Over at my blog, that I share with Judy, we have been having quite a discussion about Chris and his involvement in CCO/Jubilee conference in Feb. ‘10. Would love for you to come for a visit and share your thoughts…

Yes, the authors claim that this is a translation, but that is a real stretch of the definition of the word “translation.” As far as getting your very own personal copy, there are bookstores that specialize in Christian books, they call them “Christian Book Stores,” and if your heart is set on having a copy, then neither Heaven nor Hell will stop you.

You said,

“Christians are bashing each other over what their favorite Bible is.”

Yes this is true, many find sport in contending like this, but others are obediently sounding an alarm that what the Bible has clearly predicted would happen, is in actuality, happening, because Jesus said in the end days “many will come in my name. . .deceiving many.”

As far as your comment,

“Let’s treat Christians like adults and trust them to test all things and hold fast to that which is good.”

You need to think about what your saying. Do you apply that to everything in your life? Or, do you use that principle with your children, who are not adults, and have no discernment of good and evil, or right and wrong? Would you advise your daughter to try prostitution before she judge it? Would you tell your son not to use corrupt business practices before he has walked a mile in there shoes? Wouldn’t you know better than to enter a whore house? Is your advise to try everything, to test everything— because this is what you are suggesting— valid? No you wouldn’t do or suggest these things to the members of your family, but we tend to think that because we are Christians we can commit all sorts of spiritual fornication without consequences, and simply chalk it up as “testing all things.” That is ridiculous! My advise to my fellow Christians is to stay as far away from this corrupt thing as possible. It is no different than the advise I would give my family on other things worldly. Just because you are a human adult, are you not tempted by the world, even the christian world? Or, are we adult Christians because we have learned to overcome the world in the things of the flesh, “the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life”? Are you a Christian because you have tried all the things mentioned above, or because you have learned to discern good and evil, and tested all things by trust and faith in the truth of God’s Holy word? I can assure you that if you continue to eat of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” you will not be able to discern what is truly good, because the advise you are giving is from that tree.

Christianity has become so thoroughly corrupted with the “leaven” of this world that today’s new breed of “Christ followers” are following “another Jesus”, who is very permissive and advocates the very thing you suggest. After all, “hasn’t God said” to try (test) all things as Scripture teaches, or is that the serpent speaking in your ear, to taste just enough to get the essence of what this apple (The Voice) is all about, after all aren’t you an “ADULT”?

“Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees…. How is it that ye do not understand that I spake not to you concerning bread…? Then understood they how that he bade [them] not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.” Mt 16:6,11-12

Steve Blackwell

Christians are bashing each other over what their favorite Bible is.

Let the reader take note: The King James Bible was rejected by the Protestant Conservatives (the Puritans) for being too Catholic in its language and teaching. The Church of England which gave us the KJV is a catholic church !!!

I am glad to see that you are addressing the problems of this new emerging seduction of God’s word. I pray that your use of the radio airways will get the response to this “attack” firmly implanted in the minds of our brothers and sisters who still have their wits about them. With the spreading famine, spoken of by Amos the Prophet, getting ever worse, many will, unfortunately, see this “refuse” as a palatable attempt to quench a growing hunger.

May the Lord bless your steadfastness in sounding the alarm,

Steve Blackwell

The Voice is such a bad ‘translation’ that it makes the Message paraphrase sound like a word for word translation.

I spent time working through important passages of scripture in The Voice on my radio program. Please check it and and sound the alarm bell. The Voice is not giving people the real voice of God but a ‘different’ voice.

http://www.fightingforthefaith.com/2008/11/the-new-emergent-translation-of-the-bible.html

What you call judgment I call discernment.

For the most part those sitting in the modern churches of today have no ability to discern anything evil in their midst, they only understand what is good according to their distorted world view. Christians today force their understanding of the Bible through a very fine filter fashioned over a period of many hundreds of years. Consequently when they read about the apostasy spoken of in that same volume they simply cannot conceive the thought that it could be true of themselves or their particular building they call a “church.” This is true even though that Book makes it perfectly clear that the Devil is the chief trickster and that the human race is a deceived race. We make it awfully easy for the Devil to do his work. We simply refuse to allow ourselves to enter a conflict that could devastate our cherished way of life, even when the Bible clearly speaks to the situation we see in the “church” today.

Furthermore, the “love” you address is more than a gushy flow of emotionalism that lets everything pass and tolerates the open embrace of the world. Love can also be an exhibition of honest rebuke for the mockery the circus church is making of the real Ecclesia, the Body of Christ, which has nothing to do with organized religion. As far as the leadership, they may have a sincere desire to build something for the Lord, but unfortunately the Lord said He himself would build His Church. Real love is to proclaim the truth, and the front line of that battle today is the proclamation that men and the world are declaring that they are the “Church” when it just isn’t true. The church of today looks more like IBM or General Motors than a living body. No functioning family operates the way modern churches do, but over and over we are told in Scriptures to look for the fruits of a real family in our Church, and regardless of what you say it isn’t there, no way. The building you attend is just putting on a different or more appealing program that stirs the emotions and keeps the customers coming back, and to most that is about as close as they can get to family life, regardless that it is dysfunctional.

