This is the last section I wanted to write (for now) that comes to mind about our spiritual walk. And the topic is Bibles. Which Bible should we use, and does it matter? I was waiting to get a book from my mom so that I could quote directly out of it, instead of paraphrasing what I remembered. I gave my original copy to Greg's Papa when we were in AZ, so finally got my new one, so here goes.
The book is called On A New Foundation? and is written by Pat Ammeter. Pat is a friend of my mom (in Sylvan Lake, AB), and has written this book to expose what she has learned through years of research on false teachings, and spiritual fallacies. She herself was immersed in a very charismatic church from childhood, and whenever she questioned a "spiritual experience" of someone, was shunned as she was taught that questioning spirituality was wrong. The problem came when these spiritual experiences didn't line up with Scripture. We are to test all the spirits, by the Bible, thus leading her to examine the Bibles she was using. At the time, she was her church's librarian, and made it her pride and joy to have one of EVERY version of Bible, on her library's shelves. She now repents of that, and shares what she has learned in the process. She cited at least 20 books on Bible version history and defenses, and has researched this topic thoroughly. I like her book too, because it is written easily for the lay person to understand.
I won't go into the history of each version as she describes them, but the conclusion she came to is that the King James Version is the ONLY reliable source. All the other versions were taken either from corrupted manuscripts or the publishers had corrupt means for publishing, or both (making money!!). Which is why all versions, except the KJV are copyrighted, and the publishers receive royalties for each sale (so when sales drop, they need to 'revise' the version to update and then everyone will buy more to increase sales again). I will quote her chapter 24 in almost entirety, since it sums up what the many chapters talk about. It's rather lengthy, but worthy of your time to read. Pat is a stickler for truth, and isn't afraid of people not liking her (the fear many have for remaining true). I'll first quote the end of the chapter, in which Pat quotes one of her references:
In the closing chapter of his book, The King James Version Defended, Edward F. Hills pens this solemn warning:
"In regard to Bible versions many contemporary Christians are behaving like spoiled and rebellious children. They want a Bible version that pleases them no matter whether it pleases God or not. "We want a Bible version in our own idiom," they clamor. "We want a Bible that talks to us in the same way in which we talk to our friends over the telephone. We want an informal God, no better educated than ourselves, with a limited vocabulary and a taste for modern slang." And having thus registered their preference, they go their several ways. Some of them unite with the modernists in using the RSV or the NEB. Others deem the NASV or the NIV more "evangelical". Still others opt for the TEV or the Living Bible.
But, God is bigger than you, dear friend, and the Bible version which you use is not a matter for you to decide according to your whims and prejudices. It has already been decided for you by the workings of God's special providence. If you ignore this providence and choose to adopt one of the modern versions, you will be taking the first step in the logic of unbelief. For the arguments which you must use to justify your choice are the same arguments which unbelievers use to justify theirs, the same method. If you adopt one of these modern versions, you must adopt the naturalistic New Testament textual criticism upon which it rests...In other words, naturalistic textual criticism regards the special, providential preservation of the Scriptures as of no importance for the study of the New Testament text. But if we concede this, then it follows that the infallible inspiration of the Scriptures is likewise unimportant. For why is it important that God should infallibly inspire the Scriptures, if it is not important that He should preserve them by His special providence.
Where, oh where, dear brother or sister, did you ever get the idea that it is up to you to decide which Bible version you will receive as God's holy Word? As long as you harbor this false notion, you are little better than an unbeliever. As long as you cherish this erroneous opinion, you are entirely on your own. For you the Bible has no real authority, only what your rebellious reasons deigns to give it! For you there is no comfort, no assurance of faith. Cast off, therefore, this carnal mind that leads to death! Put on the spiritual mind that leads to life and peace. Receive by faith the True Text of God's Holy Word, which has be preserved down through the ages by His special providence and now is found in the Masoretic Hebrew text, the Greek Texus Receptus, and the King James Version and other faithful translations."
Now, to her portion of the chapter (some paragraphs excluded just for space constraints)
Chapter 24
Back to My Old King James Bible
"The evidence tells me it's time to take my King James Bible out again, if I can find it. Yes, I have found it and dusted it off. Actually, I almost gave it away. To my surprise, many others are doing the same thing. Many people are tired of the confusion and aren't happy with the new versions. They are checking it out for themselves, comparing the different Bibles and deciding that they have to go back to the King James, the most popular Book ever published.
Was my problem with the KJV itself or was it my ignorance of the Bible? Or maybe I just read the Bible without thinking. No one will argue that there are some Bible passages which are difficult to understand. It's not always so simple; it can be tough reading even in the modern versions.
Just for the sake of argument, let's view this as if we are on the liberal side of the debate and are in favor of the modern versions. Those modern Bibles are from different manuscripts and interpretations. They know they are. If they know the Bibles have changed and also express some of the Gnostic views with which they seem to agree, then why do we continue to defend these Bibles as though they have not been changed?
