Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
Day 86
“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 |
I want to begin with some great news! While doing chores over the past few days, I have listened to an amazing introduction to the book of Hebrews. It was just over 2 hours long and did a synopsis of the whole book. I loved hearing Mike Winger show example after example of how the Old Testament is tied to Hebrews. Even when typologies are spoken of, the originals were not allegories, but just the lesser that would point to the greater.
And
then, right at the end, he made this wonderful reference back to the “Emmaus
Road”!!! Yes, it was THAT exciting!!!!
I had
never thought of it before that way, but both Hebrews and Revelation tell us
everything we need to know about how Jesus used the Hebrew Scriptures to speak
to those two men on the Emmaus Road. It’s all there, and NONE OF IT IS
ALLEGORICAL as BJ claims. The original stories were real life, not fiction. But
they all pointed to the greater reality of the new covenant and our glorious
Savior Jesus Christ.
I say
this because everything I am reading and listening to these days is outrightly
debunking BJ’s claims that the Bible is allegorical, that God’s judgment is
trumped by his mercy, and especially, that Jesus did not die as the substitute
who atoned for our sins. Here is the link, and I so hope you will listen to
someone who so clearly proves the BJs are twisters and peddlers of God’s word.[1]
Also,
before I could get further into this day’s Journal Journey, I had another
exercise morning where I traveled through more chapters of the book of
Deuteronomy. What kept standing out was that God’s justice/judgment and
mercy/kindness are ALWAYS shown working together. It was the people who chose which side of the coin they received, but both God’s judgment and his mercy
were expressions of perfect and holy love and justice. Or, perfectly holy and
loving justice.
However, because I’m not sure if any readers need to see more of the glory of
God’s judgment and mercy working together in the Hebrew Scriptures, I will include my synopsis of the
next chapters of Deuteronomy as an appendix at the bottom of this post. For
now, let’s get back to BJ’s claims that God’s mercy trumps God’s judgment with
our heads full of the words of God exposing him as a liar (false teacher,
deceiver, twister of God’s words, pick your synonym).
“Mercy
triumphs over judgment” (p. 226).
Two
journal-journey days ago, we explored the cherry-picked partial-verses BJ
shared to prove that “mercy trumps judgment” and found that he was wrong. God’s
mercy and judgment are best of friends. Neither one trumps the other. Each is
God’s response to how people relate to him.
Yesterday’s journal-journey looked at Scripture from Deuteronomy that
came up in my exercise time, and they were full of true history where God
showed how both his judgment and his mercy were expressed. Sometimes it was
clear that judgment was expressed to Israel’s enemies while mercy was expressed
to Israel. Other times it showed the mercy of God to his people when they were
faithful to their covenant with Yahweh, and then his judgment against his
people when they turned to idols.
Today
I want to show how Jesus himself differentiated between the application of
God’s judgment towards sinners who reject him and his mercy towards sinners
who repent and believe in him. This ties everything together so it refutes BJ’s
claim that Jesus corrected Yahweh of the Old Testament when Jesus very clearly
(that notorious plain reading of Scripture BJ disses and despises) presents
both God’s judgment and his mercy as equally glorious and good.
Let me
put this before you, the reader. If the Scriptures from beginning to end show
God’s justice/judgment as equally divine as his mercy/kindness, and BJ keeps
telling people that God does not carry out judgment against criminal nations,
unrepentant sinners, or any wicked and evil people but only shows mercy to
all, why is BJ so popular in misrepresenting God?
Remember that BJ has claimed to be concerned that people “idolize” their
version of Jesus or “blaspheme” God’s name. But he is creating an idol in his
own image that is clearly not found in Scripture, and he is blaspheming the
name of Yahweh, Jesus’ Father, by claiming he needs to be corrected, and
blaspheming Jesus as not saying things he did say and saying things he did not
say.
