A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 85

 

Examining "A More Christlike Word" by Brad Jersak

Day 85

“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

  

GOOD NEWS:

by showing BJ’s constant misuse of Scripture to make his points, we can now confidently conclude that his attempt to prove the Bible is not the authoritative word of God has FAILED. Everyone whose heart was drawn to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and to treat all Scripture as God-breathed, can joyfully return to trusting what is written and treating the Bible as the manual for the church to live in “the obedience of faith” until the return of Christ.

 

BAD NEWS:

The purpose of the BJs’ writings is to demoralize people’s faith in the authority of Scripture as the breathed-out words of God. They continue the serpent’s question in the garden, “Did God actually say…?” to replace what God said with what the “evil people and imposters” are peddling for unjust gain.

   As I begin my journal journey for today, I see where BJ is going with his continuing cherry-picking of Scripture to create the mirage that God’s mercy trumps his judgment when Scripture unanimously testifies that God’s mercy and judgment are the best of friends and equally glorious in the full spectrum of God’s real-life attributes (not anthropomorphisms).

   To counter this, let me share some things that are part of my journey in God’s word these days.

   First, as I have been going through the gospel of Matthew, it has become very noticeable that when Jesus told parables, it was always easy to distinguish between the allegory of the story and the application to real life. The Bible has no problem showing that Jesus used figures of speech to help people attach to a truth impersonally, and once they “got it” about the natural, he led them to see their hearts in the spiritual. The parables were allegory, the applications were real life.

   My point is that the topic in BJ’s spotlight is not the only thing to look at. We must look at the props as well. We must look back on the garden path and see how it is strewn with the wreckage of BJ’s attempts to use Scripture to diss Scripture. And in his present effort to write off his dreaded “plain reading” of Scripture that leads us to accept that God said what he meant and meant what he said, he again misrepresents what is written in the hope that we will drink the arsenic-in-the-apple-juice and reject the authority of God’s word to govern and lead God’s people until the return of Christ.

   Second, while BJ’s spotlight is on his “mercy trumps judgment” focus, let me add a bunch of props to the stage so the scene is more biblical. All this comes simply from listening to God’s word being read to me while I was exercising this morning (the morning I wrote that). I listened to Numbers 36 through to Deuteronomy 14, and will simply show how many ways God puts his judgment and mercy together without either one trumping the other. They always complement each other because God is both merciful and just. He cannot do one or the other, but applies either one as needed. I will try to share in concise point-form, but I am so aware that people are still buying into BJ’s twisted peddling of Scripture that I would rather err on the side of clarity than leave something out that might also leave people out of the truth.

   All the references for this section are from the first 14 chapters of Deuteronomy.

1.     One of the biggest things that stood out as I was listening to chapter after chapter was that what we have in these chapters of Scripture (as Jesus and the apostles had them as well) is the Bible telling us the history of Moses reminding the people of the history of things God did to make them his people, and how their parents get the whole nation in trouble by refusing to go into the Promised Land. The reason that generation was still in the wilderness instead of growing up in the land promised to Abraham was because their parents’ generation rebelled. Simple as that. History. No sense whatsoever that it was allegorical. And the three layers of history (what happened first, Moses reminding about it, Scripture recording Moses doing this) are three witnesses that the Bible is predominantly a historical book with allegory and figures of speech mixed in here and there, but not the dominant focus.

2.    A second thing that stands out is how many times Moses made reference to “the LORD commanded,” with its many synonymous expressions. This means that Moses is ascribing the history he is retelling to Yahweh, Jesus’ Father. And if you have ever studied what God thinks and how he feels about false witnesses, there is no possible way that Moses would be revered as the leader of Israel by God’s people at that time, by any generation since, or by Jesus without any correction, unless he truly was a prophet and telling the truth (there’s no such thing as a biblical prophet who was not telling the truth!). This simply means that what Moses reminded the people about was authoritative because it was God’s word, and what is written in the Bible is also authoritative because it is God’s word.

3.    Another major theme in these chapters is Moses describing Israel’s history in swinging from obedience to rebellion. What we see EVERY TIME is God relating to his children with blessing when they were keeping covenant-faith with him, and relating to his children with the curses of the covenant when they were in rebellion. There was no such thing as mercy trumping judgment, but mercy being what God expressed when his children were acting like children (in submission to their parents) and judgment being expressed when they were acting defiant. We need to keep this in mind as BJ uses his cherry-picking partial-scriptures to make a case that directly contradicts the whole picture of God in his word from beginning to end.

4.    When Israel came to the Jordan River and prepared to go into the Promised Land, Moses retells how they rebelled and refused. “And the LORD heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers…’” (1:34-35). The people sinned, God “was angered”, he expressed judgment.

5.    When the people decided they would go into the land after all, defying God’s judgment, God warned them through Moses not to go. They defied him again. The judgment? “Then the Amorites who lived in that hill country came out against you and chased you as bees do and beat you down in Seir as far as Hormah” (1:44). Because the people were rebelling, God let them bear the curse of the covenant, that he would not protect them against their enemies. To make this clearer, “And you returned and wept before the LORD, but the LORD did not listen to your voice or give ear to you” (1:45). I know that BJ has had to convince people that this is a mistaken description of Yahweh, but it is not presented that way here, and no one, Jesus included, ever corrected this as if it was inaccurate. Yahweh was not showing mercy because judgment had not completed its work.

