Berean, Luther, KJV, and Shakespeare

 

The Bereans were so keen on the Word of God that they searched over Paul's work to make sure it was true. There are few Bereans like that available today.

Luther was so knowledgeable and powerful in his work that he shaped the German language, a masterpiece by itself, thanks to his abilities. He was so concise in his language that his German of today still remains, though very much altered by the corruption of so many languages, attempts, and twists.

The King James Version is very special in gathering the text and working it over until it was as perfect as could be. The editors were the greatest of their time. One indication is the murder of its brilliant initial translator, William Tyndale. 

William Tyndale was murdered for working on the English Bible, but his work was embodied n the King James Version.

 

Tyndale and the KJV editors established their Bible, which was so effective and useful that the KJV remains the best and most loved English version to this day. 

In the 1960s we were still being trained in Shakespeare in the high school. One teacher had us recite 100 lines of poetry to stay in the class. Shakespeare was studied in the classroom and offered for us (expected) in a live performance. 

Compare that to all the "cool stuff" promoted today. 

The ongoing use of the KJV is a way to keep up the language and the precision of Biblical English, but more importantly, it is the purest form and the most loved.

Revelation 1:8 - I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending...

I Remember That King James Bible at Home

We had a breakfast nook at home in Moline, which served as my mother's office for grading papers, which she did with speed and efficiency. An electric typewriter was there for some work, and bookshelves filled the upper half of one wall.

The more useful books were there, including a set of encyclopedias. She said, "I read a whole set once," and I had no reason to doubt her. 

The King James Bible was there, so I often saw it with a paper cover on it, somewhat like the graphic at the top. I was curious about the Authorized Version on the front page. That happens to be one of the strange aspects of that sub-title. That was not the official title, but it seems to be the favorite in England, just as KJV is here.

The back and forth of critics, good and bad, made me reminisce about the musical, majestic tone of the KJV. I tried my hand at translating some books of the New Testament. I learned - tis easier to imagine a better translation than to execute one.

Can anyone improve on the KJV's 23rd Psalm, John 10 - I am the Good Shepherd, The Lord's Prayer, and 1 Corinthians 13 - the love chapter perfectly recited at Princess Diane's wedding?

I remember little tidbits from the past - the doxology from the Lord's Prayer - "Oh that was taken from the Didache, an early Christian document." 

Going over the historical trickery used against the Majority Text - I thought - "More likely the Didache took the doxology from Matthew!" So why do Roman Catholics not use the doxology to the Lord's Prayer and we retain it? There is a very long history of papal corruption of the apostolic Majority Text. It is much easier to corrupt by erasing than by adding clumsy extra words - the ending of Mark, the woman caught in adultery, the Johannine comma, and the Lord's Prayer doxology.

If I could take everyone through each erasure in the NIV, the precious ESV, and the RSV, each would be shocked beyond belief, that such flagrant pilfering has taken place by the very people who praise themselves for being "scientific, exacting, scholars of the text." The erased words are directly related to faith in Christ and His divinity. 

Even more laughable is how these masters of deceit have achieved the most perfect text (cobbled together as if by drunks, skunks, and enfeebled monks) and the most glorious dynamic equivalent translation, yet they differ from each other hundred or thousands of times, and differ from their own previous efforts hundreds more times.

The Majority Text was preserved by the Christian Church, from the Apostolic Era onward, and beautifully expressed in the King James Version.

The modern paraphrases, passed off as translations, come from corrupt and fraudulent sources (Vaticanus - a LCMS fave; Sinaiticus - pure fraud; the Vulgate - Rome again!). Who prints these disasters? - Profiteering Bible businesses do - and their greedy denominational sponsors.

On Translations - From the KJV-Nevers of WELS-LCMS-ELCA-ELS-CLC-ELDONA to the KJV-Best Believers

One of the key values of the KJV is its longevity as a translation. Updates have been rare and slight, except for the famous 19th century KJV Revision, which bombed worse than Paul Kelm's version of evangelism, absent the Gospel, packed with plagiarized droppings from Fuller Seminary.

But that is not all. The KJV team tried hard to make their words match the original, so the translation is the best possible experience for those who only know English (which now means almost all seminarians). 

