With today’s epidemic of Bible per-versions spreading like a runaway virus, nothing should shock us . . . but buckle up! If you have any spiritual pulse, Eugene Peterson’s The Message will shock you. The Message promotes the mystical New Age message with a boldness never seen in a mainstream Bible. The Message has sold over 10 million copies and has continually ranked among the top five best-selling Bibles. The Message website (navpress) displays endorsements from such prominent Christians as Billy Graham, Chuck Swindoll, Christianity Today, Dan Quayle, Bill Hybels, Gordon Fee, J.I. Packer, Jack Hayford, Jerry Jenkins, Jerry Savelle, John Maxwell, Max Lucado, Richard Foster, Rick Warren, Rod Parsley, Tony Campolo and Warren Wiersbe, among many others. This article will barely scratch the surface of the mystic New Age religion filling The Message. And this article only examines the New Age mysticism in The Message, we do not examine the treason against the Deity of Jesus Christ, salvation and scores of other fundamental doctrines. Note: We’ll refer to the King James Bible as KJB, the New Age Movement as NAM, and The Message Bible as The Mess. º THE MASTER PLAN OF THE MESSAGE º The first blast from The Mess attacks the Lord. The Lord occurs a whopping 7970 times in the KJB -- more than any other noun. Of the 8,000-plus different words used in the KJB, the Lord ranks 14th among the most occurrences (number 13 is the single letter a). Only helper words such as the; of; in; to; et. al. occur more often. The Mess contains the Lord only 71 times! The Lord ranks 1087th among words in The Mess. It appears the same number of times as words like question or reputation. In the New Testament, (ironically, the Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ) the Lord appears a skimpy 23 times in The Mess. The Mess NEVER directly honors Jesus Christ as Lord. The Lord Jesus occurs 118 times in the King James Bible. The Lord Jesus Christ occurs 84 times in the King James Bible. The phrase Lord Jesus Christ or Lord Jesus is not in The Mess! The outright denial of the Lord Jesus has never occurred in ANY translation. Let us clarify something . . . the total amputation of the Lord Jesus is no accident. It is not an issue of translation or Greek manuscripts. It is not a matter of updating archaic words or making it easier to understand. It was a deliberate and intentional doctrinal decision to remove the Lord Jesus. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord. . . John 20:13 It is interesting that Judas Iscariot never calls Jesus Lord. The Bible states 13 times Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus; Judas was possessed of Satan (Luke 22:3); Jesus Christ calls Judas a devil (John 6:70); Jesus calls Judas the son of perdition (John 17:12 – which is also the title of the antichrist in 2 Thess. 2:3). The Bible describes hell as Judas’ own place (Acts 1:25). Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I?. . . Matthew 26:25, KJB Judas always addressed Jesus as Master -- never Lord. Following the footsteps of Judas the betrayer, the Mess also betrays the Lord, always calling Jesus Master – never Lord! Another partner in the Master Jesus plan is the New Age religion. The root of the New Age Movement (NAM) teaches during various ages, teachers or guides arise called Masters. Helena Blavatsky, the guru of the modern-day New Age Movement, wrote extensively of these enlightened masters. In the 1980’s, the book Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow by Constance Cumbey, exposed the New Age Movement. Mrs. Cumbey defines the mystic new age as: A vast organizational network today, the New Age Movement received its modern start in 1875 with the founding of the Theosophical Society by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. . . Strongly propounding the theory of evolution, they also believed in the existence of ‘masters’ who were either spirit beings or fortunate men more highly ‘evolved’ than the common herd. (Cumbey, Constance, Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, p. 44) In his best selling book, A Crash Course on the New Age Movement, author Elliot Miller describes the new age Jesus as: The New Age Jesus became ‘the Christ’ only after purifying himself of ‘bad karma’ through many incarnations, and even now (as many New Agers believe) he is only one of several ‘masters’. . . (Miller, Elliot. A Crash Course on the New Age Movement, p. 30) Second only to Blavatasky in the New Age hierarchy, is Alice Bailey. Author Constance Cumbey says Bailey, . . . did more than anyone, except perhaps H. P. Blavatsky, to build the foundations for the ‘New Age’. (Cumbey, Constance, Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, p. 49) In 1922 Alice Bailey formed Lucifer Trust Publishing, which was later renamed to the subtle Lucis Trust Publishing. Bailey wrote extensively on the Master Jesus. The following quote are but one of the hundreds of references to the New Age Master Jesus: There is a growing and developing belief that Christ is in us, as He was in the Master Jesus. . . (Bailey, Alice, The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p. 592) New age researchers quickly discover the Jesus of the New Age is not the Lord Jesus but Master Jesus: Jesus to the New Age is a man who ascended to be a Master. . . (Understanding the New Age, Watchman Fellowship Inc.) A basic tenet of the New Age thinking is that of the Master Jesus. . . (Yungen, Ray. A Time of Departing, p. 112)
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 01:16:12 +0000
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