Examining "A More Christlike Word"
by Brad Jersak
Day 98
“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 |
If you have ever watched one of
Ray Comfort’s evangelism videos, you will know that he often uses the
illustration of a doctor discovering that one of his patients has cancer. Ray
then asks the person he is talking to what the doctor should show his patient
first, the X-ray or the cure. Many people get that it would be better to show
the X-ray first so the patient will admit there is a problem, and then present
the treatment that would cure the sickness. This, of course, leads to the
necessity of sharing the “bad news” side of the gospel so that people will “get
it” that the “good news” side of the good news is absolutely required.[1]
Brad’s
“Bad News” Bogusness
One of the biggest themes of Brad Jersak’s “More Christlike” deception has been to diss everything the Bible says about the “bad news” side of the gospel. If he could do with his body what he does with the Bible, he would be a world-renowned contortionist!
However, the biblical view of all the BJs is, “There
are some things in them (Paul's letters) that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and
unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (II
Peter 3:16). Brad Jersak has proven Peter’s words true that Paul’s Scriptures
have things in them that “are hard to understand”, and Jersak’s trilogy of
poisons betrays his choice to “twist” them to his own destruction rather than
being “grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,” and so offering
“to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming
fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).
One of
my viewpoints heading down the BJs’ garden path has been that I see the Bible
as the collection of Scriptures God gave to his church to guide us in how to
live as his beloved children until the return of Christ. As long as any of us
who are alive have been alive, the Bible has already been established as the
authoritative word of God. Even Brad Jersak has to admit this since he wouldn’t
have anything to shoot at if God hadn’t already secured his word for the target
practice of Satan’s elite snipers.
My
point is that we haven’t started this journey with two opposing sides on equal
ground. The Scriptures have already been proven to be the authoritative word of
God, and Brad Jersak is just one of the many challengers who wants to make a
name (and money) for himself by taking on God’s word (and God’s Word!).
By the
end of the book, there is one resounding conclusion: Brad Jersak has been
defeated by the Scriptures. They have proved him not only mistaken but
outright lying. What began for me as simply wondering how he could think the
inaccurate things I had already heard from his own mouth, turned into shock that
he would so blatantly misquote and misrepresent Scriptures, and then to
righteous indignation that he would do this EVERY… TIME… HE… HANDLED… THE…
WORD… OF… GOD!
For
the rest of this conclusion, I am not going to try proving Brad Jersak wrong
because he has already been proven wrong by his abysmal failure to take down
the Scriptures in the Bible as the word of God. Instead, I want to exalt the
word of God and magnify the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord, who gave
us the word. As is written in the Psalms (which Jesus 100% endorsed as
Scripture), “I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name
for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all
things your name and your word” (Psalm 138:2).
While
Brad Jersak has written three poisoned books dissing “your name and your word”
as revealed in the Old Testament, I aim to use this look at the “Bad/Good News
of the Good News” to build up and encourage believers in Jesus Christ that we
MUST praise and thank God for his “steadfast love” (hesed) and “faithfulness”
in exalting above everything in the world both his name and his word. That Scripture
ABSOLUTELY rebukes Brad Jersak for claiming that if we treat God’s word as “the
final authority on all matters of faith and practice” until Jesus return we are
dishonoring the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Instead, when we treat God’s
word as “exalted above all things” with the name “Yahweh” in the name of Jesus
Christ, we are truly worshiping God in spirit and in truth.
The
Old and New of the Consuming Fire
Question:
what is the connection between the New Testament calling us to offer “to God
acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire”
and what is written of Yahweh in the Old Testament?
Answer: believers in Jesus Christ in the New Testament are called to the
same reverence and awe of God as was the calling of God’s people, Israel. When
Moses was warning the people about making idols when they went into the land,
he said “For the LORD (Yahweh) your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God”
(Deuteronomy 4:24). The writer of Hebrews states the exact same thing, that our
God, the God of Christians, is “a consuming fire”. There is no difference
between the God of the Old Testament and the New. There is no difference in
character between Yahweh and Yasous (Jesus).
Question: what is the “bad news” side of God as a consuming fire?
