Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
“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)
|
The False Filter |
The Biblical Filter |
|
The word OR the Word |
The Word THROUGH the word |
KJV: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
NIV: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
LXX (v. 5): “The heart is deep beyond all things, and it is the man. Even so, who can know him?” (p. 101).
Now,
before looking at how he continues, I will do what is my habit, go to Logos
Bible Systems library and see what the Hebrew text says along with the Bible
Sense Lexicon’s definition of the words in play.
First,
I see that the ESV translation of the verse is, “The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” Here are the BSL
definitions of the Hebrew words used in the text.
“The heart”: heart (internal feature) n. — the locus of a person’s thoughts (mind), volition, emotions, and knowledge of right from wrong (conscience) understood as the heart.
“is deceitful”: deceitful (duplicitous) adj. — marked by deliberate deceptiveness.
“Above all things”: seems to be a grammatical expression from a preposition and a noun that add up to that meaning.
“and desperately sick”: incurable adj. — incapable of being cured.
“who can understand it?”: to understand (cognitive) v. — to perceive (an idea or situation) mentally.
So
far, between the KJV, the NIV, and the ESV, we have three well-respected
translations that all agree with the Hebrew, which BJ again deliberately did
not include. So, where is he leading us from here? Hmmm… will the Hebrew text
be right around the corner?
When
the author disses his Reformed heritage, he is getting into territory I won’t
address simply because my focus is on what BJ is doing to God’s word, the
Scriptures, as we have them in the Bible. The only thing in question here is
what the Scriptures say about the heart of unredeemed sinners.
However, when he claims that “You could never really trust your heart, even if you ‘prayed the prayer’ and Jesus exchanged your ‘heart of stone’ for a new ‘heart of flesh’” (p. 102), I don’t believe for one minute this was taught in reformed churches, that when Christians seek to be filled with the Spirit, to live out of their new hearts, that we can’t trust ourselves to know and do the will of God. Contrasting our unredeemed hearts with being new creatures in Jesus Christ is a clear teaching of Scripture. Here is one of the ways the apostle Paul expressed it. First, he describes people who are unredeemed:
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity (Ephesians 4:17-19).
Immediately we can see that Paul rebukes BJ for dishonesty. Paul puts into expanded terms what Jeremiah 17:9 declared from the mouth of God. Apart from Christ, the heart is deceitful and sick. They are exactly what the prophets described and the apostles affirmed. BJ included!
Paul follows that with his contrasting picture of what the redeemed look like as we walk in the Spirit-filled life:
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24).
How much clearer could Paul be and BJ gets it wrong?! Sinners are just as deceitful, deceived, and sick as the Bible describes. BUT!!! That is not the way WE learned Christ. And why can we live differently out of our new hearts than we once lived out of our deceitful and deceived hearts? Because we have a "new self"! And that new self is (now in our present lives in Christ) "created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
So, did BJ's "reformed" church pastors really teach that we are no different with our new hearts than when we had our deceived and deceitful hearts? All I can say is that he did not present any evidence of this, and it is not what you will find is the teaching of reformed doctrine (again, I'm promoting a doctrinal position like "reformed", but only pointing out the misleading statements BJ is making). At the very least, his claim is quite contrary to what we find in the Scriptures.
So, now that BJ has dissed his upbringing again, where does he point the spotlight to clarify what God has said? No, not to the Hebrew Scriptures, but back to the LXX TRANSLATION! Now, is it just me, or wasn’t the purpose of this section to show how people pick their translations to suit their preferences?! You know, just like BJ is doing before our very eyes!
I was
going to try to take a shortcut around his feeble description of what the LXX
means if it just happened to be correct (but isn’t). However, BJ’s slight of
hand (mind games) is obviously selling him a lot of books, so let’s narrow our
search once again and plod through his garden path offerings.
Before quoting Jesus about the kingdom of heaven, BJ says “that the heart of every person on this planet is a priceless gift – think of a diamond or pearl” (p. 102). No references to show this. But he continues, “Who can retrieve and restore the priceless treasure of our true selves?”
I am addressing this because the author is giving a prelude to the Scripture he is going to share hoping we will be preconditioned to see it his way. However, it raises the question (since none of the other translations or the original Hebrew speak of this), is his claim that us amazing little sinners are like diamonds and pearls what the Bible is talking about in the Scripture we are coming to? He is prepping you to think so, and I am prepping us to challenge whatever he is doing to say.
Focus: BJ says that “this treasure (‘the priceless treasure of our true selves’) is calculated by Christ’s costly sacrifice of love” (p. 102). By our "true selves" he means our unredeemed hearts that he has tried to say are not deceitful and sick as the Scriptures describe.
