A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 93

Examining "A More Christlike Word" by Brad Jersak

Day 93

“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

   Before I go further, here is how God ministered to me through his word prior to my last day’s Journal Journey. As I said, it was exactly what I needed to reprove Brad Jersak for his false teachings about God’s justice.

   The passage I came to was the fourth “woe” Jesus pronounced on the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matthew 23:23-24)

   After calling these men “blind guides”, “blind fools”, and “blind men”, Jesus adds another woe and again affirms that they are “blind guides” leading people astray. This means that it is possible to have teachers successfully leading others in appearances, even selling books about what they believe, but being blind and leading their followers away from the truth.

   A “woe” can either express grief or judgment. Grief would be expressed as “woe is me” while judgment “woe is you”. Clearly Jesus is pronouncing judgment on these men and calling them out on their hypocrisy.

   The issue is not that they were so detailed about what they tithed, but that they “neglected the weightier matters of the law”. They neglected things far more important than tithing herbs and spices. So, what are these weightier issues? They are “justice”, “mercy”, and “faithfulness”.

   Before I elaborate, I want to show how this appears to rhyme with a familiar verse from the Hebrew Scriptures:

      He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
      but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
      (Micah 6:8)

   The reference to what is good and what God requires is parallel to Jesus saying “these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others”. In other words, there are things people ought to have done no matter which covenant they were under.

   However, the parallels continue with the three words God gave Micah to declare to the people. His “justice”, “kindness”, and “humbly” rhyme with Jesus’ “justice”, “mercy”, and “faithfulness”.

   Now why did this hit me with such encouragement?

   Answer: because in both places God and Jesus paired “justice” with “mercy/kindness”.

   Why is that so significant?

   Answer: because all through the Scriptures God has the expectation of his people being just, which means doing the right thing by everyone. No favoritism to friends or family because that isn’t just. No favoring the rich over the poor because that isn’t just. No sympathizing with the poor over the rich because that isn’t just. The issue with justice is always holding to that is right in God’s eyes. That always means standing with those who are in the right on an issue, and carrying out God’s judgment on those who are in the wrong.

   I have used this real-life illustration before, but we see justice, kindness/mercy, and faithfulness walking humbly with God in the overlapping historical event of the destruction of Jericho. First, we see God’s kindness and mercy towards Rahab because she renounced the gods of the Canaanites and declared her faith in Yahweh, the God of Israel. Second, we see God’s justice against Achan for his sin of disobeying God regarding the plunder, coveting for himself what God clearly declared to be his alone, deceiving everyone about what he had done to the defeat of the people in their next battle, and allowing his whole family to be judged with him without urging them to repent of their corporate sin like Rahab had done.

   My point is that justice and mercy are always seen together. Walking humbly and faithfully with God requires upholding both justice and mercy. If your brother sins, go to him in justice and confront him with his sin. If he listens to you show him mercy because you have gained your brother. If he doesn’t listen to you, show him justice and bring witnesses to confirm his sin. If he doesn’t listen to the witnesses, show justice and take it to the church. If he doesn’t listen to the church, show justice and treat him like an unbeliever (which would mean he would become an outsider to the church and everyone would call him to the gospel the same as they witnessed to anyone else).

   We see this in Corinth when Paul heard of a horrible sin that was being tolerated in the church so he called for justice against the man to the point of “purge the evil person from among you.” Paul was demonstrating what Jesus had already taught. But in Paul’s second letter, he called for the church “to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.” Paul explained that “godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (II Corinthians 7:10). If the man was repenting, it was because he had come to feel godly grief over what he had done. But this was because the church joined Paul in relating to the sin with justice and he was confronted with the horror of what he was doing. But as soon as there was repentance, Paul urged them to show mercy quickly, “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2:11).

   Throughout the whole Bible, not showing justice in relation to unrepentant sin is being outwitted by Satan, and so is not showing mercy when someone repents. Micah explained what Yahweh requires of us in justice, kindness, and walking humbly with God, and Jesus rhymed this with his justice, mercy, and faithfulness. It is a triune package-deal just as God is triune!

   How does this confront BJ for false teaching?

   Answer: because BJ wants us to think that “mercy trumps judgment”. He wants us to think that any references to judgment, or justice “against” people, is metaphorical, or allegorical, or figurative, or rhetorical. In BJ’s world of “Did God actually say…?”, everything must be mercy, and mercy alone.

   But here it is Yahweh telling us he requires the good of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with our God, while Jesus says that “justice and mercy and faithfulness” were weightier matters of the law than tithing. And that tells us that justice and kindness, or justice and mercy, MUST be kept together. It would be just as wrong to emphasize justice without mercy as to do the BJ thing and emphasize mercy without justice.

