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)
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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 12 - Faith and
Function: A Christian Use of Scripture (p. 160).
Because BJ is going to review a whole bunch of his false teachings, I
will respond in kind by reminding you of how they have been exposed as such. I have already given all kinds of proofs in my reproofs, so I will just state the truth in response to his "different" story.
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“I hope you recognize that I take the Bible very seriously, which
includes reading it as gospel in a way that never blasphemes the character of
God as revealed through Jesus Christ” (p. 160). |
No, writing the Bible off as a God/Man hybrid when Paul said that all
the Scripture in the Bible was breathed out by God is not taking the Bible
seriously. And his claim that he never interprets Scripture to “blaspheme” the
character of God as revealed through Jesus Christ means that he first decides
to not believe the character of God as revealed in the Scriptures, and then
denies the Scriptures that show Jesus has the same character as Yahweh in the
Old Testament. So he does not avoid “blaspheming” Yahweh’s character by
interpreting the God/man hybrid Scriptures by the character of Christ as
revealed in the Bible, but he judges the Yahweh of the Scriptures by his
“another Jesus” version, and that is just as much denying what the Bible says
about Jesus as what it says about Yahweh. No, the BJs do NOT take the Bible seriously. |
From
there, he highlights what he has already said, so I will highlight how I
already responded. All my responses were much more detailed in earlier Journal
entries.
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“1. The Word of God is Jesus Christ” (p. 160). |
This is clearly confusing what the apostles said about the Scriptures as
“the word” and attributing those things to Jesus as the Word. It is false and
misleading since he makes it appear that we can treat Jesus as inspired,
infallible, and inerrant but not the word of God as we have it in the Bible.
I showed how he misrepresented Scriptures that applied to the word of God and
claimed they applied to the Word of God. That was one of the early
deceptions. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“2. The function of the Scriptures, #1: To point to the gospel” (p.
160). |
I respond with a statement from Got Questions where they answer, “What
is the Purpose of the Bible?”[1] They state, “If we have to speak of a single purpose of the Bible, it
would be to reveal God to us.” I know the gospel is central to the Bible’s message, but the #1
function of Scripture is to make God known to us, and that includes teaching
us the necessity of the gospel. However, I clarify that BJ’s gospel is not found in the Scriptures, so
he says the words that the Scriptures point to “the gospel” but he means that
his version of a God/man hybrid Scriptures teaches his “different gospel”. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“3. Function of the Scriptures #2: a mirror revealing the human
condition” (p. 160). |
Yes, the Scriptures reveal the human condition clearly, beginning in
Genesis chapter 3 with the Fall. However, since BJ begins with creation and
the Fall in his efforts to write off Scripture as allegorical instead of
historical, we cannot say that the BJs are concerned about WHAT the Bible
reveals of the human condition, particularly in denying the need for a Savior
to die in our place to propitiate the wrath of God against our sin. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“4. What is worthy of God?” (p. 161). |
I am going to have to break this point down because it is full of
false statements. However, the question for the BJs is not what the Bible
says is worthy of God, but what they claim is worthy of the god in man’s
image they are promoting. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“We found that the early church, even before opening the scrolls, had
made a faith commitment that God is good (indeed, the Good)” (p. 161). |
BJ has been very poor in substantiating his claims, so I would not
agree that “we have found” what the early church believed or did. Also
because BJ has cherry-picked who he uses to represent the early church, I am
not sure that anything BJ says about any of the early church figures
accurately represents what the early church truly believed. I will measure
everything by what the Scriptures of the early church say on the matter, not
what BJ’s select writers apparently wrote. Also, I believe BJ has it backwards about how the early church had a
faith commitment that God was good. They didn’t begin with such a belief
“before opening the scrolls”, but they learned from the Scriptures how good
God was, and so that is the way they saw him in everything he did, including
the judging of criminal nations. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“When a passage describes unChristlike images of God, we must not read
them literalistically, because attributing moral darkness to God’s nature or
deeds is not worthy of God” (p. 161). |
This is so full of hypocrisy and double-speak that it is pathetic. It is the BJs who “attribute moral darkness to God’s nature” as seen
in his judgment against criminal nations so that they then create “another
Jesus” who will rewrite the description of Yahweh, Jesus’ Father, in their
own image, NOT in the image of Jesus Christ. There is nothing in the plain
reading of the Jewish Scriptures that, taken as they are written, without
reading something in that isn’t there, portrays God as morally dark, or doing
something “not worthy of God”. That is part of the BJ deception, to make it
sound like BJ is taking the high road of protecting God’s character, when he
is the one impugning it with claims of injustice in carrying out justice. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“5. Interpreting the Scriptures with the fathers” (p. 161). |
We saw that BJ cherry-picked which church fathers he used, siding with
those whose reputation for mishandling Scripture went before them. And he
claimed/claims that the church fathers support his non-literal Literal Sense
view when didn’t even show us examples of what the church fathers taught. At
no time was there any reason to believe that there was support for BJ’s
version of reading the Bible as a God/man hybrid that has no authority. |
A
Christian Use of Scripture (p. 161).
