Liberty Features
Nothing compares to the Liberty International Bible’s (LIB) ability to elicit an awe-inspired hunger for God’s Word. The LIB takes what scholars, teachers and students of the Bible respect about the King James Version (KJV) and creates perhaps the most easy to read and absorb Bible ever written.
The benefit to every reader is that it simplifies and in the process amplifies and clarifies the essence of what one often had to wade through lines of language to find. It facilitates a speed-reading of God’s wisdom. Yet while it eliminates excess verbiage that bogs down many readers it does not dispose of the most accurate translation, available in the next column, where the LIB text is highlighted within its original place in the King James Version. The LIB does not “add to…or…take away” (Rev 22:18,19) but merely accentuates for comprehension and meditation.
Amazingly when the standard verses are varied somewhat it tends to cause one to rethink a verse, allowing one to search God’s thoughts and leading one to delve deeper into the heart of God and that place “where the Spirit of the Lord is . . . is liberty” (2 Cor 3:17).
The greatest difficulty in life facing every human will differ and yet there is only one thing that will set each free of their dilemma . . . the Truth. Thus the sharpened Word of God is needed now more than ever before in history to free saints to be made available and able to set the world on fire with the purposes of God. However, a universal roadblock to church leaders and those trying to follow, is the confessed complaint in these pressured times, “I don’t have time to read the Bible.”
No other Bible addresses this issue like the LIB does. The Amplified Bible and The Message seem helpful for many but require more reading effort as do all the standard Bibles. The LIB is truly liberating in the ease with which one can quickly scan it. What children and adults enjoy about the Living Bible and what is trusted about the KJV is integrated into a powerful and unique poetic style suited to the most relevant and greatest story ever told.
Liberty Looks
The Liberty International Bible project originally began in an effort to create excerpts of the essence of the Bible to alleviate the frustration of Christians and unbelievers regarding the difficulty in comprehension of the Bible. Knowing that there’s more depth to the Bible than any one person could ever hope to comprehend, the goal was to capture the essence but without sacrificing the accuracy. Then gradually in the process . . . a most distinctive format began to emerge.
The colors of the LIB reflect research that shows colors affect the mind i.e. “true blue” instills trusting (each page of God's Word is encompassed by it) and rose calms (each chapter heading welcoming a journey) and yellow inspires organization (to download each line into the mind).
There is no other Bible that takes to heart and literally presents “precept must be upon precept…line upon line…little by little…this is the rest by which you may cause the weary to rest…this is the refreshing…Word of God...” (Isaiah 28:10-13).
Like the organizing yellow, a precept is something that guides and orders thoughts toward right action. And without a doubt the format of the Liberty Bible, “line upon line” taking “thought by thought” is restful to a mind struggling to ingest the most profound wisdom available in this world. Additionally yellow is seemingly the closest color conceptually to “glory” - as each collection of thoughts is underlined and interspersed with it.
To further foster mental focus the lines are in ascending or descending lengths which lends an aesthetic look of poetry. Collectively these concepts make the LIB a refreshing modern classic.
Liberty Codes
The LIB shows the text of the Authorized King James Version, originally published in 1611, in the right column of each page. The highlights of that text are in the left column and usually with a little reorganization.
Many small changes have been made such as “unto” might be changed to “for” or old English terms like thee, thou, and thine changed to their modern counterparts. Whenever possible without going overboard "he" may have been replaced by "they" but of course is never changed in reference to God. Often the tense of words have been changed.
In general if the word appears in the extracted left column – it’s just as it appears in the KJV right column except the word order, tense, or outdated word may have been changed and modernized words added along with words just to help the flow since there is no punctuation. In this respect the LIB is actually more like the original manuscripts than even the KJV.
Boldface words are the highlights in the KJV that were extracted and used in the LIB and therefore at a glance show the context from which they came.
Underlined words indicate that corresponding LIB words have been modernized or somehow adjusted. Words changed only slightly that obviously have the same meaning are not usually underlined.
In the LIB everything was removed from the KJV that could be, such as unusual words, repetitive phrases, the hellos and goodbyes of the epistles, etc. while still leaving the essence. If a theme was thoroughly addressed in one verse or chapter then it may be left out of the following ones, although in the New Testament there is not as much that can be left out. The LIB relieves fears of distortions in translations because any reader can easily see what has been changed and even analyzing changes can encourage deeper study.
Liberty Calls
Normally, the encountering of unusual words or phrasing brings less comprehension each time it happens, with increased mental fogging, then sleepiness and finally discarding of the reading material. The LIB comes as a solution to this frequent reading pattern.
The Liberty Bible is a unique meditation tool that can either help one to slow down and dwell on each inspirational phrase to digest every bite or to speed up and relish whole meals all at one sitting. The desired outcome of the LIB is that highlighting the essence in this way will ignite passions for reading the Bible as never before.
"You have been called to liberty" (Gal 5:13) and whatever potential hazard might have been inherent in consolidating the Bible, the fact remains that the messages of the Bible run in deep themes that can’t be misunderstood and with such richness as to be impossible to extinguish. And since it would require more than a lifetime to grasp its wealth anyway, these extraordinary times have called forth the Liberty Bible "for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14).
The Bible is certainly strong enough to withstand streamlining modernization to be able to reach the most people possible with the greatest piece of literature ever written . . . the Word of God . . . “not in the letter but in the spirit” (2 Cor 3:6). Welcome to the Liberty International Bible. "Look into the perfect law of liberty and . . . be blessed" (James 1:25)!
