Its Own Future
The Scripture itself abounds with promises that God would preserve a pure Word for all generations. Our Father has no respect of persons and that certainly means generations of persons right down through the changing nations and dispensations. The warnings against corruption of Scripture are powerful reminders of His intent to protect truth. Since the Holy Spirit acts upon and through Holy Truth and since there is absolutely no other method, the Word of God had to be preserved or His entire kingdom would suffer collapse.

In the beginning the Holy Words of God declared, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:2b-3). Not a molecule of atmospheric movement would occur until God spoke. It was the “words” of God acting within the flow of God’s Spirit that drove back darkness and changed the entire universe we now occupy. The pure “words” from God have never lost one ounce of their power. Only when the “Words” are distorted do they cease to challenge and drive back darkness.

The Psalmist David echoed this truth in his revelations from God, “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” (Psalm 12:6-7). By divine breath from God, David said that God’s Words were pure, as silver heated in a furnace seven different times, extracting every sub-ingredient and then promised that God would keep them and preserve them from that “generation (to) forever.”

The executive directors for the NIV and NASB, plus other supporters, said that verse seven was not talking about the Scriptures’ preservation, but rather the people mentioned in prior verses. (Personal account of interviews during taping of The John Ankerberg Show.) These people were desperate to destroy the truth of these verses because these verses destroy the total argument for their distorted Bible. The NIV changed verse seven from “Thou shalt keep them; O Lord . . .” to “O Lord, you will keep us safe . . .” It is not hard to judge such action as self-serving and wrong.

Jeremiah, the flaming prophet, was warned by God concerning His responsibility to speak the whole truth. God said to him, “Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word” (Jeremiah 26:2).

Notice the warning from God to Jeremiah. God said, “Diminish not a word.” The original idea that “words have consequence” begins with the Creator. One word moved, altered, omitted, or added can change the meaning or mute the message. The originator of languages was not man, but God. He taught Adam and Eve a language by communicating with them in the garden. He added multiple languages at Babel to hinder their godless pursuits.

Words are so valuable to God that He named His Eternal Son, the “Word of God.” When He said, “diminish not a word,” He was forever settling that ultimate truth comes only from God and must not be tampered with by man.

The Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, stated emphatically that the First Testament He held in His hand was perfect even to the “jots and tittles.” He further stated that not one of these punctuation marks (jots and tittles) would falter from their place until everything in His program for eternity is fulfilled. That’s an incredible promise! Notice His entire remarks on this occasion. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17-19).

Jesus Christ was “The Word . . . made flesh” (John 1:14). You cannot separate the “Living Word” from the “Written Word.” Just as surely as Jesus was the “express (perfect) image of the Father” (Hebrews 1:3), so the Holy Bible is the perfect expression of His revelations. To change the words of the Holy Scripture is just as serious as to mar His face with spittle or crown His head with thorns. Every time a translator loosely plays with one word of God, they are redriving the nails into His hands and feet. The arrogant textual critics of our day are crucifying Him afresh and bringing Him to an open shame.

The last warning of Scripture is a warning to those who would alter the eternal words that God had breathed to men. It is not the last warning by accident. The Lamb of God is clearly the central figure of the Book of Revelation. Jesus Christ is the author and He clearly condemns any omissions or additions to any part of Holy Scripture.

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).

Paraphrasing of Many Scriptures Add to the Problem
The problems in new versions are compounded by the multiple instances of paraphrasing. In other words, not only do they follow a corrupt Greek text in numerous places, they paraphrase much of the text which disagrees with the KJV. The NIV admitted that paraphrasing was a problem in their version. Here is a quote in their own words, “In the preface to the NIV, the Committee on Bible Translations states that sometimes it was necessary to modify sentence structure and to move away from a word-for-word translation in order to be faithful to the thought of the biblical writers and to produce a truly accurate translation. Since its publication, however, a number of observers have criticized the less literal approach of the NIV and have pointed to “interpretational intrusions” foisted on the text. While it may be true that at times the NIV translators have been guilty of reading something into the text . . .” (The NIV, the Making of a Contemporary Translation, “When Literal is Not Accurate,” Herbert M. Wolf, p. 128.)

The above statement is a verbatim quote. Dr. D.A. Waite, a dear friend and Bible scholar, documented 6,653 instances of paraphrasing in the NIV text. The translators call this Dynamic Equivalence. Instead of simply translating the words of the text word-for-word, they use a moveable approach where they decide for everybody when a different word or words would be better according to their opinion.