Now,
let’s read the text and see if that has anything to do with what Jesus was
talking about. If BJ is correct, something in Jesus’ parables will refer to the unredeemed human heart as the treasure in question. He can’t make such grandiose claims about how
treasured and precious we are in our sinful condition without the Scriptures
actually saying that, right? Hmmm…
|
NTE (NT for Everyone) |
ESV (English Standard Version) |
|
44 “The kingdom of heaven,” Jesus continued, “is like treasure hidden
in a field. Someone found it and hid it, and in great delight went off and
sold everything he possessed, and bought that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a trader who was looking for
fine pearls, 46 and who found one that was spectacularly valuable. He went
off and sold everything he possessed, and bought it. |
44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a
man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has
and buys that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine
pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that
he had and bought it. |
The
first thing we notice is that this is not talking about human hearts; it is
talking about “the kingdom of heaven”. It is so clear: two parables; both are, “the
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is like…”! This should immediately have people lowering their
5-star rating to a 0! But let's see where BJ leads us.
What we find is that BJ deliberately makes Jesus’ parables about the “treasure that is their true self”, which God responds to with “the deep joy of Christ’s adoring gaze” (p. 103). He then says, “Leave behind the worm theology that judges another person’s deepest heart as deceitful and desperately wicked.”
Now, that’s a bit of a loaded statement, so let’s turn it into something more plumblineish.
The author is using two parables talking about how WE feel about the KINGDOM OF
HEAVEN, and turning them into a contradiction of what was clearly written in
the SCRIPTURES about the deceitfulness of the human heart… (let me slow down to
make sure we get this)… and he… is being… DECEITFUL?! And he is being deceitful
to prove that our hearts are NOT deceitful?! And people buy this?!
Okay
(returning to normal speed), that is such a blatant misrepresentation of the
text that the poison-in-the-pudding should now be obvious. Even though the text
is talking about “the kingdom of heaven”, without even mentioning that is the
case, BJ makes a grandiose application to the treasure of people’s true selves,
you know, just like the world is doing all around us!
The
author is now so bold as to say, “Before proceeding to our final exhibit, let’s
review” (p. 103). Sure, let’s. But with the understanding that BJ has two up to
bats that have been total strike outs. The first two exhibits have proven that
the Hebrew text did NOT say what he claims. And, since he would know that, he
is obviously lying to say the opposite, and to completely leave out what is in the
Scriptures themselves. For the next bit of his review, let’s judge his points.
|
BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
|
“The first Christian interpreters established in their hearts the
‘canon of faith’ – the gospel of Jesus Christ – before reading,
interpreting, or translating the Scriptures” (p. 103). |
False. We already showed that when we view Scripture as breathed out by God,
the Scriptures come first, and from there we discover the gospel. |
|
BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
|
“They believed that, apart from that gospel, the Bible could not be
understood, much less translated, as inspired Scripture” (p. 103). |
False. The Bible was understood, translated, and treated as the authoritative
(inspired) word of God, which is why we have absolute confidence in what IT
says about the gospel (but not what BJ says about his “different gospel”). |
|
BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
|
“The gospel formed and affected their translations.” |
False. The Scriptures formed and affected their understanding of the gospel,
and they translated what was written as handling the very words of God. |
|
BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
|
(Referring to Isaiah 53:10 and Jeremiah 17:9) “We saw how, while
modern translations feature God as taking pleasure in crushing his servant
and describe the human heart as incurably wicked, the New Testament authors’
favorite translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint or LXX) rendered
these verses much differently.” |
False. There is nowhere in the Bible that says the LXX was a favorite
translation of anyone and BJ has given no references to make his point. We also saw that there was NO sharing of what the Hebrew Scriptures
said because they totally disagree with BJ’s claims on this matter. |
|
BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
|
“What pleased God? To cleanse/heal his servant. How does God view the
human heart? Not as impossibly deceitful but as wonderfully deep” (p. 103). |
False. None of that is what the Hebrew Scriptures have in their text, and
none of the well-respected English translations we looked at come close to
what BJ claims. |
It would help to address these things if BJ would give evidence, but each time he does give evidence it is proven false.
However, that brings us to “Exhibit C… the
nature of God and God’s relationship with 'wrath'” (p. 103). I knew we would get
here eventually since it is imperative in this movement to convince people
there is no wrath of God against sin. The author now gives us some translations
of Romans 5:9 to consider.
