Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

MYBIBLE(PART III)TOD A YS ENGLISHVERSIONRev. Robert More. Jr.Pastor of Almonte, Canada R.P. ChurchThe American Bible Society, in 1966, published thefirst edition of Good News for Modern Man (or its officialname, The New Testament in Today's English Version). Ithas been announced that the Old Testament is inpreparation; the Psalms have already appeared. AlsoGerman and Spanish counterparts are now in print. Since1966, sales have skyrocketed to near the eighteen millionmark, which makes it the all-time best book seller. TheAmerican Bible Society, by its connection in the UnitedBible Societies, has used them to publicize and distributeit. Thus it has achieved world-wide circulation quiteeasily.The question is, however: Is Today's EnglishVersion (TEV) accurate to the Word of God? Thefollowing illustrations are noted.The preface seemingly shows the theological stancebehind it. "The twenty-seven books which make up theNew Testament were written by perhaps as many astwelve different authors. . ." The historical conviction hasbeen that no more than nine (eight if Paul wrote Hebrews)writers penned the New Testament. TEV's list seeminglytolerates an unknown authorship for Ephesians, II Peter,and the Revelation as many today contend.There is also a strange secrecy shrouding the secondedition of TEV. Apparently only the later copies mark thisfact on the cover. The earlier copies of the second editionare absolutely unmarked. Only by comparing certainselect verses could a reader tell which edition he had. Onekey verse is John 1:1. The first edition read, "From thevery beginning, when God was, the Word also was; whereGod was, the Word was with Him; what God was, theWord also was." The second edition reads, "Before theworld was created, the Word already existed; He was withGod, and He was the same as God." This change (Dr.Bratcher, the author, publicly promised it in a letter datedin September of 1967) is better than the former. And yetitisstill wrong on two counts. It supposes that the indefinitenoun God in the Greek is therefore an adjectivedescribing a quality, not a noun identifying the person.Secondly,it contradicts the historical confessions of theNicene Creed (325 A.D.) and the Chalcedonian Creed (451A.D.) that Jesus is "of one substance" with God (that is,v ery deity Himself) and not merely "of similar substance"•o God (like God). TEV accepts the latter condemnedview. (See, too, Hebrews 1:3, "He is the exact likeness ofGod's own being.")Dr. Bratcher also promised, in the letter mentionedabove, of Philippians 2:6, "In the forthcoming edition ofthe TEV. . . 'to remain equal with God appears as analternative." While that would have been better than thepresent reading, the fact is that no change was made. Thusit still reads, "He (Christ) did not think that by force Heshould try to become equal with God." This bluntly deniesChrist's deity by saying that Jesus gave up attempting toachieve equal status with deity.1 Peter 3:18,19, "He was put to death physically, butmade alive spiritually; and in his spiritual existence,"denies the corporal bodily resurrection of Jesus,preferring the mystical resurrection (of faith in the humansoul) commonly propounded by modernists.Galatians 5:24 ("those who belong to Christ Jesushave put to death their human nature") and Romanschapters 7 and 8 (repeatedly) treat the word flesh asmeaning "human nature," imputing to human nature perse an evil constitution. This is both the modern hereticalKarl Barthian view of man, but it is also a relapse into theanciently condemned heresy called Manichaeism. In IJohn 4:2 however flesh becomes "Jesus Christ becamemortal man." This is also heresy for "mortal man" equalsthe punishment meted out to a sinful creature. But Jesuswas sinless (Hebrews 4:15) and only received a nature likea sinful creature (Romans 8:3). Jesus indeed became trulyhuman (with the ancients creeds) but not truly "mortalman" (with TEV).II Peter 1:10 wrests God's sovereignty in electingsinners (alsoit adds the existential, modernist twist). Aparaphrastic tendency is evident in places like Galatians4:3 and 5:10.It is doubtful that the Biblical doctrine of Scripturalinspiration could be detected from Jude 3, "My dearfriends! I was doing my best to write to you. . .when I feltthe need of writing you now. ," as though Scripture waswritten when humans got the "impulse," the "feel."TEV has too many liabilities to be safely given eitherto new Christians, immature Christians, or non-Christians.Notwithstanding simple English and publicity, theultimate question must always be: Isit accurate to theinfallible Word of God?• • •APRIL 21, 1971 5