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“The Bible read in the community” (pp. 161-162). |
In this section, BJ proposes that there is a community way to interpret the Bible that, again, is not based on the authority of the word of God itself, but what consensus a group of people come to. We don't get our understanding of God's word from a consensus of how people read it, but from being honest about what it says whether or not we have anyone to help us. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“The Bible read in the liturgy” (p. 162). |
All I will say about this is that it is not something taught in Scripture. However it may be done in a church, it is a manmade way of doing it. It is definitely not required to "let the word of Christ dwell in us richly". |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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“The Bible read in prayer and song” (p. 164). |
Again, lots of manmade ideas, but not required of the church in
Scripture. |
Scripture as the Music of God (p. 164).
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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BJ makes claims about peacemakers that aren’t from the Bible. |
I will simply put against them that when Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers”, he had in mind people who would bring others to have peace with God, which is through the gospel of the kingdom in the Bible, not the one promoted by the BJs. And, immediately after this Jesus said, “Blessed are
those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness” because peacemakers,
if truly seeking to bring people to have peace with God through the cross,
get persecuted for proclaiming the very message the world hates to hear.
Example? Jesus. Stephen in Acts 7. Paul everywhere he went proclaiming the
gospel of the kingdom. For clarification, someone who tries to get everyone to have peace
with each other without experiencing peace with God through the gospel is
called a “peacekeeper”, not a “peacemaker”. |
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BJ’s Claim |
Monte’s Response |
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Origen, Origen, Origen (pp. 164-165). |
I will simply say that those are lot of Origen’s ideas, and he was not
a good pick for representing the church fathers, although I can see why BJ
prefers him to the more reliable ones. |
I will
add a note at this point because I was doing some chores earlier today and was
able to listen to some online messages about the things BJ is talking about. I
learned some things about the so-called church fathers that really comes down
to them being in the same place of grappling with Scripture based on their
personal views, opinions, and feelings about things. They sounded just as opinionated
about what Scripture means as anything I hear in our day.
My
conclusion is that these men were no authority on the meaning of any specific Scripture
passage as if they had something the rest of us don’t have by reading the
Bible. They were choosing between what they wanted to read into texts, and what
they thought they were reading out of texts. But it all sounded the same as we
have it today, different ideas of whether we receive the Scriptures as the
breathed-out words of God, or we act as the authorities who breathe-in the
words of man.
Scripture
as an Epic Saga (p. 165).
The wind-down to the end of this chapter
was a very picturesque summary of what the BJs believe. It is a beyond-what-is-written
narrative with too many manmade additions that have already been addressed in
detail when they were introduced. I would just label it all “poo-brownies” and
warn people not to eat it.
However, I will add my comments to the last
two lines.
BJ writes, “It
testifies to Christ and is itself transfigured by Christ into a luminescent
witness and a more Christlike word” (p. 166). Let me share that again
but with my “Amplified” translation.
