Just when you thought it can't get any weirder our friends in the New Apostolic Reformation just went over the top. The NAR is quickly becoming the poster child for heresy and I'll bet if Anton La Vey were alive he'd be cheering the sheer audacity of the NAR.
The NAR has taken a page from the emergent playbook, they've been tired of being accused of being unbiblical so they resorted to what's been working for other sects. Do you have a New Age unbiblical view of the world? Eugene Peterson fixed that by making up the Message perVersion of the bible. Have a favorite sin that you'd like changed from sin to sacrement? We got the Queen James bible for you. Have a doomsday cult that's missed the doomsdate multiple times? We have the New World Translation to help while away the hours handing out Watchtower magazines door to door. Wanna spread a new version of the word with your multiple wives while waiting to take over for God? Try the Joseph Smith version. Have a money grubbing, goat herding, snakeoil selling road show called a church that John MacArthur is ready to lower the boom on? Just wip up your own version of the bible to justify your heresy. And the NAR has their own now - it's called "The Passion" which I will abbreviate to TP.
The Passion is an unapologetic attempt to justify the heresy of the NAR. Brian Simmons of Stairway Ministries is the sole translator of this project. Like Eugene Peterson's abomination, The Message, this is a one man show. No legitimate version of the bible has been the work of one man, but numerous tomes of heresy and satanic inspiration have been. Brian is the only person involved in this project so there was no check and balance, this is a reflection of his opinion and which ever spirit moved him, and that spirit does not appear to be holy. Lets look at just a couple verses:
The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. (Galatians 6:6 NASB)
And those who are taught the Word will receive an impartation from their teacher; a transference of anointing takes place between them. (Galatians 6:6 TP)
This is NAR teaching pure and simple: They now claim that they have divine authority to minister with a specific miraculous gift – such as the gift of prophesying or healing – and that gift can be imparted or transferred from church leaders to their followers at will. This appears nowhere in the real bible, in the real bible gifts are from the Holy Spirit alone, with no delegation of powers even hinted at. Lets look at a simple introduction:
1 Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:1-2 NASB)
Dear Friends in Philippi, My name is Paul and I’m joined by my spiritual son, Timothy, both of us passionate servants of Jesus, the Anointed One. We write this letter to all His devoted followers in your city, including your pastors, and to all the servant-leaders of the church. We decree over your lives the blessings of divine grace and supernatural peace that flow from God our wonderful Father, and our Anointed Messiah, the Lord Jesus. (Philippians 1:1-2 TP)
The real bible says nothing about decrees, but the NAR loves decrees, it's something they made up. The NAR teaches that Apostles can issue “decrees,” which the NAR claims are authoritative proclamations that release God’s power. In other words, a decree is not a request for God to do something, but a declaration that He will do so because the NAR apostle has been given the authority to release God’s power.
How does Brian Simmons justify these revisions? He claims that all other translations are incorrect (how convenient for the NAR), and that the New Testament was written in Aramaic and not Greek, as he says in his introduction to to Letters from Heaven by the Apostle Paul, [the fourth installment of The Passion Translation]
“For centuries, it has been believed that the New Testament was first written in Greek. … Some scholars now lean increasingly towards the thought that Aramaic and Hebrew texts of the New Testament are the original manuscripts, and that many of the Greek texts are copies, and a second generation from the originals! This is radically changing translation concepts, and will result in many new translations of the New Testament based on Aramaic.”
This is interesting for two reasons:
1. The earliest surviving Aramaic manuscript of the New Testament–called the “Peshitta”–is from the fifth century which makes them NOT original, they are several generations newer than the Greek texts which are used to translate legitimate bibles. The Greek texts normally date to the 2nd century. Fragments of the Gospel of Matthew in Greek date back to the first century.
2. The Aramaic texts don't support the NAR heresy any more than the Greek texts.
This is not a new theory, other sects like the Nestorian Church and Seventh Day Adventists claim that 5th Century Aramaic texts are more accurate than 1st and 2nd century Greek texts. The difference here is that Brian Simmons discredits all other Bible translations just to push his made up personal agenda as truth.
A trustworthy bible translation has four characteristics:
1. A trustworthy translation is produced by a team of translators. By it's own admission the TP was produced by one person working on a laptop, while the ESV bible was produced by a team of more than 100 bible scholars. The ESV team contains members from many denominations providing checks, balances, double checks, and counterbalances that a lone individual in incapable of doing.
2. A trustworthy translation is produced by reputable scholars. Brian Simmons lists no formal education other than on-the-job training in linguistics from the New Tribes Missions, a South American mission group. There is no record published if he ever earned a degree or credential of any kind, nor is there a listing of what languages he studied. Now look at the multitude of PhD's that translated the ESV bible.
3. A trustworthy translation is produced from the earliest manuscripts possible. The TP claims to be translated from Aramaic manuscripts, the earliest known were written in the fifth century. The ESV bible really was translated from Greek texts nearly 300 years earlier than the oldest known Aramaic manuscript.
4. A trustworthy translation is transparent. Brian Simmons makes a number of claims about his translation without offering to verify the truth of his claims. He claims that "many new discoveries" have been made that indicate the original New Testament was written in Aramaic, yet never lists any of those new discoveries. (Nor does he provide any evidence that he can even read Aramaic) Brian claims that "some scholars" indicate that the New Testament was originally written in Aramaic but never identifies any. Brian also never identifies the actual manuscript he's translating from while legitimate translations post that information.
Like anything else related to the NAR, handle the TP translation like it was toxic.
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