THE MESS THEY ARE IN

February 1, 1987 Issue
Voyd N. Ballard

I never cease to be amazed (and often amused) at the mess people get themselves into when they reject the Bible. Such is the case with those who have thrown the Authorized Version (1611) and the American Standard Version (1901) out the window of liberalism and have adopted these modern perversions which have been mis-named "Modern Versions."

At the present time there are no less than fifty (possibly more) of these so called "versions" floating around. You will find that those who have departed from the simplicity of the gospel, left the Lords church, and are promoting this "unity in diversity" movement clinging to these "modern Versions" while hurling all kinds of false charges against that "Old King James Bible." Since there are so many of these perverted versions it is sometimes difficult to tell just which one is considered to be the true translation by a particular apostate. It really does not make much difference, since most all of them do not believe the Bible anyway. Nearly all of them believe in a direct leading of the Holy Spirit separate and apart from the Word, and all of them have long since completely rejected the church as revealed in the Bible. So they will usually accept all of these so called versions that have translated the church out of the New Testament.

Buff Scott, Jr. of Iowa claims that he was at one time a member of the church, but now has renounced it and is claiming that there is no such thing and that it cannot be found in the New Testament. He says that the term "church" got into our versions by an edict of King James! So Scott wont have the Authorized or American Standard Versions-He uses instead one of these "modern versions" that has translated the church out of the New Testament so he can prove his false theory that there is no such thing as the church.

Well, you know, what proves too much, proves nothing and sooner or later gets people in a big mess; and this is what happened to Scott on Matt 5:17 and Eph 2:14,15. In the May/June 1986 issue of his paper he printed the following question submitted to him by one of his readers: "Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Paul remarked that the law and its commandments were abolished. How do you understand this apparent contradiction?" Scott answered as follows: It is true that Jesus spoke of not abolishing the law of Moses and the prophets. It is also true that Paul asserts that Jesus abolished the law of Moses and the prophets. Perhaps Matt 5:18 is the answer."

The problem that Scott and all the rest of those who have adopted these modern perversions run headlong into is not a contradiction between Jesus and Paul, but a mutilation of the sacred words of Christ in Matt 5:17. Without any authority whatsoever they have the Lord saying "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them". They substitute the word "abolish" for the word "destroy" in this passage and then have the inconsistency to translate Eph 2:14 that Christ broke down the dividing wall by "abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances." This of course, is a flat contradiction, but it is not a fault of the Holy Spirit, but a garbling of the words of Christ, and nearly all of these "modern versions" do it. This includes "The Revised Standard Version" of 1952, "New American Standard" of 1960-1972, and the "New International Version" of 1978-1983 now being tooted so highly by some of our own preachers.

If Christ had destroyed the law he could not have fulfilled it; but having fulfilled it (which he said he came to do) he did abolish it, as Paul said, "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances..." (Eph 2:14,15) and changing DESTROY to ABOLISH turns Matt 5:17 into a false statement besides making those "modern versions" contradict themselves!

Well, this is just one example of the mess people get themselves into when they tamper with Gods Word.