A VERSE FROM THE LUNATIC FRINGE

Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
1 Corinthians 7:1&2

This is the rendering presented by the so-called Good As New Bible of former Baptist minister John Henson as quoted from an article from WorldNetDaily entitled “New Bible Translation Promotes Fornication” that is dated June 24, 2004.

“Some of you think the best way to cope with sex is for men and women to keep right away from each other. That is more likely to lead to sexual offences. My advice is for everyone to have a regular partner.”

This ludicrous version needs to be addressed, but I am not going to waste a lot of time arguing against its silly rendering of this verse or of any other. Arguing it would be a waste of time. Only the vilest of reprobates and the most idiotic of fools will use this version, and no one who is not a seriously deranged demoniac is going to take it seriously. Such people are undoubtedly of reprobate mind. Trying to convert such people would be like washing a sow. It would be better to have the unclean beast herded off a cliff.

Proverb 27:22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

The reason that I present the verse of this lunatic at all is to use it as an example of where the modern version apostasy has led us and into what foul depths it is plunging. This version is being promoted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams and I would not be surprised to see Billy Graham promote it the way he promoted Eugene Peterson’s lunatic fringe version. Twenty years ago, I would have assumed that such a version would not be taken seriously. I no longer entertain any such doubts. In this age of deconstructionism and other nonsensical literary theories devised by French sodomites and academic crackpots, it is not surprising that the intent of the author no longer has relevance to a sizeable portion of the population. The modern pseudo-intellectual view is that only the reader’s perception of the text matters, and that the author’s intent has become obsolete and insignificant. This idea has crept into almost every nonmathematical field (math does not bend to the imagination) and has destroyed everything for which this country once stood. It began as a silly theory that was applied to literature, but it has spread out like a fungus through the minds of the “the movers and shakers” of the world and has infected our society in more ways that most are even capable of realizing. It is even being applied in law schools, which will bring about the final demise of the few shreds of our Constitution that still survive. It is being applied to the Bible with a vengeance. The perversions of past years were timid about completely altering the intent of the Bible. In some cases this may have been due to the “translators” having at least some concept of what Christianity is.

In other cases, they were timid in their perversions only out of necessity. There is just so much that one can get away with without raising a red flag. No one who is not certifiably insane would believe a translation that promotes fornication and homosexuality. No longer is this the case. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” [Rom 3:18]. They know only wickedness and have nothing but contempt for the Lord and His Word. They no longer see any reason to pay any attention to what the text says at all, and actually go so far as to make it say the opposite of what was intended.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

I used to write some satire and was once appreciative of the literature of writers like Swift and P.J. O’Rourke, but today I find them superfluous. If I want to read the ridiculous and absurd I need only pick up a newspaper, listen to the speech of a modern politician, sit in a class of a university professor, examine a Ph.D. dissertation from an Ivy League college, read the court decision of a federal judge, or, sadly, read from one of the modern books that purports to be a translation of the Bible. No satire, no absurdist novel, and no humorist, no matter how sarcastic, can come up with anything more absurd than the reality of the modern world. Unfortunately, America is probably the most absurd of all nations, but the rest of the world will catch up, especially with the help of such characters as England’s Archbishop of Canterbury.

Ever since Three’s Company, Laverne and Shirley, and similar nitwittery became popular I have realized that there is little hope for the American mind. Observing the modern trash called reality television, I now realize that the societal intellect that was expressed during my high school days was lofty genius compared to what we have today. I am not naive, but I am still perplexed and bewildered by what I see. I understand that we all have different limitations and that we are all capable of acting foolishly, being duped, making gross errors in our thinking, and doing things that are embarrassing for us. I could not possibly count how many dumb things that I have personally done in my life, however, what we see today in our modern pop culture is on another level entirely. I do not understand how it is possible for a society to become so downright stupid on such a massive scale. It just does not make sense to me. The stupidity that is reflected in the pop culture of our dying culture is being injected into so-called versions of the Bible. I do not possess the verbal skills to articulate just how much this taxes my ability to understand the world in which we are living.

As I said, I am not going to waste a lot of time focusing on lunatic fringe translations of this type — fools always speak for themselves — but they are the wave of the future in America (if America has a future). The Westcott-Hort perversions of the Bible have spread beyond the confines of America and have polluted the churches of virtually every culture on the face of earth to the extent that real Bibles exist in only a handful of languages. I fear that these lunatic fringe versions will eventually spread around the world in the same way that the Westcott-Hort perversions were spread.

I also fear that the overwhelming majority of the Bible-believing Christian crowd will do exactly what was done before to oppose it — nothing whatsoever.

While the modern limp-wristed, pantywaist, apostate preacher was accommodating new versions for the purpose of placating the straying masses, and to maintain his tithe-paying congregation in large enough numbers to satisfy his thirst for filthy lucre, the Antichrist crowd worked furiously to see to it that such a huge number of variations were introduced that confusion would be sure to rule the scene, and that discernment and recognition of authority would be eliminated. It is only inevitable and natural that these versions would stray farther and farther from the original intent. I fear that the worst is yet to come. We can thank the Jerry Falwells, Bob Jones IIIs, and Curtis Hutsons of the so-called fundamentalist world for what we are now seeing from the likes of Mr. Henson. It could not have happened without their help. The spread of perverted Bibles in other languages could not have happened without their help either. Few of the mission boards that have been formed by modern fundamentalists show any concern at all for what kind of Bibles their missionaries use. Many even promote perversions.

It is our duty as Bible-believers to oppose this worldwide perversion by promoting the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent Bibles throughout the world and to encourage our pastors and congregations to get involved in this battle while we are still able. We cannot build an army without feeding them meat. Right now they are not even getting milk. They are getting Similac with missing nutrients.

P.S. A little aside: this version calls Peter by the name Rocky, John the Baptist is called the Dipper, and Aaron is called Ron, just to give a few examples. No comment is necessary.

John Hinton, Ph.D.
Bible Restoration Ministry
A ministry seeking the translating and reprinting of KJV equivalent
Bibles in all the languages of the world.