Mama was right.

by Bro. David
The words of the LORD are pure words:
as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Psalms 12:6
I am a preacher in the Methodist Church in England and I just wanted to
say how grateful I am that your site exists on the web. I thought I'd
pass on a short word of testimony (well, relatively short - remember I'm
a preacher)

I was brought up by faithful, God-fearing parents in my dad's church
but, when I was 12 years old, like a whole load of other kids, I decided
that I knew better and left the church. My parents continued to pray for
me and try to correct my quickly growing "knowledge". I played around
with all kinds of religious experiences but, to cut a long story short,
I repented and got saved when I was 19. The only bible I possessed then
was a leather backed AV (as we sometimes call the KJV over here) It was
published by the Oxford University Press who, along with the Cambridge
Press have the royal warrant to publish the bible here. This pocket
sized edition was given to me by my parents as an Easter gift in 1963 (I
was seven years old then). I took it with me to the bible study at my
new church where I was introduced to the so called "better scholarship"
and "better manuscript" translations. First the RV and then a whole
gamut of TEV, NIV, NASB etc.

I remember the day I bought my first alternative translation. A "Good
News Bible", you know, the one that makes Herod the Governor of Judea. I
rushed home to my mum to show her. She was kind in her acceptance of my
enthusiasm but I remember her words to this day, "It's very nice but
there's only one bible." The wisdom of youth ignored the comment at the
time and I wandered off into a frenzy of bible collecting. How naive I
was. I had them all; RV, RSV, NIV, GNB, Living Bible, allsorts...
Time went by and the Lord called me to preach, not just in the Methodist
churches but in others also. My mum and dad were happy that their son
was a preacher but still used to take the occasional jibe at me for my
use of modern translations. Even my aunt got into the act with her
comments about how bad the new translations were. What was I to do? I
went to my own  pastor and he gave me a book called "The New Testament
in 27 Translations"  I guess this book was originally set out to shed
light on what many regard as the difficult language of the King James
Bible. It had a strange effect on me. I began to see the subtleties of
difference in what was said between versions. I was taken aback by the
insistence on the removal of the word "begotten" in John 3:16.
Well, I thought I'd won the day when mum got a "Revised Authorised
Version" for her wedding anniversary a few years ago. I was leading the
church home bible study at the time and was using this version myself as
I figured that it was good for reading aloud without tying folk in knots
with the thees and thous. Time passed and mum contracted cancer. She
passed into the Lord's keeping in 1997 to be followed seven months later
by my dad.

As I cleared out their belongings, I came across mum's bible. Not the
RAV but a black leather bound Cambridge edition that dad had bought her
for their wedding anniversary in 1980. As I looked at it, I began to see
what mum meant by having only one bible. I can't describe the feeling
but as I held it in my hand, it felt RIGHT. So right, in fact, that I
began to preach from it. Since then, I have become known as the preacher
who uses the "old" version. I thought I might face opposition but the
most amazing confirmation came from a saintly old lady at a church that
was just about to close down. As I stood by the door, shaking hands and
fellowshipping with the folk leaving for Sunday lunch, she fixed me with
a straight look and marched across the chapel. She gave me a handshake
that nearly crushed my fingers and said, "It's nice to hear someone
preach from the real bible." It suddenly hit me. This church had been
there for over a hundred years. Attendances had declined through liberal
preaching in the 1960's and 70's and the fact that their young people
had followed my example and left before they got old but the telling
factor was that the whole church was festooned with copies of the Good
News Bible or, as my aunt calls it "The Bible For Illiterates". The pews
were full of them, the pulpit had a huge copy. The church had suffered
from misdirection. Words from my mentor during my preachers training
rang true as a bell, "It isn't that the King James is archaic but it is
that preachers don't expound it like they should. They run away to
milksop versions that tickle the ears but give no meat"

Well, for a short message, I've certainly run on a little. Thanks again
for your web site. It has been a blessing to me and be assured that I
will continue to expound and preach from the "Real Bible"

Every Blessing
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