The Danger of Changing God’s Word
By Dr. Ken
Matto
The Scriptures give a warning that if anyone adds to or
subtracts from the settled word of God then there are warnings of judgment
associated with doing that.
{18} For I testify unto every man that heareth the words
of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
{19} And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the
holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
(Revelation 22:18-19)
Many benighted theologians have undertaken the task of
snubbing the warnings found in Revelation 22 and have decided to change the
settled word of God using inferior and corrupted manuscripts and then selling
these abominations to the naïve Christians as Bibles which are far better than
the King James Bible. Well God has
something to say about those who wilfully change his word.
In the book of Jeremiah we are given a warning which fulfills the warning
in Revelation 22 seven hundred years before it was penned by the Apostle John.
Judah was following in the footsteps of the northern
kingdom which was now in captivity in Assyria for about 100 years when Jeremiah
began to prophesy. He prophesied to
the southern kingdom or Judah. They
did not learn their lesson from what happened to the northern kingdom but
progressed toward judgment by continuing to walk away from the LORD and engage
in idolatry and false religions. It
was through Jeremiah that God declared they would be in captivity a total of 70
years and then returned to the land because it was prophesied by Micah that the
Lord Jesus Christ would have to be born in Bethlehem.
So their judgment was not final as of yet, that came in 70 A.D. when
General Titus came through and sacked the land.
We read in Jeremiah 25:11-12 the prophecy of their captivity.
{11} And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an
astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
{12} And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that
I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their
iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.
(Jeremiah 25:11-12)
So we see that it was the LORD himself who prophesied
through Jeremiah that they were going to spend seventy years in captivity in
Babylon. Then as usual there were
false prophets among the people.
But there were false prophets also among
the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall
bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring
upon themselves swift destruction.
(2 Peter 2:1) We read in 2
Peter 2:1 that there were false prophets among the people of Israel and Judah
who prophesied falsely and led the people astray.
One such false prophet was Hananiah who prophesied among Judah.
God stated through Jeremiah they would be in captivity
for 70 years but Hananiah comes along and falsely prophesies that God was going
to break the yoke of bondage within two full years.
So what did Hananiah do? He
changed the word of God from 70 to 2 and it does not matter if it is the spoken
word of God or the written word of God, the word of God is the word of God.
And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people,
saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.
And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
(Jeremiah 28:11)
Jeremiah the prophet then confronted Hananiah and
scolded him saying that the LORD did not send him which means he was not a true
prophet of the LORD and that resulted in people trusting his 2 year prophecy
above the 70 year prophecy of Jeremiah which was the correct one from the LORD.
Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the
prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this
people to trust in a lie. (Jeremiah
28:15)
Jeremiah then tells Hananiah that because he has
fostered rebellion against the LORD for changing his word and causing the people
to trust in a lie that he was going to die that very year.
So the word of the LORD was fulfilled and Hananiah died that year because
he sinned against the LORD. God
considered the alteration of His word to be rebellion when he changed the time
from 70 years to 2 years.
{16} Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast
thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast
taught rebellion against the LORD.
{17} So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.
(Jeremiah 28:16-17)
The King James Bible was authorized to be translated and
printed by the Crown of England and it was the 8th Bible in
succession from the Tyndale Bible of 1534.
It was the last authorized Bible to be printed with the correct Masoretic
Text and the 12 editions of the refined Greek until it finalized in the 1598
Beza text. In 1666 during the great
London fire all the notes of the translators were burned and lost.
This means that the King James Bible is a faith based Bible.
Now enter the modern versions of the Bible that have
severely changed his words from what he has written.
In Jeremiah 28:15 Jeremiah tells Hananiah that the “LORD hath not sent
thee.” The LORD did not authorize
any of the modern Bibles, they were all made with inferior and corrupted
manuscripts in both the old and new testaments.
The LORD did not send these theologians to produce another Bible because
his blessing was upon only one and that is the King James Bible.
This means that those who translate, produce, and use the modern versions
are in rebellion to God just as if Hananiah was still alive and leading that
rebellion by changing the duration of the captivity but this modern rebellion is
being run by theologians, publishers, translators, and users of these modern
versions who are doing the same thing that Hananiah did and that was changing
the settled word of God. So when
radio or TV preachers push the modern versions they are in essence teaching
rebellion against the LORD which will have serious consequences in the lives of
individuals, ministries, and churches.
The church is weak today because the blessing of God is off most of them
since they have taught rebellion by changing the word of God.
You do not rebel against God and expect to be blessed.
So if you are using a modern version, then you are in rebellion against
God and you will not win.
The 4 Cs of using the modern versions are: Chaos,
Compromise, Confusion, Cowardice
The 4 Ss of using the King James Bible are: Stability, Strength, Security, Surety