The Message [Bible]: Mystic Mess
Dr. Terry Watkins | Dial-the-Truth Ministries |
[Article reprinted with permission]
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’sThe 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 (www.navpress.com) 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.
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.”
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).
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:
In his best selling book, A Crash Course on the New Age Movement, author Elliot Miller describes the new age Jesus as:
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”:
New age researchers quickly discover the Jesus of the New Age is not the “Lord” Jesus but “Master” Jesus:
The Mess calls Jesus “Master” over 400 times and the unique New Age phrase “Master Jesus” appears 76 times! The only other Bible I found “Master Jesus” in was the New Age Bible titled The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ! The following examples (among many) of the “Master Jesus” in The Mess loudly echo the Judas-inspired, New Age doctrine of the “Master Jesus.”
The Bible in 1 Corinthians 12:3 warns against spiritual counterfeits such as The Mess that deny Jesus is the “Lord.” Notice how the Mess attempts to cover its tracks by perverting the same verse.
Not content with propagating the NAM “Master Jesus,” The Mess continues its “master” plan. The “Lord God” occurs 546 times in the King James Bible. The “Lord God” briefly appears 9 times in the Mess. The Mess replaces the “Lord God” with “Master God.” I could not find the “Master God” in any other Bible version. Again, notice the new age, mystic tone of the “Master God” in the Mess.
The Mess travels to “loony land” deleting the “Lord.” Rather than correctly translate the “Lord God,” The Mess crafts the gobbledygook phrase “God, God.” It also deceitfully slips in a comma attempting to justify the goofy Mess.
The NAM identifies their “Masters” as “divine guardians” and “custodians of the Divine Plan.” The New-Age Tara Center describes the “Masters” as “custodians” of the Divine Plane:
In Deuteronomy 32:8, the Mess also references these “divine guardians” who “care for the Earth.” This is not Bible Christianity. And this is not in the Hebrew text! Notice the complete change from the King James Bible.
The New Age Movement revolves around the “One.” Riplinger writes in New Age Versions: “Virtually all exposes on the New Age Movement observe ‘the One’ is thismovement’s object of worship.” (Riplinger, G.A. New Age Versions, p. 85) New Age guru H.P. Blavatsky teaches the NAM begins with “the One”:
In the following quote Blavatsky states Jehovah and the Serpent [Satan] that tempted Eve both are the “One”.
The One theology stems from pantheism. The word Pantheism derives from the Greek words pan meaning “all” and theos meaning “god.” Pantheism teaches God is All and All is God or “One”. It rejects a personal, loving God, instead defining God as “Presence” or “One.” Infoplease defines “pantheism” as “a denial of God’s personality and expresses a tendency to identify God and nature.” The god Pan appears as a cloven-foot, half-man, half-goat satyr playing the hypnotic “pan pipes.” (Ezek. 28:13) Occultist Albert Pike describes Satan as “. . . the mythologic and horned form of the God Pan. . .” (Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 102) The Satanic Bible (p. 144) also includes Pan in its list of Infernal Names of Satan. Hence, a pan-theist follows Satan. During a NAM meeting in Boulder, New Age leader Jose Arguelles told his listeners to, “. . . invite “PAN” in, accepting him as the leader and guide for their lives. . . that ‘right now Mother Earth is bringing Pan back to save us and lead us into the New Age. We can help by surrendering to him. . .” (www.raidersnewsupdate.com/gaia.htm) Make no mistake — Pan is the “One” of the New Age religion. The New Testament of the King James Bible never refers to God or the Lord Jesus as the impersonal One. Several times Jesus Christ is called the Holy One and the Just One, but never an impersonal, mystic One. The Mess changes the personal pronouns such as he and him (that reference Jesus and God) and personal nouns such as the Father, with the impersonal pantheistic “One” over 102 times in the New Testament! The following verses from The Mess loudly resonant the New Age “One” mantra.
Building upon the “One” concept, a distinct code-word among the mystic New Agers is “oneness.”
