Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
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The False Filter |
The Biblical Filter |
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The word OR the Word |
The Word THROUGH the word |
First, I will share how God’s word once
again blessed me during my exercise routine as I listened along from Acts 9 into
chapter 22, confirming that we get to know the Word through the word.
“But Saul increased all the more in
strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus
was the Christ” (9:22). How did Paul prove Jesus was the Christ? With the scriptures.
“To him all the prophets bear witness that
everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name”
(10:43). Confirming that the Apostles used the scriptures as their evidence
that pointed everyone to Jesus as the Christ.
“Then the proconsul believed, when he saw
what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord” (13:12). The "teaching of the Lord”, meaning of Jesus, was the mix of the scriptures that
spoke of the Christ, and the gospel of the kingdom that fulfilled those
scriptures.
“And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly,
saying, ‘It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since
you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we
are turning to the Gentiles’” (13;46). Paul called what they were proclaiming (the Scriptures + the Gospel) “the
word of God”, and, since the Jews rejected it, they would now offer it freely
to the Gentiles.
“And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on
three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (17:2). This
means that it was Paul’s habit to do this, to first find the Jews and offer
them the gospel, and he did this by reasoning “from the Scriptures”.
“Now these Jews were more noble than those
in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the
Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (17:11). Here we see “the word”
as a summary for “the word of God”, and they turned to “the Scriptures” to
verify “if these things were so”, which is commended here in Scripture as the “more
noble” thing to do.
“But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned
that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too,
agitating and stirring up the crowds” (17:13). Again, what Paul was proclaiming
of the Scriptures and the Gospel of the Kingdom is referred to in God’s word as
“the word of God”.
“...when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they
took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (18:26). This refers to Apollos who only knew Christ as far as the baptism of John.
The point is that “the way of God” would have been what we see all through the four
Gospels and Acts, that any explaining of the way of God meant to use the
Scriptures to prove Jesus was the Christ, and to show how the Gospel of the
Kingdom fulfills this.
Once Apollos had that bigger picture, “he
powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the
Christ was Jesus” (18:28). Again, it was the Scriptures, what we call the Old
Testament, that were pointing to Christ, leading people to know the Word through
the word.
“And he entered the synagogue and for three
months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God” (19:8).
How did Paul reason about “the kingdom of God”? We already saw that he did this
with the Scriptures the Jews already knew where the word of God, and the Gospel
of the Kingdom that comes through Jesus and points to him.
“This continued for two years, so that all
the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks”
(18:10). Another summary statement of all this preaching of the Scriptures to
show the Gospel of the Kingdom calls the message “the word of the Lord”, with “the
Lord” meaning Jesus (Romans 10:9-10; Phil 2:8-9).
“And fear fell upon them all, and the name
of the Lord Jesus was extolled” (19:17). See that wonderful picture: the “word
of God” was received, and the “Word of God” was “extolled”, exalted, praised,
the focus of everyone’s attention and faith.
“So the word of the Lord continued to
increase and prevail mightily” (19:20). Again, by this point in Acts, all of
this is summarized as “the word of the Lord”, which (because “the Lord” is “Jesus
Christ”) is synonymous with, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through
the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). So we “Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col 3:16).
Yes, all that came from simply hearing the
word of the Lord being read to me as I exercised. None of that is from doing a
Bible study on “the word of God,” or “the Word,” or what the scriptures say about
the scriptures. It’s just there as we keep going in God’s word from wherever we
left off the last time we were there.
Now, back to the regular programming!
As I continue with the author’s history of
his journey, the next thing that stands out refers to the motto of his
Bible college, “…the word of our God shall stand forever” from Isaiah 40:8. He
then suggests, “Although Isaiah was likely referring to the reliability of
God’s covenant promises, as in ‘you have my word’” (p.30). Really?
This one I had to look up to see if the
words used had any meaning that would affirm or deny this. The word for “word”
means, “word (statement) n. – a brief statement.”[1] So,
this is not “you have my word,” as in God promises to keep a promise. It is, you
have the statements I have given you through the prophets, and these statements
will stand forever. We do not need to minimize a word of scripture to magnify the
God we want to find in the Bible. Rather, we want to exalt the God revealed in
the Bible and give him glory, honor and praise, living as the people he
delights in who “tremble at my word” (Isaiah 66:2,5).
