Richard J. Knox, Sr.

Spirit of Discovery Sodwcc@hawaii.rr.com

Copyright © 2005 by

Richard J. Knox, Sr.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the Authorized 1611 King James Version Bible. Those marked (NIV) are taken from the NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION bible. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.

Library of Congress

Catalog Card Number XX-XXXXX

3^rd Draft

Printed in the United States of America

By

Spirit of Discovery Hawaii

To my darling wife Victoria Lenore, who, as always, is the inspiration and endless source of information for this book. Withouther capable scrutiny and encouragement, this book would not have been written.

We also express our heartiest appreciation to my son, RJ, my granddaughters, Kristin and Kahlene and to my friends, Wyman Au, Janie Nakamatsu and several others (too many to mention) who proofread the manuscripts for content and accuracy and spirit.

Preface………………………………………………...5

Introduction………………………………………..…..7

1. How We Became Involved…………………......9
2. A Brief History of Bible Translations….….....….17
3. Are Translations Confusing the Church?….....….25
4. Examples Exposing New Translations…..….......33
5. Being Convinced of the Truth……………....…..52
6. Effects of Trusting New Translations…….…......63
7. Effectively Helping Others………………......….69

Some years ago, my wife and I received a prophecy that we were to be "watchmen" over God's flock. Surely beginning with Pastors and Elders there are many other watchmen chosen by God. God bless them all! But we were also chosen to be, at least, one of these teams.

I have pondered many times what it meant to be a "watchman" in the House of God. I surely knew that a Christian watchman is not one that "squeals" to the pastor about the activities of individuals in a congregation. God doesn’t need any of us to snoop around spying on fellow-Christians using our natural "gifts" of suspicion to provide intelligence to the authorities. It also had little to do with physical guard duty such as being a night watchman. So I asked the Lord, "What does it mean to be a watchman?"

The answer He awed me with was to watch for ‘signs and acts of the evil one in the midst of the congregation.’ This, my wife and I have attempted to do. But what does the Lord want us to do with the "fleshly" deeds and "spirits of division" that we sometimes observe. Well, the Lord said "watch and pray." But he also urges us to take certain actions under the authority of the Holy Spirit to wage war against such spiritual powers.

This book represents a declaration of war against the worst spirit of ‘deception’ that has engulfed the church today whether it is a Spirit-filled church or not. The devil is using many well-meaning bible scholars to flood the Body of Christ with a large number of perverted bible translations, not just for the "love of money" but also to prepare God's elect for the ecumenical one-world church.

The leader of this system will eventually be the "Anti-Christ." So, as watchmen, it is our hope that you will be convinced of the truth by the evidence we present here rather than by our ability to persuade you. The material presented can sometimes trigger an emotional response in some Christians when they really see how some bible translations have actually altered the Word of God.

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The scriptures, called the Word of God, have been radically changed many times in the past 120 years from the Traditional Text. There are important consequences of these changes that have affected and continue to negatively affect Christianity. If you have a sincere interest in biblical truths, you need to know of the origins and distinctions between the Traditional Text, which is the Authorized 1611 King James Version Bible (KJV), and modern-day translations.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…"  (Hosea 4:6).

It is not our intention to offend any child of God who loves the Word of God or any bible scholar who has been involved with the translation, editing or paraphrasing of scriptures in the Holy Bible. Furthermore, my purpose is not to persuade you to abandon your particular version of the Bible, but that you might take an open look at how your various translations compare with the tradition King James Bible and how your life can be affected by using modern-day translations. After reading this book, hopefully, the Holy Spirit will help you to see that modern-day bible translations can ensnare you, your family and friends into many spiritual pitfalls.

You need to be aware that these changes in scripture range from the very subtle to, oftentimes, the blatantly outrageous. I feel many of you will want to reconcile these scriptures with other believers once your eyes have been opened.

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Paul wrote to the Galatians: "… but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ" (Galatians 1:7). Now, do you think that there are those that could be perverting the Gospel today, or do you suppose this practice has altogether ceased?

Only the Holy Spirit can convince the Christian of the truthfulness of his particular biblical translation (or paraphrase). We hope to spark the interest of the readers, by presenting some provocative food for thought, to closely examine their bible translations.

Hopefully, all Bible-believers will find critical value in this account of our research and personal experiences with several versions of the bible. I sincerely pray that the readers will allow the Holy Spirit to confirm whether or not the translation they so love and trust faithfully agrees with what the "Spirit" of God is saying to them.

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Years ago, my wife and I had virtually every bible translation and paraphrase we could get our hands on. We felt "rich" with such a great library of scripture aids and consulted with them fairly often. I remember how I enjoyed reading the bible stories of the Old and New Testament in the "Good News for Modern Man." Indeed, this bible made grasping bible stories both quick and easy. I promised the Lord that I would read these stories next from the KJV (when I had more time). But for then, my "microwave" version was handy and more fun to read. I wasn't concerned about such things as the use of slightly different words, etc. I never searched for missing or distorted words or the absence of whole scriptures. It was just a time of easy bible reading.

Then, out of curiosity, I began to check out the NIV bible. I wanted to see what I had, possibly, been missing. Was I going to be introduced to some new revelation or esoteric spiritual information that wasn't so apparent in the King James Version? I didn't know. The NIV was a brand new, bright and shining expensive bible which I wasn't going to just let sit idly on a shelf collecting dust.

My wife was miles ahead of me in reading the NIV bible. After awhile she began to feel uneasy with this bible and I witnessed her furiously checking references back and forth and grumbling about the way several scriptures were reworded. When I heard her complaints, I reasoned that she was, probably, not fully understanding the "godly" intent of well-meaning bible scholars because, at the time, I had "god-like" faith in bible scholars.

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I couldn't allow myself to disbelieve the contents of these new translations, otherwise I would've been obligated to suspect the words of God might not be perfect and true. And if I could doubt some areas of the bible, then perhaps, I couldn't really believe in any of God's promises.

At first, I was thrilled to see all the comments in the footnotes as if they were new archaeological findings about the Word of God, unlike the dead, dry, abbreviated and cryptic references found in most KJV Bibles. It wasn't until my wife pointed out to me that Acts. 8:37 was curiously missing from the NIV that I came to a screeching stop in my faith in this particular bible translation. We were astonished beyond belief! Perhaps there was a misprint. In our NIV it was almost inconspicuous that this verse was missing because the verses were not separated with scripture numbers in the left-hand margin. The text was in a wrap-around format, making it difficult to recognize where a new verse began. (Note: The "Message" bible is more careless in that respect; they don't preserve scripture numbers at all! It reads like a novel, making it more difficult to match with identical scriptures in other bibles. I believe this is yet another device to divorce readers from the KJV and into accepting a new format that all but does away with memorizing scriptures by Chapter and Verse).

Acts 8:37 is probably one of the most important scriptures in the New Testament regarding salvation from sin, namely, "…I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

It is the confession of one who was seeking God as Philip was speaking to him of what he had preached and taught many other seekers. This is, indeed, why Acts 8:26-39 were recorded in the Bible in the first place. Why tell the eunuch the "story" of Jesus and not give him the "key" to his salvation? It would have been an uneventful, perhaps, ceremonial trip for Philip to have baptized him only. Friends, isn’t this a problem today with many religions; people are baptized without them confessing their belief in Jesus, as the Son of God? With whose authority did the authors of the NIV completely remove Acts 8:37, and why did they?

I fully recognized that Acts 8:37 was also important because it is the only verse in the New Testament where a soul is confessing that 'Jesus is the Son of God at the time of his salvation.' My wife began to cry over that one and certain other missing and distorted scriptures in the NIV saying, "What have they done to the Word of God!" We were both remorseful and fully cognizant of the warnings of Revelation 22:18-19 and also that the Lord God "changes not." It was at this juncture that we both began to intensely research the ubiquitous bible translations.

Certainly we were not the first to discover this travesty. I began to wonder how many other pastors, teachers, apostles or evangelists were aware of the NIV bible translation? Surely the more notable men of God that we loved and greatly admired were already warning fellow believers of this situation. So, we listened with attentive ears to radio and TV pastors and, in particular, to our own pastor, during that time. And, to our astonishment, not the slightest peep was even suggested that bible translations tend to dishonor God.

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In fact, we noted that many godly men were freely endorsing various translations without the slightest indication that there were any problems. I believed that if the Christian world had so readily accepted the NIV, the enemy would certainly not stop there; other translations must be affected as well.

We were deeply disturbed to the point that we began to do an even more serious investigation, as if we had uncovered an archeological find pointing to an unsolved murder. But due to the resistance, we had several bouts with our own doubts that we were chasing a significant discovery. We felt we were severely out of step with most of the Christian world because we could find virtually NO support. "Was it too late or was it just water under a bridge by now?"

Our quest for the truth of what bible translations were all about became more revealing as we continued. The Internet was a great source of information. But a milestone in our work happened when a member of our church handed me a book entitled, "If the Foundations be Destroyed" by Chick Salliby. After reading it, with the pastor's permission, I promptly requested ordering 52 more copies and distributed them to as many members in the congregation.

After reading the book twice more, I was thoroughly convinced that the NIV was distorting the Word of God with man-centered thinking. I also learned that this problem was far more widespread than I had ever imagined, far more! Two hundred and fifty million NIVs had been sold worldwide by year 2000 and almost every Christian had a copy.

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Worse yet, most were substituting the easy-reading NIV for the traditional King James. It also turned out that relatively few in our congregation bothered to read Chick Salliby's book and those who did were, for the most part, unconcerned. This startled me to where my heart sunk into despair. It was as if the disease had spread to the lymph nodes of the world and was now in the final advanced stages. I wondered how could we fight the whole world and if it was already too late to do so? Even though we spent much time helping some Christians realize that omissions and additions posed a threat to the Word of the Lord as given in their King James Bible, we soon realized that only a few could be reached by word of mouth, hence this book was written.

The Internet articles on the new translations both encouraged and discouraged me. There was a preponderance of articles desecrating the KJV and relatively few defending it. I was somewhat comforted that these few authors and researchers had investigated the historical development of both bible streams and had published their findings in various books, tapes and CD's. I couldn't afford all of these books or spend half my life studying them unless I was willing to make a dedicated life-long commitment. And I wasn't sure it was worth it. Believe me, there were several obstacles and blocks to our research and it would have been far easier to "drop" the whole matter of exposing bible translations. My wife and I also didn't look forward to the probable persecution.

