I was reading Pilgrim’s Progress today and a thought came to me. I was saved through reading a Revised Standard Version (RSV) Bible that was given to me at confirmation when I was 14 years old. The words of Jesus spoke truth to me. I have come to know that the RSV is not a reliable Bible version. So what, or who, was it that spoke truth to me?
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. — John 6:44 (KJV)
The thought that came to me is that from my spiritual birth through adulthood, I fed on poor spiritual food and was stunted in my christian growth.
- Revised Standard Version (RSV)
- The Living Bible (TLB)
- New International Version (NIV)
- New King James (NKJV)
- New American Standard Bible (NASB)
These are the Bible versions I fed on for the first half of my Christian walk. I read through them all at least once and this is poor spiritual nutrition indeed! It’s no wonder I struggled. I wasn’t feeding my soul the pure Word of God.
The day came when I ordered a book from No Greater Joy Ministries called Which Version is the Bible? by Floyd Nolen Jones. I had a lot of questions about Bible versions. I saw confusion in the Church because everyone was in different Bible versions, including the pastor! My children, wife, and I couldn’t follow what the pastor was teaching. I decided that we all needed to be in the same version. The question was, “Which one?” Based on what I learned in my search I settled on the King James also know as the Authorized Version. Since I switched, I have been growing on the pure Word of God. It feeds my soul with good, nourishing food.
God bless, Mike