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by Berit Kjos
(Despatch has used the KJV to compare quotes)
....The Message deletes the references to the Lord’s Holy Name and adds a request not voiced by Jesus.....
Matthew 6:9.:...“Our Father in
heaven hallowed be thy name”
The Message:. “Our Father in heaven Reveal who
you are”
.....The
Message distorts the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the
Son....... .....
John 10:30:... “I and the
Father are one”
The Message: “I and the Father are one heart and
mind.”
John 14:28 .....“The Father is
greater than I.”
The Message:. “The Father is the goal and purpose of my
life.”
Riding a spreading tide of publicity and enthusiasm, Eugene Peterson’s The Message is sweeping into Christian bookstores, homes and churches from coast to coast. In the first four months after its mid-July release, 100,000 copies of this “New Testament in Contemporary English” were printed by NavPress. Seventy thousand books were sold. Thousands were either donated or distributed at reduced prices to youth leaders, Young Life staff and pastors who could share Peterson’s message with their followers. Apparently most leaders were delighted. “The Message is so good it leaves me breathless” writes popular author Madelene L’Engle in her endorsement.Considering this ground-swell of acceptance we do well to ponder the question: What is Peterson’s Message?
“The Message is the boldest and most provocative rendering of the New Testament I’ve ever read”, writes Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe general director of “Back to the Bible” broadcast and former pastor of Moody Bible Church. “The Message is certainly destined to become a devotional classic - not to mention a powerful pastoral tool” adds pastor Jack W. Hayford.
What does Eugene Peterson himself say?
In his introduction to “The Message”, he tells us that
“This version of the New Testament in a contemporary idiom keeps the language of the Message current and fresh and understandable in the same language in which we do our shopping, talk with our friends, worry about world affairs, and teach our children their table manners...”
This sounds like a good idea but what if essential Biblical concepts are not part of our everyday conversation? Should we then rewrite God’s holy Scriptures to fit our more shallow and worldly communications?
Remember, we are dealing with God’s holy unchangeable Word -not an ordinary book. God owns His message, we don’t. Only His own, well-guarded words can be presenteed as absolute truth. Yet, readers who trust NavPress and endorsers like Warren Wiersbe and J.I. Packer view this book as an authentic translation of the Bible rather than as Peterson’s personal interpretation.
Throughout both Old and New Testaments, God forbids us to distort His Word. Additions and deletions are strictly forbidden in Scriptures like Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Galatians 1:8-9 and Revelation 22:19. Acts 17:11 exhorts us to learn from the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Eugene Peterson would probably agree. His own interpretation of 2 Corinthians 4:2 holds him accountable to this timeless standard. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather we keep everything we do and say out in the open and the whole truth on display so that those who want to can see the judge for themselves in the presence of God.
While the above verse corresponds to the original Greek, many other passages do just what The Message promises not to do -they twist God’s Word to suit human inclinations, in fact, the very next sentence (verse 3) fails the test - it does not keep the whole truth on display, instead it deletes the original references both to “those who are perishing” and to the glory of “Christ who is the image of God”. It doesn’t take a Greek scholar to recognise the appalling distortions of God’s holy Word. Any Bible student willing to compare Peterson’s Message with a Greek/English Interlinear Lexicon and take time to look up key words in a credible New Testament Bible dictionary will discover alarming deletions, distortions and additions to the original text - if Peterson is right then the Bible, the Word of God, is false!
See for yourself. The following Scriptures compare with the KJV. To emphasise difference, corresponding words and phrases are underlined. Please pray for discernment as you check the following additions and deletions:
.....Deletes words that imply occult spirituality. Substitutes more finite, human influences:....
1 Timothy 4:1 “in later times
some will abandon the faith and follow seducing spirits and doctrines of demons”
(KJV).
The Message: “as time goes on some are going to give up on the faith
and chase after demonic illusions put forth by professional
liars.”
[We’re not just dealing with illusions. Deceiving spirits and the timeless doctrines of demons are far more effective in deceiving people than illusions and professional liars.]
......Deletes reference to the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” and “sinful nature”......
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh and of the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”(KJV)
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, and all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat.”
