Living Journey

Literal Translation:
Matthew 1:22. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet

The Message:
This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term

Literal Translation:
Matthew 5:13. You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

The Message:
Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Literal Translation:
John 3:5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

The Message:
Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind hovering over the water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom.

Literal Translation:
Romans 9:27-28. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.

The Message:
Isaiah maintained this same emphasis: If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered and the sum labeled “Chosen of God,” they’de be numbers still, not names; salvation comes by personal selection. God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name. Arithmetic is not his focus.

Literal Translation:
Acts 1:20 For it has been written in the scroll of Psalms, Let his estate become forsaken, and he not be living in it. And, “Let another take his overseership.”

The Message:
It’s exactly what we find written in the Psalms: “Let his farm become HAUNTED. So no one can ever live there”.

Literal Translation:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Message:
The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one.

“In the beginning was the Word” is changed to “The Word was first.” First before God? From day one? God is outside time - Omni-present.

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase Bible version of Proverbs 11:28,
The Message:
“A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree” (Proverbs 11:28). […] Peterson seems more interested in poetic language than in accurately rendering God’s Word. Read what the Literal Translation actually says:

“One trusting in his riches, he shall fall; but like a green leaf the righteous shall sprout”.

Message interpretation:
1 Corinthians 2:7: “God’s wisdom…goes deep into the interior of his purposes….It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us,” versus the Literal Translation:

“1Co 2:7-8 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, having been hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has known. For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Where is “his best in us” to be found here? Dave Hunt

KJV: “…the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” John 4:23

NKJV: “…the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” John 4:23

NIV: “…a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23

Message: “That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.” Emphasis added.

There is a huge difference between worshiping God in spirit and truth as His Word tell us - to just simply being honest to yourself before God. The focus has shifted from Christ to oneself!

The Message obfuscates obscures, adds to and deletes things that are in the Word of God. Not only does it obscure and confuse the reader by leaving out by adding to the Word but there is New Age/Occultic phrasing used right throughout Peterson’s interpretation.

The King James Bible refers to Jesus as “Lord Jesus” about 115 times. The New King James Bible uses this term about the same amount of times and the New American Standard about 100 times. How many times does Eugene Peterson’s The Message use the phrase “Lord Jesus”? None! Not once. Never! (Check it out at (www.biblegateway.com)

What The Message does refer to Jesus 77 times is the title “Master Jesus.” This is a New Age term. Warren Smith discusses this in his book, Deceived on Purpose:The New Age Implications of The Purpose Driven Church. Many thanks to Lighthouse Research.

In ‘The Message’, Eugene Peterson, has inserted the highly occult New Age phrase “as above, so below” into the middle of his “paraphrase” of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10). Instead of saying “in earth, as it is in heaven,” Peterson had paraphrased it “as above, so below.” The occult meaning of the New Age phrase “as above, so below” is fully described by the editors of the New Age Journal in their book, As Above, So Below. They wrote:Thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, the great master alchemist Hermes Trismegistus, believed to be a contemporary of the Hebrew prophet Abraham, proclaimed this fundamental truth about the universe: “As above, so below; as below, so above.” This maxim implies that the transcendent God beyond the physical universe and the immanent God within ourselves are one. Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter, the invisible and the visible worlds form a unity to which we are intimately linked.

“As above, so below,” is a deeply occult New Age phrase that is reputed to hold the key to all magic and all mysteries. Again, it means that “all is one” and “God is in everything.” Rick Warren, quoting from The Message, actually used an abbreviated form of “as above, so below,” at the beginning of Chapter One of his book to introduce his readers to The Purpose-Driven Life. Rick Warren’s predominant use of The Message with its many New Age overtones was just one more area of concern regarding the New Age implications of Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven movement. Thanks go to Reinventing Jesus Christ.

I have been told on more than one occasion that I put God in a box or am limiting Him because I fail to understand metaphor’s and parables according to mans imagination, creative license or his artistic abilities when it comes to paraphrases/narratives/Gods stories that are being espoused by some as the way the Bible was intended to be read, really….. (for a biblical exegetical and most fascinating method to interpret shadows, types, patters, parables, metaphors, allegory, poetry and prophecy see my page called Midrash. Midrash makes heavy use of allegory and typology to illustrate and illuminate doctrine, but never as a basis for doctrine. It sees multiple meanings in Bible texts found in strata, but this is very different in certain fundamental respects from the Gnostic and Alexandrian uses of figurative interpretation associated with Philo and Origen, reflecting more of Hebraic, rather than Hellenistic philosophical world-view and view of theology.)