6.    In another reference to God’s judgment against their parents’ generation, Moses reminded them, “And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them. For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished” (2:14-15). God’s judgment is honored because the people’s sin had dishonored God.

7.    As Moses speaks of how God will bless his people with mercy in going into the land, he partners this with his judgment against the nations that are inhabiting the land God had given to Abraham. “This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you” (2:25). It will become clearer why God’s judgment was against these nations, but it is another example of how God’s mercy towards his people was partnered with his judgment against their enemies.

8.    After reminding the people of a few of their experiences of subduing their enemies with God’s help, Moses summarizes why the people had no need for fear, “You shall not fear them, for it is the LORD your God who fights for you” (Deuteronomy 3:22). In other words, while Israel was protected by Yahweh in his faithfulness to his covenant with Abraham, the reason they had no need to fear their enemies is because their God would be victorious over them.

9.    When Moses speaks of the possibilities that are ahead, and describes scenarios where the people may “provoke” God to anger by acting “corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God” (4:25), “the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you” (4:27). However, when the people have made themselves sick in foreign lands worship their idols, God promises what he will do in mercy, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul” (4:29). The work of God’s judgment is described like this, “When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice” (4:30), and the explanation is, “For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them” (4:31). The point is that God used judgment on his people to discipline them, but never stopped being merciful, and so he brought them home when they returned to him in repentance and faith. No conflict between his judgment and his mercy.

10. In concluding the reminder of historical events in Deuteronomy 4, Moses declares, “Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time” (vs 40). Note that keeping their side of the covenant was imperative to “it may go well with you and with your children after you…” There is no such thing as God showing mercy to everyone, or even to the same people all the time. He uses both his judgment and his mercy to relate to people as they see fit to relate to him.

11.  After repeating the Ten Commandments, Moses gives another exhortation, “You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess” (5:33). Again, the “THAT it may go well with you” is conditional. It is what God’s mercy will look like if the people continue in covenant relationship with him. There are plenty of other descriptions of his judgment against Israel when they violated their covenant agreement with God.

12. As Moses speaks of what the Israelites can expect in going into the land, he speaks of God as the one who “clears away many nations before you” (7:1), meaning showing judgment against his enemies. He then instructs them, “and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them” (7:2). Now before someone goes into Column 3 and suggests that I am teaching that Christians should act this way, that’s not my point. The issue is addressing BJ’s claim that the Bible shows God’s mercy trumping God’s judgment and I am simply showing that this is not the case and what I heard read to me this morning states exactly the opposite of BJ’s claim.

13. Now, BJ has raised the lament about how the Yahweh misrepresented by God’s children (the writers of Scripture) called for the extermination of whole people groups and how unjust that was. Moses explains why it was necessary to execute such justice against criminal nations, “for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly” (7:4).

14. After clarifying God’s love for his people, Moses continues that God, “repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face” (7:10). His love and mercy are for those “who love him and keep his commandments” (7:9), but his justice is to those who hate him. While the church does not express that justice in any kind of religious wars, the New Testament does teach that God’s justice will be finalized at the return of Christ and will be every bit as real as what God expressed through Israel as his people claimed the Promised Land as their own.

15. I will highlight statements from this quote from 7:12-16. First, in relation to Israel, “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you… You shall be blessed above all peoples… And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you”. In relation to their enemies, “but he will lay them (sicknesses and diseases) on all who hate you. And you shall consume all the peoples that the LORD your God will give over to you.” And when God says, “Your eye shall not pity them, neither shall you serve their gods,” his reason given was, “for that would be a snare to you.” God required judgment in order to continue showing his people mercy.

16. As God prepares his people to go into the land he says, “Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you” (9:3). Again, for God to show mercy and bless Israel, he must destroy their enemies with justice. Obviously Yahweh’s enemies won’t like this, but it is what is written clearly all through the Bible!

17. “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (10:17-18). If he “executes justice FOR…” he executes justice AGAINST. No other option for carrying out justice for the oppressed against their oppressors.

18. All through these chapters there is a list of blessings that come when the people obey the covenant, and a list of the curses that will come when they turn to idols. It is so clear that God’s judgment relates to his people when they sin, and his mercy when they repent. I will simply give this clear description of both: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known” (11:26-28).

19. In reference to false prophets (like BJ), Yahweh called for capital punishment since the person was turning people away from their God. He concluded, “So you shall purge the evil from your midst” (13:5). Those are almost the same words Paul used referring to kicking the sinning brother out of the church in I Corinthians 5.

   I will leave it at this for now. While it is a lot of Scripture, and summarizing a lot more, it is necessary to see that when we just read Scripture to see what it says, it clearly shows that it is far too detailed to be allegorical, and it clearly reveals God’s judgment and mercy as two sides of his justice. Mercy never “trumps” judgment when judgment is required, and judgment is never executed when mercy should be given.

   I also want to leave my testimony that anyone can look at the bits-and-pieces of cherry-picked Scriptures BJ uses and see that when we read the Scriptures themselves, keeping everything in context, it doesn’t even remotely say what he is claiming. My hope would be that people would realize by now he is a peddler of twisted Scripture as Jesus and the apostles warned about, but for the sake of the people who may think their arguments up ahead that might save BJ’s reputation, I will continue looking.

   For me, even before I could finish writing this I already had two more days of time in God’s word, and with my home church’s sharing, and listening to messages while doing chores, to assure me that BJ desperately needs the penal substitutionary atonement he is trying so hard to hide from the sight of desperately needy sinners 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