.....Minimizes occult dangers, deletes consequences:....
2 Thessalonians 2:9: “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
The Message: “The Anarchist’s coming is all Satan’s work. All his power and signs and miracles are fake, evil sleight of hand that plays to the gallery of those who hate the truth that could save them. And since they’re so obsessed with evil, God rubs their noses in it -gives them what they want. Since they refuse to trust truth, they’re banished to their chosen world of lies and illusions.”
[Peterson’s tendency to delete the supernatural and minimize the consequences of sin reminds me of Romans 1:18 “The wrath of God is being revealed against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth.]
....Deletes reference to sinful nature and occult practices, minimizing Satan’s power....
Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like:”
The Message: “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time -repetitive loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness, trinket gods, magic-show religions; paranoid loneliness, cutthroat competition, all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants, a brutal temper, an impotence to love or be loved, ugly parodies of community. I could go on.”
[Idolatry and witchcraft are not the same as trinket gods and magic-show religions! We’re dealing with spiritual forces far greater than magical illusions].
.....Add horoscope, as if this timeless tool of occultism is similar to a telescope.....
Colossians 2:10: “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”
The Message: “You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him.”
Deletes words like adulterers and homosexual which identify specific sins. Adds a politically correct reference to environmentalism (recall the environmental terminology in Eph. 2:!2 “filled your lungs with polluted unbelief...”)
1 Corinthians 6:9-11: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers. nor effeminate, nor abuses of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
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 quality 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....”.
.....Deletes reference to obedience and to the grace of our Lord:...
Romans 16:19-21. “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen”.
The Message: “And so while there has never been any question about your honesty in these matters - I couldn’t be more proud of you. I want you also to be smart, making sure every “good” thing is the real thing. Don’t be gullible in regard to smooth-talking evil. Stay alert like this, and before you know it the God of peace will come down on Satan with both feet, stomping him into the dirt. Enjoy the best of Jesus!”
....Deletes “sexual immorality” - adds “avoids commitmentand intimacy”.. ..
Corinthians 6:18-20: ”Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
The Message: “There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin. Sex is as much a spiritual mystery as a physical fact. As written in Scriptures “The two become one”. Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever - the kind of sex that can never “become one.” ... In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love for “becoming one” with another.”
[One could conclude that “commitment and intimacy” or becoming one..........the boundaries for acceptable sex.]
....Adds words that qualify homosexuality, providing a loophole for committed who “love” each other. Deletes “God gave them over....”
Romans 1:26-27: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”
The Message: “Worse followed. Refusing to know God they soon didn’t know how to be human either - women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men - all just lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it - emptied of God and love. Godless and loveless wretcheds.”
[This strange wording leaves a loophole for homosexuality to be permitted if it was an expression of love, not lust - which many gay couples claim today. In other words, lust becomes the sin not the choice of a same-sex partner. The consequencees of disobedience, “due penalty” seems broader than “emptied of God and love.” Historically it includes sexually transmitted diseases as well as spiritual death. That politically incorrect possibility is deleted here.]
.....Distorts truth with a contemporary bias:....
Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”
The Message: “This makes it clear doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others, but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place, and it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everyone else? Ourinvolvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.”
[This interpretation endorses today’s false standard of tolerance. Don’t expose or criticize another person just deal with your own sin. It defies God’s guidelines concerning counseling, correction, restoration and accountability and supports today’s tendency to condone sin. See Romans 1:32, but not in the Message. It deletes this important point.]
Deletes “spiritual” - spiritual
readiness to receive God’s resources for ministry.
Substitutes “live
creatively,” usually a reference to human resources, not
God’s.
Galatians 6:1-2 “Brethren, if as man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.”
The Message: “Live creatively friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out.”
....Deletes reference to submission. Adds marital equality....
1 Peter 3:1,7: “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;... Like wise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
The Message: “The same goes for you wives. Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs....
[The same goes for you husbands. Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God’s grace you’re equals. Treat your wives then, as equals....”]
.....Deletes reference to sexual immorality, repentance, tolerating sin, the God who searches hearts and minds.....
