As a fighter against false doctrines for many years, [snipped], the best advice I can offer is to **PRAY** earnestly for the HOLY SPIRIT to guide you, and to read as many versions as you can.
While Chick has some excellent tracts to steer the lost toward JESUS, he mostly has badly-skewed tracts full of misinformation, especially when they pertain to Bible versions.
Over the years I have noteced that almost all KJVO literature follows four older works:
1.)
Our Authorized Bible Vindicated, Dr. Benjamin Wilkinson, 1930. This book can be pointed at as the first KJVO work, and the book from which the next three obtained their misinformation. Dr. Wilkinson was a SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST official, so we see that KJVO's very roots are tainted.
2.)
God Wrote Only One Bible, J.J.Ray, 1955. This book copies very heavily from Wilkinson's, with Ray's having added a little material of his own. Who was J.J.Ray? Good luck in finding out who he REALLY is/was. That name's almost certainly a pseudonym. Now, why should a Christian, writing a book about God's word, wanna conceal his ID?
3.)
Bible Babel, Dr. Peter S.Ruckman, 1964. This book wasn't well-known until some later KJVO authors made reference to it. This book is from the man who made a false prophecy (that he & some others would be assassinated by Janet Reno's hit man before 2000)and who, in his book,
Mark Of The Beast, says the Antichrist will be a 10-ft. tall alien with huge black lips who will arrive in a mile-wide spaceship & impart the "mark" with his kiss. This is the same man who said Judas Iscariot wasn't human,(Never mind that JESUS said "Better for that man if he had never been BORN)and that Eve had "relations" with the serpent & thus was Cain conceived.(Never mind that Genesis 4:1 says," Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from **the LORD**.”)(This "serpent seed" heresy is taught by the charlatan Arnold Murray on his "Shepherd's Chapel" broadcasts.)
All the above about Dr. Ruckman is easily verifiable in his own books, readily available on his own site online. Does he appear very reliable?
4.)
Which Bible?, Dr. D.O.Fuller, 1970. Basically a repeat of the preceeding works. It sold better than its predecessors because Fuller had the use of the power of modern media over which to hawk his book.
All these books carry a common denominator that PROVES their authors did very little research...their statement that Psalm 12:7 is about God's words. At the cost of being repetitious, I shall re-post the facts that prove their assumption wrong.
In the AV 1611, you'll notice a little dagger beside the second them in Ps. 12:7. The corresponding dagger is at this marginal note: "Heb.him, I. Euery one of them". From this, we can easily see what the AV men meant, & what they believed about this verse-that it is about plural PEOPLE.
Notice that them is italicized in the verse. That's because the AV men substituted the plural them for the singular him. They italicized them to show it is not the literal rendering of the singular Hebrew.They knew that verse was about plural PEOPLE. Their marginal note leaves no doubt that they believed that verse was about people.
Were the AV men alone in that belief? Absolutely NOT!
Psalm 12:7, Geneva Bible:
Thou wilt keepe them, O Lord: thou wilt preserue him from this generation for euer.
From the Bishop's Bible:
[Wherfore] thou wylt kepe the godly, O God: thou wylt preserue euery one of them from this generation for euer.
NASB: You, O LORD, will keep them;
You will preserve him from this generation forever.
NIV: O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us from such people forever.
YLT: Thou, O Jehovah, dost preserve them, Thou keepest us from this generation to the age.
HCSB: You, LORD, will guard us;
You will protect us from this generation forever.
The NKJV reads same as the KJV.
ALL the above books from those various authors are readily available online.
Now, don't get me wrong...I am NOT against the KJV itself whatsoever...[snipped] The KJV is as valid a version as was ever made in any language.
But you wanted to know which version we felt was right for you, correct? That's very hard for anyone to truthfully determine over an Internet forum, but lemme do the best I can.
First, I recommend that you, & every other English-reading Bible student obtain a copy of the AV 1611, the original KJV. Hendrickson Publishing has an inexpensive(roughly $18) replica that contains every word found between the covers of a genuine AV. The only change is its physical size, and that its text is printed in modern font insteada Gothic. This book alone, with all the extra-textual comments by the translators, is an immense study help, and I even know a few people who carry their AVs to church! (Nothing whatsoever wrong with that if you clearly understand the 400-yr-old English in its original spelling)
I assume you already have a copy of the currently-used KJV, so my next recommendation is to obtain a copy of the NKJV, which is not merely an updated KJV, but is an entirely-new translation made from the ancient manuscripts used by the AV translators along with other manuscripts discovered over the 400 years between the AV and now.
Next, I would recommend obtaining a copy of the NASB, which is one of the more literal modern versions. Then I would obtain a copy of the NIV.
If you study those versions in that order before studying any other versions, God will give you a clear insight of which version(s) He wants YOU to use. In the meantime, just ignore the advocates of any one version, especially those who denounce all other versions. Remember, GOD IS NOT LIMITED to just one version, and neither should YOU be, unless so guided by Him.
[ February 18, 2006, 07:58 AM: Message edited by: C4K ]
