Last week I came across an article on Facebook that was trying to say that the New International Version (NIV) of the bible has some errors in it and that it is occultic. I also saw the same message on different social media platforms. You can see one here.
It is heart breaking that church goers are the set of people that hear something and believe it hook line and sinker especially when it came from their ‘pastor’. A true disciple will always find out the truth and that’s what makes the difference. Well,I don’t live that way, if someone as high as Apostle Paul will teach about something and his listeners will go back and check if what he preached is right “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true”. Acts 17:11 NIV. Then, I don’t see who will say something that I won’t go and check if it is inline and right no matter the rank of that person.
After reading the content, I kept aside what I knew about NIV and I did my research to check some of the arguments raised and I want to address them here.
1. That NIV was written by one Zondervan (know more about Zondervan[url] here[/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zondervan]). The truth is that NIV was written by group of over hundred scholars that worked directly from the best available Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts which started in 1965 which came as a result of meetings held by different scholars from the different churches to have the bible in a contemporary English for ease of understanding as we all we will agree that the old King James sometimes are difficult to understand and that what was what gave birth to NIV and other versions as we have them today. Read more about NIV [url]here[/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_International_Version] and [url]here[/https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/New-International-Version-NIV-Bible/#vinfo].
2. That NIV removed words like Jehovah, Calvary, and Holy Ghost etc: When you look up these words in other versions you won’t find them either. Take for example Jude 20 in the old King James “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost”. You will observe that many other translations never used the word Holy Ghost there but rather Holy Spirit even the New King James. Do we now discard all other versions and do away with them because of that? If you are a diligent student of the bible, you will know that Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit mean the same and signify the third person in Holy Trinity. So if NIV and versions used Holy Spirit instead of Holy Ghost, does that now mean that they removed it? The same goes for the word Calvary which means the place of the skull or Golgotha which is the original Hebrew meaning (Matt 27:33, Mark 15:22, John 19:17, Luke 23:33). For example, remember that the four gospels were written by people from different origins and to different origins and were addressed to them in a language and term they will understand and was written according to what they observed, that is why the same story may be explained differently especially in the four gospels.
3. That NIV removed 45 verses. The aforementioned verses were not removed as claimed. NIV was written in a contextual format because the bible was not originally written in chapters and verses. The classifications was done by some scholars to easy referencing of the bible so one can easily say go to chapter this and verse this of this book. NIV followed the original context as it is in both Greek and Hebrew so that the when reading or studying, you can follow the story and understand it in its whole context. If you have the NIV bible and understand what footnote is in the bible you will observe that the claimed removed verses were clearly indicated in the footnote and the reason why it was not included in the passage clearly explained. Now for those that have the Open Bible Android App for example, you will observe that there is an ‘*’ sign on the claimed removed verses which when you screen touch on it, it pops out and explains the reason why it was not included in the story. I agree that some Bible desktop software’s on PC and some Android Apps removed those verses completely, the reason is that some of those applications don’t have the copyright to the full version because a copyright is required to use peoples work of which bible translation is one of them. So if your version doesn’t have them, know that you have an incomplete version of the app or software and as such those are verses will be missing and you don’t know why. You can download the Open Bible Android app and check or get a copy of the printed version of the NIV and check at the footer to see the footnotes relating to those verses.
I took time to explain all these because that is how wrong doctrines are spread and accepted. People will hear will something, they go and carefully study to find out the truth, tomorrow it will now become a doctrine that NIV is a satanic version as some have started saying. Remember the words of Apostle Paul, in 2 Timothy 2:15 1. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Find out the truth and divide it rightly and accurately so you won’t be deceived or carried about by every wind of doctrine “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love”.Eph 4:14-16 NKJV
May God bless you and give understanding in these things.

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