It’s 10 o’clock on Sunday morning, and 37 people from all over the city are gathered at Landmark Independent Missionary Baptist Church for worship. As this record crowd sings the last verse of Onward Christian Soldiers, Pastor John de Baptiste mounts the pulpit. “This morning’s message,” said Pastor Baptiste in a brief interview prior to the service, “is designed to motivate our congregation to stand up for the Word of God in a world that is so hostile to its truth.” “We have to stand up for what’s right, no matter how unpopular it might be,” said Baptiste. “We have to stand up to those who want to water down the Word of the Lord.” From the pulpit this man of God is even more boisterous: “THIS is the inerrant, infalible, inspired, all sufficient Word of God!”, says Pastor Baptiste as he waves his black, leather bound copy of Holy Writ in the air. “THIS is your life, THIS is your food, THIS is the Word of God!”, he exclaims over and over.

What Pastor John means when he speaks of the “Word of God” is the New International Version of the English Bible, which was published by the IBS in 1978. Pastor John, and the other members of his church believe that the NIV is the only true Bible in existence today. Pastor John, 29 years old, says he was raised on the Word (i.e. the NIV), and if it was good enough for his parents, then it is good enough for him. In fact, he not only believes it is the only true Bible on earth, but also that it was in fact inspired by the Holy Spirit. Says Baptiste, “The Bible says ‘I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book’ . . . and there are many today who do that very thing, adding to and taking away.” We simply want to be true to what the Bible says and warn others about the danger of adding to or taking away from it.” “Those who change words in the Bible, no matter what the reason, are going to hell . . . that’s what it says.”

When asked to clarify his position for us, Brother John (as he asked to be called) asserts, “No other Bible out there comes close to this one . . . it is the only translation that is true to the original languages.” For evidence he cites 2 Timothy 3.16: “The Bible says ‘All Scripture is God-breathed’ . . . and that means that it comes directly from God himself.” Says Brother John, “In the original this verse says, pasa graphe theopneustos–’all scripture [is] God-breathed.’” Other versions waver from the original, especially the outdated and evil King James Version, which says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” “Sure this may sound similar, says Brother John, but remember, they have added to the Bible and are in danger of suffering the fiery indignation of Almighty God.”

Baptiste claims that the KJV is the worst translation out there and warns his people, “If you have a KJV with you today, leave it in the trash can when you leave . . . and if you have a KJV at home, burn it in your fireplace and get you a real Bible, the NIV.” Pastor John says that other translations (all other translations) are no good, and not fit for a Christian to read. “This has caused some major problems in our own denomination,” said Baptiste. “There are those in the Northwest Louisiana Independent Missionary Baptist Convention who think it is okay to compromise with the world on the issue of Scripture.” “Most don’t go as far as using the KJV, but versions like the ESV and the NET are gaining momentum among the liberals in the convention . . . there are even some of our so-called-brothers in the Tacoma area who have formed a group that plans to speak out at our next national convention meeting who use only the NASB of all things.” “These NASB-only people are destroying the convention,” says Brother John, “because they have managed to get some of the ‘higher ups’ on their side.” “Satan is clever, and he has decieved these people into thinking it is okay to pervert the Scriptures,” says Baptiste.

When asked about the validity of his cliam that the NIV is the most accurate translation, and confronted with several texts that seem to be highly interpretive, Baptiste maintains his convictions based on his understanding of inspiration. When our reporters asked him to explain how that could be since the NIV did not exist until 1978, Baptiste stated plainly that the Holy Spirit had inspired the International Bible Society to “preserve” the Word of God for coming generations. When asked what happened to the original manuscripts from which the NIV was translated he seemed confused, even angered by the question. “It doesn’t matter what happened to the originals,” says Baptiste, “they could have been lost, they could have been stolen, heck, they even could have been taken up into heaven or something.” “The important thing is that the Spirit of God decided to do something and he did it . . . he preserved his true Word in the NIV for everyone in the world to read for themselves.”

When asked about the people who do not speak English, and how they would read it, Baptiste said that he believed God knew that English would be growing today as a World-wide language, and so he had the Word done in that language once for all time. Though he seemed to be a little fuzzy on how many people groups there are in the world who do not speak English, still he maintained that “the world needs no other Bible than the NIV!” “And don’t try to confuse my people with talk of Greek and Hebrew either,” says the pastor, “we don’t need those ‘foreign translations’ to understand the Word.” “All we need is the NIV!”

As Pastor John closes this morning’s sermon, he encourages the faithful to take with them some of the free NIV Bibles on the back table to pass out to their friends and neighbors. “We need to make sure that everyone we know has the chance to read the real Bible so they will really be able to know how to be saved,” says Baptiste. “Take as many as you need, but leave some for the neighborhood kids who will be coming to our VBS next week.” Baptiste told us that he intended to use the VBS as a way of getting the truth to the kids of the neighborhood without their parents interfering. “Maybe,” said Baptiste, “just maybe the kids will catch on and be drawn to the real Word of God and then by extension it will overflow to their parents.” “We are taking up any other versions the kids bring, and burning them in a special ceremony as a part of our VBS next week . . . we hope this will get their parents attention.” “People need to be woke up from their state of spiritual sleep when it comes to the Bible, and we just hope its not too late.”

The last few words of his message were meant as a challenge, as well as an encouragement to those who pay the price for the Word:

“Burn those other translations in the fire!, throw them in the trash, those perverted and twisted immitations of the real thing!” “We will stand on our confession that the NIV is the only Bible for us, and indeed for the whole world!” “We will sit on our NIVs until we are the only ones in the city who hold to the truth, or until the Lord returns!” “March out, soldiers of the Word!” “Take no prisoners!” “Stand up for the Word of God, as preserved here in this glorious NIV!”