So, I wondered where was the Christian world going? Or more appropriately, where had the Christian world already gone? The boat had separated from its anchor, drifted from the shoreline, and by now was adrift in deep waters. Could it ever be retrieved and returned to shore?

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I was laying on my carpet watching TV one evening and felt an ant crawling up my arm. I smashed it and looked around awhile to see if there were any others. Shortly, I felt another ant crawling on me. I instantly jumped up to see several ant trails leading to a tiny morsel of food on the floor. I had been lying across the intersection of one of their main highways.

From a standing position, I had a much better perspective of the overall infiltration of these ants. So it has been with the NIV and the other bible translations. I had not been aware of the gradual replacement of the KJV with several bible translations in the worldwide Christian community until I could see it from a "higher" (heavenly) point of view. Moreover, these translations, like the ants, were focusing on the morsel of the Body of Christ.

So what could or should we do? Just submit to the system, and place our faith in the revised, though, imperfect words of bible scholars? Or say, "Oh, what the heck, let someone else more qualified worry about it. We love Jesus and that's all that really matters; let the bible authorities argue over the miniscule word changes here and there. After all, our faith in God was sound and we now read only the KJV, so why should we care?"

When we first began to realize what was happening with the bible translations, we were sure our family and Christian friends would be astonished and upset with "whoever" was spreading them around the world. But that was not always the case. It was an uphill battle, with thorns along the way, to substantiate our so-call "discovery."

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We were not too convincing in the early days in taking a stand against the spiritual blindness cloaking family and our acquaintances. I witnessed Christian friends that were convinced to switch back to their KJV bibles, but it seemed that the "message" died with each of them. It was as if they said, "Thank you," and that was the end of the matter. They were not passing the information on to others.

In retrospect, I can understand why. First, we didn't have the reputation of bible scholars and had not done sufficiently genuine research on the subject. Second, we didn't have that much evidence to conclusively prove that these bible translations were, indeed, misrepresenting God's words. But, thank God, in recent months the bible translations debacle has been increasing revealed to several ministers of the Word and is being broadcast over the airwaves, Internet and being published in several books and multiple video tapes. However, by comparison with those in the opposition camp, we are still relatively few in numbers.

One of the principal editors of the NASB translation, Dr. Frank Logsdon, confessed publicly after that translation was published, "I'm in trouble with the Lord; I can't refute these arguments; it's wrong; it's terribly wrong; it's frightfully wrong; and what am I going to do about it?" Logsdon shocked publisher Dewey Lockman by writing, "I must under God renounce every attachment to the New American Standard." Logsdon then began to travel extensively, trying to make up for his error by explaining to people the very simple reasons why the Authorized King James Version is the only Bible that is absolutely

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100% correct. For further information, I refer you to these two web sites:

http://www.biblebelievers.com/AV_Articles.html

http://www.dccsa.com/greatjoy/versions.htm

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In my limited studies I have discovered that there are, at least, two distinct sources (or streams) from which the New Testament of the Bible was translated: the Antiochian (Antioch, Syria) manuscripts and the Alexandrian (Alexandria, Egypt) text. They both were written in the Greek language. But the Antiochian documents were called the Majority Text because there were over 5000 of these manuscripts written. They exhibited incredible agreement with each other. The 45, or so, Alexandrian manuscripts, though copied in the same school, not only didn't agree with the vast majority of Antiochian manuscripts, but also didn't match up well with each other! An excellent, but brief history of the development and propagation of each set of these manuscripts is given at this web site:

http://www.chick.com/information/bibleversions/articles/kingjamesbible.asp

It's probably easier for many of you to check out a web site than to look up a lengthy bibliography of books, etc., so you will see here several references to web sites that we regard as exceptionally relevant. We refer to the web site above and to certain others because it is well beyond the scope of this book to cover the entire history of the "Majority Text" (Antiochian) and the "Corrupted Text" out of Alexandria.

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Both Paul and Peter testified that even as the Scriptures were being written, plans were being laid for their destruction. Paul wrote, "For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God…" (2Corinthians 2:17).

Peter wrote, "As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as [they do] also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." (2Peter 3:16).

After the Apostles died, the Gnostics, a sect who mixed the spiritual and the natural worlds, began rewriting the Scriptures and added mistaken ideas about Jesus. A man named Origen (185-254 A.D.) did the most to blend Gnosticism within the Scriptures. His ideas captivated the attention of the Catholic Church and nearly all of the contemporary scholars of that century. Origen influenced Jerome who translated the Latin Vulgate and it was declared the official Bible of the Catholic Church by the Council of Trent in 1546. Constantine (280? - 337 A.D.), who formed a union between Christianity and paganism, commissioned Eusebius, a great admirer of Origen, to prepare fifty Bibles based upon Origen's corrupted Scriptures for use in the churches.

It was written on fine vellum and for that reason still remains in good condition today. It was found in the Vatican Library in 1481 A.D. and omits Genesis 1:1 - 46:28; Psalms 106-138, Matthew 16:2-3, Hebrews 9:14-13:25 and the entire book of Revelation.

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In the gospels alone it leaves out 237 words, 452 clauses and 748 whole sentences. Although the Vaticanus was available to the King James translators, it was entirely rejected because they knew it was unreliable.

For many centuries there were attacks upon the Word of God and persecution of its followers. In the year 1844, a very old manuscript (Codex Sinaiticus) was discovered in a wastebasket in St. Catherine's monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. John Burgeon, who spent years examining every available manuscript of the New Testament, found that many letters, words or even whole sentences of the Sinaiticus were omitted or written twice over. Nearly every page had corrections and revisions done by 10 different people. True scholars have cast it aside as worthless.

The Vaticanus and the Sinaiticus manuscripts may be regarded as the oldest, but they are in no way the best! When modern translations state that, "This verse is not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts," they are using text from the corrupt and unreliable Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts.

After the introduction of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in the late 1800's, two Cambridge professors by the names of Brooke Wescott and Fenton Hort (believers in Darwin's theory) translated a Greek text based primarily on the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts. Both these corrupted manuscripts dated back to Eusebius.

Wescott and Hort were intellectual heretics who did not believe in the Bible's account of Creation, amongst other things, and, from their own letters, gave every indication that they were, indeed, Catholics under cover.

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This was very evident from their writings. The important point about these fellows is that they translated the Greek text from which ALL corrupted modern bibles are based on into English, beginning with the Revised Version of 1881 down to the NIV bible and the rest of today's "best selling" bibles.

Today, sad to say, after nearly 400 years, the KJV Bible is largely rejected by most bible scholars throughout most of the Protestant Christian community. They now deem this Bible to be both archaic and unsuitable for use in the modern Christian world. They claim that the Shakespearean language of the KJV is regarded as both difficult to understand and awkward to read, even though the famous Flesch-Kincaid Test has rated the KJV at 5-6^th grade reading level and the, all-competing, New International Version (NIV) bible at 7^th grade level.

I don't believe anyone can claim to know the entire history of the earliest Bibles, but utilizing the research we have done, I will attempt to give you a fair summary. The Bible itself confirms that it was supernaturally, written by men inspired by the Holy Spirit. 2Timothy 3:16 - "All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:"

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and is called the Masoretic Text while the New Testament was written in Greek. At Antioch, where the true believers in Christ were first called Christians (Acts 11:26), history tells us that there were over 5000 Greek manuscripts maintained there constituting the entire New Testament.

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As mentioned, the King James Bible was a translation into English of the Masoretic Text and the Greek "Majority Text" (from which the Textus Receptus was derived). Because of the advent of the Gutenberg printing press, the Authorized 1611 King James Bible became the standard Protestant Bible published throughout the English-speaking world and eventually into other languages. Every printed copy was cherished as the indisputable Word of God for Christianity. Only the secular world disputed or criticized this Bible, as would be expected. For centuries there was really only this one Bible to refute. Virtually every Christian pulpit used this same Bible, the King James Bible. There was little confusion in the churches and Sunday schools about where the Word of God was to be found. There was a genuine unity of the Spirit and the church began to grow together as ONE body in Christ.

Witnesses in litigation used the Bible in the judicial system as the "holy book" for swearing to the truth. The Word of God was taught in most American schools; in fact, many children learned to read using the Bible. There was no shame involved with the use of the Bible in educational institutions because all students were originally instructed from this same book. Souls were saved because there was something to be saved from, called "sin." Repentance was a common word because one could not obtain salvation except he repented. The blood of Christ was exalted and the deity of the name of Jesus Christ was traditionally preserved.

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Even though, today, the King James Bible is practically "condemned" as archaic and difficult to read by most scholars, there is no justification for abandoning it! I can't believe that God, who promised to "preserve His Word forever," would give us the KJV Bible, loaded with errors, and leave it to chance that His children would overcome the confusion.

Jesus said, "But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26).

The KJV Bible was foundational in bringing Europe out of the "Dark Age" through the reformation and the Pilgrims to America. If we believe there are faith-destroying errors in this Bible then we have to believe the early Christian fathers were greatly misled by a defective bible and only God knows where the "real" truth is recorded.

In other words, if you really believe the KJV Bible has errors in certain areas, then why should you believe any of it or any other bible? Perhaps the words about "salvation" and promises of "inheriting eternal life" may also not be true. And if we really believe there are contextual errors in the KJV, then we do not believe that God really did "preserveth" his Word, as he promised. It's amazing how we, as Christians, believe in the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we can not believe in the miracle of God preserving the integrity of his Word. Why do we put Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth in such a box?

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Who's to judge which words are true and which words are not? Should we depend on some archaeologist, philosopher, paleontologist or bible scholar to declare which parts are truth and which parts are not? Shall we put it to a national vote, referendum or have the United States Supreme Court decide which scriptures are acceptable and which are not? Let's be careful here, because people's minds change like the wind changes direction. But the Lord says,

"For I [am] the LORD, I change not…" (Malachi 3:6) and in (Hebrews 13:8), "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and forever."

In a preface of a RSV bible it states, " The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an authorized revision of the Revised Standard Version." It was published in 1952, as a revision of the American Standard Version published in 1901, which, in turn, embodied earlier revisions of the King James Version, published in 1611. So, in our modern age, the RSV was the real "crack" in the dam that released an onslaught of many lucrative, copyrighted bible translations.

It's my personal belief that well-meaning bible scholars, having the best of intentions, wanted to contribute to the promotion and edification of God’s word. So they endeavored to make it clearer and more readable by the use of contemporary words and modern-day terminology. The idea was to popularize the Bible by removing the awkwardness of the early English language found in the King James Bible. So, initially, such versions as the 'Living Bible' and 'Good News for Modern Man' were welcome relief and became best sellers in every Christian bookstore alongside the KJV.

