A Journal Journey with Brad Jersak’s “Different” Jesus – Day 88

 

Examining "A More Christlike Word" by Brad Jersak

Day 88

“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

  

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.

   The Diatribe Dilemma (p. 238).

   Before continuing in BJ’s diatribe against God’s word, let me interject a testimony of how Jesus speaks against the author. I have come to Matthew 23 where Jesus pronounces “woes” on the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees were the guardians of Scripture. Together they controlled what was read and taught in the synagogues. The common people would not have had their own copies of “the Bible” of the day to read at home. Many did not read anyway. The bottom line is that they did not have access to the Scriptures and could not check for themselves if what they were hearing from the religious elite was true.  

   Throughout Jesus’ three-plus years of ministry, the scribes and Pharisees were some of his chief opponents. No matter how he showed the signs prophesied of the Messiah, and no matter how accurately he taught according to the Scriptures, what he presented of the “good news of the kingdom” was so radically different than the religious system they had created that there was no room for it in the kingdom of God. And, since they had no intention of giving up the religion they had created, they had to oppose Jesus of Nazareth for calling people away from their system, and increasingly so as his ministry became all the more convincing to the masses.

   With these men standing in the way of people believing in Jesus as the promised Messiah (Christ), Jesus is going to leave everyone with a final statement about them before he goes aside with his disciples to prepare for his crucifixion. And this concluding message would be built on a framework of “woes”, declarations of judgment on the religious leaders who were leading God’s people astray.

   Since I focused on the first of the woes this morning, I will share that one as equally applicable to the BJs as it was to the scribes and Pharisees of the first century. Jesus declared, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in” (Matthew 23:13).

   What is the hypocrisy? That these men claimed to be leaders of God’s word but were standing against God’s “Word” (Jesus), standing against God’s “word” as spoken by Jesus, and deliberately slamming shut the door of the kingdom of heaven every opportunity they could find.

   How does this apply to the BJs? They claim to have a better way than what is in the Scriptures, but it is actually of the “Did God actually say…?” variety that entered history in the Garden of Eden.

   I can honestly say that my view of the BJs is not based on hearsay, but a careful study of what BJ has written in this book, including the writings of those he has quoted as of the same tribe. Although he has a 100% failure rate in explaining what any Scripture means, we are 85% of the way through his book and he speaks as though he has already shown why we should join him in denying the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ our Lord even though it is so clearly taught from beginning to end of the Scriptures. He denies God’s judgment against sin so that people will not feel God’s kindness leading them to repentance. He denies the reality of the Great White Throne judgment that will separate the Sheep from the Goats so that under his teaching people will not feel the horror of their sin and call on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

   At this point in BJ’s book, I can say that I am truly appalled that people believe what he has written because he hasn’t made his case with even one Scripture he has shared and yet people are dissing and discarding what is breathed-out by God in favor of opinions that are treated as authoritative over Scripture!

   My paraphrase of this first woe is something like this, “Woe to Brad Jersak, hypocrite! He shuts the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces while claiming to have found a secret passage into the kingdom that bypasses the Cornerstone of the temple. He will not enter through the Gate of Christ by the good news of the kingdom, and with his preaching and publishing he will not allow people to believe the good news of salvation and enter eternal life.”

   I believe my 85%-of-the-way journey down BJ’s garden path has given me the right to come to such a conclusion. The present chapter as a diatribe against Paul will be another false claim that what he said about God’s judgment must be non-literal. And the remaining 15% of the book is fabricated on a wide path heading in the wrong direction so I already know it is as false as every step leading up to it.

   While I began my journey down BJ’s garden path with a sense of the onus being on me to prove him false, I am far enough along the way of proving him false that now the onus is on BJ to show me anything from Scripture that supports him in turning people away from what is so clearly revealed about the glorious gift of salvation through the propitiating sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord.

   Also, I want to point out that for Jesus to conclude his public ministry with a pronouncement of woes on the religious elite means we must take seriously that this is the Jesus BJ claims would never support his Father Yahweh in judging sinners. Yet here he is declaring woes over the most influential religious men of the nation of Israel, the scribes and Pharisees who were the Gatekeepers of Scripture.