   I know that none of us are denying how important it is to be kind and merciful. None of us deny that loving one another is Jesus’ new commandment, or that we are to love, pray for, bless, and do good to our enemies.

   But BJ is telling us to treat all issues of justice as metaphorical, or non-literal, when Yahweh and Jesus tell us that justice is just as “weightier” as is mercy or kindness. And that means that BJ is contradicting God the Father and God the Son. And that should mean to people that we all vote in agreement that Brad Jersak is a false teacher as Jesus and the apostles described.

   Okay, so, before I got back to finalizing BJ’s chapter, I just came up from another exercise ordeal with two very strong points from Scripture.

   Samson and those WOMEN!

   First, I heard another 14ish chapters of Judges, including Gideon and Samson. As I cringed with the descriptions of Samson’s stupidity with women (yes, STUPIDITY! Of the somewhat hormonal kind!), I realized that another pattern was standing out: the effect of pagan women on God’s boys.

   For context, BJ has wept big tears around his claim that the Yahweh of the Hebrew Scriptures is a horrible person for putting to death women and children in judging the criminal nations. Yes, the judging side of justice is cringe-worthy. It is grievous that people defy the living God and die for doing so. It is horrible what happens when God withdraws his shepherdly hand from a sinful people and lets the other nations do as they please. Painful to watch.

   However, the question of why God would judge a whole people group without excusing women and children is answered by two things. One, that God knows the hearts of every person and will not condemn to death a repentant person. If he condemns a people group to death, they are all guilty of evil. Two, that God knows what those women and children will do to his people if they are allowed to live. As he cannot allow unredeemed sinners to enter the new heavens and new earth because they would be bringing sin with them, he could not allow sinful women and children (who were the second and third generations of the people who hated Yahweh) to infiltrate the ranks of his people.

   And what examples do we have of what happens when there is favoritism to unrepentant women and children? Well, just ask Samson. He kept “falling in love” with women from among the enemies of Israel, and those women kept using their position among God’s people to help their enemies do them harm. What about Solomon? He also had a hormonal problem towards foreign women and his power to have as many as he wanted (as king) set him up to turn the whole nation to the gods of these women.

   I’m not saying there is anything wrong with a Christian man and a Christian woman from different ethnic groups marrying. I’m talking about Israel and his enemies, and how women and children of these enemies were still enemies. Like it or not, when Israel remained pure as God told them to be, they were blessed. When they flirted with enemy women, down they went. The patterns are pretty glaring.

   Restating the Obviously Literal

   There were lots of reinforcements of how God’s mercy flowed towards his people when they walked with him, and how his judgment fell upon them when they turned to idols. But this pattern suddenly stood out in a way that almost made me laugh.

   I was listening to the detailed account of how Samson had asked God to let him have one last hurrah against the Philistines by having his strength back just so he could topple their palace on all the guests at a banquet. We then read, “And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other” (Judges 16:29).

   What made me chuckle was the sudden realization that I had heard this same pattern many times. It wasn’t enough to give us the gist of the picture; it had to be doubly-detailed. I mean, think about it. If we read that “Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested,” wouldn’t we picture him grasping one pillar with his left hand and the other with his right hand? But there it is in writing that “his right hand” was “on the one and his left hand on the other.”

   But that’s the kind of details I’ve been hearing all the way through my journey in hearing God’s word. So many times I thought to myself that it was almost redundant for God to keep saying things twice. First one way, then another (there, I just did it myself!).

   And then I got it. God knew about Brad Jersak and the BJs. He knew people would declare his breathed-out words to be allegorical. He knew that people would demonize his justice and falsely accuse him of sinful violence against poor innocents.

   So what did he do? He kept repeating himself in double-doses of details to defy deceptive deceivers with double-duty descriptions of divine deliberation. You know, rhetorical devices to make sure everyone knew he said what he meant and meant what he said! And all so sincere seekers could read the Scriptures for themselves and see that the BJs are acting like authorities over the words of God and at least the ”few” would have nothing to do with it.

   Well, except to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).

   BJ’s Imaginary Wrath

   Here’s my big complaint about how easily false teachers get a following, and my warning to anyone who is this far through the book and still believes BJ has made his point. Let me show how absolutely deceptive he is.

   BJ’s Claim: “The parable of the prodigal son(s) is the clearest picture we have of what wrath is, how it works, what causes it, and how it is and isn’t ‘God’s’” (p. 274).

   Now, what’s wrong with this picture?

   Answer: Wrath is… NEVER MENTIONED in the parable!!!