The WELS college faculty, now submerged into the ladies' school of ministry in New Ulm, hated the NIV - the "classic" NIV, the holocaust NIV exterminated by its greedy, rapacious publishers. The college professors murmured against the NIV in classes but said little or nothing when WELS made the new, even worse NIV their standard. The New NIV is truly the ideal bad paraphrase for the KJV-Never bumpkins who run the sect.

Those who respect the KJV also honor Justification by Faith - not just among Lutherans.

The KJV translators were not great, famous writers, but they lived at the same time as Shakespeare (actually the Earl of Oxford). English was at its peak, but that does not explain the beauty and cadence of the KJV verses, many passages welded into our memories - The 23rd Psalm, 1 Corinthians 13, and the Lord's Prayer.

The modernists skip all around with their Nida Dynamic Equivalence, so a word or phrase translated one way is changed in another location.

I am not arguing for a word for word translation, which only happens in clumsy interlinear Bibles. Those like Lenski who provide a translation showing off the Greek grammatical points will produce a New Testament that becomes humorous at times (yet effective for teaching Greek).

The KJV translators themselves were awed by the finished product, which gradually pushed the Geneva Bible into the dustbin of history. Nobody ordered the KJV to dominate. That kind of tyranny had to wait for WELS to ban everything except their precious New, Improved, NIV. You will notice that changing year by year, though English does not change so fast. They must think their original and subsequent editions were pretty bad, no?

The explanation for the KJV lasting 400+ years and dominating the reading of all English Bibles is simple. The KJV teams worked from faith in Jesus Christ and a genuine desire to take what was good from before and make it even better if possible. 

Tyndale set the stage - and he was a rare genius in giving life to his work, which was most of the New Testament and a large part of the Old Testament. One writer said that Tyndale outshone Luther, but that is debatable and includes Luther's entire team. Nevertheless, the KJV's genius began with Tyndale. Honest scholars give credit to the earlier efforts, to Luther, to the Geneva Bible, and 50+ faithful scholars of the KJV translation.

 If you hate the New NIV, don't worry, they will keep changing it, year after year. The WELS clergy nicknamed it the Nineveh Bible, but they whispered in Gath lest the joke be heard in plush carpeted halls of the Love Shack.

Giving the Atheist an Assignment on the Bible

Harold Bloom, The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible.

I knew that Harold Bloom was famous at Yale, in the English department, so I ordered his book on the KJV, via Alibris used books, which usually means almost brand new condition.

The back cover made it sound positive, but the entire book is in praise of himself - Harold Bloom, atheist - no he likes the term "gnostic" better. Mild praise of the KJV is followed by superficial, snide remarks, as if he can look down his nose at the Bible because he is a famous critic, no longer chasing the skirts of his students, having met his Maker.

The Harvard book -  which reviews the precision and style of the KJV - is so much better. I will be using that for the second edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

Bloom is an excellent example of someone who does not believe the Scriptures and therefore becomes blinded and hardened. The Spirit is always at work in the Word, so someone who uses that powerful and effective Word for mockery will pay a terrible price.

That mockery is standard for those tenured professors who teach the Scriptures and "world religion." My informant about world religion in the Phoenix community college network said, "They are all atheists and hate each other. I wish you could get the position but you would not be happy there."

What people sense, and also act upon, is the chill of apostasy among the Lutheran synod leaders and teachers. Those apostates are devoted to their perks and privileges, and mock the KJV. 

When offered the chance (for free) to teach Lutherans to use the Gospel Word about faith in Jesus Christ, the Wisconsin sect chose to buy the Unstuck Program. Most of the real work of evangelism is free or almost free. Unstuck is just an echo of Fuller, Willow Creek, Waldo Werning, and the gimmicks of Floyd Luther Stolzenburg.

Yes - 9.5 Million Page Views

The last celebration, July 10, 2021 - was for 9 million views. I know many are praying for me - to stop. So I want to discourage them as much as possible.

That gives us a million-per-year viewing rate. I wonder how that matches the Calvinist News (nee Christian News, nee Lutheran News). They turned that into a goldmine, or rather, a lead mine. Those who dig up lead for a living find traces of gold, so the analogy is apt.

CN is out of gold but the lead can be polished to look like silver. 