   The word “woe” means, “Woe: horror (interjection) n. — an interjection of grief or of denunciation” (BSL). Here are a couple of reputable commentators on the meaning of the word:

A “woe” can be a compassionate “alas!” (24:19), a strong condemnation (11:21) or a combination of the two (18:17; 26:24). In Matthew 23 condemnation predominates; but it is neither vindictive nor spiteful so much as judicial. Jesus the Messiah pronounces judgment.[1]

As to the nature of these woes, they must be regarded as denunciations. Any softer way of describing them fails to do justice to the exclamation “hypocrites!” (six times) and “blind guides!” (once), and to such passages as verses 15, 17, 28, 33, and 35. But they are also expressions of sorrow, as the sequel (verses 37–39) clearly indicates. These two designations—denunciations and expressions of sorrow—are not necessarily self-contradictory. See 1 Sam. 3:15–18; 15:13–31; 2 Sam. 12:7–13.[2]

   My point is simple: once again, simply by reading the Bible each day to hear what God is saying, search for what he is doing, and join him in his work, denunciations of BJ’s false teachings keep jumping off the pages of Scripture as if the ink is still wet on the script that is written just for me to present against BJ.

   And not only are these woes a rebuke to BJ’s claim that Jesus would never affirm the judgments of Yahweh from the Scriptures, but it is an example of Jesus speaking to “the crowds and to his disciples” about the religious hypocrites because he wants them to stop listening to those men. He is talking TO the people about the scribes and Pharisees to convince them that their leaders are under divine judgment. They cannot be trusted. They are hypocrites. They are blind guides. They are slamming shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in the faces of people who can’t read the Scriptures for themselves.

   That is exactly what we need here, a denunciation of BJ’s hypocrisy in “deceiving” the people while “being deceived” himself. He claims that he has better explanations for the meanings of Scripture than we can read for ourselves when he only cherry-picks partial-Scriptures that never mean what he claims when read in their entirety in the context of where they are written. It is hypocrisy to claim a “better way” that turns out to be exactly what the serpent said to Eve in the Garden.

   Bonus Gift 😊

   Before I could continue, it was time to go downstairs for another exercise ordeal. During that time, I listened to the Scriptures from Deuteronomy 32 through to the end of Joshua 13. Here’s the amazing thing: as further testimony of how spending time in God’s word and prayer shows us what God meant by what he said, I began in the exact chapter (where I left off) that Paul quoted in Romans 12 about God’s vengeance. Now look at how Yahweh says it:

Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
    for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
    and their doom comes swiftly.’
For the LORD will vindicate his people
    and have compassion on his servants,
when he sees that their power is gone
    and there is none remaining, bond or free.
(Deuteronomy 32:35-36)

   So here we have Scripture that Jesus and the apostles endorsed without ever correcting. In that Scripture it is Yahweh speaking. If this is not true, whoever wrote it down was a false prophet and would have been stoned to death by the people. The fact that the written record is attributed to Moses, and Moses is spoken of as authorized and approved by God (Hebrews 3:1-6), and then this is quoted by the apostle Paul, is so far removed from each other that BJ would need to prove that Moses also knew all the rhetoric of Paul’s day and used it in the same way Paul did. That, of course, is as ludicrous as suggesting that Paul using contemporary writing styles, or rhetorical devices, or even just cultural ways of writing naturally, was non-literal every time he did so.

   Now here’s the thing that is so shocking. Right after this concluding verse,

“Rejoice with him, O heavens;
    bow down to him, all gods,
for he avenges the blood of his children
    and takes vengeance on his adversaries.
He repays those who hate him
    and cleanses his people's land.” (vs 43),

we read, “Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun” (vs 44). That was a SONG! We go back to 31:30 and are reminded, “Then Moses spoke the words of this SONG until they were finished, in the ears of all the assembly of Israel:” God gave what is in Deuteronomy 32 to his people as a song, including a reciting of all their sins and rebellion, and God’s vengeance on even his own people who turned to idols. And, all of it is far too detailed to be allegorical!

   Now BJ keeps insisting that Jesus would never speak like Yahweh did about such things, but we keep finding the opposite. Consider this:

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (Luke 21:20-24).

