|
Or
How
the Holman Christian Standard Bible Muddies the Clear Path of
Salvation Found in Romans
By
Michael L.
Ford, Th.D.
D.Min.; M.R.E.;
M.Min.
Copyright Page
The lead Scriptures quoted in
this text are from the King James Bible, Cambridge 1769. They are
the basis of all other comparisons used in this work. The true
Scripture text (KJB) the Holman Christian Standard Bible™
is being compared with
will appear at the head of the comparison discussion for each
verse.
When the Holman Christian
Standard Bible™ is quoted a credit line must appear on the
copyright page or the title page of the work:
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations marked HCSB have been taken from the Holman Christian
Standard Bible
©
copyright 2000 by Holman Bible
Publishers. Used by permission.
This statement appears on the
copyright page of the HCSB:
The text of the Holman Christian
Standard Bible™ may be quoted in any form (written, visual,
electronic, or audio) up to and inclusive of two- hundred fifty
(250) verses without the written permission of the publisher,
provided that the verses quoted do not account for more than 20
percent of the work in which they are quoted, and provided that a
complete book of the Bible is not quoted.
This booklet may be reproduced
for free distribution within churches, ministries, and such other
organizations that might have need for multiple free copies.
Reproduction for sale is reserved to Jonsquill Ministries and
organizations that privilege is granted to.
Jonsquill Ministries
P.O. Box 752
Buchanan,
Georgia
07200101
Introduction
Most truly evangelical Christians have seen or been exposed to the
verses found in the Bible’s Epistle to the Romans that are
effective in leading a person to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are a number of tracts and booklets out on the subject of
the Roman’s Road that are quite good. Some use most of the
salvation-related verses found in Romans, while others use a more
abbreviated format. Knowing this, we apologize beforehand if we
happen to omit some Scripture you like to include.
The purpose of this little booklet is to analyze some of the
verses that commonly are used in Roman’s Road presentations of the
Gospel as they appear in the Holman Christian Standard Bible™
version while asking an important question. The question is this.
Does the HCSB make the plan of salvation clear, or is the road to
salvation muddied by their work? I, of course, believe they have
muddied the Romans Road, else I would not have bothered to write
this booklet.
It is my assertion that people who wish to change the Scripture
proceed the more carefully when they tread on verses most liable
to raise Christian ire than others. They want to exert their
influence on people while avoiding criticism as much as possible.
For this reason they craft their changes in these verses so that
the average reader might pass over them fairly smoothly. Being a
little bit familiar with the text, Christians miss clever little
changes the uninitiated they are trying to lead to Christ may pick
up on. Sometimes believers’ minds will even supply missing words
or make assumptions to compensate for what has been changed.
With the above in mind I have sought to weigh what they have
produced carefully. I have at times even tried to see the HCSB
Roman message as an English speaker, at home in his modern world,
might see it if he was viewing it for the first time. If the
reader wishes to profit from my work, he must follow along in the
same manner of thought. Lay aside your Christian assumptions and
see the text with objective eyes. Do not supply for the text what
is not there. Do not imply into the text what it does not say
based on previous Bible reading. Analyze what you are seeing.
1.
The Romans
Road
No one is
good enough to be saved.
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.
–Romans 3:10
We are all
sinners; this includes you.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
–Romans 3:23
Where did
sin come from?
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world; and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
-Romans 5:12
God has put
a price on sin, and the Lord Jesus Christ paid it.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Romans 6:23
Because God
loved us, Jesus paid for us with His own life.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.
-Romans 5:8
God’s only
plan for men to escape hell and achieve heaven.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed.
-Romans 10:9-11
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
-Romans 10:13
2.
The
Discussion of the
HCSB Idea of the
Roman Road
As
it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
–Romans 3:10
as it is written:
THERE
IS NO ONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
(HCSB)
The very first verse in our journey along the Roman
road begins to prove my assertion about how the Holman Christian
Standard Bible™ cleverly places mud or obscures the plan of
salvation in the text. It takes a sharp eye when one has grown
accustomed and perhaps a bit careless with this verse to see how
subtly this Scripture is manipulated.
To begin with, the King James text is prepared so the single verse
can stand alone as a beacon to a troubled soul. The HCSB text is
so constructed that the initial reader cannot help but be
concerned with what comes before and after because the verse
begins with a lower case letter and ends with a semi-colon.
Under the rules of grammar a colon may be used to emphasize a
sentence which explains or adds impact to the main clause. It may
introduce a list. A colon may also formally introduce a sentence
or a quotation. The King James Bible is grammatically correct in
its use of English and the HCSB is not for these reasons.