NIV: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”
ESV: “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
NTE: “How much more, in that case—since we have been declared to be in the right by his blood—are we going to be saved by him from God’s coming anger!” (pp. 103-104).
Next,
the author claims that wrath "of God" is not what is in the Greek text, and my first
thought is, “Are you serious? You refuse to provide the Hebrew text for your
first two ‘exhibits’, and now it suits your purposes to actually use the Greek
text? I mean... kind of use it?. Or do you? Where is it? Hmmm… I guess it is up to me to
look this one up!”
However, look at the deceitful contrast (p. 104):
|
“But wait… is that what the Greek New Testament actually says?” |
“In fact, no. The phrase “of God” is not in a single Greek manuscript.” |
I just
want to point out that there is a difference between what the Greek “says”, and
whether it uses a specific “phrase” to say it. One of the things that has amazed me about the difference between Greek and
English is that Greek often has descriptions of who is being spoken about
right in the words that are used while in English we would need specific words
(phrases) to say the same thing. Someone might say that words were added in English when it is simply a matter that the extra words in English were
contained in the word in Greek.
Here is an example. In John 3:18, Jesus spoke of the person who is condemned because “he has not believed” in him, “the only Son of God”. However, contained within the verb “believed” is the grammatical info that it is in the “third person singular”. Those words need to be stated in English simply because that is the way our language works. But no one can legitimately say “that phrase, ‘he has’, is not in the original!” Of course the phrase is not, because the sense is contained in one Greek word. But we can say that this is what the Greek “says”, because it is what it says. I know there are lots more examples of that and I will try to remember to point them out when they come up. I’m just making the point that, yes, it is possible for the Greek to “say” something the way it is translated into English even though an “exact phrase” is not directly parallel from Greek to English. This is a common issue in translating from one language to another.
So, in this case, we do not need to find the exact phrase in Greek “wrath of God” (though we may very well find such a thing), but that the grammatical construction of the sentence communicates it. That will be part of what we are looking for when BJ shows us what the Greek text says.
The
author then shares two translations that admit that “of God” is not explicitly stated
in the Greek (and why would this all of a sudden matter to this author?):
NASB:
“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from
the wrath of God
through Him.”
NET:
“Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we
will be saved through him from God’s wrath” (p. 104).
Apparently
the NASB states that “of God” is a “translator’s addition”, and the NET has a
footnote that identifies that the Greek is referring to God’s wrath” (p. 104).
So, now we have a totally opposite focus than the first two exhibits. In those,
there was ZERO desire to know what the text said. But in this third, it is
somehow very important. Hypocritical, yes, but obviously important.
I see
we have already travelled far enough along to call this a day’s journey, so let’s
make a bit of a summary of our own.
BJ has
used two passages from the Old Testament to show us that he
will deliberately avoid what the Hebrew Scriptures had written because it says
the opposite of what his “another Jesus” is like and he used the LXX “translation”
instead because it matched the Jesus he wanted to find in the Scriptures.
In the
first case, relating to whether God “crushed” or “healed” his Son, BJ struck
out because it is so obvious that the Hebrew Scriptures say what the major
English translations translate, that it was God who willed his Son’s suffering
for our redemption.
Second, in considering whether the human heart is deceitful and sick, or
delightful and adorable, the author again struck out because the Hebrew
Scriptures he deliberately ignored said what the English translations
translate, that the human heart is as deceitful and sick as described, and BJ
is case in point to that revelation of the breathed-out words of God!
Third,
when BJ used Jesus’ two parables about something that was so precious it was
worth trading everything in life to have it, BJ stated that this immense
treasure was the human heart, but the Scripture (remember this is recording JESUS’
OWN WORDS) stated that it was explicitly talking about “the kingdom of heaven” and
how it would affect those who found it (methinks BJ has not).
Fourth, BJ is now using a New Testament verse that the English translations present as referring to the “wrath of God”. He needs this to go away or his other points crumble along with this one. He claims that the sense of “wrath of God” is not in the text because the exact words “of God” are not used in the Greek. We know that in translating from any language to another there will be instances where it takes more words in the second language to translate what is in the first, so we will need to stay at this viewpoint of "the wrath of God" to see what the Scriptures have to say on the matter.
The bottom line is that, just in this short section looking at BJ's views on Scripture, he has struck out three times by stating the exact opposite of what is written. On our next day’s journey, we will continue to contrast what BJ keeps claiming about the word of God, and what the Word of God keeps telling us about him.
© 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.
Definitions from the Bible Sense Lexicon (BSL) in Logos Bible
Systems
No comments:
Post a Comment