Perhaps the greatest problem with Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible translation is that it presents a false Gospel that leaves Christians enslaved in the shackles and chains of sin.
For example, when the KJV says in Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” the Messy Bible says, “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.” While sin is absent from the list Paul gives of that which can separate us from God, Eugene Peterson says that not even the worst sins listed in Scripture can separate us from God. The prophet Isaiah says, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
How is it that Message readers will be saved from sin through faith in Christ when their mistranslation of God’s Word keeps them in bondage by offering a false hope of fellowship with God while continuing to live a lifestyle of sin? This is another gospel! Again The Message takes Psalm 25:10: “All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” and translates, “From now on every road you travel will take you to God.” Every road will take you to God? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6) and “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).
Concerning homosexuality, perhaps the most divisive issue in the Church of our day, the Message Bible translation deletes the politically incorrect phrases like “effeminate” and “homosexual.” The Message states, “Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify 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 by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:10-11, MSG).
What kind of twisted message is this? Obviously to a Christian, those who “use and abuse sex” would include homosexuals but to an unbeliever who reads The Message as their first exposure to “Scripture” this vague phrase could mean something completely different. To an unregenerate mind, this justifies fornication and even homosexuality because the specific sins are not called out by name.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, The Message deletes the phrase “Flee fornication” (KJV) and says instead, “There’s more to sex than mere skin on skin,” and “we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy.” Again, to an unbeliever, this “kind of sex” could refer to sex outside of marriage and even homosexuality, as long as there is some sort of commitment. This is an abomination. The Message is turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and is thus ordained to condemnation (Jude 1:4).
As a matter of fact, there is a prevalent New Age influence in the pages of The Message. Part of the reason that the Purpose Driven Pastor Rick Warren has been accused of teaching New Age spirituality is because of his Message quotations in The Purpose Driven Life. Warren’s book The Purpose Driven Life begins with a Colossians 1:16 of The Message paraphrase of the Bible:
“For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, . . . everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.” [1]
The King James Version translates Colossians 1:16 as, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.” The Message Bible cannot be seen as a translation or even a paraphrase, it’s a fictional mess! When the KJV says “all things were created by him,” The Messy Bible says, “everything got started in him” communicating a panentheistic idea rather than God as the ultimate Creator who is separate from His creation.
For many Christians who are unfamiliar with New Age lingo, they may pass over this verse giving no special notice to the phrase “above and below.” A popular New Age pantheistic teaching says, “As above, so below.” For instance, Ronald S. Miller and the editors of New Age Journal write,
“‘As above, so below; as below, so above.’ This maxim implies that the transcendent God beyond the physical universe and the immanent God within ourselves our one.” [2]
At first, this may seem as a coincidence but these New Age connotations are elsewhere in The Mess Bible translation. For instance in the Lord’s prayer of Matthew 6:9-13 of the KJV: “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” is translated in The Message as, “Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. Set the world right; Do what’s best– as above, so below.” Thus the Lord’s prayer is translated into a New Age invocation.
Warren also quotes from The Message translation of Ephesians 4 in his Purpose Driven Life. Ephesians 4:4-6 of The Message reads:
“You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”
Notice the difference when consulting the KJV: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Here, Paul says that God is “in you all” speaking to the church, whereas the Message says that God is “present in all”, Christian and non-Christian. This is especially dangerous in Warren’s book written for both believers and unbelievers. Again, this is New Age pantheism and not taught in the Bible. This pantheistic concept of “oneness” is emphasized in Eugene Peterson’s addition to the verse: “Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.”
Peterson’s Message translation is a perversion of the Gospel to which the Scriptures give severe warning against. “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32). “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:5,6).
Resources:
Peterson, Eugene. The Message Bible. Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress Publishing Group. 1993.
Bibliography:
1. Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2002. p. 17.
2. New Age Journal, As Above, So Below: Paths to Spiritual Renewal in Daily Life. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1992. p. xi.