The verse in the HCSB becomes the first part of a series of verses
set in block letters. The reader is captivated by this and his
eyes desire to read the entire section as prose. The unlearned
does not recognize the passage as Old Testament quotation and the
individual who loves the Authorized Version scarcely can in their
rendering. The block form might be useful in some specialized
study Bible or exposition, but for a “standard Bible” that may be
used for soul winning it is a distraction.
Not only that, the HCSB verse is broken between two
pages in the copy I am in possession of. I do not know if that
should be viewed as intentional or the circumstance of printing.
But once again we have encountered a problem that detracts from
the message. It will be interesting to compare this with other
printings in the future.
3.
Finally, we come to the last point I need to make at
this time concerning the HCSB Romans 3:10. Quite apart from the
fact that their translation seems merely a regurgitation of my
edition of the NIV (and I doubt it to be a literal rendering of
even their own underlying text) is the fact of improper phrasing.
In the use and emphasis on the word
ONE
instead of none they subliminally prepare the reader to doubt
the righteousness of Christ as The One later on.
For
all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
–Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. (HCSB)
In this passage as it stands alone, the most serious
problem is the difference between the use of the words come
and fall.
You see the word come denotes an arrival. In the KJB text
the reader is prepared to understand that at every arrival in life
and ultimately at the end of life as well he will discover that he
has not achieved what the glory of God demands. Not only is
everyone a sinner now, but ultimately at the end we are all found
sinners as well. Our helpless, hopeless condition in our own
strength is apparent; to say we come short emphasizes what is
lacking in ourselves.
When a person
fall(s) short
they are simply deficient. It sounds very much like some of this
modern counseling terminology. This is something done in the past,
but once I have picked myself up I may by works, remembering what
I have learned and experienced, do better in the future. The sole
strength of their rendering is that the position of being fallen
short gives a sense of the present.
I cannot pass on from this verse without commenting a
bit on the next which the KJB correctly links Romans 3:23 to by a
semi-colon and the HCSB isolates it from by a period. Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus: (KJB) Your King James Bible makes this a
personal matter related to our helpless condition. The HCSB
substitutes ‘They are’
for the word Being making it a less personal matter related
to someone else. The HCSB has thrown mud on the second step of the
Romans road obscuring the path and making the way difficult.
4.
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world; and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
-Romans 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered
the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way
death spread to all men, because all sinned.
(HCSB)
This discussion of the problem of this verse hinges primarily on
the differences between wherefore and
therefore.
These two words are often treated as synonyms and appear as
adverbs and conjunctions. But this use of the language is only
acceptable where words can be treated with greater carelessness.
When it comes to the place of choosing exact words to express what
is meant from one language to another, especially where men’s
souls might hang in the balance, great care must be taken. Our
King James Bible translators exercised careful word selection, but
modern bible producers are often driven by the need to have enough
revisions in the text to be able to get a copyright.
Therefore
is a conjunctive and adverb for that and wherefore is a
conjunctive and adverb for which. When the reader considers this
piece of information he should begin to see the importance of the
distinction I am making between the two words. An appropriate use
of the word therefore can be found in Luke 14:20 of the KJB:
And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore cannot
come. This shows those translators understood the correct use
of the form and applied it in their translation. An extra-biblical
example of the use of wherefore that shows my point occurs
in the Book of Common Prayer: “Wherefore let us beseech him to
grant us true repentance.”
Concluding my limited remarks on this verse, for the sake of
space, it is necessary to point out one final fact. Wherefore
used as a noun conveys the idea of the cause; the reason; as
telling the why and wherefrom. Read the verse. This is what is
happening in the sentence. Truly there is a cause for my concern
over this mud on the Roman Road.
5.
For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
-Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
(HCSB)
In this verse the superior theology of the King James
Bible translators is demonstrated over the proclaimed
international and interdenominational body that produced the HCSB.
I will not dwell here long to belabor a point since the issue here
is the verses themselves, but this book was presented to Southern
Baptists as a Bible for Baptists to have confidence in. Using such
a group as they themselves professed to assemble raises the danger
of individuals imprinting portions with their own doctrinal
peculiarities. After having done such an act the criticism these
moderns have leveled at the King James Bible for having Anglican
translators should cease. They were after all not only men who had
superior command of the ancient tongues as well as of the language
they were translating them into, as we see in this verse they had
superior theology.