Interest in the KJV is very high. When my eyes work together, after the second cataract surgery, I will be able to finish up the second edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

 Let me count the ways - NIV or ESV Bible, KJV-Never, praise band, Luther only used for funny trinkets, Melanchthon and Chemnitz unknown, frequent trips to Fuller, Willow Creek, and other doctrinal dens of iniquity, clergy drunk or adulterous or both. 

More KJV Material Arriving. KJV-Never! Denominations Are Fuming!

Barbara and Kurt Aland. They remind me of the stars in Frankenstein. Kurt is Boris, and Barbara is...

I had two big finds on KJV information. One was about the literary style and translation art of the KJV. Yes, translating is an art. Simply knowing the language is not enough. More on that later.

The other one was a big shock, because many books go over the background material most know about. This one has a lot of new information gathered about how the 19th century revision of the KJV utterly failed - so bad the leaders knew it was unfixably bad. They printed zillions and hoped to make a fortune. Nope. Everyone wanted the KJV.

The book also describes the devious, dishonest tactics used - not as bad as WELS changing the vote to yes on the DMLC-NWC merger. But close to that level of crookedness. The revisers pushed the traditionalists out and promoted their own wacky ideas. They were also very close to the Roman Catholic leaders and friends. 

I hope to make the point clearer (since I know more now) that Roman Catholics were invited in and given the leverage needed to challenge the faithful KJV and Majority Text and replace both with pieced-together paraphrases and Roman Catholic frauds - Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. The public thought their work stunk like a dead, rotting elephant corpse, but the radicals took over in the name of the "oldest and best, scientific, accurate and awesome text," except it does not exist.

The "eclectic text," as they call it, does not exist anywhere except in their parboiled minds. They snipped and pasted and looked in wonder at what they invented - "This is truly the original Greek New Testament, because we ourselves fashioned it on our computers."

A Little Night Music - Getting BB Done

 

  A married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, stopped to eat at the kitchen window, in the hanging bun basket and window sill.

Tomorrow I will work on the chapel set-up. God-willing, I will have something for the Day of Epiphany, 7 PM tomorrow.

Today I worked on The Bible Book, Second Edition.

I am very happy about creating a second edition. I kept ordering KJV and Greek text books after the first edition came out, which linked me to other books, all in great condition and inexpensive. That expanded my knowledge of the battle for the KJV and Majority Text. 

When I post some information on the blog, views go up.  Some sections are clarifications with more photos. It helps to have a photo of modern authors. The more information I pursue, the more I learn. I am shocked at how gullible the 1880-1930 scholars were, but the truth was kept from them. Sinaiticus is a fake and so is Vaticanus, yet Metzger referred to the "latest discoveries" as the "earliest and best manuscripts." 

If the Majority (Byzantine) Text is so late, then why are Byzantine readings found in the earliest manuscripts.

Confidential to scholars - when manuscripts are so valuable, could some be forgeries to make money, prove a point, or both? 

Awash in KJV Books

Because some people come here for the cat photos. That's why.

It took me a few months to acquire the main books needed for the KJV. 

Many books for and against the KJV are here.

I would start with Edward Freer Hills - The King James Version Defended. That book is comprehensive yet written for those of us who have not bowed down at the Tischendorf-Westcott-Hort shrine. Put the author's name in the search line at Alibris.com, to find Hills' book.

The other top book is Wilbur N. Pickering, The Identity of the New Testament Text, 2014.

David W. Daniels has a lot of books at Chick Publications and can also be found with an author search on Alibris.com

Finally, the Trinitarian Bible Society has many publications, often aimed at one issue at a time, such as the ending of Mark. The US Store is here.

Part Two Rewrite - The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God

Today I am beginning the re-write of Part Two, The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

This second part is an analysis of the Greek New Testament - how we got the new cut and paste, anything goes approach of all modern translations, which are really freewheeling paraphrases inspired by Eugene Nida. The Foul Four are the ones I will dwell on, because there are so many minor players - NIV, and the National Council of Churches' RSV, NRSV, and ESV.

Note that the effete snobs who turn up their noses at the KJV will still use the step-sister of the NIV and one with a distinctly dark past - the ESV. The ESV overseer was a Calvinist (shock!) 

