By David W. Daniels

The new NIV Bible translation, the TNIV, has finally gotten Bible scholars' attention to God's words. Wayne Grudem wrote a scathing article in World magazine against the TNIV, its publisher (Zondervan) and its copyright holder (International Bible Society, or IBS). In his article, "Changing God's Words," he lists 15 changed verses from the NIV to the TNIV and five bad principles of TNIV translation, such as "removing whole phrases from the Bible."

He may not realize it, but words have been removed from the Bible for over 1,800 years! Over 17 whole verses and thousands of words are missing in most "modern" translations and almost no one notices. And it's not just the TNIV. They're also missing from the NIV, NASV, Message, NLT, Holman CSB and hundreds of others. Why? Because for 120 years, "scholars" have been printing the wrong Bible!

You see, there are two streams of Bibles, not just one. Each stream of Bibles has its own history. The Northern Stream originated in Antioch of Syria, where "the disciples were called Christians first" (Acts 11:26). These believers faithfully copied and accurately translated the Bible. Why? Because they believed God's promise to preserve His words (Psalm 12:6-7; Matt. 24:35, etc.). And they didn't want to sin by adding to or taking away from God's holy Bible. (See Revelation 22:18-19; Deut 4:1-2; Proverbs 30:5-6). The Bible-believers in Antioch took God at His word. So God preserved His words through Antioch. One of the translations made there was the Old Latin, which spread across the Roman empire, all the way to England, before 200 AD!

The Reformation was started by men who received God's words in Greek or Old Latin. The 1500s saw many advances in English translation. But God settled His word in English in 1611 with the advent of the King James Bible, God's words in English.

The other stream is the perverted Southern Stream that began in Alexandria, Egypt, a hotbed of early pagan philosophers. These geniuses, especially a fake Christian leader named Origen, decided that God didn't mean what He said. He didn't believe in much of the Bible's miracles, Jesus' words, or even that Jesus Christ is Almighty God! And so he removed God's words that said Jesus is God, thousands of other words, and often wrote in his own opinions instead.

But in Alexandria, things aren't that simple. Their "scholars" didn't merely hate God's words - they couldn't agree on what to write in their fake Bibles! In the 300s and 400s, when the famous Sinaiticus, Vaticanus and Alexandrinus manuscripts were written, they disagreed in over 3,000 places in the Gospels alone. What a mess!

These counterfeit Bibles began to spread in the early 300s when Constantine ordered 50 Alexandrian Bibles. Later in the century, Jerome was commissioned to make Origen's Bible into Latin. And so the Roman Catholic Latin Vulgate was born.

When Bible-doubters got together in the 1800s to "fix" the King James Bible, which stream of Bibles did they choose? That's right: the Southern, Alexandrian/Roman Catholic stream. All modern versions are traced from this polluted stream with missing verses and changed meanings.

The fruit of these Bibles is obvious. The Northern Stream has always produced faith in God and revivals. The Southern Stream also produces a revival - of DOUBT.

Rather than fight over a few missing or changed words in an already perverted Bible, why not simply read what God Himself preserved for you in classic English, the King James Bible. Then you will be able to say with confidence, "Thus saith the Lord."

Editor's note: For a full description of the real and counterfeit streams of Bible manuscripts, see Daniels' book Did The Catholic Church Give Us the Bible?