Thanks to everyone for your posts! They are all thoughtful and helpful.
Aineo posted, "Now that you have studied the various translations have you studied the source documents and have you studied the difference between a dynamic and a word-for-word translation?"
Our local high school has a tradition. When you call the office to leave a message for a student or a teacher, they write down what they think you mean, and not your actual words. Because of this, there has been a lot of confusion and misdirection.
I think it is kind of dangerous for us to take God's exact words and to tell others what we think he meant by them. They call this "dynamic equivalent," don't they? Anyway, it can cause all kinds of problems. Remember, "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" If we can't even understand each other's thoughts, what makes us think we can understand God's thoughts?
One of my favorite texts is I Thess. 1:3, which mentions (our) "work of faith, labor of love..." NIV gives the interpretation, "work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love..." What I've seen is that if you hate someone, you've already done that person harm even if you do not say or do anything against him. Surely this is also true of love, that when you love someone, you have already done him or her good, even if you do not get the chance to act on it. There is nothing better for the environment than for people to have true faith, and nothing so polluting as doubt and evil disbelief. The processes of the heart are very powerful, and the NIV does not express this truth.
NIV was created to make money. It was a business decision. It's copyright is owned by Zondervan, which is now a division of Harper Collins, which is owned and controlled by Rupert Murdock, who gave us the Simpsons. Go figure.