To demonstrate the superior theology of the King James
over the HCSB, I need only point out one fact. The HCSB says the
gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus
and the King James says it is through Jesus Christ. This is
a theological distinction that is actually quite simple. The
Christian’s position is supposed to be “in Christ.” This is where
the believer is supposed to abide. (John 15:4,7) But the issue in
Romans 6:23 is how you get to so great salvation. Before you can
be in Christ from the standpoint of positional speaking you must
receive the gift of God. The Scripture makes it clear that comes
through Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself said I am the
door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go
in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)
Now having seen that the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ, we can present it to the lost person. We can
tell him that when he receives Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior
he will receive the gift of God, the One who is eternal life.
(1John 5:20)
6.
But
God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us.
-Romans 5:8
But God proves His own love for
us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for
us!
(HCSB)
Here we have a passage that leaves the careful reader
full of concern for the souls of the men and women who handle the
word of God so carelessly in producing translations. Looking even
at their own source document, the Nestle-Aland Greek text,
I wonder at the authority they can produce to change the word
commendeth to ‘proves,’
a word in my opinion foreign to the meaning of the text.
Commendeth is derived from the word commend. It is
something He has done and continues to do after we receive Jesus
Christ as Savior. The Latin
commendare,
means to entrust to, to put in one’s hands and commit to one’s
charge. For this reason we must exclaim with the Scripture how
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation! How consistent
the word is to this very day with the Greek ideas of setting
together, standing with or near, and constituting found in the
original tongue. Truly we should say the use of this word stands
the test of time and still convicts men.
I do not know of a single time the Greek word properly
translated commendeth has ever been used for ‘proves’
by anyone other than those wishing to twist the Scripture. If they
wished to use the word in the sense of “to experience: to learn or
know by suffering or encountering,” or in the idea of “making a
trial: to essay,” there is additional problems. The HCSB
translators would themselves be using archaic forms of that word
and still be wrong in their interpretation of Scripture
.
My view of their use of this word is that it smacks of Roman
Catholic theology and the continual sacrifice. For it is by their
ritual they seek to demonstrate and give clear and visible proof
of the Lord’s sacrifice for us. They make of it a test, supposedly
by sacrificing Him over and over again in their mass, whereby they
seek to establish or verify the genuineness of their error.
We have seen the use of the word
‘proves’
in this verse is contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture and
is a bad translation of the text. The HCSB people who put together
this committee of scholars erred in selecting an
interdenominational grouping of scholars who were perfectly
willing to muddy the Roman Road as they sought to support their
own erroneous doctrines.
That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed.
-Romans 10:9-11
if you confess with your mouth,
“Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes,
resulting in righteousness and with the mouth one confesses,
resulting in salvation. Now the Scripture says “NO
ONE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM
WILL BE PUT TO SHAME.”
(HCSB)
Once again in the Holman Christian Standard Bible™
bad theology becomes apparent. I will not indulge in other areas
that I might go into in this verse for the sake of space and the
sensitivities of the average reader. We will simply focus on this
glaring error of understanding on the part of the people who
prepared this rendition from the two perverted Greek texts.
The very real issue I must point out to the reader is there is a
very decided difference between believing unto righteousness and
confessing unto salvation and having righteousness and salvation
the result of belief and confession. The King James translation
knew that neither righteousness nor salvation was the direct
result of either belief or confession but rather belief and
confession provoked a response from God. Because a man believes
and confesses God chooses to impute righteousness and salvation to
the man. This has been the consistent behavior of God toward
mankind down through history.
(Psalm 106: 30-31; Romans 4:5)
I have used the word impute here to describe what
occurs because this is the proper theological term. Impute in
theology means to ascribe (good or evil) to a person as coming
from another. The true Biblical text is saying that the
righteousness of Christ and the salvation of Christ are placed on
the person in whom these things occur. The King James Bible
understands that these are acts of God’s sovereign grace while the
Holman Christian Standard Bible™
thinks these outcomes are the result of men’s works.
The true text of the Scripture does not hold God
hostage requiring that He must act in response to the recitation
of some approved ritualistic formula. What takes place is not
magical but miraculous in keeping with the omniscient, omnipotent,
omnipresent attributes of God. The true Word of God does not teach
some works based theology that says God must give something to man
based on man’s acts, rather it says that when man meets the
requirements for blessing set by The Almighty, He keeps His Word.
In this verse the most obvious mud placed on the Roman Road is the
mud of works based theology. It is akin to witchcraft in its form
and blasphemous as it seeks to hold God hostage, being required to
respond to man’s demands.
The final glob of mud is the statement that those who
believe will not be put to shame. A lost person who reads this
with any knowledge of history is likely to reject the HCSB Roman
Road outright. Why? Because history is full of examples of people
who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ who have been put to
shame. The true text tells us that the believer will not be
ashamed.
9.
