Was I wrong about The Message?

Well, I took the plunge and bought The Message. I have never liked it, the idea of one man making the bible in his own image (i.e. a paraphrase) seemed abhorrent to me. It just had to be corrupt and evil.
Now, this opinion was based upon the many reviews of it I had scoured. Many of these incidentally then advertised the KJV as the inerrant, infallible word of God.

But, of course, It was still inaccurate; as I showed before in my previous posts. Theres more words, stuff that isnt in the Greek and Hebrew manuscripts made it into The Message, therefore it MUST be corrupt.

But lo and behold, this IS a paraphrase, and a very good one. This is loyal to the manuscripts, but not only translates the words, but the meaning (as Peterson sees it of course) of those words. Obviously this is not THE BIBLE, this is a paraphrase of Mr Peterson's translation of the original languages. So don't expect John 3:16 to be word for word what is in a dynamic or formal translation. I actually dont agree with it 100% some of it IS hokey, I'm not going to say what. This is a paraphrase, not a translation, and if anyone is stupid enough to take any sort of doctrine from it without checking with a real translation then they deserve what they get.

Be careful, if anything makes you raise an eyebrow, check it against a formal translation such as the ESV, KJV, NKJV, then highlight that part of the message so you know to be wary of it. Its not been done maliciously by Peterson, he has his own theological biases (and most are insignificant, I'm sure) as much as we do.

The most unsettling part for me was the party wagon following the Message, alot from the emerging church (i.e. ecumenicalists [church unification], people who think contemplative prayer should be standard practice for christians, that all roads lead to God, that if God truly condemned gays that would make him evil. Those folks who use mass marketing techniques to indoctrinate fledgling christians into such "relevant" practices as transcendental meditation, maze walking and rosary beads).

It took me a good think before I worked this out; a guy makes a pretty good paraphrase

(it really is a good paraphrase, if i ever find out differently in my reading of it I will repent on this blog [i am also aware it says "as above, so below" in the Lord's prayer])
Anyway yeah; good paraphrase, now these young up and coming pastors latch onto it, as does a progressive publishing company. Now lets not forget that alot of the modern church thinks a 400 year old translation is God's final word in English! One side wont even look at the Message. Another welcomes it with open arms. This is what has happened, neither the Emerging church nor the Message are a product of one another, and if the reader is clever enough to not get doctrine from it without analysis and study (as should be the case anyway) they will likely find a pretty readable bible! Genesis is a sinch (thats where I am at now).

Test all things! Just remember to hold fast to the things that are good!