Which Bible Version is Best?

  To my knowledge, only the 1611 AD King James Version and the New King James Version are translated from the correct original language manuscripts.

  These two Bibles were translated from the "Textus Receptus" New Testament Greek manuscript and the "Masoretic" Hebrew Old Testament text. These two original language manuscripts are preserved, in their entirety, to this day, and must, to any serious Bible student, be the absolute and final authority for God's revelation to man in this Church age. Recently these two manuscripts have been "updated" using scraps of discarded manuscripts that read different than the originals.

  Included in other translations and paraphrases are man's opinions of which discarded manuscript readings to insert in place of the Textus Receptus Greek Text and Masoretic Hebrew Text readings at selected locations in the text. If you would like to examine the alternative readings, they are noted in the Amplified Version, by Zondervan Bible publishers.

  As long as these things are understood, other translations and even paraphrases, such as the Living Bible, may be valuable, to some extent, for it is God the Holy Spirit that is our Teacher. But, as far as Authority is concerned, I must go to the original two texts that have been the authority for God's people for almost 2000 years.

  Question: Would God give his people one Bible for 1700 years, a period of Church history which is praised in Rev Chapter 2, and then begin to change His Word in the last moments of the Church Age? In Rev Chapter 3, the last period of Church history is described as making Jesus "sick" (Rev 3:16 & 17). The last period of Church history is called "Laodecia" in Rev 3:14-22 meaning "human rights". Think we might be in the last moments of the Church Age? CHECK THESE PASSAGES IN THE DIFFERENT BIBLE VERSIONS:

  The following is a list of 9 major passages where the "updating" in many "new" versions is actually an attack on major doctrines of the Scriptures. Many of these bad "updates" have found their way into various modern "versions" of the Bible:

   1. Luke 2:33 - The word "father" added. (Attacks the Virgin Birth of Jesus)

   2. 1 Tim 3:16 - The word "God" changed to "he" or "who". (Attacks the Deity of Jesus)

   3. John 3:13 - "which is in heaven" left out. (The verse is a statement of Jesus Omnipresence)

   4. Colossians 1:14 - "Through His blood" left out. (Attack on the doctrine of the Blood of Christ)

   5. John 1:18 - "The only begotten Son" changed to the only begotten "God" or the only One" (Confuses what the Scriptures teach, that Jesus is "true humanity and undiminished Deity in one unique person)

   6. 1 John 5:7 - "there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" Left out. (Removes the strongest statement of the Trinity)

   7. Luke 24:51,52 - "Carried up into heaven" left out. (Removes the strongest statement of the bodily ascension of Jesus)

   8. Romans 8:1 - "Who walk after the Spirit" in the last half of the verse is left out. (Confuses the Christian walk and fellowship)

   9. Mark 16:9-19 - Left out. (These verses are statements of prophecy concerning the Apostles and Disciples who established God's Church on earth, and are fulfilled in the book of Acts)

  I have not found even ONE improvement to the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament and the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament Text. As a matter of fact, I believe that the scraps of ancient manuscripts and scrolls discovered in the last 200 years were DISCARDED by their original owners BECAUSE THEY WERE INFERIOR.

  I believe that God's Word, and the Authority in the original languages is the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament and the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament Text, and that God's Word and the Authority for English speaking people is the King James or Authorized Version of 1611.

  The "New King James" Bible is also a modernized translation (not a paraphrase) from the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament and the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts. I know this is true, because my wife uses the New King James, and as I teach verse by verse and word by word from the Textus Receptus and Masoretic Hebrew Interlinears, we find the New King James to be faithful to these original manuscripts. We find very few instances where we would translate the New King James differently. (For serious Bible study the old KJV 1611 is necessary, because the New Testament study tools, such as Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, the Greek Interlinears, Trenches Synonyms, the Thayer Lexicon, and many other New Testament reference books are keyed to the 1611 King James)

  If we do not preserve the KJV, New KJV and the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament and the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament, they will eventually be eclipsed by the weakened and distorted "modernized" versions. We are told in Jude verse 3 to "Contend (struggle) for THE faith (articular noun, THE faith = THE Scriptures) once (once for all) delivered to the saints", and I believe that means the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament and the Masoretic Hebrew Old Testament.

  Bob Jones