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No one, at that time, ever dreamed that these translations along with many others, especially the NIV, would eventually REPLACE the KJV! (But Satan knew it, because he has studied the weaknesses of mankind since the beginning of time.) A paraphrase of the Bible should be little more than use synonyms or alternate words that do not change the context or meaning of the scriptures. But what actually happened is that many verses have been changed in meaning at the discretion of scholarly committees who decided what God really meant was vastly different than that recorded in the KJV.

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Do the modern translations make the Bible clearer to understand? If so, should we trust them only because they may sound clearer? Harry Potter books sold to millions because they were easy to read. Mothers around the world gobbled them up faster than they could be printed so that little "Johnny" could now love to read.

Bible-reading Christians generally cherish the Bible they were "raised" on. It makes no difference what translation it was, once they had been groomed with it; they usually cling to that particular bible until the cover falls off. Anyone who challenges the authenticity of their personal bible is in deep trouble to begin with and will usually face maximum disbelief, a limited attention span, together with an unwelcome and almost hostile attitude. In other words, it is a great way to break friendships in a very short time.

So how does one mention this topic today without alarming his friends or family? We've found that it must be done very, very carefully with a foundation of love and tenderness. It takes maximum courage to present 'facts' to a skeptical audience. My wife and I have witnessed friends who have reacted to this topic with a most astonishing attitude and wanted to know more than we could possibly tell them in a day or two. While others have virtually abandoned us without a word being said, as if we were trying to sell them a bottle of snake oil. This range of reactions is very common and fully anticipated nowadays because we clearly recognize that the realization of the gradual changes made to God's Word must be spiritually detected---and that's all there is to it!

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Many Christians are beginning to wonder what is going on with the flood of new bible translations released each year. Some are suspicious as to who or what organization of bible scholars is generating them and why so many are being published. (Of course, all of the translations are copyrighted and, therefore, marketable to millions, for millions of dollars).

So how does one know which translation is the best to use? It probably depends on which translation your pastor (or denomination) decides to use and, as you might expect, to object to that version will not put you in the best light. You may love your pastor but hate the translation! But no one wants to appear to be a rebel by dissenting, so you are caught in an undesirable quagmire. To voice your opinion about the choice of translation could put you at great risk. You either cooperate by systematically using the prevailing translation or find yourself another church. And finding another church, most times, means serious inconvenience and the dissolution of valuable and precious relationships. Plus, the next church may use a more disagreeable translation. So, as you might imagine, the continual introduction of newer and newer bible translations could give rise to further division within the Body of Christ.

There is very strong controversy throughout the Christian literary media and on the Internet between the King James-Only supporters and the opposition who represent modern-day bible translations. The two camps are diametrically opposed to each other and have locked horns in almost mortal combat.

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I didn't realize this kind of warfare existed and was amazed at the ferocity of it. The arguments from both sides sound rational and reasonable relative to certain scriptures, but what is not good is the infighting that is separating brothers and sisters in the Lord. These serious breaks in fellowship are paramount as the two sides debate each other, being that neither side feels the other has a solid foundation to substantiate his position. The Bible says, "If the foundations be destroyed, what will the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3).

It seemed that we had entered the midst of an ongoing battle and the sparks were already flying long before we could get our ammo together. I was not prepared to become another King James-Only soldier. My concern was in the heartbreaking circumstances surrounding the core of this battle: the position that many modern-day scholars take that NO bible is inerrant. But how can this be? If ALL bibles have errors, due to the frailties of mankind, and if God could not, through the Holy Spirit, constrain men to flawlessly translate His Word from Greek and Hebrew to English, then even the King James Version is in trouble!

What logically follows from the above premises is that if the entire Christian world is studying bibles plagued with errors, what fundamental promises, precepts and principles of God can we believe? And WHO is the ultimate judge that decides where the errors are? If God left us no accurate words to have faith in, then whom can we believe?

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If all bibles are incorrect, then we could twist and distort the words of this, so-called, truth to become any ad hoc laws or principles we wanted---the same way the Supreme Court and justices of America regularly misinterpret the Constitution. Then, as Rome fell, so will Christianity fail because chaos will rule the church and both fundamentalists and liberals will create doctrines that won't even come close to what God has said. Every man would become a law unto himself and the doctrines of men would reign supreme. All of these changes would define a "new" standard for the Church and the secular society. In other words, the "new" standard would be that: there IS no standard!

God forbid that Christianity would degenerate to such ruin, especially when the Lord has declared that, "…the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18)" (His Church). I am saying that, perhaps, we should have left well enough alone with the King James Bible. This is spiritual warfare at the highest possible level because the enemy is stealing the power and anointing of the Word of God from both new and mature Christians with these translations. But many faithful brothers and sisters will not want to believe that this is a war and, therefore, choose to ignore it or let the intellectuals work it out. But how can any of us stay neutral and watch our friends and families blindly following the misguided doctrines of modern-day translations?

Christians baptized with the Spirit of God are particularly concerned with the confusing impact of using several bible translations. Their spirits are disturbed because they have a strong sense that there's a sinister undercurrent of evil threading throughout the Church even though, at first, they can't always decipher the real source of the problem.

For example, I have noticed that there is less and less quoting of the scriptures in many church services and more and more paraphrasing of the words of a translation. This, I believe, is leading us to a gradual distortion of the pure truths in the Bible. It's becoming more difficult to decipher what the scripture actually stated and where a pastor's preaching of that scripture begins. (Even Paul, the apostle, made it clear in the scriptures at what point he was writing his own opinion or judgement on a matter when he said, "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord…" (1Corinthians 7:12). Sometimes, a single word or phrase can radically alter the meaning of a given scripture.

Few bible historians have accurate accounts regarding how the original manuscripts were divided, copied, written and rewritten. I am not going to toy with the integrity of any biblical translators, their credentials and lifestyles. I am more concerned with the hard evidence that clearly shows most bible translations diminish the name, glory and deity of Christ. Chapter 4 of this book is loaded with striking examples of the tyranny in the NIV translation. And because of these examples, you shall see that I am also much concerned as to why so many clear King James scriptures have been changed in view of Revelation 22:18-19. I'm troubled as to why the NIV uses so many "substitute" words that have far more vague meanings to replace the simpler words given in the KJV. Don't believe this? Check out this web site for several examples:

http://www.av1611.org/kjv/vanceniv.html

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I am disturbed because I believe we lose our spiritual discernment when we persist on using 'lower octane' bibles. These translations can be a source of disunity in the church because they weaken the true understanding of the Word of God.

Think of a music teacher who must properly teach his students the principle of "fingering fundamentals." Unless all of his students learn it properly, they will not be able to play complex music in concert with each other. And, of course, they will eventually be expected to perform in harmony at some future recital.

Similarly a bible teacher stresses the importance of believing God's Word is true and infallible and that the Bible students must believe that in order to grow spiritually and prosper. But if they are all reading and studying from different bibles, there will be as much confusion and discord as with the struggling music students who learned different ways of doing 'fingering fundamentals.'

A few words regarding the position which ministers of the Gospel have taken with the exposure of their congregation to modern bible translations in place of the KJV Bible. I feel that many pastors are totally ignorant of the departure of many translations from God's truth. But a few may actually be indifferent for one reason or another. They have accepted the words of bible scholars and/or their denominational elders above the witness of what the Holy Spirit is saying to them in their hearts.

Some ministers feel that the various bibles should be accepted because they do more overall "good" than harm within the Body of Christ, by making the scriptures more readable.

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The fear of upsetting their congregation or even their own reputation may be a consideration, especially if they all had to change their bible midstream. Members might retort with, "Why did you wait so long to encourage us to read the King James Bible? How long have you been suspicious of the integrity of these translations? It's too expensive to keep changing bibles! I'll just keep using the one I've got until you and the rest of these churches make up your minds."

No pastor would invite such a ruckus or look forward to that kind of rebuke or disdain from his beloved members; not any pastor I know of?

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I mentioned earlier in Chapter 2 that I would offer several block-busting examples of the confusion embedded in bible translations. Would you believe it if I told you that the NIV translation essentially calls Jesus Christ the devil? "No!" most folks would reply and hang up immediately. Well… It does!

Isaiah 14:12 -13 in the NIV reads, "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God…." Now, in the same bible, take a look at Revelation 22:16 which says, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star."

The same KJV scripture in Isaiah states that, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" Lucifer here is called the son of the morning & not the morning star. A parallel scripture from both the NIV and KJV quote Jesus saying "...I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Luke 10:18. In the NIV Isaiah 14:12 states that the morning star fell from heaven. In the KJV, it states Lucifer, son of the morning, fell from heaven. Thus, Lucifer is Satan! Jesus, the Morning Star, did not fall from heaven and did not weaken the nations as the NIV suggests. This is a total corruption of the Word of God---very subtle, very deceptive and very deadly!

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Did you know that there are, at least, 14 verses missing from the NIV? Who do you suppose had the authority to remove these scriptures which have existed in the traditional King James Bible for nearly 400 years?

The NIV explanation is typically found in very tiny footnotes saying that 'this text did not appear in the "earliest" Greek manuscripts.' Incidentally, these footnotes do not appear in every NIV bible. So, the new Christian is baffled as to why a given scripture is missing and must ask some minister or teacher to explain what happened to the missing scripture. The scriptures are:

• MATTHEW 17:21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
• MATTHEW 18:11 For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.
• MATTHEW 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.
• MARK 7:16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

• MARK 9:44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
• MARK 9:46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
• MARK 11:26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
• MARK 15:28 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
• LUKE 17:36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.
• LUKE 23:17 (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)

All of these verses are very significant. God didn't put them there for men to remove! There are terrible consequences of removing scriptures from the Bible. The fact that they are missing from the NIV is devastating! The "fabric" of the Word of God is weakened in the NIV by their absence. Most readers would not even miss these scriptures, especially if they were not familiar with the King James Bible.

Many pastors, teachers and church leaders today are still not aware of these missing scriptures and are simply accepting the rewording by scholars who put the NIV together. The worst deceptions are the verses that leave out important words, phrases and sentences, leaving you hanging as "to whom" or "to what" it is referring. The absence of the words Lord, Jesus, God and Christ from many scriptures tends to disassociate Jesus from "the Christ" and Jesus as "the Lord," further confusing the reader.

