I can only imagine as a pastor or teacher of the gospel, coming up with sermon ideas every week cannot be an easy task. I have been to countless churches and it seems that they all seem to use different versions of the Bible.
I got curious about this topic because I think it creates a lot of confusion within the congregation if we are all reading from different translations of the Bible. The Bible itself says that God is not the author of confusion… (1 Corinthians 14:33), so I thought it is probably important to get to the bottom of this.
I am not a pastor but I can say that I have put hours and hours into studying different Bible versions and translations and found some interesting things about them all. As a pastor I could see how this issue could be used for sermon series ideas.
Through all my studies, I came to the conclusion that The Authorized King James Version was the best for the church. Sometimes it can be a little challenging with all the thees and thous, because we are not use to speaking like that anymore. But, with a little practice, it becomes natural.
The benefits of having a translation from the received text, or textus receptus, far outweighs the challenge of learning in what context ye, thine, and thou should be used.
I think the church deserves to be taught from a translation only version instead of a translation with interpretation like some of the other versions include. The King James Bible is the only Bible that is translated from the received text manuscripts of which there are about 5000 copies.
Every other Bible version is translated from only 2 manuscripts which were not used by the early church until 1881. One of the manuscripts was found in a waste basket, the other had been locked up in a Vatican library for years.
Of the 5000 textus receptus manuscripts, from where we get the King James Version, 99% of the documents are exact replicas word for word and are in total agreement with each other. Things like misspellings or a missing letter here or there might occur because there were no printing presses like we have today. They were copied by a real person, by hand.
Of the critical text manuscripts, from where we get all other Bible versions such as the NIV, there are over 3000 differences in the four gospels alone.
The age of the manuscripts is another thing to consider in this debate. The King James manuscripts that we have today are not as old as the critical text manuscripts. If you think about this in a practical, logical way, it does not mean that the older manuscripts are better. It means that they weren’t used by the church of those days. The textus receptus manuscripts had to be copied over and over because they were worn out from being used.
These are just some of the things I learned when studying this stuff myself. If you are a pastor looking for sermon ideas, I think this issue is a goldmine. Memorization of scripture would improve because we would all be reading and studying from the same text.
It would also cut out confusion when the Bible is being read aloud because the King James Bible hasn’t changed over the years like some of the other versions.
And more importantly, I think that the church would have a more literal translation of the very words of God.
This is only a tiny bit of the information I found when studying the different Bible translations. For much more in depth information for your sermon ideas, please click below.
http://www.sermonideasblog.com
