By John Lanagan
My Word Like Fire Ministries
In the May 2011 print edition of Voice of the Martyrs, Director Tom White states, “I do not need to be shielded by a miserably comfortable religion, existing in what I call a numbed down Christianity. One current example of this dangerous numbing down of the Christian faith is the 2011 NIV Bible. It was written, it seems, by cowards for cowards. In Job, Amos, Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah, the translators have removed all 16 references to our greatest motive for evangelizing–the “shadow of death”–and replaced the phrase with “darkness.” [1]
Mr. White continues, “The words ‘shadow of death’ in the Old Testament are from the Hebrew word ’Tsalmaveth,’ which literally means the ‘grave’ or figuratively, ‘calamity.’ The grave has been artfully removed. Now Job in his struggles never has to face death. He only faces some kind of internal ‘darkness.’ Today he could simply get a prescription to avoid this challenge.” [2] Click here to read more and for footnote material.