Best modern Bible translation: the TLTRV

Historically, Christianity has been a hard faith to follow, as indeed it still is in many places around the world. Not every Christian has had access to the word of God. Books used to be quite expensive to produce, and therefore difficult to acquire, if indeed you could read. If you could read, you couldn't necessarily read the Bible, because it wasn't always available in your language. Even when it was available in your own language, it wasn't always legal. Even the Catholic Church used to forbid the translation and private ownership of the Bible. Yet, the Church never stopped seeking God. They disobeyed anti-Christian laws, they produced as many copies of scripture as they could, they translated it into as many languages as they were able, they taught people to read, they read it to those who couldn't read. Lacking our privilege, they worked hard to get us that privilege.

The fruit of their labor is that, at least here in the West, we have very easy access to the word of God. It is legal to own, study, and believe the Bible. You can join and leave any denomination you want, you can acquire any version you want, you can read a Bible in public without fear of arrest. You don't even need to buy a physical copy, most reputable translations are available for free at the touch of a few buttons. It is so easy to read the Bible, but the ironic thing is, this has lead to us not doing so.

And so the privilege has become a curse. We got lazy. Our faith decreased. We compromised with our culture, we let our worldly responsibilities distract us from worship, we let our Bibles sit on shelves gathering dust while our TV sets became pristine. The result is a huge disconnect between the modern and historical Church.

Historically speaking, you wouldn't see "it's not a Gospel issue" being used as an excuse to neglect a given doctrine. Some Christians were so firm in their beliefs that if you cared so little for the least of doctrines, they would say "let you be anathema". But these days, we tend to "agree to disagree", not for sake of the unity we could and should achieve, but for sake of comfort. Am I saying we should cut people up with swords over trivial differences? No, but I am saying if God saw fit to inform us through scripture, we should care enough to study and discuss it until we know what He wants us to know.

Moral issues are even more neglected, when in fact they ought to be more thought of. Sexuality, for example, may not be a Gospel issue, but look at the chaos we're in right now because we capitulated to the liberals. In scripture, God shows His love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). But in culture, God shows His love not through the death and resurrection of His only begotten Son, but in approving of some very unnatural acts we do in our bedrooms. Acts which, in Romans 1, we are told mean we deserve death.

It would boggle the mind, if scripture had not foretold it, just how far those who claim to be Christian often fall from the word of Christ. Christ, who came to free us from sin, did not come to make us free to sin. Christ, being God Himself, declaring the Father to us, did not enter the world through Mary's womb that we may be so ignorant as to live our lives with God as a footnote. The Word of God (John 1:1) gave us the word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21), and He says if we love Him, we will keep it, and if we don't keep it, we don't love Him (John 14:23-24).

On earth, no one is perfect. We all sin, we all fail, and if we say otherwise, we add one more sin by lying (1 John 1:8-10). Nevertheless, if we are to bear the title of Christian, we should strive to be. We cannot afford to treat the word of God as just a piece of homework we should be doing, but have a million reasons to procrastinate. Each of us should want to know what scripture says, to believe it, and to apply it to our lives, as we become more effective image bearers of our Lord. Let us return to our roots, diligently seeking Him now that it's easy, just as our predecessors did when it was hard.