Answer: “Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a
consuming fire is the LORD (Yahweh) 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” (Deuteronomy 9:3). The “bad news” side of this is
that unrepentant sinners are hopeless and helpless against Yahweh. As Isaiah
wrote, “The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: ‘Who
among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with
everlasting burnings?’” (Isaiah 33:14).
Question: what is the “good news” side of God as a consuming fire?
Answer: those who are the adopted children of God are protected by
the same consuming fire that destroys their enemies.
When
the New Testament speaks of God as “a consuming fire”, it immediately attaches
to everything the Old Testament says about this. Totally contrary to Brad
Jersak’s claims, there is no disparity between Yahweh and Jesus or the Old
Testament God and the New.
We are
introduced to God as “a pillar of fire and of cloud” in the book of Exodus
where the conflict between God and the gods of Egypt, between Moses and
Pharaoh, between Israel and the Egyptians, came to center stage. I will not
quote all the verses, but simply remind us that all through this history God’s
presence in the pillar of cloud and fire was always working for Israel, and
always working against his enemies.
And
that’s the point. Because of what God does to destroy his enemies, and what he
does to defend and help his children, we allow our hearts to feel the reverence
and awe to have such a Father who will not fail to do what is just and right
and fair since he cannot be stopped. He is jealous of his children, and he will
not allow any enemies to harm them when they are walking in love-relationship
with him.
At the
same time, God does not show favoritism to his children and bless them when
they are bad. The whole of the Old Testament shows God’s judgment on his people
when they turn away from him to serve other gods. Many of the people of Israel
experienced the same judgment as the Egyptians simply because they turned to
the same gods and idolatry as their enemies.
This
is a good introduction to our focus on the “Bad/Good News of the Good News”. The
whole word of God is Bad News/Good News. The reference to God as a pillar of
cloud and fire is bad news to his enemies and good news to his people.
God’s
“steadfast love” is bad news for those who hate God’s people since God is
unstoppable in his covenantal love towards his people and will defend them in
absolute faithfulness, and it is good news for those who love the Lord Jesus
because we have been loved with an everlasting love, and we only love the Lord
Jesus Christ because God loved us first.
God’s
faithfulness to his people is bad news for his enemies since they will never
find God sleeping or neglecting his children when they are attacked. God tracks
every offence against his children and will require of all his enemies their
crimes against his people (this includes the false teachers who have
infiltrated the camp as did the Balaamites and Nicolaitans in Revelation 2-3).
Rahab’s
Mercy and Achan’s Judgment
I
mentioned this before, but it is such an amazing revelation of this that it is
worth repeating. We see this bad news/good news side of God on full display
when Israel entered the Promised Land. Everything was bad news for the people
of the land who were squatters on the property God had given to Abraham. But
what was the good news? That Rahab confessed faith in Yahweh and was spared the
destruction that came upon her city.
On the
other hand, for every Israelite there was only good news. God had promised the
land to Abraham, he had secured his promise with a covenant with Abraham, and
had extended that covenant to include all Abraham’s descendants who were
entering the land. God was with his people to take the land back from their
enemies. They would not fail. It was part of the covenant.
What
was the bad news in this? That when Achan let his heart idolize the plunder
that God said was his, he brought himself and his whole family under judgment.
They were put to death both to satisfy justice, and to declare God’s holiness
and righteousness in dealing with sin.
To me,
this is both beautiful and terrifying (I think that’s the point of the pillar
of cloud and fire!). Rahab’s bad news turns into good news because of her faith
in Yahweh. Achan’s good news turns into bad news because of his wickedness.
Now,
how is this explained in the New Testament? God is both “just and the justifier
of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). God is just in everything, so
he must carry out justice against unrepentant sinners. God is the justifier of
everyone who puts their faith in Jesus, so he can treat a Rahab as a beloved
child and an Achan as an enemy of God. He cannot change who he is and what he
is like.
This
is why Paul explained just prior to this,
“For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:22-25).
Because all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, the “wages of
sin” on us all is “death”. But because of “the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus”, God can justify us by his grace as a gift.
The
Jersak-denying Power of Propitiation
As I
said already, I did a search of the word “propitiation” in Brad Jersak’s book
and found only one reference where the word was included in a quote that
attributed the “absolution of our sins” to “prayers and good deeds”, not the
redemptive work of Jesus Christ our Lord. It then clarified that this does not
mean that WE propitiated God’s wrath against our sins, “but that through such
actions and our turning to God we have cured the evil in ourselves and have again
become able to partake of God’s goodness” (p. 267). That, of course, is such a
good-works glorifying and Jesus’-redemptive-work dissing that it doesn’t even
address what propitiation means, or how it is used in the Scriptures.
