[PaulB]

Hi Premio
I admire your honesty and willingness to understand the concerns that you hold to but for me there are just some things that are set in stone. If the subject of the “Word of God” is approached from a mere collection of historical documents that hold valuable spiritual lessons, then yes, I would feel free to communicate them as I could word them. But if a king gave me his word to go and proclaim then I would be miss quoting him if I put it into my own words.

It is one thing to go and preach the gospel to all creation, but another altogether when we try and reword “the Scriptures”. I have written one or two articles explaining my position and don’t want to run through them all again for the sake of anyone else who may read this.

Who understands words such as; “holy” - “Propitiation” – or even the concept of a blood sacrifice? When we “update” we are doing more than we realise, and the question is – who gets to determine the need for updating? If it is the believer then I am sorry, I don’t think that the KJB is written in mandarin Chinese it is in a form of English that is understandable. Yes, I admit that it isn’t as easy as I would like in places but my desires are not the determining factor of what God has put into the Bible.

I don’t understand everything that I come across in maths, does that mean that it needs to be changed so that I can benefit – or should it remain as it is and challenge me to answer its demands upon my mind?

If I made the archaeological find of the century and unearthed the Ark of the Covenant, looked inside it and found the two tablets of stone. And just for arguments sake, I discovered that it was written in olde English (I speak hypothetically). I wouldn’t dare to think of taking a hammer and chisel so that I could reword the 10 commandments to those who don’t speak like that any longer. It would be sacrilege to do so.

If the KJB is seen as a mere outdated translation then this site is nothing other than a forum without a purpose, but if it is seen (and it is) that it is the work of God then it is a totally different ball game. There is no way that anyone can convince me that “the message” or the NIV etc are the work of God, as the issue is far greater than updating archaic words etc. If we are to say “it is written” then on what authority can we do that unless it is written?

We are either guardians of truth who believe in the promise of preservation or we aren’t – if we are, then we guard it – if we aren’t we change it! The question is this; did anyone at any point in time possess the Scriptures where they could call out in total confidence that “It is written” or did they not? If so then that is the side we stand with – if not then there is no word of God in written form today!

God bless

PaulB