Wiki:

During the early 1990s, Crossway president Lane T. Dennis engaged in discussions with various Christian scholars and pastors regarding the need for a new literal translation of the Bible.^[15] In 1997,^[16] Dennis contacted the National Council of Churches (NCC) and proceeded to enter negotiations, alongside Trinity Evangelical Divinity School [Jerusalem for WELS leaders] professor Wayne Grudem, for obtaining rights to use the 1971 text edition of the Revised Standard Version [which denied and still undermines the Virgin Birth, Isaiah 7] as the starting point for a new translation.^[17] In September 1998, an agreement was reached with the NCC for Crossway to use and modify the 1971 RSV text, thereby enabling the creation of a new translation.^[17] Crossway moved forward from this position by forming a translation committee and initiating work on the ESV. Crossway officially published the ESV in 2001.^[15]

The LCMS adores the horrible ESV as much as WELS prostrates itself before the NIV.

Note that the push for the Foul Four Paraphrases has come from the Lutheran leaders of:

1. ELCA
2. WELS
3. LCMS
4. ELS
5. ELDONA

The KJV belongs to the Christian Church while the Foul Four are owned by businesses, three of them reliant on approval - negotiations from - the radical Marxist National Council of Churches. Decades ago, NCC staff behavior was so degraded that a liberal journalist was shocked and wrote a short book about it. So yes - the NCC serves as the foundation for three of Foul Four - makes you a bit misty, eh?

There is no doubt that the Lutheran leaders are drooling over their cash incentives and perks from selling the for-profit Bibles. The Foul Four are "the best" but disagree with each other and with their own previous efforts - they constantly change.

Who is winning? The KJV and New KJV make up about 60% of Bible readers. The Foul Four share roughly 40% among them. No wonder the denominations are cratering, the leaders despondent, the seminaries as welcome as a temple for Branch Covidians.

 "You hate the Majority Text and love Romanism? You are perfect for the new Revision of the KJV, even if no one buys it."

Oklahoma versus Oklahoma. KJV versus the Moderns

 O-o-o-o-o-o-klahoma... No-o-o-o-o!

We had a loud party going on Saturday night, on the street behind us - Joye Street. Covering my ears did not help, so I rented the original Oklahoma! movie, from Amazon, a 1955 classic with great actors and singers. Gordon MacCrae, Shirley Jones (Music Man), Eddie Albert (from the Quad Cities), Rod Steiger, and many more. 

I stopped early and fell asleep.  On Sunday I saw that I could get Oklahoma (1999) for free. Hugh Jackman starred in it, without his Wolverine costume and Cutco paws. It had to be fairly good, right? The surrey with the fringe on top was invented, not ridden in the new movie. The sets were right off the nearest high school stage. The singing was painful to hear. 

Hugh Jackman - elementary school.

I went back to the original film and finished that, thinking, "This is just like the KJV being replaced by the Revised Standard Version! - the new one flat, dull, lifeless, and mundane." And those were the good points of the RSV (under continuous revision). The new paraphrases, which do not pretend to be translations, are as lifeless as O 1999. 

Nota bene - I had to pay for the original Oklahoma! rental. The 1999 version is free with Premium. 

 Shirley Jones - again!

We Interrupt This Sinaiticus Briefing for More ELCA Scandals

 

I was reading, for the second time, Who Faked the "World's Oldest Bible"? 

I checked on the Facebook news and saw ELCA in Chicago was doing what ELCA does best. The latest does not deserve being named, since is it all derived from 2009 and the cowardly years before that.

 The vote - 2009 - aftermath.

The tongue-clucking will not include these questions, "Why are the Missouri, Wisconsin, and Little Norwegian synods working with ELCA?" or "Why are the pastors sharing their address lists with Thrivent?"

Calvinist News, now fronted by Phil Hale, has the same ecumenical and Thrivent problems. I do not worry that he never mentions my books, because he never mentions:

1. Justification by Faith
2. The Chief Article
3. The Means of Grace
4. The Efficacy of the Word.

The book I just finished is fascinating, because the marks of deceit and fraud are all over Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph). What made Tischendorf a party in promoting a recent, custom-made Bible as the "world's oldest Bible"? That turned him into an international celebrity, the reputation he craved.

Two Approaches to the Scriptures - ELCA-ELDONA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC Forced the Wrong Standard!

 

"No other Gospel" in Galatians 1:9 has become "Pick your favorite version of the Gospel" among the Lutherans.

