WARNING! "THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION OF THE BIBLE"

     Whilst the NKJV is the least worse of the modern translations, it is actually more dangerous because people are being deceived into thinking that it is an updated Authorized King James Bible (AV) with just a few archaic words modernized. This is not the case -the NKJV is a new Bible but having a similar name.
     The publishers, Thomas Nelson, are a commercial company rather than a non-profit-making Bible society. Nothing wrong with that in principle, but to give sales-boosting authenticity with the Christian public, they have cleverly hijacked the name "King James" and at the same time made over 100,000 alterations in order to achieve copyright status for their new Bible. (Rights for the AV are vested in the Crown under Royal Letters Patent.)
     Apparently 20,066 words have been removed from the AV Bible (not checked). If this is so, then this is the equivalent in volume terms of removing Obadiah, Haggai, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and Jude COMBINED!
    Revelation 22. 18-19 has very serious things to say to those who add to, or subtract from, God's written Word: "...And if any man shall take away from the words of the book... God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."
     The jewish scribes were absolutely meticulous in their copying of the Scriptures and Jesus Himself referred to the jots and tittles being important. Much safer to trust the giant translators like Wycliffe and Tyndale, with their vast understanding of all the nuances of the Greek and Hebrew texts, that the modern pygmies born after the damaging effects of what is called the "High Criticism Movement" of past centuries. Many of this involved in the new translations do not uphold the full authority, infallibility and inspiration of Holy Scripture.
     Although claiming to keep to the reliable underlying Hebrew Masoretic and Greek text known as the Received Text of Textus Receptus, the NKJV translators copied wording from texts used for some of the other modern version, notably the Critical Text and the corrupted Westcott-Hort Text. There are approximately 1,200 departures from the Received Text.
     The NKJV translation committee included nine men who were involved in the NIV translation. This should ring alarm bells because the NIV is a product of a different and dangerous method of translation called "dynamic equivalence" whereby the translator tries to put into our words what he thinks God means, rather than  the word for word literal translation method known as "formal equivalence."
     The constant hearing of Scripture quoted from the pulpit, in prayer, by friends or the reading of texts on cards, calendars, posters etc. is an unconscious reinforcement of memory. Once these mediums become confused by alternative versions, then gradually the memory becomes less reinforce. "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall prepare himself to the battle?"
     If you received a love letter from your fiance written in a foreign language, you would be very upset to find hat the person who you trusted to translate it for you, had patronizingly tried to make it easier for you to understand by editing out, adding to or altering the sequence of your fiance's words.
    Dignified language actually aids the memory because it is unusual and the AV is written in Biblical English in a style that makes memorizing easy. It is the unusual words in a text that we remember and use for looking up in the concordance to locate the verse. The NKJV removes a lot of unusual words and alters poetic flow.
     Unlike the AV which has had only four minor revisions since 1611 (the last being in 1769), the NKJV has had many revisions and changes made since 1982. Thus members of a congregation having purchased their NKJV Bibles at different times, will find inconsistencies between them when comparing Scripture. Common sense realizes the need for a common language. Without a common language. communications break up, communities break down and the unity part of community is lost. Christians ned a common Bible.
     In these days of religious tolerance, Satan is attacking the church from within by casting doubts upon the traditional text of the Authorized Version by bringing about a multitude of different versions, thus sowing confusion amongst the churches. Satan is repeating his question to Eve in Eden - "Hath God said?"
     Remember - The Bible does not contain the words of God, the Bible is the Word of God! Jesus said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away," We need to be confident that we have got the actual words of God in our hands. The AV has stood the test of time and has been mightily blessed in our land. Yes, some of the language is archaic, but it is accurate, beautiful and easy to memorize.
     The serious textural errors of the NKJV are to numerous to include in this article: one recommended book on this subject is: "Three Modern Versions" by Alan J. MacGregor, available from The Bible League, 46, Bulbridge Road. Wilton, Salisbury, Wiltshire. SP2 OLE.

Contributed by A.W.
'The Friendly Companion July 2007'