   Jesus associated “the days of vengeance” with “all that is written”. ALL that is written!!! He uses the same kind of terminology that is used elsewhere of “great distress”, “wrath” against the people, swords, captivity, “trampled underfoot”. This is nothing like BJ’s claim that Jesus contradicted and corrected the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus endorsed them and said that the disasters they prophesied would soon come to pass. This theme of the Son doing whatever his Father was doing is unbroken in Scripture.

   Now, was that a diatribe of BJ’s diatribe against Paul’s diatribe? I guess someone would need to assess how angry I am in writing it, or how thunderous my verbal attack on BJ’s poison-in-the-pudding presentation in this book. I hope my reasons for rejecting BJ’s false teachings will be considered objectively, and that people will have their eyes opened to how subjectively BJ is building his case as though he is the authority to replace Yahweh’s authority in breathing out his word.

   However, I’m not done!!!

   As I began my journey through Joshua, I first came to the account of Rahab experiencing the mercy of God in the destruction of Jericho. However, it was mercy with a HUGE condition. The spies vowed to Rahab that, if she would hang a scarlet cord from her window so all the Israelites knew which was her apartment, and if her and her family members were in that room when the Israelites attacked, then and only then would those people experience mercy by being saved out of the destruction. Anyone who waited anywhere else would experience the judgment of God against Jericho.

   Now how parallel do we need to get to the exclusivity of the gospel that absolutely guarantees the mercy of God to those who believe, while promising condemnation, judgment, and wrath for anyone who does not come into Christ?!

   But then we come to Achan. He defied God’s command to take no plunder from Jericho since it was the city of “firstfruits” of the Promised Land and all the plunder was devoted to God. The result was that Achan and his family (none of them repented and separated themselves from his sin as Rahab had done from Jericho) were all put to death by Israel because of the horrible sin they brought on the nation.

   BJ has not presented one piece of evidence (in context) that shows that “mercy trumps judgment”, but I keep finding one after the other that shows God’s mercy and judgment working together in response to whatever ways people relate to God. Simple as that.

   Back to our regular programming.

   For now, let’s see what BJ claims next, and see if we can pick up the pace through his claims since we have already proved so many of them false.

   For starters, I’m skimming through BJ’s dreams and claims about diatribe since it is just that, dreams and claims. He wants us to believe that Scripture is written so that we must guess when Paul says something but really means the opposite because he was simply giving someone else’s position and then refuting it. Strawman burning?

   Side note on BJ’s side note on page 240: BJ has no more evidence than ourselves about Phoebe’s place in the church than what is written in Scripture. To claim she was a deacon, or she preached Paul’s sermon to the Romans, or that he prepared her to communicate the right tones at the right times, is purely speculation, assuming facts not in evidence (while contradicting evidence to the contrary).

   Okay, I keep trying to make progress because of the verbiage that is just opinion and not based on Scripture, but when BJ starts rewriting Romans 1 to suit his fancy I need to stop and expose the BS (I think BJ has used that vernacular).

BJ’s Claim	Monte’s Response
“So, what is Paul’s rhetorical strategy?” (p. 241).	Loaded question. It assumes facts not in evidence. BJ must read in that Paul IS using a rhetorical strategy, convince his readers to believe him in his say so (which sounds like using rhetorical devices to convince us of rhetorical devices), and then use that belief to justify rewriting the written word of God. Bogus.

 

BJ’s Claim	Monte’s Response
“He’s definitely not going on a rant against homosexual love nor is he giving pederasty a pass” (p. 241).	Hogwash (that IS a rhetorical device, I’m quite sure, but I mean it nonetheless!!!) BJ has ZERO authority to tell us what Paul “definitely” is or is not doing. The text tells us that. The words God breathed out tell us that. And Paul most definitely IS addressing the sin of homosexual relationships because of their offence to the righteousness of God in creating man as male and female.

 

BJ’s Claim	Monte’s Response
“Here’s what I think: 1.     First, he is actually condemning the disgusting arrogance of exploitative and frequently violent sex acts against same-sex minors and slaves” (p. 241).	First, this isn’t about what BJ “thinks”! Second, all that description is added to the words God breathed out. They are not what Scripture says. That makes them wrong. Third, Paul was condemning the sinfulness of the Roman world that turned God’s design for men and women in creation into something abhorrent. I will not debate it here but leave some articles that explain this.[3]

 

BJ’s Claim

Monte’s Response

2.    Second, he deliberately stirs up the Roman church’s disgust against those practices, suggesting how rightly deserving such people are of God’s seething wrath. Now he has them nodding” (p. 241).