   In my previous day’s Journal Journey, when we examined the eight Scriptures BJ shared that actually did speak of wrath, we discovered that the “wrath of God” means God’s wrath the same as the “love of God” means God’s love. If it is “of God” it absolutely does mean that it belongs to him.

   So here we have Brad Jersak declaring that what we find in the parable of the prodigal son is “the clearest picture” of the “wrath of God” and yet there is no mention of wrath in ANY of the three parables Jesus taught. NONE of them are making a point about God’s wrath. All three of them are making a point to the religious elite about how they should understand Jesus’ relationship to the way “the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him” (Luke 15:1). All three of the parables picture God receiving sinners who repent.

   Yes, this ONLY has reference to God receiving sinners who REPENT. It has NO reference to God responding to sinners who do not repent.

   How do I know?

1.     Finding the lost sheep: “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

2.    Finding the lost coin: “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (15:10).

3.    Finding the lost son: “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate” (15:22-24), and, “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found’” (vs 32).

   It almost feels vile to me for a man to claim this parable of the prodigal son illustrates God’s wrath when his wrath is not mentioned! It has nothing to do with the picture. Sinners are repenting and God is rejoicing over them. It has nothing to do with the sinners who are not repenting one little bit. And THAT is what I find so offensive about such blatant false teachings that a guy can say the Emperor is wearing new clothes when everyone sees that he is wearing NOTHING AT ALL!!!

    Increasing the wrathful ante

   To show how evil it is that Brad Jersak would claim that the wrath of God is illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son when it isn’t even mentioned or pictured or described one little bit, let me show you the parables where Jesus DOES describe God’s wrath against sin. I am only including the quotes that relate to Jesus speaking of the wrath of God to show what he said.

   In the parable of the net (Matthew 13:47-50), Jesus first spoke of the allegory that “When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad” followed by the explanation, “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” It is easy to see which part is the parable, and which part is Jesus applying it to the real-life judgment to come.

   In the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:23-35), when the master discovered the wickedness, “And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt” followed by the real-life application, “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” We get the allegorical part in the parable, but Jesus then makes it real-life by telling people what his real “my heavenly Father” will do to people who are as unmerciful as portrayed in the story.

   In the parable of the wicked tenants (Matthew 21:33-44), Jesus responded by asking the religious elite, “When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” To which they replied, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Here Jesus let the listeners describe the allegorical conclusion to the allegory. However, he then explained the real-life application that applied to them, “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

   In the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14), “The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” And when “the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment… the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.’” That is what it looks like for Jesus to express the wrath of God in an allegory. It looks like all the Scriptures describing “the wrath of God” in real life.

   In the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), while the foolish virgins were going to buy oil, “the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’” Contrary to the open-door-policy of BJ’s “another Jesus”, the true Lord Jesus Christ illustrates what will happen at the end of the age when people are locked out of eternal life because Jesus did not know them. 

   In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), the master’s response to the wicked servant was “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” Since allegory in the Bible is always an illustration of real life, this is illustrating something about real life equally judged and condemned as in the story.

   In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), “The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” Clearly this is an allegorical picture of what the Bible describes as real life (or death) in many places.

   The fact that Jesus includes these references to judgment and wrath, showing illustrations that correspond to the didactic teaching about hell and the coming day of wrath, not only do we have a Yahweh who is different from BJ's "another Jesus", but even the Christ of the Scriptures isn't Christlike enough for the BJs. But we cannot escape that Jesus indeed does speak of the wrath of God in both allegorical and real-life terms, and that the parable of the prodigal son is one of the parables that does not mention it. 

   Because I need to end here without completing my completion of the last chapter, I want to drive home my conclusion that for a man to claim the parable of the prodigal son is an illustration of God’s wrath when there is nothing even mentioned in that regard, while the author completely ignores all the parables where Jesus did describe and illustrate the wrath of God in the coming judgment, is as evil and wicked as Jesus and the apostles warned about the false teachers all around us. 

© 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

On This Day: Woe to the Whitewashed Tombs

 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28)

 

   The reason Jesus was focused on “the crowds and the disciples” in these seven woes is because we need to know whose example we should be following. And Jesus wanted everyone to know both then and now that the religious elites of that day were not worthy of imitation.

   As I was prayer-journaling on this, I realized that there may be people in the church who know they have unrighteous things inside them they wish weren’t there and they may feel worried that Jesus’ judgment on the scribes and Pharisees applies to them. They might even be trying to do the right thing outwardly but struggle with unrighteous thoughts and feelings inwardly.

   My short answer to this is, that’s not what Jesus is talking about!

