The Message Part Two
Posted by Lyndon V Bechtel on Sunday, December 19, 2010 Under: Bible Versions
The Message Part Two
The Following is excerpted from (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143,) Posted on manifestedbythelight.com-Darkness Reproved on December 18-2010
In light of this, consider the following quotations from Peterson’s The Message:
Matthew 6:9-13 -- “Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what's best -- AS ABOVE, SO BELOW. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge!”
Colossians 1:16 -- “For everything, absolutely everything, ABOVE AND BELOW, visible and invisible ... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.”
THE MESSAGE IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL BIBLE
In Romans 15:13, The Message says, “May the God of green hope fill you up with joy...” and in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, it says that those who “use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t quality as citizens in God’s kingdom.”
THE MESSAGE IS THE PRO-HOMOSEXUAL BIBLE
The Message tampers with God’s Word about homosexuality. Consider the following two examples:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
KJV - “ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
THE MESSAGE - “Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who do not care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom.”
1 Timothy 1:10
KJV - “For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.”
THE MESSAGE - “for the irresponsible, who defy all authority, riding roughshod over God, life, sex, truth, whatever!”
One brother rightly observed that “The Message is simply a forerunner to what will be a ‘christless,’ sinless Bible.”
CONSIDER SOME OTHER EXAMPLES OF THE AMAZING LIBERTIES THAT EUGENE PETERSON TAKES WITH THE WORDS OF GOD
Matthew 5:3
KJV - “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
THE MESSAGE - “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.”
Comment: Being poor in spirit is to be at the end of your rope? Then vast numbers of unsaved people are candidates for heaven on this basis.
Matthew 5:8
KJV - “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
THE MESSAGE - “You’re blessed when you get your inside world, your mind and heart, put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”
Comment: This must be transcendental, because it doesn’t make any non-transcendental sense.
Matthew 5:14
KJV - “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.”
THE MESSAGE - “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”
Comment: “God-colors”? I didn’t even learn about God-colors when I was a member of Parmahansa Yogananda’s Self-Realization Fellowship Society before I was saved!
Matthew 5:43
KJV - “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.”
THE MESSAGE - “Jesus said, You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’”
Comment: The Lord Jesus was not quoting the Mosaic Law; He was referring to the teaching of the Pharisees who had perverted the Law. The Law of God did not command, “Hate your enemy.”
Matthew 9:34
KJV - “But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.”
THE MESSAGE - “The Pharisees were left sputtering, ‘Hocus Pocus. It’s nothing but Hocus Pocus.’”
Comment: This is clearly a “translational-paraphrase.”
Matt. 11:28-30
KJV - “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
THE MESSAGE - “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me -- watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.”
Comment: The Message sounds like an iron tonic television commercial here!
Matthew 28:19
KJV - “...baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”
THE MESSAGE - Matt. 28:19 -- “...baptism in the three-fold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
Comment: The Message gives an Anti-Trinitarian, Jesus-only spin to this verse, which teaching claims that God is not three Persons in one Godhead but that He simply manifests Himself in three ways.
John 1:18
KJV - “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
THE MESSAGE - “No one has ever seen God, not so much of a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day.”
Comment: To translate “the only begotten Son” as “this one-of-a-kind God-expression” is not only heretical; it is absurd.
John 3:5
KJV - “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
THE MESSAGE - “Jesus said, You’re not listening. Let me say it again. 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.”
Comment: Peterson’s “translation” gives the baptismal regenerationists the best support they have ever had. The Roman Catholics who write to debate me would love this version.
John 10:30
KJV - “I and my Father are one.”
THE MESSAGE - “I and the Father are one heart and mind.”
Comment: To add to the words of Christ in this strange manner, it truly appears that Peterson has no fear of God.
Acts 8:20
KJV - “But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee...”
THE MESSAGE - “Peter said, ‘To hell with your money!’”
Comment: Since Peter cussed some the night he denied his Lord, I suppose Peterson believes he was still cussing in the book of Acts.
Romans 8:11
KJV - “...he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
THE MESSAGE - “...he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself.”
Comment: Peterson spiritualizes Christ’s resurrection here.
Romans 8:35
KJV - “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
THE MESSAGE - “Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.”
Comment: Revelation 22:18-19 should cause Peterson (and everyone who approved The Message) to lose a lot of sleep.
1 Corinthians 13:12-13
KJV - “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
THE MESSAGE - “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears, and the sun shines bright! ... Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.”
Comment: It is the “translator” who is squinting in a fog!
Philippians 2:12
KJV - “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
THE MESSAGE - “Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.”
Comment: This is another New Agey, heretical spin to the Scriptures.
Colossians 2:10
KJV - “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”
THE MESSAGE - “You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him...”
Comment: What? And this mess was reviewed by 21 scholars and approved by the likes of J.I. Packer?
1 Peter 3:1
KJV - “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.”
THE MESSAGE - “The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs...”
Comment: Peterson has done away with wifely subjection. Do we have the “feminist version” here?
In : Bible Versions
