The Message

I've noticed lately the growing popularity of Eugene's Peterson, "The Message". You will not find me referring to it as the Bible, because it is not. It is one man's paraphrase of the Bible. I'm finding, a very liberal paraphrase at that. The Message seemed to be popping up more and more at Bible Studies and in Sunday School, so I decided to do a little digging. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought. Maybe, I was over-reacting. Maybe it was a great tool to use to get a more colorful view of the words of Scripture. I did the research and was quite surprised at the results.

June 2, 2008

For instance, The Message omits references to Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of the air and replaces it with phrases such as "polluted unbelief".

Ephesians 2:1-3: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts."

The Message: "It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat."

The removal of Satan's name here, replaces by "the world" gives a much more acceptable form of temptation. It removes the idea of spiritual warfare and replaces it with cultural influences. He inserts a non-thinking, non-feeling, non-manipulative world instead of a ravenous evil ruler who is constantly plotting to make us fall. This is exactly what Satan wants Christians to believe. If there is no battle, why do they need to prepare for one? or fight one? With Peterson's mindset, Satan will win without much effort.

Found at http://www.crossroad.to/Bible_studies/Message.html

In this passage, Eugene Peterson deletes specific words like adulterers and homosexual and inserts a reference to environmentalism!

From: http://www.crossroad.to/Bible_studies/Message.html

1 Corinthians 6:9-11: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders [sodomites] nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified..."

The Message: "Unjust people who don't care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it don't qualify as citizens in God's kingdom. A number of you know from experience what I'm talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you've been cleaned up and given a fresh start...." [Emphasis added]

Peterson is removing the specifics here and replacing it with "use and abuse". Who defines these terms? Does God? Does the culture? With such loose vocabulary, who's to say what abuse is? As you can see, this is a slippery slope!