Sorry about going ‘no contact’ for the past month. I’ve been completely dedicated to getting three daily reading Bibles published on Android:
The Bible in Basic English – BBE
The Literal Standard Version – LSV
The World English Bible – WEB
The hard part is done. All that’s left is to bundle them up into individual Android Apps and publish them on the Google Play store. This should happen rather quickly, since the core development for each app is already done.
The question is… what’s next?
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I created Android Apps that will help you read through the Bible in a Year. You can find them here:
https://revelationsix.com/android-apps/
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Three New Daily Reading Bibles
Over the 50 years since I came to Christ, I’ve had to repent of a lot of things. And I’m not just talking about the need to repent of the sinful behaviors that come natural to us. I’m talking about deep-seated spiritual issues that corrupted my view of who God is and what we should be.
Those of you who have been readers for a while have seen a little of this happen in real time. And, the vast majority of these changes of heart came from reading my Bible every day, cover-to-cover each year. And yes, even the boring parts about who was born to who.
Without reading the Bible over and over and over and over for 40 years, I would still be a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee and useless to God. It wasn’t the only thing that God did to knock me off my perch, but it was the single most important part of God’s rescue plan for my life. (Mrs. Little was a big help, too.)
It’s Easy
Hopefully, you don’t need as much of a rescue as I did, but I do know that you are in desperate need of daily nourishment from God. He gave us precious words, specifically so that we could grow to be good and faithful servants who would play important roles in His Kingdom. And, all it takes to read those words is about twenty minutes a day.
Yes, it’s that easy.
Just 20 minutes.
And, it will change your life.
Some of you are already doing this, and God bless you for it. Keep up the good work. For others, it has been hard to get into the habit of reading that much, every day. With all that’s going on in your life, taking even twenty minutes can seem like a lot. Worse, when you start a reading schedule and then miss a few days, you feel defeated and stop.
I completely understand that.
However, there is a different way to approach this. Stop thinking of this as a goal, but as a pattern of life, a system. The goal isn’t to read the Bible in a year, but to create a habit of devoting a part of each day to spiritual growth. And, if you miss a day, don’t worry about what you missed, just do that day’s bit of reading.
Think of it as a decision. Decide to do this, and then take a step forward each day to fulfill that decision. And, that decision will become so much a part of your life, you’ll wonder how you lived without it.
If it can change an arrogant piece of work like myself, I guarantee that it will change you.
Getting Started
For those of you who want to get started now, go here:
https://revelationsix.com/android-apps/
Right now, there are only the KJV and ASV available. The next three Bibles will either be easier to read (WEB and BBE) or will provide a different, more literal view (LSV). Like the KJV and ASV they will be free with no ads, and you will not need to have an Internet connection to use them. They will also use the same design philosophy that I put into all the applications I have created – simple, fast, easy.
In this case, it’s just tap and go.
No settings. No complications. No extras. Just tap the icon and begin reading. That’s it.
Yes, there is a place for complicated apps that do more than one thing. But, there are times when something is so important that you need to make it as easy as possible to use.
And yes, I use these apps every day myself.
They will also be a great accessory to those complicated applications like MyBible, Blue Letter Bible, e-Sword, Olive Tree, or whatever it is that you like to use. (Mrs. Little thinks MyBible is the best.)
Oh, and one more thing, sometimes you’ll run across a verse and wonder if the translator really got that verse right. That’s where this little app comes in:
Hebrew/Greek Interlinear Bible by Hagiostech
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hagiostech.greekinterlinearbible
I don’t recommend doing that too often when you are starting out, because you can get bogged down in the details. The point is to read the Bible. And, such interlinear Bibles with those Strong’s Numbers don’t always get the words right.
James Strong did a tremendous service to the Body of Christ when he put together his concordance. It’s where we all got started in our interest in translation, and we will often use his work to help others see the point that we are sometimes trying to make. But, he still made mistakes, as we all do.
Why These Next Three Versions
So, why did I choose the WEB, BBE and LSV?
The easiest answer is that I had copyright permission to do so. Other versions will require official permission, and I’m not quite ready to go through that process yet. And, I will never use a version that deliberately corrupted their translation with malice aforethought.
That knocks out the ESV and NET. The ESV deliberately corrupted Genesis 3:16. And the NET deliberately corrupts Psalm 116:15. If a translator will deliberately flip verses like that, and doing it on purpose, you cannot trust any of their work. Period. Ever.
Whatever mistakes you find in the WEB, BBE and LSV will be unintentional. They will still have errors, but not deliberately corrupt ones.
The BBE – Bible in Basic English – will be a good Bible translation for those who have limited English and would like something that is easy to read. This translation restricts itself to 850 basic words in English with an additional 150 Biblical words. This kind of restriction will probably make this Bible less accurate than harder-to-read translations, but you need to start somewhere. And for some, the BBE is the place to begin.
The WEB – World English Bible – is a fairly easy to read Bible that has been proven to be surprisingly accurate, at least for the New Testament. Mark Overton did some research into which Bible is the most accurate in translating the New Testament, and I was surprised to see the WEB do so well. So, I think that you can read the WEB with quite a bit of confidence.
The LSV – Literal Standard Version – might not be a translation that you would choose to read every day. However, some people do like to read the LSV. The main reason why I included it, is that it will offer a different view of a passage that might show you a need to look a little deeper.
The LSV is an attempt to improve and even fix some of the errors of the YLT – Young’s Literal Translation. And, I can tell you that the YLT was in need of serious fixing. Like James Strong, Robert Young did the Body of Christ a great service with his concordance and his literal translation. But, he made mistakes. Lots of them.
What Bibles Should Be Next
So, what’s next?
I thought about creating a Chinese version, but there are only about 74 million Mandarin speakers outside of China. For those inside China, any app that I created would be dangerous to have on a phone. Christians in China are suffering and dying for their faith, and I’m not sure what’s the best way forward to help them. But, I will keep looking into this.
One reader recommended Spanish, (Thanks, Nadine!) and that’s a great idea. But, then I ran straight into the controversy over corrupted Bible translations. And I mean baaaaad corruption.
The Catholic Inquisition didn’t end until the 1820’s and getting a real Spanish Bible into Latin America and Spain was impossible. The only Spanish translations that were allowed were Catholic corruptions. And, when the restrictions were lifted, a lot of the new Spanish translations apparently weren’t all that great. I got some of this from Which Bible in Spanish is the Right One? By Robert Breaker.
Robert Breaker makes some good arguments. But, whenever someone claims to have ‘purified’ a Bible translation, I get nervous. The Valera 1602 Purified version might be as good as claimed, but I’ve seen the same assertions made about some pretty awful translations.
Anyway, we’ll see how the Lord leads. I’m always open for input, so feel free to let me know what you think via the contact page, or substack!
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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you… Hosea 4:6
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Keep this ministry alive with a donation.
Subscribe for free to Revelation Six and receive my articles in your inbox:
https://revelationsix.substack.com/subscribe
And, read my two books:
I created Android Apps that will help you read through the Bible in a Year. You can find them here:
https://revelationsix.com/android-apps/
If you miss my rantings about geopolitics, idiocy, resource collapse and incompetent globalism, follow me on Twitter.
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