Q
If we cannot trust these other versions, would a person receive a false salvation or a false spirit from reading them?

A
Second Corinthians 11:3 — 4 warns us that we can “receive another spirit.” “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received....”

How will that false spirit come? We are not ignorant of his devices. Second Corinthians 11:3 warns that the evil spirit will attack “as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty.” “As” is a very important word in the bible. Here it tells us that the method of attack on Eve will be repeated. The serpent used:

1. Subtlety: “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field” (Gen. 3:1).
2. He questioned and changed God’s word: “Yea, hath God said?... Ye shall not surely die.” God said in Genesis 2:17, “Thou shalt surely die.” The serpent changed one word and thereby changed the entire course of history. A one-word change is subtle indeed.

First Timothy 4:1 — 2 says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies....” My book, New Age Bible Versions, documents four new version stylists or translators who admitted, in their own books, their involvement with spiritism, that is, trying to make contact with the dead.

The first two, B.F. Wescott and F.J.A. Hort, discuss their club, called The Ghostly Guild, in their biographies. They were actually the fathers of the current New Age channeling movement; their Ghostly Guild evolved into the infamous Society for Psychical Research.

The third translator to confess involvement was J.B. Phillips, author of the Phillips Translation. His autobiography details his necromancy and communication with the dead.

The last and most recent revelation of “giving heed to seducing spirits,” concerns Dr. Virginia Mollenkott of the NIV. Her book, Sensuous Spirituality, tells tales of her spirit guide and contact with her dead mother. The subtitle, “Out from Fundamentalism,” rings like 1 Timothy 4:1 — 2, “Some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits." The doctrines of devils which follow includes her admitted involvement with divination through the use of Tarot cards and the I Ching.

Acts 16:16 — 17 tells of another woman “possessed with a spirit of divination.” She actually preached the gospel saying, “These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.” Paul did not say, “Well, this is wonderful. This girl must have gotten saved because she is preaching the gospel.” Rather, he was grieved and cast the spirit out of her. Evidently, God is not impressed when evil spirits preach the gospel; it is possible for someone to have a spirit of divination, “giving heed to seducing spirits,” and also have an “intellectual” understanding of the bible.

New Age Bible Versions documents five new version editors who have also contracted a “dumb” spirit and lost their ability to speak. Zechariah was likewise silenced when he did not believe the words of God (Luke 1:20). Some of these same men were also involved in necromancy. I believe that communication with evil spirits brought a “dumb” spirit.

The third spirit that I see coming from these new versions is discussed in Romans 8:15 and 2 Timothy 1:7. In the latter, the bible contrasts “the spirit of fear” with “a sound mind,” saying, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” My book, New Age BibIe Versions, documents the psychotic fears which drove one new version editor to commit himself to a mental hospital. Psychosis accompanies evil spirits, as seen in verses like Luke 9:39, where the evil spirit made someone cry out, “And, lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out.”

The 1973 intrusion of the NIV into the church created a void which opened the door to the entire field of “Christian” psychology and psychiatry. The true word of God, the “balm in Gilead” (Jer. 8:22) had been successful in comforting the saints for thousands of years. Our Savior sent his saints a salve that “healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Ps. 147:3). But when Beelzebub, lord of the flies, sent forth his winged seducing spirits to contaminate the balm, his “dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour” (Eccl. 10:1). Corrupted bible versions, coupled with secular psychology, can never produce a “sound mind.” On the contrary, they actually fan the flames of the “spirit of fear.” If the saints during the great tribulation will overcome the onslaught of the devil “by the word” (Rev. 12:11), it certainly must have the power today to carry us through this “light affliction” (2 Cor. 4:17).

If the burdens of this life seem “heavy” and not “light,” a weigh-in is in order.

