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"God has withheld His blessings because His people have not worked in harmony with His directions. Test 7 P18. " I know its not a popular message, but he is right. In the fastest growing division of the church, SSD, we have 1 pastor to every 7-9 churches. That district produces at least 100 baptisms per year. Often a new church plant. It is amazing.

The Bible I decided that it might be of value to give a background to the book that we call the Bible. Catholic Bibles mainly differ from Protestant Bibles in that they include some ancient writings, generally called by Protestants, The Apocrypha, that is not included in Protestant Bibles Some other differences are very minor and not significant. Origin: All of the Biblical books began as written documents (Autographs) written well before printed documents existed. We do not have any of those documents. All we have are copies of the original documents. Those documents do contain some scribal errors. But, they are highly accurate and the minor errors are commonly seen in comparison with other copies which we have. Chapters and Verses: As first written, the Biblical books did not have chapters and verses. They were mostly written as one document. L Scholars added the chapters and verses at a later time. The New Testament was written in Biblical Greek (Koine Greek) which differs from the modern Greek language of today. Scholars understand that language very well today. Those documents also contain Individual words from other languages that were spoken in Palestine in the time when the writings were prepared. The Old Testament was mostly written in Biblical Hebrew, which differs ftom the modern Hebrew of today. However, a little bit of the Old Testament was written in Aramaic, which is well understood today. Aramaic is a close cousin to the Hebrew of that time. All those who spoke Hebrew were likely able to understand Aramaic. Translation: The Bibles that you purchase today have generally been translated in one to the following three types: Formal Translation sticks very clsely to the original text. It is commonly used for doctrinal study, preaching and by scholars. Dynamic Translation attempts to esent the authors thinking in a manner that is easly understood in the translated language. Paraphrased translation attempts to present what the translator thinks the author wanted to say, into the translated language. The careful student of the Bible will need to understand the background of the Biblical material and the process of producing the copies and the methods of translation. However, that student can rest assured that the Bibles of today do contain what God wanted humans to know.

Hobie, When you post quotes or summaries of other people's work, it would be helpful if you would site the source of the individuals you quote, whether it is an exact quote or not.

We also need to understand the both Hebrew and Greek are far more expressive than English. So to me it is silly to argue which English translation is better. They are translations.

Sorry, that link is blocked. Anyway, if the "issue" has to do with the NIV being a bad version, I'll keep that in mind. My wife and I read it together [gospel of John] most nights. We have both been blessed by the reading. For study purposes, I use the KJV,ESV, NRSV, NASB, and YLT, consult the OL for word meanings and word range. The Online Bible has proved to be a real blessing for study, providing all of the above plus many more with just the click of a mouse.

This seems to be the best way.

Not a difficult problem to solve. Check numerous versions. Compare them. Look at the context. Unless you have knowledge of Greek to the point of being a textual critic, you are wading into waters way over your head. Even those who are fluent in the original languages can't agree on what the best translation is; consequently, we have so many versions. No Christian doctrine is dependent upon a single text. Some versions, such as the KJV, were intended for public reading; therefore, the translators sometimes chose different English words to translate the same Greek word because it sounded better. This is problematic for serious Bible study. Benjamin Wilkinson created a lot of confusion in SDA land. Jim Arrabito, a great artist and a gracious individual popularized Wilkinson's work in more modern times. The NT writers, including Jesus, quoted almost exclusively from the Greek Old Testament, which is mostly preserved in the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. There are passages you can read in English translations of the Greek Old Testament which are very different from other English versions. Make things easy for yourselves. Use a KJV and compare it with the NRSV, NASB, ESV, and whatever other translations you like. Depend on the Holy Spirit to lead you into the truth after you have done your best.