Which
brings us to Brad’s determined sniper attacks on “the wrath of God”. He
completely missed his target on this one and failed to produce anything of
substance to change the breathed-out words of God, so let me share how the word
is used because it is totally wrapped up in the references to propitiation. I
will do some searches on www.biblegateway.com and see what comes up.
1.
“the
wrath of God” comes up 11 times, all in the New Testament. Clearly this cannot
be confined to an Old Testament focus where Jesus must change Yahweh his
Father.
2.
“God’s
wrath” comes up what looks like 4 times, plus in a couple of headings.
3.
“day
of wrath” comes up 4 times, 3 in OT and 1 in NT, with “day of their wrath”
coming up 1 time.
4.
“wrath”
comes up 209 times, 173 in OT and 36 in NT.
My point in sharing this is that Brad Jersak and his kin must explain away every reference to the wrath of God in the Bible. They need to explain away why it is in the Old Testament, why it is in the New Testament, why it is in the gospels, and why Jesus himself spoke of the wrath of God. They must explain away why John the Baptist would ask the religious elite “Who warned you to feel from the wrath to come?” and the apostle John would describe Jesus’ second coming in terms of sinners,
“calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:16-17).
At the
same time, those who take God’s word to be the breathed-out words of God
written down by men who did not influence the Scriptures with their own wills,
but wrote what the Spirit carried them along to write, have no problem weaving
together everything the Bible teaches about the wrath and the mercy of God.
When God told Micah,
“He
has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but
to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah
6:8)
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
it makes perfect sense that we would “do
justice” AND “love kindness” always. Justice requires defending the innocent
and condemning the guilty, and kindness is always waiting to show mercy and
forgiveness to anyone who repents and walks in humility before God.
Add to
this that Jesus referred to the same three attributes in his rebuke to the
religious elite when he said,
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others” (Matthew 23:23).
Again, justice is two-sided, to defend the
innocent and condemn the guilty. Mercy is quick to respond to repentance by
forgiving. Faithfulness would mean doing justice and loving kindness in
everything, no favoritism or partiality allowed.
The
Good News (Propitiation) about the Bad News (the wrath of God)
The
problem for us is what to do with the wrath of God. If sin came into the world
through Adam so that we are all now sinners, and “the wages of sin is death”,
how in the world is the condemnation of our sin resolved without us being the
ones who are cursed with death?
This is where the word “propitiation” comes in. The bad news is “wrath”, the good news is “propitiation”. Again, we will let the Scriptures speak for themselves since they are God’s word.
1. “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25). Propitiation is “the means of appeasing wrath and gaining the good will of an offended person; especially with respect to sacrifices for appeasing angered deities” (BSL). The word is not unique to Christianity, but the reality is unique to Christianity because it is the only means by which the only true God “put forward” his own Son to BE the propitiation by HIS blood.
2. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). Again, it is clear. Jesus had to become one of us in order to “make propitiation”, to appease the justice of God against our sin.
3. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus IS the propitiation we need. Without him propitiating the justice of God against our sin we would be judged for our sins as described in the Scriptures. And even though Jesus was Jewish, and all the prophets who prophesied about him were Jewish, and all the apostles were Jewish, Jesus was not only “the propitiation” for the sins of the Jews, but for the whole world. There is no other real way that the wrath of the only true God is truly propitiated.
4. “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). It is because of God’s love for his elect that he sent his Son to BE the propitiation for our sins, satisfying God’s justice against us so that we could be free and forgiven.
I know
I covered this in previous sections where Brad Jersak dissed the wrath of God
and spoke of it as unjust. But we also saw that the author has no sense of
justice because he does not see that anything should be done to anyone about
anything they do. There is to be no justice against sinners, only mercy.
Rapists are to be shown mercy in their raping, murderers in the murdering,
liars in their lying. No justice for anything we have done wrong. No condemning
anyone for what they are doing to others (that is my best understanding of Brad
Jersak’s consistent dissing of the judgment and justice of God and presenting
mercy as if it “trumps” God’s justice rather than that it is the partner of
justice, always ready to forgive when sinners under judgment repent).
