Do You Love the Bible?
2 Timothy 3
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
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.”
Revelation 22
18 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:
19 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.
20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
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).
Matthew 5
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 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.
19 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.
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
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.
Psalm 126
5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
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.