Exhortation: we really should be drop-kicking all the BJs out of the
kingdom and calling them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, the King of
kings and Lord of lords, our Creator, and the only Savior for the whole wide
world who was punished by God as the sacrificial substitute to atone for our
sins and make us right (and righteous) with God.
Now,
look at what Jesus said in parables that both refute BJ’s claim that God’s
mercy trumps his judgment, and the claim that the Bible is allegorical when we
can easily tell the difference between Jesus’ allegories (parables) and how he
applied them to real life.
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “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.” (Matthew 21:33-41)
Questions:
1. Who was the master? Sounds like
Yahweh to me.
2. Who were the servants sent to
collect rent? The prophets first and then the apostles next.
3. Who was “the heir” that they
would kill? Jesus, of course.
4. What did the religious folk
understand the “owner” (Yahweh) would do to the evil tenants? Judge them, of
course.
Now let’s continue the account.
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?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.” (Matthew 21:42-44)
Questions:
1. Where did Jesus direct the
leaders’ attention? To the Hebrew Scriptures, of course.
2. What did Jesus correct of Yahweh
in this parable? Nothing, of course.
3. What is Jesus announcing by
saying, “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you”? That Jesus is judging
that generation of Jewish leaders as the ones who persecuted and killed the
prophets and were soon to put Yahweh’s Son to death.
4. What did Jesus mean that the
kingdom would be “given to a people producing its fruits”? That it would be the
church of Jews and Gentiles that would be shown the mercy of God to become the
kingdom of God throughout the world and throughout the ages.
5. What does it sound like when Jesus
says that “the stone” the Jews had rejected would break people to pieces and
crush them? It sounds like judgment, just as it did when Yahweh’s judgment was
spoken through Moses.
When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet. (Matthew 21:45-46)
Here is the blindness of Jesus’ opponents.
Even when he told them a bull’s-eye parable that applied to them, they did not
repent but wanted to do to Jesus exactly what Jesus said they would do. And,
even when this episode shows that the men recognized that the parable was allegory
but “he was speaking about them” in real life, the BJ’s don’t repent of their
fictitious claims but keep saying that the whole Bible is allegory (or at least they get to decide which parts are)!
Now, if you think this is just random that
one of Jesus’ parables is not only obvious in which part is allegory and which
part is real-life application, try that wonderful parable of the unmerciful
servant in Matthew 18. It so clearly shows allegory applied to real-life.
However, it also shows very clearly what happened when the servant who received
mercy turned unmerciful on his fellow servant. “And in anger his master
delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt” (18:34). The
master is the “king”. It is this king in the parable (the allegory) who rescinds
his mercy and switches it to judgment.
And look how clearly Jesus moves from the
end of the allegory to the bull’s eye of 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” (18:35). With that “so”, Jesus took the whole scene created by
the allegory and put his Father on center stage announcing, “What you just saw
in that allegorical scene we just acted out for you, that is what my Father
will do to you if you do not pass on to others the same mercy you receive from
us!”
Now, with all this extremely clear evidence
that God’s mercy NEVER trumps God’s judgment, let’s continue listening in to BJ
telling us the exact opposite of the word of God and ask ourselves, why are
people following him instead of the words God breathed-out to guide us through
to the return of his Son?
After
we showed that BJ was wrong that God’s vengeance bows to Jesus’ “forgive them”,
that James’ “mercy triumphs over judgment” does NOT mean mercy trumps judgment,
and that Paul’s references to God’s kindness clearly do not support the notion
of mercy trumping judgment…
Okay, I’m kinda blown away here. BJ is now claiming,
And, in Christ, the perfection of the Father is seen in graciously granting sun and rain on the crops of the wicked and the righteous… clearly negating the exclusive covenant promises and ominous threats of Deuteronomy 28 (p. 226).
But I’ve just gone through most of
Deuteronomy this week, including chapter 28, and it is the same testimony of
God’s judgment and mercy working hand-in-hand as we see in Jesus’ parables and
preaching, the apostolic message of the cross, the prophecies of Jesus’ second
coming, and the clear pictures of the book of Revelation.
