KFLCC / New Age Bible Versions - Gail Riplinger

TREND THIRTEEN

Men shall be DESPISERS OF THOSE THAT ARE GOOD II Timothy 3:3

"Servants. . .From the Heart" (kjv) or "Slaves" (niv, nasb)? Billy Graham called attention to the sharp distinction between servants and slaves during his 1988 Denver Crusade, pronouncing, "You are either servants of God or slaves of Satan." Three hundred years earlier John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress painted graphic word- pictures allegorizing Satan's tyrannical dominion. It came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said and however he flattered, when he got me to his house, he would sell me for a slave. Webster presents the disparate imagery of 'servants' and

'slaves'.

Slave: . . .a person held in bondage, a thrall. One who has lost control of himself, freedom of action. A drudge. Servant: . . .one who exerts himself for the benefit of another master. . .as a public servant, an official of a government.7

The images of cruel bondage, generated by the word 'slave', are alien to our 'sonship' motivation expressed in Ephesians 6:6.

. . .but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

The difference between the two words has not only been well- marked by Graham, Bunyan, and Webster, but by New Age writers. The prevailing term among New Agers to describe Christians is 'slave'. Scanning the examples to follow reveals the broad range of strange philosophies which have embraced this deprecating term regarding Christians.