In last weeks article I demonstrated how those who worked on the NIV removed passages of Scripture.  Anyone reading lasts week’s article could simply pick up any copy of the NIV and verify that in fact those who worked on that perversion of God’s word skipped many passages.  There is no doubt in my mind that some reading this series of articles will take offence to what is written in these articles.  They will say that the masses prefer the NIV and I am all wrong in opposing that PERVERSION.  However, facts cannot be denied.  One does not have to be a Greek scholar to see that the NIV is wrong.  The NIV contradicts the teachings of our Lord and we will examine that as well.  The NIV is the Bible choice for those who have a Calvinistic approach to the Scriptures.

    This week we are going to notice how the NIV accomplished the intention of those who worked on it.  The NIV has recorded things that God never did speak through inspired men.  Those who worked on the NIV took the Dynamic Equivalence of translating where the translator tries to go to the thought of the author instead of translating word for word what was originally written.  Notice this caption from the NIV Preface: “The first concern of the translators has been the accuracy of the translation and its faithfulness to the meaning of the biblical writers. This has moved the translators to strive for more than a word-for-word rendering of the original texts.”  Let us see how the NIV has spoken where God has not!

     When one opens their copy of the NIV they will find, as we have already noted, many surprises.  One such thing is the NIV’s teaching that man is sinful by nature.  In one place the NIV reads: “For when we were controlled by the sinful nature,  the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death” (NIV Romans 7:5).  The NIV then has Paul writing: “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out” (NIV Romans 7:18).  Throughout the seventh and eighth chapters of the book of Romans we see the repetitive mistranslation of “sinful nature” instead of “flesh” or “carnal”.  In those two chapters Paul was not saying that it is natural for men to be sinful or sinful by natural means.  Paul was condemning those who lived this life to the desires of the flesh opposed to the spiritual law of the Lord.  Paul was condemning carnal minds and actions.  The NIV has taken the Lord’s condemnation of life according to the flesh and has said this is the sinful nature of man.

     In the above paragraph, I used Romans 7:5 according to the NIV to show their mistranslation capabilities.  Let us examine that passage and see how that abuse is logically and textually absurd.  First, the King James Version (KJV) translates that passage as follows: “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death” (Romans 7:5).  The NIV has man controlled by the sinful nature of man, while the KJV accurately shows that those who Paul has addressed lived in times past according to the flesh.  They have now become dead to the law by the body of Christ to bring forth fruit unto God (Romans 7:4).  The Law of Moses was a carnal law and the law of Christ is a spiritual law (Romans 7:6).  One does not have to argue from the Greek about the word “sarx” and why the KJV has the better translation of that term into flesh, one can see from the text what a contradiction “sinful nature” is to the context.

     The NIV’s mistranslation and continual indoctrination of “sinful nature” is not only evident several times in the book of Romans.  Consider the following passages, just to name a few, wherein the NIV pushes that man has a sinful nature (I Corinthians 5:5, Galatians 5:13; 16; 17; 19; 24, Galatians 6:8, Ephesians 2:3, Colossians 2:11; 13, II Peter 2:10; 18, and I John 2:16).   Why the push?

     The NIV reads as follows in Psalms 51:5: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me”.  The NIV here displays pure Calvinism.  That is, in part, the idea of hereditary depravity (inheriting sin).  This of course is the whole point in the NIV using “sinful nature” instead of “flesh” to translate the Greek word “sarx”.  Those men that worked on the NIV worked on teaching Calvinism.  The doctrine of Calvinism began with the works of John Calvin, not the word of God.

     God has been clear that man is not sinful from birth.  When God created man He did not create us to be naturally sinful.  Solomon penned: “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29).  God created man upright.  It was not natural for Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit and then to have Adam partake as well.  It was a choice.  God created mankind with the ability to choose right from wrong.  He has fully equipped us with His word wherein we can make all the right choices (II Timothy 3:16-17).

     Man does not inherit sin.  God has clearly declared such: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezekiel 18:20).  To commit sin is to transgress God’s law (I John 3:4).  This is God’s definition of sin, not man’s.  When man therefore says that sin is inherited, man is contradicting God’s definition of sin.  Sin is something you do, not something you are born with.  One is born with the eyes of his father or the ears of his mother, not the sins of his folks, Adam, Eve, or anyone else that has ever lived upon the face of this earth.  We most certainly pay the consequences of the sins committed by others on this earth (I Corinthians 15:22), but we do not carry their sins.  This is no different than benefiting from the good that others have done, but not taking reward for their good deeds.  We are not blessed or cursed eternally, for what others do.  We will answer for our own good and evil deeds (Romans 14:11-12 and II Corinthians 5:10).

     James wrote: “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).  The NIV contradicts James when saying that one is sinful at birth and even conception.  Children are born without sin.  Jesus would have us to be childlike (Matthew 18:3-4), not sinner-like.  For the translators of the NIV to acknowledge this they would have to contradict their own work.  It is amazing how few “brethren” that use the NIV know what is actually contained therein.  They are at times ignorant to the false teacher that is in the pew or tucked in their armpit as they enter into the place wherein they worship God.

     We need to be aware of perversion of God’s word.  Such is made clear when Paul wrote the brethren in Galatia saying: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.  But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man” (Galatians 6:6-11).  The men who worked on translating the NIV had worked on bringing about another Gospel, not of our Lord.

     There is much more that needs to be said about the NIV than what has been covered by this article and the article of last week.  We will not miss some of those false teachings contained within the NIV perversion.  While the NIV wants man to be sinful by nature, they also want to do away with Jesus being worshipped while on earth.  The NIV wants to broaden God’s word on divorce by using the broad word “marital unfaithfulness” as a translation of the narrow term “porneia” (translated often as fornication).  The NIV wants to make Jesus a child of God instead of the only begotten Son of God.  The NIV wants to redefine God’s word when it comes to His plan of redemption to be saved by faith and confession alone.  We will examine and expose these damnable errors throughout this series of articles.