Revelation 2:22 “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.”
The Message: “But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, selfindulging religion? I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. I’m about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games. The bastard offspring of their idolwhoring I’ll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don’t impress me.”
.....Misleading emphasis:....
Romans 15:4-5 “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one toward another acoording to Christ Jesus:”
The Message: “Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us,keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir ... our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God....”
[No mention of endurance and hope - which implies triumph in the midst of suffering as we remain confident that God will do all He has promised. In light of Peterson’s tendency to minimize the disciplining side of God, his emphasis on a warm, feel-good God seems to distort God’s revelation of Himself. Notice - “follow Christ Jesus” is replaced by a Jesus who “gets along with us”.]
........Replaces “reconciliation” (a spiritual work based on the cross) with “friend.” Adds “drop their differences” (Could he be promoting a PC form of unity?):
2 Corinthians 5:20 “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”
The Message: "We’re Christ’s representatives God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right betweeen them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now. Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.”
....Adds a promise not found in the original Greek:....
Romans 8:35-37: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
The Message: “Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing; not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.”
This last passage seems consistent with Peterson’s refusal to mention those “worst sins” in the various New Testament lists of fleshly expressions. It also helps explain his commendation of medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, whose teachings - often quoted by controversial priest Matthew Fox, founder of Creation Spirituality - fueled the fourteenth-century flower of pantheistic-mysticism. In his article titled “Spirit Quest” (Christianity Today, 11-8-93), Peterson wrote,
“Single-minded, persevering faith-fulness confirms the authenticity of our spirituality. The ancestors we look to for encouragement in this business - Augustine of Hippo and Julian of Norwich, John Calvin, Teresa of Avila - didn’t fit. They stayed."
Since Julian of Norwich is a spiritual model to the man who has interpreted God’s Word for today, let’s take a look at what she believed. Indeed, her teachings seem to echo some of the cultural biases that thread through The Message. They also fit today’s uncritical search for experiential feeling-centered spirituality. In his book “Soul Friend” Kenneth Leech describes some of her convictions.
"Because she held strongly this belief in the closeness of man and God, Julian has an optimistic assessment of man and the universe, and a belief that sin is relatively unimportant...Moreover she claims that God showed me that sin need be no shame to man but can even be worthwhile. She seems to mean by this that sins are disguised virtues, for ‘in heaven what sin typifies is turned into a thing of honor’."
In Julian’s theology we find the fullest expression of the concept of the feminity of God. ‘God is really our Mother as he is Father’ she says. ‘Our precious Mother Jesus brings us to supernatural birth, nourishes and cherishes us by dying for us, giving us the sacrament... Her mysticism brings tenderness and ‘holiness’ to the understanding of God our Mother. The same article introduces another spiritual model Peterson writes that “Baron Friedrich von Hugel, a Roman Catholic layperson was one of the most respected spiritual directors in England in the early years of this century.” He devotes an entire paragraph to this leader whom the Encyclopedia Britannica describes as “the precursor of the realist revival in philosophy and of the theological study of religious feeling”.
Like the culture around us many churches today seem to emphasize good feelings and subjective mature relationship with God. Peterson’s definition for spirituality in his article seems to reflect this drift from solid rock to shifting sand along with an alarming focus oneself rather than God.
Intimacy we want to experience, human love and trust and joy Transcendence: we want to experience divine love and trust and joy ... We hunger for divine meaning, someone who will bless us. And so spirituality, a fusion of intimacy and transcendence overnight becomes a passion for millions of North Americans ... It is heartening that our continent is experiencing a recovery of desire to embrace intimacies and respond to transcendence .... Peterson rightly points out the need to discriminate “betweeen the true and false” as people “ransack exotic cultures and esoteric groups in a search for wholeness.” But what does he mean when he tells his readers to acquire “a biblical imagination -entering into the vast world of the Bible and getting a feel for the territory, an instinct for reality.”
What part did his imagination play in the formation of The Message?
The inspired scribes of God’s holy Word documented facts and observations. They were led by the Holy Spirit, not personal imagination. God was the Creator, not man. No one should know this better than J.I. Packer, the beloved author of Knowing God. Yet in his endorsement of The Message, he uses the same questionable terms - words popularized by the New Age quest for personal empowerment and unbiblical energies.