No one will argue that the KJV has the odd word with which we aren't too familiar. Maybe the "eth" could be removed from the end of words, or the odd word changed that has some weird spelling, as it wouldn't change the meaning. Some versions of the KJV have a little dictionary of those words either alongside the word or at the back of the Bible. You can get little dictionaries just for the KJV. These few old words don't interfere in any way with understanding the teachings of Scripture. There is nothing wrong with researching word as they are found throughout the Bible in order to find a fuller meaning for a deeper study. It's done all the time. It doesn't change the meaning.
Salvation, in the KJV, is very clear to a child. We, who live in the western world, boast of being so enlightened but we can't understand the KJV. If children can understand what they need to, why can't the adults? We will never understand the mystery of salvation but we certainly know the Way.
The Bible is being "dumbed down" in these new versions to keep pace with our everyday language. When educators in our country are concerned about what is happening to our language, shouldn't the translators of the Word of God be concerned as well? The language in these new versions is way down on the scale as far as a school grade level. They start at about grade 3 to grade 8, the highest being the KJV. Most people have more than a grade 8 education.
In our microwave society and easy-chair lifestyle which we all love, we would rather be entertained in church than really get to know the Word of God. We tend to need a book which someone wrote to help us do our studying. We don't even think about checking into the belief system of the author. In this day and age we live in, it's a must! If a book is at the top of the best sellers list, written by a popular preacher or just sounds good, that is generally good enough. Often the author isn't even a born-again Christian but we study their work anyway.
Yes, I even put New Age books in the church library not knowing what they were, for example, the Chicken Soup series. We might not be so eager to read or promote the author's books if we did research into his beliefs. Could we discern the error? We have been so influenced by the wisdom of this world that we don't stop to think if it lines up with the Word of God or not. I know; I've been there. We are much more acquainted with what we are taught, and that may not be truth.
The defenders of the new modern versions do not seem to have a problem with how much is distorted or missing in these new Bibles. They believe the 'red line' which means that Christ still remains in these Bibles from Genesis to Revelations even if the Bibles are somewhat corrupted. These people also do not mind attending a church which has false teachings; they say "I can worship God anywhere."
My question to these people would be, "with which image of Christ will you end up with?" Is Christ deity or is He just a good teacher?"
She also goes into the importance of memorizing Scripture and ingraining it in our hearts. If you'd like to read this book, you can contact me to get a copy (or read my copy when I'm done rereading it). It is very convicting, but also very liberating.
The book is called On A New Foundation? and is written by Pat Ammeter. Pat is a friend of my mom (in Sylvan Lake, AB), and has written this book to expose what she has learned through years of research on false teachings, and spiritual fallacies. She herself was immersed in a very charismatic church from childhood, and whenever she questioned a "spiritual experience" of someone, was shunned as she was taught that questioning spirituality was wrong. The problem came when these spiritual experiences didn't line up with Scripture. We are to test all the spirits, by the Bible, thus leading her to examine the Bibles she was using. At the time, she was her church's librarian, and made it her pride and joy to have one of EVERY version of Bible, on her library's shelves. She now repents of that, and shares what she has learned in the process. She cited at least 20 books on Bible version history and defenses, and has researched this topic thoroughly. I like her book too, because it is written easily for the lay person to understand.
I won't go into the history of each version as she describes them, but the conclusion she came to is that the King James Version is the ONLY reliable source. All the other versions were taken either from corrupted manuscripts or the publishers had corrupt means for publishing, or both (making money!!). Which is why all versions, except the KJV are copyrighted, and the publishers receive royalties for each sale (so when sales drop, they need to 'revise' the version to update and then everyone will buy more to increase sales again). I will quote her chapter 24 in almost entirety, since it sums up what the many chapters talk about. It's rather lengthy, but worthy of your time to read. Pat is a stickler for truth, and isn't afraid of people not liking her (the fear many have for remaining true). I'll first quote the end of the chapter, in which Pat quotes one of her references:
In the closing chapter of his book, The King James Version Defended, Edward F. Hills pens this solemn warning:
"In regard to Bible versions many contemporary Christians are behaving like spoiled and rebellious children. They want a Bible version that pleases them no matter whether it pleases God or not. "We want a Bible version in our own idiom," they clamor. "We want a Bible that talks to us in the same way in which we talk to our friends over the telephone. We want an informal God, no better educated than ourselves, with a limited vocabulary and a taste for modern slang." And having thus registered their preference, they go their several ways. Some of them unite with the modernists in using the RSV or the NEB. Others deem the NASV or the NIV more "evangelical". Still others opt for the TEV or the Living Bible.
