Which Bible is best?

[markrr]

Hi,

I'm just in the process of reading posts on the forum, which I'm finding 'enlightening' I'm never sure which Bible is 'safe' to read anymore, you mentioned the NIV version in a negative way which is the version I have at home. To be honest I closed the Bible about 1 year ago because I see it as a tool to condemn folk especially homosexuals by hypocrite Christians. But I've been reading of late how they have changed / translated words to mean that homosexuality is a sin when in fact they don't know what the original word means.

Which Bible version would be the best to read, one which is closest to the truth?

I myself am a 46 year old gay Christian (Anglican-Church Of England) I am at peace with my sexuality totally, as I know GOD is. For me I choose not to have sex and I never had. This has just been a progression of my life and journey and it enables me to focus on GOD. I judge nobody and have many gay friends who are in relationships. This is just my journey with GOD, who tells me that he hasn't a problem with my sexuality. I just cannot understand what the big hang up is with homosexuality. According to this present pope I am as just a danger to the world as the deforestation of the rain forest.

I've just received a WARNING from a so called Christian forum for having the following text underneath my Avatar 'I'm gay get over it, GOD has' they claimed that the text was promoting homosexuality.

Should we be saying the same as our Lord Jesus Christ?

''Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."

[Rev. Jim Cunningham]

Of the literally thousands of ancient Bible manuscripts in existence (more than any other ancient text), 95% of them all say the same thing; that is, they "agree" and bear witness to each other. These are refered to as the Majority Texts. Of these Majority Texts, the Greek New Testament manuscripts are refered to as the Textus Receptus and the Old Testament Hebrew Manuscripts are refered to as the Ben Chayyim Massoretic Texts. From these was the King James Version translated word for word.



The remaining 5% of those manuscripts, the Minority Texts, not only disagree with the Majority Texts, but they also disagree WITH EACH OTHER. In other words, each one stands alone, having no witness to their faithfulness. Hence, they are totally unreliable. Among these texts are: the horrific Greek translation of the Old Testament known as The Septuagint (LXX) and the Alexandrian Texts created by heretics in Egypt, the Sinaiticus which was found in a waste bin in the Catholic St. Catherine's Monastary, the Vaticanus which was created by the Vatican, fifty different versions created by Roman Emperor Constantine, the Ben Stuttgart and Ben Asher Masoretic Texts of the Old Testament created by heretics in Europe, parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls created by the Essenes (an ancient Jewish cult), and several others. From these came the Catholic Latin Vulgate of Jerome and later the Catholic Duoay-Rheims Bible (created by Jesuits as a counter offensive against the King James Version). From all of these came the new versions:
•Revised Version by satanists Westcott and Hort, founders of the Hermes Club and members of famed Russian witch Madam Blavatsky's Theosophy cult
•Nestle Bible
•New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses, written by Senior Jesuits Jose Maria Bover and A. Merk
•New International Version (which is based heavily on the Jehovah's Witnesses' version)
•Today's New International Version
•New International Reader's Version
•New King James Version
•Literal Translation Version
•Modern King James Version
•21st Century King James Version
•The Message Bible
•God's Word (aka God's Word To The Nations) Version
•World English Bible
•Jerusalem Bible
•New Jerusalem Version
•Complete Jewish Bible (New Testament)
•Bible In Basic English
•Darby Translation
•American Version
•American Standard Version
•Revised Standard Version
•New Revised Standard Version
•Young's Literal Translation
•Weymouth New Testament
•Contemporary English Version (aka Good News for Modern Man)
•English Standard Version
•New Century Version
•Holman Christian Standard Bible
•Hebrew Names version
•Amplified Bible
•Common English Version
•Revised English Version
•Phillips Version
•Clear Word Bible (aka The Clear Word)
•the profanity filled Living Bible and its afterbirth New Living Translation (which are paraphrased perversions whose author Kenneth Taylor, according to Time Magazine 24 July1972 paragraph 7, has lost the ability to speak),
•and virtually every other new version produced from the 1800's onward.

All of the new versions of the Bible have one thing in common: they ALL disagree with the King James Version which is translated from the Majority Texts. The new versions omit and alter TENS OF THOUSANDS of words and even whole verses. They do so for two reasons: 1)The translators used the Minority Texts which omit and alter the Greek and Hebrew words, 2)The translators do not believe in the words found in the text which they have altered or omitted.

Here are just three examples. We'll use the NIV for example, as it is one of the most corrupt of the new versions.

1 JOHN 5:7
•KJV: For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father and the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.
•NIV: OMITTED

(The NIV's footnote, that this verse is not contained in early manuscripts, is an outright bald faced lie. It is simply not contained in their Minority Texts.)

ISAIAH 14:12
•KJV: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
•NIV: How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!

(The title of "Morning Star" belongs to Jesus: "I Jesus...am the bright and Morning Star", Revelation 22:16. "Lucifer", which is 'Haylel' in Hebrew, has nothing to do with a star or the morning. In essence, the NIV is insisting that it was JESUS - not Lucifer - who was fallen from heaven. In other words, Jesus didn't COME DOWN to earth, He was CAST DOWN!)

REVELATION 13:17
•KJV: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, OR the name of the beast, OR the number of his name. Here is wisdom.
•NIV: So that no man could buy or sell unless he had the mark, WHICH IS the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom.

(By changing "OR" to "WHICH IS", the NIV invented a new doctrine - that "666" is the mark of the beast. But contrary to this, the Biblical text refers to three distinct things:
•1) the mark of the beast,
•2) the name of the beast,
•3) the number of the beast's name, which is six hundred sixty six - not "6-6-6".

This means that the mark of the beast and the number of the beast's name are two different things! Sadly, deceived Christians won't be looking for it because they think 6-6-6 is the mark.)

