Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
Day 7
“For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.” (Paul’s concern from 2 Corinthians 11:4)
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The False Filter |
The Biblical Filter |
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The word OR the Word |
The Word THROUGH the word |
I’m writing this first note as a forward to
my journal journey through the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2
after I completed today’s entry. This is to remind my readers that Brad Jersak
is NOT making his case that “the Word” is in conflict with “the word”. What he
teaches is, in fact, quite contrary to both the word and the Word of God.
Prior to this day’s journey, I wasn’t sure
if anyone reading my journaling would agree that this is the author’s focus, to
pit the Jesus he wanted to find in the Bible against the word of God that would
contradict him. However, this day’s journey came to some viewpoints that
absolutely prove he is presenting a different Jesus than the one God reveals in
his word, and I will show from the word of God that so many of the things BJ
claims about the word and Word of God are false. The rest of this chapter is
shared as my journey through these pages as it took place (with the usual editing
as required).
I read through a number of pages of BJ’s
testimony of his journey with sympathy for his struggles. However, my concerns
were again stirred as I came to this statement: “But I know this: I’ve met the
Word of God, and he’s far more than a book” (p.34). Yes, absolutely. My
complaint with A More Christlike Word so far is not that it is showing
that the Word of God is greater than the word of God, but that it is pitting
the two against each other. That, then is the conclusion of chapter 1. If that
was to show that we get to know the Word THROUGH the word, no problem. The Word
is supreme; the word leads us to him. But because this book is an attempt to
convince readers that it is the word OR the Word, huge problem.
As chapter 2 gets under way, BJ now brings
the Holy Spirit into the picture. Again, it is the word of God that teaches us
about the Spirit of God who leads us into all the truth of the Word of God. What
the word of God teaches us about the ministry of the Holy Spirit is never in conflict
with the Word or the Spirit of God.
However, he said that his eyes were opened
“to the stubborn fact that not every word of Scripture aligns with the living
Word of God” (p.38) In a previous day’s journal I pointed out that the
expression “the word of God is living and active” doesn’t apply to Jesus, but
to the message of God communicated through preaching and the Scriptures. Using
a paraphrase of that scripture to refer to Jesus is misleading because it
continues to deceive people that what was written there applies to Jesus when
it applies to the Bible.
Now, as to the claim above (that there are
parts of Scripture that do not align with Jesus), does that mean that not
everything recorded in the Scriptures is in agreement with God’s will, like
when there is a quote of people planning to do something sinful (the people
asking Aaron for a golden calf, the troublemakers who were plotting to kill Paul)?
We know that their comments and plans aren’t scriptural, or in agreement with
scripture. God didn’t breathe-out those words into them so they could be
recorded. But we know that the record of what was said and done is scriptural,
as in a God-breathed accounting of the events.
Or does BJ mean that there are parts of
scripture that were understood to be God speaking about something but they don’t
align with what BJ’s Jesus would say on the matter? That’s a huge difference!
The author continues, “That’s not merely a
progression—it’s a correction. There, I said it out loud. Yes, Jesus corrected
the Bible, including words in the Bible formally ascribed to God!” (p. 38). So,
is that true? Did Jesus correct the Bible? Did he correct statements in the
Bible that had been “formally ascribed to God”? Or did he simply correct
people’s understanding of the Bible?
Everything revolves around the focus, “It’s
so plain in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘You have heard it said, but I say to you…’”
(p. 38). BJ claims this is a correction of the Bible. I believe it is a
correction of what people were being taught by their religious leaders. So,
let’s go look at what those scriptures say to find out if Jesus was correcting
the Bible of his day, or whether he was correcting people’s thinking about what
they had already been taught from the Scriptures.
There are six “You have heard.. but I say…”
statements in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). Let’s look at each one to see
if any of them are Jesus correcting the Bible. Let’s begin by noting that Jesus
introduces these six statements with, “For I tell you, unless your
righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter
the kingdom of heaven” (5:20). This means that his focus is not contradicting
the Scriptures, but showing what it looks like to have a righteousness that
exceeds that of the religious elite. His, “you have heard it said” refers to
what the people were taught by the religious elite; the “but I say” is what the
righteousness of the kingdom of God looks like.
