The above titles are the FD editor’s designations for Thomas Nelson’s latest Bible offering. Officially called Revolve, this loose New Testament [NT] translation by Nelson’s teen-age “Transit” publishing division is designed for teen girls, ages 13-17.
Various newspaper articles and critics have described the format of this NT with the following ascriptions: “Looks like an issue of Teen People or Seventeen magazines”; “dolled up in classic teen fashion”; “looks inside and out like a magazine”; mimics a “teens pop culture magazine.”
With its numerous glamour pictures, beauty and cosmetic tips and its “magazine” style wrap, it is not surprising that worldly-minded professing Christian teens would term this Bible a “cool idea.” One critic frankly stated that its “not your grandmother’s NT by a longshot.”
Richard Ostling, well known religious reporter for the Associated Press, stated that with words from its introduction such as “radical”, “revolutionary”, “virtual”, “raw”, “out-on-a limb” and “shock waves,” Revolve “works up a sweat seeking relevance.” The FD editor has three major severe criticisms concerning this newest Thomas Nelson Bible publication.

(I)

Revolve copies and imitates the secular teen-pop culture, a movement the Scripture strongly condemns via its opposition to the course and direction of this world.

The teen-pop culture to which most young ladies cater is staunchly materialistic and sensual in content and appeal. The spiritual Christian, regardless of age classification, does not base his/her lifestyle upon the world, but upon the Word! (Rom. 12:1-2). The discerning believer rejects the world’s degraded appeals, appearances, and arts. In Jer. 10:2, via the prophet Jeremiah, God specifically warned the Israelites to “learn not the way of the heathen” because this vain culture would lead to idolatry.
BASED ON A FALSE RATIONALE
The publication of this “teeny-bop” Bible is based on a false rationale: Since teen girls are reading magazines, they should give these impressionable young people what they want in a Bible, a philosophy that is totally contradictory to Scripture (James 4:4, I John 2:15-17). To place scripture on a level with a secular magazine or newspaper degrades its divine origin and content.
What gullible naïve young people may want and what they need are two entirely different meal courses. Revolve offers a watered down-diluted content and appearance that the Scripture condemns not condones. The Christian’s life-style should be distinctly different from the world, not an imitation of it (II Cor. 517, Eph. 4:22-24). A worldly pop-culture Bible will produce worldly pop-culture Christians! “What you win them by is what you win them too” surely applies to this low grade Bible publication.
A COMMERCIAL ATTEMPT TO AVOID THE “STIGMA” OF SCRIPTURE
Laurie Whaley, the “Revolve spokesperson and one of 20 people who contributed to the book’s creation” declared that the magazine style NT “was written to get around the stigma of the Bible.” Whaley claimed that “research found many teenagers” regard the Bible as “freaky” and “intimating.” Revolve has supposedly resolved that dilemma by making the Bible “really relevant for teenagers.”
The word “stigma” is found in the Greek NT in Gal. 6:17 [“stigmata”] and is translated “marks” in the KJV where the Apostle Paul states “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks [“stigmata”] of the Lord Jesus.” In ancient oriental usage, a stigma was a stamp of slaves or soldiers that marked their master or commander; it was a sign/token to indicate to whom they belonged or served.
In Gal. 6:17, Paul used this word to indicate that the physical persecution, hardships and spiritual sufferings he endured were symbolic signs that marked him as a faithful and approved servant of Christ; that they were “marks” [“stigmata”] that unashamedly identified him with the greatest sufferer of all, the Lord Jesus.
This same stigma-stigmata can be applied to the Holy Scriptures, the written Word of God, a mark and a stamp with which the Bible-believing Christian, regardless of age classification, should never hesitate to be publicly identified; a stigma this “teeny-bop” NT seeks to arduously avoid (I Peter 1:23).