What did Jesus call sinners for? According to Matthew 9:13 in the NIV, it was it just to say "Hello?"

Well, the NIV states, "…I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinner."

Note that there is a 'period' after the phrase "but the sinner." New Christians could easily think that God doesn't think too much of the 'righteous' because he only came to speak to the sinner. So why should the aspiring Christian make an effort to obey God and walk in his righteousness if only the sinner will be called by Jesus? This may sound like a stupid question, unless you are a new Christian. Of course we know that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but, as Christians, we are now the righteousness of God. Else what should we do with 2 Corinthians 5:21? Which says,

"For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

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Now let us compare Matthew 9:13 from the KJV with the NIV verse above.

The KJV says, "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

That's is a lot more than just a greeting! It explains the reason that Christ came and this is reinforced throughout the Old and New Testaments in many verses. So why does the NIV omit the all-important climax of this scripture? An unsaved person could easily misunderstand the NIV version to mean, 'Jesus regards the righteous and the sinners as almost equal, but the sinner has the edge because Jesus said he didn’t come to call the righteous.' The NIV also disregards the entire essence of what God is striving to do with the unregenerate soul…CALL HIM TO REPENTANCE!

Does this translation diminish the importance of repentance? Absolutely, no one can be saved without true heartfelt repentance and a contrite heart! Sadly, many churches are not too careful to mention the Lord's requirement of repentance when making an altar call invitation for salvation. So, oftentimes Christians got their start with the Church by "accepting" the Lord just so that they might have a "better" life. The unrepentant sinner recites a few words of acceptance (usually to himself) and is publicly declared a Christian by the minister. The sinner now thinks that he doesn't have to ask forgiveness for sin, because since God knows everything, it's automatic that He forgives sin without us even asking, let alone, meaning it!

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During a salvation call, most church leaders request allChristians to close their eyes and bow their heads so as not to embarrass those who might accept the Lord as Savior. All of this in spite of Romans 10:11 which says,

I could go on and on about this subject, but I don't want to digress from the point that the NIV has done violence to Matthew 9:13 with the sinner, the new Christian and to godly ministers.

Although difficult to believe, the most significant part of Revelation 1:11 has been omitted from the NIV Bible.

The KJV reads as, "Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last:"

Jesus was making it absolutely clear that He is the FIRST and the LAST! Nothing existed before and certainly nothing will exist after Him. This statement alludes to His almighty power and indisputable majesty! He is as a glorious circle that has no beginning and no end and the entire universe is enclosed within the circle of his love and power. No other gods can ever make this claim. Why would the NIV not regard this as a statement of supreme importance? The NIV states in Revelation 1:8 that, "I am the Alpha and the Omega…" but they omit the following clarification "…the beginning and the ending" as it is present in the KJV. The clear meaning of this scripture has been destroyed in the NIV. It makes little sense to say, "I am the Alpha and the Omega" without telling God’s people what it means, does it?

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How important is the blood of Jesus Christ? Is the mere mentioning of it symbolic ritualistic or realistic? Many church attendees abhor scriptures and pastors who preach about the blood of Christ. To many of them, it sounds too gory and they don't like a 'bloody' religion. So, some pastors/teachers will minimize the significance of the 'blood' in their sermons so as not to offend their members or visitors for fear they will find it distasteful by modern standards.

The KJV of Colossians 1:14 says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin."

This verse is very simply declaring that our redemption (salvation) and the forgiveness of our sins is because of the blood that Jesus shed for us, as several other verses in the Bible support.

But what does the NIV say in this same scripture?

Not only is the supreme importance of the blood of Christ omitted here, but the entire meaning of this verse has been destroyed! It could easily be interpreted that redemption itself means the forgiveness of sins and the blood simply has no relevance at all! How could the NIV authors, in good faith, diminish the importance of Jesus’ blood?

What was Christ’s reason for why the house could not be shaken in Luke 6:48?

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Let's first take a look at what the NIV says in that verse. "He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built."

Now carefully compare that verse with the one in the KJV:

Why does the NIV place the emphasis on the House rather than on the Foundation? The NIV version could easily be interpreted to mean that we could be self-sufficient to stand against any 'storm' in life. Whereas the KJV affirms that when we as Christians put our faith and trust in Jesus, who is our only foundation, we are able to stand against every trial and tribulation. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1Corinthians 3:11 KJV).

There is a "new age" philosophy that supports the NIV version of this scripture by their belief that we are all "gods" so we can live this life without any help from God. Obviously, the NIV version of this scripture is not "well-built" itself.

In Luke 4:4, the devil challenged Jesus to prove he was the Son of God. Was Jesus interested in teaching the devil about a balanced diet?

According to the NIV bible it says, "Jesus answered. "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone." Sounds religious, huh?

Now what does the KJV say? "And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."

In your best estimation, are these scriptures identical in meaning? You might say, "Well, vaguely, they are." If that was your answer, look a little closer; the NIV is totally missing the point of this scripture.

Even a blind turkey knows it can’t live on just bread alone! And why would God waste a verse of the Bible telling the devil about the limitations of bread (or any other food for that matter)! Again, why did the NIV choose to omit the very essence of what Jesus was saying here? ‘That our lives, as Christians, can only be sustained by every word of God and that we can't depend on natural resources for spiritual strength.’ (See also Matthew 4:4.)

Remember that Jesus had just come off a forty day fast, was extremely hungry and was quoting the Word of God to the devil himself. The Lord set the pattern for us---when we are tempted in our trials to sin, quote the scripture(s) and that will send the devil running.

But how can you quote scriptures that you don't recall? And how can you recall a scripture without committing the time and effort to memorize it? And most Christians know it's a waste of time to memorize scriptures from the NIV because they keep changing them around with every new edition. Mark my words, most times you hear people quote scriptures, it's from the King James Version.

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Some might argue that this is so because the KJV has been with us so long. Just give the NIV and the other best sellers a little more time and folks will memorize and quote scriptures from those bibles as well. But you must realize that with so many competing bibles out there, this is pure folly because the populace will not remember scriptures from "umpteen" different bibles. Moreover, one would have to identify from which bible that verse was quoted. Sounds like 100% confusion to me---and God has nothing to do with a bible scholar who deliberately paints himself into a corner.

The authority that Jesus Christ gave to his disciples was made clear in Mark 3:14-15. It states in the KJV:

Does the NIV fully support the authority that Jesus delegated to his disciples in that verse? Judge for yourself. Does the NIV support or, for the sake of brevity, not support the full authority that Jesus gave (his disciples and also to us) in Mark 3:14-15?

The NIV says, "He appointed twelve designating them apostles--that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons."

What happened to the disciples having the power to heal sicknesses? Do you feel this NIV verse is restricting the types of miracles that Jesus gave us authority to do?

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Carefully read this scripture from the KJV:

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:" (1Corinthians 5:7).

Do you consider all of this scripture to be important?

Who did Christ die for? Is it important that the Bible state that clearly? Compare 1 Corinthians. 5:7 from the previous scripture:

KJV : "…Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"

NIV : "…Christ, our passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

Well, at least, the NIV was consistent here in dropping the words, for us. But note that the KJV scripture is a comfort

to all mankind that accepts Christ as personal savior because it clearly states that his sacrifice was for us (His people) and not for a principle or a revolutionary cause! Often, Hindu priests and Islamic militants will make a show of sacrificing their lives to destroy their enemies so that others will recognize their grievances. Does the NIV version make it clear that Jesus Christ was sacrificed for mankind or for, possibly, some other idyllic causes? Just to say that He has been sacrificed is little more than "reporting" an incident that has been recorded in many places throughout the Bible.

Here is the entire verse in the NIV: "Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed."

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BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE "FOR US?"

Apparently some modern-day scholars decided that it wasn’t necessary to include the "for us". Perhaps they felt Christian readers should assume that the "for us" belongs at the end of this verse. Perhaps they felt the emphasis should be on the historical fact that Christ was sacrificed, and not so much as to why or for whom he was sacrificed. I call this NIV verse a "weakening" verse because it does not support the fact that Christ loved us enough to be the "sacrifice" unto death for our sins.

There are many subtle changes in the NIV scriptures like this one and in other translations which "gnaw" at God's real meaning---like little termites in the palace walls.

A most important scripture warns sinners and comforts Christians of the Lord Jesus’ return in Matthew 25:13.

KJV reads, "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

NIV says, "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour."

The NIV verse, even in a secular sense, leaves you hanging in mid-air! WHAT do they want you to ‘keep watch’ for? The NIV verse says, "because you do not know the day or the hour." (what is supposed to happen?). How nebulas and confusing can you get? It seems that they were so pressed to omit the return of Christ that they risked publishing a non-sensuous verse to obscure that fact! The NIV verse has definitely annihilated the intent of this verse.

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KJV reads, "…the God of our fathers, hath glorified [his Son] Jesus…"

NIV says, "…the God of our fathers, hath glorified [his servant] Jesus…"

If Galatians 4:7, in the King James Bible, can state that we are "no more a servant, but a son," how much more is Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God and worthy of glory? There are more than 126 references to Jesus being declared the "Son" of God and only one where He is called a "servant" in Matthew 12:18, because Matthew was quoting Isaiah 42:1. So why did the NIV choose the word "servant" here? God has many, many servants. His angels are servants. Should we regard Jesus as just another one of the servants or glorify Him as the "Son of God?"

Again, the NIV downplays Jesus to a servant. But Peter explains how we are redeemed from our sins by God raising his Son, Jesus, from the dead. See Acts 3:26 below.

KJV reads, "…God, having raised up his Son Jesus..."

NIV says, "…God, having raised up his servant..."

It sounds so pious to regard our Savior Jesus as a "servant" here since He sacrificed his life that we might be saved. But in this verse, the NIV does not even include His name "Jesus" after the word "servant." This leaves the reader bewildered as to WHO IS THE SERVANT?

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Perhaps in the next revision of the NIV, they might insert a completely different name. In fact, the new TNIV has taken the liberty to change the gender of almighty God! It’s this type of vagueness that is also found threaded throughout the NIV translation in several verses.

If you were a sinner and you read Mark 10:24 from the NIV, would it support what you most likely were already feeling? ...‘That it’s very difficult to get to Heaven!’

KJV reads, " ... Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, "Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!""

NIV says," …Jesus said again, "Children how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!""

