Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
Day 52
“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 |
So,
yesterday morning (in relation to writing this) it was an exercise day, so I
had plenty of time to listen to God’s word once again. This took me from I John
all the way through to Revelation 19. And what I heard the Spirit speaking to
the churches was a profound indictment that BJ is guilty of preaching “another
Jesus” by “a different Spirit” in “a different gospel” just as Paul warned.
And, it begs the same question in Paul’s mind, “Why are people putting up with
this so readily?!”
Here
are some things that stood out that I want each reader to consider. Contrary to
BJ’s claim, what I will be sharing with you was “inspired” when it was
“breathed out by God” as those men were “carried along by the Holy Spirit” to
write down the words “that come from the mouth of God”. There is no “inspired”
that happens when someone reads the word. The Spirit does teach us and remind
us of things, but he is “the Spirit of truth”, so he is not the spirit that is
teaching or reminding what BJ is writing in his book.
1. “Beloved, do not believe every
spirit” (I John 4:1), demands that we are on guard to NOT believe “every
spirit” that is behind whatever preachers and peddlers are proclaiming. We must
be willing to admit that some things we are taught are NOT to be believed.
2. “but test the spirits to see whether
they are from God” (I John 4:1), requires action. Every “Jesus” that is
preached is either the true one or “another” one. Every “spirit” behind what
someone preaches and teaches is either the Holy Spirit or a demonic spirit.
Every “gospel” that is proclaimed is either the genuine “good news of great
joy” or “a different gospel” designed to steal, kill, and destroy. We must test
until we can say where the teaching is coming from.
3. “for many false prophets have gone
out into the world” (I John 4:1). This was true in the first-century church;
how much more prevalent today. So, how many of the “many false prophets” have
you identified? Am I a false prophet for rebuking BJ as a false prophet? Or
have I shown enough Scriptures to confirm that BJ has utterly failed the test of
being true to Scripture and teaching people how to “live by every word that
comes from the mouth of God”?
4. “They are from the world; therefore
they speak from the world, and the world listens to them” (I John 4:5). This
tells us the truth about false teachers. They are never from God, but always
from the world. When they speak, even claiming to be in “Jesus’ name”, and
using their “Did God actually say…?” method to lead people astray, they are
speaking “from the world”. And, since Jesus' sheep hear Jesus’ voice and follow
him, it will not be Jesus’ sheep who follow them. It will always be worldlings
following worldlings, the deceived following the “deceiving and being
deceived” false teachers.
5. “We (the apostles) are from God.
Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us.
By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (I John 4:6). Yes,
Jesus’ sheep hear Jesus’ voice in Jesus’ apostles because the Word has breathed
out the words of God in the words of the apostles into the Scriptures we have
as the word of God. Simple. But, because BJ is teaching people not to listen to
the apostles (along with the whole of the Bible!), we know they are speaking
from “the spirit of error” as would be confirmed by BJ’s 100% failure rate at
accurately sharing Scripture!
6. “Whoever does not believe God has
made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has
borne concerning his Son” (I John 5:10). BJ is teaching us not to believe God.
He is telling us to reject the clear meaning of Scriptures in favor of his
moral-of-the-story and allegorical fairy tales. I simply want us to see what
the Scriptures say about this so my warnings are not written off as just as
fanciful as the BJs.
7. “For many deceivers have gone out
into the world” (II John vs 7). Yes, there is specific context to this one, but
it is a fair warning to broaden this to all deceivers. And, since BJ has
clearly been trying to deceive people about what Scripture says (and means),
this affirms to us to be just as watchful as the apostles were speaking about
in the scenarios of deception they were facing.
8. “I have written something to the
church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge
our authority” (III John vs 9). It is interesting that John was dealing with BJ
kind of people and calling them out by name! BJ does not “acknowledge” the
authority of the apostles. He denies that it is the Scriptures that are
“inspired” as “breathed out by God” and dares to totally deny what Paul and
Peter wrote about this as if he is a greater authority than them.
9. “Beloved, although I was very eager
to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write
appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to
the saints” (Jude vs 3). Jude had wanted to write focusing on “our common
salvation”. I feel this way in going through BJ’s book. There are such
wonderful books I could be reading right now that glorify God for his word and
the good news of the kingdom it contains. However, “I found it necessary” to
write an expose of BJ’s false teachings in the hope that it will stir up his
readers to renounce these false teachings and “contend for the faith" Jude is
writing about. The fact that this faith was “once for all delivered to the saints”
tells us to find that one so we are not deceived by all the new versions of the
“Did God actually say…?” of every generation.
10. “For certain people have crept in
unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people,
who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude vs 4). Jude obviously had specific false teachings in
mind that had to be addressed. I simply leave it with us that the success of
the BJs has the same feel to it, that these authors and speakers have been able
to creep into the church “unnoticed” so that even now, people aren’t noticing
the constant “Did God actually say…?” they are presenting.
