“THIRTY-TWO REASONS NOT TO USE THE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION …”
aka ‘THE OLD DEAD PHONY’  

Dear NEW LIVING TRANSLATION user:

At the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:20;
2 Corinthians 5:10), don’t be caught out unawares trying to invent excuses on the spot, as to why you loved the NLT.

Be prepared with your reasons before you get there … the following will definitely help.

Reason #1 (James 5:16) You can tell Jesus we are to confess our sins (NLT – New Living Translation) not confess your faults (AV – Authorized Version, KJB, The King James Bible).

Is this why Pope Benedict loves the NLT, as it promotes the priest in the confessional box?

Reason #2 (2Tim 2:15) You can tell Jesus we don’t have to study to show thyself approved (AV KJB) but do your best to present yourself (NLT – New Living Translation).  What a relief! Who likes studying? Look, Just have a go and do your best! That’s all that matters.

Yeh right! Tell that to any University Medical/Engineering/Mathematics graduate that studied late into the night, with sweat pouring out under the door.

Losers say “Well I did my best … I did my best but it wasn’t study … because it was too hard! Boo-Hoo! I’m gonna cry now!”

Reason #3 (John 1:3) You can tell Jesus that all things were made through him (NLT – New Living Translation) and not by him (AV KJB).

Where’s my dictionary - is this why the Christadelphians, Mormons and JW’s love the NLT (New Living Translation)?

Reason #4 (1Cor 1:18) You can tell Jesus that salvation is an ongoing process of being saved (NLT – New Living Translation) and no-one can know that they are saved (AV KJB).

Is this why Pope Benedict loves the NLT as it keeps the money making machine of the Catholic set-up in business?

Reason #5 (Luke 16:23) You can tell Jesus that the rich man was in hades (NLT – New Living Translation)– not hell (AV KJB).

In the New Age, Hades is an intermediate state of purification and not the final punishment of hell. Does this sound similar to Rome’s purgatory?

Reason #6 (1 Tim 6:10) You can tell Jesus that money is only a root of evil (NLT) not the root (AV). Dictionary please?

Reason #7 (Titus 3:10) You can tell Jesus that you can reject a man for being divisive (NLT), and not a heretic (AV).

Heresy is about doctrine while division and being fractious can be virtually anything. No, the truth is that believing heresy is the grounds for rejection (AV), not simply exposing it as a divisive person might (NLT).

Reason #8 (1 Tim 6:5) You can tell Jesus that godliness is a means to financial gain (NLT) and not the reversal of the meaning of gain is godliness (AV).

Which one is correct? Is this why the ‘Name It and Claim It’ crowd like the NLT?

Reason #9 (2 Cor 2:17) You can tell Jesus that peddling (NLT) the word of God is the sin and not corrupting (AV) the word

Sniff! Sniff! Do we suspect that the NLT editors were letting themselves off the hook by changing the meaning?

Reason #10 (2Cor 10:5) You can tell Jesus the word “arguments and pretensions” (NLT) is far preferable to “imaginations” (AV).

With the New Age ‘imaging’ and ‘visualization’ techniques entering the church, wouldn’t “casting down speculations” be preferred?

Reason #11 (Gen 22:8) You can tell Jesus that “… God will provide the lamb” (NLT) instead of “…God will provide himself…” (AV) as the lamb. Could this be a reason why Satan prefers the NLT as it destroys the most wonderful promise in the Bible?

Reason #12 (Matt 20:20) You can tell Jesus that Satan prefers the mother of Zebedee’s children simply kneeling down (NLT) rather than worshipping him (AV).

Reason #13 (Acts 12:4) You can tell Jesus it was Passover (NLT) and not Easter (AV).

Does the fact that the days of unleavened bread (Acts 12:3) coming after the Passover (Ex12:17-18; Ezra 6:19-22) help change your mind?

“Oh! Hello Jesus! The King James Bible is correct!! Ooops! Sorry!”

Reason #14 (Acts 17:22) You can tell Jesus that paying people a compliment by telling them they are very religious (NLT) is a far better way to preach the truth, than to convict them by calling them superstitious (AV)

Reason #15 (Deut 23:17) You can tell Jesus that sodomites (AV) prefer to remain anonymous such that the title of a shrine prostitute (NLT) could be anyone.

Reason #16 (Dan 3:25) You can tell Jesus that, he, like the Son of God (AV KJB) was not needed to protect Shadrach and company in the fire, any old son of the gods (NLT) could have done the job.

Reason #17 2Cor 2:10 You can tell Jesus that his person (AV) has been downgraded to the sight of Christ (NLT). 

