ambassadors for the risen Christ ministries

by Shawn Brasseaux

Are all 200-plus modern English Bibles equal in authority? As opposed to wasting your money to buy these new translations to find out, I invite you to decide for yourself by going to Bible Gateway (www.biblegateway.com) and do verse comparisons. Should you be using the NIV, the NASB, the Message, the NKJV, the ESV, the NRSV, and the NLT? It is quite suspicious to find “new” versions, “revised” versions, “21st century” versions, and “today’s” versions. Then you have new revised versions—as if the “revised” versions were not revised enough!

Compare the following verses in the King James Bible with those of the popular versions such as the Amplified, NIV, NASB, Message, NKJV, NRSV, and NLT. Is it not suspicious that we have “revised versions” as well as “new revised versions?” Evidently, the revised versions were not edited enough. There are dozens of additional errors, but here are a few critical inaccuracies found in the most popular new Bible versions.

Many new versions insinuate the heretical idea that salvation is progressive/works-related (1 Corinthians 1:18; 2 Corinthians 2:15). Peter was an apostle, affirmed by “us the apostles” in 2 Peter 3:2. “Us the” is replaced by “your” in new translations; is this a subtle effort to rob Peter of his apostleship? In Ephesians 3:9, why is Jesus Christ as Creator denied in these new versions?

In Mark 6:11, why is the allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah eliminated? Why is a reference to Jesus Christ’s Second Coming omitted in Matthew 25:13? Do you know that references to eternal hellfire are removed from these new versions (Mark 3:29; Mark 9:44,46; 2 Peter 2:17)? The phrase “Son of the living God” cannot be found in John 6:69.

Why is “of Christ” removed from Romans 1:16? Why is the first portion of Luke 9:56 absent from these new versions? Why is a reference to Christ’s blood removed from Colossians 1:14? In Matthew 1:25, “firstborn” is omitted and “Joseph” is replaced by “the child’s father” in Luke 2:33,43—is this a denial of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? Is not “life that truly is life” a weaker rendition of the KJV’s “eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:19)? Why do modern Bibles say “Isaiah the prophet,” when Mark 1:2 is quoting Isaiah and Malachi?

Why is the phrase “but by every word of God” removed from Luke 4:4 in these new versions, yet remains in the companion verse Matthew 4:4? Luke 4:8 does not appear in its entirety in these new versions, making it appear that Jesus Christ was not superior to the devil. Not minor doctrinal errors, are they? My purpose is not to attack, but to warn you politely. What a shame that many professing Christians have thrown away the good ol’ King James Bible, and replaced it with these inferior adulterated versions.