Again, no way. That’s not what Paul is doing. It’s what BJ is claiming! Paul is telling the church what God thinks of the world’s views on relationships, indicating that homosexuality and lesbianism are the expressions of a society that has been “given up” by God to fulfill their depravity. Once again, BJ is making this stuff up and claiming to be the authority. Instead, we read what is written, read it in context, compare it with the context of the whole of Scripture, and take God at his word no matter how much a depraved society rails against it.

 

BJ’s Claim

Monte’s Response

“3. Next, he sort of says, ‘And now that we’re at it…’ and goes into a long list of other contemptible sins worthy fo divine judgment, including…” (p. 241).

No, he doesn’t “sort of” say anything. And no, the rest of the list starting at verse 29 is a very clear continuation of his argument, not a “while we’re at it” interjection. What stands out in Romans 1 is that right after Paul declares his unashamed boast in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, he goes back to the same focus as is always needed, the fact that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (vs 18). From that verse on, God speaks of “them”, “they”, “their”, and “themselves”. In other words, from verse 18 to the end of the chapter, Paul is describing the sinful condition of the people who are facing “the wrath of God” and need the gospel of salvation through the atoning work of Christ, the very thing BJ claims is not the case. Of course he needs to water down what Paul is saying here to sort-ofs and after-thoughts! But when we look at the whole chapter in context, Paul moves from attaching to the believers in Rome, to reminding them that he is not ashamed of the gospel (they need to know this since he is constantly in trouble for preaching it), and the wrath of God against the sinfulness of man makes it all the more imperative that the church keep proclaiming the good news of great joy to a lost and sinful and condemned world.

 

BJ’s Claim	Monte’s Response
“This sets up his argument in Romans 2:1-3:34. 4.    Hang on, everyone. Don’t you remember that it’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance, not condemnation and wrath? (Rom 2:1-4)? (p. 242).	That is a very irresponsible summary of what Paul is saying in verses 1-5 (not 1-4!). Yes, there is a sliver of truth in limiting everyone’s focus to remembering that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance”. HOWEVER!!! That is NOT the emphasis Paul is making!!! Let me step out of the ring… I mean the box… and show what Paul says here.

 

