|
Tracy wrote:
I would suggest that when you quote the bible,
be respectful and quote word for word. For example, in 1 Corinthians
9-10 it says: 9 Know
ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Be not decieved: neither fornicators, or idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. 10
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor dunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Here is what you claim 1 Corinthians 9-10 says:
"Don't you know that those who do
wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves.
Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers,
male prostitutes, homosexuals, thieves, greedy people, drunkards,
abusers, and swindlers--none of these will have a share in the Kingdom
of God." (NLT - New Testament)
You have completely misquoted and twisted those
2 verses in the bible. You're misleading people. Why?
[Note: I'm not sure on where Tracy saw these
verses. We have them in the New Living Translation (NLT) on the
following web sites and pages: homosexuality
| judgment]
Our Answer:
Hi Tracy:
Thank you for your comments. It is a blessing
to hear from someone who is concerned about the accuracy of our
understanding of God's word.
Could you help me a little? Could you tell me
in what way the NLT translation of these two verses is not incorrect?
How does the NLT translation change the meaning of this text? In
what way are people being mislead? I would be pleased to answer
any specific problem or question. And I'm always open to changing
our web site, if it is not accurately representing the Word of God.
We use several translations in various locations
on our web site. In this case we used the New Living Translation
(NLT) because it provides an accurate and easy-to-read translation
that is good for those who do not read the Bible.
Let's talk about Bible translation.
I see that you are using the King James version.
That is generally an accurate translation and beautiful translation.
However, at times there can be some problems with using the King
James version. For example, the English is not the English we use
today. So although it is an accurate translation, many people can
not accurately understand what is being said in the King James Version.
You are correct, the NLT is not a word-for-word
translation. It is a paraphrase translation, which we chose because
it makes the meaning clear to non-Christian readers.
I'm guessing that in this case you are referring
to the KJV using the term "abusers of themselves with mankind"
where the NLT uses the term "homosexual".
One of the problems with the KJV is that, because
of "Victorian" sensibilities the KJV uses obscure euphemisms
when discussing sexual sin. An example of this is the use of the
phrase "abusers of themselves with mankind." This
phrase is used to translate the Greek word "arsenokoitou"
which means straight out means homosexual. However, the word homosexual
was not acceptable for church people to use at the time the KJV
was translated--but you can be sure that they knew what the Bible
was talking about-- that "abusers of themselves with mankind"
meant homosexual.
The problem is that people today do not know what
the phrase "abusers of themselves with mankind"
means. So, in this case, those who use the KJV for these verses
are the ones who are obscuring the true meaning of God's word.
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
May God bless you this Christmas season,
Steve
Move To Assurance
Addendum: Here is how other translations
give these verses.
The most literal, word-for-word translation of
the New Testament is the New American Standard Bible (NASB).
"Or do you not know
that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? do not
be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom
of God."
I find it interesting that in providing this list
of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God, that we are specifically
warned to not be deceived. This is exactly what is happening today.
People are attempting to deceive Christians into believing that
homosexuality is not a sin.
The New International Version (NIV) translates
these two verses as:
"Do
you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor
adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor theives
nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit
the kingdom of God."
|