But, God is bigger than you, dear friend, and the Bible version which you use is not a matter for you to decide according to your whims and prejudices. It has already been decided for you by the workings of God's special providence. If you ignore this providence and choose to adopt one of the modern versions, you will be taking the first step in the logic of unbelief. For the arguments which you must use to justify your choice are the same arguments which unbelievers use to justify theirs, the same method. If you adopt one of these modern versions, you must adopt the naturalistic New Testament textual criticism upon which it rests...In other words, naturalistic textual criticism regards the special, providential preservation of the Scriptures as of no importance for the study of the New Testament text. But if we concede this, then it follows that the infallible inspiration of the Scriptures is likewise unimportant. For why is it important that God should infallibly inspire the Scriptures, if it is not important that He should preserve them by His special providence.
Where, oh where, dear brother or sister, did you ever get the idea that it is up to you to decide which Bible version you will receive as God's holy Word? As long as you harbor this false notion, you are little better than an unbeliever. As long as you cherish this erroneous opinion, you are entirely on your own. For you the Bible has no real authority, only what your rebellious reasons deigns to give it! For you there is no comfort, no assurance of faith. Cast off, therefore, this carnal mind that leads to death! Put on the spiritual mind that leads to life and peace. Receive by faith the True Text of God's Holy Word, which has be preserved down through the ages by His special providence and now is found in the Masoretic Hebrew text, the Greek Texus Receptus, and the King James Version and other faithful translations."
Now, to her portion of the chapter (some paragraphs excluded just for space constraints)
Chapter 24
Back to My Old King James Bible
"The evidence tells me it's time to take my King James Bible out again, if I can find it. Yes, I have found it and dusted it off. Actually, I almost gave it away. To my surprise, many others are doing the same thing. Many people are tired of the confusion and aren't happy with the new versions. They are checking it out for themselves, comparing the different Bibles and deciding that they have to go back to the King James, the most popular Book ever published.
Was my problem with the KJV itself or was it my ignorance of the Bible? Or maybe I just read the Bible without thinking. No one will argue that there are some Bible passages which are difficult to understand. It's not always so simple; it can be tough reading even in the modern versions.
Just for the sake of argument, let's view this as if we are on the liberal side of the debate and are in favor of the modern versions. Those modern Bibles are from different manuscripts and interpretations. They know they are. If they know the Bibles have changed and also express some of the Gnostic views with which they seem to agree, then why do we continue to defend these Bibles as though they have not been changed?
No one will argue that the KJV has the odd word with which we aren't too familiar. Maybe the "eth" could be removed from the end of words, or the odd word changed that has some weird spelling, as it wouldn't change the meaning. Some versions of the KJV have a little dictionary of those words either alongside the word or at the back of the Bible. You can get little dictionaries just for the KJV. These few old words don't interfere in any way with understanding the teachings of Scripture. There is nothing wrong with researching word as they are found throughout the Bible in order to find a fuller meaning for a deeper study. It's done all the time. It doesn't change the meaning.
Salvation, in the KJV, is very clear to a child. We, who live in the western world, boast of being so enlightened but we can't understand the KJV. If children can understand what they need to, why can't the adults? We will never understand the mystery of salvation but we certainly know the Way.
The Bible is being "dumbed down" in these new versions to keep pace with our everyday language. When educators in our country are concerned about what is happening to our language, shouldn't the translators of the Word of God be concerned as well? The language in these new versions is way down on the scale as far as a school grade level. They start at about grade 3 to grade 8, the highest being the KJV. Most people have more than a grade 8 education.
In our microwave society and easy-chair lifestyle which we all love, we would rather be entertained in church than really get to know the Word of God. We tend to need a book which someone wrote to help us do our studying. We don't even think about checking into the belief system of the author. In this day and age we live in, it's a must! If a book is at the top of the best sellers list, written by a popular preacher or just sounds good, that is generally good enough. Often the author isn't even a born-again Christian but we study their work anyway.
Yes, I even put New Age books in the church library not knowing what they were, for example, the Chicken Soup series. We might not be so eager to read or promote the author's books if we did research into his beliefs. Could we discern the error? We have been so influenced by the wisdom of this world that we don't stop to think if it lines up with the Word of God or not. I know; I've been there. We are much more acquainted with what we are taught, and that may not be truth.
The defenders of the new modern versions do not seem to have a problem with how much is distorted or missing in these new Bibles. They believe the 'red line' which means that Christ still remains in these Bibles from Genesis to Revelations even if the Bibles are somewhat corrupted. These people also do not mind attending a church which has false teachings; they say "I can worship God anywhere."
My question to these people would be, "with which image of Christ will you end up with?" Is Christ deity or is He just a good teacher?"
She also goes into the importance of memorizing Scripture and ingraining it in our hearts. If you'd like to read this book, you can contact me to get a copy (or read my copy when I'm done rereading it). It is very convicting, but also very liberating.