Except for the KJV, no other Bible is going to remain the same for more than a year or two. They are in constant flux. If the reader thinks the New KJV is tolerable or even good because it mimes the KJV, think again. The constant references to the Nestle-Aland-United Bible Society falsely argue that the Tischendorf-Westcott-Hort readings (noted as NU) come from faithful, honest, scholars. The M footnotes are for the Majority Text - how patronizing! This compromising style - from the for-profit NKJV company - is more like "Two Possible Gospels."

Someone can call me KJV-Only but that is far better than the Lutheran professors and leaders who are KJV-Never. Their bitter tirades against the KJV are an affront to the English language - as one of the two pillars of our fair tongue.* 

The alternatives to the Greek New Testament - passed down by the apostles through the Majority Text - are snipped, clipped, watered down, and negated by the for-profit companies and the monopolizing Tischendorf-Hort fascists. Do they footnote their monstrosities with "The apostles taught..." or "The KJV reads..."? Hardly. They are Nida-Only, because Nida-Best would suggest another approach.

WELS and the LCMS are quite agreeable about climbing into bed with ELCA, especially when paid lavishly by Thrivent for the fornication. But the two sects cannot harmonize their English Bible selections. WELS was NIV-Only long ago, and fought like piranhas recently for the New NIV. Missouri has adopted the defecation of the National Council of Churches, the ESV - whose Biblical chairman is or was a Calvinist. They usually die as Unitarians.

The modernists - synods listed in the headline - tolerate thousands of errors and omissions in their text and paraphrases (Nida's "dynamic equivalence" moonshine). They point their soiled fingers at the KJV and screech, "But there are a few problems with that one."

If the Lutheran professors and leaders realized the depth of their betrayals, they might think again about their support of bad Bibles and worse dogma.

* The other pillar of the English language is Shakespeare, better known as the Earl of Oxford.

KJV Is Precise with the Personal Pro-nouns: We Have Merged You (singular) and You (plural)

Dear Pastor Jackson,

Singular and plural pronouns in KJV are very important to retain and keep. For example John 20:22 says "he breathed on them, and saith unto them them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." The pronoun "ye" is plural showing all Christians have the gift of the Holy Ghost and the office of the keys. This is especially given to pastors. Another example is John 3:7 "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye Must be born again." For this reason I reject revisions to KJV that remove singular and plural pronouns such as "thee", "thou", "ye". These pronouns are necessary to maintain sound doctrine. So let us beware of the Millennial KJV and the Century 21 KJV that remove important pronouns from KJV. God's Word never changes. Therefore Bibles such as the KJV, Textus Receptus, and Luther's Bible are never revised because they are in truth the unchangeable word of God. In contrast corrupt translations such as the NKJV, RSV, NIV, and ESV are constantly revised. The Textus Receptus is never revised because it is the true Word of God in the Greek. In contrast corrupt Greek Texts such as Nestle-Aland and United Bible Society are constantly revised.

So let us keep, study, and memorize God's Word in KJV, and old KJV catechisms. Luther warned against making changes.

In Christ,

***

GJ - The translators used the older thou, thee, and ye because they knew the merger of you singular and plural would render many passages confusing.

They also chose more formal language because it is the Bible and is read out loud in all the churches. The almost 60 translators were great scholars but not famous writers. They were shocked that the final version was so beautifully harmonious - like music. The actual writing and finishing time took about 5 years.

Thou is the equivalent of the German du, more intimate. One never goes up to a German as a stranger saying "du." It must be Sie. There was a famous book about God titled I-Thou. Could anyone read the title as I-You without laughing?

"I-You - that sounds like the New NIV."

More Books about the KJV

 

Yesterday I enjoyed the arrival of two more books about the KJV. One is Learned Men, by Gustavus Swift Paine, produced by Forgotten Books. The other is Translating for King James, by Ward Allen. I bought them "used" but they are in brand new condition.

One significant remark is that they had contrary agendas but they produced a beautiful and harmonious Bible. Certainly God blessed their work, which aimed at the best and most accurate text for all English-speaking people. 

No one can force that result, as a rabid minority in the WELS did. Like their college merger debacle, the Wisconsin sect kept studying the issue until everyone realized there was only one solution - the stupidest - i.e., the 2011 NIV. The latest WELS worship book is the new NIV, just as Missouri goes for the National Council of Churches' ESV, the step-brother of the odious RSV.