However, it is not only unbiblical to believe such things as Brad Jersak
teaches about God’s judgment and justice, but it makes no sense at all that we
can govern nations of people on mercy without justice. In fact, the
“lawlessness” in my country of Canada is showing exactly why there must be
justice. Even in my small town where the government is sending drug addicts
they can’t handle elsewhere, the fact that there is no justice against
criminals is devastating to so many people. All last week there were swat teams
chasing down one man who has repeatedly traumatized our community because there
has been no justice against his crimes. A slap on the fingers, a promise to be
a good boy, and out they go to continue their crime sprees. The thought that
God would not distinguish between crimes or criminals, but show mercy to all
without any regard for what someone is doing in sin, is a manmade god, and one
who is not very well made at all!
The
Friendship Between God’s Kindness and Severity
Anyone
who simply reads their Bible will note that there are plenty of pictures of
both “the kindness and the severity of God” (Romans 11:22). And as much as
people try, it can’t be erased from Scripture. It isn’t the “violence” that
Brad Jersak twists it to mean. It is the justice and mercy of God always
working together, always relating to people as they relate to God. So Paul
continued, “severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you,
provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
How
does that honesty tie into the bad news/good news of the good news? It makes so
clear that there is a problem that must be resolved, the problem of sin. The
problem of “those who have fallen” and like it that way. Our world loves its
fallen state. It loves darkness because its deeds are evil. Plain and clear.
I want
to put Paul’s response to the “kindness and severity” of God against all Brad
Jersak’s dissing of the justice and severity of God.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
What a
wonderful expression of praise to God who has worked out the resolution to his
own wrath against sin. And what a gift of praise to thank God that he does
destroy his enemies and save his people. In the same way as the Israelites
praised God for destroying their enemies and delivering his people, Paul says
the same praise, that God is glorious as the judge of the rebellious, and
glorious as the Savior of the poor in spirit.
The
Promise of Vengeance
For
the rest of this conclusion, I will consider that I have already clarified this
need to admit the “bad news” side of the good news as much as the “good news”
side. People have either agreed with Scripture that all have sinned, have
fallen short of the glory of God, and the wages of sin is death, or they want
the “another Jesus”, “different spirit”, and “different gospel” of the false
teachers.
Instead of focusing on the details of the bad/good news side of the good
news, I will give further testimony of how God has ministered to me through his
word while working on this conclusion. And the first thing I will share is the
clarification that God makes regarding vengeance.
I
begin with Paul’s reference to this in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, never avenge
yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is
mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’” This is an extremely important Scripture
to me since I disagree with the teaching that is summarized as “forgive
everyone of everything all the time”. Instead, I believe that forgiving people
only applies to those who repent. I have not found one example in the whole
Bible where an unrepentant person was forgiven. We are told to love our
enemies, bless our persecutors, pray for our abusers, and do good to people who
do bad, but never once told to forgive someone who is unrepentant.
When
Paul addresses our propensity to seek vengeance on someone who wrongs us,
notice that Paul does not tell us to forgive, but to leave vengeance to God.
Why? Because vengeance is his, not ours. And because he promises “I will
repay”, meaning that vengeance will be executed according to God’s perfect
wisdom. This absolutely denounces Brad Jersak’s claim that God does not take
vengeance when the text says both that vengeance is his, and we are to “leave
it to the wrath of God”.
However, this quote from the New Testament is actually a quote from the
Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 32:35, God says, “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.” Since this is part of the
books of Moses where God’s vengeance and mercy are seen time and again, and
since Paul quoted this as still in effect, it is ludicrous to follow a Brad
Jersak into dissing the vengeance, recompense and wrath of God as if the
biblical authors got it wrong.
But
there is one more witness (two or three are required). In Hebrews 10:30, God
breathed out these words, “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will
repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’” Yes, it means what it
says. Vengeance is the bad news side of the gospel. God will judge sinners is
the bad news side of the gospel. Propitiation, where God “made him to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (II
Corinthians 5:21), is the good news. God’s justice against our sin is
SATISFIED!