Reason #18 (Ezra 8:36) You can tell Jesus the harder word is satraps (NLT) and not the easy understood word of lieutenants (AV). Does the NLT really make the reading of the Bible more simple?

Reason #19 (Ps 109:6) You can tell Jesus that Satan (AV) likes to remain out of sight and let any accuser (NLT) take the blame.

Reason #20 (Matt 12:40) You can tell Jesus the word is whale’s belly (AV) not huge fish (NLT).

To make this switch, you have to ignore the fact that the Greek word for whale in this verse is ketos. Isn’t the scientific name for whales, Cetaceans, and the scientific study of whales called Cetology?

Furthermore, all living creatures in the sea were known as fish … it’s only that false science in the last couple of centuries, that has split up the categories to disagree with the King James Bible. 

Reason #21 (Mark 13:6) You can tell Jesus that the antichrist is happy to be called He (NLT) and not Christ (AV). Aren’t the New Agers looking for a ‘He’ to show up?

Reason #22 (John 4:24) You can tell Jesus you prefer the phrase God is spirit (NLT) with its impersonal, New Age and pantheistic meaning, and not God is a Spirit (AV).

Is it of any surprise then, that emphasizing the fact that God is a single and particular spirit, and not to be mixed or confused with any spirit, is abhorrent to the New Age?

Reason #23 (1Cor 1:21) You can tell Jesus that you think that “the foolishness of preaching” (AV) should be “the foolishness of the message preached” (NLT).

To the unsaved, the fact that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world is not foolish, but what annoys them, is the public preaching about it. If you’re saved, is there anything foolish about preaching?

Furthermore, “the word of the cross” (NLT) is not foolishness to the unsaved (1 Corinthians 1:18) but the preaching of the cross (KJB)

Reason #24 (Phil 3:8) You can tell Jesus that you don’t hate your past life with all its achievements, by calling it the foul smelling excrement dung (AV).

In fact, could it be there’s quite a lot to be proud of, and, if Jesus didn’t mind, could you just call it garbage (NLT)?

Reason #25 (1Tim 6:20) You can tell Jesus it’s only the godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is of what is falsely called knowledge (NLT) and not the oppositions of science (AV)!

Is this why evolutionary thinking Christians and climate change people prefer the NLT?

Furthermore, the science minded saved man, hates the fact that science should be called into question.

“I know” he says “let’s water it down to knowledge.”

Reason #26 (2Pet 2:1) You can tell Jesus that false teachers only bring in the destructive (NLT) heresies not damnable (AV) ones. Just a slap on the wrist then?

Reason #27 You can tell Jesus you preferred that your New Living Translation … as it is just like the New King James Version … that has removed the words “Lord” 66 times; “God” 51 times and “heaven” 50 times; repent 44 times; hell 23 times; blood 23 times; and the words devils, damnation, Jehovah and new testament are completely omitted. Furthermore, it was acceptable to you to remove 2,289 words from the New Testament alone, and changed over 100,000 words.

Reason #28 (1 Cor 14:2 etc etc) You can tell Jesus you that you approve that the word unknown (AV) is omitted. Could it be that the NLT compilers are modern day babblers?

Yes … but here’s the thing …. they’re not even unknown tongue speakers.

Reason #29 (Luke 7:19) You can tell Jesus that calling him the one (NLT) is preferred by the New Age Movement and the occult who are looking for the One called Lord Maitreya.

A highly reverenced mantra chanted by New Agers to invoke the Maitreya is “Let Light, Love, Power and Death, Fulfil the purpose of The Coming One”.

Reason #30 (Isaiah 9:3) This verse states that God will NOT increase Israel’s joy (AV) yet the NLT says “… increase their joy” … Mmmm! Someone’s got it back to front … what say ye?

The NLT leaves out the ‘not’. This verse refers to the 2^nd Advent of the return of Jesus Christ to earth.

Reason #31 Psalm 68:4

“Sing unto God, sing praises to his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.”

The NLT says “Lift up a song for him who rides through the deserts, Whose name is Yah”

Yah is the name of an ancient pagan weather god.

Reason #32 You can tell Jesus … ahhh    … er … um … ahh … um… err ….

In conclusion…

Dear Reader, at the judgment, I don’t think we’ll be telling Jesus anything … do you? I strongly suspect there’ll be no dialogue.

A Cook? Loves cooking!

A mechanic? Loves cars!

The Word? Loves his words!

Will Jesus be justified in throwing the NLT with its opposite meanings, omissions and deceitful manipulations, into the lake of fire, despite your affection for it?

The New Living Translation proves itself to be simply … The Old Dead Phony.

Harley Hitchcock
June 2026

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