Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
Day 71
“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 |
Chapter 11 - Training Emmaus
Readers: Prefigurement in Melito of Sardis (p. 153).
Okay,
BJ begins this chapter with the words “We’ve now seen how…” and then follows by
a bunch of things we have NOT “seen how” because exploring things for ourselves
showed quite a different story from what he was claiming. So, I will just
present some reminders of what BJ is trying to peddle, and then see if there
are any specific statements that need challenging.
For
starters, this is where Scripture places “inspiration”, a summary word
indicating the words breathed out by God into the writing of Scripture. It
gives us God’s word without the error of fallible man messing things up.
On the other hand, BJ twists the meanings of these words so that “inspiration” is not what happened between God and the writers, but what supposedly happens between the Scripture and the reader.
Because BJ changes where “inspiration” happens, his version of the Bible is a hybrid mix between what God tried to say and what we ended up with by the time fallible man messed it up. It is now open to whatever corrections the BJs imagine need to be made.
However, because BJ is changing Scripture from the breathed-out words of
God to the hybridized collection of God’s thoughts messed up by men, we end up
with what Paul calls the “another Jesus”, the “different spirit”, and the
“different gospel” that cannot save anyone no matter how many ingredients
appear to be from the original recipe for God’s word.
We are now on divergent paths where BJ wants us to believe that the whole Bible is allegorical and connections to Christ and salvation may be made anywhere anyone pleases, while the Historical-Grammatical sense of Scripture calls us to let every passage of Scripture speak for itself, treat each genre as clearly as it is presented, and test everything by the context of whatever we are reading.
Before
skimming through this chapter for glaring falsehoods, I will just leave this
reminder of what pendulum-extreme BJ is pushing so that I don’t need to keep
repeating where and how he is doing this.
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BJ’s Literal Sense |
The Historical-Grammatical Sense |
BJ’s Literalism |
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Claims “literal” but means “tropological” (moral of the story), his
“different gospel” (from outside of the Scriptures), and “typological”
(allegorical), none of which mean "literal". |
The grammatical-historical method means reading the Bible in a plain
manner, respecting grammar, word meanings, and other factors with an emphasis
on context, Context, CONTEXT. |
BJ puts people here who ascribe to the plain meaning of Scripture as
if they are stifling the Holy Spirit and missing the point of the divine and
human authors.
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“Through Melito, we see that using typology or allegory is not a flaky
method” (p. 158). |
False. Using typology where none is presented, or calling things allegory
when they are history, is beyond flaky. Treating the whole Bible like it is
allegorical, or even the whole of the gospel of John like it is allegorical,
is a mishandling of Scripture. It sets the stage for anything to be treated
as having meanings that aren’t there, and to deny meanings that are there by
claiming it is just an allegory. Where allegory and other figures of speech
are used by God in his word, we interpret them as the Scriptures teach us to do, but we do not
see them under every bush, so to speak. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“we’ve not really read the Bible as the gospel until we’ve read it the
Emmaus Way” (p. 158). |
The wrong way. Our focus is to read the Bible as the breathed-out words of God in
Scripture form first (not as gospel), and then to take God’s words as meaning
what they say so that we can understand whatever he is saying, including what
he says about the true gospel. Because we know that the BJs deny clear
Scriptures about what Jesus suffered for us which are central to the gospel,
and they believe in “universal inclusion”, which is a denial of the gospel,
we clearly do not want to follow their version of the Emmaus Way. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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On page 159 BJ gives some suggested questions. I won’t list them
because that’s too much typing. However, they all add up to the same thing. |
I will simply say that BJ’s questions are conditioned by the wrong
path he is on. Because he sees allegory everywhere, his questions demand
imposing it even where it doesn’t exist. Instead of readers coming to the
word of God to find out what God is saying, the BJs’ disciples come demanding
that God say things according to their questions. The questions are all
“loaded”, meaning, they are all preconditioned to find something whether it
is there or not. So I won’t deal with each question here because they are all the
kinds of questions people ask when they do not believe God’s word is
authoritative and they do not want to begin with nothing and find out what
God teaches them. |
Okay,
I’ve got some wonderful news. After finishing the above writing yesterday, this
morning was an exercise day, so I continued listening to the Bible being read
to me. Part of this reading included the history of Moses delivering Israel out
of Egypt. You can find the whole account in the book of Exodus.
However, to show that even the BJs do not use the questions BJ just gave
us (p. 159) without prejudice, let me use those questions to describe how to apply Israel’s
deliverance out of Egypt, and then see if the BJs agree with me on my
interpretation and application based on BJ's questions.
In
this paragraph in question, BJ counsels, “As an exercise, why not think of a
story or symbol from the Old Testament”. Okay, so let’s go with the one that
was read to me this morning, Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt.
BJ
continues, “…and ask yourself which of these three categories it falls into:”
Yes, let’s do that:
1. “Is it a trial?” Yes, it is a trial
filled with trials for the people of God.
2. “Is it… an injustice?” Yes, it is
an injustice filled with injustices.
3. “Is it… a victory?” Yes, one victory
after another leading to the ultimate
victory of Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt and the destruction of the
Egyptian army.
