Is Your Bible a Counterfeit? How to Tell
Are all bibles the same? For those who believe the Bible is the infallible and inerrant guide to faith and practice, it may be a surprise to learn they're not. Infallible means NO error AT ALL. That means a real Bible can't contradict itself and, for Protestants, it cannot contradict Protestant doctrine.
Wouldn't Satan try to corrupt something as important as God's Word?
"In order for Satan to maintain his sway over men, and establish the authority of the papal usurper, he must keep them in ignorance of the Scriptures." The Great Controversy page 51.
"Men have been unwearied in their efforts to obscure the plain, simple meaning of the Scriptures, and to make them contradict their own testimony." The Great Controversy page 69.
If a bible has one error, it's not infallible. ONE error would be enough to prove a bible fallible. I'll give you many verses that prove many bibles have errors. That does not mean they're the only verses corrupted. There are MANY more verses that have been corrupted in various new bible versions. The following are a few verses that can be used to test the infallibility of about any new English bible version you are using.
Isaiah 14:12
New International Version (NIV) - "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!"
In the King James Bible this is the ONLY verse that mentions Lucifer who became Satan. Jesus says of Himself in Revelation 22:16, "I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. A title of Jesus Christ has replaced Lucifer. Some bibles will substitute "day star" which is equivalent to morning star (i.e., the Sun). If your bible doesn't have Lucifer in this verse it is a counterfeit bible.
Ezekiel 28:14, 18
New King James Version (NKJV) - "'You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you.
These verses are about Satan. Verse 18 is all in past tense which means Satan is already turned to ashes and is dead. If you have a bible that says Satan is already dead, it is a fake bible.
At least one of Ellen White's books, an edition of The Desire of Ages published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, substituted NKJV and NIV (see page 816) bible verses for King James Bible verses. This includes parts of Ezekiel 28 in all their past tense glory (see page 817).
Zechariah 13:6-7
New King James Version - "And one will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' 'Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, Against the Man who is my Companion,' Says the LORD of hosts. 'Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones."
This is the prophecy Jesus Christ referred to in Matthew 26:31. Jesus was crucified and had wounds in the "hands" if you're reading a real Bible. The NKJV and NIV Andrews Study Bibles are so blasphemous as to say in a footnote that the scars were probably "from self-mutilation while participating in idolatrous rituals." This contradicts page 226 of The Acts of the Apostles where Ellen White says this verse is a prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. Most, but not all, NKJV bibles say the wounds were between the arms. If your bible says the wounds were anywhere other than in the hands, it's a counterfeit. The Spanish Andrews Study Bibles based on the Spanish Reina-Valera 95 (RV95) and the Portuguese Almeida Revista e Atualizada (ARA) translations do say the wounds were in the hands but still have a footnote saying the wounds were in the torso and probably from self flagellation or self mutilation while participating in idolatrous rituals. Yes, that's notwithstanding the fact that the ARA and RV95 bibles say the wounds were in the hands.
Luke 2:13-14
New Revised Standard Version - "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors."
The above passages contradict John 3:16, 17 in the same bible where it says, "God so loved the world" and "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." God sent His Son for everyone not just for "those whom he favors." If you have a bible that excludes anyone from God's love in these verses, you have a fake bible. God sent His son because He loves sinners even though He can't be pleased with their actions.
John 7:8, 10
New American Standard Bible (NASB) - "'Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come.' But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret."
According to the NASB, Jesus said He was not going to the feast but then went. In other words He, God in the flesh, either lied or didn't know He was going to the feast. If He didn't know He was going to the feast, how would He know His time hadn't come? This same bible in Revelation 22:15 says liars won't be in heaven. If you have a real Bible, it will have Jesus saying He is not "yet" going to the feast or something to that effect.
Acts 12:2-4
New King James Version - "Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after the Passover."
Many counterfeit bibles say Herod intended to kill Peter after the Passover. Peter was arrested during the "Days of Unleavened Bread" which started AFTER the Passover. Herod was a pagan and was intending to kill Peter after Easter (a pagan festival for the goddess Ishtar, a.k.a., Astarte, Inanna, Astoreth and the Queen of Heaven) as the King James Bible says. Herod didn't intend to wait about a year to kill Peter.
Hebrews 4:7-8
New King James Version - "again He designates a certain day, saying in David, 'Today,' after such a long time, as it has been said: 'Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.' For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day."
In the Greek bible, the same word translated "Joshua" in this verse, was translated "Jesus" thirteen other times just in the book of Hebrews. In fact it was translated just down a little in Hebrews 4:14 as Jesus.
There is NO reason to translate the word as "Joshua" instead of "Jesus" except for a private interpretation. Psalms 95 is the Psalm Paul is referring to which shows Jesus is the Creator and the Lord, the God, and the Jehovah that led the Children of Israel.