“Oneness” is an unusual and bizarre word, not appearing in most dictionaries. Only New Agers recognize the “oneness” teaching. Following the mystic New Age “Oneness” script, The Mess says in Ephesians 4:6, “Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness“. The word “permeate” means “spread throughout” or “to penetrate”. According to The Mess, “Everything you are and think and do is spread throughout with Oneness.” Make no mistake about it — this is heavy-duty New Age doctrine. The New Age guidebook Metaphysical Primer: A Guide to Understanding Metaphysics gives nearly the exact same principle of the New Age Movement, “Everything is one with everything else. All that is on Earth is an expression of the One Deity and is permeated with Its energies.” (Yungen, Ray. A Time of Departing, p. 52) The Mess doesn’t stop there. It continues to spread the New Age “Oneness.”
Another “oneness” term the New Age Religion exercises is “interdependence.” Constance Cumbey writes in The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, “Another key teaching of this movement is that all things are ‘interconnected’ or ‘interdependent’”. (Cumbey, Constance, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow, p. 67) Cult author Dr. Walter Martin, identifies “interdependence” as a New Age “buzz-word” used to “describe the oneness”.
Like a hypnotized cobra being charmed by the sweet sound of the piper, The Mess serenely dances to the New Age Piper (Ezek. 28:13) while singing the song of interdependence.
Another key New Age teaching surrounds “the Presence.” The NAM “Presence” forms a mystic, impersonal pantheist “presence” of God. The following quotes reveal the importance of the “Presence” in the New Age agenda.
Alice Bailey reveals the “Presence” strikes a blow at the Biblical “transcendent” God or a God that exists apart from nature and man.
The Mess refers to God at least 34 times as the NAM “Presence.” Teaching the God of the Bible as a mystic Presence constitutes blatant blasphemy. This can only be defined within a New Age viewpoint. In sharp contrast, remember, the Mess NEVER directly refers to Jesus as Lord. The following verses (of many) echo the NAM mystic “Presence” of the Mess:
The Mess calls the sacred “shewbread” as the mystic “Bread of the Presence” eight times [Ex. 25:30, 35:13, 39:36, 1 Sam. 21:6, 1 Kings 7:48, 2 Chron. 4:19, 29:18].
Energy activates the spiritual “force” of the New Age religion. Prayers, meditations, invocations, and rituals all create energies.
Alice Bailey references “energy” over 1029 in the Rays and The Initiations. New Age disciple and popular, folk-rocker Tori Amos, defines this New Age energy as Lucifer, while readily confessing her love and worship of Lucifer.
The Mess explicitly promotes the NAM mystical “energy.” Energy appears 40 times in The Mess. Note: Energy only appears one time in some of the other per-versions. The Mess leaves no doubt concerning its faith in the New Age “energy” force. In Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:28, the Mess changes “pray” to “the energies of prayer.” Apparently, God no longer answers our prayers, instead, the prayer itself, generates “the energy.” The Bible definition of prayer means “to ask.” (Matthew 21:22)
Mark 5:30 and Luke 16:19 no longer reads “virtue” leaving the Lord Jesus, but “energy discharging” or “surging” from him.
The following are a few more (of many) undeniable NAM “energy” doctrine in the Mess:
A casual study of the New Age religion quickly exposes their light-god. A best selling New Age book of the 90’s was Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie. Light is the cornerstone of NAM. The popular new age prayer called The Great Invocation by Alice Bailey, (originally published by Lucifer Publishing), begins with the words, “From the point of Light within the Mind of God Marilyn Ferguson, states in her best-selling New-Age guidebook, The Aquarian Conspiracy:
The guiding light of NAM is Lucifer, which means “light bearer.” Hence, new age disciples proudly label themselves, “light bearers.” The Dictionary of Word Origins by John Ayto, under the listing for “Lucifer,” simply says “see LIGHT.” (p. 329) The definition for “light” then reads “. . . Latin lux ‘light’ which English gets Lucifer, literally ‘light bearer’.” (Ayto, John. Dictionary of Word Origins, p. 323) 2 Corinthians 11:14, says, “. . . Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” In Luke 10:18, Jesus Christ says, “. . . I beheld Satan as lightning . . .” The following excerpts from New Age material testify of their “light” god:
The Mess is flooded with the mystic NAM “light.” The Mess adds “light” when light is not in the text. It magically transforms simple “light” into NAM “God-light” or “Life-light.” The following verses from The Mess compared with the KJB clearly reveal the NAM “light” agenda.