Mixed
in with what BJ is saying is a partial truth again, the yes, there is some part
of the “exclusive covenant promises and ominous threats of Deuteronomy 28” that
is “negated”, but not by where the sun and rain fall! They are negated by the
new covenant in Jesus’ blood, something the old covenant Scriptures prophesied
would happen, but with ZERO change to the message that mercy and judgment are
always together applying God’s justice to everyone as required. To those who
believe, God’s justice has been satisfied in the death of his Son so God can
show us mercy. To those who do not believe, there is a day of wrath coming more
severe than anything Yahweh did as recorded in the breathed-out words of the
Hebrew Scriptures.
So now
we see how blatant these false teachers are to claim,
Perhaps one could even say the vengeance language (what is due under the law) leads to the restoration language (what is promised under grace), as in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (NASB).
There are so many poison-in-the-pudding half-truths in there!
1. No, there is no “perhaps one could say” in this since we just showed that by the measure of the Hebrew Scriptures Jesus quoted, and in Jesus’ own parables, this “mercy trumps judgment” is false.
2. The law is NOT written in “vengeance language”. It is written in the language of “blessings and curses”. The people choose whether to receive judgment or mercy. That is still the case under the new covenant. People choose whether to come under the new covenant where “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus”, or remain in their sin where Jesus said they are already condemned, and already under the wrath of God (yes, JESUS said that!).
3. There is the same teaching on God’s solitary right to “vengeance” in the New Testament as the Old, and God has been talking restoration since the Garden of Eden! With the ultimate restoration being the new heavens and the new earth.
4. Romans 6:23 does speak of “what is promised under grace”. However, in that one verse the statement “for the wages of sin is death” still applies to all who are living in sin (not believing in Jesus), and that means that it is judgment awaiting them without mercy. The “gracious gift of God is eternal life”, but it is ONLY “in Christ Jesus our Lord”. So there is mercy to those who believe and judgment to those who do not.
5. Plus, Paul just made clear, “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death” (vs 21). For “the end” of that way of life to be “death” means it is a statement of God’s judgment on those who live that way of life. “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (vs 22). It is only those who “have been set free from sin” by receiving the new covenant in Jesus’ blood who experience God’s mercy granting them eternal life.
What
is clear is that the verse BJ used denounces his claim that mercy trumps
judgment, and so does the context.
I see
that BJ is going to use a whole section of Scripture next, II Thessalonians
1:3-10, so I will end here on this day’s Journal Journey and just leave you my
Appendix of more Scriptures from Deuteronomy that clearly show how God’s
judgment/justice and mercy/kindness are always side-by-side in expressing God’s
response to how people relate to him. Even though the covenants have changed, God
has not. The Father and the Son are working to gather their people to themselves
in mercy and finalize their judgment on all those who have refused their gift
of salvation.
Appendix: judgment and mercy in Deuteronomy (continued)
1. “Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (16:20). This is in relation to the judges who “shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” God expects us to express in righteousness what he is like. This is why even in the church Jesus and the apostles taught that things must be done justly. This would be why Ananias and Sapphira were put to death by Jesus as head of his church, and why Jesus led Paul to “purge the evil” from the Corinthian church. It was to make it clear that he expects justice in his church as much as it was ever expected in Israel.
2. God told Moses to say, “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die’” (18:20). This proves that Jesus would never have endorsed Moses as a prophet, or had him appear with him on the Mount of Transfiguration, if Moses had spoken “a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak”. Or that Moses had spoken “in the name of other gods”, what BJ is claiming. There is no God/man hybrid, but there were god/man hybrids to watch out for! And yes, I certainly believe BJ’s book is such a corruption.
3. The next chapters give so many examples of “justice and only justice” that show judgment against the wrongdoer in the context of God’s mercy to Israel as long as they walked in covenant relationship with him. Too many examples to give, but they are there for anyone to read.
