Was Jesus a Divine Sinner?

By David W. Daniels

Eight percent of Americans surveyed, who think Jesus was divine, also think Jesus was a sinner, according to a survey just released by the Barna Research Group.

Let me show you how this plays out, one step at a time. Here are the survey numbers: 56% think Jesus was divine. So, 44% think Jesus was not divine. 52% think Jesus was a sinner. That`s 8% more than think Jesus was not divine. So that means 8% of Americans, who think Jesus was divine, also think He was a sinner.

Could this confusion be the result of the Bibles they are reading? Numerous modern Bibles, when taken seriously, have a Catholic-based, Alexandrian text that says Jesus was a sinner in two ways: He lied to His own brothers (the word "yet" was removed), and He was angry ("without a cause" was removed).

Exhibit A:
The English Standard Bible (ESV) states: "You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come." (John 7:8) "But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private." (John 7:10)

This basically sets Jesus up as lying to His brothers. But the King James Bible gets it right: "I go not up yet unto this feast..."

Exhibit B:
The New International Version (NIV) has Jesus saying in Matthew 5:22: "But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment." Then in Chapter 21:12: "Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves." This story is duplicated in Mark 11:15-16. Jesus did this twice, since John records a first temple cleansing early in Christ`s ministry in John 2:14-17.

In one verse nearly all the Bibles clearly say that Jesus was angry. Check out Mark 3:5: "And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand...." This again would make Jesus violate His own statement against anger, if modern versions were right.

These contradictions show how we can`t trust modern versions. We know that all anger cannot be wrong. So what is the truth? The King James gets it right: "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment:" (Matthew 5:22). Anger is given to us to use if we have the right cause.

The modern versions have a sinful Jesus. If you are trying to win someone to the sinless Christ, are you going to have him read a "sinful-Christ Bible," or a "sinless-Christ Bible"? And for those who think of Jesus as divine: how long before those people reading a "sinful-Christ Bible" start doubting that Jesus was sinless, like the 8% who admitted it in this latest survey?

I don`t want to play games with the souls of men. I am responsible for how I represent Christ:

"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 10:32-33).

I`m sticking with the Authorized King James Version  —over 400 years tried, tested and proved. I hope you will, too.


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