Wycliffe Bible Translators Producing Muslim Friendly Bible

The topic of Bible translations had long been a hot button with many people. Many conservatives stand firm on the King James Bible as the only ‘authoritative’ Bible version there is. They fail to realize that there are some very accurate translations that pre-date the King James such as the Geneva Bible, which was the Bible the colonists brought with them to America.

Personally, I use a number of different versions including the KJV, ESV, NASV along with referring to the Greek and Hebrew when necessary. Currently I have at least a dozen Old Testament and nearly thirty New Testament versions of the Bible. I am not married to any one version and would recommend that others adopt a similar policy. By reading a number of different versions you can often get more out of a passage than what you would by reading only one.

Others have opted for translations that are just as or perhaps even more accurate than the King James that are written in more modern English than the archaic King James such as the English Standard Version or New American Standard Version.

Then there are those that are not as interested in accuracy as they are easy reading so they opt for a transliteration as opposed to an actual translation which would include the New International Version. These translations are not a word for word translation but rather they are a thought for thought transliteration and in some cases they fail to carry important wording or nuances that were evidently not in the thoughts of those who produced it.

There are even more liberal Bible versions on the market that are nothing more than irreverent and often blasphemous as they undermine the original texts and only convey the perverted ideas and concepts of those producing it. This would include the homosexual friendly New Oxford Annotated Bible produced by and for gays and feminists.

Now, another new Bible version is soon to be on the market and from what I have read and seen so far, may be one of the worst Bible versions to be printed yet. And the thing that shocks me the most is that it is being produced by what I thought were respectable groups including Wycliffe Bible Translations, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and Frontiers.

This new Bible is being promoted as a Muslim friendly Bible where the translators, or should I say butchers, have removed all words and wording that might be offensive to Muslims. They have eliminated any references to God as ‘Father’ or Jesus as the ‘Son of God’. One example I saw was Matthew 28:19 which reads,

“Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

And changing it to this:

“Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit.”

In Islamic teachings, Jesus is often referred to as the Messiah of Allah, meaning he was 100% human and not God or part of the Godhead, which they also deny exists.

So I beg Wycliffe and the others to tell me how you can justify Christ’s instructions to his disciples in Mark 16:15-16 when He told them to,

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

What gospel are they going to preach? The gospel from a mere man or the gospel from the Son of God?

The idea of Jesus dying for our sins and His resurrection is offensive to Muslims, but that is the gospel in a nut shell. How can anyone preach the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ when they deny Him being Christ or even capable of dying for all of our sins?

Islam is a works based religion where Christianity is a faith based religion. Islam says you have to earn your reward in heaven and Christianity says that Christ paid for your reward in heaven and that all you have to do to claim it is accept Him as your Lord and Savior. The two religions are completely incompatible with each other and to try to dumb down Christianity and remove Christ’s deity is wrong and blasphemous.

Personally I am appalled. If John Wycliffe was alive today, he would never allow such a project to take place in an organization named for him and his effort to get the Bible translated ‘accurately’ in many languages.