“In this crowded world of Bible versions,” writes Packer, “Eugene Peterson’s blend of accurate scholarship and vivid idiom make this rendering both distinctive and distinguished. The Message catches the logical flow, personal energy, and imaginative overtones of the original very well indeed.”
What does Packer mean? Does the Bible really have imaginative overtones?
Peterson’s introduction to Revelation gives that impression. He identifies John as a pastor on Patmos, who is preeminently concerned with worship - not sharing God-given visions of end-time events. This first century pastor is also “a poet, fond of metaphor and symbol, image and allusion” who challenges “our intelligence and imagination.” Historical facts and absolute truth made the Bible unique among the world’s religious documents. Pagan myths on the other hand spring from imagination, personal feelings and mystical experiences. Yet the author of The Message repeatedly stresses the latter. He writes,
“We are after what we came for in the first place, intimacy and transcendence, personal friends and a personal God, love and worship.”
It seems paradoxical that someone who desires intimacy with God would minimize or ignore the main obstacles to that intimacy, our sinful nature, our specific sins and our lack of submission and obedience to God. Could an answer to this paradox lie in the strange spirituality he propounds in his article?
I realize that Peterson’s intent was “to recapture the tone” and subtleties of the Greek language. Whether or not he achieved that (personally I believe that his language reflects neither the heart of Jesus nor His followers’ fiery devotion to a holy sovereign God and the integrity of His Word), this noble goal can never be an excuse for “dumbing-down” Scripture to match our culture’s downward trends. The fact that essential Biblical terms are no longer part of our everyday conversation doesn’t give us license to soften God’s message. Shouldn’t we rather aim to use Scriptures to lift our communications to the level where our language reflects the eternal perspective of God’s revealed truth?
That seems to be the exhortation of Deuteronomy 6:4-7 and 2 Timothy 3:16. When we simplify Scripture by removing its mysteries, controversies and exhortations toward God’s highest, we demean our Lord and misinform believers. Some might ask, “Who are you to question the wisdom and scholarship of respected Church leaders?” The sad fact is that shepherds and leaders throughout history have turned from truth to embrace new teachings. We are all called to “examine Scriptures” and test our leaders as did the Bereans and Ephesians. Our ability to exercise this kind of discernment comes from the Holy Spirit - as God tells us in II Corinthians 3:5,6. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;..."(KJV). Sad to say, Peterson deleted this wonderful promise of God’s sufficiency for any task He assigns us. “But isn’t most of The Message accurate?” ask some. Probably. So is the Jehovah Witnesses’ Bible. However, it only takes the distortion of a few key passages to reflect an entirely different message. When any part - even “the smallest letter” -of God’s Word is changed, the integrity of the whole is lost.
If The Message is accepted as Biblical truth, three distortions of New Testament teachings could spread and permeate the Church, conforming “truth” to popular consensus and false unity:
1. Since God is love, He wouldn’t be so cruel as to cause someone to suffer, perish or burn in hell. So don’t mention Biblical consequences or punishment. 2. Since God forgives, don’t be too concerned about specific sins such as homosexuality or adultery. Jesus wouldn’t want you to offend someone. 3. Since God is tolerant, don’t correct others. Be tolerant of all, except those who criticize. (This politically correct attitude censors much-needed rational, objective criticism as a corrective force.)
The consequences of twisting God’s holy Word are devastating. Throughout history, whenever God’s people followed distorted teaching and ignored genuine truth, they would compromise with popular culture and drift back to earth-centered spirituality. Its happening all around us today. The masks for timeless paganism - whether they are Babylonian, Canaanite, Roman or Native American - make little difference. All these polythestic/pantheistic/monistic belief systems mocked God and established deadly connection between gullible seekers and demonic spirits. Today’s most seductive masks bear an alarming resemblance to Christianity. History documents the results - both personal and cultural, a tragic blend of plagues, drought, famine and wars. (I document these in Under the Spell of Mother Earth). Humanism was often an intermediary step (see Ps. 12:4) and continues to provide an effective tool for banishing God until spiritual hunger draws people to all kinds of pagan, earth-centered alternatives. Romans 1 outlines this timeless slide.