(2)

Revolve’s text is actually the “New Century Version” [NCV] New Testament, a dynamic-equivalence translation

Dynamic Equivalency [DE] is that method of Bible translation that seeks primarily to translate the Scripture in terms of thoughts and ideas, rather than words and attempts to adapt the Bible to a language that conforms to the current culture of the day.
DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY VERSUS FORMAL EQUIVALENCY
The dynamic equivalency methodology, which accepts the Westcott-Hort critical text, contrasts starkly with the formal equivalency method [FE] upon which the KJV translation was based. In his book, The Future of the Bible, Jacob von Bruggen pointedly contrasts the vast differences between these two translation methods when he states:
“ Advocates of the dynamic-equivalent method often defend their procedure by an attack on the formal-equivalent method. By a formal equivalent translation is meant a translation that stays as closely as possible to the Hebrew and Greek manner of speech; the KJV can be mentioned as an example” (pp. 151-152).
Von Bruggen further indicates that the DE method is greatly impacted by modern biases and prejudices concerning the Scriptures. Von Bruggen declares: “It must be pointed out that the dynamic equivalent translation theory owes it influence and effect to the blending of modern theological prejudices regarding the Bible with data borrowed from communication theory, cultural anthropology, and modern sociology, rather than to insights from linguistics.”
SOME STARTLNG ADMISSIONS ABOUT DYNAMIC EQUIVALENCY
Parade, the Sunday weekly news insert, carried an article about Today’s English Version [TEV], a modern version more popularly known as the Good News Bible in its 6-26-l976 edition. The article states that the TEV translators “employed the principle of ‘dynamic equivalency’ in their translation”, a “result [that] conveys the meaning of the original Biblical text rather than the words.”
The magazine’s reporter sat in on one of the translation sessions where the translators were working on Job. 36:27-28. A proposed rendering by one translator was promptly rejected when a second man stated that “it doesn’t grab me”, phraseology that is highly questionable for someone who is handling the translation of the Sacred Scripture.
Moody, the now defunct magazine arm of the Moody Bible Institute, made a startling admission in an article dealing with modern Bible versions. Although the article was generally favorable to modern translations, the author frankly penned these words: “The more translations follow the principle of dynamic equivalence, the less appropriate they are for use at a Bible study or as a Bible for public teaching and preaching” (Moody, Jan. 1979, p. 42).
The FD editor goes much further than that: He firmly believes that translations that use the dynamic equivalency method, to any degree, are never appropriate or fit even for private reading and study!
FRANK CRITICISMS ABOUT REVOLVE’S FORMAT AND NCV CONTENT
The FD editor agrees with the critic who said that “packaging the NT as a glamour magazine crosses an important line.” One conservative theologian stated that the Revolve New Century Version [NCV] is “among the loosest in regard to the original text” and that it “just might take trivialization to a new low.”
Another critic declared that Revolve “trivializes and makes frivolous the message,” and that it “may inadvertantly compromise ‘the seriousness and the authority’ of the Scriptures.” Revolve’s content and format are so far out and close to blasphemy that when analyzing its characterization of Christ a daily newspaper commented that this NT “focuses on a dude who’s been hip for 2,000 years-Jesus”.

(3)

Revolve’s textual content is a reprint of the New Century Version, a translation that deletes words, phrases, and verses dealing with the deity of Christ and other vital Bible doctrines.