When
God Returns Evil to the Foolish
During my exercise time a couple of days ago, I was heading through I Samuel and came to this description a wife gives of her husband. This is Abigail speaking to David,
“Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent” (I Samuel 25:25).
That leads to God’s judgment on Nabal, “And about ten days later the Lord struck Nabal, and he died” (vs 38). And,
“When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, ‘Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head” (vs 39).
God was praised for carrying out justice against an
evil man.
In the
same exercise time, I continued into the next chapter where we read about King
Saul going to a witch for help. When she brings Samuel up from the dead (don’t
ask me to explain how all that worked), this is what we discover:
And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned from you and become your enemy? The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me, for the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.” (I Samuel 28:16-19)
Again, God’s judgment was on Saul because of the evils he
had done, and his willingness to go to an evil woman for help showed there was
no repentance.
This
morning in my exercise time I made it to this Scripture: “So David reigned over
all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people” (II
Samuel 8:15). Justice means “judgment involved in the determination of rights
and the assignment of rewards and punishments” (BSL), and equity means, “righteous
deed n. — an action that embodies an adherence to moral principles and the will
of God” (BSL). The fact that David carried out justice meant that he made sure
there were rewards and punishments handed out appropriately.
The
Parables of Justice
In my
morning time with God, I have been going through Matthew 24 and 25. After
detailing issues related to Jesus’ return, he distinguishes between “the
faithful and wise servant” and the “wicked servant”. To the faithful and wise
servant, Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his
possessions.” To the wicked servant he says he “will cut him in pieces and put
him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth” (Matthew 24:45-51). This is Jesus speaking of justice so the righteous
are rewarded and the wicked are condemned.
In the parable of the 10 virgins where “five
of them were foolish, and five were wise,” of the five wise young ladies it
says, “those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast,
and the door was shut”, and of the foolish ones it says, “‘Truly, I say to you,
I do not know you.’” (Matthew 25:1-13). Contrary to Brad Jersak’s claims the
foolish do not get acceptance into heaven.
In the parable of the talents (Matthew
25:14-30), the two servants who earned their master a profit were both told, “Well
done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will
set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master,” while the servant who
did nothing with what he was given was told, “You wicked and slothful servant!”
and then, “cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Jesus’ own words (allegory
included), he distinguished between the justice that rewarded the faithful and
the justice that condemned the wicked.
Brad Jersak’s Sheepishness
I just came to the account known as the
judgment of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). In spite of how clear
it is, Brad Jersak tried to say that it does not mean what it appears. Yes, and
people believe him even though we are reading Jesus’ own words to the contrary!
In the mix of literal/parable, the sheep
represent those who are righteous by faith; the goats those who are lost in
their sin. Jesus is so clear how he will respond differently to each group of
people. To the sheep he will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” and to
the goats he will say, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.” He then concludes, “And these (the
goats) will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous (the sheep) into
eternal life.”
My point is that the breathed-out words of
God from the lips of Jesus Christ our Lord show that he will judge the lost
with “eternal punishment” while completing the gift of “eternal life” for those
who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There is no way we can get
around the bad news side of the good news. And even the teaching of this is to
show kindness in the hope of leading people to repentance.
Malachi’s
Takedown of the False Teachers
One of
our home church folks shared what God was showing her from Malachi 4:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts” (vss 1-3).
This
is a clear revelation of the judgment and mercy of God working side-by-side.
The “arrogant and all evildoers” get judgment; “you who fear my name” get
mercy. There is never any divergence from this pattern.
Even
the Old Testament introduction to the New Testament makes a warning of God’s
judgment:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” (vss 5-6).
God is
speaking of what we now know was John the Baptist’s ministry of preparing the
way for the Christ. Simply note the warning is from Yahweh and is very real.
As noted earlier in this post, just days before Jesus’ crucifixion, his
disciples heard Jesus pronounce woes on the religious leaders, lament the destruction
coming to Jerusalem, and declare the destruction of the Temple, all because the
people did not recognize the time of God’s coming to them. Jesus and Yahweh
clearly agree!
God’s
Justice and Mercy on David
During
my exercise time yesterday morning (in reference to when I am writing this) I
came to the place in II Samuel when we read about David’s sin of adultery with
Bathsheba, and putting her husband to death in battle. What stood out? That God
responded to David’s sin with justice. First, we are given God’s assessment of
David’s sin, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (11:27).
