"Day 11 - Becoming Best Friend with God"
Today we're continuing our discussion of inaccurate translations of the Bible, and also the reckless way that Rick Warren uses it. Once again we have this feel-good Christianity that teaches that God is our friend. In the KJV of the Bible, Jesus and God only refers to people being his friends once, and that if of his disciples.
But purpose driven life quotes a slew of verses from a range of translations where the words friends and friendship with God are used, but none of these use the word friend in the original text.
Let's start in the old testament. Rick Warren quotes Exodus 34:14 from the New Living Translation (NLT): "You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you." The KJV says though, "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" Do you see the difference? I can see that the NLT talks about God's passion, instead of the fact that our God is a jealous God. And once again it seems to me that the meaning was changed so that it reflects what God does for us (passionate), instead of the requirement of what we have to do for God (worship jealous God).
On page 93 RW says: "Jesus is still the 'friend of sinners'", but if you read Matthew 11:19, it doesn't say Jesus is the friend of sinners, it says that they (they being the pharisees) say he is. "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children." Do you see that it isn't Jesus that says he is a friend of sinners? Should we now say Jesus was a glutton and winebibber?
Next he quotes from the message Job 42:7, and it says that God talks about his friend Job. But in the KJV it says "my servant Job". Now I'm thinking there's a huge difference between friend and servant. We need to gain perspective again of our place towards God ... we are here to serve Him, not to be His "friends". He is the almighty God who created heaven and earth, what are we to set ourselves up like we do? It seems as mankind we're more and more overstating our power and importance, and it's sad that even the Bible translations reflect that, instead of our true place in the presense of God.
Now I'm not saying we should go back to preaching fire and brimstone all the time. But we do need to realize where our place is. Jesus didn't come to be our friend, he came to save our sorry behinds from damnation, which is what we deserve. For that we should just fall on our knees and worship and thank Him, not make out like we're buddy-buddy with the one true living God.
Ok, I'm cutting this short now, after all it is my birthday today :)
Thank you Jesus for your incredible love for us, but Jesus please help us realize that just because you have such love for us and mercy on us, that that doesn't make us any more important. Amen
But purpose driven life quotes a slew of verses from a range of translations where the words friends and friendship with God are used, but none of these use the word friend in the original text.
Let's start in the old testament. Rick Warren quotes Exodus 34:14 from the New Living Translation (NLT): "You must worship no other gods, but only the LORD, for he is a God who is passionate about his relationship with you." The KJV says though, "For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" Do you see the difference? I can see that the NLT talks about God's passion, instead of the fact that our God is a jealous God. And once again it seems to me that the meaning was changed so that it reflects what God does for us (passionate), instead of the requirement of what we have to do for God (worship jealous God).
On page 93 RW says: "Jesus is still the 'friend of sinners'", but if you read Matthew 11:19, it doesn't say Jesus is the friend of sinners, it says that they (they being the pharisees) say he is. "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children." Do you see that it isn't Jesus that says he is a friend of sinners? Should we now say Jesus was a glutton and winebibber?
Next he quotes from the message Job 42:7, and it says that God talks about his friend Job. But in the KJV it says "my servant Job". Now I'm thinking there's a huge difference between friend and servant. We need to gain perspective again of our place towards God ... we are here to serve Him, not to be His "friends". He is the almighty God who created heaven and earth, what are we to set ourselves up like we do? It seems as mankind we're more and more overstating our power and importance, and it's sad that even the Bible translations reflect that, instead of our true place in the presense of God.
Now I'm not saying we should go back to preaching fire and brimstone all the time. But we do need to realize where our place is. Jesus didn't come to be our friend, he came to save our sorry behinds from damnation, which is what we deserve. For that we should just fall on our knees and worship and thank Him, not make out like we're buddy-buddy with the one true living God.
Ok, I'm cutting this short now, after all it is my birthday today :)
Thank you Jesus for your incredible love for us, but Jesus please help us realize that just because you have such love for us and mercy on us, that that doesn't make us any more important. Amen
posted by Evert DuToit at 11:43 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home