The Message - Clarified

The Bible is a powerful tool, wielded by a skilled and knowledgeable person it can be a tool for great good, or great harm.  Yes, the Bible can be and is often misused and causes damage where God intends healing.  One of the most common misuses is what I call "cherry picking," when Scriptures are taken out of context, pulled out in small chunks, or chosen from a version or paraphrase that suits the agenda of the speaker.

I've seen pastors abuse Scripture time and time again in this manner, and it doesn't end there.  Where do they get the idea that this is acceptable?  I'm sure many pastors and teachers in recent years have been emboldened by the national best selling authors of our day who are professional cherry pickers and have trained the masses not only that it's acceptable, but to be expected.

There are very few leaders left, at least that I have seen, who have the courage to choose the version of the Bible they believe to be the most accurate, and use it exclusively.  It's also easier today than ever before for teachers and pastors to use sites like biblegateway.net to do keyword searches and pull passages completely out of context, but that seem to fit their topics.  Somehow, many have gotten out of the habit of getting the whole picture before basing an entire sermon around a small group of verses.  I've even sat through sermons that pick a single verse apart word by English word to make a solid three completely bogus points.

The Bible is really not rocket science.  God loves even the slowest of His children, and His Word is able to be comprehended by the least of us.  Theologians have their place, and Christianity is still the most examined and debated of the major three world religions - to our benefit.  But even though we can dig deep and get oodles of fresh meaning by understanding the original Greek or Hebrew, those of us who don't have the education, or the inclination, can get all we need to know from a basic study of the Bible as we have it in our own language.

What seems to me to be the most important element of understanding Scripture, is to read the whole passage, the whole story, get a clear picture of what's happening in the moment.  Who's speaking, who are they addressing, what's going on in the community at the time?  By not keeping these things in perspective, it's easy to take almost any single Bible verse and make it seem to corroborate almost any idea.

By adding The Message to the melting pot of Bible versions, a new dimension of problems are before us.  There are many passages in The Message that distort God's original intentions to make it appear that God is much more "PC" than we first were taught.  More disturbing are basic core concepts like sin, and the diety of Christ that are understated and even downplayed to seem less important than other, more feel-good ideas like love.  Progressive pastors in ecumenical churches are now armed with new support for their watered down social versions of Christianity.

I'm not concerned as much with the pastors who were already walking that path...God will deal with them when He's ready.  My concern is for the pastors and leaders who are being led down this social Gospel path in small and almost imperceptible ways.  Pastors who use The Message because others do, because their cursory examination of The Message yielded no major red flags, or because they enjoy it's casual demeanor as a refreshing change in their personal study.  These are the pastors who I hope will join me on my journey and take an honest, critical look at this paraphrase to determine if in fact it is worthy of being endorsed from their pulpits.

I challenge you to take a hiatus from using The Message in public in any way, until you have taken time to formulate your own conclusions as to its usefulness.  In the event that we find glaring and dangerous issues, you will save yourself from having to make apologies to your congregation and avoid the risk of looking foolish for following this fad blindly.

There is a prophetic Word from Ezekiel that was first spoken to the shepherds of Israel, but taken at face value, still is powerful and poignant given the discussion at hand.  The entire chapter of Ezekiel 34 discusses faltering leadership and God's message to both the leaders and followers.  At the time, they were dealing with corruption among the leaders - embezzelment, over taxing, harsh and unjust rulings, perversions with other religions, and general uselessness.  Many of today's leaders are guilty of a different kind of corruption, but equally as dangerous.  The warning God gave to the leaders of Israel is the same warning to leaders today, because God is the same today as He was thousands of years ago.

Read Ezekiel 34, paying special attention to Ezekiel 34:7-10, 17-22.

The verse that stands out the most to me as it pertains to using Scripture in self serving and misleading ways is verse 10: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

As leaders, may we always strive to be on the right side of God's fury.  May we never be guilty of cherry picking, of manipulating the Holy Scriptures to suit our own ideas.  May we resist the temptation to choose passages in a variety of versions based on how their wording supports our suppositions.  May we be careful to lead those who listen directly to the Cross and save ourselves from the fate of the corrupt.

Good journey...
Mikayla Kayne