Let me give you an example. They changed “Master” to “teacher” forty-eight times in reference to Jesus Christ. Every time Jesus was called the “Master,” they called Him the “teacher.” It was their opinion that “teacher” was a better term for our generation.

Don’t Believe the Lies about the King James Bible
The desperate effort of men who promote the new version has given rise to many false rumors. One of those rumors concerns King James himself. Some have resorted to repeating a lie about him being a homosexual. This was a concoction of his enemies who sought to destroy his reputation. The Catholic Church hated him because of the break between England and Rome. This hate was compounded when he authorized the translation of a quality English Bible for the people. It is reported with good documentation that the Radical Jesuit organization within the Catholic Church was created to destroy King James and the King James Version Bible. King James was subject to one plot to assassinate him and the lie about his homosexuality was started after his death.

Whatever King James was, he had nothing to do with the translations of the Scripture. The men who acted as translators were many times superior to the translators of our present day. Most of our colleges and universities are hotbeds of liberalism. The men chosen to translate the King James Bible were scholars par excellence. Lancelot Andrews was conversant in fifteen languages. William Bedwell was an eminent Oriental scholar, schooled in the Aramaic language. He also compiled an Aramaic lexicon in three volumes and worked on a Persian dictionary. Miles Smith researched the early church fathers, including about 300 different individual authors who wrote in Greek and Latin. These authors covered the Early Church period from approximately 100 A.D. to 600 A.D. This material gave Dr. Smith a tremendous proof of the very text read and quoted by these 300 individuals right from the Early Church period.

Dr. Henry Savile was the tutor of Greek and mathematics to Queen Elizabeth. He translated the writing of numerous noted authors from Latin into English. John Bois was capable of reading the Hebrew Bible at five years of age and could write Hebrew legibly at six years of age. (Documentation taken from Defending the King James Bible, by D.A. Waite, Th.D., Ph.D.)

The documentation of the King James Bible translation is extremely extensive and settles beyond measure their eminent scholarship. These men were the best the king of England could acquire and completely eclipse modern day text and critics. It isn’t any wonder that the King James Bible is not only the infallible and superior translation; it is a masterful work of literary art.

The Anchor of the Human Soul
The soul of man is priceless. Not only is our soul priceless, it is eternal and the anchor of our soul must be secure. Individuals who seek their anchor in the quicksand of unsure translations are going to suffer spiritual disaster. All new translations have their own copywriter and by copyright law each new version must change the wording. The result is a smorgasbord of ideas and wording. Our soul was created by God and cannot be secure until His perfect revelation is our anchor.

It is extremely dangerous to trust in a distorted version. If the new versions presented a united front by being in agreement with each other, that trust would seem more justified. But, when each must spend millions to buy you with sleek advertisements, it would take a foolish person to believe their lies.

The facts and reasons are on the side of a Bible that has never been proven wrong. No weary traveler has lost his way when he filled his heart with the words from the King James Authorized Bible.

The Christian world must become disgusted with the pale religion that fills our pulpits and pews. We need a holy hunger for robust, masculine Christianity that drives us to our knees in search of Holy Ghost boldness. Our consecration to Christ must reach a level of devotion that moves us from the natural to the world of the supernatural. We need to forsake our programs, schemes, and social bondage that we might become instruments completely used of our Sovereign God.

An eminent author of the past said it best, “The creature can offer nothing to God but that which he has first received from Him; and it must of all necessity have the divine and Godly nature both born and living in it to render acceptable worship to God. Anything less than this is the abominable worship of the flesh, seeking to present to God that which comes from carnal self. Can anything reflect light before it has first received it? Can any other light be reflected than that which has been received? Neither can any created being have godly affections except as the divine nature dwells and operates in it. If the man Christ Jesus said, ‘I can of mine own self do nothing,’ how much more is this certain of us.” (The Indwelling Spirit, William Law, edited by Dave Hunt, pp. 17-18.)

It does not matter how much of religion you claim, how many Bible verses you can quote, and how many church-related activities in which you are engaged. Until you move from the world of the natural to the supernatural, you have no more of God than the heathen. Nicodemus was as religious as the best church members in America, but he did not know God. Jesus said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Our churches and pulpits are filled with unconverted men and women who would be absolutely startled at the descending presence of the Holy Spirit. They have never experienced Him; they are very religious, but they have never experienced God.