   In this sixth woe, Jesus is addressing the blatant hypocrisy of these religious leaders who were not righteous on the inside at all, but put on the most grandiose expressions of outer righteousness and it was all just for show. It wasn’t real. They weren’t seeking to make it real. They liked their “actor” status and didn’t want to give up their religious awards and accolades for the good news of the kingdom of heaven.

   No born-again Christian, and no local gathering of believers, will ever be 100% righteous on the inside. Instead, we “PURSUE righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart”, while we “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”

   One of the most comforting Scriptures about growing up in Jesus Christ is, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

   If we are “BEING” transformed, keep in step with the Spirit, follow good examples, pursue the “righteousness of faith” in everything, and be ever so loving and patient with one another as we all grow up together since that is what the Triune God is like with us!

 

© 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 Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 92

 

Examining "A More Christlike Word" by Brad Jersak

Day 92

“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

   Chapter 20 – Outro: Too Good to be True?

   I’m going to begin with a list of things I am excited about:

1.     I am so excited to be in the last chapter of the book!

2.    I am so excited that it is a short chapter!

3.    And I am elated with how God spoke to me this morning through his word to (once again) give me the exact message that is needed for this final leg of BJ’s garden path!

   First, the essence of BJ’s closing chapter is to tell us once again what it sounds like when you first misrepresent the attributes of God, then misrepresent the Scriptures about those attributes, and then present “another Jesus” who can’t be found IN Scripture, talking about him like he is found outside Scripture, and then explaining away everything God said about himself by telling people anything we don’t like in the Bible is “figurative” and Jesus isn’t like that.

   Second, because BJ is continuing the serpent’s question from the garden, “Did God actually say…?”, it grieves me to see correspondence between Brad and people who could see the flaws in his teaching. While they point out what God’s word says, they somehow believe Brad is an authority who can tell them that what they can plainly read for themselves is nothing more than figurative language that, even when it is specifically talking about God, really is only describing us poor humble sinners. And people are falling for it!!!

   Third, I was shocked to discover that BJ has actually succeeded in publishing a TRILOGY of books with the same admission that he is changing God, the word, and the Way, and people are paying for him to do it! I’ll see what I need to address directly before sharing how God ministered to me this morning with the exact thing everyone needs to hear alongside the garden path of this closing chapter.

BJ’s Claim

Monte’s Response

“‘wrath’ (orge) is a metaphor for the self-inflicted consequences of defying God’” (p. 273).

Bogus. When the grammar clearly speaks of “the wrath OF God”, it means it is his. It is actively his, not some passive thing that happens to us when we’re naughty. There are far too many examples of a historical nature showing God pouring out his wrath on sinners to write this off as a metaphor. God has deliberately woven his word with generation after generation of examples of his wrath, prophecies about his wrath, teachings about his wrath, so BJ is lying to claim a metaphor where God himself presents this as an attribute of the divine nature. And that means that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have the same attribute of wrath as the Father and are as fully engaged in expressing that wrath as is the Father.

   Here are some questions for anyone who still believes Brad instead of the Bible.

1.     What “authority” has Brad used to convince you to reject the authority of the Bible in what it describes of God’s wrath (I’m only referring to this attribute because it is the one BJ is talking about)?

2.    What have you done with all the examples I have shared of looking at the cherry-picked partial-Scriptures BJ has presented in context and finding that none of them support his claims? In fact, I think most of them totally contradicted his claims!

3.    What have you done with the discovery that there is not one reference in the New Testament of Jesus or the apostles correcting ANYTHING from the Hebrew Scriptures, but they quote them as Scripture? (Note: the one time BJ claimed Jesus was correcting Yahweh of the Hebrew Scriptures was false. In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said, “You have heard it said… but I say to you…” he was clearly describing the difference between the righteousness of the religious elite in contrast to the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven. Not one of the examples was a correction to Scripture, but only to what the people were being taught from Scripture by the religious elite).

4.    What have you done with the discovery that the book of Hebrews tells us the kinds of things from the Scriptures Jesus would have explained to the two men on the Road to Emmaus, and none of them support BJ’s view that any of it was allegorical, or that Jesus did not die as a substitute sacrifice who made atonement for our sins?

BJ’s Claim

Monte’s Response

“So then, in what sense is the wrath ‘of God’? The church fathers say, ‘Only figuratively’” (p. 273).

False. The Bible says that the wrath “of God” means the wrath belonging to God. It is simple. BJ wants you to think it is complicated. And BJ did not show that the “church fathers” unanimously said that God’s wrath was “only figurative”. Neither did he show that there was even a consensus on the matter. And he cherry-picked Origen who was known to be loosey-goosey in his handling of Scripture. Beyond that, I simply haven’t the time to check out the ones he claimed as authorities, nor to find out what all the others claimed. Conclusion: it is enough that the Scriptures from beginning to end speak of God’s wrath as real (even in the allegorical illustrations of that wrath).

