Polycarp , in his article entitled
Are Calvinists turning into ESV-Onlies? links to a very interesting article from a blogger who has now lost respect with RC Sproul?

Why?

Because of an R.C. Sproul audio sermon entitled “Q & A and Inerrancy” where the blogger feels that Sproul was speaking with “dishonest rhetoric” slamming other Bible versions while appearing to be “pimping” (my words here) the ESV.

I have not listened to the audio in question to see if the blogger’s allegations can be taken with merit because I am not devoting this blog post to that blogger versus RC Sproul. However, after reading both blog posts mentioned earlier in this post, my past deep concerns about the ESV Bible and is apparent “marriage” to Christians within the Reformed faith (since most Reformed leaders seem to now quote from it exclusively) that I thought was just a passing thought in my head has now become a legitimate question that now needs to be asked and answered externally.

Are Reformed Christians becoming “ESV Only” in ways similar to how many independent Baptist fundamentalists became “KJV Only”?

In many ways, I am now beginning to believe that in a “subtle but definitely unintentional” manner, the answer is leaning towards “yes”. I use the phrase “subtle but definitely unintentional” very carefully because I have never heard a Reformed preacher flat out come forward and say verbatim that the ESV is “God’s official Bible” and using any other version of the Bible would send your soul to hell. At the EPC church I attend, the ESV has never been promoted in this manner even though some of the more “scholarly” members are now using it as their study Bible.

This is in contrast to the numerous sermons, and webpages (many with the appearance of 1800′s old english fonts and parchment paper backgrounds) from ole-time fundamentalist Bible thumpers who damned people’s souls to hell because they used a version other than the King James. I have not even began to mention the sub-culture that goes to a further extreme by saying the “KJV Only” people are hell bound because the “true” Bible to them is the KJV 1611 version and it is “KJV1611″ only.

From what Scriptures I have read out of the ESV and compared them to versions such as the KJV, NKJV, ASV, et al, and doing a word-by-word study using Strongs Concordance, I personally have no problem whatsoever with the ESV and have a very high respect, regard, and admiration for the ESV. In fact, I would one day love to own the hardbound (I get nervous during Sunday Morning sermon and tend to “flex” my Bible, that is why I purchase hardback bibles instead of paperback or leather covered Bibles, you can’t “flex” them) ESV Study Bible exactly like the one pictured above (hint hint!). I even see myself one day using the ESV as my main Bible to replace a halfway worn out hardback NKJV bible I love and currently use. In fact, I currently use the Bible Gateway’s Internet version of the NKJV in this blog via a WordPress plugin as a “personal preference” only (on a side note, one of the original names I had thought about for this blog was “NKJV Only” as “satire and spoof” to the KJV Only people). On my Twitter account, I “follow” Twitter user “esvdaily”.

I have owned many Bibles in the past (Good News, NIV, NLT, KJV, Amplified, CEV, Good News, and NKJV that I can think of off the top of my head ) and have many more translations (Message, ASV, ESV, KJV 1611, et al) in my E-Sword software. Some of these translations (KJV, NKJV, ASV) in my personal opinion are really good bibles while some versions (Message, TNIV, and definitely Amplified) in my personal opinion are poor Bibles.

However, I have never spouted off in a blog post nor pronounced to the world a “new theology’ of “NKJV Only”. Nor have I ever in a “subtle but definitely unintentional” manner, tried to propagate such a mindset. However, it appears that now, all of these “new things” of God all want to declare an “official Bible” to their particular movement. The independent Baptist fundamentalists did this with “KJV Only” (or the KJV 1611 only fringe) in the name of a “pure Bible” yelling out damnation to those who used a different Bible. Many Word of Faith Christians did this with the Amplified Bible did this in the name of ‘revealing hidden blessings’ and telling you that not reading the Amplified Bible will cause their “miss out on the latest thing of God” theology to apply to you. Many “third ravers / riverites” seemed to have used the NLT or NIV implying God’s favor on you. The Lakeland Revival… well they never preached from a Bible, just Todd Bentley’s esoteric “revelations”. Many emergents seem to navigate towards The Message because of it’s “loose trans-literation” and implying an ‘enlightenment’ away from the stuffy old ‘religion’ their parents have.

But I am afraid that some of the Reformed / New Calvinist peoples in a “subtle but definitely unintentional” manner have already or are leaning towards that same “official Bible” / “ESV Only” mindset with the ESV. From the marketing towards the Reformed / New Calvinist peoples and the theologians in higher academia, the endorsements by well known Reformed leaders on the esv.org web page, to the fact that some people are calling the ESV the “purest translation” ever in the “Bible truth war” taking place as a facet of the “culture war”; I am seeing that same mindset starting to manifest and migrating to a potential danger point of the ESV becoming a symbol and a future nehushtan to the modern Reformed movement (if we have not already crossed that line).

And I do not want to see the ESV Bible turn out this way or the Reformed movement ever get to this point of idolizing and “pimping” a particular version of a Bible as the “official” Bible like an ad within the Olympic games. The modern Reformed movement is now already stereotyped and “demographed” to the ESV bible within Christian circles.

If we have already participated in this elitist mindset, we need to stop right now and ask God for forgiveness and repent for not only exalting in a “subtle but definitely unintentional” manner the ESV as God’s official Bible, repent for not only from a “subtle but definitely unintentional” proclamation of being an “ESV / Reformed / (insert favorite reformed teacher here) fanboy (or in pro wrestling “mark”)” instead of just being a Christian, but repent for also manifesting a “subtle but definitely unintentional” mindset of “ESV Only”.

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4. Official (fill in blank) of Christianity
5. Between The Wheels – Reformed and Charismatic

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