As he pens these lines, this reviewer has two copies of the New Century Version in front of him. The first is entitled The Answer, (1993) printed by Word Publishing and the second is the International Children’s Bible, (1999) an edition for children published by “Tommy Nelson”, the children’s division of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
THE NCV’s DIMINISHING/DELETIONS OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST
1. The NCV deletes “begotten” in John 3:16: The KJV states “he gave his only begotten son”; the NCV states “he gave his one and only son.” The word “begotten” means much more than just “only.” It refers to the only one of His kind, that is, uniquely different, none other like Him!
2. The NCV completely eliminates the statement about the deity of Christ in Acts 8:37, leaving the verse totally blank, then places its rendering in the footnotes at the bottom of the page, with remarks that question its authenticity. The KJV says: “And Phillip said, if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” This is a clear statement about the deity of Christ.
The NCV footnotes say: “Some late copies of Acts add verse 37.” Satan’s strategy is to make people doubt and question God’s Word, which is exactly what the above statement does for wondering readers. “Is this really in the Biblical text? Is this what the Scriptures actually say?” This questioning can be traced directly back to its diabolic source in the Garden of Eden where Satan sought to raise doubts and questions about God’s spoken word. Satan’s tactic in Gen. 3:1 was “Hath God said…?”
3. In I Tim. 3:16, the NCV substitutes “he” for “God”, thus eliminating one of strongest passages in Scripture for Christ’s deity, as well as His incarnation. The KJV says “And without controversy, great was the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh…”. The NCV diluted version reads “Without doubt, the secret of our life of worship is great: He was shown to us in a human body…”
NCV CASTS DOUBT CONCERNING THE PHYSICAL RESURRCTION OF CHRIST
While the NCV includes Mark 16:9-20 in the actual text, verses that declare the physical resurrection of Christ and our Lord’s Great Commission, the NCV subheading above these verses casts doubt about the validity of these verses when it states: “Verses 9-20 are not included in two of the best and oldest Greek manuscripts of Mark.” [Gen. 3:1 all over again!]
NCV DELETES GREAT DOCTRINAL TRUTHS
1. The NCV eliminates the blood of Christ in Col. 1:14: The KJV states “In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” The deleted and depleted NCV version says “The Son paid for our sins, and in him we have forgiveness”, a deletion and a dilution of a major doctrinal truth.
2. The NCV removes the strongest verse in all the Scripture that delineates the triune God, the trinity. In I John 5;7, the KJV states “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” The NCV states “So there are three witnesses that tell us about Jesus” The NCV then completely eliminates the Trinitarian reference and goes on directly to v. 8.
3. The NCV deletes the doctrine of repentance in Matt. 9:13. In the KJV rendering, Christ made a clear ringing call for repentance. Christ states “…for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” The non-offensive NCV version says “…I did not come to invite good people, but to invite sinners”, a vast difference! The above changes/deletions are just a brief sample of the changes and deletions in the NCV.
WHY THESE CHANGES AND NOTORIOUS DELETIONS IN THE NCV?
The answer is simple: the NCV New Testament translators used the destructive liberal critical text as the underlying basis for their labors. In the “Preface to the Translation”, the publisher plainly makes this admission: “The most recent scholarship and the best available Hebrew and Greek texts were used, principally the third edition of the United Bible Societies Greek text…” (p. xvii).
THE NCV CHILDREN’S BIBLE-THE INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S BIBLE-MAKES ALL THE SAME CHANGES/DELETIONS/ELIMINATIONS AS THE ADULT VERSION
This reviewer checked all the verses noted above in the children’s NCV version and discovered that the same changes/deletions occurred in the NCV children’s version, the only difference being a little more simple language in the footnotes.
A HEARTBREAKING FACT
This reviewer purchased the NCV children’s Bible at the BJU Campus bookstore on Nov. 11, 2000! The NCV International Children’s Bible may/may not be “the version children can read and understand” as the front cover states, but it is certainly not an accurate and reliable one that Bible-believing parents can entrust to their children!
