Conference yukon::christian_v7

Amazing, Lisa ... A friend and I were out visiting last night, and spent
nearly 2 hours with a very nice black man who wanted to find God, but was
put off by all the westernisation of Christianity (and potential
'asianisation' of eastern religions, etc).  He (apologetically) gave me a
tape by Louis Farrakhan to absorb before I go back in a couple of weeks...

Now I wonder what he would think of the BBC...  He actually had a big pulpit 
Bible (KJV), which seemed to be some sort of fanily heirloom, whch he says 
he reads and finds ok.  He wants his Bible to be as old as possible, to be 
sure it is as little corrupted as possible - as close as it can be to what 
God gave.

							Andrew

I am really turned off by this.  More scams and confusion when it comes
    to the true gospel.  As if there isn't enough confusion already with
    what is being published or has been published.
        
>    The article discuss how different niche-oriented Bibles are being
>    are coming out in the $400 million Bible industry.  "In a Baskin
>    Robbins society, people don't want chocolate or vanilla.  They want
>    a special flavor that really suits their needs." says Bill Anderson,
>    president of the Christian Booksellers Association. 
    
     Sounds like the ole' american greed machine in action again.  Add
    the fact that now there is even more chances to toss out 
    parts of the bible that someone may not like because it's offensive.
    
     My father in-law gave a good example of this.  Take the bible and
    start walking from door to door of your town and have every one
    tear out the parts of the bible that they don't like.  By the time
    you get back home, you will have nothing left !!!
    
    
>    33% of AMerican adults thave toruble understanding the KJV.  70% of
>    teenagers do not even bother to try acocrding to Barna Research group.
 
    I must admit it takes some study but I think this is more a reflection
    of laziness on the part of the American people and the general apathy
    towards God more than not being able to understand the bible.  It is 
    probably more a case of not just wanting to read it.  If it's true that
    adults have a hard time understanding it then we could have a literacy
    problem as well.  Adults seem to understand more complex things if
    that thing is what they are really interested in especially if it's
    a good off color joke or such.
       
>    There is the Path to Victory Bible that includes profiles of sport
>    stars (Michael Chang, Orel Hershiser, and Evelyn AShford) with 
>    blank pages in the back for autographs.
 
    This is not glorifying God.  Makes the bible out to be more like
    trading cards.  Hey I got so and so's picture, see....
    
       
>    The Word in Life Stufdy Bible is highlighted with sidebars, graphs,
>    charts on topics such as "Does God Work on Sundays?" for those
>    readers that like the USA today approach.
    
    Seems they tried that in the 60's with the Good News for Modern man.
    That didn't seem to make much of a difference.
    
>    For those that need to see it to believe it there is the Bible Alive
>    which has around 250 photographs re-dramatizations of biblical
>    settings from the Middle East.
    
    It takes faith to believe.  Once you see something it is not faith
    anymore.  Plus, they really don't get to see what they're looking
    for in the pictures anyway.
    
   > (This one I found most interesting.)  The Black Bible Chronicles
   > which was written by journalist P.K. McCary, who translated the first
   > 5 books of the Bible into street language.  She believes she is 
   > filling a void, "While this is slang, it is not irreverent.  It is a
   > dramatic, colorful way of speaking.  I think teenagers are going to
   > like reading it because it gives them that Afrocentric flavor they can
   > relate to.  All I want to do is introduce kids to Jesus."  
    
    It's fine to paraphrase, but why not teach these folks how to read 
    and understand the bible in English.  It will also help them if they
    decide to go to other parts of the United States instead of their
    neighborhood.
    
    
    JimGle
    

    RE:1

    Louis Farrakhan ?  If I remember right, he's somewhat of a racist.
    There was quit a discussion about him in the Soapbox conference a while
    ago. From what I got out of the discussion, he claims that the real Jews 
    who left Egypt were black and they settled in Ethiopia. Jesus was black 
    because he descended from the Ethiopian Jews. Also, I believe he made 
    claims that blue eyed people are from the devil. He uses an analogy that 
    the sky is blue, but it hides the darkness of outer space. So the blue eyes 
    of people hid the darkness of their souls. He goes on to talk about the 
    atrocities blue eyed races have done throughout history, especially
    the Germans. 

    I'd take his stuff with a block of salt.

    Jim

 Sigh....

Sorry Jim (R), I didn't mean to red herring onto this guy.  You've got the
type of scene, but I have yet to get up to speed on this.  While there's a
lot of stuff that's non-starters, he's got quite a following because he's
giving people identity who trace a history of oppression.  He's valid for 
another note...

Meanwhile, this note is really about variations on Bible.  While I agree
with Jim (G) that including information about popular figures is degrading 
the Bible, it's also true that a lot of people use any excuse not to read 
it.  'Bible' in the vernacular may get through to some of these, though it 
may also encourage a laziness in others, who read one with less of the 
richness of His glory displayed than they might...

								Andrew

Louis Farrakhan is a former Episcopal altar boy from Roxbury (Boston) who
rejected Christ and converted to Islam.

/john

    
    Reminder: I presented what TIME magazine presented.
    
    This topic was not created for a discussion Louis Farrakhan.
    I almost put it in the HUMOR topic.
    
    #24

>    My father in-law gave a good example of this.  Take the bible and
>    start walking from door to door of your town and have every one
>    tear out the parts of the bible that they don't like.  By the time
>    you get back home, you will have nothing left !!!
    
    Wrong.  All you'll have left is Matthew 7:1 "Judge not, that ye be not
    judged."  The unrepentant sinners' favorite verse.
    
    Mark L.

Listen.  If the King James English was good enough for the Apostle Paul,
it is certainly good enough for me!  ;-)

    >Listen.  If the King James English was good enough for the Apostle
    >Paul, it is certainly good enough for me!  ;-)
    
    What?!?!?!?

    >Listen.  If the King James English was good enough for the Apostle
    >Paul, it is certainly good enough for me!  ;-)
    
    I thought that was a funny line the first time I heard it.  But, today
    wasn't the first time.
    
>    What?!?!?!?

    Now that's funny! :-)
    
    Markel

    >Listen.  If the King James English was good enough for the Apostle
    >Paul, it is certainly good enough for me!  ;-)

The point, Dan, is that if the idea that is conveyed is true to what the
author and Author had intended, using the King James English, or street
language won't matter to the heart of the person who receives the Word.

Obviously the Apostle Paul didn't speak English, yet some people are 
so attached to the King James, the NIV, NASB, NKVJ, etc that these 
others are spurious and evil renditions - counterfeits designed to 
dissuade people from the Truth.  

Yes, there MUST be scholarly discernment in the text, for there are
people who have altered the Bible's intented conveyance to suit their
doctrine.  But the point remains that if the intended conveyance is
maintained, the delivery of the message matters less as long as the
conveyance is still true.

I'm not making a judgment on the Street Language Bible - I haven't read it.
But I pray thet Lord will use it effectively to turn people's hearts toward
Him, and pray that the translators have been faithful to the Author.

MM