Anyone who actually reads this blog knows that I prayfully and with a teachable spirit long to understand biblical parables and metaphor’s as long as it is within biblical context and they can be backed up scripturally.

However, what about Eugene Peterson putting God’s Word within the box of man’s imagination at best, or into the box of New Age/Occultic thought at worst when dealing with the invisible to make connections via imagination? The fact is, is that God is much bigger than the confines of our mere imaginations and he is not limited to them either, we must not confine Him within our imaginations. Nowhere in scripture is our imagination to be used to train and connect ourselves with God. It is only through His Word that we can know him. Rom 10:17 Faith is of hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. Remember!

Not only that, but if you check out what God says about our imaginations, He says that our imagination is corrupt and cannot be trusted: Gen 6:5 And Jehovah saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day long. Gen 8:21 And Jehovah smelled the soothing fragrance, and Jehovah said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground for the sake of man, because the imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth. Yea, I will not again smite every living thing as I have done.

The last days will be ‘as in the days of Noah!’ Luke 17:26

“The importance of poetry and novels is that the Christian life involves the use of the imagination, after all, we are dealing with the invisible. And, imagination is our training in dealing with the invisible, making connections . . . . I don’t want to do away with or denigrate theology or exegesis, but our primary allies in this business are the artists . . . .
Why do people spend so much time studying the Bible? How much do you need to know? We invest all this time in understanding the text which has a separate life of it’s own and we think we’re being more pious and spiritual when we’re doing it .
[Christians] should be studying it less, not more. You just need enough to pay attention to God . . .. I’m just not at all pleased with all the emphasis on Bible study as if it’s some kind of special thing that Christians do, and the more they do the better.”
["A Conversation with Eugene Peterson," "Mars Hill Review," Fall 1995, Issue No. 3: pgs 73-90.]

The Berean Call comment: It is shocking, but not surprising, that Peterson esteems Bible study so little. While claiming to be a Greek and Hebrew scholar on one hand, Peterson regularly abandons definitions from Strong’s (and other trusted sources) for his own poetic “translation” into today’s “lingo.” That such carelessness is applauded by leading evangelicals is astounding. Peterson is much more careful with his interviews today — but these earlier comments reveal his rationale for taking such “creative liberty” with Scripture in his corrupted “paraphrase” of God’s Word called “The Message.” Peterson says, “Imagination is our training in dealing with the invisible.” What an astounding contradiction of God’s Word! Which says this:

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15);
“All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Roger Oakland puts it into perspective and asks the question ‘isn’t it better to ready some version of the Bible, rather than not reading the Bible at all?

You may ask, so what is wrong with this? Isn’t it better for a seeker to be reading some version of the Bible, rather than not reading the Bible at all? Many Christians, although they have been believers for years, claim they still have difficulty in understanding the Bible that has been translated word by word from the original text. If someone can come up with a way to make the Bible more understandable, wouldn’t this be a great tool for planting seeds for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Such a line of reasoning may sound acceptable. However we also know that what seems right to man, may be wrong from God’s perspective. Further when we rely upon man’s thoughts rather than God’s thoughts it’s almost certain that we will be deceived. With regard to Eugene Peterson’s The Message, there is one message that should be clear. If you want the truth and all the truth, read the Bible - not some man’s conjecture about what he thinks God has said. Otherwise you have the potential of committing spiritual suicide.

WE KNOW WHAT WE BELIEVE

The hope of the Christian church still lies in the purity of her theology, that is, her beliefs about God and man and their relation to each other. It is a fact that positive beliefs are not popular these days. I sense that the modern efforts to popularize the Christian faith have been extremely damaging to that faith. The purpose has been to simplify truth for the masses by using the language of the masses instead of the language of the church. It has not succeeded, but has added to rather than diminished religious confusion. A mistaken desire to maintain a spirit of tolerance among all races and religions has produced a breed of Janus-like Christians with built-in swivels, remarkable only for their ability to turn in any direction gracefully! Our Christian beliefs have been revealed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the sacred Scriptures. Everything there is clear-cut and accurate. We dare not be less than accurate in our treatment of anything so precious!

Prayer

Lord, let me always remember to face only in the right direction. Remove my swivel.

Scripture

If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled… not moved away from the hope of the gospel.
— Colossians 1:23   (A W Tozer)