My Goal

I have always been a regimented kind of guy. I like routines. I need a schedule, and I have been that way for as long as I can remember. My week is fairly routine. Monday, in addition to going to the hospital, is the day I visit most of the rest homes in Marietta. Last Monday was much like any other Monday, but one visit was memorable. One of the shut-ins I visited had received the previous day’s church bulletin, and she commented repeatedly about how much she had appreciated the article I had written. It was gratifying to know that she had benefited so much from it.

Later that afternoon, just as I was preparing to leave my study, the phone rang. I answered and the person on the other end immediately asked, “Are you Roger?” When I responded, “Yes,” he informed me that he had been receiving our bulletin for years. Then he asked, “Do you use the NIV (New International Version)?” I told him that on rare occasions I will quote from it. He responded, “Remove me from your mailing list!” I told him we would do so immediately, and then he muttered as he hung up, “Quoting from the NIV was like inviting a false teacher into the church.”

As you probably noticed, I did not give the man’s name or location. Neither is important. I politely told him we would be happy to honor his request, and the conversation was over. Interestingly, his objection was to the same article someone earlier had found so helpful.

As most of you know, I have many times reminded you that the NIV is not a good study Bible. The translators followed the dynamic equivalence method rather than the formal equivalence method in their translation of the text. As a result, the NIV is sometimes more of a commentary than a translation. Yet, on rare occasions, it may actually convey the meaning more clearly than some other translation. The story of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-3) offers a good illustration of what I mean. Leviticus 10:1-3 KJV says that they offered “strange fire” before the Lord. Leviticus 10:1-3 NIV (and Leviticus 10:1-3 ESV) reads “unauthorized fire,” which is a preferable translation of the text. To quote a passage from a certain translation because it conveys the meaning of the original in a better way than another translation is not an endorsement of everything in that translation.

I have fifteen or twenty different translations in my library. And, yes, I have read each of them through from cover to cover at least once. My favorite translation remains the King James Version from which I still quote. I usually read the English Standard Version from the pulpit because I find that many people have difficulty understanding the language of the KJV. I haven’t found a perfect translation. All have strengths and weaknesses, but some are clearly preferable to others. When asked, I recommend the KJV, ASV, NKJV, NASV, or ESV as a study Bible, and encourage people to own several translations, and to consult them all in an effort to fully understand the text.

My greatest fear, however, is not that most people are reading the wrong translation, but that most are not reading any translation at all!

By the way, I shared this particular incident with you just to illustrate how the same article or sermon can elicit completely contradictory responses from people. It happens far more than you might imagine. I keep my sanity by frequently reminding myself that the goal is to please God, not men (Galatians 1:10)!

—Roger