   Note: This reasoning that when dealing with what might be considered a “negative” attribute of God, the “of God” part doesn’t mean of God, what do we do when we read of the love “of God”? Is this also figurative? Does God not have love as an attribute? And if he does, how could “of God” with wrath not also mean it is “of God”? 

   This is the illogical reasoning that flows through this book that is duping people to give up the plain reasoning of Scripture, and the unanimous testimony of the whole Bible, that God’s wrath is as real as his love, his judgment is friends with his mercy, and he relates to different people differently based on how differently they relate to him!

BJ’s Claim

Monte’s Response

That the prodigal son parable presents the “pigpen” consequences as simply the natural outflow of the young man’s choices as if this proves that is the case with “the wrath of God” (p. 274).

IT'S… A… PARABLE!!!!!!! Its focus is on how God feels about the prostitutes, tax-collectors, and other sinners coming into the kingdom. It is NOT a treatise on the wrath of God, neither is it a statement against it. Rather, we are given a very simple stage on which an arrogant youth goes off to live in sin (as did the prostitutes, tax-collectors, sinners), experienced the consequences, came to his senses, went home, and the spotlight shines on the Father who welcomes him home with joy. This was to tell the religious hypocrites that our Father in heaven was welcoming sinners with joy because they were repenting and coming home. It is NOT a statement on God’s attributes as a whole, but on his joy when sinners repent and come home to him.

   Okay, so BJ’s first explanation for why we deny what Scripture says is that anything we don’t like is figurative. He hasn’t come close to showing where he gets the authority for this that not only trumps all the scholars, pastors, and preachers who hold to the whole counsel of God on the matter, but he definitely has not shown an external authority that authorizes us to treat such clear history, and such clear descriptions of God’s nature, as figurative.

   Now he moves to his second “dynamic” which is a return to “rhetoric” (p. 274).  

Ah, rhetoric, rhetoric, device though thou art,
   How clever your entrance, how devious your part.
   For just when we think we have God understood,
   Along comes rhetoric to confuse us for good!

   (Insert Elvis intonation here) “Thank you, thank you very much!”

   Annn-yyyy-waaayyy!

BJ’s Claim

Monte’s Response

That all the texts shared in the correspondence were rhetoric (p. 274).

BJ Bogusness! His comments prove my contention that if you step back and look at why anyone believes anything BJ claims in his trilogy of deception, it is only because they view BJ as THE authority! In fact, why someone would present all those verses from THE BIBLE, and then disbelieve all of them? Trilogy answer: because BJ says so! NO, BJ has NOT made his case that references to the wrath “of God” are rhetorical devices that mean the exact opposite of what is stated.

   Now, sad as it is for me to do this (only because this is taking longer than I anticipated), I am going to present each of the verses BJ presented and we’re going to look for clues that would tell us that the writers of Scripture were indeed using a rhetorical device.

   HOWEVER!!!!!!!

   It is only BJ’s OPINION that if someone used a rhetorical device it would mean the OPPOSITE of what they say. Rhetorical devices are typically used to ILLUSTRATE the same thing as what is being said. 

   For example, parables are not what really is happening, but they tell us the same thing that is happening. The shepherd finding his lost sheep is exactly what was happening with Jesus finding lost people. The woman finding her lost coin is exactly illustrative of Jesus finding lost people. The father finding his lost son was just a parable, but it precisely illustrates the Father’s joy in finding sinners and bringing them home to his kingdom. In other words, figures of speech in the Bible, metaphors and similes, allegories and apocalypse, are all saying the same thing in illustrative form as we are meant to believe is the story in real life. 

   In a sense, the illustrations enhance the literal meaning of a truth with their figurative descriptions that help us understand it more clearly! You know, the way harmony isn't playing the exact notes of the melody but helps us tune to the melody all the more easily.

   Therefore, before looking at these Scriptures, two things must be understood. First, there must be evidence that there is some kind of rhetorical language being used that is non-literal. Don’t forget, rhetorical language is about the way to organize a message to persuade others, it does NOT necessitate that any part of it is non-literal, figurative, allegorical, or any of BJ’s claims. Rhetorical just means it is a strategic way of organizing thoughts to lead people to believe the conclusion. BJ has used rhetorical speech galore to convince people of his “another Jesus”, “different spirit”, and “different gospel”, but any rhetorical speech in the Bible (and I’m not saying it is certain if or where it is) would still be telling the truth about whatever topic it is addressing.