Would it make sense for Jesus to tell us how 'difficult' it is to get to Heaven and not tell us WHY? How depressing! Most sinners already feel it’s difficult without anyone telling them so, because the devil tells them this lie every day! The unsaved may not continue reading any Bible after this discouraging scripture! In the KJV, Jesus clearly qualifies for whom it is difficult, doesn’t he? They that trust in riches!

that he was the creator of the universe lost in the NIV version of Ephesians 3:9? The KJV declares:

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NIV says, "…which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things."

In comparing these verses, how can the phrase ‘for ages past’ agree with ‘beginning of the world’? What ‘ages past’ are they speaking of---the ‘Ice age’, the age of ‘Aquarius’? The beginning of the world was a very precise event. It was a certain time in history and is, in fact, the beginning of history itself!

And for whom did God create all things by and for? Answer: For Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son! As Ephesians 3:9 tells us, it was Jesus Christ as the Father who created all things. But cultist religions, while not so much as denying that Christ existed, work feverishly to diminish His deity as God. They want the world to regard Him as just another prophet, at best.

What does the NIV do with the Trinity? The NIV excludes mentioning that there are "three that bear record in heaven" in 1 John 5:7.

KJV states, "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."

NIV says, "For there are three that testify."

Note that the NIV (and many other translations) omit those who bear record in heaven! Without the 7th verse here, how can the 8th verse make sense? Check it for yourself! Whose spirit and whose blood and what water are they talking about in the 8th verse without a completed 7th verse?

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It might seem to you, that I have critically attacked the NIV bible and not said much about the many other translations. It is because of the marketing success of the NIV and it's worldwide acceptance that many other translators have recognized it as a model example in the Christian community and worthy of mimicking.

In 2001, I was motivated to develop a PowerPoint presentation that exposes what I realized the NIV was doing to Christendom. The presentation also included my suspicions concerning other translations. After much deliberation and reworking, I felt I was finally ready to preview this 56-screen presentation to my pastor, who, incidentally was my very good friend. At first, I was troubled that he might classify me as a heretic and "rebellious against the establishment." But I worked my nerve up and did a private, one-on-one showing for him one afternoon at  church.

He was actually persuaded that the NIV did not glorify God the way the KJV did and remarked, "That's why I tend to stick with the King James Bible and sometimes use the Amplified for my sermons (and this he did)." But then he remarked, "The New King James is probably all right, huh? All they did was just change the "thees and the thous" to make it easier to read." I replied, "No sir, I don't think that is correct, there is much more underlying the NKJV than most people think." (The NKJV is, yet, another bible translation based directly on the corrupted stream.) But just the name "New King James Bible" strongly suggests that it is both trustworthy and reliable. Many are led to follow the line of thinking that, "Since they only made a few changes, surely they must be improvements and it is probably good to own and use the NKJV, which is simply an update on the KJV." A partial treatise on the NKJV is given in:

http://www.av1611.org/nkjv.html

The Missing references to Jesus

Many translations tend to confuse whom the Bible is speaking of in many verses. By using pronouns such as "he," instead of "God" or "Jesus Christ," the presence of His precious name is distinctly absent. I'm sure the scholars had reasons to do these omissions because in the NIV alone, the words "God," "Lord," and "Jesus Christ" are removed over 1000 times in the New Testament. Why? Whose wonderful name will eventually replace these pronoun "slots" in some future edition? My gut feeling tells me something is wrong with these translations and I don't have to be a bible scholar to know it. When my Lord and Savior's titles are absent from so many scriptures, my human nature tends to forget about Him: How about yours?

To demonstrate just how far new translations and paraphrases have gone, the Message bible is a classic example of how extreme and how irreverent a paraphrase bible can be. Try reading the "Lord's prayer" in Matthew 6:9-13 to see how ridiculous it is as a paraphrase and how it is a strong mockery of that glorious prayer. But what opened the door to this paraphrased edition of the bible, nothing more than the preponderance of best-selling translations that have flooded the marketplace.

The author of this web site:

www.crossroad.to/Bible_studies/Message.html

has some very powerful words to say regarding the Message bible and I quote him:

"If The Message is accepted as Biblical truth, three distortions of New Testament teachings could spread and permeate the Church, conforming "truth" to popular consensus and false unity:

• Since God is love, He wouldn't be so cruel as to cause someone to suffer, perish or burn in hell. So don't mention Biblical consequences or punishment.
• Since God forgives, don't be too concerned about specific sins such as homosexuality or adultery. Jesus wouldn't want you to offend someone.
• Since God is tolerant, don't correct others. Be tolerant of all, except those who criticize. (This politically correct attitude censors much-needed rational, objective criticism as a corrective force.)

I sincerely agree with his conclusions, especially after comparing several Message scriptures with the KJV.

I did note that the author compare the NASV translation to the Message to demonstrate just how extreme the Message bible is.

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Many Christians have heard it said at one time or another that, "We’d better memorize the scriptures now while we can because the day is soon coming when "they’ll" take the Bible away from us." Well, I hate to sound pessimistic, but this is ALREADY HAPPENING! You might say, "O sure, they are stripping the Word of God from Christians in China, Russia and in several Muslim countries where Christians are hopelessly outnumbered, but certainly not here in America where published bibles abound." Well, if you really believe that, read on. I hope to open your eyes! The Word of God is being systematically stripped from us daily and it’s happening in many of our most notable churches! YES, HAPPENING HERE IN AMERICA---RIGHT NOW as you can plainly see! "That’s a wild and reckless claim, so prove it," you might say. Ok, I hope to, if you’ll read on.

You can hardly find a King James Bible on the shelves of Bible bookstore today---most times it has to be special-ordered, Why? Is this one way God’s word is being phased out and labeled as archaic? In favor of what?, easier-to-read bibles that (in many instances) lose the meaning of the original scriptures. The Bible is supposed to comfort Christians. We look at it as a source of absolute truth for understanding of the Lord God, His Christ and ourselves.

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But if the veracity of this book is under attack by the church itself, then where is our solace and where is our standard? Where is the solid foundation that we can depend on with absolute confidence? The interpretation of the Bible has been relegated over the past few years to scholars in whom we know little-to-nothing about and who have taken the liberty to massage the Word of God according to their educated thinking and biases.

You might say, "The King James Bible was written by disciples, apostles and prophets of whom we didn't know personally and, yet, we rely on it both fervently and faithfully." While that is true, we also know the KJV has been time-tested which verifies its truthfulness and stability by the life-long experiences of millions of Christians. This is supported by historical accounts of the extreme care and diligence given by the King James translators who, in addition, were translating from documents derive from the Antiochian manuscripts.

But shall we wait another 400 years to validate a secession of the NIV bibles? Few people recognize that the NIV they read today is not the first edition. If God were directing these scholars, why did they get it wrong the first time or the first few times? For example, the new TNIV bible published by  Zondervan publishers is a gender-neutered version of the NIV bible. It has been rejected by a number of denominations and notable bible authors, teachers and evangelist. There are hundreds of mis-translations in the TNIV that systematically remove words such as father, man, son, he, him, and his. See, for example:

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http://www.no-tniv.com/statement.html

So we have to ask: How many NIV versions will it take to get it right? I tell you this has laid the groundwork for mass confusion and we know our God is not the author of confusion.

Many Christian authors and developers of literature for public distribution are quoting one or more bible scriptures without even citing which version it came from (another area of confusion). How can the reader trust that a local author has not misquoted a given scripture? We couldn’t be sure until we’ve checked 15 or more different bibles for the "accuracy" of that scripture. I’ll ask you one question, "How can God be happy with such ‘sloppiness’ in quoting His Word?" Donald Trump would instantly fire that author; what do you think God is going to do?

The scriptures cited below are from the Authorized King James Bible 1611 and confirm how firmly God has exalted His Word.

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:

Revelation 22:19 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.

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[Personally, I think God drew a line in the sand here and some have dared to cross it; and that takes a lot of guts; nasty, stinking, rotten guts!]

John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And in Rev. 19:13 where he is called the 'Word of God.'

[Wow, God seems to really think a lot of His Word! Acknowledge how He has so positively identified Himself as the Word!]

Luke 8:12 says in a familiar parable taught by Jesus: "Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the Word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."

[Do you think the devil has retired from the business of stealing the Word of God from people’s hearts?]

Jesus also said in Mark 4:15 regarding the previous parable, "…Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word…" [Why the hurry?]

Psalm 138:2 says, "…for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name." [Acknowledge that even though the Lord has elevated His Word above His name, He has not diminished the power of His name. Philippians 2:10 states, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the earth;"]

King David said it well in Psalm 119:11 that, "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee."

[It is natural for us to sin, so ONLY God's Word provides us with His overcoming and keeping power. Without God’s standard, his law for us, we are hopelessly lost in sin.]

Luke 4:4 says, "And Jesus answered him, saying, {It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God.}"

[God said He is the Lord our God and He changes not…so why are there so many different versions of His Word today…most, not saying the same things?]

The scriptures were given to us by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16). Furthermore, 2 Peter 1:21 says, "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."

Psalm 12:6–7 say, "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 119:89 says, "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven." [I wonder if that means we can’t rely on present-day scholars to tell us what God really meant!]

The KJV Bible has been the foundation of English-speaking Christians for almost 400 years. Many have lived by it and many have died for it. Millions have had their faith inspired and been healed in body, soul and spirit by the gracious words of the King James Bible, direct from the Lord our God.

Can you imagine memorizing the Word of God from over 50 different bible versions? Which one would you choose to memorize from? Some of these bibles are pure folly because many of them deny the deity of Jesus Christ! If you don’t believe this, try memorizing the Lord’s prayer from the "Message" bible (Matthew 6:9-13). Or just try memorizing Acts 8:37, Matthew 18:11, or Mark 11:26 from the New International Version (NIV). You can’t, because they’re not there! As mentioned, there are many other scriptures either completely missing, partially missing, rephrased, distorted, torn asunder and oftentimes slander the meaning as clearly written in the KJV version.

But WHY are they missing? WHY was it so important to take them out?

A few years back, I wrote a PC computer Bible study-game called Biblewise. It was written to help preserve the original text of the Authorized King James Bible in the hearts of believers in Jesus Christ, our Savior. God, please help our children and grandchildren who will soon become subjected to these perverted bibles unless we inspire them to remember God’s true words from the KJV Bible! Biblewise is a study-game dedicated to helping you and your children remember King James scriptures! (This is not a marketing ploy because there are several good Bible memory programs available on the Internet and in the computer stores).

