I will not use the message. I work at Lifeway Christian Books and I'm amazed at how many message bibles we sell. I am also amazed at who buys them. It's not your younger people all the time, but rather older more mature readers.

Every once in a while I'll break out my wifes NLT for another input on a difficult text. But at the same time, I'm also going to my commentaries also.

For example, John 3:13 in the NASB reads: No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.

The NLT reads: For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again.


Commentary notes from William Hendriksen:

Now, in order to have first-hand information about those heavenly
things one must have been present in God’s Throne-room when the decisions were
made. But no one has gone up into heaven. Hence, God’s decree concerning the
redemption of his people lies completely outside of the range of man’s knowledge
until it is revealed to him. Was there actually no one present with the Father when the
plan was made which centers in the decree to send the Son into the world in order to
bear the curse and set man free? Yes, there was One, the One who descended from
heaven namely, the Son of man.



So by using the NLT, it gives me a little better understanding of what this verse means. Along with using the New Testament Commentaries by Hendriksen, I am better able to understand my NASB.

But, for reading and studying, I use my NASB. I don't find it difficult to read at all. Some people say that it is "woody" but I don't see that. I like the way the NASB reads very much, better then the NKJV. I don't use the KJV because of the old english. It makes it too difficult for comfortable reading.

But I am in the same camp as some of the others here. I believe that an english translation should be just that, a translation not an interpretation.

Do I use the NASB when reading too my 8 year old daughter. No I don't, I use her NIRV. But when she is old enough to understand better, I'll switch over to the NASB.

My wife though, uses the NLT when she goes to her bible study. Our pew bible is the NASB and when my wife and I read together, we read from my NASB, but when she is by herself, she prefers the easier to understand NLT.

She is still new to her faith though, so I will recommend the NLT to people in the bookstore, but always with the recommendation that they should also pick up a more literal translation as well, using both.

Soli Deo Gloria

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. - Galatians 2:16