   Second, there must also be some evidence that a rhetorical device indicates that something is the opposite of what the words say. If God’s word says that God’s word is breathed out by God, and BJ says that those words can be twisted back to front, where in the world is the authority for us to believe BJ instead of the words of men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit to write down what they were given to say in the genius of an intimate fellowship between them and the Holy Spirit that affirms the glory of God in breathing out his words into Scripture!

   So, with the onus on BJ to prove that the breathed-out words of God do not mean what is plainly stated, let’s take a jaunt down this wonderful viewpoint of God’s word, and see if we can wrestle it off of BJ’s garden path and back onto the narrow way. Metaphorically speaking, I mean (but still literally for real 😊).

   Okay, I think I blew it here. I had this silly idea that I should type “of God” into my www.biblegateway search bar and see how many times that exact pairing of words came up. Guess what?! "Of God" comes up Eight… Hundred… and… Seventeen… Times!!!

   Conclusion: I do NOT have time to assess how many speak of things so objectively belonging to God that they can’t possibly refer to non-literal figurative language. Sigh.

   Which means we will have to just look at these eight and see if BJ can convince us that these are figures of speech, or rhetorical devices, or non-literal, or somehow talking about us when they say they are talking about God. You know, slight-of-hand-and-mind stuff.

   However, please let me remind you that when BJ speaks of God’s wrath, he is misrepresenting it in a strawman god-in-man’s-image kind of way, and then representing his counter to this strawman in a totally god-of-rhetoric-and-allegory who doesn’t even add up.

   CLARIFICATION: I am NOT ascribing to EITHER of BJ’s pendulum-extreme misrepresentations!

BJ’s Literal Sense	The Historical-Grammatical Sense	BJ’s Literalism
A god-of-rhetoric-and-allegory-who-doesn’t-even-add-up.		A god-in-man’s-image-who-is-just-as-trigger-happy-angry-as-too-many-fathers.

   I am seeking the plumbline of “truth in love”, trusting the breathed-out words of God, living by every word that comes from the mouth of God, with my best and most sincere effort to be true to what God says in his word, avoiding anything I might tend to read in (including that things are figurative when they are not).  

BJ’s Literal Sense	The Historical-Grammatical Sense	BJ’s Literalism
A god-of-rhetoric-and-allegory-who-doesn’t-even-add-up.	Taking what the words mean in the context they are presented and tested by anything else in God’s word that helps us understand what God said and what he meant.	A god-in-man’s-image-who-is-just-as-trigger-happy-angry-as-too-many-fathers.

   In other words, when I am defending a biblical view of “wrath” and all its synonyms, I’m NOT endorsing the other extreme of BJ’s extreme. I’m calling everyone to sit down with God’s word and humbly seek to know the mind of Christ as it is IN Scripture, not as we are told it is by someone OUTSIDE of Scripture.

