The Mess of The Message: Gibberish Passing as Prose

As I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan of The Message Bible perVersion, nor am I a fan of it's author Eugene Peterson. I like the real Bible, and I love the real Bible's author, God. But to me it appears that the Bible, the real Bible, isn't interesting enough for Mr. Peterson, so he had to make up his own. 

Unfortunately for the  whole world this abomination was published and distributed exactly like it is a real version of the Bible, rather than what it truly is: one man's satirical rewording of God's inspired word. 

From what little I've read of Peterson's revision of the Book of Revelations he didn't even leave that book alone, maybe it's because he no longer has enough faith left to take heed to the warning in  Revelation 22:18-19, every word inspired by the Holy Spirit is fair game for his creative (read: heretical) pen.

Take 1 Timothy 2:11-12 for example

¹¹ A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. ¹² But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.

Peterson changes it to suit his own strange purposes:

I don’t let women take over and tell the men what to do. They should study to be quiet and obedient along with everyone else.

At first glance it looks normal, but when you think about his addition of "along with everyone else" you begin to realize how nonsensical his perversion of Paul's message is, for if everyone else is studying to be quiet and obedient then who id doing the instructing? Paul doesn't even hint at "everyone else", not in the NASB, not in the KJV, not in the original Greek, so what spiritual insight does Eugene Peterson have that would cause him to commit such heresy?

Some of Peterson's most heretical changes come when he injects one little word in just the right place. Take Romans 15:13 for example:

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Peterson adds one little word: green

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

God of green hope? Since the term "God of green hope" doesn't appear anywhere in the original Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek where did that phrase come from? It's not from God because if it was it would have been in the real Bible, so it's either ancient paganism, or new age gibberish. It could mean 'The Green Man' which is a pagan fertility symbol, the Green Man is also used to symbolize the horned god that Wiccans insist is not satan. It can be Dionysis the pagan Greek god of wine making. Or it can be a new age inclusion of their pagan earth worship where the worship of the environment, social justice, and fairness make turning the earth a nicer place to go to hell from much more important than the glorification of God and the salvation of their souls. 

In the same example look at the description of the Holy Spirit. Paul says by the power of the Holy Spirit. Power is substantial, something wielded by authority, something mere mortals do not have. However Peterson says 'energy of the Holy Spirit' - energy is everywhere! It's cheap, free, renewable, you can buy it in AAA, AA, C, or D cells. What Mr. Peterson did was turn the Holy Spirit into a can of Redbull.

Another example of how one word reveals Mr. Peterson's intents is revealed in Leviticus 19:31. Moses said:

Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.

But Mr. Peterson says:

Don’t dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you’ll pollute your souls. I am God, your God.

"I am the Lord your God" is incredibly different from "I am God, your God". 'God your God' is a fairly nothing introduction, a god is just a spiritual being which you can assign any meaning to: god of sunflowers, god of butterflies, god of toadstools. The god of sandwiches has no power over me, except maybe at lunch. But "the Lord your God" has actual meaning. The Lord is a appellation (official title) for a person or deity who has authority, control, and power over people, in this case all of us. What Eugene Peterson just did was demote God from our Sovereign Lord, creator of heaven and earth, to just some god who is potentially meaningless.

As I said, the one book of the bible with a curse on it - the Book of Revelations - the one most dangerous to pervert, Eugene Peterson hacks it up like a 59 cent a pound cube steak. 

⁹ And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
¹¹ “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” - Rev 4:9-11

Mr. Peterson changes to:

Every time the Animals gave glory and honor and thanks to the One Seated on the Throne—the age-after-age Living One—the Twenty-four Elders would fall prostrate before the One Seated on the Throne. They worshiped the age-after-age Living One. They threw their crowns at the foot of the Throne, chanting,
Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God!
Take the glory! the honor! the power!
You created it all;
It was created because you wanted it.

1. Those "Animals" that Mr. Peterson refers to are actually angels. They are cherubim to be exact. Here Mr. Peterson demotes angels to the lowest life form possible, mere critters, rather than the glorious beings they are. Could this be satanicly inspired hatred of the angels that did not revolt against God with Satan? It's hard not to think so, so let me instead extend this note to Eugene Peterson: angels are servants and messengers of the Lord our God, animals are food. Please don't confuse them.

2. The One seated on the throne, or the Living One as Mr. Peterson calls Him, in case you didn't know is God the Father. Mr. Peterson ignores the pronouns Him or He which would be proper grammar in this case but would assign a gender to God that Mr. Peterson is either ashamed of or is disdainful of. To change the wording to the sexless "One" is disrespectful and demeans the glory and majesty of our Sovereign Lord

3. I'm not sure what Mr. Peterson means by "Living One" but the term age-after-age is a New Age bit of drivel. The new age movement professes that time is split up into ages, and the term age-after-age is their own invention which means "really old" rather than the original intent of the real Bible where God's immortality is not a matter of conjecture but spelled out Him who lives forever and ever.

4. For some odd reason Mr. Peterson has the twenty-four elders chanting. Jesus Himself warned us about chanting in Matthew 6:7 - And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. This is chanting. Yet here, in Eugene Peterson's eyes, the glorification of God is reduced to mindless repetition that God Himself forbade through his son Jesus Christ.

5. Notice that Mr. Peterson changes “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God..." to Worthy, O Master! Yes, our God! The twenty four elders are no longer declaring God worthy, they're just shouting the word worthy. And again God is reduced from Lord to Master. In case you don't know the difference here it is: a Master is a boss. When you're done with the job you go home and leave the boss behind. Even if you're a slave when you're sold or win your freedom you leave the boss behind. And even a master has a boss. A Lord is above all bosses and is lord over you regardless of your location or condition.

Mr. Peterson - when you speak of God keep in mind He's not a "One", He's not a "Master" He's not a new age bit of fluff, He's my creator, He's my love, He's My King!

He’s enduringly strong
He’s entirely sincere
He’s eternally steadfast
He’s immortally graceful
He’s imperially powerful
He’s impartially merciful

That’s my King!