From there, BJ quotes Hebrews 4:12 from the
KJV: “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” I
looked this up in www.biblegateway.com
and found that the ESV, NIV, KJV, NKJV, NASB, all translate “word of God” with
a small “w”, indicating the Scriptures. This is because the word translated “word”
means, “message (communication) n. — a communication that is most often spoken,
but can come through other means” (BSL). In other words, it is not “the Word”,
but “the word”.
How then does BJ use the following verse to
contradict what the Greek word means, and what so many reliable translations
have translated? He claims, “I didn’t notice that the verse following says, ‘Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight’ (Heb 4:13 KJV), or
that the next says, ‘Seeing then that we have a great high priest’ (Heb 4:14
KJV).” And then he laments, “And really, how could I hope to connect those dots
when the translators so often inserted a bold, intrusive subtitle between verse
12 and the rest of the chapter? My edition of the Bible deliberately segmented ‘the
word of God’ from the person of Christ, and I failed to notice” (p.31). Not
true, but let me explain.
The word used for “word” is not speaking of
the person of Christ, so no one is segmenting them. That would mean that “word
of God” is speaking of the message that belongs to God, and that message does
all the dividing and conquering because there is no creature hidden from “God’s”
sight (not the “word’s” sight). It is because this word/message is from God
that it does what it does.
Then, when he speaks of Jesus as the great
high priest (not a problem in any way), he again claims that “the word” was meaning
“the great high priest” when the whole thing really means that “the
word/message of God” is all about our great high priest. That’s what the author
is again drawing attention to, but with the affirmation that the word/message
about this great high priest is powerful in exposing hearts and revealing the
truth.
So,
yes, I see BJ’s point, but, no, he did not make it. None of what he said turns “the
word” into “the Word”, and that means that whatever things he says after that
with this supposed clarification (really the God BJ wanted to find in the
Bible), is just as false as his misinterpretation of these glorious verses of
God’s word.
Because this is so crucial to see how he
builds one false proof after another, let’s examine how he explains his point: “I
have always LOVED the Bible, and I have always LOVED Jesus. And I still do. But
in prioritizing study of the Bible (‘to show myself approved unto God’10)
ahead of hearing and following Christ the Word—by making my interpretation of
the Good Book my final authority—I learned how to read without intimacy” (p.
31).
First, what BJ did shows a failure in him to
see how the “word of God” was pointing him to the “Word of God”. That says
nothing about whether Hebrews 4:12 referred to the whole counsel of God as “the
word of God” or whether our failures give us the right to change the plain
meaning of that verse and context to mean the “Word of God”. Sadly, he is still
making his new misinterpretation authoritative enough to write books about it
to try leading others astray.
He continues, “I could dissect the Bible
without illumination. And I most definitely felt the absence of the Holy Spirit
in my reading as keenly as I had felt the Spirit’s presence as a child. I read
with a veil over my heart, and in the infrequent pauses between being ‘wise in
my own eyes,’11 I’m embarrassed to say I absolutely knew it.” None
of this failure was because “the word of God” in Hebrews 4:12 really means “the
Word of God”. I love hearing stories of people learning things about what God’s
word really says in ways we had missed, or even in ways we had been wrongly
taught. But the BJs have it backwards here. The “wise in my own eyes” syndrome
has produced a different Jesus than what is in the Scriptures, and this
mishandling of Hebrews 4 is very good evidence of that.
I’m afraid that is enough journey for today.
Although this trail is slow and dangerous, I believe it is imperative to see
the ways deceptive steps are laid out to convince us to believe one false
notion in order to lead to the ones that are coming next. Today I have shown
how God blessed me with so many affirmations that his word, the Scriptures,
what we now have in the Bible as the “word of the Lord”, is always about
getting to know “the Word through the word”. And this focus on the mishandling
of Hebrews 4 shows that God was talking about his “word” that then points us to
our Savior, the great high priest, “Jesus, the Son of God”.
It is this inseparable fellowship of the
word and the Word that is how we know that we can “with confidence draw near to
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time
of need” (Heb 4:16), which is the point of Hebrews 4. The word of God pierces
our hearts with the good news of the kingdom; it reveals to us that we now have
a great high priest who has opened the most holy place to us, and that’s why we
can come with confidence to the throne of grace knowing that, because of what
the word says about the Word, we can be absolutely certain we will “find grace
to help in time of need.”
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
A More Christlike Word © 2021 by Bradley Jersak Whitaker House 1030 Hunt
Valley Circle • New Kensington, PA 15068 www.whitakerhouse.com
Jersak, Bradley. A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the
Emmaus Way. Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.
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