The first statement is, “You have heard that
it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be
liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his
brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable
to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of
fire” (5:21-22). There is nothing in that that shows Jesus correcting what was
written in the Bible. He was showing that the righteousness the people had seen
in their religious leaders went no further than the external applications of Law
(as they taught them in those days), but the righteousness of the kingdom of
God exceeds that because it addresses the attitudes of the heart.
The second statement is, “You have heard
that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed
adultery with her in his heart” (5:27-28). Again, Jesus did not correct what
was written in the Bible, but shows how the righteousness of the kingdom
exceeds that of the religious leaders who may have kept the external
appearances of the law but never addressed the “in his heart” problem. The
righteousness of the kingdom of God exceeds that of the religious elite.
The third statement is, “It was also said,
‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I
say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual
immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits
adultery” (5:31-32). Jesus is not here disagreeing with Moses about the
provision that was made under the Law. He is simply reiterating the sinfulness
of divorce and clarifying that, because divorce is not legitimately disolving a
marriage in God’s eyes, remarriage is adultery since people are now entering
into a sexual relationship with someone other than their spouse (in God’s
eyes). Nothing in this is Jesus contradicting the Bible, and we’re half way
through!
Statement four is,
“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil” (5:33-37).
Jesus did not correct what was written in
the Law. After all, he had just said that he had “not come to abolish the Law
or the Prophets” (5:17) so we can’t claim that he is now doing so! He even said
that “whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others
to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does
them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (5:19).
Again, that isn’t correcting what was truly
written in the Law. Instead, he was showing how the righteousness in the
kingdom exceeded/surpassed that of the religious leaders who were the people
who came to God with their lips while their hearts were far away from him (Is
29:13; Mt 15:8). The righteousness of the kingdom of God is a matter of the
heart, and that is what Jesus is teaching here.
In this case, with oaths, Jesus is speaking
to people who were familiar with the rules and
“cross-my-fingers-behind-my-back” tricks the religious leaders used so they
could swear to something in one way and were not bound by their words, but only
if they swore in the right way, with the right words, were they obligated to
keep their vows. Jesus is exposing this hypocrisy (not a fault with the Bible)
and showing that in the kingdom of God a Christian’s yes means yes and their no
means no. As Jesus’ half-brother later wrote, “But above all, my brothers, do
not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your
“yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation”
(James 5:12). The “condemnation” would be that people were manipulating words
in deceiving ways. But, in the kingdom of God, we never play around with words
to deceive people, which would be quite consistent with the Law, the Psalms, the
Prophets, the word of God, and the Word of God!
The fifth example is,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you” (5:38-42).
If people were to take the Law as nothing
more than a list of external behaviors, then justice is the primary focus.
Jesus is not contradicting what is just under the Law. Rather, he is showing
how the righteousness of the kingdom goes beyond the externals of the Law by
looking for ways to show love, grace, and mercy, something the religious elite
were not good at.
Statement six is, “You have heard that it
was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons
of your Father who is in heaven” (5:43-45). Here it comes out very clearly that
Jesus is not correcting the Law (the Bible), but the teachings of the religious
leaders from the Law. We know this because this statement isn’t even in the
Bible! What Jesus was correcting was the religious elite twisting God’s word to
their own ends and correcting them, not the word of God.
Each of the six “you have heard it said” statements
is in reference to the teachings the people of that generation were hearing
from their religious leaders. And for each of them, Jesus showed with his “but
I say to you” statements how the righteousness of the kingdom of God exceeds
that of those religious hypocrites.
So, six strikes against the idea that Jesus
was correcting the Bible, but BJ adds one more. “In Mark 10:1–9, the Pharisees
cite the law of Moses on divorce certificates, as if this were ‘God’s word.’
Jesus corrects them: Moses wrote this law as an expression of their hard
hearts, not God’s heart. That’s a correction” (p.38). Yes, that is a correction
of the hard-heartedness of the religious hypocrites, but it was not a
correction of anything that was written in the Bible as God’s word for his
people.