Lucifer literally means “light bearer.” And New Agers, who recognize Lucifer as their god, proudly wear the title “light-bearer.”
The Mystic Mess also claims the Luciferian New Age banner, “light-bearer.”
Another well-known NAM term is “light-seeds.” And again (and again. . .), The Mess preaches NAM agenda.
Anyone familiar with New Age and Eastern mysticism knows the importance of the lotus. H.P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine contains a chapter titled “The Lotus as a Universal Symbol.” The Secret Doctrine, directly mentions the mystic lotus over 80 times. In Alice Bailey’s A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, the lotus carries over 249 references. No symbol is more sacred in the New Age mysticism than the lotus. Blavatsky describes the “Lotus” god of the New Age.
The New Age Aquarian Gospel of Jesus, crowns Jesus with the “Lotus wreath.”
The Dictionary of Symbolism states the sacred “lotus blossom” originated from “primordial ooze” and arose to become “the divine creator of the world.”
The Mess writes the most blasphemous and openly New Age propaganda ever recorded in a mainstream Bible. The Mess transforms the Lord Jesus from the “lily of the valley” to the mystic “lotus blossom from the valley pools.”
Notice the Mess degrades the beautiful “rose of Sharon” to a crude “wildflower picked from the plains of Sharon.” In Micah 7:14, The Mess performs more New Age magick. It transforms “midst of Carmel” into a blatant new age phrase “centered in lotus land.”
In Romans 15:13, the Mess contains the most bizarre statement ever in a mainstream Bible.
Who is the “God of green hope”? The “green hope” originated with the hellish, human sacrificing, Druids. The publication Talks on Freemasonry states, “Green was, with the Druids, a symbol of hope and the virtue of hope with a Freemason illustrates the hope of immortality.” (Kenneth Tuckwood, Talks on Freemasonry) The “green hope” mantra is a popular rallying cry in the new age Mother-Earth environmental movement. In NAM “green” signifies Oneness with the Earth, hence the title of William Anderson’s book, Green Man: The Archetype of Our Oneness with the Earth.
Chanting occupies a central role in paganism and mysticism. The popular book, Chant and be Happy, featuring former Beatle and Krishna disciple George Harrison states, “By serving GOD through each thought, word, and DEED, and by chanting HIS Holy Names, the devotee quickly develops God-consciousness.” Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience, defines “chanting” as: “The continuous recitation of a mantra. . . which helps one achieve an altered state of conscious, ecstasy, communion with the divine. . .” (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience, p. 92). The word “chant” occurs only one time (Amos 6:5) in the KJB and refers to idolatry. The mystic Mess includes “chant” 9 times. (Jdg 5:11; Psa 35:15; Psa 71:24; Jer 9:10; Jer 51:14; Eze 26:17; Eze 32:16 (3 times); Rev 4:8; Rev 4:10) In Revelation 4, the four and twenty elders (vs 10) and the four beasts (vs 8), before the throne of God, are “chanting.”
As the name implies, the New Age religion teaches a series of “ages.” The Mess promotes the New Age religion with the phrases “age after age” (Rev. 4:9; 4:10; 14:11) and “age after age after age” (Psalm 72:5; Rev. 5:13; 22:5).
