Christian Crier
Have you heard of The Message Bible? Should Christians use this translation? Here is an examination of a translation of the Bible called The Message.
The Message Bible
The Message Bible is a Bible with contemporary language and tends to paraphrase many of the Scriptures. That presents a problem. Here is an example from John 10:30 where most translations say;
“I and the Father are one” but The Message has it “The Father and I are one heart and mind.” This is true but this is now what Jesus said.
Now Look at the drastic difference in what is commonly called The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 from most translations;
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”
Next read The Message translation;
“Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best—as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything you want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.”
To my thinking, this is a total corruption of the original text.
Comparing a Key Verse in John 3:16
Most translations give this as;
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Here is The Message version of John 3:16;
“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.”
Here again is a very drastic difference. We are saved so that we can have eternal life and never perish but The Message says that “anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” What does that mean!? A lasting life? How lasting? Is it eternal? It doesn’t tell us specifically. Then it says “a whole life.” What is that supposed to mean? A life that is complete or whole in a human sense? And is it true that “anyone can have” a “whole and lasting life?” No! It is only those “whoever believe in Him,” not anyone! I strongly urge this translation (if you could call it that) not be used by Christians in witnessing, personal Bible study or in churches.
The Real Message
I once shared the gospel with three men in a restaurant and one by one they left. It was not the messenger that they hated but the message and I don’t mean the translation The Message. The power is in the message and never in the messenger. What was this message that they were offended by? It was that the Word of God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. For those who say that God is love, or that God is full of grace, they are leaving out the reasons that the good news is called the good news and they have created a god in their own image. The true message is that mankind fell in the Garden of Eden and that redemption was needed to restore mankind to fellowship and a relationship to God that sin had separated severed. Until we tell the whole counsel of God, telling someone that God loves them is taking the message out of context. Yes, God is love but His love is a holy, righteous, demanding love that commands everyone, everywhere to repent of their sins (Acts 17:30), to confess them to God, and to trust in Christ and only then will they be saved.
First the Bad News
Until we tell lost people that they are never going to be good enough to be saved and that their own works are not enough to save them, the good news of the gospel is meaningless. Let’s say that you walk into a doctor’s office and he says, “Here, take this prescription” but you think, “Hey, I didn’t even know I was sick” you wouldn’t likely take the medicine but if the doctor came in and showed you the results of some tests you had and that you had a fatal disease then you would gladly take the medicine because you knew that you would die without it. This is what sinners must hear. They have the wrath of God abiding on them and being a “good person” will never get them off the hook on judgment day (Rev 20:11-15) and many who believe that they are a good person or that they claim that they are a Christian will hear the most terrifying news in their life someday because “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Math 7:21-23). By then, it will be too late. Their fate would be sealed.
The Fatal Sickness of Sin
The Bible never promises believers happiness in this life but He does promise joy and eternal life. In this life there will be many hardships. For those who are not saved, they must hear what the saved already know, that “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities” (Isaiah 64:6-7). Isaiah says that not many or most but “all” are unclean and our sins have cut us off from a righteous, holy God. Every one of us, not most or the majority but every, single human (except Christ Who is God and Man) has sinned and fallen way short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23) and that the wages for our sin has earned us eternal death (Rom 6:23) and only then can we show the lost that we have a sin problem. The one thing that no one can escape if the fatal flaw of humanity…and the statistics are impressive…one out of every one of us will die someday. There is no escaping that and we have an appointment with our maker as the Bible says, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27). After death, “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt [but] those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:2-3). The wise thing to do is to repent today and confess your sins and then trust in Christ, however if you reject Jesus, you are actually trampling on the blood of Christ by esteeming it of no value.
The Good News
Now that the lost have heard the bad news, the good news really has meaning because they realize that they cannot save themselves (Eph 2:8-9) and must rely on God to be saved and so you can tell them that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:9-13). Contrary to what many believe, even among some professing Christians and leaders “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Who cares if this message is unpopular…it is the truth.
The Main Message
You have probably heard that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing” and that is Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). The theme or main message of the Bible is clear…all have sinned and deserve the wrath of God but God has sent His only Son to redeem us and restore us to a relationship with God (John 3:16-17) that the fall had severed because “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6) but fortunately Christ “was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). This is the main message of the entire Bible, Old and New Testament, that those who have repented and trusted in Christ “have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1-2).
Conclusion
Anyone that has not humbled themselves must understand that God is opposed to them (James 4:6) but for those who have been broken by their sin, seen the need for forgiveness (meaning you agree with God about your sins), repented (or turned away) and trusted in Christ, they will shine “like the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:3) but if a person resists coming to saving faith “the wrath of God abides on them still” (John 3:36) and they will be “judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:13-15). You must decide because to make no decision is to choose to reject the only way you can be saved and that is Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12; 16:30-31). That is the message of the Bible and Christians everywhere should be using this to rescue the perishing but should stay far away from “The Message” in my opinion. What do you say?
Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon
1. “What Kind of Message is the Message?”. < http://www.crossroad.to/Bible_
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