The signs of compromise are multiplying - even in God’s churches. Congregations have traded truth for myth and Mother Earth for God our Father. Sunday School curricula teach native American shamanism and equate the Creator with the Great Spirit. Gay pastors teach spiritual guidelines, and children’s pastors teach Bible “truths” through comical skits that mock God.
What we need is truth - the whole truth and nothing but. Yet Peterson, willing to use words like consecration and antithetical refuses to use the word sanctification and deletes “holy is your name” from the Lord’s prayer. How can we cry over sin and apostasy when the holiness of God is concealed from His Word?
As we face an explosion of false teachings and spiritual substitutes both in churches and in the world around us, we had better be faithful stewards. It’s time to awaken all God’s people to test, guard and follow the truth our King has committed to us. Therefore, What you heard from me [Paul], keep as the pattern of sound teaching... Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us... Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of Truth. (2 Timothy 1:13-14, 2:15).
(This critique has been altered to KJV references by Endtime Ministries.)
* For a closer look at America’s rejection of truth and growing fascination with all kinds of myths - from seductive distortions of the Bible to the world’s earth-centered religions - read Under the Spell of Mother Earth. Available in Christian bookstores or order direct from Victor Books: 1-800-323-9409.
* Author of Newberry winner A Wrinkle in Time and many other books filled with occult imagery and psychic practices such as kything - a form of mental telepathy and communication between people, trees and any other part of creation. Kything is growing in popularity within God’s churches, especially among women. Sinful nature, a condition dealt with by the cross, is not the same as “doing what we felt like doing....”
* The lawless one is not an Anarchist. He will mock God’s law but enforce plenty of his own laws. The New Englishman’s Greek Concordance of the New Testament (Wilmington, Delaware: Associated Publishers & Authors, 1972), 772. * This may sound good but makes me uneasy. This sacredness of the body and the goal of “becoming one” fits right into New Age and Neo-pagan views of the physical body and sex.
*Apparently “spiritual” refers to those who are filled with - and walking in - the spirit, thus ready to allow God to work through him.
*Peterson may not have realized that the title of his article, “Spirit Quest,” is the name given to the Native American initiation into adulthood. Indian youth still journey into the wilderness to connect with their guardian spirits or animal spirits. This occult ritual is promoted in classrooms nationwide and spiritual seekers flock to America’s sacred “power places” (Sedona, Mt. Shasta, Alberta...) in search of their personal spirit guide.
* Today, unlike a decade ago, the demonic personalities respond quickly to the summons - with devastating consequences to the host. Psychologists in Alberta, Canada, face an explosion of tormenting “multiple personalities” among gullible spiritual seekers and testify to acceleration of demonic activity in the area. This is no time to minimize the power of Satan, the destructiveness of sin, or the overcoming power of God.
An Introduction to Christian Mysticism, Lectures given at the Abbey of Gethsemani, MS. (1961), 145. Quoted by Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend (HarperSanFrancisco, 1992),146. Roy Bailey and Mike Brake, Radical Social Work (1975), 1. Quoted by Leech, 147. Encyclopedia Britannica, XI (Chicago: William Benton, 1968), 810. “Spirit Quest,” 30. Ibid., 28. Ibid. 27. Ibid., 29. An expression used often to describe what is happening in public education, where teaching is geared to the lowest common denominator. Acts 17:11, Revelation 2:2 Personal consequences are listed in Scriptures like Gal. 1:8-9; 2 Peter 3:16 and Rev. 22:18-19.
Reproduced with Permission from Berit Kjos.... copyrighted but freely available if source acknowledged.
Endtime Ministries...Christian Resource Centre P.O. Box 238, Landsborough. Q. 4550. Aust. Phone: 07 54941672 Fax: 07 54948617 Email: despatch@mail.cth.com.au Internet Home page: http://www.despatch.cth.com.au/ Publish: Quarterly Magazine `Despatch" also regular Home Page updates