Is The Message A Legitimate Bible Translation? (Eugene Peterson / Gay Marriage / Bias Exposed)

The Message as a Paraphrase, Not a Bible Translation

The message was written by author and minister Eugene Peterson. Peterson, who is now deceased, was a pastor in a liberal mainline Presbyterian church. He became famous when he decided to rewrite the Bible in his own words and then market it to Christians.

The first thing you need to know about the message, or the MSG, is that it is not a Bible translation. At best, it is a paraphrase and a very loose paraphrase at that. The message should not be used as your primary Bible and should never be used for in-depth Bible study.

And God forbid that anyone would preach or teach from it. Proof that the message is a corruption of the Bible is found in how Peterson handled the New Testament texts on homosexuality. Before he died, he came out publicly in support of gay marriage.

When evangelicals heard about this, they immediately started calling for a boycott of his books. Peterson only walked back his comments after hearing about the boycott. This led some people to look at his dealing with key New Testament passages on the subject of homosexuality.

Romans 1 and the Question of Homosexuality

Could Peterson have altered the words of the Apostle Paul to somehow fit his view of gay marriage? Let's look at two of these passages. The first one comes from the book of Romans chapter 1. The King James Version reads this way in verses 26 through 28.

The Apostle Paul writes,. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men with men, working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meat.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient. Clearly the Bible describes the act of homosexuality as sinful, using such words as vile to describe it.

But how did Eugene Peterson translate this passage? The message renders Romans 1 this way,. Worse followed,. In Peterson's estimation, the sin is not homosexuality, the sin is not loving each other, as he said.

All lust, no love. This seems to reveal Peterson's bias, with his support of gay marriage, that as long as you love one another, sodomy is acceptable before God. Now let's look at one more passage, this time we will read from the New King James Version, 1 Corinthians 6, 9 and 10.

1 Corinthians 6 and the Exclusion of Homosexuality

The Apostle Paul writes again,. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.

Again, the Bible is clear, homosexuality is described as an unrighteous act. The Apostle Paul plainly states that homosexuals shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But what does Eugene Peterson say? Let's read 1 Corinthians 6 from the message.

Don't you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don't care about God will not be joining in His kingdom. 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.

Unbelievably, Eugene Peterson removes homosexuality from the passage altogether. In what's worse, he inserts a statement about those who abuse the earth to fit his environmentalist views. Do people realize what Peterson is doing?

He is attempting to change God's word to fit his own liberal viewpoint. In conclusion, if we are to be honest, we have to recognize the message is nothing more than a corruption of the Holy Scriptures, perhaps one of the worst corruptions in modern times.

Like bad Chinese food, the MSG should be avoided.