BJ
then follows this with some more questions for us to answer:
1. “How does this story prefigure
Christ?” We could say that it prefigures Christ as the ultimate deliverer of
his people out of their sin, or as Paul said it, that Jesus would deliver us
out of the domain of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of God’s beloved
Son (Colossians 1:13-14) just as Moses delivered Israel out of Egypt and led
them to the Promised Land (completed under Joshua). It also prefigures the
Great White Throne Judgment of Jesus Christ our Lord where he separates the
sheep from the goats, leading his sheep into the presence of eternal life while
casting the goats into the place of judgment. This is seen clearly as the
pillar of cloud and fire was hope to the Israelites and hell to the Egyptians,
and that the same Sea that was parted for Israel’s deliverance was turned back on
the Egyptian army for their destruction. Yes, that is the way we see Yahweh
doing things through Moses, and it is the way we will see Yahweh doing things
through his Son in the judgment. He delivers and he destroys because justice requires both.
2. “What aspect of the gospel does it
signify?” If we include the whole history of God delivering Israel out of Egypt
and taking them into the Promised Land, then it signifies the whole gospel of
God taking us out of our sin and bringing us into the kingdom of God. As he
destroyed Pharaoh with the plagues and the Red Sea, Jesus came into the world
to destroy the works of the devil. As a covenant was given to lead the people
in their relationship with God in the earthly nation of Israel, a covenant was
given to lead the people of God in the spiritual kingdom of God. This is really
summarized by John 3:16-18 where we see the same deliverance and destruction
described:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
3. “How does reading this story as
gospel (the spiritual sense) address and transform my life (the moral sense)?”
When we follow all the parallels between Israel’s deliverance out of Egypt and
into the Promised Land, it transforms our lives as we learn to live as children
of light instead of children of darkness. As we see how many times God warned
and prepared Pharaoh for what he would do, we see how we must become
ambassadors of reconciliation warning people of the wrath to come and
magnifying Jesus Christ for providing our only hope of salvation. Because we
know that there is a separation between the sheep and the goats, we take
seriously the Great Commission and seek to make disciples, baptize disciples,
and teach disciples to walk in the obedience of faith. Because the deliverance
was out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, we seek to live worthy of the
calling we have received in Jesus Christ, walking in the unity of the Spirit in
the bond of peace, being filled with the Spirit, having nothing to do with the
deeds of darkness, using our spiritual gifts to serve one another in love, and
wrapping the church in the whole armor of God so we can help everyone stand
against the schemes of the devil (like BJ’s false teachings).
I wish
I had more time to elaborate, but those are some good ideas of what it would
look like to use BJ’s questions. I still think they are loaded and not the way
to start meditating on God’s word, but guess what we find as we answer those
questions just with the passage God put on the path today? We find things that
BJ has already said aren’t true!!!
BJ has
already said that there is no wrath of God against his enemies, so how can
we apply his wrath against Pharaoh and the Egyptians to the gospel? I mean,
Jesus did. And John the Baptist did. And the apostles did. They all continued
speaking of the day of wrath that is coming at the end of the age. And it is
certainly prefigured in God’s defeat of the Egyptian king, and his defeat of
the enemy nations of Israel.
I
consider this morning’s journey through Exodus to be a breath of fresh air
along BJ’s garden path of false teachings. I don’t need to say that every
passage of Scripture in the Old Testament is an allegory of Jesus, or the
gospel, although the whole history of the Old Testament leads us to Christ. But
the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, including the destruction of the
Egyptian king and his army, is very picturesque in illustrating so many aspects
of Jesus delivering us out of the domain of darkness, transferring us into his
kingdom, and sending us into the world as light in the darkness in the hope of
saving some who will then escape the coming wrath.
I will
close with BJ’s closing claim:
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“For John and Melito, this is the point – this is the Emmaus Way.
We’re not merely free to go there. We must, if we’re to read
the Bible as gospel” (p. 159). |
For Melito? I can only say it is possible but we only have BJ’s word
for it. For John? No, BJ has misrepresented him for sure. No, we are not free to interpret the whole Bible in an allegorical way
based on the false gospel of the BJs. And no, there is no “must” in reading the Bible after the allegorical
gospel of the BJs because it is presenting “another Jesus”, “a different
spirit”, and “a different gospel”, and Paul lamented that people in the
church were putting up with it easily enough. |
If you
haven’t been convinced yet, it is time to call BJ’s gospel a false one, and we
must reject using his unbiblical gospel as the measure of Scripture. Instead,
we use Scripture as the breathed-out words of God telling us what to believe
about whatever we read, including what it tells us about the gospel, and then
we take just as seriously all its warnings that “all who desire to live a godly
life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will
go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Timothy 3:12-13).
The
BJs are the people Paul was warning Timothy about. Because they are going
around “deceiving” people, and because they are “being deceived” by the evil
one themselves, we are to treat them as the “evil people and impostors” they
are.
At the
same time, Paul’s counsel to Timothy is full of wisdom and revelation:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (II Timothy 3:14-15).
How fascinating that Paul spoke of the Old Testament Scriptures as
“the sacred writings” and connected them to the New Testament Scriptures as
they all make us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”. The BJs
were sent to steal the true gospel and salvation from us, and we must hold fast
to what we are given in the Scriptures.
And it just so happens that the very next thing Paul said was,
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17).
Again,
the Scriptures we have in the Bible are already breathed out by God. They are
as authoritative as he is. The Bible is the handbook Jesus has left the church
until his return. It does have authority over everything we think, believe, and
do because it is the word of God, the word of Christ, taught to us by the
Spirit of the living God.
And
God continues to say, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is
humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2).
© 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
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