So, what do I think of the logic that
follows: “Jesus trumps Moses. Jesus trumps the Bible when the Bible reflects
our hearts rather than God’s” (p. 38)? I think that “trumps” is misleading.
This isn’t about Jesus and Moses, but about Jesus and the religious hypocrites
who were misusing the Law. Jesus wasn’t “trumping” the Bible, the Scriptures
that were breathed-out by God (II Tim 3:16-17). Rather, he was showing how he
came to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham, that the Law that was given as a
temporary tutor to get the people from Egypt to Christ was coming to the end of
its assignment, and the people who were wondering if he was the Messiah had to
know that the righteousness of his kingdom exceeded what they had been taught
by their religious leaders. No, Jesus did not trump the Bible!
Even the phrase “when the Bible reflects our
hearts rather than God’s” is a dangerously misleading expression (because of
the author’s aim to separate the way God speaks and works through his word from
the way he speaks and works through his Son) since it puts into peoples’ minds
that parts of what is in the Bible “reflects our hearts rather than God’s”. The
Bible does record people doing things that were not after the heart of God, no
doubt about it. But that record is breathed-out by God to make sure we see it
from his viewpoint. Jesus wasn’t correcting any of that, or trumping anything
that was written.
And now I see the poison that alerted me to
this different Jesus when I first heard that Facebook friend say we could get
to know Jesus quite fine “without a book” (meaning the Bible) It is in BJ’s
conclusion: “When anything in the rest of the Bible disagrees with Jesus,
listen to Jesus” (p. 38).
Do you see how horrible this is that the BJs
would get to this point in the book, and even in this chapter, trying to
convince people that Jesus corrected the Bible, so they could then convince
readers that there are things in the Bible that disagree with Jesus! They then
conclude, “listen to Jesus”, like we should do that instead of the Bible, and
that we should “never use them (Moses, Elijah) to correct him. He’s the Word of
God” (p. 38).
And now many readers will think that there
is a conflict between Jesus and the Scriptures. They will believe that Jesus
corrects the Bible but the Bible can’t correct Jesus (meaning the Jesus BJ
wanted to find in the Bible). And they will forget that these false teachings
are presented after Jesus had just said that not even one letter from the Law
could be abolished (including “corrected”), but that the Law would be fulfilled
in him in the most glorious of ways through the new covenant in his blood.
My conclusion at the end of today’s journal
journey is that BJ misrepresented more scriptures to make a point that isn’t
there and that denies what is there. There is no contradiction between Jesus
and any part of the Bible. And we MUST use the Scriptures to correct false
teachers who are teaching a different Jesus under the guise that they have
found a Jesus in the Bible who corrects the Scriptures but their Jesus can’t be
corrected by the Scriptures. This isn’t protecting the Word of God (the true
Lord Jesus Christ); it is stealing, killing, and destroying people’s faith in
the breathed-out word of God so that any “Jesus” can be presented in any ol’
shack of deceptions and no one knows how to search the Scriptures to see if any
of these things are true (referring, of course, to the Bereans of Acts 17:10-15).
I would say that, after many decades of
loving God’s word, the Bible, and the last 30+ years of attaching to the way
Father speaks to me through his word, instead of finding examples of Jesus correcting
the Bible, I have only found how the Bible is what the Holy Spirit uses to lead
me into all the truth about everything, Jesus included. That’s how we find the Jesus
God is showing us in the Bible, not the one we wanted to find in our own image
and likeness.
Therefore, my conclusion to this section of A
More Christlike Word is that BJ did NOT make his case to show that Jesus corrected
the Scriptures, and that his notion that he has found in the Bible a Jesus that
cannot be corrected by scripture means that he is one of the false teachers
Paul warned about when he talked about those who would teach “another Jesus,” a
“different spirit,” and “a different gospel” than what we were given through
the apostles. We must heed the warnings of scripture about these false
teachings and teachers just as the first century Christians needed to do back
in the day.
© 2024
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures used in the main article 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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