A popular New Age, Oneness-Pantheistic, teaching says, “as above, so below.” New Age Journal published a book titled As Above, So Below. The Introduction says, “’As above, so below’ means that the two worlds are instantaneously seen to be one when we realize our essential unity with God. . . . The One and the many, time and eternity are all One.” (New Age Journal, So Above, So Below, p. xi) The Mess quietly transforms the hallowed “Lord’s Prayer” into a New Age “as above, so below” invocation. In Matthew 6:10, The King James begins with the familiar, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” The mystic Mess reads, “Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best– as above, so below.” The Bible says in Psalm 119:140, “Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.” Note. The following verses from The Message include vulgar and offensive language. I recognize the sensitivity of my readers, but The Message is heavily marketed towards the youth by scores of Contemporary Christian Musicians, including CDs of verses from The Message. The only accurate way to expose this filth is to show the verses. Remember this is a “Bible” recommended by tons of prominent Christian leaders! When the King James Bible describes intimate relationships and immoral behavior there remains a careful wholesome tone in its wording. It doesn’t sugar-coat the sin, but it doesn’t smell with the stench of the world. Contrary to the pure Words of God – the Mess wallows in the sewers of smut. The Mess smells of “sex, sex, and more sex.”
The word “sex” appears 199 times, (remember the “lord” appears only 71 times). The Mess contains enough “sex” to satisfy even Hugh Hefner. There is sexual intercourse (Jdg 21:11); sex goddess (2Ki 21:7); sexual predators (Job 24:15); sexual excesses (Job 36:14); sex shrines (Jer 5:7); sluttish sex (Eze 16:24); sex orgies (Eze 16:26); sexual prowess (Eze 23:21); obsessive sex (Eze 23:49); filthy sex (Eze 24:13); loose sex (Hos 4:2); drunk on sex (Hos 4:12); sex-worship (Hos 4:19); popular sex gods (Hos 11:2); lewd sex-worship (Hos 13:1); sacred sex-and-power centers (Mic 5:14); sexual orgies (Hab 2:15); sexually confused (Rom 1:27); sexual transmission (Rom 9:8); scandalous sex (1Co 5:1); sexually promiscuous (1Co 5:9); sexual sins (1Co 6:18); sexual relations (1Co 7:1); sexual drives (1Co 7:2); sexually tortured life (1Co 7:9); sexual disorder (2Co 12:21); cheap sex (Gal 5:19); sexual obsession (Eph 4:19); casual and illicit sex (Heb 13:4); sexual filth (2Pe 2:7); sexual rack and ruin (Jud 1:7); dirty sex (Jud 1:8); and sex peddlers (Rev 21:8). Note: most of the above phrases occur several times. The Mess routinely uses crude words such as “genitals,” “semen”, “slut,” and “streetwalking whore.”
Jeremiah 8:13 even quotes a Holy God calling Israel “a slut.” Notice the wording of the King James Bible.
In Ezekiel 16:24, The Mess spews the most vulgar and crude language ever recorded in a mainstream Bible:
While “sex, sex, and more sex” floods the Mess, the sodomites disappear. The “men” of Sodom in Genesis 13:13 are now “people of Sodom.” The Mess completely pardons the “sodomites,” replacing them with the inoffensive and meaningless “sacred prostitutes.” The Bible admonishes us to, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. . .” (Eph. 4:29) The Mess routinely speaks “corrupt communication” with some curse words in its pages. “Damn” appears many times in precarious settings.
Nothing seems sacred to the Mess, even descending to using the “G.D.” word.
Notice how different the words of God’s tender compassion found in the King James Bible in Micah 3:5:
Like this “present evil world,” The Mess enjoys perverting and redefining the word “hell.”
And there’s a lot more filth in The Mess. . . This tract contains just a small drop in the mystic and malignant poison infecting the Mystic Message. I’m reminded of Ronald Reagan’s eloquent critique of the Good News Bible during his famous radio address on September 6. 1977. Comparing the Good New Bible to the King James Bible, President Reagan closed with these insightful words:
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