While there are some bad Bible translations out there, and the KJV may be the most accurate, having the Holy Spirit help you understand the Bible is most important of all.
In Matthew 17:21, Jesus told us that some demons can’t be cast out because we haven’t humbled ourselves through prayer and fasting. The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible omits what Jesus said.
So if I own a NIV Bible and I came against a demon that didn’t respond the way he should’ve, I might be scratching my head trying to figure out why. And it was all because of that darn NIV.
Because of the errors in many bibles, many people are King James only people. And some even joke that to study any other version would send you to hell. But of course that’s not true. It’s not about the Bible version you have, but it’s about the Spirit of God, and if in fact you have him to reveal to you the things of God written in his word.
9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1 Cor 2:9-13)
While the KJV is my primary version, the NKJV and especially the CEV read better. I study all three together. If I come across an error, the Holy Spirit will reveal it to me. And frankly, I’ve come across errors in the KJV as well (meaning: older words that make the text confusing or hard to understand).
Side Note: That omission in the NIV was the very reason I gravitated towards other versions, along with the persuasion from one particular pastor who made the KJV the standard above all. And I know about the homosexual chairman of the NIV Old Testament committee, and the fact that the parent company (Harper Collins) who published the NIV, also published The Joy of Gay Sex, and The Satanic Bible. The NIV doesn’t have a good history.
Is the NIV the most erroneous Bible? I think so. Can God still speak through it? Yes he can. And he might just tell you to get another version. However, if you couldn’t get another version, are you going to do just stop studying? No.
Once again: how is it that believers discovered that the NIV was screwed up? Who led me to compare my NKJV with my old NIV regarding that Matthew passage? The Holy Spirit of course. So my point is again: it’s about having the Holy Spirit and being humbly submitted to him to understand God’s word.
And what I’m saying to the church is: as we rise up, let’s not get caught up on Bible versions, and most certaintly, not demean others because they don’t use the same version we use; that would be a lack of love on our part to do so.
The great thing about this country and this period of time is that we can choose any Bible version we want. But that doesn’t exclude the essential Holy Spirit needed to reveal the word to us (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV). There’s a lot of people who have the “correct version” and have a total misunderstanding of scripture because they don’t have the Spirit of God. Therefore, let us be filled with the Spirit and joined together in unity despite our various Bible versions.
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I know coming out of the harlot church system a couple of years ago, this is what I came across. From being lied to about so many other things I was indoctrinated with, even the version of the bibles I was reading all this time was questioned. I remember searching online and coming across a couple of websites where they were only King James readers and like you said they condemned everyone else to hell for reading any other version. I was battling for awhile, questioning if my relationship with Christ was based on reading a different version. Sometime after I came across the scripture I remembered which you mentioned above in 1 Corin. that gave me peace in knowing it is Christ Spirit that reveals his truth. Now I read KJV along with NIV or NASB. Have you heard anything about New American Standard?
Hi Nee, it’s good to hear from another child of God who’s made it out of the false church.
People can become puffed up when they gain knowledge about the errors of something, but it takes the Holy Spirit to keep us sane. As far as the NASB, I haven’t heard anything about it. Of course, if you do a Google search, I’m sure you’ll find something. There’s always an error someone can find.
I know a while back there was a pastor who caught CNN’s attention because he was burning bibles in the front of his church. He was KJV only so he had all the others listed on his website as false. He should’ve been more focused on doing the word rather than tripping about which one was correct.
God bless.
We are all reading and studying together and I am trying to get people on board that when we are together that we all read from the same bible…I was thinking the NKJV because it is close to KJV – Reading from all versions in your own study time alone I see no problem with at all but one thing I have noticed – when we come together to study the word and everyone is reading from their own versions, with others trying to follow in their versions, it becomes muddled – The best I can describe it is that you trying to peer through pure water while someone is throwing pebbles in to the water. If you read your own version alone then you concentrate on the content – when trying to read from different versions all at the same time then each individual is concentrating on translating what is being said into their version and they miss the content…
A good example of this would be to get everyone to copy a story from an original into their own words and then one read from his/her version aloud while the others try and follow with their version – they won’t respond to what is being written because the brain will be trying mentally to convert what they are saying into their version – in doing so the lose the plot of the story…This is the problem with many versions – I believe God knew this and there is a reason for having each hebrew letter representing a number.
When a Hebrew manuscript was copied then the letters were added up into columns right to left and top to bottom. The number they came to was matched up against the original they had just used to copy from – this was done a number of times to confirm the sum of the letters – if any number from summing the letters didn’t match then the manuscript was discarded (there was a ritual for doing this!?) and the manuscript copied again. Gods words are important and I believe that when you come together that you should all read from the same translation and a translation that is faithful. This is just my 2 cents worth. The KJV, even though it is older english, is a good translation and I think that it is the most accurate – one of the reasons that really makes me think that the older bible translations are the most accurate is that those who gave us these translations were chased across europe and executed if caught??? The false churchers of today have no problems with all these new translations.
God bless brothers and sisters
I agree Colin, when we come together, we should be unified in reading from one translation. At bible study in the harlot church people would have NIV, KJV and NLT and it would be confusing. So my point was obviously about personal study not corporate study. I was thinking about this the other day in regards to which version of the word we would use in our fellowship. It might be the KJV since anyone can get this version practically from anywhere. I’ve seen the dollar store carrying them. Finally it’s about your obedience to what you study and the Holy Spirit’s lead in helping you understand the Word.
Great post. I grew up raised on the NIV, but then a KJV only customer had a bookstore I was working at started to share about the KJV only view, which threw me into a good number of years of being confused on which was the right version to read/use for study. On my own I’ve come to like the KJV and just recently have totally become hooked on reading the HCSB.
Good post brother realneal
KJV, NKJV, NAS, NASB, NIV, NLT, and many other translations are acceptable. None of them completely bring across the meaning of the original languages in every case so I always recommend a concordance like Strong’s to help amplify the text.
But what if you didn’t have these additional tools? The Holy Spirit is all you need.