Scripture	Conclusion
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)	First question: what did the Jews understand by “the wrath of God” since Jesus is speaking in their culture and understanding? I will just summarize that I have given ample evidence from the Old Testament that the judgment, wrath, anger, fury, and indignation of God were all woven into real-life events of history that were not only told in their initial expressions, but were retold in exhortations and rebukes, even in songs, so people would be aware that the same things could just as well happen to them as what happened to others. Wrath: “wrath n. — a feeling of intense anger that does not subside; often on an epic scale” (BSL). So far, the word “wrath” is a thing. If we were talking about people, we would understand it as a real thing. For some reason, talking about God, it can’t be a real thing (I mean, Jersakily speaking). Clue: the rhyming thought about those who believe in Jesus is that they have “eternal life”. That is a real thing. It is called “the gift of God”[1]. That would suggest that if the gift “of God” is really the gift belonging to God and/or coming from God, that the wrath “of God” would be the wrath belonging to God and/or coming from God. CONCLUSION: nothing in this text or context suggests that God’s wrath is “non-literal” when his “eternal life” is real. BJ is BSing, and how I wish whoever wrote him that letter would return to their first love and humble themselves under God’s mighty hand in Scripture so they can be lifted up to delight in every word that comes from the mouth of God!
but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. (Romans 2:8)	The persons in question are those who “obey unrighteousness”. This is in contrast to those who “obey the truth”. This says that the “obey unrighteousness” people are destined for “wrath and fury”. It says that. Wrath: “wrath (punishment) n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger long-building” (BSL) Fury: “punishment ⇔ fury n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger quickly kindled” (BSL). Once again, these are real things. If we were talking people, we would have no problem “getting it” that this is someone we would not want to meet in a dark alley because they are describing objectively painful things we would want to avoid. So where is the evidence that this is a rhetorical device that makes it non-literal? Clue: once again, the “wrath” rhymes with “eternal life”. So, is eternal life real or non-literal? If it is real and literal, then so is the wrath. We’re not cherry-pickers here. CONCLUSION: because Paul talked about “the day of wrath when GOD’s righteous judgment will be revealed” a few verses earlier, and he speaks of the “tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil” right after, the context cries out to take this as a serious and real warning of the very real judgment for the wicked that will match the very real blessedness for the saints. And BJ’s determination to convince people this is not real has no authority over any of us.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 5:6)	Wow! This is talking about BJ! Dear people, Paul is telling us not to let people like BJ deceive us with their “empty words”! How do I know BJ is using empty words? Because whenever he claimed a Scripture supported his view, I went and looked up the Scripture and found that it either did not support his view or outrightly contradicted it. His words were empty because they never added up to what the words claimed.  And, when I listened to all his rationales for believing what he said, he simply quoted people from the past who were not apostles are prophets of our Lord Jesus Christ, and were only giving their opinions about Scripture as BJ is. So, yes, BJ’s EMPTY WORDS! Now look at this: Wrath means, “wrath (punishment) n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger long-building” (BSL). (I’m almost trembling with how this stands out!). We have in the left column the breathed-out words of God. Serious business. FULL words. Every word breathed out by God. Each word written down by a man carried along by the Holy Spirit. Can you feel it? Can you feel how FULL that is? And then I read in BJ’s book how he explains these words away and I’m left with “empty words”. Like really. I’m looking around the pages to find out why I should believe him and I can’t find anything. The pages are empty of authority. They are empty of reason. Even the most clever of his rhetorical devices can’t persuade me to believe what he says because the words are empty. They are as empty as the serpent’s “Did God actually say…?” that were also full of the bitter poison of idolatry as hearts were persuaded away from the only true God for idols and gods in the image of man. CONCLUSION: not only does this NOT sound non-literal in any way, but it exposes BJ’s “empty words” along with an apostolic exhortation to “let NO ONE deceive you”, and BJ is a “NO ONE” trying to DECEIVE YOU! Don’t… let… it… happen!!!!!!!
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Colossians 3:5-6)	Question: if the “on account of these” are all real, literal things, why would “the wrath of God is coming” be non-literal? Where do these amazing rhetorical devices squeeze into just half-sentences? Wrath means, “wrath (punishment) n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger long-building” (BSL). Question: if even something like “covetousness” is listed as “idolatry”, and every instance of idolatry in the Hebrew Scriptures received literal expressions of God’s wrath, hot anger, judgment, and indignation, why would an apostle use the same terminology as people were familiar with from the Scriptures and mean something opposite to the words God breathed out? I mean, don’t forget that the apostles preached “the word of God” as a mix of what the Hebrew Scriptures said about the Christ (Hebrews shows us what that would have sounded/looked like) plus their application of those Scriptures to “the gospel of the kingdom” of our Lord Jesus Christ. So where do the apostles say that what they quote from the Scriptures was as real as everyone understood, but speaking of the day of wrath to come is not only non-literal, but somehow means the opposite of what the words say? CONCLUSION: the sins Paul tells us to put to death are real sins. Literally. The things he tells us to “put them all away” immediately after include “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk”, all of which are real and literal. If we continue into the positive qualities we are to “put on then” (vs 12ff), they are also real and literal. There is absolutely no reason to pull “wrath” out of the puzzle picture and say IT is so rhetorically figurative that it doesn’t mean what it means like EVERY OTHER WORD IN THE CONTEXT DOES!!! More of BJ’s BSin’. I mean… “empty wordin’”!