11. “Yet in like manner these people
also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and
blaspheme the glorious ones” (Jude vs 8). Remember how BJ started his book? By
telling us about a “dream” he had that God gave him some unbiblical thoughts
while he was in the unbiblical practice of Contemplative Prayer! This whole
book is relying on dreams and imaginations. He rejects authority and will do
anything to misrepresent it so he can play the hero in saving us from God’s
will! And he is blaspheming the “glorious ones” as he presents Yahweh as in
need of correction by his “another Jesus”! Anyway, the weight of what Jude was
dealing with must not escape us.
12. “These are hidden reefs at your love
feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves;
waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice
dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame;
wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever”
(Jude vss 12-13). I will just leave it to you to see how these people were
involved in the church like “hidden reefs” to shipwreck lives, and they had no
fear of being exposed for some reason, something that must have left Jude just
as perplexed as Paul was with the Galatians.
Since
I went through 19 chapters of Revelation, I will share these points on a new
listing:
1. I love that John “bore witness to
the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ” (1:2), as completely in
harmony, with still no mention anywhere in the Scriptures that Jesus gave a
testimony that Yahweh his Father had to be corrected.
2. John was “on the island called
Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9), so we
have an apostle who speaks of the unity between the two in contrast to BJ
claiming that the “word of God” needs to be more “Christlike”.
3. While Jesus had to deal with the
Ephesian Christians for losing their first love (2:1-7), he introduced his
letter to them with, “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance,
and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call
themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false’” (2:2). Jesus
commended the church that they “cannot bear” false teachers.
4. He also commended them with, “Yet
this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (2:6).
It simply stood out that God’s word calls us to hate false teachers because
Jesus himself hates them. Which means that there is a hate of falsehood and
false teachers that is CHRISTLIKE! Which means that Yahweh expressing his
hatred of evil criminals us NOT UNChristlike!
5. In addressing the church of
Pergamum, Jesus wrote, “But I have a few things against you: you have some
there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling
block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to
idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the
teaching of the Nicolaitans” (2:14-15). Again, this is Jesus himself addressing
the churches that were holding to false teachers and their false teachings, the
very thing that is evidence in those who speak highly of Brad Jersak’s books.
6. “but that in the days of the trumpet
call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled,
just as he announced to his servants the prophets” (10:7). This is one of so
many references that speak of “his servants the prophets” in a commendable way
without once correcting any of their prophecies or descriptions of history.
7. John writes of an angel that
describes what will happen to those who worship the beast and its image and
receive the mark of the beast. They “will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured
full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and
sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb”
(14:10). This not only shows the pure holiness of God’s wrath and anger, but
that Jesus will be present with his Father in carrying out justice against
their enemies.
8. As John continues describing these
judgments, he writes, “So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and
gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress
of the wrath of God” (14:19). Although this is symbolic language (in the real-life fulfillment, I don't think we will see a sickle, or grapes, or a windepress, but whatever fulfills that symbolism), the message
of the wrath of God is certain.
9. “Then I saw another sign in heaven,
great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for
with them the wrath of God is finished” (15:1). What is described next is a
picture of how “the wrath of God is finished,” or fully satisfied against all
evil.
10. “And one of the four living
creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God
who lives forever and ever” (15:7). This pictures the final 7-fold expression
of the wrath of God as it will be poured out over the earth.
11. “The seventh angel poured out his
bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne,
saying, ‘It is done!’” (16:17). This is the seventh “bowl of wrath”, and with
that, “It is done!” The wrath of God is expended.
12. Which leads to, “The great city was
split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered
Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his
wrath” (16:19). This pictures all the evil symbolized by “Babylon the great”,
and God will make sure that it drains the “cup of the wine of the fury of his
wrath” to the last drop.
13. In reference to the fallen city of
Babylon, “Pay her back as she herself has paid back others, and repay her
double for her deeds; mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed”
(18:6). This certainly rebukes BJ for his claim that God does not carry out
“retribution” against his enemies.
14. “For this reason her plagues will
come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up
with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her” (18:8). The title
“the Lord God” in the Greek corresponds to “the Lord GOD” in the Hebrew, which
was clearly speaking of Yahweh. There is no contradiction or correction of
Yahweh’s judgment against sin.
15. “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you
saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against
her!” (18:20). God is telling all the saints of every age, Old Covenant and
New, that God has executed judgment against Babylon who represents all the
hatred of Satan against God’s people.
16. Now, notice how the people of God
celebrate God’s judgment of Babylon: “After this I heard what seemed to be the
loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! Salvation
and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for
he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants’” (19:1-2). The great
multitude in heaven is a representation of all believers from all time. They
respond unanimously in praise of God for judging the “great prostitute” as
thoroughly as Revelation describes. BJ is in direct opposition to this teaching
of Scripture, and to the whole multitude of heaven!