Are you obeying Christ’s command to “Come unto me” all ye who are “heavy laden,” “casting all of your care upon him” (1 Pet. 5:7) through prayer and faith?
Do you “come unto” his word daily or do you have the “heavy ears” of Isaiah 6:10?
Are you carrying the heavy burden of pride? It is so heavy that it weighed Lucifer “down to hell.” Proverbs 29:23 says, “A man’s pride shall bring him low, but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.” His “light yoke” precludes carrying a spirit that is not “meek and lowly” (Matt. 11:28 — 30).
Are you “laden with sins” (2 Tim. 3:6)?

Psychology cannot lift any of these burdens, nor can bible versions (NIV, NASB, et al.) which omit Luke 4:18’s promise sent by “the Spirit of the Lord” when Jesus said, “He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted.” If your version omits this, it is not from the “Spirit of the Lord” but from “another spirit.”

This other “spirit” has left its signature elsewhere in the new versions. “The Spirit of God” (KJV) in Romans 15:19 becomes just “the Spirit” in new versions. Again, in Romans 8:15, the KJV “the Spirit” melts down to “a spirit.”

New versions also drop the word “Holy” from “Holy Ghost” in Acts 8:18, John 7:39, Acts 6:3, 1 Corinthians 2:13, and Matthew 12:31. As the word “holy” is removed from new versions over and over, (i.e., 2 Pet. 1:21 — NIV, NASB, et al. says “men” not “holy men”), the title Holy BibIe becomes more and more the exclusive property of the King James Version.

Are new versions from “another spirit”? Jesus said in Matthew 12:33; “The tree is known by his fruit.” First Timothy 4:1 reveals that “seducing spirits” will bring “doctrines of devils.” Space does not permit listing all of the false doctrines of new versions detailed in New Age Bible Versions. A few examples are given here to indicate their trend away from true doctrine.

The spirit of new versions is named in 1 John 4:3. “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist.” New versions omit “Christ is come in the flesh” in that very verse. Their spirit then is “that spirit of antichrist.” First John 4:6 elaborates that “Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” “Hereby” is referring to the denial that Jesus is Christ. New versions omit the title ”Christ” another twenty-two times, further pointing to their denial in this regard.

In the book of John, chapters fourteen and sixteen, Jesus said, “the Spirit of truth” “shall glorify me.” The Spirit of truth will always glorify God. We can see the spirit of error in new versions as the NIV omits references to Jesus Christ, the Lord, or God one hundred and seventy-three times; the NASB omits them two hundred and ten times.

The last spirit that I see coming from these new versions is a haughty spirit. Proverbs 16:18—19 contrasts the “haughty spirit” with the “humble spirit.” Consistently, as I was collating these new versions, I saw man moving up, up, up the ladder, as God was moving down, down, down the ladder. For example, Psalm 8:5 (KJV) says, “For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.” New versions move man near the top of the ladder saying, “Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God” (NASB). They have taken the word Elohim, which can be translated as “heavenly beings” or “angels” and translated it out of context. As a consequence, some of the teachers in the “Faith” movement say, “I am a little God.”

New versions definitely soften up the sinful nature of man. For instance, 1 Corinthians 4:4 says, “For I know nothing by myself”; this is a very humble attitude. The new versions say, “my conscience is clear”; this communicates the exact opposite meaning. They do the same thing in Job 42:6. Here Job sees himself as God sees him; he sees his religious self-righteousness and says, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” When Job sees himself in the NASB he said, “l retract.” This is quite a bit different than abhorring oneself in dust and ashes. First Thessalonians 2:4, in the King James Version, says, “we were allowed of God”; God has allowed us to do some things. The new versions say we have been “approved by God.” I do not know of any man that has been approved by God, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Our “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1) is the result of God’s approval of the Lord Jesus Christ, not his approva1 of us who “scarcely be saved” (1 Pet. 4:18). This moving man up the ladder and moving his sinful nature off the pages is seen everywhere in new versions. For instance, wherever it refers to man being “ignorant” in the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians, the new versions say that he is merely “unaware.” The bible is the only true mirror into which man can look and see himself as God sees him. The KJV mirror is much too clear, its light much too bright. New versions appeal to the flesh of man, not to his spirit.