The Bible'$ Money Trail

 

The Lord richly blessed the Missions Conference. Wonderful messages that stirred the soul were-passionately delivered. The singing and fellowship was sweet. A highlight was the International Banquet. Delicious food from countries- around the world was prepared by some of the church's best cooks. As we ate and fellowshipped, seated directly across from me was a BIMI missionary to Venezuela. The Voice in the Wilderness has been involved in missionary work in Colombia and Venezuela for many years. That gave me the opportunity to share my experiences as well as learn from someone who has dedicated his life and family to reaching these precious folk with the gospel. To my delight this missionary had a Bible translated by another missionary that The Voice in the Wilderness had supported almost as long as I have lived. What a joy to see some of the results and fruit from our contributions. However, there was a very sad note to add. The missionary said he could not reprint the translation. Somehow the Venezuela Bible Society had taken this particular translation, printed it in a parallel format with a modern version, and copyrighted it. Therefore the missionary could not legally reprint the translation for his use in the jungle, and obviously the present format is very expensive. This missionary's urgently needed tool has been tied up in copyright and money. 

Over the years the escalating proliferation of Bible versions has created a hotbed of confusion divisiveness. Could this be a case of everyone doing that which is right in their own eye's as they go to the Bible-buying cafeteria, filling pews with a bunch picking and choosing the version that suits them best? Are these Bibles really God's Word or somewhere in all this marketing hype, the Bible become man's word? With this hodge-podge business, Bible printing crowd is assortment of every kind, how do you give responsive reading, or memorize scriptures and know for sure it came from THE BOOK and not some other book? Are the presses cranking out money-marketing best-sellers and not a revered, inspired, Holy Book Divine?

For centuries the KJV has been held in the hands of men anointed by the Spirit of God, powerfully preaching those beautiful words to the wonderful transformation of sinners, as well as the refreshing and edification of saints. The English-speaking church read and memorized the King James Bible. God preserved in print and upon the hearts and minds of his people The Wonderful Word of Life. Now I guess these money-marketing geniuses with their so-called Christian publishing companies have done one better than heaven and produced a "BIBLE" that accommodates all.

The pulpits of this land seemingly have little real impact for genuine good these days. This “Therapeutic preaching,” user friendly churches, and best-selling “Biblettes” are producing a perverted view of the Holy God of Heaven filling pews with a bunch of “churchanized,” unregenerate souls primed to bust hell wide open. You can take it to the bank, “Old slew foot” is having a laugh on us, thinking the liberal, big business, Bible printing crowd is going to improve on THE BOOK and ultimately produce the all-time money-making, best-selling, “standard Bible” accepted by all. Mark it down. There is a vested interest in the continued proliferation of modern versions! MONEY, MONEY, MONEY is the song they sing to the steady drone of presses pumping out their gravy train. Yuck! How far have we degenerated? Ready or not coming soon to the world near you is the TNIV (Today's New International Version). These perversions are a direct attack on the pure WORD OF GOD. Keep it up publishers and soon you will produce the very perversion the Antichrist and his false prophet will use to preach their message. Bible publishers best beef up their production; the Antichrist will have a large congregation!

(Printed April 2002)

2023 Addendum

Do you know that the Bible printing industry is a multi-million dollar business? 20 million Bibles are sold every year – that’s more than 6 Bibles every 10 seconds. Some have estimated that there are over 115,000 Bibles given away every day, and I know that if you incorporated the giving of Bible portions, New Testaments, John and Romans booklets and others, the number would well exceed that. Sales revenue each year are over $430 million as of 2020. Some reports say there are over 80,000 versions of the Bible in print today are being sold, with one of the latest editions incorporating 20,000 changes in effort to enhance the Bible’s cross-cultural acceptance. The fear of losing a dollar in sales have almost prohibited Bible printing projects for our ministry, The Voice in the Wilderness. There are forces out there interested in not only stopping, but destroying truth, and many enable this attack against the very Word of God with the dollars in their wallet.