17. Now, to rebuke BJ for claiming that
Jesus had to make both “the word” and “God” “more Christlike” (referring to
both his books), in a section clearly referring to Jesus as “the Word of God”,
the apostle John writes the breathed-out words of God like this, “From his
mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will
rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the
wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,
King of kings and Lord of lords” (19:13-16). This is JESUS! He is in full unity
with his Father (the wrath of God) in personally treading out the winepress of
his Father’s fury against sin.
I am
sharing this as another testimony that if we “let the word of Christ dwell in
us richly,” we will know how to “admonish” one another in the truth of God. And
I hope that this “truth in love” admonishing feels like the invitation of grace
that always works in kindness to lead us to repentance so we can bond with the
Triune God in faith and walk together in the “obedience of faith” to the glory
of God and for the good of his people.
ADDITION:
Because this “day’s” journal journey is taking a few days in real time,
I had another morning to listen to God’s word while exercising. Today I went
from the last four chapters of Revelation and got 17 chapters into Genesis
(starting over). First I will share a few specific observations, and then
another lesson of what happens when we read/hear longer sections of Scripture.
1. When an angel spoke to John in
Revelation 19, John was so overwhelmed that he fell down to worship him. The
angel exclaimed, “’You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and
your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.’” And then John
adds, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (19:10). I hear so
much in this that harmonizes with the rest of Scripture. The whole Bible is the
testimony of Jesus Christ, the “word of Christ” that is to dwell in us richly.
But the fact that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”, and Peter
said that “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from
God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1:21), makes it
unanimous that all the prophecy in the Bible, Old and New Covenants combined
(and everything before as well), was a cooperation of the Triune God as Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, with ZERO corrections made by Jesus about any of it!
2. In Revelation 20, John is led to “a great
white throne and him who was seated on it” (vs 11). In Matthew 25 Jesus spoke
of this so it is another set of pictures singing in harmony. What is described
here is what happens in the judgment. The concluding thought in reference to
the unbelievers is, “And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of
life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (vs 15). Whatever that means in real
life, it is a horrible picture of God’s judgment, and Jesus is the judge!
3. Revelation 21 concludes, “But
nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or
false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life” (vs 27). So,
the BJs are doing what is “detestable” in speaking against Yahweh and his word.
BJ is being “false” in everything he has said about the Scriptures. Can we do
the math?
4. And look at what Revelation 22:6
says, “And he said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord,
the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants
what must soon take place.’” Remember that we were just told that “the
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”? Here it says that “the Lord” is “the
God of the spirits of the prophets”. So Jesus’ testimony is the spirit of
prophecy, and the Lord is God of the spirits of the prophets, and that all
rhymes with everything else about Scripture being breathed out by God from
beginning to end (in the Bible) and not one part of it needing to be corrected
by anyone, not even BJ’s “another Jesus” with “a different spirit” in “a different
gospel”!
5. To affirm that this was Jesus speaking,
the very next line is, “’And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who
keeps the words of the prophecy of this book’” (22:7). It is Jesus who is “coming
soon”. And his blessing is on those who “keep the words of the prophecy of this
book”, which means they don’t change any part of it. They keep it as breathed
out by God. No explaining away God’s wrath, his vengeance, or his judgment
against sinners. The blessing is on those who receive it all as the breathed-out words of God. Period.
6. John has another experience of a
mighty angel overwhelming him with worship, and when the angel says, “You must
not do that!” he adds, “I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the
prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God” (22:9).
This angel partners John with “your brothers the prophets” connecting the
Hebrew Bible with the New Testament writings. And they are connected to all of
us “who keep the words of this book”. Who this leaves out is obvious!
7. Then Jesus says, “’Behold, I am
coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has
done’” (22:12). Not only is Jesus NOT correcting Yahweh for “recompense” or “to
repay”, but JESUS is the one who is doing this. It is “MY recompense” that is “with
ME”. So not only is BJ claiming Yahweh is not Christlike enough, but now he has
to say that Christ is not Christlike enough!
8. Finally, we come to the warning that
concludes the Revelation: “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy
of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described
in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy
city, which are described in this book” (22:18-19). BJ adds things to this book
it is not saying, that God has no wrath against sin or sinners, and he “takes
away” what it does say about the wrath of God against sin, and Jesus’
participation in the wrath of God against sin, denying that God is the way he
is. The warning speaks for itself. I simply would not want to fellowship with
such people (which is what the Bible teaches).
As I finished up in Revelation, I went all the way back to the beginning of the Bible to begin listening to Genesis. I will not say any specific lessons from the first 17 chapters, but will leave you with an observation: this lil’ ol’ pilgrim had absolutely no difficulty recognizing the difference between the apocryphal language of Revelation and the historical descriptions of Genesis. Just sayin’.
© 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
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