Amazingly, few are aware of the spiritual weapons of mass destruction that have already been utilized by the International Bible Society and their cohorts in doctrinal crime at the Zondervan Company. The latest poison pill to be offered to the already malnourished body of Christ is called the TNIV - Today's New International Version. This is the Bible that we were promised would never be published.

    Perhaps a little background is in order.

    Some years ago, when the NIV began gaining in popularity, a number of Christian writers became alarmed at the consistent pattern of mistranslation utilized in the modern version. Following the already well worn path opened up by the New American Standard and the Revised Standard Version, the NIV followed the translational methodology known as Dynamic Equivalency.

    Whereas the tried and true King James Version utilized an older system known as Verbal Equivalency, the "dynamic" method states that the editors write what they think the text is trying to tell us. Verbal Equivalency (found only in the KJV today) takes the stance that even if we don't fully understand the meaning, this is the WORD of God and we're going to do our best to translate it word for word.

    The NIV also followed the earlier attempts at rewriting the WORD of God in the popular lingo, and went to two aberrant manuscripts for its authority. Both manuscripts have a dubious historical lineage - to say nothing of the fact that they underlie translations as notoriously bad as the Jehovah's Witness New World Translation, and several Catholic abominations.

    It turns out that under a copyright principle known as Derivative Copyright, if you don't change enough words in a new translation, the publisher can't qualify for copyright protection to recoup their translation budget. This is, of course, the epitome of attempting to serve two masters - one master ostensibly being the LORD's work in trying to come up with a sound Bible that can be widely read, and the other master being the Beast system's requirements for monetary recompense.

    As the NIV gained in popularity, several Christian observers became increasingly concerned at the obvious mistranslations that were slowly being discovered. Because of the scope of a work like the Bible, it took years to actually uncover most of the problem areas in the translation. From there, it took even more years before any serious anti-NIV material could be brought to the mass market. By that time, the NIV had already become well entrenched - as it has now become the number one translation in terms of sales.

    The NIV phenomena is the religious equivalent of a giant drug company releasing a new compound without any clinical tests - years later discovering that everyone that took the new formulation began to die slowly. It is this writer's perspective that the NIV (and those that have profited from the monstrosity) will be revealed to have been a part of a gigantic poison pill that helped to create the apostate church that was formerly the marginal denominational structure of Christianity in the Western World.

    But back to the fruits of the Antichrist's publishing subsidiary at the International Bible Society.

    While the "original" NIV took incredible license with God's Holy Spirit breathed words and substituted words like "prosperity" when the text says "righteousness" (Proverbs 8:18), it consistently downplayed key phrases related to JESUS CHRIST. Apparently, most Christians don't mind if "righteousness" is equated with "prosperity" (presumably due to the "maddening wine" of commerce they've been consuming from their blind leaders on TBN and other mass media), so they failed to notice the subtle shift towards the church of the BMW that the NIV helped to construct.

    Not only does the NIV elevate the prosperity doctrine, it suppresses the verses that place the issue of money in their proper perspective. For example, in Mark 10:24 the NIV tells us,

"The disciples were amazed at his words, But Jesus said again, `Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!'"

    The actual WORD of God, utilizing the translational technique called Verbal Equivalency, is found in the King James Version. Here the text reads

"And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!"

    The incredible thing here is that the NIV claims to be a straight-forward translation, and not a paraphrase. Yet, utilizing "Dynamic Equivalency," it is a paraphrase by definition. Notice also how the NIV fails to capitalize the "he" that refers to Christ. This is because the older edition was subtly preparing the reader for the next "revision" that would remove the gender of Christ altogether.

    While Christians enjoy the alleged clarity of the translation as evidenced by the sales figures, the path of least resistance is not the one the scriptures instruct believers to take. Furthermore, because the NIV is a counterfeit of the true WORD of God, there is still a small amount of spiritual nourishment that is retained in the work. This makes it all the more dangerous as people are being spiritually `fed' with a loaf that becomes increasingly leavened with spiritual poison with every subsequent "edition."

    Although the publishers use the word "edition," what they really mean is "revision." How many people stop to think that when the Bible says "I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6), wouldn't that also apply to His WORD?

    To put it another way, how is it God's WORD changes with each subsequent "edition" in conformity with derivative copyright statutes in order to qualify for the revenue generation inherent in a federally protected literary copyright?

    The issue of doctrine surfaces again and again in the NIV - and the "coincidental" thing is, every shift in emphasis seems to downgrade the deity of Christ, the exclusivity of His salvation requirements, or even His shed blood as the central act in the redemption of those He chooses to save.

    For example, while the Never Inspired Version of Colossians 1:13 and 14 leaves no doubt it is referring to Christ as the one that provides redemption, it subtly removes crucial aspects of the methodology for that wonderful salvation:

"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13, 14 NIV)

    While this sounds like scripture, there is a subtle shift in the doctrine in this aberrational counterfeit of the true WORD of God. Notice again how the "he" is not capitalized in the NIV - but there is far more in this example that is but one of many. Let's compare this spin-doctored version with the actual word for word non-paraphrased WORD of God found in the King James Version:

"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13, 14 KJV)

    There is a significant difference between the word dominion and the word power. The American Heritage Dictionary says dominion is "a territory or sphere of influence" whereas power speaks of "strength or force exerted" (American Heritage Dictionary, 1969). Thus, Christ doesn't just deliver us from the "dominion" of darkness, He delivers us from the power of evil that pulls us into that "dominion."

    Furthermore, the NIV completely omits HOW He accomplishes that. He does it through the POWER that is available through His blood. Unfortunately, the hapless readers of the NIV bought the lie that the "simplicity" of Christ somehow equals the ease of textual perception that is supposedly found in the modern translations. Could this be related to the fact that the NIV has removed the word "simplicity" and replaced it with "sincere?"

    Indeed, In II Corinthians in the GENUINE WORD OF GOD, Paul writes:

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." (II Corinthians 11:3 KJV).

    The NIV deals in subtilty as it seeks to beguile and corrupt the reader's minds from that simplicity by changing the words to the following:

"But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ." (II Corinthians 11:3 NIV)

    I don't think I need to quote from the dictionary to prove there is a significant difference between the word sincere and the word simplicity! Notice the emphasis in the NIV is "your" sincere devotion as opposed to the simplicity "that is in Christ." This shifts the focal point of the statement from that which is found "in Christ" to the alleged sincerity found in the church. This is just the tip of the iceberg, for those that have spent years studying this amazing apostasy have found that changes like these don't run in the hundreds of verses - they run in the thousands.

    The truth is, the attacks on the WORD of God have never stopped, they've just become more subtle. As one that has been involved in this battle for a number of years, I know that most "believers" simply shrug when they are confronted with this data. They rationalize away the need for radical spiritual reformation on a personal level. After all, it's a lot of work to try to study the older English if you're a product of the public school system.

    Besides, why give God your very best in terms of effort in order to learn the truth of HIS ways, when there are more important things to do - like holiday shopping for that Tammuz Tree, or planning your vacation, or going to yet another feel-good "revival" service where the pastor will reassure you that we're going to be removed before the going really gets tough, or...

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie...with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (II Thessalonians 2:11,10)

    This great departure from the truth was prophesied to occur in the CHURCH, because they have become the hypocrites that "honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me." (Matthew 15:8) Thus, the true WORD describes those ensnared by the false WORD of God as those that walk "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2).

December 9, 2002 - James Lloyd

Copyright © 2002 Christian Media Network

See Also

The King James Controversy

Satanic Translations: New Age And Sacred Name Bibles

Speaking The Sacred Name