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Don’t lower your standards any further or remain baffled by the many confused versions out there; MEMORIZE THE WORD OF GOD FROM THE AUTHORIZED KING JAMES BIBLE before it is completely replaced with some New, New, New Revised edition of the ‘?’ bible. In my experience, I have witnessed very few Christians who attempt to memorize scriptures from translations because most listeners would say, "Which bible did you quote that from, my bible doesn't say it that way?" So memorizing scriptures is also becoming a thing of the past! I don’t think rote memorizing of God’s word alone will get you to Heaven, but if it’s done with reverence and respect for the ‘Author’ of that Word, it will be the deepest inspirational and spiritual strength in your Christian life.

The Bible was not given to us to be read once or twice in your lifetime; it is a "living" document that expresses the ‘depth’ of God's love and character and therefore is many layers deep. If we rely on the many translations to explain every detail (according to the dictates of scholars), we are preempting what the Holy Spirit wants to reveal to us. We are, in effect, saying, "We don’t really need the Holy Spirit to unfold the depths of the knowledge of God any more because we have ‘easy-to-read’ translations which have done it all for us." And, thus, the bible will no longer need studying because the 'real work’ has already been done for us. We already have these ‘cookbook’ bibles. This ‘microwave’ syndrome pervades every aspect of our modern-day society. If we try to probe the real meaning of the Word after the modern-day scholars have changed the words around, we’ll find ourselves trying to understand what they meant or had in mind when they wrote or rewrote the scriptures.

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So the meaning that God had for us will be long lost. Would you reread a novel a hundred times? No, because you would have grasped the story after the first or second reading. You, in fact, would understand what the author was saying without reading it many, many times.

The Bible requires daily study and meditation because God’s Word is not one-dimensional. We need to be constantly reminded of God’s love, power and commandments. The wisdom of God is a mystery, even as revealed in the Word of God. The Word is intended to be digested slowly, over your entire lifetime, not in a 12-week bible course. Do you want to become an Bible student who says, "Oh, I’ve read that once before?" Scholars have attempted to ‘decode’ the Bible so that it does not have to be studied any longer. Don’t fall into a stupor of thinking there is nothing more that God wants to say to you through His Word. Don't put your full trust in what others are reading from the scriptures; check it out for yourself!

The above phrase is not just a well-known stanza in old church hymnals, but many of us Christians think use of the name of Jesus Christ is either a magic formula for getting our prayers answered or just the appropriate thing to say at spiritual gatherings. Jesus' name is not allowed to be included in governmental invocations because the federal courts have mandated that the name of a Deity can not be used in public governmental prayers. Similarly, the NIV et. al., work in conjunction with the spirit of that ideology by removing the name of Jesus in a number of places where it is of most importance to be mentioned in the New Testament. I believe it is another subtle attempt by the enemy to diminish the deity of Christ by the absence of his precious Holy name.

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The enemy would love for Christians to read a bible with words added, changed and omitted because he knows your defenses will be weakened and you will have little strength. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God!" This means every word is significant; the Lord didn't waste a single word! Now, how can this be so if the Word of God today is being represented differently in scores of so-called bibles, each modern version written principally since 1952 by scholars who are saying "umpteen" different things? Many of these important words are different, very different, even from other translations…so which one is supposed to be correct?

If the Revised Standard scholars were supposed to have done it right, what revelations did the New International Version scholars have that the Revised Standard scholars didn’t have---more New information? Are their archeological findings uncovering something new under the sun? And in what year does this process end? When will all of the bible scholars finally agree with each other? Do they need a vote of confidence from the United Nations? Hey, it’s an open-ended deal! They’ll keep on rewriting their bibles until they are satisfied that they have finally figured out what God was trying to say. Did God really need the help of these devoted people to straighten out what He really meant?

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I guess God’s going to have to apologize to all the Christians in the world who lived between 1611 and 1952 because, apparently, they’ve misinterpreted the Bible since they didn't have the help of our modern-day scholars. How did they ever survive? How did they ever hold the great revivals of history, the Protestant reformation, withstand the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition and survive the Dark Ages having only the Word of God as recorded in their King James Bibles as a foundation?

The NIV and some of the other New Bible versions tend to remove the deity of Christ by equating Christ with the "morning star" of Isaiah 14:12. They have added confusion to the Word of God by the changing of thousands of words, many entire scriptures and important parts of statements Jesus himself proclaimed. They have even suggested that Joseph was his father in Luke 2:33 and Luke 2:43 and not that He was conceived in Mary's womb by the Holy Ghost.

The NIV reduces the impact of the worship Jesus received after he healed many, by carefully removing certain phrases and comments of praise and adoration spoken to Jesus when he performed these miracles. His title as

"Lord", "The Christ" and even the name "Jesus" has been omitted many times and adds to the confusion of who the scripture is referring to in several verses.

Why is it that every verse changed by the NIV (compared to the KJV) tends to diminish the Grace, Power and Glory of the main character of the Bible, Jesus?

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We know that God does not change, so why should His Word change, which He has elevated to a level higher than His name? The devil is trying to get us to believe that God has changed to "keep up with the times!" And if we accept that, then any "New-Age" doctrine will be acceptable.

Jesus said in many instances of the scriptures that, "It is written! It is written!" In other words, he was saying to his disciples and to those that would hear, that His foundation was the Word of God as was delivered to that day and that it should be their foundation as well. He didn’t come to change one jot or one tittle, but to fulfil the scriptures! Yet, some scholars today, who presumably feel they are smarter than God, have given us improvements without which, they say, we can not understand today’s Bible?

"Well, so what?" some might say? "Only the real message of the Bible is important and most of today’s versions convey the general meaning across for the most part. Should we tolerate these differences and stop challenging the movement of some scholars who have worked so diligently to provide easier-to-read bibles for us?" Please don't misunderstand my disagreement with some modern-day scholars. Learning history is good, but changing God's Word is bad.

Incidentally, how much do you know about the spiritual beliefs of the bible scholars who translated your particular best seller? Most Christians do not know or even care about the character of the people who decided what should or should not be included or excluded from their Bible. New bible versions are cropping up all the time with second, third, fourth and fifth generation printings: revisions of revisions. When will man finish perfecting the Word of God? Which versions will be widely acceptable by the clergy for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Do we simply adopt the attitude that "that's their problem, we've got our own." How trusting and naive are we to be to accept the "reworded" bible versions available today. When will the process end?

Isaiah 40:8 says, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever."

If it were absolutely true that God's Word was not perfect, then we would all be guiltless of any sin. We could always appeal that a bible version exists that excuses us from a particular sin. So, perhaps, some would argue that we don't even need Jesus (his name is removed 46 times in the NIV in places where it is of extreme importance, such as in Acts 3:26. Moreover, the NIV adds the name Jesus a number of times where it is clearly understood to be him). One premise will lead to another.

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There would always be a work-around alternative allowing mankind to evade God's austere commands! The enemy will always do his best to dilute and modify the word of God so the true meaning is lost forever. God will not permit this to happen because He still has faithful servants who will continue to declare His words, even unto death, and many have already paid that price.

Psalm 12:6 states, "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."

That scripture makes it clear that God's words have a clean bill of health; there are NO impurities in it. Pure means pure, not contaminated! So, who are we to declare that God's word is not everything He says it is?

1 Peter 1:25 declares, "But the word of the Lord endureth forever…"

The very fabric of God’s Word has been weakened by many new translations of the bible, so the garment can be easily torn. Yes, it is true that new converts need very few scriptures from the Word of God to receive the Lord. Personally, I received the Lord hearing only 8 verses from the Bible. A baby requires a very simple diet at the beginning of his life, but what happens as he matures? He must have a far more complex meal to be healthy. This is the primary area that the bible translations have their most subtle effect. We have, unknowingly, placed these counterfeits into the hands of new Christians and, at first, they can’t discern the difference. They begin to grow up on the "easy-to-read" bibles and when presented with the KJV (King James Version), they virtually choke on the words and do everything else to avoid reading it, less alone, memorizing scriptures from it. Consequently, memorizing the Word remains unimportant to the average growing Christian.

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We are so afraid that new Christians will turn from Christ if they are initially presented with the KJV that we give them "whatever" bible we feel they can understand. Then we say to ourselves, "The Spirit of the Lord will help them interpret the bible (even with all the missing scriptures or scholarly-added words.)" Well, can’t the same Spirit also help them interpret the King James? It has worked for nearly 400 years, so when did it stop working? We had less intellectual tools and a limited supportive media in years past, so how did the staunch Christians of yesteryear survive the King James Version? Were Christians at least as strong then as they are now? Probably stronger reading the 'anointed' Word.!

A computer program will calculate your tax refund incorrectly if even one comma is missing or out of place within the source code. If you, as a user, discovered the error, it would be hard to contain your emotions. You certainly could have used that money! Yet, most of us unknowingly, tolerate whole words, phrases and verses missing from the Holy Bible! And the irony of it is that most of us don't know what is missing or mistranslated! The New International Version (NIV) is just one of many translations that’s perverted the true Word of God. So many Christians presume the NIV is approximately the same as the KJV, and just a simpler and easier version of the KJV Bible, right? No! When you balance your checkbook, is "approximately correct" good enough for you?

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Would it be good enough for your banker or your spouse? Indeed, everyone is very particular about having the exact balance recorded in his checkbook.

The NIV bible is like a revision of an airplane’s repair manual rewritten to replace the original ‘as-shipped’ manual by the airplane’s designer. A team of competent designers may have revised the new manual, but they may not be aware of why the original designer did things the way he did them. So the revisionists take the liberty to decide what the original author meant. The new manual might be easier to read but, perhaps, leaves out some very important details, like, how tight a certain bolt should be, etc. As a consequence, hundreds of people could be killed if the plane’s tail section fell off into a river such as happened in a recent air crash, all due to a loosened bolt.

In many instances the NIV calls "Hell" the "grave", the "depths" or "death in the Old Testament." (Indeed, in the New Testament, they call it 'Hell' but why the differences? Everyone that dies goes to a "grave;" only those who die in their sins go to "Hell." This distinction can be easily missed, misread and misunderstood in the NIV.

Also the NIV and other translations are "soft" on eternal punishment and cautious about giving a description of it according to the KJV. A NIV reader might not clearly understand that the Lord is firm about eternal punishment for all souls that do not receive Jesus Christ as Lord. For example, The NIV has omitted from the bible Mark 9:44, "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."