I know that there are some people inside the circus churches that the Lord will call out. I also know that God uses hirelings to accomplish His work. Wouldn’t you agree that a baseball cap with a Scripture verse on it is better than one with a Cubs logo? God’s Word will endure forever, and God will even use “The Voice” and even un-faithful and rebellious believers to do His work, then destroy them. So, yes, if one person is saved in the process of reading The Voice it is a blessing by God to that person, but that doesn’t mean that what they are doing is right. The pragmatic approach to evangelism is evil; the ends do not justify the means, even when God in His Sovereign will uses it to accomplish His will; we are still held responsible even when God brings good out of evil.

What you call good I call corrupt, one of us is wrong. You “feel” that God has led you to your present building, that you call a church, how do you know it was God? Maybe it was the Devil, after all the Devil has deceived the whole world, right?

Please read the following articles.

http://indywatchman.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/the-voice-a-reader-comment-and-reply/

http://indywatchman.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/what-is-a-christian-humanist/

Steve Blackwell

I attend Ecclesia myself. I felt called there. The first time I went there I felt uneasy. I pre-judged it. I thought it had too much catholic leanings to make me feel comfortable. So I left. Then God kept putting more and more people in my life who went there. I kept returning over and over. Then new people entered my life who wanted to go to church. The first church they wanted to try was Ecclesia. And I gave it another try because it seemed that God was truly pushing me there. And I find that it’s one of my favorite churches. Not because I can wake up late and walk there from my home. Not because it’s contemporary. Not because a Christian Rock Star (Robby Seay) is the Musical leader. Not because it’s relaxed and I can wear a T-Shirt. I like it because at the end of the day, the leadership truly cares about the faith of mankind, how we relate to one another, and that we Love God. I have been to many many churches in my years, but no church has shown me so much fruit production as this one. “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

I don’t like The Voice either much, but if someone receives any encouragement, if they are incapable of receiving wisdom from other translations, as long as it preaches the truth of The Gospel, then it can only be good. If one soul is saved, then the version is worthy. What is The Gospel? It can be summed up in The Greatest Commandment, which Jesus gave. The Voice translates it just as well as the King James version does.

While they read out of The Voice in church, I pull out my bible and read from my version so I can be sure that they are teaching truth. I prefer to use multiple versions when I study. Just to make sure. So far as I have been able to discern in the services, The Voice has been very modern in its language, but it hasn’t been inaccurate so far. If you haven’t ever been to one of Ecclesia’s services, it would be unfair to judge their heart without knowing. The speakers do know a lot about the original texts. In their sermons they often use the original words, translate them and explain how they are used in The Word. And they always edify me.

I may not like The Voice, but I do not think that those who wrote it are corrupted. I think a lot of good will come out of the translation.

Thanks for the response.

We all have our affinities, our strengths, and our weaknesses. Mostly these days our affinities for entertainment overrides any strengths we have for enduring truth, and delivers even seasoned saints up to the weakness of a lustful flesh.

Having read the Bible for as many years as you have is no guarantee that you have understood correctly its meaning or that you don’t have some preconceived idea of what you expect, when you venture into the wilderness. Our affinities, customs, proclivities, and presuppositions, for the most part, predetermine what we want to find out there in the wilderness. After all, consider the Pharisees. They ate, drank, and slept the Scriptures, and could quote it frontwards and backwards, but when the Messiah arrived on the scene they didn’t recognize Him. Truly they had their presuppositions, and their affinities, and their desires deceived them, and they missed out on everything.

The wilderness, as the Jews found out, was a place to be endured, and not enjoyed, a hard and trying place; a place of testing and trust. The wilderness was not a coveted vacation spot like Reno or Vegas, it was more like the blistering deserts of Arizona, where the unsuspecting, and unprepared die from lack of preparation. Listening to a religious hobbyist and then venturing into the wilderness is a trip only a fool would take, but many are parading onto slippery slopes and into dangerous environments, gleefully following these hobbyist, with their modern takes on ancient wisdom.

Give me the old path: tested, and proven. Give me truth, unvarnished. Give me the harshness of a man fully groomed by desert life, who knows the way of life and living, eternally. Give me the coarseness of John, and in that, I will find out how to live in a harsh, cruel, wilderness.

Today’s Christians, for sure, go to their vacation spots looking for a reed shaken by the wind, or a man dressed in fine clothing, offering up half-truths on silver platters, and they eat their fill of nonsense and go their way to death. This is today’s holiday church gatherings, along the shores of Vanity Fair.

Blessings,

Steve Blackwell

“When you went out into the wilderness to see John, what were you expecting? A reed shaking in the wind? What were you looking for? A man in expensive clothing? Look, if you were looking for fancy clothes and luxurious living, you went to the wrong place-you should have gone to the kings court, not to the wilderness!….” (Luke)

I do enjoy this wilderness….. Go to the Voice site and download John…. You may find it a gift, if not you lose a few sheets of paper…..Blessings in any case,