Good News for Modern Man

Bible Translations are such a bone of contention to many believers. It is fertile ground for the devil to foster derision amongst the sects that back the various versions. It can be terribly destructive to believers who have happily used the translation that they have in faith and contentment. When a member of one of the partisan groups sweeps through deriding paraphrase bibles and expounding on the history of the other versions and why they don’t measure up to the one and only version that is blessed of God... You know the drill.

 

When I was a child (circa 1967). Good News for Modern Man was published (1966), and my brothers got copies of this New Testament. Now when they got these copies they showed them to the elders at the church they were attending. Fair to say they went in carrying a printed work of art and went out carrying a festering work of heresy. 

 

The later was caste aside and ended up in my toy box for twelve months. In the following months change was a foot. My father passed away from a heart attack in June of 1967. In the period of mourning that followed I occasionally picked up the little New Testament and read the words of Jesus. His parables, the beatitudes and various other well known scriptures. Keep in mind that I was a poor reader and yet I was able to read this scripture as though I was an eye witness. 

 

However, the enemy had hatched a plan. I was reading the little new testament one beautiful sunny morning when in came one of the brothers concerned. He saw that I was reading Good News for Modern Man and he said “What are you doing with that...” He raced off to find my mother and to tell of my unknown heresy. Mum came into the lounge where I was reading the Word of God and said “Well he could be reading something worse.” She saw it as quite funny. 

 

It wasn’t funny though because the poison had been laid and the damage done. The little New Testament had been made an object of distrust in my mind and I stopped reading it. I simply couldn’t at that time read the more orthodox versions of the Bible because my ability to read wasn’t up to the task. 

 

What happened to me is what often happens to people who have a favorite version of the Bible. Someone comes along and destroys their faith in the Bible that they have trusted and loved. In so doing they do untold damage to that person’s faith and walk with Jesus. They affect a severe break on their relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit and their spiritual growth. Often for years to come. 

 

Now lets look at a time before the current iterations of the bible. A time when there were no printing presses. When bibles were pain stakingly created by hand. The Roman Emperor Constantine commissioned Eusebius of Caesarea to create 50 bibles for him written in the Greek Language. The Septuagint was another Greek text made for the Jews of Alexandria. The Vulgate was a Latin text made for Pope Damasus in 382 AD by Saint Jerome. These became the cannon of the Holy Roman Empire and the Vulgate was not surpassed until 1962. The Bible was heavily rationed from the time of Constantine until the Reformation in the fifteenth century by the Catholic Church. Because of this the Church was able to manage the affairs of it’s members without interference from the word of God.

 

The Apostolic Church (Early Christian Church), and the believers who held to “Justification through Faith Alone” (Martin Luther), who have struggled through persecution down the ages had their own version of the bible. They carried it down through the centuries writing it out and hiding it in clothing. Consigning it to oral tradition and protecting it in the College of the Barbs in the mountain valleys of the French Italian border. The Catholic Church were very dark indeed on these Vaudesi - Waldense folk who had their own bible which they preserved at great personal cost. I would point out here that these versions bore little semblance to any modern translations and therefore would have drawn scorn from many quarters.

 

The reality is that the Word of God is borne within the Holy Spirit and that regardless of the version concerned. The Spirit of God can, and will, illuminate his truths into the hearts of the faithful who serve Jesus Christ. Luke 12:12 puts it this way “...For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." Good News Bible. So my final word on the subject is just to say this. If you have a bible translation that you love and God blesses you through it. Then when the devil comes through deriding it and belittling you for using it. Show him the door and put it out of your mind. Stick with the tried and true. Remember to pray and to praise the Lord your God - Jehovah. May he bless you richly.