New Testament; Will Bontrager Version

by

Will Bontrager

The Bible is holy and true as it is. That was not why the Holy Spirit told me to tweak the New Testament.

The Holy Spirit moved me to provide another interpretation of the New Testament.

Personal conviction does not control objective truth.

It is simple how the Will Bontrager Version of the New Testament came about.

The Holy Spirit moved me to provide another interpretation of the New Testament.

The Bible is holy and true as it is. That was not why the Holy Spirit told me to tweak the New Testament.

The Will Bontrager Version of the New Testament is similar to the King James Version. The WBV contains a few over a hundred tweaks. It is not a sweeping rewrite.

One of the things the Holy Spirit mentioned about our current societies is that Jesus is oftentimes assumed to be God. Or even above God.

Note that God's First Commandment as delivered by Moses says, “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Any possession, idea, desire, goal, or person that seems more important than God is a fracture of God's very first commandment.

God's first commandment tells us that Jesus never was and never will be God or more important than God. Jesus does, however, sit beside God. Jesus is equally important.

Another aspect the Holy Spirit mentioned about our current societies is that an assumed skin color of Jesus sometimes is used to divide humans. While the Holy Spirit generally is transparent, it has and may again present itself as an angel or human. In those cases, the skin color is always white.

Of course Jesus was born white. What other color would the Holy Spirit choose for God's son? Blue? Orange?

A third aspect, one that seemed to be especially significant to the Holy Spirit, is an assumption that women are somehow below or inferior to men.

As one example of the injustices the Holy Spirit revealed, just because it is written that women are to listen to men doesn't mean men don't have to listen to women. Writing was work back then. A lot of work. Only a few people could do it. When something in their society was assumed to be true and accepted by all, then it didn't need to be repeated. Which is one reason why many things never got written. Thus, in this New Testament interpretation, men are also told to listen to women.

Of course, women and men are equally valid in the eyes of God. God would not make an inferior gender.

My personal definition of religion is a belief formed from others' interpretation of God's word.

When a belief is formed from someone else's interpretation, the interpretor has a vested interest in keeping the belief viable. Thus, religion trained us to assume that belief proves objective truth, our common reality, something that others experience the same way.

But that's not the Holy Spirit way. Belief is not the determiner of objective truth or common reality. Instead, belief needs to be compared to objective truth again and again, at every common reality change. When a belief is contrary to objective truth, then the belief contains something false or a misinterpretation. The belief needs to be scrutinized and corrected.

Watch for the devil's hand in your beliefs. It is how the dark one can control multitudes.

Personal conviction does not control objective truth.