The Westminster Confession of Faith gives I Timothy 3:16 as a proof text of the Incarnation of the Son.
"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory" (I Timothy 3:16 Authorized Version).
"Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory" (I Timothy 3:16 NIV).
Notice the NIV jettisons "God" and substitutes "He", thus following the line of the old Revised Version.
The Authorized Version has no such diluting, undermining, or watering down of the great revealed truths of God in His Holy Word.
The NIV has used small printed footnotes to justify wholesale penknifing of the Word of God. Many of these footnotes, when laid in the balance of truth, are found wanting.
Theodore P. Letis, in his recent A New Hearing for the Authorized Version (2nd edition page 32) points out:
At Mark 16:9-20, in the New International Version, there is a footnote stating "The most reliable early manuscripts omit Mark 16:9-20." What they fail to make clear is that out of the approximately 5,487 Greek manuscripts available to scholars, of those that contain Mark, only three manuscripts omit this pssage. Two of them, Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, were put to the most detailed study of perhaps any others to date, by Herma Hoskier, in his Codex B and Its Allies: A Study and Indictment (1914). No man in his day, nor perhaps since, knew these two documents as intimately as did Hoskier. The conclusion of his study offered the following consensus.
To receive the Egyptian textual standard [represented by Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus] of AD 200-400 is not scientific, and it is certainly not final. The truth is scattered over all our documents and is not inherent entirely in any one document, nor in any two. Hort persuaded himself that where (symbol) B were together ... they must be right. This kind of fetishism must be done away with.
Some of the doctrinal changes in the Gospel of Matthew in the NIV listed in The Quarterly Record of the Trinitarian Bible Society are:
Matthew 1:25 omission (om) of "firstborn"; 5:22 om of "without a cause"; 5:44 (om) "bless them that curse you etc"; 6:13 om. doxology; 6:18 om. "openly"; 6:27 "hour to his life" for "cubit to his stature"; 9:13, "sinners to repentance" - om. "to repentance"; 11:19 "wisdom proved right by her actions" (A.V. "children", RV. "works"). 12:47 note "Somm Mss. om. verse 47"; 13:36 "Then he left the crowd" for "sent the multitude away"; 13:36 "Explain to us" for "Declare"; 13:44 om. "again"; 15:8 om. "This people draweth nigh unto me, etc."; 15:14 om. "of the blind"; 16:8 "having no bread" for "ye have brought no bread"; 17:21 om. whole verse re "prayer and fasting"; 18:11 om. whole verse "the Son of Man is come to save that which is lost"; 19:16 "Teacher" om. "Good" (A.V. "Good Master"); 19:17 om. "Why do you ask me about what is good?" for "Why callest thou me good?"; 19:17 om. "that is God"; 23:14 om. whole verse; 24:36 "the Father" for "my Father"; 25:13 om. "wherein the Son of man cometh"; 26:28 "blood of the covenant" (om. "new"); 27:35 om. "that it might be fulfilled, etc."
Similar lists could be made of changes in other New Testament Books and the total would certainly not be less than a thousand.
The text omits Acts 8:37 while the note says merely, "Some mss. add verse 37 ..." In I Timothy 3:16 "God was manifest in the flesh" is changed to "He appeared in a body," and the clear testimony to the Deity of Christ is lost. In Romans 9:5 another outstanding testimony to the Saviour's Deity is diminished by the footnotes. The text asserts that He is "God over all," but the notes allow the alternatives, "Christ, who is over all. God be for ever praised!" and "Christ, who is over all. God be for ever praised!"
We can see that even the "super-star" NIV which boasts its orthodoxy and evangelical credentials, and aims by its sales to put the Authorized Version out of business, has laid its destructive tactics against the foundation of Divine Revelation.
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Ian Paisley (1926 - 2014)
Founder of the Free Presbyterian Movement with over 100 churches world-wide and bible colleges. This presbyterian renewal movement was started in light of compromise and apostasy in existing churches in Ireland, Scotland and England. These churches are clear biblical churches with a clear emphasis on preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His death for sinners.Ian Paisley also has been active in politics for many years and a leader of a political party. Leonard Ravenhill commented once that the Lord could have used paisley in a powerful way like Whitfield if he stayed away from politics. His preaching is expositional and biblical from a burdened heart to represent His Lord well.