“It (the “different gospel” the BJs teach) testifies to Christ (as the “another Jesus” Paul was warning about) and is itself
transfigured by Christ (which means that the
Scriptures prior to Jesus’ first coming need to be rewritten to match the box
the BJs have put their “another Jesus” into), into a luminescent witness
(which means it fits the profile of the “evil
people and imposters” who “will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being
deceived”, as Paul warned) and a more Christlike word (which
means an Old Testament that is rewritten to match the “another Jesus” the BJs
have created).”
I share this knowing that, if that’s all I
said about this book, it would just be spouting off my opinion. However, I
believe that I have challenged BJ’s claims on these things throughout the book,
so I simply leave my closing comments alongside his, and hope that a few will
check for themselves what Scripture says and means as the breathed-out words of
God.
BJ’s closing line is, “We’re now ready to
study how the Bible’s polyphony of voices, multiplicity of perspectives, and
variety of literature churn together into one story – our coherent and beautiful
drama of redemption” (p. 166).
My Amplified translation is,
“We’re now ready to
study how the Bible’s polyphony of voices (which
doesn’t mean “the Bible’s polyphony of voices”, but the ones the BJ’s have
orchestrated that weren’t written into the original symphony), multiplicity
of perspectives (after the biblical
perspectives the BJs have denied and the manmade perspectives they have added),
and variety of literature (again, denying the
message of the genres the Bible presents as God’s breathed-out words and adding
the jingle-of-genres that are of the beyond-what-is-written variety)
churn together into one story (“churn” or “agitate”
seems like a fitting verb for what BJ has done with his book so far, trying to take
what God has written as “his-story” and rewriting it into the one story of the
BJs’ fictitious world) – our coherent (no,
with all the distorted teachings about Scripture added to the mix it would be a
cacophony of incoherence) and beautiful drama of redemption (like the Emperor’s New Clothes were a beautiful display of royal
regalness for all to see, allegorically speaking, of course).”
How
would I allegorize how I am responding to the BJs at this point in the book?
Which popular character would I use to illustrate the contempt and head-shaking
disbelief that people would get this far and believe that BJ
has truly captured what he has just described with the same “rightly handling
the word of truth” Paul was speaking about with Timothy?
As I
consider this, there is no allegorical “popular” character who would express
what Paul did with his, “you put up with it readily enough”. What we need is a “more
Christlike BJ”, not a “more Christlike Bible”. So let’s consider a few of Jesus’
words as the song of life that rises above the cacophony of
poison-in-the-pudding (or “poo brownies”) of the false teachers of our day.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide
and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are
many” (Matthew 7:13).
It hasn’t been difficult for me to research BJ’s
claims and see for myself that he has misrepresented one Scripture after
another. But his popularity is not in conflict with what Jesus himself taught,
that “many” would prefer the easy road of gods in man’s image, and so we look
for what Jesus said next, “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that
leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). A few on the
narrow way is vastly superior (albeit bittersweet) than the ease of the wide
and easy way of the false teachers.
“For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am
the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray" (Matthew 24:5).
Although BJ is not claiming the exact words, “I
am the Christ”, he is claiming that he has a better Christ than the one
prophesied about in Isaiah, or the one speaking of God’s wrath in John 3, or
the one Paul wrote about who propitiated God’s wrath against our sin, or the
one John wrote about as having so much wrath shining from his face that people
will call on the rocks and hills to cover them to hide them from the day of
wrath that both Jesus and the Father will fulfill as Scripture describes it. As
I have said before, the very title of the book betrays the horribleness of BJ’s
agenda, and it should have been enough to stop people in their tracks from
taking a sample-bite of his poo-brownies.
“And many false prophets will arise and lead
many astray” (Matthew 24:11).
Just a reminder that Jesus said “many” false
prophets and “many” led astray. I can’t apply this to BJ just because I want
to. But it does fit as a valid application after showing him twisting Scripture
from its “plain” and obvious meanings into this “another Jesus”, “different
spirit”, and “different gospel”.
“And because lawlessness will be increased, the
love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12).