Confidential note to everyone buying and promoting the RSV/ESV - you are funding the Marxist National Council of Churches. The NCC is glad to profit from those too dumb to ask about the ownership of those editions and the NRSV. 

The KJV was so good that the popular Geneva Bible turned into a museum piece. I have seen a Geneva Bible in a glass case, I really have.

The KJV is still so good that they are half of the Bible readership plus another 10% or more from the New KJV. So your lazy clergy, ovine and bovine professors are insisting on slivers of the population having the best, the most recent, the most ever-changing Bibles. This completely numbs the memory cells, because the same named version can have two different readings of the same passage at neighboring congregations. 

The marketing experts never explained to believers how their newest, best Bibles have to change every few years - without notice. Now we have the clergy, who know little Greek and less Hebrew, praising the most awful renditions of the Bible ever, down to The Message, which is so bad I ask students to avoid it.

There is really no difference between the radical paraphrases like The Message, The Amplified Bible, and the Living Bible. The Living Bible has already transformed  itself into the New Living Bible, which means its prose has the same shelf life as Wonder Bread.

Does anyone see a parallel with the hymnals? The LCMS-WELS-ELS once used The Lutheran Hymnal.  The faithful still buy and use TLH, but each sect now has its own bad hymnal and new versions of that catastrophe coming out from their in-house printer. The Calvinists sell them pop religious music, so WELS - for instance - is funding Calvinists with congregational money. But that was the plan all along - to rid the conservative Lutherans of Biblical, Lutheran doctrine, replacing it with shopworn Calvinism and Enthusiasm. 

The LCMS-WELS-ELS-ELCA leaders did not congregate and jubilate at Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek to study the Means of Grace. An old  student of Synodical Conference treachery, now deceased, kept track of the back-sliding from long ago. 

 Kent Hunter got his "doctorates" from Fuller Seminary and ELCA, making him the expert needed and honored by LCMS-WELS.

 This is Kent Hunter, rubbing it in. Luther called those who separated the Holy Spirit from the Word "Enthusiasts." All the Lutheran leaders mock the clear Biblical teaching of the efficacy of the Word.

 I get all fizzley when Dr. Hunter explains his confusion to me.

 Another great mind, like Cho, unwraps the secrets of the Kingdom. If only Luther and Chemnitz had known all this!

 Let's be frank here - the Church Growth experts are heirs of Bishop Stephan - using the church for gathering groupies.

WELS Damage to Biblical Truths Is Far Worse Than People Recognize and the Sect Admits

Thank you WELS for the graphic showing the style of Bible loved by WELS-LCMS-ELDONA. ELS-WELS teaches against the Majority Text and argue for the Westcott-Hort-Nestle-Aland snip and clip Bibles - NIV, ESV, NRSV, etc.

“The first decided steps, however, toward giving to the English nation a Bible printed in their own tongue, were the translations of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, made by William Tyndale, and by him printed at Hamburg, in the year 1524; --  and a translation of the whole of the New Testament, printed by him partly at Cologne, and partly at Worms, in 1525.”

Alexander McClure, The Translators Revived, Lutheran Library Publishing Ministry, p. 6.

+++

“Why is accuracy of translation so important? Because the Bible is the Word of the living God. It is an utterly unique book. It is the inscripturated revelation to mankind of God’s mind and will and the inspired record of His redemptive work. And this being so, there is no more important piece of literature in the world. Thus, the accuracy of the Bible’s translation is of the utmost importance.”

Robert Martin, Accuracy of Translation, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989, p. 2.

+++

“Omission of material found in the Authorised Version (AV) is the main type of alteration found in the modern versions. The New Testament of one popular modern version, the New International Version (NIV), first published in 1973, omits seventeen complete verses found in the AV—a figure found applicable to most modern versions.”

David Blunt, Which Bible Version: Does It Really Matter? Trinitarian Bible Society, 2007, p. 3.

+++

Dr. Aland’s Influence on the New International Version

“Dr. Aland’s pernicious views of the unreliability of our Bibles in the original manuscripts is profoundly seen in the NIV Bible. The same hand that would excise whole books of the Bible from our Canon would also excise many, many texts.”