by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last! (1 Thessalonians 2:16)	Once again, wrath is, “wrath (punishment) n. — the punitive outworking of God’s righteous indignation at sin; perhaps describing an anger long-building” (BSL). The context again shows one real and literal expression after another. Paul really thanked God. The Thessalonians really received the “word OF God”. The believers literally became “imitators of the church of God in Christ Jesus in Judea”. And, what Paul is getting to now, the believers literally “suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews”. The Jews literally “killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets”. They literally “drove us out”. They literally “displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved”. They are literally filling up “the measure of their sins”. CONCLUSION: the “wrath” is as real as the wrath that had already come on criminal nations and idolatrous children all through the Hebrew Scriptures with not one hint those were allegorical descriptions! And it is as real as every other part of the context surrounding the word “wrath”!
where your fathers put me to the test     and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;     they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath,     ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” (Hebrews 3:9-11)	Okay, this makes me smile because we are now in the book of Hebrews which tells us what Jesus said to the two men on the road to Emmaus. Yes, Hebrews shows how the Hebrew Scriptures tell us the whole story of Jesus Christ! This one is almost too easy. First, it is speaking of an event from the past. So, did God swear in his wrath that a generation of his people would never enter his rest? Yes, he did swear that. Did those people ever enter his rest? No, they did not, even when they again defied Yahweh and tried to enter without him. So if Yahweh swearing an oath was literally what he did, and them not entering his rest (the Promised Land) really, literally happened as described, where do we get a rhetorical device (apparently in use at the time of the first century authors of Scripture but exactly parallel to what God said hundreds of years earlier?) that pops “wrath” completely out of the context and makes it non-literal? I mean, if you can’t trust God to mean “wrath” when HE says “I swore in MY wrath”, who can you believe? Oh I know, Brad Jersak! The man whose words trump God’s words! Yikes!!! CONCLUSION: could I just note a clue about how bogus BJ’s philosophy is? In the context just prior to this quote regarding “wrath”, the author of Hebrews said, “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later” (vs 5). Guess what that says about everything the Hebrew Scriptures had recorded about Moses, including that the Jews understood the first five books of the Bible to be “the books of Moses”? It means NO God/Human HYBRID!!! The way we are to see what is written is that it is a picture of Moses being faithful to his calling, for real, literally. Once again, the history being spoken of is literal and real, and the application immediately following this quote from the Hebrew Scriptures is a literal and real exhortation to do literal and real things in literal and real obedient faith. And the word “wrath” is just as real and literal as all the rest, and God says it is “MY wrath” denouncing BJ’s claim that it could not be his.
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3)	I can so see why BJ needs to convince his readers that the Old Testament is allegorical! Its history absolutely refutes everything BJ claims! Once again, we have God telling the history of his people in literal terms. I will let you read the context to see how many things you could list as literal and real and how not even one comes up as figurative. Paul is using a literal and real history of how that previous generation missed out on the Promised Land as a warning to the believers to “let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it (“the promise of enter his rest”)”. CONCLUSION: Because this text repeats what was stated in the previous verse, I think enough is said that this is all real and literal, not the least bit allegorical, figurative, or non-literal.
The nations raged,     but your wrath came,     and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,     and those who fear your name,     both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” (Revelation 11:18)	First, “the nations raged” is real and literal. Raged means, “to be angry v. — to be or become angry and feel aversion and antipathy for something” (BSL). Second, “but your wrath came” is also a real and literal description of what God did in response to the raging nations. NOTE: the “YOUR wrath” is synonymous with “wrath OF God”. It means what it says because it says what it means. The wrath is the same as has been repeated in previous verses. It IS wrath, and it is GOD’s wrath. Will the “dead” be literally “judged”? Yes, absolutely. Judged means, “to be judged (state) v. — to be or become brought to account for ones actions and sentenced accordingly, often in a courthouse setting and before a judge” (BSL). Will God’s “servants, the prophets and saints” literally be “rewarded”? Yes, absolutely. Rewarded means, “to grant a request v. — to allow someone to have what the person has requested” plus “recompense ⇔ wage n. — a payment for worthy acts or retribution for wrongdoing; understood as a tangible wage” (BSL). Are there literally “destroyers of the earth”? Yes, of course. Detroyers means, “to destroy (damage) v. — to destroy completely; damage irreparably” (BSL). Will God literally “destroy” them? Yes, he will “to destroy (damage) v. — to destroy completely; damage irreparably”. CONCLUSION: even in the apocalyptic language of Revelation, there is literally coming the time when the dead will be judged and Jesus’ servants rewarded. For real. Literally. It is our certain hope.

   My concluding conclusion is that BJ is the false teacher Jesus and the apostles warned us about. The only reason we would not take Scripture to mean what it says is that BJ found something in his own preferences, and in other people throughout history who held his same opinion, and he gathered all this info together in a trilogy of books that fulfill Scripture. Yes, did you know that?

   Paul spoke of BJ as one who is “like so many, peddlers of God's word” (II Corinthians 2:17). BJ fits the description of “evil people and impostors” who “will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Timothy 3:13). BJ also fulfills Jesus’ words, “many false prophets will arise and lead many astray” (Matthew 24:11).

   Now, because I took the detour through God’s word to show that not one of the eight verses BJ presented actually supports his allegorical/figurative/non-literal view, but they are a glaring rebuke to his claims instead, I did not get to the really exciting way God prepared me for this chapter. So, I will set up camp for another night, get a good night’s rest, and see if the delay in completing that sharing will add more puzzle pieces to the mix as I begin tomorrow morning in the Word, the word, and the Spirit of God.

 

 

© 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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[1] John 4:10; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8