Romans 2:1-5	Observations
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things (vs 1).	Here is how the poison-in-the-pudding works. BJ is almost correct when he says, “that it’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance”, but when he adds “not condemnation and wrath?” he is misleading people about the context. Paul’s statement in verse 4 is NOT exclusive of condemnation and wrath. He begins by speaking of those who “condemn yourself” by doing the things they judge others for doing. Doesn’t “condemn” include “condemnation”?
We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things (vs 2).	Next, Paul asserts that it is common knowledge (“we know”) that God’s judgment “right falls” on the people who practice the things he just listed in 1:18-32. So it is true what Paul said about God intending his kindness to lead people to repentance, but that isn’t because his kindness won’t leave someone under “condemnation and wrath”, but that God wants the people Paul is addressing to know that the purpose of God’s kindness in their lives is not to leave them imagining he approves of them doing the same things as the worldlings, but that his kindness is “meant to lead you to repentance”. The sense of verse 2 is Paul addressing whomever fits the description of someone who knows God’s wrath and judgment are on the sinful world but then they feel that perhaps, just because they claim to be Christians, God’s kindness towards them means he’s okay with them doing what worldlings are doing. Paul says, au contraire! Don’t ever think you can act like the worldlings and imagine God is okay with that just because he’s still being kind instead of pouring out his wrath. View God’s kindness as grace working to lead his children to repent of hypocritical worldly living instead of feeling smug like God doesn’t care if his children do the same things just described of the worldlings. And, since BJ is clearly endorsing some of the things Paul condemned in chapter 1, it would seem that Paul’s point in these verses should be applied as broadly as Paul stated it.
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? (vs 3).	So there it is. Paul has just reminded the person who would recognize this applies to them (the, “O man”) that everyone knows God’s judgment is on THOSE people (the thems, theys, theirs, and themselves of the previous chapter), so now he challenges anyone among the believers who would dare to think they can do those things and “escape the judgment of God”. The strange thing is that this is the exact opposite of what BJ teaches. He keeps saying that mercy trumps judgment when God’s word keeps saying that our choice of behavior chooses whether we experience judgment or mercy. Even here, right before the verse BJ (again) only partially quotes, it is absolutely clear that hypocrites in the church are just as guilty of the sins listed in Romans 1 if they are practicing them. Which should be a huge warning to those BJ is endorsing in those sins!
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (vs 4).	Now we get to what Paul REALLY said in this verse. Keep it in context: Paul is speaking to anyone who fits the description of this “O man” who is actively playing around with sins Paul just listed as under the wrath of God while imagining that they can do the same things with impunity. What he is focusing on is the PRESUMPTION of this “O man” person(s) that he would make so light of the RICHES of God’s “kindness and forbearance and patience” by imagining God is okay with their sin when in reality God is trying to lead them to repentance so they will stop their sin and escape his judgment!
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed (vs 5).	And there it is (in the verse BJ left out). Please look at how obvious it is that BJ is denying the word of God! BJ says “Don’t you remember that it’s God’s kindness that leads to repentance, NOT condemnation and wrath?” But Paul speaks to that very person in the church who is hypocritically dabbling in the same sins Paul has just condemned in the world and declares them to be “hard and impenitent” in their “heart”. If they are not repenting amid God’s kindness to them, their heart is too hard and impenitent to even recognize the work of God in confronting their sin. BUT… Paul is so clearly describing God’s view of the situation and stating that it IS “wrath” and “judgment” the person is “storing up” for themselves, and, no matter how long they are under God’s kindness, the “day of wrath” is coming “when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed”. In other words (and this is just from reading the passage, not playing around with subjective word games), BJ says this does NOT lead to condemnation and wrath while the context says it DOES lead to condemnation and wrath.

   So no, absolutely not, this is NOT “one approach to weigh for consideration” (p. 242) when it is the exact OPPOSITE of what is written. And it is presented in the 85ish% stage of the garden path after we have seen that the whole book is the opposite of what is written.

   Now, let me conclude with what Paul said to introduce this section on the long list of the sins of the world, followed by addressing the “O man” people in the church who think they can dabble in those same sins with a different measure (like the “mercy trumps judgment” measure BJ keeps using). Paul declared,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith” (Romans 1:16-17).

   I AM ashamed of BJ’s gospel. For, as Paul said, “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9). It is “a different gospel” (vs 6) by people who “trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (vs 7), it is a “gospel contrary to the one we preached to you”, leaving Paul to exclaim, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”! (3:1).

   But Paul’s gospel, which is Jesus’ gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, is the cure to every one of the sins Paul listed in Romans 1, and it is the cure to the hypocrisy and presumption of Romans 2, and to any other listing of sins anywhere in the Bible. It is “the gospel” and “the gospel” alone, that is “the power of God for salvation” and ONLY “to everyone who believes”. Anyone who repents of anything and turns to Jesus Christ in faith experiences the power of the gospel raising them from their dead condition in sin and setting them free in the righteousness of God.

   So let’s be absolutely clear we are trusting in the gospel Jesus and the apostles taught, not the one the BJs are peddling, because the wrath of God IS still on everyone who presumes on the kindness of God as okay with their sin when the word of God warns people of the wrath to come.

You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is (Galatians 5:7-10).

  

© 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] Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 477). Zondervan Publishing House.

[2] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (Vol. 9, p. 826). Baker Book House.

[3] What does the New Testament say about homosexuality?

https://www.gotquestions.org/New-Testament-homosexuality.html (note the “related articles”)

What does it mean that “God gave them over” in Romans 1:24–28?

https://www.gotquestions.org/God-gave-them-over.html (note the “related articles”)

Does the Greek word arsenokoitai in 1 Corinthians 6:9 really mean “homosexuals” or something else?

https://www.gotquestions.org/arsenokoitai.html (note the “related articles”)