WHATEVER HAPPENED TO "THE HOLY BIBLE"?

Last night, I was leading a prayer service in my jail ministry, and I noticed that several of the inmates were carrying around versions of the Bible entitled, "The Story of God". Apparently, this version of the Bible is produced by the TNIV, and after some research, I have found out that they have produced other Bibles with these types of titles.

Now, I don't have time to complain in full about the dangerous errors of the TNIV or the lack of care or discernment from those who give these Bibles to the inmates (I can't tell you the amount of inmates that have come to my class over the years with New World Translations), but I do want to raise a very interesting question: What happened to calling the Holy Bible "The Holy Bible"? Today, we have Bibles called "The Message", "The Book", and "The Story". And with such controversy arising over whether we should put "In God we Trust" on our money any longer, one has to ask a more disturbing question: Has the word "Holy Bible" become offensive to today's society?

Have we gotten to a point where it is now politically incorrect to, not only call the Bible "Holy", but to call it the "Bible"? If the producers of these Bibles are expressing this as fact by renaming the Bible to fit the mindset of this generation, let me remind them of the words of our Savior: "If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38).

Brothers and Sisters, the Holy Bible is called "The Holy Bible" because it is the infallible, inerrant authority for all mankind in regards of faith and practice. As the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith states:

"The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience" (Chapter 1: "Of the Holy Scriptures")

It was a book written by Almighty God, and when one reads, studies, and/or discusses it, it should be handled in that proper reverence. In short, to dumb down the holiness or authority of the Bible in order to make it appealing to unbelievers is nothing less than a slap in the face of God and a major act of cosmic treason. May God have mercy and grant repentance to those who, not only produce these types of Bibles, but also those preachers who use and endorse them as well as those individuals who buy them with little regard to the authority of Scripture.