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Perhaps, I am being a little too direct with you regarding the NIV and other bibles such as the NASV, NKJV and the RSV. I don't mean to sound harsh against my fellow Christians. They have some apparent advantages that should be acknowledged. I admit that there have been several instances in which a scripture from the KJV was illuminated to me by the way the NIV presented it--- and that was good. If Satan was to successfully market the NIV (and its family of bibles) worldwide, certainly he would not plan that every scripture would be mistranslated, not even every other scripture. For his subtle plan would be to remain undetected, as he is the master of deception, even of the very elect. Only selected scriptures would be mistranslated or omitted. But each of these selected scriptures would be of paramount importance to the understanding of the Kingdom of God.

Satan has not stood idly by on the sidelines watching all of this. He has inspired many to believe his lie that the Word of God is not so pure. (After all, he disputed God's word in the beginning with, "hath God said" and "you shall not surely die"). Would God present His Word to the world so they could not understand or believe it when He claims it to be TRUTH itself? How could anyone ever trust a god who would carelessly mislead the multitudes for centuries with erroneous words? God cannot lie! See Romans 3:4. Modern scholars have changed the words of the Bible, in spite of the warnings in Revelation 22: 18-19, and are doing all they can to completely replace and remove it from its place of honor and glory. But should this surprise you?

The table on the following page has been compiled to reveal just how many significant words of the Bible have been removed or changed in various modern-day bible translations.

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The new Bible versions "take out" and "add" thousands of words. These symbols show how they differ from the King James Bible in the New Testament. Below is a table showing the findings in just a few modern translations.

                                           o = Omits                 a = Adds

Words                        o 5219         a 3561        o 2289        o 6985

Verses                            o 15             o 17              o 0            o 25

           o = Omits               a = Adds                * = Word is completely removed

WORD                       NIV      NASV             NKJV          RSV

Christ                         o 25        o 34                  o 1             o 32

Lord                          o 352       o 438               o 66            o 36

Jesus                          a 292         o 64                o 2             o 53

God                           o 468       o 87                 o 51          o 111

Godhead                    o 3 *        o 3 *                 o 1            o 3 *

Lucifer                        o 1 *       o 1 *                 o 1 *          o 1 *

devil(s)                       o 80        o 82                 o 81           o 82

hell                             o 40        o 41                 o 22           o 41

heaven                        o 160     o 127                o 50           o 83

damned(ation)            o 15 *     o 15 *              o 15 *        o 15 *

blood                         o 41        o 39                 o 23           o 26

salvation                     o 42        o 4                   o 2             o 33

Word of God              o 8         o 2                   o 1             o 3

Word of the Lord       o 25        o 2                   a 4             o 2

Lord Jesus Christ        o 24       o 21                  o 21           o 22

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If you are really convinced that it is not the will of the Lord for you to continue investing your time and energy into modern-day bible translations, what can you do to get on track? You could start with the suggestions below:

• Do not offer new Christian converts a NIV or modern-day bible translation.
• Do not make an issue about the heresy of the bible translations until the new Christian is well grounded.
• With the mature Christians, remember this plan was well-conceived in hell long before you and I were born. Only by prayer and God’s wisdom can it be uprooted.
• Let the Holy Ghost lead you when discussing the issue and only with those he prompts you to do so.
• Realize that this insurgency cannot now be approached head-on because even your closest associates and family may feel that you are a fanatical heretic and may not want to hear you or discuss the matter any further.

A "message" depends on the words used to convey it by those who wrote it! The "message" was lost at Pearl Harbor an hour before the attack! If we change the words around, we also change the message. In World War II, in particular, espionage activity was enormous and coded messages of the enemy were constantly under scrutiny.

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It required many man-hours to decipher the millions of permutations and combinations of random characters to unfurl the hidden messages. Once the code was "broken," all future messages from the same source could be decoded. But, if one character of the secret code was missing, the real message was completely lost! Yet, we have been so cavalier when it comes to bible translations.

How would you have felt if you had been a sea captain of a merchant marine ship in World War II and had received a message that "Nazi U-boats are heading South," and the actual direction was ‘North,’ right smack into your convoy? Well, what if only 2 characters in the word ‘North’ were mistyped, the ‘N’ and the ‘r’? If the true message was miscoded or lost, so would the souls of a thousand merchant mariners be lost in the cold waters of the North Atlantic! So it is with erroneous and risky translations.

It was reported in year 2001, that a large majority of the science textbooks in the elementary and high schools of America contained 40% errors. Yet, our society runs on devices designed and made to work based on "precise scientific principles," right? Will tomorrow’s devices function properly if these kinds of textbooks are used in our schools?

You might say, "Why don’t they just remove the books and that'll solve the problem." In fact, they are in process of doing that, but what about the thousands of students who’ve already learned improper scientific principles and the world they will affect? And, what about their teachers?

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Do you really suppose each student is actually going to spend time relearning the correct principles? Most students just want a ‘passing’ grade and little more. They are not going to be inconvenienced by retaking the science class. Their understanding has already been set in stone and their minds forever seared with poisonous theories! A similar phenomenon is happening as we read and study perverted bible translations.

Some Christian workers might say, "If I can get one soul, just one soul saved using a bible version other than the King James, it would be well worth it." I agree, it would be well worth it, but dear reader, that's like saying, "I could care less about the millions of Christians that would be systematically weakened and possibly destroyed by endorsing a substitute bible for the Word of God!

This is analogous to how the NIV et. al., have poisoned the minds of many new Christians who have never had the opportunity to learn scriptures from the King James Bible first! They had nothing to compare the NIV with and, therefore, felt no need to do any comparison. They were told when they were saved that the NIV would make it easy for them to understand God’s words. So many new converts know little else and really don’t want to be told that the bible version they invested their time into, trusted in, and have come to love, is a perverted bible. So, it would be much easier for them to just leave matters alone, "Jesus didn’t call us to be bible scholars, you know, just believers," they’d say.

When some take the NIV quiz (at the end of this book), they may get upset and say, "Why did you give us a test when you knew full well that ALL of the verses you cited were missing from the NIV bible?"

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I didn't remove them, the bible scholars did! Perhaps, the scholars removed them for a reason. No doubt that there was a reason! But who would motivate a scholar to remove verses so strategic to God’s thoughts and His ways? All of God’s words are pure. Perhaps, some unseen "force" coerced the scholars to minimize the power or spiritual significance of the Bible by selectively (and almost secretively) deleting verses that would strengthen our beliefs and reinforce the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.

While it’s true that larger and more comprehensive versions of the NIV attempt to explain the removal of some verses, quoting from their research in the Greek what the Bible really meant, most NIV bibles don’t have these elegant footnotes or references. Therefore, most readers won’t have access to their reasons. But those who do, will unfortunately, be confronted with over a hundred footnotes in the New Testament that state, "This scripture may not be found in the earliest manuscripts"--- just another confidence-breaker for the already-confused new Christian.

It’s evident that the NIV scholars have removed 14 or more scriptures from the Holy Bible for their own reasons, but by whose authority in light of Revelation 22:18-19? Why only 14 scriptures? They could have removed 30 scriptures and most of the Christian world would not have known, nor have been disturbed about it. Many Christians don't read anyway. What’s so significant about the few scriptures that have already been removed? The deception is less apparent if only a few scriptures are missing, but who’s to say that future versions will not have even more scriptures removed?

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After all, a new bible produces millions of dollars more for developers---and people love new things and updated things and don’t want to be left behind or labeled as old fashioned, so most NIV bible owners will want the latest version! This practice of desiring the "latest and greatest" is customary for our modern culture and is the result of creative marketing maneuvers.

The Word of God is rapidly being siphoned from the church today by a flood of many bible perversions available on the market. I consider this to be the greatest modern-day deception of all mankind! All, except the KJV version, are copyrighted and, therefore, are great selling books for a few greedy publishers. God is not the author of confusion. But how can Christians not be confused when each bible version is preaching, yet, another gospel!

Galatians 1:8 - 9 warns us in no uncertain terms with: "...though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."

The secular nations of the world have great difficulty associating the daily terrorist attacks in Iraq with "peace-loving" Muslims. They serve a, so-called, god of Peace. Similarly the Church has resolved itself not to associate the bible scholars who continue to change the Word of God with the tyrannical (satanic) association that is really behind it. Rather, both sects close their eyes and say, in effect, "We have learned to co-exist with the enemy within our midst."

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Alexandrian cults believe that there is no inerrant bible on earth today---none which is perfect, complete or error-free, containing no contradictions. How outraged would you be if men called your God a liar when Jesus said, "…I am the truth!" My friend, God can not lie! (Romans 3:4). The Holy Bible is a truth that many have died for!

What good would it have done for the church, if God left us a perfect Bible (which men claim no longer exists) and it were not continuously available to Christians down through the ages. How can one claim, " I believe in a perfect, infallible Bible, but it doesn’t exist?"

Did Jesus, while in the Jewish synagogues, read from imperfect scriptures? Jesus said, "It is written…not, "it was once written." God’s word is forever settled in heaven, like gold refined in the fire, preserved pure forever. Alexandrian cults believe God lied when the Bible says, "He preserveth his Word forever." If we believe the Word we read is mistranslated, then we have lost our authority in what we teach or preach! The authority of the King James Bible is evident in our American history. Scriptures are quoted throughout the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, and a number of government documents and monuments. All initiated by the founding fathers of our country (whose reputations are today being 'whittled away by agnostics and atheists.)

It's appalling to me that after only a few years or so, a new standard for displaying scriptures to the public by TV or otherwise has emerged. Scriptures are printed on screen and no mnemonics or symbols are used to declare from which bible the scripture is being quoted. That is, no mention is given as to which translation the text is cited.

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This is a total disrespect of God's Word and the minds of His people. The presenters are assuming that the bible from which they quote is the current standard and popular enough that it should be accepted as the infallible best bible from which to quote a scripture. In other words, does the church have a need to know the source of a scripture? Should they trust that the clergy is quoting from a translation that all the people recognize and agree with?

There was a class for 12 new converts led by a zealous teacher who used the King James Version of the Bible. Unknown to the teacher was the fact that each convert had a different bible version. In fact, they possessed 12 different bible translations that were given to them by faithful, well-meaning Christian workers and friends.

As the teacher began to read a scripture from his KJV, several of the students looked up in confusion and looked around at each other while comparing scriptures. Then some began to complain that their bibles stated a particular scripture differently. Others said the verse had some words missing, while, in some cases, the entire scripture was missing! What a horrible start for new Christians! Can you imagine what level of confidence they will have in the Word of God after that class? What kind of progress report will the teacher give the pastor? "Pastor, we spent a lot of time trying to reconcile 12 different versions of a single scripture. I don’t think the students got very much out of the class today."