Hembd, What Today’s Christian Needs to Know about Dr. Kurt Aland, Trinitarian Bible Society, 2007, p. 11f.0

So Much Fun Today

 

 TBS Facebook Page

One reader really likes the Icha-peek post, the last one before bedtime. I had a great day today, enjoying beautiful sunshine and working on The Bible Book.

I decided I would work on the book primarily and subordinate everything else. The Military Gardening Group gathered late in the day to enjoy the garden in almost 70 degree weather. We had Italian chicken and Southern biscuits. 

Our painter neighbor came by and I gave him one Queen Elizabeth rose and two Enchanted Peace roses for his wife. She loves roses.

I worked on adding more quotations about appreciating the KJV, which I posted below. Cue superfluous link for the KJV quotations, just to increase views.

I was very impressed with the Trinitarian Bible Society material, so I joined. I will be posting their eloquent defense of the KJV. 

Now I am going to listen to Letis, who studied under Edward Freer Hills.

 Theodore P. Letis

Response from a reader about The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

 

Dear Pastor Greg,

I just wanted to take the time to congratulate you on informing the world of the outstanding accuracy/dependability of the KJV translation. You have done what this journalist used to dream of. I know I'm not telling you anything but you really have the story of all time since it is important to the salvation journey of all. What a wondrous work the Lord has done through you. You’ve investigated and specified credible reasons for the total lack of credibility of certain “biblical experts” and the obvious harm they have done. I would be glad for any recommendations you may have on studying Greek and Hebrew

I now understand why I quickly got Pastor Carlton Reimer's (Zion LCMS Stillwater) attention several years ago while serving as a Sunday school assistant. I had just begun sharing a few of the differences (NIV/KJV) you listed in "Thy Strong Word" with the college-aged Sunday school class and got cut off for a conversation to be held later. He strongly recommended I not bring that subject up again. 

When and if it's convenient, I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on Jaroslav Pelikan. I had so hoped that he would have written something about his conversion to “Orthodoxy” before he died, though I doubt it would have been worthy of his former work. He especially spoke to me in “The Riddle of Roman Catholicism.”  As for other theologians, I found Richard McBrien deceptive and nuanced to the hilt. Sometimes it would seem as if he had never read the RC catechism. 

 --Jim Mitchell

***

GJ - McBrien was a liberal like most of the Roman Catholic professors at Notre Dame and its seminary. He was not that different from the mainstream Protestants and liberal Lutherans, which was a clever way to get those clergy to pope (joint Rome) or semi-pope (joint Eastern Orthodoxy). I think he was the one who asked a question from Psychology Today and apologized for using a question from that magazine, when I took the oral exam in the PhD program. Nuanced? He was a clever apostate.

Jaroslav Pelikan was a professor I saw every Sunday at Bethesda (LCA) in New Haven. He did not fit in with the LCMS or the LCA as it unraveled into what we see today. I also met his father and brother in Cleveland. 

Thank you for the kind words. I am working on the larger and more detailed second edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God. This time I will take no prisoners and show no mercy for what the modernists have done to the Bible.

 Jaroslav Pelikan earned a PhD at the U. of Chicago while completing his MDiv at Concordia, St. Louis.

PS - Greek is not difficult to study. I have a series of lessons on how to learn Greek through John's Gospel. NT Greek is easy, English with funny looking letters. Frats and sororities have an automatic advantage.

I suggest Hebrew through a tutor or class. It is not as difficult as people fear, but it is quite different. Learning some will open up the Old Testament for anyone.

Jump Starting the Second Edition of The Bible Book: The KJV Reborn for Those Who Love the Word of God.

 

Preface – Appreciating the King James Version

                The most read English Bible is the King James Version, with 55% of the readers, compared to a fraction of that for the latest New International Version and many others in the modern category – the English Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version.[1] The percentages dwindle after the first three modern attempts, and there are so many more versions. The KJV has much to commend it, not only for its use of the Majority Text but also for its deliberately grand and eloquent style. If some complain that the KJV reads too much like Shakespeare, others respond that the modern versions sound too much like television cartoons. Even worse, all the modern “scientific” texts are at war against the Majority Text and against each other, because they remove and corrupt so many passages, diluting and changing the actual message of God’s Word. Nevertheless, the Lutheran synods (ELCA, LCMS, WELS, ELS, CLC, ELDONA) and all other mainline denominations reject the KJV for their colleges and seminaries, printed readings, and official proclamations. Beyond that opposition, agreement is absent.