It is said by some that "Joshua" is the Hebrew word for "Jesus." No scholar at the time the King James Bible was published in 1611 nor have any since then seen an ancient manuscript of Hebrews written in Hebrew; they were all written in Greek. If Paul had meant to mean Joshua, he would have said something like "Jesus son of Nun." If your bible has "Joshua" in Hebrews 4:8, it's a fake bible.
James 5:16
New King James Version - "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
"Instead of "trespasses" some versions will say "sins." They mean the same thing. A fault isn't the same thing as a sin. Trespasses should be confessed to God and not to a priest or anyone else for only God can forgive sins. On the first page of the chapter titled "Confession" in Steps to Christ it says, "The apostle says, 'Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.' James 5:16. Confess your sins to God, who only can forgive them, and your faults to one another." Your bible is a counterfeit if it says to confess trespasses or sins to anyone but God.
1 John 5:7-8
King James Bible - "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, And the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."
English Standard Version (ESV) - "For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree."
The ESV rendition is much shorter than that of the King James Bible because verse 7 has been omitted, verse 8 has been divided and part of it called verse 7. This passage as it reads in the King James Bible is one of the best for proving the doctrine of the Trinity. It's called the Johannine Comma and some scholars argue that it shouldn't be in the Bible. In fact, the Andrews Study Bible that’s based on the NIV, the NASB and many other new bibles have done the same thing as the ESV.
Some claim that the doctrine of the Trinity is a Roman Catholic doctrine. It may come as a surprise that the Roman Catholic Douay Rheims Bible of 1610 had 1 John 5:7 and the ESV, the Revised Standard Version and other more modern Roman Catholic bibles don't have it. That makes it hard to argue that the doctrine of the Trinity is of Roman Catholic origin.
There is some evidence that should unequivocally and without any help of any scholar demonstrate that it belongs in the real Bible. There was a Roman Catholic priest by the name of Johannes Greber who was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church because of his dabbling in spiritualism and his disavowal of the doctrine of the Trinity. I have his book titled Communication with the Spirit World which was translated from the German second edition with a copyright date of 1932. In this book there are extensive quotations of statements supposedly made by the departed good spirit of a dead person; in other words, statements of a demon or devil.
“‘The entire Bible, both the Old and the New Testaments, recognizes only one God in one person. The Father is God, and He only. Not one of His Sons, neither the First-born nor any of the others, is God.” Communication with the Spirit World page 365.
“‘The doctrine that three persons are united in one Godhead finds it main support in the grossly falsified passage in the Epistle of John, the correct version of which reads: ‘For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and the three of them are in accord’. (1st John 5:8). To this has been added the spurious sentence: ‘And there are three who bear witness in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one’.” Communication with the Spirit World page 369.
Let me ask some questions. These are quotations from what was spoken by a demon that has been living since before this world was created. Do you think the demon knows what the Bible is supposed to say? Do you think the demon out of the goodness of its heart has given this information in the hope that you will better understand God’s Word? Does the demon believe 1 John 5:7 is an important verse to establish the doctrine of the Trinity? Do you think the demon approves of the Unitarian doctrine or of the Trinitarian doctrine? Do you wish to follow the doctrine of a devil? Do you wish to use a “Bible” that has been edited by a devil?
If you discard the Johannine comma, you do not have an infallible Bible anywhere in the world. If you don’t believe an infallible Bible is important, you might as well believe anything you like. You can be your own god.
Revelation 19:7-8
New King James Version - "Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.' And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."
The Lamb (Jesus) is to be married to His wife (His church). Will his church be clothed in their "righteous acts?" Isaiah 64:6 in the New King James Version says, "And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags." According to Christ's Object Lessons page 310, "The fine linen, says the Scripture, 'is the righteousness of saints.' It is the righteousness of Christ, His own unblemished character, that through faith is imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Saviour."
There is only one corrupt English bible I'm aware of that would not be exposed as a counterfeit by the aforementioned verses. That is the Queen James Bible in which only eight King James Bible verses have been modified to remove the doctrine of the sin of homosexuality. The editors in the introduction say what verses were modified and why they were modified. It is a much better bible and much less deceptive than the NKJV.
To make things easy for you, you will find that the King James Bible of 1611 is not wrong in any of these verses or in any others. If you wish to have an infallible Bible in English that is commonly available, that is the one to get.
A common reason to use one of the newer versions is because they are allegedly "easier to read." Do you prefer an "easier to read" bible or one that is all truth? Are you going to choke on words like thee, thou, wist, wot, shambles, etc., when the simple use of an English dictionary will tell you what they mean? Did you ever have to study to learn what words meant in school? Was going to school worth it? Are you willing to put in as much effort in studying God's holy Word?
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© Martin J. Lohne 2019. Revised 2021.