It would take an entire book to list all of the horrendous errors - and in fact there are literally thousands of such books available. The same goes for all of the other new versions. Now, on to the laughable contention that the King James Version is harder to read than the new versions. Before I refute that belief, let me ask, would you swallow a gelatin capsule full of poisonous hemlock simply because it is easier to swallow than a grainy and bulky Vitamin C tablet? Of course not! Would you swallow a bottle of bleach simply because it says "milk" on the bottle? No! So why would you just accept any old book to be the Word of God merely because it is easier to swallow and says "Holy Bible" on the cover? The truth is that the King James Version is NOT harder to read. In fact, it is the easiest-to-read Bible version on the market! Here is the proof.

The Flesch-Kincaid and the Gunning-Fog systems, which are used to test the grade level readability of school text books, rates The King James Version as an over-all 5th grade level book, The NKJV and NASB as an over-all 6th grade level book, and The NIV as an over-all 7th grade level book!

In fact, the King James Version is not only easier to read than new versions, it has a vocabulary and reading level which slowly builds progressively from Genesis (4th grade) to Matthew (6th grade) to Revelation (7th grade level). However, the new versions, such as the famed "easier to read" NIV, goes from Genesis (5th grade) to Matthew (an impossible 16th grade level!) back down to Revelation (8th grade).

The reason the King James Version appears to be more difficult is because of some words and word forms no longer used in American English, such as thee, ye, justifieth, etc. However, this is because American English DOES NOT CONTAIN SUITABLE HEBREW AND GREEK EQUIVILLENTS. For example, the word "ye" means "you - plural" AT ALL TIMES. It is totally WRONG to translate "ye" as "you". The closest we have to YE in modern English is the slang Y'ALL (you-all), or EVERYONE, or ALL OF YOU. But even these words fall short. The biblical text INSISTS upon a distiction between you-singular and you-plural, therefore a true English translation MUST contain separate and distinct words for you-singular and you-plural. Modern English simply has no such thing, therefore we MUST tolerate the old forms of thee/thou and ye. Jesus did not tell Nicodemus "THOU (you) must be born again," but "YE (you all) must be born again" - that is, EVERYONE, not just Nicodemus, must be born again.

The King James is so explicit and expressive that it leaves the reader with NO DOUBT as to it's meaning and leaves NO ROOM for false interpretation. But do not confuse difficult WORDS with a difficult SUBJECT. The Bible is teaching heavenly knowledge and THAT - not the words - is hard to comprehend. The Bible itself says that It is difficult to understand. For example, Peter said the following about the epistles of Paul in 1 Peter 3:15:

Even as our beloved brother Paul also - according to the wisdom given unto him -

hath written unto you, 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 [wrestle with]

as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own DESTRUCTION.

Here the Bible clearly tells us that, yes, the Bible IS difficult to understand, and yet the authors of the new versions have the gall to insist that they have inside knowledge that allows them to present to you a difficult- free, easy-to-read "Word of God"! There is a reason that the Lord has made His Word difficult to read. It is a safe guard 1) to ensure your salvation, 2) so that you allow only the Holy Spirit to interpret, 3) to prove false and corrupt versions, and, 4) to expose blasphemous translators.

If you've got a Bible that is easy to comprehend to the casual reader, you haven't got the Word of God! There is only ONE THING throughout the Bible which any person can comprehend easily: the Gospel message. EVERYTHING ELSE in the Bible is meant ONLY for BELIEVERS.

So, just how reliable is the Bible and how likely is it that we have God's Word today? Aside from the multitudes of biblical promises from God Himself that He would always keep His Word intact for all generations, we also have the amazing history of God-fearing Jews who have brought us the Word down through the ages through a specific and dedicated copying system unequalied in all the world for precision:
•parchment must be made from the skin of a "clean" animal according to Old Testament law
•all aspects of preperation and scribing must be by a Jew only
•the skins must be fastened together by strings taken from lawfully clean animals
•each column must have no less than forty-eight, nor more than sixty lines
•the entire copy must be first lined
•the ink must be of no other color than black
•the ink must be prepared according to a special recipe
•no word nor letter could be written from memory
•the scribe must have an authentic copy before him
•no commentary or footnote could be added anywhere on the parchment
•the scribe must read and pronounce aloud each word before writing it
•the sctibe must reverently wipe his pen each time before writing the word for "God" (Elohim)
•the scribe must wash his whole body before writing the name "Jehovah" (LORD in our King James Bibles)
•strict rules were given concerning forms of the letters, spaces between letters, words and sections, the use of the pen, the color of the parchment, etc
•the revision (to correct any errors) of a roll must be made within thirty days after the work was finished; otherwise it was worthless
•one mistake on a sheet condemned the entire sheet
•if three mistakes were found on any page, the entire manuscript was condemned
•every letter was counted by a team of scribes
•every word was counted by a team of scribes
•each part of the text was written on a specific day of the year so that the entire text was transcribed within one Jewish calendar year
•if a letter was omitted, or if an extra letter was inserted, or if two letters touched one another, the manuscript was condemned and destroyed at once

I could go on and on with textual criticism, verse comparison, exposing of the treasonous beliefs of the new versions' translators, etc; but the information provided here is more than sufficient to convince an honest Christian of the faithfulness of the King James Version and the heresy of the new versions. Remember, if you have a false Bible then you have a false Christ. If you have a false Christ then you have a false salvation. If you have a false salvation then your eternity is going to be as firey as the one which awaits the new bible translators! It is written:

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this Book: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book.

- Revelation 22:18

In addition to its superior and accurate translation, the KJV also happens to be the only pro-gay version of the Scriptures - because it says what God said, not what man feels.