Christianity is first and last a life totally different from anything this world offers. Until you have something this world cannot give you, you don’t have God. Until you experience a transformation beyond the counsel of a religious psychologist, counselor, or deliverance deeper than some self-help scheme, you are doing nothing but playing with religion. Because someone tells you to believe in a higher power or because you confess that there’s a man upstairs is very little more than positive thinking. You can temporarily change your emotions by a simple statement in the positive but that is not the life change so powerfully represented in surrender to Jesus Christ and His indwelling Spirit.

Living in the flesh and living in the Spirit are two different worlds. The best your flesh can produce even in a positive vein or mindset is still flesh. Much of religion today is nothing but “positive thinking” under the guise of Christianity. You must constantly pump yourself up to survive. The preachers in most pulpits should be called “cheerleaders,” instead of men of God.

From Oridinary To Extraordinary
As long as we remain ordinary church leaders and members, there will be no real change in our families, friends. and neighbors. When we compare our faith with the spiritual tide of Acts, we look like spiritual pygmies. They turned their world upside down, while we cannot even manage to keep ours right side up. Let’s look at that dangerous Book of Acts for an example of moving from the ordinary to the extraordinary. This is a picture of robust Christianity,

“Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God” (Acts 3:1-9).

Four things were evident in what I’m calling Robust Christianity. One: Here were Christians acting as Jesus taught them to act. They had lived in His presence and surrendered to His will on a level of total dependency. Now, they were acting as He taught them to act. Not only did they act in His name, but confessed that the faith that rescued this man was not their faith but the very faith of Jesus Christ Himself. “The faith which is by Him” (verse 16) was described as the source of faith in them who commanded this miracle. This crowd would never allow themselves to be called a “word of faith” church. They claimed nothing but that provided by Jesus Himself. Not only was their righteousness by faith, but their faith was by faith. They were enabled to believe because they had declared their own complete bankruptcy.

Two: When men are enabled by their total surrender to act biblically, God Himself can act like God. He wants to fulfill every promise in Holy Scripture. Our Father is ready to manifest Himself to this generation but will not act contrary to the Holy Scripture. To suggest, as some do, that He only healed a few choice people or according to a kind of flexible will is an indictment against Him. His provisions are either for everyone or for no one. Don’t frustrate the grace of God. (Galatians 2:21).

This generation has contrived a theological escape for every clear promise of Jesus Christ. We have excuses why some are not healed, why the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not manifest, why the churches are engaged in social programs instead of Holy Ghost activity, and why our ministers fall into all kinds of moral sins, etc. For one reason the manifestation of God is absent and our level of living is beneath the level that allows God to reign in our midst and show His glory to our thirsty souls. The problem is in us.

Three: The third evidence of extraordinary Christianity was the effect on the hurting man begging at the gate. He was enabled to act like he met God, because he did. He had been on the outside looking in (never allowed to enter the temple because of the imperfections in his flesh), but now he moves to the inside looking out. He had no concern for the cold, religious crowd as he entered the temple, “walking, leaping and praising God.” The living God had infused him with abundant life.

Four: Beautiful results are now clearly visible. The fourth evidence of Robust Christianity is a whole city stirred for revival. The author, Luke, writing by Holy Ghost inspiration, calls it, “The times of refreshing…from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19b). This is the constantly recurring theme throughout the dangerous book we call “The Book of Acts of the Apostles.” They lived in the world of the supernatural because they had ceased to accept the limited life of the natural as being normal Christianity.

Rest in the Holy Spirit’s Control
It’s time to rest or cease from the Christianity in man’s control. It has brought the church to its weakest point since the turn of the 20th century. Every work of the true servant of God must be rested for Holy Ghost direction. The apostle to the Gentiles said it best, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Any spiritual activity that is under human control is powerless to save. It may build a social club or a religious empire, but it will not build the kingdom of God. It’s wake will be strewed with the confusion of human failure.

The Holy Spirit is calling us to Christ’s church. He stands at the door as the porter to invite and open the door that Christ’s sheep may go in and out to find pasture. All other attempts to build the church are the same as the thief and robber who seek to take that which belongs to another. (John 10:1-5) Modern Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Evangelicals are the present day thieves robbing Christ’s church and Jesus Christ Himself of the glory which He cannot share. When we cease our thievery and enter into total obedience, His glory will once again appear. “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass” (Psalms 72:6).