The King James Bible makes it clear too that what they will not be
ashamed of is the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not imply that the
believer will not have some thing occur in their life which they
are ashamed of any more than it says they will not experience some
shaming process in the fiery trial of their faith. The Roman Road
has had so much mud heaped upon it in the HCSB that it has become
a slippery trek indeed.
For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
-Romans 10:13
Without going further it is clear that there is some
significant deficiencies in the Holman Christian Standard Bible™
presentation of the Roman Road to salvation. These deficiencies as
I have proven them exist in three areas:
(1)
The HCSB has inferior language construction.
(2)
The HCSB has inferior theology
(3)
The HCSB has inferior and very suspect translation.
The deficiencies of the underlying text have not been the subject
of this paper even though it has been alluded to. The facts of
that situation have been repeatedly demonstrated by able men
skilled in that area without any repentance being shown by the
advocates of the corrupt documents.
It is popular for people who favor the modern bibles
to state that their version has already documented a number of
conversions through its use. If someone truly receives Christ
through the HCSB we will give God the glory, but we will also be
quick to point out that they would have been far more likely to
receive Christ through a true and accurate translation. Such
conversion accounts are not evidence that allows for either
comparison or differences between true and false conversion.
Neither does it take into account the souls that were lost as the
deficiencies in the same text came to their attention and the
Spirit of God was hindered. Finally, experiential accounts are not
proof that a modern book is good and should be accepted even
though they are often used that way.
10.
Conclusion
Roman roads were the life of the Roman Empire, the instrument of
the pax romana peace of Rome that held the empire together.
They were made by painstaking placing of stones together to
construct a durable surface for people to travel over So
successful and wise were the builders in the selection and
placement of these roads, people in Europe still drive on some.
They also serve as the roadbeds of modern roads in various places.
The durability and utility of the Roman road that offered peace is
a good reason for the salvation verses occurring in the Epistle to
the Romans to be called The Roman Road of Salvation.
Some have said the Roman Road of the Bible has been some 6,000
years in the building since it includes God’s plan from the
creation. Certainly it has been a well-traveled route for the last
two thousand. One writer pointed out that not all that traveled
this route had gone on all the way unto salvation but all that did
saw the opportunity to have God’s peace established upon their
lives.
As a traveler in Europe I have had the experience of both
traveling and walking upon old Roman roads. I know very well their
danger when the well-worn stones became wet or muddy. For this
reason I chose to use this kind of comparison with the study of
the perverting of text that we have just accomplished. I thought
it might be just the kind of an analogy readers who had traveled
other roads might be able to identify with and understand as well.
This analysis of these key verses, as they are found in the Holman
Christian Standard Bible™,
was not begun out of an animosity toward the translators nor anger
at the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention who have
endorsed and promoted it even before it was completed. Rather it
was a desire to be faithful to that biblical exhortation that we
should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered
unto the saints found in Jude 3. This I have tried to do to
the best of my poor ability.
If I am successful in my efforts I expect to be shortly attacked
and vilified. I will be labeled as have others before me as
nitpicking ignorant, unscholarly, uneducated, divisive, causing
confusion. I write this so you the reader might derive a further
11.
evidence that I had a good grasp of the realities of the
situation. In pointing out where the mud will be thrown, those who
read me later might have some additional proof that I might have
known a little bit about what I was saying.
My little writing will not deter continued publication
of their book. The people behind it have too considerable an
investment in time and money to be turned aside from their
objective by the criticisms of people who are not part of the
elite Christian establishment of the day. Dr. Paige Patterson
said, addressing the Convention, that the Southern Baptists were
paying a considerable amount in royalties publishing portions of
the NIV and they needed their own Bible for that reason.
When they have their own Bible, they can charge other people
royalties and get gain. I tell you these things because they are
true and we need to wash some mud off so we can see the road being
traveled clearly.
Finally, I want to make it clear that I have no
objection to the production of a new and modern Bible as long as
they meet certain standards:
(1)
They would have to use the correct manuscripts as sources.
(2)
They would have to use highly qualified and doctrinally sound
scholars.
(3)
They would have to use men of high spiritual attainment.
(4)
They would have to use the correct methods of translation, these
being verbal and formal equivalency.
(5)
They would have to use a system of multiple translation,
comparison, and review.
Using such a system, I am convinced they would produce a Bible not
much different from the one I now read every day now, the KJB. The
truth is that they cannot satisfy these conditions for there are
no men alive today that can even begin to compare with the
prestigious and abundant a group that produced the King James
Bible. It is as though God brought them into existence for such a
time as that and has had no need to repeat the process.
|