Important Bible Translation Information
Perhaps some of you haven’t realized it yet, but BibleGateway.com has changed their default version of the Bible to the New International Version 2010, which is a combination of the version most of us are familiar with, the New International Version 1984, and Today’s New International Version. But as we discussed on our last conference call, some of the changes are quite alarming; particularly when it comes to passages relating to marriage and God’s view and instructions concerning marriage, separation divorce, remarriage and some other “PC” issues. A great example of that is Malachi 2:16, which no longer states that God hates divorce in the 2010 version!
Unfortunately, that meant that the links automatically created in our posts and responses to scripture references on the site were defaulting to the 2010 version. So we’ve asked our site programmer to rewrite the code for that particular program and change that for us.
If you use the NIV as your default version when on BibleGateway.com, you can set your preferences and change your default version to the NIV 1984 as well. And be very careful when buying a new Bible too, because you’ll most likely be buying the 2010 version, which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. Good alternative versions are the New King James Version and the New American Standard Bible. This is something we should all be praying about as well because it’s getting more and more difficult to buy Bibles that haven’t been “updated” to water down God’s Word and make it all more PC. And when you read the justification and explanation for these latest changes, it makes absolutely no sense!
Anyway, we should have this corrected on the websites very soon and I just wanted to make everyone aware of it. I was slow to catch the change, but should have figured it out when someone read from the 2010 version on one of our recent calls and I thought they were reading from the wrong place or hadn’t read it all! In some places, the changes are very subtle, but in others not so subtle. For instance, instead of saying that the Holy Spirit is our Counselor, the 2010 version now says He is our Advocate–and there’s quite a difference in the meaning and importance of that distinction! I didn’t catch that on our last call, but Kathy did as she was reading from the 1984 version, and I told her she should have brought that up right away and encourage anyone to do so when you notice something like that. That’s exactly how the devil works, so we all have to be alert and on guard for his cunning and seemingly subtle ways of perverting the truth of God’s Word as warned in 1 Peter 5:8! But the best good news is that he is a liar and a defeated foe and that NO wisdom, NO insight and No plan can succeed against God! Praise the Lord!
Update: The needed changes have been made and the site notations about using the NIV unless otherwise stated has also been updated. Anyone wanting to know the reasoning for this change can find it on BibleGateway as well, and it really doesn’t make a bit of sense–especially the explanation for Malachi 2:16 since their earlier translation seems to cover the confusion they perceive so much better than what they have now. What a sad sign of the times in which we live!