I’m including this for a strange reason
(kinda). When I was originally looking at BJ’s books, trying to find the
cheapest version to critique because it really bothered me to have to spend
money to do this (I think it’s the Hungarian Gypsy in me, although my
Dutch/Mennonite background might have something to do with it as well), I
noticed that the book was endorsed by a couple of fellas I had already been
disappointed in for their dubious writings. Both of them I had either heard or
read for myself, and seeing their endorsement of Brad Jersak hit me with a
sense of, “Of course they would all approve of each other”.
The three of them together (in hearing or
reading what triggered them to write things so contrary to Scripture), had a
similar story of being confronted with people they knew who were languishing in
their relationship with God because of a disconnect from the Scriptures. They
then explained how this disconnect was turning them away from God, from the
gospel as they understood it, and from Scripture as they perceived it, hence the
need for these three men to come in and rewrite Scripture, rewrite the Bible,
and rewrite Father Yahweh.
My testimony is how God’s word has “come alive”
to me over the past 32 years simply by reading it every day to hear what God is
saying to me through his word and prayer, by seeking to discern what I see him
doing in me, around me, or through me, and then being honest with God about how
I need to make adjustments to join him in his work. Often this has led to surprising
divine appointments that came with me already prepared to know how to join God
in what he was doing.
But my testimony also includes what happens
when people do this together, first having their private “prayer closet” time
with God in his word and prayer, and then sharing a summary of what God is
saying, what he is doing, and how they are joining him in his work (or
preparing to do so). In all these decades, when people just read the word to
understand what God has breathed out, I have never had a situation where
someone presented a viewpoint contrary to what was written. I have heard people’s
testimonies of how God spoke to them through a passage of Scripture that hit
them with something different than what stood out to me when I last read that
same section, but not something different from what the Scripture said.
What I have seen and heard, though, is that
when we do this together as God’s children, and “let the word of Christ dwell
in us richly” as Paul instructed, we witness people growing from when they
could read a whole chapter and only get one thought out of it that they
tentatively applied to their lives, to when they couldn’t get through a whole
verse without each part of it standing out and needing a few days to
prayer-journal through it.
The way this connects to the verse above, about
people’s love growing cold because of the increase of evil, is that these three
guys all described people’s love growing cold! So what do they do? They
increase the EVIL! They add poison to the pudding, leaven to the Passover
Bread, diluting-water to the soup of life. Figures of speech, I know, but that’s the way
figures of speech work!
What all three audiences needed was someone
telling them why their love was growing cold, and then speaking "the truth in love" from
Scripture about how God is going to handle the increasing evil, including his
utter and complete victory over sin, death, hell and the grave, and the utter
vanquishing of all of Satan’s work and all of Satan’s ways so that those who
have trusted in Jesus Christ with new-birth-faith will live in the home of
righteousness forever and ever with NO possibility of evil ever destroying or
cursing God’s work again.
But no, the love of the people grew cold, the
men believed they were the ones to do something about it, so they stole,
killed, and destroyed the realities of God and made a god in their own image
and likeness, one who does not know how to deal with sin, does not carry out vengeance
against criminal nations, and does not deal with the justice against us because
of our sin.
So, no, I do not want the word of God changed
to match the god of the BJs. I do not want their “another Jesus” who is only
what the BJs tell me he is. I do not want the “different spirit” that Jesus warned
us about would come to lead people astray. I do not want the “different gospel”
that, as Paul said, is no gospel at all. I would rather find the “few” with the
truth in love than the many with a mirage of righteousness that disappears the
moment they stand before the Great White Throne of Jesus Christ the Lord.
Instead of the BJs, I seek to follow the example of Paul. Near the end of his life he declared to the Ephesian elders,
Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. (Acts 20:26-30)
Folks, we have books written by wolves. Be one of the few who stand by the whole counsel of God no matter how much we must wrestle with the heart-breaking expressions of God’s justice against sinners. Only the few who stay on the narrow road have the good news of great joy that provides a Savior, the true Jesus Christ our Lord. And we must be the peacemakers who share this good news so we can find a few lost sheep who want to have peace with God by faith in Jesus Christ.
© 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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