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It is my belief that ALL of the translations are contaminated and that the disease is more widespread and entrenched into the church than most would imagine. The reason the Message bible was chosen as a target by this author was because, indeed, it really is so extreme that even the most avid believer in easy-to-read translations can see how damaging this bible is. But what Berean investigator has enough lifetimes to scrutinize every translation?

God has already revealed to some ministers and laypersons that there is an underlying conspiracy with the NIV bible. Why should we presuppose that the NIV is the only bible that the enemy has provided to divert Christians from God's Word? Will the enemy not use other tactics and alternatives to further confuse the Scriptures? Does he normally stop his antics if one approach is hindered or blocked? Has he ever neglected any attempt to deceive God's people? He has an ungodly number of worldly cooperatives and devices at his disposal. His plan was to flood the Christian bookstores with so many interesting bible counterfeits that it would attract many Christians who would feel they are lost somewhere in an information gap. But there is NO information gap with the true Word of God as given in the King James Bible, however there is, indeed, a spiritual gap when Christians read the Bible without meditation and prayer! So many are easily attracted, like honeybees to the flowers of these glorious newly revised and easier-to-read bibles at bookstores.

It's interesting that once folks are aware that there is a conspiracy (I try to use this word carefully) with the 'best sellers' that can severely damage their spiritual life, they perk up and begin to wonder who or what is the source of these evil deeds? Case in point: the recent CBS/Dan Rather debacle. But when it comes to the most important book in their lives, Christians leave it up to bible scholars to straighten things out andmay feel no connection to the consequences of the conspiracy.

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"No Christian left behind." Many are curious to know what's new in the Kingdom of God or "what's the very latest" revelation? And amazingly, some of these "best-selling" bibles will give them a new slant on the word of God which sounds clearer to understand and is reasonable, yet, without the anointing of the Truth. Many of us do not pray and ask the Holy Ghost to reveal the written Word of God so that His truth would pervade our spirit. So we sit back and relax with a ready-made bible novel that's been interpreted for us by bible scholars.

In Luke 24^th chapter an account is given of two men on the road to Emmaus shortly after Jesus' resurrection. As Jesus approached and began to walk along with them, he expounded to them on the Old Testament scriptures relative to the Messiah. The Spirit did not reveal to them that it was, indeed, Jesus the Messiah walking with them until the last few seconds. But the men, in utter amazement, said, "…one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" (Luke 24:32). Friend, does your heart burn when you read your Bible? It should!

These men actually experienced hearing the "anointed" teaching of the Word of God direct from Jesus, precisely the same experience you get when you study the King James Bible. That "anointing" breaks the yoke of bondage over the minds of God's people.

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This truth is borne out in the Old and the New Testament. "And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] his burden [burden from the enemy] shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." (Isaiah 10:27).

And the Lord promises us by His Holy Spirit, that we shall know the truth. "But the anointing which ye have received of him [Jesus] abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2:27). "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Matthew 13:9).

I realize that much of what I have written reflects largely on the NIV bible. That's primarily because I have not had the time or energy to scrutinize many other translations in sufficient detail. I don't think there are enough lifetimes to conduct a comprehensive investigation of each new translation as it surfaces into the Christian community.

There are so many translations being cranked out today, that it almost feels futile to fight so many battles simultaneously. One would be in the courts forever, while many souls perished into a devil's hell. Few have the time or commitment to pursue these bible translations at length. This makes me wonder how great men of God can so easily endorse a new translation without a thorough investigation. It's far easier to stay with the King James Bible than to try to challenge next year's revision of some revised international bible that will, most likely, be approved and endorsed by many of the notable evangelists and leaders of the cloth. These are good men and women who may be giving their scholars undeserved credit and unswerving trust.

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• Do you gain much from memorizing scriptures?
• If so, what do you gain from it?
• Why do you memorize scriptures?
• Do you memorize scriptures from more than one Bible version?
• How would you teach a class the scriptures if they all had different bibles?
• How would you decide which was the best translation? What standard would you use to justify your answer?
• Would you claim that all of the versions were good?
• What, do you suppose, will be the Christian understanding of the Bible in, perhaps, 10 years?
• What’s your estimate of how many different versions there will be at that time?
• Do you think that newer versions will improve the Word of God?
• How many versions do you think could be written? 500? 1000?
• What do you think will be the real reason for generating new versions?

We become what we eat. If we have a diet deficient in vitamins, our energy, strength and stamina are adversely affected. The bottom line is that if our diet is solely the new best-sellers, there are truths (vitamins) we will never have and we shall eventually develop rickets and other debilitating illnesses, spiritually, as well as physically.

The evidence is in, my friends; modern-day, best-selling bibles are 'Bible Lights' and contain fewer calories and less of the Lord Jesus to get "high" on.

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A few good references you might review are:

http://www.chick.com/information/bibleversions

http://www.avpublications.com/

http://www.jesus-is-lord.com/back.htm

But, be certain to read the following book:

"If the Foundations be Destroyed" by Chick Salliby

(What does the New International Version of the Bible have against Jesus?)

This book is loaded with tons of examples revealing the inconsistencies of the NIV bible and how it conspicuously departs from the "Spirit" of the Word. The differences are so apparent, so obvious, that it will grieve your spirit to see what "man" has done with these new bible translations. Be certain to have your King James Version handy so that the Lord can speak to you of the folly of imitation bibles. It will become very apparent to you of the tyranny and, in some cases, blasphemous treatment of God's Word. You will subsequently ache to warn others to avoid the pitfalls of relying on the doctrines of men, instead of the "pure" words of God. "Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1Co 2:13).

Is Faith enough for us to win the spiritual battles we face?

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[But we can fortify our Faith … as we see in this scripture.]

And last, remember:

http://www.biblebelievers.com/NIV_Challenge.html

INSTRUCTIONS:

Using the New International Version Bible, answer the following questions to this NIV quiz.

Do not rely on your memory. As the Bible is the final authority, you must take the answer from the Bible verse (not from footnotes but from the text).

1. Fill in the missing words in Matthew 5:44. "Love your enemies,__________ them that curse you, ______________ to them that hate you, and pray for them that __________ and persecute you."
2. According to Matthew 17:21, what two things are required to cast out this type of demon?
3. According to Matthew 18:11, why did Jesus come to earth?
4. According to Matthew 27:2, what was Pilate's first name?
5. In Matthew 27:35, when the wicked soldiers parted His

garments, they were fulfilling the words of the prophet. Copy what the prophet said in Matthew 27:35 from the NIV.

6. In Mark 3:15, Jesus gave the apostles power to cast out demons and to: ____________
7. According to Mark 7:16, what does a man need to be able to hear?
8. According to Luke 7:28, what was John? (teacher, prophet, carpenter, etc.). What is his title or last name?
9. In Luke 9:55, what did the disciples not know?
10. In Luke 9:56, what did the Son of man not come to do? According to this verse, what did He come to do?
11. In Luke 22:14, how many apostles were with Jesus?
12. According to Luke 23:38, in what three languages was the superscription written?
13. In Luke 24:42, what did they give Jesus to eat with His fish?
14. John 3:13 is a very important verse, proving the deity of Christ. According to this verse (as Jesus spoke), where is the Son of man?
15. What happened each year as told in John 5:4?
16. In John 7:50, what time of day did Nicodemus come to Jesus?
17. In Acts 8:37, what is the one requirement for baptism?
18. What did Saul ask Jesus in Acts 9:6?
19. Write the name of the man mentioned in Acts 15:34.
20. Study Acts 24:6-8. What would the Jew have done with Paul? What was the chief captain's name? What did the chief captain command?
21. Copy Romans 16:24 word for word from the NIV.
22. First Timothy 3:16 is perhaps the greatest verse in the New Testament concerning the deity of Christ. In this verse, who was manifested in the flesh?
23. In the second part of First Peter 4:14, how do [they] speak of Christ? And, what do we Christians do?
24. Who are the three Persons of the Trinity in First John 5:7?
25. Revelation 1:11 is another very important verse that proves the deity of Christ. In the first part of this verse Jesus said, "I am the A______________ and O___________, the _________ and the _______:"

Conclusion: Little space is provided for your answers, but it's much more than needed. If you followed the instructions above, you not only failed the test, you received a big goose egg.

(Ed. These are all missing in the NIV.) So now what do you think of this "accurate, easy to understand, up-to-date Bible?" If you would like to improve your score, and in fact score 100%, you can take this test using the (King James) Bible. Remember, the NIV was derived from the Alexandrian manuscripts.

In the last 50 years or so, we have seen a metamorphosis of the Word of God as given in the Traditional Text, namely, the King James 1611 Authorized Version of the Bible. New translations are "popping" up faster than they can be counted and, worse yet, faster than they can be examined and compared with the Traditional Text.

As a consequence, few Christian laymen and Pastors alike are fully acquainted with the changes that have been and are continually being made to God's Word. The easy-to-read syndrome is the prevailing sentiment in today's microwave Church society. Christians find it a major chore to read their Bibles, less alone STUDY it!

For example, 2 Timothy 2:15 in the KJV states, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The key word in this scripture obviously is 'STUDY.' All of us are acquainted with the agony of study and the effort it requires of us to comprehend what is heard or written.

The NIV [New International Version] bible says of this same scripture: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."

It is clear that the meaning and efficacy of the word 'Study' has been replaced by the words, 'Do your best to present yourself to God…' There is little to no relevance in this scripture translation to the true words of the Bible.

This is but one example of many that are covered in this book; many comparisons will astonish you and your eyes will be opened to, possibly, the most sinister conspiracy of your Christian life.

So you might ask: "How could these new Translations make their way into the true Churches of God? How could translations which undermine the doctrines of the Deity of Christ, the Redemption plan, the eternal existence of Christ, deny the Virgin birth, confuse Christ's commission, tone down His miracles, alter His teachings, Christ's priesthood, grace and Lordship become so prevalent in the churches today?

Years ago, pornography, homosexuality, drugs and abortion were almost unheard of even in the secular world and now it has encroached upon the churches. The churches have become so 'soft' on sin that they almost refuse to say the word 'sin.' It is clear we have witnessed a gradual acceptance of the worldly standards as the standards of the modern-day church. The big question is: Once we are aware of the 'devices' of the enemy, what are we going to do about it?