Is It Enough To Find The Missing Words In the NIV Footnotes?

Question: It is true that I don't find lots of verses and words in the text of my NIV. But a lot of times I find the words in the footnotes. Isn't that good enough?

Answer: It is never "good enough" to take out or replace God's words. The text of the Bible is what the translators want you to think is the word of God. By putting the words into the footnotes, they make the reader think 1) they did not really belong in the Bible and 2) they are not really important.

But those words are very important. Look at these Scriptures:

KJV
Ephesians 4:6
"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all"
NIV

"one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all"

With an NIV it's pretty easy for a Christian Scientist to say that God is "in everyone," even those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

KJV

Luke 2:33
"And Joseph and his mother marveled..."
NIV


"The child's father and mother marveled..."

Anyone who believed that Joseph, not God, was Jesus' true father would love the NIV (or any other of the Alexandrian perversions).

KJV

Mark 10:24
"...Jesus answereth again, … Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!"
NIV


"...Jesus said again, 'Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!'"

The perversions spread the lie that it is hard to get to heaven. That makes it easy to say we need to do good works to be saved.

KJV

Mark 15:28
"And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors.
NIV


[Omitted]

This is the only place in the New Testament that shows us the fulfillment of this prophecy in Isaiah 53:12. The perversions hide a fulfilled prophecy!

KJV

Luke 9:54-56
54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?
55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
NIV


54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" [comparison with Elias omitted]
55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, [Jesus' words of rebuke omitted]
56 [Jesus' reason for coming to earth omitted]
and they went to another village.

The Alexandrian writings make this passage meaningless! The preserved Bible shows us that Jesus' disciples are not to take revenge, nor to "destroy lives," but to "save them." The whole lesson here is removed in the perversions.

There are many other examples. Many can be found in the excellent book, If the Foundations Be Destroyed by Chick Salliby

But these show us that every word of the Bible is very important. That is why God warns us about adding to or taking away from His words.

God's preserved words in the King James Bible are what we need as Christians, to prepare in this life for the life to come, and to know what God wants us to know. Anything short of that-is not God's word.


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