WHAT FUNDAMENTALIST PARENTS CAN DO TO AVOID THE HISTORIC RELIABLE KJV SCRIPTURE BEING REGARDED AS “BORING” WHEN CHILDREN BECOME TEENS
1. Set a Christ-like consistent example in family living. Don’t turn children/teens off from the infallible Word by a double standard of home life versus church life. Nothing will turn children/teens away from God’s Word as quickly as a dual-life style that doesn’t practice what it supposedly preaches (Eph. 6:4).
2. Start reading the KJV early to children-even in the womb before birth. Children should see parents reading the KJV daily in personal devotions and using it solely in regular family devotions. Read and comment on Bible stories based on the KJV text (II Tim. 3:16-17).
3. Get children excited about the KJV when they are still siblings; talk to them about its reliable Hebrew-Greek origins. Teach them to read from the KJV, using this version as a major linguistic tool. Parents should explain the KJV’s so-called obscure/obsolete words to children when they are young so that they will clearly comprehend them as teens.
This writer has never desired any other version: Not only because he now knows its accuracy, dependability and reliability, but because from infancy his parents, his pastor, and his church used it exclusively and wholeheartedly. By the time this writer was a teen-ager, he had memorized hundreds of verses from this beloved trusted and time-tested text. He has never desired a diluted modern version and never will! (Ps. 119:127-128)
Addendum
Zondervan [division of Harper-Collins] has recently released Today’s New International Version [TNIV], the “gender-adjusted” New Testament rendering of the New International Version [NIV] that has been produced by the International Bible Society [IBS]. The writer briefly notes the following facts about this new IBS/Zondervan commercial venture.
1. TNIV is basically the defective NIV word text, but with words and phrases that have been changed to reflect generic, genderless, and plural renderings. To put it frankly, TNIV is simply a politically correct update of the NIV that mirrors the secular cultural drifts and radical feminism of the 21st century. TNIV is an attempt to cater the Scriptures to society’s current trends and to make $$$ from the public’s shifting winds.
2. Since the TNIV is just a reworking of the NIV’s rendering in certain areas, it’s underpinning, like the NIV, is the liberal destructive critical Greek text, a text that discerning believers reject as inaccurate and unreliable.
3. At least for the present time, many major New-Evangelicals are repudiating this genderless NT version. Over 100 prominent Charismatics and New-Evangelicals placed an advertisement in religious magazines that were extremely critical of this new venture.
CLOSING COMMENTS AND EXHORTATION
The writer believes that Jacob Von Bruggen’s words can aptly be applied to the two new version endeavors cited above that “A translation has authority only to the degree that it transmits the revelation completely and accurately” (The Future of the Bible, p. 135). Using that measure, the NCV-Revolve and the NIV-TNIV both miss the mark by a country mile. The only English version Bible-believers can adequately trust is the KJV! Stick with it; the KJV is a translation in which you can place complete confidence and faith.
The KJV is the preserved Word of God in the English language, wholly reliable and completely trustworthy (II Tim. 3:14-17). The KJV is the Bible for the 21st century! PS: The KJV is based on the texts that NT churches have received and accepted throughout Christian history, the Hebrew Masoretic text and the Received Text.
SOURCES CONSULTED FOR ABOVE ARTICLE
(1) The Good Book Gets Hip, Detroit News [MI], 10-13-03, El & E5; (2) “Latest glossy mag for teen girls”, St.Louis Dispatch, 9-17-2003; (3) “’Revolve’ New Testament trivializes Gospel message” and “Not Your Grandmother’s New Testament”, Southern Baptist Convention Press, 9-15 & 9-18, 2003; [No. 2-3 articles were copied by Christian News, 9-29-2003, p. 27 where this reviewer read them]; (4) Booklet: Biblical, Theological and Religious Glossary by Thomas M. Strouse, PhD.; (5) Parade Sunday magazine, 6-27-l976, p. 25; (6) Moody, Jan. 1979, p. 42; (7) Jacob Von Bruggen, The Future of the Bible, pp. 135, 151-152 [as quoted in BFT Monthly: July 1990, p. 4; Sept. 1990, and Nov. 1990] (8) The Wall Street Journal, 6-27-2003 [as copied in the Christian News, 10-6-2003, p. 20] (9) Greek-English Lexicon of the N.T; (10) Vine’s Expository Dictionary of NT Words; (11) The Answer: New Century Version, Word Publishing, 1993; (12) New Century Version, International Children’s Bible, Thomas Nelson, Inc; (13) The King James Version [KJV]. DJ