Next
we find that God sent his prophet Nathan to David to confront him with his sin.
By this time Bathsheba had become David’s “wife and bore him a son”. Nathan
told a story of injustice that drew David into the scene so that his “anger was
greatly kindled against the man” Nathan had described (12:1-6).
COMMERCIAL BREAK: could I just point out here that we have a historical
record of David really committing adultery, really sending Uriah to his death, and
really not repenting of what he had done. Close to a year later, we pick up the
history with Nathan really going to David because “the LORD sent Nathan to
David” (12:1), and Nathan really telling a story that is figurative, or
allegorical.
And
guess what? We can clearly tell the difference between the allegory and the
application. As always, the application is exactly the same in real life as in
the parable. The injustice that was illustrated in the parable to get David to
acknowledge the horribleness of the sin was the same injustice as what David
did. There is no sense that the allegory could mean one thing and the application the exact
opposite of what the illustration showed.
Okay,
back to our regular programming. Once David admitted what the allegory was
showing him, look at how Nathan spoke God’s word to him:
Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” Then Nathan went to his house. (II Samuel 12:7-15)
Immediately after this, we read that “the LORD afflicted the child that
Uriah’s wife bore to David” (12:15) and he died shortly after. As I then
listened to chapter-after-chapter telling what happened with David to fulfill
God’s judgment against him, I could see how the justice and mercy of God were
working together in everything.
Conclusion
of this Bad/Good News Business
When we consider why Satan wants false teachers denying the bad news part of the good news it echoes the serpent’s words in the garden. When Eve told the serpent they were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan’s lie was, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:1-5). This is what Brad Jersak is telling people, that sinners will not surely die in their sin. They will not be condemned to hell. They will not experience God’s wrath. Just as Jersak’s whole trilogy continues Satan’s question, “Did God actually say…?”, so his dissing of the bad news side of the good news is to tell people that God’s judgment will not really fall on unrepentant sinners. And just as that lie brought death into the world through Adam, that lie is bringing death to countless numbers of people who will not believe the Bible's testimony of God's judgment against sin.
What I
have sought to show in this post is that the bad news side of the good news is
real. In the next part of my conclusion, I will focus on the rest of the
salvation story (the real-life literal story, that is), but we must tell people
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And we cannot do that
using Brad Jersak’s books!
When I
look back on my life and I consider my first understanding of the gospel, it
was the realization of a twelve-year-old that I was a sinner and Jesus was my
Savior. At fourteen years of age, I understood that what Jesus did for me was a
once-for-all gift I did not need to keep receiving every time I heard a gospel
sermon just because I knew I was still a sinful young man. It “clicked” that Jesus
had done the “it is finished” work of God for me.
When I think of all the evil in the world, I can’t imagine telling people that God does not carry out justice against sin, but only shows mercy to people trying to get it right. Our world is in the mess it is in for the very reason that there is no justice! Lawlessness abounds. And even worldlings know it!
When we
heard that the criminal who was terrorizing people in our area survived being
shot by police, there were complaints of the injustice of him being brought
back to life by medical personnel so that he could stand before a judge, have
his fingers slapped once again, and sent back out into the world to terrorize again.
There is no way that sounds like the God we read about in the Bible from beginning
to end.
I do
not say that I need God to be like this (a God of justice as well as mercy)
just because of that natural desire for justice that is in our world. But the
fact that even worldlings know that justice is required should put the Brad
Jersaks of the world to shame that they would totally twist the teachings of Scripture
to make it sound like the Yahweh and Yasous of the Bible need to be made “more
Christlike” when what we ought to be doing is “Therefore let us be grateful for
receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God
acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire”
(Hebrews 12:28-29).
I encourage you to get to know this consuming fire God that is revealed in our consuming fire Savior who is the Shepherd who saves and protects God’s sheep. They also devour and destroy Satan’s wolves, including the ones in the Brad Jersak brand of sheep’s clothing!
For extra
reading:
How do God’s
mercy and justice work together in salvation?
https://www.gotquestions.org/mercy-justice.html
What is
propitiation?
https://www.gotquestions.org/propitiation.html
© 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]
Ray Comfort: If they don’t think they’re sick, they won’t take the cure!
(Living Waters Ministry)
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