4. Deuteronomy 27 is almost strange in its formality of announcing curses followed by the people saying “Amen” to all of them. What was the point? The people were agreeing that God’s judgment against anyone who violated their covenant with Yahweh was a curse. They would be judged with the curses of the covenant. Nothing allegorical about the details.
5. Deuteronomy 28 begins, “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Blessed shall you be” (vss 1-3). This is followed by a whole list of blessings that will follow those who are under God’s mercy through their covenant obedience. It is mercy because they have already been such a rebellious people that God has had to withhold his judgment time and again!
6. However, only a quarter of the way through the chapter that begins with blessings, God continues listing all the ways that curses will come on his people if they turn from their covenant. It is an extensive list to keep them mindful that God’s judgment shows no favoritism. They decide if they are walking in the covenant, or serving other gods.
7. In Deuteronomy 29 there is another recounting of the history of Israel in coming this far, reminding them of the idolatrous nations they defeated along the way. But then we come to a warning about someone whose heart turns away from Yahweh to serve other gods but he still thinks he will be safe even though he is violating the “sworn covenant” with Yahweh. The particular judgment of God is described as, “The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law” (vss 20-21). Idolatry is such a grievous violation of the sworn covenant that it required God’s judgment (plus this exact situation is quoted in Hebrews 12:15, you know, like it was real history and needed to be received as a warning!).
8. In describing what happens when people marvel at the judgment of God against idolatrous people, the answer given will be, “‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day’” (vss 25-28). BJ has tried to diss the anger and wrath of God in his judgment, but the whole Bible glorifies him as perfectly just, and Jesus himself communicated about the anger, condemnation and wrath of God, all of which is expanded in the rest of the New Testament, and put on full display in the book of Revelation.
9. Deuteronomy 30 begins with the encouragement that when the people again repent of their idolatries and turn back to Yahweh, God will again show mercy and receive them back into his covenantal love (meaning that his judgment was already righteously expressed against their sin and rebellion, and now God will show mercy when they return to him, something that should thrill our hearts with wonder!). Some of the things listed are that Yahweh will “restore your fortunes… have mercy on you… gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you… If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you… will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it… will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers… will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live… will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you (see again how God's mercy and judgment are hand-in-hand)... you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments… will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground… the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (30:3-10). This is what God desires for his people, but he can only give it through a covenant relationship with him, people attaching to him in what Paul called “the obedience of faith”.
10. Then comes one of the most beautiful encouragements of a Father to his children, “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it” (30:11-14). It is a commandment. It is a covenant. It is a Law. It is a love-relationship with Yahweh and no other gods. But God saturates his people with his word so we know his heart and can do his will. We experience his mercy when we walk in this, and his judgment when we resist and rebel.
11. And after one more reminder of both the blessings and curses of the covenant, Moses speaks again for Yahweh, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them” (30:19-20). Why are God’s judgment and mercy the best of friends? Because they are God. For real. No anthropomorphisms. Consistent characteristics that can be trusted both now and to the day of eternity.
When I put so many complete Scriptures against the cherry-picked partial-Scriptures BJ uses, it should be obvious to everyone that BJ is twisting and distorting Scripture to his own sinful ends. Why would he do that? Because the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy to keep us from trusting the true Lord Jesus Christ and his propitiating death for our sins because the Deceiver knows that the true Lord Jesus Christ gives life, and gives it to the full.
Instead of following the BJs, we must let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, and thereby be able to teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, the wisdom that sees through the poison-in-the-pudding of the BJs and urges everyone to return to the word of the Lord with all our hearts to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
To the teaching and to the testimony!
If they will not speak according to this word,
it is because they have no dawn.
(Isaiah 8:20)
© 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
[1]
The Entire Book in One Video: The Hebrews Series pt 1 (Mike Winger)
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