            Details about the development of the KJV and the crimes of the modern text and translation experts will follow. First, let us cite the reasons why the KJV is favored above the rest and destined to outlast the newest, ever-changing, increasingly vapid Bibles. (See the quotations about the KJV in the post below. There will be a lot more quotations.)

---

[1] Christianity Today, March, 2014, quoted a survey giving 55% to the KJV, only 19% to the NIV, single digits for the New RSV, etc. Single digits still add up to a lot of Bibles.

The LCMS-WELS Continue To Deceive Members about the Chief Article of Christianity - And the Bible. But They Started with Luther's Doctrine and Luther's English Bible - The KJV

 

 Lying and Objective Justification go together like WELS, liquor, and adultery.
And cross-dressing. Sig, as we called him, was the WELS Walther. Gausewitz was not just a WELS leader but also the president of the Synodical (LCMS-WELS-ELS) Conference. His original catechism is scarcer than hen's teeth.

Publishing proves that the LCMS and WELS switched 

• from teaching Justification by Faith and using the KJV 
• to advocating Objective Justification and denouncing the King James Version.

The early LCMS had the Schwan catechism - from a man whose education did not come from the in-bred swamps of Concordia St. Louis and Concordia Ft. Wayne. In fact, the last time I looked, Concordia Publishing House was boasting that its KJV catechism had sold over 2,000,000 copies! 

The Wisconsin sect was even more obvious. They published their Gausewitz catechism in English and German with nary a word about Objective Justification, and WELS kept adding to it until they could dump it for the Kuske monograph.

The Kokomo Theses blew up all over WELS and Missouri because the switch to Objective Justification and the NIV had been made stealthily, cautiously, deceptively, piously. The people who were filling Christian News with their outrage were raised on Justification by Faith and the KJV.

 It is time to make your decision for OJ!

 Cub editor Phil Hale says that the Scriptures are the wrong path!
The Chief Article infuriates Christian News and its lackeys.
The Path to Understandings Justification.

I have two witnesses to WELS ducking the issue. Pastor Jim Shrader and I both spent time at Mordor in Panning's Romans (in Greek) class. Panning was the Mequon professor who agreed on appeal that the Kokomo families should be tossed out for criticizing Objective Justification. Panning was also the man chosen to edit the new edition of Meyer's $45 Ministers of Christ, the source of three of the four Kokomo Theses. WELS denied that fact, and lied about it, but that is WELS GA dogma - lie, deceive, dissemble, and laugh at the results.

Jim Shrader and I do not remember Panning advocating Objective Justification in Romans 1-5. I knew from Christian News' Youse Guys Fight It Out that something had flared up, but I read Luther, knew Greek, and never heard a clear statement about OJ.

When asked by WELS about Justification, I responded with the Franz Pieper smokescreen - OJ as the Atonement, Subjective Justification as faith in the Gospel. I believe Pieper was quite deliberate about blending efficacy and Justification by Faith with the Walther-Stephan scheme from Pietism. Talking to laity, I realized that they were also misled, deliberately, by the terms which came from the Calvinist translator of Knapp's theology lectures.

Robert Preus, the clever scheme-meister, stated clearly that OJ was not the Atonement. His garbled piece was part of the scheme to oust Walter Maier II from Ft. Wayne and any future position in the LCMS.

Remember readers - that the Missouri Synod began to crater when the Preus brothers, Bob and Jack, seized the reins of power. Their sons and grandsons have been shoveling the OJ ever since. One son left his beautiful wife for another woman and still had a call and his second wife. That is so OJ.

 In the mainline denominations of today, including WELS-LCMS, the double justification dogma has degraded into pure Universalism. Everyone is forgiven! Go out and celebrate!

Boy wonder Andrew Preus had a hissy fit about my precise mapping of the Robert Preus change from OJ to anti-OJ. Could that be why Rolfie One-Note no longer cites the book he supposedly edited with his equally dense brother? Like Jack Cascione, Andy likes to lay down a smokescreen of fact-free denials and absurd claims.